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

[AshBorn]

Uo is the best video game ever.

I disagree, it's a very good game, but I think Donkey Kong is the best game ever.

Did you guys miss the Billy Madison quote here?

Donkey Kong sucks! You know something? YOU SUCK!

[Abyz]

When I hear Donkey Kong I think of Crank Yankers...

[crappled]

Stop afk macroing things like Fishing and reagent-purchasing to make money.

Stop using 50 dragons at a time and clear out your stable to something reasonable.

Stop hording houses of no significant value. There are less players now than there were 4 years ago, but somehow the entire map is full of houses...

Stop playing 2+ characters at once to archer-bot, fish, mine, buy things, PK people you run into while farming on your blue or scouting.

Stop acting like children in-game.

Stop abusing "help-stuck" when all you really need is a gate from someone.

Stop complaining about events, and start hosting some.

Stop asking staff for prizes for said events. People should want to attend because the event is good. Not for some rare.

Stop refreshing your friends homes.

Stop posting "I'm quitting UOSA and here's why" posts, only to come back and play later.

Stop giving all your things away when/if you quit. The best thing you can do is bank it all, or delete it and remove it from the economy.

I think this is a very legitimate list of things that would definitely make this already great server better. Don't know if that would necessarily bring the population back up, but to me they would definitely be improvements.

[Jay]

If you go to the top of the Second Age site, under Support Us the last link is "Vote" and there is a bunch of banners to the sites that allow you to vote. It should probably be on the front page, though, because I think a lot of people overlook it. I vote on every site, every day.

This ^

[Freight Elevator]

If you go to the top of the Second Age site, under Support Us the last link is "Vote" and there is a bunch of banners to the sites that allow you to vote. It should probably be on the front page, though, because I think a lot of people overlook it. I vote on every site, every day.

This doesn't actually do anything^

FTFY

[Boomland Jenkins]

If you go to the top of the Second Age site, under Support Us the last link is "Vote" and there is a bunch of banners to the sites that allow you to vote. It should probably be on the front page, though, because I think a lot of people overlook it. I vote on every site, every day.

This doesn't actually do anything^

FTFY

I didn't realize you had access to UOSA's traffic data. Oh wait, you don't.

It would appear the voting sites have been sending decent traffic over the last 30 days, especially when you look at how poorly UOSA ranks on them. Other shards outrank us because they offer in-game incentives or in-game reminders or "vote stones"

Based on archival traffic stats from 2011 through present, and general assumptions (assuming the higher traffic timespans are from when UOSA ranked higher on these sites), in the past these voting websites brought in much more traffic, and more importantly, this traffic was new visitors.

[Freight Elevator]

I can tell that we are getting 'decent traffic' by the activity level of the server.

[AshBorn]

You can all attend the greatest pvp tournament in all UO HISTORY!!!! ok probably not but its a blast! www.UOSAPVP.com

viewtopic.php?f=76&t=54549

Event attendance is paramount to server population. The more that show up, the more active the server looks to outsiders.

Enjoy!

[Boomland Jenkins]

I can tell that we are getting 'decent traffic' by the activity level of the server.

Getting a few hundred visits in the last 30 days, for barely being on the lists (I took a look a day or 2 ago and for the most part, we weren't in the top 10) is decent for what it is. If we were sitting near the top, we'd probably see 1000+ per month coming in from these top/voting sites.

Everyone wants to the population to grow, but it sounds like (and is obvious by looking at the vote count) people aren't willing to put in 2-3 minutes of effort, a few times each week. If they did.

[Degamra]

I can tell that we are getting 'decent traffic' by the activity level of the server.

Getting a few hundred visits in the last 30 days, for barely being on the lists (I took a look a day or 2 ago and for the most part, we weren't in the top 10) is decent for what it is. If we were sitting near the top, we'd probably see 1000+ per month coming in from these top/voting sites.

