Why Cantr failed

[Moonflame]

Why? What motivation does the maker have to make Cantr bigger?

I used to want the same thing you want Jfrizz, but now I have a bunch of other things taking up my 24/7 and n0 regr3ts!

[jfrizz51423]

Why? What motivation does the maker have to make Cantr bigger?

I used to want the same thing you want Jfrizz, but now I have a bunch of other things taking up my 24/7 and n0 regr3ts!

Because the maker should realize that their game is failing and they should be passionate enough about it to be willing to save the game. The maker should love this game and love its players enough to realize that this game could be so much greater, if just executed properly.

And okay, I'm not saying that I don't have a life and responsibilities, but that doesn't mean I still don't dream of a better Cantr, that really isn't that difficult at all to achieve! I'm just passionate enough about this game to want to see this change some day.

[sherman]

Some of the problems are related to people or rather players. They are sometimes like chickens who need constant babysitting and guidance to even find what they want and even if you help them some still get bored and quit

[Moonflame]

Because the maker should realize that their game is failing and they should be passionate enough about it to be willing to save the game. The maker should love this game and love its players enough to realize that this game could be so much greater, if just executed properly.

I might love lemonade, but that doesn't mean I will try and make my lemonade stand into a whole factory, even if some people say it's really great lemonade.

It's frustrating/sad to see a game go downhill but really it's not such a negative thing that needs saving like a suffering animal. Just because it's not as successful as WoW doesn't mean it's failing. People save other games because they are their source of income.

Maybe Jos doesn't want to spend all their time on this game, maybe the idea was to always use volunteers for staff and not charge the players. If you want a marketed game, maybe this is just not what you want it to be.

[Wolfsong]

I don't think "a lemonade stand turning into a factory" is the right analogy here. It's more like "a lemonade stand that has started to fall apart, and the lemons are a bit soft and rotten now because they don't want to buy new ones, and they don't use real sugar anymore, they only use stevia, so customers have gradually been disappearing, and the kids who run the lemonade stand don't really understand business models, so they start criticizing their existing customers for not buying enough lemonade, claiming that's why they've been failing all along and everything is actually just fine."

[Moonflame]

Haha! I think it's the same lemonade that's always been offered but it's just a stand so it's not exactly a business, and the long winter is here so everyone wants hot chocolate.

[computaertist]

I wasn't going to say anything, having nothing to say that hadn't been said at least a dozen times before over the years. But I just realized something I don't remember hearing before that may contribute a new perspective on the argument that it takes too long to get established in this game.

When I first joined I adored the potential of the game. I played so much that my family got seriously worried about my mental health. But I couldn't really do but so much; other, more established characters had good reasons from experience not to trust mine but so far. This is not a universal problem; characters with enough force of personality and other skills and play-time can overcome it like *Wiro's and others, but even with those things they have to be correctly directed. Neither I nor my characters are enough people-people to be such an exception to the rule. (Also notice that the type of players with those things have a strange tendency to need to be removed from the game before their character can get old, for either staff's or their own reasons.)

What I noticed today was that all of my characters with maybe half of an exception are plenty well enough established that they could do litterally whatever they wanted. It took them long enough to reach that point that when it came I didn't have nearly the time or passion for the game I once had. I had enough passion to look forward to a day when I'd have more time for Cantr, but the opposite keeps gradually happening.

There does seem to be something off about a game so hard to establish yourself in that most people can't before growing effectively apathetic.
I wouldn't draw any conclusions from this, but there's a couple cents worth of more raw data for anyone studying the oddity that is Cantr.

[Jaxon]

Cantr did not fail. Cantr can continue to be a great game. It just needs to adjust itself from a desktop game to a mobile platform.

[jfrizz51423]

I don't think "a lemonade stand turning into a factory" is the right analogy here. It's more like "a lemonade stand that has started to fall apart, and the lemons are a bit soft and rotten now because they don't want to buy new ones, and they don't use real sugar anymore, they only use stevia, so customers have gradually been disappearing, and the kids who run the lemonade stand don't really understand business models, so they start criticizing their existing customers for not buying enough lemonade, claiming that's why they've been failing all along and everything is actually just fine."

Lol okay this is completely accurate. I'm so tired of people saying that it's "just an old game" and that's why people don't play. That's not why! This analogy basically describes the situation of this game perfectly. The developers seem to either not want to or not know how to make the changes to save this dying game. Little effort goes into this game to keep and/or attract more players.

[jfrizz51423]

I wasn't going to say anything, having nothing to say that hadn't been said at least a dozen times before over the years. But I just realized something I don't remember hearing before that may contribute a new perspective on the argument that it takes too long to get established in this game.

When I first joined I adored the potential of the game. I played so much that my family got seriously worried about my mental health. But I couldn't really do but so much; other, more established characters had good reasons from experience not to trust mine but so far. This is not a universal problem; characters with enough force of personality and other skills and play-time can overcome it like *Wiro's and others, but even with those things they have to be correctly directed. Neither I nor my characters are enough people-people to be such an exception to the rule. (Also notice that the type of players with those things have a strange tendency to need to be removed from the game before their character can get old, for either staff's or their own reasons.)

What I noticed today was that all of my characters with maybe half of an exception are plenty well enough established that they could do litterally whatever they wanted. It took them long enough to reach that point that when it came I didn't have nearly the time or passion for the game I once had. I had enough passion to look forward to a day when I'd have more time for Cantr, but the opposite keeps gradually happening.

There does seem to be something off about a game so hard to establish yourself in that most people can't before growing effectively apathetic.
I wouldn't draw any conclusions from this, but there's a couple cents worth of more raw data for anyone studying the oddity that is Cantr.

THIS is what I was trying to explain in my original post. It is literally SO HARD for anyone to establish themselves in this game. It takes literal REAL LIFE YEARS to amount to anything in this game, and that's only if you are on it constantly throughout every day. That is what I think is too much. What I'm saying is that it shouldn't be that much effort to establish yourself and make something of yourself in this game. I'm not saying it shouldn't be a challenge and you shouldn't put effort in, because it's a game, but it should not be as challenging as it is. That's why there's not as many players as there could be.

[jfrizz51423]

Cantr did not fail. Cantr can continue to be a great game. It just needs to adjust itself from a desktop game to a mobile platform.

I love Cantr dearly and it's such a great and fun game, and it has not COMPLETELY failed, but it is failing. If adjustments and big changes are made, then it could be saved and actually grow a large player base. I do agree that this game could thrive greatly as mainly a mobile game though.

[Genie]

It works well with chrome on the phone. I can't understand why do we need a mobile version.

[the_antisocial_hermit]

It works well with chrome on the phone. I can't understand why do we need a mobile version.

Agreed.

[Millhouse]

Having an app in the marketplace would increase visibility, but yeah it works pretty well on mobile ever since mobile responsive mode was added to the game and some other tweaks were made.

[jfrizz51423]

It works well with chrome on the phone. I can't understand why do we need a mobile version.

Because no one knows that Cantr exists and if people saw
a fun app on the App Store then they might actually play it and Cantr could gain players.