Cantr II Discussion Forum

Snickie wrote:At least during the time the number of players has been recorded, it has never been this low. 729. Previous record was 730.

Now the number of players is 681... so we lost 48 players.
What is happening to Cantr? Why?

I think it can be because of boring...
I have recently changed all of my characters to be nice & obedient, to have better game & nicer society. But so many people sleep so much...

That is a strange and sudden drop in player count.

Web page games are dying... And well Cantr really in the first place has way more smaller possible playerpool than some others so... We must do something to stop it.

And to be honest, I have like had today only one other people saying something plus eating and weather notices so... Really hard to play with so many sleepers. (Ok well polish people talk but cannot count that because I have no idea what they are saying)

Did it start at the same time the intro server was launched?

Advertising for a game like this isn't easy. An in-game solution is re-enabling fixed spawn locations, but that won't help the majority of smaller towns. Not necessarily a bad thing, but to many it is. The fact is that the game can't support hundreds of small towns.

I know for a fact the Dutch language group needs spawn locations to be fixed again. As it is, new characters are too likely to end up with travellers in the English or Polish region.

I know it does not apply to all cases, but maybe one of reason is that vacation ended and people have less time.

If spawning locations are going to get fixed again, they need to be checked periodically to make sure they are still populated. A better system would be where travelers could opt out of attracting spawns.

According to the public stats the number of players has been stable around 800 (750-850 with short peaks up to 1000) for well over 3 years. The drop started about 70 days ago (day 4420). I don't know what changed around that time.

I don't think this has anything to do with spawn locations or long-existing game issues.

Edit: the majority are Polish players leaving; the number of English players is about stable.

Tiamo wrote:According to the public stats the number of players has been stable around 800 (750-850 with short peaks up to 1000) for well over 3 years. The drop started about 70 days ago (day 4420). I don't know what changed around that time.

I don't think this has anything to do with spawn locations or long-existing game issues.

summer holidays ended for younger & older (university) folk
and lets not kid ourselves - we are getting older, with more responsibilities (school, work, family life, other hobbies)

Cantr always has ups and downs, people leave and come back. I had several pauses myself and I spent long time as a hermit player. Anyway maybe we need to go for hunting new players.

SekoETC wrote:Did it start at the same time the intro server was launched?

That's a very good question, and that's probably one of the main reasons for the drop. I think that the player count doesn't include those on the intro server.
In a couple days I can let you know how the player stats have changed with the main game and the intro server.

I'd post some reasons the player base has gone down but it would just make some members of staff mad for calling out some things that have been done lately.

I will just say this though. People make mistakes. I made mistakes when I first started playing this game so many many years ago. Was even on the PD. Made my mistakes lost my position, eventually got banned for it. Years go by. I got older, wiser. Served time in the army. Asked if I could come,back explaining my mistakes and what I've learned from them. And was accepted. Now I hear of others that are trying to do just that and they get ignored.

So again I will say. We are all human and make mistakes. Maybe we should see about seeing if others that have been banned before have changed and become better players. I'd apply for a staff position again myself but with so much on my plate with running my twitch.tv channel work and running the towns I run I doubt I could put the time for it. But if I did I'd be going for programming cause I want to see things in the accepted forums in the game as much as anyone here does. They May help bring us New people.

I don't mean to ruffle feathers with the PD btw. Having worked for the dept in the past.and I surely am not putting all the blame on them for the decline in players. I will say though..

I've been trying to show the game to some,of my friends and they watch the video on the front page and say it's the worst thing ever. Even taking a look at it myself... It really doesn't seem to sell the game very good if not at all. I'll play with my editing software some. See if u can make a video ad that really draws in the people. I'll try to have something posted up. By the end of the week.

Edited: Also there are a couple towns I'm in where it is hust so damn boring despite the constant flood of newspawns. We get that I'm hoping to very soon change even if I have to oust the leader. Getting tired of people spawning there full of life only to realize that the leadership only cares about themself.

People spawn with dreams and ambitions and when the town clearly has the means to help fullfill those dreams yet ignores you almost entirely. Players say f it and let them die or just quit.

I see a lot of complaints about town leaders, and my first reaction is that leaders are characters too, and they have flaws, and sometimes those flaws include things like selfishness, or untrusting, etc. But after that intital response, I think of my own leader character, and how my levels of engagement in the game seem to be reflected very clearly in the health and activity of the town. I might be imagining it, but it seems like those in leader positions have the opportunity to actually guide their little corner of the game a little bit, and through their position, create the game for the others. It can be a bit daunting at times, though.

My conclusion in the end is that, while leader's shouldn't be told they have to be good leaders, the players who have leaders do have the opportunity to improve the game. I hope that I do okay with that. I hope I am not one of these leaders that results in declining player counts... but I don't think I am.

Alright, as I've quit maybe I can say a few things:

On Meidein's point, people do make mistakes, and I do believe in second chances... but for me there is a very definitive line that shouldn't be crossed, as some do again and again... and that is that people should STOP trying to influence the games events OOC. We're all guilty to some extent, forum or otherwise. But the rules really are there for a reason: to make the game fair for all.

Everyone in this game follows a learning curve. I'm not sure if everyone's Cantr existence follows a similar one... but mine went something like this. I simmed into my thirties, ran towns successfully, helping people realise their dreams, started settlements, a good little Cantrian: one of the cogs in the RP machine...

But... it is impossible to stay upbeat and enthusiastic forever... Events and deaths can really knock thriving communities and running a town can quickly become a thankless task. These characters need your help and support, not your criticism, and all characters need depth and development. So, in my thirties relationships started, but then suddenly players wanted to start talking OOC more. This seemed fine, I felt like I was becoming part of the Cantr family... But then I started to be asked what my characters were doing, what other characters near mine were doing, and it soon became apparent that I was a cog in a very different machine.

From this I became aware of a hidden side of Cantr, and it left me feeling deflated. I went out of my way to name, shame and put a stop to as much of this as I could, though it seemed widespread, even as far as the PD, which stopped any interaction and trust of the PD on my part... Now a few of those clique players have either quit or are 'cutting down'. So please... feel free to blame me. The problem is that the game actually NEEDS these players, most of the time the characters are really well formed and add a huge amount to the game... the problem is that we need them WITHOUT the damn OOC, but it may be too ingrained in the players for them to play or enjoy the game any other way...

This is an amazing, addictive and unique game. I already miss it (hence being on the forum) but it needs all round effort to bring it back to life...

So this is my improvement ideas list:

> Leaders! Crippling laws are fine if you are awake. But... If you are losing heart or time, reliquish some power to a promising padawan, or lift the ban on businesses/building or gathering...

> Players! Use your initiative and step up, choose your own fate, building something from nothing is one of the things that makes this game amazing. “A lot of people never use their initiative because no-one told them to.” - Banksy

> Players: Please STOP imposing your OOC opinions on others. On the forum it is fine to discuss, but in game, keep your preferences to yourselves. Do not isolate anyone because of OOC reasons.

> Recruit players from Roleplaying forums! They are still very busy and are a rich source. Most forums have good support for mobile, we should too... but this can be built in to:

> Give the site a facelift. I design GUIs for a living, and now surprisingly have some free time I might be able to contribute. CSS / HTML5 and Retina icons / responsive design would all add to its cross platform/mobile appeal.

> Players: Please STOP imposing your OOC opinions on others. On the forum it is fine to discuss, but in game, keep your preferences to yourselves. Do not isolate anyone because of OOC reasons.

Actually, I think that unofficial rule that we can ignore characters without description is OK for game