New Server

[The Evil Within]

Originally Posted by Tyhm

*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.

Like I said this could be a good idea for any server if the server decides they want to put out the money, but the only servers willing to do so are those which are lacking in players, and they're usually lacking in players for a reason (although other than the newly added spar system, UN has had a reason to have a low playercount for years yet it thrives so well). Let's put Hypothetica back as Delteria. Right now Delteria sucks, and people would put out the $20 to advertise for it, but in around a year when the new overworld is completed (This is the same as the revamp of Hypothetica) the playercount is going to thrive again due to old players returning and new players from other servers coming out to check what is new just from word of mouth. After this happens Delteria is going to have an average playercount of atleast 70 again, and as I said before once a playerworld reaches a semi-high playercount they really don't feel the need to personally advertise. Staff and players have already spent somewhere around $180 in the passed year and a half in total to just host the Dev server of Delteria, there are other servers who are spending the same amount of cash for their Dev servers, I highly doubt that after 2 years of shelling out money just to get the server done that anybody is going to want to pay money to try and get new players to come and give more money to cyberjours unless their server is a total wash out with the current Graal community, which usually happens for a reason.

I really don't see how this could hurt at all, it would definately help get some new subscribers to cyberjours, it may even also get a few more players on some of the more inactive servers, but I still believe that Graal would be doing better if Unixmad or Stefan put out the money to advertise Graal instead of asking people to do it for them, however, Classic servers to get a free ride when it comes to hosting so perhaps suggesting that they advertise for themselves isn't really asking much? :shrugs: I dunno why I'm arguing against this idea, like I said there is really no downside to it, I just don't really see any of the servers utilizing the option to promote themselves.