Is forum traffic dying?

Unknown

Is it just my impression, or the forum seems very, very quiet? I used to see various topics appear each day, and now it's the same boring topics again and again with maybe 7-8 new topics each day. The player base on Steam is falling again and I think next month we will see a new low for average players despite all the new characters. Is it the same for mobile devices?

I can't say I am surprised though. The game itself isn't a deep game with many options so there aren't many new abilities you can put out before new heroes start feeling like rehashed versions of characters we have already. It doesn't help that most new characters are 4* and people assume, correctly, that they'll need months, if not years, before they can use them. In the meantime, our HP reserves are dry from the ludicrous roster slot costs, the time requirements are quite high and some weaker characters are still useless. Take Psylocke for example. She was weak when she came out. Now, with all the health buffs she is dead weight. Even buffed she feels weak.

IlDuderino

Yes. A lot of the best commentators have quit and they haven't been replaced in sufficient numbers. My journey to work by train is an hour and 30 minutes of that is overground when I have internet access. Forum posts used to take up the whole 30 minutes above ground and I would pre load long pages to read underground. Now I can read all the interesting new posts before I reach the first station on the line

Unknown

It's summer. The number of gamers on Steam in general drops substantially every summer then everyone comes back in September/October - that has been the norm for the last eight/nine years that I have been using it. Lighter nights, good weather and holidays mean less people playing games indoors.

GrumpySmurf1002

Narkon wrote:

Is it just my impression, or the forum seems very, very quiet? I used to see various topics appear each day, and now it's the same boring topics again and again with maybe 7-8 new topics each day. The player base on Steam is falling again and I think next month we will see a new low for average players despite all the new characters. Is it the same for mobile devices?

I can't say I am surprised though. The game itself isn't a deep game with many options so there aren't many new abilities you can put out before new heroes start feeling like rehashed versions of characters we have already. It doesn't help that most new characters are 4* and people assume, correctly, that they'll need months, if not years, before they can use them. In the meantime, our HP reserves are dry from the ludicrous roster slot costs, the time requirements are quite high and some weaker characters are still useless. Take Psylocke for example. She was weak when she came out. Now, with all the health buffs she is dead weight. Even buffed she feels weak.

Player base has been effectively stagnant on Steam for like a year now. Can easily look at that and say "May was the biggest month in over a year!" and glean optimism from it. It's consistently between 600-700 players. Nothing to see there.

As to the forums, yeah there's not a ton of content right now. At least with the 3* influx, there was a chance to build quickly and more people had the character to form opinions on. We can talk til we're blue in the face about how strong/weak Ant-Man really is, but about 30 people will have a usable one to actually give an informed opinion.

Combine that with some very active and interesting posters leaving, and you're left with what's here.

Also doesn't help that the Devs posts still read like a press release with no emotion. IceIX chiming in recently has been the only real bright spot.

byc

As a newcomer to the game and to the forums, the forums are a bit annoying for me.

Every post has to be moderated, I can't make new discussions. I understand for spamming purposes why these are done, but it's still annoying. I thought joining would provide me with a more in-depth search, but it doesn't seem to be.

Combined with a disaster of a day yesterday in MPQ, I'm pretty much done already with the game. I don't understand why my shields didn't work exactly, and I had a nice 10 game losing streak to drop me down to 1100 for the monthly. Bad luck + being outclassed (and I know I've gotten great luck before as well, so it evens out) made me reconsider grinding in a second game.

jojeda654

byc wrote:

Every post has to be moderated

I thought it was only the first post that had to be approved. Either way, you can get full access if you have 5 posts. Here's a thread where you can reply without having to worry about getting approved. viewtopic.php?style=1&f=15&t=13454

byc

Seems like it's just the first post as this one seemed to have gone through immediately. One less thing to be annoyed about.

I still can't figure out how to get my question answered, and searching haven't worked yet (and I gave up trying to do so yesterday).

Vhailorx

Yes, forum traffic is down from what it was last summer when I started lurking.

