Why should I come back?

[Ferretus]

Originally Posted by Mzyxptlk

I think it's something which is already taking place, and which will continue on doing so, without any need for external interference (by which, paradoxically, I refer to any ingame efforts made by the game admins), intended to speed up the process.

can you fill me in on this please, remember I'm quite out of the loop on this sort of thing.

Originally Posted by Mzyxptlk

The question is, is the current score system, which discourages war and encourages galaxy raids and napping, the system we want in this game, or are we looking for something a little more, shall we say, challenging?

Good point.

[JonnyBGood]

Originally Posted by Ferretus

Londinium only has 2 forum admins to my knowledge whom also don't get paid. Point is, the game doesn't need them as there is a community. There are alliances and wars and everything else you have here, but people leave that in the game.

Part of this is a behavioural remnant. Frankly the idea that people were ever really nice to people they didn't know in PA is just wrong. It didn't happen like that and while these forums only go back to October 2001 you can clearly see how true this is. Partly it's to do with the massive playerbase that PA used to have. Being "nasty" to each other was fairly irrelevant as the communities were large and you were mostly unlikely to come across the same people who you disliked without being involved in the game at the sort of level where you're not going to leave over being called an idiot or something similar. As the community shrank the "them and us" distinction inherent to all strong competitive games (i mean strong in the sense of being a game overwhelmingly based on competition instead of co-operation or individual progression). Contrasting PA with any game where you have different levels you can see how it's different. Whilst the emphasis may lie on getting to level 50 in WoW (i have no idea if it actually does but pick some game like this please) in PA it lies on being first or at least being ahead of people in terms of rank.

The level of involvement is also relevant. Again this is a behavioural remnant from earlier PA. A lot of the players left in the game have played, at at least some point, with almost insane levels of activity. This leaves them with a high level of emotional involvement even when they're not as active. In turn this increases the competitive edge everyone holds. The focus generally isn't on having fun, it's on winning. Fun, for many, seems to be either largely incidental, due to the community etc, or results from winning. I've questioned how many people currently playing genuinely enjoy PA and to be honest the inactivity you see from various people when the round comes to an end and they don't have that much to play for in terms of ranks seems to support the idea that a lot of people don't really.

Originally Posted by wakey

It would help how?

I don't really like the alliance limit. To the point where if ascendancy hits the limit I wouldn't support stopping recruiting.

PS Deleted some off-topic posts, please keep flaming out of this thread.

[jleedham]

hmm didnt get a mail to come back but was chatting to a few mates at work about PA and so decided to log in and take a look, saw that a new round had started 2 days previous and thought what the heck ill give it a go. and wow its a lot differnt to it was back 5 years ago when i last logged in to an account.

[Kargool]

Originally Posted by Ferretus

As we are moving off topic a little I'd like to throw a question out to you all.

I can't comment on the latest in game politics and what has happened in recent rounds, so lets look at what can make this game better.

What would people think if alliances were removed from the game? Instead a greater focus on the galaxy was made with people having to train less experienced players rather than exile them to the 200s.

It is of course naive to think that alliances will just go as they would simply function external to the game as they always did, but if players were forced to work with people that they wouldn't normally would that encourage players to get along better? The danger of alliances is that we form our little clique groups and tensions rise with ex members/enemies etc in other alliances. This spills onto the forums and into future rounds and eventually players leave.
I wonder if taking a step back is what is required before PA can recover. Sure the die hard alliance members will leave, but I wonder if that is what is needed.

We play this game for fun, not hassle lets remember that.

Some people might say that there is too much history in Planetarion.

I happen to slightly agree. There are too many people (myself included) that at some point have gotten screwed over by some other people in this game and therefor for us makes it impossible to work with said persons.

I think that is why some alliances probably always will have some issues with others, is this healthy? I cannot say, but removing alliances from the game would most likely atleast make 70-80% of my alliance stop playing.

If PA can handle an "out phasing" of the allianceplayers (whom I would say is the backbone of the current playerbase) without going belly up changes like this might be implemented.

But as said, if alliances get removed, that would probably have an impact like it had when Planetarion went P2P.

[Walldo]

Originally Posted by Kal

Lets imagine for a moment that someone from jolt is reading this thread (or indeed someone else thinking of buying PA).

Why would anyone invest in the game after reading this?

We have done our best to make use of free marketting tools e.g. portal, mpogd and email. When people do come around and have a look, they are treated with hostility and generally a level of behaviour that makes me want to quit. Yes sometimes the people who want to return to the game may not be wanted, but there are nice, or at least vaguely polite ways to say things that won't result in them telling everyone they know not to bother giving PA a try.

Reading this thread has made me very disappointed in the community (bar a few people who have made what I would call good posts.)

This maked me very dissapointed in YOU. Cause some are making bad post here we all do it? The whole community? cause I dislike some Dutchies I dislike all Dutchies?????

Some people just want attention cause they don't get it irl so they are falming here to get it. You will see it everywhere. But maybe, maybe behind those you will see a whole cool and funny community. But most just don't post here. cause you will get flamed like hell by "those" people.

Myself invest in pa, I found it a good community. I feel at home in my ally. I support new players, I play for fun, there are more players like me.

If you dislike us that much, better step up and let someone else in charge who still believes in "us"