There are a lot of reasons (I think) that is causing the player base to dwindle a bit. [You know, my opinion on random stuff.
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Spies - They aren't really killing the game, but they aren't helping much either. A lot of people hate spies, etc. blah blah blah, but they aren't taking hundreds of players' interest away from this game. It's a cheap tactics for alliances who don't want to wait until their intel rushers get spy.
Powerblocking - while it's unfair, it's probably only a small portion of the player base going down. It's also frowned upon by Azzer as far as I know. Also, it's basically 40 people against x amount of other alliances with a possible 20 people. Yeah, it may be like rank one and rank three alliances, but still, it is a tactic that should die. If you need a powerblock to keep your rank, you probably don't have enough activity, or you're paranoid as hell. Also, there aren't enough people to be in enough alliances for powerblocks to be fun and entertaining.
Bottom Feeding - Yes, you've probably done it. My very first round (that was probably my favorite round, next to R35
) I got a crap-ton of mails saying I sucked and that I was too noobish and blah blah blah bunch of crap talking. I brought maybe 10 people to the game that round, fresh 100% new blood; however, the constant bashing from alliances 4 ranks + above the alliance I ran AND the war with TNG and the people in the alliance getting FLOODED with information about the game, only one person out of the 11 noobs in that alliance stayed. No, not everyone has left because of the type of messages that I typed about above, but it's the constant 'you're a retard' type comments to new players that makes some people actually leave, and I have talked to a few of the people who were going to leave. Some through IRC, others through in-game, but this is one of the common reasons. Seriously, you were new to the game once upon a time too, were you rank 1 in the WHOLE game that very first round? Didn't think so.
Alliance Attack targets - I have been in hounds last round, and we had 'remember the name' constantly waving us. We were four ranks BELOW them when our leader officially declared war on them, we managed to take them down a couple ranks and someone wiping out one of their top three to drop them below our score and ult. preventing them from portalling. I understand if rank 5 wants rank 4's spot and attacks them, or attacks rank 6 to hold their rank 5 spot (cause they are like a billion below the score of taking rank 5), but when rank 5 has a 10 billion score lead on rank 8, they shouldn't 'farm' them for their land to gain ranks, not only does it make rank 8's members mad, it shows alliance weakness. I have been to the point where I wanted to quit because of alliances attacking 4 or 5 ranked alliances lower than them.
Oober Activity - I don't think this is a major factor in people leaving, although I read somewhere someone was quitting because rank 1 alliance already wins in the first 7 days. While 16 hours a day and full contactability may be FTW alliance requirements, I say let them have their rank 1 and boredom because they have no targets, all the brs and fights are in the lower ranked alliances. Let them have their glory while the people in the lower ranks have more targets and more attacks/defense going out. Granted rank 2/3/4 are attacking each other if they are close in ranks, but there's more fun in ranks 5-10 when there are full alliances.
But it's quite pathetic [IMO] that people don't have a life to play bushtarion and win within the first week of the round and continue with the no life (stereotype anyone?) when they already have a win. You don't need to have just a bushtarion life to do well in this game and I proved that in R35. I was in DW and I portalled, DW finished rank 5 and I actually had a life outside of bushtarion.
If the community held back the temptation to tell newer players that they are moronic because they made a 'n00b' move and keep the nasty comments nice until the other person knows them, I think more people would stick around rather than quitting before they play one round.
Yes, the player base will have a 'wave' effect within bushtarion, but which game doesn't have that type of player base? People get sick of games all the time, stop playing, and after a few months, years or whatever, they go back to playing it. Granted we don't have two pages of full alliances again, but just give it time.
The game isn't really hard to learn, it takes time because of all the different aspects of the game. If people are willing to stick around for more than a couple of rounds, they will learn more and more of the game.
But my mind and thoughts went blank.
Thanks willy for making this thread
Just wanted to add my two cents too
