Zodiac - Save or Shut Down?

[Xenoith]

Originally Posted by ffcmike

Technically the game is free now. There was a Facebook post in December 2013 proclaiming that trial restrictions will be removed "over the holidays", and to much initial confusion this was never reverted. However the old subscription policy is still reflected on the Graal website and unless one can contact a global staff member to do them a favour then Gold is required to obtain a community name.

While the other points are valid unless something drastic such as the promise of Steam access does occur, there never will be much of an incentive for anyone worth their salt to maintain these worlds.

All the more reason to shut Zodiac down, cut the losses and move on to something else. If the dev's don't care to maintain the game, then why keep it around?

Originally Posted by Skyld

There is nowhere near enough support for Steam. The client isn't being upgraded, there's no formal support teams, the subscription model is outdated and doesn't entice players to join the game. Even if all of those points were not issues, there's still a lack of new content because ultimately the only people maintaining these worlds are doing so on a voluntary basis and sporadically at that. No game is sustainable under those conditions.

This, it's what I've been trying to tell the Zodiac community for years and yet they fall off or are slack jawed in trying to find reasoning behind my words. It's why I gave up on their forums and moved the discussion over here. It'd like to see an official word from MD himself though on the situation of PC Graal/Playerworlds in general and what the state of affairs is going to be with them in the future. I don't see Graal lasting through the year at this rate. Perhaps it's high time PC Graal as a whole was laid to rest.

[ffcmike]

Originally Posted by Xenoith

All the more reason to shut Zodiac down, cut the losses and move on to something else. If the dev's don't care to maintain the game, then why keep it around?

Going by this logic they might as well shut down every PC Server. I'm not suggesting that it's entirely down to a common realisation that a prolonged serious effort on this platform would be a fool's errand, but nevertheless the lack of such action is apparent globally.

Originally Posted by Xenoith

It'd like to see an official word from MD himself though on the situation of PC Graal/Playerworlds in general and what the state of affairs is going to be with them in the future.

Sadly I believe it's safe to say that the continued silence on this front is worth about ten thousand words.

Originally Posted by Xenoith

I don't see Graal lasting through the year at this rate. Perhaps it's high time PC Graal as a whole was laid to rest.

There is usually a slight rise in global playercount once the US school holidays begins, even on Graal the Adventure while remaining hidden we randomly had 10 - 25 players each day participating within events, but a lot of that was down to the hype surrounding the promise of a Facebook launch (which has now been broken). I can't speak on behalf of each listed server, but what is there for players to look forward to or to motivate developers to make a prolonged serious effort?

[Kuzative]

Originally Posted by ffcmike

There is usually a slight rise in global playercount once the US school holidays begins, even on Graal the Adventure while remaining hidden we randomly had 10 - 25 players each day participating within events, but a lot of that was down to the hype surrounding the promise of a Facebook launch (which has now been broken). I can't speak on behalf of each listed server, but what is there for players to look forward to or to motivate developers to make a prolonged serious effort?

That's pretty unfair to say the least...Hours of work gone down the drain and kinda disappointing for people who have been waiting for it to come back for a while.

[ffcmike]

Originally Posted by Kuzative

That's pretty unfair to say the least...Hours of work gone down the drain and kinda disappointing for people who have been waiting for it to come back for a while.

To "the powers that be" I have passed on numerous such sentiments & quotes, in addition to sending numerous offers of a compromise, developmental partnership, additional non-Classic related work etc, but unfortunately they simply refuse to be reasoned with. This is despite a lot of patience, messages being kept in a respectful manner and details being kept confidential for the most part.

I assure you however that I shall not stop banging on their doors until I can provide a credible explanation to those who care about this. I do not care how long it takes, at this point it is simply a matter of principle.