Monthly AT Update Log - November [+ Oct Player Retention]

[Lego XBOX 915]

http://67.media.tumblr.com/8f3054988a910ca7e5c06e87969d3eb0/tumblr_o1d0wy6b4u1qibhi9o3_540.gif

 

Application Team Log

= November =

 

New Player Data

The pie chart below (figure a) gives an indication of the most popular races for new players when they first join the server. In the month of November there was a greater proportion of races other than Elf and Human, 7 Halfling applications being accepted. Humans again made up around 50% of accepted players.

 

Figure a. Accepted applicant distribution by race (n=125).

 

In the spoiler below, you will find a list of the new players accepted to the server, be sure to help these people out if you have time!

 

Spoiler

Table 1. Accepted applicant name and race.

DragonRoleplay	Elf
xManic	Human
SkittleBoys	Human
HEROtheNOOB	Human
Dario015	Human
Jaelura	Elf
iPusheen	Elf
Chief OogaChoomah	Human
FadedRift	Kharajyr
SaEiPeaTeadma	Elf
Sadon	Human
HB_	N/A
EnvyTheShadow	Human
CrimsonEarz	Human
Mile_Hi_Masher	Human
Nate1450	N/A
A_rcade	Elf
Doopeh	Halfling
Parkieism	Human
OutlawOpossum	Kharajyr
KitsunePrincess	Elf
Clare	Elf
haydenbannett	Halfling
Orneth	Elf
lucas malkin	Elf
bookstar	Elf
Karumu	Elf
ElementalGamer	N/A
DFGCrush	Human
Expo	Elf
Michaela_Plays	Elf
ShIXTank	Human
FlyingUniZebra	Elf
kaleyka	Elf
Anaemic	Elf
Lucas84775	N/A
Algoda	N/A
SquirtGun	N/A
Vindicant	Human
Commander Ricardo	Dwarf
Eldrazi_Lykos	Kharajyr
enzo_adams__	Human
Diya	Human
Hoster102	Elf
NitroTurnip	Halfling
Jacobcraft04	Human
Bakaling	Orc
warboar2000	Human
ShadowZorua	Human
Almalexi	Elf
Cyre	Human
Wolfstrix	Human
Tosali	Human
Asyrs	Elf
Beast720	N/A
Potts244	N/A
Normir	Human
Potts224	N/A
Potts224	N/A
Youngie5500	N/A
EagleEye	Human
EagleEye	Human
big_goof	N/A
Moosehunter123	N/A
Overstrand	Human
rodentmouse	Human
Lil Nugget	N/A
Kingalex535	Human
bromadan	Human
_Scotti_	Dwarf
MCVDK	Halfling
Zoslore	Human
TheLittleFerret	Halfling
Tails_X	Human
WestCoast	Halfling
Zdog	Elf
CastorTroy	Human
Grilld	Human
Ryria	Human
big_goof	N/A
TheInsaneAreUs	Elf
BazoNikoloski	Human
Teletubie1998	Elf
EMC22222	Dwarf
Zixtone Neo	Human
CamixLotus	Elf
smallstevemine	Human
Mangus177	Human
Nesstro	Elf
gumshoeismygod	Human
garlvinland1	Orc
LePetitCordelier	Human
NotEvilAtAll	Human
Sixbits	Human
Daxx	Human
Blitzen	Kharajyr
Mistress History	Elf
Kardashadog	Human
TheSpicyWalrus	Elf
Pokyug	Dwarf
MANGQ	Halfling
Drake	Human
EmiliainWonderland	Elf
Jekinas	Human
Solaristic	Elf
enzo_adams__	N/A
Dorian	Elf
Skylez1	N/A
Zoom	Dwarf
John_Pootis	Dwarf
CrushKappa	Human
Catfish	Elf
Dymase	Human
CrepperSimon	N/A
Irishlozcat	N/A
Aurielle	Human
Fenean	Human
Rosebit	Elf
Calkar	Human
ShirleyFaith	Elf
Decorated	Elf
Irek Nokomis	Wood Elf
electraheart	Wood Elf
Forely	Orc Olog

 

 

 

In figure (b) it can be seen that there were about ⅔ applications accepted this month. This is higher than last month - which is good considering there were more applications in total. More or less the same, small, proportion of applicants which are put on pending were further denied. This will be looked into to see if it can be improved.