Many of the community pillars (e.g. mischief maker, polarity, phantron etc) have dropped out. Some people have done real yeoman's work filling in (thanks again for the rankings thread ebolamonkey!), but the dedicated commenter community does seem smaller. (note that i am not in Line, so it's possible that some traffic has move there).

Additionally, the game and the forums are more mature, in the sense that the meta is well understood and most of the essential guides are already written. So less traffic is necessary. Basically traffic is just (1) commentary on new characters/events/changes, (2) newbies asking for advice. There are fewer active debates about the best strategies and tactics.

wirius

There's much less to complain about! The forum is many times a place where people vent and complain. D3 has done an outstanding job over the last few months and many people's issues have been resolved.

Malcrof

wirius wrote:

There's much less to complain about! The forum is many times a place where people vent and complain. D3 has done an outstanding job over the last few months and many people's issues have been resolved.

^ this.. it has been a much more pleasant place lately.. after the initial shocks of vault etc wore off.. other than the usual omg 7 day PVE grind being kept in the events forum, it has been a fairly calm place.

Yes, it is summer, and the troll kids are all off doing troll kid things, so enjoy the peace while it lasts

Unknown

Most of the good commenters have quit the game, my (easily T100 if they chose) alliance recently lost three commanders within a week, we never replaced all the lost players, and now one of the new commanders is already talking about leaving.

Translating to the forum, it seems that the only people sticking around are those that are fine with the game as is, whereas all the others aren't in the forum because, well, they're not playing MPQ.

As for me, I'm in the forum as much as I'm in the game. 10-20 minutes for DDQ most days, 10-20 minutes in the forum to see if anything of importance changes.

DBC

Ebolamonkey84

I have most of my conversations about the game on Line now. Too many people complaining, too many people complaining about the complainers, and too many people stating their opinion as if it is fact. I have about 5-6 more character writeups that I just haven't put up on character rankings because I don't visit here too much for extended periods.

simonsez

Removing downvotes killed the forum...

Nonce Equitaur 2

I lost most of my interest in stages. The worst was the developer's "awesomeness" post, which was basically ....

If a fix isn't incredibly super-duper awesome, we won't bother with it.

The game is basically a 1975 Dodge Dart that needs a lot of work. What choices to make?
1. Fix the exhaust, or change the flame decals to actual flames?
2. Replace the wipers, or add a neon sign on top?
3. Replace the bald tires, or add a 190 decibel car horn?
4. Fix the transmission, or make it a lowrider?
5. Replace the disintegrating upholstery, or hire models to ride on the hood?

When you're dealing with that sort of mentality, what's the point of discussing anything? I could certainly spend a lot of time making suggestions, but it seems like a waste of time now.

scottee

I have no problems with the gameplay state or changes, as I adapt easier than most. I still enjoy the game. The only problem in game is that there's not enough for me to work towards. I don't need any 3*'s, as the new ones have been pretty lame, and it's too easy to cover them in less than 3 months. So there's not enough for me to do in the game.

As to the forum, there's just not a lot of productive posts to reply to, or productive topics in general. Posters don't seem to want to talk rationally about gameplay, so it makes it less enticing to respond.

Unknown

Summer holidays/season... Its normal to see a drop off in players this time of year, cause people are going to be going out more for holidays overseas and/or other outdoor activities... It's very noticeable in a lot of MMO communities that the summer months see a drop off in players for a few months til the start of the new school/academic term, when kids are back at school and adults have come back from their holidays with their kids/families...

Unknown

alot of vets play diff games now, aka forum traffic and its midle of summer so less ppl care about this dumb game

SnowcaTT

I've certainly been here much less - few updates (or things like Ant-Man! 30 minutes and you're done!), and nothing else new except "Surprise - yet another character!". Not much reason to check in for that.

I can only hope that many left the forums for the venom that sometimes flows here, rather than for disinterest reasons. The same thing over and over can't sustain the game forever (or for long?) - things need another shake-up. DDQ "brought many in daily" said the devs, there were TONS of posts (negative and positive) about Ultron. Things like that draw interest - yet another character just can't be the big draw to this game.

