a game that's been in beta for almost 10 years
I would prefer not to start a PR push until we have finished with at least the most important of the current slate of major improvements that the dev team has in mind. There are so many things that are currently half-broken or "yeah, we plan to replace that soon" that I'd really rather not introduce the game to large numbers of new players in this state.
Don't get me wrong, I want more players too. We need to keep getting more players all the time, or we will be bleeding slowly to death. I just don't think that right now is the right time for a major PR push, especially since it would necessarily take a certain amount of dev time (or at least Tom's time) to get Community Managers or other PR types vetted, set up and briefed.
Then again, I've kind of told myself that same line for years now.
Exactly. I've been playing Battlemaster since 2008, and honestly I can't think of any time since I've been playing that could be plugged as a "perfect time" for a big PR push. Granted, I understand that currently there are quite a few big changes both underway and upcoming, and good changes at that, but these changes are always very fluid and usually drawn out because its Tom's personal time and Dev volunteer time. I mean, is there any realistic ETA for when this big push of changes will be done? I doubt it. It could be the end of this year, or it could be the end of next year. That's Battlemaster. It's both a positive thing about it (constantly changing and improving) and a negative (constantly changing, sometimes buggy, some unfinished features).
That being said, Battlemaster truly isn't for everyone and I don't see it ever being just some huge million player game or anything. However, adding a thousand or a couple thousand players would be pretty great and shouldn't be too hard with some time spent on it.
Just curious, are any records kept of the player base leves/numbers? If so, when was the high point? Low point? And how many players were those? Would be interesting to see/evaluate.
