Has anyone ever tried to resurrect a dead game with a group of dedicated players?

[Wavert]

'Dead' in the sense that there are a lot of games out there that are technically still running but just have zero population (Elendor and Beleriand come to mind ,thinking of the current high fantasy thread up)

I wonder sometimes how likely it would be that a small group of active players (Let's say 5-7) could swoop on any of these empty places and try to bring it back to life by getting some activity going in a "If you build it, they will come" kinda way. Has anyone ever seen anything like this happen, or tried it themselves? I'm curious what the results and potential bottlenecks would be.

[RnMissionRun]

I've never heard of this working, ever. I suppose there's always a first time, though.

[deadculture]

@Wavert Very doubtful. Just remember those barely populated games have baggage attached to them. And in some rare cases, like Firan, the baggage doesn't outweigh the potential fun until way later, at which point people start calling it quits en masse.

Whenever a game hits less than 10 unique users, it starts a slow death spiral, to be quite honest. Some games are seasonal: people are coming to play for a couple of months and then leave. But most games are persistent, so when they dip beneath 5 it means the staffers' attentions drift elsewhere as well, since they might end up being the only ones playing.

[Thenomain]

@Wavert

I’ve seen it a few times, yes, and as soon as those players get bored the game is dead again. Having a self-entertaining group on your game is either a blessing that you want to cultivate, or are people who are going to play their own game no matter what the goal is and poison it for others.

[Hella]

R.I.P Elendor

[ZekeTheG33k]

I tried several times with Magical Destiny. Most of the time it fizzled out poorly.

[Wavert]

@VulgarKitten

What was it that caused the game to spiral, anyways? Was there some particular drama that caused a bunch of players to exodus, or did it just fade away (which is kind of depressingly thematic, actually)?

I've generally come up on MUs that were based on existing fictional franchises and fandoms, and one thing I've noticed with fandom-based roleplay is that it is kind of inherently fickle. The rank-and-file are mainly interested in doing whatever is hot and new, and the most long-lived games seem to be those that are able to incorporate new themes and characters to play while games with "fixed" themes and settings inevitably struggle once that source material is no longer "active" (See: the complete dearth of Harry Potter games ever since the books finished).

[Hella]

@Wavert

Re: Elendor, equal parts the movies were over and people lost interest, and also OOC drama that led to a lot of the originals throwing their hands up and walking away.

[Jennkryst]

I saw it happen once. Star Wars: Age of Alliances, but the dedicated players isn't what actually saved it... Force Awakens did. But other dramaz made me bolt without looking back.

[surreality]

There's also the possibility that if the staff haven't seen anything budge for ages -- and some places stay up for years after they've 'died' so this can be quite some time -- the people running the joint will not really be checking in to approve anyone in the first place, provide any needed assist, etc. and may actually resent people dredging it out of the mothballs because the time they once spent administrating the game has long since been dedicated to something new. It's a bit shitty, but it's a thing to bear in mind.

[Lithium]

@surreality said in Has anyone ever tried to resurrect a dead game with a group of dedicated players?:

There's also the possibility that if the staff haven't seen anything budge for ages -- and some places stay up for years after they've 'died' so this can be quite some time -- the people running the joint will not really be checking in to approve anyone in the first place, provide any needed assist, etc. and may actually resent people dredging it out of the mothballs because the time they once spent administrating the game has long since been dedicated to something new. It's a bit shitty, but it's a thing to bear in mind.

^^^ this.

This is the biggest hurdle to trying to revive a dead game. If the population is zero, aka no staff, no players, then staff are probably not even checking on it anymore. Which means even if you have 10 people. 20 people. If staff aren't there to check on it, you can't really get anything going because nobody will get approved etc.

[Rook]

It would be cool, if the game was approval-less, for a group of us to ninja the game and play. Get back to the roots of MU*ing, as it were.

[surreality]

@Rook Someone could probably set up a sandbox for this, with building allowed. Let people build their own random sprawl in whatever direction they wanted off some main hub or another, and just do more or less whatever.

Normally I'd volunteer, but I'm still all the meh.

[Rook]

Twould be coolish.

[Ominous]

Isn't Shang sort of like that, only with more sex dungeons?

I had an idea for a server where the PCs were gods/spirits, explaining why they could create areas in an empty void. And that was it. No other theme or anything. "You guys are are gods/spirits. Make of it what you will. Have fun." Not sure how long it would last without a metaplot.

[Rook]

If you really wanted to "get back to the roots", then don't provide anything. Encourage players to do it. Give them whatever tools that they need/want to run plots.

It's a good idea.

[WildBaboons]

@Ominous probably last a while, depending on how many sex dungeons the god spirits created.

[Nein]

@Rook I built one of those some time ago. Unfortunately, 'If you build it, they will come' proved to be false.

[Arkandel]

@Nein In my head you were replying to @WildBaboons' sex dungeons, which makes the response so much better.

[Thenomain]

@Rook said in Has anyone ever tried to resurrect a dead game with a group of dedicated players?:

If you really wanted to "get back to the roots", then don't provide anything. Encourage players to do it. Give them whatever tools that they need/want to run plots.

It's a good idea.

I have a game framework planned for this, but I keep having the very realistic doubt that nobody would play. To get back to the roots, you need to already have people interested in logging in to socialize and engage. That’s even true for modern games, since staff no longer has the time to create content on the fly.

Yeah, I’m just feeling pessimistic about today, today.