Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-24480769-20140323042157/@comment-5031893-20140325052434

I have outlined what I believe to be the causing this problem in a few of my posts/comments. Before I go in to the cause I want to discuss what makes a game gain and maintain its popularity based upon observations I have made over the years.

I have noticed 4 major commonalities (note that they may not all apply to every popular game as there are always exceptions);

New-Player Friendly: The game is either easy to learn/grasp for new players through deduction or helps new players learn how to play directly (can be done in-game or through the game's description. This helps the game grow and maintain its community/player-base.

Replay-ability: The game offers a different experience every time and/or has some aspect(s) that draw the player back to the game even after reaching a sense of completion. This helps keep players interested in and return to the game.

New content: The game frequently(around once a month) gets updated with new and engaging content. This keeps players interested in the game.

Looks Fun/Appealing: The game looks fun or appeals to the general audience. This is one of the harder aspects for an old game to control as the interests of the general audience change over time. This ultimately determines if a person will try the game out or not.

Now I believe the big cause of the dwindling popularity is from inability to retain new players as a result of not being all too "New-Player Friendly". (Will elaborate further later)

tl;dr - Read it or don't even bother replying

E v i l S h o g u n  05:24, March 25, 2014 (UTC)