 

Figure b. Distribution of application results.

 

Team Data

As noted at the end of October, the quota has been changed to a percentage, which was decided to be 8%. This may change if there is an increase in team members, as the plan is to cover about ⅔ of applications with quota.

 

Figure c. Percentage of applications completed by application team members. Total applications, n = 188. Quota noted by red hashed line (8%).

 

Argontum was no longer part of the team, but was present at the time of this data collection (hence their count of 11). FlyingPanda went on hiatus and informed their manager of this (hence the lower count). The only members who did not reach the 8% quota were Pumpkin and Kry, this may be due to the fact that Goldensaint recorded their completed apps on the last couple days, pushing them beneath the quota (basic fractions).

 

Team Projects & Other News

Wiseacres is currently working on involving the Cloud Temple monks with new players, but is still in preliminary stages of this project. Gusano was busy with his Game Moderator trial and was unable to take on a project this month. Luv and Coolio are exterior managers, meaning that their ‘project’ is to keep up with designated AT members and assist in training of new arrivals. Each had 4 members under their wing.

 

For those looking to join the Application Team. Because of our losses this month and the last, we are now looking to recruit new members. Every application will be considered - I will be implementing a criteria-based reviewal of applicants based off the application, manager opinions and general behaviour. Those which are not deemed fit to join the team will be denied with the reasons - while those that are fit will be put on a shortlist from which we will pick three (for December). Luv is currently working on all the AT applications lodged.

 

Finally, below is data on player retention which I conducted in response to SquirtGun’s request on the previous AT log. Experience gained in my university statistics course was used to compile this data rigorously.

 

 

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Player Retention Data

= October Applicants =

 

Introduction

Player retention is perhaps one of the most important factors in the health and continuity of this server. Using the data of accepted players and the compiled timezones by Squirtgun, a statistically sound analysis was conducted on player retention for the accepted applicants of October.

 

For those not familiar with statistical analysis, below is a quick guide:

 

Statistical significance is used to make sure that differences in results obtained are not due to simple chance of the draw. An alpha level of 0.05 means that if after a statistical test we find a probability below the alpha level, we are confident that there’s less than a 5% chance that the differences are due simply because of the luck of the draw.

A student t-test is a statistical test for significance which tests two sample means (averages) for their difference.

The ANOVA (Analysis of Variance) is a statistical test for significance which tests two sample variances (average difference of data to the mean) for their difference.

 

Methods

The cohort was comprised of accepted applicants (n=97) and retention data was obtained using /seen which provided information on the activity of the cohort over the past week (7th November - 14th November 2016). Timezones were recorded as UTC-12 to UTC+12, distributed into three categories; (i) America, (ii) Europe, and (iii) Austral-asia. Significance was calculated using a one tailed student t-test for unequal variances, using an alpha level of α=0.05.

 

Results

As seen in the figure (a), the overall average time spent on the server by accepted players in the past week was of ~5 hours. New kharajyr spent a higher average time (~7 hours) on the server, however this may be due to the small amount of accepted kha (n=4). Meanwhile, new orcs and dwarves spent ~1 hour on average - again due to a low sample size (norc=3 and ndwarf=7).

Accepted dwarf players spent significantly less time on the server than humans (p=0.027 < α). Accepted orcs and dwarfs spent significantly less time on the server than all other races in general (p=0.028 and p=0.004 respectively). There were no other statistically significant differences between mean time spent on the server.

 

Figure a. Mean time spent on the server by new players per race. Time spent in between the 7th and 14th November.

