Turn 2310 - Game over?

[Doug R.]

As a non-player with only history he contributed to lose, I disagree with hastily coming to the idea of a reset. That will do more harm than good and I highly doubt that the staff & players who contributed so much to the game as it is now would be willing to invest more energy into entirely revamping something that is already suitable.

You made my point, really.

I am not hastily coming to a conclusion, I'm simply pointing out that if a solution isn't found, the game might present it's own solution (which is what may be happening now).

[kinvoya]

Every town where I have characters is silent most of the time. I'm sure there is some roleplay going on somewhere but when I first started three years ago it was everywhere. I have begged many times for programmers to put time into things which would promote "fun" rather than economics/technology/more labor. I haven't seen this result in anything yet.

The forums used to be lively, now they are dead. Voting to draw in young gamers isn't the solution. We should be trying to interest more mature people who will appreciate the unique appeal of Cantr.

[deadboy]

I say the solution is two fold; shrink the map abit (My idea of doing this with the least arguments from players is continents shifting much like they do on earth over millions of years, each island moving perhaps two pixels a day towards a central point, and then when the map is sufficiently small enough it could be stopped, but two islands joining with each other would be nice. As would shortening the roads on the old islands) and revert the game dynamics back to what they were a few months or six months or so the people began quitting

[Arlequin]

About the previously posted stats, aren't those just the summer holiday players' accounts expiring?

[Sicofonte]

Good point, Arlequin.


Besides that, I do think that the main reason for having less players instead of more players is... the lag.

[N-Aldwitch]

Good point, Arlequin.


Besides that, I do think that the main reason for having less players instead of more players is... the lag.

I disagree. The Lag isn't that bad. If it freezes up, you hit the 'stop' button in your internet browser, and then click the link again.

If you are smart, there are ways to avoid it.

[nitefyre]

Good point, Arlequin, who said, "About the previously posted stats, aren't those just the summer holiday players' accounts expiring?".

No, not entirely; I'm pretty sure the trend has continued (albeit probably with interruptions) since that peak. Perhaps one of the administrators could provide us with 2 additional pieces of information:

1) When were there the most amount of players/characters since the game's beginning in 01?

2) And since this is the English forum, English speaking-players/characters?



ANYWAY, everything has its life-death, high-low, summer-winter, prosperity-recession, progress-decline cycle, and this certainly isn't the first time it has happened in my cantr experience, so I wouldn't get panicky. Thus, about Doug's comment, if the game does come to a close in the distant future perhaps it has outlived its natural time as a throw-back, relatively low-tech, text-based roleplaying game. I don't think so though; there oughta be a niche covered there.

[Pie]

What problems with cantr are there really? Thre only problem I know of is "the world is way to big" and I think just making boats and people faster will fix that.

And also, It could just be the summer acounts dying. What we really should look at is carricters.

[The Sociologist]

The trend you're looking at there is much too short for any conclusions to be drawn. But I agree we've lost some very good established players as a result of the lag. Really sad. If the server can't handle more than about 150 people online at a time, then all the marketing in the world won't help. But what I really really can't understand is why the server is so short of "juice."

Is this also an effect of the Cantr world simply being too big? That every time you run a statistical report (like caused the horrible Monday lag) it has to produce a huge amount of reporting covering absolutely nothing of note since there aren't any actual live cantrians in those areas.

[kinvoya]

Cantr and this thread remind me of this poem and make me feel kind of melancholy:

Ode

We are the music-makers,
And we are the dreamers of dreams,
Wandering by lone sea-breakers,
And sitting by desolate streams.
World-losers and world-forsakers,
Upon whom the pale moon gleams;
Yet we are the movers and shakers,
Of the world forever, it seems.

With wonderful deathless ditties
We build up the world's great cities,
And out of a fabulous story
We fashion an empire's glory:
One man with a dream, at pleasure,
Shall go forth and conquer a crown;
And three with a new song's measure
Can trample an empire down.

We, in the ages lying
In the buried past of the earth,
Built Nineveh with our sighing,
And Babel itself with our mirth;
And o'erthrew them with prophesying
To the old of the new world's worth;
For each age is a dream that is dying,
Or one that is coming to birth.

