CC is declining again!

[patrickaa317]

12358

Oddly enough neither Gillipig nor Qwert show up in this count. They must have been getting too stressed out with the increased player count.

[macbone]

12511

[Dukasaur]

12511

12581.

[Agent 86]

How many multies was that? Too many, real stats please..lol

[OliverFA]

12358

Oddly enough neither Gillipig nor Qwert show up in this count. They must have been getting too stressed out with the increased player count.

Really? I hadn't noticed!

12,650

[sundance123]

12,650

Two more and CC will be back to the level it was when bigWham took over.

[Ltrain]

people always say saturday night live isn't as funny as it was 7 years ago. and then they say the same thing 7 years later.

[Dukasaur]

12,650

Two more and CC will be back to the level it was when bigWham took over.

We passed that level yesterday... (12652)

Today we are at 12722.

[owenshooter]

people always say saturday night live isn't as funny as it was 7 years ago. and then they say the same thing 7 years later.

SNL hasn't been funny since the 70's... do people still watch that show?!! the black jesus is freaked out...-el Jesus negro

[sm8900]

hmmm, good question.

[Dukasaur]

people always say saturday night live isn't as funny as it was 7 years ago. and then they say the same thing 7 years later.

SNL hasn't been funny since the 70's... do people still watch that show?!! the black jesus is freaked out...-el Jesus negro

Weekend Update has never lost its funny. Even when the rest of the show was incredibly bad, Weekend Update was worth tuning in for. The trick was trying to figure out at what time they would stick in W.U. so that you could see it while suffering through as little of the rest of the show as possible.

[macbone]

12738

I loved me some Norm MacDonald!

Tina Fey and Jimmy Fallon were pretty alright, too.

[sundance123]

there is more to CC's decline than simple user numbers.

Current game options and number of choices:
# of players (11) - game type (7)- map (244)- troops(2) - order (2) - spoils (5) - reinforcements (5) - special (4) - limit (5) - length (6)

number of possible unique games = 11*7*244*2*2*5*5*4*5*6 = 225456000

number of users = 12738
active games = 16911
games waiting for players = 7272

With so much choice apparently available, the reality of hugely limited choice is quite jarring.
Is CC trying to disappoint everybody ( or is there a secret plan to recruit 1/35th of the world population)?

[OliverFA]

there is more to CC's decline than simple user numbers.

Current game options and number of choices:
# of players (11) - game type (7)- map (244)- troops(2) - order (2) - spoils (5) - reinforcements (5) - special (4) - limit (5) - length (6)

number of possible unique games = 11*7*244*2*2*5*5*4*5*6 = 225456000

number of users = 12738
active games = 16911
games waiting for players = 7272

With so much choice apparently available, the reality of hugely limited choice is quite jarring.
Is CC trying to disappoint everybody ( or is there a secret plan to recruit 1/35th of the world population)?

That's not exactly like that. Many options are very similar. i.e., If I can't find a no spoils game, then a flat rate will do. Also, I suspect that some settings / maps are quite unpopular and almost never get played. i.e., I suspect that almost no one creates or want to play an 11 player game. If you want am 11 player game then probably you think a 12 player game is even better. So the number of desired combinations is probably far below the number of possible ones.

[patrickaa317]

there is more to CC's decline than simple user numbers.

Current game options and number of choices:
# of players (11) - game type (7)- map (244)- troops(2) - order (2) - spoils (5) - reinforcements (5) - special (4) - limit (5) - length (6)

number of possible unique games = 11*7*244*2*2*5*5*4*5*6 = 225456000

number of users = 12738
active games = 16911
games waiting for players = 7272

With so much choice apparently available, the reality of hugely limited choice is quite jarring.
Is CC trying to disappoint everybody ( or is there a secret plan to recruit 1/35th of the world population)?

That's not exactly like that. Many options are very similar. i.e., If I can't find a no spoils game, then a flat rate will do. Also, I suspect that some settings / maps are quite unpopular and almost never get played. i.e., I suspect that almost no one creates or want to play an 11 player game. If you want am 11 player game then probably you think a 12 player game is even better. So the number of desired combinations is probably far below the number of possible ones.

This. Plus the top 5% of maps get played WAY more than the bottom 5% of maps. And the round length are assuming each are equally as desirable. I agree there is a lot of variation available now but the math approach is not an appropriate one. I've never thought, boy that 2 player game was fun with a 50 round limit, now I have to play it with a 100 round limit; that'll mix things up!

Plus, many maps do not allow over 8 players or manual deployments both these considerations would cut your number down pretty quick

[bird45]

Maybe advertising would help I found this site by accident love to play risk but had no idea this site existed.

[macbone]

Ack, we're slipping again.

12678

[White Buffalo]

[owenshooter]

Ack, we're slipping again.

12678

Maybe because of this

http://www.conquerclub.com/forum/viewto ... 9&t=201229

i do think multis are a problem, and i really wonder how big of a problem. i just had a doubles game against a multi and it wasn't even worth going to C&A over, because the guy deadbeated out of all the games he was in... anyway, i think the current owner has shown a real interest in improving the site and visibility... just tinkering with the landing page and adding bot games are things that i doubted would EVER happen... so, true, it is no longer the "golden age" of CC (everyone thinks when they arrived CC was at it's best), but i have seen more change with the new guy than in all my years here... not dissing on Lack, i love that guy!!! the black jesus has spoken...-el Jesus negro

[OliverFA]

I think that Lack did a very good job, but his time had just passed. There was nothing wrong with him, it was just the natural termination of an era, nothing else. With El jefe it was a bit different, it was a real disapointment

But BigWham has returned life to the site. Even the more pessimistic people will agree that the decline has stopped, and the recuperation seems to be on its way.

