Player retention and you: brainstorming

[Harmless]

Just give the players what they want. If we ask for the return of Tuluk, give it to us. If we ask for the return of X or Y playable race, add it back in. Re-introduce full sorcerers for the highest karma special apps only. If people want certain features/bugs repaired, address them. Show that you're dedicated to keeping players happy and they'll stick around. Cater less to the wishes and desires of staff and players who are very tight with staff and consider the viewpoints and ideas of the larger majority of players that have been traditionally disregarded or ignored. If you want more players, make more people happy rather than a few people happier. Take a more relaxed attitude towards running a game which should be a casual experience. Free the storytellers to interact regularly with players. Encourage plots among players to the fullest and let our own PVPing/competition sort it out. Take a relaxed attitude towards OOC communication and facilitate it officially on the GDB.

Pick your favorite among the above suggestions and implement them one at a time, staging them, and assessing the positive or negative impacts of each. Don't, on the other hand, do all of the above at once, for then you wouldn't know which ones were the right move.

But I think in general reversing the trend of staff decisions over the past year or two would do well to reverse the downtrending player counts.

Look back in time and observe the activities and events surrounding upward spikes in playercounts and recreate those moments.

[Refugee]

See, I hated SoI's fort system, it was too disconnected int he sense of RP and was only there for the hack and slash players.  I was on staff for SoI when that system was around.  On the topic of adding a fort and adding NPCs and items, and leaving it there to be killed.  That to me is not in the spirit of Armageddon.  There is no RP there, that is hack and slash with a reward.  

Wow, I disagree. I played a Batallion armsman/sergeant during the mini-fort wars and there was a great deal of RP around them.  It was loads of fun.  There was a lot of problems with the dang things, it's true, and they started being codedly abused, but for a long time it really gave us a lot of fun that people still bring up when we reminisce, years later.

[Old Kank]

This is a thread for some brainstorming on player retention.

There are several things we can do to bring in new players, period, and the biggest one is voting (obligatory "get out the vote" msg!).  However, after they get here, we want to find ways to get more of them to stay.

What suggestions do you have for player retention?

Can you give us more information on when, where, and how we're losing new players?  I know it's going to vary from person to person, but are there any trends?

[CodeMaster]

Find out IC is a double-edged sword.  We want to protect the mystery, both coded and lore, and that's a fun part of the game.  (The coded mystery for me isn't really that fun, but I lean more towards the MUSH than the MUD, I guess, although I've never played a MUSH, so...)  But sometimes it is jarring and immersion breaking.  The helper chat has been so useful here, but I think we could maybe have a look at some things (maybe a whole thread dedicated to it) that fall into the category of "my PC is not an idiot, I would know how to do that!"

One example of this is the crafting recipes, I think.  Some people play games like these specifically TO craft stuff.  But our craft helpfiles contain these vague (sometimes very vague) starter recipes -- it might be more newbie friendly if they were more comprehensive.  IMO it's not spoiling anyone to tell them which specific hunk of bone their knifemaker can craft into a dagger.

[Old Kank]

Here's my random thoughts and ideas on recruiting and retaining players:

Recruiting:

1.  Update the MotD regularly.  When I used to check out MUDs, the first thing I wanted to know was, "Is this game actively maintained?"  If the MotD hadn't been updated in two years, I logged off and didn't go back.

2.  Consider advertising somewhere other than the MUD connector.  Don't spam, but I wonder if a well-placed post on reddit subs like MUD, darksun, rpg, or dnd might not garner more quality attention.  I'm sure there are other sites out there that cater to role-players, writers, Dune fans, and so on.

3.  Post some fanfic or even tightly edited logs on some fiction sites.

Retaining:

1.  Go after the veterans that have stopped playing.  I don't mean email them.  Make the game appealing to them.  They're out there, reading the GDB, waiting.

