Problems...AND ways to fix them.
 

I'm not on an offence stance at all, but the player count has gone down alot over alot of silly reasons. This is all from the players point of view- me, and I am pretty involved with the community and I would probably know more than you guys with the community as I don't think i've seen globals on a server for more than an hour. I'm a pretty avid graal player, stacking 4k hours in all, 2.5k on Era, and 1.5k on UN
I remember when Era had -6- gangs, we now have 3/4 depending, with very little members each. Era used to top 200 players, as did UN. I believe with some motivation graal could be easily fixed.

-GRAAL ACCOUNTS
This has to be the silliest thing I have ever seen, what does this do for graal that makes it a pro instead of a con? It has prevented me from wanting to buy another account, my friends also. It masks everyones individuality and sitting there trying to remember Graal###### is so-and-so is not my cup of tea, this has to be one of the biggest flaws and has NO logic to it.

-FREE PLAYING TIME
Maybe on private servers, instead of that ghost mode you guys used to have; but why in gods name would you put this to people on classic servers? If you guys did this to me back in 03-04 I would easily move on to another game that did not have such obscure regulations. I mean, maybe after two hours you could have them wait an hour (not requiring online time) then play again, OR HAVE IT LIKE IT USED TO BE. Which you would loose all your playing time, all your items and anything you achieved. I don't see what was wrong with that, it let you taste it and crave it and then you needed to buy it. Trust me, getting the 13 hearts everytime on UN was not fun, nor was getting guns on era and being reset fun. So you got to play, but the next day you were new, this like made be buy an account and know what I was paying for unlike today. Do you seriously think many people will wait 5 minutes (you have to wait before you can start your first time cause it is glitched) then play for 5 minutes, wait again? That is quite annoying and I wouldn't even give this game a single shot. Graal doesn't have an amazing graphical view which is the first impression, graal thrives off of community and gameplay which you guys arn't handling to well to my perspective.

-CLASSIC LIFETIME
Where has this gone? Do you really think I am going to buy another account if it still isn't playable on regular servers after the time has run out? I really want to buy an account to dev on playerworld and TRY to make Graal better as a whole, but how is one trying to help restricted with all these ridiculous restrictions? I mean seriously, we should pick up a history book and see how imposing so many unneccesary rules has worked in the test of time (It sounds ridiculous, but graal in itself is like a little government)

-GRAAL FUNDS
Since he is making "more money" (I mean, he is limiting classic life time and making some buck huh?) Maintaining a server isnt that much, why doesn't he do some advertising? Seriously, a little banner on a website; that would attract more players i bet, a little bit more of anything would do. Graal has gone through times and has been pretty strong throughout most of it and it is pretty much going down the hole faster than it ever has. It almost seems he isn't working on improving graal that much anymore, [don't take this critical, as i stated in the very first sentense] but nothing is really happening and they are throwing globals on servers and it seems to hinder work. Era has always been fine without globals and stuff got done, two years since a promised reset and nothing has happened. Andy was a manager before and GOT STUFF DONE. He worked so hard to try to get manager again but it went to globals, then a bunch of the dev quit in one heap and they scrapped everything. Graal for the most part is to be player run, why do you think people like it so much as it is? Don't try to ruin the essence of this game.

-GRAAL GIFTING
Steam sorta does this, they'll give like two weeks out to everyone that has a registered account (basically pay to play) and they can give it to someone and they will recieve pay to play for the two weeks the person gives to them. No i'm not saying just add this and forget about the other points i labled (you should still remove all those restrictions, don't disregard anything before this section) and instead of the logging off and loosing all their stuff, they will keep it for the two weeks and at about a 3 day notice it will say "Your time is running out,you should purchase a full subscription to maintain all your items or if not you will return to trial" <- Keeping everything you do that day and (as i said before) their will be no time restrictions. Doing this gifting type thing (DONT BUY THIS WITH GELATS, THIS IS A TWO WEEK SUBSCRIPTION GIFT FROM GRAAL FOR YOU TO GIVE FOR PEOPLE TO TRY GRAAL, ALTHOUGHT THEY COULD ADD THIS OPTION FOR ANYTIME TO BUY WITH GELATS CHEAP AND STILL ABLE TO GIVE OUT) would really bring new players into graal and would have people buy accounts ect.

I think I am about done with my case, I know their is alot I havn't gone over, but I think this really hits the nail on the head. If we got 3000 players (The server supposively can support alot of players, not sure the exact ammount) I think we would have more people paying, which means more coin going to the big man, than having 300 people on graal and about 225 of them paying.
-Requill


Please feel free to add a response wether you agree or disagree, if I should remove or add some new points.

I'll be the first to say that I do indeed support them in making more money off of Graal. It's been stated before in threads, and that's how business works. Make the best of your situation.

