graal's fan sites would be the same childish happy happy WE LOVE GRAAL NO NEGATIVE COMMENTS HERE ^____________^ crap over and over anyway.

graal needs to fix itself first

Yeah when I ran my topsites there was an obvious decline in sites, but there wasn't in the past, I remember all those geocities and tripod sites that had npc's etc, they were fun.

I dunno that we can do anything about Graal's listing on Google...methinks it's gonna have to be advertising in one form or another. If Graal's payment system restructures enough that it can call itself "Free" again, that'll open a lot of doors...something like Passwording, but Stefan said that's neither happening nor necessary, so I guess we'll see...

But if Graal can call itself shareware, then yeah, we can start talking topsites again. In the meantime, I don't see the point.

Well, I'm not talking about improving Graal's listing on Google. You google Graal, you get Graal. I think unixmad's policy of not letting players talk about other MMORPGs might be backfiring because then when people look up other games, they might stumble upon someone who plays Graal mentioning something about the game they're looking for and they might in turn develop an interest in Graal.

I think it's more than that which is killing Graal's popularity. Namely unixmad's policies but that's just a different story. Graal only became so popular because it was free, now it's P2P and they expect the same amount of people to come and pay? Pfft.

Exactly x_x

I think graal needs to play around with the login server a bit more. We need some updated dev tools, preferable online and scripted, things like games were a col idea, more activity on a global level, global events, lots of updates, occasional freebees, like a free week of gold for everyone. Make it big and noticeable on the login server. That would get people to play it, save their game, and want to come back for more.
Just be active.
If you're active, your community will be, and your customers will come back.
Obviously, we still need to advertise.

I'd prefer having 2 ads in each PM rather than pay but eh: it's up to Unixmad really. Couple of things could be done to keep the players we have.

Instead of having trials get reset after each time they log-in, save their character to a point. Maybe then they'll have the incentive to keep playing as maybe they could get further into the worlds =p. Though some parts of the worlds may be locked off to trials as well.

Another idea: make classic free.Get alot of players to play classic again. Maybe then they'll check out other places and see if they thinks it's worth upgrading.

I'd say it's pretty simple why player count is going down... advertisement. I don't know how often Graal advertises its game, but honestly I see no attempt at it. The more people you reach out to the more likely people will join.

Another thing is, no updates. I know it's not as important as advertisement (in a business aspect) but I don't see the point of VIP because there is no benefit of it. My VIP expires in a few months and this past year I've used it for nothing and in no way am I compelled to reupgrade. Why does it even exist?

And last, being consistent with updates (being on time) and taking advantage of the holiday season is a simple attempt. Not even a Christmas theme for graalonline.com was put up, no Christmas specials (like the previous free graal 3d). It just seems like a game that is no updated, use the website as the key to bring people in, offer specials and the change for new players to play the game and actually WANT to join (Give them reason to upgrade).Those are easy attempts in getting some easy $$$ and good opportunities to advertise and bring along more players.

We need one hot server which is free for a certain amount of hours for all new players! More special offers like free weekends, and mass e-mail all trials saying they can save for a weekend (and maybe only let them save on GOLD servers to make those more populated for the weekend and increase likelihood of a gold subscription being made).

Why an official server hasn't been made, I don't know. We need an official Graal server. Not Graal 3D, as that wont fill the demand, that's something seperate.

Yeah, updates are quite rare.
If it weren't for my server, I wouldn't upgrade.
And because of the lack of Mac dev tools, I still may not! :mad:
(No, I don't think Mac dev tools are the most important update for Graal...just an important one.)

Wow, I think Tyhm's posts are the only thing making sense in this thread. It's truly too bad that he's not in charge of this whole operation or Graal might actually be worth playing right now.

And for those of you saying the website is fine, just try to navigate around the classic nonflash website. Horrible. Why is the client under "Online Stores"? That makes no sense whatsoever.

See also: Create an account and change password under there!

Someone seriously needs to start a playerworld that is a really SIMPLE yet FUN idea. A true classic server. But everyone always wants to make different systems and this and that which you don't really need.

