Make ranked room and non ranked room. newbies need to reach a certain level before entering the room. generally speaking 2-5 days of gameplay to reach that level.
Make ranked games have a room limit. spectating is not allowed. The non ranked games have no limit, spec is allowed.
Of course, people can watch a replay of a ranked game.
These days I see more newbies then vets. vets need a better playing felid to play on. in some manner or way you need to force better players to play with better players and new players play with each other. that the standard way most games handle these situations, the fact that zero k doesn't do this, well you can see the effects it has on newbies and experinced players. experinced players get annoyed at newbies and shout at them, newbies ragequit. you need to create a enviorment for long term players and new players.
The reason why experinced doesnt get used much is because it very easy to gain elo from the newbies. that the way i see it. lastly most people are 2 lazy to do something themselves if there is no restriction forcing them to do so. you need some form of matchmaking service.
you wonder why the playerbase won't grow, yet i see newbies daily. if you just look you will see more newbies then vets these days. I think the hard part is keeping those people around unless they truly get addicted to the game.
You need to bring the standard of games up to that such as 1vs1. if you want to play this game on serious level, you either go to 1vs1 or you wait forever for a game of vets. with bringing the level of games up, you create better experinces which increase activity which thus increases population.
Here a print screen of server in prime time on a saturday, as you can see there are much less vets and much more newbies. I have been feeling the effects aswell. the games become lackluster, you want to play with other good player but it doesn't happen so you are forced to wait forever to try and get a game of vets together because of small vet population or you play with the masses which is the new players in the big room, or just go play 1vs1.
If you still not not believe me, then i will say this, we had a much bigger vet population and activity when planetwars was being played on a daily level but planetwars has issues of it own -.-
Lastly by not forcing newbies to play ranked games, you don't effect their score. being a newbie and watching your score drop to a all time low sucks. i know that feeling as a person who rose from the 1200's. I am a pretty persistant guy but others are not. they just give up. by doing this, you create less stress overrall. newbies can play and train and learn without dropping to a low level where they be victimized by others just as they finally got ropes of the game.
