Thank you all for sharing your thoughts about this.
With out a doubt there's a number of things that could indeed be contributing to this notion that the game is "dying"
Change is one of those biggest things...
I think Kynvuu brought up an interesting point as well in that:
I think they also seem to forget that the people playing FH here in 2017 aren't exactly the same people that were playing back in 2011.
A few years can really change a person and within these years that have passed a number of the original population have aged considerably and moved into new chapters of their lives (be it elementary school to high school, college, and or career etc) No one is expected to stay the same and always come back to Feral Heart always. Some of us linger around longer than others but truth be told that at some point we all go our own ways and move on.
I do believe that this is what happened to the majority of the old users. Once the community patch came it also makes sense that some of the last remaining old users left because there was nothing much left of their old times to hang on to (if that makes any sense). For some nostalgia plays a huge role in sticking around and coming back.
On the other hand, when you read into it more, is it honestly that good that the FH popularity hasn't increased much since 2011/2012 as you so proved? I am aware that people leave, and people come to 'replace' the hole of those who do leave, but why are people saying Feral Heart isn't as 'great' as it used to be?
While it's not great that its popularity hasn't increased much since 2011/2012 it is good to see that the population of users is at least steady and stable. I would be more concerned if the population was drastically falling while not gaining any new members because then in that case we can safely assume that the community is dying. However for a game that was abandoned by its creator with no hope of a source code, hasn't been truly updated or fixed and has encountered so many issues now with extra log in screens etc, it's quite the notable feat to see it still surviving without much of a dent in overall average user flow.
As for people saying it isn't as great as it used to be, nothing much has truly changed since 2011/2012. I believe it's that most know that the creator left and left us without a source code and so it means there's no chance for anything more than what we already have. That childish imagination for fun new potential content is dead. I will admit that back in early 2012 that was a reason why I initially quit. I've had the unfortunate luck of being a part of so called "doomed" communities which were abandoned by their creator, so I only imagined the same fate for Feral Heart... however I returned later that year because there was something different about this community. Unlike these other communities Feral Heart has a staff team that still makes themselves available to the community for both leisure & assistance. Feral Heart also still has an active server master managing the site and game... these are thing that those other communities lacked and so give Feral Heart an advantage.
As long as the server is running and staff are around to maintain the game I don't see it as ever dying. People may go but there will always be new "blood" to fill their place. If anything FH is just stable, and sure it may not be as exciting as people gushing in, it's better than the game dying.
Don't get me wrong, it's lovely to see that Movie Nights are still being held, and that lovely 'official' Feral Heart events are still about such as; staff hosted parties, MOTS, preset contests and contests outside of Feral Heart. But you must agree that you don't see people turning up and involving themselves as much as they used to before? Or maybe how the number of users including themselves in these events aren't increasing?
It's understandable that after years of hosting particular contests some contests may lose some popularity. I can genuinely say that the only place I see this as an issue is the seasonal Preset Contest. This year has seen a bit less submissions. There is still great interest but less people actually submitting. For this reason myself and the other fellow staff tried doing something a little different for the Autumn Preset Contest by asking the community to vote on a theme. The voting went well however even after a theme was selected by the majority of voters there was still a lack of substantial submissions. In this case I believe there's more to do with the fact that our rewards system is a bit broken due to the site still needing updates and fixes on the old badge/awards section. Currently the preset contest allows for 3 winners but only the 1st Place Winner gets a tangible prize... which at this time may feel a bit lacking for contestants. This however is something that the entire staff team is and has been aware of and are currently working on fixing. In the meantime the staff has discussed pushing back preset contests in place of a new fresher contest (of which we will not disclose yet since we'd much like to surprise the community).
Point is though that the staff isn't blind. We can see trends and we do pay close attention to what the community is telling us be it through straight forward criticism or subtle changes in behavior. The users on the staff team wouldn't be a part of the team if they didn't care enough to pay such close attention to the community's wants or needs.
Another thing to take into account is that we are very limited on active staff. In the past things were easier when we had more staff who could manage all the FH media from DA to Tumblr etc and effectively advertise such events both on sites and in game. A small team can only manage so much. While the amount of people joining events or contests isn't booming, like the game, it's stable. While we have enough interest to show that people still care, we will continue to do our very best to deliver on those things faithfully.
However, I am online in-game almost every day for reasons. I see more complaints about how people do not like the changes than people who do. Sure, not everyone will like the same thing, and it's possible that you and others might only see them as ungrateful. But have you taken notice on how a lot of users are dropping Feral Heart because they're not happy any more? Instead of telling people most of the time how Staff had put a lot of time and effort into the patch, as soon as they say that they understand that, I just ask them what they want to see and what changes they do not like. Now, I'm not saying focus your future ideas based on those who don't like the changes very much, but to maybe listen and learn.
I agree with you 100% on this.
However, keep in mind that when the patch was made we had no way of knowing how it would be received. We all knew we had the best intentions and we all tried to imagine what users may think but in the end it was a learning experience. This initial community patch was just the beginning of future planned patches. By no means is this patch the solid fate of the FH public maps. When the team worked on these maps there were a lot of things discussed, you should know yourself that not all of the staff agreed to certain aspects of these maps. Just because we are all on a single team doesn't mean we all think the same and agree upon something. In the end certain individuals finalized the patch maps and their overall design, most often the designs were for practicality and to improve game performance.
Those left on the current team pay close attention to the community's wants and needs... and we have taken note of many things. We plan to make better upon what we've learned from this experience I guarantee you that.
The community will have a part in the next community patch. All the threads and complaints haven't fallen on deaf ears.
How about public advertising? Maybe FH could have it's own YouTube Channel? A place where you can post an advertisement of Feral-Heart, maybe update the main FH game advertisement each patch. It would sure grab a lot of gamer attention out there. A lot of games have their own YouTube Channel. This Shouldn't be a palce for sillyness, but a place for professionally made videos. Maybe release teasers of what's to come game wise. No voices, but some sweet music from the game, as well as text. A lot of games have high quality mics and recording stuffs, paid voices etc.. so it'd be wise not to use voice. Could end up sounding trashy. If you even wanted, upload Podcasts that you record. This would allow users to get to know you more, trust you more. Make a playlist on that channel, even, called 'podcasts'. Maybe name each one "Feral Heart Staff Podcast - Staff Member 1, Staff Member 2, Staff Member 3... and so on. Take advantage of other game forums if they permit advertisements for other games. Try to increase the popularity instead of settling with what users you have registered?
I distinctly spoke to Red about that sometime during our many random calls or chats. In this day and age of social media a Feral Heart Official YouTube would be wonderful.
The only problem is management and time. We have a small team already pouring itself over on DA, Tumblr, the FH forum, and game. If something like this was to even be made we'd need to first have everything else settled from site work etc. Yes a Feral Heart YouTube would be fun and great for advertising, but as of right now, with out limited team we are trying to focus on priorities.
Again thank you all for the feedback
Morgra those grafts are wonderful! Thank you for taking the time to put all that together. I'm sorry if I haven't responded to every point made...
There's just so much that can be said.
