Popped by the pub arena and it was empty

[morikahn]

So, did your plan of endlessly tampering with minor, unimportant, and trivial elements in pub not work out?

Did you try changing private freq size allowances? How about changing the point system again to make buying items easier( or harder)? What.. that didn't get people to come back and play?

Wow, I'm surprised. Maybe you can change the graphics of the bullets, or add some new icons in the map. Oh, maybe you can do some sort of temporary theme things in different arenas. Maybe you can rotate the sysops. Hey, maybe you can move everything to another server.

Oh, you did all those things too. eh? Huh. I'm stumped. None of those things got anyone wanting to play a game that hasn't changed in 15 years? Its almost like.. better games were made and you guys sat with your thumbs in your asses, took an elitist attitude that players that didn't enjoy playing the game just weren't good enough.. and watched your entire player base bleed away.

Nah. That can't be it. It has to be something like.. people stopped playing video games or something.

All kidding aside, the zone could have gone out in a bang years ago, but some of you wanted to keep it going. That was fine, but instead of aggressively trying to keep the game relevant and fun you wasted your time on boring details. You guys put the minimum amount of time and energy into actual game design and this is the result: you got the minimal amount of interest from those you wanted to play the game.

Now, maybe your league thing is still going. I don't know. I never liked league. But I can tell you that since pub is now dead the best way you had of advertising your league and getting new players for it is gone.

Oh, and the main website looks awful. I can't believe you spent a year getting that out. Anyone visiting that site would never know what the hell it was about. Half the navigation links are completely worthless.

The only thing that looks good is the banner, which I made. Ent, what happened to that nifty graphic designer that was going to make a better one?

I guess I'm still bitter. But I think time proved me right. Whatever pitiful things you guys implemented obviously didn't work. Maybe mine wouldn't have either.. but we know for sure yours didn't. Ah, but people move on. I hope for those who were involved in the decision process (or lack them) learned something valuable and next time you are involved in community project like this.. you do better.

[Detector]

So, did your plan of endlessly tampering with minor, unimportant, and trivial elements in pub not work out?

Did you try changing private freq size allowances? How about changing the point system again to make buying items easier( or harder)? What.. that didn't get people to come back and play?

Wow, I'm surprised. Maybe you can change the graphics of the bullets, or add some new icons in the map. Oh, maybe you can do some sort of temporary theme things in different arenas. Maybe you can rotate the sysops. Hey, maybe you can move everything to another server.

Oh, you did all those things too. eh? Huh. I'm stumped. None of those things got anyone wanting to play a game that hasn't changed in 15 years? Its almost like.. better games were made and you guys sat with your thumbs in your asses, took an elitist attitude that players that didn't enjoy playing the game just weren't good enough.. and watched your entire player base bleed away.

Nah. That can't be it. It has to be something like.. people stopped playing video games or something.

All kidding aside, the zone could have gone out in a bang years ago, but some of you wanted to keep it going. That was fine, but instead of aggressively trying to keep the game relevant and fun you wasted your time on boring details. You guys put the minimum amount of time and energy into actual game design and this is the result: you got the minimal amount of interest from those you wanted to play the game.

Now, maybe your league thing is still going. I don't know. I never liked league. But I can tell you that since pub is now dead the best way you had of advertising your league and getting new players for it is gone.

Oh, and the main website looks awful. I can't believe you spent a year getting that out. Anyone visiting that site would never know what the hell it was about. Half the navigation links are completely worthless.

The only thing that looks good is the banner, which I made. Ent, what happened to that nifty graphic designer that was going to make a better one?

I guess I'm still bitter. But I think time proved me right. Whatever pitiful things you guys implemented obviously didn't work. Maybe mine wouldn't have either.. but we know for sure yours didn't. Ah, but people move on. I hope for those who were involved in the decision process (or lack them) learned something valuable and next time you are involved in community project like this.. you do better.

Agreed on this. Have a good day.

[Beer Hunter]

There were some issues with your theme if I remember right? I was looking forward to seeing your theme in action, I actually liked the idea. Don't be bitter if things did not go as planned, rather you should return and lets see if we can try again.

[morikahn]

Ent altered the code before it went live and changed the fundamental structure of the game mechanic. I spent 3 months making animated graphics, learning to code in C++, learning to mod for subspace.. to have my stuff changed last minute, no warning. It was unbelievably anti-climatic and I felt betrayed. I should have seen it coming as he kept insinuating we need to keep things like league, but I was so sure that I'd win him over. I never even got the chance.

