- Status update
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Kukubee
We did spend some resources on advertising. But we had poor, poor, poor retention from new players. We had next to zero organic growth. It's not just about getting your name out there if the people who try the game don't even stick with it. Our dedicated players turned out to be a very very very small minority of the players that actually tried the game. And for this game to at least break even, we had to do something like 15-20x the player numbers we had. That's a huge jump. I really don't think anything could have helped outside of making some huge fundamental changes to the game itself. And THAT'S what would've cost us a more than we could afford.
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Hab
Dearest Brent/Kukubee, I just want to thank you - REALLY thank you - for taking the time that you have taken over these weeks to talk about this very difficult subject. It is getting touchy now even for those of us who have tried to stay upbeat about it, because, I think for me at least, the loss - the monumental loss - is finally becoming real. At first I was in denial - wouldn't talk about it, wouldn't go to the forums, would only go to my little house and play by myself, pretending like it wasn't going to happen. Then I started thinking about it. Went to the forums - posted sad but loving posts about our beautiful world and all the things I would miss. Then, when you and Dan (and others) started your efforts to save what you could of Glitch, somehow it didn't seem so bad again. I felt like it (and I) would be okay. And then (though please don't take this as any lack of appreciation for your efforts - I am still so totally stoked to have the book coming, and am ordering a CD & music box as soon as I have the cash this week, as well as being on the waiting list for the next go-round of pouches), I realized that NONE of this would bring it back. It could only ever be memories. From now on. Forever. I cried again when people started saying goodbye here on the update page, that they couldn't hang around anymore because there was no point. And then... I think that's when it happened. Things started getting quietly, understatedly angry with many of us who have never been that way. We started questioning the closing for the first time - wondering if it was purely a business deal - get what you can from it and get out. People brought up Flickr, and I (thank heaven) had my computer delete a reply I made that well, stoot was a businessman first and foremost, what did we expect. (Oh GOD - I can't believe I told on myself). I kicked myself for two days and didn't come back to the update page because I felt so bad about saying something like that when you ALL have obviously done everything and more so far above and beyond to give us everything you can of this game. Even to have left the site up for us to communicate - the forums - even (the closet of my dreams) the wardrobe?!!! It is just so clearly the action of people who care about other people and about doing the right thing as much as possible. There IS no other explanation. Stoot was even posting snaps a week after closing. Now tell me those are the actions of a cold-hearted business-only dude. So okay, I have rambled quite a bit here, forgive me, all of you, but it just means a GREAT DEAL to me coming from you, Kukubee - with all the craziness you have going right now with the projects - that you would take the time to look at these last few posts from us last few hangers-on, and actually be completely, truly honest. It helps readjust my attitude, because although anger IS a legitimate part of grief, it isn't healthy to stay there, and Glitch is something I want to always remember fondly - not have some niggling feeling that SOMEBODY could have done SOMETHING to save it and didn't. Let's face it - Glitch WAS really unusual - for me that was a great thing, but for mass marketing, yeah - I can see it might not be so good. It sucks, but its true. How many times, people out there, have you said - damn it! I loved that show - why did they cancel it and WHY is Keeping Up with the Kardashians still on the effing air?!!! (Sorry to all of you who love the K's) It's just a matter of - unusual not being enough of a draw to make a good living at. Anybody watch Firefly (the Sci Fi series)? Perfect example. Hilarious - unusual - great characters - rich with color... just a BIT too unusual to make it. And like Glitch, the people involved were really broke up about leaving it. Tried to save it. But in the end, it was numbers. I have always been an unusual person - creative, artistic, a bit poetic - didn't meet many people like that, EXCEPT HERE. So, it stands to reason really - now that I think of it. Yes it seems like there were quite a few of us, but realize, people that we were all over the world - from everywhere - and put that into perspective with any other big mass-market game, TV show, whatever, and you have to see that we just weren't enough. I can see it now. I couldn't before, and so for me, that's why your comment here meant so much. Thanks again. *sigh* (((Kukubee))) Love and hugs to my fellow hangers-on if you managed to hang with me through this post. :')
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Ann DramaDuh
Oh, what a shame. That Glitch didn't make it because most people "out there" haven't got a clue about what quality entertainment is. I agree with Hab about how new, interesting, quirky TV shows fold after one season because they don't pander to brain-dead viewers. For example: I loved the show "Life on Mars." I loved many shows like that .. but they all got pulled. The problems are (1) money, and (2) vacuous-brained people who only come alive when there is conflict of some kind to live vicariously through. The money part can be overcome, but the mindless, living zombies cannot.
