My final attempt
 

I held off on making this thread for a few reasons.


First off, it is highly likely that this will be locked, deleted, or moved. I've noticed the admins of this game, and those who enforce their will, hold a particular contempt for free thought and speech, especially in an open, debatable venue.

This is not a "future improvement" thread. This is a general discussion about the future, if any, of this game.

The forums ARE the right place to speak up aganist things you believe are wrong with this game. They ARE the right place to speak aganist the administration when you believe they are wrong.

I'm sure we've all sent our forum PMs to the "appropriate staff" and have seen nothing come of them.

I sure know I have.

I myself have offered tons of ideas, my services and help, and much more to this game. Personally, I'm sick of them being ignored.

I've played this game for 6 years this fall. From the time where there was simply one server, with 300 or more players on. When the game was all about the community, all about friendships, guilds, and such. Before the place was divided into many servers. Back before we were expected to pay, and promised that Graal, in some form, would always remain free.

So, what is my point, and where am I going with this?

I'm sure you've all noticed this, but player counts on all servers have been hitting record lows. It is to be expected, afterall. More people are quitting than new players signing up. VIP accounts are surely expiring at a fasrer rate than they are being signed up for.

So, Unix, Stefan, what's your plan?

We have a brand new script language, a great new client, and less players than ever to use them.

We have a system that allows players to create and develop their own worlds, yet not enough players to do so.

We also have tons of free MMORPGS, and MMORPGS which cost a comparable amount to this game, which offer much larger communities, more interactive and captivating game play, and a seemingly more involved administration.

Graal simply does not offer a package that's attractive for your money. Two Servers with a playerbase of 40-60 people each? Access to some semi-active forums? The ability to log onto 100 playerworlds with nearly no content?

Further more, and by far the worst call Stefan has made since making classic servers P2P, is the new "Limited" trial account system. Is it really necessary to drive the nail into the coffen?

I've said it so many damn times and no one seems to care. No one wants to listen. The best thing this game has going for is its simplicity. At it's core, you have a simple game with a community that is easy to get into.

The community is the players. Without them, the game becomes moot. There are no monsters to level off of (GK doesnt count, seriously.). Besides interactivity with other people, this game does not offer much.

So why must the player count be forced to go down?
Why can classic servers not be free again?
Why not give this game a damn chance of survival?

Instead of forcing people to pay just to play, why not offer them a free game, and then make a few servers (Graal 3d, anyone?) pay to play, like it was?

Why not advertise this game? I see adds for games like adventure quest, which is no more than a flash RPG, yet I see none for this on any popular sites a gamer might visit.

I understand the financial issues. I also understand the most basic concept of economics. Supply and Demand. Players demand a product worth their money. Currently, Graal does not supply this.

You can tell me I'm not forced to play. You can tell me that I don't know what I'm talking about. You can defend your choices, as poor as most people find them to be, until the bitter end.

While you've been jumping from one project to the next, I've been watching the community die. I've been watching players lose faith. I've played other games. Yet I always come back here, clinging to some foolish hope that perhaps my first online game will restore itself to a fun, large community like it once was.

This is the final chance I will give this game. I plan on making some noise, and I want my opinions to be heard. I know 100 things, all of them very simple, that could be done to improve the community, the player count, and the game itself. Will I be listened to?



Edit: To Stefan.

http://forums.graalonline.com/forums...9&postcount=23

That means users who do not pay have 2 weeks to play Graal. In those two weeks, do you believe they will become attatched enough to this game to think it worth the money?

Graal Online is at a dudd right now, no one is botherd. I could probably quote several globals who have said something similar.

It works the way it is. Its fairly simple if you take the time to think about it. It is in all likelyhood making money without huge effort or costs.

I hope not.

The thread is very well thought out. I pretty much agree with everything you had to say.

Aye, same.

If a few (or alot) of developers got together to work on a simple, lag free server based around PKing and Events and that, with NICE well made levels and decent graphics when needed, I'm sure something could become of it. Something very interesting.

You've just said what many of us have been thinking for at least 2 years. We've waited and hoped for improvements and the return of what we once had but with each step forward we do at least 3 steps back. I've always said I'd stay until the end but most people don't have my patience to wait. I hope they don't delete this post as all you're doing is stating the views of many who have said it privately many times.

Two words and then some more.

I agree.

