ZDaemon

[solara]

(First of all please only post relevant information, we do not want to start any flame wars etc, this topic is for the interest of the community and not to cause trouble.)

It is inevitable that the Doom community has become progressively more inactive. There is no argument here, it is natural process. I believe or would hope to believe that it is in the best interest of the current dooming population to attempt to increase activity as a whole. Zdaemon has currently reached market saturation, becoming a very niche environment whereby clans and players have consolidated. Players play amongst friends in private arranged matches in clans that have big reputations (and egos). What with the current situation new players find it almost impossible to establish themselves. Now before I say anything, I understand that a lot of the current population particularly the likes of the ‘old school’ players don’t actually want things to change. If you feel that you fit into this category then just don’t get involved as this should not affect you. However, if you (like myself) would like to see public activity levels rise, then please lend a hand because this isn’t going to be possible alone.

Below is a brief summary of a critical analysis of Doom, more specifically Zdaemon, in terms of a business prospective. This may or may not interest you, so feel free to ignore it and skip to the final topic where I offer some solutions to the problems that I feel Zdaemon is facing.


In terms of a product life cycle, it would appear that Doom ports are currently situated somewhere between the Mature and Decline stage of market growth. Here there is little or negative growth, in which market saturation occurs where replacement demand displaces new demand. In Zdaemon, this can be seen if you express demand in terms of activity, whereby the market is the cluster of clans. A critical analyses of this market in this particular stage of the product life cycle, defines that;

• Rivalry – There is an increasing rivalry between firms, due to limited market growth (New clans) and excess capacity (Current clans over skilled). Demand is declining (activity) causing price wars (Clans recruiting players with lesser skill than in previous occasions). This produces a consolidation, in which markets fuse (clan mergers) in an attempt to reduce intensity of the competition. – In terms of a business, a less competitive environment provides a more attractive market. However in terms of the dooming community and activity, lesser competition is similar to rupturing a persons jugular, it is catastrophic and will result in negative market growth, and consequently total inactivity.
• Barriers to Entry – Brand loyalty (Reputation) and market share of current clans become vital in survival; entry barriers are very high in terms of both competition and demand. Therefore new entrants are very reluctant to enter the market. If anything barriers to exit are of greater importance.
• Profitability (arguably expressed as enjoyment) – Profitability declines rapidly as profits and activity decrease exponentially.

Firms Profitability

A firm’s profitability, in terms of competitive advantage depends on 3 factors. These include,

Value (Reputation) – Customers place on the firm
Price (Recruitment objective) – Requirements to join a particular firm/clan
Costs (Time) – The time it takes to implement or create that value/price

The competition of the environment determines the extent of value creation (Benefit to firm – cost) and how it is distributed between consumer surplus (community benefit) and profit margin (profitability of the firm).

For a firm to sustain or obtain a specified level of profitability, it must create various sources of competitive advantages relative to its rivals. Sustaining a competitive advantage relies on the ability of competitors to imitate its resources, depending on whether the advantage is transparent or replicable. For example, the clan [CHAOS] thrive off activity and have a competitive advantage of SSG aim. This is arguably difficult to imitate and therefore is a transparent resource/capability which can be seen with their success as a clan. Similarly, the clan [dp] have a competitive advantage in terms of mutual respect, which takes time and effort to imitate, hence their success as a clan.

There are many different sources of competitive advantage such as economies of scale (eg large clans such as [Bro] and [MAG]), economies of scope (eg multi purpose dooming, clans which not only specialize in one category such as gaming, but also venture into mapping and coding, such as [DoP] and vd-plas), learning effects (eg clans that have been around for years, learning how to respond to specific stimuli, such as [BT] and LG), there are many other sources of competitive advantages that I will not bore you with at this time. These all provide clans with greater reputation and therefore success.

New Clans

A newly formed clan should always undertake a SWOT analysis to determine its source of competitive advantage and competition strategy. It should highlight its strengths and weaknesses as a firm, alongside its opportunities and threats in the market environment. It should apply and extend its strengths to overcome weaknesses in the market and to enhance market opportunities. Whilst using the opportunities of the market to avoid its internal weaknesses.

The new clan should identify the dimensions of its strategy, including which areas it is to enter, eg competing in different game modes, coding or map building. It should then define whether it is to occupy a focused differentiated or leadership strategy.

• Focused – Neither leader or differentiated, focuses on competing at a uniform level whilst maintaining a relative degree of differentiation
• Differentiated – Focuses more specifically on being a pioneer with innovation, rather than leadership.
• Leadership – Plans on being the best in the market, obtaining a hierarchy status.

In the current circumstances, it is difficult to obtain any kind of recognized status. This is due to the competitive pressures that clans face from established clans. Now, most of what I have just said will probably have gone straight over your head. However it leads elegantly onto my main topic.

_______________________________________________________________________


Barriers New Entrants Face

• Leadership – There are too many players who feel that they own the game, their power usually obtained from high skill levels. The attitude towards new players is appalling.
 A friendlier environment where players actively offer a hand to new comers.
 Support to new players, we were all new once. Here I suggest a channel #[L] and potentially a clan. This will be targeted for new players. In order to advertise this I would like a mention in #zdplayers topic and if possible a link to the channel on downloading Zdaemon.

