online/active player count on character screen?

Solutions Maximus · Postby **Solutions Maximus** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 7:32 am

What about having number of players shown after a player logs in? That would hide it from the public. Often times, when I'm looking for a new game, I look at its forum to see how many people post. Don't have to show newcomers the amount of people in-game.

Spillages · Postby **Spillages** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 7:40 am

Why would we want to hide it from the public?

Solutions Maximus · Postby **Solutions Maximus** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 7:57 am

at times, there may not be that many players online. I don't know. I was just offering a suggestion.

Solfius · Postby **Solfius** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 11:38 am

Spillages wrote:
Solfius wrote:I think it's good from a marketing point of view, so that visitors can easily see the game is active.

I like the idea, only problem I see is the potential of scaring away visitors by thinking this site doesn't have alot of players and would be a bad place to advertise.

I suggest we take ech player online and the list as characters active. so if there are 4 players that have been active in the past 5 minutes and they each had 10 characters then it would show up as 40 characters online, but if they have only had one or two characters active then it will still show all 10 of theirs. Possibly organize it into a table listing each language of characters so that advertisers would feel more invited to advertise in a certain language and then put a total at the bottom to show all languages combined.

I thought the marketing department tried to advertise the game, not get advertisers?

Postby **Jos Elkink** » Sat Aug 05, 2006 12:00 pm

Solfius wrote:I thought the marketing department tried to advertise the game, not get advertisers?

The original intention was tthat they do both, but as far as I'm concerned, the former is far more important, indeed.

And I think there is little reason to hide the number for the public - it might encourage people to join ...

Solutions Maximus · Postby **Solutions Maximus** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 1:48 am

Jos Elkink wrote:And I think there is little reason to hide the number for the public - it might encourage people to join ...

It very well could. I know, when I'm searching for a new game, if I find one with 25+ people online, I will generally give it a go.

Doesn't matter to me either way. I promise it won't make me quit.

Spillages · Postby **Spillages** » Sun Aug 06, 2006 7:34 am

Jos Elkink wrote:
Solfius wrote:...it might encourage people to join ...

Why hasn't this been accepted yet? Jos is all for it and this is his game isn't it?

marol · Postby **marol** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 9:32 am

OK, it is accepted now, but one more decision is needed - where do you want that stat to be displayed?

And to give you the number - 66 players were online in last 15 minutes.

Chris Johnson · Postby **Chris Johnson** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 9:37 am

Front Page - It's as much a marketing tool as a user aid

marol · Postby **marol** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 9:44 am

So I suggest adding the count just after "Login" options...

Welcome to Cantr II. Please make a choice below, or read the game description on this page.

New user

Login (66 users were active in last 15 minutes)

"Stolen Notes" (Cantr Webzine)

Cantr II Wiki (especially check out this page before starting to play)

Cantr Discussion Forum

Cantr II Discussion Channel

And BTW: Is sentence "66 users were active in last 15 minutes" right? My English is poor and I don't want errors on front page

SekoETC · Postby **SekoETC** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 9:50 am

"66 users were active in THE last 15 minutes". I think.

N-Aldwitch · Postby **N-Aldwitch** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 10:37 am

This is good to hear. Can we possibly also see it in-game once logged in?

And wouldn't it be a better marketing strategy to get it to randomly select a number between 40-500 or something?

Chris Johnson · Postby **Chris Johnson** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 10:54 am

N-Aldwitch wrote:This is good to hear. Can we possibly also see it in-game once logged in?

Possibly - It depends how system intensive the routine is.

N-Aldwitch wrote:And wouldn't it be a better marketing strategy to get it to randomly select a number between 40-500 or something?

Most marketing strategies which are based on lying to prospective customers tend to fail in the long run

Mykey · Postby **Mykey** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 10:57 am

Chris Johnson wrote:
N-Aldwitch wrote:This is good to hear. Can we possibly also see it in-game once logged in?

Possibly - It depends how system intensive the routine is.

N-Aldwitch wrote:And wouldn't it be a better marketing strategy to get it to randomly select a number between 40-500 or something?

Most marketing strategies which are based on lying to prospective customers tend to fail in the long run

American oil companies do rather well..... I say fudge it :wink:

marol · Postby **marol** » Mon Aug 07, 2006 11:02 am

N-Aldwitch wrote:This is good to hear. Can we possibly also see it in-game once logged in?

Chris Johnson wrote:Possibly - It depends how system intensive the routine is.

No problem, but where do you want extacly to put it on player page?

online/active player count on character screen?

Who is online