Some thoughts on Player Count

[venatorvenator]

Geez it's not like there's a systematic effort to kill new players, drive them out of the game, and make fun of them on the forum because they don't yet know minimal details like palisade soak or how many coals go into a kiln, no sir that's just crazy.

no sir that's just crazy:
https://www.havenandhearth.com/forum/vi ... 43&t=45829

That thread is funny because it's people ruining other people's game and saying the devs and the victims are to blame. I can't even.

[MagicManICT]

the thing that would actually kill the game is if revenues drop too low.

If I understand correctly, it wouldn't so much kill the game, just mean that they can't spend 7 days a week programming and designing and instead have to get a job and spend their weekends on their hobby.

[MightySheep]

That thread is funny because it's people ruining other people's game and saying the devs and the victims are to blame.

So if players have the ability to completely ruin other peoples game you're saying it is not the devs fault?

If you had a website which has a button on it that kicks another random user off the website, would you still blame the user for clicking it? No, because that would be silly. The users have no obligation to care about other users at all or how well the website does, that is the devs responsibility.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for raiding and griefing and I dont agree with JCs agenda but your logic was annoying.

[ArvinJA]

Clarification: The OP is questioning whether players are even dropping off (we don't have the numbers).

Most of the replies in the thread makes me think that they only skimmed it and ended up pattern matching it to a critique of the game, when it is not, and hence its placement in the IoB. Once/if we get numbers from loftar we can try to come up with reasons as to why the number of active players is what it is. Until then I think we're better off trying to simply improve the game by drawing from a sense of aesthetics, as well as raising various issues that the game currently has that we'd like improved. I note that some actually did take the time to read the whole thing, for which I am grateful, since the thread is mostly just me nitpicking about what PC numbers imply and what they don't necessarily imply.

[venatorvenator]

That thread is funny because it's people ruining other people's game and saying the devs and the victims are to blame.

So if players have the ability to completely ruin other peoples game you're saying it is not the devs fault?

If you had a website which has a button on it that kicks another random user off the website, would you still blame the user for clicking it? No, because that would be silly. The users have no obligation to care about other users at all or how well the website does, that is the devs responsibility.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for raiding and griefing and I dont agree with JCs agenda but your logic was annoying.

That something can be done, doesn't mean it should be done. And if it's done, it's by the agent's own motivation. You sound like those people who rape women because it's their fault to be drunk. That's totally a mechanic.
Some sense of community is expected if players want to keep the game alive. If they don't I suppose it doesn't matter, though it doesn't make much sense to me to play a game you actively want to see fail.
Btw if the users in your example are inner party, I feel they do have an obligation to care for other users.

[Sever]

2. You have to be tech-minded to install.

So hard to click the "Play" button.

If installing Java is your idea of tech-minded, then you don't know what that means.

[Patchouli_Knowledge]

Getting java settings correct is another matter that is not part of the "click play" button. If it is not configured correctly, said play button won't work. That being said, there are/should be posts that will help rectify the problem and help trouble shoot the problem so that they can play.

That being said, I do agree on part 3 though and had an hour discussion with someone sole on the subject of how hard it is to start from finding no stones at your far surrounding and beyond to even trying to figure how to make your character as it is rather unintuitive and focused a bit too much on immersion.

[Tamalak]

So hard to click the "Play" button.

If installing Java is your idea of tech-minded, then you don't know what that means.

Yes, installing and configuring Java is tech-minded. No, it is not the hardest thing in the world to do and yes, I'm sure YOU find it easy. But it bars just about every grandma out there from playing, for example.

[rye130]

Anyway, generally, if we have 1000 active players in game A, and 1000 in game B, if B is more casual than A, PC should be lower for B at any given point in time. That's kind of what I am trying to hammer home. Low PC might be a feature, and not a bug, given a set number of active players.

The only problem is when your game's payment model is based on having players who spend more than 7 hours a week in game in order to make money, low PC is a bug,

[Ethan]

I kinda wonder if a world reset every 6 months, might actually be the right mechanic for this game?

If everyone knows that the world reset is coming, it will not feel like such a hit when they get raided, because it was all fleeting anyway.
It also gives a great progression path for new players. The first time you play you are almost destined to be a hermit, or playing with a couple friends. However you meet people and maybe get a glimpse of village life, but as a hermit you are way too far behind to be of benefit inside the village.
Then the reset comes, and you can put all the knowledge you learnt as a hermit into starting a new village with the people you met last world.

In a perma death game, I just can't see it being sustainable with a persistent world. The strong keep getting stronger, there is never a hope for a hermit starting a year+ after to even be a powerful person in the world.
The large population increase at the beginning of a new world shows that people are very excited about the "green pastures" aspect, where they actually have a chance at shaping the world.

You could even do something cool at the end of the world, have a ragnarok. The nights grow longer till there is only night, the wild animals become much stronger, all the soil/clay/water/ore nodes start increasing in Q. The large factions battle it out with nothing to lose.

Could be fun.