• Skill – Any new player will instantly be 2-6 years behind the skill level of the current players. DM is declining as players are unwilling to be consistently humiliated by a 40-10 defeat.
 Training videos – I will set up videos that explain first the basics (movement, aiming, strafing, ssg styles etc) and then move onto more advanced videos (bfg, RJ, sr50, wallrunning, strategy and the like). This has shown high success rates so far and so should be a top priority.
• Knowledge – New players are unaware of the way things are run. Players need to be encouraged to participate wherever possible and learnt the formality of the community.
 Channel #[L] with supporting admins and players, general help from the community wherever possible. Set up ‘new player’ tournaments frequently and encourage gaming amongst them.
 Give new players an ‘Auntie’. This is an active player who knows their way around the community and will be able to teach, train and help any new player. Potentially assign 5 players per ‘Auntie’.
 One potential (more novelty value) would be to have battles between Aunties, so for example a clan take 5 new players under their wing and manage them in a CTF battle against another clans new players. Potentially fun for both parties.
 If we can train 15-30 new players to a moderate skill level it will transform the whole community!
• Activity – Players are only playing amongst friends, leaving servers after a match has finished whilst another player has patiently waited 15minutes for a game. Private CTF and DM are problems here. Channels such as #euro where only established players organize games.
 Once again channel #[L] will give the opportunity for new players to face similar skills levels increasing their enjoyment of the game.
 Channel #[L] needs to be advertised and populated for this to occur. This will need the help from the forums, #zdplayers topic, etc.

• Experience Points – New players seem to be set on gaining experience however they face the impossible challenge of matching some of the current levels.
 New experience databases with better and more exciting challenges such as those on Call of Duty and other successful games.
• Accessing the game – Not a lot of people even know that Zdaemon exists! It is a very ‘backdoor’ game with very little advertisement. Yes it is limited in terms of money but there are other ways to ‘spread the word’. Zdaemon fits into the ‘elite’ gaming category, with the likes of CS: Source. The main attraction is the ability to make a name for yourself with constantly improving elite standards of gaming. The likes of tournaments, private CTF and reputation amongst clans appeals to people.
 Each player attempt to draft in 5 new players, invite friends of people you may know.
 Offer incentives for players to invite new comers. One way of doing this would be to offer experience points for inviting a player based on his/her potential. Players should bring their prodigy to #[L] and then be judged whether the potential is there and hence assign experience or not.
 Promotional videos, a video similar to that of the Nike advert for example where you see a player begin losing constantly, but then show training and some ‘glamour’ to then end up a top class player. (I have lots of ideas for this, so if anyone is interested in helping me that would be great).
 Advertise – I have spoken to the manager of GAME stores in Birmingham and been granted permission to advertise Zdaemon in there (for free) so if possibly help me create an advertising project. Also spread the word to a more targeted market, such as ED (enemy down site) and those sorts of places. These people are often very willing to help you will be pleasantly surprised.

That is all I have to say for the moment, but I have many more ideas that need discussing but I will leave them to a later stage. This is just an introduction to a project that may take weeks or months to even begin, but at least you have some knowledge of it.

If anyone would like to participate or atleast lend a hand, please notify yourselves below, or drop me a message on chat (or through bot).

Kind regards.

[Firmar]

Ooooh boy that sure is long post, after few words I don't feel like it reading it...You sir have way too much freetime although that's good. Anyway WAAAAAAAAAAAAAY too looooong to read, try again and shorter please.

[IleKallio]

Quite a long post, with lots of (unnecessary) hard words in the first part. Was it really necessary to compare ZD to stock market stuff? Most of the things you mentioned have appeared before in other topics anyway (like Yo-yo).
The latter part of your post was more comprehensible though, and had some good ideas. It looks to me that you want to do the right thing, so I tip my hat off to you.

[Desert_Fox]

[Kruczyslaw]

[fx02]

Too much talk, lets play instead?! When I first read (yes I did) this I decided to be online as much as I can and play with strangers. The truth is that in most cases I would play only with familiar/good doomer. Time to change that

[Ronald]

[SwiftShot]

I really hate to be the person to put a depressive, realistic approach on things, but over the last few months there has been plenty of talk about people trying to make ZDaemon more active, but it hasn't lead anywhere really.

For example, look at the TDM league, it lasted for what .... 4 weeks before people became disinterested? The ZECT CTF league lasted about 5 weeks before people lost interest. There have also been many tournies that have been planned, and just failed to materialise. We have lost people from our community at a faster rate than new people are coming in, but when you play a game that is over 15 years old, unfortunately it's expected.

There have been some recent success stories too, such the ZDS and FYBO sessions are still going strong, also there looks set to be a tourney in the new DDOM gamemode, which I expect too be very popular with sign ups.

I appreciate that people have taken time to type up, well, huge essays about this type of topic, and it's nice to see how much people care about this place, but actions speak louder than words.

Finally, I don't mean to sound ignorant, but has Beast actually done ANYTHING since being appointed a forum mod for the clan section a few months ago?

[Alice]

[Sniper]

[SwiftShot]

I'm going to Birmingham tomorrow, so i'll ask anyone if they know what ZDaemon is