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Originally posted by Helix20:
**Ok. Anklebiter is gone. Is there anyone out there who replaced him?
The pop-pop community is slowly dying now - there is never anyone online to play against anymore, there don't seem to be many pop-pop tournaments anymore (there hasn't been a proper pop-pop tournament for over a month now), and there aren't many people posting on these boards...
What I'm saying is: why can't Ambrosia find someone who has the time and will to motivate the pop-pop community?? At least Anklebiter tried to do so....!!
(This message has been edited by Helix20 (edited 08-19-2003).)**
That's because games just don't stay current that long, plus it is partly the extended beta testing that has helped to ruin things. Most players use 1.0.2, but all the beta testers use 1.0.3 now to test that. Neither set can see each other in the tracker...
Plus face it. Pop-pop is a game. That means you play it in your leisure time. Most of us just don't have that much, and certainly would rather be spending it doing non-computer related things when a lot of us spend our working lives behind the silver screen.
Round summer, many people are on holiday too, which means fewer people in an already small community on the boards or playing. People do read the boards - look at the right hand viewing numbers - it's just that there is little reason to most most of the time.
Pop-pop isn't a general discussion board - go visit the EV ones for those - there's no reason to make another.
Pop-pop isn't a game full of difficult puzzles and plot twists - so nobody really asking for help. Let's face it - moving the paddle is fairly straightforward even for the most computer illiterate.
Pop-pop isn't exciting, adventurous and full of violence and nudity - so it only appeals to a small fraction of today's gaming youth. Sad I know, but true.
Pop-pop isn't purchasable by kids - because Ambrosia only take valid plastic that you have to be over 18 to get to. This is something that the internet generally suffers from the world over - there is still no decent back-end payment structure for anything. Everything boils down to owning a credit/debit card - and young Joe Bloggs can't spend his pocket money on a game because there's no way for him to do so.
Pop-Pop has no online chat, or way of getting people to meet - the tracker is just there to sit in. Unfortunately, it also chews 10% of my CPU even when doing 'nothing' in the background except listening for connections - atrocious. It also forces me into thousands of colours - which can make doing anything serious (spend a bit of time doing graphics) a real problem.
Pop-pop doesn't give enough incentive to sit in the lounge and wait for a game. I've waited for 5 hours sometimes (while doing work) and nobody has joined. Main problem here is the web-tracker. People just check it, see there's no-one there and then don't want to bother to load up and sit in an empty lounge.
Finally, re anklebiter briefly - unfortunately he did far more to damage the community than he ever did good things for it. I'm not going to go into details, but I'm sure your capable of looking over past threads during 'the anklebiter incident' if you so care to. However, it is fair to say that, mainly because of him, a large section of the 'community' as you call it either stopped bothering to play anymore, or did not turn up as much or enjoy it as much as they did.
'nuff said
(Edited for outragous typos)
(This message has been edited by Crono (edited 08-20-2003).)