Player Numbers

[Norch]

Evening friends
I want to start a debate here, basically it seems like across all browser based strategy games player numbers are way down on where they were years ago and it looks like they are here too. Not only are the number of players down but the external forums are way less active too. So why do you think this is and what would you like to see/what do you think should be done to start a revival of sorts?

I know already that someone is going to bring up PP so I'll do that for you - but there has to be something beyond that or all games wouldn't be facing the same problems.

Even the communities on the consoles aren't as lively as they used to be for me. What do you think happened?

P.S if you read this and don’t reply you’re just proving my point

 

[Project Mafia]

For this game, I can’t speak for other games, back stabbing has ruined this game just as much as pp.

Sadly no matter what rules tw bring in they can’t change that sort of behaviour. Only the players can but why would they do that when they can get easy wins doing so.

 

[Marcus the Mad]

This subject has been discussed to death I think. We were talking about dwindling player numbers back in 2015 already.

There are multiple reasons I think:
- The game is old
- The type of game is not really appreciated by current game 'standards'
- Playing this is time consuming due to its perpetual nature
- There is little to no instant gratification which - when considering it an addiction - has been steadily rising in 'dependencies'
- Incredibly steep learning curve
- Huge gap between new players and established players.
- Co-playing vs solo players
- "clique" forming

The list could go on.

There's also an overabundance of similar games. Why waste time on a game where you can at most reach the top 1000 when you can play TW-clone#69420 and be top 10? Even though playerbase might be even smaller and time/skill requirements are not even close.

TW was also very late to the android/iOS party (and the first app was horrendous) leaving a lot of room for those clones-with-a-twist to flourish there.

PP and the thought of P2W is also a factor, but frankly that goes for every single one of those browser games these days.

 

[Cheaterkadze]

It would be interesting to have some sociology graphs to back this up or deny it, but I think the game's audience is older than it used to be. And there's definitely a higher percentage of older people quitting games than it is with younger people. So if young ones don't choose to play this game, this is where the downfall starts, there is no circulation basically. The player base.. dies out

 

[tomago]

So if you find Tribalwars on Wikipedia it comes under a game type subsection of "Massively multiplayer online real-time strategy games". Frankly, it's in a short list and the other games there are also old or defunct.

I came back to play this year just because there hasn't been any advancements or newer games which scratch the same itch. Hoping one day the whole genre gets popular again and has a resurgence like Battle Royale shooters have had in the last few years. You would think that it's a good time for it (I certainly would have liked to have had a phone to play TW on back in '08).

Of course, p2w etc. etc...

 

[Super Sharp Shooter]

Real cash prizes would draw people in

 

[Cheaterkadze]

Real cash prizes would draw people in

True.
In my opinion, this is what Classic should be like. High quality, shorter duration, faster paced, pay to enter with prize for winners.
Also, highly moderated, like some Speed rounds are, where mods actually look into actions being performed proactively instead of on report basis.