What can we do to help get the population back up?

[Menkaure]

This isnt a dig, this isnt a "BRING BACK SERVER EVENTS" thread, or anything of the like (though I bet if server events were brought back, pop would rise a great deal).
Anyways, when an MMORPG starts losing pop, they usually will offer something to new players or returning players. For example, Darkfall, Wow and others have offered free months playing for returning and new players etc;
Since this is free to play, maybe we as a community or maybe even the gms, since this is kind of era accurate (free play for a month when UOSA came out if I remember correctly) can do something about it.
Anyone have any ideas? For guys like Roadkill who are doing events like the idoc to help the community, maybe instead of doing events we can all put our gold together and offer a free house deed to whoever returns/starts playing again. (See Roadkill maybe you should not have destroyed your gf hued mask, sold it, and then gave away house deeds to new players, I bet that woulda helped!!)
Anyway, even 10k start up gold for new players is a huge help in this game.
Anyone have any ideas?

[malice-tg]

This isnt a dig, this isnt a "BRING BACK SERVER EVENTS" thread, or anything of the like (though I bet if server events were brought back, pop would rise a great deal).
Anyways, when an MMORPG starts losing pop, they usually will offer something to new players or returning players. For example, Darkfall, Wow and others have offered free months playing for returning and new players etc;
Since this is free to play, maybe we as a community or maybe even the gms, since this is kind of era accurate (free play for a month when UOSA came out if I remember correctly) can do something about it.
Anyone have any ideas? For guys like Roadkill who are doing events like the idoc to help the community, maybe instead of doing events we can all put our gold together and offer a free house deed to whoever returns/starts playing again. (See Roadkill maybe you should not have destroyed your gf hued mask, sold it, and then gave away house deeds to new players, I bet that woulda helped!!)
Anyway, even 10k start up gold for new players is a huge help in this game.
Anyone have any ideas?

I would focus on new markets and get players from other countries and places who havent heard of us. Then when these new guys login the pop goes up like 10% and alot of fair weather players will log back in and drive it up a bit more. Our biggest pop swings have come when the german guilds joined and the japanese joined in the 5 years i have been here.

so if you(uosa players) speak a second language post a blurb on game forums of other countries.

free stuff doesnt do anything for long term gains imo it actually detracts in the long term.

player run events or role player things would be better.

[[Uhh] Eo]

I would focus on new markets and get players from other countries and places who havent heard of us. Then when these new guys login the pop goes up like 10% and alot of fair weather players will log back in and drive it up a bit more. Our biggest pop swings have come when the german guilds joined and the japanese joined in the 5 years i have been here.

so if you(uosa players) speak a second language post a blurb on game forums of other countries.

free stuff doesnt do anything for long term gains imo it actually detracts in the long term.

player run events or role player things would be better.

Too long didn't read

[Menkaure]

This isnt a dig, this isnt a "BRING BACK SERVER EVENTS" thread, or anything of the like (though I bet if server events were brought back, pop would rise a great deal).
Anyways, when an MMORPG starts losing pop, they usually will offer something to new players or returning players. For example, Darkfall, Wow and others have offered free months playing for returning and new players etc;
Since this is free to play, maybe we as a community or maybe even the gms, since this is kind of era accurate (free play for a month when UOSA came out if I remember correctly) can do something about it.
Anyone have any ideas? For guys like Roadkill who are doing events like the idoc to help the community, maybe instead of doing events we can all put our gold together and offer a free house deed to whoever returns/starts playing again. (See Roadkill maybe you should not have destroyed your gf hued mask, sold it, and then gave away house deeds to new players, I bet that woulda helped!!)
Anyway, even 10k start up gold for new players is a huge help in this game.
Anyone have any ideas?

