ManiaPlanet needs a bigger community/playerbase

[Alexey85]

+1 for discount with the banner on Steam.
I, for one, often open and close SM just because no players on modes that I would like to play at that moment.

Edit: I think what they should do also is to invest at least a little budget into tournaments with small prizes. Make a montly online tournaments with around 300$ cash prize, with casters. It wouldn't cost a whole lot. A whole year of such tourneys would cost like two-three montly salaries of one developer. SM doesn't appeal to those who looks for effortless entertainment, it is very competitive game and it needs tourneys to keep people motivated.

[novationx]

A new environment & free? That sounds like a lot of work & it wont help mate :/. Bad idea, sorry.
How can you ask for new stuff when there is so much to do Kremsy?

I think the key is in the "powerup"! ShootMania is an awesome game and the gameplay is epic, but for me personally a lot of things outside the gameplay are just average... ( MP-portal, design, replayability, user-friendlyness, ... and the price of the game.) I think that that is the reason why a player would stop playing this game (+ because of the small playerbase. )
The game is worth 19.99 if you use all features, but who really does that?

My suggested solution is an EPIC POWERUP
I had a talk with Hylis and Im getting more & more optimistic. The game will be better after the power-up, but I dont think it will have an effect on the playerbase. We need advertisements if we want a bigger playerbase.


ADVERTISEMENT
I dont know what NADEO is doing, but I have the feeling they are counting on us, the community...
Well if this is the case then I would like to say that I cant ask my friends anymore...

I asked them when I bought the game. I asked them when the 1st demo came out. I asked them when the universal demo came out. I inform my friends when the price drops...
Its almost spam .

I play SM. All my online friends already play/have SM. How can I help with advertising? I wont/cant reach new people anymore... Is this logical? Or did I forget something?
Anyways... I think community-advertising can be a good thing, but it also has it limits.

Another thing is: It's easier to do nothing than to help advertise.
This might be pessimistic, but the world isn't perfect. I think 95% of the community is hardly doing anything to promote the game and thats okay. Its not their job.


30days add-campaign:
- Plan a price drop ( €4.99 ) during the campaign ( steam & store )
- Prepare social media coverage about the add-campaign ( news, videos, images for FB, twitter, website & YT )
- Announce the add-campaign before it starts
- Motivate current players to help advertise via referal system:
--> New players buy the game with your referalcode/link
The player with the most referals wins something. ( Motivation to promote the game )

- Spend a little bit of the budget on making frontpages/spotlights
(steam frontpage, spotlight on gaming websites)

- In cooperation with some of the biggest multigaming organisation of SM try to promote SM via their social media?
--> Free give-away of 5-10keys on the website of aAa, CPLAY, Awsomniac, ...
I cant speak for the other organisations, but I'm getting tens of thousands of views when I do give-aways on my FaceBook... 10keys for 10 000 views? Sounds like a good deal? Its win-win.

- What was the success of the 1st demo linked to the playstation4 give-away?
If it was good, NADEO should do something similar again.

After the 30-days you could do free week(ends) every 3months with the same price-drop to €4.99


PLAYERBASE
In another thread I got the impression that NADEO also wants more players, but they seem happpy with what they have now. ( +- 12000/day ) I think that this is good enough for them. They sold plenty of copies & maybe its already a success in their eyes?

As a daily player I can guarantee that it doesnt feel good when you open the server-browser and you cant play combo/joust/custom titles again without spamming/begging some friends.
The difference with TM is that you cant race all by urself & play. In SM you need to wait until there are enough players before you can play. Its not fun & games are supposed to be fun.
We need at least 3x more players to get that positive vibe back. 10x more would be a dream come true.


COMPETITION
ESL is the biggest of the biggest in ESPORTS-SCENE.
Having a GO4 for ShootMania would have a really nice effect on ShootMania.

I cant proof it of course, but I remember soooo much teams left when GO4 got cancelled. GO4 is a really big deal in the esports-scene. Maybe its smart to invest in that again? Or at least try?

