Retention Revisited

[Arundel]

As a fairly new player myself, I only heard about this game through an IRL friend; nowhere else. When he told me about the RP involved, functions, interactions, etc... I was drawn in immediately.
One factor that stood out, was the player dedication to enforce RP, and the willingness to help one another. (On Dwilight and FE anyways.) I've played RP games before, but they've always become an upset, because nobody plays within the rules set upon them. . Peer enforcement, in my opinion, is very uncommon, and everyone here should pat themselves on the back, especially Tom.

Now, I'm addicted, and attempting to integrate myself in the community as best as I can. (PeL <3, I will always be your archivist  .)

In summary: Advertise the community, because it's fantastic.

[Vellos]

Returning to my obsessive chart-making:

Numbers are in. In terms of registration, FEI and Dwilight showed slight growth. Beluaterra was flat. EC and Atamara showed 4%ish declines which, though not good, is much better than in the past: it may be that EC and Atamara are slowing their losses somehow. The Colonies continue to plummet into the depths.

In terms of active players, Atamara showed a controlled decline, but EC and the Colonies had double-digit losses of active players. Meanwhile, Dwilight and FEI actually increased the number of active players, while FEI was flat (discounting multi-locks FEI would be positive).

Numbers on highly active players are subject to skepticism, and vary widely. However, Beluaterra has been exhibiting what looks to be a medium-term real increase in active players. Notably, it posted an almost 30% gain in active players (and one of the first gains in "activity rates" I've seen yet). Dwilight and FEI also had strong increases in active players. EC and Atamara showed some declines, while the Colonies were flat.

This round showed one of the strongest divergences I've seen yet: FEI, Beluaterra, and Dwilight posted solid numbers in every category; actually some of the best numbers I've yet seen. EC, Atamara, and the Colonies showed bad numbers, in some cases better than in the past, but in at least some far worse. This would seem to support the idea that some continents are reliably better at getting and keeping players than others. We'll see how this holds up in the long run.

[Tom]

That's very interesting results. I don't quite know what to make of them, but it is quite interesting that there's such a noticeable difference between the game worlds.

[Vellos]

Also, for what it's worth, I've compiled data for the entire timeline, from mid April to present.

Registration is up a little over 2% in Beluaterra and Dwilight. Flat in FEI. Down 8% in EC. Down 10% in Atamara. Down 14% in the Colonies.

Active players are up almost 3% in Beluaterra. They are down 6% in FEI and Dwilight. Down 14% in Atamara, 15% in the Colonies, and a whopping 20% in EC. That's right: the equivalent of 1 in 5 active players on EC has left since April.

Very active players are up 20% in Beluaterra, 15% in FEI, and 7% in Dwilight. They are down 4% in EC, 13% in Atamara, and an unbelievable 40% in the Colonies. Again, numbers on very active players are subject to major weekly fluctuations.

Activity is an odd story. Activity is flat in Beluaterra (slight increase, but so small as to be negligible). Activity is basically flat in the Colonies as well, overall. Activity is down 3% in Atamara, 5% in FEI, 6% in Beluaterra, and 9% in EC. Activity I measure as percent of registered players that log on in the preceding three days. Activity declined on all continents except Beluaterra, where it was flat.

High activity has lots of fluctuations, but is also an interesting story. High activity rose on every continent except the Colonies. The Colonies say a 15% decline in highly active players. ATamara saw a 0.44% increase. Dwilight had a 6% increase. Beluaterra saw an 8% increase. EC had 9%, , while FEI had 10%.

What is curious is that there is no discernible relationship between activity and retention. This actually shocks me. I expected to find evidence of either "Highly active continents keep people better" or "Highly active continents drive people away." I could understand either. As it is, neither seems to have much support. The most active (3-day) continent is Beluaterra, and they had good retention. The next most active continents are EC and Atamara. The least active continent is the Colonies, with low activity overall, but with a fairly steady rate of activity... but it has horrible retention. Meanwhile, Dwilight , EC, and FEI all started out with higher activity than the Colonies, but ended up much, much lower at the end of period... and there is no common retention type for Dwilight, EC, and FEI.

