Lifetime Classic

[WanDaMan]

I originally upgraded to VIP for Graal3D, my subscription ran out before I got to play ;p

[konidias]

Originally Posted by WanDaMan

I originally upgraded to VIP for Graal3D, my subscription ran out before I got to play ;p

That's another thing... get rid of VIP. You made a lot of customers unhappy by giving them like nothing worth the extra money... A VIP subscription would usuall y mean that person gets access to new stuff frequently... but that's not the case here. Maybe VIP could be re-initiated once you have more frequent updates... Otherwise you're misleading people by making them think they will get all sorts of special perks and get to help test new stuff each month... When in reality it's like you get to test a new script function once a year, a couple of days before everyone else does.

[zim5354]

Originally Posted by excaliber7388

Actually, I think a lot of people would be willing to upgrade to gold/vip for Graal 3d. I would love to see graal go 3d. And if you allow 3d playerworlds, we'll even be better off.
Of course, you'll also need a good, easy to use, 3d level editor.

Graal 3d is outdated now, if its the same one they shown a while ago. There are much better looking 3d games that are free and since you cant actually play the game when you look at a screenshot they move on. I really think thats one of Graals main problems people look at a screenshot say no and move on without even trying the game. Not to mention if they do a vast majority of servers arnt trail friendly. (Although nothings more annoying then someone with a trail accout that has played for a year without upgrading ::cough:: UN ::cough::.

So maybe a limit on trails that can be logged onto one server and time them like if there online for more then a hour or two it kicks them and if they rejoin there at the back of the que? It would force them to upgrade if they liked the game or get kicked over and over.

[pacMASTA]

Originally Posted by Googi

We keep telling you that ridiculous rules and overbearing moderators are causing people to leave, but you don't do anything about it. The moderation on the forums isn't making you look "professional", it isn't impressing anybody and it isn't something any successful MMORPGs do. It's causing people to quit (or, more rarely, to be banned for stupid reasons) and then tell everyone else not to upgrade.

Very well put -^

But on another note Unixmad -v

Also Unixmad talking about 'new versions' 'new fees' the only games that do that actually add NEW content; WoW Burning Crusades: New Races, New Transport, New Worlds to explore, Battefield2142 Although its based on the Battlefield2 engine its totally a different game, New Transport, New Weapons, New Characters, New levels. Among lots of other games doing this theirs actually so many it will take too long to list them all but im sure everyone gets the picture except you Unixmad, you have no means of justifying more money for barely anything new. Although if you take the time to listen to your players yeah i know woah your customers actually have something to say?! Amazing discovery I'm sure you will notice they too think this is a bad idea.

And to touchbase on the new content. An expanded Z plane is an AMAZING UPDATE worth $25->$40 and charging players for this 'new content' will lead to disaster because players will get agrovated till they leave because now your gimping the content so even though for me as an example i've upgraded pacMASTA 5-6times but now you unroll this 'new content' for $40 which now i cant access inless i want to give another $25 I'm not gona go I MUST GIVE MORE MONEY FOR LITTLE CHANGE; Im gona say 'F' this Im going to go play something else.

Also I'll touch this Graal3D mater I think we may as well drop it; 2 Failed attempts going on 3 now I think the Graal3D project can be classified as a fiasco and we shall never mention it and can work on player support and the content players are actually playing; or even a means to update and manipulate this content their is no Dev support for Mac OS X or Linux really; And even the Windows tools are quite dated if you want to be a PROFESIONAL business you can't rely on your players to make the tools for you. This is your job you say you want to be treated like a profesional business but you sure as hell don't act like one. All games you can actually edit BF2, FEAR, Unreal, ETC. Give you a source developers kit and in most of the cases its compatible with all OS's when with Graal theirs only antcient tools for Windows and nothing else.

What about Ragnarok online and such, also theirs another game thats quite a bit like Graal Online but i forgot its name thats 100% free; and even with ragnarok online they dont charge for you for patchs and yes ragnarok is ALOT like Graal; Its basically 2d sprites, 3d effects, with the capability of a 3d enviorment it basically describes graal. But graal 'boasts' the means that its EASY to EDIT when in reality is extremely hard if you dont use windows and even then your tools suck.

In reality Graal Online Adminstration is just puting more and more on the table they can't even deliver and when it is finally acomplished they just add a pricetag to something that really should be free because of chages so extremely minor.

[xXziroXx]

One of the major reasons that I play Graal, is, the fact that its an online 2D game. If I wanted to play an online 3D game, I would play *insert name here*.

[Spark910]

Originally Posted by konidias

You need to get teams put together of talented people and you need to watch over them like they are your children. You get together these teams and you assign them new gold servers to make... and make sure they are active. You could possibly reward these people with free gold days for each day of work they put into the server. This is only fair seeing as how they are losing play time by working for you. Then while the servers are being made, you pull in some people from the outside to give their opinions about it... Maybe you could start by creating a website or forum poll that is multiple choice which lets people choose what sort of servers they'd like to see. (medieval fantasy, modern, futuristic, something totally different, etc)

Problem is you aren't going to really get TEAMS. And in Graals current state SERVERS is setting the pole ten times too high.

I agree new servers need to be made. But just do one and then another. One a year, as an official big project, is more than enough. Help needs to be given to projects that are good in the UC section (pick one up like with Zone).

I would stop worrying about Graal3D and put more focus into making more high quality and active Gold servers.

I agree, and have said it many times. Graal 3D does not make sense. It's a waste of resources. What comes out will not be anywhere near worth or proportionate to the resources put in to make it.

