Adding to our Playerbase - Campaign

[werf]

I don't mind it. LS and DS will eventually raid it anyways lol. I say bring it back if people want it but, also like someone said Seandar is pretty remote. Accessible really only by way gate by cross race. I'd say just expand seandar some or add smobs. I don't know what people want really in terms of what the old ss continent had to offer. anyone care to enlighten me why the old continent was so cool?

[Skurk]

Making pve worthwhile is good because then you get people logging in and staying logged in to pve even if there is no pking happening, and then those people who are logged in are potential targets for pkers. If pve sucks then people will just login, see low numbers/no pk/noone on DS and think firetruck nothing to do and logout again. Then 10 mins later someone else does the same thing, and so on. DS sees that there's like 7 people on LS and 5 of them are afk so dont bother logging in. Cycle continues.

I'm not saying load a bunch of rares, but need some sort of carrot imo. Then I can stab them while they're resting for hp. Making PVE good doesn't make PK worse, it makes more people have stuff to do which means more targets which means more opportunity for pk.

Smobs in chokable areas with some patties and stuff? cool? Idk just thowing dung against the wall to see what sticks

[Elysia]

I've had a plan for sprucing up Jafar so if people see the load on Anoluram is crap, they can do a randi-chest and take their luck. I've been short on time, so the plan hasn't gone anywhere yet. Since people are talking about rares though, would that something that interests people? An alternative if the visible load is crap? It obviously wouldn't work as well for smobs with chests, but people have been complaining about Anoluram specifically.

[varcoz]

Time restraints is usually one of the biggest issues. Things like getting somewhere, gathering people, clanning etc. Who wants to wait around for 10 mins to gather a group or something. Wait 10 mins to find ok only for it to turn into utter crap. Or there not be enough people on to fight or accomplish a task.

Clanning is a joke and always has been. Player run clans are a joke. It's the same losers that make this game like high school. It's just a dumb game. I shouldn't have to invest weeks or months to get into a clan. Plus those loser cool kids are so whiney and selective. It's like clicks in school. Make things less time consuming all around. Take the power from those players that are pulling the ladder up.

Toxic environment. You know who you are and what your doing. You simply don't care. Think how your actions affect others. Your attitude affects others. Who wants to log onto a cesspool of toxicity. Be it the game or discord. Try to be nicer to people. Some of you guys are stuck in you high school I'm cooler then everyone ways. Grow up.

Time restraints is the biggest thing. Most players that still dabble myself included have less time to invest. Things shouldn't take forever to accomplish. Make it reasonable and easier. Why would I want to invest weeks or months into this game...when I can play another and get rewarded nearly instantly or in a much shorter timeframe.

The playerbase will never be what it was. To many issues, to little changes to late, to much time not enough reward. There's far to many easier to manage better rewarding games out there. This games already at a massive disadvantage it being a mud. Make things less strenuous/stressful and foster a better environment. 2cents

[Walker]

Retaining Pkers :

From a PK "fun" point of view, I think less complaining on public forums and discord would be a good thing. Annoyed, angry? hate those channies? Vent to your friend. Don't go blasting it on discord where everyone sees your negative attitude. it reflects badly on you, on the other player(s) and on the game. Some people enjoy fighting outnumbered, some people enjoy riding the wave of assured victory. Whatever you enjoy, don't complain when it doesn't go your way. Sit down for 15 minutes (assuming you stuck around and gave it your best) and consider what you could have done differently. Players who stick around and give it their all win or lose, good situation or bad, I feel have the best times on Wotmud. The ones who get annoyed, are disrespectful and who pick up and leave when it's not there preferred fighting scenario are often the ones who complain and have a bad time. Try harder. Push your limits. Think of what you could do differently. Ask around for help or suggestions. If this is beyond you, and you've plateaued, then you do you, but please keep your negative, complaining, annoyed attitude to yourself.

I'd love to see more respect paid to opponents, win or lose. You might dislike someone, might not like how they won, how they got away, ect. but being civil and respectful towards the other person who gave you there time to compete against should be second nature. Nobody plays with the kid who always cry's or throws tantrums. Why should it be any different here?

