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Feb 6, 2003, 4:54pm

What is happening to the AW universe program? I am talking about the user
community. I have seen a drastic decline in the number of people logged into
AW. Where have they all gone? The Sims on line? Another universe? What has
happened to the number of people who used to post in these newsgroups?
I do not see the community support I used to see here, or even if someone
posts anything serious here, someone almost always changes the subject of
the post or comes out with some sarcastic response.
I have been with AW as a citizen for over 29 months now and I have never
seen it this grim here. I just looked at all the newgroups even the ones
from Andras.net and I see very few new posts since Merry Christmas was
posted.
Does this not alarm anyone here? Our community is dying, wake up!
MrBruce A1CTWorld.com

Feb 6, 2003, 5:07pm

I think the main culprit is the price increase, the effects are more
profound than most even realise. Lets take an example scenario.

Everyones $20 a year cit has now expired, so there is no one left on the old
price plan. That means that anyone not able to/willing to pay more for AW
is gone. that is a user count loss in itself.

But the repercussions of that are greater, because there are less people on
the universe now - any new people that come in which might be willing to pay
more, may find the universe more boring than it once was because of the lack
of people.

I think thats what is happening - i can't see how the problem can be
corrected except for people having a lot more fun actvities in their worlds.
We are on a decline - unfortunately.

Feb 6, 2003, 5:32pm

Peace City is becomming very popular amonst the AW populus and therefore
alot of people are there more than here.

~neo~

[View Quote]

Feb 6, 2003, 5:53pm

So people are leaving... they've been doign that forever. Let's stop
focussing on people leaving and focus on getting others to come here, and
more importantly, our friends and those of us who choose to stay.

Chris

[View Quote]

Feb 6, 2003, 6:09pm

Anywhere Mr.B.... its the $$$

[View Quote]

Feb 6, 2003, 7:35pm

Paying more and getting less =\


[View Quote]

Feb 6, 2003, 8:21pm

This is the one and only time i am probally going to agree with
MrBruce..........

......The community is dying, people are leaving, but what to blame it on,
that i do not know, nor will i express what i think it may be.

--
Brock - 308723
AW 3.4 Build: 455
Brock at iceflare.net

From Newbie Guide to the Newsgroup (4th Edition):

"Brock - This dude with a 'tude isn't afraid to speak his mind,
especially when it concerns others in his own age range.
In other words, the perfect NG candidate."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------
[View Quote]

Feb 6, 2003, 8:57pm

You just gotta look when the rot started to set in, the biggest argument ive
seen have been over this last year regardless of what it was.

The community or whats left of it is run for all the people, look how many
attend stuff? the only high access counts Ive seen is when tourists where
allowed in as a privledge.

AW.inc has seen many staff depart, long time great builders have left aw.

I think its about time someone looked around and stopped getting the word
from the few and listen to the mass membership.. Yes I don't go into aw much
now, why? because its losing what it was, Its heart.

[View Quote]

Feb 6, 2003, 10:16pm

there has been a decline... and we've lost a lot of really great community
members, and I've lost a lot of really good friends. However, if we are
going to ask the question what is happening to AW, and we answer it. We need
to go a step further in discussing what we can do, individually as well as a
group to make AW as best as it possibly be, even considering the price
increases. I don't plan on leaving AW anytime soon, so I'm in it for the
long haul :P

What I think can be done, is to continue to run the awesome public building
and community based worlds as best we can, they provide the link between
building and community that we need to grab more people. Notice that the
first place many tourists and citizens go is to the huge public building
worlds. We provide a huge reason behind why many people join AW in the first
place :-) So that's what my resolution concerning the matter is :P

J

[View Quote]

Feb 6, 2003, 10:24pm

It's hard for me to see the kid tourists standing around AWGate. Hard for
me to watch previous cits come in saying hello as tourists.

I don't know if it's the price or not. I think that plus not allowing
tourists in Alpha World hinders. But they are still coming around the gate
(for now) - that is a good thing. Maybe it's the price.

Kids were always so sweet to work around. Some I'll never forget. 2 girls,
I remember, they were so polite. Those were the good ole days. : )

[View Quote]

Feb 7, 2003, 12:41am

It's time for AWI to wake up and roll back the price to at least 39.95. ARE
YOU LISTEN Rick and JP? It's time to get a grip.

