Player Magnet

[Vwest]

The game needs some depth to retain players.

The average PC:

1) Get grounded as a character.
2) Join a clan / Make some pals.
3) Make money / grind skills.
4) Get an apartment / hideout.
5) Establish a routine.

Annnnd... you're done. That's the Armageddon experience right now. Rinse and repeat.

The plots are without substance or impact, the world never changes and no single character has any meaning or merit beyond their own personal sphere of influence. Even since I started, there has been more and more removed from the game and replaced with nothing. Areas, caves, landmarks, guilds, spells, skills, clans, the list goes on. Gone.

Slap four NPC rental compounds in Allanak -- 5,000 coins a cycle (roughly 13,000 coins per 300 days), 5 varied rooms with a maximum of 10 PCs on the list.

That's it, plunk it down, hand players the keys and say go nuts. See what happens.

Brothels, grebber groups, cults, cartels of exiled city elves, witch covens, small time mercenaries, raiders and associated riffraff, all of them subject to being taxed, strong-armed or otherwise exploited by Templars and anyone else who thinks they have the clout to pull it off. Zero staff maintenance required, zero need for a coded clan because it's all tied together in a shared lease managed by a scripted NPC. You could even have the rental NPC double as the compound door guard to get the most bang for your NPC buck.

Disallow major clans from renting them out or getting on the lease -- no Guild, no Dust Runners, No Templarate, no AoD, no GMH and no Noble House clans allowed.

It'll give all those people who want to build something an opportunity to do so from the ground up, with nothing more required than enough people to keep up the rent. When the group dissolves to the point they can't afford it, it goes back up for rent like any other apartment for the next group to try their luck at being the Next Big Thing. If they make it, odds are good they're primed to make a move on the MMH system that is, as it stands, so daunting that next to no one has made a serious attempt.

Call it an experiment. Give players some no-hooks agency and see what they do with it, see what kind of interest in generates.

I'm sure there are a thousand more ideas floating around that could be workshopped, refined and pushed into the game in a weekend if someone would just take their foot off the brake.

Whatever the case, a lot of us are tired of gnawing on the same barren, shrinking bone we've had for years and years and years. The game needs something new and fresh to rekindle interest in both current and departed players, something that isn't locked behind karma. Something that'll build energy that can be directed into a proper newbie drive and give said newbies something to sink their teeth into when they get here.

Really, if we can't reignite interest in people who already love / loved the game, I doubt a newbie drive is going to accomplish much.

No laser light shows.

[valeria]

I voted "other."  If I recall back from when Talia was crunching numbers, we get most of our referrals from TMC followed shortly by TMS.

As for keeping them once we have them, I think continuing to amp up the storytelling aspects of the game is the best.  Plots that draw characters in.  Other people making interesting characters to play around.  Feeling like things are happening and you can affect the outcome (otherwise, why not play a console RPG?).  That kind of thing.

[Lizzie]

The game needs some depth to retain players.

The average PC:

1) Get grounded as a character.
2) Join a clan / Make some pals.
3) Make money / grind skills.
4) Get an apartment / hideout.
5) Establish a routine.

Annnnd... you're done. That's the Armageddon experience right now. Rinse and repeat.

If you sincerely feel this is the reason for lack of interest, then I suggest you stop playing the average PC.

For me, steps 1-5 is the preparation for the rest of my character's play. For me, the fun starts at 6: get involved in stuff, and if you can't find stuff to get involved in, create some stuff for others to involve themselves in, with you (or on your behalf).

If you don't have a 6) - then you're missing out on the whole point of Armageddon.

[Miradus]

The two main demotivating factors for me have always been the 1 character limit and the skill gain timer. Clearly my interest in the other facets of the game outweighs my distaste for those two facets, but for a new player who hasn't seen anything else in the game ... that might be a factor.

[BadSkeelz]

If you don't have a 6) - then you're missing out on the whole point of Armageddon.

