Game Growth Discussion

[MRBOOTY]

So I've noticed that while we now have more active alliances than ever before, the total people logging in per day and per week has seemingly leveled, and if anything is down a bit from its peak. What is causing this, and more importantly, what can we do to continue growth?

 

 

I think one big thing is radio shows. I remember that I got into P&W originally partially thanks to radio shows. It democratizes the politics of the game, and is interesting as heck. Also, it gives aspiring leaders something to aspire towards. 

 

Another thing we can do is recruit from other games. Obviously we're seen tremendous success from erep and (That terrible game that is totally irrelevant and I shouldn't be bringing it up anyways), but I think other games like nationstates probably have a number of players who would be good at P&W. The "new accounts" number seems to be consistent, and pretty high, so we do have new people to work with, the trick is just getting them to stay.

 

 

Any other thoughts on this?

[Prefonteen]

A main point is to try to keep the alliance politics interesting and engaging. Keep taking risks and aspiring to something. IC drama can always lead to complications and relations may get strained (hell, i'll speak from experience there). From an OOC perspective though... i'd say that when the ride is interesting and when there is animosity, the game is more enjoyable for everyone. Activity feeds off of activity.

 

Personally speaking, I'm a big proponent for the use of the forums with in-game drama. Propaganda, debate, even trolling (to an extent) tend to not only give you a platform for reputation enhancement and/or alliance recruitment. It also draws in more activity. It's kind of a cyclical phenomenom. If forums are vibrant, new members will be more likely to contribute, and so on.

 

These are things I as a player try to keep in the back of my mind. When it comes to growing the game from a technical/advertising POV, I think sound advertising and the development of a mobile app would be the best (and perhaps the only) way for PW to boom.

Edited September 22, 2015 by Partisan

[Prefontaine]

People willing to put in the effort required to make interesting situations. If too many leaders of major alliances are content to just sit back and grow, things get very boring very quickly.

[Wayne]

Pretty much what Pre said.  It's up to the community to make the game interesting, because let's face it, the game is boring as !@#$, even war which is supposed to be exciting is boring as !@#$.

 

One thing we discussed in Mensa that we would like to see in PnW was eRep's use of in game articles (pretty much a blog).  Much like Pre's radio show, they served no purpose other than adding flavour, but they were an important part of the culture.  http://www.erepublik.com/en/newspaper/rotten-teeth-292110/1an example for those who are not familiar with the shitshow called eRep! A few tweaks here and there for PnW and I think it could be a good addition.  Also gives people something to do in game during other than build shit, would also be an excellent trolling platform during wars!

Edited September 22, 2015 by Wayne

[Arthur Wellington]

https://politicsandwar.com/forums/index.php?/topic/7977-new-players-first-moments-in-the-game/

About alliance politics either:
1. Create an option to show other nations your up for wars eventough your in an alliance, dont make a yes/no but available without having an entire alliance attack you
2. Make rebuilding more effective by either making wars less destructive or rebuilding easier/less lengthy

[Alex]

So I've noticed that while we now have more active alliances than ever before, the total people logging in per day and per week has seemingly leveled, and if anything is down a bit from its peak. What is causing this, and more importantly, what can we do to continue growth?

 

 

I think one big thing is radio shows. I remember that I got into P&W originally partially thanks to radio shows. It democratizes the politics of the game, and is interesting as heck. Also, it gives aspiring leaders something to aspire towards. 

 

Another thing we can do is recruit from other games. Obviously we're seen tremendous success from erep and (That terrible game that is totally irrelevant and I shouldn't be bringing it up anyways), but I think other games like nationstates probably have a number of players who would be good at P&W. The "new accounts" number seems to be consistent, and pretty high, so we do have new people to work with, the trick is just getting them to stay.

 

 

Any other thoughts on this?

 

This is something on my mind consistently, and I've been taking a number of steps to increase activity and gameplay quality. Some of the things I'm working on from an administrative standpoint is increasing the budget for advertising to bring in more new players, increasing the bonuses for referrals (you just saw that yesterday), creating new tutorials and quizzes to help new players learn and grow, and coming up with new content for the game itself that will promote activity, co-operation, and competition among players and alliances.

