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General Discussion / Re: Let's get ancient players back...
« on: September 06, 2024, 03:38:37 pm »These are all valid points, but imagine you meet your old RP friend again, and for the same reason that you prefer other games now, this friend would prefer to stay in PlaneShift...
Yep, as I said, then it might be something worth considering.
The only other game I have tried during the past years was World of Warcraft, and even though I was on a so-called "RP server", absolutely nobody was RPing there...
Largely my experience, too, even if you have an RP community, people typically also want to play the game "normally," which takes away from RP time. And when there is RP, it's often just "tavern RP," i.e. RPers meeting in a tavern and making small talk.
What I'm thinking is, if you have a group to RP with that share your mindset, the game doesn't really matter. Just select any online game where you can walk around together and have some features useful for RP, and you'll be able to build something fun.
Obviously this forum is about PlaneShift, I'm not saying "we should all move on to something else," that's for everyone to decide for themselves and not even the point I'm trying to make.
My point was more, even if you reach ancient players, and they're excited to meet old friends again, I don't know how many would consider going back to PS. If they left knowing they'd have to leave their friends behind, I don't know if "all your friends are here" will be the message that brings them back.
Really, it seems like you have two goals: repopulate PlaneShift and bring old acquaintances back together. I feel like these are partly in conflict. So what I'm trying to say is, achieving both goals with one email may not be easy. If the email focuses too much on PS, it may be ignored by many. If it focuses too much on old friendships, they might come back, hang around the forum for a few weeks, and then leave again.
I'm not trying to say it's a pointless endeavor, or that other games are better, or that people have moved on and won't ever return. I'm trying to explain why I think it's a bit of a tightrope walk, and that it's important to get the message just right if you want to see the outcome you desire.
What would be my solution?
Don't make the email about repopulating PlaneShift at all. Make it about the community. Talk about events that happened, remind people of different characters and what their role in the world was. Focus on relationships between the characters. Maybe get some old players to write stories, retrospectives, IC documents, etc. Remind people what made their time in Yliakum so special, and that most of these old people are still out there, somewhere. Ensure to get as many people as possible to just think about it again, and bring up positive memories.
If people have a positive connection to those events and those characters, they might want to engage with the community again. Never force the issue. Never tell them, "oh, you know, PS is much better now with PSUnreal." Let them make the decision organically, if they want to. Nobody should feel pushed back into it, or like it's something transactional ("you're having fun in our community, so you owe us to play the game again," even if just implied).
As those Oldbies get more comfortable interacting with the community again, start communicating what's happening in the game in a way they can see it, but don't feel like you're asking them to get back into the game. The same way you shared old stories in emails, share new stories from the game, maybe with screenshots. Show, don't tell people that the "good old days" are also the "good new days." Give them the chance to decide they want to get back in.
But I feel like you get one chance on that. If at any point, people feel coerced, or like the community has a toxic element to it that reminds them too much of the bad memories that contributed to why they left, or if they conclude that the game hasn't improved enough, or if they think current RP isn't up to the high standard they're remembering (even if that's just false memories), they might just be gone again.
Am I overcomplicating things? Maybe in regard to some people. I'm sure there are a few that would go like "heck yeah, forgot about PlaneShift, I'mma jump back in." But most of the people I remember had grievances with how the community, the game, and development was run, how lore and rules were implemented and enforced, were discomforted by perceived double standards in the GM team, etc. etc. A lot of issues aside from low population. Some of them just because they were bitter, some of them justified.
Are you sure all such potential issues are addressed and fixed now, and people will feel much better now and stay? For me, there's still a looming air of discomfort connected to the community. Not going into detail here, but feel free to DM me in Discord if you want me to elaborate. And if I got an email overtly asking me to come back to the game without evidence that any of the issues I used to have were addressed, it probably wouldn't be very successful in motivating me to come back.
[Edit: softened last sentence because I didn't like how strongly it was worded... I really just want to help but sometimes my tone is off... sorry if it is off in this message.]
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