I apologize in advance for the long essay. This initially touched on the "just open it" thread from above, but then went somewhere far different. This is somewhat related to, yet expanded on a previous post of mine.
I agree with opening it up; basic maps/walkthroughs to low-mid level zones and leveling guides won't hurt anyone and could help any potential newbies if they exist. Arctic has long been against anything resembling "open", although more recently has been moving that direction. The posting of weapon sets, alteration of fake.lore and no.lore has long been necessary to minimize the necessity of having a cheat immortal who will stat stuff for you. On the other hand, we are relying more and more on the judgement of the immortals to decide mortal matters, which is decidedly less open. I.e. Besides being ruthless and a prick, I haven't heard what rule Mumu broke that deserved deletion? Giving immortals unilateral control to delete characters with days of playtime by their discretion is ripe for abuse and vendettas. If you thought that there was complaining before about bias in the immortal ranks, get ready for next wipe when one clan gets targetted where others are left alone... In any case, Sabibi has some good ideas, but I'm not sure that any of them will result in a dramatic change in population, which is what we all would hope for.
Obviously Arctic isn't retaining the same amount of players as it gains in newbies. The question is, what is wrong with Arctic?
1. The game itself.
2. The players of the game.
3. Out-of-touch immortals.
The game itself is over 20 years old; it is impressive it has lasted THIS long. There are much shinier games with many more people, geared either to PVE (WoW, Guild Wars, etc.) or PVP (LOL, Darkfall). The PVE (on the high end) struggles to find a balance between zones getting steamrolled and zones that take HOURS to complete. Along with this, there are bizarre keywords that require groups spend hours trying to figure new zones (or being friends with the creator/some imm with knowledge), which a lot of people find very annoying. The PVP mostly revolves around quick strikes with unbalanced ambushes against unsuspecting players, or sitting around for hours waiting for your opponent to get the nerve to leave the inn (which they never do). All of this does not fit into my average working man's schedule well; when I get a chance to play, I have to hope that I have several clanmates on (and at least more than Myths/Maza/Wilds to kick them off) who want to play in order to hopefully have enough time to do a zone that I have enough time to finish.
Even more importantly, there is a warring ideology between players: some believe Arctic should be primarily PVE, with only gentlemenly contests between clans (no ambushes, no hunting unknowns) vs. those that believe Arctic should remain the cutthroat game it has always been. I would suggest that many, many more people leave out of boredom rather than because they were pked. Alleviating boredom causes some players to random, but I agree this can be detrimental on the game if it causes more players to quit than it saves. There is a very fine line which Arctic has been able to walk in the past, but I'm not sure it is doing as well now.
I throw in the immortals, even while knowing they have put in a lot of work on the game. I think that sometimes they consider Arctic how it used to be when they were mortal (which is a long, long time ago for some and increasingly longer as you move up the levels), or how it is on their fully-equipped, great-statted test character with access to all zone/item knowledge, compared to the average person. We had a great discussion about botting/multiing a few threads back, which a lot of people chipped on on their opinions and where the vast majority of players were for at least a trial of such... which Aristox quickly squashed. Obviously, he believes he knows better than the majority; I remain unconvinced. There is some vague messaging about coming changes; this would be the perfect time for another open, honest discussion of the changes. I would think you would not want to alienate the few players left with changes that the majority hates, and if that's the case, I would think you would want to ask us before spending the days of coding for it. At this point, it is our game as much at it is yours; you have done a lot of work on the back end so that we can play it on the front end, unless you want to code for no one. Why not let us have input (and not just ask us what our input is before you do whatever you want)?
I believe that Arctic's low population is a combination of the above: an aging game with players who are on each other's last nerve, with immortals who have lost touch with what the average player wants. My suggestions would be: some level of allowed multiing, a pk system that is toggleable when war is declared or certain items are worn (with the knowledge that the enemy clan will be able to zone while you are on), changing the zones that never end to something quicker to finish, less emphasis on ridiculous kws (or more emphasis on in-zone clues), frequent pwipes to decrease boredom, and more concern from immortals about minor balance tweaks (debuffing tether, relo while buffing hunt/track) and less concern about groundbreaking changes. The last (and probably most important) part is trying to obtain more newbies... which I will leave to someone else.
Flame on.
