Losing crops

[Pilot]

I think if you did a world reset, you would find that a lot of players take the opportunity to leave.

Completely agreed, and I've only been playing for months. Can't imagine how betrayed older players would feel from this.

NO to the reset. There is plenty of game world space that is undeveloped and extremely unforgiving to unprepared newcomers. Tired of the established classes? Go pioneer. I really can't understand what conditions would possibly necessitate resetting the world.

Reset has been mentioned over the years and has been discarded every single time.



I think probably 3 years ago (RL) a group of characters tired of the Establishment in one of the islands of the spanish zone decided to try for a different type of life. They started from scratch in a new continent after some years of sailing. The fun for us players is still far far from coming to an end.

Cantr is a game where the only limit is our own imagination.

[Snickie]

In other words, grow an imagination!

[Wolfsong]

I think chalking it up to poor imagination and then ignoring the issue is immature, personally. Telling disgruntled new players, and old players who burn out and go seek their fun elsewhere, to "pretend better" won't cause a sudden turn around in player numbers.

[Joshuamonkey]

Cantr is always losing lots of players. We haven't been getting as many new players though.

[Pilot]

My comment was in the sense that probably investing more IC and less with a "sky is falling attitude" in the forums... opening the possibilities with your own characters might make the game more attractive to those around them.

I gave one little example out of my 15 options of why I've stayed around since 2006. This is a good and interesting game. I don't hold my breath waiting for anything in particular to play it on a daily basis and I don't see so far a reason to stop playing.

I've help (mainly as a translator) over the years but I think the most important contribution I've made -and anyone can do it- is to play the game having fun.

In an imperfect world as ours, why would you expect a perfect game? Being imperfect as it is gives us the chance to face the unexpected (and yes, enjoy the trip) but also to work to make it better.

[Darigan]

Cantr is an acquired taste.

[Joshuamonkey]

The oldest Advertisement Daily Report I have is from 2538, February 15, 2009. This shows all the new applications to Cantr and what they put as how they found Cantr. Most popular source: Google (by far). Second most popular source: Wikipedia.
That's why Wikipedia is important for Cantr. We still get some players from Cantr II's wikipedia page in other languages by the way, but not many.
The other sources are mostly game list websites, and some forums. So yes, these sites really do matter. I think combined they even beat Google.
What's really impressive to me is that most of the daily reports have over 30 new player applications. A lot of these are the same person applying over and over, but still, currently we get about 5 to 15. Yesterday was 12; the day before that was 6.
By the early 2700s, like the graph shows, the numbers started dropping down to 20s and below. What made the difference? I don't know, but something bigger than just losing a Wikipedia page. That's still important though.
So, I really think the drop in players has more to do with the amount of people who find Cantr more than anything else.

[Darigan]

Any statistics on referrals? I found Cantr through a friend and have talked a friend into trying it, word of mouth can be just as good sometimes.

[Joshuamonkey]

Any statistics on referrals? I found Cantr through a friend and have talked a friend into trying it, word of mouth can be just as good sometimes.

There are lots of those too. Over the past two and a half years, I found 14 daily reports with "word of mouth" in it. I'm not sure how to get better statistics then that..*looks through reports* From the last 20 days, there were 11 who seemed to have found Cantr through a friend in real life, and told us (most new players leave how they found Cantr blank). That's quite a lot, actually.

[IvanicDiazinum]

Any statistics on referrals? I found Cantr through a friend and have talked a friend into trying it, word of mouth can be just as good sometimes.

There are lots of those too. Over the past two and a half years, I found 14 daily reports with "word of mouth" in it. I'm not sure how to get better statistics then that..*looks through reports* From the last 20 days, there were 11 who seemed to have found Cantr through a friend in real life, and told us (most new players leave how they found Cantr blank). That's quite a lot, actually.

I recently recommended Cantr to two of my friends and one is already an active player.

Maybe we could have a poll on the player page asking how people found out about the game? It wouldn't be too bothersome and would provide useful information. Many skip over it in the sign-up process because who really wants to answer a million questions, they just want to start playing. But once you're in the game, you have a reason to want more people to play. I'm sure we'd get more people to answer if it was asked to those already playing.

[Joshuamonkey]

Maybe we could have a poll on the player page asking how people found out about the game? It wouldn't be too bothersome and would provide useful information. Many skip over it in the sign-up process because who really wants to answer a million questions, they just want to start playing. But once you're in the game, you have a reason to want more people to play. I'm sure we'd get more people to answer if it was asked to those already playing.

Yes

[Cwalen]

The more detail we could get from them, the better we can develop lists of where to direct our effort.

I am prepared to read text input if it comes to that.

[Darigan]

Isn't Cantr a text imput game?

[viktor]

someone again suggesting reset ? ugh, then i would quit
there have been times, this summer included where i have basically stoipped playing for a while, but i always come back and i always have someone left and refill my page with chars lol. i've referred a few people some still play some played for a bit but hadn't the time to stick with it.
but true, the only limit to the cantr experience is imagination.. infinite capacity for social development in game, and i've played a variety of different chars, from benevolent leaders to fascist dictators, entrepeneurs to simpletons, and others, there's just no way to run out of things to do, only thing that bugs me is sometimes it just gets too quiet even when i do try to make something happen.

[RedQueen.exe]

As a member of RD, I feel comfortable saying that we over-emphasize the problem of abundant resources, IMO. As they say, when all you have is a hammer...