Community experiment
blind
Join Date: 2010-04-17 Member: 71437Members, Squad Five Gold
Join Date: 2010-04-17 Member: 71437Members, Squad Five Gold
<div class="IPBDescription">..help to increase the player base</div><i>Disclaimer: If the forum mods want to move this topic to the Squad Five subforums, I'm fine with it. I put the topic here first to attract a greater reader base first which I think is needed for this.</i>
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->NS2 Community Experiment<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
<u>Note:</u> I also did put up a video announcement for this including a tutorial of the steps to do, you can watch it here: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwTdBi0bnmg" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwTdBi0bnmg</a>
<b><!--sizeo:2--><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->What is this all about?<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>
As everyone knows, not many people out there know about this beautiful game; and a relative high percentage of the people who see NS2 in a video/article think "Wow! This looks amazing! I should try this!" - A perfect example is TotalBiscuit's preview of the game on his youtube channel.
So our goal should be to get more and more previews, especially of all video makers and magazines etc. who reach tons of people.
<b><!--sizeo:2--><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->Isn't this UWE's work?<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>
Not at all. UWE has to handle interviews and contacts in the best way they can and they are really good about it. But what they can't do is magically create a reader's interest for gaming magazines - that's a job of the consumers. And magazines only try to fulfill the people's wishes for news.
<b><!--sizeo:2--><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->So what can we do?<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>
Make magazines think many people want news and videos and articles for Natural Selection 2. We need to spread the word more. And <u>we can exploit some methods magazines use to determine the people's interest</u>. There are some easy ways to spread a word fast and effective and this experiment is about one of them.
<b><!--sizeo:2--><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->What do you want of me?<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>
For this experiment I chose a national magazine, in this case Germany's biggest gaming magazine. You don't need to understand a single word german, and this will take you less than 3 minutes.
I want to use the magazine's wishlist feature for our purpose; hence we all create an account for the magazine's website, login and add Natural Selection 2 to our wishlist. The How-To can be found on the announcement video (link at start). The textual instruction would be:
1) go to www.gamestar.de
2) register an account by clicking on "Registrieren" on the upper left; fill out the small form
3) check your email and click the link you received for account activation
4) login on gamestar.de
5) go to the NS2 page: <a href="http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/natural-selection-2/45616.html" target="_blank">http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/natural-selection-2/45616.html</a>
6) click on "Zur Wunschliste hinzufügen" on the upper left; make sure the box is checked and click button to save your wishlist changes
7) Done!
<b><!--sizeo:2--><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->I can/want to do some more? Ideas?<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>
Sure! If you happen to be one of the german NS2 fans, you can also drop a post in the magazine's forums. I created a topic for NS2 here:
<a href="http://www.gamestar.de/community/gspinboard/showthread.php?t=418299" target="_blank">http://www.gamestar.de/community/gspinboar...ad.php?t=418299</a>
<b><!--sizeo:2--><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->What if this a crappy idea and fails?<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>
Well, then we lost 5 minutes each. So what. But if this doesn't fail way more people than TotalBiscuit's viewers will get a glimpse of NS2 ...
============
TL;DR:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwTdBi0bnmg" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwTdBi0bnmg</a>
<!--sizeo:4--><span style="font-size:14pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->NS2 Community Experiment<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
<u>Note:</u> I also did put up a video announcement for this including a tutorial of the steps to do, you can watch it here: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwTdBi0bnmg" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwTdBi0bnmg</a>
<b><!--sizeo:2--><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->What is this all about?<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>
As everyone knows, not many people out there know about this beautiful game; and a relative high percentage of the people who see NS2 in a video/article think "Wow! This looks amazing! I should try this!" - A perfect example is TotalBiscuit's preview of the game on his youtube channel.
So our goal should be to get more and more previews, especially of all video makers and magazines etc. who reach tons of people.
<b><!--sizeo:2--><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->Isn't this UWE's work?<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>
Not at all. UWE has to handle interviews and contacts in the best way they can and they are really good about it. But what they can't do is magically create a reader's interest for gaming magazines - that's a job of the consumers. And magazines only try to fulfill the people's wishes for news.
