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Mar 11, 2002, 11:29pm

After seeing the huge 2800 worlds with the release of the "home page" worlds
I naturally assumed there would be a big drop once all the trial period
expired. Sure enough they did drop very quickly. But the drop continued
and after getting down into the 1400s I decided to keep notes. This was the
result:

30/01/2002: 1341
31/01/2002: 1319
01/02/2002: 1297
03/02/2002: 1277
07/02/2002: 1266
02/03/2002: 1247
10/03/2002: 1222

My biggest problem with AW right now is the inablity of tourists to enter
worlds without the world being enabled to do so. I wrote to AW by email to
arrange this for my world and got this response:

>Hello Justin -
>
>At this time tourist access orders are not being accepted. Our community
>will be alerted when this changes.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Noelle Caterino Customer Service
>Activeworlds Corporation
>95 Parker St.
>Newburyport, MA 01950

Last time I checked the worlds that could take tourists are AWGate, A!!CT,
America, Amigos3, Arisia, Ataco, AWSingle, Grimm, Hole, Horizon, Italcity,
Leaves, Librarea, Olympe, Singles, Southbay, Whitewav, Storage, Spadtest,
and most recently AWSchool. How tourists are suppose to know this is beyond
me, but even so AW Alpha World is NOT on that list. As far as I know, the
only world on the list that is open to public building including tourists is
America (? or it was a while ago).

I know its been said already, but I just cannot see how AW will grow, and
going by AW Management's letters to us they have not given any comment on
how they plan to achieve growth of users. They did talk about profitabilty
and longevity, but without a growing userbase I can't see how they will
achieve either in the long term.

I've also kept one eye open for the small communities that existed in
privately owned worlds, and those communities are now missing. Worlds like
Castles, !Friends, Y2000, and BluPearl would always have nice little
gatherings, but that is not the case anymore. Only the "cult" (mostly
Gorian) worlds seem to be keeping their communities intact. I can only
assume that loss of users and inabilty to attract new users, including
tourists, is the cause.

What to do? I don't know - I've already sent my emails to AWC. I guess
just sit back and wait. One thing is certain though: when my world comes
up for renewal I won't pay $800 for a P80 that no-one uses.

--
Regards, Justin

Mar 12, 2002, 12:12am

The only reason i didnt renew my world at the end of last month was becuase
i know i wont be here next year. I dont know about other people but to me if
i know im leaving in a year when prices go up for me (which i cant afford at
this time. so who knowx s i could stay and then get a new world if i do)
then i don't want to spend any effort on a world. So when next year comes
it'll just feel like a waist. But if i do get more money by then and AW
seems to smrten up a bit i might stay but theres no promises. The onyl
reason i'm staying know is becuase of the freinds ive met over the years and
this is the onyl way i can hang out with them.

-Zeo

[View Quote]

Mar 12, 2002, 2:46am

The GKs have been announcing what worlds are tourist enabled like crazy. So
that's one question down. :)

SW Chris

[View Quote]

Mar 12, 2002, 4:33am

Well I know my world is not doing too badly without the tourists. But then
we are prepping a full scale launch of an RPG in it and there has been
interest generating for it.

[View Quote]

Mar 12, 2002, 4:36am

Darn, this was crossposted. Sorry folx I did not notice till too late.

[View Quote]

Mar 12, 2002, 4:21pm

Another stats to add and not very optimistic neither:

Before the 2d of jannuary the daily average of new creation of citizens was
40.
February until now, this average dropped to 10/day
And we can't know how many of them are still active (trial perdiod).



"just in" <justefyde at hotmail.com> wrote in
news:3c8d5a06 at server1.Activeworlds.com:

> After seeing the huge 2800 worlds with the release of the "home page"
> worlds I naturally assumed there would be a big drop once all the trial
> period expired. Sure enough they did drop very quickly. But the drop
> continued and after getting down into the 1400s I decided to keep
> notes. This was the result:
>
> 30/01/2002: 1341
> 31/01/2002: 1319
> 01/02/2002: 1297
> 03/02/2002: 1277
> 07/02/2002: 1266
> 02/03/2002: 1247
> 10/03/2002: 1222
>
> My biggest problem with AW right now is the inablity of tourists to
> enter worlds without the world being enabled to do so. I wrote to AW
> by email to arrange this for my world and got this response:
>
>
> Last time I checked the worlds that could take tourists are AWGate,
> A!!CT, America, Amigos3, Arisia, Ataco, AWSingle, Grimm, Hole, Horizon,
> Italcity, Leaves, Librarea, Olympe, Singles, Southbay, Whitewav,
> Storage, Spadtest, and most recently AWSchool. How tourists are
> suppose to know this is beyond me, but even so AW Alpha World is NOT on
> that list. As far as I know, the only world on the list that is open
> to public building including tourists is America (? or it was a while
> ago).
>
> I know its been said already, but I just cannot see how AW will grow,
> and going by AW Management's letters to us they have not given any
> comment on how they plan to achieve growth of users. They did talk
> about profitabilty and longevity, but without a growing userbase I
> can't see how they will achieve either in the long term.
>
> I've also kept one eye open for the small communities that existed in
> privately owned worlds, and those communities are now missing. Worlds
> like Castles, !Friends, Y2000, and BluPearl would always have nice
> little gatherings, but that is not the case anymore. Only the "cult"
> (mostly Gorian) worlds seem to be keeping their communities intact. I
> can only assume that loss of users and inabilty to attract new users,
> including tourists, is the cause.
>
> What to do? I don't know - I've already sent my emails to AWC. I
> guess just sit back and wait. One thing is certain though: when my
> world comes up for renewal I won't pay $800 for a P80 that no-one uses.
>
> --
> Regards, Justin
>
>
>

