Is FL dead?

[Mali]

I've been struggling with this question for a while. Most of us relate to the nostalgic place that the game has in our hearts and the legendary battles, friends, enemies, and stories that we carry with us through time.

Is there a future for FL? Is there life in the dungeons and forests we travel? Is there value in the time spent?

I expect some flames from this post but I ask  from a place of honesty. I wonder is it better to invest in the game to build a brighter future knowing the chances of revival are slim, or do we salute FL while sailing from its shores and leaving it behind?

Which path is the most honorable?

 

 

 

 

[Twinblades713]

I still log in a few times a day to no one. There are some hours with pockets of activity. Imms seem to be around as my journals are always quickly awarded but interaction is rare compared to how many hours there are in the day. 

[Rygothran]

FL still runs 24/7 and people still log in. It isn't dead. The amount of people that play seems to go in waves. Sometimes there are more consistent players and other times there are not.

[Atticus]

Came back to fuck around for a day or two since I got a track getting mix down by a mentor. Day two an imm sat down for 30 mins rping with me.

Eq seems to be getting updates now which is cool. I understand where you're coming from though Mali.

[Celerity]

This is not a dead or abandoned game. It has serious issues, but certainly not to the level of disappearing.

[Fool_Hardy]

I think it is doing well. If we consider the aging playerbase, and the lack of unlimited playtime provided by the childhoods many of you enjoyed. 

There remain real life factors that must be included in the equation, some ardent players suffer from anxiety which results in extended vacations. Others have terminal std's that they call children.

[aaa]

There are definitely dead timezones. 

 

[Ali_gmud]

I reckon if you did a poll to find out which regions the majority of the players play from, you'll find the large majority is North America, so in the early hours of the morning in those time zones, they'll be dead patches.

[Imoutgoodbye]

I log on maybe once to twice a week.  I don't put in more than 10 hours in a given week.  It's not the game, it's me.  I adore this place.  I just choose to put other priorities first.  

I'm fairly certain we're at peak.  It's not a lack of dedication, but who's going to want to play a game that's an outdated mode of play style?  My kid is into Fortnite and other MMO style games on the Xbox.  I scratch my head at what I thought was a South Park joke, but kids are honestly watching other people on YouTube play games.  I have no idea how this streaming culture came about.  I briefly considered streaming FL, but, I wouldn't want @f0xx to be the guy that died laughing at a MUD stream.  

[f0xx]

Back in the day, we used to play FL in internet cafes. 2-3 of us would gather around one guy and watch him play. When you observe in real life how someone else plays, you can see the tension, the physical reactions, the shakes - it's very entertaining.

I miss those days - we were young and foolish. Now we are just foolish...

[egreir]

It's not dead, but it IS dying, a slow death. I was saying this years ago when there was just 15 people on. Then a couple years go by and its 10 people. A couple years go by and it 7 people.  Now we're at 5 I'd say is a good estimate for the average. There is nothing worth coming back for, IMO.  Not trying to flame, just offering some constructive criticism.  There have been SO many good ideas passed around by players AND staff.  New end game areas have been talked about for years.  Not trying to call anyone out, we all have lives, we all struggle with motivation here, but if we were talking about a new end game area years ago and there's not one yet...that's a major issue.

I could go on, but my words always get misconstrued. No it's not dead, but it might as well be.  RIP all the good times

['tarako]

My biggest complaint has always been the log off mindset honestly. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a scary char log on, and watch the pk list vanish. We reward people for this kind of stuff. These characters get titles, spots in rp plots, etc. Then you see characters who hold fast no matter what's coming at them, and they are the ones that should be celebrated. If you've got 500 hours of hard fought balls out playing you should be rewarded more than the char who logs 25 hours a month, and is only interested in stroking their ego with rp they don't have to backup in game because they just log off if it's not an easy win.

[aaa]

1 hour ago, 'tarako said:

My biggest complaint has always been the log off mindset honestly. I can't tell you how many times I've seen a scary char log on, and watch the pk list vanish. We reward people for this kind of stuff. These characters get titles, spots in rp plots, etc. 

Its because people are expected to stick it out for hundreds of hours against steep odds until they finally acquire cabal ranks/rp edges and whatever else their opponents have without con dying themselves.

The gap between a fresh 50 and a long established character has never been larger than it is today and it results in dead cabals, people logging off and avoiding others. Its safer to be logged off and be writing journals so you can close the gap.

No one seems to want to do anything about it, so here we are in a stagnant downward spiral.

 

[f0xx]

10 hours ago, Wade said:

Its because people are expected to stick it out for hundreds of hours against steep odds until they finally acquire cabal ranks/rp edges and whatever else their opponents have without con dying themselves.

