Not a constructive post at all because I do not know what to do about it. Just a sad one. Everybody knows, this game needs more players. Most of all.

There are off times you know. It's a game based in the US, and certain times are going to be slow (late weeknights, days during work/school hours, etc.). The graphs show very predictable peaks and valleys.

I can understand lows and highs. I just would like to see it at 100 players in low times and 500 players in peaks.

then get to work, im sure you know 100 people.

actually, not all 100 would stay and play so he would need like maybe 200.

I do. I got few players in, I do my best to keep others in game, to extend their trials to paid accounts ... and I even pay for one more account (not mine). Are you going to help me a bit?

I think the creators should do a bit of advertising, starting with Adsense. The big guys are doing it and they seem to have many players.

At 8AM server time, most of the people playing are in Europe, Australia or Asia. The vast majority of the US players at that time are sleeping or on their way to school or work (or even already there in some cases).

We do advertising with Adsense. Unfortunately, we cannot afford much advertising. It's kind of a chicken/egg issue.

8am is about as off-peak as it gets, for us. So, yes, our minimum player count is low. It always has been. I'd love to see more players, so if you have some snazzy idea or want to invite some friends, feel free.

As soon as we get past this stupid BS debugging thing, one of Andy's projects is supposedly "friend/invite key" stuff, where you can invite new players to VO and give them some sort of extended trial. Etc.

Well, longer term players(tm) have been waiting for that feature for ages Inc, as you know, so yeah. Being able to give a pal a week instead of 8 hours would rock.

Good idea incarnate, thank you.

I was also wondering about another trial model. What about letting trial players play forever, or for a very long time like a year. Then, trial accounts could be limited by license levels they can reach, ships / equipment they can buy, money they can save, etc. This would bring more players active on the server at any time and put trials under "natural pressure". It is always better to motivate people this way. It is better to tell them pay and you will get these possibilities than pay or we will cut you off. I know this could bring some side effects too.

This is just an opinion, just a possibility. Stay constructive please.

Infinitis: I've commented on hybrid models like that elsewhere, particularly in Suggestions in the last couple of months. It's not a bad idea at all, and we hope to do that sort of thing in the future, but we cannot experiment with our business model to that degree right now. Even when we extended the trials to 16 hours, that became "bad". See elsewhere for explanations and related discussion.

I understand. I hope the situation will get better.
I am going to look for your posts on this topics.

Just to make things clear, I didn't want to cry/whine/troll on this matter. I like VO and I am just wondering what to do to get more players into the game. More money for you, more your time for us (all devs * time), more new stuff in game ... rinse, repeat. Benefit for both sides.

I enjoyed the free week at Christmas when all the non-subscribing vets were invited back. Three weeks following the free subscription key promotion I saw as many as %50 players in guilds. This indicates to me that many new players became invested in the game.

How effective were these promotions in generating new subscriptions?

Vendetta has never had trouble attracting players, just trouble keeping them. Hence why the devs don't want to advertise until they know they have something that can keep a larger percentage of people.

Yeah, advertising! Genius! Why hasn't anyone come up with this before?

probably a noob question, but do you guys (devs) have day jobs and do vendetta on the side? or is vendetta your full time job? if it is your full time job, how many hrs a week do you think you put into Vendetta? i am asking because obviously you guys are smart, and could do work on the side.
how about putting some ads on the vendetta homepage? i would imagine getting sponsors would be a good thing. i know you trolls and jerks out there are going to bash that idea, but i wouldnt mind seeing some ads on the homepage if i knew it was bringing in more money, thus bringing in new players. i wouldnt even mind seeing some ads out in space on a billboard or something. now, ads on the hud and such would drive me crazy, but i suppose we can all agree on that :)
just had a thought, trial accts could have the ads on their hud ... "subscribe to remove the ads!" im sure this has been suggested before, just brainstorming i guess.

I know how sponsors help, and cluttering them on the homepage probably works the best, but I don't want to see those annoying columns.

If we actually want sponsors, there should be a separate page. We may not get as much that way, but it's less annoying for the site admins as well.

Not sure if its been suggested before but...

How about sponsored trade items. I wouldn't mind transporting a cargo load of Becks beer and Playboy datapads around the universe, so long as it brings in a good profit :-)

Or let's create some video's about the cool stuff in VO, such as: pvp, hive skirmish, etc. and put them on Youtube & Megavideo to promote VO and attract more users.