To kick this off, I'd like to say I've noticed the UrT community dwindling more and more over the last couple of months. By this I mean the number of players who know how to play is far out numbered by the new kids who don't know how to play. This is both good and bad....
- Good:
- New players
- New play styles
- New servers
- New teams/clans
- Bad:
- Breeding of trolls
- More immature players
- More hacks being detected
- More admin abuse (towards newer players)
- More inexperienced server admins
- Old clans are dying
- Too many new clans are starting and failing
Now don't get me twisted, I like the fact there are new players coming in. This definitely brings some new tactics to the table and makes some of us have to adapt our play styles to remain on top. My recommendation is in regards to these new players, how many do you estimate have picked up this game since the 4.1.1 release? Since the 4.2 Beta? As Frankie has said, there are only soft numbers nothing exact. If Frozen Sand put Urban Terror 4.1.1 and/or Urban Terror 4.2 on steam it would more than double the publicity and the community size.
My reasoning behind what I'm saying is simply based on statistics, Nexon put Combat Arms on steam, within a month the game gained 20% more players and is still increasing. SG Interactive has not put Project Blackout on steam and has suffered a minimum 20% loss in community players. There are plenty of other free shooters out there that are decent, good, or just plain shit. The difference between them all really is just community base and advertising. Look at TF2, since being release on steam for free, it has become one of the most popular FPS games, it's popularity has increased more than 10 fold since its free release.
Granted, there are just as many P2P shooters out there, many of which are part of a series or franchise. However, these games are less popular on PC/Mac than on console games, this is where F2P games take the advantage. Battlefield, CoD, and MoH are clearly the heavy hitters when it comes to P2P shooters, but we all know why. Higher quality engines and graphics, campaign as well as multi-player, buddy lists, and dlc content all give them advantages over F2P games. But, their fan base and community are generally less interested and less loyal to the game as those who play F2P games.
With Urban Terror's diverse OS support and classic fast paced game play, it would do very well on steam. The possibilities are endless when you look at what steam could do for the Urban Terror community. The pros far out way the cons on this idea.
- Pros
- New skilled players
- New competitive clans
- New community members
- Fresh input on the game
- Fresh ideas
- Fresh sets of eyes (newer players skilled could spot glitches and issues easier)
- Larger and more loyal fan base
- Better advertisement
- Better update distribution
- Less working hacks*
*Hacks are harder to enable to a steam game rather than a stand alone such as UrT. Most stand alone games require an injection where as UrT just uses a launcher that initiates the hack using the UrT as a medium.
- Cons
- Have to install steam (if not already done)
- Have to use a middle-man client
If you believe I've left any off please post them.
Last but not least, my final recommendation is to put both 4.1(.1) and 4.2 on steam. As we can all see, 4.2 servers are generally located outside the US, mostly across the Atlantic, 4.1(.1) still have fairly active American servers as well as active servers across the Atlantic. With both the stable and beta versions out there the community would more than likely thrive. Of course it would help to get the game featured during a 'steam sale' (even though it's free) so that the game gets recognized without having to be searched desperately for. I personally have found many f2p games through steam sale advertisements and many of them I enjoyed for a good length of time.
This post has been edited by synergy: 02 January 2013 - 12:54 AM