2.  Seriously look into ways of making the game available to players who can't dedicate 20 hours per week to it.

3.  Recognize how dedicated your playerbase is, and utilize that.  Give me building tools (even just a properly formatted XML front) and a fair audience, and I'll build you some brand spanking new zones.  I'm not the only one who would do this.

4.  I love, love, love, love, love, love, love the idea of new major characters.  We have a whole universe to explore, and Tektolnes and Utep are the only timeless characters?

5.  Let people multi-play in a limited fashion.  Let players animate the world via one-off characters.  At 2 karma, you can log in as a gortok or a scrab.  At 4 karma, a gith or a kryl.  At 6 karma, you get a deaf and dumb ghost that can possess the NPC of your choice.

[Erythil]

I like OK's ideas.

[Centurion]

Just my view...

I'm not a great builder, but I'd say I'm decent, and writing descriptions for a camp and a few NPC's (not all of the 10 raiders should/need to be unique), I don't find it very hard at all, so for high quality builders it should be a walk in the park, which is what I'd expect on ARM. I've been a builder on a similar mud as well, so the commands aren't that in depth. You don't even need to animate as someone else said. Just plop it somewhere a little different, and let players discover it. Have some new gith band operating from it, and just load some booty. Someone said you can just do that anyway with what's in the world,  but there will be no interesting booty in those camps I bet unless staff get involved, and they have been in the same old place for how many rl years? They also shouldn't be so easy to defeat, sometimes. There needs to be big bads in the world that people should know not to mess with, unless its very well organised. It's going to take some time to build these small camps, plot ideas, but so does logging in and sparring and doing a patrol equally take time for a player. Why is it that it seems people cringe at the thought of having to do the work. Some players put in hours of time to the game to help foster plots and the like, why should they expect any less from staff to put the same amount of time and work for plots. If people are cringing at the thought of the work to provide for players, then I think the wrong people are being chosen for staff. Becoming a storyteller is telling stories IMO, acting as a DM, or it should be, and even the lowest level shouldn't have so much red tape. This red tape is the biggest problem. Instead of the administrators or producers having to approve every little idea, free their time up and only have them step in when things get out of hand? More small stories, more things to talk about, more players interested, more players logging in so they don't miss anything. That's a huge incentive for me, like not wanting to miss a cool battle so that my character might become a hero from it, or finding some ancient artifacts in a lost temple somewhere.

The veterans no longer playing. Why not? Look at the sudden return when Tuluk was closed, but what happened to them? Those numbers are gone and we seem to have less players. What actually changed in Allanak or the world to keep them interested apart from just having more players in one area? That's great, but more was needed. Bring back the actual fun roles in the clans, the elite people. Something to aspire too, and also they have all the unique gear mostly and lots of people enjoy showing that off and feeling special. Hmm. Would it be better to close the hunting branches of the GMH, and just let them trade their monopoly, but actually have separate PC hunting clans supply them instead? It would be much more interesting to have joe fight against amos in the wilds cause they are in competition for the scrab than it would be for kadian hunter guy vs salarr hunter guy for the fact that everyone will make a big deal out of kadius going against salarr. Just from experience it's very tip toe when it's GMH vs GMH when if its two independents not as many people would give a damn, which would allow for more conflict to happen? This could also open up the GMH to be more general in what they sell and maybe not even hold such a strong monopoly over certain areas, so there's more sales competition, sabotage, etc.

A RL friend of mine was a staffer on a Starwars Mush long ago and I always enjoyed hearing him tell me about their ideas for story arcs. These would be set out for like a seasonal period, or half yearly.  Just like Riev said, Next season in Armageddon: Sam the Defiler is back, and he wants butts!" This sort of thing is a great idea, and will let people know staff have a vision and make an effort to keep things interesting. I also really like when staff are open about upcoming projects and what new features are being worked on and added. Keep those up to date, as it keeps me interested at least. I know there is a trust level problem with letting just any coder do some work, but what if the CGP system could get implemented if a professional coded could be paid to do the work? I'm sure we could get more paypal donations to see more coding projects completed. Less time staff have to worry about stuff which isn't animating, or creating plots the better.

