Dictatorship Or Democracy?

[Kohola_KinG]

Originally Posted by Fulg0reSama

Of course it's in everyone's hands, but you can't expect everyone to be aware enough or care enough to do it, so it's people like yourself that have to voice yourself, but only the management of the game (as in staff) are the ones who actually have the power to make that change.

Exactly why i want to give the players more influence & pressure on staff to get the changes they want.

Welcome to = Democracy.

[Eclipse]

Originally Posted by Kohola_KinG

Exactly why i want to give the players more influence & pressure on staff to get the changes they want.

Welcome to = Democracy.

more like demoCRAZY

[Fulg0reSama]

Originally Posted by Kohola_KinG

Exactly why i want to give the players more influence & pressure on staff to get the changes they want.

Welcome to = Democracy.

I know what Democracy is, but you realize most of the players don't care to actively voice themselves when put on the line other than to complain about a negative issue. Pressuring the staff doesn't mean they'll do the job better, it just means they'll be more pressured. Staff have to learn how to communicate better with players and construct a better social structure in which a form such as Democracy can actually hold its ground in the game's design, which takes a lot of planning, time and experimentation for Era in its current state, because Democracy is about talking about both the positive and negative on-goings within the system it's there for to properly handle it the way as many of the active participants can be happy with.

[BigMonster]

I don't have enough time to show all the mistakes in here, so I picked 4

Originally Posted by Supaman771

He used to be better than me at sparring, this statement is therefore true.

However I did win this Ironman and I have positive gang stats.

Originally Posted by Kohola_KinG

This thread wasn't and isn't to bash anyone. I believe era's future lies within ALL of our hands, not just staff. We all play a huge part. This is why we need to get along.

All that I ever done and pretty much all other developers is too WORK like real work just without the payment part. I did alot of things even when I had barely time or no interest in doing them, just for the players.

Originally Posted by Rave_J

If you guys want change on era then everybody just quit and go play another server until they want to listen to you guys.

This will just lead to less development because the only motivation to develop is to make players happy, but if nobody plays then nobody will do anything.

Originally Posted by Kohola_KinG

I even got told by an admin that "Zao is a facist, he doesn't and wont have a co-manager, because he doesn't want a threat to his position, he is german afterall" Those were the words.

This is either sarcasm or pure racism? However since the topic is about dictatorship I will still answer.
I didn't have a Co-Manager because I had 2 Server Admins already, which is pretty much the same as Co-Manager.
Was or is Era a dictatorship? I was able to do anything at anytime without fearing consequences BUT I always discussed topics with others before doing them. Thats the point.
Every (major) decision was discussed and NOT just a random thought from me.
HighCouncil: Ice, Blu, Alf, Amsel, Name (Atleast 3 were asked for every big topic).
Additional consultants: Seth and exceptional PKers for gang related stuff and Loga for player related stuff.
-> Era was definitly no dictatorship in the last 9months.

[Kohola_KinG]

Originally Posted by BigMonster

I don't have enough time to show all the mistakes in here, so I picked 4


However I did win this Ironman and I have positive gang stats.


All that I ever done and pretty much all other developers is too WORK like real work just without the payment part. I did alot of things even when I had barely time or no interest in doing them, just for the players.


This will just lead to less development because the only motivation to develop is to make players happy, but if nobody plays then nobody will do anything.


This is either sarcasm or pure racism? However since the topic is about dictatorship I will still answer.
I didn't have a Co-Manager because I had 2 Server Admins already, which is pretty much the same as Co-Manager.
Was or is Era a dictatorship? I was able to do anything at anytime without fearing consequences BUT I always discussed topics with others before doing them. Thats the point.
Every (major) decision was discussed and NOT just a random thought from me.
HighCouncil: Ice, Blu, Alf, Amsel, Name (Atleast 3 were asked for every big topic).
Additional consultants: Seth and exceptional PKers for gang related stuff and Loga for player related stuff.
-> Era was definitly no dictatorship in the last 9months.

Like i said, it didn't come from me. It came from one of your admins. Was was only repeating what he told me.

[Supaman771]

Originally Posted by BigMonster

However I did win this Ironman and I have positive gang stats.