My opinion,
Paul (since 1997)

[View Quote]

Feb 7, 2003, 8:11am

i was never in activewolrds , cause of building only , or the great
technology behind it ( its interesting htough ) , but what made me register
, is the community , i would meet great ppl to han gout with , and the next
day you would meet the again , there was lots to do , and since the price
increase many ppl left , and made AW in general a lot less attractive

Feb 7, 2003, 8:33pm

I agree wizard... loads of people I knew are leaving and I have nothing to
do when I go on AW now, maybe build... whats the fun of building on your
owN??

[View Quote]

Feb 8, 2003, 2:45pm

Hi everyone:

[View Quote] What disturbs me is the NUMBER of people who get on AlphaWorld ALONE. To
illustrate my point, there are now only 41 people on Alphaworld. How many
of those do you wanna guess are probably at GZ?? Five?? Ten??

Maybe it's due to the fact that it's 11:36 AM ET on a Saturday Morning and
some people are sleeping in. Maybe there are a few people on New AW. I
dunno, but one thing IS for certain, AlphaWorld's numbers are DROPPING (like
a rock!).

So, WHY am I building there you say??? Maybe its to have a place of my own
to chat WITHOUT having to endure the expense of owning a world. But
Hamsterville will soon be open, in earnest, to builders (it's already listed
on UTN). One can only hope that AWI will have the sense to allow tourists
(WITHOUT building rights, of course) back on (what will soon be known as)
the old AW. I'd hate to think that nearly a year's worth of building was
somehow all in vain. :-(

Anyhow....Just my opinion FWIW.....

Patrick Cook
Mayor - City Of Hamsterville
pchamster at attbi.com
Denver, Colorado (My REAL city :-))

Feb 8, 2003, 6:40pm

Letting tourists go to alphaworld but not build might be good. That'd
require a change to build rights but such a change would do a world of good.
time to change it so you can let everyone except 0 build! Then tourists
would have MUCH more incentive to pay because they could see what they're
missing!
Think of it, if they could explore anywhere and chat with anyone in any
world, but they couldn't build unless they paid, wouldn't that work nice?
The price is a bit hard, but clearly many of us consider it affordable,
we're here!

Feb 8, 2003, 7:50pm

some of us don't post cause we are not allowed to speak our minds here
!!!

>
>

Feb 8, 2003, 7:51pm

good idea Chris but its kinda hard to ask new ppl to come to aw when they
cant go to certain worlds
[View Quote]

Feb 8, 2003, 7:57pm

I disagree they need to go there to learn to build and meet ppl that's
how I got soooo many to join AW yep those were the good ole days sigh
[View Quote]

Feb 9, 2003, 11:33am

I have to agree.

This is the worst decline I have seen in my six or seven years in
Activeworlds, even when charges were first introduced it wasnt this bad -
and a hell of a lot of people left when they started charging money for the
program (even $20 a year). Only the very hardcore and dedicated remained -
trust me, if all those people had of stayed the community would be huge....

....but this is worse, much, much worse. AW GZ is most oftent han not now, a
virtual ghost town - most people go to AWten GZ or even the GATE to chat to
people, because there is more likelihood of people being there than at AW
GZ...it used to be, that on weekends, there would be upwards of fifty people
in AW GZ at any one time..now your lucky if there are even TEN.

The monthly rate is the definate cause of this. There is jsut not enough in
the worlds to give people satisfaction of paying $7 a month. They can go to
other online gaming communities for only a little more than that, and garner
a huge amount more satisfaction than here. They are still developing AW,
yes, but I jsut dont believe it is being done fast enough. If, they had of
spent all the money that they had a few years ago on actually getting a
large group of programmers together, not jsut two or three at once max, then
they could be seeing a larger statisitcal mass of users now - instead, they
went the whole "business" route instead of the more "recreation route" and
they lost out. I thin that they chose too late to go the "recreation route",
much, much too late.

In al honesty, I only go into AW now to see if anyone is on. I can count the
number of "new" citizens I have met in the past few motnhs on one hand. It
used to be that I would continually meet new people, every day, and have new
things to do all the time.

I'm afraid that the whole monthly payment thing hasnt worked out. In doing a
monthly payment, they didnt have enough new eatures to justify the huge
price increase, and thus people ahve now turned away. And yes, the
gradiation is now being seen - those whose 1 year memberships have now
expired are not renewing like AW had hoped, and I thinkt hat even they are
probably starting now to realise just what a negative impact that has had.

