bamage wrote:My two cents: the inaction on some of the features that the community has agreed would make this a better place borders on disdain for people who love CC by the people who own/run CC.
The best example, in my opinion, is the continued inaction on ensuring as-even-as-possible game starts in 1v1 tournaments. Consider a committed player, painstakingly strategizing and winning a couple of rounds, just to end up going last in all 5 finals games on a map that (like more than half the maps) provides a big advantage to the first mover. He's going to think, "Why did I bother when it's really just a coin toss? Do I love this place way more than its owners? Do they understand what motivates their most ardent supporters?"
It's an abusive relationship that more and more players are just going to walk away from. I remember what it was like when we had 30k active players. LackAttack gave a shit, and it showed in every aspect of the game. CC wasn't perfect but there was a clear sense of demonstrable progress on every rough edge.
As I have said several times already, the decline of CC is not due to one factor, one person, or DICE. Very simply, there are many more websites offering this game and many sites offer good video graphics and "bells and whistles" too. There are claims of good tutorial videos on some of those other sites, but I have not found one. I am rather sure that the decline of CC is not unique; other long time game sites have seen a similar decline. Also, Hasbro, the owner of the Risk board game and its video spinoffs, has created an online Risk game site and that will draw NEW player there and away from us on CC.
There are more options for more sites and for more games online; that is where many of the 30K now are, playing Risk, enjoying other games, and/or playing video games on their home consoles. Risk, with a 24 hour wait, is too long a wait for the "instant gratification" desired by today's younger players. And most young people find this site too boring.
The decline has been steady for at least the last 10 years (or longer). COVID did provide a surge of new people, but I doubt many stayed. The long downward trend was interrupted by COVID in 2020. Someone has that graph showing the overall trend and perhaps NOW is a good time to ask for an update.