In response to Schnitzelnagler
Schnitzelnagler wrote:
Zaole wrote:
Efencea sucks? as i've pointed out before, Efencea is a recently created game and is not 'sucky' yet garners little to zero attention.

Actually, the game you mentioned as example suffers from several problems, which reduces its player-base.
If you want to, I'd go in detail over the pager, but it would kind of derail the thread here.

i'm not going to argue with you on that because i agree, but i don't feel it's 'sucky', which is the word he used

Zaole wrote:
FinalFantasyLegacy
this game meets your criteria

Not really, no.
It's a fan game.

his criteria mentioned nothing about whether or not it's a fan game, which is indeed not relevant to the point being made there (in actuality, the fact that it's a fan game is the only reason the people outside of BYOND were interested in it to begin with)

Zaole wrote:
i'm simply pointing out why it happens

You do not state reasons, but rather build up a hypothesis without providing evidence, asides from case studies.

what else would you have me use? calus says good games don't go ignored -> i point to an (arguably) good game and its lack of a playerbase. is that not a valid response? can you suggest to me a better way to show this?

Zaole wrote:
i wouldn't consider a rename and updates enough to consider it a 'recent game'. it already has an existing fanbase (which frequently rose well above 50 players in the past) from the several years of its existence, which made boosting the numbers possible

So, if this 'fanbase' is willing to play a non fan game, why would they not be willing to try another game of similar qualities (which is mainly graphics and ease of use for the game in question)?

the problem is, 'similar qualities' is not just graphics and ease of use. the game is also an extremely simplistic grindfest. for that reason, i think it's better to say that byond's audience is not fan game exclusive, but rather dumb game exclusive (fan games just have a great tendency to be dumb). it seems like a mean thing to say of Seika, since the game is very well made, but the gameplay is barbaric. if you exchanged "giant rat" with "pbag" i'd have a hard time telling the difference :P

with that said, you are right that 'well made' games can become popular, but not games that-- to use the words of another-- aren't "EZable".
In response to Zaole
Zaole wrote:
but i don't feel it's 'sucky', which is the word he used

I would guess that the choice of terminology might have been misleading here.


Zaole wrote:
not relevant to the point being made there

It is very relevant to the point, which was that non fan games would have a more difficult time attracting a community.


Zaole wrote:
what else would you have me use?

Statistics.


Zaole wrote:
i point to an (arguably) good game and its lack of a playerbase

The game has several points that hinder a decent 'fanbase' growth. So, while it might be an arguably good game, it is a bad example.


Zaole wrote:
the problem is, 'similar qualities' is not just graphics and ease of use. the game is also an extremely simplistic grindfest. for that reason, i think it's better to say that byond's audience is not fan game exclusive, but rather dumb game exclusive

That I could agree on, but it is a common phenomenon for games and a logic one at that.
The higher the requirements (be it intelligence, patience, ...), the less people qualify for a decent (funny) experience.
Or, in other terms... there are more people out there that an mash a button fast compared to thinking strategical.
In response to Schnitzelnagler
I'd like to throw some games out on the table that caught outsiders to BYOND into the BYOND realm...

Mafia by LostRealm.
(Previously have known a few who have played the Card Game and wanted to play since they couldn't find a reasonable group of people to participate. So, I suggested them to Mafia and they loved it.)

Harvest Moon: Trinity Ranch by WildBlood.
(The old days/"Glory Days" of this game brought many Harvest Moon fans into BYOND. They enjoyed the N64, Gameboy and various console versions and wished to play it on the computer. Rather than emulating it, they enjoy the Multiplayer aspect).

GTAOnline by OneFishDown.
(It's Grand Theft Auto. What more do you want? Being the most successful Grand Theft Auto spin-off on BYOND, this has brought a small few people to BYOND. I believe one's reason was something like, "Well, my computer can't handle 3D crap and it looks fun.").

Duel Monsters Online by Kajika.
(Around... 3 - 5 years ago, Yu-Gi-Oh was a very popular television show and companies have made various video games on the topic. But, alas... Most of the games weren't Online and well let's face it, BYOND is Online and that's a very key fact into taking all of this in.)

Dragonball Zeta by RaeKwon.
(Even to this day, ever since Dragonball was announced to be a video game, many have searched and searched to find a game based upon Dragonball to play online with their friends. Zeta was a hit. Back in the day, if you Google Searched Dragonball MMORPG, Zeta would turn up.)

Hell, even if you do an internet search for MMORPG or anything related you'll potentially find a link referring to BYOND.
It's not the fact that games Today aren't bringing in much attention from the world outside of BYOND, but the fact that it already has in the Past.
What I mean about this is, if you took some time and searched for any and all blog posts about BYOND on the internet, you'll see that people have known about BYOND before but chose not to join us for various reasons of their own.
After so long, people get tired of searching for the same thing over and over again. (This includes games within BYOND) and find nothing that interest them.
It's not anything on BYOND's fault.
It's our communities fault itself for any potential failure of BYOND.
If we don't produce anything interesting, they won't be interested.
It doesn't matter if BYOND changes their Membership costs to something like $50.00 yearly, if there is a game that someone desires to play so badly, there is that chance they will do anything to play the game even if it means forking up $50 a year.
Leave BYOND in general out of it.
Start talking about how we as a community can bring forth interesting games and projects that will appeal to the world outside of BYOND.
Also, if you have something like Myspace or Facebook, try advertising there that you play BYOND and it's a great way to play Online Multiplayer Enabled games for Free. I bet that will draw some attention.