Less complaing, More respect = More enjoyable PK environment = More players, more player retention!

Those are some well thought out words of wisdom. +1


@Elysia -- so this would be like, if you clear 1n of Anolorum, check his load and he's wearing nothing rare, you could opt to -- instead of killing Anolorum -- to do some sort of chest? That sounds appealing. Though I think it may work better if the mechanics allow him to only load a key to the chest when he doesn't load another rare item.

I agree with Rodger about the smobs...there's something about hitting IoMM, Murgoz chain, Rahien chain with groups of 6-7 and getting a piece of (relatively worthless) gold ABS in the vault that feels outdated. Out of like 10 hits in the last week I think we got 1 jcuff, the rest gold ABS and gchains. I feel like a minimum load for 7 people hitting one of these should be a single jcuff...it still has to be split 7 ways Some bronze chits were loading the other day...maybe the gold ABS loads can be supplemented by a few tokens? I dunno

[werf]

Clanning is a joke and always has been. Player run clans are a joke. It's the same losers that make this game like high school. It's just a dumb game. I shouldn't have to invest weeks or months to get into a clan. Plus those loser cool kids are so whiney and selective. It's like clicks in school. Make things less time consuming all around. Take the power from those players that are pulling the ladder up.

Toxic environment. You know who you are and what your doing. You simply don't care. Think how your actions affect others. Your attitude affects others. Who wants to log onto a cesspool of toxicity. Be it the game or discord. Try to be nicer to people. Some of you guys are stuck in you high school I'm cooler then everyone ways. Grow up.

As far as adding more gear, that's fine but allow us to turn in that same rare that's loading for quest points or some kind of sink to remove it from the game just as quickly as they come in. We're getting off topic though, so allow me to shift your energy back to the thread!

Although true, This doesn't really address how to bring in NEW organic players. People that have never played here before that we can grow into long term players.

[werf]

We're still losing focus on what this thread is about:

How do we find new players, that have never played the game before.

How do we get them to level to at least level 20

How do we get them to stay longer than 2 weeks?

This is the goal. The other stuff has a time and a place but, I fear it might be better served for another thread. I do think they're important and the comments we're generating are actually top class I just want people to focus on what we can do to generate more new players. My goal is to find 30 people. How do we do that? What are your ideas to bring in a portion of that mystery 30 that's never played. Or what is your idea to bring in 30 or more?

[Skurk]

I just think having people online doing things makes people want to stay. If people are smobbing and inv a new guy that new guy actually finds it fun. Especially if you tell him the context of the smobs and let him read the Harold story text etc which we ignore now. Let them feel like it's an adventure. Or even take them exploring to cool places like shadar logoth if they read the books. Just people online makes you want to play more so we need reasons for people to login during quiet times. I love the random tower quests like finding moraine etc, get them in on activities. Pk isn't fun at all until you at least understand how to mud a bit which takes time.

[Elysia]

@Elysia -- so this would be like, if you clear 1n of Anolorum, check his load and he's wearing nothing rare, you could opt to -- instead of killing Anolorum -- to do some sort of chest? That sounds appealing. Though I think it may work better if the mechanics allow him to only load a key to the chest when he doesn't load another rare item.

Yeah, open Anoluram's door and if his load is considered crap, you go to another room and get a randi-chest. It would essentially be the choice between full abs and whatever else he loads on a bad load, e.g. a guaranteed no-rare, and a second shot at a rare.

All of this assuming I can make it work, as I hadn't looked yet.

[Raefnal]

Rather than overly focusing on the game itself I think social media engagement will have a really positive impact. WoT is only going to edge further into the mainstream with a big player like Amazon making the series. If people are what you want, their searches for WoT need to hit us. Twitter, FB, even Insta. Doing something like that is an awful lot of work though, for one person. It would be best shared, and that would probably be within the Immortal Staff, however if it's something that is in the works and any help is needed I'd be happy to help, we could have a Social Media team!

Another thing that I missed for a while is the old website still existing when there's a new one, someone had to re-direct me to it. Can we not update wotmud.org, or is that something out of our hands? Sorry if that's been asked before!

