Battlemaster growth cycle

[Anaris]

With all respect to the dev team and I know that they do as lot...if we all know how important it is to get new players or have old ones return to their old realms, why are such bugs not fixed ASAP?

And don't say it is Christmas, it is now January 5th.

Have you forgotten, O Mighty Arbiter of All Things, that the entire dev team works for free in our spare time?

And have you also forgotten, O One Who Is Clearly Superior, that I'm basically the only active member of the dev team right now?

Or did you just fail to make the connection that when I'm spending most of my time with family (because Christmas Day isn't the only part of the Christmas holidays), I'm probably not going to be spending any time on bugfixes?

this comes across less as 'We lost a player' and more as 'I lost a minion'...

That's definitely the vibe I'm getting, too.

You need to chill, Atanamir. You've already shown yourself to be way, way too personally invested in how well your realm does.

If Perdan doesn't get any new players for a while...that's neither an insult to you personally, nor is it something that is going to harm you in any material way.

I'll probably be starting to work on BM fixes and improvements again over the next week, and how highly I prioritize this particular fix may or may not be dependent on how little you bug me about it.

[Zakilevo]

If we had some good data showing when and why players drop out, then we could try to think of a way to prevent them dropping out. I'd bet that there are some recognizable trends. For example, let's say newbies have an 80% chance of dropping out in the first month, but if they stay beyond a month, their likelihood goes down to 50%, or something like that. Then you can take a closer look at both groups and look for what the drop-outs have in common with each other and what sets them apart from the non-dropouts. You might find, for example, that newbies who received welcome messages from their realm-mates were more likely to stay in the game than those that didn't. And you could do a similar analysis of the old-timers. I know everybody has theories, so let's put them to good use.


P.S. There was a character called Lavagina???

It will be difficult to stop old players from leaving. These 'old' players have played this game for years and you might be able to convince them to stay for a bit longer but they will eventually move on. Even if they stay, they may just turn into one of those silent zombies.

[Blue Star]

P.S. There was a character called Lavagina???

...I can never spell her original characters name right Lavigna... 10 years later


Stats can be found on this thread, you'll have to sort through them.

http://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,4894.0.html

Stats
http://battlemaster.org/Statistics.Players.php

[De-Legro]

With all respect to the dev team and I know that they do as lot...if we all know how important it is to get new players or have old ones return to their old realms, why are such bugs not fixed ASAP?

And don't say it is Christmas, it is now January 5th.

http://bugs.battlemaster.org/view.php?id=7918

It was also posted to the forum without any official answer.

http://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,5355.0.html

http://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,5356.0.html

I know of at least one player that we lost/did not get this way.

I'll just go tell the missus that BM bug fixes are more important then spending time with my young son and her good self over the Christmas break.

[Foxglove]

I know a few people who moved on from BM and they all seem to tell me they've achieved all they could and they just cannot feel the same excitement they previously had. - I think I am reaching this point myself as well.

There's a lot of truth in this. The game has a definite shelf life for most players (as do the vast majority of games). It's particularly marked by the number of basically inactive rulers I've encountered over the years. I think that the participation in the game often drops away after people reach the higher title levels (although there are obviously several long-term players to whom this doesn't apply).

I think this shelf life varies significantly from player to player, and those who drop out largely just become bored with the game after they've reached a certain level of achievement. I'm not sure if there's any solution to this aside from a massive injection of new content to extend the life span (and that's clearly not going to happen because we don't have enough devs to create such things).

[Atanamir]

And have you also forgotten, O One Who Is Clearly Superior, that I'm basically the only active member of the dev team right now?

I can't forget something that I don't know.

I'll probably be starting to work on BM fixes and improvements again over the next week, and how highly I prioritize this particular fix may or may not be dependent on how little you bug me about it.

I won't bother even replying to your personal attacks.

If you don't want me to bug you, then don't tell me on IRC 1 week ago, "you will fix it today or tomorrow".
Say you will do it after the xmas holidays.

I work here with what I get told, so as I already told you in another thread you may want to be more precise in what you say.

It's not my problem if you can't hold your word. It is your credibility that is lacking.
But it is the problem of those who ask me because nobody else cares to come to the forum due to the way ppl are treated here.

Even I don't report bugs since long cause when I do it, you never fix them and tell me that it is only in my interest. As can be seen again here.
The last bug I reported and got fixed was to vita but with you it is always the same.

Anyway, thank you and so long.

[De-Legro]

I can't forget something that I don't know.

I won't bother even replying to your personal attacks.

If you don't want me to bug you, then don't tell me on IRC 1 week ago, "you will fix it today or tomorrow".
Say you will do it after the xmas holidays.

I work here with what I get told, so as I already told you in another thread you may want to be more precise in what you say.

