Restoring the Glory Days: What would it take?

Arm and Armers definitely have their own logic they follow. It’s fascinating and baffling to watch.

It wouldn’t be the first time they’ve reached out to former players through kudos. I think it’s a smart move and was fairly successful the last time they tried it. Former players, despite how some people feel about them, are a ready pool of potential players. As they struggle on how to attract truly new players in this social media/twitch era, it’s really their best shot until they actually start attempting to get new players from those avenues. Low tech gaming is very much in vogue with the kids these days.

I have nothing against reaching out to former players in theory. In practice, it really depends on who they're reaching out to. This might come off as a bit of a hot take, but Armageddon isn't called CRACKAGEDDON for nothing. Like all RPGs, it gets more addictive the more immersed you are, and certain personalities are more susceptible to it than others. Whoever staff reaches out to can mean the difference between checking in on people who got busy IRL and couldn't play anymore to see if they're willing to jump back in more casually, and the equivalent of handing out free heroin samples in an elementary school. Like I said, people used to play Armageddon every moment of their waking lives. So right now, I think it's cool that they're trying, but my opinion of it will quickly change if my previously-addicted friends get a generic recruitment message.

I'm curious.  How do you see "hardcore" players supported differently or better than casuals?

That...wasn't what I was saying at all.

It was a response to mehtastic who was talking about the player outreach they were doing. To be a little more clear. Hardcore players tend to play more to the gamey aspects of the game, where the tembo spawns, going to farm weezer poison, sparring, etc and base their rp around the more automated aspects of the game. That's pretty easy to oversee because, they're doing their own thing and it really doesn't require too much staff side. Maybe drop an animation here or there, drop a fairly tough mob in the next room. I'd imagine it'd be fairly easy to ask them to come back, because they were already sinking a lot of time into the game, staff is probably familiar with them and who they are to contact them. So, they know how to deal with that kind of play because it really doesn't take much to administrate.

Casuals tend to be more of a mixed bag. Drop into the game, "Hey, whats going on? Nothing? I'm out." Or they tend to not log on long enough to really warrant notice or they're here today, gone tommorrow...no reason particularly, just gone, no indicator of what went wrong. Could be they didn't like the game, could be they bought an xbox (I've seen that happen before). So, I really couldn't see staff emailing them, because...why would they? On the other hand they were doing kudos too which come from players. Staff probably wouldn't notice a casual player like that, but another player might've, a kudos might be enough to bring a casual player back.

I see a lot more of the latter than the former.

I went from hardcore player to an ex-player. Been half a month or so now since I played. First couple of days was a struggle to find something else to do with my time but now I can't really see going back to play in this shitpile.

Best of luck to those of you who still play.

Once you're past it you realize that 90% of the time you're looking for an opportunity to have fun, not having fun. You spent most of your time waiting ... either waiting for a mount to recover, waiting for a skill timer, or waiting for a friend to show up.

I usually didn't have any more fun in a family role call than I did in a role I created for myself. There are several fun groups to join (indies, non-supported) where you can socialize, spar, and just generally work with other people if you want. But I am, by nature, a loner in my game play. I like being associated with a group but yet doing all my work alone.

Since I've quit the game I'll disclose some of the recent characters I played ...

Greedy One of the Two Moons
Gentleman Gog
Grud, the stone-gray humanoid cannibal mutant who lived in the sewers

Greedy One was part of an organized clan, but most of the interactions I enjoyed the most were outside the clan. Anything IN the clan was too heavily monitored by Shalooonsh and often interfered with in real time. Gog started out trying to be part of the Guild but Ratter turned on him and he wiped them all out before being trapped by Nektol, so he worked alone most of his time. Grud did his own thing and managed to do pretty good starting a little third group in the rinth until Nektol sent a Whiran to wizkill him.

All characters which managed fun gameplay on their own. And the last two were with zero karma roles.

The reason I just finally quit was being denied karma for the third year in a row for too much PK. I play an antagonist and that's going to lead to violence. If I can't play the character I want to play then fuck playing at all.

One of the most liberating things about quitting Arm is that they lose all power over you with their dangling karma bullshit.