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<H1>Re: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</H1>
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<LI><em>To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
<LI><em>Subject</em>: Re: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</LI>
<LI><em>From</em>: "Petri Virkkula" <<A HREF="mailto:pvirkkul#iki,fi">pvirkkul#iki,fi</A>></LI>
<LI><em>Date</em>: Sat, 18 Sep 1999 04:18:10 +0300 (EEST)</LI>
<LI><em>Reply-To</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev#kanga,nu">mud-dev#kanga,nu</A></LI>
<LI><em>Sender</em>: <A HREF="mailto:mud-dev-admin#kanga,nu">mud-dev-admin#kanga,nu</A></LI>
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<PRE>
>>>>> "Matthew" == Matthew Mihaly <diablo#best,com> writes:
Matthew> thriving with thousands of players on simultaneously. We've gone from
Matthew> peaking at 40 last year to peaking at 100 this year, and we're
Matthew> growing. We're not even putting any real effort into advertising (not
While I was calculating BatMUD's statistics for first half of
1999 I started thinking how to measure success of a mud. The
thinking was triggered by the statistics report I wrote and
that is also included below. My interpretation of our
statistics was that our players play more that they used to
be, but at the same time the player base smaller than it used
to be.
The questions that I thought about (and almost sent to the
list) were something like:
- is peak or average online players a good meter for a mud
- which is better, growing peak player count or longer play times
- is it enought that existing players like the mud, or should
we seek (actively) for new players
I did not find any definitive answers to the questions. Have
others thought that kind of questions?
Especially the fact the drop in new players has worried
me. BatMUD has never claimed to be newbie friendly and never
will claim it. Our responsivity to user requests like lost
passwords has always too low (and lately it has even lower).
The following actions have already been done, or being done
right now to correct the situation:
1) create new WWW pages with new and consistent look
This project is still being done. New page layout
(subject to change ) can be seen at
<URL:<A HREF="http://www.bat.org:8002/">http://www.bat.org:8002/</A>>, old pages are at
<URL:<A HREF="http://www.bat.org/">http://www.bat.org/</A>>. The new pages are a bit
slow because they are dynamically generated, but that
will change as soon as they are ready (the pages will
be moved to another faster machine).
Most of the work so far has been concentrated on a
system that generates the pages dynamically and uses a
template. The system is atleast ready, but the content
for the pages is waiting for the user authentication
system mentioned below in 2).
2) Share mud's passwords with WWW pages
Our wizards have (almost) full shell access to their
code. The access is controlled by their mud passwords
that are copied regularily (once in three hours) from
mud password files to other machine.
I am slowly making a separate authentication server
that will be used by the mud, WWW pages and the
wizards' shell access. The idea is to give players the
possibility to change their password in WWW
pages. They could also add a verification question and
answer that is common in other WWW services in case of
lost password.
3) Add support for community of BatMUD's players
Currently there are lots BatMUD related WWW pages
written by players. The only way to get to the pages
is to use a search engine. The goal is to have link
list maintained by players. The system is not ready
yet, but a glimpse what kind of information can be
seen at (username: guest, password: guest).
<URL:<A HREF="http://www.bat.org:8002/Links/submit.html">http://www.bat.org:8002/Links/submit.html</A>>
Implementation of this feature waits for the
authentication system described above in 2).
Simirarily the intention is to give support players to
describe our map of our wilderness. Our current map is
at <URL:<A HREF="http://www.bat.org/Batmud/batmap.html">http://www.bat.org/Batmud/batmap.html</A>> while
map (based on older map of wilderness) maintained by
players is e.g. at
<URL:<A HREF="http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dungeon/9884/bigmap.htm">http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Dungeon/9884/bigmap.htm</A>>
(My philosophy is that we as game administrators must
not tell everything to players, but we can assist
players to help each others for example with
(sometimes wrong) information they have gathered by
playing the mud.)
4) Registration of BATMUD.NET, BATMUD.ORG and BATMUD.COM domains
So far we have only owned BAT.ORG domain. As above
three domains were free it was decided to register all
of them though no decision has been made how to use
them (except BATMUD.NET).
We have allowed years our players to receive (not
send) mail in the mud with addresses like
player.<charname>@bat.org. Format of the address is
now simplified to <charname>@batmud.net. Perhaps we
will even advertise this possibility more actively
among the players. One possibility could be an added
support for mail reading through WWW pages (as soon as
the authentication system is ready) in the future.
Other things are also being done, above list is just an
example. The intention is to give more services to players,
make few support routines more automatic, and give players
more responsibility for WWW pages.
