Download counts of Game Installers

LaFayette

I was able to pull some download counts:

dan@dan-desk:~$ curl https://api.github.com/repos/triplea-game/triplea/releases/tags/1.9.0.0.3635 2>&1 | egrep -i "name.*trip|download_count"
      "name": "triplea-1.9.0.0.3635-all.jar",
      "download_count": 40,
      "name": "triplea-1.9.0.0.3635-all_platforms.zip",
      "download_count": 60,
      "name": "triplea-1.9.0.0.3635-server.zip",
      "download_count": 5,
      "name": "TripleA_1.9.0.0.3635_macos.dmg",
      "download_count": 1124,
      "name": "TripleA_1.9.0.0.3635_unix.sh",
      "download_count": 770,
      "name": "TripleA_1.9.0.0.3635_windows-32bit.exe",
      "download_count": 1117,
      "name": "TripleA_1.9.0.0.3635_windows-64bit.exe",
      "download_count": 5837,

Our release was back in January, over 6 months these numbers look pretty reasonable. Though, our 'all-platforms' and 'jar' files are not downloaded very much at all. The server file is not as well, but it is really needed by the admin team.

It would be helpful to not publish the all_platforms and jar files if we do not need to. So I'd like to open the poll below to see if there any votes to keep them. Would be interesting to learn more about how those downloads are being used if there is a desire to keep them.

redrum

@LaFayette Interesting numbers. I'm actually kind of surprised how close the mac vs unix downloads are. I figured they'd be heavily in favor of windows. I'm not really sure what the "all" downloads are used for so don't have a vote either way.

Based on estimating we probably have I'd say a couple hundred lobby users, it shows how large of a player base outside of that we have (lobby users are much more likely to be pushed into downloading the latest). Looks like around 9000 downloads in the last 6 months. So maybe say 5% of players that have downloaded in the last 6 months have played a game in the lobby? Granted those 5% of players potentially are the most active and dedicated.

Also with that many downloads, you'd think/hope we'd have more active forum users.

Thoughts?

LaFayette

The jar file I can't think of any reason to have, other than legacy...

IIRC there were a few reasons to have the all-platform installer:

some of the OS specific installers did not work in some cases while the all-platforms did
convenient sometimes to have the one download regardless of OS
thumb drive portability, single game install plus save files

I think most of those are moot now. We have new installers, seem to be more robust. The convenience of the one file I think we have masked with the website, it's not really such a pro compared to using the installer (it is debatable, but I think the benefit is probably at best marginal). And the thumb drive portability I think sounds good, but it's probably easier to just email yourself save game files or put just the save games on thumb drives.

@Cernel I think you expressed a desire before to have the all-platforms release file. Would you (or anyone else) mind weighing on how it is useful if at all?

LaFayette

@redrum it's an old debate on percentage of users : )
I do think we may want to soon look into a data reporting module soon'ish.
As far as I see it we have about 4 distinct sub-communities in TripleA with some cross-over. Hopefully the unified forums will help the communication and visibility. It was a bit funny before how the forum people never saws teh A&A.org PBF, and both never saw the lobby. Anyways, each group is important, the point here is not to measure that, but more to drop the extra installer we push every time we do a build. It's less config, and can make the installer upload phase in travis a bit more reliable by pushing fewer bits (when we were pushing 1GB+ per build, travis failures were more frequent, but hard to say if it was infrastructure of the DL size improvements)

prastle

@LaFayette @redrum might be a completely noobish idea but the google analytics here in this forum would record all that i think ( check with @RoiEX ) if the downloads came from here if that was possible. Just a thought. Great work guys Also the all platforms was just for guys that didnt know what they had so i rec keep it but up to u.

prastle

@LaFayette i should have mentioned look at the admin dashboard for google analytics

LaFayette

@prastle will do

Some context FWIW, the intended download path is from the website:

http://www.triplea-game.org/download/

Which looks like this:
downloads

I'll note it does not even have the all_platforms option listed.

One benefit to removal, there is testing overhead. The other installers are more uniform, we can more rely on them to behave the same. The all_platforms.zip is built special, so it could have its own set of errors. In theory we should repeat all tests on it, but in practice we skip it and risk introducing bugs in it.

prastle

@LaFayette fine by me to remove i know what system i own. just saying i think it made easier for noobs in old days is all. Most dont know if they have 32 bit 64 bit etc

Cernel

@LaFayette said in Download counts of Game Installers:

@Cernel I think you expressed a desire before to have the all-platforms release file. Would you (or anyone else) mind weighing on how it is useful if at all?

In the past I suggested to add back the TripleA.exe inside the TripleA folder of the all platform, as it was in 1.8.0.9.
To be an actual alternative choice, the all platform should have all the stuff (beside the strictly installer related items) that you otherwise get after installing.
Not having the TripleA.exe anymore makes the all platform virtually unusable to normal users, thus that needs to be added back, before surmising general preferences.
I also can't imagine how the all platform downloads count can be representative of personal preferences if the option is not offered in the main download site:
http://www.triplea-game.org/download/
The all platform used to have the TripleA.exe inside (for starting the game) and figured as the main suggestion in the old WarClub link, in 1.8.0.9 and before.
Now with both the normal way to actually start the game removed and the all platform not downloadable at all from the main site, I can't see how a fair usage comparison can be made, based on download counts.

Once the above is done (but also some info, in main download site, about what the installer and what the all platforms are respectively about, would be needed (just tell that one you install and the other one you unzip)), it may be inferred how many people like to have an installer for the program and how many like to just download and unzip the program.

Just as a note, if anyone remembers, in the past I said that the installed was no good for me, because it ended up being awkwardly zoomed and blurred, but now I don't seem to have this issue anymore. I don't know how it solved and haven't changed terminal.

prastle

@Cernel other thing that's missing is the bot files as u pointed out somewhere else

LaFayette

@Cernel said in Download counts of Game Installers:

Just as a note, if anyone remembers, in the past I said that the installed was no good for me, because it ended up being awkwardly zoomed and blurred, but now I don't seem to have this issue anymore. I don't know how it solved and haven't changed terminal.

I'm not sure if it was clear, we switched 100% to a completely different installer, hence why it may work.

I get your point that it is not a fair comparison. For us it is a bit better to not offer many different options. We have to explain each one adequately well, it creates more variability in where problems can be, and frankly the extra options can make it hard on users to know exactly what to do.

IF there is no problem with the current installer, I think we are pretty dedicated to that path. The prevoius triplea.exe IIRC had a problem and could not be used anymore, and there was not a way to creat a new one. Regrettably that is not an option. I think that may put a nail in the 'all_platforms.zip' distributable coffin.

All things being equal, 60 downloads for a non-advertised download is a good number. I'm still wondering if there was a compelling reason there, we might be able to fix the other installers so all_platforms.zip is really not needed.

SashaRomar

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