But that is the least of it. The people in charge didn't want change. They were thinking the player base would change to meet our criteria. That didn't happen, obviously. We needed some new ideas, some new game mechanics.. not just bells and whistles added. A web page update.. some league database alterations... none of that really mattered.

The person in charge needed to be creative and motivated and have a desire to actively improve the product. Didn't have to be me, could have been snake or several others. Ent was especially a poor choice to be in charge as he simply didn't have enough time to invest in the project. All I ever heard from him was how busy he was at work. The team was too small to have someone whose responsibility was just to tell the others what to do.

Its too late now. Even if everything I wanted was put in and was gonna work perfect and everyone would have fun playing.. it wouldn't matter. There are 0 players. Without some sort of minimum player amount no idea will work. Knowledge of this game is spread by word of mouth.

There are just too many new games out there with really good competitive team play mechanics for anyone to try to revive this one. Maybe it could be done.. with a really dedicated group.. with money.. and advertising, and very good coding skills and art assets. That just isn't gonna happen.

This is like the fourth or fifth community project for a video game (or something similar) I've been involved with. Its always the same cycle. You have really talented and motivated people that start it; they spearhead; more people jump on (for whatever reason), the original members fade away, and the project slowly decays as less talented and motivated people take over.

Any multiplayer game dies. Thats a given. What irks me is how this one died.

On a side note:
I always felt pub was the only way to introduce players to the game and get new blood into the more competitive league game. I never liked league simply because I didn't have the energy or time to deal with a game on that level. I liked to be able to jump in any time and play a bit.

I constantly heard from league players that they wanted pub killed. Well its dead. So how is league now? Tell me the truth.

Oh, and side side note: I'm the colorst for a webcomic called Goblins. I've been doing coloring since September last year. The URL is: http://www.goblinscomic.com/

The artist uploads work before sending it to me to finish, so some pages aren't completely done, but most of them are. This is what takes up my free time these days.

[Tembest]

I constantly heard from league players that they wanted pub killed. Well its dead. So how is league now? Tell me the truth.

Considering you're a big pub fan, I believe you have simply created your own image of what people have said.
I have a hard time believing anyone would have said they wanted pub to die, or if they did, it must have been a handful of people.

I have not once heard anyone say we shouldn't have pub. I myself hated pub, but that did not mean I did not want it to exist.

[morikahn]

Huh.. I swear I heard that phrase many times from many different people.. but I could be remembering it wrong. Anyway, how's league?

[Ssseth]

Sad it's come to this.

[Tembest]

Huh.. I swear I heard that phrase many times from many different people.. but I could be remembering it wrong. Anyway, how's league?

Everything is more or less dead. Sunday is the only day the zone is pretty much alive I guess, due to league.
Luckily at least the league population has not been declining lately, and a couple of vets return here and there.

But, league is not really competitive anymore, so it has more or less lost the point of a league to be honest. Even "horrible" players,
who have never played anything but pub play league so that they would have at least something to play.

[Fly Swatter]

Ent altered the code before it went live and changed the fundamental structure of the game mechanic. I spent 3 months making animated graphics, learning to code in C++, learning to mod for subspace.. to have my stuff changed last minute, no warning. It was unbelievably anti-climatic and I felt betrayed. I should have seen it coming as he kept insinuating we need to keep things like league, but I was so sure that I'd win him over. I never even got the chance.

I always enjoyed playing pub with you morikahn. Wished your bot project worked out better. I had fun playing the theme, but a pub bot has to do more then host a game. It was Ents responsibility to make sure pub functioned correctly (in all aspects), he had every right to do just that.

You should have continued work on the bot after the theme run. It could have been a asset to the zone for years to come, but you chose to just blamed Ent. I took the time to post a thoughtful follow up to the theme, but you ignored all my valid points.

Then you went on and on about Ent being power hungry or some shit like that. All at a time when he was tring to move on with his life, leaving dsb and the massive work load behind. Nothing you have ever said about this has ever been how it really is. You're way off in left field someplace singing your own toon.

Bty, you could have had many more chances. Fact is you still have the same chance to this day. For better or worse thats how it is.. Do it or dont do it.. Its that simple..

[morikahn]

I don't agree with you assessment of what happened. It doesn't matter if its true or not. The game is dead. I'm not coming back.

I'm sorry about ignoring your follow up to my theme. I don't remember seeing it. Maybe I did and I responded.. I truly don't remember. I was extremely disappointed in how my time and energy had been handled. There were a lot of neat things I wanted to try.. but after what I went though, didn't think I would ever be allowed to make them. I could have been wrong.. but I felt I wasn't.