 

As was stated, however, a lot of the fun of this game (and games in this genres) comes directly from the community. The more players get involved with each other, in competing and co-operating, the better experience is achieved overall for players.

[Moreau]

This is something on my mind consistently, and I've been taking a number of steps to increase activity and gameplay quality. Some of the things I'm working on from an administrative standpoint is increasing the budget for advertising to bring in more new players, increasing the bonuses for referrals (you just saw that yesterday), creating new tutorials and quizzes to help new players learn and grow, and coming up with new content for the game itself that will promote activity, co-operation, and competition among players and alliances.

 

As was stated, however, a lot of the fun of this game (and games in this genres) comes directly from the community. The more players get involved with each other, in competing and co-operating, the better experience is achieved overall for players.

Add natrual disaster Un and such

[Prefontaine]

Add natrual disaster Un and such

 

"How do we bring in new players and make the politics more interesting"

 

Natural disasters is you're answer? Someone never let this guy post in the suggestion board again please.

[Adama]

"How do we bring in new players and make the politics more interesting"

 

Natural disasters is you're answer? Someone never let this guy post in the suggestion board again please.

 

Good thing this isn't the suggestion board. 

[Clarke]

Reach a bigger audience, spam this shit everywhere. 

I may even do so myself. 

[Keegoz]

People willing to put in the effort required to make interesting situations. If too many leaders of major alliances are content to just sit back and grow, things get very boring very quickly.

Take bets on who he is referring to here 

[Jodo]

"How do we bring in new players and make the politics more interesting"

 

Natural disasters is you're answer? Someone never let this guy post in the suggestion board again please.

A prime example of how NOT to treat people and encourage player retention. Well done.

 

As for continuing growth, it's not as bad as the OP would seem. Advertising can help, but is costly. The best thing imo is through word of mouth. Radios, streams, YouTube all help. Most are free. Talk about p&w at school, work, where ever. Generate interest.

[Bollocks]

I'm curious, how did eRep take off?

 

I know (That terrible game that is totally irrelevant and I shouldn't be bringing it up anyways) took off because Nationstates lacked the war function, and (That terrible game that is totally irrelevant and I shouldn't be bringing it up anyways) filled that gap and pulled in large number of players/alliances from there. It's dying right now because of a lack of innovation in the game mechanics and it's greatly showing its age in general.

[Wayne]

I'm curious, how did eRep take off? I know (That terrible game that is totally irrelevant and I shouldn't be bringing it up anyways) took off because Nationstates lacked the war function, and (That terrible game that is totally irrelevant and I shouldn't be bringing it up anyways) filled that gap and pulled in large number of players/alliances from there. It's dying right now because of a lack of innovation in the game mechanics and it's greatly showing its age in general.

 

By actually being quite good, according to the old!@#$s.  But that was before my time playing it, was always quite shite from the time I started playing, now it's dead.  Plato got greedy and every change made was pretty much terrible.

[Eric]

By actually being quite good, according to the old!@#$s.  But that was before my time playing it, was always quite shite from the time I started playing, now it's dead.  Plato got greedy and every change made was pretty much terrible.

Yeah I am a refugee from eRep Canada...when I joined things were going downhill slowly, by the time I left eRep was a joke.

 

Remember when we were only one turkey away from world peace back last year?

[Prefontaine]

Take bets on who he is referring to here 

 

Doesn't matter if there's a few. Just when there are too many it becomes an issue.

 

 

A prime example of how NOT to treat people and encourage player retention. Well done.

 

Didn't realize I was trying to retain someone with 580 posts and has donated for VIP status. Sorry to make kitty cry.

 

 

 

Edited September 22, 2015 by Prefontaine

[Wayne]

Yeah I am a refugee from eRep Canada...when I joined things were going downhill slowly, by the time I left eRep was a joke.

 

Remember when we were only one turkey away from world peace back last year?

 

What was your name in eRep?

[Memph]

By actually being quite good, according to the old!@#$s.  But that was before my time playing it, was always quite shite from the time I started playing, now it's dead.  Plato got greedy and every change made was pretty much terrible.

