What is Planetarion?
 

Now that I have returned to PATeam I have taken it upon myself to ask the difficult questions and generally be annoying. So here it is perhaps the most difficult question there is - What is Planetarion? Is it a game about alliance wars, is it a game about individual planets? What is it that makes Planetarion special or unique compared to other games out there?

I don't want long answers, I don't want answers from various groups - what I want is answers from individuals on what Planetarion is as a game to them.

I don't want the answers to be about the current game specifically, or an old version or even a future version - simply to be about "Planetarion".

So... discuss...

EDIT: Posts that are not constructive or on topic will be deleted

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

For me, Planetarion is about friendship, its about teamwork and its about having fun with some friends all over the world.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

Teamwork, yet self preservation all at the same time.

That and developing the fine art of insomnia.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

If the game is about team work and friendship - what teams and what friends? Friends from before you knew about PA? Friends you met while playing PA? (in which case is part of whats good about the game meeting new people?) With teamwork stuff is it about teams of people u know and trust or just the fact that there are teams?

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

The fact that to win you need to work together as a galaxy and then as an alliance. Making friends is something that happens as people work together.

I think fact that you have to work together is a big factor, then the fact you make friends on the long journey to the #1 spot.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

I think PA is about fun, but at the same time i think it also offers you some qualities such as responsability. For example being a HC/Officer in an alliance gives you some responsability to take onto other things. I also think PA is about tactics and determination. It makes you think bassicaly. And tbh i had 4 real life friends introduce me to PA, none of them now still play, but i now have a lot of friends within PA that ive met through all of the rounds ive played, also of course loads of enemies. But hey thats life.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

Also I think planetarion is also a place for people to escape to. Look at IRC (and dare I say it GD), through Planetarion an entire community of interwoven friendsships has formed. This is something I dont think the original creators would expect.

So in a word Planetarion is a community.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

this thread smells like the prelude to a major overhaul in the games mechanics to me... possibly even larger then the change from r9.5 to r10

Planetarion is about strategy for me, alliances play mind-games with each other, maneuvering themselves and others around them into the best position they can manage. Some are better at it then others.
each alliance coordinates their strikes and defences according to whatever strategy they want to follow.
For individuals its about forming new friendships and working as a team with others you have not met, in effect forming 'mini-alliances' even if they do not realise it to begin with.
Ultimately it comes down to how people interact together, as is the case in all multiplayer games and thus - purely alliance based for people playing the game to win.
for those not playing to win, or in an alliance it is about building ships and getting 'pretty combat reports' to satisfy any egos or to simply have fun

From a purely mechanical viewpoint, planetarion is about maximising your planets score through attacking those smaller then you for the most part, and only if things are just right, going for someone larger in order to maximise the xp gained.
Usually, its the large attacking the small though.
you defend other planets when you have ships available, and to those who may help you in future and usually only when it will not interfere with an attack significantly.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

Not quite. Its more about being able to define what Planetarion is so that design effort can be focussed on that rather than making seemingly "random" decisions from round to round or having what may seem like unfair eula clauses designed to protect some arbitary vision of what Planetarion is about.

Disclaimer: This does not mean that there is definatly anything wrong with the game as it is - it may be that the current game is focussed on what Planetarion actually is - but we simply don't know if it is at the moment.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

It's both. I'm sure most have got into this game through friends from your presonal life (I certainly did), and yet I for one have made great friends through the game: Friends I have travelled to other countries to visit. Planetarion is a means of uniting poeple from across the world through a brilliant interactive gameplay medium.

Planetarion lives through its alliances, and in rounds when you're lucky, it lives through your galaxy too. It is a game to which you can devote 5 minutes a day or 12 hours a day. If I had to sum it up in a sentence:

Planetarion is the thing in your life which matters the least but which you care about the most.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

defining what planetarion is will always be difficult because, despite being pretty simple, it offers quite a lot.

to some it's a game in which you try and grow your plannet
to some it's a game where you fight for your alliance
to some it's a game of politics.

i think the trick is for planetarion to be a game which offers a fun experience to all of these different playstyles, whilst keeping the goals of all achievable and the experience of getting there rewarding.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

i realise that but such 'opinion gathering' threads usually have but a single aim :)

i would object to removing the eula clauses which are by design restrictive for a reason : People by their very nature will do all they can to win, even if it is unfair to others.
Removing the restrictions imposed to curtail this effect would result in more people doing what is currently called cheating, and it is called correctly so.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

planetarion was a game where you tried to get the #1 planet, galaxy and alliance and rule the internet with those ever so prestigious ranks

i'm not too sure what it is now though.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

Planetarion is a game that simulates a universe full of warring planets and survives on its ability to force people to both combat and cooperate. It is the love for allies and hate of enemies that brings people back.

Unfortunately Planetarion has become quite overdesigned to the point where problems with balance and various rules and loopholes dominate our discussions rather than how to maximize combat and cooperation.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

Planetarion is a game where the design is trying to ensure that everyone can win irrelevant of skill, commitment, politics or luck. It's a game where the people who design it try to make it so that people who are brand new to the game can do as well in it as those who've played for years and know the ins and outs. It is a war game that tries to let people play at war without ever suffering defeat. It is a game which is now a calculator, all you need to do is press the right buttons and you get the right answer. Planetarion is a game that plays you rather than a game that you play.