Mar 13, 2002, 2:08am

Based on that reply, maybe they are reconsidering their pricing once
again (although I think its too late).

What they need(ed) to apply to the situation is a little more common
sense and a little less accounting. Somehow they don't seem to have
figured out that fewer users means less revenue. Simply adjusting the
prices up every time the user base drops will lead to 6 users paying ten
thousand a month for the pleasure of one another's company. I guess
those folks will be using AW from high speed satellite connection on
their yachts (drinking Starbucks coffee of course!)

I think a lot of us have thrown in the towel on this one. We would
all like to see a comeback, but it's too emotionally draining to keep
one's hopes up.

Based on the 50 or so posts after yours its easy to see that the
remaining users of this newsgroup are still struggling with the concepts
of the copyright law, even after dozens of such discussions in the past.
If that's intended to drown out any true discussion of what faces this
community, so be it. I think many people have tuned out of these
groups and are off somewhere else talking about the future one of many
new technologies. I'll keep reading and posting 'till the bitter end
though ('cause I care) *sniff*.

If you keep taking statistics...make sure to add these: Number of
worlds with someone in them (90 at the moment), number of worlds that
are inhabited, and open (70 or so), number of worlds with more than 2
people (about a dozen). The terms "world", and "universe" have never
seemed so out of place. Maybe "room", "house" and "auditorium" would
be more suitable.

We cudda been a continda !

[View Quote] > After seeing the huge 2800 worlds with the release of the "home page" worlds
> I naturally assumed there would be a big drop once all the trial period
> expired. Sure enough they did drop very quickly. But the drop continued
> and after getting down into the 1400s I decided to keep notes. This was the
> result:
>
> 30/01/2002: 1341
> 31/01/2002: 1319
> 01/02/2002: 1297
> 03/02/2002: 1277
> 07/02/2002: 1266
> 02/03/2002: 1247
> 10/03/2002: 1222
>
> My biggest problem with AW right now is the inablity of tourists to enter
> worlds without the world being enabled to do so. I wrote to AW by email to
> arrange this for my world and got this response:
>
>

Mar 15, 2002, 10:28pm

Hi everyone:

[View Quote] [snip....]

I've noticed the same thing Justin. However I've also noticed something
else too.

Ever since AWLD banned tourist access to AW, participation there beyond GZ
is almost non-existent. I mean for example, I now see that there are now 68
people on AW, but yet I only see maybe only a dozen people on GZ. And good
luck trying to find anybody in any of the other towns because it's either me
and my timing or the other towns are quickly becoming *ghost towns*!!! You
don't see anyone going down the road to explore anymore because they've
probably seen everything there is to see a thousand times over by now.

AW needs tourists. In fact, so do the 3DHPs. And speaking of 3DHPs, wasn't
the concept of the 3DHP supposed to be to BRING IN tourists (namely from 2D
websites)???? Seems as though AWLD shot itself in the foot by deciding to
charge 3DHP owners a fee to drive in what 3DHPs were supposed to drive in in
the first place. That being tourists.

With that in mind, I've got a proposal (since AWLD is getting a CC of this
message) which I think will be ideal for everyone.....

1). Close AWGate. It's NOT that popular anyways nor is it very attractive
(AW is more attractive).
2). Close those STUPID Gaming worlds like AWBingo which AWLD sanctions.
Those can consist of a build on AW.
3). Grant tourists FREE access to 3DHPs and to AW. Just do NOT give
tourists building rights. If they want to have building rights, they'll pay
to become a citizen.

Am I totally insane or am I on a roll here???? Am I the only person who
feels this way????

I say let's use 3DHPs and AW as a springboard to bring in LOTS of tourists.
Afterall, it's the tourists who become citizens which bring in the $$$ to
AWLD, right????? Give us the means in which we can promote the AWUni or
sooner or later, you're gonna find yourself in a position where - and when -
you wish you had.

