Nice use of a graph. That's what I'm talking about man.
I still find it hard to believe that everyone left because of SPAM or poor leadership though. I still am going to hold to hope that some were honest.
It is hard to believe that people left due to SPAM or poor leadership because no-one says they left Calm. due to these reasons. Of course there are multiple reasons for this, but we will ignore them for the sake of staying on topic. That said, with a little analysis it seems the only logical option.
Lets assume for a second that the 80% who claimed they quit due to an increase in real life time consumption were correct in making that assertion. This leaves us with three options to what caused that time increase:
- There were problems in real life
- There was an increase of time consumption ingame
- There was a perceived increase of time consumption ingame
When there is only one player to consider, it could be anyone's guess to the reason that player quit. However, with more than one data point, it is far easier to make conclusions. The first option affects every player in the game with a roughly equal probability so should be a consistant percentage throughout tribes. Considering that Calm. and SPAM had roughly the same number of members, their member loss to this should be roughly equal. This was not true in the latter months of the war, december especially in which Calm. lost 10 members to SPAM's 1. This discrepancy cannot be explained by the influence of real life alone.
This leaves the latter two reasons, both of which would be consistant to the claim made by 80% of Calm. members who quit. An increase of time consumption ingame can come from many things, but mainly comes from war. War increases the amount of effort you have to put into the game due to having to attack enemies and conversely being attacked. One can cut down on the effort needed to be put in by not attacking enemies, however one cannot stop themselves being attacked, which forces more work on the defender's behalf unless the defender wants significant losses. Coincidentally, the only major enemy Calm. had was SPAM.
The final possibility is a bit tricky. It can be explained though by the answering following question: Which feels longer, 1 hour gaming or 1 hour working? Of course both are the same amount of time, but one is fun whereas the other is a chore and therefore perceived to stretch the time more. This is where leadership and morale comes in. When one is doing well and when the leadership keeps the membership entertained, the game is less taxing than when the leadership doesn't do anything and your tribe is badly losing a war. One could quite easily perceive a time increase spent playing the game without there being a physical time increase this way.
My point is really that although the 80% may have claimed that it was due to an increase in real life consumption, however believing this means they have real life issues is a logical fallacy. Most of the players who quit quit due to ingame reasons which affected their real life, not the other way round.