Sure, I haven't been playing this game as long as most of you. Heck, I've only been playing for what, three years? And I've seen playercounts dropping. I've seen the threads here about saving servers like UN, which have dropping playercounts. A few more I'd like to point out are Valikorlia, and Delteria's has gone down a bit too. I'm sure there are more. Yeah, theres alot of Dev servers out there, hoping to be big. There playercount of Graal in general is dropping, and is it really a surprise? Look at some of these things that have been introduced. I see Classic, not doing well with its new NPC server. I see UN, which has been promised things before. I see Zone, with its not that good weapons being added, things like the red rifle, and its dropping playercount. Graal lacks the ability to draw new players to it, while the old ones leave. It just won't work.

I remember when i started playing graal 3 years ago. Playercount was pretty high especially on school days, and Un was the server i fell in love with. Now there is not any server that can catch any of my intrest, they all seem the same, and these "new improvements" to servers never come true because the owner gives up a stupid excuse for not doing it. The only fun thing i like to do on big servers is argue with other players because its funny and on this community too, corrupt staff ruins everything though. I even got jailed on UN for bashing on Mysti's judgement. What kinda ticks me is the high demand of money for graal, sure classic servers run forever, but only 1 or 2 of them get fun for a while. The VIP has raised 6 dollars and im not sure why they did that which is why i think lack of buying vips is rising. These mmorpg games do not really catch the average gamers eye since there are games like counter-strike which appear more fun and more games that are advertised and have a fun point to them. Advertising will likely raise playercount and get this community more active again, but unix or stefan lack to do this or just finance it. We have some players who try to get hope for this game but they all fail because they cant get the word out so quickly. And mostly why people leave is due to the ignorance of corrupt staff, and the fact that other games(some like graal but not really like graal) have a better community like you said, and more reasonable staff that are mature unlike our young 12 year old staff. The only people graal would get are 12-16 year olds because after that age, everyone seems to go off to better things in their life. This game does have a new lot of things including the new scripting language but thats online and thats whats decreasing scripters. This server will probably be closed as to people going to talk about specific server administration and not just server administration in public.

if anyone says guest mode, ill scream
guest mode makes graal SOOO boring, if all trials were guests everwhere, i would never have started playing. i like the idea of a free mini server, make it save for trials, small, and they can only use it for a short time. this will also decrease the noobishness on the other servers by making an area only for trials, so they'll play here. I like the idea :)

I agree.

I have played this game for 3 years. The main reason I stick around is because of the traces of "community" it has left. N-Pulse has been my main server and I have made some good friends there.

The person who introduced me to graal played Sanstrata when it was up. He told me all kinds of stories about how it was back then. He was talking about how it wasn't the level quality or the flashy things that made Graal fun, it was the community, the people. That obviously isn't the basis for this game now. Players who once flocked to the game for the community refuse to pay for, well, basically, a chat service.

It is hard to develop graal servers into game play that works. I've been staff on N-Pulse for 3 years and in that time I've seen many ideas come and go, being shot down by the players for various reasons.

With that said, I believe trials are a vital aspect to graal. It is true that trials can become annoying, but put yourself in the situation. You play on a trial account, everything you do on the game won't save but during your time on the trial you grow to love the game. So you buy a P2P. This seems like the best money making strategy. Limiting trial accounts even further will not let peoples attraction to the game grow, and they will just move on to some other free mmorpg.

If you're worried about money, keep trials how they are, offer better upgrade perks, and ADVERTISE. I don't think I've ever seen a graal advertisement. I know it costs a ton of money to run this game but I'm positive some sort of advertisement could be arranged. Graal has always had "word of mouth" advertising. Imagine if you advertised through some media outlet and reached 100 people. These 100 people tell a friend. We got 200 players just like that.

There are alternatives to making money and pleasing the players. The strategy now is obviously not working and something needs to be done.

EVERYONE is losing their passion for this game. If Graal is going to survive, changes need to be made.

Who in the world is planning to make trials more limited? It is planned that guest accounts can play for 1-2 weeks, including saving their account, like on many other games. Also we will make it much easier to create accounts and upgrade. We have also planned other things, like helping playerworlds to make the game easier for new players / guide new players (including Kingdoms).

can't people just constantly register new guest accounts?

No only one per computer

Is it by ip tracking, and i think thats what he meant.

I'd find that even more annoying than relogging on with all your stuff gone.
If you can only play for 1 - 2 weeks, I'd love to see the population of the classic servers. Most newbies will come and go in a flash, it'd be heaven for all those idiots who "h8 nubs", but wouldn't it do the game more harm?