Zahnweh

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Posts posted by Zahnweh


  1. 30 minutes ago, Malena said:

    Thank you to everyone sharing your views and critique of the AI versions. While I might not agree with everything being said and considering that people do have different tastes in what they feel looks good, it's always helpful and good to hear views of all kinds. 

    In my personal opinion, it feels like the AI versions are selling an unrealistic view of what Wurm looks like.  The images look fantastic, but for the sake of advertising the game and getting word out, it is selling something that isn't really an option.  When you play the game, things won't actually look that amazing, and to sell something like that just only further highlights the disparity between AI and the real deal.  It makes Wurm look worse by comparison.   If it was actually an option to make the game really look that pretty to play, it would be another thing entirely.   As it stands, I think it looks pretty, but it should never be used to represent the game itself to new players.  It's just an unrealistic interpretation of the game, a beautiful one, but a fake one nonetheless.


  2. 12 hours ago, ChampagneDragon said:

    Following the path of other small games bought out by vulture capital groups:

     

    Introduce storefront selling cosmetics. Realize microtransactions make money. Increase offerings. Introduce more items, worth more because functionally they do more. Make p2w. Milk cash cow. Close doors (servers)

     

    that is what I see in Wurm's future.

     

    Steam was supposed to be the real ticket to getting Wurm out there.  I mean, if done right and given the necessary attention and care, it would have boosted our numbers even a little, but no one seemed to actually give the Steam release of Wurm what it really needed.  Cash shops are just to appease investors who want to see Wurm demonstrate some method of earning money through its community.  I mean, at the end of the day, Kirster cares more about them than us.  Microtransactions might keep us in maintenance mode though, but giving us a greater future beyond life support is reliant on a number of key things falling in place.  Mind you, I don't know what goes into making an MMO, what they're able to get away with, and what they need to be successful.  The best I have is what I've seen with other MMOs that are either dead, dying, or in MM.  I have no hope or faith in this game though, that sucks to say outloud, but it is what it is.  The friends I've made are what keep me around, but I don't know how long they'll stick around. 


  3. I'll throw my two cents in.  I think the developers need to take a little time and work on polishing the existing content before adding anything more into the game.  Not saying that new content isn't appreciated, but we've got so much old stuff that needs love and attention desperately.  Not even counting the stuff that was thrown in and abandoned like Jackal.  We need new blood, that's obvious, stagnation is the fastest way to lose a game, but people will notice the small issues with certain content in the game.  Archeology, fishing, and the like.  The more time and effort that you put into making that stuff shine, the more people will notice and appreciate it.  I mean, beverage making is still nothing more than a novelty with little depth or meaning behind it.  It's just exhausting to see new stuff thrown in, because I know it comes at the expense of older content being forgotten.


  4. I keep falling back on wanting an option to have alliances be able to communicate with each other beyond their original server.  We've got people who come and go from regions that are still strongly attached to their alliance in question.  Communities that can't really communicate with each other once they move servers beyond either global or PMs with individual members.  I know for myself that the hardest part about leaving an area is knowing just how much more difficult it is to maintain communication without something like an alliance chat or something.  I'm just fond of finding ways to maintain communities even when they're spread between different servers.


  5. I loved Wurm once upon a time.  A part of me still feels something for this game, enough to keep coming back, but I have complaints with how it is moderated at times.  Just because someone is in power, they aren't excluded from being questioned and critiqued for their actions.  Especially when the rules are vague enough to be twisted to fit whatever the admin wishes.  So yeah, we can't question them, we can't criticize them, and we're expected to trust in the judgment of admins that use them.  Not all moderators are like that, and I can imagine it is a difficult job, especially for the ones that are volunteering.  I can't help, but feel like I should voice my concerns.  Even if they're unwanted, even if it can be construed as contesting, I feel like I should address my concerns and see if they're valid.  *shrug*  Then again, it'd be a miracle to find chat/forum/MMO rules that didn't have the potential of exploitation and misuse by higher-ups.


  6. On 9/8/2021 at 11:44 PM, Ekcin said:

     

    No, it does not tell a lot, at least not for WO, which can be and is being acquired other than through steam whereas stean is the only way to get WU. I appreciate ofc that WU figures seem to trend upwards.

     

    The figures steam is "reporting" are quite questionable and do in no way correlate well with measurable and measured participation figures. During different periods, they represented between 12 and 30 percent of the figures reported by Niarja or Etherdrifter's collection, or observables by login on my logs, or the weekly unique login reporting through MRTG. And they poorly  reflect trends.

     

    They finally "found" WO participation via steam going up, but I am in no way sure what it means (in fact, I see WO participation staying stable, and having recovered from a slight dip mid of August).

     

    WO is a monthly subscription MMO.  WU is a one time payment, and each person that is in those figures in Steam can at least be figured that they paid for that game for full price compared to WO which is not a guarantee that each person that enters the game is paying for it.  You can say that the figures in steam only show part of the full amount, but the players in WO in general are still extremely low.  It's not a good sign, and it's certainly something they should be far more concerned about than this.


