questions

I played this in its beta and on bots2 blue and green. so i have to ask What happened to the community? i remember 90+ people being on here at all times.

Well the game is shit so thats stopped people coming back

Ender being inactive and lacking the updates he said we would have also stopped people from wanting to play as he as turned into flor

i dont ever remember there being 90+ people playing at a time, at least on bots4

Bots2 had 90+ but bots4 already has more features than i ever remember being on bots2 i just miss the community of it all... people getting pissed cause i attacked them online raping actual players of a clan etc...

Graphics happened :)

But ya, I remember in the early bots2 days you would have to wait hours to even log on. There was a 150 bot limit and stars guaranteed you a log in. Mind you it was a bit more of a wild west as people would go on 20 bots at once to clog up the system and prevent their enemies from logging in (to a degree, the big clans all had stars anyway).

This was all at a time when Diablo 2 was big also. Bots2 and Bots4 are ripoffs of Diablo 2. Most of the weapons and armours are from the game. The str, dex, and con stuff was from it. The big difference was clans and clan score. So people would easily find the game from Diablo 2. Plus floR was actually alive and talked to people in chat. Now that the Diablo 2 movement is gone and people want 60 fps 1080p Destiny kind of games, I don't see how bots would attract that many new people anymore.

nice history lesson

advertise it as something to play at work when your boss aint looking thats what i do...

and people need a bit more of an explanation of how to play and get started. im fine but im not there with the new player to teach him...

Destiny kind of games, I don't see how bots would attract that many new people anymore.

B..but.. both take tons of grinding!

Yeah, there's been a slow decline in activity over the years. A glanced over the game's Google Analytics data:

• Start of open beta (March 2011) - 10k sessions per week
• End of open beta (June 2011) - 3-4k sessions per week
• Start of official release (July 2011) - 8-9k sessions per week
• End of 2012 - 2-3k sessions per week
• End of 2013 - 2k sessions per week
• End of 2014 - 1.5k sessions per week

I think the main two things preventing the game from growing are:

1. Relatively high bar of entry - Between the registration process and actually learning how to play, it takes a lot to get into the game.
2. Lack of advertising - I've spent a decent amount of money on ads, but it hasn't been very effective (see point 1).

I've been kicking around some ideas to address point 1 for awhile. Once those are in place, it'll be easier to justify spending money to address point 2.

probably not the place for this but a guided tutorial after your registration would be good. one you have to finish to start PVP/PVE play.

Yep, a more easy flow to start playing right away (perhaps without registering) and more hand-holding at the start with some sort of guided help would likely help new player conversion/retention quite a bit.

Relatively high bar of entry - Between the registration process and actually learning how to play, it takes a lot to get into the game.

Lack of advertising - I've spent a decent amount of money on ads, but it hasn't been very effective (see point 1).

The weird thing is that bots2 had the same high bar, in fact it was much higher since there was no buffs. I had no idea how to play competently for around a year after I started. I even built a level 133 bot on blue with bloody brain hammers and the only thing that got me to 133 was the fact I spent like 10 hours a day playing and people were around to talk to. But there's no denying that games have a much lower barrier to entry now than they used to. A Facebook/Twitter signin would do wonders probably.

As for advertising, ya, it's not really necessary right now. When it's as easy to register and play for 5 minutes as say a mobile game you can log in through Facebook/Twitter then you'll probably find a use in advertising. People have so little patience, including myself :P

Facebook and twitter sign in!! that would giive the game all the ads it needs...