Feral Heart
Game & Forum Discussion => Game Discussion => Topic started by: SpicyDirt on March 26, 2020, 02:17:54 pm
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With recent happenings, we are now seeing an influx of users. Oddonelynx brought this up in a recent thread "FeralHeart Has A Lot More Players On, What's Up?" (https://feral-heart.com/smf/index.php?topic=67847.0). Now is the time that we start taking FeralHeart and pushing it out to reach more of the public while also changing a few things.
In the past few weeks we have seen a ton of players either joining or returning to the forums/game. Often times they are posting in the Introductions board for everyone to see, which is an awesome idea that we should be promoting more. With these new introductions we should be making a big deal whenever someone joins. If someone feels like they are wanted and welcome in a community then they are more willing to come back again and again in the future. Just by having a ton of people saying "welcome to the game!" we could greatly increase our daily player count and keep it high. This is why you see restaurants with their sayings as soon as you come through the door, or stores where the shop owners will come out and chat with you for a while - it is psychology getting people to stay.
We also should be focusing on becoming more of a community. With recent things going down on the forums, I won't be too specific with what they are, our community has become somewhat split. It is understandable to why each "side" feels the way they do, but we should be coming together to work things out! This community has been so close in the past and that is what kept this game going. Without the community, we wouldn't have this game. A great way to start changing the community would be to really support one another! While you may have different viewpoints, you both could still have the same interests, or have been in the same roleplay group, or something. Community is what keeps this game alive, in my opinion, so we should start coming together and being a positive community.
With the positive community that will also boost the amount of players. The new ones will stay and the old members will return. But with the influx and community, we still must promote ourselves. Now is a critical time to spread the word about FeralHeart. People are home with nothing to do, so they are more willing to try new things. So tell your friends! Maybe you'll have a few friends who are interested and who want to join in! Also, now is when we should be posting and promoting our Instagram and our YouTube page more! As faewyn said in a post titled "FH Video Ad? Also FH Youtube channel" (https://feral-heart.com/smf/index.php?topic=67720.0), it would be really awesome if we used the YouTube channel as a community spotlight! Also, just as faewyn said, a FeralHeart "Ad" that is posted to the channel that lets players know what the game is and such would be super beneficial!
Now this may upset a few people, and for that I do apologize, but the Discord channel, in my opinion, should be tweaked a tad. The forums are what keeps this game alive financially. We need the boards to pay for the server. With that, I do think that the Discord should be optimized to "force" users to use the boards. One good way to do so would be to remove a channel or two. It doesn't take a lot, but we really do need people to use the forums more than the Discord. In my opinion, the game matters way more than the Discord.
So going back to the title, "Now Is The Time..." now is the time to come together, now is the time to promote our game, now is the time to welcome new and old members, now is the time to give the forum and the Discord a "facelift," now is the time to take action to keep this game going.
I believe I've gotten everything I wish to say off my chest with this post. If I have more to add it will be added.
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I agree! I just bought a new laptop because I missed the game so much, and what better time to map make then when in quarantine!
I think we should consider promoting ourselves in other roleplaying communities as well! We have such an open sandbox of creative options in this game that I think are slept on, and we know calming and creative is on the rise right now! (Think animal crossing.) If we promote ourselves in furry/animal based roleplay communities, I'm sure we will see some new members interested in joining. I myself would love to see this game blossom into what it used to be. We truly had such a beautiful and creative community. I've been on this game since 2012, and I know a few friends of mine who miss the nostalgia too.
Change starts with us guys. I know the staff may be swamped with real life issues, and I understand. But let the community help you. If you can't pass down the responsibilities entirely, share them. It makes my heart happy to see there's people coming back and looking for the community that FeralHeart used to be. If there's any way to help the staff in rebooting this game, I am here to help!
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I want to take a moment to address the Discord, because I think you're missing something.
Discord advertising is banned. If you share a link to a server on this forum or in game, it will be promptly removed and marked as a "banned site". This has been already addressed by staff.
I can't help but feel you're referring to FN, to which I am an assistance on and I've been around since this summer.
