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Okay, this wont be nearly as comprehensive as Gorboth's notes with the
same title but I just thought I'd share some numbers with you, now when
we've reached halfway the year 2015.
PLAYERS
-------
Here is the first half of 2014 compared to the first half of 2015.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Comparing player activity over two time periods: |
| A: Jan 01 2014 - Jun 30 2014 |
| B: Jan 01 2015 - Jun 30 2015 |
+-------+-------+-------+----------+--+-----------+-------+-------+----------+
| Hour | A | B | % change | | Weekday | A | B | % change |
+-------+-------+-------+----------+ +-----------+-------+-------+----------+
| 00.00 | 12.36 | 28.51 | +130.65 %| | Sunday | 11.06 | 23.97 | +116.60 %|
| 01.00 | 10.00 | 24.61 | +145.99 %| | Monday | 11.12 | 24.48 | +120.15 %|
| 02.00 | 8.34 | 22.64 | +171.39 %| | Tuesday | 11.56 | 24.64 | +113.12 %|
| 03.00 | 7.79 | 22.17 | +184.47 %| | Wednesday | 12.24 | 24.28 | +98.26 %|
| 04.00 | 7.16 | 21.50 | +200.30 %| | Thursday | 11.44 | 24.41 | +113.36 %|
| 05.00 | 6.61 | 19.30 | +191.97 %| | Friday | 11.77 | 25.00 | +112.38 %|
| 06.00 | 6.33 | 17.39 | +174.78 %| | Saturday | 11.30 | 23.12 | +104.58 %|
| 07.00 | 6.50 | 16.33 | +151.01 %| +-----------+-------+-------+----------+
| 08.00 | 7.85 | 17.41 | +121.88 %| |
| 09.00 | 9.39 | 19.64 | +109.11 %| |
| 10.00 | 10.30 | 20.07 | +94.79 %| +--------------------------------------+
| 11.00 | 11.38 | 20.23 | +77.81 %| | - - - Field Sizes - - - |
| 12.00 | 12.05 | 21.34 | +77.08 %| | Number of days in Period A: 181 |
| 13.00 | 12.38 | 22.91 | +85.01 %| | Number of days in Period B: 181 |
| 14.00 | 13.67 | 24.80 | +81.30 %| +--------------------------------------+
| 15.00 | 14.53 | 27.06 | +86.16 %| |
| 16.00 | 14.77 | 28.64 | +93.86 %| |
| 17.00 | 14.59 | 29.45 | +101.77 %| +--------------------------------------+
| 18.00 | 14.61 | 29.35 | +100.90 %| | Overall Summary |
| 19.00 | 15.70 | 32.03 | +104.04 %| +--------------------------------------+
| 20.00 | 16.95 | 34.23 | +101.98 %| | Overall average for Period A: 11.50 |
| 21.00 | 17.61 | 35.35 | +100.75 %| | Overall average for Period B: 24.27 |
| 22.00 | 17.17 | 34.96 | +103.53 %| | |
| 23.00 | 15.43 | 32.86 | +112.99 %| | Overall increase/decrease: +111.0 % |
+-------+-------+-------+----------+--+--------------------------------------+
Look at that, a staggering increase of 111%!
Now, we know much of this is thanks to us being for some reason featured on
the first page of Google Chrome App Store for a while at the end of last year,
and we saw a massive increase during the first part of this year too.
Sometime in late februrary we stopped being featured on the first page of
Google Chrome, and of course the number of page hits and new players created
decreased quickly again. But such a boost is not likely to be normal and
will always count as a freak incident that may or may not come again. Being
featured on App Store pages does not happen for every app, and the apps
featured are eventually replaced by other apps who get their 15 minutes of
fame. But thanks to us being featured and getting lots of new users we are
now ranked higher than before on Google, which means our short major boost
will have positive long term effects as well.
Things have now returned to a new kind of normal, but the good news is
this new normal is way better than the old normal.
Take a look at May and June 2014 compared to May and June 2015 for example,
which are two periods where we've not been featured on Google Chrome and
really done no extra promotion of any kind.
