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*shrugs* Maybe Delteria was a bad example. So let's call this Hypothetical Server "Hypothetica". Say Billy makes a server and names it Hypothetica. It competes with all the other Graal servers, and he's reduced to pandering to the lowest common denominator, trying to make his server the "coolest" to the existing Graal playerbase - but bear in mind, this is not the same as making a Good server, it just means that on his server everyone can be Vejita with an uzi at first level. Hypothetica fails to evolve, Graal suffers as all servers introduce their own take on the "Vejita has an uzi" technology.
On the other hand, say every server's given the opportunity to court their own playerbase. Billy decides the "Vejita Has An Uzi" cop-out sucks, deletes it, rebuilds his server so it's actually presentable as, I dunno, a MegaMan themed server, and advertises it on BobAndGeorge.com at $20 for a month. All the Megaman fans jump on Hypothetica, which grows AWAY from the standard-issue Classic Clones and flourishes as a game all on its own(A). A few Megaman fans get bored of jumping around and blasting the same 3 robot masters on Hypothetica, which is still on its growth spurt, go back to the server list, and...hey, Zone's got guns too, let's see if that's any good. Thus, while Hypothetica gets first crack at their own players (maybe the first time you play a server's client the serverlist doesn't even come up), eventually everyone profits from the increased playerbase, and all it took was Hypothetica getting the word out on an indy webcomic.
Naturally, this requires a few more steps than this - the website needs to be revamped, Hypothetica needs a smooth website interface, ideally the restrictions on passwording newbies could be relaxed - Newbies can save via password, as long as the password's sufficiently annoying that they'll want to upgrade someday...you know, so we can start calling Graal a shareware game again...
(A) Optionally: In fact, other servers who DON'T consider themselves Megaman Clones join in a partnership with Hypothetica, and cooperatively develop scripts for baddies, music players, rescripted buddy lists, etc: on Hypothetica all the baddies are cyborgs of the baddies on "Wiki-man", on Wiki-man they're all 3D-Gradiented versions of the Classic baddies, etc. But of course, under the current situation nobody wants to SHARE work, as that'll benefit "the competition". Because all the servers are basically the same. |