What happened to SF D:

[Hershey]

Not sure if this is the right section or not but I remember that SF used to be a very active forum. The forum statistic at the bottom shows some 1400 people were on at once a few years ago. I look at the bottom and I only see a handful of people online.

What happened to SF? Is there always this many people on these days?

[pavliko]

Don't forget to add that today's visitors are less intelligent, a lot less(Look at this weeks forum activity lol)

[Espadon]

Yeah, some of us don't care about sounding smart to random people on the Internet anymore.

[jrgp]

Not sure if this is the right section or not but I remember that SF used to be a very active forum. The forum statistic at the bottom shows some 1400 people were on at once a few years ago. I look at the bottom and I only see a handful of people online.

What happened to SF? Is there always this many people on these days?

That spike of over a thousand members was right when 1.4.1 was about to come out.

The community's activity has lessened over the years due to people losing interest because of a lack of updates (something shoozza is fixing) and as people here grow older and finish college and start working and becoming busy.

[Hershey]

Yeah, I was apart of those who got bored with Soldat due to the lack of updates. Your reason seems very logical.

[FliesLikeABrick]

yes I believe the 1400 people at once (within 5 minutes or so) was when SF made the front page of digg and slashdot for the release of 1.4.0.

[Hershey]

Oh well, there still used to be a lot of active members than there are now :/

[Shoozza]

Also note that Soldat 1.5 was released 2009-04-16 that's more then 2 years now.
Soldat wasn't in the news for some time now i guess.

The new version mentions the forums so maybe that way we will see some new faces.
And who knows maybe the old players will come back too.

2+ years are a very long time... Lack of updates can kill a game and the community :/ hopefully it's not too late.

[xmRipper]

I know that most players could not even PLAY the new versions because something in big update make the game extremely laggy, old computers couldn't handle it. (Shoozza fixed it in 1.6.0)

[echo_trail]

Not to mention, as time goes by it becomes harder and harder for soldat to compete with other free games. Sure, for a lot of us it still holds unrivaled charm and sexyness, but for potential newcomers it might lack a bit of oomph in terms of graphics and such.

[Espadon]

it might lack a bit of oomph in terms of graphics and such.

No. The apparent worth of graphics stems from the fact that screenshots are really the only thing people can talk before a game is released for people to play. In the end, gameplay, accessibility and community are the ultimate deciding factors.

I think the main cause is that Soldat wasn't promoted well, if at all, after 1.4. We know about Soldat because we roll around these forums all day. But does that middleschooler with the 5 year old Dell know about Soldat? Soldat needs a presence outside these forums.

[ds dude]

I agree with espadon, this game needs to get reviewed and stuff and spread.

like reddit and stuff I guess.

[L[0ne]R]

I don't think the game's ready for that though. First impression is important, but with current menu and some really fugly maps - chances are that most players probably won't take the game seriously. It needs to look more polished and more professionally-made, otherwise all that advertising will go to waste.

OnTopic: the game's losing players, and for that reason the forum is losing its members. Both forums and the game were much more active than it is now. Nowadays I only see like 15 active members at most. And about half of them does nothing but troll, bash and spam.

[Espadon]

It needs to look more polished and more professionally-made, otherwise all that advertising will go to waste.

Minecraft: unfinished and looks like crap
Crysis 2: finished and plays like crap

One of the games is still being played. Diamonds are diamonds, polished or not.

[Blacksheepboy]

Agreed

And about half of them does nothing but troll, bash and spam.

hey... backseat moderating

[L[0ne]R]

Agreed

And about half of them does nothing but troll, bash and spam.

hey... backseat moderating

All I did was state the facts, not make a decision. If I said something like "ban them" - that would be backseat moderating.

[Espadon]

You know what, maybe it's wrong to frown upon backseat moderating. Perhaps too much dependence on staff moderation promotes apathy among members, as they feel removed from being responsible for maintaining content quality.

[Fryer]

You know what, maybe it's wrong to frown upon backseat moderating. Perhaps too much dependence on staff moderation promotes apathy among members, as they feel removed from being responsible for maintaining content quality.

Isn't that what the "Report to moderator" link is for though?