The gap between a fresh 50 and a long established character has never been larger than it is today and it results in dead cabals, people logging off and avoiding others. Its safer to be logged off and be writing journals so you can close the gap.

No one seems to want to do anything about it, so here we are in a stagnant downward spiral.

I've never read more bullshit in one post, honestly.

[Lexi]

I came back two weeks ago and started a new character. Since there's some time at work when there's not much to do, I rolled a second character to play a bit from work. So... in this time, I somehow managed to get two characters to 50, and the game doesn't feel dead to me. There's less people around than in some other muds - mandatory RP and PK is a fairly niche setting - but overall I'm really impressed with how much stuff I've seen from other people in just these two weeks. Imms are active, journals/rp logs get awarded without super long delays, and other characters are really helpful in ranking/gearing, pretty classy when it comes to looting after pk, and create some interesting and fun interactions with rp.

There's times when there's not people logged in.

I doubt the game's going to see a growing playerbase.

FL definitely isn't dead. I'm having lots of fun.

[Imoutgoodbye]

Is this one of those things where FL is aged to the point its cells aren't regenerating faster than they're dying, but not dying faster than they're regenerating?  A homeostasis?  

[Ulmusdorn]

On 6/29/2019 at 2:55 PM, Wade said:

Its because people are expected to stick it out for hundreds of hours against steep odds until they finally acquire cabal ranks/rp edges and whatever else their opponents have without con dying themselves.

The gap between a fresh 50 and a long established character has never been larger than it is today and it results in dead cabals, people logging off and avoiding others. Its safer to be logged off and be writing journals so you can close the gap.

No one seems to want to do anything about it, so here we are in a stagnant downward spiral.

 

 

Leader (for at least 4 months) and Tattoo'd - take that much time really?

 

Name: Wuggo       (T: 50)         Religion: Nature
Age: 115          Played: 205h      Last Level: 15     Timer: 0        

 

[Lexi]

I'm sort of with Ulmosdorn on this.

A freshly pinned 50 is at a serious disadvantage vs a fully decked Trusted+ char, but I definitely feel like imms recognize and reward effort. Heck, I took a crap ton of deaths and didn't con die, and I made leader/tattoo'd/edges in the meantime. Racking up 61 deaths will take a really long time for an average player, and a really, really, really long time for someone who's get the foundation of pk down.

I'm almost positive the gap between freshly pinned and established characters will close even faster if you stay logged on vs just writing journals.

[Atticus]

never had elder. I've never not joined an underdog cabal and did my best to kill whoever I could though /shrug

[Grim_Reefer]

Not sure what you are talking about. Active work is being done on the game and players seem to be returning by the droves. 

Wanna see more numbers? Play the game.

[Atticus]

Grim has a point.

[Manual Labour]

20 hours ago, Lexi said:

Heck, I took a crap ton of deaths and didn't con die, and I made leader/tattoo'd/edges in the meantime.

This is the exception not the rule.

['tarako]

I wasn't trying to say everyone logs off, but years ago there was a stigma of shame surrounding the practice, but steadily the practice of don't fight unless it's a fairly easy win became alot more acceptable. I was killed at level 44 by a pinned cabaled character I had never interacted with, while spam training. ok we are opposite aligned clerics, I get it. Gonna be fun at 59 right? Wrong. This character never again fought me for more than 1 combat round before fleeing and logging without a word. The game itself is here, and people play. I just feel that the die hard spirit of FL has mostly gone in favor of people trying to rack up a thousand hours.

[aaa]

Players in any game will always act whatever way rewards them the best. 

If you want to change a players behaviour, you have to change the reward system. 

If you get rewarded for being a long lived character then people will try to live as long as they can, whatever way they can. 

[Mali]

I appreciate all the replies and your perspective. Of course I did not mean "Is FL Dead?" literally. The IP is active and there are a few players. 

For those who have ever had to close the door on a relationship or move on past a vice or even change hobbies, you will recognize the sense that you have experienced something to the peak of its curve in your life. Sometimes, it is better to respect and remember the way a thing was. Personally, some of FL is actually dead to me, since we have lost players to real life tragedies and their spark is no longer with us. Even if all of the current characters are logged on there are pieces of the game that cannot return because those players have passed on.

In other ways we may recognize change in ourselves that also change the game. Once you lose the PK shakes, for example, you've matured in your play to the point it is unlikely you will experience those raw feelings of chase and kill again.

There are levels to it. 

Some of the dissatisfaction we experience in Discord comes from players wishing FL was as great as it was at one point in time for them. In such cases a reality check and adjustment of expectations could be positive for their play experience.

It is a personal question and certainly not one that can be answered broadly for everyone. Even if answered affirmatively, it begs the question: What in today's FL draws you back?