Double XP weekend!

[Brokenbone]

"Special events" with advanced advertising are probably a draw. But those special events would probably be something like DM sessions to tie up / grand finale something of broad interest built up over prior weeks. They would not be things like "free pirate hat day", "20% off healing potions sale", "double XP" or other things that MMOs bombard your inbox with, if on an email list for something like DDO.

So yeah, if a DM team thinks their server needs a special event at least once a month or something, no one is going to complain. Advertising beyond local forum though might be an idea, where though I do not know (bombarding member's email addresses is tacky, but it's not going to further drive away people who are already dormant, is it?)

[oldgrayrogue]

Thanks Veilan. My "evidence" is purely anecdotal, but if you look at the Roleplay tab, you will see that most of the more populated servers reside there. So assuming everyone does not just use "direct connect" large numbers of players are likely perusing the other servers displayed on the roleplay tab on any given day. I know that as i did my "tour" I started with the most populated servers as those to try out first. I also know that many of the people i played with played on multiple servers, all on the Roleplay tab, and usually the most populated. Players just gravitate to PWs with a lot of members, especially those interested in RP. The suggestion is hopefully just a way to increase our visibility to more players.

While on that subject, there are regular NWN2 podcasts that showcase persistant worlds. The last PW I played on recently did a lengthy podcast with the developers of that world. May be something worth exploring as well.

[Veilan]

You feel like helping out with that?

The problem around here usually isn't the merit of ideas, but the effort to execute them. If someone feels they can help advertise in whatever way they can, I don't think anyone would try to hold them back.

Cheers,

[oldgrayrogue]

I'll reach out to the podcast guy, sure, but it really should be Admin who are interviewed. With a little coordination maybe it can be made to coincide with the horse rollout. I'll let you know what he says.

[Veilan]

I can only speak for myself, but I do not think availability for interview is any problem at all - considering I'm making a point of being available in voicechat to every ALFAn who so desires (which are surprisingly few! must be fear of dscherman äccent).

[Rotku]

I can only speak for myself, but I do not think availability for interview is any problem at all - considering I'm making a point of being available in voicechat to every ALFAn who so desires (which are surprisingly few! must be fear of dscherman äccent).

We have a voice chat?

[Veilan]

Yeah. We use to call it "skype", "ventrilo" or "teamspeak" .

[Ithildur]

All the advertising/PR in the world doesn't amount to much if players come and check things out, and leave out of boredom/frustration.

Haven't been around in a while and don't know what things are like currently, but OGR's posts definitely jogged some memories of a very disappointing span of time last year. I'd finally got a new player to come to ALFA who is a heck of a RPer and a RP magnet as well as PLAYER magnet from NWN1 to finally join ALFA. She immediately attracted two other new solid/excellent RPers from NWN1 to ALFA and we attempted to generate some momentum. Then we got wvincenti back and rolling up a new pc; maxell iirc was around too with a low lvl pc. I thought we were on our way to reviving the Ducklings of SD from ALFA1!

Within a month or two none of them were logging on with any frequency, and I myself struggled to find motivation to play regularly vs find other ways to utilize my time/find RP. The biggest culprit perhaps was that we had virtually no DM coverage during that time combined with the distances/isolation factor of TSM; the new guys would find themselves logging on and sitting around waiting for one of the other new folks/low lvls to log in, being stuck in whatever town/city they logged in because travel was so dangerous, and warned about adventuring because of the lethality, lack of resources/consumables, and poor risk/reward ratio. Even when they managed to group up, they found that without a DM on, their viable options a majority of the time were extremely limited outside of tavern RP: run a couple of low risk statics, travel from one town to another through a rather buggy overland map, and poke around the town/cities which, to put it bluntly, do not have a lot of dynamic content compared to a lot of other NWN/NWN2 servers they were coming from. Plus I know at least a couple of us found RPing, even typing dialog, a pain compared to the NWN1 engine.

Eventually 3 or 4 out of the 4, 5 players lost their PC to permadeath at lvl 1 or 2 (including that njub wvincenti ), although in one case a DM ruled the death was improbable having occurred within a few feet of dozens of NPCs within Silverymoon and they were given another go with that PC. Regardless the result was a message was sent: 'adventuring' is a high risk, low reward proposition in ALFA most of the time, and a good way to short circuit ongoing stories/character development/chemistry between players and PCs. You log in, sit and RP until a big group of PCs or a DM show up; ironically if you are an adventurer that cannot adventure nor find a relevant plot to get in on/talk about, your RP tends to get limited after a while. Half the time these guys were logged on they had no one to RP with (and honestly the RP wasn't earth shattering when they did get it), and they didn't really sign up to RP Commoners sitting around taverns; they wanted to RP adventurers which is why most folks play this game.

I definitely would recommend prioritizing making early levels more survivable and more fun if we're going to retain players that come and check things out. A lot of shortcomings can be covered by momentum/good sized playerbase to interact with, and most of all, solid DM coverage, but when neither are present strongly as was the case last year, ALFA on the NWN2 platform ends up being somewhat exposed; good players will come, check things out, and lose interest. It felt a bit like an empty playground with a couple of swings, a sandbox, and seesaw where a handful of cool kids who could manage to get DM attention regularly hung out and did their thing, in an age where players have rollercoasters, waterslides, and ferris wheels available on other servers. Now ALFA is not necessarily about rollercoasters; with the right mix of people and imagination/temperment, etc you CAN have more fun in the playground with a sandbox than a fancy rollercoaster, especially if you have a DM, but the reality is during that timespan last year ALFA was not impressive for these new players; in fact I was rather embarrassed after hyping it up as much as I did to get the first player to join up.