I was playing eRep in 2009/2010 with The Crimson Order in Canada (lead by TemujinBC at the time)... I don't remember the game very well anymore, but I know I quit around the time a bunch of changes were made. You were already at a significant disadvantage against players that donated back then, but you could still make up for it in numbers and have some fun. The changes made it even more pay to play though. Looks like everyone else in Crimson Order quit too, except for TemujinBC. There must have been over 100,000 players back then. I'm not sure how it is now, but if there's still dissatisfaction with eRep that could be a good source of new members. One thing about eRep is that it's "fancier" with nicer graphics, more dynamic interfaces... of course it also has a bigger budget, hence the attempts to get players to fork over RL money for so many things. For the people that have come over recently, do you think PW can still have appeal to the current players of eRep despite consisting of essentially just linked tables?

[Dalinar]

I'm curious, how did eRep take off? I know (That terrible game that is totally irrelevant and I shouldn't be bringing it up anyways) took off because Nationstates lacked the war function, and (That terrible game that is totally irrelevant and I shouldn't be bringing it up anyways) filled that gap and pulled in large number of players/alliances from there. It's dying right now because of a lack of innovation in the game mechanics and it's greatly showing its age in general.

Politics have stagnated too in (That terrible game that is totally irrelevant and I shouldn't be bringing it up anyways), definitely some lessons to be learned over here on how not to run the game for those on top (as pre has already mentioned heh)

[Conner Temple]

eRep is now just ruled by Serbia so, the UK, US and nearly all of Europe is just filled with Serbia. Meanwhile on the other things, I can't care about it, no good game mechanics and last time I was on, they asked people to pay real money to win up to 50 gold!

[Dwemyrn]

I think it'd be cool to see any alliance to do their own sort of radioshow/podcast. It'd be nice to have multiple to listen, though the main one of course would be the focal point of it all.

[Wayne]

eRep is now just ruled by Serbia so, the UK, US and nearly all of Europe is just filled with Serbia. Meanwhile on the other things, I can't care about it, no good game mechanics and last time I was on, they asked people to pay real money to win up to 50 gold!

 

Serbia have ruled eRep for the past 4 years.  It's nothing new.  eUK was one election away from losing control to the Serbs last year, but votes got removed and the ATO won instead.  It's still run by native eUKers, even if it is a shadow of it's former self.

 

Seeing as a lot of you are from (That terrible game that is totally irrelevant and I shouldn't be bringing it up anyways) and is it nationstates? do you sit around doing !@#$ all most of the time, farming resources in that too?

[Buorhann]

I was playing eRep in 2009/2010 with The Crimson Order in Canada (lead by TemujinBC at the time)... I don't remember the game very well anymore, but I know I quit around the time a bunch of changes were made. You were already at a significant disadvantage against players that donated back then, but you could still make up for it in numbers and have some fun. The changes made it even more pay to play though. Looks like everyone else in Crimson Order quit too, except for TemujinBC. There must have been over 100,000 players back then. I'm not sure how it is now, but if there's still dissatisfaction with eRep that could be a good source of new members. One thing about eRep is that it's "fancier" with nicer graphics, more dynamic interfaces... of course it also has a bigger budget, hence the attempts to get players to fork over RL money for so many things. For the people that have come over recently, do you think PW can still have appeal to the current players of eRep despite consisting of essentially just linked tables?

 

Let's be honest, any browser game like this will be more heavily involved by the community and not the design itself.

 

So can people from other browser games enjoy PnW?  Sure, as long as the community builds on it.

[PigInZen]

1.  An in-game publication/media function.  Get posters off the boards and posting in-game content.  eRep is a great model for this, at least the newspaper function from 2010/2011 would be a great model, not sure about the how it's done there currently.

 

2.  Some sort of periodic alliance resets or incentives for war.  I will admit that currently I am struggling with the minute daily improvement to my nation as incentive to continue logging in.  There must be more to the game but not so much that it demands constant attention. 

[Conner Temple]

Serbia have ruled eRep for the past 4 years.  It's nothing new.  eUK was one election away from losing control to the Serbs last year, but votes got removed and the ATO won instead.  It's still run by native eUKers, even if it is a shadow of it's former self.

 

Seeing as a lot of you are from (That terrible game that is totally irrelevant and I shouldn't be bringing it up anyways) and is it nationstates? do you sit around doing !@#$ all most of the time, farming resources in that too?

Well I only played for a few months, so I didn't know that. Also, do you play eRep? If so, what was your name, I feel like I know you...