Since i did not play during 2010, I'm interested in seeing how the "regulars" can explain that graph to me?
When did the no-icon at any alt become the norm?
I can't explain graphs to anyone, because usually I don't understand them.
First, if I read the chart correctly, it only implies the level of activity. The orange line shows the number of individual pilots who logged into the arena during the month, and the blue line shows the total number of kills in the arena that month. So if, for example, the same three pilots logged in every night of the month for tour 122, but only one night each during the month of tour 123, the orange line would show the same value (three), even though there were 90 pilot-days in tour 122 and three pilot-days in tour 123 (although presumably the total kill number would be higher for the first tour). Am I right? If I am, then this chart really wouldn't tell you which tours were virtually empty and which tours had sustained action, so long as people continue to check in once or twice a month.
Nevertheless, in an attempt to figure out what went on in 2010 I went back through the AvA Development and Staff forum posts to see if I could glean insight into what was going on that year and - more important - before.
Judging from the posts, virtually all of 2010 was a rejuvenation period for the arena. The most notable thing, for me, was that Jaeger, Shifty and Jimson all became very active with AvA in December 2009 - January 2010. Each of these guys was very effective in getting his friends and/or squad members to try AvA out during that time, and those efforts essentially primed the AvA pump (looks sideways at Fork: "Don't say it"). They were subsequently joined by more and more devoted rabble-rousers, as we see today.
Institution of no-icons was in March, 2010 (122 on the chart). By then we were already getting decent-sized groups of people in the arena on a regular basis because of the proselytizing. You see that quite a few new faces came in during March and April to try out the no icons settings. Attendance of new people dropped during the summer - nothing new there - and skyrocketed in the fall with the introduction (in September - tour 128) of USRanger's Twin Rivers map, which has been a big draw ever since. The chart suggests that there is a core group of regulars - and has been such a group - for the past year, and I think this is consistent with our own "anecdotal" senses. The no icons setting, I believe, has maintained the interest of this group so that people don't just drift away to their old familiar squadrons/arenas. In early 2010 it was common to log into the arena at 10 pm Eastern time and find no one. That has not been so for some months now.
I would love to see this chart going back to 2008 and 2009, which were really tumbleweed years, and I'd like even more if there were a way to measure player hours per unit of time.
Don't know if those are answers to your questions, though.
- oldman
