A couple questions about the 3 separate "expansions" for TM2

[Bramble]

I agree with everything Eyebo and Rom said. I believe it's at crisis point, and I fear it might already be too late. I fear my TM motivation is almost gone, with problems meaning I can't play TM2 Stad / Valley, and just the general state of the community.

[andrus]

well what edk said might be the only way to increase number of players to such amount that the game is playable again

[Alter-Fox]

The reason the game is losing players fast, is lack of good steering wheel and pedal support, and no true force feedback. See this thread:

http://forum.maniaplanet.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=14591

Hehe... maybe if you hadn't started the thread that you linked to your post would have some credibility. Nice try but no rabbit, weasel. Or is there somebody else called weasel? I think there is...
I think my point of view is different from everybody else in this thread because I prefer servers with less than ten players... so I'll just shut up. I am all for having more players playing the game. And more mappers building more tracks. And more people getting more medals than me in solo mode, and playing offline.
But not everybody is going to do all of those things. And if all anybody did was play online, we'd have a few hundred maps instead of a few billion and this wouldn't be Trackmania. That is all.

[Pedal]

I think my point of view is different from everybody else in this thread because I prefer servers with less than ten players... so I'll just shut up.

You must be loving the current amount of online-players then

And if all anybody did was play online, we'd have a few hundred maps instead of a few billion and this wouldn't be Trackmania. That is all.

I dissagree to this statement. I strongly Believe that more online-players will inspire more user-based content as they then create for more people. The less players, less stuff is created as "no-one" will experience their stuff. By saying this i mean no offense and appreciate the work these people do and their their time off-line, but for me and many others going online to race with as many others as possible is what makes Trackmania.

[jojoba007]

I dissagree to this statement. I strongly Believe that more online-players will inspire more user-based content as they then create for more people. The less players, less stuff is created as "no-one" will experience their stuff. By saying this i mean no offense and appreciate the work these people do and their their time off-line, but for me and many others going online to race with as many others as possible is what makes Trackmania.

Bingo !!

[Demented]

Most people do base the success of TM by online play. Not me. I know I'm one of the few here, but I almost never play online.
I think one of the biggest reasons for low numbers of players is lack of promotion. Almost no one where I live has ever heard of Trackmania and it's been around for nearly 10 years.

[w1lla]

Most people do base the success of TM by online play. Not me. I know I'm one of the few here, but I almost never play online.
I think one of the biggest reasons for low numbers of players is lack of promotion. Almost no one where I live has ever heard of Trackmania and it's been around for nearly 10 years.

Quite true. But showing videos the seem to be interested but in the end it all comes to keeping people interested in it.

[Alter-Fox]

Yes. I said a few years ago I'd love to see commercials for TM2 on TV and I'm still waiting. With ubisoft as a publisher it really shouldn't be a problem. I see commercials for that other ubisoft franchise all the time .

Lol @ people. I do completely agree with you. All I said was "if nobody made maps, there would be no maps made", to try to remind you that time spent making maps is not time spent playing online. If I knew you'd argue with a tautology I'd have done this years ago .

[Romain42]

Anyway, both are often linked. If you have lots of active buddies, you'll be more likely to create maps for them. If not, you can still create for yourself and play them in solo mode, but it's less thrilling and it hardly lasts years...

Like you, i prefer to play on small servers (from 8 to 16-20 players, but not over). But on valley, basically, it's often hard to find such servers. Almost all players gather on a unique server, and you hardly find one or two guys on other servers. Furthermore, the community is not anymore big enough to provide several 10-players servers with gamers.

There is also a vicious circle: launching maniaplanet, seing no buddy online, shutting down the game and switching to something else. Missing the buddy that connects few moments later...

[Bramble]

Exactly, it's the loading up the multiplayer mode and not seeing many players, so people will just close the game and play something else. It's a massive motivation killer if you just bought the game but then there aren't many people to play it with.

Sure, there are all the offline aspects of the game, but not everyone is interested in those, at least indefinitely.