Website activity dwindling

Do any of the staff have figures on active users? it appears to be reducing, and to the detriment of the website. Less players - less games - less fun

i live in europe and therefore in a different time zone. so late at evenings when all the players from us+latin america and australia are online, i have to go to bed :/ and when i am online its rarely happening that people play with the settings i like. most of the games are played with insreasing cards or on maps i dont like, such as world classic. these maps and setting are total trash. and whenever i want to create a game i have to wait for like 2-30 mins to get somebody to play (and thats the best case sceario). so to be honest i simply lost faith live games.... the only way i play now is via long term games.... these are my reasons for not playing that often. but most important issue is that this game is outdated; i am in my 20th and an exception; most people here are old dudes in their 40ies-60ies, retired and old... you cant expect from this game to attract more and yonger people

The long term, tournaments is where its at bro.Alot of active games i log in a few times a day and take a turn on like 7ish matches. I just hope we get more tourneys up and running. Dima you should host another one to.

thanks that you enjoy the tournament. well at the moment there is no need for me to make another tourney; we have still 2 more rounds to go (2 maps more). then i will start a new one. the problem if you have to many games running, you loose oversight and its not good especially if playing fog games

Whoever hosts this site should look into google ads for getting more traffic. I recently started using them myself

It's always been a bit slow but it is still the best site by far

The suggestion to increase the number of live games for non-members only bogs down the server. It attracts mostly non quality players who do nothing but mostly play 2 player games over and over and do nothing to improve the quality of the site. It may increase the total of live games but they are mostly 2 player and the result is quantity over quality and the quality is bad. The types of players it attracts lowers the quality of the site. It attracts players who typically do not care about the site, the rules or other members. When we allowed them, the complaint was the same as you are making now except that it included 'only 2 player games are available to join in live games [i]and the server is so slow...'[/i] Well, the server was slower because the ratio of paying members verses the legions of free playing live game only(almost exclusively 2 player games) members just kept bogging it down. The games were of poor quality as these players typically do no care about having a good game, just a quick couple of turns and then resign when it looks like it is going the wrong way. Over, and over and over again. The staff's time was constantly taken up with trying to control the constant disregard for the rules from these types of non caring free loaders and the damage it was causing towards the sites members (both premium and non-premium) who respected the site and the game itself. This is not a mindless game so we should not try and tailor it to mindless players and [u]we already know[/u] this is what happens with unlimited free live games. Adding ads will increase the site revenue allowing for more money to go to hosting a server with more capacity which will attract more free loading, disrespectful and non contributing site members while creating an ad riddled environment with low quality members and will drive away the types of members/players this site was actually created for; players looking to play a great game in a fair, fun and respectful environment. We don't want quantity over quality. We want good players, not an infinite number of players. We want players who are learning a new favorite game and work on improving their skills mixed with players who have loved this game for a long time and still try to improve their skills in a challenging but fair environment. I hope this answers some of your questions.

Great explanation ely, long live dominating12!

What a dogmatic and narrow minded response. To not listen to multiple and continuing complaints that the websites activity is so significant tailing off that people are choosing to leave, to respond that you don't care as you never wanted those people anyway. You are going to end up with neither quality nor quantity. Just 5 'experienced' players who play each other consistently. Anyhow, the website will continue to tail off without fresh thinking, and when it does reach those final death throws, dont complain you didnt see it coming

Ely your post also explains why I don't think that rank should be optional

You keep saying that the site is dying off but you are basing that on what? On your belief that there should be more live games for you to join? Again, allowing non paying members unlimited live games will only increase live 2 player games and does nothing but slow down the server and invite players who are only here to kill time and are bored and don't care for our rules and all of this just waters down the site. You don't seem to understand that[quote] the current multiple and continuing complaints[/quote] that you are referencing are mostly just you continuing to repeat yourself with the same complaint multiple times. Yes there are the scattered few that have made similar complaints but you do realize that the majority of those complaints come from non premium members who aren't happy with what they are currently getting for free and want more for free. We have many great members who are non premium who enjoy and respect the site and we value them as much as premium members because they are part of a community that wants what we do, a fair, fun, competitive and respectful atmosphere to play in. They also understand that 2 player games aren't really strategy games as much as multiplayer games are and are mostly played to kill time or because you are bored, not because it is some grand game of strategy. I told you why we do not want to increase the number of live games allowed to non-premium members who play for free and why that only leads to more 2 player games by players who have no interest in actually playing good games with multiple players as we had already allowed for years with the only result being to slow down the server and increase the number of problem players. Feel free to make suggestions on improvements that don't center around giving you more that you don't want to pay for or telling us that we are narrow minded because something you want was already in place and doesn't work. You asked for an explanation and you were given one. Just because it doesn't fit with what you think is best for everyone doesn't make it a 'dogmatic and narrow-minded response,' especially when you say such a thing but offer absolutely no facts to dispute the 'dogma' to which you are referring which make you more dogmatic and narrow minded than me, no?

I should explain to you all why my responses seem so harsh. The original poster of this thread was spamming the lobby chat constantly with the same rhetoric and didn't like the answers that were given and has been quite impolite in responses to his questions so I choose to not be very polite in my response to this thread. I do not want others to not comment here because they may think I will be critical towards them as we welcome all suggestions in improving what we can, I just don't want to be asked 50,000 times for a free cookie if I've already told you 50,000 times there are no free cookies. The original poster was fixated on allowing unlimited free live games for non paying members which I believe is more of a personal request/hope than an actual legitimate concern for what he believes is a 'dying website.' The reasons I outlined for not allowing unlimited free games still stands; it only creates more 2 player games and it slows down the server. There are more reasons I could give but for know just wanted to let everyone know that their suggestions are appreciated and considered by all of us. The goal of the community is to have a place to play a good, fair, fun and challenging game for people who really enjoy the strategy involved a place to play their favorite game. What we don't want is a playground for people who don't really care about the game or the rules and are just here to kill time and be problematic. This means that we are not going to be the next google or facebook anytime soon where we care more about the number of members than the quality of the membership and the gaming experience provided. The fact that we don't sell out and just make a money grab by selling add space and cluttering up the site should say all it needs to say about the site owners wish to provide a quality site for players who love the game as opposed to someone who does not care about its membership and only wants to maintain the site for the money.

Your long winded post is utterly underdone by the fact that I have been a premium player, and was a premium paying member when i was 'spamming' the chat about this issue. I stopped my subscription being renewed when you completely pooed pooed the fact the website was dying, and started slandering and misdirecting with posts like the above.

You cannot get a game on here for love nor money, and you want to insult your way out of it

You posted this last message at the exact same time a 3 player game is in progress, a 2 player game is in progress, a 2 player game is in waiting and a 4 player game is in waiting so I don't understand what point you are trying to make unless you are now just trolling.