Last clanner playoff was 4 seasons ago. Time to do something?

[Ray]

Berria:
I don't think I'll play W:A again anytime soon, the point in time when I would've continued playing has long passed and tbh I've grown tired of all the discussion here.

Let me add just this, my thoughts about the actual root of the problem.

When I started playing this game it was out for a good 1.5 years and roping was already well established. When I saw these guys go crazy in Ropers and Warmers I instantly wanted to learn how to do it myself, to be able to compete with them. So I practised roping like 6 hours/day in order to become just nearly as good as them. After a while I found out about leagues and registered for cl2k div2 - that's when I realized just how bad I still was, so I went back to practise. Of course I also played public Shoppers etc, but the amount of time I spent just roping in Singleplayer was far greater. That's how ambitious I was.
There was no easy way to become a real part of the competitive community. You basically had to earn your right to play in Warmers with certain people. The community was full of elitists and fairly hard to access. But to me that wasn't an all-negative thing - I had an incredible amount of fun trying to build up a reputation and to get the community's recognition/acknowledgement. There was a (distant) goal to work towards. It's sort of how the real world works.

Nowadays it's all just so different. I don't think I would've sticked around for too long if I had started playing W:A in 2013/14. And I know many others wouldn't, either.

I didn't write all this because I want that feeling back (of course I do), but because I honestly don't think that today's newbies have an ambition and excitement anywhere close to what I (or 'we') experienced back then.

W:A has been on Steam for a while now, WormNET activity hasn't decreased (not significantly at least, I don't know the actual numbers), yet the league is having an all-time low. I rest my case.

What you are saying was still the case around 2007, even before that on WWP. Although people were very friendly, you respected those people. If you asked, they answered, they pointed me and many others to the right direction. By the way, that's the only reason I sticked with Worms, every other game people were assholes, but not here.

But to actually get as good as they were... was only a dream, well, still is. And the same stuff, I was RRing in singleplayer like many hours daily. You don't see this anymore.

[TheKomodo]

Agree with Ryan & Rene, the community is too casual presently.

What I have witnessed happen to the WA community over the 15+ years I have been playing, I have also witnessed in real life over the past 20 years.

For example, when I was 10-16 years old there was no internet (that was fast and easy to access as it is today), there was no youtube, no mobile phones, no f@#!ing x-factor, there wasn't a society of most teenagers binge drinking, no underage sex/fashion/drama etc...

You would actually go to your friends house, knock on their door, and ask their parents "Is *name here* coming oot??"

Then you would go round your other friends houses until you had your group of friends, then the whole outside world was your playground...

That tree over there, we'd have competitions to see who could climb the highest, those rocks over there, we'd see who can throw em the furthest, we would throw sticks at trees to get chestnuts to play conkers, we would build gangs full of nets and treehouses, kick balls around in the streets, cycle around on our bikes, play chap-door-run, get into fights, try and impress girls, etc etc etc...

Everybody knew everybody, everybody would say hello to each other, you would start conversations with anyone anywhere...

You could leave your bike outside a shop without some junkie smelly trampy f@#!ing twat lurking around to steal it...

Now, everyone is f@#!ing ignorant, no one wants to know anyone else except there TINY group of friends in their own bubble, people constantly on their f@#!ing mobile phones, you text someone and usually everyone takes forever to reply, even if they see your text they won't reply for like anything from 5 minutes to a whole f@#!ing day because they have to pretend to be busy or popular or whatever the f@#! it's just stupid... Only your very very close friends will reply almost immediately...

Part of this being due to more choice, more choice, more choice, MORE f@#!ING CHOICE....

This is where it reminds me of WA, when I started there were basically 3 competitive schemes, BnG/Elite/Roper & you had people doing Warmers which was a world of it's own...

Now, there are literally hundreds of schemes, quite a lot of them popular having their own communities within a community within a community ! (For example ds part of TuS part of WA)... (IT'S LIKE A DREAM INSIDE A DREAM INSIDE A DREAM WOOOOOOOOOAH DUDE !!)

Because there is so much choice, and also so much leniency here on TuS, we've all grown apart, we don't have to stick by 1 scheme or 1 set of rules, so we don't.

MI allowed the community to have a major impact on how this community turned out, yeah, GREAT JOB WE KILLED OURSELVES BwAHhaHAhaHAHaha !

So yeah, we have went from:

1 League - 3 schemes - Everybody was happy.

to

5 Leagues (Too many schemes to be bothered to count) / Cups / Challenges / Tournaments - Many people bored, pissed off, want things to be different.

[Aerox]

even if they see your text they won't reply for like anything from 5 minutes to a whole f@#!ing day because they have to pretend to be busy or popular or whatever the f@#! it's just stupid...

what

[darKz]

I had a chat with Kai yesterday and we both agreed that what the community is lacking today is exclusivity.

The prime example is EAC, a championship only accessible to ea members. People are applying (they actually still are after a good 2 years), knowing they may or may not make it in. To more or less safely make it in they need to have a reputation as a good Elite player. It's very scheme-specific but basically exactly what I was talking about. And the championship itself is running smoothly - those who are participating know they have a good amount of competition and the games are being played, even by people who are otherwise inactive. CWT also worked like that except for the minor difference that they were invite-only I believe (correct me if I'm wrong). It was a privilege to be in the tournament, it made people proud just getting that invite.

