12 Months since Steam

[mikesheen]

Well, it's been a week short of 12 months since StarMade was released on Steam.

This is what my StarMade server visits per day was like over the last 12 months:



Note the spike toward the middle/end of August when it was on sale on Steam.

Seems to be player numbers are declining as of late. Anyone else noticed this on their servers? What are some good tips for funnelling more players in?

 

[TomW1605]

not a server oner but i have noticed that a lot of my friends who played 2-3 years ago haven't played since because they don't know that so much has changed since then. i think if more people know it will give a boost to player numbers. one way of doing this is to have an opt-out news letter and make it necessary to have an account to play. currently there is an opt-in news letter and i have subscribed but not got any but the first one so i don't think even this works. this wont help boost players but if people who have get a monthly email reminding them of the game and telling them it is better it might go a long way towards stoping the decline in player numbers.

 

[SuperWookie]

I could give you some tips, but it would upset you lol

 

[mikesheen]

I could give you some tips, but it would upset you lol

Is one of your tips NOT offering a lifeline to a competing server and hosting them for free until they found a new home?

 

[RabidBat]

I could make one suggestion as well. But I think you already know what it would be in regards to your specific server,but I will suggest it later anyways.

In saying that I think it's similar to what TomW1605 has said, but different also. It's a case of not much has changed in this game in a long time. Some new textures, a couple of new systems, but overall the gameplay has changed zilch and people get bored with it. It is still essentially 'Build, mine, maybe fight dodgy AI pirates, or pvp whiny players if you can find any that will undock." wash, rinse, repeat. Unless you have a lot of patience, which most of the younger players don't, or are a complete fanboy it gets really old really fast.

Feels like I am still playing the same game I was 12 months ago except visually.

It will pick up during the school holidays as it always does, but the lack of any new gameplay and increasing the price recently isn't doing the game any favours.
All I can suggest is advertise the hell out of your server across social media. Modify the server to have custom events etc to keep people interested and make sure you have staff that are friendly, helpful who are not childish and will chase players away before they even start.

Make sure the same rules apply to everyone. e.g no "Me and my friends can have 700m ships, but your 500m one is too big." and similar.
Many players all have the same story,one set of rules for them, one for the admin and his friends. How is that ever going to work?

In all honesty in the case of your server for example you could have a massive and active player base but it's the way the server is run by the one and only admin that kills it. I'll admit I recently snuck on to have a look how mikelands was these days and said admin was on and I saw nothing has changed. With said admin following me around and doing a gestapo inspection on my ship (or at least trying to, I didn't make it easy for him) despite it being the default one provided.

Seriously if you went to a restaurant and found the staff had spit in your food, and they then proceeded to follow you everywhere including the toilet and they then proceeded to tell you how to chew your food and such and then chased you out the door for complaining you're food was spat in, wrote a letter to owner and found the bad manager was investigating and replying himself would you go back?

In any business, customer service is everything. Whether it's a free service or not. (and when people are paying for credits and such it's no longer a privilege but a paid service.)

So yeah, fix your customer service issues and look at ways to provide fun for players to counter the games short comings and you'll probably see numbers increase. I mean what's that old saying about insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?
Time to change how things are done or it will stay as it is.

Also no server ever works out when only one person runs the show and is a law unto themselves. Public servers should be public servers, not one mans personal kingdom and play ground. It's not just a privilege for people to play on provided servers, but also a privilege for the owners to have people choose to play on them.

I am not being a troll here, or trying to flame you. I am very much sincerely offering you some sound and common sense advice on how to repair the damage one person,and one person alone has done to your server. Up to you if you choose to see it or not, or take this advice or not.
[DOUBLEPOST=1448702111,1448701854][/DOUBLEPOST]

Is one of your tips NOT offering a lifeline to a competing server and hosting them for free until they found a new home?

After seeing this I will add maybe try being humble occasionally. Everyone appreciated what you did. But one right does not make up for many wrongs. I'd really not get into this one as it's too prone to becoming a debate nobody will want.

But yeah, you ever seen the Salvation Army? They don't go to the homeless and say "I fed and clothed you, be grateful and praise me" or Or Mother Teresa "I gave you a blanket, it was a privilege."

Maybe take a leaf out of their books, good deeds become undone when people point them out. Especially if those deeds are done not out of the goodness of ones heart but to improve their reputation.

