[MUD-Dev] Account retention (was: D& D vs. MMORPG "complexity")

[Byron Ellacott]

On Thu, 2003-05-22 at 03:25, Paul Schwanz wrote:
> Dave Rickey wrote:
>> From: <Daniel.Harman at barclayscapital.com>

>>> So your are saying that people who have high level chars are
>>> more likely to renew their account? Surely you could draw the
>>> opposite conclusion that people who renew their account are more
>>> likely to have high level chars?

>> How are those two statements different?  What I found was that if

> It seems to me that this has to go beyond mere levels though.
> Else the obvious way to increase your retention would be to simply
> hand everyone a 50th level character when they activate their
> account.

And thus how those two statements are different -- causality.  "I
retain my account because I have a 50th level character" implies
that having a 50th level character is the cause, and having an
account is the effect. Whereas "I have a 50th level character
because I retain my account" implies that the retention of the
account has led to a 50th level character.  The latter case
certainly makes alot more sense, if I retain my account, I am likely
playing more, and levels are (generally) a result of time played.

I would suggest that a statement along the lines of, "Players who
are in-world regularly are likely to renew their account."  From
there, you can see that increasing retention is linked to increasing
or maintaining the time people spend in-world.  And to do that, you
need to decide why people are spending the time in-world.

There appears to be two emerging strategies for this -- engaging PvP
and highly dynamic content.  As a player, both of these appeal to
me, but I've yet to see either implemented well :)

--
Byron Ellacott <bje at apnic.net>
APNIC

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