A Running Trend of ' Zombie Players '

[Johnny B. Goode]

They are only detrimental to GE if that matters to your guild.

Thank you, Captain Obvious.

 

[Ebeondi Asi]

Thank you, Captain Obvious.

JBG was looking in a mirror when he wrote that

 

[Coach Zuck]

cities that don't change, appear active (collecting), all look the same, no chat, no other participation... sounds like someone might have an interest in pumping up the game's MAU numbers since we're talking about conspiracies....

 

[Xenon Doughster]

I am a GuildLeader in Noarsil. Over the past year or so, I've been receiving multiple requests from individuals to join our Guild. However, none of the " players " ever engage in conversation. They never answer a question and they never comment. If you let them into your Guild, they seem active when you check on activity button ( green, blue, red ), but never participate in GE, QI, chat, 1.9 threads, swap threads, stix to brix thread, nothing.

I've seen an increase in these types of " players " and am wondering if anyone can explain to me who these people are.

Are these people just plants from other Guilds meant to sandbag other Guilds ?

Thanks for your response, I'd love to hear your theories on what the heck is going on.

I do not necessarily disagree with many of the respondents here. I do think that Inno's efforts to gain more mobile players has increased the number of people who are less active in a guild, on several levels and for several reasons including the time factor. I for one have wide fingers that are not suited to typing/texting on a cellphone, thus there would be very little interaction with others. If I were limited to such a device for playing FoE, I would definitely exit the game.

 

[alephtangent]

@Flavius Belisarius; Exactly. I am very protective of GE performance for my Guild.

@Coach Zuck what are MAU numbers ?

@Xenon Doughster, I think Inno won the cellphone players years ago. My Guild and most other Guilds I speak with in Noarsil are majority cellphone users by a long shot.

I think Inno did the best they could making the game's interface translate to phone. I hate it. I will play the game while on phone if I absolutely have to, but, 99% of the time, I'm using my laptop. I can't imagine having the patience for playing foe on mobile and have respect for the patience of those that do.

 

[Mor-Rioghain]

@alephtangent

According to Google, MAU is:

Monthly active users (MAU) is a key performance indicator (KPI) used by social networking and other companies to count the number of unique users who have visited a site within the past month. Websites generally recognize monthly active users via an identification number, email address, or username.

Wowzers. Could'a fooled me! I had NO idea.

 

[Dominator - X]

@alephtangent

According to Google, MAU is:

Monthly active users (MAU) is a key performance indicator (KPI) used by social networking and other companies to count the number of unique users who have visited a site within the past month. Websites generally recognize monthly active users via an identification number, email address, or username.

Wowzers. Could'a fooled me! I had NO idea.

IE, I had an ex guildmate whom I contributed to a GB in a swap thread back when I was new to the game and knew nothing about 1.x threads. He quit the game and never leveled any of his GBs. It was a higher-level GB, but I only had 20 FPs on it. As I remember, it would have taken several thousand FPs to level, so the other member who was also stuck on it and I just left it, hoping INNO would delete his city. It took over 4 maybe 5 years to finally delete it just a few weeks ago. I don't know if INNO deleted it or if the owner deleted it, but the GB is off my list and the city is without trace, as far as I can see.
I was told that INNO would send out E-mail notices back in the day to inactive members and offer something (Diamonds or something alluring enough) if they log in and claim them. This would keep his city somehow active enough for the MAU to count and the city still functioning enough not to delete it, even though the owner really did nothing with it. Never collected, fought or anything detectable through the databases. But it still stayed there for years with little to no activity.

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

I was told that INNO would send out E-mail notices back in the day to inactive members and offer something (Diamonds or something alluring enough) if they log in and claim them.

Yes. The Sandcastle was all I was ever offered. I had a second (not push) account that is still in existence even though I almost never access it. I occasionally gets an email from Inno offering me a "gift" to return and play that account. Sorry, Inno, an outdated Happiness building is hardly enough for me to play two separate accounts.

 

[xivarmy]

Yes. The Sandcastle was all I was ever offered. I had a second (not push) account that is still in existence even though I almost never access it. I occasionally gets an email from Inno offering me a "gift" to return and play that account. Sorry, Inno, an outdated Happiness building is hardly enough for me to play two separate accounts.

They offer a few days of forgeplus and a short welcome back questline to return now

And if you go by what they'd like to charge you for that, it's a sizeable gift! *snicker*

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

They offer a few days of forgeplus and a short welcome back questline to return now

And if you go by what they'd like to charge you for that, it's a sizeable gift! *snicker*

Yes, but I think that's for short breaks from the game and they don't send an email out for that. I got that "welcome" after my 8 day vacation break from the game. I still get the emails on my other account offering me the Sandcastle as "incentive" to come back there. Next time I get one, I might log back in on that account just to see if I get the Forge Plus welcome. LOL

 

[Mor-Rioghain]

I'm currently developing a theory that has to do with Zombie Threads rather than Zombie Players. I think that the Zombie Players are looking for the oldest threads possible to revive and turn them into Zombie Threads. Any thoughts?

 

[Ebeondi Asi]

I'm currently developing a theory that has to do with Zombie Threads rather than Zombie Players. I think that the Zombie Players are looking for the oldest threads possible to revive and turn them into Zombie Threads. Any thoughts?