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Little Poundcake
To follow up on this, since I'm a numbers person and I know that some of you are, too: Think about how often you or anyone you know will click on an ad because it looks interesting. Not very often, right? We spent *well* over $10K (I don't remember how much) to get about 1,000 clicks on our ads. Those are expensive clicks. Okay, so we have 1,000 people who did not know about Glitch and then clicked the ad. They ended up on a version of the home page with a big shiny "Play Now!" button. Now what? Only 100 of those people decided to click the "Play Now" button, which took them into the brand new cloud and flamingoes tutorial. Boo: we just lost 90% of those expensive clicks. :( Anyway, bright side! 100 new players! They're playing! Except... oh, shit, we lost all but about 30 of them before they even registered for a real account. Fuuuuuck. When we stretched that trend out over more ad dollars and a longer period of time, it turned out that we would hang on to maaaaaybe 5 of those people for longer than a week. The rest just vanished, usually somewhere around level 3-5, never to return. Glitch was a wonderful, magical thing for those of us who loved it, but it was simply not loved by most people who encountered it in the wild. It sucks, but it's the truth. Tens of thousands of people saw Glitch and did not instantly love it! We don't know what's wrong with them, either. :( Ad conversion was a total shit sandwich. We tried! We put lots and lots of dollars into the ad machine after spending lots and lots of time making a new tutorial for all of those new people. We had smart people helping us target ads towards our most likely players. A few of them came, fewer of them saw, almost none of them stayed. As Kuke mentioned, we needed significantly more players. There was no indication in any of our data that we could get there — or even remotely close — with more advertising. In short, math: sometimes it's a bummer.
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arizoo
I still think that a chill out game like this still have some potential. Like journey had. A place to chill out, hangout, discover yourself, open-less experiment, glitch had all of that in the beginning, it was a wonder world, then furniture and strange houses came, and it started to become something to not wonder about anymore. It was just work and busy people doing pointless mainstream virtual things. I don't blame anyone. I just want to say, you guys touched there, you were close, people will remember, will miss, something will come up after this experiment.
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Brib Annie
I understand but it is such a shame. It really was a great game. I did meet a number of new players who just had no idea what to do but, I have had that problem with every game I've tried. It takes something special to interest new players and "something" is wide and varied. I almost quit when I came in march 2011. I didn't like the side scrolling, I got stuck and could get no help for a while, etc. It was the Art that kept me here. The game grew on me a bit later.
