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flairtorc -> Revitalize the Forums (7/20/2016 15:53:10)
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The title is my goal.
Possibly more.
Here's the thing. I don't know when AE did this, but they changed these forums so that by default, it only shows the last 3 days of topics. So if a topic wasn't made, or hasn't been updated in over 3 days, it no longer appears unless you use the drop-down to show topics from older than 3 days. The last time I was here when the discussions actually looked alive was when by default, this was 30 days.
I honestly don't understand why You(AE) would do this. Honestly this has a few negative effects on these forums. Firstly, it makes them look DEAD. That's a horrendously bad thing for the forum, AND the games. Why is this?
Well, if I played a game a lot a long time ago, or maybe a year ago, and decided to look into it again, see what's going on, I would check the forums. If I didn't know about the 3 day rule change, I would see the small amount of topics and think, "Is this game dying? Well I don't know if I want to commit time to a game that's dying." So I wont post. I wont make a topic. And I probably wont play. If I don't play, you wont generate ad revenue. If I don't play, you wont make money from subs. If I don't play, I wont buy DCs. If I don't play, I wont look into your other games, because if one of your games looks like the community is dying for it, I may as well assume as much for ALL of your games. It baffles me how AE(as far as I can tell) doesn't see this. And if I don't look to the forums to determine the player base, that little number of player on the home page will spell it out for me, making me once again, not want to put time into a game when I think it might die.
Secondly, since I wont post, it will just quicken the decay of these forums. The problem COMPOUNDS itself. And the lack of activity on any sub-forum WILL impact all the others. The longevity of these kinds of games is SOLELY placed on appearances. If a game's community appears dead to me, like a lot of people, I wont play it. It will look as if the Developer doesn't really care about that game, as it would appear that they aren't doing enough to incite discussion. When in reality, a simple setting has been set in the forums, causing it just to appear as if nothing is being talked about in EVERY sub forum.
An extremely simple fix would be to raise that number back to 30 days by default.
I could very well post this in every sub-forum, but honestly, I love this game the most. So I'll put it here. And if this doesn't garner any attention, I will put it other places.
I know this is only one factor of the problem I have been seeing plaguing your PRE-AQW games, but one has to start fixing things somewhere. And you GOTTA keep up appearances. In my opinion this WILL raise the player base, not by a lot, but at least a little.
And you need that.
P.S. If this comes off as ranty, I apologize. I love most of your games and I don't want to see you guys(AE) fall. I'm interested in the survival of your games, and I honestly want to help. I know one way would be to just give you absorbent amounts of money, but I can't do that. I have necessities too ya know. Mouths to feed, bills to pay. But at the very least I can give you little tips/pointers/ideas that will mostly likely have an impact on your games. I've been playing games for a VERY long time, and QUITE a lot of them. Appearances for Browser based games are everything. And your appearance looks like a sick old man dying clinging onto your biggest cash cow for dear life, while at the same time, putting all you got in a new idea for a game in an effort to thrust yourselves from the jowls of death.
Don't gamble. Be smart. Take intelligent steps to save yourself, don't flail about taking any option given to you.
An if you disagree with my assessment of you guys, just see it as a representation of what you appear to be to a portion of your community. There is NO way I am the only one that thinks this. Anyways.
Love you guys.
Moved here from the DFGD ~M4B
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