Quote from: gonger on January 01, 2024, 08:52:57 am

This has been discussed before, and we really should get going now.
Let's try to get ancient players back. We all miss friends of old we would like to see back in the game.

This is always a noble goal. However, I'd like to share a few thoughts about the bumps in the road that I hit when I used to attempt such things in the past. These issues might still be lingering around.

Are there enough active stories for people to find some RP hook to latch on to? Nothing ran people back off like not having something to talk about or not having something that they wanted to interact with. It just stinks coming back and you have no connection to anything anymore. Also, people will likely come back to an empty buddy list, so heavy community support would be helpful. How many people are on at a time, these days?

For some, they left because of community drama. In those cases, it might be helpful to mention that the people they hated don't play the game right now. (<- I missed this emoji) Other people might have wanted features, races, or skills that didn't exist. It might be helpful to point out specific new things that might interest the person.

Oh yeah, Gonger mentioned that there are new locations... That means that that online players could be even more spread out. You may want to invite people back for specific events. This way, if people come back, they see several players in the area instead of an empty area. That might not be an issue any more, but it is something to think about if there is still low player count.

Overall, I feel like messages will be more effective the sender happens to remember why that player left. The more personal the message is, the more likely the player is to read it and consider it.