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Discussion What happened

Discussion in 'Annihilation' started by Moliya__Suwako, Aug 8, 2018.

Discussion - What happened
  1. KINGJED1 Platinum

    XP:
    13,116xp
    What happened to the US playerbase on Anni? I've played since release... I remember all the servers were full and everyone always played Coastal. I don't see a single US player, playing besides me anymore... Shotbow y'all have got to fix this, seriously...
    SkyeZ likes this.

  2. Tozzu Platinum

    XP:
    46,535xp
    What do you want shotbow to do about it? I dont know when you last played, but the playerbase has gotten drastically lower.
  3. m9m Regular Member

    XP:
    27,253xp

    All they have to do is fix the lag and go back to 1.8 combat. Playerbase would triple overnight.
    Wastefellow likes this.
  4. Litnetti Emerald

    XP:
    129,775xp
    shotbow has already driven away their dedicated playerbase with the delayed 1.9 update and lack of incentive to improve when the playerbase was at its highest. reverting to 1.8 or 1.7 or whatever isn't going to change anything
  5. GuigaWei Platinum

    XP:
    578,041xp
    I'll speak from experience, many players might be leaving because of commitments elsewhere. I stopped playing because I'm going away to school and I have to choose which games I want to continue pursuing in my limited free-time, and it turns out that it just can't be Annihilation. I think what did it was a combination of the game not having the best skill-based competition and the lack of willingness to fully change the meta of Annihilation by either implementing a new feature that changes how EVERYONE plays, or by nerfing down the top meta kits and forcing players to adapt with their own unique strategies.

    For the first one, I think what did it for me was the tournament. A lot of the teams entered either cheated or won their matches due to "subjective luck", which is a term I use to describe luck from their point of view. Two examples I have was the Lineage game where EnVy won that game without any boss buffs and close to 0 nexus damage while two teams did all the destruction. By no means is this objective luck since two teams used skill to decide the game, but from their point of view they did nothing as a competitive team to win the match and advance. The other example I'll use as supporting evidence: the final quarterfinals match. The team that messed around and weren't promised a spot in the finals if they won ended up winning that game, despite not really trying until the end to claim victory.

    As for the other main point, the strategies available for use is higher than ever, but the top strategies are close to the same. Use bows and mobility classes at mid to gain pressure and remain safe. Use mining fatigue at the nexus to prevent digging and guard with multiple of the same class to stop any rush that isn't a group of diamonds for the entire length of the game. The difference between the pre-1.9 and after the nexus update in terms of play-styles is that there are more of them, even though almost none of the new ones are top-tier. You CAN go to mid and farm as Robin Hood, or play as the new Bloodmage, but it isn't the optimal strategy for 90% of mid situations. You CAN invade as Succubus or as the new Vampire, but Scout will always get you there faster, and early-game Archer will always do the best damage from safety. You CAN defend as Wizard or Defender, but Immobilizer will always have the greatest affect on an enemy rush.

    Think about this: we are in the middle of a time where gaming-based competition and variety is at its peak, with most games having their meta changed at varying paces, allowing the player to choose what to commit to. People have different thresholds for how long they can wait for change or how early is too early for a major change. Therefore, I'll suggest this: Many people are leaving because Annihilation either doesn't provide enough content to keep their attention from a casual perspective, or the content doesn't keep them engaged from a competitive perspective.

    The first is simple, people check out Annihilation when new updates come out and leave when they've had their fill, which could be after a couple of days, or weeks.

    The second is how the long-term community starts leaving. Our current two methods of competition is clan battles and the recent sandbox tournament. As I explained, the tournament doesn't exactly fulfill the expectations of what a normal online gaming tournament is to fulfill, which would be minimal delays, respect shown to the competition and staff by the teams (such as showing up on time and zero cheating), and solid rules about who is eligible to play in specific matches with no second chances. Clan wars on the other hand, still go on regularly I hear, but my problem with these is that a four-team match doesn't uphold the same value of fairness that comes with a two-team game. Stacking teams is consistent with Annihilation, targeting a specific team is also very common, and hostility between two teams in normal matches is much more common here (despite getting better). The main perk gained from clan wars is that more strategies become available given the fact that there are more people in communication in order to patch up the weak points in their strategy. However, clan wars are difficult to organize and fair ones have to be planned for extensively in advance. This means until you are actually playing in a clan war, the rest of your matches are way less important and quality is lowered drastically.

    The worst part about losing players due to the second situation, is that they probably won't come back for more than a casual player's perspective and eventually fall into the first situation when the time comes for a new update. Hearing from this thread that US players are more rare, leads me to believe that others like me are deciding to commit to other games that fulfill our needs for competition instead of spending the wait time for a new update playing Annihilation. We have simply decided to treat Annihilation like a casual game that we come back to whenever new content comes out, then packing it up and leaving again until the next big update after that.

    While I'm not in any position to tell Shotbow what to do about the game since I don't even play anymore, I'll leave a couple of things I think can be done in order to make this post more constructive:

    1. Changing the meta is a GOOD thing for Annihilation! Since updates are more spread out for Shotbow's scheduling, take advantage of each one and change around which strategies are the best, while leaving as many as possible to be viable. Basically, almost like how the game is now, except different strategies replace the current ones as the most optimal. Do this every update, because most other games aren't able to do that since their updates happen very often and players will leave due to burnout.

    2. Add more long-term and short-term achievement goals! Daily Goals that give extra xp keeps players engaged and playing the game. Long-term goals also gives ALL players (both casual and competitive) something to work towards. Many games implement these long term achievements which also includes unlock-able cosmetics and leader-boards. Some games even measure you progress on specific classes as you learn what they do and master using them. Finally, make some classes unlock-able by achievements, as this makes the game more exciting for new players so they have a greater chance to join the long-term community.

    3. New is better as long as it is useful! Something I've noticed is that Annihilation has a made a habit recently of releasing new classes, items, etc. that are weaker than other classes and items. Robin Hood and Ninja were both very underwhelming on release, which isn't a good thing. Despite how annoying it can get, new classes that are more powerful are far more healthy for the game than new classes are are less powerful, unless they can be fixed very quickly. For Annihilation's situation, having the less powerful new class is worse because it stays out of the game as far as usefulness until the next update (which is usually awhile). I would say shoot for slightly above average for both classes and items, and if you have to choose between too powerful and too weak, choose too powerful. If it happens to be immensely powerful and cause anger, then it is easier to fix and diagnose the problem since people will be more motivated to send feedback on an OP class than a useless one.

    And that's all I have to say on this issue. It isn't too late to prevent the current player-base from leaving and becoming a player that comes back for new content, but it isn't the easiest task to keep them playing. If anyone has questions, feel free to ask me! I leave in one week though for college so it has to be soon. :)
  6. Litnetti Emerald

    XP:
    129,775xp
    guiga literally writing his college apps essays on the shotbow forums holy moly
  7. LegendaryAlex Platinum

    XP:
    449,178xp
    I have seen mountains that are smaller than this post.
  8. 323465963 Retired Staff

    XP:
    130,346xp
    Thank you for taking the time to provide a thorough analysis of why Shotbow's playerbase is declining and providing thoughtful suggestions to help remedy this.
  9. Mysterious_Seven Platinum

    XP:
    227,414xp
    How do you know the nationality of everyone you see? I want that Mod.
  10. HappyMangrove Regular Member

    XP:
    156,034xp
    I believe you can usually tell by either chat, or the time which players mostly play on.

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