So.. We have all seen that the site has been a little less active. I want to know why, so here are some questions for you all to answer.

~ If you don't come on daily any more, why?
~ What would make you want to come on more?
~ What do you want to see change?
~ Got any new ideas that haven't yet been voiced?
~ What do you come on to CW and do? (Level, Rp, Come in chat ETC)

I try to get on when I can, usually I'm on after and before work or on days I'm off I'll be on multiple times a day.

I'm happy with the game at it's current state and I've seen plenty of suggestions that look good and are still being evaluated.

When I am online I'm usually getting in my kills on my Blacklist or helping with a Coven War if one is currently active. When I'm not battling I check messages and see how friends and Coven mates are doing.

I am not seen as much as I used to be because, I now can't get online as much anymore, due to the fact I do not have internet at my house, although I am looking for a apartment here in town, so until then, I can only get online when when I need to come to town

a large drop in activity was noticeable the instant the forums were changed, along with a steady decline due to users not having more to do any longer. The lack of proper strippers didn't help either

That must be it Luv the failure to provide suitable stripper to the community.... If only we had better resources to provide such things..

I'm going to be too lazy to type everything I see wrong with the site and the lack of people so I'm just going to paste what I've said already.

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See http://skylnk.co/ennqTn for some contex.

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I was just choosing favoritism for chat. But there are workarounds for the idea such as you can go into your settings and choose which chats you wish to be displayed always. (and I think by default all should be on) Also the reason I think it should be shown always (along with recent forum posts) is because then the users can see who is actively in chat or not without any fuss.

But I have another idea. So you know that when you hover over one of the tabs it maximizes and if you move your mouse cursor away is stays open correct? Well similar to how I said you could select which chats to show why not have it so you select which tab you wish to auto open when you REMOVE your mouse from the list of tabs. So say I want Community tab to open up when my mouse cursor is not actively over any of the others. It'll always be open. I mean there are a lot of ways to go about doing things and those were a few of my ideas.

Now on the subject of users in general yes I completely agree there needs to be more active users. I honestly was a bit shocked on the lack of user base when I came back the other day. (was gone a few months) Now how do you keep users? You add value that makes the users want to keep coming back.

Lets run down on a few of the abilities on the site. You have:
- Battling; in the forms of PvP and PvE
- Crafting (kind of flawed imo)
- Quests; the same ones over and over
- Coven related things
- Weapon/Armor customization*; although limited it's there.
- Leveling up/stats
- HoF (if you're into being the #1)
- Community related things.

*By customization I mean able to upgrade your weapon/armor to a more new and powerful one.

This isn't everything but just a few. Now what is the most primary thing about the site? Turns. Without turns you can't do most of the things on the site. And once you run out there is nothing to do in terms of progressing your character.

How do you gain turns? You have to either wait an hour, complete some quests or purchase premium.
So here's a scenario, non-premium player just used up all his/her turns and completed all available quests. It's an hour until they get 10 more turns...hours up then they use their turns within a few mins(if that) and now must wait another hour to do anything.

Now after that person is done with their turns what can they do?
- Battling? No
- Crafting? Not unless they have $/souls
- Quests? All gone
- Coven related things? Coven war...no, leveling it up...no, talking? yes
- Weapon/armor related? Not unless they have $ or are already maxed
- leveling up stats? No
- Hof ranking up? On most stats No
- Community related things? Definitely!

So...from the above list when you have no turns left you can't do most of the main parts of the game. What's left? Social stuff. Where are all the social stuff atm? Hidden from normal view.

Now without the social stuff with easy access (since people are lazy or just forget it's even there) they will just leave once their turns are up. And chances are they just wont find the repetitiveness of the site to be fun and altogether stop coming back.

I have a few ideas on how to keep people here.

One: Revamp the hunting area, instead of a directional game, turn it more into an interactive game. This can be a simple HTML5 game that is linked to your profile where you can move around in a game world (maybe make it so you can run into other players?) and are able to fight other monsters/humans in real time. Also have it so that while you're in game you're able to access any chat you want (have general chat open by default) if not for them to talk but to have them see others in active discussions. This can do a few things for people they will feel more apart of the game, each turn will feel like it has value(for the system I have thought of at least). They will have instant access to the community while playing and if done have even multiplayer support (probably not). So all that just for hunting. I could go in depth but you get the idea.

Two: Add more ways to get turns. It's really that simple. I mean you'll want to find a balance on how many extra you can get or just the ways you can get them. Maybe have it so that with posts that you get $10 you also get 1 turn. There are drawbacks such as people spamming forums but that's when you add the max. Or make it so you can't get more than 1 turn every 5mins.

