This Kickstarted Game is a Huge Disappointment
819This browser based game raised over $70K in crowdfunding and a year after launch has fewer than 500 users online at a time.
TOC:
00:00 - 0:59 Introduction
01:00 - 03:24 What/Who is Dappervolk
03:25 - 04:23 Where Did the Users Go
04:24 - 06:07 The Drama of a Gacha/Lootbox and In-Game Gambling
06:08 - 09:06 Game Grind as Play Method
09:07 - 11:25 Quest Deja Vu & Mandatory Drudgery
11:26 - 12:25 Time Consumption
12:26 - 14:05 Game Flow & Grind
14:06 - 16:25 Pet Management Minigame
16:26 - 18:44 Course Correction: Event Pooling
18:45 - 20:05 Further Course Correction
20:06 - 20:45 Admin's Acknowledgment
20:46 - 21:56 The Allegory of Elevator Drudgery
21:57 - 22:40 Cecilia Hodent's Recommendations on Status Updates
22:41 - 24:11 Direct Address to Quislings & Dappervolk Dev Team
24:12 - 24:53 Direct Address to My Subscribers
24:54 - 26:07 Mini-Book Review of the Gamer's Brain by Celia Hodent
26:08 - 29:51 Contradicting Everything I Just Said
29:52 - 30:23 Outtro
Want to try Dappervolk? Here's my referral code:
https://dappervolk.com/register?referrer=bonkish
Despite raising over $73K US dollars from 1300 backers, less than a year in, the playership is a fraction of what it was at launch. What was the special allure of Dappervolk? Why did backers fund the site, only for the majority of them to abandon it shortly after launch? How can such a pretty game hemorrhage users? What can Dappervolk do to stop itself from killing fun, win it's churned players back, and attract new players?
Sweetser, Penelope, and Peta Wyeth. “GameFlow.” Computers in Entertainment 3.3 (2005): 3–3. Crossref. Web.
The Gamer’s Brain: How Neuroscience and UX can impact Design, Celia Hodent