[t-ice]

Roller coaster vs Sandbox is a very apt analogy indeed.

You sit back and get strapped to a roller coaster, lift your hands up, and it spins you around for a ride. If you go with friends, it's even more fun. And most importantly, to get on the ride needs zero effort from you.

Now go to the sandbox with those friends. Sit back, lift up your hands and ... booring! You need to make your own fun, together with your friends. It takes a lot of effort. And most importantly, the barrier to get started is high. In game terms, you can't be expected to come in as a DM without having fun playing first. And you can't really have fun without a DM.

The analogy continues to be spot on when you consider continuing playing. That roller coaster can spin you on its ride again, again and again ... No matter how great the ride is, after the umpteenth time it's bound to be boring. Then of course you can go shop around for different roller coasters and other parks ... Or you can go to the sandbox with your friends and create endless, different adventures with no rails your roller coaster cart needs to follow.

Of course I'm not saying the people the above anecdote is about are selfish brats with zero attention span. Boredom will happen to anyone who doesdn't get DMd. I'd go as far as to say that if it didn't, there is something wrong, IF we strive to be that sandbox, that is. The question is, how can we match players to DM sessions, to make people pass the barrier to be involved enough to want to create fun themselves and others on the sandbox. And of course most importantly, what can be done to make people want to DM more.

As a concrete idea to help DMs realize and find the players that seem to be falling between the cracks, how about a DM widget that lists the PCs on, and gets from the database how large a percentage of their xp has come from DM awards? (I was under the impression this already gets logged.) While it wouldn't force a DM to act on the info, at least it would in no uncertains terms show DMs which player has had how much attention in the past. Could be printed with all that info on the Locate PCs window, for example. Transparency is a good thing.

(Quite totally off-original-topic by now, btw )

[I-KP]

If this data is reported then for heaven's sake keep it discreet, i.e., DM only as Teez suggests. Clearly a core few players do receive the vast majority of DM attention for one reason or another, it's a fact of PW life, and the gap between the 'rich' and the 'poor' is cavernous, but I think rubbing peoples' faces in it via full disclosure will only breed militancy and ill-feeling. Add to that it might make some players who have been lucky enough to see lots of DM attention feel ashamed of that, which would be rather unfair. So, yes to the data being reported; yes to keeping it 'eyes only'.

Perhaps publicly posting only the overall average % of DM XP awards for ALFA players on a monthly basis would be safe and helpful, if only to establish a level of reasonable expectation for players and as a broad litmus test on how active/inclusive the DM team are. Further refinement of this data could then be split by timezone to draw a more useful picture, but I suspect the user information would need to be enriched with timezone data beforehand. Also, allow individuals to request their own current %, at which point it's up to them as to weather or not they make that info public.

Personally, I have no idea what the average % in AFLA would be but if I were forced to make a guess then I'd probably take a punt within the 20-40% range.

[oldgrayrogue]

The point of the OP I think, and my 2 cents, was how do we draw and retain new players to ALFA. My suggestion, which I think Ithildur was trying to illustrate through his anecdote, is that we need some exciting "adventure" oriented static content, across all levels, that people can enjoy in a group when no DMs are around or when DMs are playing with their established or favorite players (and there is nothing wrong with DMs doing that btw). Coupled with that there has to be better survivability at early levels and real risk in terms of survivability at higher levels. When we last debated this Veilan called it "instant gratification," and I think the description is an apt one. We should never lose sight of the fact that this is a game that people play in their (usually limited) spare time to have fun. With so many gaming options out there most people are not likely to choose a game that tends to be boring and frustrating out of the box on the future hope that it will get really good if they just trust us, learn how to survive and stick with it. However, if we improve early survivability and excitement out of the box, it will get new players the "instant gratification" to make sticking around worthwhile. Most players agree (I think) that the early level slog and dying too soon to a lucky crit suck, so why are we so married to that template? In other words, lets get them "hooked" early, so we can then dazzle them with our exceptional player base and DMd content in the "sandbox," while also providing continuously exciting and challenging static content (which I think level restricted content is perfect for) for those times when DM coverage is scarce or absent. And honestly, its not that much i am talking about -- just a handful or so of traditional "dungeon crawl" or "hunt for the boss" type adventures that are repeatable and level adjusted in terms of CR.

As to DM coverage, this is probably already going on, but we should encourage our provisional DMs in training to always target newbies and lowbies to spread the love so to speak.

Look, like everyone else who plays in ALFA I love serious, story based RP. However, I also love traditional D&D (and video game) "adventuring" and these two types of gameplay are not mutually exclusive. If we can create a PW that always remains true to our core pillars of serious hardcore story based RP, but also provides more of what the typical gamer nowadays seems to be looking for I think we will end up with a lot of new players joining and sticking around. In fact I suspect most of the really good RPers in the current player base will end up making ALFA their permanent home.

[Gebb]

I experienced the same boredom on ALFA2 and lost interest two or maybe even three times now, but of late (with a low level PC and not much DM interaction) I've been back on TSM and having a blast, mostly doing statics with one or two other PCs also looking for stuff to do. Settlestone especially has been a lot of fun and a whole new corner of the TSM I had no idea was out there. More "adventure" style statics would be good, but with a right partner or two it's already a lot of fun. I'm glad to be back!

[ElCadaver]

Next it will be miniature monsters as pets and flying uber mounts

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