I made a Magnagoran alt and was shocked to see how many people were around at like 4 AM CST...needless to say more people than I've ever seen online in Hallifax....


at 6:30 PM CST on a friday this is what I see
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Citizen Rank Position CT
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Morbo Alderman On
Dramon Burgher City Aide On
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Currently, there are 2 Citizens on this Plane and 2 on other Planes.

>_> I'm thinking of joining Magnagora now. What're all of your cities like around this time?

"Empty" is going to turn out to mean different things to different people. Sometimes it means how many people are on CWHO, sometimes it means how many non-novices, or how many active people, or how many who aren't hiding in manses, or how many who will join in on your favorite group activity, or how many will come to defense, or how many are good combatants. I think every nation, except maybe Celest, can make a good case for being the emptiest nation, and has done so. And yet everyone who does so is also the busiest in some other way. Hallifax has the smallest CWHOs but the most people who'll participate in theater, for instance. Glomdoring claims to have the smallest active population yet usually fields the most or second-most combatants at any given conflict. Serenwilde generally has very few people who will participate in anything you care to name, but usually has the most novices. Etc.

Why not Celest? Celest tends to have it's empty moments. On several occasions I've been either the only person in Celest logged in, or one of two, so if I logged off, it's 0 people logged in at the time of me logging off, or one person logged in.

Okay, given sufficient levels of denial, even Celest can claim to be "the most empty city" based on the idea that once in a while it's somewhat quiet. Go figure.

Speaking to activity, a generally good scale of it is the Cultural Activity score for each city. IE right now Magnagora is most 'active,' followed by Serenwilde, Celest, Glomdoring, Gaudiguch and Hallifax bringing up the rear.

Of course, that only changes by, well, being active - and encouraging activity in others. Magnagora wasn't on top all that long ago, with Celest holding it. And before that Serenwilde. And before that, Celest. And before that, Serenwilde. And before that ... (and so forth)

My city is empty. I think I'll leave the city and make it more empty.

What denial? From his first post, he's asking about emptiness based on the number of total people listed on cwho at a time. I've personally seen the total number be 1(me). I'm not saying that we are the emptiest city, but there have been moments in which there's literally been 0 people from Celest logged in. Maybe not a large stretch of time possibly, but times none the less. If we're expanding the definition of empty to encompass different things as listed in your first post, then no one will be able to claim emptiest city if they're choosing how the term is being defined.

Hallifax swings around a lot, most of the other orgs do as well I would assume.

It held cultural center for some time, as well.

My problem with that measure is that the fluctuation level is quite a lot more than what I think most people think of -- whichever of the many interpretations they mean -- by emptiness or fullness of a city. If one averaged out over the course of weeks it would probably be a great measure, but as is, people tend to glance at it one day and come to conclusions. not realizing (or not giving sufficient credence to the fact that) it will probably have changed, often dramatically, by the next day, and then back, and so on.

I've always thought the reason some orgs have so many people is because from an outside perspective, they most fall into the typical stereotypes that people coming to new fantasy games expect to see. Elf/Druid/Treehugger, boom, Seren. Undead/Evil/Blah blah dreadhelm of doom, boom, Mag. And these seem to be pretty common archetypes that people want to play. Celest is also easily recognizable, with being Good/Righteous/Cleric-y.

Now I know that all of these organizations are far more complex, that the nuances are many and the populations hugely varied, but on the surface - I feel like this is the reason they get more players to start and to stay, compared to organizations like Glom, Halli, and Gaudi, the bases of which are less familiar.

Also, don't take it too much to heart about the population this minute. It swings here and there, we had the same issue a couple of weeks ago, but now we have a healthy 17 online where before we had 5.

Cultural centre isn't a good indication though. An org with one or two skilled writers that happen to write in a style the admin/judges like can pretty much keep cultural centre while being virtually empty except for 10 minutes a week (not that this happens just how the system works).

It is pretty relative to your hours though, GMT morning Magnagora seems the most active with Serenwilde being second and the rest lagging behind, on GMT evening on the other hand Celest seems to be the most active. There are some freak times when Gaudiguch had the most players awake. Can't really see a pattern in Hallifax though, they are so chaotic with logins

On a personal note for me sometimes 1 person around can seem a lot, while 20 can seem little depending on my interaction with them so that supports Lendren's theory.

Cultural Centre is not a reasonable means of judging activity, really. That takes into library productions, stage productions, etc.

And yes Lendren, it is calculated on a day-to-day basis. Mind, I look at it on a pretty daily basis, so I can say today's setup is pretty common lately. Although Mag has been starting to lag a bit.

I admit, when I did CWHO and saw 20+ Gloms online, I gasped IRL due to surprise and joy.

...And that makes you unhappy?

Makes me feel weirded out tbh, I'm used to seeing 15 on a good day.

Glom used to be the "it" place! Did you elitists scare off all the newbs?

We still are the "it" place, I swear

Actually, we're like the underground hipster movement that got mainstream which therefore makes us not cool anymore. Also we choke.

Which would make Sojiro the RIAA or something.

QFT

Also... why do you Gloms always have to mention choke?!

Usually someone else mentions it first, so the Gloms try to bring it up in a sarcastic way to regain some of their hipster chops.