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in reply to
- Status update
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Hab
Dearest Brent/Kukubee, I just want to thank you - REALLY thank you - for taking the time that you have taken over these weeks to talk about this very difficult subject. It is getting touchy now even for those of us who have tried to stay upbeat about it, because, I think for me at least, the loss - the monumental loss - is finally becoming real. At first I was in denial - wouldn't talk about it, wouldn't go to the forums, would only go to my little house and play by myself, pretending like it wasn't going to happen. Then I started thinking about it. Went to the forums - posted sad but loving posts about our beautiful world and all the things I would miss. Then, when you and Dan (and others) started your efforts to save what you could of Glitch, somehow it didn't seem so bad again. I felt like it (and I) would be okay. And then (though please don't take this as any lack of appreciation for your efforts - I am still so totally stoked to have the book coming, and am ordering a CD & music box as soon as I have the cash this week, as well as being on the waiting list for the next go-round of pouches), I realized that NONE of this would bring it back. It could only ever be memories. From now on. Forever. I cried again when people started saying goodbye here on the update page, that they couldn't hang around anymore because there was no point. And then... I think that's when it happened. Things started getting quietly, understatedly angry with many of us who have never been that way. We started questioning the closing for the first time - wondering if it was purely a business deal - get what you can from it and get out. People brought up Flickr, and I (thank heaven) had my computer delete a reply I made that well, stoot was a businessman first and foremost, what did we expect. (Oh GOD - I can't believe I told on myself). I kicked myself for two days and didn't come back to the update page because I felt so bad about saying something like that when you ALL have obviously done everything and more so far above and beyond to give us everything you can of this game. Even to have left the site up for us to communicate - the forums - even (the closet of my dreams) the wardrobe?!!! It is just so clearly the action of people who care about other people and about doing the right thing as much as possible. There IS no other explanation. Stoot was even posting snaps a week after closing. Now tell me those are the actions of a cold-hearted business-only dude. So okay, I have rambled quite a bit here, forgive me, all of you, but it just means a GREAT DEAL to me coming from you, Kukubee - with all the craziness you have going right now with the projects - that you would take the time to look at these last few posts from us last few hangers-on, and actually be completely, truly honest. It helps readjust my attitude, because although anger IS a legitimate part of grief, it isn't healthy to stay there, and Glitch is something I want to always remember fondly - not have some niggling feeling that SOMEBODY could have done SOMETHING to save it and didn't. Let's face it - Glitch WAS really unusual - for me that was a great thing, but for mass marketing, yeah - I can see it might not be so good. It sucks, but its true. How many times, people out there, have you said - damn it! I loved that show - why did they cancel it and WHY is Keeping Up with the Kardashians still on the effing air?!!! (Sorry to all of you who love the K's) It's just a matter of - unusual not being enough of a draw to make a good living at. Anybody watch Firefly (the Sci Fi series)? Perfect example. Hilarious - unusual - great characters - rich with color... just a BIT too unusual to make it. And like Glitch, the people involved were really broke up about leaving it. Tried to save it. But in the end, it was numbers. I have always been an unusual person - creative, artistic, a bit poetic - didn't meet many people like that, EXCEPT HERE. So, it stands to reason really - now that I think of it. Yes it seems like there were quite a few of us, but realize, people that we were all over the world - from everywhere - and put that into perspective with any other big mass-market game, TV show, whatever, and you have to see that we just weren't enough. I can see it now. I couldn't before, and so for me, that's why your comment here meant so much. Thanks again. *sigh* (((Kukubee))) Love and hugs to my fellow hangers-on if you managed to hang with me through this post. :')
a long time ago
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Minkey
I could write an equally lengthy (gee, or five billion times lengthier) response to you or I could just say a few short things: A) OMG, you're so sweet and cute; B) glad you deleted and were honest about the stoot message but don't be so hard on yourself...seriously; C) Firefly, yes. K thing, no, never (I also mean no offense for those who do the K thing); D) yep, beyond unusual; E) Awww, I think I love you!!
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Shmoopie Kerfuffle
Oh, you are so right about the popularity of stupid and the lack of interest in anything with complexity or depth. The same thing can be said for serious music, art, liturature...most people today don't even know what they ARE. I can see it now too. Back when the game was relaunched, I wondered at the dumbing down and simplification of some things, like why are we able to have all types of trees, rocks, barnicles, fireflies, etc. in our yards? I didn't especially like it, and thought it made the game too easy. But now I realize that the devs thought that by simplifying things, they could attract and retain more players. This really saddens me, because it indicates what we have become in just a few decades. There was a time that much emphasis was placed on the Liberal Arts, and it was believed that one couldn't be truly educated without it. Now we are spoon fed pop culture and taught no appreciation for the arts, which is the category I would place Glitch in. It was art. It was complex, and clever, and special. Most people today don't get that.
