How do we get more people into MTA?

[[KFC]KungFu]

Great link I missed it before..

this is very interesting... Look at how many people play MTA

http://www.game-monitor.com/stats.php?game=mta

The green line is who plays.. the red are available slots.. it peeks at >500 and dips down to 0

kinda sad... This is why I am trying to encourage the so called newbs to get better at MTA since without new people who are we going to play

I got to thinking about how few ppl are interested in this game and how interested the few people who play are... sorta like a cult following

If we had 2000 people playing it would be fraction of the amount of people who play other games but it would be 4x the people who play this one.

Other games are made for online play and this isn't but... this is free and addictive.

I think we need to try and do two things.

1) spread the word - however you can, call a radio show, tell people in other circles... put a bumper sticker on your car, bike or make a T-Shirt.. Tell telemarketers when they call you ;p

the big one

2) Help new people get this running and get good at this...

- Everytime you pwn a noob and shit talk them they will walk away from this game and put it down to everyone who asks so they never get new people to play

- Everytime you take a new guy aside and help them play this game they will tell everyone they know about this game and you will have more people to play with.

I know about all of MTAs limitations but we should be able to get more than a max of 400 ppl in the whole world to play it at one time

These are the stats for CS Source... could you imagine half of these people playing MTA?

Green is the amount of people playing, Red is server availablity.

[l2ebel]

i play mta and css

but i know what you mean and ive mailed some tv company about mta and if they could talk about it in their "games show" but they didnt reply, i gotta find some other way to contact the mod of that show

[Guest]

It's been in a magazine in the UK and was on the cover disk. Other than that not seen anything. I got a friend playing mta which is a good way of getting more playing.

But other than that lets hope that Blue is more accessible for 'noobs' or just easy to get to grips with. Mayeb then we see a turn around.

[eAi]

We expect that Blue will make MTA much more popular. We'd rather wait for the release of blue before people start spamming forums with links to us, otherwise people are going to get fed up!

eAi

[Slothman]

at the moment people tend to get turned off by the unpolished gameplay, they don't realize how amazing it is to turn a single player game into a multiplayer and they expect completely professional gameplay right away, they don't realize that mta is stil a beta. So people play mta, then move on to the next newest game/back to counterstrike.

mta has already appeared in many pc magazines, a couple tech shows, a slashdot link, and an uncountable number of gaming websites. not much more publicity can be had.

my suggestion: more good (moderated) servers like partyservers

[[KFC]KungFu]

We expect that Blue will make MTA much more popular. We'd rather wait for the release of blue before people start spamming forums with links to us, otherwise people are going to get fed up!

eAi

I get what you are saying...

First impressions last and people who check in on it now may not stop back...

I think there are enough people available to let a few get fed up now and still grab more when Blue raises the bar...

The gameplay now is very very good and it's come a long way from when I first played it. If I can get hooked so can others... try and spread the word.

Sloth has a good point with the servers... Many times people will think it's overrun with cheaters when it's just lag and sync thou. I would say only 1 in 10 people who cry cheater are right from my experience

[orappa]

We expect that Blue will make MTA much more popular. We'd rather wait for the release of blue before people start spamming forums with links to us, otherwise people are going to get fed up!

eAi

I get what you are saying...

First impressions last and people who check in on it now may not stop back...

Yeah, I remember telling someone once about it and they said "Oh yeah, I played it once and the players just kind of floated around without walking properly" and instantly rejected it despite me saying that 0.4 didn't have that problem.

Perhaps when Blue is released you could persuade some magazines or web sites to review it in order to tempt people who were dissuaded by previous versions. I'm not sure that MTA in its current state would get high scores due to the bugs, relative user unfriendliness and gameplay limitations (all of which I overlook when I play, btw).

[gamebro]

Tons of people know about MTA. And tons have tried it. Honestly, I am willing to bet that 80 percent of everyone who owns GTA3 or VC for pc, knows about MTA.

As good as the current version is (considering this is beta for a non multiplayer game) it still is far from what it needs to be. The fire delay and glitches make it very difficult for new players to compete. These are players who could pickup any other shooter for the first time, and play well (not shooter noobs).

Learning how to fight in MTA means learning how to glitch ect.

While I have firm belief that blue will be what they say it will be, I don't personally believe it will be done soon enough for many to care. At least not for VC or GTA3... By then those 2 games will be played by not 500, but more like 200.

IF blue can be used for san andreas, then hell! You can expect a much larger following then what VC or gta3 has ever drawn.

in short, plenty of people know of MTA.... I hate to say this out loud, but many of them just don't care. They like thier polished matches of counter strike ect. I highly doubt the numbers will ever dramatically increase.

