Player Registration/Retention and Statistics - Community Input

[Julio.]

Hi all,

Firstly, I've decided to put this in the SA:MP area because that's the server I primarily play on, but if this is applicable/an issue cross platform then feel free to move this topic to a more suitable board.

I've been following the statistics of player count and such on both the following sites:

http://statistics.ferocia.eu/index.php?page=dashboard (I believe this is run by @James Conway)
http://monitor.sacnr.com/server-1671653.html

From what I've followed recently, the statistics show a slight positive trend which is promising, but it would be nice to see the gradient steepen a little in regards to player registration/retention, overall play time, and average player count. The pattern per week in terms of average players online is as you'd expect, peaks towards the weekends, and troughs towards the center of the week where people may be working etc.

I thought it'd be nice to try and pull together suggestions into one topic that we consider to be a free (or very cheap...) way of attracting/keeping new players.

In order to help direct your ideas, I direct you to the below link which gives some sort of spread as to how our current players have actually found out about SA:MP:
http://www.argonathrpg.eu/index.php?topic=116585.0

It'd be nice if this topic doesn't get too far derailed, so it isn't too difficult to look through the ideas. I'll do my best to keep up to date with your ideas and stick them into this first post with your username tagged next to the idea. 

Ideas:

Suggestion Contributors	Suggestion	Action	Done?
@Julio. | @Mikro	As mentioned previously, the cleanest SA:MP Game Monitor I've seen is: http://monitor.sacnr.com/ Currently Argonath is only accessible on that list by name search or manually seeing the whole list, once a filter is placed, the server isn't on there. Can we get in contact with them to get this remedied?	@Julio. - Made contact with SACNR @Mikro - Updated script name so filter is now functional
@Julio. | @Stivi	Some sort of player tutorial (short and optional) which could bring newly registered players up to speed with the server and the many features (Unique Pershing Square, Jobs, Market etc)	-
@Julio.	Increased visibility on the SA:MP forum. Could mean our management team posting as many advertisements as allowed.	-
@Julio. | @JDC	Increased visibility on the SA:MP forum. More players remaining active on the forum with Argonath in our signatures/profiles if allowed there. Extension 1 - @JDC: I guess our Graphic Designers can help by producing nice Argonath signatures (from and for different platforms, too) for people to use on client sites?	-
@Julio.	Hosted Tab? - Controversial I know...	@Carbon - Implemented
@Julio.	Promoting interaction with new players, ingame benefits for doing so?	-
@Julio. | @Luke	Sending out more regular community emails/announcements Extension 1 - @Luke: Reminder email, for example: "Hey, we haven't seen you around lately?"	-
@Morais	Weekly Newsletter	-
@TiMoN	Reconsider allowing players without a passport to go on police duty	Implemented

Please discuss!

[JDC]

Damn, son. Following numbers is not easy.

Increased visibility on the SA:MP forum. This could mean our management team posting as many advertisements as allowed, or simply more of us as players remaining active on the forum with Argonath in our signatures/profiles if allowed there.

I guess our Graphic Designers can help by producing nice Argonath signatures (from and for different platforms, too) for people to use on client sites? I noticed advertising and branding have not been our strong suits, since our focus was mostly inward.

Hosted Tab? - Controversial I know...

Can someone enlighten me on the controversy here? Legit question.

[Julio.]

I guess our Graphic Designers can help by producing nice Argonath signatures (from and for different platforms, too) for people to use on client sites? I noticed advertising and branding have not been our strong suits, since our focus was mostly inward.

Neat idea and I've added it as an extension to an idea in the initial post! If anybody has the time to do something like this then that would be great! (with the unflattened image as well as the image so if necessary other people can modify sections to taste).

Can someone enlighten me on the controversy here? Legit question.

There's a split between people who want it and don't:
Some people believe it encourages primarily hackers (which I believe is inevitable when you're attracting new players and the admin team should deal with it).
Whether or not the cost is worth the benefit, I have no idea, as I do not know how many extra people it attracts, and I'm not aware of us having kept ongoing statistics to see retention rates of new players etc.

