Dominating12 - My experiences

Let me start off by paying my respect to whoever decides to read this thread. At the time I'm writing this, I'm not quite sure what my intentions are with the topic, but I figure I'll come to an epiphany sooner or later - my idea to write this thread hatched from this thread: https://dominating12.com/forums/2/general-discussion/3236/website-activity-dwindling - to provide a counterargument. Yesterday I noticed it was exactly 1 year ago that I joined this website/game. This caused me to reminisce for a bit. A year ago I was clueless, I had just been through some heartbreak and stumbled upon this website when looking for options to play risk (and therewith process the grief/weirdness - numbers are my friend). This immediately lead to my first game: https://dominating12.com/game/883606 - must've been great luck to stumble upon [user]KOE_KittyKat[/user] - received my first vital pieces of information with respect to this website/game from her. Also got introduced to [user]Muzthebus[/user], who was a bit of a mentor to me during my first endeavours (especially for high quality capital games later on). Both great assets to the staff of this site, if I may say so. As the interested reader can see in the chat of the game, I was already quite the babblebox right then... got surprised by [user]lazer36[/user] who was talking in, what I now know to be, just pre-set chat commands. Grateful that I entered a game in which people also just talked. A week after I started hunting for knowledge and created this thread: https://dominating12.com/forums/2/general-discussion/3078/inner-workings-of-the-game-engine - this peeked my interest and increased my understanding of the game as well as how it's being played here. In that same period, I got persuaded by [user]Hoodlum[/user] to join in with the community at a deeper level and play forum games with them, separate from risk: https://dominating12.com/forums/5/off-topic/3076/money-and-masks-mafia-game - I believe this is actually the reason why I am still around here on this website. The community. Talking with people I have grown fond of and care about now. Even though I haven't met anyone on this website physically/in person/outside of the realms of the internet. I have several message threads ( https://dominating12.com/messages ) with people that exceed 3 digits. A year after I look back with warm feelings: https://i.imgur.com/y9jHnHL.png - would wish [user]TP_knighty[/user] was still playing though.. again he suddenly leaves... https://dominating12.com/forums/6/suggestions-feedback/3132/protocol-for-players-going-awol Having said all that, I also stay behind with some riddles. One of which is being addressed in the thread I first linked: https://dominating12.com/forums/2/general-discussion/3236/website-activity-dwindling - is there actually an issue, or is it all just a matter of perception? As I've only been around for a year, I can not say much about the activity X time ago, only about the more recent activity. Diving into archives, I checked the first D12 (Feb '16) list: https://dominating12.com/tutorial/thedominating12/1 and the most recent one (Dec '19): https://dominating12.com/tutorial/thedominating12/28 - the first had over 500 active users listed in the last 30days, the latter just over 200. In between over 400 in Mar '17: https://dominating12.com/tutorial/thedominating12/7 and over 200 in Mar '18: https://dominating12.com/tutorial/thedominating12/12. I came to conclude the ' big split ' actually happened here: https://dominating12.com/tutorial/thedominating12/8 - May '17, 391 active users https://dominating12.com/tutorial/thedominating12/9 - Sep '17, 187 active users I was unable to deduce a cause for this solely from checking in here: https://dominating12.com/news Anyway, I guess that's besides the point right now. Point is, from Sept '17 onwards, the website seems to have had between 180-240 active users in the last 30 days whenever a new D12 list was being made. Ergo, the activity here is NOT dwindling recently (if we take this characteristic as the leading one to deduce a conclusion on). This is also supported by my own experiences here. Granted, I used to play mainly just live games in my first weeks, till after I joined my first tournament at the end of January: https://dominating12.com/tournament/68/participants - with a lot of luck (or perhaps better phrased; bad luck from opponents), I managed to end #3, despite still being very new to the capitals concept and making several clumsy moves. This even cascaded in winning the second edition I played in the middle of February: https://dominating12.com/tournament/70/participants - Again, luck played a huge role. This is probably also the time when I started realising luck was much more of a factor than I thought/hoped it would be. Shortly thereafter, TP organised a tournament with a PREMIUM user package as grand prize: https://dominating12.com/forums/2/general-discussion/3098/spring-challenge - this spiked my interest once again and I tried to give it a go. The competition was maybe not the best, as TP went AWOL not too long after and people probably just gave up trying? Regardless, TP came back after a while and held true to his tournament. Alas, I'm dwindling off-topic (is there a topic...? :roll:) I think what I wanted to convey, is that this site still harbours a great platform for people to spent some of their time in an enjoyable way. What this means, is different for every individual. Are numbers going down? No, I do not think so. Would it matter though? Probably not so much either. Is it possible to find new players? Yes: https://dominating12.com/forums/2/general-discussion/2965/there-are-no-players-i-have-no-tokens/post/55469#post-55469 - I had a streak of finding new players a couple months ago and just the last week hunted for some more. Thusfar, got over 20 new players (however... still noone seems to have stuck around for an extended period of time - might still change). Biggest chance for realising changes, is by making them happen yourself. Efforts can be made in all kind of forms, little or big, they all matter. I hope everyone remains positive of the future dominating12 has coming for itself. Thanks, -Alex

happy d12 anniversary alex.