*Dark Vendetta saying it how it is*
In response to Dark Vendetta
Dark Vendetta wrote:
It's not anything on BYOND's fault.
It's our communities fault itself for any potential failure of BYOND.
If we don't produce anything interesting, they won't be interested.
It doesn't matter if BYOND changes their Membership costs to something like $50.00 yearly, if there is a game that someone desires to play so badly, there is that chance they will do anything to play the game even if it means forking up $50 a year.
Leave BYOND in general out of it.

yeah, we know that, that's not what we've been talking about at all. it's very unfortunate that Dan and Tom's noble creation (with of course wonderful contributions by others) has yielded an inbreeding, dimwitted audience whom fail to entice developers

Start talking about how we as a community can bring forth interesting games and projects that will appeal to the world outside of BYOND.

we (the BYOND community, not necessarily me) have been talking about that for year(s). some have tried making games of their own (approximately 100% of which were abandoned), while others have made different efforts (like IainPeregrine's GIAD contest which yielded many submissions, 1 of which I and many others enjoyed a lot)

overall, though, it just hasn't been enough. i once made a post similar to yours (except on a blog) and got nayed into the ground because "if byond is suffering because there aren't any games, then YOU should make a game"; i have made a game, but it was for my own personal enjoyment and i would not recommend it to an outside audience (nor should anyone else). i don't think the effort required to make a quality game designed to appeal to a wide audience would yield equivalent results. however, if you disagree, feel free to prove me wrong by making a game.
In response to Zaole
Zaole

I know what you mean, I've been here for quite some time.
Actually, like a year shy of you on a different key.
And I thought the whole topic was about "Reasons Why BYOND Is Losing It's Players" so I posted something on-topic (which we all know the Developer Forum lacks).
And I don't think it was right for someone to tell you, "... if byond is suffering because there aren't any games, then YOU should make a game... "
Instead, that person telling you said quote should offer help with making a game instead of just bluntly saying 'Make A Game, Stop Posting Useful Information.'
Also, I'm not going to focus on Outside BYOND Quality for projects. I like the BYOND Community itself and feel that it doesn't need any more, 'hw i git ssjz?' or 'giv me src codz'.
I'm simply replying to the Topic because I don't see BYOND losing any players for the Topic Poster's said reasons.
I think he is way off and wanted to bring him on track to sensibility.
So...
50/50 Agree and Disagree to you. =P
By the way, what's a "graw kitty"...
O.o
I've seen your member page a lot and have always wondered that... Just figured I'd ask you here instead of pager. xD
I only have a couple things to say.

One
Byond Membership - Honestly, most of the people on byond >>are byond members because they get benefits that others >>wont get.

I will not be buying a BYOND membership for my key nor for my children's key's. Simply due to the fact they love the Anime games on BYOND, but due to some people who think they can dictate what people do or say in their own free will and time. Makes me all the more flaunted away from buying memberships, even if it is to support the site.

Two
Byond Games - Too many super powers especially in anime >>games. If you look at the games on byond there is always >>this one game that overpowers the rest. These games will >>have like 100 players in it, while the rest only have 3 or >>4.

Well on that, just because they are "super powered" shouldn't make people shy away from making the game they desire, along with what people say. If final fantasy was a super power back in the day, and people just stopped creating RPG's just because final fantasy was great, we wouldn't have more other great RPGs like Chrono Trigger or Breath Of Fire and so on. It's all about taking chances and taking hits, taking the hits to see if taking the chances would work. Kind of like (I know I am repeating myself but oh well, it's a good example.)Final fantasy 12 in the switch from standing still turned based combat to a more actioned based combat system.

But those are just my opinions, I am creating a maze game and just because another person created one doesn't mean I will stop in what I want to create.

Also sorry for the grammar mistakes, if it's any consolation i still love you D:
In response to Solcolito_Butch
Solcolito_Butch wrote:
I will not be buying a BYOND membership for my key nor for my children's key's. Simply due to the fact they love the Anime games on BYOND, but due to some people who think they can dictate what people do or say in their own free will and time. Makes me all the more flaunted away from buying memberships, even if it is to support the site.

I don't really understand what you're saying here. :/
BYOND is certainly not failing. There's tons of original games if you take the time to look - Turtle Towers was rather fun for a game made in a day.

Efencea is an RTS according to comments I've seen, which gets a thumbs-up from me. Seika is another original game that is kinda fun, but also has a massive playerbase (I lost respect for it when you couldn't host your own server).