Also 1x ESWC/year is not enough. Players leave 10months, reinstall the game 1month before a qualifier, go to ESWC & uninstall again. (perfect example aAa, the world champion) A 2nd medium/big event each year wouldnt be a bad idea either.

[Wabbitface]

For those interested in Paragon League:

Website: league.paragon-esports.com
New Tournament infrastructure that works with ManiaControl, cup lobby matchserver system and automated score submission. Last week we had 24 teams signed up for an elite cup, it lasted 4 hours with a double elimination bracket.
Regular Cups

• Elite - once per week
• Combo - once per week
• Siege - once per 2-weeks
• more to come...

Livestream coverage - Currently in English with myself, joshy & henny
New updates and optimisations - Paragon League is still in beta and we are throwing out updates on a weekly basis in order to improve the infrastructure and user-friendliness.
Regular Map pool updates - Map pools get updated every month with one map removed and one new in voted by the community. This we believe encourages all mappers to create maps all the time.


We are currently using the system for Shootmania at the moment and I know a lot of viewers from this topic are going to be from TM, but with this system both titles can thrive too.

Lastly I encourage everyone to help out in any way they can to further develop ParagonLeague and I like to thank those who have and are continuing to offer suggestions and feedback. Feel free to get involved on our forums and make the shootmania competitive scene better.

[oliverde8]

I don't want to go off topic, but I was rightly told not to advert for a certain controller in topics were it wasn't the issue. So I would like the same applied for others as well. The topic isn't how the Paragon League is held up, and how it is automated.

Not to stay to much off topic, I will try to give my opinion as well.

I think Nadeo has created a fantastic gaming platform but they overestimate what the community can do. They have spent to much time providing new tools for creating new content. There is so much stuff that can be customized and created. Maps are simple so a lot is already done in that field but alot more can be done.
We have quite a lot of new titles but still are only scratching the surface.
The script game modes(for TM especially) are just starting to be used properly
Controllers are just starting to use the new things that were added by Nadeo.

Nadeo has spent a lot of time in those tools thinkiing we could make the rest happen, but we just can't. They have overstrched creating such a complex sytem and they have overstreched and divided the community as well.
There is to many options for a new player, everything needs recentering around something, even the TM community is divided. I do like to play some RPG but to do so I need to install tiitle pack, I want to play platform I need a title. Everything is to far appart.
If there was 10 times 100 times more players it would be worth it but at the moment it enforces the impression that there isn't enought players.

Nadeo needs to concentrate on players & documentation and stop concentrating on creativity.

[novationx]

the difference is that this thread is made by Paragon admins + they spefically mention it in their first post + they explain that they are trying to improve the playerbase...

What u do is totally different. U randomly come in & start talking about expansion as if your GIANT signature isnt already enough So its not the same!

Also , I dont mind what you did because u were trying to help <3.

[dakky21]

I'm new around, but been playing TMN since 2007... Anyway, the biggest problem is the free or non free game, in TM2 you get hour an a half each day, instead of "play as much as you want" like it was in the TMN days...... I played for hours... Give the people microtransactions and in-game purchases, but keep the original game free. That will grow the player-base and community, and when you are on solid 20k members then you can think about implementing paying or subscription. Registered only for this, good luck, I played TM2 last few days but today was my last one. Don't have time to spend on the game which insist to pay for it. I will pay for the game if it has solid player base, but not for the game where I can't find a server to play.

[haenry]

Give the people microtransactions and in-game purchases, but keep the original game free. That will grow the player-base and community, and when you are on solid 20k members then you can think about implementing paying or subscription.

No way. This is never ever going to happen

[TheM]

Give the people microtransactions and in-game purchases, but keep the original game free. That will grow the player-base and community, and when you are on solid 20k members then you can think about implementing paying or subscription.

No way. This is never ever going to happen

That would become the death of ManiaPlanet...
In my eyes microtransactions and in-game purchases are the worst invention in gaming.
Of course, others might think differently, but I think many people in the community will dislike this idea.