The problem is when Step 6 is not appealing to me. I don't want to get involved in Noble Bitch Fights or Magick plots or hunting rocks to build Yet Another Mastercraft. Most "stuff" is, as Vwest said, without substance or impact. They're just another day in the life.

It's not simply a matter of "creating" stuff either. Some things are just not readily doable.

[Clavis]

it's not enough to draw new players to us, we have to keep them. it's not about piling up more stuff on staff's shoulders. it's about everyone staff, and players finding creative ways to breath life, and let others breath life into the world.

Someone mentioned Mal (thanks his heads probably already swollen enough) and I can say that I enjoy playing with him. not because I know him, but because he makes things interesting. As do other players, thats what we need more of, not idly sitting in taverns, but intensively rp'n.

[Riev]

I still say we Twitch stream gladiator fights in the Arena.

With a few staff/players speaking out everything thats happening like announcers.

We'll get like 12 followers guise.

[Jihelu]

The wall of text that would be streamed would be terrible and hard to follow.
I love it

[nauta]

If this isn't already the case (and if this is possible), I wonder if we shouldn't make Allanak a compulsory first option for new players -- or at the very least some sort of big warning when you go about pointing:

WARNING: Tuluk is closed to players at the moment.  We highly recommend that your first character start in Allanak, the main centre for players.

With Tuluk closed, and absent some knowledge of what's what in the northlands/how the game works, a new player might get the impression that the game is quite empty.  (I know there's action in the northlands, it just requires a kind of patience and some knowledge of where PCs congregate to discover that action.)  Just an idle thought.

[Miradus]

Whenever anyone uses the word "compulsory" in relation to my fun-happy-game time, my sphincter slams shut like a submarine hatch, a klaxon horn sounds, and Russian sailors start yelling.

[Delirium]

Whenever anyone uses the word "compulsory" in relation to my fun-happy-game time, my sphincter slams shut like a submarine hatch, a klaxon horn sounds, and Russian sailors start yelling.

Well, I have my new signature.

[650Booger]

I spend alot of time on reddit.  I sometimes head over to reddit.com/r/mud where MUDers gather to talk about their games.  occasionally Arm gets mentioned.  But you see other games mentioned and discussed much more frequently.  you will also commonly see new MUDers asking for advice on which games to play, etc.  I always try to promote Arm when somebody there is looking for a new MUD.  I think we should try and have more of a presence on the /r/mud subreddit.  Not to take anything away from GDB, of course, GDB is awesome, but its for people who already play this game.  I think reddit would be a great place to lure new players.

maybe whenever an HRPT goes down, somebody could do a writeup and leave it as a thread there.  Maybe on /r/indiegaming too.  I'm just spitballing here, but I know tons of people check those subreddits.

[Miradus]

That's probably the best suggestion.

You don't want to change the game to attract new players. Madness lies down that road. You won't know if you're attracting the right kind of player for a year or more and you're in trouble if you've attracted the wrong ones because they WILL drive off the right ones.

So if there's anything even remotely resembling a general consensus as to what we enjoy about Arm, start putting together some info for public dissemination and letting people like Booger sprinkle that birdseed out into the world.

[number13]

For a short term fix, make the game better for people who only want to play a few hours a week. I don't know how to do this, but it would be nice to be able to join the Byn or Guild or whatever and only show up for a couple hour session -- like a contract -- and yet not feel like a waste of water.

But really, maybe y'all just have to accept that while the staff has gone an epic distance at keeping the game breathing, "Alas, all good things must come to an end." The population is going to decline, and eventually the game will be so thinly populated that it's not really Armageddon MUD as we knew it. I haven't logged on in a while myself -- it might already be at that point.

If it feels like that's the trend (spoiler: it is) go out with a bang. Massive events, let people play their lame nilazi mages, open up the docs for everyone to read. Make the end of the world a celebration of murder and betrayal and yuge walls getting knocked down, rather than a sputtering whimper.

[number13]

Someone mentioned Mal (thanks his heads probably already swollen enough) and I can say that I enjoy playing with him. not because I know him, but because he makes things interesting. As do other players, thats what we need more of, not idly sitting in taverns, but intensively rp'n.

