The Decline of SS and TW is real

[nuketheyanks]

wtf am I looking at here, a graph for ants?

[Jessup]

nuke wrote>

wtf am I looking at here, a graph for ants?

It is actually digital sound wave for Rick Astley's song "Never gonna give you up "

Long Live Trench Wars. It will never die completely ...

We all know it has slowed down.. nothing new here...

[Jessup]

Also, who has time for TWD when TW Mafia: A Cold Autumn Night is happening. This forum game is even more addictive than playing Continuum lol :P




On the real though.. we have gone over what to do about this many times. Many people like fork ect.. spent hours adding suggestions.. it just never seems to happen. A new layering background that didn't look so archaic might interest new people more I always thought. The guy making Phoenix is onto something I think.

[zreqdf]

Link to the graph shown above so it is easier to read: http://twd.trenchwars.org/arobas/twd_games_state.php

Population graphs: http://sshq.net/zone/6/SSCU_Trench_Wars

[9th!]

Also, who has time for TWD when TW Mafia: A Cold Autumn Night is happening. This forum game is even more addictive than playing Continuum lol :P




On the real though.. we have gone over what to do about this many times. Many people like fork ect.. spent hours adding suggestions.. it just never seems to happen. A new layering background that didn't look so archaic might interest new people more I always thought. The guy making Phoenix is onto something I think.

Mafia in my opinion, is nothing to do with trenchwars, for the simple reason that it doesn't help nor hinder the actual game, it has 0 effect.

the main thing that annoys me is that everyone has ideas but no one does anything about them. I had an idea recently and instead of complaining on here I just went ahead and did it.

But if you do have an idea then do it, make the event you think will be amazing, create the ship that may be the next WB or look into the advertising that you believe the zone needs.

hell at least just post it on your Facebook like 1 time.

It benefits everyone if more people are involved in making the game better.

[Turban]

9th,

forum mafia actually has more to do with trench wars than you give it credit for. we are known as a game where the community aspect is our best selling point. that is what we need to market this game as if we ever get to that point. our players are not sticking around because of the gameplay of this zone, or its leagues, although those do play their roles in the overall success of this zone. bad changes are bound to have negative effect in terms of player enjoyabilty and population decline, but that only tells half the story.

i only log on to interact with the people i have gotten to know over all these years, and there are numerous others like me. i would like to say we are the majority, but i have no proof of it.

[grand]

the game officially died when dice dissolved

[Turban]

alright, now there's actually some time to write a cohesive post rather than some random rambling with the phone. i have close to no experience when it comes to marketing, but this is what i feel we are doing wrong. we are prioritizing the wrong type of players, and our focus is way off.

first of all, we are a community-based game and that is our strongest selling point. we should market this game for what it is worth rather than giving false promises that we can't guarantee or keep.

the fact is that we do not have flashy graphics to attract the new generation of players; they are not our target audience, yet several people seem to think we need to get these millions of call of duty players to suddenly drop their awesome looking games and play ours which looks like complete shit. we also lack in terms of pure game play; we do not have a state of the art game at our disposal. the overall competition is severely lacking, and while there is an enormous gap between the seasoned players and new ones, this game is extremely simple once you figure it out.

we should focus on the facts rather than fiction. what we have is a simple, yet effective game, and a community that is among the oldest and most experienced when it comes to gaming. there are so many players out there looking for a game like this, where they can interact with other players, make friends and have fun with them with relative ease, and play together with them. i have seen several forums mention this game, and most of the people have fond memories of the past zones they loved to play with their long lost friends, and say it might be worth returning and checking it again. we should also try to focus on players that love playing retro-esque or indie games, as they are likely to enjoy a game like this far more than your stereotypical new generation gamer.

grand, while dice may have dissolved, most of your active players are still playing and participating in TWL where as the useless people "quit" the game. it didn't really hurt the game as much, but it was still a small blow to the activity.

[9th!]

9th,

forum mafia actually has more to do with trench wars than you give it credit for. we are known as a game where the community aspect is our best selling point. that is what we need to market this game as if we ever get to that point. our players are not sticking around because of the gameplay of this zone, or its leagues, although those do play their roles in the overall success of this zone. bad changes are bound to have negative effect in terms of player enjoyabilty and population decline, but that only tells half the story.

i only log on to interact with the people i have gotten to know over all these years, and there are numerous others like me. i would like to say we are the majority, but i have no proof of it.

I wasn't disrespecting the game by any means.

I just mean it isn't going to be the thing that attracts new players to Trench Wars and only a tiny percentage of the population now and in future will play it.

[Rab]

Why do I feel like I've said this before?

http://forums.trenchwars.org/showthr...ity&highlight=
http://forums.trenchwars.org/showthr...its&highlight=
http://forums.trenchwars.org/showthr...-TW&highlight=
http://forums.trenchwars.org/showthr...ear&highlight=
http://forums.trenchwars.org/showthr...iki&highlight=
http://forums.trenchwars.org/showthr...ats&highlight=

http://forums.trenchwars.org/showthr...ere&highlight=

[Fork]

Old players get bored and leave (though could have been prevented if dev team worked with coders to spice up TWD/pub to keep their interest) new players think the whole game is about pub and leave after 5 minutes (oblivious to the most important thing: squad battles/ squad chat). obviously populations gonna decline.

