Conquer Club

WILLIAMS5232 wrote:We had guide games....not sure of we still do, I was a volunteer for a brief period, because I thought ot was a good plan. But I dont think I ever played a full game before they ghosted

Guide game isn't the same as free speed games, and it isn't enough, they can't play 50 guide instant speed games.

I totally agree we should have some free speed game. Maybe just one map ( only classic ) available for free for speed game.
Could even only be 1-2 setting (1vs1 and 6 player esca sunny on classic). That'd be enough to have the freemium play speed and become addicted to the game.

Donelladan wrote:

WILLIAMS5232 wrote:We had guide games....not sure of we still do, I was a volunteer for a brief period, because I thought ot was a good plan. But I dont think I ever played a full game before they ghosted

Guide game isn't the same as free speed games, and it isn't enough, they can't play 50 guide instant speed games.

I totally agree we should have some free speed game. Maybe just one map ( only classic ) available for free for speed game.
Could even only be 1-2 setting (1vs1 and 6 player esca sunny on classic). That'd be enough to have the freemium play speed and become addicted to the game.

I agree that it's a good idea, and would benefit the site, but I doubt it would noticeably bring in new members.

I just bought some credits after a two year or so absence and started 10 games....

I cant believe I used to have 75-100 active games at any one time. But I do remember the glory days of speed games. Not sure what its like these days

In essence free speed games for non members would be our nicotine

Free Speed games with some or all of the restrictions Donell. mentioned should be a GOOD thing to help grow CC Membership.

JP4Fun

Donelladan wrote:

WILLIAMS5232 wrote:We had guide games....not sure of we still do, I was a volunteer for a brief period, because I thought ot was a good plan. But I dont think I ever played a full game before they ghosted

Guide game isn't the same as free speed games, and it isn't enough, they can't play 50 guide instant speed games.

I totally agree we should have some free speed game. Maybe just one map ( only classic ) available for free for speed game.
Could even only be 1-2 setting (1vs1 and 6 player esca sunny on classic). That'd be enough to have the freemium play speed and become addicted to the game.

7425

CivProBlows wrote:7425

Yep,been keeping an eye on those figures the last week or two and although it is still dropping,it does seem to have slowed dramatically ..... Wonder what will happen with the 2nd wave ?

giving NR's free unltd. speed games for their first week of CC seems like a really good idea, if you ask me. which, you didn't...

Davie.K wrote:In essence free speed games for non members would be our nicotine

That just about says it all CC ......Wakey Wakey
BR

Other than a bunch of multis signing up for a week of speed games it seems like a possible improvement over, new member joins a game, nothing happens for 20 minutes, they never come back.

2dimes wrote:Other than a bunch of multis signing up for a week of speed games it seems like a possible improvement over, new member joins a game, nothing happens for 20 minutes, they never come back.

I've seen guide games where the game starts within 2 minutes, not 20, and still the guy never takes his turn.

Bottom line is, most people google "war game" they expect something like Call to Duty or Rome Total War. They want realistic-sounding explosions and realistic-looking blood spatter. A game about a bunch of numbers on a map is only the thing for a few old farts like me. Bottom line is, our retention rate is never going to get better than the 0.2% that it is, because we're just not what most people are thinking of when they google "war game." It's a tiny niche product and will never attract a broad audience. People have to stop fantasizing that it will change if we just tweak this detail or that detail. It was never higher than 0.2% even in its heyday, but in its heyday it was (for a little while) trendy among recent college grads, and that kept the new arrivals coming.

That seems possible.

Dukasaur wrote:

2dimes wrote:Other than a bunch of multis signing up for a week of speed games it seems like a possible improvement over, new member joins a game, nothing happens for 20 minutes, they never come back.

I've seen guide games where the game starts within 2 minutes, not 20, and still the guy never takes his turn.

Bottom line is, most people google "war game" they expect something like Call to Duty or Rome Total War. They want realistic-sounding explosions and realistic-looking blood spatter. A game about a bunch of numbers on a map is only the thing for a few old farts like me. Bottom line is, our retention rate is never going to get better than the 0.2% that it is, because we're just not what most people are thinking of when they google "war game." It's a tiny niche product and will never attract a broad audience. People have to stop fantasizing that it will change if we just tweak this detail or that detail. It was never higher than 0.2% even in its heyday, but in its heyday it was (for a little while) trendy among recent college grads, and that kept the new arrivals coming.