Petri
--- cut here ---
Summary
=======
Statistics of BatMUD are shown in the tables below for the
first of years 1998 and 1999, and comparison between them.
According to the statistics there has been 12764 players who
have atleast once visited the mud during the first six months
of the year 1999. This number is 2404 (or 16%) lower than
it used to be last year during similar time period. Also all
other player counts are significantly lower during the year
1999 when comparing with the year 1998.
Our players are however more dedicated than they used to
be, or they just idle more. Average session length and daily
play times are bigger than they used to be resulting also
raise in average online players.
Averages
========
1-6/1999 1-6/1998 +/- +/- %
-----------------------------------------------------
Sessions 775620 895280 -119660 -13%
Characters 12764 15168 -2404 -16%
Guests 23833 24811 -978 -4%
Avg. Sessions/character 21 22 -1 -5%
Avg. Sessions/day 4286 4947 -661 -13%
Avg. Session 01:01:01 00:48:26 +00:12:35 +26%
Avg. Daily Playtime 00:20:29 00:15:47 +00:04:42 +30%
Avg. Online Characters 181 166 +15 +9%
Average Daily Characters
========================
1999 1998 +/- +/- %
-----------------------------------------------------
January-June 1319 1406 -87 -6%
January 1354 1500 -146 -8%
February 1393 1486 -93 -6%
March 1288 1515 -227 -15%
April 1420 1452 -32 -2%
May 1331 1315 +16 +1%
June 1131 1166 -35 -3%
New Characters
==============
1999 1998 +/- +/- %
-----------------------------------------------------
Total January-June 4053 5818 -1765 -30%
January 596 1135 -539 -47%
February 780 965 -185 -19%
March 600 1078 -478 -44%
April 730 939 -209 -22%
May 759 877 -118 -13%
June 588 824 -236 -29%
--- cut here ---
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<li><strong><A NAME="00407" HREF="msg00407.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</A></strong>
<ul compact><li><em>From:</em> Matthew Mihaly <diablo#best,com></li></ul>
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<LI><STRONG><A NAME="00349" HREF="msg00349.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</A></STRONG>
<UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> Adam Wiggins <adam#angel,com></LI></UL></LI>
<LI><STRONG><A NAME="00367" HREF="msg00367.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</A></STRONG>
<UL><LI><EM>From:</EM> Matthew Mihaly <diablo#best,com></LI></UL></LI>
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<ul><li>Thread context:
<BLOCKQUOTE><UL>
<LI><STRONG>Re: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</STRONG>, <EM>(continued)</EM>
<ul compact>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00343" HREF="msg00343.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</A></strong>,
Mik Clarke <a href="mailto:mikclrk#ibm,net">mikclrk#ibm,net</a>, Thu 16 Sep 1999, 22:38 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00342" HREF="msg00342.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</A></strong>,
Dundee <a href="mailto:SkeptAck#antisocial,com">SkeptAck#antisocial,com</a>, Thu 16 Sep 1999, 22:39 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00349" HREF="msg00349.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</A></strong>,
Adam Wiggins <a href="mailto:adam#angel,com">adam#angel,com</a>, Fri 17 Sep 1999, 02:11 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00367" HREF="msg00367.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</A></strong>,
Matthew Mihaly <a href="mailto:diablo#best,com">diablo#best,com</a>, Fri 17 Sep 1999, 17:48 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00392" HREF="msg00392.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</A></strong>,
Petri Virkkula <a href="mailto:pvirkkul#iki,fi">pvirkkul#iki,fi</a>, Sat 18 Sep 1999, 01:18 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00407" HREF="msg00407.html">Re: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</A></strong>,
Matthew Mihaly <a href="mailto:diablo#best,com">diablo#best,com</a>, Mon 20 Sep 1999, 01:20 GMT
</LI>
</UL>
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</UL>
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</UL>
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00336" HREF="msg00336.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</A></strong>,
Koster, Raph <a href="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com">rkoster#origin,ea.com</a>, Thu 16 Sep 1999, 23:16 GMT
</LI>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00354" HREF="msg00354.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</A></strong>,
Koster, Raph <a href="mailto:rkoster#origin,ea.com">rkoster#origin,ea.com</a>, Fri 17 Sep 1999, 14:48 GMT
<UL>
<LI><strong><A NAME="00362" HREF="msg00362.html">RE: [MUD-Dev] Attracting players</A></strong>,
Adam Wiggins <a href="mailto:adam#angel,com">adam#angel,com</a>, Fri 17 Sep 1999, 17:49 GMT
</LI>
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