Forum Dwindling?

[HooCairs]

Classic is no longer Expansive Worlds' flagship product. Or if it is, they certainly don't seem to be marketing it in such a way. There was obviously going to be some churn when Call of the Wild came out, but that's to be expected when you go into competition with yourself. I still don't, and probably won't ever understand the logic behind intentionally replacing recurring revenue with one-off revenue, but that's a whole separate debate.

Maybe their hope was to slowly convert Classic players over to CotW, but after that did not happen for the most part at the release of CotW, they could have read the signs. They have to be selling thousands and thousands of CotW games and its DLCs if they would want to make the same amount as Classic I would guess, but then, what do we know.

[Cajunscout]

I visit the forums daily, I do not post a great deal but when I do it is to ask questions about game play or problems I am having or comment on a topic that I find interesting. I play both Classic and COTW and find that classic to me is more enjoyable, not to say I don't enjoy COTW but Classic is my favorite. I have spent many hours and cash in Classic and have kept up with COTW dlc's, but my preference is Classic and hope it stays around for years to come. It seems that EW had great hopes that COTW would be as accepting to the public as Classic, but from what I have read it does not seem to the case. I will continue to support Classic as much as I can and enjoy it as often as life (and the wife) allows until whatever happens. My 2 cents.
Happy hunting to all.
Cajunscout

[Violator31]

Looking at the participation around 2014, 2016 and 2018 in general and around the Summer Fiesta events in particular, this year looks pretty weak when comparing the numbers.

I used to join all of these events. I used to. I also used to get pretty frustrated seeing that so many of these events require a lot of hours of play to do well. I understand that they are designed to get people to put in more hours, I just don't have the free time that a lot of the usual higher placing entrants do. So that discouraged me from even clicking to enter & even less interest to click on the corresponding thread.

I'm going to remain ignorantly optimistic and say that this game will pull through and continue on.

Me too.

Also, there is a decline IRL of young people who hunt

Sadly, that is a true statement.

.....followed by great advice.

Promote hunting! Teach kids about to! Take them out and help them get started! It will benefit everyone in the long run!

As for my own absence from the game &/or the forums...? I visit the forums almost everyday. I lurk a couple of threads in "my posts" (I always have to look over the new rares) and once or twice a week I check out the "new threads". So far, 6 & a half days into the month I have hunted about 8 hours. That was boosted a lot by a long hunt last night. 55-65 hours a week at work have me far too tired to eat supper much less play a game.
These threads that turn into the "gloom & doom" type are always depressing to those of us who have a lot of cash invested, heck they are just depressing to anyone who reads them. It's always pointed out that it's a "niche" game and that alone hurts it. Then, lets add in the fact that the whole "hunting" lifestyle is dwindling & under constant scrutiny (because of the whole "guns are bad" thing) and the future isn't good for ANYTHING "hunting" related.
It shouldn't have to take a new reserve every year for the game to survive. But there does need to be advancements. What kind of advancements?.... that's where a marketing team comes in. Someone mentioned advertising..... I have never understood why this game has shied away from that 100%. Even something easy, like go into another hunting related forum (Archerytalk comes to mind) and give away a membership to any nonmember who tags the biggest Mule deer within a week. What do you lose on a transaction like that? The cost of a membership. What do you gain? You'll never know unless you try it.

[Macagod]

Disheartening issues (bugs/glitches) that are simply game-breaking are behind the reason i'm playing less, even though I get a yearly subscription each year it is getting harder to justify supporting TheHunter.

[WolfLQ]

I agree with those who can see COTW doing well. It needs a few things (trophy shots, for example) but it's a beautiful game. I do like it.

It's not just the forum, look at people's signatures and how few animals some of us are killing. I hardly play anymore and I played every day when I came back from my hiatus late last year. Cheaters are prevalent and great at getting away with it, COTW got Africa instead of us even after years of begging for it, etc. If people aren't playing as much they won't post

I know i'm off the subject, but i feel i have to write the following: i'm not sure i understand correctly, but if you have reasons to think that someone is cheating, then report the fact and possible culprits to support and avoid generic accusations.

There are plenty of cheaters streaming for months on YouTube (teleporting animals to their locations, for example); no way to tell what their usernames are though.

[RabbitEast]

I agree with SheWolf, this game lack publicity. I found out about this game last year during the Halloween Event only through Youtube. Now, even in Youtube, 98% of it is only on COTW. Currently, i guess only through COTW that THC will get minimum attention, and only if COTW players wanted to take a break and look for similar gaming experience. So far during this 1 year, i haven't really see any publicity for THC, so i really don't expect many new players getting in.

Fortuantely for THC, beside the long lists of ongoing yet not game breaking bugs, i feel THC really is an outstanding game. The competitions, trophy shots, trophy lodge, the varieties of maps, animals and weapons, also the great community in it just stands out. Oh, last but not least, the UHC app is just a superb additional to THC with useful tools and community held competition. Best of all, it is free!

[ronMctube]

youtube side call of the wild is the more popular content gets more views. so many more who cover theHunter content will do more videos on cotw. classic doesnt get as many views so they wont do as many videos on it. theHunter is covered pretty well though actually more now than its ever been social media wise. so thats not it. its understandable why would they do videos content for 500 -1000 views on classic when they can get 10,000+ on Call of the wild .

[INTIMID883R]

My 2 cents....

I have been following this thread all weekend. I actually wrote an essay to post, but alas Monday is almost gone for EW and not a single comment from anyone, so is pointless to post.

Even though it got a little off topic from OP, I see a lot of good post. Some have a lot of truth, knowledge, and wisdom in them. Worthy of being read and given much consideration by the powers that be. Guess that is not gonna happen, and that is a shame. What I see even more in some of the post, is not a gathering of Old members coming back to participate, as someone suggested, but rather a bunch of concerned members, both Old and New, expressing heart felt concern over the direction the game has taken in recent times. As has happened in the past, once again these concerns seem to have fallen of deaf ears. It is really a damn shame to see such a great game going by the wayside. RIP

[caledonianblues]

I have been following this thread all weekend. I actually wrote an essay to post, but alas Monday is almost gone for EW and not a single comment from anyone, so is pointless to post.

My advice is to post your comments, assuming you still have them and that they're not going to warrant moderation or result in the thread being locked. The developers are aware of the thread and I'm hopeful that we'll see some form of response at some stage. A lack of response, after all, would just validate some of the concerns being raised.

[INTIMID883R]

I have been following this thread all weekend. I actually wrote an essay to post, but alas Monday is almost gone for EW and not a single comment from anyone, so is pointless to post.

My advice is to post your comments, assuming you still have them and that they're not going to warrant moderation or result in the thread being locked. The developers are aware of the thread and I'm hopeful that we'll see some form of response at some stage. A lack of response, after all, would just validate some of the concerns being raised.

I greatly respect and appreciate your advice David but I have deleted my essay. It would not have been good for me to post anyway, as I have already been banned for my negative attitude, and frankly I had very little to say that was positive. Yourself and others are much better with words than I am. I have never been accused of being very tactful, and usually just "spit it out" as they say. Some are not capable of accepting critique unless it is very polite.