Retention Revisited

[Anaris]

I suggested it in June.

Nobody has come up with any criticism of it thus far, several people have independently suggested it.

I know how to work Survey Monkey surveys... but that's a very, very blunt instrument for what we want to do.

For what it's worth, Vellos, I have had that post of yours flagged since you posted it.  I think it's a good idea, and once we've got the current major code work out of the way (the big transition + new estates), I'd like to start working on implementing it.

[Vellos]

For what it's worth, Vellos, I have had that post of yours flagged since you posted it.  I think it's a good idea, and once we've got the current major code work out of the way (the big transition + new estates), I'd like to start working on implementing it.

That's great to hear!

[Vellos]

I have not updated the numbers in a while.

So instead of offering a new convenience sample, I've got the summer-wide numbers.

EC had 5% decline in registration, 19% decline in active players, 11% decline in very active players. "Activity" fell from 72% of accounts being "active" to 61%. Active and very accounts peaked in late August. Active and very active accounts peaked in April. Minor increases in mid-August.

Atamara had 6% decline in registration, 14% decline in active players, 5% decline in very active players. "Activity" fell from 71% of accounts being "active" to 65%. Active and very active accounts peaked in April. Plateau throughout most of the summer.

The Colonies had 10% decline in registration, 11% decline in active players, 33% decline in very active players. "Activity" fell from 69% of accounts being "active" to 68%. Active and very active accounts peaked in April. Active accounts recently made a sub-peak in mid-August.

Beluaterra had 4% increase in registration, 2% decline in active players, 25% decline in very active players. "Activity" fell from 74% of accounts being "active" to 70%. Active accounts had a sustained high plateau throughout the second half of August. Very active accounts peaked in early September.

The Far East had 3% increase in registration, 6% decline in active players, 4% increase in very active players. "Activity" fell from 70% of accounts being "active" to 64%. Active accounts peaked in late August/early September, and seem to be cresting again now. Very active accounts peaked in mid-September.

Dwilight had 9% increase in registration, 5% decline in active players, 9% decline in very active players. "Activity" fell from 69% of accounts being "active" to 60%. Active and very accounts peaked in late August.

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It appears the strength of FEI, Dwilight, and Beluaterra has somewhat diminished as the summer ends. They peaked in late-summer, and are broadly in decline (though registrations continue to increase, other indicators do not). On no continent did the percentage of active players rise. On no continent did the absolute number of active players increase. Crucially, registrations, all total, even with major breaks in the line, fell by less than half a percent overall, if even that, depending on the measure. We saw 10% declines in active accounts, and 11% declines in very active accounts, despite increasing the distinct "continent-accounts" per character. We are not failing to attract new players. We are failing to keep them. Accounting for breaks in the graph, registrations could potentially have been 3-5% higher. To reiterate: a lack of advertising, a lack of new accounts, is not our weak point.

Even once people become active players for a period, they still leave.

[Peri]

It would be interesting to have as added data the average duration of accounts that are abandoned. From the data of Vellos we can't understand whether the active accounts that give up are long-standing players that got bored or newcomers that tried the game a bit and then left it.

Anyway thanks Vellos for gathering this informations.

[Chenier]

It would be interesting to have as added data the average duration of accounts that are abandoned. From the data of Vellos we can't understand whether the active accounts that give up are long-standing players that got bored or newcomers that tried the game a bit and then left it.

Anyway thanks Vellos for gathering this informations.

Those was my thoughts exactly when I read it. Vellos said:

Even once people become active players for a period, they still leave.

However I don't think we have much stats to actually validate this claim?

[Vellos]

True, it is not strictly correct. It could be that every single new registration is highly active, but old players are leaving in droves; or it could be that no new accounts are active, and old players are slowly deactivating. So that claim was probably overbold.

But, the point stands that it isn't a lack of new players that seems to be the issue.

[Indirik]

True, it is not strictly correct. It could be that every single new registration is highly active, but old players are leaving in droves; or it could be that no new accounts are active, and old players are slowly deactivating.

Wouldn't tracking the highest active account ID give you some clues as to that? At the least, it would give you some idea of the rate of players signing up. Not entirely foolproof, but it is another data point.

[Chenier]

Wouldn't tracking the highest active account ID give you some clues as to that? At the least, it would give you some idea of the rate of players signing up. Not entirely foolproof, but it is another data point.

Is that data available?

Activity rates for accounts registered in prior to 2005, 2005, 2006, 2007, etc could prove interesting.

[Indirik]

Not directly, no. You can probably infer it without too much trouble just by looking at the new player joins in your various realms.

You wouldn't be able to get any historical data without data mining the player database, which I don't think Tom would appreciate, or even allow. :)

[D`Este]

Not directly, no. You can probably infer it without too much trouble just by looking at the new player joins in your various realms.

