Is It Just Me Or....
 

...are the number of players in competition-type games (KOTH/Ratings) dwindling? Has the enthusiasm suffered through the realization that some players are good and others never will be as good?

If there IS a drop in such participation, is it because of another reason? For instance, a drop-off due to anticipation of SE5? Lack of time these days? Boredom due to playing the same players over and over?

Just curious.

Thoughts?

Re: Is It Just Me Or....
 

I dropped way down in my own level of playing. I'm only in two games now, and only running two others as game owner. I'm a little burnt out. Going on 4 years? That's a long time. I'm also busy with school and stuff. I am looking forward to SE5 though.

Re: Is It Just Me Or....
 

I've been here and playing for awhile now, but I simply don't fancy my chances against veterans. It may just be my own lack of confidence but I can't get interested in something where I believe from the outset that I'll be steamrollered by an expert. I also hear that KOTH is 1 on 1 and I personally can't see much fun where its just a case of launching an all out strike as soon as the other person finds you.

Re: Is It Just Me Or....
 

My sentiments exactly. It really takes away almost all of the fun of the game when all you do is fight to the death, especially against a single opponent... Maybe others are realizing this? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: Is It Just Me Or....
 

I doubt it. People are just getting burned out on SEIV. I am down to just 5 games on PBW and 2 of them are pretty much finished. One is my KOTH game and the other is RTH and the Last one is the race to SEV game.

Re: Is It Just Me Or....
 

I am burnt out myself as well, and I am simply cranking down on my SEIV games. I will quite likely resume challenges once I my game number has been reduced even more though.

Edit: The Fairy Typo struck again. ("I am burnt down"?! What was I thinking of? In case you were concerned for my health, I wasn't put to the torche by an odd raiding barbarian)

Re: Is It Just Me Or....
 

Yeah, what Ragnorok said. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif I know you were only semi-serious Fyron, but you can't extrapolate anything like a qualitative judgement from the lack of people playing in rated 1 on 1 games. There are less people playing >2 rated games as well. I think what we are witnessing is just the normal entropy of the game.

My own personal opinion is that I still enjoy 1 v 1 games more then bigger games. I simply have less interest in any games. The fact that the two games I am in happen to be >2 games is merely due to them being longer and me not wishing to abandon the other players in them.

Once they are over I may actually get into a 1v1 game or two. Just to keep the juices flowing. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/happy.gif

Re: Is It Just Me Or....
 

Note the http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif. Emoticons do have a purpose, afterall...

'Tis a shame.

Re: Is It Just Me Or....
 

Which is why I said I know you were only half serious. Words have a purpose as well. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Is It Just Me Or....
 

That was mostly directed at Ragnarok. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif And you didn't really need the rest of your post about extrapolation and all... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: Is It Just Me Or....
 

I prefer long drawn out games that foster a great deal of RPG and give time for the player to expand his empire into a true military force. It is far more rewarding IMHO.

Re: Is It Just Me Or....
 

Pst Atrocities, I guess I cannot interest you in a Devnull game by turn 100 or so? You will have a nice Empire based on external income, the asset of the Talisman, and the most impressive intelligence powerhouse around. This Empire is doing well, with the usual amount of Stellar Manipulation, and a huge focus on remote-mining. Just thought I would point it for you, as such games seem to quite fit your tastes.

Erh, this shameless plug aside... *Glowers at Fyron*

Re: Is It Just Me Or....
 

I myself find PBW a little slow, I know playing solo goes a lot faster and the PBW game I am in is only <110 turns at this time and we have been playing for a few months, this is what I have a hard time with when you forget just what the heck you were planing when the time between turns is a few days/weeks http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...es/Injured.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/fear.gif

Re: Is It Just Me Or....
 

I'm also cutting down the amount of games I'm playing. I'll have to do my military service after the turn of the year so it's not reasonable to start new games now (I don't like to drop out of games).

Re: Is It Just Me Or....
 

Sorry, I am on a PBW diet at the moment. I play when I have time otherwise my Ministers handle the turn. I even have a game going with Intimidator that I don't have time to play.

Re: Is It Just Me Or....
 

Your answer brings another question Atrocities: who is NOT cranking down on SEIV play? It looks like quite a fashionable trend of late, and replacing players are rarer than a peace-loving tree-hugging Klingon.

Re: Is It Just Me Or....
 

I wonder if there is a way for Geo to determine if there are fewer PBW games than there used to be, say, a year or two ago.

Re: Is It Just Me Or....
 

We are all preparing for the release of SE5... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Is It Just Me Or....
 

A couple other factors:

Fyrons Quadrant Mod. I love this mod and it's used in a lot of PBW games so I assume many of us love it. The problem is, it doubles (or more?) the number of planets and thereby doubles the ships, units, resources etc. but most especiallly micro-management. I find I can handle only half the games I could handle 2 years ago; the turns take twice as long!

High resource asteroids. These make remote miners etc. very profitable. Even better, when you have enough stellar manip. you can build your own planets, build a space yard then monoliths and before you know it you can't build ships fast enough to spend it all. In the end, once again you have more ships, more resources and more micro-management... and fewer games ongoing.

Yes I'm a little burned out myself, but I am looking forward to starting a small scale game when things calm down. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: Is It Just Me Or....
 

The server doesn't keep track, but I'd say there are definetly fewer games running now. As far as Users, for the first couple years we were pretty steady at about 350 Users a day and around 500 Users a week. Those have dropped now to about 275 a day and 400 a week. Still busy, but measurably less so.

Finding replacement players has always been tough though, even at our height. Most people just don't like taking over for other people.

Re: Is It Just Me Or....
 

Although I feel somewhat similarly, I am very much looking forward to Tesco's custom RP game he is working on...

Re: Is It Just Me Or....
 

I'm not cranking down...actually I'm up to 11 games right now! Even though I'm almost dead in about 4 or 5 of those...but 11 is my limit. No more.