<b><!--sizeo:2--><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->So what can we do?<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>
Make magazines think many people want news and videos and articles for Natural Selection 2. We need to spread the word more. And <u>we can exploit some methods magazines use to determine the people's interest</u>. There are some easy ways to spread a word fast and effective and this experiment is about one of them.
<b><!--sizeo:2--><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->What do you want of me?<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>
For this experiment I chose a national magazine, in this case Germany's biggest gaming magazine. You don't need to understand a single word german, and this will take you less than 3 minutes.
I want to use the magazine's wishlist feature for our purpose; hence we all create an account for the magazine's website, login and add Natural Selection 2 to our wishlist. The How-To can be found on the announcement video (link at start). The textual instruction would be:
1) go to www.gamestar.de
2) register an account by clicking on "Registrieren" on the upper left; fill out the small form
3) check your email and click the link you received for account activation
4) login on gamestar.de
5) go to the NS2 page: <a href="http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/natural-selection-2/45616.html" target="_blank">http://www.gamestar.de/spiele/natural-selection-2/45616.html</a>
6) click on "Zur Wunschliste hinzufügen" on the upper left; make sure the box is checked and click button to save your wishlist changes
7) Done!
<b><!--sizeo:2--><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->I can/want to do some more? Ideas?<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>
Sure! If you happen to be one of the german NS2 fans, you can also drop a post in the magazine's forums. I created a topic for NS2 here:
<a href="http://www.gamestar.de/community/gspinboard/showthread.php?t=418299" target="_blank">http://www.gamestar.de/community/gspinboar...ad.php?t=418299</a>
<b><!--sizeo:2--><span style="font-size:10pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->What if this a crappy idea and fails?<!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec--></b>
Well, then we lost 5 minutes each. So what. But if this doesn't fail way more people than TotalBiscuit's viewers will get a glimpse of NS2 ...
============
TL;DR:
<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwTdBi0bnmg" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uwTdBi0bnmg</a>
Comments
After the TB-Videos we had an huge ammount of new players, where are these players right now? (we are back to 150 players @ primetime)
I can tell you: they install the game, play some rounds with 15 fps and throw it away.
In the current state (216) i cannot recommend the game to any of my friends. I know some waiting for my "GO" and i will give a "go" if we can play with an acceptable performance.
If we or UWE try to attract a great playerbase right now (216) this would be contraproductive cause the game going to get to much negative feedback.
When a professional gaming magazine like the one I picked as example will do a review or test about a game, they contact the developer first. They usually travel to the developer's office, get information, make videos etc all coordinated with the devs. When we generate a reader's interest this also doesn't mean they instantly put an article somewhere or do a random beta video. This takes some time and coordination. But we can create that people's wish <u>before</u> NS2 is released so they can do a test <u>when</u> it will be released. By then UWE promised us a better performance, so we can hope for the best.
hotmale.com is broken though :/
A larger playerbase does not always mean a stable playerbase, if performance is lacking. A big part of having fun in games is performance (pub and comp)
<!--sizeo:1--><span style="font-size:8pt;line-height:100%"><!--/sizeo-->*<!--coloro:#696969--><span style="color:#696969"><!--/coloro-->60FPS preferable of course, but I'm have my doubts we'll see that before v1.0. I could of course be wrong, as the magic that Max and Dushan do are simply beyond my understanding :P<!--colorc--></span><!--/colorc--><!--sizec--></span><!--/sizec-->
I can tell you: they install the game, play some rounds with 15 fps and throw it away.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I don't think that these waves of low-playerbase/high-playerbase are only caused by performance problems in general.
Imho its also a psychological thing: NS2 is still not feature complete (Exo) and the balance is also an issue. I suppose a good portion of the players can run the game with a decent performance but just don't want to spend too much time playing an unfinished game, yet.
