What..

[PicassoCT]

binds players to a game on the longterm? Is it standing out by EXP, Awards, Archievments, InGameStatues from other Players? Is it selfcreated Game-Content (myName-Sword, myUnit, myMap)?

Is it simply never been woken up by boredom (Repeating History, the same Game from yesterday) from the Game? If it is this, then why are games so catchy that live from repeating the same situation over and over again, while the players try to do it right this time? (CounterStrike, AnyQuickSaveGame with nearly Instant Death, you tryied a thousand times)?

Justified wonderin..

[Teutooni]

same situation over and over again

In before DSD!

Usually when a game gets repetitive I stop. But yeah, FPS games can be strangely addictive - After 10000 frags you still love it and have no idea why. Once you learn the maps and weapons and stuff it's just pure reflex. Might have to do with some primordial hunter instincts or whatever.

[Panda]

It seems to me as though wow players like the rewards that they get for engaging in repeatative scenarios:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gold_farming

Gold Farmers and companies can make a lot of money off of WOW players' addictions.

[PicassoCT]

virtual gold as a currency gains it worth by the other gamers playing the game, longterm, but what binds them, just the diablo┬▓ race of arms curve of everlasting oscilliating stalemate against the monsters? Rhetoric question, we know it is the social experience binding those, clans, guilds, but could we adopt that for spring? Games, Instances you could only play with a assembled clan every wednesday?


Or is it there avatars that bind them? Worthy Investment they are, having been filled with the most expensive currency - time. So if we had individual chooseable models for comanders (+levelups) - would this make more people addicted to spring?

[Panda]

I don't know. I like video games, but I don't seem to get addicted to them. Some of the Spring players should be able tell you what they think of that idea.

[Jazcash]

Spring has an element of freewill to it that most mainstream games don't have. Oh and also it's opensource, has a small community of geeky nerds, An endless amount of content, lots of customability and features to allow players to change the game to suit them, about 0.00001% of the world know about Spring, Spring pretends to be sexy, but really it's all about the gameplay, that wonderful wonderful gameplay. Ahhhhhhh...

[Panda]

Spring has strategy to it.

This is an awesome repeatative game!

Robot Unicorn Attack:

http://games.adultswim.com/robot-unicor ... -game.html

[Caydr]

The amazing community, of course. Smoth, by the way, is cheating on Panda with a squirrel he trapped and named "Butch".

[PicassoCT]

so people are bound to spring by the strategic challenge? So basically we should advertise at the total war: comunity and not hang our fishhook into the mainstream?

Repeative Gameplay on Speed, we dont have that. And that peeping is the Metall-detector, not a lie.

[Columbus]

If this game got really popular, the forums, as we know it, would disappear and be replaced with a boring noob/trollingfest and the devs wouldn't care about forum posts anymore. Just look at EVE Online forums. They say it was once a internet home for all sorts of interesting and cool people, but now...

[Gota]

About Spring.
I like It cause of the memories I have of TA,which literally blew my mind when i played it,since I was an RTS fan from day(rts and adventure games like kyranida and c&c were my fav games) one and my first fav game was dune 2.
Spring is TA++ since It's way more sandbox and is way better maintained in terms of balance and gameplay whcih for me is most important.
There is no commercial game that can compare to the potential flexibility of Spring.

@community
Problem is that if you don't grow you usually start getting smaller.
Either the community grows at some point and becomes different(for better or worse) or it dissipates.
If spring fan base grows it will become different(not to mention that ideally for me spring would be only ta based),with more different games and different people and attitudes but I still think its better than this whole project dying.
As far as im concerned anything that would keep ta gameplay alive is good including other projects getting fans that also trickle down to the ta,Spring fanbase.

[SinbadEV]

About Spring.
I like It cause of the memories I have of TA,which literally blew my mind when i played it,since I was an RTS fan from day(rts and adventure games like kyranida and c&c were my fav games) one and my first fav game was dune 2.
Spring is TA++ since It's way more sandbox and is way better maintained in terms of balance and gameplay whcih for me is most important.
There is no commercial game that can compare to the potential flexibility of Spring.

@community
Problem is that if you don't grow you usually start getting smaller.
Either the community grows at some point and becomes different(for better or worse) or it dissipates.
If spring fan base grows it will become different(not to mention that ideally for me spring would be only ta based),with more different games and different people and attitudes but I still think its better than this whole project dying.
As far as im concerned anything that would keep ta gameplay alive is good including other projects getting fans that also trickle down to the ta,Spring fanbase.

Blasphemer! (Just Kidding)

Ideally to me we would get away from TA IP without losing TA-ish game-play... things like CA etc.