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Hab
Shmoopie, I think you summed up Glitch in the shortest way, better than anyone! It absolutely was art. There were so many times I would stop and just look at my surroundings - just look and enjoy. "...complex, clever and special..." - you couldn't have said it better. I think that was one reason I was so relieved when Kukubee started his efforts to save the art of Glitch by creating a book. I remember some of his first comments on indiegogo sounded unsure whether there would be enough of us that would want this, and I always knew there would be more than enough (Though I wish I had $5000 to buy the "God" subscription!) I remember thinking: "Hallelujah - the art won't be lost forever"! I have always been amazed by the real beauty throughout the game. I also agree with you about Liberal Arts and the lack of emphasis on them. It made people more well-rounded - gave them more imagination - opened their minds, I believe.
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Shmoopie Kerfuffle
Oh, and, LOL, I deleted my earlier post about Stoot being a businessman first, too :)
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chilirlw
And this is precisely why many of us were so determined to try to find a new place to be together--we hadn't had the experience of meeting so many like-minded people in one place before!
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Gegnar
"At first I was in denial - wouldn't talk about it, wouldn't go to the forums, would only go to my little house and play by myself, pretending like it wasn't going to happen. Then I started thinking about it." Right there with you. I realized I was in denial about the whole thing when, 60 some minutes til the end, I still had all my stuff in my bags. I thought I had been handling it - I made quests for myself, "I must visit every street before the end" etc. and thought I was coping well...Until I noticed that I was still hanging on to everything as if it would be there for me later. That was when the THIS-IS-IT feeling began to hit and gather momentum until the very end. I cried for a while and it still gets me sometimes if I think about it much. However I will be eternally grateful for this shared experience, and for the confirmation that not everyone is a batshit violent self-obsessed lunatic, but in fact a lot of people are very kind and generous (& a little weird certainly doesn't hurt.) :)
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Hab
LOL Gegnar! I still had my things in bags to the very end TOO!!! How terribly funny and a bit sad of us! I agree with you though about being grateful for this "shared experience" - what a lovely way to put it! And yes, weirdness was embraced and encouraged in Glitch - along with being nice - how very unique that is in this world! :')
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Shmoopie Kerfuffle
I also was hanging on to everything! I wanted to leave my garden planted and looking pretty. Other people were dumping their treasures and rare collectibles, but I left everything in the SDBs I made for them. I left my house spick and span with everything in place. And yes, I still had stuff in bags, including tons of food and drinks that I always compulsively carried around with me. And I do agree with what you said about the people who played the game, and when you think about it, it is very interesting that most of the people who were passionate about the game were very similar in interests, intellect, personalities, character, etc. That's what made it a real community. It was exciting to meet these interesting people that understood what we loved and felt about it.
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Brib Annie
I kept most of my hard-won stuff too. I dropped some items around Ur but it was the common things. I help on to my collectibles and potions because I thought that maybe somehow, some way I could "keep" them. I know it's silly but it was so hard to let go and I still have not done that. I never will because Glitch is a part of me and will be until I lose my memory (if I live that long). Thanks Everyone for such a wonderful time!
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Brib Annie
I agree with most of what you said. I often wonder why "stupid" and "mindless" and "voyeurism" are all so popular and successful and Beauty and Creativity have to take a back seat and more often fail. TV is full of Reality shows. Why? They are much cheaper than shows that require scripts and actors and wardrobe, etc. Almost anyone just out of school could make a successful reality show but how many of them can make "Firefly" or "Downton Abbey" and make them pay? Here on the WEB, Zynga rules. Why? They make you PAY daily. If you want to move on, get ahead, have it all, then you can Dollar yourself to death at Zynga and it's like. People often pay more in a month for those games than I paid for a year at Glitch. I have tried several games now. All are very good and all cost more than Glitch and none are half as good or creative as Glitch but they are successful. I guess I would rather have nearly two years of Glitch or Faunasphere than 10 years of Zynga. It's just my preference and not meant as a particular dig at Zynga and it's like. They do what they do well. I am very happy to have all of the keepsakes that I have and that will come to me "soon". I appreciate the open Assets and everything the team has given us and I wish them much success in the future. Somehow I think that Stoot will find his "game" one way or another, something that will make a profit and can also be appreciated and loved for it's genius. I am staying "tuned"!
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