Everyone wants to the population to grow, but it sounds like (and is obvious by looking at the vote count) people aren't willing to put in 2-3 minutes of effort, a few times each week. If they did.

What are the most important sites to vote for the shard? We have 7 options to choose from at the bottom of the forums and some of us may very well do that but not all of us and not every day.

And I'm curious.

[MatronDeWinter]

I have always sorted those things by "players online" (when it is possible), and I find it difficult (having played many freeshards) to see why the vote count would matter. But I suppose that is from playing and realizing that usually the highest voted servers are the ones that promote voting the most, (even if there are 5 players), and not the ones with the best experience.


I think it's important to realize that UO isn't a huge draw for "new" players. The vast majority of people playing here have played UO before, and that collection of the population will always be decreasing. There is very little incentive for new-to-uo players to discover the game and give it a try, and quality servers like UOSA which represent the classic UO feel, with risk, reward, etc.. will always be trumped my UO servers modeling after a WOW like gameplan. There is a new server now that has some nonsense about instance based quests, and achievements, and all of these things, that are not particularly UO-like. New players always flock to those types of things, then quit. Even I enjoy new servers, until everyone is no longer new and there is nothing to offer.

Another thing that concerns me, is the disparity between new and old players here. UO is great because it is the great equalizer of online games. There is very little in the game that has to do with "leveling" or "equipment", sure there is some argument to be made there, but for the most part, everyone is on the same level and experience and skill facilitate the game. But, there is so much on UOSA that a new player could never achieve, or that they missed out on. Grandfathered crap, houses, etc etc, you know what I am talking about.

Quite some time ago there was talk about creating some sort of "achievement" system that would exist specifically outside of the game. I think such a thing would be a nice draw for players to stick around. It would feed those who like the "accomplish quest" style of gameplay while having no effect on the server. There needn't be any rewards, only the ability to display your accomplishments (myuosa already has the backbone for this). More importantly this system could be expanded, and have perhaps, some challenges (which would need to be well thought out..). Because frankly, UOSA gets boring.

I haven't played in probably 2 years but I have always checked back in to see the patch notes and in 2 years nothing has really caught my attention to get me to play. I've hunted everything, played every template I can think of, exploited every new mechanic that I possibly could, I have went to "Rube Goldberg"-lengths just to find creative ways to kill people and get a laugh. But, once the mechanics stop, the pool of "things to do" no longer has any fresh water flowing in. I think the "T2A era accuracy" thing is as much of a curse as it is good for the server. Sure you can say "well you need to visit/host/etc player-events", and to some degree you are right, but anything creative enough to catch my interest at this point (ie: events that aren't just "do some pvp", "answer some trivia" or "find something on the map" (or some combination of those things), require too much thought on the part of the player and most people don't bother attending.


tl:dr = High population = high derivative of population, no new mechanics = boring, new players need incentive, shard has too many vets with nothing to do but horde.

[Boomland Jenkins]

What are the most important sites to vote for the shard? We have 7 options to choose from at the bottom of the forums and some of us may very well do that but not all of us and not every day.

And I'm curious.

I haven't dug through the list on an individual basis to see which of the sites delivered the highest quality traffic (traffic which sticks around awhile, or comes back regularly)

I will do some research on this, and suggest to Derrick to put them in rows sorted by priority.

[Gork]

Having taken the time to answer questions from new players (in game and on the forums) I've been asked the same question a few times. "500+ players? Where is everyone?" I then take the time to explain that this shard is filled with people who like to play the game and aren't bank squatters. The population is spread out ... doing its thing. I think I have managed to keep a few extra players here just by taking the time to explain this to them. One guy logged before he listened to what I had to say. He said, " to the next server then." Only because the WBB was dead. Anyways.. we can help by taking the time to talk to new players in game and explain what makes this server so awesome!

[Abyz]

Everyone use one of your 3 accts to pretend to macro at WBB. I guarantee that will help.

[Loathed]

best way to increase the population - advance time of the year to summer.
Also many will return for server holidays for the rewards.