How come there aren't many players?

[Raynian]

CS still has 60k concurrent players? That's ridiculous, and somehow I don't believe it one bit. I wonder if all the bot servers are inflating those numbers.

And the same for the bot servers on other games, but I suppose with TF2 ~50k at once kinda makes sense. (I honestly think something like half the servers on TF2 are bot servers, but I haven't even loaded the game up in 6 months so what do I know)

It could also be that all the people in....slightly less well off countries play it because their computers can't handle other games? I notice an unusually high concentration of BRs whenever I try playing counter strike.

dats raaaacist

[Pixel]

Originally Posted by Raynian

CS still has 60k concurrent players? That's ridiculous, and somehow I don't believe it one bit. I wonder if all the bot servers are inflating those numbers.

Bots don't have steam accounts.

[Dexter]

Originally Posted by Raynian

CS still has 60k concurrent players? That's ridiculous, and somehow I don't believe it one bit. I wonder if all the bot servers are inflating those numbers.

And the same for the bot servers on other games, but I suppose with TF2 ~50k at once kinda makes sense. (I honestly think something like half the servers on TF2 are bot servers, but I haven't even loaded the game up in 6 months so what do I know)

It could also be that all the people in....slightly less well off countries play it because their computers can't handle other games? I notice an unusually high concentration of BRs whenever I try playing counter strike.

dats raaaacist

racism aside its sooo true on both counts.


brazil #1 br br br br br strong usa trashcan
brazil #1

hua hua huahahheahehuha

etc

[Raynian]

huhuhuhuhuhuhuhuhu

HUEHUEHUHEUHEUHEUHEUHEUHEUHEUHEUEHUEUEHUHE

also noobfag its brasil

wat are u stoopid american

brasil es #1

[moosh]

COMO ESTAS ESECABRONESECABRONESECABRONESECABRONESECABRONESECA BRONESECABRONESECABRONESECABRONESECABRONESECABRONE SECABRONESECABRONESECABRONESECABRONESECABRONESECAB RONESECABRONESECABRONESECABRONESECABRONESECABRONES ECABRONESECABRONESECABRONESECABRONESECABRONESECABR ONESECABRONESECABRONESECABRONESECABRONESECABRONESE CABRONESECABRONESECABRONESECABRONESECABRONESECABRO NESECABRONESECABRONESECABRONESECABRON

[spiagia]

Ok everyone you would think im mad, but i am going to finish this code since i heard that it's 80% finished.I found a way how to learn this and i think i am able to do this.I learn pretty fast when trying to understand these kind of things and that's it i decided and noone stops me.See You later guys.

[NeonLight]

Oh okay, thanks.

[DarkeN_HellspawN]

I am too well pissed at trying to get on the past 4 days and when I do there is no one on. So I basically said fuck it and I need to start recruiting. So I am now playing TFC again as www.fortress-forever.com answering questions and getting people to come over and play which they do and there is no one on. It is a terrible circle of life because you cannot gain players without a player base playing all of the time. It is just that simple. People still play TFC religously and although I am rusty it is fun to play with a community. I say that if TFC is still alive we need to start reaching out to pubs to advertise FF. Why in the fuck would they you may ask? Well that is a good mofo question. The only thing I can think of is that the FF community comes together and goes to where the players are who are more likely to come to FF then other games (TFC'ers) and convert them. How about hosting a TFC server to serve as a gateway that we all play on to bring people over. People love jumping on a server that is always full and if the FF community could harvest these people then maybe we have a game again.

Here is another option. Create a new player class that will bring people back to the game to learn. Call him a Recon class where he can plant prox mines or some shit. Bring something new to the game that sets it apart to create new interest. It is simple marketing. Make a change to the product that everyone will love to continue selling your product.

Bots are great but when you are team texting for 20 minutes into talking shit and you relize that Hulk_Hogan(1) is a fucking bot.

[punkrockrocks]

I tried to start playing again, but then BF3 came out. Lol

[Drakonal]

Ya battlefield 3 is really one of the best games i've ever played.

[FDA_Approved]

I think a new class would doom any hope we have left. It would probly kill the game for the people that love and keep it going.

But I know this game can do better. I realize there have probly been many attempts to draw in new people. But right now is just an insanely good time to be an indie game. People are just really into that if you can get it out to the right people.

