Not to mention that it's a bit of a pain to keep checking on different sources..
So most people can't be bothered.
Exactly, and that applies to the forums too. As somebody who's relatively new to them, I find them pretty horrible to navigate and keep up to date on. There's the Feedback and Suggestions board, The Classroom and its child boards, Gameplay, General Discussion, Community Guides, News and Annoucements -- and they're just the boards I tend to gravitate towards. It's just a pain to keep abreast with what's happening here because everything is so spread out. I'm not a particularly active user on Facebook (and don't have a bloody clue about Twitter) but it's an incredibly easy thing to just hop on and get a good idea of what's going on in the world of Muse and Guns of Icarus Online. It's one page you scroll down. Done.
The thing is, short of Muse making Guns of Icarus Online pay to win, you folks aren't going anywhere, you love the game and know waaaaaay more about it than the average player. You don't need carrots, you really don't, because you appreciate the game as it stands and know the developers well enough to see where it's heading. And besides, as far as I'm aware, every player of Guns of Icarus Online get those e-updates detailing what's going on with the game and what's planned and being worked on. As far as I'm concerned those emails are instrumental in bringing people back into Guns of Icarus Online if they've drifted off for whatever reason (school, GTA V, life, cheese sandwiches). They brought me back a few patches ago after many months away. Emails popping up in your inbox and Facebook/twitter updates are far more pervasive than blog and forum updates for most people and that's what's ultimately keeping the community ticking over/expanding (and it is expanding, albeit slowly
http://steamcharts.com/app/209080#All. And if it's not expanding, it's certainly stable and healthy -- there are few communities I know that are as civilised, accommodating and friendly as GoIO's).
I'm not saying the forums aren't important here, they absolutely are, but we're talking about where Muse should be 'directing its love' which translates to me to: 'where they should be spending their energy'. It'd be great to keep everywhere updated but I believe that the more centralisied all the info is, the better. Same goes for all the ships and guns stats -- I'm hoping Wilson's notes etc. are where the accurate up to date info is rather than in some wiki or a forum entry.
The facebook page brings in new people, while the forums makes them stay.
I'd rather the game make people stay!
This lack of information about update material is an other factor this game loses players rapidly each time, there is nothing to keep them hooked if they don't at least know what's coming, we barely got any info about the Hades before it came out and only people in the test server actually knew what it was about before it got released. That's costing MUSE a lot of players that don't have the same patience as others.
Almost all smaller competitive teamplay centric multiplayer games lose players rapidly after sales and content updates. And I say this as both a Guns of Icarus Online and Natural Selection 2 player. They're games that pretty much live and die by communication and co-operation; without those two, they're
considerably less satisfying. Games like Chivalry, TF2 and Counterstrike hit a sweet spot where teamplay is important but monkeying around on your own is still a hoot too. Those things simply aren't possible in GoIO or NS2 (less so with the latter). Without a commander or captain, you're screwed. Without decent comrades, you're screwed. And in pub games, neither of those things are guaranteed. This, I believe, is why these games bleed players after large influxes: the uncoordinated newcomer pub game versus how the game is ideally played.
Depending on how Adventure mode works and the upcoming co-op mode I think Muse are going down the right track to appeal to players who aren't keen on focused competitive play. I think with those pillars in place the game will be in a much better position to maintain players of all kinds. At present, Guns of Icarus Online demands a certain type of player which explains why it has such a good community and why I'm not too concerned about PS4 players joining the fray. I don't think that that type of player is one who constantly needs reassuranace that new things are coming because the game is already unique, deep and downright awesome as it is. If those things aren't enough, then they probably weren't going to stick around anyway to be honest.
Eeesh. That was long.