I would focus on new markets and get players from other countries and places who havent heard of us. Then when these new guys login the pop goes up like 10% and alot of fair weather players will log back in and drive it up a bit more. Our biggest pop swings have come when the german guilds joined and the japanese joined in the 5 years i have been here.

so if you(uosa players) speak a second language post a blurb on game forums of other countries.

free stuff doesnt do anything for long term gains imo it actually detracts in the long term.

player run events or role player things would be better.

I agree, but I think donations do help new players. Starting out on uo as a newb, especially if you never played before, with 100 gold is almost impossible to get started if you don't know what your doing.

[Aeris]

I think I agree that starting with 10k would not help people join.. especially people who've played UO before and know what starting out was like back on OSI '99, and therefore what it should be like here on the best emulation of the T2A era (think everyone wearing neon shit 3 minutes after you logged in, and how that would make you feel about the shard as a first impression; 10k gold in your pack is pretty much the same).

It's hard to say what the very best method is, but I definitely think first impressions of the community would go further than any amount of free pixels. So, maybe the prospective players webpage could have a sentence or two encouraging new players to interact with the locals right away if they need a hand getting started, and explaining that people are helpful and willing to help you out. I don't mean just handing 'em 10k and saying have fun, that doesn't work.. but taking them hunting a bit, or showing them a few tricks to make some quick gold, or gain some skills/stats easy, etc. This stuff helps a lot. Even just suiting them up with armour and some daids (and maybe a horse) is different than handing them free gld, and goes a lot further for them being likely to stick around.


TL;DR version: don't give newbs 30k and a house deed. It doesn't help them to stick around (for the most part, but there are exceptions). Be nice; take them hunting for 20 minutes, or show 'em how to mine or sheer a sheep, or just SOMETHING interactive instead. And then tell 'em to hit you up on IRC once in a while and tell you how they're doing. Meet up with 'em every few days to help 'em out with supplies, suit 'em up with GM armour and some daids, or give 'em a few runes and some recall scrolls.[/TL;DR]


However, all that is once the people are here & logged in! How to get them here in the first place is probably more what Menk is after... I can't say from experience anything, but making sure that the description in the topUO websites is concise and attractive will go a long way toward getting them to login. Also, if you have other gamer forums you visit, could throw it out there once in a while! Just make sure you're concise, no one wants to read 1000 word description *ahem*

[Abbynormal]

Point em in my direction to join J*O. We dont "give" our new players anything, but it is earned. However, the macro/skill gain process is streamlined to get the player self-sufficent as soon as possible, then we go to different dungeons/areas to hunt. Always accepting players, and donations in time/resources from veterans looking to help out (need a good PvP instructor).

[Capitalist]

We could always just make it really cold outside. I hear that works.

[liinniejj]

im all for trying to get the pop go up however i strongly disagree with that as it takes away the whole feeling of accomplishment and you will get tons and tons of people who are NOT new at all just taking free money.

What people need is people to play with! not all new players know about irc or are on the forum right away. We need more people like how i do it is i actually see someone who looks lost and instead of killing them like pks do i actually just start a small chat you seem new? are you? do you need help? wanna hunt together? etc

A lot of new players stop because they are not using the forum yet they don't know of irc and have nobody to play with.
We need to get better hold of these new people.

[Jakob]

Maybe the towncriers could give a notice every 15 or 30 mins?

"Dont forget to visit our forums and IRC at: www.uosecondage.com"

[liinniejj]

@jakob that would be a start to get some of them to irc and the forum anyway so yh that would be nice if derrick could implement that

I have brought this to Derricks attention about the town criers and there is certainly something he can do with them and he thinks is a good idea.

[RoadKill]

For guys like Roadkill who are doing events like the idoc to help the community, maybe instead of doing events we can all put our gold together and offer a free house deed to whoever returns/starts playing again. (See Roadkill maybe you should not have destroyed your gf hued mask, sold it, and then gave away house deeds to new players, I bet that woulda helped!!)

