Hi there!

And nice to see a (very) few familiar faces!

It's a good intention, and a few good points have already been made by other posters above. 

The question of why people leave and whether we should try and get them back is a recurrent one. There have been squabbles, yes, but people also went to other games, moved on to other passions, saw the atmosphere change and decided it wasn't what they were looking for any more, and so on.

When I was first here, there was very little game mechanics (except collecting crystals, if that still rings a bell), and most of what we did was roleplaying. Then the whole game was revamped and looked completely different. It also went through a very unstable phase, which was the final push for many fans. I'm sure the next generations saw other changes and had their own reason to move on. What matters is that new generations keep coming and bring fresh air in the community.

Something I notice, whenever I happen to come back and peek at this website: it's almost abandoned. Most of the subforums haven't been touched in years. I know there's a Discord, but it can't replace a forum and will feel very different to old-timers. The forums, which were the primary point of contact, really give the impression the project has closed - that's what I first thought months ago when I went by and logged in, and it's only after looking deeper that I saw the activity had moved elsewhere. I'm not sure how many will take the time to look and register on a real-time chat platform like Discord.

The fact the login cookie expires after 1 hour only is also quite off-putting and unnecessary.

But who knows? If you throw a message in a bottle, chances are people who still have that email address will feel a pang of nostalgia and check in, just to see if other past friends do the same. I doubt they'll go as far as trying the game, though (I have no idea if it's stable and easy to set up).

FWIW, I corrected a few things in the "letter". Of course, some of it should be adapted to the timing if such an email were to be sent (for ex, it's not the beginning of a new year any more). I'm also a little confused about "what started out as a migration project", because that's not at all what I remember PS being back then, in 2003 (granted, I'm not the oldest around). What migration?

I would definitely NOT try to get hold of people's email address, as it's against the law, at least in European countries. Just seeing that makes me want to quickly change and give a fake email. Please, just don't even think about it.

Cheers

----

Dear friend,

It has been a long time since you last ventured to Yliakum, and much has changed since. What started out as a migration project over the years finally became a new version with plenty of new content:

• Since April 2023, Planeshift is running on the Unreal Engine.
• New locations with new NPCs and new quests.
• A dungeon filled with traps and treasure.
• Crafting improvements.
• Everything simply looks a bit nicer - except that players still want the Legacy transport pterosaurs back - they simply looked more impressive!
• And so much more, check news for all details: https://www.planeshift.it/news

So what could be a better start of the new year than a new experience of PlaneShift?

Download it, meet old friends again, and make new ones - or enemies, for two things will never change: PlaneShift is Fully Free to Play, and RP-oriented.

See you soon!

The PlaneShift team

Ha!  Consider this ancient conjured!   

Just thought I'd stop by and hay 'Hi'.  Some day I hope to have the time and download/install/drop in the game again.

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.

I agree, with your statements. Its important with enough active stories to be able to come back. But oh how i miss the good old days once in a while

This is the Discord channel of Planeshift. https://discord.com/invite/f9y6TFjvnf

Getting a message that the link is invalid or has expired.

Greetings Ancients as well as Youngers!

Dropped briefly into the game, for the first time in a long time, after installing the game software. Venorel finally looks her Ylian self! 

There are some questions about what is worn and what one sees, yet that may find an answer in game.

Someone has been busy since my last visit. Kudos!