That is a good theory for a cynic. Alternatively for those less inclined to cynicism, it is players doing a search, and not realizing the thread is really old.

 

[alephtangent]

@Dominator - X , yep, it took around 4 years for people whom I had donated to, yet never finished their GBs, and quit the game, to finally drop off my " donated to " list. Sheesh. I felt so much better, afterward, though ! : - )

" Yes. The Sandcastle was all I was ever offered " - JBG

I had to quit a world, long time ago as my other accounts were taking up too much time. I thought it nice of Inno, but, you are not going to successfully bribe me with a sandcastle.

" (MAU) is a key performance indicator (KPI) used by social networking and other companies to count the number of unique users who have visited a site within the past month. Websites generally recognize monthly active users via an identification number, email address, or username. " - Mor-Rioghain

Thanks everyone, appreciate your responses.

 

[OakbrookChick]

One of the main reasons that people don't do QI is that QI sucks bigtime. It's poorly designed, made impossible for most people to even complete, and absolutely nothing fun or interesting about it. Same old, same old, over and over again.

Same goes for most events, boring brainless click-a-lot that no one actually enjoys. The few events that actually are fun and require a bit of thinking (like the wildlife event, for example), people constantly whine that it is too hard for them. Rival challenges are impossible for most people.

GBG has become really hopeless now that one guild can take over the entire board for an entire season, and no one can or wants to participate in that.

So why would anyone care about "helping" the guild, participating in guild-coordinated activities, or even chatting about it?

Inno is doing a tiny amount to help relieve the tedium that has developed, and I hope they continue, but right now there is very little in the game that makes people want to engage, participate in guild activities, or contribute beyond just building their city.

Don't blame the players for their indifference, blame Inno for making the game less and less fun to play interactively.

 

[Pericles the Lion]

One of the main reasons that people don't do QI is that QI sucks bigtime. It's poorly designed, made impossible for most people to even complete, and absolutely nothing fun or interesting about it. Same old, same old, over and over again.

Same goes for most events, boring brainless click-a-lot that no one actually enjoys. The few events that actually are fun and require a bit of thinking (like the wildlife event, for example), people constantly whine that it is too hard for them. Rival challenges are impossible for most people.

GBG has become really hopeless now that one guild can take over the entire board for an entire season, and no one can or wants to participate in that.

So why would anyone care about "helping" the guild, participating in guild-coordinated activities, or even chatting about it?

Inno is doing a tiny amount to help relieve the tedium that has developed, and I hope they continue, but right now there is very little in the game that makes people want to engage, participate in guild activities, or contribute beyond just building their city.

Don't blame the players for their indifference, blame Inno for making the game less and less fun to play interactively.

Opinions do vary regarding QI. After three hours, 60 member of my guild (out of 80) have made progress on the new Incursion and we're at the red boss node already.

 

[Mor-Rioghain]

Only 28 of our 66 member guild has ventured out but we click-mongers have also made it to the red boss node. (We don't get on people's cases if they want to run straight through rather than mess with the side nodes. Keeps it copacetic since we really don't care at all if we're competitive on the world's leaderboard but we still rank 6th, lol. We're pretty happy w/the 750 FPs + goodies every two weeks).

 

[Johnny B. Goode]

We're pretty happy w/the 750 FPs + goodies every two weeks).

All my Diamond cities with solo guilds get 100 or so FP every two weeks from QI, and I don't even access it in those cities. LOL

 

[ZipZap1]

One of the main reasons that people don't do QI is that QI sucks bigtime. It's poorly designed, made impossible for most people to even complete, and absolutely nothing fun or interesting about it. Same old, same old, over and over again.

Same goes for most events, boring brainless click-a-lot that no one actually enjoys. The few events that actually are fun and require a bit of thinking (like the wildlife event, for example), people constantly whine that it is too hard for them. Rival challenges are impossible for most people.

GBG has become really hopeless now that one guild can take over the entire board for an entire season, and no one can or wants to participate in that.

So why would anyone care about "helping" the guild, participating in guild-coordinated activities, or even chatting about it?

Inno is doing a tiny amount to help relieve the tedium that has developed, and I hope they continue, but right now there is very little in the game that makes people want to engage, participate in guild activities, or contribute beyond just building their city.

Don't blame the players for their indifference, blame Inno for making the game less and less fun to play interactively.

And to think, we gave up GvG for that

 

[Darkest.Knight]

For the little bit of time it takes QI rewards have been quite generous, no complaints here; beats GvG hands down.

 

[Dursland]

As one of those zombie players in 6 of the 7 worlds I play, I can just say one simple thing: FoE takes up a lot of time. Too much, some would say.

There's no way I can do max level GBG and QI in more than one world. Those 6 other worlds are diamond farms but I've joined a guild for the benefits of fps to town hall, access to 1.9 and trade threads, worry-free GE opening, etc. I'm pretty much a zombie player in each of them.

But I did at least make sure to choose guilds that have no minimum requirements.

Before I leave, I'd like to share an anecdote to caution you against asking more of players:

In the first guild I was in, in my main, I was a leader looking to get more out of members. I messaged our 6 lowest performers and stated what the guild expected and what they could be doing more of. 2 of them said they would try to do more, but didn't really. The other 4 left the guild altogether.

So be careful, what you're getting out of people is probably the best you're gonna get. You either have to put up with it or find a new group. I did the latter.