A breath of our inspiration,
Is the life of each generation.
A wondrous thing of our dreaming,
Unearthly, impossible seeming-
The soldier, the king, and the peasant
Are working together in one,
Till our dream shall become their present,
And their work in the world be done.

They had no vision amazing
Of the goodly house they are raising.
They had no divine foreshowing
Of the land to which they are going:
But on one man's soul it hath broke,
A light that doth not depart
And his look, or a word he hath spoken,
Wrought flame in another man's heart.

And therefore today is thrilling,
With a past day's late fulfilling.
And the multitudes are enlisted
In the faith that their fathers resisted,
And, scorning the dream of tomorrow,
Are bringing to pass, as they may,
In the world, for it's joy or it's sorrow,
The dream that was scorned yesterday.

But we, with our dreaming and singing,
Ceaseless and sorrowless we!
The glory about us clinging
Of the glorious futures we see,
Our souls with high music ringing;
O men! It must ever be
That we dwell, in our dreaming and singing,
A little apart from ye.

For we are afar with the dawning
And the suns that are not yet high,
And out of the infinite morning
Intrepid you hear us cry-
How, spite of your human scorning,
Once more God's future draws nigh,
And already goes forth the warning
That ye of the past must die.

Great hail! we cry to the corners
From the dazzling unknown shore;
Bring us hither your sun and your summers,
And renew our world as of yore;
You shall teach us your song's new numbers,
And things that we dreamt not before;
Yea, in spite of a dreamer who slumbers,
And a singer who sings no more.

-- Arthur O'Shaughnessy

Edited to add the rest of the poem which was a lot longer than I knew.

[Anthony Roberts]

I wouldn't panic either, as my experience is the same. We've seen declines before. Sure, not as sharp and steady, but that doesn't mean it's going to be constant.

Essentially, if you love this game so much, encourage it's growth. Cherish what we have, and help it grow. Don't stand aside and watch it wither. If you want it to succeed, lend a helping hand. Some of us already do, advertisements at our university and work, banners on our websites, messages on forums, postings on game related websites, etc.

It could be due to lag that many people are turned off. But lots of online browser games experience the same problems, and that doesn't turn everyone away. If it's worth the wait time, then they'll stay. We just have to keep them around long enough to ensure they get hooked, and start up a loop of telling THEIR friends, creating the everlasting chain of constant new players, while keeping existing ones.

Of course... it's never that easy.

[Zanthos]

From what I have seen is that people anticipate a faster paced game, and the nature of cantr is what turns many players off. I have only succesfully gotten one person to join the game, and he has like 2 charries, or had because one of them got killed for being a thief.

Though, i do have to admit, the game isn't as fun as it used to be. I'll still play though, waiting for something big to come up and have the game get very fun pretty fast.

[tiddy ogg]

[quote="Zanthos"]From what I have seen is that people anticipate a faster paced game, and the nature of cantr is what turns many players off
.[/quote]
This is the marketing problem. Flashy hype suggests spped of action.
As someone here suggested, as I Hhave in the past, why not try to attract older players? The number of "silver surfers" is growing rapidly, and I'd imagine they are the kind who don't want the blood and guts of most games.
As for trends... the nights have been getting shorter here for the last couple of months... And the rate is accelerating... very soon there'll be no night time at all.

[deadboy]

From what I have seen is that people anticipate a faster paced game, and the nature of cantr is what turns many players off. I have only succesfully gotten one person to join the game, and he has like 2 charries, or had because one of them got killed for being a thief.

Though, i do have to admit, the game isn't as fun as it used to be. I'll still play though, waiting for something big to come up and have the game get very fun pretty fast.

Yes, that is one problem.... People always also critised this game for being all text too. Perhaps if we add in just a few more images, and -actually open- this newbie training island to make the learning curve less steep, we'd hold onto more new players as they came in[/i]

[kinvoya]

Used to be you could try to sell Cantr as "The Best True Roleplaying Game Ever" but I can't do that anymore because it isn't. What would I say to get people to join? "Play Cantr and tediously build machines so you can make things to trade for food you could probably get for yourself or for stuff you really don't need for anything at all in a town where someone might speak once a day about ... trading stuff! Woot!"

Maybe it's because I avoid the big cities. I dunno. I, personally, like it like this because it demands less of my time but I don't think most people do.