I haven't logged on, so I don't know really what's happening in game at the moment, but the best rp motivators in the past had natural hooks for players. A social conflict with sides and high stakes.

As cheesy as the last end of the world plot was, there were plenty of hooks for people to get involved -- if they were magickers. I think the new templar system was engineered to try to organically create these conflicts, as templars competed with each other for brownie points. If that's not working, dial it up to 11.

[Kryos]

Vwest described something similar to the the rut I found myself in in my 'middle term' as a player.  Before, and after this term, my PCs did not at all follow this kind of routine.  They would strut out of the inn and dive head first into something crazy and fun.  In retrospect and analysis of this, I find that rut was caused for two reasons.

First:  was me.  My fault, my play style was sticking me.  If you find yourself in this sort of a pattern, try laying the blame squarely at your own feet.

Second:  Staff I think, though this is through the microcosm of a player's perspective, amped things up.

So take a look around, the stuff you're talking about is there.  Crap is happening *everywhere*, driven by players, driven by staff, driven by both.  Again, in my own perception, a player can sniff out a huge portion of this goings on easily.

Want to retain a player that's new to the game?  Grab them by the boots and drag them into this fun stuff happening everywhere, or at least point the way.  Inclusion was my great hook, and what kept me on my second attempt at the game.

[gotdamnmiracle]

I spend alot of time on reddit.  I sometimes head over to reddit.com/r/mud where MUDers gather to talk about their games.  occasionally Arm gets mentioned.  But you see other games mentioned and discussed much more frequently.  you will also commonly see new MUDers asking for advice on which games to play, etc.  I always try to promote Arm when somebody there is looking for a new MUD.  I think we should try and have more of a presence on the /r/mud subreddit.  Not to take anything away from GDB, of course, GDB is awesome, but its for people who already play this game.  I think reddit would be a great place to lure new players.

maybe whenever an HRPT goes down, somebody could do a writeup and leave it as a thread there.  Maybe on /r/indiegaming too.  I'm just spitballing here, but I know tons of people check those subreddits.

I agree that this would help a lot, though the couple threads I've seen where it's mentioned there is rampant criticism and sniveling from Barta (that's the guy, right?) copycats who just talk about how Nyr is evil and junk. I remember a thread distinctly in which RGS posted and defended Arm. I mean this could probably work if we linked a thread or subreddit for Arm like the voting sites. Shrug. I agree though, reddit's a good choice.

[Yam]

It's best not to get in slapfights on other forums. If anything that will turn more people away.

The best thing to do is to share some of the stories that are made here and invite people over.

[SuchDragonWow]

The best thing to do is to share some of the stories that are made here and invite people over.

I was just thinking that.  The single most effective tool at getting me to come back to the game when I thought we had broken up forever ...  was listening.  I would hear someone's cool story, and then share some of my own.  I think the stories we create here are genuinely interesting, for the most part.  Instead of advertising, we should share those stories on the world wide webs.  Not in some forced, look at my purple prose guys kinda deal, but a little back and forth with each other that's like a conversation.  All it takes is two to start.

[RogueGunslinger]

I agree that we should focus on keeping the players we have, or focus on the players we've lost.

[deathkamon]

There was a long time hater of Armageddon who's left like ten years ago and still complains on just how "bad" it is. Is there anything we can do to change that guy's opinion?

[Norcal]

Nope. 

[Yam]

Not going there.

[Raptor_Dan]

Find him IRL, break legs.

[RogueGunslinger]

Treat people who leave and have issues with the game with respect. Be kind and generous, not flippant and condescending. Use criticism as a way to improve, don't take things personally.

Furthermore if someone has an axe to grind, let them vent. If you're going to respond don't try to contradict or argue with them. Offer them a family role. Chat with them about fun character concepts. Share stories, and encourage them to talk about what they found fun about the game. If they continue being negative don't respond at all.

I, obviously, need to work on a lot of these things myself.