Nope. It doesn't help at all. I spent a good portion of 2010 and part of 2011 giving away house deeds to new and returning players. I spent over 10,000,000 gold on this program, as well as donated tons of loot to Blackfoot's crawl events.

People need to earn their keep to feel invested in the shard enough to make them want to play more/stay longer. Handouts simple do not work for a majority of new and returning players.

[inkognito]

Handouts simple do not work for a majority of new and returning players.

Says the person handing out the majority of his fortune. Via idoc.

[RoadKill]

Handouts simple do not work for a majority of new and returning players.

Says the person handing out the majority of his fortune. Via idoc.

My IDOC is not a handout, it's being done for a specific reason, and only about 5 or 6 people actually know why. The IDOC event is also not aimed at new players, as they'd be cannon fodder on my island.

[Light Shade]

Nope. It doesn't help at all. I spent a good portion of 2010 and part of 2011 giving away house deeds to new and returning players. I spent over 10,000,000 gold on this program, as well as donated tons of loot to Blackfoot's crawl events.

People need to earn their keep to feel invested in the shard enough to make them want to play more/stay longer. Handouts simple do not work for a majority of new and returning players.

This is absolutely true. Players need to earn their keep. I've given away millions to new players and learned from experience. It is truly the worst thing you can do despite you thinking that you are helping.

Says the person handing out the majority of his fortune. Via idoc.

If you think any brand spanking new players are going to get 1/10th of 1% of anything on that island, you are delusional.

[Stonewolf]

Gifts and free houses aren't the way to go, no. If you haven't actually earned it, its easier to walk away from.

The suggestion of having newb helpers as an artificially pleasant community to take people out and help them won't fly either since I used to do that way back in the day. Well, when I did it, it wasn't exactly artificial. And while there were plenty of others that did this, there were plenty that used it to their advantage. Pretending to help out someone, "Yeah, come on in, it's fine. Got something for you. GREENBEANS!" It's not murder inside your own house.

If that happened back then often enough, it would be so out of control these days. Enough so that it'd chase off new-comers quicker than anything else.

The problem with the population is the population itself. What is the turn-over rate in UOSA anyway? I'm guessing pretty high. There's plenty of reason for that. Where's the people in the dungeons? In the places players would like to go to train up or make some gold? Pretty much anywhere?

Mostly in the towns.

Back in the day, Shame used to be populated. It was the common place to go. Especially on the lower levels. EEs and AEs galore and then FEs and murderers on the next. Usually populated enough that your favorite spots to cover might have someone already camping it.

Relatively safe even though you might have a band of PKs swoop in for some killing and the occasional gray/blue attack if the place was empty but, again, there were enough around that the band of PKs could often have a good fight on their hands. Especially if someone had some PK Hunters on ICQ speed dial.

Remember them?

Now, though, I've been in dungeons enough lately to know that the places players would like to go are regularly patrolled by groups of Reds that gate or recall in to find anyone that might be in there. I've noticed enough of a pattern that I've come to figure they likely have routes that they follow where they might luck upon players to kill: Dungeons, popular training spots, and such.

And they do so with impunity because it'll usually be their 3-10 against 1-2.

There's no real opposition. If a player goes to explore and finds himself wiped out each night that he/she tries, they'll eventually give it up for a game in which they stand a chance.

While I know a lot of people on this forum are likely PKs and will go at this like, "But it's fun! Woohoo!" No, not really when you're not the PK. I've noticed that there is an etiquette with some PKs. No dry looting, armor is expensive and hard to find especially starting out, and sometimes the weapon is left, maybe a rune... I take it in a gesture to keep the players from quitting in frustration.

Don't think that's working too well.

Anyway, that's what's killing your population numbers. Very low survival rates makes it only a game for those doing the killing. For newer/young players, it can equate to a BS situation.

Keeping with era accuracy will always fail in this case because it's not the same game it used to be. It's essentially taking one happening pub and turning it into a seedy bar with blood on the floor each night.

PK hunting used to be fun, btw.