I googled "RISK online" all those years ago. I knew exactly what I was looking for.
I would have thought, and hoped, that a reasonable number of people that find their way to this site were looking to play the board game online?
But yeah, anyone looking for something like Call of Duty isn't going to be very impressed, haha.

I made a similar argument to Duk's a while back. I did not know about the 0.2% retention rate.

We are a small niche market; we are guys (and a few gals) for whom Risk, the board game, had great appeal. This was before video games existed and board games was where one could have a real "thinking game" that was not chess or checkers. (I did not appreciate the role of luck until recently, btw, to make this game even more appealing. As I told someone in a forum thread, if you do not want luck to be a factor, play chess.)

SO this site will never have huge # of players and will not retain many. Those to me are given factors, so complaining about who we are and what we are is not going to productive.

With all that said, I think we can retain a few more NRs by making a few changes. Speed games would appeal to the "younger" Crowd and we should NOT ignore our largest new market. Most "old guys" like Duk and I have likely found an online site to play Risk already, so we will not grow much there.

Last point (for now): I played Risk with my high school Chess Club members some in the past 10 years or so. It was a good game for some and we had lots of FUN. In the past few years, we opened up the Club to a wider variety of games and Chess really dropped in favor of 1) D&D, and 2) other newer games, such as Coup. The number of students involved stayed about the same. In light of such other options, I could not get students committed to play Risk in 75-90 minutes, even with Team variations I introduced to our games. The game takes a significant amount of time to set up and play in Real Life.

JP4Fun

Arama86n wrote:

Dukasaur wrote:

2dimes wrote:Other than a bunch of multis signing up for a week of speed games it seems like a possible improvement over, new member joins a game, nothing happens for 20 minutes, they never come back.

I've seen guide games where the game starts within 2 minutes, not 20, and still the guy never takes his turn.

Bottom line is, most people google "war game" they expect something like Call to Duty or Rome Total War. They want realistic-sounding explosions and realistic-looking blood spatter. A game about a bunch of numbers on a map is only the thing for a few old farts like me. Bottom line is, our retention rate is never going to get better than the 0.2% that it is, because we're just not what most people are thinking of when they google "war game." It's a tiny niche product and will never attract a broad audience. People have to stop fantasizing that it will change if we just tweak this detail or that detail. It was never higher than 0.2% even in its heyday, but in its heyday it was (for a little while) trendy among recent college grads, and that kept the new arrivals coming.

I googled "RISK online" all those years ago. I knew exactly what I was looking for.
I would have thought, and hoped, that a reasonable number of people that find their way to this site were looking to play the board game online?
But yeah, anyone looking for something like Call of Duty isn't going to be very impressed, haha.

We have given free speed games in the past, made no noticeable difference.
NRs still have the option of a free speed game when they sign up. Take up is not great on that.
plus a bonus 100 credits to buy a speed pack.

Speed games are not the answer.

TeeGee wrote:We have given free speed games in the past, made no noticeable difference.
NRs still have the option of a free speed game when they sign up. Take up is not great on that.
plus a bonus 100 credits to buy a speed pack.

Speed games are not the answer.

I agree.
What I don't know is, do NR's know they have credits in their account for speed games?

I seriously doubt NR know how to cash in credits or use a Speed Pack.

A few NR have asked me about speed games.

TeeGee wrote:We have given free speed games in the past, made no noticeable difference.
NRs still have the option of a free speed game when they sign up. Take up is not great on that.
plus a bonus 100 credits to buy a speed pack.

Speed games are not the answer.

jusplay4fun wrote:I seriously doubt NR know how to cash in credits or use a Speed Pack.

A few NR have asked me about speed games.

TeeGee wrote:We have given free speed games in the past, made no noticeable difference.
NRs still have the option of a free speed game when they sign up. Take up is not great on that.
plus a bonus 100 credits to buy a speed pack.

Speed games are not the answer.

this. just giving them the ability to create speed games right out of the gate seems worth a try, imo - would save myself & Hooch a lot of redundant posts in GC, if nothing else...

TeeGee wrote:We have given free speed games in the past, made no noticeable difference.
NRs still have the option of a free speed game when they sign up. Take up is not great on that.
plus a bonus 100 credits to buy a speed pack.

Speed games are not the answer.

This is the type of argument that is always made, the problem is that it is not very easy for a NR to understand what they have access to. Honestly I would bet the #1 issue that affects NR's retention rate is that the user interface is pretty lacking in terms of ease of actually playing a game.