The new extended sub guilds I thought was an excellent addition. Adding a new one every 3 months with the story arc idea might be a neat. It's just like WOW then, get a new class, or race, every expansion. Imagine getting a full new class as well! Do the current classes need an overhaul or change? That's another idea to spice things up. Maybe one arc is 'The Highlord's Games' - Introduces a new class called Gladiator, and this PC starts out as an escaped slave, branded of course, and they need to hide as long as possible from the outside world until the Wyverns find them, or hear about them. Then when caught, they are thrown into the arena to fight and die, or live if they are good enough. How cool would it be as nobles to sponsor gladiators to fight and win you fame and riches from gambling and prizes etc. Make the new gladiator class a 3 karma role to limit it being overused or add it to the special role condition of 3 a year? It could still be spec apped from a person with 0 karma, but I'd also let this slave start with a couple free boosts to weapon skills to give them a little extra survivability and to factor it being worth 3 karma for.

More history recorded, allow it to be legal for at least family GMH and mid-level/senior members to learn reading/writing that isn't just cavilish. Secrets, maps to treasures, character histories and the like it would be great to see more of them kept IG, than just posted on the GDB a RL year later to read about. There's another extended subguild to add, Scribe. I've really enjoyed the RP around reading journals and telling a certain PC stories from old journals. This sort of thing should happen a lot more. This falls strongly on the players who would be in these roles to write more, but staff just need to give the green light about it and approve it in the senate, or even turn it into a plot PC's can somehow get involved in. Maybe all GMH just need to do something to convince one noble voter or faction or whatever to change their mind (I don't know much about how senate meetings actually work).

Making the world seem alive and time is passing actually helps to keep things fresh and not stale. Replacing certain NPC's in the game world (I know one family noble house NPC list WAY out-dated). Muk and Tek bore me, I don't know about everyone else? If they are content to just sit around and do nothing, which works great for them, but it makes for a boring story. What are the Kryl doing, just playing halfling in the forest now? I can't see aliens just sitting around can anyone else? What about a gith warlord to rally other tribes into one big army? An elf who declares himself kill off all other elves and decides to take over Luirs?

Lastly... bring back Tuluk, but what needs to change? Make a thread about it and get ideas and suggestions. Make Tuluk smaller? Get rid of the shadow artist system? Make everyone not so covert with everything they do? Bring back undertuluk, or make changes to the warrens to allow for a more interesting criminal life. Not be so anti-blood in a fighting arena, and let people fight and die etc., as well as have Descending Sun as a thing. 'Create an enemy to the east that isn't just Kryl. Bring back the Qynars and Striasari, maybe make the north more feudal? Build more farming villages, and let PC's live in farm houses and such instead of just in apartments. Bring back the Hlum. That was deadest one of the coolest ideas Tuluk had I think. Being able to go from a commoner to a noble. That's everyone's dream, or nearly should be as a commoner.

Anyhow, that's enough nonsense from me for tonight. Sorry if I got a bit carried away and was a bit critical, but staff stepping up to ask this sort of feedback is a step in the right direction! Well done.

[Fergie]

The problem is not that the game isn't easy enough for new players, or that not enough people find out about Armageddon. It's a safe bet that virtually everyone in the RPI community has played this game. The actual problem is a rift between staff and players which needs to be mended. Until this is acknowledged instead of swept under the rug, everything else you attempt to do is a waste of time. You need to accept that in the last handful of years, an alarming number of players have quit the game in anger or disappointment rather than from having had their fill of Armageddon. Many then take their friends with them, or contribute to a chain reaction where others quit because the numbers dip too low. This is the real problem, not the lack of a random character generator or anything like that.

