This Game is dead!

sdogg2m · 2019-05-24 16:07:10

I have to say it is pretty impressive to go from 300 players and 590 peak to just 82.7 players on average. Reducing your player base by 2/3s in six months time is eye opening.

Just demonstrates that a primitive graphics war game presented as a cooperative resource management game coupled with project management and update botches won't fly with gamers.

This is a lesson to all gamers who come up with great money making idea; which is be careful to foster and not kill the golden goose. Do the necessary work that will keep your customer base happy and your revenue stream growing.

https://steamcharts.com/app/595690#All

RodneyC86 · 2019-05-24 16:14:56

Actually , this sort of retention rate is actually amazing by many games standards. Then again OHOLs peak is very small and this kind of niche games then to attract a cult like fanbase compared to the throwaway FPS and mobile game genres. Most mobile games are lucky to have 5 perce t retention after a year

Keyin · 2019-05-24 16:24:49

Isn't this just graphing the descent from steam release? What were the numbers like pre-steam?

Astelon · 2019-05-24 16:25:09

The data is also incomplete, unless steam accounts for people who play on the nonsteam version of the game aswell.

Dodge · 2019-05-24 16:26:35

Hmmm so the "war update" was a week ago but the drop was 6 months ago, but the drop is because of the recent update, makes total sense...

Yeah the retention rate is pretty good there was a drop obviously after steam hype, but we went from 20-30 players average before steam to more than 80 now (also these are steam numbers, not sure they count non steam players on server, currently there is 120 players on server)

futurebird · 2019-05-24 16:32:21

As much as I'm critical of some of the choices for the game's direction I don't really think you are being fair here? I think we should be aiming for a slow increase in players at this point, the retention is OK. I do think there is a bit of a disconnect from what the game promised vs. what it is, but part of that is because *no other game is quite like this one* no game combines the same elements of progression, co-operation with violence and conflict. That's one of the strengths of the game not a weakness. The trouble is keeping the balance and dealing with the griefers who are a small portion of players who could, in theory, drive away thousands if not kept in check.

Honestly, the amount of racism, nastiness, and griefing is much less in this game than it was in the early minecraft days, the playbase is much more welcoming and friendly and mature. We should be aiming to build on that without making the game into a neutered farmville type experience because I don't think that's what most of us are here for when we play OHOL.

I don't agree with trying to treat griefers as some kind of "natural feature" of the game. I'm glad we have the curse system. The war sword wasn't a good solution to the issue. But I'm still confident we will find a way to make it work.

Twisted · 2019-05-24 16:34:04

I agree that going from 300 average to 82 average is very impressive, that's an excellent retention rate over six months. Also keep in mind that's just Steam players - if we look at the chart right now it says that there's 87 people playing on Steam, but there's 125 players in total.

sdogg2m · 2019-05-24 16:36:47

Three recent reviews from those who were heavily invested in this game. All negative.

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/765 … ed/595690/
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/765 … ed/595690/
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/765 … ed/595690/

And one recent negative review from a player who was gifted OHOL

https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/765 … ed/595690/

Wuatduhf · 2019-05-24 16:40:02

The data is accurate strictly speaking to Steam's numbers, but the conclusion seems to be a lot more hostile and glossing over what the reason is for the number?

OHOL exploded in November because it went on Steam, and was picked up by several Youtubers/Streamers with significant followers at that time (most notably that I can recall, Strippin, Criken, Tomato, itmeJP).

OHOL is pretty parallel to some of the features visible in Space Station 13, and with how the two offer role-playing environments with no artificial limits on what you can build/learn, I consider them in the same genre of game. OHOL and SS13 also both have incredibly-small communities of players that fluctuate based on the times of the year, when the games get popular, and when controversial updates pop up.

On average days, SS13 hits 400-600 across all the different stations. The recent Ssethtide pushed their playerbase way up to 1500 consistently over the course of a month. I'm not sure if it's died down yet, but I'm sure the SS13 community sure hopes so.

Similar situation here, but with no videos blowing up to 1 million+ views; OHOL exploded up to 500 purchases, the people who played the game either got their fill of role-play or didn't like the very niche experience it offered, and stopped playing, which the hardcore slowly remained over time.

Is it a problem that the playerbase is this low? Kinda, yeah, it makes it hard for villages to continuously survive long enough for the previous generation to take over maintaining the lineage. However, I don't think it will be good for the game to go up in player count right now; there's still a lot of development this game needs to bring people in to really enjoy what OHOL offered in its initial video.

