"Carrion Fields survives because the players make it happen."

The statement above has always been true. Immortals need players to populate their created world with characters. Those characters keep things interesting for them and, in essence, keep them on the payroll. Obviously, then, their pay isn't too high today. In fact, they are probably making minimum wage (Cambodian style). The simple, logical fix for this problem is to get more players.

Sure, some of you might not care about the numbers, and I guess I'm a selfish bastard because whenever I used to log in and see 40 people in my range alone, I thought to myself "That's 39 people for me to kill." I've farted around with a few lowbie characters in an attempt to stir up some motivation, but when I do a "who" and see less than 30 people in the entire game my blood pressure drops a bit, I burst into tears, and then I take a shot of JD and reminisce about the "good ol' days" (which were like 2 years ago...). So, there you have it, Mek wants people to kill before he comes back...and lots of people.

Now, if you go to www.topmudsites.com you will see Aardwolf holding the #1 spot (as they ALWAYS have done). Have you ever logged into Aardwolf? After you do you'll probably have an epileptic seizure from the skittle explosion on your screen, but you'll also notice that a whole gaggle of folks greet you right off the bat. They even have players designated as "helpers" on the newbie channel, and new players are encouraged to seek them out. After checking the "who list," however, you'll quickly realize that the MUD is completely devoid of anything resembling roleplay.

I can't stand Aardwolf, or any other game like it. Everything you do is inconsequential and, basically, pointless without the RP to back-up the fantasy environment. If I wanted pure PK out of a game, I sure as hell wouldn't play a mud...I'd be on BF2 (which I do, plenty). CF has a superior product in almost every regard, but there are critical weaknesses which have been sucking the life/playerbase/etc from the game. What are these problems and what can we do to fix it?

Immortals responses are also welcome, just please don't tell me that the game is the same now as it always has been, and the low playerbase is just a passing phase. It's not a phase. It's a steady decline where the "phases" are marked as brief spikes where new players come in and quickly leave, or replace old players who have moved on.

I have plenty of ideas here, but I would rather hear everyone else's thoughts - and please keep it constructive. No jackassery. Poker faces on. Get er' done!

To get you thinking, here are some general topics to start exploring the problem:


Marketing: Is Carrion Fields well-known by the mudding community, or just another forgetable entry on ZMUD's list? How can the name "Carrion Fields" become synonymous with "Fun" for people who have never played it?

Reputation: CF is a harsh place, but those who know it, love it. How can its brutal reputation be turned into an asset?

WebPage: What could we do to spruce up this place? Maybe get some good artwork going? Toss some textures in instead of flat colors? Hell, maybe a flash movie? I can donate some time to this.

The thing about "greeters" got me thinking. When I was a new(er) player, immortal interaction was like the highlight of my day. Also, one of the more intimidating things about CF was that it was entirely immersive. There was nobody you could ask for OOC help in game (which is why things like the official forums and Dio's exist).

It might be nice if some group of immortals (maybe heroimms, maybe specifically *not* heroimms) were designated to interact with characters flagged "new to the game" in some meaningful but not time-intensive way. I'm thinking this would be primarily OOC ("welcome to the game, how are things going?") but I can see how it might be handled IC as well.

Basically the idea would be to give new players the sense that "we" (staff and players) value their presence and want them to be successful here. (With success not being narrowly defined as "PK success").

Mortal characters can do this *to an extent*, but they don't have a way to check whether a person is "new" or not, and they can't go blatantly OOC and ask the *player* how things are going so far. Plus there are RP elements that prohibit certain mortals from being friendly and/or encouraging to certain other mortals.

Maybe I'm weird, but an immortal taking 5 minutes to "chat" with me, as a new player, and generally being friendly/helpful/empathetic would mean alot and make me want to stick around.

I definitely agree. Just a little bit of ooc chatting at the very start could go a looong way, and especially if it's 1 on 1, instead of having 4 people hollering at you on the newbie channel when you use an emoticon.

It would be a great way to really emphasize the difference between ooc and ic, and how that from here on out, it's ALL ic, and would be generally less confusing while asking and answering questions. And the personal touch is always nice.

Shoot... on a related note, maybe there should be a helpfile about different, intelligent ic ways to talk about ooc game mechanics, like grouping, levelling/ranking, talking about time. I would be hesitant to codify any specific phrases, but at the same time it could be helpful. I mean, who really cares about pleasing the guildmaster? Advancing? WTH are you talking about? I want to level!

Also, perhaps if it was written in the right way, we could eliminate some of the crappier examples I've heard (and used, I'll admit). I'd love to help brainstorm some really clever and clear ways to talk about game mechanics, because sometimes that's really important. You can only say Trust me! Allow me to summon you! So many times without wishing you had a way to just let them know which helpfile you want the newbie to read.

Risks! Players are taking less and less risks nowadays because of losing equipment. With the smaller playerbase, it's easier for all upper echelon characters to have better equipment. So it's now easy come, not-so-easy go--because of a lack of risk taking. Obviously this doesn't apply to everyone.

When people take less risks, the game become less fun. Obviously everyone can have their own brand of fun, even without people taking risks.

Efforts to make full loots minimal or have a lesser impact are good. Some good directions have been taken overall. However, the outfit command sucks. Nothing you get, except maybe food, is worth anything. Start adding some stats to that gear, have it last 120 game hours and then crumble from "overuse". Give it some damage for warriors, some saves, and some dex/str. Give mages some hps and mana. Give a potion of return, maybe a flight potion too. Have it all crumble after roughly 120 game hours. Have "outfit" in the affects list, so you know when it will go away, and when you need to be finished regearing. Outfit command as it stands, is absolute garbage. Better than nothing, but still absolute trash. I could kill kobolds and get better stuff.

Maybe you can "pay" into the outfit command, to get certain different echelons of "outfit". Maybe give the guildmaster 10000 copper, and you get a half-way decent set. Give him 20000, and he'll give you the best he's got. Or if you're an Outlander, and can find an appropriate place to "outfit", you can use items to barter with. Or everyone could make use of bartering for better outfit options.

Just my $.02

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