Don't ignore the elephant in the room. A few things in particular have to change: Armageddon needs to become an interesting and fun game again, not one buried in stifling stagnation and constant obstacles to anything slightly outside the ordinary that one seeks to do. Certain staff members need to stop being so cruel to players they don't like, even if their reasons for disliking some players are occasionally fair enough. The trend of removing pieces of the game needs to be counterbalanced by comparable additions so that Armageddon isn't simply diminished every year like it has been in recent times. World events need to start mattering and provide meaningful changes to gameplay, like the mantis invasion of Luir's, and unlike the volcano thing or the new black moon thing.

The solutions are there, but they'll take more of a concession than to decide that all that's needed is more voting or a newsletter. There are plenty of good suggestions in this thread, but most of them have nothing to do with the reason so many players have left the game this year. I mean, it would be fantastic if being a recruit wasn't such a lonely, unsatisfying experience, except that's always been the case. People didn't suddenly quit over that. Fixing that would be great but is not the solution to the problem, which is ultimately an issue with management and a slowly widening divide between staff and playerbase.

[Inks]

Since we are brainstorming, don't take this as an attack merely an idea that would help in my opinion:

I would like to see a global banmesty for jaded vets and they can take it or leave it. Just a banmesty? You won't have to grovel and neither will we, cool : Yes [] no [], Tabula Rasa blank slate. Even with 0 karma they can app for ruks and vivs no problems.

You can always just ban again if they keen fucking up like Asan.

I would like to see Tuluk as an antagonist using it's (IC) packs to take prisoners back for (IC). Maybe even npcs with fancy scripting.

Honestly my experience with the game is overall extremely positive and lately even more so.

Also give Fuji +1 endurance every time he mudsexes and make him the new Sorcerer King please.

[Fergie]

Since we are brainstorming, don't take this as an attack merely an idea that would help in my opinion:

I would like to see a global banmesty for jaded vets and they can take it or leave it. Just a banmesty? You won't have to grovel and neither will we, cool : Yes [] no [], Tabula Rasa blank slate. Even with 0 karma they can app for ruks and vivs no problems.

There was a banmesty last year or whenever. It's a pretty meaningless gesture. Almost no players get banned, the numbers aren't down because a bunch of people have been banned and can no longer play. In nearly all cases, banned players are people you don't really want back. What you do want back is the players who have quit, and many of these departures were preceded by harsh confrontations with specific staff members. That's the area where those players need to feel assuaged if they are to return. They need to feel that they're going back to a game that has changed, whose proprietors will no longer treat them like dirt.

[Inks]

Huh. Didn't realize there was one last year. Thanks.

I have seen more animation in the last couple of months than in a year. That should help new player retention at least. If players choose to die on a scary mob you have animated assuming they could escape welcome to Arm. It took me a couple of years away to really "get" the game. So higher recruiting is important as well. But it took vets who were better rpers than me to get me really into it.

As players we should encourage interaction in meaningful ways with newbies. Even if you are an antagonist at least rp and draw out a death or robbery or betrayal if at all possible. With a lower vet count new players are being taught the game by new players which thins the blood a bit.

[Xalle]

Hey jaded veterans. Come play in the Byn. It's like a comfy old skool slipper and helps keep the gameworld grounded, gritty and cutthroat whilst being interactive.

(Players in other clans or indies that are also helping to do this, we see you and you rule.)

[Nyr]

Actually, the ban amnesty was at the beginning of 2013, not last year.  Fergie is right in one point there:  very few players are actually banned, and no more than 3 were banned for such reasons that we do not want them back.  Generally, all it takes is asking to return.  Some return anyway on new accounts and should be commended for doing a great job at not doing the things that got them banned on their previous accounts.

