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Bloodreina

Where Wurm Online failed me

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I'm well aware that most people will either ignore this thread, or go straight defensive and start attacking me. And that's OK. I still feel that what I have to say is important and I want to say it.

I know most of you like to say that Wurm's community it's one of its strongest assets. And, up to a point, it really is a nice community, much more mature and less toxic than many other communities (not saying there are no trolls here too, but way less than in other places). Yet, while not toxic, it is definitely not very vibrant or helpful either. Actually (and I apologize if this offends any one) it feels like it is made of some of the most self centered people in any of the games that I played far now, where pretty much everyone (again with a very few exceptions) is only focusing on their actions and are hardly interested in what the other people are doing.

I am a social player. I like to chat with fellow players and participate to group activities. And Gods know that I did tried to find people to socialize with in game. And here are a few examples:
- Tried to start an alliance here - no answers whatsoever
- and when that failed tried to join an alliance here - no answers whatsoever
- or at least meet my neighbors here - no answers whatsoever
- Tried to look for a mentor here - no answers whatsoever
- or friends here - no answers whatsoever
- or fellow Romanian/Moldavian players here - no answers whatsoever

On top of that I was always active (and I consider that I was also nice and positive most of the times) both on server chat and on discord. Yet all my efforts show low to no success. The freedom chat is radio silent for the most part of the day. With one or two exceptions people in my friends list never message me unless I message them first (I honestly can't remember when was the last time when someone in my FL checked out on me to just see how my day was).

 

I consider myself a nice and positive person and in most games that I've played I had tons of friends and there are games where I stopped actively playing years ago, but when I log from time to time to check how things are, my screen lights like a Christmas tree from all the messages that I get. So I really don't consider that I am the problem. Still, here, I completely failed. Or, maybe, the "online" part of Wurm Online failed me. Anyhow, I end up feeling almost completely alone. And it honestly s***s, up to the point where it end up being one of my worst (if not the worst) experiences and feelings I had in all the MMORPGs that I played before.

I still love the "Wurm" part of Wurm Online, so I'll probably keep playing it (to a certain degree), but I'm honestly done trying to make the "Online" part work for me.

Why should you care about my stupid rant? Maybe because there are other (new) players that feel just like me and quit the game in silence. Maybe because you share a tiny bit of fault why Wurm is just a small niche game with a very high churn rate. It's easy to blame the developers for their decisions (or lack of), but maybe it's not entirely their fault and we all share a part of this fault. In my case it was not the Wurm part, but the Online part of Wurm Online that failed me...

 

 

Edited by Bloodreina
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Bloodreina, I'm sorry this has been your experience so far. As an on and off player for years, I can agree that sometimes the game can get quiet. You may post in forums and no one replies when you really wanted. Or, maybe you are in game, and it's just not very lively when you'd like it to be. On the other hand, sometimes, it can get quite lively online and in forums. It just depends on a lot of factors.

 

It sounds like you are taking it personally when you really shouldn't. In the times I've seen you online and in forums, yes, you seem like a friendly and good player, but now I think you're just taking the player base's sometimes quiet character as a stab. It's not. 

 

When things get quiet, maybe take advantage and focus on your deeper goals, yourself, the zen that can be found in quiet Wurm time, etc. When things get perky, enjoy that too. I get feeling disappointed sometimes when you feel like being social and the game doesn't give that right at that moment, but there's nothing personal against you in those player base ebbs and flows. If you are the type that wants a lot more social consistency, maybe add in Discord or Twitch or other things to the mix - that all can really keep someone endlessly busy on the social side while wurming.

 

Hopefully, my 2 irons here will help.

 

Mordos

Edited by MordosKull
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The last two seem to be less than 48 hours old. One thing you may learn with Wurm is that patience is name of the game. Some if the issue could be the server/cluster you're playing on. It's steam based and because of that many players log in, maybe make a deed for a month or so, then move on. The post about looking for a mentor is unclear. Are you looking for someone to tell you how to play? You can ask questions through help chat or global and I find people are extremely helpful in answering questions. That said, this is a sandbox game. Your goals and achievements are self-driven. You have to figure out what you are interested in wurm and pursue it, then find like-minded players that way.  As an example, I like to build and terraform. So I sometimes share screenshots of my efforts. Other people like to explore and share through the various chats and forums here, or stream on twitch. You need to have a common interest with someone before you can form a bond of friendship, and some of that is putting yourself out there and talking to people to see if you find each other interesting.