 

Below (figure b), one can observe that the amount of new human players made up a greater percentage of those active than the total of accepted human applicants, as did elves and halflings. The proportion of other races such as dwarves decreased amongst the active in contrast with those accepted.

 

Figure b. Pie chart contrasting the proportion of new player races and the proportion of active new player races.

 

Figure (c) shows that about 39% of accepted players were active in the week from the 7th to 14th of November. Around 46.5% of accepted human players were still active, a greater percentage than overall - while other races only had 25-33% retention. Halflings, only having a single accepted player in October retained 100%... however this is not significant due to the limited sample (n=1).

 

Figure c. Percentage of active new players per race.

 

Below (figure d) shows the average time spent by accepted players depending on their timezone. It is apparent that no-one in the austral-asian time zone was active in the week sampled, and that europeans spent much less time on average than the american players.

Europeans and austral-asian accepted applicants spent statistically a very significant less time on the server than americans (p=0.0028 and p=0.0003 respectively).

 

Figure d. Mean time spent on the server by new players per timezone. Austral-asia are timezones UTC+5 to UTC+12; Europe are timezones UTC+0 to UTC+4; America are timezones UTC-9 to UTC-5.

 

The data shown in figure (e) and following figure (f) demonstrates that players in the Austral-asian time zones were no longer active. Then again, there was a limited sample size of austral-asian applicants (n=3). The figure below shows that there was a loss of new european applicants in contrast to americans.

 

Figure e. Pie chart contrasting the proportion of new player timezones and the proportion of active new player timezones.

 

Below (figure f) is shown the percentage of active players from the different time zone groups. Accepted american players show a ~43% retention rate, which is above average, while only ~31% of accepted european applicants remained active.

 

Figure f. Percentage of active new players per time zone.

 

The ANOVA summary below (table a) allows to study the significance of race and timezone on new player retention. There was a highly significant difference ( in general for different races (p=0.0013), but no significant interaction of race and timezone. This means that timezone wasn’t an issue once race was determined in player retention. Timezone alone doesn’t appear to have a significant effect on variance of player retention (p=0.45).

 

Table a. Summary table of a two factor Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). Df are degrees of freedom, F-value < 0.05 was considered significant.

 

Having only one month’s worth of applicants allows some indication of the current state of player retention, however, it does not provide much information as to optimisation of player retention. Continued study of this over subsequent months may allow for a greater understanding of the mechanics.

 

TL;DR

• The Austral-asian and European timezones had a significantly lower player retention (recorded as average time spent on the server over a week) than average.

• The Orc and Dwarf races had a significantly lower player retention (recorded as average time spent on the server over a week) than average.

• Race was a more significant factor in player retention than timezone, or any interaction thereof.

[Cat Evocation 3728]

Did you add AT managers to that list of people who did apps??

My only concern.

[_Jandy_ 3519]

Just now, Tox said:

Did you add AT managers to that list of people who did apps??

My only concern.

Their main focus is on projects, not apps. What should be concerning is player retention among some races.

[Lego XBOX 915]

Just now, Tox said:

Did you add AT managers to that list of people who did apps??

My only concern.

 

This month, managers were not expected to do applications. However, they did do 7 between them.

[Cat Evocation 3728]

Just now, Lego XBOX said:

 

This month, managers were not expected to do applications. However, they did do 7 between them.

 

Alright, thank you.

Hope these projects have some luck, so good luck to your AT.

[zaezae 1098]

Tell us your secret HUMANS

[Sky 0]

31 minutes ago, Lego XBOX said:

Wiseacres is currently working on involving the Cloud Temple monks with new players, but is still in preliminary stages of this project. Gusano was busy with his Game Moderator trial and was unable to take on a project this month. Luv and Coolio are exterior managers, meaning that their ‘project’ is to keep up with designated AT members and assist in training of new arrivals. Each had 4 members under their wing.