Same story with high activity: I can't seem to find any confirmation for a "Really active players intimidate and drive people away" scenario, nor for a "Less active players draw in new people" scenario. Activity levels do not seem to be directly connected to retention (though there could easily be some kind of indirect connection).

[Phellan]

What you might need to look at is the positions of the characters who rank high in activity when compared to low activity or removal of a character.

I would suspect that in all cases high ranking characters tend to have higher (at least, good) activity for the most part, but where we might find the difference is in the activity level of those who leave and are low ranking (either a minor lordship, or no lordships amongst their characters).

That is to say - how well those continents manage to convince newer and lower ranking nobles to be active (which could be seen as an indication of enjoyment - more active nobles tend to be more likely to stay since they have a reason to play).

[Peri]

Well if I may throw in some remarks, with Summer in between activity rates are certainly going to be hard to connect to continent-limited reasons. Also, on BT a war just started that seemed to be pretty promising (at least from my point of view): it wouldn't surprise me to know that several active players moved their chars from elsewhere to BT just to join it in the last months.

[Vellos]

Both of your comments definitely have some merit, and my data can't really speak to the underlying issues in either.

[Fleugs]

I'm going to copypasta what I got out of two new players on IRC and three players ingame (OOCly), when I asked them about their first impressions and what could be done to improve or ease the first days. This is the first one;

[00:05:06] <+Fleugs> I've been "busy" with a thread on the forum named "Player retention", and I'm trying to figure out what can be done to make the game easier for new players
[00:05:31] <+Frosted> oh cool
[00:05:32] <+Fleugs> i.e. what are the troubles you are experiencing, what could be better, what is good, ...
[00:06:41] <+Frosted> I like the social aspect of the game its kinda confuzzing when u first start out thou because theres so much information in different location
[00:08:32] <+Frosted> im curious how adventurers become nobles/knights
[00:09:01] <+Frosted> so far ive just been hunting undead with mine and resting because of fatigue
[00:10:34] <+Frosted> how does the battle system work when armies go up against each other i haven't been able to find any im=nformation on that
[00:16:09] <+Frosted> there was two tutorials when i started which helped explain basic character construction and different tabs/commands which was helpful
[00:16:44] <+Fleugs> you think they should be longer? or was it a nice introduction?
[00:17:34] <+Frosted> what i think would be helpful would be understanding the ranks like a chart or something explaining how you advance in the game
[00:19:23] <+Frosted> like to become a knight u need to swear an oath to a lord to become a lord you need...

Out-of-Character from Character of Frosted   (5 days, 10 hours ago)
Thank you for the link to the starting guide and for your kind welcome. Im excited to learn the ropes and contribute to this great realm.

This is ofcourse not the entire conversation - much more was said, but is either irrelevant or goes about us explaining some parts to her. The part about the ranks was both interesting and puzzling for myself; I never really considered Battlemaster to have clear-defined ranks. Of course there is a certain hierarchy but they're all fluid. But this is ofcourse one player. The "starting guide" I link to my students is found here: http://wiki.battlemaster.org/wiki/Newbie_Guide. They all seem to like it, and I've had a lot of positive response to it. However, it's a project that I never really got to finish, although I do want to. The TOC is horrible, I know. As I said, it's not finished. But I think it's a good start to where we could (or should?) go.

Second one (today - more might follow, I'm still in conversation);

[23:14:09] <Fleugs> well, I'm looking into what new players experience when they join the game, so I can work out ways to improve it for them
[23:14:16] <Fleugs> so if you could give me your first impressions, I'd be very grateful
[23:14:25] <Fleugs> that means: criticism, questions, suggestions, ...
[23:14:26] <annatolasi> ill do ok
[23:14:35] <annatolasi> but at the miment im quite lost lol
[23:14:42] <Fleugs> right, that's what I'm looking to work on
[23:14:58] <Fleugs> so if you could give me some impressions (if you have time, no pressure), I'd be very thankful
[23:18:38] <annatolasi> 1st i think
[23:18:53] <annatolasi> thereshall be either a tutorial
[23:19:12] <annatolasi> or either a link to irc chans so the nex players cna get help
[23:20:15] <annatolasi> i confused wth actions i can do or not do
[23:25:26] <Fleugs> like?
[23:25:57] <annatolasi> seems theyre a not a lot of actiosn to do the first day
[23:26:08] <Fleugs> probably right
[23:26:12] <Fleugs> the game isn't high-paced
[23:26:17] <Fleugs> not sure if you play any other games online?
[23:26:53] <Fleugs> tried this already? http://battlemaster.org/basics.php
[23:27:05] <annatolasi> yes im reading all 