The other side of the "discontented leaving veterans story" is that unless they flipped off staff on the way out the door or dropped a rage-quit deuce on the game doorstep, staff members only hear about it after they've left.  At that point, it is second-hand, heavily edited, only half of the story, and certainly not posted in order to make amends.  In the cases where there was anything approaching a "harsh confrontation" that didn't result in an actual ban...it was a confrontation in which staff disagreed with the player, and since staff has the final word, staff wins, the player dislikes losing, the player quits, and then the player complains about the whole ordeal. 

What does that player want?

[Nyr]

Some ideas for new player retention that look pretty doable in terms of "low effort" and "potentially higher reward":

You know how on the "Loading Screens" for some games it gives you tips and hints for how to better play the game?

Newbie accounts could possibly be setup with a code that sends them and only them "Hints" randomly about how to play the game.

In the other thread I saw a couple of good ones, like better management of RPT times, and finding a way to see what areas have activity at what times.  Code-wise I'm not sure how those would work, but they are worth considering.  More random encounters is also easier to do, honestly--laid out quite well in the thread.

Higher effort but good ideas, regardless:

• keep something larger lurking in the background in terms of plot, connected to smaller plots (TV season plots)
• New major characters (the effort involved here is actually kinda high, but I can definitely see the appeal)
• more staff driven plots -- not that this is a bad idea or that we don't do this, it's just that we need a certain amount of effort on it just to keep it going, so...it takes time, but we are always wanting to do more

I'd go so far as to say this about plots:  we have to find a better equilibrium between "find out IC" and "post the details of the plot verbatim in advance."  I think that in some cases we have erred too far on the side of trying to surprise players in order to give a more fulfilling individual experience.  In the process, people know in general that "OOCly" something is going down, but maybe aren't aware of the scope of it, so they skip the RPT because there are too many other things IRL that could demand attention.  They show up on the forum the next day, everyone that showed up to the RPT is like "omg you missed it!" and the player is left thinking..."how'd I miss it, I knew there was an RPT, but how was I supposed to know how big it could be?" 

That doesn't always happen but it has happened more often than it should.  The Allanaki plot still hasn't been posted on the chronology page, I'll make it a focus to get that done this week if at all possible.  It involved all of the things players have mentioned that they'd love to see "more of" here.  Black robes fighting, red robes galore, SOME magick (but not a lot), and plenty of violence.  That was this year, in the spring/leading up to early summer, it lasted for like 3 months, and while there were some lessons learned for it in terms of management staff-side (namely...wow, long-term plots are hard to keep going)...it was fun.

I'll elaborate more in another post on what I might see as helpful in this area (RPT management/etc).

There's ideas here about removing systems that just clog things up but I don't really see any specifics about what it is that clogs things up (just like previous threads) so...maybe I'll skip past those! 

[Nyr]

Hypothetical situation:

Let's say that staff have a plot ready to go and are ready for the first phase of it.  It is expected to last for about 4-5 RPTs over the course of a month and a half, and it involves a couple of things in and around Red Storm.

Here's how that could work, if adjusting our current stuff a bit:

• Staff posts about it, either in announcements or in some kind of RPT/plot tracker for players.  No IC details are posted, merely OOC stuff, like "we have a plot ready to go.  This will be set in the Red Storm area.  We don't have exact dates lined up but it will be happening over the course of the next two months.  Please see RPT tracker thread for details on when the individual RPTs will be!"
• This gives players enough time to adjust.  If they don't have a PC, maybe they roll up a new one in this area, or they roll up one elsewhere but have a pretext (OOC) to find a reason (IC) to be there.
• Staff nudges groups that should normally be involved in this kind of thing, and give them IC reasons to be there.
• RPTs posted at least 1 week in advance to give players time to plan to be there.
• Post rumors on IC boards first.  After 2 weeks (1 RL month), if it's large enough, post on chronology page

[KankWhisperer]

It is hard to find a balance sometimes with how long things take. You try and do your own ideas and things take forever RL to accomplish. Meanwhile a Staff plot or sponsored character can just skip all that and it feels cheap to some (me) who put in time on stuff.

