Member Discussions

Just curious if any other games have experienced a noticeable decline in activity during the summer?

Even the forums seem to have less activity.

We aren't open yet (so ridiculously close, though), and our numbers tend to ebb and flow as a result, but it's
been particularly slower since about mid-May and I was curious if others notice the summer to be a slow season.

This may also affect what date we set to open the game. We will probably be ready by the end of summer, but if
the general consensus is that summer is just a slower than average time, I might aim for a Labor day opening or
something along those lines.

Look forward to hearing others' experiences.

its worse each year... My muds had been pretty quiet due to
not having much free time, but in general the playerbase on
GodWars muds has gone down ALOT over the past few months!

I've been playing for a few days all by my self :( It's
actually my favorite godwars so far, a lot of nice help files.

Could be Diablo 3.

I've noticed a slow down around that time frame as well Hades.

DBE usually picks up during the summer quite a bit. Mainly due to the fact that all of July has double experience on to celebrate DBE's anniversary. We host all sorts of events that keep everyone's attention during the summer. I also have a 2 week vacation every summer, so that really helps with keeping players around when the owner is pretty much on 24/7 for 2 weeks.

I've been playing for a few days all by my self :( It's
actually my favorite godwars so far, a lot of nice help files.

I've noticed a slow down from developers too, so it's not
just the players. It's summer.

Our mud is not in beta, it is open and has been for 21 years and we still see the same slowdown every summer...

Sorry, had to poke some fun at the ever recurring mentioning of EOT and its BETA status:)


Enjoy,
Splork

Summer has always been slower for us as well.
Except that our Australian and New Zealand players get a bit more active then, so that partly compensates for it.

And yeah, we're not in beta either... :)

Thanks for the feedback. As a MUD that isn't open yet ( :p ), it would be hard to judge exactly whether a summer slowdown is to be
expected.

I think it will be better to plan for a post summer opening :)

We've seen a massive drop over the last few months, starting on April 15 of this year. It's been slowly recovering, but we're still lower than at that time.

For a rough ascii graph of our historical data, you can take a look at:

http://alteraeon.com:8080/graphs/2

We have a lot of data going back several years now, and I'm not willing to say that there's a reliable seasonal/summer drop yet. The drops for the most part just seem random to me.

-dentin

Alter Aeon MUD
http://www.alteraeon.com

I don't have any fancy charts or graphs, but I have about a decade of anecdotal evidence. Player populations on my
game have always been cyclical. There are large positive spikes of activity in the months of January, May and
September, with a gradual drop-off in the intervening months. It is like clockwork. I can predict it, nearly to the
day. And I've spoken with enough players to understand the reason why:

January: Spring school semester starting (or possibly still on break), coursework light at this point
May: Many schools get out for summer, yay freedom
September: Fall semester starting, see January

I know what you're thinking - surely all the players aren't students! You're right. Only around a quarter of them
are. However, there's a herd mentality at work. Player A is in school and follows the above behavioral pattern.
Players B, C and D are not in school and have a more open schedule. Ordinarily, Players B, C and D would login
periodically, see few other players on and leave - constantly just missing each other. They have busy lives, and
value their precious free time. However, Player A comes along and has nothing else to do with his or her time.
Player A stays logged in 8-16 hours a day. Player B comes by for a periodic check-in and now sees (few players) +
1. This is suddenly above the magic threshold required to keep Player B's attention. Player B stays. Repeat for
Players C and D, then extrapolate this phenomenon for the larger group. The decline phase is basically the same
thing, in reverse. Cyclical.

Hades_Kane wrote:
As a MUD that isn't open yet ( :p ), it would be hard to judge exactly whether a summer slowdown is to be expected.

You say that tongue-in-cheek, but it really is getting quite old. I've brought the topic up a few times in the
past, and this is the last time I will bring it up. Having your game listed on TMC, or any other site, is not the
defining characteristic of "open". End of Time has been "open" for years. You can refer to it as beta if you like,
but that does not negate the openness. Beta is not the opposite of open (context is different with commercial
games). Closed is the opposite of open. End of Time is not closed. It is open - and has been for years. Please
stop, for the sake of my sanity (and others').

