stamina, and players

[Mageziya]

Bans on bigotry, sexuality and memelords takes out a strong (and dumb) demographic. Probably the most heavily populated playergroup for SS13.

New players tend to choose the most populated server.

This is it. There isn't much more to it.

So, what can we do? Campaign places to draw in new players? That can't end well. It is, however, acceptable on most forums that I've been to to make a post in the games sections promoting a game you like and discussion of it, so I suppose you could do it, but it feels off.

I feel like something we could be focus on instead of player recruitment is player retention. I've said it before (I think.), but there isn't much of a community beyond the direct server. There's an IRC, which has a tendency to cause problems (And is an IRC. Those aren't too popular with people that aren't deeply invested in a community.), the SA thread, which costs money and is just one thread, and then there's this forum.

I generally dedicate my time to one forum at a time. I don't know why, it's something I do. I generally hop forums after a few years. This forum is one of the more desolate that I have ever seen that's still consistently active. It's just missing half the features of a standard forum. Most forums have things besides the main subject that people can talk about or do, like other discussion boards that people can talk on and stuff. Sure, this may lead to people who only focus on the forum and not on the game, but why is that a bad thing? It'll ultimately draw in more people, which is good. Other small details, like the inability to edit posts and change avatars (Though I do admit that the avatar shenanigans are hilarious.) all lead to a very strange, almost cult-like sense of humor here that's very difficult to draw new people in with.

Probably the best forums I have ever seen are the Bay12 forums. To clarify: Not the BayStation 12 forums, though Baystation did emerge from here over many years ago, but the Dwarf Fortress forums. Urist McStation also arose out of these forums, because Baystation ultimately differed too drastically with the originally Bay12 community. (Though I think it's dead?) There is a separation of communities within Bay12, which is expected, but they give places for people to go if they tire of one board. For example, when I tired of Dwarf Fortress, I left those boards and spent a fair amount of time in the General Discussion board before finally just being bored with the place in general, though I'll probably go back if I get back into Dwarf Fortress.

This turned out to be an unexpectedly long post. Why do I always do this.