People aren't leaving NS because...
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Join Date: 2005-03-06 Member: 43667Members
Join Date: 2005-03-06 Member: 43667Members
I'm tired of reading these forums and seeing a whole bunch of, "NS is worse than it used to be obviously...look at the dwindling player base!". I mostly ghost these forums, but I've been around since the very first version of NS that was on Steam. While it's not as far back as those 1.04 guys, it was still quite a few years ago. Anyway...
I'm just here to share one simple fact with everyone here and hopefully the posts about why NS is losing players will stop, or at least occur less often. The reason isn't because the community was split between different versions or because the league community was losing teams. It's because <b>NS is old and on an outdated gaming engine</b>. Its a simple fact that as a game gets older and next generation games come out, players move on with their gaming experience. NS can not possibly hope to stand against games coming out right now like Gears of War, and stuff right around the corner like Left 4 Dead and Halo3. I'm going to say it one more time and then I'll leave you all be.
<b>NS is losing player and community population because it's become outdated, and players are moving on to the next generation</b>
So this means once NS moves onto the next generation (NS:S, or NS2, don't remember which it's going to be) the community and player population will skyrocket and be back to the way it used to be.
P.S. I probably wont check on this post for a day or two, so don't expect any immediate arguing on my part if you disagree
I'm just here to share one simple fact with everyone here and hopefully the posts about why NS is losing players will stop, or at least occur less often. The reason isn't because the community was split between different versions or because the league community was losing teams. It's because <b>NS is old and on an outdated gaming engine</b>. Its a simple fact that as a game gets older and next generation games come out, players move on with their gaming experience. NS can not possibly hope to stand against games coming out right now like Gears of War, and stuff right around the corner like Left 4 Dead and Halo3. I'm going to say it one more time and then I'll leave you all be.
<b>NS is losing player and community population because it's become outdated, and players are moving on to the next generation</b>
So this means once NS moves onto the next generation (NS:S, or NS2, don't remember which it's going to be) the community and player population will skyrocket and be back to the way it used to be.
P.S. I probably wont check on this post for a day or two, so don't expect any immediate arguing on my part if you disagree
Comments
NS IS DYING!!!
P.S. I plainly agree with you.
Primarily, I think it's just a matter of play time. The amount of time people can devote to playing a game is limited. It'd be nice if you could play them all, sure, but which one are you going to choose to spend your time on right now?
So if people are like "Meh, I was so confused and felt like such a lost newbie when I tried to play that NS game and people just kept yelling at me" or "Meh, I'm kinda of bored of NS right now lemme try this other game." we will see people leave. In fact it's that people are choosing to spend their time on another game. I think of FFXI and WoW as a prime examples. So many people play those. And not to mention all of the XBox 360, PS3, and Wii stuff. There are thousands of people playing on those consoles at any moment.
Two things we can do:<ul><li>New content helps keep people interested</li><li>Not being ###### to newbies to a game helps grow a new player base</li></ul>
This is perhaps one of the MEANEST communities towards new players as of now out there I've come across. It didn't used to be that way. Yes, there is a difference between a new player who wants to learn and a new player who doesn't; but rather than try to form a commardory and teach, or just enjoy the game instead of always being concerned about winning, we are taking a lot out of what this community used to have.
I doubt that Everquest has anywhere near the number of players it once had--sort of like the other games mentioned. There are a core of players who REALLY enjoy the game and won't leave until something better comes along -- but they are a minority.
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I haven't seen a large influx new players in ages. They are very rare now. They also have almost no easily found documentation for getting into the game, so they get yelled at for asking questions that would normally be covered in the (online) manual.
I've worked on projects that were near the end of life before, and NS feels very much like that. Flayra is busy coding NS2, and even though there is still a dev team, NS is not really "theirs".
I doubt that Everquest has anywhere near the number of players it once had--sort of like the other games mentioned. There are a core of players who REALLY enjoy the game and won't leave until something better comes along -- but they are a minority.
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The lvl 623 character trying to reach lvl 624 might have something to do with it too. When you quit ns you lose the cool icons at best.
habitual gamers
recreational gamers
habitual gamers will often pick a game and perfect that game, staying with one game for a long time until they get bored.
recreational gamers will switch from game to game often unless they really find a game they like or one that hooks them.(this is one of the reasons WoW became so massively popular, it hooked recreational gamers.)
the problem is that ns doesnt have enough habitual gamers. most of the older ones have gotten bored with ns and moved on.
oh yeah and theorycrafting ns forum debates by morons