[Stivi]

Our main problem, in my opinion, is not being able to keep new players STICK TO THE SERVER. Like, actually keep playing it. Teddy was thinking of a possible OPTIONAL tutorial, do go with Gandalf's vision for the server - not sure what's up with that idea, but that would be great. @Teddy

[Julio.]

Agreed. A brief tutorial could be very helpful.

Added another suggestion to the end in regards to sending out more community emails/announcements. There are a lot of users registered here with valid email addresses... I'm not saying send daily spam, but a few more regular emails could remind older players that we're still here, and alive.

[Morais]

Agreed. A brief tutorial could be very helpful.

Added another suggestion to the end in regards to sending out more community emails/announcements. There are a lot of users registered here with valid email addresses... I'm not saying send daily spam, but a few more regular emails could remind older players that we're still here, and alive.

Weekly newsletter

[TiMoN]

Our main problem, in my opinion, is not being able to keep new players STICK TO THE SERVER. Like, actually keep playing it. Teddy was thinking of a possible OPTIONAL tutorial, do go with Gandalf's vision for the server - not sure what's up with that idea, but that would be great. @Teddy

Passport restrictions on cop duty and weapons should be removed.

[Julio.]

Passport restrictions on cop duty and weapons should be removed.

I agree. A lot of new players try to come straight to cop duty, myself included when I joined. Or allow them to be "security guard" or something like that with less powerful weaponry?

Added.

Weekly newsletter

Added

[Julio.]

Any other people's opinions on this, or if anybody can pick up on any of the suggestions feel free to say so and I'll put your name into the "Action" column of the table... Of course there are some actions which normal community members cannot pick up which may involve dev access/script work, but some items can be picked up for sure!

Had a quick search around the forum and can see that @Traser made quite a few nice Argonath RPG signatures, in terms of external signatures we'd be looking for something like that, but with the focus a little more on Argonath rather than the quotes, which we could then make as a link to Argonath's community forums or something like that.
Signatures below for inspiration:
http://www.argonathrpg.eu/index.php?topic=113559.0

[Luke]

Had the idea of sending out a mass email to everyone of Argonath forums, not a spam mail, mainly to the inactive accounts, just to jog the memories sort of a "Hey, we haven't seen you around lately?" along with new features of RS5, and reasons to return (laughable currently) but is a idea, most top companies use that method such as Rockstar with GTA V and Amazon with prime. Sort of pulls you back.

[Julio.]

Had the idea of sending out a mass email to everyone of Argonath forums, not a spam mail, mainly to the inactive accounts, just to jog the memories sort of a "Hey, we haven't seen you around lately?" along with new features of RS5, and reasons to return (laughable currently) but is a idea, most top companies use that method such as Rockstar with GTA V and Amazon with prime. Sort of pulls you back.

Yeah totally agree, or even something as daft as an automated birthday email...

[Devin]

Whilst the idea of a mass email being sent out to all registered users which equates to over 24 000 registered accounts seems like a good idea, I am not really all for spamming so many emails. Let's also not forget Argonath houses multiple servers, it would be rather unnecessary to email everyone about a single server whilst there are multiple being houses under the same "roof".

We are however coming up on the 10th year Anniversary of Argonath so perhaps something could be put together to inform older players.

[Julio.]

Whilst the idea of a mass email being sent out to all registered users which equates to over 24 000 registered accounts seems like a good idea, I am not really all for spamming so many emails. Let's also not forget Argonath houses multiple servers, it would be rather unnecessary to email everyone about a single server whilst there are multiple being houses under the same "roof".

We are however coming up on the 10th year Anniversary of Argonath so perhaps something could be put together to inform older players.

It doesn't have to be about an individual server, just a reminder about the community would be enough. As a good friend has messaged me today in fact, reminders by association are as good as explicit ones.

[TiMoN]

Whilst the idea of a mass email being sent out to all registered users which equates to over 24 000 registered accounts seems like a good idea, I am not really all for spamming so many emails. Let's also not forget Argonath houses multiple servers, it would be rather unnecessary to email everyone about a single server whilst there are multiple being houses under the same "roof".

Not necessarily the SA-MP server, you could list all the active servers and what each has accomplished.

[Stivi]

Not necessarily the SA-MP server, you could list all the active servers and what each has accomplished.

With a link to proper forum topics.