P. S. the steam numbers of active users doesn't technically match up with the current number of people playing, since some will have purchased the game independently from Steam. See: http://onehouronelife.com/reflector/ser … ion=report (As of the time of posting this, the game is at about medium population of active players)

Last edited by Wuatduhf (2019-05-24 16:40:22)

sdogg2m · 2019-05-24 16:54:19

@Wuatduhf

As of less than two months ago steam's average users were above those of the current number playing. Not total players just steam players! The numbers continue to drop on a consistent basis in a game that is dependent upon players. Most of lasting games on steam do drop significantly but then have an increase and then a leveling off for several solid months. OHOL does not show any type of traction for an increase in the middle term and a much higher consistent player count. This game is dead.

Here is an example: Terraria
https://steamcharts.com/app/105600

An example of a well developed war game in contrast to OHOL: PUBG
https://steamcharts.com/app/578080

Last edited by sdogg2m (2019-05-24 17:04:22)

Dodge · 2019-05-24 17:29:57

sdogg2m wrote:

@Wuatduhf
As of less than two months ago steam's average users were above those of the current number playing. Not total players just steam players! The numbers continue to drop on a consistent basis in a game that is dependent upon players. Most of lasting games on steam do drop significantly but then have an increase and then a leveling off for several solid months. OHOL does not show any type of traction for an increase in the middle term and a much higher consistent player count. This game is dead.
Here is an example: Terraria
https://steamcharts.com/app/105600
An example of a well developed war game in contrast to OHOL: PUBG
https://steamcharts.com/app/578080

Are you comparing Terraria and PUBG to OHOL? That's ridiculous at least currently, as they dont have the same numbers at all

This is a better example of a dead game: https://steamcharts.com/app/809960

Going from 12k peak to 6 players peak, imagine if OHOL had a 12k peak at one point but with the same retention rate (right now OHOL has gone from 590 peak to 133 peak so that's a x 0.225).

Applying the same multiplicator to OHOL it would be sitting at 2700 peak players currently.

Are people going to be this upset each time there is a significant game changing update?

Spoonwood · 2019-05-24 17:35:54

sdogg2m wrote:

I have to say it is pretty impressive to go from 300 players and 590 peak to just 82.7 players on average. Reducing your player base by 2/3s in six months time is eye opening.
Just demonstrates that a primitive graphics war game presented as a cooperative resource management game coupled with project management and update botches won't fly with gamers.

I don't disagree.

sdogg2m wrote:

This is a lesson to all gamers who come up with great money making idea; which is be careful to foster and not kill the golden goose. Do the necessary work that will keep your customer base happy and your revenue stream growing.

Wait what? You said gamers there. You sure you said what you meant to say?

Spoonwood · 2019-05-24 17:43:29

sdogg2m wrote:

@Wuatduhf
As of less than two months ago steam's average users were above those of the current number playing. Not total players just steam players! The numbers continue to drop on a consistent basis in a game that is dependent upon players. Most of lasting games on steam do drop significantly but then have an increase and then a leveling off for several solid months. OHOL does not show any type of traction for an increase in the middle term and a much higher consistent player count. This game is dead.
Here is an example: Terraria
https://steamcharts.com/app/105600
An example of a well developed war game in contrast to OHOL: PUBG
https://steamcharts.com/app/578080

Oxygen Not Included is one game that I've seen OHOL streamers also play: https://steamcharts.com/app/457140

Another is Rimworld: https://steamcharts.com/app/294100

Rimworld is now basically 5 and a half years old, and it still shows positive numbers, and got independently developed by Tynan Sylvester and the people he hired also.

Spoonwood · 2019-05-24 17:46:03

Dodge wrote:

Are people going to be this upset each time there is a significant game changing update?

I haven't heard any complaints about the latest update now. The OHOL graphs linked to also cover a lot of updates. Where exists a positive increase in the number of people playing? Also, how is OHOL a fairly new game declining consistently, while Rimworld still has green numbers on the Steam charts?

pein · 2019-05-24 17:52:29

twistedfangirlsdogg2m wrote:

bullshit incomplete analisys

hiello on forums

to be fair no point playing it trough steam, got several limitations to it
and pretty sure this is less than half of actual pop
update hoppers are still coming back, you gettign a new game each week

the situation is not that bad

Dodge · 2019-05-24 18:09:31

Spoonwood wrote:

Dodge wrote:
Are people going to be this upset each time there is a significant game changing update?
I haven't heard any complaints about the latest update now. The OHOL graphs linked to also cover a lot of updates. Where exists a positive increase in the number of people playing? Also, how is OHOL a fairly new game declining consistently, while Rimworld still has green numbers on the Steam charts?

