What would it take?

[Cherek]

Not good enough to play and not good enough to get new people to play is two completely different things Cherek.

I am not sure I follow. Why is it different?

[Amberlee]

Because most of us oldies still hang around for the good memories we had way back when.
Most of us hang around for old friends.. Some of us out of old habit.

But I think that I can safely say that extremely few of us, if any, would start again anew in genesis.

[Makfly]

...But I think that I can safely say that extremely few of us, if any, would start again anew in genesis.

I'm afraid you are right.

I was just considering, if I would start playing another MUD, and I think I can say with 100% certainty that I wouldn't.
So I imagine that it might be even more of a difficult leap for someone who's never tried MUDs before, to start playing a game like Genesis.

On the bright side, there are 1½ billion people out there with an internet connection, and Genesis only needs another couple of hundreds to make the community vibrant again.

[Zar]

Because most of us oldies still hang around for the good memories we had way back when.
Most of us hang around for old friends.. Some of us out of old habit.

But I think that I can safely say that extremely few of us, if any, would start again anew in genesis.

Sad to say, but I fully agree with Amberlee. This world is not build to bring new people here.
And even brought it is too difficult to keep them here.

I think that one of the most important reasons that keeps people playing in MMORPG is competition.
On all levels.
Example: If You are apprentice, one of the reason to keep you playing long hours is to get to wanderer faster than other apprentice. Right now... Most of population is ... myths?
And how many years you need to get to myth if You don't have quest info? 3-4 years?
So You must keep on effort on 3-4 years to start to be competitive? Who would continue with such thought?

[Amberlee]

...But I think that I can safely say that extremely few of us, if any, would start again anew in genesis.

I'm afraid you are right.

I was just considering, if I would start playing another MUD, and I think I can say with 100% certainty that I wouldn't.
So I imagine that it might be even more of a difficult leap for someone who's never tried MUDs before, to start playing a game like Genesis.

On the bright side, there are 1½ billion people out there with an internet connection, and Genesis only needs another couple of hundreds to make the community vibrant again.

And to even have a chanse with that, the game needs some very big changes.
Not only in gameterms but in the mindset of the admin.

[Cherek]

So... what is the mindset that need to be changed? How is the admin's mindset now, and what do you feel it need to be changed to? And how do you explain we now and then actually get new players who start playing and stay? Without any promotion at all.

I am almost certain that if we seriously promoted a bunch of people would find the game and stay. I mean really, there are TONS of free completely crappy useless browser games with thousands of players. Because they are great games? No, most of the utterly suck, but they promote, and thus they get players. You can sell anything really, and we dont even need thousands, we need a few hundred new people. And we have a better product to sell. Yes our product has flaws too, it will always have. The biggest one is we have too few players, which actually also cause a lot of the other problems.

No matter how much we fix, I bet alot of people would still fell the same way. Before we had no tutorial, no newbie area, no updated homepage and then everyone complained about these things. Now it's moved on to other flaws. And if we fix that I think we'll find new problems. "No we cant promote because our guilds are empty". "No we cant promote because the quests are too hard.", "No idea to promote because pvp system if flawed", "No need to promote, people dont like text games anymore". Etc, etc, etc.

I actually think the mindset of the players need to change if anything. From "This game is dead and who gives a crap" to "Lets make this game great again". As it is now, the only positivity I ever hear comes from wizards... every time you say the game is dead or dying, you are killing the game a bit more. And thats just how it is. Postive players who actually take part in the game and have fun, and say they have fun, will create a positive atmosphere, instead of a negative one that we seem to have now.

[Azarias]

I think some of you need to actually take a look at what else is out there and flourishing. There are RPI's that hold 150+ people, no skills, no levels just plain role playing. There are games like Aardwolf where you can name your character FlamingButt and they hold at times over 300+ people. New Worlds, even harder to reach the end tier levels then Genesis with less content and it holds on average 80 people peaking at 200+.

Genesis is fluid and smooth with the most potential I have come across that has so much rich and untapped potential it can make you smile at times. What most MUD's lack is a good solid base and they branch out too much or not enough, I believe bar perhaps an alternate growth route (Which Most Mud's do not have by the way) we have that.

Now the question is why do those particular MUD's hold players? With Aardwolf it is definitely not the role play nor is it the game play, I find that game horrid. Numbers floating everywhere random people sending you tells or buffing you, hardly anything explained, rooms with more misspellings then a first grade English paper. RPI's where there is absolutely nothing to do but role play, some have no hard coded items, nothing collectible, everything is done by the player in free emote. New Worlds where the learning curve is even harder, they have no files to tell them anything, everything must be gained and learned through role playing which is heavily enforced and to even reach half of their levels would equal one of our Myth's, quests that give nothing but lame rewards and a level up system that forces everyone to take up some form of fishing.

These games hold players and bring them back because of the promotions that they constantly throw out and the players within the game. They make friends, they have a good time and find a sense of belonging. Much like we all did at one point and time with Genesis. Aardwolf is always #1 on the boards, New Worlds is constantly posting on threads in the forums from people looking for new muds be it to bring them to theirs or to another mud. Atonement is constantly coming out with new promotional role playing time lines and the populace is extremely friendly and helpful, all in character of course.

Mix the three together for Genesis and I guarantee you will find it is not the the game that is the problem. VPRM - Vote, Promote and Roleplay More.

[Nomm]

I really fail to see how any kind of promotion can hurt Genesis. Many say old players play the game because its nostalgic etc, but we also think with the mind of old people. Let new players
judge themselves, we cant decide if they are to like it or not. Promote in those way we can.

[Gub]

- Starting a fundraiser to raise money for paid banners / Google Adwords / Facebook Ads, etc. Using for instance http://www.kickstarter.com/

- Donating money for advertisement. Yes paid advertisement really does work. Especially since we need a pretty small number.

I think those two could create an immediate impact. That's where my efforts would go.

[Amberlee]

Yeah im not really going to donate anything.
Look at what was done with the cash that was donated for the attempted promotion.
No.. Not happening