That's why I really want to make a community frag video so badly. If I could get everyone in the video to upvote a thread I post it in on reddit? That alone is at least a few hundred people who've never even heard of the game, who get a chance to see it. And if I could get notch (creator of minecraft) to tweet it? I know that sounds kind of silly. But he's is really into supporting the indie underdog. And anybody he acknowledges instantly gets thousands of visits.

Apart from that, advertising in other games. Though, that can be a lot harder than it sounds, especially for a small player base. But tfc and tf2 would be good places. I think anyone who's really serious about tf2 could really get into FF. Tf2 is just to wonky these days, horrible hit reg, everything they add is a joke. They even go out of their way to make it painfully clear everything they add is a huge joke. And it's really turned off a lot of players for them.

Also I can usually find a decent sized pub everyday in FF. If you get on around 4:30-5 there are people on till around 10ish. But it's awesome that you're going out and trying to recruit.

[Iggy]

Originally Posted by DarkeN_HellspawN

I am too well pissed at trying to get on the past 4 days and when I do there is no one on. So I basically said fuck it and I need to start recruiting. So I am now playing TFC again as www.fortress-forever.com answering questions and getting people to come over and play which they do and there is no one on. It is a terrible circle of life because you cannot gain players without a player base playing all of the time. It is just that simple. People still play TFC religously and although I am rusty it is fun to play with a community. I say that if TFC is still alive we need to start reaching out to pubs to advertise FF. Why in the fuck would they you may ask? Well that is a good mofo question. The only thing I can think of is that the FF community comes together and goes to where the players are who are more likely to come to FF then other games (TFC'ers) and convert them. How about hosting a TFC server to serve as a gateway that we all play on to bring people over. People love jumping on a server that is always full and if the FF community could harvest these people then maybe we have a game again.

Here is another option. Create a new player class that will bring people back to the game to learn. Call him a Recon class where he can plant prox mines or some shit. Bring something new to the game that sets it apart to create new interest. It is simple marketing. Make a change to the product that everyone will love to continue selling your product.

Bots are great but when you are team texting for 20 minutes into talking shit and you relize that Hulk_Hogan(1) is a fucking bot.

Hit me up on Steam, if you want me in game.

[GenghisTron]

The answer to this question asked in the title (WHO READS THE THREAD TEXT WHEN YOU ASK A QUESTION IN THE TITLE LOLO) is a very long-winded and drawn-out story that can only be answered by people who have broken free from the brainwashing and hopeful, albeit blind nostalgia.

I can do my best to make the answer as short as possible, so here goes. The community in this game was entirely the cause for the downfall of the game. It doesn't have to do with an old game engine, and you can't really blame the game mechanics. The devs failed to capitalize on new players, and those new players were increasingly driven away by the Counter-strike elitist gaming culture that is central to the FF community. I'm even somewhat reticent to call the FF community a 'community', because I've seen kindergarten classes with more sociability and more cooperation. Who can also forget the hardline authoritarian streak that has infected the dev/admin community for the longest time. From server owner/operators, to forum admins, Scuzzy's dynasty of busybody fascists still haunt the forums (and the few remaining servers), even with him and his right-hand man retired from the scene.

Game's dead anyways, doesn't really matter lol

[Dexter]

brainwashing? its a game forum man lol

[Iggy]

I didn't realize that those Occupy Wallstreet people had internet access.

[BinaryLife]

Genghis, just because someone disagrees with you doesn't mean that they are wrong. Nor does it mean you're wrong. It's just what's called a difference in opinion. It happens, and doesn't mean someone was brainwashing you, or was brainwashed by someone else. It sounds like you need a hug, and a nap.

[absolute]

FF didn't succeed for 1 main reason - marketing.

Visibility is credibility. No one saw the game advertised - anywhere. Sure there was IRC spam, in-game spam, some mod-db stuff, few steam forum posts - but no true advertising.

IMO the FF devs should setup a donate button to start funding advertising. Raise $2000 and strategically advertise. Hell, throw some Google ads, pro ProjectWonderful ads on the site for 6 months if need be. It will be a cycle. As you generate (significantly) more traffic to your site with strategic advertising, you'll get more back through the ads hosted on yours.


