How many members?

I tried to run a game like this before, but didn't have much success finding people who would keep things moving. I suspect that in order to make something like that work, you need a handful of people who are very active, and then everyone else can orbit them as strikes their fancy. The Star Trek sims I have a tendency towards for my online RP tend to have a stronger need towards all members being active, and they have a tendency toward smaller closer knit groups of players just because on a starship everything is so closely tied together. The more relaxed game I tried to run was set on a starbase instead, intending for regular players to take up crew positions running the station, and other people could swing in when the mood struck to visit, add to the chaos, and then disappear when they lose hold of the muse or life got in the way.

 

It can be tough, but we've got some pretty active people. Plus it's on Dreamwidth, so if the game gets too slow for someone there's always memes and stuff to put their characters in. Lots of people play the same character in multiple games around DW too. So I can't be all "no you're mine rawr not sharing" about stuff.

 

The only reason I worry about people sharing characters between multiple games is that sometimes it's hard to remember when something happened to that character in one game, and not another. I've had some people I've played with throw some really weird stuff into joint logs that ended up being references to different versions of the same character in different games. I'm paranoid enough about not wanting to do something like this myself that I'm constantly writing notes to myself, and looking things up.

 

Yeah, it can be tricky. I go with notes; being on DW means I've got a whole journal right there for this stuff after all.

 

I completely agree with this sentiment. After the initial flush of excitement over opening we’ve been reduced to just three happily active members. And although we’re having a great deal of fun by ourselves I would love to see some fresh faces come in and keep things interesting. I would like more players/characters to open up new opportunities not to hit some target.

Judging from the number of characters and plots we have on the go with just 3 players, I’m inclined to agree. If there is such a thing as a magic number for these things I think 10 would be close to it.

 

When it comes to other players, I never put down a limit. The more players there are, the more everyone can bounce off different types of authors and stay engaged. However, if you mean how many character I am willing to run? I'm a character WHORE O.o. I have around 20 in most of my groups unless they are smaller >>.

 

I currently have 78 completely awesome members <3 We have a handful we haven't heard from, and a couple that have yet to say anything, but over fifty - fifty! - are active in threads and chatty as heck, and it's spectacular! I designed my forum to hold many, many members if it came to it but I honestly never thought I would actually get past fifty accounts, haha! I love my entire memberbase, and look forward to seeing it grow for many, many, many years more <3

 

We currently have 9 members registered with 2 active.

 

We have over one hundred registered members. On the RPG side of things, possibly fifteen or so active on their day.

 

I am for as many as I can possibly hug at one time. Which is a lot---I have huge virtual arms.

I don't really care. I advertise and push for new members because getting fresh blood is always good, but ultimately I'm happy with just one other member if we're having fun. I've been super blessed with an amazing core group that does a great job of bringing new people into the game.

 

In terms of a core game that is sustainable and that also changes in ways that surprise you, in that you aren't in charge of orchestrating everything and can be a player as much as a GM, I'd say a dozen people would be ideal. The more dope people and players the better, naturally, but I had a great deal of fun on a small forum with my friends and continue to do so with the site the size it is now

 

Other than creating a great game people want to be a part of and quality over quantity...
My game has to become self-sufficient at some point. If that takes only 100 members, that's great. If it takes a 1000, that's also great. However, I can't keep paying for everything by myself indefinitely, so that's what I'm aiming for.

 

I honestly think that as long as you have just a couple of interested, dedicated players then you can get by just fine. It's enough to keep things moving and keep a game alive.

In an ideal world, I think a between eight to dozen members is a good number. It's enough to take some of the pressure off as people play amongst themselves. It lets you be surprised by plots that people develop themselves. A big enough community that it can survive your absence for a holiday or something without stalling.

I admit, I personally struggle with games that are much bigger than that. It starts to become too easy for people to become lost in the crowd. Both in terms of plots in the game and in the community at large. It also provides much more opportunity for cliques to develop within and for the unnecessary drama.

Of course, there are always exceptions! That's just been my experience in the past.

I'd opt for a small group of genuinely involved writers over a vast group of semi-involved players any day of the week.

 

My personal goal is having at least 10 static/stable members for everyone to branch out and play with more people. Anymore than that is a bonus!

I seem to have about 5 core members that I know will commit to the site for a long time (basically for as long as I commit to the site), and 10-12 in total (I suspect some will stay and some will leave in due time). Having at least five core members is great, though. They keep me going. :)

 

80 members with over 1700 posts in over 220 threads. Not bad, I think

 

Nearly 90K posts, 13K topics and just over 1,100 members.
We average just over 100 posts a day, so we've got a good strong base. How many active users I think is a key thing - and trying to keep it so that the players get a good personal experience, but there are people in lots of different cities (ours is a static world site).

 

Lucky 13 members with 525 posts. New board, but growing.

 

We're currently exploding with nearly 100 new members in the past month alone. Today we reached our 200th member, 400th thread and close to hitting our 3500th post.
We have new RP searches (nearly) daily, and various new RP's a week ^_^

 

I wanna aim for 50... since I have 17 members so far... and only I'm really active.

 

I like loads and loads of members... because members are my online family, and I love adding to that family!

That doesn't mean I'm unhappy with the current member count at all, though! Some of my members have been around for twelve years (!) and that's a level of loyalty and love you can't buy. My aim, I guess, is that eventually I have loads and loads of these awesome long-term friends that make my world a better and happier place every day.

In practice though, as long as we're all having fun---I don't stress. And we're having fun. So all is well. :D