 

So to answer the question I posed last month, in regards to whether or not managers are held to a quota and what a manager does, would be that they aren't held to the quota but instead are responsible for taking charge of projects, and honestly it's a little lackluster. First off there has been countless times where the cloud temple monks have been assisted by various differing staff teams (I say this as an ex-monk myself) and during that, the only team that has been actually able to assist has been the global moderators when it came to regions because other than that, while the job has always originally been to help the new players, there is never a foolproof way to be on when newly accepted players join the game when they are accepted and in the end it makes the whole situation a moot point, don't waste time putting a manager on a useless project. While Gus is a friend, I have to say that he volunteered for the trial position and if he is unable to juggle both, then he shouldn't be on both teams and that's that. There are two designated managers set to training new members in the ways of reading applications and deciding whether to accept, put on pending or deny? Really? There are eleven application team members in the staff directory, one of which is the lead and four of which are managers, which means you have six (judging by the directory but you state four each, so eight) members being managed by five people. It is actually ridiculous to think, if you want to have an 'exterior' manager (by the way, what they are doing would make them 'interior' managers) then assign it to one person, and then have another doing what ever project you think is worthwhile (in this case the monks, despite me feeling it useless but hey it's your team), and remove the other two managers because you almost have fifty percent of the team acting as managers, it's the application team dude, I remember back when Rhia lead the team (albeit not the best leader) and she handled it fine without a single manager, and the team was filled with something like twenty members. Come on.

[JEEGK 1367]

 

[_Jandy_ 3519]

Spoiler

 

 

[JEEGK 1367]

36 minutes ago, Lego XBOX said:

Wiseacres is currently working on involving the Cloud Temple monks with new players

This didn't work out very well last time with the lack of work ethic towards the project, what will make the difference this time without changes to the people that are currently on the project? Just that it's a new year?

[Lego XBOX 915]

Just now, Sky said:

-snip-

 

With the amount of applications coming in these days, we barely need a team of 10 application reviewing members (which is what I will be aiming for). If the amount of applications increases - the team size will as well. There's no need for 20 (for example) when there's only 180 or so applications.

 

It is true, you can run a big team without any managers. That doesn't mean it isn't better to have them; the interior managers (Luv and Coolio) are in charge of checking in with their assigned AT members every week to make sure they are going well and to take in feedback on how the team members feel the team is going. This allows an increased communication between team and management, while also creating a personal connection with someone so you can relate.

 

It is true that Gus did volunteer for Trial, it will be up to him if he wants to remain on the team in December and it does look like he is interested in commencing a new project.

 

Your opinion on how to run a team is noted.

 

Just now, Jake! said:

This didn't work out very well last time with the lack of work ethic towards the project, what will make the difference this time without changes to the people that are currently on the project? Just that it's a new year?

 

To answer both Sky and you - I am going to be enforcing work on projects. It's not only a 'new year' but there's a 'new lead'. Hopefully, you will either hear of updates to this project next month - or that it has been abandoned for another one (with progress). I will not allow projects to continue on without progress endlessly.

[JEEGK 1367]

Just now, Lego XBOX said:

To answer both Sky and you - I am going to be enforcing work on projects. It's not only a 'new year' but there's a 'new lead'. Hopefully, you will either hear of updates to this project next month - or that it has been abandoned for another one (with progress). I will not allow projects to continue on without progress endlessly.

Good work, one of the most powerful AT member's that were on the team when I was there. Keep up the work.

[garentoft 9265]

1 hour ago, Sky said:

While Gus is a friend, I have to say that he volunteered for the trial position and if he is unable to juggle both, then he shouldn't be on both teams and that's that.

I remained on the team this month to see how well I'd be able to juggle, and I have to admit that I could've juggled much better. I could most likely have done a project this month, simply myself not properly determining how I should've judged my ability to juggle.

That said, I've resigned from Manager, though I'll still be assisting the AT.

[WuHanXianShi14 0]

I liked squirtgun's graphs better!

 

A whip is heard cracking in the distance.

[HedgeHug 2049]

35 minutes ago, 吳憾戰士14 said:

A whip is heard cracking in the distance.

A shaman mumbles muffled curses