Milestone - 1000 Castle Marrach Signups

[ChristopherA]

We passed a milestone last night -- over 1000 players have signed up for Castle Marrach to give it a try!

-- Christopher Allen

[Atama]

*Zero shakes in fear at the thought of walking into a single room with hundreds of people in it.*

Congrats Skotos!

[ChristopherA]

Originally posted by stealthkat:
Full of questions this morning...Has it been explained anywhere yet how pay-for-play will work? Will that be a charge per game? Per user account? Per character? I know it's monthly, but was curious as to the details. http://www.skotos.net/ubb/smile.gif

The fee will be $9.95 a month for access to every Skotos game. The current plan is to turn on pay-for-play in January, or when we have our next major game available. The first month will be free (thus the beta testers will get one more month free.)

Each game will have different limits on the number of characters. Currently there is some discussion to limiting Castle Marrach to 3. We may have a premium account that will allow more. We have also discussed family accounts, but we are not yet sure how that would work.

-- Christopher Allen

[ChristopherA]

Originally posted by stealthkat:
Sorry, gotta ask. That's 1000 separate user accounts and not 1000 characters created in Marrach, right?

Yes and no. Since we started, about 45% of all of our beta testers that have tried us out only play for 1 day then never play again.

Of the people that do return, they average playing 3+ days a week, which I find quite remarkable.

-- Christopher Allen

[stealthkat]

Sorry, gotta ask. That's 1000 separate user accounts and not 1000 characters created in Marrach, right?

Awesome! And Congratulations!

Kat ~ Katherine

PS. Full of questions this morning...Has it been explained anywhere yet how pay-for-play will work? Will that be a charge per game? Per user account? Per character? I know it's monthly, but was curious as to the details. http://www.skotos.net/ubb/smile.gif

[Atama]

Chrisopher, I gotta say this game can get in your blood. I think you got my $9.95 per month.

[stealthkat]

Thanks for the explanations!

Is there some way to track or gain feedback on why that 45% only plays once? Okay, I know I have asked the nearly impossible question, but...well, maybe if I keep asking it someone will have an answer.

You don't need to reply with specifics, just curious if you have a plan or idea or intention or something. http://www.skotos.net/ubb/smile.gif
(How's that for vague?)

Kathy ~ Katherine

[LadySilverwolf]

Holy Toledo!!!

*sits back and gawks*

alright... where are you hiding them all!! Inner Bailey?

*groan*.... more plots to filtrate through... http://www.skotos.net/ubb/smile.gif

Actually, congrates on the sign up!! I hope that we seem many more faces around during skotos prime time!!

[Erica]

Though I don't know for sure, I know a good portion of the folks I've introduced that didn't come back, was because they are more visual players, they enjoyed the game, but aren't into the text games. One, my fiance for example is a die-hard visual player, he has the need to actually *see* everything, the text he found didn't work for him. At the same time, he is an analytical thinker, as are the other two I know who didn't come back, the more creative thinkers of our offline group are still with us in the halls, I won't say who, but I know they will agree. http://www.skotos.net/ubb/smile.gif

I think its a very unique type of RPing,but then, it is just my thoughts :P

-Arrion
(Yes.. too much time to analyze on my hands)

[ChristopherA]

Originally posted by stealthkat:
Is there some way to track or gain feedback on why that 45% only plays once?

We are working on trying to get a greater understanding of that. As Erica stated, some of the problem is that some people simply are not going to be interested in a text-dominant game. There is not much we can do about that.

I do believe that there are some problems that we can do something about:


Castle Marrach is someplace between a MUD and a MUSH, but leans strongly toward the MUSH style of play. We risk alienating those that come here with either expectation. Hopefully, as we add new games that fit another spot on the axis between MUD and MUSH many of the people who tried us out will give us another chance.
Many of the people who are trying us out have no MUD or MUSH experience at all, and there are a number of barriers of entry for them. They have to learn to walk the halls, dare to ask questions, and begin to involve themselves in plots. We currently don't make this learning as easy as we could.
Of the people without MUD/MUSH experience, many have problems dealing with the amount of text that flows past on the screen. This can be due to just inexperience with chat and other overwhelming text flow experiences, or due to a underlying minor dyslexia. We hope that over time with prox, sound attenuation, clustering, attention, and other technical features that we can lower this barrier, however, ultimately, there is only so much we can do.
Some people quit when they realize that in order to play the game they need to commit a significant amount of time. Not all Skotos games will have the time commitment of Castle Marrach, so hopefully each person in the future can find a game that meets their needs. Also I expect a different time commitment required for Inner Bailey life in the Castle vs. Outer Bailey life.
Not a significant problem today, but may grow over time is that fact that our Castle Marrach society is no longer empty, and some people will feel intimidated because of it's "fullness". This can be due to feeling inadequate about involving themselves in what appears to be a long running plot, or a sense of politeness that they don't want to interrupt ongoing relationships. Overcrowding and fullness we can solve as the Inner Bailey opens up for the more experienced players, but as we approach 1000 actual active players in Castle Marrach, it will be an growing issue.


-- Christopher Allen

[Lucas]

One other possible explanation that I've noticed with a couple of "newbies" is a sense of frustration with not being able to do anything earthshattering in the first day or two. I've seen a couple who seemed to expect that there would be "something to do" - which I interpret as the sort of something that one would see in Asheron's Call or Diablo. Especially since in the beta test there are certain things that have yet to be enabled, these people get bored quickly and do stupid things like dance naked into other people's conversations before never being heard from again. This ties neatly into another topic on the board, I believe... http://www.skotos.net/ubb/smile.gif
Personally, I think we're better off without them, some people's styles just don't mesh with this game.