[Donald Fung]

I agree that multis are a problem as you showed in the post above where the guy got busted with over 200 accounts but sometimes CC should be less strict. From personal experiences, I was banned from CC about 3 years ago for having a multi. Back then, I was only 16 and didn't have a credit card or paypal to pay for prems and I was really addicted to the site and wanted to play more than 4 games (especially when there's deadbeats in so many games nowadays). My accounts never interacted, only cheating I did was playing 8 games with 2 freemium accounts. Personally, I think there should be other ways for players to get prems without paying such as rewards for hosting tournaments, moderating, and other ways to help the CC community. At the time of my ban, I was hosting 2 tournaments and making a map and many good suggestions for the site.

I came back after 3 years and noticed the numbers dropped from 17,500 to 12,500 (-28.5%) despite all the addition features such as clickable maps and conquer cup and battle royale and all these unique game types. However, I feel like this game caters to members that are already here rather than new members. Why?

1) A new member would be limited to playing 4 games. If you get stuck with deadbeats in your game, you'll barely be playing anything. And then there's all these features on CC like speed games, tournaments, etc. And all of them require prem. I get that CC is trying to make the $25 feel like its worth it but at this rate, its REQUIRED to actually enjoy CC. New players are limited so badly that they'll probably get tired of even logging in.

2) There's just way too many options, most of which cater to top members. And new players may not understand this. Many of them may just go to join a game and join 4 random games on maps that they think are understandable (mostly Classic). Once they enter, they'll find out the game is a foggy, trench, freestyle, parachute, etc. How do you expect new players to understand these at all? And not to mention maps are the same, there's maps like Hive that just makes me dizzy just looking at it, let along playing a game there.

3) There's no tutorial for newbies.

4) There should be email notifications for new players when it is their turn. This may prevent some of the deadbeats and retain some more new players. Also, this needs to be implemented for Speed Games too. I know there's sites like Dominating 12, Land Grab, and War Gear that does this because I tried them when I was banned from CC. And I can tell you CC is definitely better than any of these by miles. But catering to newbies? Not quite.

Overall, I think multis isn't that big of a problem besides those that use it against other players or to gain unfair advantages in game and I don't think players are leaving in great numbers. The natural rate of ppl leaving in games like this is 10-20%. It's just that CC is unable to make up for these players leaving because we are having trouble keeping new players hooked enough to the game.

[OliverFA]

3) There's no tutorial for newbies.

I think that's the key element here about retaining new players. A good tutorial / manual that introduces them slowly to all CC elements. Perhaps an auto tournament for newbies that works more or less like a campaign? The tournament would like a league, so all players play all stages of the tournament, and each new stage introduce a new significant option with a text describing it.

Options... There aren't as many as people say. There are many boxes to check and radio buttons to select, but most of them don't really make for such a different game. So it's few options presented in a way that seem overwhelming.

[iAmCaffeine]

There are autotournaments for new players and bot games address practice for new players in my opinion.

[OliverFA]

Yes, but looking at the tournament currently open for "Class of 2014" http://www.conquerclub.com/player.php?m ... ent_id=169

It seems to feature always the same type of game. What I was suggesting is to have several stages and each stage would feature a disctinct feature of CC, just like most strategy games for PC / consoles do, in which each new rule is introduced with each map of the tutorial campaign. All players would play all the stages and the winner would be the one with highest score at the end, so would be a league type of tournament.

[Donald Fung]

3) There's no tutorial for newbies.

I think that's the key element here about retaining new players. A good tutorial / manual that introduces them slowly to all CC elements. Perhaps an auto tournament for newbies that works more or less like a campaign? The tournament would like a league, so all players play all stages of the tournament, and each new stage introduce a new significant option with a text describing it.

Options... There aren't as many as people say. There are many boxes to check and radio buttons to select, but most of them don't really make for such a different game. So it's few options presented in a way that seem overwhelming.

I like your idea. When newbies join, they should be automatically put into a set of games with guides to help them. Also, they should be able to practice all the different features with explanations without counting points or win/lost ratio. This way, they get to discover what each option is (ex. fog, freestyle, etc.) and see which one works best for them. Players that have been here for a long time should not be allowed to join these games to give newbies a fair playing field when learning the game.

And yea, I understand the options are lower than what it seems but I think the site should make it look less overwhelming. Like take out 7,9,11,13 players and maybe 2 and 4 minute speed games and even that could make it look a lot better.

There are autotournaments for new players and bot games address practice for new players in my opinion.

As Oliver said, the autotournaments do not have a tutorial or show newbies all the options on this site. There's tons of versions of the Classical Risk map on every site, CC should focus on its uniqueness. Same goes for bot games. If you want to play bot games, there's phone apps for it. It's just that bot games get boring really quick since every bot just attacks everything mindlessly and you can't make diplomacy, interact, etc.