Here's a player that I contacted ingame, and I believe have posted before, but to get a clear overview I think gathering these experiences all together in one post is useful. At some point we (or I) will have to start "extracting" keywords to summarize... stuff.

Out-of-Character from Noton de Validus   (7 days, 11 hours ago)
Hello!

You are right about what I don't understand about the game ... Next to everything. Although the wiki and just clicking through helped a little. (Like giving the advice of becoming a student.)

The game explains very few, which is a little disappointing. I was hoping for a tutorial. But well.

So ... I can send a message to the realm. Is it then like ... Like a message you just wrote me? Everyone gets notified?
And ... What's also very important. I noticed the message types. What should I use when? (Like in one of those cases; Introducing, asking for an oath.)
I know, that new players can get quite annoying, but I ask to excuse this.

 It seems that all players have a different expectation of what Battlemaster is, and that it is up to us, as those that wish to improve the first contact for new players, to figure out what the middle way is to satisfy everyone. By this I do not mean we have to alter the essence of Battlemaster, but rather draw a clear picture - as much as that is possible - of what the game is. I stick to the point that a "Let's play" video (thanks Lilwolf for the idea) is a good start to get people going, but I imagine that not everyone will make the effort to watch Youtube. A high variety of possible ways of getting introduced to the game will help us get in contact with the largest amount of players possible.

A funny intermezzo from two players that returned after a "break", but which might give some insight too;

Out-of-Character from Returning player I  (15 days, 4 hours ago)
Actually my friend I'm not really that new to the game I had played the game back when there was a country for aix and when perdan was barely a country its self I came back to playing this because I had so much playing it do to the constant movement and trying to find your enemies. I like how each country has to really think and try to out the best setings out for there armies. So I had to come back and play this game once more

Out-of-Character from Returning player I   (15 days, 4 hours ago)
I left because i really wanted to concentrate on baseball so i never really had time for the computer and ny first impression was wow its the same exciting game just how I left it

Out-of-Character from Returning player II   (14 days, 22 hours ago)
Simon,

I am in no way new to BM. I first started playing in '09 and kept for a year and a half. I then got a bit tired of the game and left, but now I've returned, as I will return one day to my first realm, Sirion.
I started playing because of a friend, who also was a 'Sirionite', and I loved the dynamic of this game, the fact that I could create a good roleplay and a story behind my char, and that if I did things good I could scale up in the ladder and start taking decisions (I got as far as Marshal and Baron, in different realms.) I was, and still am, a true nerd, computer geek, n' play role games (with physical dices even!) so this game fits right in my comfort zone...

Hope this helps, and in any case, ask around.

Saludos!

I love physical dice too!

One idea that I have been playing with, is (re)creating a small island filled with mentors and new players. The concept would be easy: a war-island sized continent, or perhaps smaller (depending on the average amount of new players joining Battlemaster) populated with some experienced players (mentors) that guide new players ("noobs") through the basics. Here new players can explore options without real reprimand; it would be sandbox island for them where they would primarily learn the game until they feel they are finished, or the mentor feels they are (to avoid abuse, ofcourse, and it turning into just another island). The new players would be able to achieve all sorts of positions (heck, if it's up to me they can try every position), and the mentors could help them out and/or intervene in case they make a "newbie-mistake" - or not, and just explain what went wrong. I know very well that the devs and Tom are swamped in work right now so I don't give this idea much of a chance, albeit I do think it has much potential. Please share your thoughts.

I am very willing to actually do something, and not only gather information. But right now, we need more information. I asked Tom if a questionnaire would be possible, and he said it would be if it were an external link that could be handed to players. Anybody knows a good site for making questionnaires? And what questions shall we ask? Judging from the length of this thread people are actually interested in this matter, and I hope that we as a community can help out the new players. It all comes to one point at the end: a warm community is nice and attracts people. It is amazing how important a "quick first hello" can be to make players stick around, even if you explain them that Battlemaster isn't a heavy-activity game at all.