People say CGP can reduce how long it takes to get your character good. Haven't had a chance yet to see about it.

So I'd say reduce time to get players relevant. Queue the skill grind defenders.

[Inks]

I would like if players could affect plots from a pre-determined outcome (railroading) as well. If savvy players stop x from happening deus ex shouldn't be used to make x happen. This would be a good step in putting story and engagement back in the hands of the players. Such as a tiered choice tree you could write up in 10 mins and you only need to plan the next choice in detail. But if there is a choice and if pcs with ulterior IC motives could alter that would be pretty cool.  

[Lizzie]

Hypothetical situation:

Let's say that staff have a plot ready to go and are ready for the first phase of it.  It is expected to last for about 4-5 RPTs over the course of a month and a half, and it involves a couple of things in and around Red Storm.

Here's how that could work, if adjusting our current stuff a bit:

• Staff posts about it, either in announcements or in some kind of RPT/plot tracker for players.  No IC details are posted, merely OOC stuff, like "we have a plot ready to go.  This will be set in the Red Storm area.  We don't have exact dates lined up but it will be happening over the course of the next two months.  Please see RPT tracker thread for details on when the individual RPTs will be!"
• This gives players enough time to adjust.  If they don't have a PC, maybe they roll up a new one in this area, or they roll up one elsewhere but have a pretext (OOC) to find a reason (IC) to be there.
• Staff nudges groups that should normally be involved in this kind of thing, and give them IC reasons to be there.
• RPTs posted at least 1 week in advance to give players time to plan to be there.
• Post rumors on IC boards first.  After 2 weeks (1 RL month), if it's large enough, post on chronology page

That seems okay from a "player knowledge" viewpoint, but I would tweak it (yes I'm still referring to my own experience as a builder/storyteller-type):

• Staff introduces some minor characters (avatars) to the game world in a fairly unobtrusive way. A thief who works for the main antagonist in the plot, who is mostly a meat-shield with the steal skill (think: newbie burglar/Byn runner, the staff can have him show up right when one of the Sergeants is in the Gaj). Have the thief get caught pilfering when the player-played templar is around, as a method of getting the templar to meet this minor character, who will drop a hint before he's released/pked (whatever). So now the seed is planted. Add a couple more avatar PCs - flavor pcs who have little tidbits of information they can spread about the existence of "a thing" that might need investigating at some point
• THEN do all the rest

[Old Kank]

There's ideas here about removing systems that just clog things up but I don't really see any specifics about what it is that clogs things up (just like previous threads) so...maybe I'll skip past those!  

I have no idea what ideas/posts you're referencing, but here's the one that comes to my mind:  CGP, and it's little cousin, special app requirements.

Scrap CGP.  Neat idea, but it's stuck in coding limbo.  Here's the thing:  You guys moved the bar by adding extended sub-guilds (ESGs), and now I have absolutely zero interest in playing a class/subguild character, I only want a class/ESG character with skill bumps, and I only get three of those per year.  This isn't a huge deal, but now I'm playing with the mindset that I have to be stingy with my characters because each one has to last four months.  I assume a lot of people feel this way.

Could we just add ESG's to character creation with karma restrictions?  And if so, could you make some high-karma ESG's that have all the skills people want, and not just one or two?  Give me a spy ESG that gives sneak, hide, scan, and listen, please.  Or a gladiator ESG that gives slashing weapons, parry, and shield use.

At the VERY least, look at some of the popular class/ESG combos, and make them full-fledged karma-required classes.  Warrior/outdoorsman is popular?  Make a bandit class that gets the warrior tree, plus scan, hunt, and direction sense.  Assassin/cutpurse gets a lot of love?  Make a rogue class for 3 karma.  How about a Weaponmaster class that's just the warrior tree, but with all skills bumped twice, yours for only 6 karma.

Let me save my special apps for off-the-wall zany shit that you guys have no interest in seeing in game.

