Part of the decline in era is inevitable due to the fact that we will never be able to compete with like Skyrim and GTA 5 as a video game (or other MMORPGs like WoW and Eve). It gets increasingly tough to generate interest in a 2-dimensional game. The fact that it's free now is definitely a big plus; it would be nice if we could get some younger people interested again so they can pass it on to their friends (as young people are always looking for fun things they can do with friends for free).

This.


It's incredibly hard to increase interest in Era when the interest in Graal PC itself has steadily declined for a number of years. With the introduction of iOS playerworlds and the success (for the most part) those have seen, it's understandable why Stefan et all would turn their focus towards that platform, but it also had sped up the decay of Era and the other few PC playerworlds that are still alive.

Without that constant innovation/support to make the platform better as a whole there is a moderately low ceiling on what playerworld management is able to do to increase playercounts and compete with the likes of the aforementioned.

You can however find ways to retain existing players, hopefully leading to word of mouth advertising, and steal those select players that come from the mobile platforms to see what this PC mumbo jumbo is all about.

On another note, congratulations Amsel! You're an intelligent guy whose able to serve as a swiss army knife of being a developer as well as being someone who is approachable / knowledgeable enough to also deal with player-related issues. I have no doubt that you're going to do an excellent job.

yeah, veterans are basically the only type of players that are keeping era alive. I mean graal has been out since the 90s or whatever and era since 2001/2002. I really don't think era losing players has to do with the direction that management has taken era, for I think the main reason has to do with just natural stuff. dunno what it is called. and it doesn't help that pretty much everyone lags like crazy even with a decent connection.

It's not free in the terms that they have decided to make the game free. It's been toggled off and forgotten to toggle it back on. People still have the big blue "welcome to era, upgrade...." on top of their screens.

Nobodys comparing it to Skrim and GTA that would be insane to do so. Graal PC has the potential to be huge but where is the advertising? There is none? With proper advertising & lag free servers you would be surprised how massive this server and others could become.

Graal PC was huge, but like every game there is a decline. Graal PC has been on the decline for a while now (pointing out the obvious).

Exactly my point. And not every game there is a decline. Infact.. Some games have been out for years and still growing.

My point is, advertise the game and improve the servers and the playercount will rise again. We both know this to be true.

I'd play more if my 70+-4ms connection (just pingtested) to Texas wasn't doubled and more by Graal servers.

That's just me. :)

Advertisement will bring players to the game but don't expect it to FLOCK in numbers. Graal just doesn't compete to the games that are offered now-a-days. Especially when a 1-3month gold subscription is more than half the decent games.

With the "Right" advertisement it will bring a lot of players to the game. It also has to be a long term advertisement. It's not as easy a just "advertising" you need to know how to advertise.

If done correctly, you could bring a huge influx of players to the game.

The game is currently free.

Free with a lot of limitations. The "Right" advertisement may never come, not because they don't care but because they can't afford it. iPhone servers are doing great because the game is now more of a "on the move" because why play 2d when you can jump out of helicopters and shoot people 2 miles away with a sniper rifle. Games have evolved, Graal's target audience has changed drasticly. The right advertisement this **** will become a club penguin look-a-like.

I'd like to think they could afford it with the amount of years they have been running and now growing on the iservers. It's not like they're spending money and gaining nothing back. It's called investment.

Also, who said it costs anything? You can advertise online with many free ways and let me tell you, some of them are the best advertisement methods to. I know a lot about advertisement because simply put, i do it. I'm an affiliate and know they lack on advertisement.

Advertisement is one of the key phases of running a business.

Is anybody ever going to reinable global PMs on Era?

"Some men see things as they are and say why?, I dream things that never were and say why not?" - George Bernard Shaw

The problem with bringing in new players is that they can't compete with anyone. They just get owned 24/7 so they quit.

Democracy breeds factionalism and populism. Neither of which are conducive to effective development.