SIZZLING STATSPeriod: 16 November
2004 through 15 January 2005, inclusive.
No, that’s
not a typo. Due to the fact that we didn’t publish a January issue of DreamScribe,
this month’s column discusses the statistics for two months rather than
one. The graphs down at the end of the column show the usual one-month slices,
though. And the latest edition of the Sizzling Appendix (see link to the left)
only goes through 15 December 2004.
Role-Playing
Games
As of 15 January 2004,
DreamLyrics had 36 active games spread across the six message game categories,
down 4 from 15 December 2004 and down 10 from last issue. For a game to be considered
active, it must have had posts within the past four weeks and not have been
closed at the time the data is pulled (usually on the 15th or 16th). Inactive
games have been placed on hiatus with hopes that they'll be returning soon,
but we've got new games taking their place.
Which sections, or
game genre, had the most activity? Games, in the two charts below, refers
to the number of games in the category; the parenthetical information refers
to the previous month: = same as the previous, +/- indicates the number increased
or decreased. Posts refers to the total number of posts for all the games
in the category. Average is the average size of the posts in that section,
calculated by characters; some of the UBB codes have been removed, but signatures
are still being counted -- so, you folks with long signatures get credit for
writing more than you actually do.
November/December
Section Games Posts
Average
BCD 9(-1) 1853
538
TLG 6(nc) 727
456
MOE 7(-2) 350
690
BTS 10(-2) 185
410
DNA 5(nc) 155
454
DAG 3(-1) 62
464
December/January
Section Games Posts
Average
BTS 8(-2)
587 423
BCD 9(nc)
577 417
TLG 5(-1)
365 695
MOE 7(nc)
160 772
DNA 5(nc)
129 571
DAG 2(-1)
21 531
BCD maintained the
Number One spot for November/December (the seventh month in a row, and seventeen
for eighteen), but lost it to BTS in December/January. Note that in addition
to the games that are solely run in BCD, two games have had sections which are
run there (HOV and EOH, although neither had posts within the last month) while
several games have had threads which run in the JPT section (although that wasn’t
the case this month either).
There were 41 active
games involving 5171 messages in the last two months (3332 in November/December,
1839 in December/January). The message count represents a bit more than 126
messages per game, which translates to a bit more than 2 messages per day per
game.
Of course, averages
hide all the interesting variation. Which games were most active?
Let’s look at
the most active games by category.
Section
Game Posts
Average
BCD VQC*
1129 571
BTS TBT 449
410
DAG WLF 63
531
DNA VSF 109
656
MOE TVS* 327
849
TLG HOV* 414
304
The asterisk (*) indicates
that the game was also most active in the December column.
Ignoring genre, what
were the top games in terms of number of posts?
Game
Posts
Average
1 VQC:
Vampires in Queen City (1) 1129 571
2 TBT: The Big Thaw (u) 449
410
3 HOV: Hero or Villains? (2) 414
304
4 NVM: Nueva Amor (3)
384 403
5 TVS: The Vessel of Stars (10) 327
849
6 WGP: With Great Power (4) 311
571
7 BOO: Bizarre Occurrence (u) 283
720
8 CHC: The Chiltrion Campaign (u) 253
892
9 BTP: Beyond the Pale (8) 176
136
10 RNA: Arena (6)
175 530
The number in parentheses
after the game name is the game’s rank in the December column, with a (u)
indicating that a game was unranked.
Welcome,
TBT, BOO, and CHC, to the top ten.
Most of the ranking
of games is based on how frequently people post. It's also interesting to know
which games had the largest posts to give a different measure of the interest
that games elicit.
Game
Posts
Average
26 TRC: The Tomb
Robbers Club 23 1041
8 CHC: The Chiltrion Campaign 253
892
5 TVS: The Vessel of Stars 327
849
38 HMS: His Majesty’s Ships 7
740
7 BOO: Bizarre Occurrence and Occult 283 720
14 WRP: Warhammer Role Play 90
710
13 VSF: Vampire: San Francisco 109
656
25 E21: Earth 2100 39
623
15 ITD: Into the Darkness 88
604
6 WGP: With Great Power 311
571
1 VQC: Vampires in the Queen City 1129 571
The first column shows
the game’s rank in terms of activity. For example, VQC, tied for 10th in
terms of average post length, is also 1st in terms of frequency. Non-Role-Playing
Games and Other Activities
In addition to the
role-playing games, DreamLyrics features a number of other games and general
chat areas. What other games? Read Coffee Talk, elsewhere in this issue, for
in-depth explanations of many of these games and diversions. Better yet, check
it out yourself. You’ll find most of this action in the DPL:
DreamPlay section or FGM:
Fun & Games section.