It's not my problem if you can't hold your word. It is your credibility that is lacking.
But it is the problem of those who ask me because nobody else cares to come to the forum due to the way ppl are treated here.

Even I don't report bugs since long cause when I do it, you never fix them and tell me that it is only in my interest. As can be seen again here.
The last bug I reported and got fixed was to vita but with you it is always the same.

Anyway, thank you and so long.

Why are you reporting bugs to individuals? We have a bug tracker. It is a handy thing since those Dev's who like me don't hang out in IRC can fire it up, quickly check which bugs are outstanding and don't have a Dev working on them and get them fixed.

If you don't want personal attacks, don't go baiting Anaris by somehow implying that since it is the 5th of January the Devs should all be finished whatever holiday plans they may have had and be back dedicating their time for free working on this project. It doesn't take long to check and see that there are many outstanding bugs which affect far more players then the bug you are personally interested in.

[Indirik]

Moderator note: I know that many of us are very passionate about this game. Please let's try and keep things civil on all accounts.

[loren]

Too be honest its mostly old players leaving that makes me sad. Who is going to remember North and south Darka with me or when Tom openly had characters playing along side us, or even when Loren beat me out of a banker election in Fontan or when Indirk came to darka or when Lavagina's sister killed Herumor.

I remember the first three =)

I have noticed that new players tend to disappear more often since we got rid of the Mentor class/people stopped mentoring as much. That's anecdotal but I think real.

[Penchant]

I remember the first three =)

I have noticed that new players tend to disappear more often since we got rid of the Mentor class/people stopped mentoring as much. That's anecdotal but I think real.

I agree. I believe the intent was that it would be replaced with something better but I see 0 downside to keeping the class going until that something better is made.

[Ketchum]

I remember the first three =)

I have noticed that new players tend to disappear more often since we got rid of the Mentor class/people stopped mentoring as much. That's anecdotal but I think real.

Hmm? Did we get rid of Mentor already? ???
This is because 2 of my characters are Mentors still... I like to help the new players settle down in the game.

Maybe we can consider how to grow Battlemaster by putting in Realm Description how many Mentors a particular realm has, so that it becomes friendly to the new players. Just an idea though ;)

[Vita`]

The ability to become a mentor is gone. I believe the special mentor perks are as well. Anyone who was already a mentor should still be listed as one, since I don't believe they were ever kicked out of the mentor class when it was removed.

[Blue Star]

I remember the first three =)

I have noticed that new players tend to disappear more often since we got rid of the Mentor class/people stopped mentoring as much. That's anecdotal but I think real.

I think the class had its uses but few held its numbers for long. Though I bet it would help retention some.

[Dishman]

Battlemaster marketing came up in another thread, and this was the first that seemed appropriate that I found.

If you have any good (non-obvious) ideas about how to market the game, I'd be more than happy to hear them (preferably in a different thread). It's just not something I know much about, and BattleMaster doesn't have a budget, so the obvious answer isn't really a viable one.

Has anyone tried a targeted campaign? A few short-term dedicated posters might be able to round up a grass-roots effort fairly efficiently. Online meeting-places for D&D, medieval fantasy literature, and/or general Roleplaying could probably yield 3 or 4 players apiece to try Battlemaster (to see what it is like). They may not stick, but that is always the case with new players. 50 well placed posts, links, or name drops might generate 10 to 30 long term players, a whole realm for a weekend of deskwork.

I've only really dabbled in marketing in my professional capacity. I'm not unfamiliar with some processes, but I could use some help if I wanted to get something started. The growth-cycle is waning right now, anyone want to try waxing it?

[Anaris]

Battlemaster marketing came up in another thread, and this was the first that seemed appropriate that I found.

Y'know, you are allowed to create new threads...

Has anyone tried a targeted campaign? A few short-term dedicated posters might be able to round up a grass-roots effort fairly efficiently. Online meeting-places for D&D, medieval fantasy literature, and/or general Roleplaying could probably yield 3 or 4 players apiece to try Battlemaster (to see what it is like). They may not stick, but that is always the case with new players. 50 well placed posts, links, or name drops might generate 10 to 30 long term players, a whole realm for a weekend of deskwork.

I've only really dabbled in marketing in my professional capacity. I'm not unfamiliar with some processes, but I could use some help if I wanted to get something started. The growth-cycle is waning right now, anyone want to try waxing it?

I'm just not in a position to do anything like that, because I'm not a member of any forums like that, and while I'm sure I could find some if I put my mind to it, I'd just be some random person jumping in to advertise his own irrelevant crap. I dunno about you, but I wouldn't appreciate it if someone joined the BattleMaster forum solely to advertise for his own pet project.

If anyone knows of such places, though, they are invited to speak up...