03-08-2009, 02:10 PM
There is no one reason why people have left. Its usually a combination of several reasons, or none at all related to uo and moreso related to their own personal lives. Time constraints, etc.
I'll comment on a few things you said.
Their shard has 50 average now at times. And a hugely active playerbase which grows. Why? Because despite all the things wrong with the shard itself, the staff has made every effort to give the players what they want. Easy skills, fast ways into the action, tons of tournies, an easier pvp system then inx has (although they'd prefer inx pvp, they just dont have anyone capable of scripting it). Also mounts and armor are not so rare that you cant use good stuff to pvp with. So you see lots of people pvping in good armor with good mounts. And it makes that aspect of play more rewarding for everyone. Ridable dragons, Shrouds available for purchase via pvp and pve.
I think what it comes down to is, when players log in there, they feel like everything is gettable without massive investments of time.
PvP on INX is probably the best skill/timing based PvP system ever created. There are however problems with that. The first being, the best players who've practiced the most (years in this case on the xuo system) completely demolish newer players. New people have no chance at all to beat them. This goes along the same lines as my first reply because when people realise they cannot win, they just dont want to play. The other problems with PvP have been the continual complaints about spam and so many spells disabled. Both of these things CAN be fixed up with a little creativity, but not unless Maka makes the decision to do it and further improve his pvp system in ways that make it more approachable by new players.
Without a continual influx of new players, the environment of the shard stagnates, which is exactly what happened. While those 40 players may have had skills already, if new players joining werent able to get into playing quickly enough then they werent staying, and so as those old players got bored of no new blood they quit as well. This is the main reason I pushed so hard for a better starter pack. Get people into a playing position as quickly as possible and stop the tons of inactive macroing.
Its self defeating to stop staff from having players. The staff then loses touch with the community, and also becomes increasingly bored, staffers dont really have a whole lot to do if they arent scripters. Especially with a low playerbase. I'm hoping that people continue to give ideas and suggestions to keep them busy with interesting new projects.
Obviously... lol
I'll comment on a few things you said.
Slaethin Wrote:The third answer is Splinter's shard came out and stole all the players. Once again correct me if I am wrong, I thought the population drop occurred a bit before his shard came out. If it occurred at the same time, well then thats an answer, but why did they go there? Why would players downgrade themselves to a 51a shard that has so many flaws. Auto-cut, bugging kills, bad economy, worst PVE.
Their shard has 50 average now at times. And a hugely active playerbase which grows. Why? Because despite all the things wrong with the shard itself, the staff has made every effort to give the players what they want. Easy skills, fast ways into the action, tons of tournies, an easier pvp system then inx has (although they'd prefer inx pvp, they just dont have anyone capable of scripting it). Also mounts and armor are not so rare that you cant use good stuff to pvp with. So you see lots of people pvping in good armor with good mounts. And it makes that aspect of play more rewarding for everyone. Ridable dragons, Shrouds available for purchase via pvp and pve.
I think what it comes down to is, when players log in there, they feel like everything is gettable without massive investments of time.
Slaethin Wrote:4. The Pvp is not good on IN:X. Well whats wrong with this is that the populace didnt think so because there were so many people pvping here that thought it was good pvp. Gang-bang, Pedro etc.. all those guys thought the pvp was good so no idea why they left. Items on this shard are pretty easy to get too, so that isnt a problem. Its not like they quit because they were unable to gather resources.
PvP on INX is probably the best skill/timing based PvP system ever created. There are however problems with that. The first being, the best players who've practiced the most (years in this case on the xuo system) completely demolish newer players. New people have no chance at all to beat them. This goes along the same lines as my first reply because when people realise they cannot win, they just dont want to play. The other problems with PvP have been the continual complaints about spam and so many spells disabled. Both of these things CAN be fixed up with a little creativity, but not unless Maka makes the decision to do it and further improve his pvp system in ways that make it more approachable by new players.
Slaethin Wrote:2. Number two on the list is: "People didn't want to macro their skills so the shard declined in population as a consequence." Ok, so this answer has flaws it in it also. First of all there were at least 40 or so people who had GMed many skills such as Magery, Healing, Anatomy, tailoring etc (ALL THE IMPORTANT ONES) and that means that those people DID NOT CARE ABOUT THE HARD SKILL GAIN seeing as how they already had important skills gmed. And my question is asking why those 40 or so people quit! Not why more people aren't joining!
Without a continual influx of new players, the environment of the shard stagnates, which is exactly what happened. While those 40 players may have had skills already, if new players joining werent able to get into playing quickly enough then they werent staying, and so as those old players got bored of no new blood they quit as well. This is the main reason I pushed so hard for a better starter pack. Get people into a playing position as quickly as possible and stop the tons of inactive macroing.
Slaethin Wrote:-This, I don't think is a problem with this shard but it is with most. Separation of staff from players. In order to avoid corruption at all costs, it is best to make sure staff do not have players as it will reduce the temptation for corruption and thus provide a sounder economy and server.
Its self defeating to stop staff from having players. The staff then loses touch with the community, and also becomes increasingly bored, staffers dont really have a whole lot to do if they arent scripters. Especially with a low playerbase. I'm hoping that people continue to give ideas and suggestions to keep them busy with interesting new projects.
Slaethin Wrote:-Well this isn't coincidence, as soon as Slaethin takes a brake from UO, all of the population just declines... definitely not a coincidence. I think that you guys should get used to the idea that Slaethin is an integral part of the UO society, a sort of glue that connects everyone together.
Obviously... lol