ETA:  Also, ease up on the restrictions against players recruiting for roles.  One of the hardest things about leadership roles is finding your right-hand man that makes it all possible.  Let people recruit their damn friends to play at their side, and don't get upset when they plan world domination over a beer at a real bar instead of the Gaj.

[nauta]

The other side of the "discontented leaving veterans story" is that unless they flipped off staff on the way out the door or dropped a rage-quit deuce on the game doorstep, staff members only hear about it after they've left.  At that point, it is second-hand, heavily edited, only half of the story, and certainly not posted in order to make amends.  In the cases where there was anything approaching a "harsh confrontation" that didn't result in an actual ban...it was a confrontation in which staff disagreed with the player, and since staff has the final word, staff wins, the player dislikes losing, the player quits, and then the player complains about the whole ordeal.  

What does that player want?

I confess I didn't understand fully the paragraph above the question (if a player quits because they are disappointed, discouraged, and so on, why should they make amends?  Maybe you meant that it wasn't posted in the spirit of constructive feedback?)...  but about the question itself:

I think someone suggested it before: you might consider asking them, privately, or even publicly.  I think the question here is rhetorical, though, right?  I mean, a lot of what they want was listed in the thread itself (speaking about veteran players).  If it's not rhetorical, then you might consider looking at what was listed in the thread itself (e.g. Norcal's suggestions, which were great) or starting a new thread on the topic itself: "If you left Arm in the last two years, why did you do so?"

I agree, that we shouldn't focus our energies on banned players -- what you want to go after are the players who were exciting roleplayers, got stuff started, then just... vanished, often without a word.

[Kankfly]

I would like if players could affect plots from a pre-determined outcome (railroading) as well. If savvy players stop x from happening deus ex shouldn't be used to make x happen. This would be a good step in putting story and engagement back in the hands of the players. Such as a tiered choice tree you could write up in 10 mins and you only need to plan the next choice in detail. But if there is a choice and if pcs with ulterior IC motives could alter that would be pretty cool.  

I'd like to see this. Maybe when a major plot happens, and then as more players get involved, plan out a few possible outcomes will be nice. It'll probably take a lot of work for the staff side though.

[Fergie]

Pre-planned plots are overrated. They're nice, but it's not the key to a sustainable game. If the game is healthy, the plots will happen organically of their own accord. Armageddon has never had a particularly heavy emphasis on plot; it's a game world designed, at least in intent, to generate friction and intrigue by merit of the game's setup itself. You can run the occasional Cluedo plot if you like, but that's not the thing that makes or breaks the game. It never has been, and there never was all that much of it around. The unfortunate fact is that most plots tend to entertain a small few players at a time and leave everyone else feeling left out. You need one or two annual world events, things that everyone can react to and which might sow the foundation for new character types or fundamentally change existing ones.

I can't think of any such event since the Copper War. Before that, there were the likes of the Luir's occupation, the liberation of Tuluk, and probably the Thrain rebellion thing although that was before my time. In recent times, no event that I can name has had an actual lasting impact on the game, excepting the closure of Tuluk which has been disappointing for different reasons. Take events like the gith infestation, the volcano thing, even the most recent stuff with riots and infighting -- ultimately, these things have changed nothing on the surface level of the game. If you're not directly involved, which is the case for almost anyone besides militia, the game has remained the same. Even the deluge of Tuluk, which ostensibly changed a lot in that city, really just had cosmetic impact for anyone but the select few tasked with "rebuilding" it (which was in itself a bit of a facade task). Well, and then it closed off Under-Tuluk without adding anything comparable in return, which is another of the game's problems in recent times.