True classic servers rarely work out.
I'd prefer something that went more towards a "Zelda" feel. You know, with a story line, and some ideas that split away from the ordinary Graal ideas. :D

I was right in the middle of the crowds, buried under the loads of people. :\

1) Fix the website. Base it off the quickstart page for fairyland. Put things in the right category.
2) Make a server for newbies to get addicted to the game on, and point them rather forcefully at it. Classic was that world once, but it fell to the bottom of the list, all the newbies started on UN instead, and most left. (See also: Hubworld, but that's a different tree)
2.5) (I don't feel like renumbering all these) - Free Newbies. Unrestricting Guest Accounts, allowing Password Saving, scripting Guest Save Points - something so they can play the server all the way through without being reset, but not so convenient that they never want to upgrade.
3) Advertise. There's a push on the Main Forums to build an ad banner before Graal's even ready to put its name out there, but you really shouldn't advertise before the welcome mat's been set out...and as has been mentioned, the flashsite ain't very welcoming.

That'll earn you partial credit. Got newbies pouring in through a single Newbie World. For full points:

4) Distribute the website. As it stands, from graalonline.com you can get news from the Wiki for all servers, and go to the official website for Kingdoms, Zone I guess, Classic kinda despite that the Classic team can't edit their own site, and that's it. If there's a PW Hub it's old.
I say to hell with that. Make the Graal Website distinct from the Kingdoms Website. If you go to GraalOnline, you get pointed towards How To Be A Newbie (the quickstart), with the top banner dynamically displaying the list of All servers - Kingdoms Official to Atlantis Official Websites.
5) Skin the clients. Atlantis Official Website will be Atlantis.Graal.Net. From that site you can sign up for an account with GraalOnline - and you can download the Atlantis client, which is just like the regular default Newbie client with two differences:
- Instead of having a Kingdoms startscreen, with a fire-breathing dievil, it's an Atlantis startscreen, and
- Instead of ranking all the servers by Gold First, then By playercount, Atlantis is always at the top. Because you're an Atlantis player, and you don't need to hunt for it at 3 in the morning GMT.
6) Start paying the PWs - and charging them. If a server's on the Playable List (as opposed to the Under Construction list), they ought to be paying their subscription dues - Unixmad has to, so should they - BUT, B-U-T, Unixmad should also be giving them a cut of the upgrades they're bringing in. Like, each server has to pay Graal $100 a year, and each upgrade they bring in gives the server $5 - so once a server's brought in 20 upgrades (less than two a month - any decent server should be able to manage that), the rest is profit for the PW Owner to spend as he (or she) sees fit.
7) And how should they spend that money? Advertising. Every PW Owner has an idea of what kind of players they want, and where to find them. The Megaman server can advertise on Bobandgeorge.com, etc.

End - every server's marketing their own game on Graal's behalf. Unixmad gets more income from all these newbies coming in on the Good servers, and in server fees from the Bad servers that won't admit they belong UC. Owners are happy that they're finally selling their own game, and hypothetically raking in the dough. Newbies are happy they can play a game without paying for it until they're absolutely certain they need it. Players are happy they've got more newbies to (variously) guide or PK.

- Yes it's wordy, I defy you to abbreviate it though. Complex concepts aren't easy to communicate monosylabically.

I've managed to bring two gold members into graal myself, but we really need some advertisement.

I'm of two minds on the issue.

On the one hand, Graal should advertise after they fix the website, or they'll just get a lot of people who go no further than the front page.

On the other hand, Graal should really have the PWs advertising themselves as though each PW was its own game, its own competitor to Maple Syrup and World of Starcraft and City of Neroes and so forth.

Do Trials get newsletters? If they did they could get more interested in Graal?
Like they could get newsletters if you register an account, like see what you gain by upgrading and such.

If they do get newsletters, just ignore this.

More importantly, they should get More newsletters. We all should. And the newsletters should be more accurate (*cough Candy Sword cough*) - saying what is planned as what is planned, rather than as though it were a verifyable fact...but that's my vendetta, don't expect anyone else to be on board.

I want a candy sword...

I also want a pixellated sword called a .hack sword that warps someone to 32,32 in an absolutely random level in the server when you hit them.