I joined the forums at the end of 2013. Been playing vanilla Freelancer for a few years prior to that as well. I was active in Disco, like all day everyday sort of active, for over 3 years before moving on. All this time, there had always been talk of how Disco is dying. I visit the forums once or twice a year now, to check those old threads and check up on a few people who I was close to back in those days (stalk their profiles). Though I no longer recognize most of the faces here, the server still seems to be kicking about. It has been dying for over 6 or 7 years now going by the doomposting that happens here every once in a while. The only thing that will definitely kill it is the server going offline permanently due to lack of funding. I don't even know who funds the server anymore. Used to be that dude who stopped playing but kept the server alive, when I was there. Last I saw a few years back, one of the mods, forgot her name, was sourcing donations. I would like to think that Disco would still be alive for a few more years into this decade. Maybe it's happier that way.
I would like to extend my thanks to everyone who took their time to read through the post and reply on it.
I see some of you guys are part of the "old guard". As such, I think your opinion would matter a lot and be interesting to hear, it's a shame you won't put out some effort to do a write-up with your thoughts on this.
Anyway, I understand some of you are jaded being in the community for so long already, however it is factually incorrect to label my post as being about doom and gloom, I've put some effort into thinking it through and if anything, it should be a positive outlook on what can be done not just to "save" this community but to make it grow. It is also selfish because this forum section exists for a reason and mods read it for a reason. Also, nobody should be opposed to growing this community because you can bet that Devs who put in hours and work on Discovery would like more people to play it and recognize their work, not less.
This is an important argument I've missed in the original post and is the reason why I think we should give it some serious thought:
-I have a daily job + other obligations and I would presume most of the community does as well, those who don't probably have things other then the job etc..
-As such, amount of time I can log in and play is severely restricted and sometimes interrupted. I just can't have my gaming be an obligation too, that is why I don't play MMOs at all anymore.
-That is the exact same reason why I can't attend or organize events often, and even if I could, I would sometimes need to abandon them or take an half an hour break because something came up, not really a good look for somebody who organized the whole thing, and not really a lot of fun for anyone involved. I don't want to waste anyones time, and I don't want anyone to waste my time, simple.
-And that brings us to the problem, often when I log in, it takes couple of hours just to get some action. First I have to track everyones location for half an hour to be able to guess where they are going and what is the route, then I have to fly there and then I need to wait either for baddies to appear, or for transport to come into the system so I can cut it off etc. And sometimes, none of that happens and you arrive late everywhere and you just wasted 2 hours. The point is, Multiplayer RP Experience is inconsistent and those of us who want to see some action, excitement and want that RP fix sometimes just can't get it.
Solution:
-So my solution to that problem is to passively and slightly encourage people EVERY OTHER day to gather in certain parts of the galaxy, I think that would facilitate wonderful RP opportunities with people coming together against common enemies and forming unlikely alliances. That would increase the player density locally, but that's only the primary effect, real boost to the community is supposed to come from the secondary effect of ATTRACTING and RETAINING new players by giving them a FOCUSED experience. Trust me, as a "new" player myself, getting into this world of Discovery is really, really hard. You have absolutely NO idea what to do, where to go and what should be your goals, and giving people a freaking book to read before they can play is not the solution. Solution is to just slowly nudge them along by giving them goals until they figure out for themselves what they want to do and that they don't want to follow BS goals anymore. It's like hatching a birb chick that has to eventually fly for himself, don't just push him out of the nest too early.
-To sum it up, the plan would slightly boost player density locally coupled with it being an RP event of-course would increase player engagement which is important to me because of time-wasting. It would also bring in and retain new players which would be good for player engagement across the board. I strongly suggest you read all my posts in this thread as there are some other ideas I'm currently thinking through and there are some other arguments in there.
@Sath
I have a plan for funding as well, it should be community driven of-course and would greatly benefit from increased exposure and larger playerbase. I won't lay it out just yet because we need to go step by step and this idea already seems like a big chunk to swallow for some.
Like any other MMO, this community is focused on groups of people encountering each other. Alone, you will lose interest pretty quickly. As Lemon said - find a faction (group of people, not NPC faction) you enjoy playing with and play the game.
(04-20-2021, 12:12 PM)Groshyr Wrote: Like any other MMO, this community is focused on groups of people encountering each other. Alone, you will lose interest pretty quickly. As Lemon said - find a faction (group of people, not NPC faction) you enjoy playing with and play the game.
It's just that being a part of "clan" can be an obligation as I've said already, and often my time for playing is just not compatible with others. MMOs today have mandatory Raid-Finders for a reason, and honestly they are a godsend. (My idea is not a raid-finder but plays a similar role of bringing people who do not want to be super active in the community together)
I just don't see a single negative aspect of a system like this that promotes organic player interaction instead of everything being prearranged. Don't you think that there is some "special magic" in those moments where people just do what seems right, on the spot, spontaneously and without the need to be diligent on forums and other social media.
(04-20-2021, 12:12 PM)Groshyr Wrote: Like any other MMO, this community is focused on groups of people encountering each other. Alone, you will lose interest pretty quickly. As Lemon said - find a faction (group of people, not NPC faction) you enjoy playing with and play the game.
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