Were all worlds created equal?
January 19, 2011 in World 024 News, World News
My claim last post that W24 was the best world didn’t go opposed, so I can only assume everyone agrees with me. There’s no way of proving once and for all that we’re the best, but with some good ol’ statistics it soon becomes apparent we’re the most popular. Watch and Learn!
_world discussion
Wouldn’t you expect the most popular world to have the most discussion? I would. Here’s a little graph of posts per day per world – I was impressed, to say the least, at just how much we’ve talked to one another.
This could very likely be related to settings and the summer release date, but I like to think it’s our sheer awesomeness. Looking at the forum member list, it’s possible to see our loudmouths in action: on the topmost pages of members as ordered by postcount, there’s Sully, KG, Kriid, Adamh, KK, Rukoh, Orel on two separate accounts, TGO, wIz, Ewok, me and Link of the box variety to name a few.
_most played
How can someone possibly say which world is the most played? This is actually easier than you might think. One of my favourite sites, websiteoutlook, has page hits information for every subdomain (so for example, en24.tribalwars.net)…
…The only problem is that the site only counts up to 30 subdomains, so I cannot compare en24 to later worlds. Of the earlier worlds, we’re doing quite well for ourselves with a 3.8% slice of all Tribalwars.net pagehits counted (stats are over the past 3 months).
This is more than the average of 3.33% (100% divided by 30 listed subdomains), but it’s not quite the best, which is a title owned by 27 and 18 which recently closed with 100% of player-owned villages belonging to the same … it would appear we are very talkative people who don’t play quite so much. Well shucks, knew there was a reason I liked it here.
_rumours of demise
So sure, we’ve talked a lot, but is our heyday over? Has this world already passed its prime, set on a course of trundling into the end-game phase? Is “DYPER” winning inevitable?
… I’ve more graphs that I’ll post next month, but as I already know what I think, I’d rather hear from you! Post here or contact me, your opinions will be featured in a future edition. 
_summary
- World 24 is the most discussed of any old world. Because we’re awesome.
- ARE WE DEAD? D:… Discuss!
Thanks to that mysterious Ralyn bloke for banner/proofread :3
Sorry Hebor, I only just saw your comment now – it fell off the list.
It’s true a lot of questions were brought up with few answers offered. This is not because I can’t think of any reasons – far from it, unfortunately ^^;. It’s because I am still in the ongoing process of producing stats in order to back up my ideas, and I expect to produce several other posts on this particular subject, probably on a monthly basis (I have other things I want to write about too!).
One will hopefully be relating to something you’ve brought up here as well, i.e. the settings of the world. When I was initially looking through figures, it seemed almost as if posts on a world were directly proportional to the world speed. I’m also considering the timing of other worlds opening, why W23 is getting more daily hits, and the politics of this world compared to its neighbours…
I think it’s interesting you should mention Cypherrr, as I have an interview with him prepared for release on the blog while I’m on holiday. I happen to think for all his supposed flaws that he is not a bad player – he has sticking power which few others could brag of, and he has since joined later worlds and enjoyed success there too. It is the dream of every noob to have the most villages – there must be something which separates these noob players from players who are actually successful in this task.
I can’t use anecdotal evidence when it comes to deciding whether or not W24 is mostly “new” players – I would need to take a poll from the remaining players (not exactly a good sample, as players with no other worlds tend to last longer, and not all current players are originals, but it’s a start). Kinky were vets from all over the place, SWARM was W12 as was Fuse, MANIC were from W10, the players I started with were from W19, the tribe to the north of me were W4ers.
Actually, with the improvements to TWstats, I could probably assert without a poll if the majority of current players had played a former world, or not, lol.
And pain – same problem again, your comment fell off the list and I missed it
what kind of “new twist” would you like to see in this world? A change in settings, a change in diplomacy…?
Schrodinger’s 24, I love it
Maybe I shall sneak it into my aforementioned “future edition”.
