After thinking about it, Lin Chaoxu decided that he couldn't change it.
In the gaming circle, the first lesson every game designer learned was not to change their design ideas just because some players were dissatisfied.
(Of course, this could also be applied to all creative activities.)
For most games, players who didn't like the game would complain. This was normal, but there were more players who enjoyed the game and wouldn't complain.
If one only paid attention to the players who complained, it would create a "survivor bias." Making changes to the game based on this would not only destroy the design ideas and game characteristics that had been passed down, but it would also displease the players who originally had no complaints, which would result in greater losses.
Lin Chaoxu naturally understood this. From the looks of it, Ancient Catastrophe was far from needing to cut its losses. It was still growing, but at a slower rate.
Moreover, taking care of the feelings of the high-end players went against Ancient Catastrophe's research and development ideas. It was originally a game meant to harvest low-end players, so it couldn't be helped even if the high-end players didn't like it.
Moreover, Ancient Catastrophe was well-received because it was different from League of Legends. If it was changed according to League of Legends, where would its core competitiveness be?
Lin Chaoxu thought for a long time before saying, "Don't change the gameplay for now. Do a few more operations and bring up the data and popularity first. Also, continue to pay attention to this matter and report to me if anything happens. "
Jin Jieguang nodded. Lin Chaoxu's thoughts were the same as his, and this was indeed the safest method at the moment.
…
At the end of June, Ancient Catastrophe's various data suddenly began to fall.
This happened very suddenly. Within a dozen or so days, the number of daily active users of "Ancient Catastrophe," as well as the number of hours played by the players, began to plummet. Even the players in the game could clearly feel this loss.
On the official forum of "Ancient Catastrophe," many players were discussing it.
"Why do I feel like the number of people playing has decreased recently? In the past, it was very fast to get matched up, but now it takes up to a minute to get matched up. Also, there are experts who are obviously stronger than average. "
"I also feel that the number of people online in my friend list is decreasing. A few good players who used to play against me haven't been online for a few days."
"Me too, five days ago when my friend came online."
"Our 'Ancient Catastrophe' player group hasn't been discussing this game recently. Most of them are talking about mobile games and 'League of Legends'."
"Is it because it's still in testing and hasn't been officially released? It should be popular once it's officially released. This game is of such high quality, Emperor Dynasty should promote it as soon as possible. We can't delay any longer! "
"Yeah, I think it's because it's not officially online yet."
"This game is so fun, why doesn't anyone like it? Everyone, go and recruit some newbies into the game. It's such an easy game! "
"Don't make a fuss, okay? It was normal for the number of players to fluctuate. How could there be a lack of players in Emperor Dynasty? When it's online, it'll definitely be popular! "
…
What the players didn't know was that the designers of Ancient Catastrophe and Jin Jieguang were even more panicked than the players. The players couldn't see the backend data, but they could.
Such a drastic drop in activity could no longer be ignored as it was threatening the lifespan of the Ancient Catastrophe game.
If they couldn't guarantee that the old players would stay in the game, then no amount of promotion or attracting new players would be of any use.
The calculation and results of one valve letting in water and another valve letting out water was something everyone knew since they were in primary school.
Everyone was very puzzled. What was going on?
Wasn't it fine at the start of the closed beta? The player retention rate was good, and the satisfaction rate was good as well. It satisfied the needs of the lower end players, and even differentiated itself from 'League of Legends'.
Didn't everyone seem satisfied?
Why did it feel like the game was going to die in just a month, before the closed beta was even over?
This kind of drop in activity had never happened before in all the games that Emperor Dynasty Entertainment had operated, unless something serious happened.
However, "Ancient Catastrophe" was still in the testing stage, so they didn't dare to launch too many operations, let alone have any operational incidents.
What happened?
Emperor Dynasty Entertainment sent out a large number of questionnaires to the players who had given up on the game, and the most common response was that the game was good, but it wasn't fun.
Jin Jieguang was dumbfounded. What was the problem with 'not fun'?
The scope of the problem was too wide, and he couldn't pinpoint it at all!
The designers and developers of Ancient Catastrophe were racking their brains to come up with new activities and playstyles to get the game back on track, but to no avail.
The popularity of Ancient Catastrophe continued to die down day by day.
…
"It's good, but it's not fun."
This sentence should be the biggest insult to a designer.
Because what this meant was that the graphics, quality, and feel of the game were all fine, but the playstyle wasn't good.
That was the problem with Ancient Catastrophe. The problem was that there was a problem with the playstyle.
Of course, strictly speaking, Jin Jieguang and Emperor Dynasty Entertainment were tricked, but it wasn't obvious, and didn't look like a trap at all, so Jin Jieguang didn't hesitate to step into it.
When Ancient Catastrophe had just started testing, the feedback from the players was quite good. By lowering the difficulty of the game and clarifying the game's goals, it really took into account the feelings of the new players, which allowed it to achieve a certain level of success in the early stages of its release.
But the key problem was that the new players wouldn't always be the new players.
When the first batch of new players grew to become experienced players, this type of game would dissuade them from playing.
Therefore, there needed to be a delicate balance between the three groups of players: new players, experienced players, and experts. COG placed too much emphasis on the experience of the experts, while Ancient Catastrophe placed too much emphasis on the experience of the new players, creating an imbalance.
In comparison, COG placed too much emphasis on the experience of the experts. It was nothing more than turning the game into a hardcore, niche game, and it wouldn't be a problem for the players to survive.
But Ancient Catastrophe placed too much emphasis on the experience of the new players, causing the loss of hardcore players, which was fatal. Because it was the hardcore players who supported the game, and the new players were just relying on them.
As the new players slowly became hardcore players, and the hardcore players quickly disappeared, the new players would slowly stop playing the game.
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