-> Era was definitly no dictatorship in the last 9months.

Ironman has never meant anything. It just shows you're better at selected events than the players currently online. Anyone can win any of them under the right conditions (like me and gravity race, should there be no one else online).

Hell, Nick won it twice in a row by grabbing a lucky block and not having to spar against Corey one time or the other.

Anyone with a gun, or access to p4's should have positive gang stats. You still lost the betspar 3-0.
-----

Time for my rant:

Era's never been a dictatorship since the Manager never even has all the power. Now don't get me started on the PWA... (I'm totally joking guys, we fam).

But really, the position has been more of a babysittership in recent memory, the same general team has just held it for almost 4 years now since we routed the Chris Vimes regime (high5 Zeus). And no Manager themselves has gone in with the eagerness to build their own team, or make the big calls and mix things up. It's mostly just been a rotating door of monotony with some freelance spice of the Coders that have been around the entire time doing solo projects.
Ex;
-Gang system? Alfonso with assistance of Rogue & Wil... Vulcan hadn't even logged in for 2 months.
-New Bases/Raiding/Everything assigned to above? Wil, Blonkt, & I dev servered all that **** under their nose, I forget who gave us access.
-New Gmap? Mesh & Rogue... Tim was doing idk... we were locked away on a dev server.
-Southridge? Rogue, Steven_Hess, a few other level/dev artists doing their own little corner... the punchline is MD was sitting in his office USDing.
-Quests? Fewyn/Klayton & Catmater did 'em with Blue and probably Tim... MD still in the office, I was busy finding the logs that got him fired or I might have been helping my bro Fewyn.
-Betflipping? Fidel & I invented it, Bluemelon coded it... Zach was making youtube videos with his guitar.
-Achievement System? Sage solo'd it, I stepped up to help him fill it out, no one else could be bothered that's why it's useless today... Fidel was idk skyping me about how the Grizz are gonna win it all. Steph Curry.
-Entirely New/Old Business System? Moon got the backups and I spent literally 30 straight hours compiling information for every single gun/melee/bomb 2x over (there were a lot more guns then...) and compounding it for probably 4-8 materials per gun, with their own 6? separate properties. I don't even remember the 8 hours doing the shops themselves... but nobody ever saw this cause Zach got mad at Blue one night or something and everything Moon had ever touched got deleted off the server and Blue quit for a weekend. Sorry guys.
-Inventory/Mall/Tutorial/Everything else Tim has done on his own including stepping up to try out my Gang Draft concept... where da managers?
-Client Filebrower/Daily Rewards(You're welcome GK)/Among the millions of gadgets the rocking Azul Melon has gifted Era on his own time... normally resulted from a good spamming from yours truly.
-Gun Skins/Mucho Developmentos from my favorite Mexican whenever he's offered tacobell http://imgur.com/ECUfQUJ. (Yes that was about 4 monitors ago)

God, I could go for hours.
-----

Basically what I'm trying to get at, and I'm sure you can all see the trending theme here, is the recent Managers (I'm avoiding the word never) rarely had anything to do with the product that is the Era you all enjoy today based on the most recent updates. So.. I don't get why this thread matters?

@PWA
A new approach should be taken with this position rather than just phoning the next babysitter when the previous one calls out sick. Get someone who will bring in new teams, new ideas, and actually make something out of the server; rather than banking on the last 50~ average playercount to stay with this new babysitter... cause you're already down to half in just 2 years of this tomfoolery.

Idk, maybe I'm just too volatile or something.
Cat out-

[Kohola_KinG]

Originally Posted by Supaman771

Ironman has never meant anything. It just shows you're better at selected events than the players currently online. Anyone can win any of them under the right conditions (like me and gravity race, should there be no one else online).

Hell, Nick won it twice in a row by grabbing a lucky block and not having to spar against Corey one time or the other.

Anyone with a gun, or access to p4's should have positive gang stats. You still lost the betspar 3-0.
-----

Time for my rant:

Era's never been a dictatorship since the Manager never even has all the power. Now don't get me started on the PWA... (I'm totally joking guys, we fam).