If we grow, at some point the concept of a fan/code dev/game dev/all games in one place forum will no longer make sense and will splinter off to various game-specific sites, player/clan sites and an engine site... or at least I would imagine this to be the case.

[CarRepairer]

If we grow, at some point the concept of a fan/code dev/game dev/all games in one place forum will no longer make sense and will splinter off to various game-specific sites, player/clan sites and an engine site... or at least I would imagine this to be the case.

I agree, and this forum as we know it should still be just about the same in terms of the number of regulars (maybe a few more). Because it's the engine forum and the only people talking here should be content developers and the occasional player who reports bugs or asks how to make a map.

So yeah, in the event that Spring's playerbase explodes, this forum should still feel the same while large influxes of players should end up on game forums (and I guess the games' sub-forums in this forum).

Regarding OP, I agree with this:

Spring has an element of freewill to it that most mainstream games don't have.

That is a goal I have in mind when working on my mod. Spring already allows you to do so much and explore a game as you play it, I want to maximize that experience.

[SirArtturi]

I see this kind of open project as a double-edged sword. In same time, its free, open and kind, but same time it has a dispersing effect that most likely will mouth it to early death.

The main problem is that there is no project leader who would take the course and set sail. The current development field is badly fragmented and unorganized. Spring has no sturdy direction. It just does some small arbitary steps ahead. Engine seems to live in recession. People are developing their own mods and hoping to become popular and get the mass on their own side, but they seem not to realize that this way they are doing harm by splitting up the playerbase. As Ive said before, Spring has too small playerbase for so many mods.

Still, all respect for you all developers and content creators!

[SirArtturi]

For the real topic. I'd say it was purely the gameplay which binded me for this and still binding. Luckily that wont change anywhere, even though the graphics would be draggin behind. Well, Ive started to see this a visually bit more better over time, but maybe thats just because I havent really looked for new games anymore.

[Panda]

The amazing community, of course. Smoth, by the way, is cheating on Panda with a squirrel he trapped and named "Butch".

Squirrels are very intelligent creatures that can be trained. They are smarter than dogs are and the ones over here are used to people and are generally friendly unless they're guarding a nest and being territorial. I have considered training the squirrels on my university campus as a part of a science experiment, but I don't think that the campus officials would like that. If I ever get a pet squirrel or sugar glider I'm going to train it to do flips, but I like most animals so it doesn't have to be a squirrel.

[Regret]

Squirrels are very intelligent creatures that can be trained. They are smarter than dogs are and the ones over here are used to people and are generally friendly unless they're guarding a nest and being territorial. I have considered training the squirrels on my university campus as a part of a science experiment, but I don't think that the campus officials would like that. If I ever get a pet squirrel or sugar glider I'm going to train it to do flips, but I like most animals so it doesn't have to be a squirrel.

You like them so much that you want to make them do your bidding. Training them to entertain you.

[Jazcash]

Squirrels are very intelligent creatures that can be trained. They are smarter than dogs are and the ones over here are used to people and are generally friendly unless they're guarding a nest and being territorial. I have considered training the squirrels on my university campus as a part of a science experiment, but I don't think that the campus officials would like that. If I ever get a pet squirrel or sugar glider I'm going to train it to do flips, but I like most animals so it doesn't have to be a squirrel.

You like them so much that you want to make them do your bidding. Training them to entertain you.

ewwwwww

[KaiserJ]

the community!

as much as you guys hate me, i've grown quite attached to the spring community in general. everyone is intelligent... sure, some people are completely insane... but it just adds to the fun! there are a lot of creative, funny people in spring as opposed to other games / communities i've experienced... although we have our share of trolls, there really isn't anyone -that- bad.

and besides, with a small community, its easy to play game after game with people, have a chat with them, and eventually become friends or start a rivalry... both things will make you a repeat customer.

i played a lot of counterstrike on a server where people wanted to try new maps and mods and generally experience new content. i got to make things, and watch people play them and enjoy. its a good feeling.

[Panda]

Squirrels are very intelligent creatures that can be trained. They are smarter than dogs are and the ones over here are used to people and are generally friendly unless they're guarding a nest and being territorial. I have considered training the squirrels on my university campus as a part of a science experiment, but I don't think that the campus officials would like that. If I ever get a pet squirrel or sugar glider I'm going to train it to do flips, but I like most animals so it doesn't have to be a squirrel.

You like them so much that you want to make them do your bidding. Training them to entertain you.

I can see that you've never been interested in trained pets so I think that you should watch some educational material. This video shows an example of someone who is really into entertainment and animals:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fNdO-hRQgqg

She's a good actress, but at this moment, I'm glad I'm more into observations, science, and adaptations. Jazcash, this is your cue to say, "Ewwwwwwww!"