Concerned

[Firejack]

Declining activity and member numbers are really beginning to bug me.

Recently I've not been playing while I waited for my new machine. I knew things had got worse in my absense but I'm really quite shocked how bad things are. Apart from the SCUM guys and Amiga I've not seen anyone on TS this week. Xfire just has the usual names logged in but most aren't really playing anything. And just a handful of posts on the forums. Then just to emphasize the problem I log into AoC, the flagship division of the Community, to find no one online pretty much every time I log in. We had 5 on the other night and thats as many people as I've seen.

Now without being too dramatic I feel the Community is on the floor and bleeding out right now. We need to get some interest going and some new members or I really fear how bad the decline is going to get over the next 6 months.

So we need a new plan. For me this means giving Call of Duty 4 a try. Seems like the biggest PC game next to WoW right now. Something definitely we should take an interest in if so many other people are already playing it.
Who has Call of Duty 4?
What do you think of it?
Would it be worth us renting a server together?

All thoughts are welcome. But lets avoid tossing some ideas in if you don't actually plan to do something about it. Need action not words right now. Come on guys. We need the good times back

[Darkarium]

I honestly don't think you will be able to pull too many people together at the moment even for something like CoD4 as not that many are interested and a percentage of people actually own the game on consoles rather than PC. You have to remember not everyone has a PC capable of playing the most demanding games, hence why i have expressed no interest in AoC. Its sad but i think the PC gaming scene in general is sinking at the moment, there are no upcoming multiplayer releases of the same magnitude as something like WoW was. All my serious gamer friends (the sort that play in clans at the top end of leaderboards) still spend all their time on Counterstrike or BF2.

What the community needs is to start something like a casual night on a game everyone knows and plays (like we used to do on CSS), it's no good trying to generate interest in a game if it's not there.

[Crank]

I think we have to do two things really. Firstly we need a big game that people can play together daily or near daily. I don't know if AoC is that (I got bored of it quite quickly) but perhaps WAR or something like Battlefield Heroes can be that game (I'm sure there are others). I think it's difficult to get people enthusiastic about things that have been out for a while though - so I don't think CoD 4 can work.

Secondly we need to have events on particular nights (like what Darkarium suggests) and people need to really get behind it as without that critical mass of people they die very quickly. So we need candidates for that role - I guess the obvious ones are M2TW, Battlefield 2/2142, CSS.

I think the next few months are critical for the TNGC. If we can't get our act together for WAR, WOTLK, Starcraft II (possibly), Red Alert 3 and whatever else is out by the years end then sadly I'm not sure we ever will.

[allicorn]

we need a big game that people can play together daily or near daily

Mmm, see, we keep saying this every time the topic comes up. I can't honestly believe there's been nothing that interests anyone for the last year and half. Xfire stats suggest that there are TNGC members who have a favorite game and who play it regularly. Nobody ever uses the "Fancy A Game of...?" thing to hook up with other members, so far as I can see. Whether pickups are happening on Xfire I don't know but, if they're not happening at all - why not? TNGC members are playing multiplayer games, why not see if anyone else wants to jump in?

we need to have events on particular nights

Agreed. Though events have often met with failure in the past, those that have been successful were a lot of fun for those involved. It doesn't take a lot to put together a single night's play in some random game or other.

It needn't (probably shouldn't) be the same game every week. If some folks can get together for a nostalgic game of CSS one week, maybe some ideas for something else to play the following week might emerge - we might be able to keep a weekly event bubbling along if we regularly changed the game but kept the day/time the same.

Alli

[Theodora]

i iknow i haven't really be online a lot of late, been very busy with a load of stuff and just not seemed to have the time to come on and have a good session.

AoC just hasn't grabbed me after the initial 11-20 rush, i like the look of a lot of the end content but i'm loathe to spedn the time grinding, and most of the time i was playing solo, seemed hard to get a group

normally i'd be on playing odd games of M2TW but the times i've been able to get on have become a little random and when i can come on for a while i never seem to see anyone on xfire to have a game with

personally i really like the idea of having random game nights, if i knew there was an event coming up i could make time and plan for it and be there and i have more than enough old games kicking around that havn't been played for a bit

something like quake wars would be awesome if we could get a group on for an evening

i do also agree with darks point about requirements, many new games require the latest and greatest rigs to play properly and it's not always easy to keep up with the constant hardware race

[AmigaFan2003]

meh, people are lazy (not a bad thing, just the way of the world), we're all a bit older, possibly not as interested in gaming and a lot of us don't have the spare time anymore.

I'm certainly not going to worry if we-ll still be here in a years time, more important things to spend time and energy on imo.

I still think a surprise game will come along (like PS) and gel us all together again.

[Kati]

If there are no interesting threads on the forum, nobody is going to post.
Haven't xfire always been pretty empty...?

Anyhow, CoD 4 was pretty boring in singleplayer (pretty graphics though!), dunno about MP although I've only heard good things about it.

AoC is pretty... Boring. There's nothing to do at level 80 so I have no reason to level anymore. PvP? Minigames are like BG's - they get boring quickly. City building? Uh yeah, cba with the small guild we have now. PvE? Raiding is a no-go, and doing 5 man instances all the time gets old pretty fast. Alt-leveling? Gimme a reason to level another character to 60.