There are also much fewere universe sales these days as compared to not so
long ago.

Yes, the community is in a very big decline, a decline that has been talked
about for years, but is now actually coming to pass. Those of us who have
been arouind a logn time can see it, and know it, those who are new are jsut
used to the fact that there are not that many people around. People will
keep coming to AW, but unless things change drastically again, then the
community will never gain the loft heights that it once attained. Instead of
growing, the memberships are shrinking, and as memberships are a fair
portion of the companies income (not as much as universes, but they are also
declining I presume) then they are goign to ahve to actually TAKE that
drastic action.

What they need, is a new tier - and it was something that I suggested so
many times when I was working there. Originaly the plan was to have
citizens, and then a Premium citizenship on top of that - the premium would
probably have been the monthly fee, but with special bonuses - 3D homepages,
access to special options and special features, access to the NewAW building
world. They may even stillb e planning to do this, but I wouldnt ahve the
foggiest. Reduce actual citizenships back to a yearly fee of even $15 and
year, implement a third tier structure with special functions at a monthly
rate. People WILL pay it, because there are enough of a hard-core user base
that would go for that option. At the same time, plain citizenship fees
would be reduced by hundreds of percentiles, even loer than originally, and
believe me, you would see such a large influx of users coming back.

That would be my solution, and it isnt even all THAT drastic. You reduce
normal citizenships, adda premium level....and watch everyone stream in. I
can see only this as the one hope they have of getting the user base back.

We will wait and see. I think that this year, will show us what they want -
a ghost town of a community, or a real one.

Heres a case in point - the old timers who are here, will remember
Yellowstone. Once upon a time, at most parts of the day,t here would be a
community of at least ten people int here, then up in the thirties in peak
times. Now, its is a ghost town, I dont even think anyone hangs out inth ere
anymore - it is, in effect, a utterly dead community.

One needs only to look at the yellowstone community example to see that
something has gone drastically, and completely, wrong.

Facter.



[View Quote]

Feb 9, 2003, 11:33am

I have to agree.

This is the worst decline I have seen in my six or seven years in
Activeworlds, even when charges were first introduced it wasnt this bad -
and a hell of a lot of people left when they started charging money for the
program (even $20 a year). Only the very hardcore and dedicated remained -
trust me, if all those people had of stayed the community would be huge....

....but this is worse, much, much worse. AW GZ is most oftent han not now, a
virtual ghost town - most people go to AWten GZ or even the GATE to chat to
people, because there is more likelihood of people being there than at AW
GZ...it used to be, that on weekends, there would be upwards of fifty people
in AW GZ at any one time..now your lucky if there are even TEN.

The monthly rate is the definate cause of this. There is jsut not enough in
the worlds to give people satisfaction of paying $7 a month. They can go to
other online gaming communities for only a little more than that, and garner
a huge amount more satisfaction than here. They are still developing AW,
yes, but I jsut dont believe it is being done fast enough. If, they had of
spent all the money that they had a few years ago on actually getting a
large group of programmers together, not jsut two or three at once max, then
they could be seeing a larger statisitcal mass of users now - instead, they
went the whole "business" route instead of the more "recreation route" and
they lost out. I thin that they chose too late to go the "recreation route",
much, much too late.

In al honesty, I only go into AW now to see if anyone is on. I can count the
number of "new" citizens I have met in the past few motnhs on one hand. It
used to be that I would continually meet new people, every day, and have new
things to do all the time.

I'm afraid that the whole monthly payment thing hasnt worked out. In doing a
monthly payment, they didnt have enough new eatures to justify the huge
price increase, and thus people ahve now turned away. And yes, the
gradiation is now being seen - those whose 1 year memberships have now
expired are not renewing like AW had hoped, and I thinkt hat even they are
probably starting now to realise just what a negative impact that has had.

There are also much fewere universe sales these days as compared to not so
long ago.

Yes, the community is in a very big decline, a decline that has been talked
about for years, but is now actually coming to pass. Those of us who have
been arouind a logn time can see it, and know it, those who are new are jsut
used to the fact that there are not that many people around. People will
keep coming to AW, but unless things change drastically again, then the
community will never gain the loft heights that it once attained. Instead of
growing, the memberships are shrinking, and as memberships are a fair
portion of the companies income (not as much as universes, but they are also
declining I presume) then they are goign to ahve to actually TAKE that
drastic action.