 

[mikesheen]

After seeing this I will add maybe try being humble occasionally. Everyone appreciated what you did.

What did I do? Nobody knows what you're talking about.

 

[RabidBat]

What did I do? Nobody knows what you're talking about.

Quite a few do. Come on Mike. Don't act the innocent, heck you just posted an international forum of a large game community what you did.
Or made a very obvious hint at it. I am pretty sure you're intelligent enough to get my point.

How about maybe addressing my main post and it's suggestions and we all stay on topic?

Let us keep in mind, our public appearance and responses have a major influence on how people will perceive us. And I'm not the one trying to increase the population of my server here.

Put on your best public relations face.

 

[mikesheen]

I was more looking for server owners to comment on their server numbers of late, and what they have tried and what success or failure they've seen in their efforts.

 

[TomW1605]

I could make one suggestion as well. But I think you already know what it would be in regards to your specific server,but I will suggest it later anyways.

In saying that I think it's similar to what TomW1605 has said, but different also. It's a case of not much has changed in this game in a long time. Some new textures, a couple of new systems, but overall the gameplay has changed zilch and people get bored with it. It is still essentially 'Build, mine, maybe fight dodgy AI pirates, or pvp whiny players if you can find any that will undock." wash, rinse, repeat. Unless you have a lot of patience, which most of the younger players don't, or are a complete fanboy it gets really old really fast.

Feels like I am still playing the same game I was 12 months ago except visually.

It will pick up during the school holidays as it always does, but the lack of any new gameplay and increasing the price recently isn't doing the game any favours.
All I can suggest is advertise the hell out of your server across social media. Modify the server to have custom events etc to keep people interested and make sure you have staff that are friendly, helpful who are not childish and will chase players away before they even start.

Make sure the same rules apply to everyone. e.g no "Me and my friends can have 700m ships, but your 500m one is too big." and similar.
Many players all have the same story,one set of rules for them, one for the admin and his friends. How is that ever going to work?

In all honesty in the case of your server for example you could have a massive and active player base but it's the way the server is run by the one and only admin that kills it. I'll admit I recently snuck on to have a look how mikelands was these days and said admin was on and I saw nothing has changed. With said admin following me around and doing a gestapo inspection on my ship (or at least trying to, I didn't make it easy for him) despite it being the default one provided.

Seriously if you went to a restaurant and found the staff had spit in your food, and they then proceeded to follow you everywhere including the toilet and they then proceeded to tell you how to chew your food and such and then chased you out the door for complaining you're food was spat in, wrote a letter to owner and found the bad manager was investigating and replying himself would you go back?

In any business, customer service is everything. Whether it's a free service or not. (and when people are paying for credits and such it's no longer a privilege but a paid service.)

So yeah, fix your customer service issues and look at ways to provide fun for players to counter the games short comings and you'll probably see numbers increase. I mean what's that old saying about insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results?
Time to change how things are done or it will stay as it is.

Also no server ever works out when only one person runs the show and is a law unto themselves. Public servers should be public servers, not one mans personal kingdom and play ground. It's not just a privilege for people to play on provided servers, but also a privilege for the owners to have people choose to play on them.

I am not being a troll here, or trying to flame you. I am very much sincerely offering you some sound and common sense advice on how to repair the damage one person,and one person alone has done to your server. Up to you if you choose to see it or not, or take this advice or not.
[DOUBLEPOST=1448702111,1448701854][/DOUBLEPOST]

After seeing this I will add maybe try being humble occasionally. Everyone appreciated what you did. But one right does not make up for many wrongs. I'd really not get into this one as it's too prone to becoming a debate nobody will want.

But yeah, you ever seen the Salvation Army? They don't go to the homeless and say "I fed and clothed you, be grateful and praise me" or Or Mother Teresa "I gave you a blanket, it was a privilege."

Maybe take a leaf out of their books, good deeds become undone when people point them out. Especially if those deeds are done not out of the goodness of ones heart but to improve their reputation.

i completely agree with what you are saying about the game but i would like to state for the record that i have never had a problem with the admin you are referring to and have never seen him abuse/overuse his powers or show favouritism towards his friends as you accuse.

 

[SuperWookie]

 

[RabidBat]

i completely agree with what you are saying about the game but i would like to state for the record that i have never had a problem with the admin you are referring to and have never seen him abuse/overuse his powers or show favouritism towards his friends as you accuse.