I play Day of Defeat: Source alot, and I plan to move one of my horde characters to a PVE server in preparation for WotLK, I just need to wait a week or so for my friend before we move and then I'll be WoWing again (need to get plenty of gold* before the expansion, and I haven't even visited the sunwell island yet).

*Not guild!

[Aveox]

I'll see what I can do to start a Trackmania server for a one-night event (it's kind of fiddly when it comes to setting up). TM Nations is free to play, STARFORCE-FREE!!!(cannot emphasize that enough) and a keyboard will do just fine for racing. Heck, if even my girlfriend can race it, then everybody on this forum should be able to without breaking a sweat. Thats basically all I can do at this moment.

next to that Im obviously spending quite some time in the WAR beta.

[Kati]

Aveox is in the WAR beta? Interesting. Do tell more.

NDAs are meant to be broken!

[Alastriona]

Lack of leadership to organise groups and events could also play a role here. I'm currently very busy with some personal issues in real life so I havent logged in to AoC in ages. personally, I dislike the healing system, its too easy and boring! Spellcasting at level 40 isnt too exciting either and I haven't heard anyone get excited over spellweaving yet. I'm actually afraid that once I start playing AoC again I might get pretty bored soon. I'll be sure to try and keep the division running once I sort my real live. Otherwise I'll be preparing for WAR. Not sure I want to be anything more then a regular member though. Can't seem to acomplish anything and I feel like I've let nemetos order down in AoC.

I also wanted to start a fun division for battlefield heroes when it comes out and organise regular event nights. Its battlefield and its FREE! everyone can play and the system reqs are quite low. Its the perfect game accesabiltly wise, I;m hoping its fun too.

Otherwise, empire: total war is high on my wishlist. Depeding on the Multiplayer system I might try to get a division off the ground.

[Lex]

i`m pretty sure not many things will change this summer, ppl are working, going on holiday's or just busy whit irl stuff. Sure the next big thing will come along shortly, this can either be war, or a bunch of other games mentioned above.

Got the feeling we have bin spoiled whit games like wow, cause basicly everyone was playing it. It can take a while before something like that happends again, AoC might had the potential to become something like that, but system req. are pretty high, not many ppl start playing and those who do get bored pretty soon so new ppl wont bother anyway in that case, its not that strange, just happens.

i srsly like the idea of creating game nights, even if its older games like ccs or something in that genre, as said above, new game-nights or ideas can grow from this.

As for the forum, i accually only see the regular names pop along, the forum has like, idno howmany members (most probably from earlier days) but a small percentage only visit's/post on it. maybe a little clean up might be in place to get a better overview.

I`ll be fixing the pc at my parrents place whit my old pc parts so i could be joining gamenights whit np, i`ll also start logging in to TS and might have a chat whit a bunch of you since i kinda only talk trough the forum/xfire.

LEx

[Aczeren]

I thought of this aswell in the heat in greece... The community is abit less active than what it was in its glory days (planetside, yes? and pre tbc wow) But still I enjoy most people, I dont need to play with you in any particular game to feel that im part of a community if you understand. About a massive game I can only say wrath of the lich king . It seems to have more pvp organized subjects to it where they have a whole zone dedicated for pvp which would result in team play and good communication, atleast if you think cynical about it :S, it sure will provide fun the first 6 months with ppl reaching max lvl and trying instances and raids. Also good new thing with this is that all raid dungeons will also come with 10 man versions, similar to kara, meaning its easier to get a full grp of tngc ppl running =)

Ofcourse some of you dont like wow and thats oke, but its like something for the ppl who previously played wow in nemetos like ala, amiga, theo, lews, fj, crasp etc etc. Just to give it another shot because I have the feeling it will be different and me and rockett will surely stick around!

If not we can catch up on some old games like fj suggested abit earlier with BF 2 which I would be most happy to join in on, or a similiar newer game but then I have to wait for my new PC to be paid for :C anyhow Im up to most things so count me in for fps or rpg!

Edit: about the SCUM ppl I think they achieved what we wanted, well atleast some us, to get a friendly semi raiding slow progressing guild based on social and mature ppl with different events etc, where it didnt demnad constantly being online and such. And with the hardcore part of NO raiding guild gone to other guilds its just some ppl left in there now.

excuse my oiddness abit im drunk...

[Dairyman]

Do we need to play a game on a daily basis to be a well-functioning community? It seems that it isn't a lack of a game that is causing us to not play together as proven by AoC coming and seemingly going right now, much like pirates. I'm guessing this is just due to people not being able to commit to the hours that they may have done previously and similar situations. Which means the obvious suggestion is preparing evenings for gaming in advance; maybe having a rotation so that people are familiar with which games are played on which weeks etc. This of course would lend itself not to MMORPG playing but maybe FPS, RTS, racing maybe too. Old or new games, anything that would bring together the most people often. Maybe incentives for playing more often; a league of some sort? Something that links sessions together, a bit like dkp in mmorpg.

With the WoW division of NO broken up, there is now no especially hardcore contingent in the TNGC; as far as I'm aware that was the main obstruction to the gaming nights that had been arranged before, so gaming nights might be more successful than before.

[KillerWolf]

I'll try to be more around on teamspeak and ask if ppl from my guild are interrested in the tngc. But as many said before to have an active community you need big games like wow so you got an active playerbase.
If you dont have it then you need something else to appeal the players, perhaps a new MMO game, I dunno....