[Peri]

This is really interesting fleugs. About a tutorial some time ago myself and indirik played with the idea: the 2 tutorials that can be found in bm's homepage (if they are still there) are horribly outdated and show things that are no longer there, thus a wiki page full of images shaped as a tutorial could be cool. We thought about a simple beggining with a mentor/student interaction to show how it looks like, but everything can be added. Pictures are the key. A wall of text discourages anyone. Youtube video would clearly be better but it would be more difficult. The mentoring portal thast was suggested some time ago is another idea of merit, I believe there are a lot of introductory pages on the wiki and putting them in order would greatly benefit everyone.

Before we charge ahead with tutorials and stuff I would like to however take a step back and ask to those who possess this information (devs? tom?) whether the problem resides mainly in the amount of newcomers that abandon the game as opposed to before, or whether the decrease in players could be caused more by other reasons, like less registrations, more long-standing players quit, etc.

Frankly I've noticed that in a couple realms where I play that have been losing players steadily almost no one went away willingly (moved to another island, deleted, said goodbye), they all autopaused due to inactivity. It may not be that the problem of decaying player base is less connected to retention than we think but rather about people getting bored after a while for lack of things to do? These issue would require radically different methods to be solved and it would be cool to have some concrete data to understand where the problem resides mostly.

[Fleugs]

I agree, Peri. Taking a step back is needed to see why players leave; I've had many account of people, over the years, saying that the game just "became a drag". And that last one literally came from a General. It meant that he couldn't bring up the time that is required to play battlemaster anymore, because he simply didn't care.

However, I think the target of this topic is twofolded;

1) Find out why players leave (or stay) and what can be done to change the "decay" in battlemaster.
2) Find out what can make it easier to have new players stay.

Point 2 is what I am working on. Point 1 will be at some point steady, because people don't tend to play a game into infinity. It is normal that they leave. Come and go. What I'm trying to do is make the "come" larger for the next few months/years so our player base increase. But it would be interesting to get some very solid data provided by Devs and/or Tom, if they have that (not sure if they keep records) next to the massive amounts of data that Vellos is already providing in this thread.

In any case, I'll be hunting for new players and I encourage everyone to do the same. Help them out and ask them, as soon as you can, what their first impressions are. First impressions are immensely important to retain new players. We need to improve the learning curve for Battlemaster (which is at the moment, I think, rather steep for a text-based browser game).

[Peri]

1) Find out why players leave (or stay) and what can be done to change the "decay" in battlemaster.
2) Find out what can make it easier to have new players stay.

Point 2 is what I am working on. Point 1 will be at some point steady, because people don't tend to play a game into infinity. It is normal that they leave. Come and go. What I'm trying to do is make the "come" larger for the next few months/years so our player base increase.

That is certainly good, especially because if on 2) players can help, 1) it mostly falls on the devs and we have little ways to help. What am I saying is just that if however over time the player base decayed sensibly but there was no noticeable increase in the % of registered users who abandon the game in the first weeks, we're firing at the wrong target. Our efforts can help, BM can definitely benefit from a better system of tutorials and so, but one should make sure to know which is the source of the problem (likely, there will be an overlap of sources).

By the way you're lucky that the newcomers you speak with answer you. It has been a while since I've found one that did, and in particular I felt it depended heavily on whether I had the mentor subclass or not. I really believe the first thing that the devs must do is to modify the mentor class because fewer and fewer players are picking it, even if they would love to help others.

[Fleugs]

Not all new players speak, and many fall into silence after a while - but then I already got some picture of their first impressions. Anyway, I too think that the mentor class needs a serious and thorough overhaul: make it a "third class", that anyone can pick without having to sacrifice other classes. The reward system for mentors doesn't work anyway, it's by far not interesting enough to encourage people to become mentor. Some reasoning is need to encourage people to help new players: it's a matter of giving and receiving, but I will let it up to the devs & Tom to figure out what it should be.