I think when people are not invested (premium members) their reason for staying is much less. You have to really want to play strategy games (and often). We did just go through the holidays so I am sure some just didn't have time. I just did a quick audit and came up with: [list type=decimal] [li]I did a search for "risk strategy game online" and d12 shows up towards the lower bottom of the second page, apparently after a lot of competitors as well as before general information.[/li] [li]I looked at the SEO tagging and there is just nothing good about it. For instance there is no h1 tag in use on the home page. There are also no og tags for social sharing, etc.[/li] [li]The description of every page is the same. Each page should have a different descriptive text.[/li] [li]The h1s on secondary pages should be "better". For instance the "How to play" page should be "How to play risk online {at d12}" with the {} optional[/li] [li]There doesn't appear to be a facebook page for d12. Doesn't have to be anything special, but it allows for people to like and their friends to see the like, etc.[/li] [li]Lastly, I am not sure the name "Dominating 12" screams open and inviting. If you first come here do you think that there are 12 people that just beat up on everyone else? It seems like the d12 should be the monthly list, but the name & branding of the site should be more focused around game, strategy, etc. Also I know it still leaves a bad taste in my mouth that every month or so when a new list comes out it isn't who is truly dominating that month, but more so what "old" member is still playing. Maybe new people come, dominate, then see after putting in a month of hard work they are no where close to being recognized. On top of this you can be one of the dominating 12, but if you are 10+ it doesn't mean anything. Almost like if you make the list you should have an icon that follows you, etc.[/li] [/list]

Thanks for that post, Alex. Happy anniversary, and glad to have you around. dough_boy... I am not sure if this is really the best place to deliver that feedback. There's merit towards your points, but it feels like a bit of a derailment of this topic, and it would be much better fitted in a suggestion thread.

I can surely post it there. I was just pointing out that maybe it seems like things are slowing down due to not a lot of new blood coming in and life taking over for some of the older members.

Long live dominating12 !

I too was looking at the D12 lists to see if there was a drop off in users and noticed the change Alex notes above. But the criteria for making that list changed at some point so that may account for the drop off there.

:D I've been thinking, too. I mean, I'm not great at D12, never have been, but I've enjoyed playing everyone (almost, lol) whether they beat me or I beat them. Thank you everyone I've played, it's been an honor! Happy anniversary Alex!

Happy anniversary Alex. I've only been here for a little over three months but I've enjoyed my time immensely. Unlike you I'm not a great player, stll hovering around the 1000 mark like a lot of the people I play. I play the odd 1v1 for the fun of it. Some here might think I am low value player playing a low value game but hey, I enjoy it! Some of us are never going to break in to the upper levels. In my short time here I'v played a lot of people, and luck has a massive effect. I hypothesise that you top rank players have a strategy that we don't know. Definitely luck has less of an impact on you than me. Since I'm time limited I haven't the opportunity to play as many games as most, Game 38 going down the pan as I write. People say that D12 is dwindling but I don't see that. I've see loads of players who have joined since I did. D12 December 2019 shows 223 players, but I'm not on it. Who else is missing? What I do regret is the lack of involvement on the fora. How many of those newly joined take any part in it. Have a great New Year all.

My friends and I found this website one day in our coding class because we were bored of the material being taught and wanted to play some Risk. Ever since then, I have been extremely addicted to this site and honestly think word has been spread throughout my friend group about how awesome it truly is. I got some of my friends to join, but didn't take advantage of the referral reward program. I have been having so much fun. Please never let this die! Long live D12!

@dersonjared, Send me a message telling me who your friends are and I'll give you the tokens you would have received through the referral rewards program. Thanks for enjoying the site and welcome!

Oh goodness. Thank you so much! The names of my friends: -Jonesy -20hopjam -Tinsterz -MizzieImposibru

I think it's because of Trump. The U.S. economy's getting better. People are going to work and have less time playing games. Jokes aside, from my experience playing games on other platforms and my own ideas, here are some suggestions: - Quick games: include turn length options for 1 minute and 2 minute - Play by rank: allow room entry based on your rank so people play with their own level, but also allow free for all room so people can play with whomever regardless of rank - Phone app version: convenient play; most people have a phone nowadays and play games on their phones to and from work I am not saying that the ideas for other games will work the same for this game, but just sharing some ideas.

i think i am amzing and the site has become better, cuz i am playing here. no other improvements needed; my presence makes this site perfectly perfect

...And humble. Hey Alex!!!.