Is GU Dying?

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Jeep
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Is GU Dying?

Post by Jeep »

Ive been wondering if GU is dying because there arent as many players on the GU site at times.
And not as much matches as last year






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trepan
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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by trepan »

Or, is BZ Dying?
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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by SkillDude »

I think BZFlag is fine for now. I agree, I've seen less matches. Of course, I don't help contribute to that at all since I'm not on a team...Maybe I should join one...but I'm in no teams for all leagues anyways. xD
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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by ducatiwannabe »

Maybe there aren't as many matches as the last year, but a lot of our players in the GU League work or have school. I know there were a number of young players who are headed into college or are in college, plus normal school and a number of other activities. Life gets busier as you get older.

Of course, if you go and check the GU website: http://gu.bzleague.com , you will actually see there have been 80 matches in the last two weeks. I went and calculated the other league matches (Ducati League, Pillbox League, 1vs1 League, and Open League) and found a total of 96 matches in the last two weeks. You can go to each of these sites to check for yourself. GU League almost has as many as the other four leagues combined, including the 1vs1 league which does not even require more than two players per match.

GU is not dying, but players have gotten a lot busier. My assumption is that activity will pick up over the summer a little more when people get out of school.

And is BZFlag dying? I highly doubt that.

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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by kierra »

dw: Of course, if you go and check the GU website: http://gu.bzleague.com , you will actually see there have been 80 matches in the last two weeks. I went and calculated the other league matches (Ducati League, Pillbox League, 1vs1 League, and Open League) and found a total of 96 matches in the last two weeks. You can go to each of these sites to check for yourself. GU League almost has as many as the other four leagues combined, including the 1vs1 league which does not even require more than two players per match.
I think the drawback of comparing one league with another is that the more populated league can get a false sense of security for 'activity'. In actuality, there is a lot of overlap in players between the leagues. IMNSHO, the fact of the matter is that the player base is shrinking. Players are leaving at a greater rate than new ones coming on board to league play. Why that is so?....a myriad of reasons, but the result is the same....a sense that bz popularity is in a downhill trend, finding it increasingly difficult to compete with the current ropgs available with up-to-date features and graphics, built in players chat and more. Plus waiting for 3.0 is like 'waiting for Godot'. :)
We'll see what the summer holds....many get jobs, are busy with summer activities and bz gets put on the back burner.
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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by slime »

I agree with trepan and kierra. Perhaps I am just a pessimist, but it's pretty clear to me that bz is running out of players. Without any activity stats to look at, I'd take a guess that bz hit it's peak a few years back, and is going downhill pretty quickly. Nowadays, even at the most heavily populated times of the day, all active servers can be found on the first page of the list server. A few years back, at the most populated times of the day/year, you could go to pages 3 and 4 and still find servers with a few people on them.

BZ will stay alive until the list server isn't maintained any longer, which is hopefully quite a while into the future. But if nothing happens to trigger an influx of new players into the community, it will happen a lot sooner. Possibly within a few years, imo.
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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by Jacko H »

I reckon it definetely is. Lots of people look for a fun multiplayer game so when they search in google "Fun tank multiplayer game" It mentions bzflag 9 sites down.. What I think is that is it a lack of advertising if people new about bzf we get more peopl, so more people for gu.
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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by blast »

jacko h wrote:What I think is that is it a lack of advertising if people new about bzf we get more peopl, so more people for gu.
Part of the problem is that the game doesn't have the graphical glitter that many other games have nowadays. The game can also be rather non-intuitive as there isn't any tutorial mode, and new players generally join the first server on the list and get utterly owned since there is so many players (or they kill their teammates without knowing they shouldn't).
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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by ducatiwannabe »

Unfortunately, I don't know what can be done about that blast. If they only try one server, and the busiest, they should expect to get owned. :P But perhaps there is some way to bring new people in. I happen to know that I've asked a few people to play and they don't even last a week. Part of it is because the game doesn't have the graphics of other games, as you have mentioned, but another part is that they get pwned and don't think it's worth messing with.
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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by Zac »

imo, BZ takes time, you cant just pick it up like you would with any fps or strategy, the play style is unique and difficult, i learned to play with my dad and brothers on a lan server 3on3, then we discovered the fabulous pillbox and played there. people nowdays are always rushing things. they expect to play and have it figured out in 10 mins. if they cant its instantly dismissed as a stupid game.
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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by Jacko H »

very true zac
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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by Quantum Tank »

I really think Bzflag could be much more popular if we had an introduction of some kind and advertised more (doesn't even have to be advertising per se, just a way to be more accessible)... many people aren't as concerned over graphics as you might think if the game is as fun as bzflag. The problem is, of course, being open-source, which means no schedule or money for advertising and no economical motivation for bringing in new people.
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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by -panda- »

The last time I was banned GU went inactive :P.
I'm banned again now :P Good luck.
I used to spend lots of time getting people on public hix even by using bots haha.
Public hix gets matches going :).
Try sticking a few bots on during the day and I'm sure there will be lots of activity :)
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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by -panda- »

blast wrote:
jacko h wrote:What I think is that is it a lack of advertising if people new about bzf we get more peopl, so more people for gu.
Part of the problem is that the game doesn't have the graphical glitter that many other games have nowadays. The game can also be rather non-intuitive as there isn't any tutorial mode, and new players generally join the first server on the list and get utterly owned since there is so many players (or they kill their teammates without knowing they shouldn't).
It's not al about the graphics, and even when the new version comes out, nothing will change, I've seen the 2.99x beta version and it's not much different at all. YET it hasn't even come out yet, funny that it was meant to years ago.
I swear I could've coded it by now on my own.
Also a story mode would be interesting for this game :) - Not just multiplayer.
Would boost popularity and give new players a chance to get good as there's so many pro players they don't stand a chance.
Haha I just typed way too much crap. :S - sometimes my nerdy lil head just goes mad.
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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by blast »