The recent HRPTs are all events which didn't create any new roles, didn't change anything about how any of the game's core roles are played, didn't leave anything tangible behind for people to work with, and are now barely mentioned in any context. Today, who is affected by the gith skirmishes? Who still cares about the black moon? If there's anyone at all, it's very few and a very minor influence. These events have been dubbed "lightshows," mildly interesting while they occur but, for most, observed from the ground without any way to participate or influence the event, and with little left behind once the fireworks are finished. Such events are fine if the rest of the game is thriving and players have other things to occupy themselves with in the day-to-day run of play, but if they don't, these lightshows feel really hollow and do little more than illuminate the stagnation that everyone suffers from.

Some ideas for new player retention that look pretty doable in terms of "low effort"

This highlights one of the major problems that have cost the game players. By RPI standards, you have an enormous gamestaff and such a well-defined game that there's no good reason why everything has to be low effort, minimal workload, quick fixes. It should be really easy to build for Armageddon, everyone's intimately familiar with the theme and the game world as it has never changed significantly. Your staff doesn't need to constantly get used to overhauls and revamps, so there should be no obstacle for high effort projects. I can't think of anything that has been added to this game in the last five years which looks like it took more than a weekend to make. Meanwhile, you've closed off myriad storied areas and clans, often in the name of reducing workload. Where do these extra resources go? Why does it feel like everything is the quick, easy solution? It's difficult not to get the impression that today's staff does as little as they can get away with, and routinely removes things that are difficult for them.

If getting back alienated veterans is what you really want, you need to address the reasons they're gone. One of those reasons is that the game no longer feels like it's in the hands of people who truly care about its well-being, or who still have the inspiration to keep it somewhat fresh. Those players are not brought back by low effort ideas. They might consider returning if they see staff really acknowledge that things haven't been done quite the way they probably should, and that players haven't always been treated so well in recent years. They might be tempted to play again if the game actually starts to look like there's something new to experience, instead of just the same old minus whatever areas and clans have been culled since they left. It takes two parties to reconcile.

[Narf]

This highlights one of the major problems that have cost the game players. By RPI standards, you have an enormous staff and such a well-defined game that there's no good reason why everything has to be low effort, minimal workload, quick fixes. It should be really easy to build for Armageddon, everyone's intimately familiar with the theme and the game world as it has never changed significantly. Your staff doesn't need to constantly get used to overhauls and revamps, so there should be no obstacle for high effort projects. I can't think of anything that has been added to this game in the last five years which looks like it took more than a weekend to make. Meanwhile, you've closed off myriad storied areas and clans, often in the name of reducing workload. Where do these extra resources go? Why does it feel like everything is the quick, easy solution? It's difficult not to get the impression that today's staff does as little as they can get away with, and routinely removes things that are difficult for them.

I suspect one of the reasons that staff is looking for lower investment ideas is because if they're going to put a lot of effort into something, it'll probably be one of their own ideas that they're excited about. If you get a suggestion that you're not super excited about, but may still be a good idea, it can be somewhat of a fool's errand to try to dedicate massive resources to. More than likely you'll peter out half way through the project.

Perhaps if we were talking about high effort endevors we should reorient the discussion to:

Hey, what's staff excited about doing? Do you want help? Ideas on how to do it?

[Narf]

Double Post

[Nyr]

A lot of stuff that I don't really feel the need to respond to line by line, even though I disagree with nearly all of it

The thing that most of your post makes clear is that you have a perception about the game and its staff and what we've done that doesn't match up with what has actually occurred.  You've missed where I've pointed out some high-effort things we could focus on...in lieu of your tunnel-vision on me pointing out some of the low-effort ideas we could also focus on.  We've even apologized for screwups we've had, both individually and collectively.  It's not as easy to find because there's not a post or thread detailing all public apologies from staff, but it's there, we've done it.  I won't even get into the comment about how anything done in the past 5 years could've been done over a weekend--that's hyperbolic to the point of silliness. 

Maybe you haven't seen these things, or maybe you do want to discuss these things more seriously.  If you want to discuss these things individually, I'd be more than happy to do so.

Are you one of these alienated veterans to which you are referring?  If so, what can we do to retain you?