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Topic: Players not showing up for Games? (Read 140 times) |
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ColLupus
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Last On: 12/23/06
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Canada
Posts: 21
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I was just wondering how common it is for players not to show up for games they've signed up for.
I recently started a campaign, scheduled 2 sessions, each a week in advance using an application only game.
The game(s) were for 3-5 players each.
I invited 1 friend to both.
I accepted 6 applications for the first (including friend).
All six signed up, but only 3 showed up (including friend.)
For the second I accepted 7 players, 5 signed up, and 2 actually showed up. (including my friend.)
Is this common?
How many applications do I have to approve to get 3-5 people to actually show up?
It's getting a little frustrating.
Any advice on getting the right kind of players or getting people who will show up.
I provided clear joining instructions, and clear information on what kind of campaign I would be running and what kind of players I was looking for and what the server requirements were, namely NWN 1.64 (1.62 first week.), SoU, HotU and CEP1.1. (I'm going to get 1.50 tonight.) I also have the right time information entered in my profile.
One guy on the first game, appologized at the last minute for not being able to show up, apparantly he hadn't noticed it required SoU and he didn't have it. It's the first line in the description for crying out loud. But, at least he notified me he wasn't coming, no one else did.
Sorry a little upset about the whole thing, you know take the time to set it all up and no one shows...
Am I alone?
What can we do?
Ah, oh well, try again I guess...
Thanks for listening (reading).
Col. Lupus
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Rofelli
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Last On: 12/04/08
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United States
Posts: 1433
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When a player doesn't show up without a good excuse, hit the "Mark Player as Absent" link. It puts a big "Missed Games: 1" in their profile for a while.
Other than that, there's nothing you can really do. In my experiences here (just reached 2 years), it's rare.
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Lazybones
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Last On: 12/31/11
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Posts: 4695
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I mostly run established campaigns, so this hasn't been a big problem for me of late. But I have run perhaps 30-40 one-shots here since NWN came out, so I do have some experience with no-shows.
Basically, it's an inevitable fact of life. In fact, when I run one-shots, I'll usually set the game to 50% more slots than the actual number of players I want. So if I want 4 players, I'll provide 6 slots. If I want 5 players, I'll provide 7 slots, etc.
Yes, sometimes you end up with a lot of players if everyone shows up, but usually this is okay (if a bit chaotic at times!). Just don't send more invites than you can actually support on your server.
This is also why I don't recommend running games for less than 6 players (advertised; as I noted above you'll often get less). Yes, I know, many people prefer to DM small groups or play in small parties. But if you set up a game for 4 players, you're just asking for trouble (IMHO), because one player dropping or no-showing will have a disproportionate effect upon your game. I find that 6-7 players is ideal, and I still have to cancel the occasional game in my campaigns. It's not that my players suck or don't take the game seriously, but RL is always there to rear its ugly head.
Once or twice I've lost a session because only 2-3 players out of seven signed up showed up to the game. This does happen, just mark the no-shows as such (so that other DMs/hosts can avoid them), and try again.
A final suggestion, when reviewing applications is to look at the record of the player. A mix of newbies and veterans will usually give you better overall attendance than limiting your invites to people who don't have a NWC game history.
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deathchild
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Last On: 08/05/09
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United States
Posts: 534
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I have had the same problem. Sometimes everyone shows and sometimes only 1 or 2 shows.
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Fandomlife
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Last On: 08/24/08
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United Kingdom
Posts: 261
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This can happen a lot, and there is a very simple reason for it: the service NWC provides, and the ideal way to use it, is not what the average visitor wants.
NWC is best used to start campaigns and to form role-playing groups - who can use the tools to keep each other informed and correctly scheduled across timezones. Once you get this going it works great, and allows gaming groups to work across zime zones, etc, etc.
But, a high proportion of people come to NWC wanting almost on demand gaming, they want to game when they want...now. They find that's not the case so they try to conform by signing up for scheduled games only to find they're not available when it comes around.
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Carlo One
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Last On: 02/08/12
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I think it's important to keep in mind there are two factors involved in no-shows: real-life issues and unreliability. Very often at least one person will have to miss a campaign session or one-shot game of mine due to a RL issue cropping up, sometimes at the last minute. If someone misses a game without telling me beforehand, I send them a PM asking for an explanation in 24 hours or I'll have to mark them absent. This way, if people have had to visit the hospital or had to deal with other RL things without warning, they can clarify.
I've had very few drops due to unreliability, which I agree with above posters is largely due to instant gratification-types who find something "better" to do. Partly to address that issue, and partly because it's good for the game, I change my application question for each game or have it require extra effort beyond "describe your proposed character." It's very easy for someone to just cut and paste one of their usual PC descriptions, not nearly as easy to answer two or three thought-provoking questions. Those who don't want to take the time for application therefore self-select out of the game.
On a side note, I think active DM engagement helps prior to the game as well. A welcome-to-the-game message customized for the player which asks for additional background, custom equipment requests, etc. can help keep players involved and looking forward to the session. This is a good practice regardless of reliability issues, in my view.
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Smithy
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Last On: 02/03/10
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Posts: 864
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I think there are people (specially new ones) who think that it is like a kind of PW where you can join/logoff at will.
I have the same problems especially with one-shots.
Players that want to give a full DMed online one-shot a try... and then never does show-up.
You would have to tell them in your schedule informations that
"If you signed-up for this game, you have to show-up or post/PM a good reason for a no-show or you will suffice a red tag"
One-thing I hardly learned:
I will never run an open one-shot again!
I thought to give new players a better chance and for those who want to participate on a short notice... but I had distrubing players in almost every open one-shot I ran... so I stopped to run them coz I missed the fun when dealing with "bad" players.
In an application adventure the chance to get more stylematching players is not 100% though.
And yes, to send a PM and ask for background/equipment etc is a very good thing.
Just my two copper cents,
Smithy
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| « Last Edit: on: Oct 25, 2004, 10:17AM » |
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Festivus
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Last On: 08/16/07
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Posts: 501
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I have experienced this many times in the recent past... in fact I had to drop my NWCon 2.5 game because I had six sign ups and only one player showed up. These is extremely frustrating for someone like myself, who has limited time available to run games (small child at home).
These noshows have put me off from offering any further one shots, I haven't scheduled one since. I put a lot of time and effort into setting up games, testing modules and getting things working the way I want them to run, only to be let down in the end by no shows.
Yes, I have tried putting all sorts of information in the game session info about reporting if you can't make it, or what to do, and what you need explicitly, but I still get no word of no-shows.
Folks wonder why there are not more open, non-campaign games need look no further than the no-shows. Things changed for me once we stopped the tradtional mentoring program... which was a wonderful resource for fetching players for games.
I am planning on running a one-shot soon to keep my DM skills from fading, and plan to offer a module for NWCon3, but beyond that I am thinking of switching to a campaign format to keep from being disappointed.
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