-Panda- wrote:Try sticking a few bots on during the day and I'm sure there will be lots of activity :)
As far as I know, recent versions of bzfs do not report bots to the list. So running bots will not increase the position on the list. And if it does, that is against our list server usage policy.
-Panda- wrote:It's not al about the graphics, and even when the new version comes out, nothing will change, I've seen the 2.99x beta version and it's not much different at all. YET it hasn't even come out yet, funny that it was meant to years ago.
The stuff you have probably seen in 2.99.x are mostly maps from 2.0.x. The additional mapping features available, combined with Lua scripting, should make it possible to do a LOT of new things. Any mesh face can be a teleporter, and it can be at any angle. Any horizontal surface can be a team base (Round bases? Triangular bases? Yup). It's possible to insert dynamic text into 3D space that can be controlled via plugins. It's possible to have HTTP interfaces to plugins.

So sure, what you are seeing isn't all that different. But what you will be seeing eventually will be way more than what 2.0.x could have ever hoped to do.
-Panda- wrote:I swear I could've coded it by now on my own.
Then why haven't you? ;)

We're actually about ready to release an alpha release of 2.99.x/3.0.0. I might get to it sometime next week.
-Panda- wrote:Also a story mode would be interesting for this game :) - Not just multiplayer.
Even a tutorial mode would be nice. Set it up so that players join some tutorial server (locally hosted or otherwise) that they run through. Have it scripted with Lua so that it will show them some helpful tips on-screen and walk them through controls. Restrict their movement via the MsgAllow protocol message to prevent them from doing things you don't want then to currently do (like jumping, moving, turning, or shooting). So much could be done with a bit of plugin or Lua magic. Probably won't see this directly in the client for 3.0.0, but maybe for the release after that.
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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by Monster »

Even if GU and BZF in general is losing players it will always stay the most entertaining video game ever (at least for me:). There will be people who stay by the game. I imagine a pretty small but very close comunity in a few years and I actually can't wait for it :)
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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by Bambino »

I hope people put into account the fact that most BZFlag and GU players have lives.

We go to school, we go to work, we hang out with our friends, and we don't dedicate our lives to play BZFlag. In May/June people are studying and taking final exams. Wait till July/August, then there should be more.

I know I'll be around more. I just finished my exams :)
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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by Jacko H »

Everyone search on utube "bzflag advert" I think we should use the top one that should be the official bzf advert
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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by Grace F »

ducatiwannabe wrote:Maybe there aren't as many matches as the last year, but a lot of our players in the GU League work or have school. I know there were a number of young players who are headed into college or are in college, plus normal school and a number of other activities. Life gets busier as you get older.
kierra wrote:Players are leaving at a greater rate than new ones coming on board to league play.
slime wrote:Without any activity stats to look at, I'd take a guess that bz hit it's peak a few years back, and is going downhill pretty quickly.
Talking about team [BoOm] specifically here, we all started in the GU League at a very young age. Back then, our ages ranged from around the 11 to 15 years of age mark, and later on, the early 50's. :) Our team matched just about everyday, sometimes multiple times per day and that was even with our vast array of time zones. What's happened now is that we've all grown up, and for the majority of our team, it has left them with very little (at most) time for BZFlag. This is bad because we had alot of active members who just about all left within the same 1-2 years. This is just one team.

Now.. :)
I believe that the GU League is seemingly more quiet nowadays because of a slightly different reason. My thoughts are that the reason the GU League is not finding more members is because of the types of players that are playing. What I mean is that, I think that the standard of the players were, for the lack of a better word, "better", back in the day. Players just don't seem too interested in learning more about what BZFlag has to offer, nor are they sticking with the game long enough to discover it for themselves. I spent about a year playing on all the different maps with a lot of the oldies before I had even heard of the GU League.

Anyway, that's my two cents.

Either that or everyone is so damn sick of MissleWars. ;)
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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by blast »

Grace F wrote:Either that or everyone is so damn sick of MissleWars. ;)
Couldn't be! ;)
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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by Jacko H »

I think there should be less teams, so more players er team. So more offis!!
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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by Agent West »

Oppinion: it's alive, but barely. it's not too late to revive the project yet. don't give up, people!

Solutions:
1) Advertisement --- let's make small flags that one can put on a car (similar to how football teams got car flags)
2)Tutorial servers --- how about bots? scripts have been created from simple (no jumping "dumb" bots) to advanced enough to beat a decent player. locking maps with different levels of bots on top of server list (or perhaps making "tutorial" a new option in main menu) should have them easily accesible to new players.
3)difficulty levels: a marker of some kind (color perhaps) next to servers on server list showing the difficulty of map based on average skill level of current players using zelo score just like "1 vs 1") so people can have an idea of what to expect.
4)Game improving --- that already happened with 3.0 More people will join after they see the awesomness that the developing team created :)
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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by Jacko H »

Well god, how long is this new version going to take? Five years?
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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by blast »

I think it's already been 5 years, or if not, it's very close to that.
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Re: Is GU Dying?

Post by Jacko H »

Great maybe one of you nerdy admins should make a new one. I think consti said he coud of completed it by now.
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