Three: And this has been said many times, more Quests that are different and more Achievements. So I wont go any further with that.

Forth: More interactions within the community that are rewarded. Really having it so people feel good about doing something makes people happy and want to come back.

Fifth: Look at certain parts of the site that have less activity, ask yourself why don't people come here? or use this certain feature? One place that I have in mind is the Marketplace. It's only used to do private trading between 2 people. There really is no other reason to use it. So how could we make that more useful? Well for starters add recipes to crafting, add new resources to the game, some common others more rare. Have it so they're acquired via certain actions on the site. Posting in forums/chat for x times, play in the hunting area and find a chest or off a dead human, found items off other players. Maybe there is an item you can only get if another player has it? By adding that and the ability to sell on the market you add times not easily accessible to everyone and will create a demand for the rarer items.

There's a bunch that can be changed/added to make people want to come back. And theses are just some of my thoughts.



Edited at 08/13 20:45:30

You make some good points and some good ideas there Soul.

I shall reiterate a post from a previous thread that called for somewhat the same answers:

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Absinthe Venimeuse (4020) said
The forums are stagnant, that was a given, as soon as they weren't readily visible.
'Out of site, out of mind'
I don't know what would be easier with the coding, to go back to showing the most recent posts, and threads that had been commented on; or as Sinclair brought up-the ability to subscribe to a thread.
As Soul said, seeing the link to General chat and the count of players in it, may perk up activity a bit. I also like his idea of being able to choose to always see or highlight the parts of the game we use more.
I hate to see the game becoming less player friendly. And/or seeing the community breaking apart. We all play online games in order to socialize with others, but the present scheme is counter productive to that aspect of online gaming.

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Then, I agree whole-heartedly with Soul, and somewhat with Luv

We need at least the General chat and the number of players in it visible.
We need at least the latest forum activity visible.

It's too hard to make money.
Hunting now sucks, I don't even bother.
Crafting is impossible due to lack of money.
I can't afford to attack clones.
So that's three aspects of the game I can't and/or don't participate in.

The premium centers gone,
So may I suggest either a new in game vial available to make at the potion Masters that contains more turns,
Or a new vial available for purchase.
Most of us now have more then needed Premium Days, we don't need anymore,
Can we please get a vial that perhaps only includes AP and turns?

The Coven War reminder that shows up in our battle tab would be more noticeable if it were made red again.

Are we going to get the gifting option for at least yellow vials, (or any vials) if not inventoried items?

I grew somewhat bored with the game. I have disdain for some things within the game. For some reason, all of my passion for 'being at the top of the HOF in as many of the topics as I can' has lost my interest. I just don't care any more
So for a while I've only been coming on and using my turns in the gym; I may attack my blacklist once through, but other then that, I just pop in and answer a few mails to friends, which is presently the only draw to me.

~ If you don't come on daily any more, why?
Been disrespected one too many times without a fear-free venue in which to express my feelings of disgust.
If you've ever seen the movie Mean Girls, this game has the same hierarchy;
I'd love to roll the bowling ball that knocked down the queen-pins and made every one feel they had a voice,
But I've spent way too much rl money on the game to be jailed for sticking up for my rights.
So I sit in the corner, tail between my legs like the little puppy that was beat with the newspaper.


Edited at 08/19 21:34:14

If you don't come on daily any more, why?
> New college student. Other member inactivity = less interest.
~ What would make you want to come on more?
My coven being active.
~ What do you want to see change?
The forum layout was better before.
~ Got any new ideas that haven't yet been voiced?
Nope

Sorry if I sound like a downer but I've played other online textgames and this one, while looking extremely cool with all of its features, is downright boring as hell. It is but mere childs play to log in and either go to the gym and workout and/or go find some easy targets to kill for a level up. I've been told it gets much harder as you go along but I don't see a reward to that effort.
In a TRUE game there are losers and and there are winners. Losing can be almost as much fun as winning. But I assume the creators of this game desired only ALL winners so as to keep everyone happy and around. So this place isn't really a game but merely a place to hangout and feel....special? Well i feel special in a babied way and so I continue to log in and usually ask myself why others actually appear to feel as though they have achieved something...?
If my memebership was canceled or this game vanished from the online map I wouldn't even give it a second thought.

So my suggestion would be to make it a actual GAME. If, for example, I logged in tomorrow and saw I actually lost something perhaps then I would strive to regain my place, honor, etc. As it is now I see I was hit several times and my reaction was *yawn.* 'Back to the gym..'