I always find myself more engaged when I'm making a new map. As it draws near completion, I get people to test it out, and then when its released I stalk the serverbrowser waiting for people to match on it (or pub on it)
I have introduced the game to many people over the last few years, and the order of their interest/timeline of playing is almost always something similar to the following:
-Only play on speed servers-
-Discover Jumping-
-Have Cuso Teach Jumping-
-Pwn Speedservers-
-Get frustrated by speedservers (too many n00bs)-
-Try playing in real pubs/some pugs or maybe I drag them into a match-
-Get bored because they are so behind the curve in terms of gameplay/jumping/map knowledge they quit-
-When they want to play (very randomly) we only pub, because they don't wanna just get rolled by people who know how to play-
-Eventually stop playing all together-
-One or two stuck around just to jump, but do not enjoy matching or applying jumping to maps they have never seen-
I am unsure how to facilitate the transition from n00b to moderately decent, because once you are aware of the "larger dp playstylez," it takes a remarkable amount of effort to learn everything. People can just play COD: limited number of maps, very easy, thousands of people and friends playing all the time.
I think the tutorial map is a step in the right direction. The primary problem is still the division between IRC DP and PubStaR DP. Bridge this gap, and you might find people are willing to tough out the sucky period and get good
- Cusoman