But really, the position has been more of a babysittership in recent memory, the same general team has just held it for almost 4 years now since we routed the Chris Vimes regime (high5 Zeus). And no Manager themselves has gone in with the eagerness to build their own team, or make the big calls and mix things up. It's mostly just been a rotating door of monotony with some freelance spice of the Coders that have been around the entire time doing solo projects.
Ex;
-Gang system? Alfonso with assistance of Rogue & Wil... Vulcan hadn't even logged in for 2 months.
-New Bases/Raiding/Everything assigned to above? Wil, Blonkt, & I dev servered all that **** under their nose, I forget who gave us access.
-New Gmap? Mesh & Rogue... Tim was doing idk... we were locked away on a dev server.
-Southridge? Rogue, Steven_Hess, a few other level/dev artists doing their own little corner... the punchline is MD was sitting in his office USDing.
-Quests? Fewyn/Klayton & Catmater did 'em with Blue and probably Tim... MD still in the office, I was busy finding the logs that got him fired or I might have been helping my bro Fewyn.
-Betflipping? Fidel & I invented it, Bluemelon coded it... Zach was making youtube videos with his guitar.
-Achievement System? Sage solo'd it, I stepped up to help him fill it out, no one else could be bothered that's why it's useless today... Fidel was idk skyping me about how the Grizz are gonna win it all. Steph Curry.
-Entirely New/Old Business System? Moon got the backups and I spent literally 30 straight hours compiling information for every single gun/melee/bomb 2x over (there were a lot more guns then...) and compounding it for probably 4-8 materials per gun, with their own 6? separate properties. I don't even remember the 8 hours doing the shops themselves... but nobody ever saw this cause Zach got mad at Blue one night or something and everything Moon had ever touched got deleted off the server and Blue quit for a weekend. Sorry guys.
-Inventory/Mall/Tutorial/Everything else Tim has done on his own including stepping up to try out my Gang Draft concept... where da managers?
-Client Filebrower/Daily Rewards(You're welcome GK)/Among the millions of gadgets the rocking Azul Melon has gifted Era on his own time... normally resulted from a good spamming from yours truly.
-Gun Skins/Mucho Developmentos from my favorite Mexican whenever he's offered tacobell http://imgur.com/ECUfQUJ. (Yes that was about 4 monitors ago)

God, I could go for hours.
-----

Basically what I'm trying to get at, and I'm sure you can all see the trending theme here, is the recent Managers (I'm avoiding the word never) rarely had anything to do with the product that is the Era you all enjoy today based on the most recent updates. So.. I don't get why this thread matters?

@PWA
A new approach should be taken with this position rather than just phoning the next babysitter when the previous one calls out sick. Get someone who will bring in new teams, new ideas, and actually make something out of the server; rather than banking on the last 50~ average playercount to stay with this new babysitter... cause you're already down to half in just 2 years of this tomfoolery.

Idk, maybe I'm just too volatile or something.
Cat out-

Betflipping. I had actually made a ticket about it and offered you to betflip your pbp (which i won) You can replace fidels name with mine. Just sayin'

[Rave_J]

If you guys want change on era then everybody just quit and go play another server until they want to listen to you guys. That is really the only power players has. Just do a 48 hour lock out with no one on their and see if they listen after that

[Rave_J]

Why not change things around and pick a Noob. I remember Chrisz era he hired Ningnong as a asst manager with only 2 hours on the server. I wish Skyld would come back and take manager i would go for that

[GanNing]

If the Heat win again...

[Tim_Rocks]

I also made the business system twice. The first version used the transparent black GUI and was overall confusing to use. The current version has an improved layout.

[Supaman771]

Originally Posted by Kohola_KinG

Betflipping. I had actually made a ticket about it and offered you to betflip your pbp (which i won) You can replace fidels name with mine. Just sayin'

Trim quote pls just to what you respond to. <3

But no, me and Fidel invented that ****, we commandeered shrimps island house and sat on a rug in an empty ass room with Nas and some other guys we PM'd betflipping in rounds of 3.

After that (fidel won all my ****) we took it to the streets so I could get rich again, Tre got involved and eventually I bet-flipped you too (with a PR since Tre refused to pay... he still owes me a SMGPK).

