Official forums for BZFlag.org

Constitution wrote:The idea of a new kind of event like hrj described does sound appealing. I would hate to miss out on a traditional Riker Cup, but they have seemed a little lopsided in participation lately.

Snake12534 wrote:I visit BZFlag frequently and I understand how inactive it is. That is why I proposed a proposal for one league about commitment and dedication. It's about *DEDICATED* players who are *DEDICATED* to keeping the leagues alive.

I apologize for diverging from the topic a little, but BZFlag is a game, and not a religion which demands the solemn devotion of its adherents. If people don't play much anymore, it's because it doesn't meet their expectations or desires anymore. Rather than calling for people to sacrifice their time to help keep alive a game they don't enjoy playing anymore, we should be trying to improve the game so that they do.

This is unrelated to the topic, but your analogy to my statement on how bzflag is a game, not a religion is hyperbolic. Any person can understand BZFlag is not a religion. Nor has what I said similar to, "the solemn devotion of its adherents." You say players don't play much anymore because it doesn't meet their expectations. This is entirely truth, but have you asked what are their expectations? Why did some players leave? They just got bored of the oldies graphics and want to play MineCraft or CoD instead? No matter how much you improved the game, they're not coming back if these were their expectations. What if their expectations were just merely, "come on and start a match right away" and avoid the waiting. Unfortunately, in this state of Bzflag, that usually isn't possible. You're being very vague when you say, "improve the game." This event hrj has proposed is very promising. It will overachieve those with expectations of the latter. I support any event in this league if it promotes more activity, especially when deseparate times call for desperate measures. If you think merging one league will make the game "better" and therefore magically exceed older players' expectations, than you are wrong. The main reasons why I see someone leaving the game is (in order): Activity, Another awesome game made in the 21st century (no way in which BZFLag can compete against), and community (either bans or disrespect). My proposal just needed 2 other people to commit. Then, at least we can rule out the biggest reason why someone would leave BZFlag.

As usual, you ignored the actual issue, which is that you were asking people to give up their time (specifically one hour every day) for the benefit of BZFlag. BZFlag exists for the benefit of the players... the players do not exist for the benefit of BZFlag. Keeping the league alive, not by players being kept engaged and interested, but by asking players to give up their time and play anyway, is artificial and will not result in a healthy player population.

There are plenty of healthy ways to improve the game; I do not believe that your idea is one of them.