15 Aug, 2011, Zeno wrote in the 1st comment:
Votes: 0
I have an event planned out and I want to run it daily. I'd do this via some code which I'll have no problem doing. Part of the reason of having a daily event is to encourage players to sign on more around the same time so they can also plan to group for other things in the game.

The question comes down to when would I do this? Should the event run daily at a specific time like 7pm EST? But then people outside that timezone would have issues being on.

Should I rotate the event time? Like 7pm EST on Sat, 8pm on Sun, 9pm on Mon, etc and then it reverts to 7pm on Sat.

I have graphs of player data so I can tell when the peak time is. Should I plan it at that time only?
15 Aug, 2011, Runter wrote in the 2nd comment:
Votes: 0
Basing it on the peek time isn't a bad option. I personally wouldn't run something only once a day at a set time. I'd consider maybe twice or 4 times a day. This gives better coverage for all players and still gives people reason to be around at the same time as other players. You don't want to completely forsake people who can only play at certain times (that aren't peek times.)
15 Aug, 2011, Kline wrote in the 3rd comment:
Votes: 0
I agree with Runter in that you should run multiple times per day. At least hit one at peak time to catch the majority of your players but also consider some during others hours to catch those who are unable to make peak time. You could even consider a scheduled rotation of times to fairly spread access to your event every few weeks so that players with very different schedules will still have the opportunity at some point. Something like shifting the time forward by 1 or 2 hours each week.
16 Aug, 2011, Rarva.Riendf wrote in the 4th comment:
Votes: 0
+1 you will only frustrate people who do not live in the same timezone. It is already hard enough for people in the US depending on wich coast they are, but you will probably obliterate any possibilities for European/Asian one at the same time.
Even in my now very low profile mud, I still have people from all over the world.
16 Aug, 2011, KaVir wrote in the 5th comment:
Votes: 0
In my mud, there's a Great War every 6 hours. Only the first Great War you play each day counts on the scoreboard.

Many players log on specifically for a Great War, and get very irrate when the clocks change, as it messes up their schedule. I would therefore recommend against shifting the time each week - it makes it much more difficult to plan ahead.
16 Aug, 2011, Omega wrote in the 6th comment:
Votes: 0
Pending the event, I suggest once a day; my old mud had it setup so that certain events would only happen once a day (global quests) happened at 8pm EST, war happened at 3pm EST. Etc, etc. It was easier to different global events only once a day, but have multiple types of events.

The crowd I was dealing with were all teenagers back then so the 3pm worked out greatly, off school at 230 and home by 3 for the PK wars. Global quests at 8 because the later in the evening it went, the older/more mature the crowd got. They tended to want to RP and quest, while the teens tended to want to just PK things. So I played to the crews that I saw online and catered to that, then it became the standard and we would see completely different sets of people online at different times. We ended up adding a 4am EST battle royal; which was a global quest with PK to house the best of both worlds. It wasn't as popular (maybe if timed better it would of been) like between crowds; but yeah. thats just my experience with daily events. I'm planning on doing a similar thing with my new mud when it gets to that phase; though right now Sandstorm is just a glorified chat-room :P HAHA.

Anyways, yeah, it depends on what your planning on doing. Sometimes the multiple times a day works great, but if you have enough daily events that are significantly different; you will find that you will attract people for different reasons, at different times.

Like, if you know the peak time for new players is a certain time of the day (during the school year I always noticed new players around 3-4 pm) so by having a peak player-time at that time, it helped get new players to stay, as most new players won't stay unless they see other players around (as we all know) So thats just me; I tended to cater to these small things as it helped draw in a nice crowd. Oh those were the days.

Anyways, yeah, just my two cents.

Cheers.
16 Aug, 2011, Runter wrote in the 7th comment:
Votes: 0
I think an interesting way to do it might be having set times for events in an equitable way for all players, and then either rotating the type of event or just making it random. That way you can still only do 1 event per day, but hopefully players from different time zones can enjoy all of the content as well.
16 Aug, 2011, David Haley wrote in the 8th comment:
Votes: 0
If your interval were 18 or 30 rather than 24 hours, you'd be rotating through timezones while still being nearly once a day. You would have four events in three days. The problem is that your times would be changing every week, since the cycle doesn't match a 7-day week – therefore your Mondays would have times shifting. You could perhaps have the 6-day cycle then do something different on Sunday (or whatever) and then restart on Monday, so that every single day is predictable…


EDIT: something else to consider is that not all days are equal. My time preferences are very different for a Monday and for a Friday.
16 Aug, 2011, quixadhal wrote in the 9th comment:
Votes: 0
BatMUD used to use a 23 hour clock for "daily" events, including reboots. That way it spread them all out evenly across everyone's play time.
16 Aug, 2011, Scandum wrote in the 10th comment:
Votes: 0
Weekly events might work better in the long run as it slows content exhaustion. Slightly variable random starting times (2 to 3 hour window) can be added to extend the time players log in as they'll want to be logged in within the event window, with people missing the event further slowing content exhaustion.
16 Aug, 2011, RoFAdmin wrote in the 11th comment:
Votes: 0
Hello-

I would put it starting just after peak period of play.

I doubt its gonna be so great anyone will drastically change their normal play times, People are creatures are habit. So if your looking for maximum participation, starting just after peak hours is the way to go.

Unless you have a secondary peak period cause by players from another time-zone i wouldn't bother taking the time to run it again.

Running it more then once per day (Since it supposed to be daily) brings up some questions.
1) Does the number of people participating affect the enjoyment level. Thus would less people doing it still be fun?
2) Does the event lend itself to being run more then once daily even?
3) Would people who have done it once today be locked out, or is it automatically all inclusive? If they would be left out this relates back to question 1
4) How many people do you have playing at non-peak periods? Is it worth it to invest the time to have it run more then once per day for a minimal amount of people?
17 Aug, 2011, Kaz wrote in the 12th comment:
Votes: 0
For people considering daily events, please remember that not everyone lives in your time zone. For example, if your mud is hosted in the USA, then people in Europe will be 6-9 hours out.
17 Aug, 2011, Runter wrote in the 13th comment:
Votes: 0
Another option is making the daily event local to each player and letting them decide when to do it. You can reset the lockout for the event at midnight. If you make the event difficult enough as a cooperative event they'll naturally try to recruit friends to be around at the same time. Modern MMOs do this all the time, and it's not uncommon for 25 or more players to be around at the same time on set days to do content together. Although it's not by configuration. It's by convention.
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