 

I wish you luck. I hope you find some people you enjoy interacting with.

 

Edited by Seriphina
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2 hours ago, Bloodreina said:

Tried to start an alliance here - no answers whatsoever
- and when that failed tried to join an alliance here - no answers whatsoever
- or at least meet my neighbors here - no answers whatsoever
- Tried to look for a mentor here - no answers whatsoever
- or friends here - no answers whatsoever
- or fellow Romanian/Moldavian players here - no answers whatsoever

Lack of players. To all of the above. 

 

As for Romanian / Moldavian, there are a couple. Wurm used to be more social when we had like 5000 players regularly. (and I mean daily logins, not monthly). 

 

Some servers are more dead than others. It's better to post on the forums if you want to start / join an alliance, there's no way to predict who's going to be on or not. 

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 You're playing on Melody. I have a toon that is currently in the process of disbanding a deed on Melody because it just feels dead. 

 

if it's community you're looking for there are MUCH better places.

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Lack of players is definitely a huge contribution; a lot of the friendlier forumers have also been driven off over the years which doesn't help.  As the number of players has dropped, so has the number of "social" types (https://mud.co.uk/richard/hcds.htm); with this decline you end up with a world full of achievers (the explorers are still around, but they're mostly out exploring!), and in wurm achievement is measured in silent, efficient grind.

 

If you want a truely social experience on wurm I can suggest one route (and it isn't going to be popular).  Let your premium drop, move to the area near newbie town on indie, make a small deed and start recruiting fellow free folks. 

 

Free players *need* to rely on one another (you can't take down most critters without help, can't easily move goods, can't breed super fast horses that let you dodge all enemies), they're often much more social (most are not there for the grind), and they're also genuinely different people (their projects are defined by their skill limitations).

The best part is, if you decide to take a break and come back, you won't need to re-sub!

 

If you're interested, there is a short guide I wrote here : (https://forum.wurmonline.com/index.php?/topic/175220-free-play-life-as-one-of-the-free-folk/)

 

 

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1 hour ago, elentari said:

Lack of players. To all of the above. 

 

As for Romanian / Moldavian, there are a couple. Wurm used to be more social when we had like 5000 players regularly. (and I mean daily logins, not monthly). 

 

Some servers are more dead than others. It's better to post on the forums if you want to start / join an alliance, there's no way to predict who's going to be on or not. 

 

Lack of players is definitely a big part of it. It also doesn't help that things like alliances don't cross server borders while there are a lot of servers, thus worsening the impact of the lack of players.

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Melody is the smallest of the NFI servers. Certainly by size.

 

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Didn't you also recently create a deed on Cadence ? or perhaps my eyes deceived me in area history 

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33 minutes ago, Loneshade said:

Didn't you also recently create a deed on Cadence ? or perhaps my eyes deceived me in area history 


Created two small outpost deeds, one on Harmony, one on Cadence, directly opposite from my main deed on Melody, so I can just cross servers and get a summon to events, then use karma to return to my local deed, then cross servers again to return to the main deed. :)

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Yeah, I get where you're coming from, I think.

Unfortunately, there are lots of different personas online, and many of those — while still being very nice people and potentially great friends or allies — just might not be the types to say hi and how are you doing?

 

It's difficult to find people who not only have the same aesthetics as you, but are also a personality type that you get along with, and actually want to spend time with. That's why I tried to put some effort into my recruitment forum post. It's not about finding people; it's about finding the right people. And of course, that's extra difficult when there aren't so many people.

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Yeah, some people (like me) just like to play in living world of MMO game, but not always want to bond with people around, or at least it takes some long time.

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I read and would've replied to some of your posts when I was on WO but I was on Indy (or Xan) so it felt redundant, since alliances don't cross servers let alone clusters. Now I'm on WU only so even talking through pms wouldn't work 😅

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It does seem however, than a potential upside, would be if the devs bothered to implement cross server alliance chat. It would make the game way less lonely and more pleasing for everyone. 

