Thought I'd drop in, seeing how I had a couple of reasons to make a thread like this on my own, but never got to it. Whatever I write here isn't to be directed at Wesker, RHA or any other player/faction in particular. It's just an observation of a player who's been around for a while and seen enough to hopefully contribute something. There will be a lot of obvious things, and the points I bring up are to be taken as self-sufficient. But when they intertwine, they should give a good idea of the situation. This point must always be kept in mind:
0. Disco is apparently the most active FL server in existence. It offers multiple ways to play: in-game or forum RP, PVP (caps/snubs), trading, and all kinds of combinations of these things. Other servers offered pure PVP, but this server has outlived/outperformed them. I have to assume that RP is the reason. Or rather, a healthy dose of RP mixed up into PVP, or the other way around.
1. People play games to have fun. When it's not fun, they quit (or, in this case, "log out to avoid an unfun interaction").
2. Losing isn't fun, unless the losing person feels that there was a fair chance of winning. That is the case not only with Disco.
3. Losing is even less fun on Disco outside of Conn, because RP is involved. That further encourages claiming blue messages and discourages people from giving their own.
4. Winning is fun, unless you know that the opponent had no chance to win.
5. Winning has the most fun value when you play with a skilled and well-coordinated team and overcome the numeric advantage that the enemy throws at you.
6. Losing has the least fun value when you play constantly against a skilled and well-coordinated team that also has a numeric advantage in their favour.
7. If enough people quit in-game interactions due to not having fun, Disco will die.
8. Disco has the additional problems of
- being an old game
- based around highly-specific skillsets
- with a huge room for gaining skill
- and with a sufficient number of skilled veterans
- and a dwindling number of newcomers.
That creates a skill gap that's hard to bridge, which further reduces the chances of newcomers to have fun.
The path to a solution now presents itself:
If you'd like to stop people from logging out when seeing your name on the player list, find ways to spread the fun around.
It's easier said than done, and I don't have a guaranteed ready-to-use recipe of doing that.
My best thought at the moment is this:
If you find your enemy lacking in skill, numbers, or coordination, help them make themselves better. Or even make them better, if that's what it takes. Yes, you aren't obliged to do that. Yes, you'd be spending time away from your faction. Yes, you'd basically be creating your own enemies. But the alternative is further decay, and people finding more fun pastimes.
