That might explain it then. I hate agreeing with a troll, but I do see what he is saying. I check in once a day or so to play in the tournaments I'd committed to before I decided to leave. I'll check the open games when a couple times while I'm here and far more often than not there isn't one up and I've never seen one that's tempted me to stick around & play (3v3 europe and 3v3 & 2v2 asia were my games of choice).

But if the folks creating the games are making them members only, that would explain it It might also explain why some of you might not see the problem... as members, you've got lots of play options... you can create tournaments, play in ladder games, and, perhaps, see a ton of open games.

If that is, in fact, what is happening, then I think it's a real shame that the community has so embraced the class system (members vs non-members). If you don't want to play with non-members, then how will they become active enough to want to pay? Without fresh blood, will it get stale and/or stagnate? Perhaps by joining tournaments... but how will they get on your invite list if you're not playing games with them? And are you even inviting non-members to tournaments? I've only had 2 or 3 tourney invites, but didn't think much of it as I so vocally left.

I disagree with you Eagle Blast and you Pepper. I have only joined one members only game and thats the only one I have seen. I also have not been able to notice any difference in the amount of open games, as I look right now there are 5 open games (not including auto games.)

I'm with Knoebber -- I have not personally played in, or even seen, a single members only game. I really don't think this is a major issue.

the main reason not that many games are in lobby is because open seats expire in 4 hours compounded with the fact that there are auto head to head games, which are mainly the ones i join.

and btw i checked the lobby the other day and there were about 20 games there.

the only member-only games i play are ladder games.

People want to believe what they want to believe. Pepper, you've been suggesting that there is some sort of schism between members and non-members since before anyone even had a chance to see how the new membership thing was going to pan out. You convinced yourself that was going to be the case ahead of time, and now anything you see is just fuel on that non-existent fire.

Seriously, nobody cares if you are or aren't a member. There's no class system. The game doesn't seem to be dying. I've never seen a member-only game, outside of ones between friends where everyone happens to be a member anyway. I guess a better way to say that is I've never seen a game where being a member is a prerequisite to playing in the game. It's possible people are making those games, but I for one have never seen any.

Granted, I don't check the open games section all the time, but I've been seeing about the same number of games I used to see.

The one main difference I've seen is that I'm invited to far less tournaments than I used to because that is a member only feature. If the argument is that there are less games because there are less tournaments being created, then I can see that and agree with it. In terms of less open games or membership being some sort of exclusive club, that I haven't seen.

Also, I'm not trying to point fingers or anything. You have a valid point that the game will stagnate if members stick to just playing with each other and not with the fresh blood, because new players won't have any reason to purchase a membership and won't have any reason to get hooked into the game. I think that's a potential problem that could arise, although I don't agree with you that it's currently the case.

Since the introduction of the ladder I've met several '09 players that I was unaware of before. I haven't invited any of them to games yet but they're on my (very short) invite list now.

This game is SO not dead. It's more alive than ever.

Aside from tournaments, I haven't joined any open games since being a member. Which is to say that I get invited to enough games not to have to go looking for them. But I don't play real-time games anymore, so I guess that just means I have made it onto enough people's invite lists in the several months that I've played here. I suppose it would be different for a newer person.

Fizzer is the person to ask about how many new members there are and how often they're created.

I can't imagine that there is any kind of deliberate segregation going on.
------------------------------

I have created a game with no prerequisites just for new players to join.

Here's the URL: http://warlight.net/MultiPlayer.aspx?GameID=1230067

It's a pretty big game but I wanted a lot of people to join. Hopefully, it will convince new players that this game rocks!

I didn't put that in bold intentionally, how did that happen?

The Impaller, I completely agree with you. You are correct... I am going to see some sort of class systems where they don't exist. In fact, somewhere I mentioned that I was leaving because I am rather irrational about it all :) (though I do try to be nice about it and I'm not usually as vocal about it as I have been here)

I did try to temper my post in this thread. I wasn't trying to state whether there were or were not fewer games... only that I hadn't seen many (but, really, I'm checking maybe twice a day and about 10 minutes apart... so not representative) and that if what Eagle Blast said was true, that could explain it and that it might also explain why some can't actually see the problem because, as members, they would be seeing games that others were not.

I just checked now and there were tons of games (I even came to the forums & specifically this thread to point that out, heh). So YAY!

Some times of day are just more active than others. Early morning or middle of the day in the West means fewer games, but the prime-time hours generally have tons. It's how it's always been here for the year or so I've been here. As for members-only games, aside from ladder games, which is a given, I'm in a couple of games are mostly members with a couple of exceptions, but that's pretty much just because we've all been friends on the site for a long while.

I've had so many games going on that I'm starting to intentionally cut back. I haven't looked for a game in the lobby in months. The ladder sort of fills any need to generate a quick 1x1 (or 5 quick 1x1s).

I am a strong advocate for institutionalizing more stuff designed to attract new players and convert them to members. If WL is going to act like a business that's it's only real goal. So long as there's a lifetime membership, keeping existing members happy is a "nice to have" rather than an essential goal. After all they only pay once.

I've suggested many things that focus on brigning in new players and converting them into members:

1. Weekly non-member tournaments with a membership prize (128 open seats).
2. Free memberships by Referrals. Rewarding players who successfully bring in new members with a referral free membership, such that if you get 5 people to join you get a transferrable free lifetime membership for you or a friend to use (there was a minute risk that this would cause people who were joining anyway to add their friend as a referring person to get them a free membership -- now that the initial rush is over I think that's remote).
3. New Invite a Friend Giving each member the opportunity to enter email addresses to all their friends that would automatically email a form invitation (customizeable by the new member with a link and passcode good for a free two week trial membership). This is probably the most important thing WL coudl do. Make it a permanent change to your "invite a friend" section! Obviously this connects with #2, by asking the referred friend to enter who referred them.
4. Monthly memberships ($2.99-3.99?)
5. Group discounts (if you have a group that wants to join together, you should give a price break - say 24.99 each for groups of 10 or more - not combinable with a referral free membership)
6. Resellers - Let any website that refers people to Wl receive 10% of membership fees paid by people they refer. To make it easy, the players would have to enter a unique code to cause the referring site to get the money. Design catchy ads and/or a jump page to help these resellers get conversions (this could be combined with group discounts if the site has the traffic to make 10+ new members likely).
7. A new splash page for non-members that highlights the sales proposition for becoming a member. Members woould hopefully not see it and therefore not have to click past it.

I haven't read the thread, just the first post.

I would say its better than before, there aren't people on all the time creating games, but if I create a game it doesn't take long for people to join. Lately I've seen loads of created games. Last time I checked 7-8 games were up.

bump

bump bump (hey Fizz -- any of these ideas sound feasible?)

I think he soaks in the idea's, let's them stew around for a bit in his head til they come to fruitition in a manner which he accepts, then updates warlight accordingly

Ah -- the creative process.

Uservoice helps, too.

These aren't really game enhancements/user voice ideas.

I appreciate the suggestions, Duke! I'm refraining from commenting on it too much here though, since some of these items are already under development and I want the official announcement to come from the blog.

Yay, when? :-)