In other words - QUIT FATTENING LITTLE RICKY'S POCKETS AT OUR (and the
company's) EXPENSE!!!!!

Just my $.05 worth.... :-)

Patrick Cook
Mayor of Hamsterville
pchamster at msn.com
Denver, Colorado
http://home.talkcity.com/MinivanAve/patrick32/

Mar 16, 2002, 1:20am

New low figure (note that this statistic is taken as the lowest observed
figure, and usually varies upward depending on the time of day):

13/03/2002: 1210

I think the old system of allowing tourists to build was fine, giving a
further incentive to register to preserve what they have built for
prosperity. It also gave them something to do while they mulled over the
prospect of paying. And finally, gave them the opportunity to really test
out the part of the "chat program" that is its biggest strength - building
with (relative) ease.

Regards, Justin


[View Quote]

Mar 16, 2002, 5:40am

Hi everyone:

[View Quote] 13/13/2002 ??? Did I somehow miss a month??? I thought the calendar went
from December (the 12th month) back to January (the 1st month of the New
Year). Am I missing something??? :-)

Anyhow, what's even more disturbing is the worlds to users ratio. That
leads me to this....

> I think the old system of allowing tourists to build was fine, giving a
> further incentive to register to preserve what they have built for
> prosperity. It also gave them something to do while they mulled over the
> prospect of paying. And finally, gave them the opportunity to really test
> out the part of the "chat program" that is its biggest strength - building
> with (relative) ease.

I totally agree Justin. In fact, I think the ONLY change they should've
made was to eliminate building rights for tourists on AW. In fact, I
wouldn't at be surprised to find a few objects in my city which were put
there by some tourist passing by. But nonetheless, I can't delete it even
if it's just a single piece of road. A classic example of this is along the
road leading to Osirus, which is now connected to my town via North
Brookline Avenue. If one were to follow the road to Osirus (especially
Northbound and Southbound starting at about 2700N 625E), you'd see what I
mean here.

Really strange that they would ban tourists but NOT their "builds".
Admittedly, this was probably OUR OWN doing as a Community, but still......

Either way you look at it, the best way for AWLD to make more $$$ and to
attract more citizens, I repeat what I said before.....

> wasn't
> 2D
to
in
> in
this
> attractive
> pay
> tourists.
to
> when -

Mar 16, 2002, 6:50am

PC... you can delete tourist objects using your cit account. Which is why
I think its good to allow tourists entry in Alpha World and let them build.

Regards, Justin


[View Quote]

Mar 16, 2002, 8:37am

Makes you wonder about teh AW Universe owners... could they be Gorean and be
doing this so that it will be all gorean on AW? After all you said that it
looks like the worlds that are staying are the Gorean ones.

--


,,oº°ºo,,(¯`'·.¸(¯`'·..·'´¯)¸.·'´¯),,oº°ºo,,
Vegetarians eat vegetables
I'm A Touristarian
,,oº°ºo,,(¯`'·.¸(¯`'·..·'´¯)¸.·'´¯),,oº°ºo,,


.........

I've also kept one eye open for the small communities that existed in
privately owned worlds, and those communities are now missing. Worlds like
Castles, !Friends, Y2000, and BluPearl would always have nice little
gatherings, but that is not the case anymore. Only the "cult" (mostly
Gorian) worlds seem to be keeping their communities intact. I can only
assume that loss of users and inabilty to attract new users, including
tourists, is the cause.

What to do? I don't know - I've already sent my emails to AWC. I guess
just sit back and wait. One thing is certain though: when my world comes
up for renewal I won't pay $800 for a P80 that no-one uses.

--
Regards, Justin

Mar 16, 2002, 12:47pm

You are missing something. In most of the world (excluding the U.S.), the
date is expressed as the day.month.year. 13.03.2002. I completely
understood the date that Justin wrote in his message.

[View Quote] 13/13/2002 ??? Did I somehow miss a month??? I thought the calendar went
from December (the 12th month) back to January (the 1st month of the New
Year). Am I missing something??? :-)

Mar 16, 2002, 12:52pm

Maybe it's just me in the US that uses that when I write dates in that
format.. dang.

Either way 13/03/2002 should at least be able to figure out that the month
is second (don't know how he got 2 13's).

-Silenced

[View Quote]

Mar 16, 2002, 6:22pm

er... That's right up there with the theory of the US gov't assassinating
JFK. It's a company, not a shadow gov't. :)

SW Chris
[View Quote]

Mar 17, 2002, 7:07am

Hi everyone:

[View Quote] Well that's good to hear. :-)

However though, I say SURE give tourists ACCESS to AlphaWorld. But don't
give 'em building rights. AWLD has to use *something* as an incentive for
people to become a citizen PLUS it sounds like a fair compromise to me....

Comments anyone??? How 'bout flames??? Cast Iron skillets??? Tar???
Feathers??? :-)

>
>

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