There is also a free trial built into Graal already, but it hasn't been used yet.

[Darlene159]

Originally Posted by konidias

That's another thing... get rid of VIP. You made a lot of customers unhappy by giving them like nothing worth the extra money... A VIP subscription would usuall y mean that person gets access to new stuff frequently... but that's not the case here. Maybe VIP could be re-initiated once you have more frequent updates... Otherwise you're misleading people by making them think they will get all sorts of special perks and get to help test new stuff each month... When in reality it's like you get to test a new script function once a year, a couple of days before everyone else does.

I think the VIP subscription should be redone, and renamed Classic subscription. Perks that were originally said to be given to VIP only, should just be given to VIP (Classic) and Gold. The "free for life" classic account should go away.

[UberModeKappa]

Originally Posted by Darlene159

The "free for life" classic account should go away.

AHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH
So you basically want the game to be as empty as the forums? Genius!

[excaliber7388]

Originally Posted by Darlene159

I think the VIP subscription should be redone, and renamed Classic subscription. Perks that were originally said to be given to VIP only, should just be given to VIP (Classic) and Gold. The "free for life" classic account should go away.

Playercount will drop serverly, people don't want to pay that often for graal.
They simply need to offer more benefits for vip/gold, or maybe make there be a small cost of a classic membership, like $10 a year or something small. I'd rather see more incentive to upgrade, and more advertising...and better targeting. Lets face it, you can't be targeting younger audiences all the time.

[Crono]

Originally Posted by Stefan

But the flying technology is a good update? It is an update accessible to gold subscribers. It it not restricting the game play for other players, and is eventually encouraging them to upgrade. Why should classic players reupgrade if they get the same stuff without resubscribing?

People shouldn't have to have a P2P account to use a function that is on a classic server.

I can understand trial accounts not being able to use this, and I would understand if classic accounts couldn't use this on Gold server, but classic accounts on classic servers shouldn't miss out on anything.

Why? It's like playing a game like Counterstrike then all the sudden they go "OK YOU HAVE TO BUY THE GAME AGAIN SO YOU CAN USE THE NEW PARTICLE SYSTEM OK?"

It's just stupid. Remember, people aren't upgrading to Gold for new features, they upgrade to Gold to play gold server.

So how do you make people upgrade? Update gold servers more, add more gold servers.

But yes, the flying update is a good update. But it's 2006...what was done last year? The year before? And the year before that?

Compare Graal 2000 to Graal 2003 and it's a whole different story.

But compare Graal 2003 to Graal 2006 and hardly anything really changed that much.

[konidias]

Originally Posted by Darlene159

I think the VIP subscription should be redone, and renamed Classic subscription. Perks that were originally said to be given to VIP only, should just be given to VIP (Classic) and Gold. The "free for life" classic account should go away.

No that's horrible. Then you're forcing people to pay just to play the game. They've already given classic away for anyone who has ever upgraded, they can't take that back now. It would cause a huge backlash.

Like I said, classic servers are currently not worth upgrading each year (no offense to those server owners, but it's true). Nobody is going to pay just to access the classic servers when they were once free for anyone who has upgraded before.

They need to stop focusing on all this non-graal stuff like the flash games and graal3d and focus on improving customer support, the website, gold servers, and most importantly, getting the players more involved in the community and rewarding players and all these people working hard to make content for Graal.

I can understand Unixmad's dilemma here, but he of all people should know that the majority of Graal's actual playable content is made by players. You can't expect people to pay to work. It's just not gonna last very long. You need to reward the hard working people who have spent countless hours working for Graal instead of playing it.

Really, how hard would it be to add on some extra gold account days to someone? Johnny won the art contest and gets his account name listed on the site for that week, and he also gets an extra week added to his gold account. Now don't you think that would not only make Johnny happy, but also encourage others to participate and want to upgrade to get those benefits? Of course submitting stuff for the contest would require you had a gold account, but it would be well worth it if you could get a free week added on for each time you won. And really... what is one extra week given away compared to the fact that it's going to benefit Graal so much?

I think the biggest weapon in Graal's arsenal IS the fact that they could give out free gold time as prizes. It costs Graal absolutely nothing to give someone an extra week free, and guess what? They will be happy and probably upgrade again. So wow, you give them one extra week and get a whole year's re-upgrade out of the deal. I think that's a pretty good investment.

I believe they could successfully pull off good teams of people to work on new gold servers if they offered some sort of compensation. I'm not saying money, but again, free gold time... whatever.

Also if there was to be a VIP upgrade to an account, one of the biggest features it should boast is that you'd have faster access to staff or customer support. Like your support tickets get moved to the top of the list or something. That would be nice.

[KuJi]

Originally Posted by Gerami

But compare Graal 2003 to Graal 2006 and hardly anything really changed that much.

We must forget about the entire new scripting Language and the move from Graal 2 -> Graal 4.. and the gui ctrls etc..

The updates might seem like nothing to you, but to me and other developers.. it's awsuem and amazing and the players benefit from it but they don't even realize it like yourself.

[Crono]

Originally Posted by KuJi

We must forget about the entire new scripting Language and the move from Graal 2 -> Graal 4.. and the gui ctrls etc..

From 2000 to 2003 Graal had Graal2001 and GK added, many servers were changed, the playerbase completely changed, and was fun. Graal also shifts through many versions.

What happened from 2003-2006? Graal v4, RC2, Zone, Zodiac, and GS2. :/

[Damix2]

Graal3d is really a waste of resources.

[konidias]

Originally Posted by Damix2

Graal3d is really a waste of resources.

Couldn't agree more.