Focusing the CoPaP player base

[Apandapion]

I ran a diablo II player group for the longest time. We used private games with fixed names to jump on and play with each other for the longest time. Later in the group's life, the group shrank, and I found myself at a loss to keep the group together. Too often, players would be at different levels and difficulty levels, and it would be hard to coordinate players. Too often, you'd log in to a certain game with a certain level of character and there'd be nobody there. There are parallels between this problem and the problem of a new CoPaP world trying to develop a playerbase.

I solved this fairly well by adding a "suggested place" to meet to each day. The suggestion was, if you were not dying to play a certain character, then you should lean towards a character that could play at said place. There was no requirement. Nobody was going to come to you and tell you to play a different character. The place changed from day to day, and the group continued for a long time despite a declining list of players. The "suggested place" put us all on the same page, and we'd meet without prior arrangement in the right difficulty level and act to play in.

I was thinking that this method could be used - in an entirely voluntary, non-official way - to coordinate groups on servers, to kick start activity on that server. Each week would be dedicated to a specific newer server that was ready for new characters. If I wanted to start an alt on that server, I could wait for the week to roll around for that server, and I'd have a higher chance to hook up with either other new players or more experienced players who "happened" to be there to help out.

The character relationships that form during the focus week would help the server be more active all the time, in the long run - as the characters and the DMs interact more during the focus week, things will get started, and people will have more confidence of finding a group at any time. If you log in and see someone that you played with during focus week, you could send them a tell and hook up.

To give an example of how this might work:

Week of May 1st : Server A
Week of May 8th : Server B
Week of May 15th : Server C
Week of May 22nd: Server A
...

If I want to start an alt on Server B, I could wait for May 8th, to increase the likelihood that I meet fellow players there. The chance that I would arrive to an empty server would be pretty low. As servers develop stable player bases, they are removed from the rotation. As new servers are linked, they are added to the rotation. Thus, new servers get the spotlight on them once a month or so, to help develop the "critical mass of players" that a server needs to really take off.

This also helps on the DM side, as well. A DM on a newer server can be pretty sure he'll be able to meet up with players during the focus week, which is better than waiting around for someone to show up.

Any thoughts? I bring this up only because my attempts to start first level alts on some worlds have been somewhat less than successful, and because this method has worked for focusing players in the past. I want to see all of the worlds on copap be successful, and I think a measure like this could help the less-populated worlds out when planar transit becomes harder. Before you warm up your flamethrower, remember that this is entirely voluntary - myself or someone else would set up a rotation (it's easy to script in any web programming language), and players could take note of it or ignore it as they chose.

[Orleron]

Sounds really cool.

[jaythespacehound]

It does
Why did no one else think of this before?

[JollyOrc]

go ahead I'll say !

[Apandapion]

Cool, cool. As for coming up with the idea, it probably springs from a concept called the "open season" which the government uses to task swap bureaucrats.

I'm making a formal offer now to give the project to CoPaP to manage as an official project. If you want it, take it. That way you could classify the new servers and set up the rotation yourself, and host it here. Once I start work on it, I'd be a little bit more fussy about turning it over. Probably not too much, however.

Either way, CoPaP or me, we do need a list of servers that want to be in this program. The only servers I have significant personal experience with is Avlis and T'Nadur, and Avlis doesn't need it and T'Nadur, I believe, is not ready for 1st level PCs yet. I would guess that Hala also doesn't need the focus.

That leaves us to ask, of Abyss404, Ea:LoV, Rockhome, which of them want in the program? Did I miss anyone?

[Orleron]

Just to get a clearer picture here.... So essentially what you'd be doing is organizing groups of players to come play together on various servers in CoPaP at designated times with 1st level character alts? The servers who wanted to be part of it would sort of sign up, and such?

That's a fine idea if that's what it is. We'll vote on it. This is also something that could be done very well with the tools they have on Neverwinter Connections, and it can be used as a huge recruiting tool for those servers.

