Forum Silence

[yourlocalcrow]

Hey guys! We've got an issue with the community: it's silent.

"No it isn't, people are still posting!" you might be saying. Yes, but barely. The last post in either discussion board was ten days ago-- halfway to the point when you get the little red warning. That's the place where the community is free to talk about anything relating to the game, and it's gone dead. The only places I see people actively posting are the forum games, help threads, and Introductions. Not to mention that no one has entered the preset contest except me! Where'd everyone go?

Don't get me wrong, I love this community, but I think it's fair to say that something's got to change. With major people such as Preach having left, I think we as a community need to up our game. With so little participation on the forums, and the only Introductions being members returning, I believe that if we don't get our $#!% together, this game may die within the next few years. It may sound harsh, but that's how I see this game going.

So, what can we do to one-up ourselves and keep this game going? Well, it's simple: post more. I know, shocking, right? Now, I don't mean spam us with the forum games. I'm saying get involved with discussion threads like this one. Get a conversation going. If I may, I shall propose this: If you fully read a thread, reply with some sort of comment. Say the thread was someone sharing a preset, give them feedback. (Us preset creators LOVE feedback!) Don't just say, "Nice topic," as that adds nothing to the conversation. It's like just walking up to someone who presented, and saying "Cool." They put time into it, and just "Cool" or "Nice" aren't going to help us at all. If everyone can reply to one thing a day, or make a thread, do something for this community and post it here, I think we can get this game off it's crutches and walking again. It may never be up and running like in 2011 and 2012, but we can certainly try. But if we let this game fall down, end up in a wheelchair and do nothing to help, it's sad and we don't like to think about it, but it will die.

So, if you have made it all the way through my rant, please reply to the thread with your thoughts on this! Do you think that this game is dying? And don't give me that cliche "As long as people are playing, this game isn't dead." The forum is a huge part of the game, and if we lose the forum community, we lose the game community. Do you guys have any suggestions on how we can get this forum lively and bustling again?

[ArcticGalaxy]

In my opinion, I honestly think the only thing that will bring this game back is registration being open again. However that isn't happening at this very moment. But maybe some of the people that are newer to the forums just don't know where to start? I don't really know. But I too have noticed the lack of activity on the forums and it would be nice to figure something out to get this place running again.

Maybe as I already mentioned, it will just take registration opening and new blood coming to FH to get us out of this hole?

[Kynvuu]

Just a tip of advice, but you may want to exclude any profane language in your post, even if it is masked by symbols. It will do you a great deal more when trying to argue your point, and steer ya clear of some run-ins with the rules. c:

To address your point however, I can see how you could observe a gradual decrease in posting around here. A lot of the users here are young adults and teenagers who still have a great deal of school to go through as well as work and other obligations, which may contribute to the infrequent posting. There seems to be highs and lows of posts coming in at different times of the days too, which would validate that reason. We're all living, breathing humans behind the computer screen, so there's a lot more to "Hey you, be active!" than it seems.

First of all, telling the general public to simply be active won't really solve anything. No matter how much you request of people, you can't really tell them they have to log on and post more, that's all their own choice in the end. Some people are shy of posting, others don't like the forms, etc. There are many reasons why a user might chose not to post on the forums. If you really want people to post, then you have to give them a reason to instead of saying "be active". For example, post something that interests people and is different from what we see on this site, and people might start paying attention. An example of this might be: "Hey guys, I'm holding a never before seen comic book convention in the grounds today! Dress up as your favorite character!" Or post a discussion thread that is unique. We've all seen the "How did you come up with your character" thread somewhere in some shape or form, so be unique and think of something outside of the box.

The slow posting that the forums have encountered won't be the death of this game either. The forums are a separate entity from the game and have no influence on the amount of users in game. Just because people chose the game over the forums does not constitute the ending of the game. Also, the site is under maintenance, which could temporarily be deterring users from using the forums until they are all fixed up.

[Morgra]

I agree with Kynvuu and you on this one. I like where you're going with this, because I can see that the forums aren't as active, but I don't think it's dying. A lot of it has to do with the problems they've been experiencing with the site and needing to work on things. Once registration is able to open back up, I'm sure it will change. In fact, I know it will. I don't necessarily think the game will die if the forums aren't as active. There are a lot of members who I see ingame that I've never seen on the forums.

You've come with some very valid points, I like what you're saying here. It's just difficult to do in some situations. I've thought about a few discussion topics here and there but sometimes I find that it may not be relevant or I find some flaw in my ideas (that's a me problem xD) and simply don't post them. There could very well be other people like me out there. Or, it's difficult to think of fresh ideas. There are thousands of topics to think of, but it's sometimes hard for people to come up with them. But once we do find new creative thinkers, or our existing members come up with topics the forums will thrive again.

[Reaper]

I don't think the game is dying. I think it is just people are really busy with school and work or other important stuff that can limit their time on the game and forums. Also I think some people just don't have the time to play anymore or got bored of the game and started to quit. Another reason could be that they aren't happy with the forum changes. I do agree that the forum is a little inactive, but hopefully that change sooner or later. Maybe once the site work is finished then a lot of new people will join the forums and participate in threads. If you want to attract new members to the forums maybe tell them about the fun events, and contest that the community holds. That might attract a lot of members. But as of right now we will have to be patient, and hope for the best.

[RisingDemise]

I might be shot down when I say this, but honestly, it's because FeralHeart is a very obscure game loved only by a certain following, and when things get removed(The original maps with an easy layout to remember and lots of RP space without it being so enclosed and confusing, General Chat, etc) especially things that are NEEDED for a game to exist like, as I said before, General Chat and a more open registration, people are going to leave. People leave other MMOs for less. General chat and user registration shouldn't that strongly effect the server. An MMOs server or even a social game like this one is optimized to be able to withstand the pressure of so many people registering at once. People joining is never a bad thing. Most of people I've met refuse to join this game just because of the registration being closed ALL the time. You can't restrict registration like that, it doesn't let a game grow. General chat or any kind of world chat is also needed for a game to survive because you need a better method of advertisement. It's just sad to force people to use "Move Maker" which isn't really even finished to begin with. Sure, they kept it for private maps, but with the rate at which all my old friends left this game because of these problems why can't we just learn from our mistakes? I honestly think it's too late for FeralHeart to regain its footing. It was fun a long time ago, but the fun has ended and it isn't coming back. There's no point in making groups anymore. There's no one to join them. There's no point in making maps, there's no one to play in them. If you really want a game like this to live, step up and do it yourself. Learn, and perhaps one day another game like this will come, better and actually finished.

[Kuri]

i noticed it's a bit quiet but that's probably partly due to reg' being closed so much, and partly because people are busy, and partly because there hasn't been that much to post about.  If a few brilliant minds can create something that inspires others to create something, then people will post that stuff and others might read it.  Then things might get lively.

[yourlocalcrow]

It seems that some people are a bit confused. I'm not trying to just yell into an abyss, telling people who aren't online to get their butts online and start posting. I'm not a dictator. I'm just asking that if you read a post, to reply to it instead of letting it collect dust! (Within reason, of course.)

[Kuri]

Will sort of do! sort of.

[Drunk]

Only reason people think to use the forums, spam the forum games to get your post count up, reply to threads asking for help and spam any new introduction threads with questions and comments that look like you pretend you care, but really you're just trying to get to be accepted as a member of the month or maybe at some point a mod because you LOOK helpful. It's not hard, but that's the only reason people use the forums and the odd content creator here and there.

Not you mention you have to be very careful with what you say and do now, you don't know what is hiding in the game rules section that you really don't know about.