What they need, is a new tier - and it was something that I suggested so
many times when I was working there. Originaly the plan was to have
citizens, and then a Premium citizenship on top of that - the premium would
probably have been the monthly fee, but with special bonuses - 3D homepages,
access to special options and special features, access to the NewAW building
world. They may even stillb e planning to do this, but I wouldnt ahve the
foggiest. Reduce actual citizenships back to a yearly fee of even $15 and
year, implement a third tier structure with special functions at a monthly
rate. People WILL pay it, because there are enough of a hard-core user base
that would go for that option. At the same time, plain citizenship fees
would be reduced by hundreds of percentiles, even loer than originally, and
believe me, you would see such a large influx of users coming back.

That would be my solution, and it isnt even all THAT drastic. You reduce
normal citizenships, adda premium level....and watch everyone stream in. I
can see only this as the one hope they have of getting the user base back.

We will wait and see. I think that this year, will show us what they want -
a ghost town of a community, or a real one.

Heres a case in point - the old timers who are here, will remember
Yellowstone. Once upon a time, at most parts of the day,t here would be a
community of at least ten people int here, then up in the thirties in peak
times. Now, its is a ghost town, I dont even think anyone hangs out inth ere
anymore - it is, in effect, a utterly dead community.

One needs only to look at the yellowstone community example to see that
something has gone drastically, and completely, wrong.

Facter.


[View Quote]

Feb 9, 2003, 11:56am

i was thinking about the idea of gold and silver cits also .
lets say the current 70 $ cits become gold cits .
the silver cits are 20 $ a year , what is different is that they get the
same rights as a tourist kinda when entering a world , means , you can go to
awteen and awgate , but most likely , not to AW, newaw , or even your own
world in most cases. i think many ppl who came to aw and werent into
building so much , liked to just chat in activeworlds , this way , they can
actually buy a citizenship again , and have the citizen advantages they need
like own name and contact list , that matter to a chatter , also , the many
teens that came to AW, get a chance also , cause awteen si tourist enabled ,
the silver cits get acces to awteen also , so many teens will come back also
.. so the gold cits are attractive to the ppl , that want their own world ,
and acces to all the wolrds ( like newaw ) . its just a ruff description of
my idea

Feb 9, 2003, 12:16pm

I like this idea.

[View Quote]

Feb 9, 2003, 9:57pm

I happen to like that idea too. Very fair, and I wouldn't mind having a
choice between a regular and premium account...

Ryan

[View Quote]

Feb 10, 2003, 7:22pm

There are several issues with AW and the community that have caused an
exodus.

1. 20 dollar accounts have now nearly completely expired and thus not
renewed.
2. awb3.4 is severely late in coming and people no longer want to wait.
Feature creep has taken over, driving by a few indivuals who coerced the
programmers to implement features too early.
3. constant arguments in the community over irrelevant issues... people
getting into the face of others business
4. tourist access denied in the majority of the worlds
5. competition in competing software environment, including the abundance of
online games
6. better chat access elsewhere, without brow beating moderation(ie AwGate)
7. Lack of AW Corp/Inc(whatever) to be competitive, flexible and leading
edge.
8. Poor/Unprofessional behavior online by certain AW staff in global mode
9. Lack of a professional advertising model
10. Poor reviews by the profession media
11. Poor propoganda by AW and better propoganda from competitors
12. Lack of community zeal and support found in the past... due to citizens
previously abandoning AW and also due to personal attacks made against some
that were unwarranted and moving on to greener pastures.(Eep for example was
very zealous and we all had issues against him, but he was great at what he
did and the support he gave aw and the coercion/pressure he gave to the aw
staff)
13. related to the rate charge mentioned in #1. the price of AW is
non-competitive with regards to value given by the product vs other
competitors which give more value for the buck.
14. lack of leadership in the AW organization.
15. The abandonment of AW personal to work with other projects/companies to
further their own careers(which I don't blame on them in the least and of
course wish them WELL)

I'm speaking from observation and trying to be unbiased. I am NOT
deliberately attacking anyone, though I do imply certain individuals in my
comments. We all have our own agendas and some take priority over others
with lack of thought and consequences as to the future of the product. With
stong leadership, and clear set of goals, and an adherance to a time table,
I believe things would be different than they are today... however, the time
table and the set of goals were thrown out the door at least 3 times that I
can count... which illustrates the lack of strong leadership.

