info on the new user feedback project (in General)

shade and i sent out a round of feedback emails saturday (thanks shade!) to 124 users who had started the game in march but hadn't logged in since april 5th or so. we have only gotten one reply now but hopefully we will get more and you can view the responses here.

i have also created a spreadsheet just to keep track of the mailings. this data can be viewed here.

we hope to get somewhere between 5 & 10 percent response rate but more would be nice. we also sent out a test message last week to some vets just to make sure the mailer worked after ns fixed it. it seemed to work fine, even though it confused some of the community! ; )

props for dudemus to get NS and me thinking about this and props to NS for enabling what was disabled :)

for the sake of longevity with this project, i created a google account just for cb2. all of the documents have been shared with or created on that account and it has its own gmail address. shade and i both have the login info for that account and if anything happens to one of us we will share it with someone else who is interested in keeping this going.

i would like to see this expand some and try to tempt some older players back as well. can anyone think of anything, that wouldn't break the game, that we could offer returning vets to tempt them to come back?

We may want to wait until a new supporter item is created and use that as a lure.

We can't send a blanket of gifts that hold decent monetary value, but we could offer a single tat or non-supporter weapon to each vet with a list of changes that have been made in the past year(s).

I'd rather not give returning players anything exisitng players don't have.

We don't need to create more of a divide, and this incentive would have to be worth something to entice people back, it's not like you could offer up a Tulwar...

For a more constructive post, here's what I feel we should do.

People left for a reason, or a multitude of reasons.

Instead of inticing them with something, fix the problem. Improve and build CB.

Then send out a "Come Back" teaser with the list of changes. Even tailor this to thier specific reaosns for leaving, if applicable.

Bored by CB? Come and try our new more dynamic low game!
Jaded with the NCB cost and the NUB? Come and try the new Bonus structure!
Foiled by the EXBow, come and see the new counters to it!
Come and experiment with the new Skill!
Beat opponents with the new Supporter item!

Even set up a periodic e-mail, that goes out to all leavers at every changemonth, with an overview of the exciting changes made to the game. (As long as we have exciting changemonths again)

This I feel would be the best approach to drawing back ex players.

realistically though it is easier to say give a free item naming than it is to do what you speak of. some may have quit playing just because they had gotten busy and might come back after their life has slowed down.

it is a bit of a chicken / egg question in my mind. would the devs work harder if we had more players or would we have more players if the devs worked harder? in short though, i cannot do what you ask and am simply doing the only thing i can...trying to retain new players and coming up with a way to use the emailer to possibly bring back older players.

I'd be tempted to stop playing for a free naming.

How long would I have to wait? It's not like I'd lose out on anything, the NCB bonus would be that much higher when I do return.

(One reason why I have no idea about the thought a rolling bonus would promote any more laziness than the current NCB...)

just give one to everyone then, problem solved! ; )

fight a thousand battles & get a free item naming token! i can see the vets lining up now.

only 1 response?

yep, so far. i think we have to assume that over half likely use a dummy email account that they don't even check, i certainly do for online games until i know more about them.

we also sent these out last weekend, but in the future i hope to send them out much closer to the first of the month and that may improve responses. we can also play with doing them weekly, but i hate to bother shade that much but if we need to try it we will.

The way it's set up now, if you provide me with 2 numbers it's done in a minute :)

cool, we may play with frequency then to see if it helps response rate.

I think a weekly or bi-weekly mailing would be better. Try to catch people while the game experience (good or bad) is still in their mind. They might be more willing to give feedback if they remember *why* they stopped playing in the first place.

this explains this odd mail i got - it said me to click a link and on this page i was asked to give a reason why i haven't logged back in to carnage blender. i didn't bother to answer since i'm playing without much of a break for many many years now ;)

we can certainly try that. since today is wednesday, shade can we get one sent for all that started in april but haven't logged on since this past sunday.

after that, we can send out weekly on wednesday and get people who started a week ago sunday but haven't logged on since the previous sunday. if that makes sense.

ok, we sent out another one today to new users from april 1 who haven't logged in since last sunday and will try to do this weekly on wednesdays sent out covering the sunday to sunday weekly period.

i have updated the spreadsheet showing that we sent this batch out to 64 users.