1) Facebook accounts are HUGE. Have everyone who plays, "Like" the page. You would be amazed at how fast it goes viral. It has a ripple effect. If I like the FF page, 500 of my friends see I like it. 1% of them check it out, and like it, and 500 of their friends see they like it, and so forth. Whenever there is an update, or a new video, or blog post, or something added on Facebook, everyone who likes your page, it shows up on their wall.

2) Advertise on Facebook. $50 in a month goes a LONG LONG way. You can strategically pick which demographics you want to advertise to. You can pick countries the users reside in, age, sex, and only display it if they 'Like' something else. So if they 'Like' BFs, or COD, or TF2, then target these people.

3) A short and sweet trailer - the Dustbowl valley one is epic, but a bit dated. Get a few of these going. Post them on the Facebook page. Have a Youtube account as well.

4) Twitter account. Much like Facebook, this stuff goes viral. thousands of people will gladly follow your tweets and Facebook page.

5) Steam Group- Organize events. Schedule a Saturday night pub night. Everyone then gets a notification and joins the pub if they want.

Social Media Icons should be displayed on the front page of this site. Social marketing is HUGE. I cannot believe the FF team has not stepped in to this market.

Step 1) Find partners. Example: A main server provider, have them advertise on their main page, offering discounted FF servers. You advertise them on your main page in return. If you could get a couple of the major leagues to partner with this, that would be astronomical. (ESEA, ESL, CEVO) This game was designed around league play. Provide them admins, rules, configs, everything they need. Do what you need to to get on their main page.

Step 2) Build hype. Create some buzz around FF 3.0 (Start the Facebook campaigns, tweeting, building steam group, building more partners)

Step 3) A few weeks before launch, start advertising more intense (Facebook ads, Google Ads, Steam news updates, Twitter, strategic advertising on community sites)

Step 3) Regular updates for a week before a major launch of 3.0

This is all standard and basic stuff. It can get much deeper. You can literally get millions of media impressions in a short period of time, for very little money. As devs, you're all brilliant minds, and put tons of man hours into this project. Without funding marketing and advertising, all of that brilliant work has gone to waste. Marketing and advertising should be the biggest budget on any project you want to succeed.

The key here is, you need to create more hype - come out with '3.0', a turning point for FF. This site also needs an update. Needs some Web 2.0 elements. Right now it looks like a behind the scene site for developers, not a flash up-front we're an amazing state of the art game you must try site.

I'm more than willing to help if the right people are involved.

-Abs

[Gwarsbane]

Ahhh I see its "blame OTs server and their silly rules for destroying the game" time again.

I guess the racists, swearing idiots and the griefers had nothing to do with hurting the community right?

And yes there was lots of servers with racist idiots spouting off their crap, and even here on the forums the racist crap was allowed to go on for a long time.


Crap like that is what drives people away from a game and gives it bad word of mouth.

NOT a single server who has rules against stuff like that, and is filled nearly every night.

I was there at the start, the mygot idiots drove away a lot of people. It didn't help that the patch to stop 99% of the stuff they were doing took a while to finally come out.


Heres a hint, there are more people who hate racist crap, swearing all the time, trouble makers and no rules then there are people who like that stuff.


Did little advertising help? yes and no. I've been part of a community who has been playing a game thats nearly 10 years old. The community is larger then FF, and of the largest websites for them, none of them allow swearing, racist crap or trouble makers. There has also be no paid advertising. Its all been word of mouth. Thats it.

Suggesting that they should pay for advertising for a free game that they get no money from is silly.

[BinaryLife]

I don't think we need to start another endless conversation about OT. Thew two opposing sides will never agree.

As far as players go, people don't want to play anymore. The people that do play are waiting for more people to play, like myself. I log on and see no one there so I log off and check again later. I do this until people are playing, but very rarely do I find a server with people on it. People says bots would help, because they would get people to play on a server with no one else playing and boost the numbers up slowly. I know I can only play with bots for so long before I crave human conversation. The game is fun, but only with people playing. I say the game is fun the way it is. Without changes. The basics are all there. There are little things that can change and improve, but there always are. Freaking out and screaming about those little things have most likely caused the most harm. But that's in the past.

Money for advertising is silly. But spreading the word isn't bad. When an update comes out we get players, because we get attention. We need more attention that's all.

[CHURCHMOUTH]

tell Magic Johnson that spending money is silly