TUS needs something along those lines. Everything being accessible to everyone is boring. There needs to be a place where newbies are not wrapped up in cotton wool. As Ryan said, playoffs are a joke nowadays because all the great players don't play anymore due to lack of motivation. I doubt this would bring a lot of people back but it's sort of an investment in the future.

[Korydex]

yep :/

[Aerox]

I had a chat with Kai yesterday and we both agreed that what the community is lacking today is exclusivity.

The prime example is EAC, a championship only accessible to ea members. People are applying (they actually still are after a good 2 years), knowing they may or may not make it in. To more or less safely make it in they need to have a reputation as a good Elite player. It's very scheme-specific but basically exactly what I was talking about. And the championship itself is running smoothly - those who are participating know they have a good amount of competition and the games are being played, even by people who are otherwise inactive. CWT also worked like that except for the minor difference that they were invite-only I believe (correct me if I'm wrong). It was a privilege to be in the tournament, it made people proud just getting that invite.

TUS needs something along those lines. Everything being accessible to everyone is boring. There needs to be a place where newbies are not wrapped up in cotton wool. As Ryan said, playoffs are a joke nowadays because all the great players don't play anymore due to lack of motivation. I doubt this would bring a lot of people back but it's sort of an investment in the future.

 At the end of the day, if you remove bragging rights, elitism and all those intangibles that make people want to be the best as opposed to being part of a community weeee, then this is what you're left with.
Now, it's not all black and white, but if you remove one thing in favor of the other to the extreme it has been done here (newbies wrapped in cotton wool inside their mom's placenta) suddenly there's no rivalry, competition or try hards.

You don't have to go that much back, even in FB there used to be active discussions about who the best was, winners need the attention, they need incentives. All incentives and most efforts in this website have been directed to newcomers, but there's only so many people you can introduce to the game, and if there are no reasons to stay, you're worse off than when you started; TUS.

[zippeurfou]

I had a chat with Kai yesterday and we both agreed that what the community is lacking today is exclusivity.

Ok good, now what about what I said 4 pages ago

Another idea that crossed my mind was to make a paid league where people have to play in order to play it. Seems drastic but it could be interesting if you add tourney and other things only for 'VIP' members that pay for the league. We would have a div1 (paid) and div2 (free) and the winner of div2 could join div1 for free for the first season. People would have a goal and 'newb' would look up to go into div1. We could have a fixed price amount or at will with a minimum. If it would be at will then your reward would be proportionate of how much you paid. Moreover, some money could be used by TUS for marketing the website and attract new players (CS and DC could also take part in it and get some money for it). People pay for WOW, netflix... and other game why wouldn't you give 3 dollars every 2 months for a game you play hundreds of hours every month.. If you incorporate that in clanner. I am sure being in a clan where the clan leader pay the fee but you can get money if you win would motivate more than one person to play clanner.

Chicken, your idea to have an easy league with +3 point for win is interesting. Don't you think the whole problem is the confusion between season and overall standing? What if we hide the overall standing but just show rank (stars...)? Wouldn't that make things more easy to understand?

Edit: Sorry to look a bit senile but we had the great hysteria debate, now we have the great how WA was so much better before monologues. Could we please now focus on the topic?

[darKz]

Sorry fada, I ignored that because I don't see how paying real money to play in the top league (sort of like 'pay to win', except you don't actually win) would be healthy for anything but MI's bank account.

Also, if you're saying this thread is not about activity and motivation to play leagues, what else is it about? Thought I made a good point in my last post.

[zippeurfou]

I am not blaming you particularly darkz. I think that this is pretty clear that most 'oldschooler' stopped to play this game for various reason. This always has been like that in the past and there is nothing crazy about it. The fact that some people played that long is the crazy thing!
The problem here is that these 'generation' don't get replaced by new generation as it always has been. I understand that the game is getting older but I believe that there is more to it as you mentioned with elitism or ropa with depth.

Back to the topic, I see your argument. Pay to win, but you do also pay to play WOW. You'd be attracted (I believe) because you'd be part of the elitism and have price that 'matter'. I am trying to mix money (which I believe will be hard to remove now it has been introduced) with elitism with two divisions. I am open to other suggestions.

[Chicken23]

I agree with the points made about choice and how this has split the community into small groups.

If there was just 1 classic league for singles and clanners it would be best. But there is demand for the tournies, the cups, the different 'free' style leagues.... If tus dropped all these features and the website was just a ladder league with downloads of maps would it effect the current level of activity? - [it would help with the design and layout and the focus of the website just being about classic league as less clutter on other competitions - but todays players want these features?]

[TheKomodo]

What would be good is a League with no f@#!ing forums.

[Ryan]

We wouldn't be able to resolve this with no forums!

[Aerox]

What would be good is a League with no f@#!ing forums.

You don't have to post you know.

If you don't post, no one mocks you, win-win.

[TheKomodo]

We wouldn't be able to resolve this with no forums!

6 of 1, half dozen of the other...

Basically, you don't stand a chance anyway.

[Aerox]

Basically, you don't stand a chance anyway.

[irony]well if you continue thread shitting it's going to be hard you're right[/irony]

but please don't make this thread about komo