Game/Activity
Posts
Average
YTZ: Yahtzee!
184 495
GFN: Garden Fence 175
325
FAB: FABQUIZ
143 857
ACR: ACRO
101 330
FIC: Fictionary
101 347
WDG: Other Word Games
95 109
SNG: Sniglets
89 329
RGM: The Reluctant GM 74
383
CVB: Civilization, the Board Game 73 205
EDI: Editorial staff only (private) 58 1820
PLR: Player Recruitment 34
507
SPT: Sports 30
1523
SHI: Shicargo
25 499
GLR: Games List and New Game Requests 21 156
DWD: Deadwood 1
86
Note: The number of
posts is not always a good indicator of activity. Because so many of these games
have consolidating posts which delete old posts, one message here might indicate
a dozen other messages which have been since deleted. Players
How many active players
do we have here in the DreamLyrics community? If you look on the main message
page, you'll see the name of our newest member and a number indicating how many
members. That number is a trifle misleading since it includes a few test members,
used by our sysops and developers as they test out various enhancements. Check
out this issue's New Member Welcome for details on new members.
Five listed forum members
(three of whom joined in October and one of who joined in November) have never
posted. That's very positive because it means that our members tend to be active.
The old RPGAMES forum on CompuServe had members numbered in the thousands, but
only a small percentage of those members were active.
So, what do we know
about the players?
The total number of
posts in the past two months was 6375 (4036 in November/December, 2339 in December/January).
75 members posted over the last two months, with an average of 85 posts per
active member.
Of those who posted,
22 members posted fewer than 10 times, 19 members posted 100 times or more,
and 12 members hit the 200+ mark. 32 members, or a bit less than half the active
membership, posted at least one message per day.
Who were the people
spending so much time posting? The top ten were:
Member
Post Average
^ Art in the
Blood (2) 454 228
^ Amadan (7) 398
506
* Silkenray (1)
320 265
^ Ilyanna (8)
303 359
^ Nicki Jett (3) 294 678
^ Blaze (4)
293 323
* Gypsy (9)
293 685
J-J Vomact (5)
251 565
^ Hurricane (u) 247
547
^ Slykin (u) 238
668
The number in parentheses
indicates the individual’s rank in the previous column. The asterisk (*)
indicates a sysop. The carat (^) indicates a Games Master. Being a sysop or
Games Master means an individual may post frequently out of duty.
Welcome,
Hurricane and Slykin, to the top ten posters!
The top ten posters
accounted for a bit more than half of the total message count for the past two
months, while the top five alone accounted for better than a third.
The average for post
length was 518 characters for the last two months. Which members wrote long
posts?
Member
Post
Average
70 lange
1 2650
41 JimZ 41
1150
59 Arianwen
7 1097
15 nemarsde
150 1015
47 Rilyntar 23
996
26 Kencyr 83
977
55 Jah 8
968
44 Doretta M. Reily 33
962
20 Mackey Mouse 95
937
28 Miles2Go
69 931
The number in the first
column is the player’s rank in terms of frequency. For example, lange is
1st in terms of post length and 70th in terms of frequency.
And on the other hand,
which of our members wrote the most succinct posts?
Member
Post
Average
52 Shamrock 14
27
50 Slufoot NYC 15
35
70 Besshor 1
43
37 Kit 49
133
70 Sivad 1
138
67 Pit Friend 3
185
69 Denis 2
191
45 Tim 29
219
1 Art in the Blood 454
228
36 just john 51
256
The number in the first
column is the player’s rank in terms of activity. For example, Shamrock
is 52nd in terms of frequency and 1st in terms of brevity.
This first graph looks
at the number of posting members, the number of active games and the average
post size over the last twelve months.
This graph
plots the numbers of role-playing and total posts over the last twelve months.
And this graph plots,
in broad categories (Top 5, Next 5, and All Other), where those posts came from.
There
are no new members in either The 10,000 Club or The 25,000 Club this month,
but I confidently predict that the former will see a new member in February.
Art in the Blood 27903
posts
Gypsy 23145
posts
Ilyanna 21449
posts
Blaze
21311 posts
Silkenray
17282 posts
Linda
15465 posts
Pete Hat
13757 posts
Amadan
13592 posts
AJ
12895 posts
Kit
11779 posts
Amber
10656 posts
Nicki Jett 10489
posts
Hope you enjoy this
month’s breakdown. If there’s something additional or different that
you’d like to see in this column, write to me in the Feedback section and
I’ll see if I can’t oblige.
Until next month, I’ll
be counting on you!
J-J Vomact,
Junior Assistant Numbers Geek Back |
