Where Survey: December 2015

[Nergal]

We're starting fresh with the Where Survey this year. I'll be focusing on the most relevant groups to track, the new players that actually stick around, while giving percentages on retention and ideas on what we can do to improve. Then I'll turn the discussion over to all of you.

Attraction:
How many people did we get to a point that they considered playing? Who took the next step and wrote a character to eventually go on to play?
Total New Accounts Created: 246
New Accounts With Playtime: 58

Retention:
Who's most likely here to stay? For that, Nauta's post in last month's Where Survey gave me the idea of the Addiction Rating.

For math inclined people:
% Addicted = Total Time Played / (Their last login time - The time the account was created)

This gives us a rough idea of how large of a portion of their day they spent playing Armageddon since being introduced to it.

There were 20 accounts with an Addiction Rating of 10% or more, meaning they spent, on average, 2.4 hours a day or more playing Armageddon. 10% was picked as a baseline since it is close to the average overall addiction level. The highest was 48.66%. The average in this group was 22.56%.

We have 15 more who are between 5 and 10% addicted (spending 1.2 to 2.4 hours playing Armageddon per day). The average in this group was 7.11%.

The remaining 23 are less than 5% addicted. Of those 23, 14 played for more than an hour. The average in this group was 2.13%.

The overall average was 10.46%.

Where they came from:
When making a new account, people can write where they found us. In the past, we would collect data from all new accounts regardless of playtime. It seems more pertinent to focus on those we feel we retained, at least for a time. Here's what are 58 new accounts with playtime had to say.
MUD Connector (often referencing that we are ranked highly there): 19
Google: 11
Referral (a friend, SO, parent, sibling, etc): 9
Top Mud Sites: 6
Reddit: 3
PC Gamer: 2
Other: 7
No Reason Given: 1

Other things to consider:
- We didn't just get new players. We also got old returning players, people who hadn't played the game in months or even years and decided to return in December. Though there's no easy way to track this, judging by the requests I've handled I'd say we have gotten 10-15 such old players back to check us out again.

What this all means:
- Holding top positions on websites like Mud Connector and Top Mud Sites is as important as ever.
- Referring a friend, relative or loved one is still the solid, old-fashioned way of attracting new players.
- To reiterate, VOTE! It only takes a few seconds.

[Malken]

PC Gamer the magazine...?

[Nergal]

Yeah, I was surprised by that as well. I started looking around for signs of mentions of Arm on PC Gamer but couldn't find one. It'd be cool if those players that came to us from there see this thread and post about that!

[IAmJacksOpinion]

That is odd. They have a couple articles about MUDs (the MUD1 engine, and Discworld MUD), but nothing about Arm in either the article or the comments section.

Wonder if it's something that came out in the comments section for something else, or in a forum (if they have user forums).

[IAmJacksOpinion]

Here's an interesting Arm appearance:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/ArmageddonMUD

[Patuk]

Here's an interesting Arm appearance:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/ArmageddonMUD

You're welcome.

[Nergal]

Yes! The article that players have made on TV Tropes has been the source of a few players in the past.

[650Booger]

I was one of the 3 that came from Reddit.  And I would like to add that this game needs its own subreddit.  when you got to /r/mud all you see is people bashing the game.  I made a reddit post in /r/mud asking who else was playing armageddon, and the thread was deleted.  I get the sense that whoever owns /r/mud does not like this game, and so I propose we create our own subreddit.

[Kronibas]

I think Arm having its own subreddit is a good idea.

Nergal is right about telling your friends, too. I just came back after a year long break, and one of the first things I saw was two friends who I showed the game to in 2007... Holy fuck, that is almost ten years ago... Still posting on these forums.

You just never know who will think Arm is a neat game... Or who will go on to play it for a decade after being shown.

[Riev]

I just came back after a year long break

Welcome back. New shit has come to light.


Related, I love the Nauta/Nerdgal idea of an "addiction" factor. Its much more interesting to find out how many people are actually putting decent hours into the game, than those who aren't. Unfortunately, I assume there's really no way to tell how many "new" accounts are old banned accounts, multiboxers, or otherwise.

I know for me, even when I started 12 years ago, spending six hours a day on the game was just insanity.

[555]

I've tried explaining this game to my friends, I go on at great length, they seem genuinely interested, laugh, ask questions, but then they say "Why don't you come play my game? We could use someone like you, honestly." and I'm like, no, that's not how it works, you come play this game I'm dangerously obsessed with, you see? Naw, too intimidating. Ah well.

EDIT: I was even like, KATE! They have RAPTORS! You LOVE raptors! Therefore you'll love this game. Nope, doesn't work. If raptors don't work on Kate then I don't think any of my other tactics will, either.

[Malken]

We all know that <There's no need to harass former players by calling them out here. Thanks. -Nergal> is like 99% of these "new accounts" heheh

[LauraMars]

I was one of the 3 that came from Reddit.  And I would like to add that this game needs its own subreddit.

It seems to have one, but it is set to private.

[Nergal]

While many former players have returned in the past - some under their old name, some not - they're not counted in the Where Survey when we identify them. We simply let them play. We're all here to have fun.

[wizturbo]

Big +1 from me on having an ArmageddonMUD subreddit.  It's so much more advanced than the GDB.

Edit:  I also like this Addiction Rating stat (as Badskeelz said below).  Definitely shows a better picture of engagement.

[BadSkeelz]

Is it? Reddit always looks like a clusterfuck every time I look at it.

I like the "addiction rating."

[RogueGunslinger]

We've discussed this before. We don't have enough people to make a subreddit. There are hardly any people in the Muds subreddit, and some muds have thousands more players than us. We're way too niche. Just head into the team-speak and see how few people are willing to be social outside of the forums.

Nobody would use it.

[wizturbo]

Is it? Reddit always looks like a clusterfuck every time I look at it.

I love the ability to upvote and downvote.  It turns every thread into a mini pole, and helps prevent a vocal minority from having perceived dominance on an issue just because there aren't a lot of dissenters willing to write up a rebuttal. 

It's funny, on reddit I almost never post, I just click up and down and be done with it... whereas on the GDB I feel like I'm always having to type shit.  I'm lazy!

[650Booger]

The reason I think we need our own subreddit (and why we should all make it active) is so that countless people who are just clicking the 'random subreddit' button will stumble onto us, and some might be intrigued and investigate more.

*edit* I have found a bunch of cool hobbies this way myself, including rediscovering MUDs