...the cosy family atmosphere that could be found here.
Daft, really, to feel so attached to something so abstract. But it's a testament to what a damn good site this has been.
I am semi-surprised to read so many of you saying something similar. I knew there were many players attached to the platform, coming daily, etc. I read many positive comments in the chat. However, I cannot remember any glowing review of the platform. To be honest, there have been very few reviews and I initiated most of them. I don't remember reading an article or even a post saying "Wow Happy Meeple is wonderful, you must try it, it's so good, so special". As a result, an organic growth was difficult.
This doesn't explain everything. I am sure that the lack of blockbuster games (although we had Lost Cities and Cartographers) and the small number of games did not help (the platform mainly grew when we added games). And I guess that what most of you found great about the platform was not liked so much by the others who tried the platform. Another assumption I have is that because we offered bots and 2-player games only, players did not really need to invite their friends to the platform. Paradoxically, the design of the platform, aiming to solve the critical mass issue and thus allowing to play quickly even if there were not many people available may have hindered the growth.
A few times, I had the idea to ask the community to communicate. I think that's the thing that would have been most helpful. Maybe a challenge like "let's get to from 400 to 600 daily players together by whatever means" would have been embraced by the community and yield results. I don't know. A community can sometimes build incredible things. My bad for not trying to unleash your obvious potential.
There are many things that could have been tried, but many of them were hard to put in place. One of them was to change the food system. But then what to do with the world, the granaries, the wheat wield, the roads? It would have required a lot of changes for a very uncertain gain. Opening the platform to multiplayer games (3+ players) was another idea, but required a major rewriting of the platform too. Maybe develop more complex games?
As has been written here in various forms, it is very likely that the design choice of the platform gave it a particular feel and that that particular feel could only please certain kind of people. Hence a niche product with little financial viability. It is all conjecture obviously. We'll never know.
I have to agree that you were a great community. People fight everywhere online nowadays. And not only on X. You were incredibly easy to deal with. Yes, we were quick to get rid of aggressive people and unacceptable behaviour, but honestly we did not have much to do on that side. So all I can conclude again is that the design of the platform attracted a particular set of people.
Please join the "Happy Meeple Players" group on Board Game Arena and let's try to recreate that bubble. Anyone wants to organize a tournament? Or something similar? The group has a "messaging system", so it's easy to communicate between members.
Finally, you should absolutely know that I am absolutely convinced that Board Game Arena has grown thanks to its community. It would not be nowhere near what it is now if it had not relied heavily on its volunteers to code new games, write tutorials or translate the games in many many languages.
