Why Xonotic isn't as popular

https://freedomdefined.org/NC

Thanks, this helps.

Btw, your server is very cool, hope too see it online more often, thx

I revisit Xonotic every once in a while but I've never stuck with it for long enough periods.. often I just play the singleplayer campaign against bots to blow off some steam and barely even get online.

I think what would make me stay in the game longer, personally, is less focus in competitivity and more in coop modes. I was pretty hyped when I heard about the plans for an invasion-type mode where you fight against monsters. I don't have the time or the dedication to get too deep into the competitive scene, but a no-pressure coop mode I could dig it.

Maybe there could be some doom-style maps that combine CTS with some enemy waves and that can be used as a tutorial level that's non-intrusive (as in, one that gives indications but doesn't force feed them to you so it's not tiresome to re-play), so that it can be fun to play in multiplayer coop too.

I found this game from linux software centre (I was using 'ubuntu') 

Best, smoothest graphics and game play iv experianced in a looonnnggg time. 

Its amazing the devs have not charged us for any of it and I'm greatfull  

Best game ever.... Best weapons.,....

It could do with acouple open-area maps.... Like a Medium sized town or village.... Alien landscape or something

@FinBiteLeaf, thanks. I got busy with life these few months, but I'll try to update my server and keep it up more often.

@LeeDaGandy, Xonotic supports a lot of maps, beyond the bundled one. I've seen quite a few village maps (I even remember there was a server focusing on such maps -- I think the name had 'ut4' in it). Anyway, you can find new maps here: http://xonotic.co/

Arena shooters are kind of niche so it's not much of a suprise that Xonotic isn't more popular. Still I never have trouble finding people to play with so I can't complain too much.

Arena shooters are kind of niche so it's not much of a suprise that Xonotic isn't more popular. Still I never have trouble finding people to play with so I can't complain too much.

Do you usually play on EU or US servers? I notice a few EU servers are quite popular, but I usually get 150+ms ping on those servers. There aren't that many US players around compared to EU ones it seems.

Arena shooters are kind of niche so it's not much of a suprise that Xonotic isn't more popular. Still I never have trouble finding people to play with so I can't complain too much.

Do you usually play on EU or US servers? I notice a few EU servers are quite popular, but I usually get 150+ms ping on those servers. There aren't that many US players around compared to EU ones it seems.

I Play mainly on EU servers so that may be the case.

i can say there is a problem in advertisement of this game making it not well known to many. also i think there is an issue of not enough players and not enough skill variation. while playing online i have realized that 60% of people are accurate with rail guns and play instagib matches and i get sniped from half a map away before i even see them

I have read a couple of those threads, and I don't like how people point out and inflate very little things inside the game that are easy and obvious for them to think of and blame. I mean it is good to have feedback for improvement, and even better to see that most of this feedback is merely personal preference or very little insignificant things. But it is not as if any of it is really responsible for the low popularity of Xonotic.

In actuality, Xonotic is on par with games from big studios like Quake Champions. I read somewhere that QC now has less than 1000 active players, despite all the initial commercial advertisement. Xonotic has 400. So you can even say that it is fairing quite well, all things considered.

Here are the top 3 reasons that I think are important:

• Arena FPS is an old genre and it's due to its age in many ways very similar to arcade games. It's intense action, packed into a very short period of time. You play a couple of rounds, maybe 15-30 minutes at a time and not even every day. Playing more wouldn't be as much fun. It's like playing a match of table tennis with a friend. Why on earth would most poeple play 20 matches in a row, or even every day? However, modern games are carefully designed to ensnarl the players for hours and hours on end in order to make them spend money inside the game. Those games are engulfing people so much, that they do not even appreciate classic games anymore. Back in the early 2000s, you had full servers with hundreds of people playing Quake at any point in time (which means the total player base was tens and maybe hundreds of thousands), because it literally was one of just a hand full of games out there. Now there are hundreds and hundreds of games out there.
  
• Common ignorance. Have you ever wondered why only 1% of people use Linux and 90% do not even have any solid concept of what free software is and stands for? People will rather make a bad choice for everyone, at the benefit of not being conscious about the environment they make choices in. Once people have made a choice they will stick with it and defend it. Even (or even more so) if they are only given insights later  as to why it is bad and harmful.
  
• Mobile (>50%) and console (25%) together have over 75% market share in the games industry. First, you can't really play Xonotic well on those platforms. But second I think it is most important to consider, that people grow old with time, discover and play games most in their early years, and after that only stick to what they are used to. Quake has had its high in the 90s, so people are 30 and 40 years now who played it as teens. Now consider: Since almost 10 years, most teens do not even have PCs to play anymore. All of them start out getting phones first and play games on them. And then their parents maybe buy them a console, because they already had a PC. But from the kid's point of view the PC just sucks because it is 10 years old an has no $500 graphics card. Those teens are now 20-30 years old and they basically grew up in a world without any classic arena FPS games. So getting Xonotic on mobile would be something important you can still do something about. But it might come 10 years too late.
  

imo Xonotic doesn't have a huge playerbase because nobody really knows about the game.
I was looking for a portable game that needs no installation and this is the one I just didn't know it exists. The game is pretty impressive not even considering it's a portable game. So ye maybe the game makers should think more about how to advertise the game or let people know it exists because it's extremely fun

You missed the hay day of several servers with 20-30 on at the same time but the same question was being as back then too lol