I was talking about the update from last week, you remember? the one you couldn't stop talking about....

The_Anabaptist · 2019-05-24 23:22:20

Considering that the player base is split between non-steam players and steam players, the chart is an incomplete picture. I would expect the retention rate among non-steam players to be significantly higher since many of them were invested in the game for a longer period of time.

However, the comparison to RimWorld is a good one to make in terms of single person vision, split player base, modding, etc. While OHOL isn't gasping its last, it could be doing a lot better as RimWorld shows. While RimWorld doesn't update nearly as frequently as OHOL, I can't remember a RimWorld update that wasn't widely viewed by the player base as positive.

The_Anabaptist

kubassa · 2019-05-24 23:54:54

Keyin wrote:

Isn't this just graphing the descent from steam release? What were the numbers like pre-steam?

There used to be several hundred playing the game on average pre "rags to riches" update. After that it fell drastically. Jason said he would never release on steam due to previous bad experience yet he had to release on steam because the game was dead with 20 - 50 playing at any given time and there was really nothing happening on the servers.

The constant changing everything every week got old fast for me. I originally quit because he changed the spawning system and i couldn't play with my family any more. He even replied to a post I made about it and said "I didn't make this game to be playable with friends and that's not what the vision of the game is". He offered to give back my money, which I did not accept we got our monies worth, and told me to "peace out" pretty much. Now you can spawn in with your friends. Imagine that..... Way too late as me and my family members moved on and don't play the game any longer.

There is a vocal minority on this forum that Jason listens to and drives the game towards them and their feedback. It's pretty much an echo chamber........ The things that made the game fun are no longer there and if you disagree you get shit on by the same 4 goomba's. You can see who they are they have 40000000 posts and comment on every single thread regardless of the topic.

It is sad because there was a point where you could play and all you were doing in your hour of game time was laughing hysterically at all the silly stuff happening. Now it's just too tedious to do any of the end game recipe's. Quite boring IMO. Not too many people want to sit on a wiki for hours and hours to learn how to make something that you can't even make in your lifetime. It just makes people want to quit. Then to have no way to return to the work you put into the city, which you could before through baby suicide, makes the game really slow and dreadfull having to do the exact same thing every life...........

Last edited by kubassa (2019-05-24 23:56:47)

futurebird · 2019-05-25 00:05:37

kubassa wrote:

There is a vocal minority on this forum that Jason listens to and drives the game towards them and their feedback.
*snip*
Then to have no way to return to the work you put into the city, which you could before through baby suicide, makes the game really slow and dreadfull having to do the exact same thing every life...........

I've never heard anyone here say that they don't want more ways to return? Who are earth is saying they don't like lineage ban and area ban and not being able to get back to the same town or family? It's the most requested change ever after maybe a S T O R A G E U P D A T E...

BladeWoods · 2019-05-25 00:29:32

Salty idiot. Super super normal for games to peak on/shortly-after release.

And you should be using ohol server numbers not steam numbers. Especially because of mods there are people that don't play through steam.

Last edited by BladeWoods (2019-05-25 00:30:48)

karltown_veteran · 2019-05-25 02:43:29

I would like to apologize to Jason, the troll rates are surprisingly high, and steadily climbing.

Morti · 2019-05-25 03:08:56

I love you all.

Léonard · 2019-05-25 10:21:59

Dodge wrote:

I was talking about the update from last week, you remember? the one you couldn't stop talking about....

And this is relevant because... ?

Dodge · 2019-05-25 10:51:13

Léonard wrote:

Dodge wrote:
I was talking about the update from last week, you remember? the one you couldn't stop talking about....
And this is relevant because... ?

I was responding to Spoonwood, read the thread...

Kamor · 2019-05-25 11:17:42

This is perfect for a Pay once, Play forever game.

Pay once doesn't pay the developers wages and server maintenance cost forever. *joking ;-)*

I stopped playing this game at the moment, so i can underline your statistic. I watch forum and check family trees from time to time. But i find no posts at the moment to start a "new" live here. It´s not the game i thought it is when buying it. Perhaps it will be in future? This is a griefer game. They have every tools they need to destroy life. Its´not one hour of life, it´s one hour to destroy life. *joking again*.

One Hour One Life Forums

#1 2019-05-24 16:07:10

This Game is dead!

#2 2019-05-24 16:14:56

Re: This Game is dead!

#3 2019-05-24 16:24:49

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#4 2019-05-24 16:25:09

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#5 2019-05-24 16:26:35

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#6 2019-05-24 16:32:21

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#7 2019-05-24 16:34:04

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