[Apandapion]

Just to get a clearer picture here.... So essentially what you'd be doing is organizing groups of players to come play together on various servers in CoPaP at designated times with 1st level character alts?

A designated range of times, and a wide range of times. Specifically, a week. If I wanted to start a character on a newer server, I could wait until it's week popped up and I'd be much more likely to encounter people. There's no guarantee, but it's better than everyone showing up at random servers and finding nobody there.

Let's say that a new server named Foobarus has started up, linked to copap, and is ready for new players. I decide to create a new character there. For me to encounter someone else there, they would have to do the exact same thing at the exact same time, or they'd have to be waiting around for someone to show up. The first is unlikely, and the second is tedious.

What this "focus program" does is create focus weeks for the servers. Each week, we'd encourage people to show up at a particular server - a "server of the week", if you will. Because that server is a focus for activity during that week, there's a better chance of people being there - new players, people who show up to help new players, DMs wanting to get people into things, and so forth. Encouraging everyone to hop on a certain server each week is sort of like shoving all of the coals together in a camp fire - it makes it burn hotter. The attention is focused in a week instead of scattered out across a month, and thus there's likely to be more going on. And it's the goings on going on that hooks a player.

So a player who likes the focus week program, if he wants to create a new character, will consider doing it on whatever server has the focus this week. And if he doesn't want to, he doesn't.

The hope is that once people show up at the server and experience all of this, they will stay *past* focus week, now that they are involved in things.

The servers who wanted to be part of it would sort of sign up, and such?

Yes. You'd sign up, and every 4 or 5 weeks the attention would be pointed at your server, probably in an automated cycle.

That's a fine idea if that's what it is. We'll vote on it. This is also something that could be done very well with the tools they have on Neverwinter Connections, and it can be used as a huge recruiting tool for those servers.

You have something more planned in mind than what I have. All I'm proposing is that each week we put the attention focus on a new server, and encourage people not in the middle of anything elsewhere, who want to start a new character, to play there. The focus causes the players to gather and gets the roleplay going.

Right now lots of alts get made on Avlis instead of other worlds because people *know* that there will be things going on there. With focus weeks, people can be pretty confidant that if you show up at a new server during it's focus week, you can expect a heightened level of activity. Hopefully this will jump-start the server population.

[Orleron]

Great, I understand now. Good explanation.

You could conceivably take this as far as you wanted. If all you wanted to do with it was arrange weeks for server focus, that's good with me. However, you could also make this a hefty recruiting tool if you announced your "server of the week" on the major news sites like NWConnections and NWVault. I could show you how to do that.

Voting is still going.... need one more linked world to vote.

[Tristan_Durst]

You forgot us over here in Arborea. But we can have that effect becasue of the mellowsmoke fumes.

As a WIP I would greatly intrested in this when we go live.

-Tristan

[Apandapion]

You forgot us over here in Arborea. But we can have that effect becasue of the mellowsmoke fumes.

As a WIP I would greatly intrested in this when we go live.

-Tristan

I intentionally just listed servers on the live list. (Is EA live?) Regarding servers just coming up, you do have to remember that if this works right, you'll make a lot of first impressions during your first focus week.

You could conceivably take this as far as you wanted. If all you wanted to do with it was arrange weeks for server focus, that's good with me. However, you could also make this a hefty recruiting tool if you announced your "server of the week" on the major news sites like NWConnections and NWVault. I could show you how to do that.

I'm just finishing school, and my life is going to cross some, uh, asymptotes shortly. If someone wants to build a public relations campaign, I'd definately support something like that.

[Apandapion]

Did the vote regarding this ever reach a conclusion?

[Orleron]

Mystara, EA, and Abyss have not looked at the threads yet. Sometimes they take a while to get around to it. I'll keep you posted.

[Ulversial]

If I only had a world and a vote

I really like this idea!