The last couple of years, there haven't been nearly as many players in the RSPS scene and neither our Varrock nor Edgeville could be considered too crowded anymore. I also believe that we have long underestimated the importance of ease of access and first impressions towards new players.
For the past few weeks, I have thought about moving the home teleport back to Edgeville and the starter location back to ::shops. The Player-Owned House portal, estate agent, construction expert, Mage of Zamorak, Vote/Donator store salesmen and Item Set Exchange Clerk would also move to Edgeville, effectively rendering Varrock empty and unused.
I'm sure that that some players prefer Varrock as home location, but there are many upsides to be considered about moving everything Edgeville. Some of you may think "having Varrock as home is more original, almost every RSPS has Edgeville as home and starter location", which is true, but just because we're unique in that regard doesn't mean we're better. Every single major RSPS in the history of forever has had Edgeville as home. In my experience, the only ones that don't are either dead or never managed to take off in the first place.
Firstly, I have observed that new players are having trouble finding all necessary shops. By showing them all our shops from the first second, they will have far less trouble finding everything they are looking for. Most do not even know about ::shops in the first place.
Secondly, the combined player amounts of Edgeville and Varrock will make a far better first impression than just those currently in Varrock. It will make the server look more popular, which is almost always considered a plus. Players don't tend to stick around very long if there don't seem to be many players online. This might actually be somewhat problematic for us in the low hours of the day, between 4AM and 1PM CEST, when there are often only as about 90 - 120 players online.
The proximity of the wilderness to home will also make players more tempted to go PK'ing. It's a simple mind trick - just like the mere presence of a soft drink vending machine at a school will make children more tempted to buy a drink (a fact proved by several studies, one that companies are all to eager to abuse).
Another compelling reason to do this is for statistical analysis. A quick database lookup has shown us that in the last 6 months, out of 43,000 new players:
- 16,000 have played for less than 1 minute
- 2,500 played between 1 and 2 minutes
- 1,600 played between 2 and 3 minutes
- 1,100 for 3 - 4 mins
- 900 for 4 - 5 mins
- 21,000 played more than 5 minutes
If anyone has objections or improvements to this idea, please let me know. I would like to do this transition within the next couple of weeks at the last - the actual transition is less than an hour work, I just need to know if the community is in favour of this.