I for one do enjoy MTA however, and it is a darn shame there isn't more interest.

[eAi]

As a team we believe and hope that blue will really invigorate the community and bring in lots of new players. We are of course aware than VC is an old game and SA is out for PS2, so perhaps we won't get as many players as we would if we were releasing for a newer game (that hasn't had a sequal released), but we'll see. I don't think VC becomes a tottally invalid game once people have Vice City, both have their merits (no, I've not played SA), and Vice City Multiplayer is different from San Andreas Single Player.

eAi

[[KFC]KungFu]

Gamebro made some very painfully true observations but I don't think that the VC multiplayer will die because SA is around.

it's apples and oranges like eAi said...

Unless someone came out with a great multiplayer SA mod before MTA they would still have the market cornered on GTA multiplayers.

Im biased for sure but I can't see how any other game can measure up to a playable MTAVC like blue will be with all of the options for gamemodes.

Now we have stunt and deathmatch... then we will have many many variations for servers to run... but that's all the future... my original point was the here and now...

I know this game is fun and playable... it's not for everyone for sure but the more people that hear about it the more people we can get to play it as is... and imperfect as it is it's still worth playing. I have had some sucess keeping new people by teaching them the ins and outs of version 0.4.1... if you see someone new try to take them aside and let them in on the secrets... lag sync etc...

[b0b0]

The problem is not the game. The problem is the many morons who play the game. About 90% of the players are extremely immature, and all they do is ruin the game for others by means of admin abuse or cheating. And when I say cheating, I mean firetruck flying, minigun-toting cheating. It only takes one idiot to ruin the game for everyone. The only way people will stick with this game is if this large portion of the MTA community matures.

[[ULK]Crack]

heh mta is sleeping.. ppl get fun only cheating and glitching that take also me quit from server.. I belive when blue comes out that would be better....

[erorr404]

imo, by far the biggest turn off's from MTA are the frequent crashes, and lack of direction in gameplay. many turn away from the game the instant they realize how buggy it is and how often it crashes, and many quickly get bored of the gameplay because it is not exciting enough (running around the map and shooting people with no point or objective).

BLUE will definately diminish both of these issues and players will be easier to attract.

and if BLUE gets released for San Andreas soon after the PC launch of the game, there will definately be a huge increase in players, because 1) the game is new and fresh, and 2) MTA: SA is polished because of the years of development that went into that core.

[Toreno]

I got to thinking about how few ppl are interested in this game and how interested the few people who play are...

i remember lots of ppl played mta 0.3r2(and the official server was always full), i think most ppl dont like mta 0.4(1). thats why there are just a few players left.

[TechniK.EXE]

You could get more people into MTA if had pr0n in it.

[orappa]

i remember lots of ppl played mta 0.3r2(and the official server was always full), i think most ppl dont like mta 0.4(1). thats why there are just a few players left.

A few? You make it sound as if there are only 3 or 4 players now

I'm not sure if what you say is true because surely there would be loads of people still playing 0.3?

And what do you mean by "most people don't like mta 0.4(1)"? What do you mean "most people"?

I think the loss of demand is a combination of bugs, not enough changes to VC and the fact that the gameplay flaws still remain (e.g. a lack of objectives). They tried to correct this in GTA3 with the use of purchasable weapons, Turismo mode and Pay 'n' Sprays. It would be good if they introduced this into VC in 0.4.5 (particularly Turismo mode, which would benefit from VC's wider array of vehicles).

[Toreno]

A few? You make it sound as if there are only 3 or 4 players now

I'm not sure if what you say is true because surely there would be loads of people still playing 0.3?

And what do you mean by "most people don't like mta 0.4(1)"? What do you mean "most people"?

I think the loss of demand is a combination of bugs, not enough changes to VC and the fact that the gameplay flaws still remain (e.g. a lack of objectives). They tried to correct this in GTA3 with the use of purchasable weapons, Turismo mode and Pay 'n' Sprays. It would be good if they introduced this into VC in 0.4.5 (particularly Turismo mode, which would benefit from VC's wider array of vehicles).

I mean a lot of ppl played mta 0.3r2, not that they still play it. And yes there are less players than before, leagues have died,clans have become smaller and some have left the scene, most servers are empty(in my country theres only one popular server left, but it lags). there isn't much left Jon.

i agree with the reasons that you give for this situation. and i also think gta3 mta is a lot more fun sometimes, but there are even less ppl playing that than mtavc.

I hope blue can solve this, but it will take some time.

[[KFC]KungFu]

I think it's not accurate to say there is no direction for gameplay with all of the advances that Aeron and Oli have made with scripts...

