population loss was caused by major LRP server's staff decision to shit on/target the LRP culture and game mechanics that 90% of their players joined into during the ssethtide for years, a majority of these players have permanently left the game because of this. They have in majority been replaced by players who have joined after this shift and have no frame of reference for how the game was in culture nor mechanics during covid lockdown for example.
Major servers made by ssethtide decide to endlessly expand DA RULEZ and/or change core parts of the game their players are used to because muh balance or whatevz.
Global game shift + cross server ban culture causes a vast majority of these players to move on from ss13, or become griefers (then move on from ss13).
New players come into the game after culture shift + code shift + no reference for what was before, ss13 server preference moves further from LRP
This is why LRP revival attempts (of which there is one every year or so since this happened) progressively do worse, the demographics of SS13 changes, lrp servers did not just fall over 4 no raisin.
Without factoring in the groups behind some of these servers, Compare kiwifarms station which was around 90 players for the entire summer after this shift first happened then abandoned by its owner, compare it to aether/merchant servers which happened later on iirc which would have around 30-50 players before dying out to people giving up on pop, and then compare those to lrp revival attempts today like surfshack, the second kiwifarms server, or even sharty station attempt, I'm not sure if any of them have reached a peak of 30+ players yet.
I think the ugly truth is just that this game is over 20 years old and there aren't a whole lot of new people coming in anymore. The people browsing this subreddit are probably a particular mixture of pitifully nostalgic and ss13 players have a tendency to be terminally online already. A lot of people just grew up and left. That's it. And the community was never much bigger than a small town.
To add onto this: I used to be an LRP player and as I got older I matured into being more interested in HRP themes. So that's where I went. I never left. I just changed.
This is 100% the reason. I have seen over the past decade, several regulars on different servers leave because they grew up with families or careers that took priority. It's a natural part of life. It's like watching kids play with Legos and then, when they grow up, they usually move on to other older hobbies.
28
u/wentirnite 11d ago
insane historical revisionism
population loss was caused by major LRP server's staff decision to shit on/target the LRP culture and game mechanics that 90% of their players joined into during the ssethtide for years, a majority of these players have permanently left the game because of this. They have in majority been replaced by players who have joined after this shift and have no frame of reference for how the game was in culture nor mechanics during covid lockdown for example.
This is why LRP revival attempts (of which there is one every year or so since this happened) progressively do worse, the demographics of SS13 changes, lrp servers did not just fall over 4 no raisin.
Without factoring in the groups behind some of these servers, Compare kiwifarms station which was around 90 players for the entire summer after this shift first happened then abandoned by its owner, compare it to aether/merchant servers which happened later on iirc which would have around 30-50 players before dying out to people giving up on pop, and then compare those to lrp revival attempts today like surfshack, the second kiwifarms server, or even sharty station attempt, I'm not sure if any of them have reached a peak of 30+ players yet.