Unknown

SnowcaTT wrote:

I've certainly been here much less - few updates (or things like Ant-Man! 30 minutes and you're done!), and nothing else new except "Surprise - yet another character!". Not much reason to check in for that.

I can only hope that many left the forums for the venom that sometimes flows here, rather than for disinterest reasons. The same thing over and over can't sustain the game forever (or for long?) - things need another shake-up. DDQ "brought many in daily" said the devs, there were TONS of posts (negative and positive) about Ultron. Things like that draw interest - yet another character just can't be the big draw to this game.

too bad they said new PVEs don't bring ROI

SnowcaTT

Exactly raisinbman, it's a huge bummer - and difficult to understand (or parse) with forum traffic and event excitement about some of these things.

Nonce had it dead on (as usual):

Nonce Equitaur 2 wrote:

I lost most of my interest in stages. The worst was the developer's "awesomeness" post, which was basically ....

If a fix isn't incredibly super-duper awesome, we won't bother with it.

When you're dealing with that sort of mentality, what's the point of discussing anything? I could certainly spend a lot of time making suggestions, but it seems like a waste of time now.

This is another reason I don't bother much - suggestions seem to be rarely even heard, much less taken up on. It was nice to have a good community response to last Q&A. The devs continue to say (sometimes with updates rather than words) that what the forum-going folk have pointed to as a problem or suggestions for solutions are not what will help fund the game. We all understand, there is a bottom line to keep it going! But some metrics and explanations would be wonderful to help (me at least) understand that - rather than vague guesses based on updates. I'd much rather be SHOWN something (like numbers), than told about it.

Unknown

SnowcaTT wrote:

Exactly raisinbman, it's a huge bummer - and difficult to understand (or parse) with forum traffic and event excitement about some of these things.

Nonce had it dead on (as usual):

Nonce Equitaur 2 wrote:

I lost most of my interest in stages. The worst was the developer's "awesomeness" post, which was basically ....

If a fix isn't incredibly super-duper awesome, we won't bother with it.

When you're dealing with that sort of mentality, what's the point of discussing anything? I could certainly spend a lot of time making suggestions, but it seems like a waste of time now.

This is another reason I don't bother much - suggestions seem to be rarely even heard, much less taken up on. It was nice to have a good community response to last Q&A. The devs continue to say (sometimes with updates rather than words) that what the forum-going folk have pointed to as a problem or suggestions for solutions are not what will help fund the game. We all understand, there is a bottom line to keep it going! But some metrics and explanations would be wonderful to help (me at least) understand that - rather than vague guesses based on updates. I'd much rather be SHOWN something (like numbers), than told about it.

I dunno...I think the most shocking to me was when phantron left...he made a post actually AFTER he left. Alot of folks THREATEN to leave, very few actually seem to IMHO. I mean, lots of people were leaving due to the myriad changes, forefront being X-force/Jane Foster changes.

I think they do listen...I just wish they'd communicate. And I know they're a small company etc. etc. but if I could see a daily post from a even as simple as "we're aware of this issue" or "hmmm interesting" I'd be satisfied.

The biggest example of them listening would probably be nerfing Iron Fist. They (unfortunately) did end up releasing Iron Fist 1.0 but in record time toned him down to Iron Fist 2.0.

Then there's the fact they said they had no plans to work on any 3* or 4* when they say they wanted to fix older characters, citing 3*Stark as their prime example. Who hasn't been touched.

I think they need more Quality Control for character releases/event rebalancings: most of the events they've "streamlined" have become better. Some, like Prodigal Sun and First subevent of Juggernaut Heroic/Welcome to earth are strangely still hard. Even characters who initially sucked when they got rebalanced(with the exception of Ragnarok) were HELLA better.

It just frustrates me that D3 has the tools to suceed, yet won't utilize them for whatever reason.