 

Seems like the chat issue has been going on for too long and I suspect it contributes to why everything feels dead. Not many people write in ghat or kingdom chat precisely because they talk in alliance. 

 

Aka for example I'm in one alliance on Deli but if i am doing a rift on pristine, I'd like to chat with allies from deli without resorting to spamming gchat.  Have a "Alliance on Deli" tab open if I want tot talk to people. Alliance chat always has a sort of intimate vibe that cannot be compared to gchat or kchat. 

 

Also if I may, a lot of experienced players correctly predicted from the get go that the "steam servers" or NFI wouldn't last long because it's essentially the same game. Its appeal, aka the opening of new servers doesn't help longevity at all. This has been proven time and time again with Elevation resets, with opening of Pristine, Release, Xanadu, countless servers over the years. Short term money influx but zero long term viability. You're better off trying to play on SFI, just my two cents here. 

 

Edited by elentari
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The game doesn't just feel lonely on melody it is lonely on there, reason I swapped to Wurm Unlimited, have a nice group of players with exciting new content, with less issues to be honest.

 

Some big issues need to be addressed, but the complete mess of the creative competition was the last straw for me, just seems if the people running the show dont care, time to talk with my wallet, I feel for the people who entered and won and had to wait with delays and issues, very poor advert for wurm imo.

 

Wurm wont die, it can happily plod on, but it loses a little something each and ever year it limps on, a real shame as this could have been something very special, as nothing came close to wurm, some tough love needed to fix things now I feel.

 

I thought the steam release was to learn from some past mistakes, to have a boost in numbers and have content ready to go, to keep momentum going, instead we have a buggy release and then nothing, very quickly the people i played with all thought the same, it was a cash grab, I do now think after all this time they have to merge the player base, might lose the odd alt, but it would be better for the remaining players to be able to play together and explore.

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+1 to be moved in woodscraps..

same person, same story ever 1.5 - 2 months

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i've been  out of the game past 5 months  only log in twice a month to check on my animals. i've been in 4 alliances on NFI / all end up gone after a few months as to any quit playing.  we are way to spread out.  plus half of the players on SFI .  they should have open the north to the south last summer.  I watch the deed count and player count.  harmony had over 1000 deeds a year ago. and now close to 500.   i have so many ideas and plans for my deeds. but found i feel like why.  no one will sail by no one rides by. only 1-3 niehgbours around and thats rare to see too.  

 

and still a sale per year......  no advertising.....    i love this game and have 350days worth of hours on SFI main. and 30 days worth on NFI .  

 

please connect the servers.  advertise exp weekends . and small sales. add the the traders all the past skins maybe.   do more.....  

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I personally only chat openly in Freedom, I shut down GL-Freedom...well because I didn't feel like chatting or seeing chat in GL but that's just me. I do chat in alliance and occasionally in local if someone comes along.

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3 hours ago, validate said:

 i have so many ideas and plans for my deeds. but found i feel like why.  no one will sail by no one rides by.

 

If it helps, I sail by places you have owned often and some you own fairly often. On Xanadu. :)

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Unfortunately for you I think that quite a lot of people still remember this post:

Your general attitude in that thread made quite an impression - But perhaps not of the kind you'd ideally wish for if you're looking to seem approachable. And if pointing out that your own behaviour is what is hampering your ambitions is what you'd call "attacking" you, then I suppose that's how you'll see this. My intentions are, however, to once again remind you that you cannot expect people to act according to your (unrealistic) expectations. You also cannot claim that they've "failed" you when they don't meet your expectations.

 

Edited by Aeris
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I chat with people when ever I am on, though mostly through contacts I have made trading.  When I am playing I see people sailing by my deed or even driving by a few times a week. Someone obviously is coming by as my little merchant makes pretty regular sales. I'm not currently in an alliance, and sadly my nearest active neighbor is a few hundred tiles away.  

 

For interaction like you are wanting I think you could find it on SFI decently if you choose an occupied area.  Not sure about NFI to be honest.  If you are ever on Indy. Swing by and we can have a chat over a drink!