[Vellos]

If every player talked to new folks like Fleugs, retention would be a much smaller issue.

[Peri]

If every player talked to new folks like Fleugs, retention would be a much smaller issue.

If every new player answered to old players like those mentioned by Fleugs, retention would be a much smaller issue too.

[Fleugs]

It's interesting that you both speak about "speaking", which I believe is very crucial in "new player retention" (let's call it that). Many players that join a browser-based game that is built upon a community rather than click-and-do buttons (e.g. Travian, or many others) expect social interaction within a short period of time from joining. This varies from person to person: some will hold out for five minutes, and when they don't get a message, they will simply never go to the website again. Some might hold out a day, but they end up in a rather bad realm, and still aren't contacted... they think the game is basically dead or everyone is just ignoring the noob (this is actually what happens at that point), and never return either.

Contacting a new player at the very beginning of his BM-career is very important. That human contact, that social interaction, that makes Battlemaster the game it is, will make new players feel "part of the community". It is fun to know how the mechanics of the game work, and it is something that we need to work on very hard... but the aspect of "speaking" is equally important. I imagine that when you try to convince someone to join Battlemaster, you tell him "it's a medieval-setting text-based RP browsergame". The "text-based" + "RP" automatically say that there is interaction with other players necessary to keep the game running; without interaction, no RP & nothing gets done. I'd like to give Madina as an example, when I was there (the realm was worthless, and it was the only time I left with a furious OOC-message flaming on them).

The question is though: how can we make sure that genuine human interaction can be guaranteed to new players within a respectable amount of time? I've been thinking about several solutions for that:

1) The community does have some very active players. I know Tom is primarily not a fan of players who exert their uber-activity over the game (I consider myself a very active player - bm is my homepage), but I do believe they can be put to good use. These very active players come from all timezones and thus overlaps, meaning that if they were gathered in a place where new players would arrive, new players would have a (semi-)guarantee of quick human contact. My theory is: there will always be very active players, and instead of fighting against them, try to use them for the good of the game.
1a) Like I have said before, gather new players & experienced (active) players on an island specifically made to teach the game. Do not scare new players of by using the word "teach", but rather describe it as a "new player friendly environment where you can explore all aspects of the game and there is constant guidance." It's all in the words. This island could be partially populated by these "very active" players. They don't necessarily have to be mentors: if we can put up a good tutorial-structure, we can even drop the player-mentor basis the game works on (at least partially).
1b) Link new players to the IRC. I've noticed, in the past few weeks, that the channel automatically flairs up when a new players joins it. People are genuinely ready to help new players out on IRC. We're a small nerd-community but we're a warm and open one, although you may find me trolling it rather often. Nevertheless I am always ready and eager to help new players, and will do everything I can to make their introduction to the game easier (less painful?).

2) This might only partially have to do with "early human interaction", but it's still a valid option. Have new players, after they conclude their "training" ("exploring, enjoying the fruits of the game, ...") rate their realm. Have them rate it on how well they were received, how well they were helped, ... There could be tons of criteria for this. I do believe there is some form of rating already present, in the form of "how many mentors" there are. But let's be honest: not every mentor is a good one, and the class is far from interesting. A more thorough "pre-joining" rating might help out new players to pick the right realm, where they can be "educated" properly. Also, it would encourage realms to encourage players to help new players; decent help -> decent rating -> more new players -> stronger realm -> more land -> need for more players -> decent help -> ... How awesome would it be if realms would actually compete to attract new players? In a way I tried this with Ibladesh, and to some extent it worked.
2a) The idea of Ibladesh brings me to a more specific concept; you can message all/one student, or all/one mentor, but you can't combine. When I was ruler I created a specific message group that combined new players and mentors. It came from the idea that a "group-learning" mentality might stimulate new players to ask questions freely, and join in conversation with other players (mentors), as well as allow them a "sandbox" mode to test out various kinds of messages, roleplays, ...

I'm simply playing with ideas, and it's very likely that I will come up with many more. I truly hope to get a response from the devs/Tom, if they have time, on these ideas & concepts. Don't fear to hammer them into the ground, as long as you explain why, so I can start thinking further about another solution.