Regardless of the 15 reasons I stated to answer your question, I do intend
to stay with AW. I am not entirely sure if I will renew the 5 worlds I
currently have licenses for, but I do indeed intend to remain a citizen
using account 296829(Talisan) for as long as I can afford it.

Respectfully,
Talisan

Feb 11, 2003, 5:10pm

Finaly some-one is talking bout yellowstone aswell... I am/was not one of
the AW regulars. My virtual life over here started in yellowstone 4 1/2
years ago and thats the place where I did my first building. Yellowstone was
indeed the world that made me decide to become a cit soon after I visited
the first time. My rl girlfriend did aswell soon after that.
Yellow had its own humor and the regular cits there "protected" their yellow
is if it was their own. Newcomers sorta had to prove they fitted in in the
yellowstone community and were given often a hard time. But ones passed, 90%
would change their tourist suit for a real cit.
As facter says yellow used to be in the top 5 of best visited worlds for a
long time, but its fully empty now. That is a pity... a real pity! Many cits
left, some became tourist cause of the price-increase and can't even visit
their world wich they helped grow and made sure it was populair for many
years...

Now I hafta say that not just the price increase is the reason of the dying
of yellow: Its true that the yellow community had a sorta more adult feeling
compaired to AW. The *F* word was maybe more used there compaired to AW and
the jokes were maybe a bit more sexualy loaded compaired to AW, still yellow
(I think) was still more "neat" compaired with the average language u hear
in movies, television or in the street. Yellow used to be very populair
amongst Europeans and Australians who r not that fast offended by some words
they might hear. Besides that we sorta corrected ourselves if things went to
far.

Last year Active Worlds policy changed in a way that they made sure a PK or
PKbot was full time at GZ present in yellow. This hunted most of the ppl out
of there. After 4 years I got kicked out for saying G-string... (I was
allowed to say "boxershort" btw. Can u immagen how things went there the
last year. The sarcasm to some of the PKs grew immence or even turned into
hate against them (wich the better ones don't deserve). Even I leave a world
as soon as I see one enters, while they had been doing a fine job for many
years. Now it seems some of them have the most fun if they can break a
community down.

So for me the big thing besides the price-increase is the way citizens r
treated as kids by Active Worlds. I will turn 39 years of age next month and
my parents did a fine job by raising me as a quiet normal adult. I, and many
with me don't need and r certainly not waiting for a nanny, calling
him/herself PK if they r not needed. I have met some great PKs who do
understand that.

The option "Cit" or "Premium Cit" I don't like. Ppl pay, or they don't. So
the ones that pay (cits) get the options that the ones that don't pay
(tourists) don't get. Simple as that. I don't like the idea that u get an
elite group where (if it does exist) AW will work harder for since they pay
most of it all... Why would there be any development for "ordinairy cits"
wich in fact will become "the new Tourists".

AW should introduce a discount on long term users or sumfin. Nobody is
interested in these 3D homepages. There is hardly any left. Some tried it
but almost all let it go. To give NewAW to the Premium cits only would be a
huge shame since the cits that r still here now have been paying for this
NewAW by the raise of prices... NewAW is needed for AW to convince tourists
to become a cit in AW instead of having them leave to other universes... not
to create an elite world where others have been paying for this last year.

Last option could be: Change the name ActiveWorlds to: ActiveGorWorlds. They
seem to do fine in the universe. If I was a kid of 12 years old, I would set
my ratings at "X" (the kids know better how to change their settings as
adults do) and yell out: 24! as soon as age is asked. No-one checks age
anyway. Wear a nude avatar and test what these avatars can do nowadays...
Its better that Playboy Channel! Loads of fun! What a succes AGW would be...
wish I was a 12 yr old.... I would even be allowed to say G-string in these
Gor worlds... WOW !!!

screb

[View Quote]

Feb 11, 2003, 5:31pm

About the PKs I just mentioned above; Gatekeepers seem to be the same. Read
aswell the thread: "Gate Tourist Names". Now for sure I know I cannot change
may name from "screb" to "G-string"......

screb

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