Relevant (wiki Schrodinger’s cat for those interested):
http://i357.photobucket.com/albums/oo12/Rukoh/w24schro.jpg
As far as I can tell, W24 dropped to under 400 ‘players’, presumably at least half of which inactive. That number is steadily dropping, so… Yes, dead, or rather: As dead as an old lady confined to her rocking chair
w24 is great and produced some good players. but i think the world is dying,it needs new twist to spice it again. i wish Manic was still around because they made the world fun,exciting and entertaining with all their cheats crazy theories and watching smurf expose Cypherrr mix-villages, Kinky sinking e.c.t
A commonplace “ritual” throughout pretty much every world (at least all the worlds that I’ve played in), has been that players are quick to join a world, but a large majority rarely bother continuing after a month or two. I believe this world (en24) has had several factors which may have contributed to some “sticking power”:
1) I believe the settings have a HUGE part to play on people sticking around….especially those who are new to the game. I’ve just had a quick glance at all the settings for other worlds and, in my opinion, en24 has the easiest set of settings in all of .net. No archers, no paladins, simple tech, no church, 100 members per tribe, above average speed, 3k barbs, 1 scout only needed (providing there are no scouts in the defending village) and coins (which I believe is easier to use than packets). These settings, as well as a few i may have missed, have helped keep the so-called n00bs playing, as it is easier to continue through to mid/late game without added much complications.
2) You also mentioned the timing of the world start, being in late July 2008. The fact that it started during the summer, when schools/universities were closed, may have contributed to some extent. However, I’m referring to the timing of the world starting in relation to the others. Go onto your Tribal Wars homepage and read the caption just below the pictures. For me it says “160959 players already!”. World 24 was my first world, and I clearly remember them saying that, not only were there over 500,000 players playing the game, but that the number of people playing have been increasing. However, ever since I joined Tribal Wars in August 2008, despite not always taking notice of the figure, the times I have, I have always noticed it dropping. So it may be possible to argue that en24 came out at a time when Tribalwars.net was at its peak.
3) Of the en24 players that I have spoken to, roughly 70% of them said that en24 was their first with almost all of the rest (bar very few) saying that they have played one or two worlds previously. For those who have played in following worlds, you will find that it may well be the other way round. I’d say around 70% (possibly much more) of players in newer worlds are veterans. I also believe that the TW vets of today, are much more “skilled” that the TW vets of two and a half years ago. Why would this affect the “sticking power” of worlds? Well, when a new world comes out, and all the tribe hoppers fight each other for control for the core, who are the ones they target first? The n00bs. They feed off the n00bs for resources at the start of the world, leaving the n00b with extremely little time to get a feel for the game. Face it, TW is a game where the vets typically bully the n00bs, much like the new boy in a school playground. So the n00b, who has logged on once a day to just build up his village, is being attacked by a player already 5 times his size, as soon as BP wears off. The n00b will just think “this is not worth it” and do something else with his time. So players like cypherrrr, a player who’s first world in TW was en24 yet excelled in the core, have since gone extinct. If cypherrr started his TW career in en54, for example, I’m pretty sure that he would not have made it to the end of the month before quitting or being rimmed. Players in en24 have had the room to breath and grow into the game without these vets planning to stifle their growth as soon as the village pops up in the 15×15 map.
I did actually have a couple of other suggestions as to why en24 had that sticking power, where most other worlds did not, but I’ve forgotten them since starting this post. If I remember them I’ll post them in new comments.
I did enjoy this article a lot. I thought the use of graphs was excellent. One thing I would point out though, is that you pose a lot of questions without offering enough theories. I’d like to see more theories to your hypothesis. If you can’t think of any, I’m sure there are plenty of people who you can discuss with who can offer you a few ideas. Not everyone will agree with me here (maybe you included), but that is my opinion. Don’t let that detract from the fact that this was a very good article. Good work.