Graals plan for disaster?

centauriongod · #1 03-31-2006, 09:45 AM

Id like people's comment on this, to see if they agree or disagree with me.

When stefan introduced www.graal.net and the possibility to buy yourself a server things went wrong for me, before this moment servers would get attention because 600 people played 8 servers wich of 200 people knew how to develop, so every server got full attention and lots of updates because every server whas rare and valuable.
Nowadays we can buy servers for an awfull amount (I understand that this has to cover alot of costs tho... but I think that 40~70 USD would be more reasonable) but funny enough people are prepared to buy a server, they end up not finding staff and being to inexperienced and unmotivated to actually make it work out.
Imagine, when you want to buy a server first you need classic, in order to get classic you also have to buy gold with it wich I find so unbelievably stupid, next you need to have VIP and then buy a server, this comes to a total of $140~$160 and this is what kids of 14 pay for with their paperboy jobs. The only good thing about this is that there wont be any more useless empty servers as there already are.

Next thing is that all people that want to help out have to buy the exact same things except for the server ofcourse, so it is really hard to find staff for your server, stand alone EXPERIENCED STAFF. Seen to the fact that a server needs atleast 10 developpers that are motivated, experienced and serious about their jobs.

I would say that when graal wants more players they should get their server quality up, only way to do such things is to make it easier for people to become staff on other servers, take out the need to be VIP to go to hosted and private servers to become staff, and take out the classic+gold packages or make it atleast classic+FREE GOLD or classic WITHOUT GOLD AT ALL!

At the start this will earn stefan and unixmad less, but if graal's gameplay quality will become better, and also graphics ofcourse.. more people will tend to play graal.

Leave comments please

haro41 · #2 03-31-2006, 10:00 AM

Quote:

At the start this will earn stefan and unixmad less

thats pretty much all that matters. why risk a good thing? hell it might not be what it could be, but its better than nothing.

developing a graal playerworld is a hobby to people. In the beginning they are obsessed with it. but like all hobbies, they get tired of it and move on. They move on to WOW.

Mogwai · #3 03-31-2006, 10:21 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by haro41

thats pretty much all that matters. why risk a good thing? hell it might not be what it could be, but its better than nothing.

Eventually it will go up, way up if quality continues.

Crono · #4 03-31-2006, 11:26 AM

The server buying system ****ed up Graal's server community. No one cares if a server is being developed anymore, no one cares if a server makes it to "private". Graal lacks developers, motivated people, and fun. In my opinion the only fun server is Zone because its not like the other ****ty PW's and the only server I feel worth developing for is Babylon because its run by a motivated manager + actually has things planned.

Elk · #5 03-31-2006, 11:29 AM

Lol Dude you don't understand the concept centaurion.
"It should be easier to become Staff on other servers" You know, there is MSN and you can talk over all at MSN with the Manager, what to do and stuff.
Or do you just want rights?
If you take away the Graal Gold system. With what money would you pay the traffic for the Servers?
Omg...

Krakken · #6 03-31-2006, 01:09 PM

Right here is my 2 _pence_.

I don't think you understand how much Cyberjoueurs sacrifice in order to provide this service to you. Maybe, by your judgement, Cyberjoueurs should cease playerworld hosting. They have to keep everything running still, so the only obvious alternative is to increase account cover costs to approximately double what they are now, you'd prefer that?

In regards to the hosting, the price they charge is a miniscule amount for the time and service you get. From no other game would you get these sorts of amazing deals. Plus, it's down to the server owner and their team whether or not the server makes it or not so they are the ones to blame here if anyone.

Most of the best developers refuse to work on hosted projects so there is not really any drain on the game currently. The reason for the decline is that most of the early developers have grown up and moved on and there hasn't been enough of a supply of new people to take their place.

I do actually agree that hosting and spreading of servers has really impacted on the player base in a negative way. I'd much rather have one or two servers that I know everyone would be dedicated to and develop for. I mean, from what I have seen of UN, Bomy Lands (2001) blows it out the water but no-one plays it... and why?... because their communities are already established on UN and I can't see that changing any time soon.

