Another post for you Andres, related to post:152....

Quote Originally Posted by Andres View Post
I see the point of the focus being almost exclusively on the newest total war game. But isn't that normal? After all, there are already tons of informations and discussions about the older games. People looking for help and advice for an older game, will most likely find that information in an old thread. If people post about TW, what are they most likely going to post about? The new game of course. Because, well that's new There will be far more unanswered questions about the new game than about the old game. So if we want to attract new members (and every community needs a regular influx of new blood in order to survive), we need to give them as much useful information about the new game as possible. That's the carrot we need to hold in front of people to make them sign up.
I have zero problems following your logic. And plenty of it does makes excellent sense. However, that does not necessarily mean that I do come to the same conclusions as you do, or look at it in the same way. There are other aspects to it as well – that should at least be considered here. If we do that, things will get more complicated and problematic, or so I believe. I have already been pointing at this stuff and I will now do so again, but this time in more detail as to get the point across.

Now, Information is good stuff, hell its great stuff – but – it is also standard stuff. Essentially available and offered in every site somehow. Here is where “normal” works against us… Hoping to beat the competition and come out on top with that somehow strikes me as unrealistic, at best an unreliable strategy. If we look at the results so far this strategy has failed to deliver any promising results that actually warrants further confidence in it. So, the supposed carrot you speak of is practically available every forum that covers STW2 somehow. That’s one bit.

Then there is also the matter of the site “standing out in the crowd”, this strategy fails to do that as it does not truly offer something that enables that in the first place. At least if we look at this soberly, we can hardly expect that offering the same thing as everybody else is going to set us drastically apart somehow. Our carrot is essentially the same as any other available everywhere basically. That’s a second bit.

Then the factor of the casual gamers (which clearly will be the majority of potentials we are hoping for here, as we are dealing with the latest game. In effect STW2/FOTS, so far) and what we might realistically expect of them. In this strategy we are obviously focusing on the casual gamer, more then anything else. At best, they do sign up, they do their utterly self-serving posts and then they will disappear once they have no further need for us - very possibly forever. They simply don’t give a rat’s ass about this site or the people that frequent this place. I think it is naïve to deny that. We essentially have no reason what so ever to assume anything other then a strikingly small minority will actually break that pattern and do stick around – long term. The track record obviously supports this conclusion as well. So, we are essentially waving the carrot to the wrong crowd. That’s a third bit.

The effort and focus on this strategy, is hardly properly motivated either as it is not a very effective in actually generating that new blood – this in large part due to the third bit. Again the track record is rather clear about that. Plenty of energy and attention must be invested to cater these STW2-arrivals making sure they have that information that you are talking about. The effort of holding that carrot does not stand in reasonable proportion to the actual gains of holding it up there. That’s a fourth bit.

Then there is the aspect of this strategy failing to recognize that the TW-community is not one but several communities. Now, while the focus is steadily fixed on catering the “STW2”-folk we simply lack a serious “plan-B” that addresses the very real possibility that we are actually missing out on potentially very promising candidates that play something else then STW2. People who are unlikely to be casual gamers but truly hooked on TW somehow. The people we actually want here as they are clearly more likely to stick around – if we provide them a reason(s) to do so. This regardless the game, it might be ETW or whatever. The circumstance is the same regardless. We have no true plan how to somehow convince them to actually sign up – but more importantly – to stick around if they do sign up. So, in effect the people that we should be waving that carrot in-front of is basically ignored. That’s a fifth bit.

The point should be clear enough at this stage...


Conclusions...

This strategy and the high hopes on it are bad news once we also consider these five aspects. Looking at things in this way, does raise a lot of warranted questions about it and its continued practice. This strategy is then essentially a “wild-card” and it has so far failed to properly deliver that “magic” influx of new blood that all TW-communities of this site need to get vital again. Just leaving all the other games/communities to tend for themselves in favor of STW2 and hope for the best is not a healthy nor viable strategy – long term. This has been conducted for over a year now – ever since STW2 was released…

To me it is obvious; this is not good for the site or for any of its several communities – save STW2 perhaps (short term) – this utterly regardless how “normal” things may seem or might be. It has failed to produce any promising results and this site gets weaker because of it. Act accordingly. Devise another and new strategy, a better one, more diverse, more reliable, more efficient, more distinctive and above all more successful one. At least try to set up a contingency-plan to patch up and cover the worst flaws of this current strategy somehow. That ultimately means that the solid fixation on STW2 will have to give way to something else. We can not solely rely on selling “carrots” in this context, we need “apples”, “oranges” and what have you – stuff that is rare and not available elsewhere. Stuff that makes this place distinctive, attractive and stand out. To increase our chances at this we should also be aiming for more people then just the casual gamers of STW2. We must plan for and target other and more promising “customers” of TW.

The work of establishing information for STW2 can and indeed should continue (I am all for that) - but - the hard focus and all the high hopes on that should cease (because that I do question, due to outlined reasons above). Re-examine your strategy, make a new and better one, a less destructive one, a more realistic and reliable one. That is basically what I am trying to convey here.

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Quote Originally Posted by Andres View Post
I understand your point of keeping the fire burning in dying fora, but there's only so much staff can do. We don't have an infinite amount of logs to throw on the fire; if most of the time, it are our logs that are needed to throw on the fire and all too seldom somebody else throws his own log, it won't work, imo.
Alright, I believe you. Now, do you have a better suggestion? Because doing nothing at all is hardly a strategy, now is it? We have too at least try to do something... I don’t have any statistics on each section but it would be very interesting to see such data – instead of just doing some wild guesses on which TW-section "seems" to receive the most/least traffic and visits, most/least activity etc. etc. After that, we would have some solid basis on which sections actually are worse off then others – and get clear understanding of what we are really dealing with and where... Just leave it be in favor the latest game, is no plan and it will obviously not magically fix it self somehow.

Ok, I'll do more comments later...

- A