It's also interesting to me how often people who do play say that the reason they came looking was to play a speed game. This should be a signal that people initially want to play something and then get hooked. I know for myself I started off joining the site for speed games, realized I couldn't unless I paid $25 and then left. The only reason I returned is because my college roommate played and I came back to play a few games with him only to get hooked and stay.

Free speed games would let more people get hooked at very little downside cost to the admin. Quite frankly speed games are pretty dead as is so giving freemiums access to free speed games at x per day would be little cost to the site and only upside to attracting new people or getting people hooked enough to say it is worth $30 per year. All of the infrastructure already exists.

I have to agree with ljex on this one; and what is there for the Powers to be to lose? All I see are positives for CC.

ljex wrote:

TeeGee wrote:We have given free speed games in the past, made no noticeable difference.
NRs still have the option of a free speed game when they sign up. Take up is not great on that.
plus a bonus 100 credits to buy a speed pack.

Speed games are not the answer.

This is the type of argument that is always made, the problem is that it is not very easy for a NR to understand what they have access to. Honestly I would bet the #1 issue that affects NR's retention rate is that the user interface is pretty lacking in terms of ease of actually playing a game.

It's also interesting to me how often people who do play say that the reason they came looking was to play a speed game. This should be a signal that people initially want to play something and then get hooked. I know for myself I started off joining the site for speed games, realized I couldn't unless I paid $25 and then left. The only reason I returned is because my college roommate played and I came back to play a few games with him only to get hooked and stay.

Free speed games would let more people get hooked at very little downside cost to the admin. Quite frankly speed games are pretty dead as is so giving freemiums access to free speed games at x per day would be little cost to the site and only upside to attracting new people or getting people hooked enough to say it is worth $30 per year. All of the infrastructure already exists.

TeeGee on Mon Apr 20, 2020 11:02 pm
viewtopic.php?f=430&t=233069&p=5147219&hilit=Guide#p5147219

TeeGee wrote:CC Dispatch - What is it? [spoiler=introduction]For many years it was our monthly newsletter PM'd to all of our members, keeping us up to date with all the exciting events, changes to the mod team, tools and extras that CC had to offer.
Over the years with declining membership there has been little interest in producing and maintaining a newsletter. But we are hoping someone out there wants to take the reigns and restore the CC Dispatch to its old glory days.
You can still see all our old editions here https://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=430
Interested in running the Dispatch? or just being a reporter/editor? Shoot [player]TeeGee[/player] a private message.. Yes, there will be perks for contributors of future editions [/spoiler]

-snip-

Can You Make Videos?[spoiler=Can You Make a Video Tutorial]I will offer 3500 conquer credits (equal to 1 years premium membership) to anyone who makes a good tutorial.[/spoiler]

Did anyone jump on this?

Davie.K wrote:

CivProBlows wrote:7425

Yep,been keeping an eye on those figures the last week or two and although it is still dropping,it does seem to have slowed dramatically ..... Wonder what will happen with the 2nd wave ?

7297

CivProBlows wrote:

Davie.K wrote:

CivProBlows wrote:7425

Yep,been keeping an eye on those figures the last week or two and although it is still dropping,it does seem to have slowed dramatically ..... Wonder what will happen with the 2nd wave ?

7297

Yep,that certainly does seem that we have reached our levelling out point .....still going but dripping away now.....we are a steady 7,000 which is 2,500 better than a year ago.....so in reality probably 3,000-3,5000 better off than were we would have been without the plague......so every cloud so to speak

My first post in this thread...

One thing that might help with retention would be better documentation of how the site works. For instance, when you click on "The Game" (which in itself is not a supremely obviously thing to do on your first visit) after the fairly useless "Overview" the first real instructions are: "At the beginning of every turn you will collect a certain amount of troops. The number of troops you get is determined by this formula: (regions ÷ 3, minimum of 3) + zone bonus + spoils bonus..." To someone completely new here that's totally obscure. How about starting with something like, "The games are played on maps. One map is an exact replica of the old board game 'Risk' but there are a slew of fun variants, some simple, some complex. Each map is divided up into territories or zones and you'll start with 'troops' on a limited number of them. The idea is to grow and expand, wipe out your opponents, and conquer the whole map."

In other words, first make it obvious where a newbie should look for help (i.e. a big "START HERE" dingus on the main screen and "The Game" screen) and then write some instructions that are very basic and much clearer than what is now available. Combine instruction with marketing. Emphasize how easy it is to learn how to play and win.

The site as is is off-putting to newbies. Make it more accessible and newbie-friendly and retention should increase.

Just my two cents.

perhaps a solution is closer than you all think

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=234015