However, a few things I saw that I agreed with, I was a bit curious.. Why are Graal##### accounts used? Community names tend to make it less efficient to open someone's profile to get their account. As small and silly it may sound, I think it'd encourage more people to play. It's a sense of individuality.

I also think something more lenient should be worked out for new players playing on classic servers. Something to more encourage them to sign up, but not by imposing some ridiculous rules.

Sort of quick thrown together, mainly I was curious about what the idea with the Graal# accounts is..

Your first point, yes of course; but they are not taking any logical steps that would help them in achieving so.

It makes NO SENSE why graal###### are used. It really aggitates me when people with graal accounts are walking by.
On Era I am
-A Gangleader
-A Business Co-owner
-A Events team
^^Graal accounts effect all of these, it is such a hassle to try to memorize the numbers since the profiles hide in back when you need to type something in player, it's a hassle for the gangs. Same with me as I co-own a business, adding people with graal accounts is just a hassle and then I can't even remember who they are so I cannot fire them when they are offline; then I have to take somebody's word for it or just wait, which is RIDICULOUS.
Lastly, I am an ET. Seriously, what the hell man. If I wrongly kick someone or I need to give them out an EC I have to go into their profile and look at all their numbers and try to remember them HOPEFULLY not making a typo giving it to somebody else, graal accounts are the biggest hassle.
I know -numerous- people who will not buy another account over the silly graal account rules. I mean, i'm not in business and marketing courses but this doesn't seem like it would help get the cash flowing in.

I was so lucky enough to join before all this mayham that I actually found some sort of pleasure in graal and got to buy my account, now if I was joining now i'd much rather play runescape;conquer, something free which doesn't impose so many silly rules.

My idea is to just stop with the graal accounts and let people have their own name. Let's start naming our kids Earth9156826, pretty exaggerated but I think it makes the point.

I'm lucky I got this account before the Graal account phase started.

It's an unneeded system. What benefits does the new account system have? Oh, players no longer have the stress of thinking of an account name at the registration page! (That's what HoudiniMan told me)

I don't really think anyone complained that they wanted to play Graal so badly but they couldn't think of an account name.

Yea, starting the whole Graal# accounts thing has prevented me from ever making a new account, so I'm sure it has prevented new players from starting an account at all. If there is some logic behind this, someone please share.

I also believe that players should be allowed to work on UC servers without upgrading to Gold. I know several talented developers who won't work on servers anymore because their subscription ran out.

There should be some sort of system that allows a server to be locked to developers only which permits players without Gold to develop on that server. This would work like the serveroptions 'onlystaff' except it would be turned on/off by the PWA, not the owner.

Once the server is no longer locked to developers only [through request to PWA], if you don't have Gold you can't log on anymore.

This would greatly increase the amount of development occuring on UC servers and we might actually see something nice come out of it. There could also be a limit on the number of RCs allowed so that you don't get someone keeping their server locked to developers only so that people without Gold memberships can play.

I know meph has a crapload of accounts and he said he wouldn't buy anymore due to the graal thing and its too hard to keep track.
I also talked to a newb and he said he would rather quit then pay.

Edit* I agree with sales, that also seems like a good point. I'm in the same boat that I would NOT buy another account.
I used to love helping make servers and I loved DEVing; but prices are going up and I would like to buy another account but i am not sure. It limits us people who WANT to dev to try to obtain a position on a classic server. I'd like to brush up my skills an GANI/GFX/LAT, but that is quite hard to do without any server for testing purposes either.

We're doing all the work...we shouldn't have to pay you to make your game.


I'd be willing to bet that the amount of development on UC servers would greatly increase if people without Gold could help


EDIT: Someone would still have to pay for the server, of course.

2 years ago, I fought for the same reason against someone, then the person told me this:
Graal owns the stove in which to make your spaghetti, you have the ingredients, and at the end of the day, who owns the food. You? or Graal.

Technically they own the ingredients, in which case they also own the food. However, they wouldn't have any food to sell if it weren't for us.

Graal would still be making money from when someone rents the server...and if the server ever makes it somewhere, they would make even more money.

Allowing developers to work on a UC server without Gold would just be an investment...In my opinion, a good one too because the chances of a server turning into something worth paying for would be greater.

I don't fully understand how letting trials work on servers is an investment but in your fantasy world it might just come ture.

Not just trials, people with unlimited classic (who probably make up the majority of the playerbase anyways)

It's not that hard to understand how allowing more developers to work toward bringing this game its content might be beneficial

I just wish Stefan or Unixmad would actually respond to these inenquires for once, so that we can stop making these threads

Trials get plagued with ads, Gold members don't have to look at them, the price of subscription goes down. They make money, I don't have to pay as much. Everyone is happy.

The trial system here sucks :)
They really can't expect someone to get into a game within 5hours?
I think you need to give them a bit more time rather then just cut them off after a short period.

These threads pop up every few months, without a change. I wouldnt be bothered replying either.