It doesn't take much to see that around the time intrusive ads came to BYOND is when nearly no new players started coming in.
Another problem with the website is you can sort games by "Popular" or "Active" but Popular is the default, and it shows a bunch of games that clearly ARE NOT popular. So I don't know what metric it uses but "Active" would be a better default. The default "Popular" doesn't even show Space Station 13 on the first page!! That's a mistake for BYOND if I ever saw one! SS13 should be appearing #1 it has 650 players.
I agree the algorithm is bad, but SS13 shows up third for me, in popular.
Oh I'm just blind
In response to Tens of DU
Tens of DU wrote:
You know what the worst thing on BYOND is? THE ADS BEFORE JOINING A GAME. That's pushing more new people away than anything. Lummox even said ads basically make no money compared to BYOND memberships, so why have them? The annoyance factor for players is too high. Remove ads = More new player retention = More byond membership purchases = No more annoying the player (annoying the player is a cadinal sin of gaming)

I never said the ads make no money next to memberships. They are in fact important. I would gladly ditch them if memberships brought in steadier revenue, though, which was also Tom's position all along.
Maybe games (or hosts, in SS13's case) that use BYOND's subscription or credits system can be ad free following a review. There are very few game engines that ask for a 20% rev-share cut, so that'd probably be a decent trade off and tempt more people into using the system.
You could spend about $100 per month into advertising BYOND. Facebook/Instagram ads are easy to set up. Whether they would bring in players or not, I don't know.

I set up FB/Instagram ads to advertise my game but got banned on the first day for using a fake name.
Screw the ads, The IDE needs a compile to EXE option.
In response to Kozuma3
Kozuma3 wrote:
Screw the ads, The IDE needs a compile to EXE option.

Compiling to EXE should be no questions asked, if I want to make an anime game I should be able to. Never seen an engine tell people what games they're allowed to make. For EXE just charge a developer fee like 15$ a month. That said, good job, I love BYOND already.
In response to Nadrew
Nadrew wrote:
Lummox has mentioned his desire to improve the entire system, at some point. This is BYOND, patience is something you need 'round these parts.

We live in a fast pace society and a fast pace world..
Time is ticking, I think its idiotic to wait on something that you're aren't even sure will come. I can assure you I won't be waiting on anything specific.. I will hope though. BYOND is so fortunate to have such dedicated supporters all these years.. seriously, it has won the hearts of so many people and has gone through so many phases, I know many persons like myself who would be more than willing to market BYOND and its games but its clearly not ready to be marketed even after 20+ years of development. If Lummox has some secret plan or dream for BYOND.. please share so the community can stop dreading on what BYOND doesn't have and look forward for whats to come. I would love to see a general gameplan that you guys have for BYOND within the next 4 years.. I want to know what your vision is for this platform. Cause as of now I feel like I'm going to be 70 years old by the time BYOND is thriving and a fully featured engine. But like Nadrew said Lum is in the driver seat and his vision is different than ours... So Lummox if you haven't already, share your vision pretty please.
Its clear that wont be happening for quite sometime
I was running Facebook/Instagram ads for my game but got banned on the first day due to using a fake name (I didn't want CIAbook having my real info)

I don't know if those ads are effective but after the annoyance passes I will try to set up a new account. If it works for my game it'd work for BYOND itself
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