The real truth is AH does not have a people leaving problem. When AH was at it's peek it normally lost at least 20 players every day.
AH Has been growing slightly in the last few months. Most probably just the normal seasonal change.
AH has a why are new people not subscribing problem.
Solve that (it's what I'm trying to do) then advertising becomes cost effect and we are again off to the races. But almost all the petty whines in this thread have no direct impact on why new people are not staying.
HiTech
You know what Hitech, they may be petty to you but they are real to your players. I am intrigued as to how you know they have no direct impact on why new people are not staying.
Let's take one of the most common petty whines and consider what impact they may have on new players.
Petty whine #1 ------------------- Fights are too few and far between due to maps being too large for the population
Impact on new player ----------- This game is boring I don't think I will stay
I am sure that would not happen of course because it is just a petty little whine and not at all based in reality.
As for other reasons why people do not stay, there are a few that you have been told about before.
- Subscription model is an outdated form of revenue raising. New players are not used to a monthly payment so you need to give them a very compelling reason to want to subscribe
- Chat system - Almost every other game uses Enter as the button into the chat function. When new players need help the most they are not even able to ask for it because to use / to enter the chat function is not intuitive for them
- Controller set up - When was the last time you installed the game on a brand new box with several controllers attached? I have done it 3 times in the last 12 months to check the game out again. Each time I have sat on the runway guns blazing because your auto setup maps things in a very odd way. IMO part of the first experience for users should be to be guided through an initial basic setup and then pointed to more complex items should they wish to explore more. The current way meant I had to go through the whole controller setup to find where the issue was. I am not new and could find my way around but it took at least 30 minutes of messing about and trying things. A new player is gone by that point.
- Open world is tough for new people - Let's say there are fights to be had. The new person is ripped apart by seasoned vets and run bunny slashers in Yak3s. They have no chance. There is no kindergarden for them to cut their teeth on. They are just thrown to the wolves. Why would they stay? Yeah yeah you will get the usual forum heroes tell you they had to go through it and the current generation blah blah blah but the fact is it is not an environment that makes them want to stay. That pushes you back to the subscription model, where is the compelling reason to stay?
I am sure there are many many other reasons however they for me are the big rocks. I think AH is probably the best game on the internet, it is certainly my personal favourite. However, my little whine is enough to make me leave, if that is bad enough to make a genuine fan leave how do you expect to keep a new guy who has not yet been hooked?
Respectfully
