I should not have typed that and left. Apologies!
No problem. I thought there was something coming like, "Well, since you asked . . ." and then a setup previously thought to be completely crazy and impossible.
If every event was 12 hours, you would find declining attendance with that as well.
I think that you are right. It's like DGS and BOG, two scenarios that have had high attendance and high ratings. If we ran them a lot, people would get tired of repeating the same thing.
All I am saying is things need to be mixed up to keep the declining player (and younger) clientele interested.
I do think it's necessary to mix up the style of battle, scenario to scenario. I don't think we need to change the format every time, though, because there aren't a lot of format choices. Basically, you run N battles of length M, where N can be 1-4 (as more than 4 doesn't work these days) and M is 3-12 hours. Maybe a 24-hour one? I don't know. That might be really hard to avoid it being derailed by a group of 10 guys coming on at 3 am when no one else is on and milkrunning the map.
Gone are the days (sadly) that forum chatter that ramped up excitement even before the first frame.
I think so, but I'll keep trying to get it back. That brick wall will give before my head does!
Gone are the days (sadly) that many players are wiling to sit at their computer screens and not find a single enemy.
I am not a fan of that myself, though, and I'm the world's most-dedicated scenario player.
I strongly aim for scenario designs that have a very low probability of that happening -- preferably zero.
Gone are the days (sadly) when playing the event was more important than scoring.
I think it's about the same as it has been for many years. There are some players who are keen on scoring aspects, but the majority don't seem to care too much. The main thing enjoyed on average is action and not meeting overwhelming force (although they are OK if they are on the overwhelming side).
I would not want to be a CM; you guys need to design, advertise, and keep an eroding community from disappearing altogether.
I hear you.
The most-frustrating thing for me is when I go into the MA and try to get players who have never tried a special event to try it once. Most of them will not give it even one try. To me, it is like going up to someone who eats hamburgers every day, which are fantastic, high-quality hamburgers, yes -- but he's never heard of steak. You try to convince him to have a free dinner of prime porterhouse steak, baked potato smothered in butter, and nice glass of wine, and he isn't interested in even trying it once.