You say that tongue-in-
cheek, but it really is getting quite old. I've brought the
topic up a few times in the
past, and this is the last time I will bring it up. Having
your game listed on TMC, or any other site, is not the
defining characteristic of "open". End of Time has been
"open" for years. You can refer to it as beta if you like,
but that does not negate the openness. Beta is not the
opposite of open (context is different with commercial
games). Closed is the opposite of open. End of Time is not
closed. It is open - and has been for years. Please
stop, for the sake of my sanity (and others').

We're still not open, sorry.

(Comment added by Epilogy on Tue Jun 26 21:56:52 2012)

Also: Dave's not here, man.

Lyanic wrote:
You say that tongue-in-cheek, but it really is getting quite
old. I've brought the topic up a few times in the past, and
this is the last time I will bring it up. Having your game
listed on TMC, or any other site, is not the defining
characteristic of "open". End of Time has been "open" for
years.

Actually that is a pretty good defining characteristic.
Many games have open "betas" before they are actually open.
Look at pretty much any mmorpg that's about the launch, they
all have pretty open betas, yet they aren't open. Besides,
it's his game, he gets to define it's development status,
not you.

www.mudstats.com gives some pretty insightful information into
muds, shows that mine have been on a downward spiral over the
past few months (granted ive not had much time to pay
attention to them, so that could be a part of the reason)

Jodah,

I agree with you about implementors being able to define the state of their server ('open' versus not), but I don't believe they should have the power to make everyone else accept their mangled definitions of ordinary english words such as "open".

If a MUD server has been available for years, allows anonymous creation, and allows gameplay, it's open. The admin can call it an open test server, they can call it a beta, they can even call it a dead cat or a catholic priest - but the fact of the matter is that it's open, and when someone asks "is it open", the answer is an unambiguous "yes".

This seems very much the case here, and I really wish admin in this situation would simply give up the ghost and say "ok yeah, we're open, but we're still massively changing stuff so don't expect anything to save". It would be more accurate and less confusing.

-dentin

Alter Aeon MUD
http://www.alteraeon.com

You can call it apples or oranges, but as has been exhaustively discussed in the past, there is a
significant difference in the expectations of a player who sees a game listed on the MUD sites and
advertising as "open" vs. one that allows play during the development process that hasn't considered
itself officially open.

You can call it "open beta" or "open development" or whatever you'd like, but for the purposes of the
stage of development that I consider my game to be in, just a straight, simple "open" does not apply. We
are probably just a few weeks away from the completion/opening of a handful of major systems, and in that
time, the game experiences that players will have will finally represent a very finalized/polished
experience that they will likely experience down the road, from things like class promotion finally
accessible, the vast majority/bulk of the 'overworld' complete and accessible, the Guardian Force system
in and accessible, chocobo racing/riding/digging accessible, some of the training wheels taken off with
regards to progression across the world map, and the finalization of immortal ran systems such as quest
points, player housing, etc.

"Are you open?" does not have an unambigious answer as a result. A player's expectation of an open MUD
generally is one that suggests that their play experience is a fairly close representation of what can be
assumed for the duration of their stay. The core systems are in place, there's nothing in the way of
progress or work that a player stands to lose, so getting a headstart prior to the official opening is
possible. The benefits for allowing playing on the game while in development are many, including having
built in testers that do a great job on pointing out bugs, helping with balance, offering suggestions,
etc. along with helping keep us company and motivated, along with having some level of an established
base that we can count on to help with new player retention once we do open. From the player's side,
they have a jump/head-start on the people who will come in once we open, along with the opportunity to
fill out many of the important roles players will fill in the game world, along with being able to help
shape what the game turns into from an earlier point than what post-open will allow.

Other people may be annoyed by me drawing a distinction between "officially open" and where we are right
now, but that distinction isn't being made for the other developers here that have a problem with it, the
distinction is being made for the potential players that visit the forums along with the players that we
have coming into the game.

What is confusing about "We aren't officially open or listed, but allow people to come in and play
without fear of losing anything." ?

In anycase, you guys probably won't have to endure much more than probably two more months worth of "we
aren't officially open" as we are likely going to set the official opening date to September 1st. In the
mean time, I would suggest avoid reading anything posted by this user-name within the Promotions forum,
and you ought to be alright ;)