I'm just saying, it's more complicated than it needs to be - and if Graal's goal is to have as many subscribers as possible, it should be as simple as possible. That's all. If Johnny156 sees an ad for Graal, it should be *click* - "Happy Website! Download here!" Okay! *click* - Download - Install - Play. Not three pages of disclaimers, warnings, etc. as you make an account to download. I've got like 3 half-made accounts to various sites where, on the fifth or sixth page of Please Input Personal Information, they wanted my credit card and social security number, or it turned out "Free" meant "7 day free trial, after which we'll charge your credit card directly unless you cancel with 3 days notice", etcetera. Graal doesn't do that, but Newbies don't know Graal doesn't do that, and I percieve that's where we're losing most of our Potential Playercount - people that go to the site and don't wind up registering. I'd show you numbers if I had any - they could just set a counter on page 1 of Registration and see how many people start the process vs how many new accounts are actually made, if anyone on Graal has that power...I doubt they would though, since they're just gonna replace it all, hope-hope.
[edit]Conversely this could be read as a Population Density Problem. I ran into this a lot on Classic - the more people you have in a smaller area, the more your playercount appears. The more levels you have, the lower the population density, the more abandoned a server appears. That in mind, the ideal Playerworld, from a levels perspective, is one that narrows the level selection based on playercount - the Forest Shortcut is only open on really busy weekends, the rest of the time you have to stick to the path (where you're more likely to run into the three other people on the server). The trouble of course is that every level is a potential Destination, a potential place someone Wants to go, and you don't necessarily want to forbid people from going where they Want to go, just dissuade them from it...route them towards the other players...*shrugs* Some sorta system of floodgates, something like that. |