Dave Ahn <ahn at vec.wfubmc.edu> wrote: > > Broadband is here. 2000: 9% of online households subscribe to broadband 2006: 41% http://cyberatlas.internet.com/markets/broadband/article/0,,10099_905351,00.html I have no idea how accurate these numbers are, but they're the first ones I found when I went looking. > While a lot of people do have bad connections (including > modem-only), I think that most people who try out netrek for the first > time will either already be computer-savvy or be at least network game-savvy. I'm not sure how this relates to the discussion at hand. > If their connections are really that bad, then training them for a couple of > hours on their local servers won't go very far in retaining them when they > get rewled repeatedly the first time they login to a real server. But it will give them a chance to get hooked. When I was stuck on a dial-up modem, I had a hard time finding a service that would stay connected for hours at a time. Trying to learn a new game and dealing with crap like that just sucks. Once a newbie has learned the game locally, finding an online game that they can play for an hour on won't be so bad. Also, it'll be easier to write a tutorial on the local client with a local server than on a remote server. Remember how newbie.psychosis.net was turned into a tutorial server? I appreciated Karthik's efforts, but I doubt it was very helpful to newbies. > I don't discount the value of a localized server. You just did in your previous message. > I've supported that idea > for years. But, I simply don't think that a superb server is going to > help the newbie understand how to change the keymap, if they even survive > the first 10 minutes of trying to download, install and run the client. The whole point of this effort is to make the download, install, and running the client stupid-simple. Changing your keymap should not be difficult. Having a local tutorial server will get newbies up and running right away. -Jeff