If you really think the populations gonna get better just read this: Now during the inactive times, new players log on when there are 0 people playing pub (and pub is usually dead for hours) I mean if that new player actually got addicted or actually returned back to this game following that... I would be worried for them.

You would need to spend loads on advertising to stand a chance but then you would need to try and retain those players which is very hard considering the game is a lot more than just 5 minutes in pub. Hell I would try and search for cheap coders (if possible) that could actually implement ideas to spice twd/ pub because tw staff are complelely drained. How can we say if you have an idea- implement it. I feel this is the wrong attitude because that means even if you have the greatest of ideas- it will never get implemented unless you figure out how to do it- then if you do eventually figure it out- staff could reject it anyway.

Anyway I'm curious to what dev are doing atm/ what projects are being done and what tw staff feel they should spend most of the donated money on (short/ long term goals). To see if they have the right ideas.

[grand]

alright, now there's actually some time to write a cohesive post rather than some random rambling with the phone. i have close to no experience when it comes to marketing, but this is what i feel we are doing wrong. we are prioritizing the wrong type of players, and our focus is way off.

first of all, we are a community-based game and that is our strongest selling point. we should market this game for what it is worth rather than giving false promises that we can't guarantee or keep.

the fact is that we do not have flashy graphics to attract the new generation of players; they are not our target audience, yet several people seem to think we need to get these millions of call of duty players to suddenly drop their awesome looking games and play ours which looks like complete shit. we also lack in terms of pure game play; we do not have a state of the art game at our disposal. the overall competition is severely lacking, and while there is an enormous gap between the seasoned players and new ones, this game is extremely simple once you figure it out.

we should focus on the facts rather than fiction. what we have is a simple, yet effective game, and a community that is among the oldest and most experienced when it comes to gaming. there are so many players out there looking for a game like this, where they can interact with other players, make friends and have fun with them with relative ease, and play together with them. i have seen several forums mention this game, and most of the people have fond memories of the past zones they loved to play with their long lost friends, and say it might be worth returning and checking it again. we should also try to focus on players that love playing retro-esque or indie games, as they are likely to enjoy a game like this far more than your stereotypical new generation gamer.

grand, while dice may have dissolved, most of your active players are still playing and participating in TWL where as the useless people "quit" the game. it didn't really hurt the game as much, but it was still a small blow to the activity.

what? i thought the core all retired

[Crescent Seal]

lets perma ban people for using aliases like ngR and saggiN. this is the best approach to save this game.

[Jessup]

You guys know about phoenix developing right? It is made by a player named Vidiot_X and here is the link http://www.phoenixusc.com/board/misc...age=main_index

Though I hate his current streaming bullet settings he seems to always show on his demos , his efforts are the best I have ever seen.. now I do think he has plans to claim personal rights and form his own brand of continuum as he probably should with all the work he has put into it, but perhaps some type merge between him and priitk could happen ..I don't wanna even think about legal issues here.. The rights for this game has always been a stumbling block that is forever left undone. This is why Steam failed to accept us in the end as I remember.

Vidiot_X has really impressed me though with his graphics and command features. He has drop down help menu's for example and mouse cursor interaction with the game. This game though simple in nature takes weeks or months to figure out how to navigate the game for new players. If we could have drop down menu's like phoenix or hire Vidiot_x or copy his ideas concerning this, new players would not get so overwhelmed navigating there way around. I remember when I first started I didn't even know there were other arenas for weeks. So simplify commands using a mouse cursor dropdown box in game and get some new background graphics I'm convinced we lose every new player due to frustration manipulating the game, frustration playing vets who completely own them or over the lack of players in game at any time.

[Ephemeral]

...this game is extremely simple once you figure it out...

Tell that to a brand new player who enters Pub for the first time only to be owned by some vets.

...a community that is among the oldest and most experienced when it comes to gaming...

Tell this to a brand new player who just spend 30 minutes being owned but then has his team lose because 'the most experienced players' have simply ?buy win in Pub.

...where they can interact with other players...

Yeah, interacting with Tower on a daily basis is a sure fire way to attract new players.

Nice pep talk but there is zero chance at this zone sustaining itself as long as Pub is the cluster fuck it current is. Marketing is a complete and total waste of time and money as long as new players are met with an empty Pub or one that is so badly slanted in favor of experienced players. It is like saying we should spend money/time on marketing a restaurant when the food sucks so bad that every new person who eats there doesn't come back.

Of course TW cannot compete with modern games but this has nothing to do with the fact that we have allowed Pub to morph into an arena which makes breaking into the game too difficult. We have allowed the existing population to jerk the zone around to suit them and hung the new player population out to dry. Ask anyone who has spent more than a few hours trying to help new players. Rarely have I ever seen a new player enter and immediately say 'these graphics suck, I'm leaving'. Instead what I have seen are new players who enter, spend about 5 minutes getting owned, then leave.

I've beaten this drum for several years but I'll say it again... Stop wasting time/money and your breathe on marketing talk. Fix Pub. The zone desperately needs an automated training arena which not only allows a new player to become familiar with flying, shooting, weapons, and attaching but most importantly; makes new players 'invested' in the game. We all know how frustrating it is to start learning a new game. But proper gaming design always requires a new player to go through several 'levels' with increasingly difficult skill sets learned along the way. It's not rocket science, its common sense.
Eph