Fair enough if you haven't. Every ones experiences is different. Sadly many of us have seen and experienced this first hand.
You'll be fine as we were until someone brings you onto his radar then come back and see me.
heck I am always running into people with similar stories, who like myself do not experience such issues on other servers.

Either way, when people bring a problem to your attention, whether you believe it or not. It should be looked at and addressed.
When a bunch of unrelated people keep telling similar stories over the years a logical person would say, they cannot all be wrong.
If such people were the actual problem and not the admin you would see the same behavior with them across server and not just the one particular server.

It's even harder to get it addressed when you provide evidence and the person in question has both the power and authority to delete that evidence from the related forums, or instead of looking at or giving it a thought you go "oh that could of been faked......"

I mean if someone came and told me my kids stole something from them, I might dismiss it, but after I had several people who had no connections to each other over a period of time tell me my kid was a thief and especially if they had CCTV footage and such to back it up, I'd have to start believing it or at least begin asking my child questions and taking the matter seriously. Especially if I knew and could see my child had managed to delete that CCTV footage and would and could do so for any evidence presented.
I'd be an even bigger fool to not notice my childs actions and a correlation to what people were telling me against my business and reputation declining.

There comes a time when common sense and logic needs to take priority over emotions.

The server I currently play on since I joined it has many people join who have no idea of mine and my factions story or others who tell similar or who we are and our connection to Mikelands, people who are new to StarMade and Mikelands has been the first server they joined tell similar stories. I find it hard to believe and beyond coincidence that they would tell of almost identical experiences just from their imagination.

I have only brought the matter up because contrary to what some think, I know myself I actually want Mikelands to remain successful and retain it's player base. Like anything we need variety and competition. He wants to know why his player base is dying, I am explaining one of the main causes. A cause that anyone unbiased and with eyes open can see. Mike seems like an okay guy. Just a bit blindly loyal I have to admit.
If people choose to be ignorant to what they have been told and shown and things they themselves could prove to themselves if they wanted to, that is their choice. But they can live with the consequences of it.
Heck I have personally and verbally thanked Mike for his assistance in the matter he mentioned, even though I have pondered the causes that made that situation to arise to begin with.

Also, you have said you've not seen it or experienced it, and I have no reason to doubt that, and I am not going to say it's untrue because I didn't see you experience it or not. Never discount someone because you were not a witness to it.
It's like playing a game and finding it broken. You report it to the developers forums and are met with game works for me, so you must be lying.
Crysis 2 on Xbox 360 comes to mind here and many had similar responses on the official bug reporting forums, attenmpts at being shut down by those who had no issues or were mindless Ctytek fanboys.

Anyways I do not play on Mikelands and have no intention of ever playing there again. I have nothing to gain or lose from offering him some friendly and practical advice,where as he has much to lose from ignoring it.

If it looks, walks and Quacks like a duck, it will never be a platypus as much as you want it to be. Having your head in the sand never helps anyone.
And I really cannot add anything new to the matter so I'll step out until something new actually needs addressing.

 

[CyberTao]

I avoided reading most of this thread, but doesn't steam keep track of players playing daily? I ask because the decline in player count could mostly be a decline in MP, not SP. Most people I know have switched to just building really, since MP is kinda shallow/pointless/empty currently, so it might not be a decline in interest so much as it is waiting for things to do (some people want a little more than building).

 

[Ithirahad]

Also remember that not everyone uses Steam... I, for one, didn't even reinstall through Steam when I cleaned up my hard drive and accidentally deleted my Steam SM folder. And even when it was there I rarely (if ever) launched through Steam.

 

[jorgekorke]

Let's go back to the point, forget about server-side. The player activity drop is happening on the whole ambient of SM slowly, since March. The damage caused a year ago is permanent, the players that have came, tried, and got bored (be it due to bugs or simply lack of content) are never comming back. We'll have to bring up brand new people to convince to play, which would not be as easy.

Also remember that not everyone uses Steam... I, for one, didn't even reinstall through Steam when I cleaned up my hard drive and accidentally deleted my Steam SM folder. And even when it was there I rarely (if ever) launched through Steam.

I'd bet that most of the people who does not use Steam are old ones like us.

 

[Ithirahad]

I feel like the Steam launch was just incredibly premature... If we were to launch Steam Early Access in, say, six months, it would probably work out a lot better than it did.