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How do you keep player retention?
Hello,
We recently opened up a server about a month ago. We have an adventure server (focused on action) with a story, guns, an MP3 player, and hundreds of NPCs to interact with/fight against alongside a large open world city. We've advertised on multiple sites, from Discord Servers, Reddit, to many voting sites and forums. Despite this, not many join, and most of those who do join only stay on for a few minutes before leaving. After a month, we still don't really have a community. Many people joined the Discord, only to never interact with the Discord after they do join and never join the server again. Even if we @ everyone in announcements or contact them via DM, we get no reply (but they don't leave the Discord Server).
Many players do a few missions/quests and just leave, and many don't know what to do despite multiple instructions, guidance and help we've given them (almost like we have to hold people's hands). Some can't even do something as simple as accepting missions or following a specific path despite instructions. There has to be something wrong we're doing. Maybe its how we're giving the instructions, or we're not clear enough. Maybe it's the server's gameplay. We don't really know.
Can some people please review the server and tell us what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong? Especially comment on if you are confused/lost on what to do. What do you do to hook in players and have them come back on?
The ip is Jak2.hosting.ethera.netJak2.hosting.ethera.netJak2.hosting.ethera.net
If needed, our discord is https://discord.gg/qBc5Q5YXJT
We recently opened up a server about a month ago. We have an adventure server (focused on action) with a story, guns, an MP3 player, and hundreds of NPCs to interact with/fight against alongside a large open world city. We've advertised on multiple sites, from Discord Servers, Reddit, to many voting sites and forums. Despite this, not many join, and most of those who do join only stay on for a few minutes before leaving. After a month, we still don't really have a community. Many people joined the Discord, only to never interact with the Discord after they do join and never join the server again. Even if we @ everyone in announcements or contact them via DM, we get no reply (but they don't leave the Discord Server).
Many players do a few missions/quests and just leave, and many don't know what to do despite multiple instructions, guidance and help we've given them (almost like we have to hold people's hands). Some can't even do something as simple as accepting missions or following a specific path despite instructions. There has to be something wrong we're doing. Maybe its how we're giving the instructions, or we're not clear enough. Maybe it's the server's gameplay. We don't really know.
Can some people please review the server and tell us what we are doing right and what we are doing wrong? Especially comment on if you are confused/lost on what to do. What do you do to hook in players and have them come back on?
The ip is Jak2.hosting.ethera.netJak2.hosting.ethera.netJak2.hosting.ethera.net
If needed, our discord is https://discord.gg/qBc5Q5YXJT
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I do not know much about the Jak game series so this perspective is from a player with no context to the goings-on of the going-onsing.
That would likely be a starting point for why some players likely aren't being retained, since you're already unlikely to get some activity from fans of that game (you know... cause they got the game.) and new players like me are looking at this and thinking, "What the crap am I s'posed to do against these guys? I don't get any weapons until the fifth mission and I don't have enough dark rage stuff to run some fancy attacks!"
I agree with Isz's points about the unpolished experience (and possibly updating beyond 1.12.2 if the plugins will allow it, this version is really only good for Forge modding nowadays.)
In the server's defense if I had read one of your advertisements first before jumping in I'd have at least known this server was based off of a PS2 game (though again, not knowing about the series itself means it wouldn't have helped me in particular anyways) but if all this server has to offer is a fan-curated reimagining of a game old enough to buy itself some beer, I would likely not expect huge player retention. If having Jak 2 in Minecraft is your server's only goal it likely would be a better move to just have it exist as a singleplayer Minecraft map that comes with its own datapacks (another incentive to consider upgrading past 1.12.2!) for NPCs and player mechanics such as double jumping or guns.
That would likely be a starting point for why some players likely aren't being retained, since you're already unlikely to get some activity from fans of that game (you know... cause they got the game.) and new players like me are looking at this and thinking, "What the crap am I s'posed to do against these guys? I don't get any weapons until the fifth mission and I don't have enough dark rage stuff to run some fancy attacks!"
I agree with Isz's points about the unpolished experience (and possibly updating beyond 1.12.2 if the plugins will allow it, this version is really only good for Forge modding nowadays.)
In the server's defense if I had read one of your advertisements first before jumping in I'd have at least known this server was based off of a PS2 game (though again, not knowing about the series itself means it wouldn't have helped me in particular anyways) but if all this server has to offer is a fan-curated reimagining of a game old enough to buy itself some beer, I would likely not expect huge player retention. If having Jak 2 in Minecraft is your server's only goal it likely would be a better move to just have it exist as a singleplayer Minecraft map that comes with its own datapacks (another incentive to consider upgrading past 1.12.2!) for NPCs and player mechanics such as double jumping or guns.
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Some points from a short time playing it - Get rid of that horrible quest plugin and update from 1.12.2 to a much later version. So far the experience was just frustrating and not fun, the whole thing seems very unfinished / unpolished, for example seeing the commands ran on me in the quest rewards.
To be quite honest you need a complete revamp.
To be quite honest you need a complete revamp.
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Thank you 2 for reviewing the server. We're going to make some changes to the gameplay loop and structure. We updated the server to 1.13.2 and are fixing anything that broke. We now have a few new features we're implementing (and some bugs were fixed). Anyone else is still free to review the server.