Originally Posted by Tim_Rocks

I also made the business system twice. The first version used the transparent black GUI and was overall confusing to use. The current version has an improved layout.

Yes, yes... many of Rocking Tim things, we know. That's all just more reasons behind my point. I more or less just listed the big things I see daily/was apart of to personally describe.

Melon-Cat 2014

[shrimps]

Originally Posted by Supaman771

Trim quote pls just to what you respond to. <3

But no, me and Fidel invented that ****, we commandeered shrimps island house and sat on a rug in an empty ass room with Nas and some other guys we PM'd betflipping in rounds of 3.

After that (fidel won all my ****) we took it to the streets so I could get rich again, Tre got involved and eventually I bet-flipped you too (with a PR since Tre refused to pay... he still owes me a SMGPK).

Melon-Cat 2014

Oh yeah, I remember that, man even that one time in PyroTech that random noob took me for 1mil.

[Godzilla]

Couldn't agree more with Rogues post, the management position is thrown around a lot.

I think we can all agree that most, if not all the people who post on the forums just want to see this game shine again. Something we haven't seen in a long time is a manager who actually posts and takes this forum seriously. I saw Amsel posting quite a bit recently, that shows me there is light at the end of the tunnel, atleast for now.

[Sinkler]

Simply: Dictatorships work.

[Kohola_KinG]

Originally Posted by Sinkler

Simply: Dictatorships work.

If you believe so then please provide evidence? Give examples of how it's turned Graal PC into a wonderful game?

From the years I've played era i see a massive decline in everything. If dictatorship works like you say it does then surely things would have been growing and improving all those years instead of declining?

[Spikedude]

Originally Posted by Kohola_KinG

If you believe so then please provide evidence? Give examples of how it's turned Graal PC into a wonderful game?

From the years I've played era i see a massive decline in everything. If dictatorship works like you say it does then surely things would have been growing and improving all those years instead of declining?

Part of the decline in era is inevitable due to the fact that we will never be able to compete with like Skyrim and GTA 5 as a video game (or other MMORPGs like WoW and Eve). It gets increasingly tough to generate interest in a 2-dimensional game. The fact that it's free now is definitely a big plus; it would be nice if we could get some younger people interested again so they can pass it on to their friends (as young people are always looking for fun things they can do with friends for free).

[Fidel Castro]

Originally Posted by Spikedude

Part of the decline in era is inevitable due to the fact that we will never be able to compete with like Skyrim and GTA 5 as a video game (or other MMORPGs like WoW and Eve). It gets increasingly tough to generate interest in a 2-dimensional game. The fact that it's free now is definitely a big plus; it would be nice if we could get some younger people interested again so they can pass it on to their friends (as young people are always looking for fun things they can do with friends for free).

This.


It's incredibly hard to increase interest in Era when the interest in Graal PC itself has steadily declined for a number of years. With the introduction of iOS playerworlds and the success (for the most part) those have seen, it's understandable why Stefan et all would turn their focus towards that platform, but it also had sped up the decay of Era and the other few PC playerworlds that are still alive.

Without that constant innovation/support to make the platform better as a whole there is a moderately low ceiling on what playerworld management is able to do to increase playercounts and compete with the likes of the aforementioned.

You can however find ways to retain existing players, hopefully leading to word of mouth advertising, and steal those select players that come from the mobile platforms to see what this PC mumbo jumbo is all about.

On another note, congratulations Amsel! You're an intelligent guy whose able to serve as a swiss army knife of being a developer as well as being someone who is approachable / knowledgeable enough to also deal with player-related issues. I have no doubt that you're going to do an excellent job.

[Zongui]

yeah, veterans are basically the only type of players that are keeping era alive. I mean graal has been out since the 90s or whatever and era since 2001/2002. I really don't think era losing players has to do with the direction that management has taken era, for I think the main reason has to do with just natural stuff. dunno what it is called. and it doesn't help that pretty much everyone lags like crazy even with a decent connection.