From then, we all know the game has a stiff learning curve, and is reliant on players stepping in and helping people out. Maybe some people could be flagged as a Newbie Helper? It could be something people apply to do, and if a new person is on they can hopefully see someone clearly. Clive and those quests are a great addition and weren't there when I was last playing, so I appreciate them as they are. It could even be like a PRC and some people just put it in their title. Some people aren't very good at asking questions, or asking the right questions, and sometimes a very visible function will draw them out.

Keeping people here is two-fold. Firstly, you've enticed a new person - how do you hold their interest? The challenge and intricacy of the game. But for some people that learning curve can be too high, and they don't stay. There was a new player with at least two characters and he received lots of help and had positive interactions. But then suddenly he posted on discord that he couldn't face re-eqing again after mobripping and his corpse decaying. We all know we could have easily helped him get more eq, and perhaps he didn't know the area to get back to his corpse in time, etc. But unfortunately by the time we had that info, he had left discord and hasn't come back to it.

I tell you what as a new player is extremely irritating, you spend time trying to get good equipment and then when you die you have such a short time to get to your gear it’s completely ridiculous I’ve played other muds where your equipment does not disappear until the server reboot as a new player how are you supposed to progress?

Obviously he was at a point of frustration, we've all been there. But I think what he said pushed him over the edge has merit. I wonder if like 'tell guardian kit' there could be a medium kit that you can ask for, and perhaps you can ask for each kit a max of 3 times?

Secondly, enticing older players to return. I don't think that's something we should spend too much energy on if I'm honest. If someone is curious, they'll make their way back. Social media activity will help keep us in people's view. But a lot of people leave for various different reasons, and I think we have to respect that. I came back after talking to friends about the show, deciding to re-read the books and getting nostalgic. I'm sure I won't be the only one.

The wiki has been a huge help to me coming back. There's things missing, and if we all make an effort to update it, that can only help. I'm not saying people aren't doing that - just that I noticed there were some gaps. I fully intend to help fill those once I feel like I have enough knowledge to contribute.

As for comments on toxicity, I completely agree. I've been back two months and encountered some real crap. I personally enjoy the discord for the accessibility and sociability, but just because it is not an official or IC forum doesn't mean it should be okay to flame and whine. I don't think more policing is the answer either, the staff have enough to do without having to step in and tell grown adults to stop acting like potty-mouthed babies. Just be better.

Furthermore on toxicity, as a female player I think we should consider our language about women. Yeah this easily applies to the entire internet and I know we're not at work where we have to be more PC, but we are in a ROLEPLAY game set in a world where in almost every country women had more equality to men than they do in real life. Just, if you wouldn't say it to a female friend or about a female friend, don't say it, even on discord. We're a small player base and if we want to bring people in how we treat each other in game, on forums and on discord is a huge factor in what the game's environment is for everyone. There's a difference between banter and toxicity, and anyone who knows me knows I firetrucking love banter. But some things I see make me go ugh, and if I was really new to the game it would probably be enough to put me off. Maybe if something is really out there, don't put it on players lounge, DM it to someone who'll get it. Or think of some new insults. This would probably apply to language regarding people who aren't straight or cisgender too, regardless of what your personal views on those things are. Maybe a #banter or similar channel on discord? Or could #mud-related be the first channel people get directed to? Think about if someone joins our discord - what will the first thing they see be?

I also think people should only be allowed one Councillor alt. I understand with a dwindling playerbase this could be an issue, and I wouldn't want a clan to die out because of that being a rule. But too much power in the hands of one individual who is not held to the same level of accountability as an Immortal can create a negative atmosphere, especially in regards to people trying to clan etc. I will say since coming back, alt separation seems much worse.

I completely recognise what Varcoz says regarding timing and specifically clanning. I think the issue there is as a player run game, we are reliant on other players for most of the things we do, whether it be killing them, rping with them, trading with them or just having someone to talk to. This isn't the same as a single-player RPG where everything circles around one person. If someone can clan in a week what's stopping them getting bored and moving onto the next thing? It is fair for people to want to test that someone is committed to and suited to their clan. But I do think everyone probably has different ideas of how long is too long etc.