The server that has the most people in it the most time is PartyServer.. that I among others admin... We run vigilante mode all the time, we have CTW and Manhunt running as well...

I think that a large amount of the players we have left are the laggy variety who have a haven with MTA. If you lag in server based games the whole screen is hosed and it's hard to play. However in MTA, laggers have smooth client based gameplay and the lag is only with other players they find...

People with good ping and bad computers might not be able to run newer games they may rather play...

I have a good ping and a good computer and I know others do... who knows why we still play... but I think this is also a factor when it comes to the extreme lag we are seeing with many players these days.

The game is laggy... but when 0.4 was launched and everyone was trying it out it wasn't this bad. same for version 0.3

It is no picnic shooting a guy 20 times to get one shot to sync while every packet they send your way synces just fine... Explaining this and other things that are unique to MTA to new people will go a long way to getting them to stay.

[Slothman]

i think the reason the partyservers are so popular is the awesome pings that everyone gets off it and the fact that its actually admined. scripts are fun too though (gta3 partyservers script isnt working properly btw, seems to have 2 scripts running atm.)

[Toreno]

true, but in my country there s a populated server with good pings, but still there is a lot of lag, and it isn't caused by MTA, or the players, its definately the server.

And scripts do add a little bit of gameplay, but script gamemodes are very simple, because the deathmatch settings stay the same.(though the creators of those scripts have done a good job)

Besides, a lot of players are robber now, before 0.3, the mexican was very popular as well, i mean for example i played both, now i have to choose robber because mexican is weaker. Also the spaz is gone, i didn't use it often, but it added some gameplay.

[Ghoststriker]

Well in one of my EGM mags it said something about this just a short article in the back of it. i went right after it. Sounded awesome and it was true but a small picture and 4 sentences about it wont help much. My idea is i think we should chip in and get a advertisment somewhere. What does everyone thing??

[eAi]

I think its clear from the comments here that now is not the time to be promoting MTA. Just "sit it out" and wait for Blue, which we hope will resolve as many issues as are resolveable (or at least give us the potential to resolve them in the future). We have some ideas in-team for the promotion of Blue and we'll talk about them nearer the release.

eAi

[[FMJ]chode]

well what strikes me most about this game is really the chat function. This is probably the most different part of mta to any other MP game as with this you can chat while you play, not just before or after rounds or when you are dead. I dont tend to like games like CS or UT because of the lack of contact with other ppl, which is where i see the "point" of MTA and it feels more like a MP game, where other games sometimes i dont see the difference between fighting a bot and a person other side of the world.

i see it as the same sorta difference between meeting friends at school/real life etc and meetin ppl over the net. on the net, U can talk to em, but never really get theyre true personanlity, yet in the real world you can see much more asspects of they're nature. In MTA compard to different games you see much more of ppls personality's because they are able to bitch or moan or cheer every time they kill or what not, or can show respect and thier "good" side, whereas others are just limited to "gg" or a small comment at the end of the round, where if some1 isnt happy, they can leave without a fuss. This is why we tend to see less muture ppl play mta than any other MP, because it can be seen. if you get me

So just let ppl play the way they wanna play, and get to know em in the chat. some ppl cant stand losing ALL the time and when they are faced with countless "pros" who know just about everything there is to this game then you can see why they get fed up and don't play. so set urself a challenge. try to have a colt v stubby match or maybe bat v stubby match, and even if you lose constantly dont just switch to stubby just to prove ur better......

if ppl dont wanna fight, then dont just constantly attack em, respect thier right to play the game aswell and leave em to do whatever they wanna do rather than shout "stop running noob" achieves nothing.

being a good player dont just mean leaning how to win. also means learning how to lose, but still enjoy yourself.

choday - long post, better be worth it

[erorr404]

well what strikes me most about this game is really the chat function. This is probably the most different part of mta to any other MP game as with this you can chat while you play, not just before or after rounds or when you are dead. I dont tend to like games like CS or UT because of the lack of contact with other ppl, which is where i see the "point" of MTA and it feels more like a MP game, where other games sometimes i dont see the difference between fighting a bot and a person other side of the world.

actually, everyone i know that plays CS uses a mic, so id say it gives you the most contact out of any online PC game, overall. i think it has a chat function too, allowing you to talk to everyone on the server, as do most games. so that kinda invalidates your point but yeah, its great that MTA has chat .

[Ghoststriker]

In CS tho when u have a alltalk on everyone sees it and if u playing a bomb map the Counter-terriosts that are dead can easily tell the alive CT's where the enemies are the position of bomb. It would be nice to have alltalk but there are to many of those stupid asses that have to wreck it for the rest that want to enjoy.