[Kohola_KinG]

Originally Posted by Spikedude

Part of the decline in era is inevitable due to the fact that we will never be able to compete with like Skyrim and GTA 5 as a video game (or other MMORPGs like WoW and Eve). It gets increasingly tough to generate interest in a 2-dimensional game. The fact that it's free now is definitely a big plus; it would be nice if we could get some younger people interested again so they can pass it on to their friends (as young people are always looking for fun things they can do with friends for free).

It's not free in the terms that they have decided to make the game free. It's been toggled off and forgotten to toggle it back on. People still have the big blue "welcome to era, upgrade...." on top of their screens.

Nobodys comparing it to Skrim and GTA that would be insane to do so. Graal PC has the potential to be huge but where is the advertising? There is none? With proper advertising & lag free servers you would be surprised how massive this server and others could become.

[Sinkler]

Originally Posted by Kohola_KinG

If you believe so then please provide evidence? Give examples of how it's turned Graal PC into a wonderful game?

From the years I've played era i see a massive decline in everything. If dictatorship works like you say it does then surely things would have been growing and improving all those years instead of declining?

Democracy breeds factionalism and populism. Neither of which are conducive to effective development.

[Crono]

Originally Posted by Sinkler

Democracy breeds factionalism and populism. Neither of which are conducive to effective development.

Agreed, only corrupt ass kissing snobs get things done.

[Kohola_KinG]

Originally Posted by Sinkler

Democracy breeds factionalism and populism. Neither of which are conducive to effective development.

Like factionalism doesn't already happen... As for populism.. I see nothing wrong with that. If the people on the game believe the management isn't doing a good job why should they not be able to stand up and speak out against them?

Like they say... "The customers are always right".

[BlueMelon]

Graal PC was huge, but like every game there is a decline. Graal PC has been on the decline for a while now (pointing out the obvious).

[Kohola_KinG]

Originally Posted by BlueMelon

Graal PC was huge, but like every game there is a decline. Graal PC has been on the decline for a while now (pointing out the obvious).

Exactly my point. And not every game there is a decline. Infact.. Some games have been out for years and still growing.

My point is, advertise the game and improve the servers and the playercount will rise again. We both know this to be true.

[Supaman771]

Originally Posted by Kohola_KinG

My point is, advertise the game and improve the servers and the playercount will rise again. We both know this to be true.

I'd play more if my 70+-4ms connection (just pingtested) to Texas wasn't doubled and more by Graal servers.

That's just me.

[Godzilla]

Originally Posted by Kohola_KinG

Exactly my point. And not every game there is a decline. Infact.. Some games have been out for years and still growing.

My point is, advertise the game and improve the servers and the playercount will rise again. We both know this to be true.

Advertisement will bring players to the game but don't expect it to FLOCK in numbers. Graal just doesn't compete to the games that are offered now-a-days. Especially when a 1-3month gold subscription is more than half the decent games.

[Kohola_KinG]

Originally Posted by Godzilla

Advertisement will bring players to the game but don't expect it to FLOCK in numbers. Graal just doesn't compete to the games that are offered now-a-days. Especially when a 1-3month gold subscription is more than half the decent games.

With the "Right" advertisement it will bring a lot of players to the game. It also has to be a long term advertisement. It's not as easy a just "advertising" you need to know how to advertise.

If done correctly, you could bring a huge influx of players to the game.

The game is currently free.

[Godzilla]

Originally Posted by Kohola_KinG

With the "Right" advertisement it will bring a lot of players to the game. It also has to be a long term advertisement. It's not as easy a just "advertising" you need to know how to advertise.

If done correctly, you could bring a huge influx of players to the game.

The game is currently free.

Free with a lot of limitations. The "Right" advertisement may never come, not because they don't care but because they can't afford it. iPhone servers are doing great because the game is now more of a "on the move" because why play 2d when you can jump out of helicopters and shoot people 2 miles away with a sniper rifle. Games have evolved, Graal's target audience has changed drasticly. The right advertisement this **** will become a club penguin look-a-like.

[Fidel Castro]

Originally Posted by Kohola_KinG

With the "Right" advertisement it will bring a lot of players to the game. It also has to be a long term advertisement. It's not as easy a just "advertising" you need to know how to advertise.

If done correctly, you could bring a huge influx of players to the game.

The game is currently free.

