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Jun-28-2008 08:39

There have been some recent events on this game that warrant some concern. It’s no secret that there has been a lack of interest. Much of this may be attributed to the release of Shades of Mystery. If that is what people want to play, far be it from me to tell them not to play it.

That being said. I am still a paying customer of Sleuth Noir. As a paying customer there are some things that I expect. Ben has done a decent job at keeping the server up and running. We had a slight issue earlier in the week with not being able to travel and Ben did a great job of addressing the issue and getting it corrected. He always has done a great job of taking care of things. He has not however kept the game fresh and interesting. We recently had the expansion of the USS Sleuthetania. There was a buzz before the initial launch of it and we couldn’t wait to see what was in store for us.

Well what did we get? The opportunity to pay $20,000 to get on board of a ship and do nothing more than play cases. Sure there are some new characters and new items along with 2 new “coming soon” links. That’s it! I can’t help but to feel disappointed in the way this has played out. Two weeks later, the links are still coming soon and the interest of the boat has already gone away. I know I have no plans or reason to get on the boat and be cut off from my agency completely. I don’t know this for a fact, but I think a lot of people are disappointed with the boat as well and some may even be irritated and feel cheated by the whole development.

Maybe I’m being a bit harsh and we are missing some secret that still needs to be unlocked on the boat, but if people aren’t playing, the secret will not be unlocked. I know that Ben is just one person and can only do so much. He has a lot on his plate right now with running both SOM and Noir. I’m sorry, but SOM means absolutely nothing to me as I don’t play over there.

Jul-16-2008 00:26

I wasnt taking anything away from u what you said, i was agreeing with you. I also think it was in the right place because this is what its about ...about bringing back the fire that once was, along with new things.

Your suggestions arent lost.....but im sorry that YOU feel that way. Im also not offended.

*shrugs* Glad to see I havent lost my touch...of being taken wrong. lol(humor is a wonderful thing)

Goes back to being the silent reader...its better that way :)

Jul-16-2008 00:58

Reese, please don't be silent, interaction is what we need.

Crunch, you hit the nail on the head, it's not the cases or the TH's taht keep me coming here, yes thats something I do while here, it's the community, interaction with others. Thats what makes it great.

That being said, I would love to be able to expand the community, not sure I agree with giving out a free sub though, thats been done by Jojo and a few contests in game board, let people at lest pay their dues before coming in. then it's up to us to show them how great it can be.

Basically what I've been trying to get across is, yes while the community is whats keeping me here, if the members of the community lose interest and die off, the community goes with the members.

Hopefully my big, mysterious, pending announcemnt will regenerate some interest. Only time will tell.

Jul-16-2008 01:47

I'm definitely looking forward to what you have in mind ctwon : )

Jul-16-2008 01:48

ctown* oops...lack of sleep over here lol :)

Jul-16-2008 04:45

LMAO I just love the fact that Crunch was attempting to make a short post. I have NEVER seen Crunch make a short post :p

And yay Reese haven't seen you in ages :)

Jul-16-2008 05:02

I think Sophie's suggestion was a good one :-)
(Yea! I managed to make a short post) ;-)

Jul-17-2008 14:22

OK... this thread is far too long for me to read everything, so I apologise for just skimming through and sticking my boat in here.

I started to run out of steam in this game after about a year, not because I stopped enjoying it, but real life was calling me to do other stuff and then I felt I had lost momentum and didn't have any incentive to get back involved to the level I was.

I remember when we first started up TIA, we made the mistake of setting up in London, with SMRT and Al-Q in full fighting mode, not the best place for our little start up to be, but it certainly gave TIA a good sense of the competition. I remember being a newbie and reading the boards. There was for the most part, a good natured sense of competition and a lot of help and support for new players. I felt a real sense of there being a "Goldie Locks" community, where it wasn't so large that you felt anonymous and not so small that you felt there was no depth. I think it made me want to stick around and do something here.

Crunch made a good point about splitting recruitment and retention, and dammit it forced me to think.

So when I finally found my brain from down the back of the sofa, dusted off the fluff and unstuck the Toffo wrapper, I got to contemplating what kept me playing for that year.

It wasn’t really the challenge of the game. It was the friendships I made that kept me coming back. This was the genius behind the Agencies idea. Unfortunately, that’s a bit of a dead end, because you need to keep the agencies active by recruiting new agents. If they aren't coming in and subscribing it chokes the life out of the agencies. So for me retention and recruitment are inextricably linked.

Jul-17-2008 14:23

I started playing Noir because I wanted to find a game where you solve crimes and it was the first one I found. There were enough things of interest to make me want to subscribe and explore the game a bit more. I think that if it had happened now I might have looked at both games and decided to play SoM because it was the newer game, but I have to say that there isn’t much outside of the agencies in SoM to make me want to subscribe because the cases take quite a long time, so 4 would do for me. I doubt I would have been hooked in as much as I was by Noir with its cities, treasure hunts, AVH equipment.

As far as improving the game, I would like to offer 2 ideas. Again, I’m sorry if they have been mentioned in other posts that I haven’t read properly. Firstly, I don’t think having the two games together on a single the home page helps. They have a common theme and I think any new players passing through make an either/or decision early on. If you want 2 games running then treat them separately, otherwise, just stop supporting Noir altogether and avoid its slow death, because it’s obvious that the home page has been designed to treat Noir as the poor relation of SoM now… I don’t think it helps Noir and because therefore doesn’t help Hypothetical.

Jul-17-2008 14:24

My Second idea is linked to what nicnic said about respect for high scorers. I suggest that after scoring a set amount of exp points in Noir, you should be given a new Super-User status, with free subscription rights and maybe some kind of new way of being treated in terms of FA’s... maybe something like a name and shame in a special Super-user bulletin rather than retirement... I don’t know, it’s my new idea today and I haven’t had chance to think it through fully so I’d appreciate some feedback. Perhaps this could be linked in with the idea of the development team, where SU’s have some say in steering development. This SU status could be allowed to elapse if you didn’t stay active which might keep people showing their face in the game. I also think it recognises that you’ve probably paid a fair share in subscription fees to get there.

What do you reckon?

Jul-17-2008 15:01

Thank you soo much Brasco De Gama for your first idea. I am so thankful someone finally put words on one of my itching feelings about how Noir is treated. It is so true, that from the moment the two Sleuth games had a single start-page, that you even have to switch through when you log out from one of your doubles, and are to log on to the next, Noir started to get drained. It was like you were to be reminded every time you logged on that you belong to the older ones, who play the old game, not the new fancy one which you should be playing....

I liked the Super-User status idea, but I think that of economical reasons there is a need that even super-users pay subscription fees. But, may be you could be given on free 1-month gift-subscription to give away to a newbie (with less than a certain amount of xp) that you want to recruit into the game, say you get one every 3rd month?
Also I think that SU's are the obvious participaters in a development team. And a special SU-bulletin, wich gives fame and recognition to SU's would be great.
What do you think about this way of being treated in terms of FA's that SU's make: you loose the contacts in one randomly chosen city for EACH FA... - and still have to pay Shady some money, may be $ 200 k ?