I want to make this distinction clear for future reference, Feral Neighborhood is not the official discord server. It was made by former staff and players of the game some time ago, and it's just grown a lot over the last year or so, considering it is an outlet to get current information from the staff we have on there or developers. I don't think there is really much to change to encourage forum usage and I don't see it as our place to do so either.
If there were an official discord for FH, then I think that would be appropriate and it would make sense. But alas, we are not official and we do not advertise that being the case. Things are fairly well-established in FN, and now with 700 users, I don't see it really necessary to downsize channels or do a 'glow-up', especially consider some other projects have been unleashed.
I understand where you are coming, Discord can be more convenient than a forum, which takes away activity from in-game and out of game to applications, such as Discord. But I think it's a matter of adapting to the changing times rather than to reject them outright.
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I see your side Birdie, and I know it isn't official. I spent a day or two on there (I'm not generally a fan of Discord) and I was just thinking that it should try to get the users to use the forums a bit. An example being the game questions or something. Honestly, it is faster on Discord, but again to me the game is a lot more important.
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I agree with the idea of using YT and stuff to create interest. (if the server stops having that weird new problem it gained in the last 24 hours, it might just work!)
I feel like players would be retained through,
A: people engaging with them (i've done this, seems to help)
B: If the people out the mod-able / creativity side of things they gain a new appreciation for what they can do. (feature that in videos on YT maybe?)
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Couldn't have said it any better! I agree!
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I agree with Birdie, Discord helps out more members with the current news and what's going ons that this forum. Sure it would be nice to get more people on the forum and interested in the game, but I honestly just don't see a ton of potential. With the current situation, not many people can get in game right now, so ads and promotion at the moment probably aren't a good idea. I personally have not seen a major influx of new people, I check the forums daily and every now and then there is a Introduction post. I think FH is just going to stay at this stand still until something new comes along. Would be great to have more players, but with no known updates in the near future, I just don't know, man.
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Now, I didn't think I'd end up typing to this, but I'm going to mainly because I've seen this repeated millions of times.
For one, I agree there should be more advertising to the game, but I don't think anyone is facing the reality of the situation. It doesn't look like Raz will be making any changes to the FORUM or the GAME. There was a time many months ago where myself and Raz worked briefly on a project to build a new forum for Feral Heart players on Wordpress, because let's face it.
This forum? It's more outdated than the dirt in my shoes.
Unless this forum got an upgrade like it would've had (before our project came to a screeching halt), many players aren't going to be that attracted to coming here. The forums are old, and their only current use right now is to play the game or archive threads and create tutorials and submit maps and enter contests. If the game got frequent updates, I could see the forums being used quite a lot while using discord on the site. But.
This is not Discord's fault, and will not be my discord server's fault. The only reason FN, which I assume is what you are referring to, is gaining people seeking help is:
1. A lot of people don't get quick help on the forums, and my discord is optimized to take reports via tickets for the MIT's or other staff for quicker responses.
2. You do not get quick or fast updates on the forums anymore, and this discord server is able to respond quickly for updates and news if necessary.
3. A majority of the community FH has lost over the years is mostly present on Discord. Leaving people to talk and interact quickly while the game faces issues or server problems.
Until FH actually makes a few changes in game and over the forums, people will continue to use discord. We cannot force people of the community to do anything, because morally, that would just be wrong either way. I have never once agreed with having anyone force a community to be guided a certain way, because that sort of mindset is immediately how you lose a playerbase. The discord you refer to is not official anyways, and I have already linked and guided many community members to the forums to get their news if it is necessary.
The game is a lot more important. You're right.
But to be quite frank with you, this game is at a standstill and at the moment, isn't functioning and a server master unwilling to help it right now. Perhaps instead of directing our attention to the community, we should be directing our attention to a bigger source of the problem.
People cannot and will not play a game that's not functioning and hasn't changed in ages.
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(https://i.imgur.com/UvshgVy.jpg)
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I have to agree with Cal and Wolfdog with what's being said.
