Player decline?

[PLODDITHANLEY]

We have a vast new playerbase coming out of Eastern Europe,a proportion will migrate from the first stop PR servers.

Except all to often they get slagged of for talking their home language in mumble local, and I see myself often getting the piss taken out of them as they have a pronounced accent. One guy I seem to meet quite often called Varok he's a good player, speaks good accented english and when he gets excited he starts shouting in Russian - epic always welcome in my squad!

[Buren06]

I can't be the only one to think that PR is finally showing its age. It's not even the graphics I am concerned about, which make no difference to me - it's the mechanics that let you know it's a mod, and the mechanics that have turned me off of it.

PR is still the best PVP, competitive mil-sim title in the genre right now, as far as I am concerned. But I think that speaks to how lacking the genre is, more than how cutting edge PR is. Playing PR is simply a clunkier, headache-inducing experience compared to the polish of stand alone (not mod) titles.

I don't see myself becoming as enthused about PR as I once was until either PR:ARMA 2 is advanced significantly, or we hear something about PR2. The BF2 engine, from everything I hear and see in the mod, has outlived its usefulness in terms of gameplay.

[Joker86]

Yes, some controls are a bit clumsy, but all in all I think it's running rather smoothly. PR:ArmA should be even more complicated. I never played it, but from what I saw, what I heard, what I read and what I have played with ArmA vanilla, it's true.

But all in all I don't mind the complicated stuff (e.g. everything concerning the kits, dropping them, changing them, etc.) at all. It's not difficult to learn, and the fights don't suffer from it, so who cares?

I still love the game!

[Rapid12]

I'll tell you another reason why some people have walked from this game...forced team switch.

You bet it pisses people off! Join a game, find yourself on the Insurgence team. Think yeah, I'll play it out then I'll definitely get a go on the Blufor side next round. Next round comes and some wanker switches you back to Insurgent. Yeah yeah yeah, you pay for a server you do what you want, heard it all before.

On another note, invent some more conflicts...put the Brits up against the Yanks, we're coming to install the Queen as head of state other there again. Or bring back some of the jungle maps like Qui River, loved that map I did.

[Arnoldio]

This thread...


I shall point out some (IMO major) reasons why the playerbase looks like its in decline at the very moment.

- Finals, RL obligations, etc. Some people will find time, some wont, thats going up and down.
- Bored of PR's gameplay. People are not doing anything towards the improvement of gameplay, so it has become a kindergarten.
- Bored of PR's development. No goodies in a while, no gameplay fixes...
- Other games. Obviously, lots of goodies that keep use occupied.
- People refusing to use mumble. We dont actually need such people, so its good if they stop completely. See point 2.
- Nothing to do on these forums. Political discusson cancelled and and suggetion forums are being moderated, which leave only **** suggestions through for some reason. No developer diaries and highligts. I only use t as some kind of a discussion board, no involvement into the mod whatsoever. Fucking middle ages all over again, is the church running this or what?

[Tiger1]

Gents.

B.PRONK i've read some of your replies since my last reply. We are on the same page, as are some of the others replies. Yet what needs to stop is the bickering. Think in solutions gents, there are a lot of valid points, yet also some childish and useless comments.



I hereby volounteer to help the Project Reality team to marketing this mod.



As I am currently not aware what the stand of the official PR team is on this.



This is team is to be a independent marketing group for Project Reality.

PROJECT REALITY MARKETING GROUP is the name of this team.




We want a no bull-shit attitude, I will be looking for dedicated mature people who want to be part of this team, preferably 21+ years of age, who are willing to dedicate time and effort into the better good of Project Reality. We expect you to be able to work with deadlines, and be able to adjust to different situations if needed. You can come from anywhere around the world from Australia to Canada, PROJECT REALITY NEEDS your help.

This is volountary, you are not being paid, this is in your own time for a greater good.

What we seek :


- Designers (photoshop)
- People who can make quality videos. (quality)
- People who are studying marketing in university / college.
- People who are working in the marketing sector.

- You dont need the above to help out in this TEAM, any volounteers can apply.
- Being able to speak and write english to communicate with team members.




ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THEN WORDS GENTLEMEN.

Write me a PM on these forums if you are interested in a spot in the :




PROJECT REALITY MARKETING GROUP.






Yours sincerely,

[Outlawz7]

Uh, hello? Vietnam release was 2 months ago, there's at least a blog per week and we just had Falklands testing?

[Rudd]

^ that's more like it

[Brainlaag]

I said (among others) years ago that some changes will cause a decline in players and look where we are.

Although I don't fully disagree with you, that sentence is absolute apeshit, "Something that gets older tends to become less attractive for people and they leave, YOU MUST BE A FUCKING PROPHET TO KNOW THAT!"

[Arnoldio]

For marketing, we dont have any funds to put stuff on websites, radios, TVs etc.