Memberships are to support BYOND, tons of free file-hosting sites too. Not too many that are compatible with BYOND's hub system from what I've seen.

I view Memberships as a donation to BYOND, and the file-hosting as a thank-you for the donation.
In response to Foomer
Well say my son want's to create a game, but it's a Fan based/ Anime based one. If he had a blog and posted about it, I'm talking about the ones that say "no make this" Which leads to cussing and my boy has to read negative post's about something he wants to do or learn. Not more dictating, wrong word, but guilt him into not making one or fleeing away from showing his creativity and imagination. Even if it is fan based.
In response to Solcolito_Butch
Something tells me you and him would need a long talk if people can influence him that much by just typing a few words.
In response to Vic Rattlehead
Hey it happens, esspeically with the younger ones. Even certain trends would tell you that kids are impressionable, an example would be, Caucasian trying to be African Americans. Also peer pressure is another one.
In response to Solcolito_Butch
When I was a pre-teen (Assuming your kid is, too), I wasn't influenced by anyone to do anything. Peer pressure = people running your life for you.
In response to Vic Rattlehead
Everyone is different not every single person that's BILLIONS of people are not going to be like you. Yes i do know what peer pressure is, and I see it a lot on this site.
In response to Solcolito_Butch
Thank goodness not everyone is like me, it would be a rather dull world. You have to realize though, if someone is so gullible (I'm not sure that's the right word for it, but I dunno what would is correct for this case) as to let someone run their life, they're probably not very intelligent anyway.

Person: hey noobfaec ur dbz gaem r suck noodlez maek a naruto gaem pls <-- How would anyone respond to that? I don't see how even a little kid is going to make a Naruto game because "someone criticized his other game(s)".
In response to Vic Rattlehead
I'm not going to continue on this conversation I said what I said and meant it. Your going closer and closer to insulting my son so on that note, I leave you to speculate on whatever means you need.
In response to Solcolito_Butch
I'm as close to insulting him as you are, saying he's no different from them, lets strangers run his life, etc. (as you've said he's as "impressionable" as other kids)

Take an insult as you want, but if you found anything I said offensive in the least, I apologize then. The truth does sometimes hurt.
In response to Solcolito_Butch
Solcolito_Butch wrote:
Well say my son want's to create a game, but it's a Fan based/ Anime based one.

I find this very interesting that you play byond and then your son is on here too.Does it run in the family? I first was introduced to byond at the age of 12 by my older brother.Then soon my little brother join in and then my 2 cousins.Later on i invited 4 of my friends on here.(3 have left)They all felt byond was a fun experience but it did not last long.Things got boring and they all started leaving.Its only me and my cousin that is still left on here.(Not to play games but to make one)
In response to Tales Number TwO
Well I joined about 2 month ago now I think or a month, and my son seen a picture of Naruto when I went to byond.com/games. So I allow him to play the games. He is very big into duel monsters online right now, I made him a giant germ/ nimble deck and he is loving it. Although he just sticks to facing AI at the moment, working out the kinks in the deck I suppose. The only real problem with that is he bugs me constantly to make a Naruto or the one i got him into Kiba. So At some point I see myself making a Naruto (or some sort of his favorite anime) game.

Anyways i just recently got him Ninja destiny 2 for his DS so I sould have the computer to develop for a while now.
In response to Solcolito_Butch
Solcolito_Butch wrote:
If he had a blog and posted about it, I'm talking about the ones that say "no make this" Which leads to cussing and my boy has to read negative post's about something he wants to do or learn.

From the sound of it, if he's that impressionable (or you're worried that he is) you might just want to keep him off the internet altogether, or at least keep him carefully supervised. I'm not sure what kind of age group you're talking here, but BYOND has a lot of nasty stuff if you're not careful, especially in unmoderated games. It tends to rub off on people.
In response to Solcolito_Butch
Solcolito_Butch wrote:
(...)some people who think they can dictate what people do or say in their own free will and time. Makes me all the more flaunted away from buying memberships, even if it is to support the site.

Unless I'm mistaken, you can set up restrictions on who is allowed to do what sort of action on your personal page with a membership.
You should be able to pick a selected few, white-list them through granting them specific ranks and thus ensure that there is solely helpful content for your children (on your page).
That way, you could mix the best of both worlds. You get the full interaction that comes with a membership (including you support to BYOND) and won't have to mess with bad influence.


Solcolito_Butch wrote:
If final fantasy was a super power back in the day, and people just stopped creating RPG's just because final fantasy was great, we wouldn't have more other great RPGs like Chrono Trigger or Breath Of Fire and so on.

You mention and compare commercial products with 'fan games' on BYOND. That is tricky, because a commercial fan game would have to pay a massive chunk to the copyright-holder, so there is a lot more incentive to create 'original content'.


Solcolito_Butch wrote:
I am creating a maze game and just because another person created one doesn't mean I will stop in what I want to create.

Seems like you're going to love the new isometric functionality in that case! I wish you luck and a lot of fun.
Page: 1 2 3 4 5