A few ideas for MaxCheaters.com

[Maxtor]

Hello everyone, 

 

As you can see lately, the L2 community is decreasing, especially on private servers, its been 21 years since Lineage2 release date (1st October 2003). MaxCheaters.com was created in 2005 (with different names) and till today we are basically focused on Lineage 2. We made several attempts to add other games, but everyone still knew us as an L2 based forum. MaxCheaters has a long history and is one of the few forums that have survived to this day,It would be a shame to let the site die.

 

So I came up with a few ideas to improve it and follow the trends.

 

1. Create a utility token, (evm or solana), that will be used for several things such as:

• Staffers/moderators payment.
• Content creators reward system. (influencers/advertising/topic creators)
• Paid forum support.
• Exchanges and marketplaces .
• Lineage 2 utility token for private servers.
• Other MMO utility token for buying/selling accounts/gold etc.
• Maxcheaters fixed expenses/improvements/development/expansion/design/topsite

 

2. Reduce l2 sections, (we done this before) , and add more games on main page

• Less l2 sections
• More MMO games
• Focus on marketplaces 

 

3. Rebuild staffers team/more events.

• Add one staffer per MMO game.
• More active staffers on our team.

 

4. Social media activity / streaming

• Twtter / TikTok content for gaming. 
• Streaming platforms (create official channel)
• Moderators/content creators for this content specifically.

[Tryskell]

Both "MMO genre" AND "forums" are greatly deprecated those days.

MMO genre, except very few games (TESO, WOW, BDO, FF14), is mostly "eaten" by fast paced games (aka games with 15-30min game parties, they are numerous). See Twitch best games, I doubt the top 10 are MMOs. Adding more MMOs categories, while MMOs themselves got less population, isn't a bright idea. Also, in the past, there was multiple games categories - none actually worked out, so far.

Forums type were replaced by Discord, mostly. You communicate faster, you got voice, you can group up and it's already thematized (by server, by guild, by game,...)...

Unfortunately, there is nothing you can do about. You already did it multiple times without success (3 or 4 times at least ?). It's not due to staff. MMO forum is just "niche" nowadays, while 20 years ago it was "dope" and the thing to do.

Your main problem is MxC is a community based on "nothing". It was first cheater dedicated, then mostly L2 development dedicated,... With a mix of random things here and there. The formula is lightly-themed as "community" (that's actually why you still have some ppl posting), and in same time community never was expanded to retain ppl (notably through MxC servers - no matter the game : L2, GTA, Conan Exiles, Lost Ark, whatever else).

In the end, you end with "nothing", since people comes and goes (and mostly goes, since MMO isn't a thing anymore), but both MMO genre is greatly endangered by other types of games AND forums isn't the proper way to communicate in 2024.

Actually, the only use of a forums compared to Discord is to search through archives, and the main point is it's a better "showcase" than Discord (a static website would end with the same output).

The proposed formula will never work, or at best will attract greedy ppl.

[Loopy]

Whatever @Tryskell said...

 

Unfortunately it is not 2005-2010 anymore... Most of the community from those days is "grown up" and probably does not play games anymore (or at least no MMOs). I think anything related to MMOs will be a nail in the coffin.

 

I understand that it is hard to let the thing you've built for years to "just die". I assume most people got into programming, so maybe you can try something in that direction. But then again, this is a very niche community.

 

We need to think of something to bring the people together. I think events may be really fun, but then you would probably need to add prizes n order for the people to participate.

 

So yea, just my 2 cents. Hopefully somebody can come up with some great idea so we can revive this place. I've already forgotten it for the last couple (5-6) years...

[BabayG]

Good evening from me as well.
I wouldn't recommend anyone, no matter how much love they have for the game, to try to revive it, not only because of the times but also because of the community (people who used to spend 15 hours grinding now qq for everything when they have auto-farm enabled 24/7... ) .  All the effort will be in vain. I have given all I had to this game. I have spent an incredible amount of time and over 20k the past 6 years, and the money can go to hell, but the time doesn't come back, I almost literally didn't get cancer... Also, very few people are worth collaborating with, all the rest are scammers and traitors. Unfortunately, only the projects that have been in the background for years do well.

 

P. S: "Once upon a time they used to be players now only complainers left" 

[Salty Mike]

While not very active over the years, I've been around for as long as I could remember, so here are my 2 cents too.

On top of what has already been said, I'd like to touch on a few thing that might be improved upon.

While it is easy to notice and say "there's lack of engagement" or "community has outgrown the ganre", I've seen numerous forums get forgotten and die while others continue to thrive to this day.

From what I've seen, the lack of engagement could be circumvented with a redesign and functionality expansion that would/could/should include:
- a built-in chat function.
- incentives for engagement/interaction, ideas of which I'll list as separate pointers, as not to limit your creativity.
- separation of the reputation into reactions and reputation. One to be used to posts, such as up-vote and what not, while the other to be awarded as means of appreciation.
- automated ranks with actual benefits/perks, not like the current ones providing nothing.
- the ability to hide text for user/group of users, not just premium/no premium.
- increased visibility of the HOT topics and the RECENTLY ACTIVE threads/posts. Can be also expanded to most liked posts, etc.


ps.: I'll update my post when I have some free time on my hands.