While FH has been able to withstand a lot over the 9 years but there is only so much it can further stand. The forum + FH have aged greatly, some have a harder time finding things because it can be such a jungle (heck even I do, and I've been a part of the community for 6 years). But it's in desperate need of an update. Same with FH, the game is still on the same version of ogre that LKD left it on back in 2013 or so.
And I'm not at all suggesting that updates are 'easy', and can be pulled out of a magic hat like a rabbit. No, but there has been things planned over the last year or so that unfortunately may not come to light for one reason or another. But this isn't about that, this is in relation to keeping a community happy.
There is a reason why FN has so many people, Cal spelled it out far better than I could. If there was more going on in the game, like so many years ago, then I wouldn't doubt that the forum would be booming with activity. But the truth is, there isn't much going on with FH. There's events and parties which bring people on, but unfortunately other than the seasonal parties they don't happen as consistently. I think the user-hosted parties are great and it has proven some good results, but I don't know if it's enough.
And this isn't really even anyone's fault nor am I pointing fingers. It's just the reality of the situation, FH is getting up there in years and it's gained the known reputation of not having any updates, even now with the source code, the head developer has left. Unless something changes suddenly and really soon, I don't think FH has a lot left in it. And I'm not being a 'downer' or seeing only the negative. I'm being realistic.
The game is important, but you know, so is the community. And I don't think the community will really go away, even if they don't get on the game as much as they use to and just stay within the Discord. I think keeping them together is important in this rather hopeless situation.
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I do understand where you both are coming from (this was typed before the issues right now) and I can understand why you're more for Discord than you are the forums. But please do remember that this is opinion based. I put the word force in quotation marks because that isn't the word that I wanted to use, but it was similar. The way that I am using force is more of push, so I do apologize for that mixup. I know that Raz isn't the best, and to be honest, there isn't really anyone who could fill his shoes right now. I am trying to think of the future of this game and how we can keep it alive.
I feel like a lot of people are letting their views of Raz effect this game. Yeah, he is MIA right now, but I have said it before and I will say it again, he still does care at least somewhat for this game or else he would've shut us down by now.
The Discord is an okay way to keep people involved, and I guess that I am letting my personal views of Discord (the software itself) get in the way here. I am 100% not a fan of the whole Discord software (not the server), which is why I stay clear of many of the servers unless I own them myself, which even then I get sick of.
I stick with my views in my original post, but I do understand your views.
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echo - Discord
at the end of the day, this does not really matter one way or the other. people will use discord, and people will use the game. c:
echo - It's more outdated than the dirt in my shoes.
that was really funny and very true, good one. xD
echo - he still does care at least somewhat for this game or else he would've shut us down by now.
this is true.
I think a few youtube vids would be a healthy thing.
Anyone know Lenny the Lion? That guy's awesome. Kudos to ya Lenny!
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Anyone know Lenny the Lion? That guy's awesome. Kudos to ya Lenny!
Omg! I love his videos!
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Since the focus of this topic has turned to Discord, I thought I'd add in a bit that I'd like to say about it.
I don't blame Discord for the downfall of the game. There are several factors and events that led to FeralHeart's downfall.
Discord did play a significant role in the death of the game chats but it was an inevitable loss that the game has faced. It was a culture change the game hadn't seen before but because the platform is so versatile and accessible, it's no wonder people flocked to it.
I'm saddened that Discord had the effect that it did but it's not something we can prevent or do anything about.
Times have changed. And unfortunately FeralHeart hasn't. It's just the reality of it.
Regardless, we still need to encourage forum usage as that is what helps keep the game up. Thank you to everyone who still takes the time to come on the forums! It means a lot.
The YouTube:
I am the main contributor to the YouTube channel as of now. Video ads for the game have always been in the back of my mind. I enjoy video editing immensely. I just sadly have not had the time to sit down and make the videos for the channel I would have liked to.
Staff have considered making a video contest for the YouTube. Users make an advertisement for the channel and the winner of the contest gets their ad posted. (Something along those lines was the idea ^^) When I get more time I will have a discussion with the others and we'll see about making the video ad contest a definite yes since it seems to be a really popular suggestion for means of advertising. And what better way to advertise than to utilize the talents of passionate creators who love the game?
Thank you for posting, Spicy!