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Comparing player activity over two time periods: |
| A: May 01 2014 - Jun 30 2014 |
| B: May 01 2015 - Jun 30 2015 |
+-------+-------+-------+----------+--+-----------+-------+-------+----------+
| Hour | A | B | % change | | Weekday | A | B | % change |
+-------+-------+-------+----------+ +-----------+-------+-------+----------+
| 00.00 | 12.03 | 21.55 | +79.15 %| | Sunday | 10.70 | 18.36 | +71.52 %|
| 01.00 | 8.81 | 18.16 | +105.94 %| | Monday | 10.44 | 19.88 | +90.38 %|
| 02.00 | 7.13 | 16.96 | +137.93 %| | Tuesday | 10.74 | 20.10 | +87.08 %|
| 03.00 | 6.63 | 15.78 | +137.77 %| | Wednesday | 11.32 | 19.17 | +69.19 %|
| 04.00 | 6.09 | 15.85 | +159.94 %| | Thursday | 10.32 | 19.41 | +87.91 %|
| 05.00 | 5.65 | 14.88 | +163.18 %| | Friday | 10.55 | 18.99 | +80.03 %|
| 06.00 | 5.40 | 13.81 | +155.45 %| | Saturday | 10.21 | 17.02 | +66.66 %|
| 07.00 | 5.60 | 12.63 | +125.43 %| +-----------+-------+-------+----------+
| 08.00 | 6.83 | 13.68 | +100.23 %| |
| 09.00 | 8.75 | 15.37 | +75.65 %| |
| 10.00 | 9.85 | 16.31 | +65.55 %| +--------------------------------------+
| 11.00 | 10.73 | 16.83 | +56.79 %| | - - - Field Sizes - - - |
| 12.00 | 11.77 | 17.40 | +47.91 %| | Number of days in Period A: 61 |
| 13.00 | 12.49 | 19.40 | +55.38 %| | Number of days in Period B: 61 |
| 14.00 | 13.16 | 20.03 | +52.17 %| +--------------------------------------+
| 15.00 | 13.91 | 20.98 | +50.76 %| |
| 16.00 | 13.83 | 21.96 | +58.76 %| |
| 17.00 | 13.45 | 22.29 | +65.65 %| +--------------------------------------+
| 18.00 | 13.22 | 22.32 | +68.77 %| | Overall Summary |
| 19.00 | 13.96 | 24.85 | +77.93 %| +--------------------------------------+
| 20.00 | 14.59 | 26.75 | +83.37 %| | Overall average for Period A: 10.60 |
| 21.00 | 15.96 | 27.73 | +73.71 %| | Overall average for Period B: 18.98 |
| 22.00 | 16.32 | 28.22 | +72.89 %| | |
| 23.00 | 14.77 | 26.70 | +80.79 %| | Overall increase/decrease: +79.02 % |
+-------+-------+-------+----------+--+--------------------------------------+
So while the newbie line is not as busy as it was around Christmas, we are
still enjoying a healthy 79% increase in player numbers compared to the same
period last year.
We also have a pretty stable number of 15-20 new characters created each day,
while last summer we were happy to see more than 5 new characters daily,
something that is also very good of course.
So the conclusion is that the new normal player numbers beats the old normal
by a lot!
Now, enough about players. What are we wizards doing? Some of you might be
hoping for some other updates and numbers when it comes to guild activity
and recodes and such, but unfortuntely that's not included in the
Summer Edition of the State Of The Donut. However we can talk a little
about wizards and what we're up to at least.
WIZARDS
-------
So what's going on in the world of wizards? Well, while our player numbers
have increased this has, naturally, not yet had an impact on our wizard
numbers since our new players are still learning to play the game. I
definitely hope some of the new players will make the leap and become
wizards one day though, because we need new blood up here too. But for
now, you're stuck with us old ones.
So what have we been doing the first half of 2015?
My personal priority is of course to help players out, and I try to do
that as well as I can, and I hope everyone who's contacted me or Mirandus
feel we've done our best to help you as swiftly as possible. Feel free
to send a mail to 'aop' with feedback on how you think we're doing and
what could be better.
When I do get some time over my goal is to try to improve the tutorial
to make the first impression even better for new players. Some changes
have been made but there is still a lot we can do. Cotillion, Gorboth,
and myself have tested and tweaked some things, and hopefully new players
now will struggle less than new players a couple of months ago did.
Mirandus, Leia and Varian has also volunteered to help out with
improving the tutorial and work has started in some areas.
Nerull together with Leia and Mirandus continues their work on the
Ravenloft domain and the new guild of furry creatures. I've seen some
parts of the lands there and it looks really cool. And scary. From
what I've heard the domain will introduce some completely new concepts
in Genesis, and of course contain nice EQ, mobs to kill and plenty
of quests to solve.
Varian and Eowul are working on a new creepy place in Gondor. I've had
a peak there as well and it too looks cool. And scary. From what I've
seen of it, it's going to be a place of great risk but also with
great rewards for those willing to take the risks. But if you have
arachnophobia like I do, perhaps it's best to stay away.
And, of course you already know Gorboth has promised to take on the
job of recoding the Rangers. Other things you have already seen are a
number of gameplay changes made by Mercade and Cotillion, the most
notable ones of course the changes to levels and rare items.
Apart from this, there are of course other big and small projects
taking place, and maintenance work simply to keep things running.
But we need MORE WIZARDS. So, if you ever wondered if maybe you
should give it a go, or give it a second (or third) chance, or
for some reason think we won't let you be wizards, stop hesitating
and just apply!
Cherek