Jun 26th 2019, 18:47:48
Originally posted by Thippz:
Well let’s see... when bots were introduced there were 500 players and then game had 150 odd last set. Yeah don’t think the bots did f all.
Looks to me like the alliance server crashed from 1k players on alliance to 450 in ~3.5 years before the bots were introduced and now its 250(not 150 as you stated, 500-250= 250) players from 450 players after ~5 years with bots.
Thats a decline rate of just over 20% per year without bots to a decline rate of 11% per year after the bots were introduced. And thats almost without development so if anything the numbers suggest that the bots have been pretty epic. Development was rather active the first 3 years of EE. My view is that the landtrading meta together with the farming of small tags and new players drove people from the game rapidly. Numbers support my view, and that is also the view of the developers who has a vested interest in knowing these things.
I also think that the lack of development is the cause of the current decline and the current toxic atmosphere. The restarts strength and the spy op buffs together make every war endless and tireing and premiers a hyper activity that most working people with a family can't sustain. So a game with few rewards, toxic atmosphere(in that its common that individuals or groups of people play with a stated intention to ruin the game experience for another player or group of players) and much much higher time/timing demands than most games is what we have.
I have written extensively about the need to and how to reduce demands on the players through simple formula changes and I do believe that would also help with the toxicity.
A game like this will always greatly reward activity through walling, the market and through grabbing. However, it's absurd that people feel like quitting because they can't compete without deprioritizing work, sleep, friends and/or family to an online game that has not had any real updates for the past five years.
Also I'm not sure if its naivity or thougthlessness when people suggest because there is a spike in activity its always good. I get that all the time from people who are trying to justify themselves. Im sure there was a great spike in activity when Loughner shot Giffords and I hope you are not suggesting that was also good, but your arguementation justifies his actions. Lesson I dispense here is that not all activity is created equal, and not all activity is good for the game.
Edited By: Gerdler on Jun 26th 2019, 18:54:39