  7. 1 hour ago, Tomatoes said:

    thats interesting. yes grant you WU went up more then WO, but they BOTH went up....

    Percentage speaks volumes, especially comparing a game that the developers have stopped working on with one they're still continuing to make updates for.  WO has more to lose and gain if the numbers fluctuate, where as WU is less of a case since all of the money that the developer is interested in has already been given by the customer.  Servers are run by the player rather than the developer, and there's hardly anything they're spending money on with it.  WO is still doing extremely poorly.


  8. 55 minutes ago, Ekcin said:

    I am not sure whether VR would prolly require a client on its own, or may be included into the existing one. Integration of VR, the one or the other way, will require quite some mopup of the code and the protocols, thus being in favour of the game.

     

    This, this so much.  VR isn't something you just throw onto a game without needing to adjust everything to work with it.  With how old Wurm is, I can see that they might need to construct a whole new client entirely to be able to make it functional, and that's not including all the things they need to test to make sure it doesn't interfere with the VR functionality.  This annoys me because Wurm needs a lot of love and work on its already existing features, ambitious plans are nice, but not when it sacrifices attention away from things that need help.  I just think that this could have been held back until they fix up all the existing issues people have problems with.  This just makes me think they're just going to stretch themselves too thin.


  9. VR just sounds terrible for this game.  Wurm is just not the sort of immersive experience that needs VR.  Then again, I've never seen the appeal of VR since I am horribly prone to nausea and motion sickness with those things.  It'd be more important to fix what is already broken then trying to add new features onto a framework that desperately needs love.  Try to make what you already have better than it currently is, and when the framework looks solid, then you might consider adding more touches and details to it.


  10. On 7/14/2021 at 10:59 PM, Archaed said:

    I agree with you completely in that breakdown, and you are correct, lack of updates is a sore issue in this community both from a player perspective, and a business perspective. 

     

    What I am calling out is the idea that this whole "service" is in some way altruistic and not self serving. 

     

    Why would anyone want to waste the time cataloging the flow and user base if they didn't want to help express just how bad off Wurm is right now.   MMOs live and die because of their population numbers.  It is the core reason behind the success of some, and the death of many others.  Wurm is in a desperate state.  Most MMOs would look at these numbers as a good excuse to cut losses, or go into maintenance mode.  It's important to listen to your players, and respond accordingly.  Some have managed to escape the inevitable fall into failure by being honest, apologize, and show they're trying to be better for the community of their game.  It's not wrong to point out weaknesses, and highlight just how dire things are.  There's nothing to gain for pointing them out, it would be much easier to just leave the game and not look back.  Those who stay here and try to express their concerns and disappointments are people that still want Wurm to improve, people who still care and see something that can still be saved.  It's why I bother to stick around myself.  I love this game, and I want it to be better.  A YouTube channel I highly recommend is 'death of a game' because whenever they talk about the failure of certain MMOs, they show the timeline, the actions, and the decline of the MMO.  A part of me fears that I'll one day see Wurm Online as their next topic.


  11. Branding makes sense for larger animals since it fits with RL usage of branding to show ownership over farm animals.  At the same time, I would love alternatives for branding for smaller animals or ones we aren't using as farm animals.  With the advent of pet bowls, I would love the idea of collars for pet dogs, cats, and so on.  Even as just an alternative, it would be nice to have options like this in a game that wants to embrace realism at times.


  12. On 4/8/2021 at 3:31 AM, Baeowulf said:

    The devs do events for holidays, players: "THIS EVENT SUCKS, YOU SUCK, EVERYTHING SUCKS"

     

     

    Devs DON'T do events for holidays, players: "OMG, NO EVENTS? LAZY DEVS"

     

    😧

     

    I personally think for certain things like aesthetic graphical changes, it would be nice for an option to opt out of it.  They can still happen, and some of them are certainly fun, but having tiny horses and animals can make animal caregiving a little more work than normal.  I love the name changes for skills, personally.


  13. For me, personally.  I would love to see uniques treated much like Rifts in terms that they're community hunts that the whole community can be a part of without having a side claiming it for themselves.  Maybe give that those who participate and contribute a certain level into the hunt can gain a chance of getting rarer drops out of killing the unique. 


  14. @elentariI agree with this so much.  People draw attention, attention brings in money, and money helps keep things going strong.  F2P can easily draw in a market, and some communities in MMOs have done better going F2P over P2P or monthly subs.  If people like a game enough, they will want to contribute to its growth.  One case in particular that I love is Path of Exile which doesn't require you to spend a dime on the game, but if you want to pay for cosmetics, it is open to you.  Money doesn't give you an advantage, it only gives you aesthetics.  Yet, people will pay for it.

     

    It's just something I think that Wurm should think about.  Making the game open for free players can make it more appealing and increase likelihood to draw in more money. 