I think "web" marketing is the better option here because:

This product we are trying to "sell" is made very good and demands time and attention and that is not easy to seel if the customer doesnt want it. To induce that "want" we have very, very slim chance. ArmA2 is in customers eyes a better option as its "more tactical" generally bigger and has newer graphics. It will be hard to come up with an argument, except that PR is cheaper maybe. That means, mass advertising as such will be hard to achieve. That reddit viral thing got many views, but playerbase didnt go up really, because the reasons mentioned above. This is how it should be done:

Now web marketing is the thing you all hate, its the pyramid system, you get some people under you, you get 5% of what they sell and then they get some people onder them and you still get 5% of what they get and so on. Except were dealing with "mutual" profit here, and no money invloved, profit being the good players. To do that, you have to get your friends/people you know to play this, as i did, some didnt like it so they dont play, but two stayed and are enjoying it immensely, third on has on and off moments.
Now i need to get them to convince their friends, wich i dont know, to play this, and even if some wouldnt like it, some would stay, and even those who go away, can be encouraged to spread the word, and continue the chain. What you have to achieve is to make the people not hate the game. If they hate it, they will at worst start to trash talk about it.
Rezza did the same with turkish community, and i believe he suceeded pretty well!

In short.
Get some friends (those who have BF2 even better) to try and play PR with you, show them the ropes, show them how good it is, try to get them hooked even for a short time. When the guy gets hooked, ask him if he has any friends who have BF2 or like this kind of gameplay. Explain them the same thing i said here. If you tell him to promote too early, he wont know what to say, rather than its good, but if too late, he might get bored and say that it gets boring quick... Give him the best you can and then let him do his job, as it wont be forced, people will get interested much faster.

Additional help is, incase if they dont have BF2, to try and find the best place for them to get it/use connections etc.


Boost factors are, as beforementioned, gameplay media/art, and going viral. For example, if a customer is in doubt, you have these to show after everything fails, only used in initial stage, when you present him with the idea. If he is "Meh, im not into such and such games, thanks anyway" you tell him, "Look, here is a good player having some gameplay videos, check them out, its pretty tense at some points!" or "This thing went viral on reddit once, had really good response!" or "The next version will be 1.0, it will be so good, you need to try this!" Such media is just a link between customers, but we must approach them on a personal level.

This is something for the DEV team now. To encourage players to do this, a referral system could be implemented on the forums, just so whoever registers can select the guy who brought him in. Simple box below the post count would do. I am not sure what would the benefit be, but its always fun to have some kind of a reward, you know, thats what keeps everybody doing, and for those, who have no "emotional" attachment to the game, they can use the referral system as a morale boost. Maybe for every 10 people, you could write a suggestion without it needing to go through the mods, or something. Im sure somebody will come up with something good.

[Murphy]

I have another thought to throw your way. In the age of copy-cat FPS games the number of players interested in tactical/realistic game-play has dwindled, the new wave of games provides instant gratification with little time invested. PR as well as Arma2 are at odds with that style of gaming and I believe that is why new players are so few and far in between. Simply put the old breed of smart FPS gamers are fading and a newer twitch fanatic style has all but consumed the market. It's been marketed and tossed in everyone's face for so many years that brain dead corridor shooters are the accepted norm, and as a consequence the average gamer has become complacent with shallow, idiotic gaming.

If you want to dispute this let's look at just a few of the old time tactical games that required more brains then reflex. Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, Splinter Cell, Operation Flash Point, and the list goes on. All of these games have been watered down to appeal to the masses, because titles like Quake, and Unreal have seen more success in the casual gamer market. Now a days all games are aimed at casual gamers and lack depth to game-play, as some would say "console kiddies". Truth is almost every game is made to be beaten by an autistic 8 year old without thumbs, the trend is even prevalent in other gaming genres.

[Spush]

- Bored of PR's development. No goodies in a while, no gameplay fixes...

Guess you missed my blog post. You people claim we don't work. - Project Reality Forums

[Arnoldio]

Didnt miss any posts. Everything you show is good, but the frequency of showing us is too low... atleast for my taste, but im a picky guy when it comes to games.

[No_Surrender]

I said (among others) years ago that some changes will cause a decline in players and look where we are.

Where are we? PR is still the most popular BF2 mod, and the second one, FH2, hardly gets 2 full servers during peak time. Player decline? Of course, apart of the time of the year we are right now BF2 its a 7 years old game, did anyone expect PR to live forever?

The funny part is how the haters are trying to use the player decline to justify their fustration with the mod/mumble/forums when its more about BF2 being really old. "OMG PR is dying after 7 years, they failed"

[dtacs]

A new helicopter, a mini-mod which is no different from the regular mod and a new map aren't new content. The game is still the same.

I'm not sure why that is so difficult to comprehend.

[Rhino]

a mini-mod which is no different from the regular mod

If your referring to the Falklands I beg to differ.

And you might want to clean up your definition of what "content" means, claiming a new chopper, new map etc isn't new content....

[dtacs]

Its AAS on a 16km map. I'm not debating that it isn't going to be fun, but what have you done/going to do that makes it stand out?

My definition of content is something that is rich in creativity or highly productive. A chopper is cool, sure, but it doesn't change anything. Now the Canadians can fly around the map faster on Archer and drop less crates.

[Rhino]

Its AAS on a 16km map. I'm not debating that it isn't going to be fun, but what have you done/going to do that makes it stand out?

Quite a bit, not going to go into all the little details but instead, probably worth just trying it out for yourself this weekend to see what its like. There are a lot of things that are very different than normal PR, combined with lots of little gameplay differences here and there too which add up to quite a big difference, but still retaining the core PR feel

[MaSSive]

So..its that time of the year once again for threads like this.

/repetition

[Beav]

The JO Community that I am a part of is VERY interested in BF2PR, especially the 128p possibilities and the AAS mode.
You may actually start seeing an influx from people.