why is it still so popular?

[sonk]

I was honestly quite surprised to see that this game still gets 40k-60k peak players after such a long time. It's a great game but not really that deep of a game, when it comes to stuff to do and keeping you engaged once you finish the story. Which is perfectly fine since I enjoyed this concept of a more story and progression focused survival sandbox.

I'm mostly just curious as to what keeps so many people playing. What keeps *you* playing? I can't image all those players being new people.

[(Czari) C.A.S.S.I.E. lover uwu]

Well, as for me, honestly i just really love games that involve survival in the forests and the overall nature, as I'm pretty much really a nature-loving type of person, and I'll be honest with u - I've never spend a better time than that I've spend in this game, just walking around and immersing myself in the game's scene
(Not only that, lore of this game is very interesting to me, i mean, these type of stuff are kinda really deep to me for some reason lol, and I love to immerse myself in 'em)

Currently I've spend over 330 hours in this game, and tbh I'm not regretting it, nor do I feel bad that I've spend that much playing The Forest.
Waiting impatiently for Sons Of The Forest rn


Honestly, typing this is really not much in terms of how much i love this game cuz I could rant about it for hours

[RabbitRidge]

I believe the current sale price has a lot to do with the high player count right now, plus a lot of students are out of school for the summer.

[RequiemsRose]

In my experience there are 3 main factors that keep people playing long-term in this one: Building, combat, or community. As in, most the long-term players I run into really like one or more of those aspects of the game and that's what keeps them playing. I'd fall into the community and fighting aspects of that considering most of what i do when i play nowadays is hop into public peer to peer games that seem like the host is newer and play tour guide/bodyguard as needed for them to get the hang of the game.

The recent sale and sequel hype do seem to be a significant part of the current active playerbase though. A lot of what im running into nowadays is newer players, returning veterans from ages past, and only a handful who have been consistently playing for a while. (not counting the trolls, that problem had a resurgence with the new wave of players to, but trolls tend to get bored and move on relatively quickly).

[Ramar]

Originally posted by RabbitRidge:

I believe the current sale price has a lot to do with the high player count right now, plus a lot of students are out of school for the summer.

I think you right. I'm new to the game and it's because it was only $4.99.

[sonk]

Interesting thoughts. Maybe it really is just the recent sequel hype and low sale prices and people discovering the game.

Looking at Steamcharts, it's been gaining crazy amounts of players over the past few months. It has more than doubled in peak players since it's 1.0 release. Which just is super irregular to see for this type of game that hasn't really received any major content updates or has a huge modding community.

[Ramar]

Originally posted by sonk:

Interesting thoughts. Maybe it really is just the recent sequel hype and low sale prices and people discovering the game.

Looking at Steamcharts, it's been gaining crazy amounts of players over the past few months. It has more than doubled in peak players since it's 1.0 release. Which just is super irregular to see for this type of game that hasn't really received any major content updates or has a huge modding community.

Agreed.

[Heiinz]

Think about it like minecraft.
If you think of something to do you can't put hours on end into just a single project.
I once chopped down every tree on the map (with stump) just because i wanted to know how it would look like.
I build a giant "hotel" with 26 rooms (10k+ logs) and a huge parking lot in front of it with wooden cars.

The build system is weird but great to be creative and if enough people think of things to do you get returning players.
And yes, also the sale price.

[FERAL_DOVE]

pics of the hotel?

[sonk]

I don't think that's the case. The building in the Forest isn't nearly as accessible and practically limitless as Minecraft's. Not saying those players don't exist, but I'm almost certain those are not the ones impacting those crazy player numbers. But maybe I'm wrong.

[Heiinz]

Originally posted by FERAL_DOVE:

pics of the hotel?

Sadly just WIP images without the parking lot and the roof. I'll check later if i find the save in my backups.

https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/786363607821125296/6DF5C0F5EBFFC179BB118B6740188D15059ED0F4/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

The reception desk.
https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/786363607821126471/D892A61D6C10B60CAA33D2C3E62D78E80BD1347A/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false

[Andy Mil]

There nothing like this and the sale. But like
I remember before sale
the player was alywas been high
I say
because of mod. Then the 90. Then The Forest
nothing like it. It not Minecraft. It not 7 Year Still EA griding lv just to upgrade ur base. It feel smooth. The combat and the monster and the secret AI no other game doing it. That why I soooo waiting for Sons Of The Forest

[Charlie94]

honestly i dont play for the story as much is i do just the survival and the playing with friends. due to my parent's jobs i move around a lot so i can only communicate with my friends through discord and gaming usually, and its rare to find a game like this where I can literally play with my friends for 8 hours straight without wanting to move to a different game. Its just plane fun and it can be really hilarious at times.

[Cthulhuisalone]

It really surprised me how good the base building really is, its why i keep coming back

[dankogrg]

how do i progress in story
please help me.
i just started and its hell

[Vazkulator]

its cheap and feels different to most other survival games which goes in the direction of zombies where as in the forest, the threat feels smarter and like they have some sort of meaning to exist or sometimes even felt like the devs fell short in their development plans with the possibilities of having a smarter enemy ai to perhaps even be able to co-exist with your threat or similar types of things.

but the game sure has its flaws, a lot of really dumb bugs that they just left to focus on the sequel instead and all the game featurues can only beconsidered average at best but its fun to explore and do things with other people even though all people ive played with quit game completely as soon as theyve cleared the story of the game and/or helped them with achievements and just but wont hear so much as a word from them after said achievements/storyline completion has been dealt with.

i wouldnt recommend it to anyone for the co-op aspects but if you just want to build stuff then definitely grab it once you see the game on discount