  15. On 2/18/2021 at 8:06 AM, Malena said:

    Being a community manager/relations person has got to be one of the toughest and most thankless jobs in game development.

     

    I'd say it is the hardest type of job for any kind of company you're in.  The community manager and relations job entails so much interaction with not just other players, but with anyone interested in dealing with Wurm as a business or community.  You get the blunt of any negative feedback, and have to be the voice for the very business you're a part of.  I couldn't imagine doing a job like it.  Yet, it is important and vital for a company.  One of the most integral parts that keeps everything running smoothly and effortlessly.  It's something polarizing, and you'll never make everyone happy.  I don't know how @Retrogradedid it.  Then again, I personally can't handle stress or anxiety due to my own issues, and the thought of having to deal with people at such capacity would be nerve wracking.  Even just thinking about it is enough to make my stomach twist up in knots.

     

    For Retrograde, I hope you find a new adventure on the horizon.


  16. 14 hours ago, Radircs said:

    The second group is the one that was lost during all the bad communication of the Steam lunch. And I think this is the sad part. Wurm feels in a lot of ways Alpha or Beta like with lots of features are tagged on, not well-balanced and a really flat basic core loop without fluff around to make it more interesting (bearable). If you start to develop an interest for the game and want to know what will happen next you just read that their are already features ready on other servers that will activate over time and that on the old servers were this features are already in place will probably not get anything new for month.  And you maybe get the feeling that the game will not make progress and that there nothing to work for. I know this is not true since Wurm "endgame" is not like other games with a big bad PVE encounter but for most people the lack of direction and the fact of near to nothing of new content planed or even spoken of from the official side did give a feel the game is not worth to invest more time in it when you already at this "lost" point. And then this players slowly drop out over time when their deeds and premiums running out

     

    I hope that the communication get better now and we can at least retain more of the people that drip slowly in over steam or other ways and their interest in the game don´t hit a wall of silence that kill their enthusiasm.

     

    I agree with you and all the sentiments I've been seeing.  I just hope that the downtrend can be stopped before it truly becomes something we can't recover from.  The worst outcome I can see is us going into maintenance mode and things just stagnating at that point.  I don't know if we've already passed the point of bringing people back.  I keep looking at YouTube videos about old MMOs of the past, how they fell, and why they fell.  I'm not a smart person, and this seems really beyond my scope.  At the same time, it's important to look at why new people can't stay here, what turned them off, and what even burns out hardcore players of the game.  I'm no better, I can't stay on an MMO forever regardless of how great it is.  Burnout is a real thing that hits everyone at some point while playing even the best MMOs.  They may return at some point, but it can hurt an MMO that is already hindered by a low number of players.  Especially when they can control multiple accounts, because most of them tend to pay at least for a couple of them to be premium.  Losing one player may not hurt, but multiple losses can be severe if it happens in a weak moment. 

     

    I definitely agree that communication is the most important thing, regardless of if it's good or bad. 


  17. I think it's funny looking at the listing for herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores, seeing deer on the herbivore place, and thinking about the fact that deer tend to scavenge dead animals for meat.  Even horses are opportunistic carnivores, they won't actively seek to kill something for meat, but if they see something they can eat easily, they will eat it.  Like the YouTube video of a horse eating a chick.  Speaking of chickens, they're also another case of an opportunistic carnivore that doesn't mind eating other chickens if they want to eat some meat.  They can be pretty terrifying. 


  18. 55 minutes ago, Rocklobster said:

    Currently i am 6 prem accounts on the old cluster, and i regret premming the alts. The only thing happening in 2021 is maybe a minor combat UI update. At the rare that devs produce new content right now, i wouldn't be surprised if we go back to days with only 200 accounts logging in by the end of the year.

     

    We probably are, I have no idea how many of those accounts are actually separate people, or alts.  In this game, you need an alt if you end up making a priest because of the limitations it imposes upon you.  I can imagine the numbers we're seeing is much lower than projected.  This game just can't hold a player base, unless we can address why people aren't staying, it will only get worse.  The only people that truly stay are often the most loyal of the fanbase.  I do see Steam as a gamble, it opened up a lot of new servers that need upkeep and attention on top of what it already has.


  19. This is a remarkably beautiful and touching thing to see, someone trying to reunite items that are lost back with their owners.  It's something that brings back loads of old emotions, nostalgia and the look of how much you've grown now compared to then.  It makes me wonder how much I've changed compared to how I was when I first started Wurm.  One of the awesome things I enjoy about rereading old chat logs back in those times.  Thank you for your work, @brattygirl.


  20. @elentariI agree with this.  I love the idea of people working together towards a common goal, and that being rewarded.  I'd even love giving reasons for people to stick around in starting villages and calling them home.  Communities are something we should be fostering, I also like the idea of people going off on their own because everyone wants to make their own place theirs.  It just feels nice to give people a reason to stick around in old places, and maybe breathe life into them.  It's something I'd love, but I have a hard time imagining ways to draw others into that level of mindset.