You wouldn't be able to get any historical data without data mining the player database, which I don't think Tom would appreciate, or even allow. :)

Wouldnt Tom be interested in more accurate data about the player base?

[Tom]

I'm not sure if there is all that much to mine, as old player accounts are deleted.

[Indirik]

I'd imagine you could get a listing of active account numbers, and the dates they started their first character. The combination of the two would tell you about how many accounts were created between the particular dates. i.e. if account 10,000 was created on Jan 1, 2010, and account 12,450 was created on Jan 1, 2011, then you would know that ~2,450 accounts were created that year. The number of accounts still active would also let you know how many accounts were created and abandoned, too. You could probably get some kind of "churn rate" out of that.

What all this tells you, I don't know.

[Chenier]

I'm not sure if there is all that much to mine, as old player accounts are deleted.

if an entry in the DB was done every time an account was deleted to keep track of when that account was created, would give us data on how long people remain in the game before quitting. Would give us an idea if our player decline is due to new players not getting hooked or old players decaying away. We have suspicions, but no statistical evidence so far.

It would also be interesting to know who the most and least active player groups are.

[Chaotrance13]

For what it's worth, as a "new" player (think I've been on EC for about four months now, Dwilight for about 1 and a half), I want to throw in my experiences. As limited as they may be, a qualitative post can run alongside a quantitative one.

First, a bit of background. As far as browser-based or web-based gaming goes, my "poison" before was Cybernations. Some of you may have played that before, or do at the moment. It is, in my opinion, a game full of trolls and people seeking to stroke their egos. An endless cycle of war wrapped up in a political simulation. I left it a long time ago because of this endless cycle (literally at all kinds of major times of the RL year, there were wars. Easter, Christmas, Summer, you name it). But what I took from that game was that there was just so much hatred between players on an OOC level. Yet, the developer and admin team of that game refused to separate IC from OOC. I personally had someone make RL threats towards me and my family, and the guy who runs the game basically did nothing. Nor did the Police for that matter, but that's another story and I'm digressing.

When I first joined, it was at the recommendation of an old friend of mine. I did so, I joined the East Continent and I joined Westmoor. Everyone was quick to welcome me, offer advice and the like. A completely different experience. I learned pretty quickly, developed a persona for Ravier (and Malos, later on) and enjoyed fighting Fontan and Sirion more recently, even if it was only one battle. Now Ravier is the Marshal of Westmoor's Army, and Malos is a respected Priest of the Church of Humanity. There was a sense of progression through actively taking part in the game and in the community of the Realm and Continent I was on. There still is as well.

Unfortunately there is a negative side to this as well. I recently made Alaron, my third noble. He is a character on Dwilight, as I felt I wanted to help with testing the game out in some manner, even if just a little. And I wanted to experience a SMA realm. The difference was quite clear immediately. I felt quite alone from the start - only one person welcomed me for instance. Yet a completely new player to the game joins and everyone from Ruler to Knight is welcoming them. It sounds petty, I understand, but it's not a good impression. I didn't feel welcome, and reconsidered my decision. I haven't deleted him due to perseverance, and running around slaying NPCs is quite fun in a way.

Then I come on to the topic of these forums. Having looked around and generally lurked about, reading topics rather than posting, I see animosity between players (not characters) regularly. I see rude attitudes from people, things like that. I can say with some degree of certainty that if I had come across the game on my own, checked out the forums and saw that, I would never have registered. It reminded me too much of CN. While people are not going to be consistently civil to others, some high-ranking members do display a negative attitude and it makes me wonder why. Keep in mind I've never used the BM IRC server either - precisely because I worry that the issue would be the same there.

What I'm trying to get at is that one of the issues I feel that should be looked at when we as a community look at retention and recruitment is the kind of image we project. Not one of rainbows and flowers, but at least one of a respectful community who will make you feel welcome, help you understand the basic systems of the game and let you carve your own path into the history books if you so choose. Not only that, but there are different kinds of retention based on your how long you've been playing, I'd say. How do we keep new players in? More medium-term who have a few months to a year behind them? And the older players who've been doing this for years?

These, I feel, are issues that need addressing. Not now, because of the major code updates and systems going into the game. But after that, I think as a community we need to look at this again and put our heads together. I'm sorry for the wall of text, but I felt that adding a relatively new player's views on the matter might help. Then again, I am kind of expecting to be told to sit down and shut up.

[Tom]

That's a great observation, thank you.

I wonder if some kind of community-drive for a friendly atmosphere would work? If some people band together and want to discuss that, I'd be thrilled. It should come from the community, not through the GMs.