It's one thing if there's a big "event" (think Halloween, 4th of July, etc.) which is great for the short term where the server stays popped and hopefully there might be some overflow into the following days and weeks as people remember "oh WC3 is fun I should continue to add this game into my rotation."
I think the main problem is how to keep it popped consistently and it's a matter of finding that balance between not giving away too much but still finding a way to incentivize you to come back again and again. How's that work?...well the first thing that comes to mind is some apps have promotions for logging in every day...like first day you get 1x pts, 2nd day you get 2x pts, etc. where once you miss a day, you lose out on whatever bonus multiplier you worked your way up to and you have to start from scratch the next time you log in. This incentivizes you wanting/needing to sign in again and again. Obviously we don't want people just joining the server to collect/maintain their bonus/multiplier then leaving but you can limit the reward going to people that maybe play X amount of time (not afk) and get X amount of kills each day to qualify for the daily or weekly bonus. This can be tweeked where maybe the requirement is play once every 3 days or you have 3 days to meet the time played/kills goal or it can even be a weekly goal. I know I personally don't have time any more to play every single day but if you get enough people to commit X number of hours a week the server pop will be a lot healthier.
Another idea is to incentivize and promote the most popular/peak hours of the day...so someone sees the server is empty at 6PM and they join knowing they'll get [insert incentive here] once the server gets up to [X people], or maybe if 4 - 6 players are in the game they get X....basically the logic behind this is once the server has half a dozen players in it, especially during peak hours, it will fill up much easier. The goal isn't to have the server populated 24/7 as that's nearly impossible to achieve...the goal is to have it populated when most people are available to play and want to play.
The bottom line is figuring out what incentives people really want and using that to come up with a system that is sustainable long term. Regulars have different wants/needs than new players whether that's XP or even some control over ROTD. If you want to keep new people then maybe give them some sort of bonus they actually understand besides XP...give them 10% more damage or more 10% more HP or something somewhat tangible that they can wrap their minds around while they figure out how the game works...then as they level up they lose that initial buff and instead get the benefits of whatever classes they're leveling like everyone else.
Repopping War3
in Warcraft 3
Posted
It's one thing if there's a big "event" (think Halloween, 4th of July, etc.) which is great for the short term where the server stays popped and hopefully there might be some overflow into the following days and weeks as people remember "oh WC3 is fun I should continue to add this game into my rotation."
I think the main problem is how to keep it popped consistently and it's a matter of finding that balance between not giving away too much but still finding a way to incentivize you to come back again and again. How's that work?...well the first thing that comes to mind is some apps have promotions for logging in every day...like first day you get 1x pts, 2nd day you get 2x pts, etc. where once you miss a day, you lose out on whatever bonus multiplier you worked your way up to and you have to start from scratch the next time you log in. This incentivizes you wanting/needing to sign in again and again. Obviously we don't want people just joining the server to collect/maintain their bonus/multiplier then leaving but you can limit the reward going to people that maybe play X amount of time (not afk) and get X amount of kills each day to qualify for the daily or weekly bonus. This can be tweeked where maybe the requirement is play once every 3 days or you have 3 days to meet the time played/kills goal or it can even be a weekly goal. I know I personally don't have time any more to play every single day but if you get enough people to commit X number of hours a week the server pop will be a lot healthier.
Another idea is to incentivize and promote the most popular/peak hours of the day...so someone sees the server is empty at 6PM and they join knowing they'll get [insert incentive here] once the server gets up to [X people], or maybe if 4 - 6 players are in the game they get X....basically the logic behind this is once the server has half a dozen players in it, especially during peak hours, it will fill up much easier. The goal isn't to have the server populated 24/7 as that's nearly impossible to achieve...the goal is to have it populated when most people are available to play and want to play.
The bottom line is figuring out what incentives people really want and using that to come up with a system that is sustainable long term. Regulars have different wants/needs than new players whether that's XP or even some control over ROTD. If you want to keep new people then maybe give them some sort of bonus they actually understand besides XP...give them 10% more damage or more 10% more HP or something somewhat tangible that they can wrap their minds around while they figure out how the game works...then as they level up they lose that initial buff and instead get the benefits of whatever classes they're leveling like everyone else.