DEV Zoom wrote:I'm aware that it's not the only reason, but the people who have it for free don't play because the other people who have it for free don't play That's basically the most frustrating thing for us devs. (I'm not here to lament, just putting in my 2c.)
As you observe, an MMO lives on a critical mass of players to populate the Massiveness of the Multiplayer in order to attract and keep more people around and for longer, an unfortunate catch-22.
Silicon Valley people call this 'stickiness'. A metric to understand how long a player sticks around: lifespan, maybe.
If this is too short, then you have to find a way to bolster the single-player experience to increase the lifespan of the casual player, and then create a spark of attention/attraction with something new and exciting that would draw old and new players alike back into the game, or purchasing the game for the first time.
The assignments update is great, and you are following through on Beta increasing incentives for Beta activity; which is great.
But fresh, new content seems to be the only big attraction for most players that leave the game, or are on the fence about buying.
The talk about the balance patch is relevant too. Not because if its reverted vets will magically come back because they left as a protest? (is this true? need citation). But because new players that do show up hear from the remaining vets that if they picked green, they chose wrong and this negatively affects their outlook on the game as they feel like they start at a disadvantage.
The sad truth is it doesn't matter what is True for the player, only how they feel and what is 'truthy' for them.
This same negative feeling comes from how dumb new players feel when they cant find the artifact in the tutorial. You guys are addressing this, and I think it might be the right way to look at things now. I admit, I was against the artifact scanning change because the rigor it required made it appropriately difficult. But the negative effects of rage-quitting tutorial-level players can't be ignored.
I guess the question is, what other topics in game, or not yet in-game, could address this player experience in other areas?
Anyway keep up the good work, and feel free to ignore all of this because I'm dumb and don't know what I am talking about.