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Thor! It’s great you guys are making progress on the server, and the intro looks really nice. Your really dedicated to this server.
However I have a few concerns, please hear me out.
You say after the Castle Quest is completed you will, “consolidate both content and other aspects of the server and push for a server release“. This scares me because it makes me feel you think quests are priority and everything else is secondary. How you worded it especially, you seemed to not really give to much importance to the other stuff you kind of just jumbled them all together and called it “content and other aspects.”
I know this server is Classic, and we don’t want to change that. But you must remember this is 2010. I hope to god that your not thinking quests are going to save this server. I won’t act like people don’t like quests cause a lot of people do. But they also don’t have a complete grasp on what makes a game successful. They’re simply saying what they want at the moment, but aren’t concerned with anything else. If people loved quests that much they can go play any game from the Zelda series, but most don’t because single player games aren’t that fun. That’s why they’re on Graal most of the time.
Graal thrives off community, that’s the only thing keeping it alive. Your main focus has to be REPLAY VALUE. You need to figure out ways to keep people coming onto the server. Quests pull people onto the server, keep them for a while, and then after that (the other 98 percent of the time) its up to the rest of the server to keep them on. If you release a server that’s half assed and isn’t perfected your going to waste the hype. To be honest Classic has one more shot. We can’t afford to mess up this time because after this its over.
So here’s how you add replay value to a game in 2010.
1. Polish, polish, polish. EVERYTHING on this server needs to be perfected, every single tile, every single npc. It needs to look, feel, and sound BEAUTIFUL. I don’t care if the past had a certain look, because this isn’t the past. Mmorpgs are meant to develop, or else people will move onto the next one (like most of the Graal community has done already).
2. The content has to be overwhelming. Ever inch of the server needs to have thought put into it. There has to be a currency, items, and other gadgets to be collected and farmed. This is the main idea that fuels most modern games. No one likes grinding, but they’re willing to do it if they’ll earn something cool. People like to be better than others. That’s the idea behind online games. Your competing with others to be the coolest (sounds dorky but its true, think about it).
3. The entire event and spar system has to be revolutionary, seriously. You can’t have people complaining about HD, that shouldn’t even be a thought. It needs to just be solid. If you have to redo all the systems or whatever, do what it takes. The time you put in is worth it. Also the events need to be reworked and added too. This falls into both the polish and currency category. Make sure CLASSIC has the best event system. This will drive the server (like it has in the past).
4. If your going to focus on quests because you think that’ll bring that adventure feel back to the server, well, make MOST of the quests MULTIPLAYER. Who want’s to do stuff by themselves. I’ll answer this for you, VERY FEW. People don’t come online to play by themselves, this is just a given.
I can go on all day about this kind of stuff, but you guys aren’t stupid you know exactly what I’m saying. I’ll just leave you with one analogy, JUST INCASE some of you don’t get what I’m saying.
Look, a server is like a music album. Before you release it, you build up the hype, so people will go out and buy your album. Then you work on it to perfection, you don’t want to release anything less because fans and others who purchase the album will be disappointed and move on to some other music. Ever notice how people release crap albums, because they don’t perfect it, they give the fans the obvious, and don’t take it a step further. They’re afraid to risk anything because they’re afraid of losing a certain image. They focus on the IMAGE more than anything, they don’t create a full body of work. That’s why their album flops and people forget about it.
Classic can’t go down this route. At the moment you guys have completed the “album cover”. PLEASE don’t forget about the “production” and “meaningful content” that keeps people coming back for more, finding something new each day.
There’s five parts to an album; Image/Style, Production, Lyrics, Quality, and HEART. As long as you see the Classic server in this perspective, you wouldn’t want to give it any less than what it can truly be. |