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59 minutes ago, Eleraan said:

I chat with people when ever I am on, though mostly through contacts I have made trading.  When I am playing I see people sailing by my deed or even driving by a few times a week. Someone obviously is coming by as my little merchant makes pretty regular sales. I'm not currently in an alliance, and sadly my nearest active neighbor is a few hundred tiles away.  

 

For interaction like you are wanting I think you could find it on SFI decently if you choose an occupied area.  Not sure about NFI to be honest.  If you are ever on Indy. Swing by and we can have a chat over a drink!

 

Fairly active Harmony NFI player here, can absolutely say that our server chat is also pretty good.  To be fair, I often strike up the chat, but when the conversations happen they're quite good.

Local chat is also really nice at rifts and public unique slays, and I absolutely feel comradery with the people there.

NFI trade chat is also pretty good - almost every merchant has been incredibly kind.

 

Definitely periods of quiet, but that's to be expected when the cluster has a few hundred on at peak.

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You may be on the wrong cluster.  I have been on both SFI and NFI (as well as a few WU servers/clusters), and my experience has been:

 

a) Independence on SFI - wound up isolated on a deed ultimately abandoned by the mayor.  Local chat was radio silence 99% of the time and I had no alliance etc.  When I found my early game frustrating and vented a bit in chat, a player offered me a great deal of help.

b) Release on SFI - sometimes local is empty, but most of the time there are (or were, last I was on) from 2-3 up to 8-9 or even more players and chat is lively.  Villagers help each other and look out for each others houses, gardens, etc.  

c) Harmony, then Melody on NFI - good grief, it was like an ants nest.  Admittedly it was early in servers' times, but there were people everywhere and chat was a meaningless fast scroll of text.   

d) Cadence on NFI - I had a little positive interaction with a few players (and I mean only a few, I could count them on my left hand, and that one doesn't have all its fingers).  Generally I got radio silence, except for one guy who would yell in local and PM at anyone who chatted in his local without first giving them the secret password/handshake or something (for the record, they also built a well and then locked it behind a fence and gate - because water is so scarce in Wurm).  At one point I called out both in local and in GL for some assistance and got no response with the sole exception of the one person who would chat when they were on.

 

Generally, I found that on SFI, when I am travelling anyone popping up in local at least waves but also will often chat a bit.  I found on NFI ONE person who would do that, and I travelled a LOT.  Wait, I did have a second person chat briefly.  I only had to offer them a couple of free cows (one pregnant) to get a conversation started.  YMMV.

 

Consider that Wurm's population is thinly spread, across the digital geography and across RL timezones - and the nature of the gameplay has many people watching timers and event logs; they just don't always see chat.  

Also consider that telling people off (somewhat repeatedly) for not being sufficiently friendly and chatty with you is actually not likely to achieve your desired result but rather more likely the opposite.

 

You could of course come over to the dark side and dabble in WU.  

  

 

Edited by TheTrickster
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Bloodreina, from what I have read, you seem to be an analytical person. So let's analyse this problem... analytically.

 

It is true that you have tried many measures to solve your predicament, but all these measures have something in common: they are all within the scope of the Northern Freedom Isles cluster. 

 

Now, having never been on NFI myself, I cannot definitively say that the problem lies with the fact that you play on the NFI cluster. But based on the inputs of so many other people across several of your forum posts, perhaps it could be the problem.

 

I understand that you have already invested a not-insignificant amount of time and money on your NFI character, but seeing as though you value the social aspect of the game so much, it may be a worthwhile sacrifice to make. That is, create a fresh character and play on SFI. 

 

Even though I could not speak towards the "badness" of NFI (because I've never been there), I can definitely speak about the "goodness" of SFI, based on my own personal experiences. I am honoured to be in an alliance that is talkative, humourous, and generous. I've even gushed about it in a recent forum post (see last post). This "goodness" holds especially true for Xanadu as it's just so damn big and populated! My alliance stretches over a vast swathe of the server.

 

If you decide to move to SFI, I think you will get your best-of-both-worlds experience, that is, both the "Wurm" and "Online" part of Wurm Online.

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