analysis & evaluation

[Sliekz]

• What is Era?
• What is Era now?
• What can Era become?

From a player "perspective", I would suggest that Era is:

i. A server that consists of guns.
ii. A server that consists of gangs.
iii. A server that consists of businesses.
iv. A server that consists of an economy.
v. A server that consists of events.

Because Era consists of the following; it offers each individual the opportunity (not limited) to:

i. Player kill, organized in raids/events or otherwise.
ii. Form social groups within which Era consists.
iii. Create goals aimed towards which Era consists.
iv. Spar, testing (expressing, to state and affirm) personal skill.
v. Accumulate personal wealth (which is without reasonable doubt, a persistent ambition to many).

You might take notice that most of which era consists and offers is in some way -- dependent, proportionate, consequently relative to one another (i.e. gangs not raiding will decrease profits for businesses, businesses not making money will decrease personal wealth, lack of personal wealth makes it difficult to afford the necessities to pk, etc).

I will try to evaluate (and critique) briefly, and subjectively, what I feel Era (consisting of, prima facie) is now:

i. Guns

There is a wide gap concerning the performance of every gun vs. Mp5/TG/DR, which may discourage some players due to the inaccessibility. If something is overpowered, it should not be exclusive (especially widely exclusive), I believe this upsets balance, and players.

In my personal belief, a game with such a small community should not put such a giant emphasis on material value. Not only does the illusion of power turn some (not all) players rotten (consquently driving off new, curious players), but it also creates very unequal footing for any new player that wants to participate in our community, which is already in my opinion, xenophobic (in lack of a better word).

ii. Gangs

Gangs are a social group with an emphasis on being a squad or team.
They're players who share a common, like-minded goal; who will usually work together to accomplish said goal.

The problem here is that gangs lack a goal; if only to kill opposing gangs for no reason. Though this might be fun for a bit; it's sequentially a waste of money, waste of time, and unrewarding. Especially if one gang boasts the larger, more active, more well equipped team.

Since gangs have no concrete goal, I would assume that gangs have no concrete purpose. With no purpose, there's consequently no incentive to join.

In short, gangs have no value.

In result; extremely inactive gangs, little raiding, less to do.

(*On a side note; previously Era had gang guns which offered very acceptable stats at an affordable price. They'd sometimes be exclusively distributed to the most loyal members. This not only gave players incentive to join, but leaders incentive to be strict regarding who they recruit.)

iii. Businesses

I will address why businesses are suffering (and are somewhat pointless).

• Raids are not often, demand for supplies are low.
• Money is scarce, disposable income is not as much frequent.
• AM/GP and DH/DD share the same product and prices.
• There is little incentive to work at a business when basic NPC jobs offer better pay.

iv. Economy

Squirt stated "There's no more millionaires!", I'm only left wondering how this is actually a good thing. Not only is the economy dead (with an irrational gap between the poor and rich in terms of guns of performance), but the absolute essentials (i.e. caps, revs, ammo) are becoming more and more difficult to afford, creating less motivation to raid or even actively play.

I feel as if the only means to adequately make money is through "merchanting", which is pretty much the art of ripping off other players.

v. Events

Events have been left untouched for the most part. The only thing I disagree with is how they've recently put a larger focus on instruments instead of weapons (i.e. when somebody says "EC", I automatically associate it with "instrument" instead of "bow" or "flak cannon" now).

_

Finally, what can Era become? Or how can Era move (and improve) from its current condition into a new one? It's very difficult to pinpoint what would be a welcome condition for Era from one perspective, so I will try to cover some things that (I hope) everybody will agree on without being too specific, in hope of resuscitating Era back into a healthy, more playable and friendly state.

Here are just a few:

i. Readjust or introduce some sort of method that will create any type of equal footing for PKing, regarding guns. (accessibility)
ii. Utilize gang points so that they can be exchangeable for something. Perhaps even bring back gang guns. Make gangs and players interested in one another. (incentive)
iii. Somehow stabilize businesses, make them worth while. (economy dependent imo)
iv. Stimulate the economy.

A step in the right direction is communication, what do you guys think? We can only assume what we sense, and as of late the only thing I've seen aside from the stagnant are mexican/german alien invasions(?) and that cross server event thing.