One thing I love about Graal is the social aspect. It's much different from any other games in that you can go on and have fun and know almost everyone on the server sometimes; it's like a big family online. Graal, I believe, needs to focus on that aspect some more in order to build it's future prospects.

And one other thing... you realise that you are somewhat contradicting yourself when you say you want to reduce the number of playerworlds but also want to reduce the prices that they can be bought for...

SilentOne1988 · #7 03-31-2006, 01:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gerami

The server buying system ****ed up Graal's server community. No one cares if a server is being developed anymore, no one cares if a server makes it to "private". Graal lacks developers, motivated people, and fun. In my opinion the only fun server is Zone because its not like the other ****ty PW's and the only server I feel worth developing for is Babylon because its run by a motivated manager + actually has things planned.

Did you expect people to be motivated by giving Stefan and Unix money?

centauriongod · #8 04-01-2006, 10:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elk

You know, there is MSN and you can talk over all at MSN with the Manager, what to do and stuff.
Or do you just want rights?
If you take away the Graal Gold system. With what money would you pay the traffic for the Servers?
Omg...

Ok first of all, when you dont even have to ability to see who is online or even ask an MSN, because thats how it is then how would you be able to talk over MSN.
Second, even if you can get everyone on MSN you have 200 other contacts constantly bothering you (wich is the case for me personally).
Third, yes, i think that giving staff rights after several periods works out as a motivation for them, rights DO matter and make working for a server easier.
Fourth, when your able to go online on the server you can actually test your scripts and levels and fix them and enjoy that you actually developped something and be proud of the result, developping goes faster this way at it motivates the staff.
And last, you dont have to depend on other people to be online on MSN AND willing to transfer data over MSN (wich goes TERRIBLY SLOWLY by the way) and then put it online on RC.

How much fun is it to only be on MSN and make levels offline and see them go over MSN, people dont get paid to be staff... so they do it for fun: it has to be fun to be able to work out.

Edit:
Oh and Krakken, I totally understand you but my piont is that the system cant work like this as you say later in your post.
They could make servers more expensive but just get out the need of a VIP account for people to become staff.

Yen · #9 04-01-2006, 02:23 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by centauriongod

Third, yes, i think that giving staff rights after several periods works out as a motivation for them, rights DO matter and make working for a server easier.
Fourth, when your able to go online on the server you can actually test your scripts and levels and fix them and enjoy that you actually developped something and be proud of the result, developping goes faster this way at it motivates the staff.

If you don't give a good developer the level of RC they need, they'll spit in your face.
'Rewarding' staff with rights only works for GPs and other skill-less individuals.
A good developer most likely won't care if they can see the results of their work. What matters is that the server moves along and develops at a decent rate.
The keyword here being good since there are a lot of people who pass themselves off as NATs, LATs, and GFX, with very little skill.

When I sit down to script something, I know exactly how it's going to function. I don't need to see it online to know what it will do, because I'm telling it exactly what I want it to do. What matters is that the server develops so what I created isn't going to waste.

Mafukie · #10 04-02-2006, 01:58 PM

This thread is officially retarded. It was started by someone who has no basic business knowledge and Krakken's reply was the best one.

HELP I BOUGHT A PW BC I HAD AN IDEA AND NOW I CANNOT FIND ANYONE TO WORK FOR FREE ON IT

((((( THIS GAME IS GOING DOWN THE DRAIN!!!

I haven't found a server yet that appeals to me; Zone did before it was taken down for like half a year but now it dosn't anymore. So I just go on classic for 10 minuites and chat then log off.

excaliber7388 · #11 04-02-2006, 04:16 PM

Another one of these threads? omg. Use search next time.
The growing number of playerworlds can be fustrating. I think graal should limit it by making sure they have a most of the overworld done, as well as many scripts. I made DR's overworld almost completely offline, as well as most of it's scripts. If other people had to do this, they would think twice before buying a server.