That is my feelings on PA, and the answer to the question. It is also I think highly irrelevant. The question that SHOULD have been asked is "What should Planetarion be?". The answer to that question is, I am sure, very different to the answer I just gave.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

Long ago the cycle started of PA crew making changes to treat the symptoms and not the causes of the stagnation and clique formation that really edged new players out of the game. And they ended up doing the worst possible thing which was making the game more complicated in the process.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

If you read my post the question was not about the current game or the old game or anything specific about the game it was about the essence of "Planetarion"

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

I quite like the current eula, I wrote fair chunks of it - however for all I know once we understand what the the essence of Planetarion is it might all be wrong and need entirly rewriting - however that is of course very unlikely.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

And that is what I answered for you. If you want to know what makes planetarion have success (which is I suspect what you are getting at) and keeps people playing, then I think the answer is nothing to do with what planetarion is, I think it's entirely to do with what planetarion was. I think people are hanging around for one of 3 reasons:
1) Loyalty
2) Habit/Addiction
3) A desire to experience some spark of what planetarion once was again (and the stubborness to wait for it)
I think that what planetarion is at the moment has little/nothing to do with it personally.

If you're after a more in-depth analysis of what PA is, I guess the best answer you'd get is something along the lines of it being a community enacting a microcosm of an anarchistic world.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

PA is a game where I try to legitimately get a higher rank than you.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

To be fairly honest, it is not and has never been the players decision what a game is supposed to be like. Players can give their input but ultimately the designer(s) has(have) to decide what is best for the game and what it should be like. Therefore I declare this thread as null and void.

I also agree with what Bashar said.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

again I didn't ask what the game is supposed to be like - in essence I want to know what general aspects of the game appeals to people.

i.e. what core aspects of the game at the highest level appeal to people (it may be that thoose aspects are not widely visible in the current game, it may be they have never been that big and important)

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

And I'd like to quote Bashar on this one:
"And that is what I answered for you."

Quite frankly, IF you are PA Team it should be OBVIOUS what PA is meant to be - a science-fiction war-game. That is what the description says. Now design one. Player's opinions are only representing like a very very little fraction of a percent of the markets potential.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

the question was also about what differentiates it from other similar games - I think we all know what a science-fiction war-game is - but what makes PA what PA is

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

In short: The name and that it was somewhat the dinosaur of all sci-fi war-games. Sadly it still is a dinosaur while other games improved with consequent design decisions and no half-assed things like the OOGOOA rule, or XP.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

Planetarion was the game to play. It was a trend-setter for most current games with the res/con system and other features. It was fun to play, to meet new people. It was a war game, where the best did well and the others failed. It was about tactics and strategy. It was about knowing your enemy and doing what you could to defeat them. It wasn't about XP and Cov-Ops and whatever, it was about getting Roids and lots of them.

Okay, so some of these things may still stand in the current game and I haven't really spent much time on this post, but I just don't feel that PAX and beyond is Planetarion. Yeah it still has the same name, but it's not the same game.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

I feel PA was all about what xp symbolizes these days for the people who aren't busy abusing parts of it. you went out to fight, the more active you played the more you help attack and defend targets the better player you were. Sure you might not be the size of some other player or have as much xp or done as many covert op's. But you were there for your team and so you're satisfied that you fought the way you wanted to.

Greetz,

Ghost{}

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

Lack of sleep and not having a life.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

A competitive spreadsheet.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

PA is a harcoded schedule for your day and puts a constant ticker in your head. the only relief from it is to sit on IRC and check your planet every tick.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

This is called making a scope for your project, which all projects should have.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

Plnaetation is jsut the name for the length of tmie we wait until that game called havoc starts

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

[01:39] * [GHA]Arf|pub has retuned

Arf is drunk :/

PA for me is about, getting my planet/alliance/galaxy ranked high and also about friendship and getting to know to new people.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

PA for me is having fun with ppl on IRC, playing for an active alliance that offers good attacks, defence and has a friendly enviroment.
Ofcourse I want my planet to do good aswell, but i'd rather be in an alliance where i have loads of fun on irc than have a top planet but nobody to talk to :)
So basicly: IRC & Alliances FTW :)

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

A mod for your IRC client that requires you to stay up all night and do maths so that other people don't lose data from their spreadsheets.

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

People want everything and are willing to offer very little in return. Planetarion demands half of your life and what does it offer in return? Why the chance to do it all over again next time.

Planetarion is a war-game. It's about winning, but only because winning should be fun. It's brute-force Machiavellian politics but that's because that's often the easiest way of winning. It's about challenging yourself. Sometimes it's time consuming and unrewarding but often the friendships you make are their own reward. It's an alternative social outlet. It's about creativity and dedication. For some it's too much but, in the end, there can be only one.




*cue Highlander theme music*

Re: What is Planetarion?
 

For me PA is a distraction from work, which can be played 24/7. Something is always going on there no matter what date or what time. Plus it is a game which is rewarding even if you put only 20 minutes/day in it.