This is a valid point. If advertised across the right mediums reaching the right demographics it could be highly effective.

The best way to advertise IMO would be using the Facebook "lifestyle" form of advertising. I'm sure you've all seen it, based on your likes, pages visited, etc, you get those ads on your news feed or on the sidebar advertising certain things. If you look to target the 13-18 demographic that's playing online games/MMORPGs/etc, you would probably see a decent conversion rate AFTER the ad had run for at least 3 months (again, agreeing).

Advertising is surprisingly affordable. Especially with what I mentioned if you're paying per click. The user acquisition costs don't seem to be very high so if that form of advertising (and others, have to broaden your strategy) your costs really aren't that much if it does end up working.

However, I'm not sure Stefan would do this because the Facebook ads would really be better for the Facebook clients. You could split it and advertise both, though.

[shrimps]

Is anybody ever going to reinable global PMs on Era?

[Godzilla]

"Some men see things as they are and say why?, I dream things that never were and say why not?" - George Bernard Shaw

[bloodykiller]

The problem with bringing in new players is that they can't compete with anyone. They just get owned 24/7 so they quit.

[Fiberwyre_P2P]

I agree with TK. The people who have been playing this game for 5-10+ years have such a headstart on anyone that is starting today that it's not even worth it.

On top of that, the first thing you have to do to compete in Era is to get a decent gun, which, if you're going to work for it, could mean hundreds of hours in the mine.
You don't even get to play the game until long after you start.

Compare that to other games where you can jump in and wreck ****. And for free. With much bigger communities, more professional (paid) staff, and better graphics.

It's not just about the fact that no one knows about Era. I think even if everyone knew about Era, it would still be in decline just because of how it is.

As much as I dislike both agreeing with Gabriel and conceding that iEra makes sense, both of those are true. Era can't compete with higher budget PC games, and iEra makes a lot more sense, despite being a shittier game (imo), because people don't judge 2D games as harshly if they're playing them on their phones.

[Eclipse]

Originally Posted by fiberwyre_p2p

i agree with tk.

-1

[Godzilla]

The value is just terrible at this stage, I don't think the prices of Gold have ever gone down the entire time I've played (8 years+) then again I never really paid attention to that since I'm a Classic Account. Why the hell would you buy a 3 month subscription for more money than a game with much better graphics, community, gameplay and you get to keep it for life? I know MOST of us wouldn't play if we didn't have Classic Accounts, I solute those who buy subscription after subscription in hopes to see this game shine once more.

[Spikedude]

Originally Posted by Godzilla

The value is just terrible at this stage, I don't think the prices of Gold have ever gone down the entire time I've played (8 years+) then again I never really paid attention to that since I'm a Classic Account. Why the hell would you buy a 3 month subscription for more money than a game with much better graphics, community, gameplay and you get to keep it for life? I know MOST of us wouldn't play if we didn't have Classic Accounts, I solute those who buy subscription after subscription in hopes to see this game shine once more.

Nobody really buys subscriptions anymore. You don't get the "observer mode" or lose your items anymore as non-gold, you just get the dumb little banner that says "YOU ARE A TRIAL" across the top. It's like Winrar basically.

[Kohola_KinG]

Originally Posted by Spikedude

Nobody really buys subscriptions anymore. You don't get the "observer mode" or lose your items anymore as non-gold, you just get the dumb little banner that says "YOU ARE A TRIAL" across the top. It's like Winrar basically.

Pretty sure you still need a subscription to get on RC. (Correct me if i am wrong).

[BrentWood]

Originally Posted by Kohola_KinG

Pretty sure you still need a subscription to get on RC. (Correct me if i am wrong).

Actually you don't. Although the blue banner is still at the top of the screen, they've enabled it to where you are still a gold member. The only difference is, (basically) you have to pay to get a community still. Essentially you're buying a gold subscription but if you haven't already picked a community name; then it gives you that option. Other than that, classic accounts can log on 'Dev' servers and will be recognized as a Gold Account (Enabling them to use the RC).

• This also applies to era, anyone given a RC can access it, pc#(s), graal#(s), or classic(s).

[Godzilla]

Is there still not restrictions? e.g Possible heads to be used, no joining gangs, etc