Imho its also a psychological thing: NS2 is still not feature complete (Exo) and the balance is also an issue. I suppose a good portion of the players can run the game with a decent performance but just don't want to spend too much time playing an unfinished game, yet.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
This is one of the biggest reasons I believe. We have 15,000+ pre-orders and get about 200 players a day.
I'm pretty sure they check in once in a while, play a round or two, and wait till the next update or just wait until it's released.
I'm pretty sure they check in once in a while, play a round or two, and wait till the next update or just wait until it's released.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
That's concurrent players.. Consider how many hours a day you play. Now if there are 150 - 300 concurrent players for most of the day, then how many total players are there in a 24 hour period? Thousands, probably.
Here's a look at the last player logged on the NS2 stats page. This is based off steam accounts so these are all individual purchases of NS2. <a href="http://ns2stats.org/player/player/4812" target="_blank">http://ns2stats.org/player/player/4812</a>
4812 players logged by NS2 stats which is currently running on only 12 servers. The stats page has been around for roughly two weeks. Even if only 5k out of 40k are active in the last two weeks, that's still 20% of active preorders over the last three years that are logging on and playing.
I think the 40k number is grossly misleading. Speaking from personal experience, so many of those players ordered well over a year ago and quit out because of it. I preordered with a group of 10 or 15 other players back in the alpha and none of them have given NS2 a shot since rockdown. That isn't the fault of the current NS2 because they won't even give it a shot. They were turned off a year or two ago, are now playing different games, and probably won't give NS2 another try regardless of changes or performance increase.
I'm pretty sure most people will return to see what 1.0 is like. If performance is still rocky they'll probably never look at it again.
I hope so to the first part and I hope not on the second part.
If you took a weapon out of CS, it doesn't mean people would stop playing it... or wouldn't play it if it was never introduced in development.
CS was popular from the start and grew with each build... no one cared that it wasn't feature complete.
The same goes for every popular mod/game out there.
If you took a weapon out of CS, it doesn't mean people would stop playing it... or wouldn't play it if it was never introduced in development.
CS was popular from the start and grew with each build... no one cared that it wasn't feature complete.
The same goes for every popular mod/game out there.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
You can't compare CS with NS2 in terms of complexity, if you would take out a weapon from CS it won't affect the balance even a little bit or nearly as much as in NS2.
Besides that: I was one of the first persons that got access to the CS: Global Offensive beta, i played it roughly about one hour just to never play it again until release because too much content was missing and i didn't had the time to check back each update.
I suppose its a combination of everything (performance, features and balance), but i don't think that its only performance in general.
NS didn't have the exo... the only extra item it had than what we have currently is the HMG and Heavy Armour.
NS didn't have the exo... the only extra item it had than what we have currently is the HMG and Heavy Armour.<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Well, but the HMG and Heavy Armor was the favorite way to go for marines back in NS, and both are missing in NS2. A marine with a Jetpack and HMG was imho much more terrifying as an alien than one with a JP and Shotgun, let alone a horde of Heavies and HMGs which was a serious threat.
And I do hope, that the exo will be nearly as much fun as wielding the HMG in NS. ;)
(and adding a "small" thing like the exo could knock the balance over again)
And I do hope, that the exo will be nearly as much fun as wielding the HMG in NS. ;)
(and adding a "small" thing like the exo could knock the balance over again)<!--QuoteEnd--></div><!--QuoteEEnd-->
No doubt it will be. I imagine an even heavier assault machine than the armor suit used to be. *gets all giddy thinking about it*
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Added it to wishlist! Hope it works :)
Sleeper hits slip under the radar and then are promoted by word of mouth, like minecraft. If wildly publicized people will make up their mind based on the current state of the game and likely not reconsider it when the game improves.
Isn't concurrency the best metric? Who cares if millions have played the game on a given day, when only 5 full servers are returned upon refreshing the server-list. Right after the TB-videos concurrent-playercount was approaching 500, now it is back down to 150-200, basically what it was before TB. The initial hype has completely deflated. I think it's telling, probably that no amount of hype is going to generate a larger player-base as long as ongoing issues are not resolved (performance\gameplay).