Thoughts about playercount

[Googi]

Originally Posted by Devil

For a PWA admin, you certainly haven't been reading on an up and coming Zelda server

Because it isn't up and it isn't coming.

[Devil]

Originally Posted by Googi

Because it isn't up and it isn't coming.

Oh give me a break Googi, how would you know

[HoudiniMan]

Originally Posted by Devil

For a PWA admin, you certainly haven't been reading on an up and coming Zelda server

Well, there I was referring to the classic servers, which is what holds the interest of most Graal players.

[Devil]

I was having a joke with you

[Twizt3d]

Hmm, changing the name of it is a weird idea, but it might work. Also we need to advertise. I can see how it is hard compared to other rpgs, but i donno. hmm maybe develop graal on a console system o.o get it in stores lol. I think the biggest thing that made graal begin to fall is p2p. I know it was a must to keep the servers running, but right now..they must not be getting that much income. There is also a possibility to just lend gservers to people who are dedicated to host servers. If people dont have to pay for graal, they WILL play and they will spread the word. I think it would be a good idea to make that possible. Example: Player talks with stefan about recieveing a gserver and he gives them a license key. They can only use the key once. This could prevent mass distribution of it, I donno just some possibilities. Excuse my grammar.

[Chris]

Originally Posted by Googi

Because it isn't up and it isn't coming.

b-b-b-b-b-b-burn

[Tyhm]

see sig: it's been discussed.
My plan - in scattered order:
We need to update the website. Merciful heavens, they're working on that - and by the light may it be a more solid update than the Flashy one we've got now that nobody knows how to work with.
With an updated website to encourage traffic, we can do sommat with advertising. More on that later.
Once we've got newbies visiting the site, we should be able to say Graal is Shareware. So there should be at least 1 decent server where they can save, if only by password.
Once we've got newbies crowding this Newbie Server, we need a way to convince them the game's woth paying for - so the Newbie Server needs to be The Hook, not necessarily the Best Foot Forward, but addictive all the same.
Once these newbies have upgraded, they can start drifting to other servers, which should have progressed beyond being pale imitations of each other - this via Hubworld, Skinned Clients, and the proposed upgrades to the PWA. Graal will be less like the Geocities of Zelda Clones and more like the Wii of Archived Video Games Made Online - One hub connecting Zelda Online to Mario Online, Bomberman Online, Metroid Online, River City Ransom Online etc. Each of which is also advertising itself and bringing in their own newbies instead of leaving it all to Graal's administration. Hopefully all of which are permitted the most rudementary of password systems - input this password for "I beat CutMan," etc.

[theHAWKER]

i know how about somone releases graal 3d?
or mabey the air balloons?
its just an idea but yeah thats all i got besides making graal free...

[gx_staff5]

@Thym: Yes the website is horrible and seems to be translated badly? Who calls the Account Managment, and Download Center "Online Store"

[Devil]

Originally Posted by gx_staff5

@Thym: Yes the website is horrible and seems to be translated badly? Who calls the Account Managment, and Download Center "Online Store"

No one forces you to stay here, the forums aren't a place for you to voice your silly concerns like this.

[Tyhm]

Originally Posted by Devil

No one forces you to stay here, the forums aren't a place for you to voice your silly concerns like this.

Be nice, it's a fair point (or at least the censored version is). The website as it stands flows poorly - thus less newbies actually bother going through the long and admittedly terrifying process of
Downloading
Submitting personal information, including email ("Great, because I don't get enough Spam, surely this game will sell my email address to mailing lists")
Checking their email to confirm registration
Installing the downloaded game
Unpacking and downloading whatever patches are necessary
...all to play the game. Granted, it's probably no better anywhere else, but with as many steps as we ask Newbies to take on faith - "Trust us, you'll love this game!" - it should be as clear a process as possible, with as few opportunities as possible to back out.
Hell, they probably shouldn't need to register when they download - "Here's the game, register if and when you want, it doesn't matter 'cuz you can't save anyway, may as well go on as 'Guest' with no password." That'll at least ramp up the number of Unregistered Newbies - and if even 10% go on to become Registered Newbies, that's still an improvement. If 10% of THOSE go on to become Classic Accountholders, that's money in the bank - and a permanent increase in Playercount.

But first, methinks Unixmad needs to rescind the orders to string up any PW Owner who dares issue passwords - even end-of-quest passwords - to keep the newbies playing.

[Devil]

Oh please you're acting as if downloading Graal is like sawing off an arm, don't be like that Tyhm.

Wtf do people expect? "IF YOU PLAY OUR GAME WE WILL PAY _YOU_".

[Tyhm]

I'm just saying, it's more complicated than it needs to be - and if Graal's goal is to have as many subscribers as possible, it should be as simple as possible. That's all. If Johnny156 sees an ad for Graal, it should be *click* - "Happy Website! Download here!" Okay! *click* - Download - Install - Play. Not three pages of disclaimers, warnings, etc. as you make an account to download. I've got like 3 half-made accounts to various sites where, on the fifth or sixth page of Please Input Personal Information, they wanted my credit card and social security number, or it turned out "Free" meant "7 day free trial, after which we'll charge your credit card directly unless you cancel with 3 days notice", etcetera. Graal doesn't do that, but Newbies don't know Graal doesn't do that, and I percieve that's where we're losing most of our Potential Playercount - people that go to the site and don't wind up registering. I'd show you numbers if I had any - they could just set a counter on page 1 of Registration and see how many people start the process vs how many new accounts are actually made, if anyone on Graal has that power...I doubt they would though, since they're just gonna replace it all, hope-hope.

[edit]Conversely this could be read as a Population Density Problem. I ran into this a lot on Classic - the more people you have in a smaller area, the more your playercount appears. The more levels you have, the lower the population density, the more abandoned a server appears. That in mind, the ideal Playerworld, from a levels perspective, is one that narrows the level selection based on playercount - the Forest Shortcut is only open on really busy weekends, the rest of the time you have to stick to the path (where you're more likely to run into the three other people on the server). The trouble of course is that every level is a potential Destination, a potential place someone Wants to go, and you don't necessarily want to forbid people from going where they Want to go, just dissuade them from it...route them towards the other players...*shrugs* Some sorta system of floodgates, something like that.

[Devil]

I'm still not swallowing the tripe about it being too hard to download Graal.

There isn't a million pages to go through, and if you lack the attention span, or are totally brain-dead and can't manage to find it takes barely 5 minutes to get the game and start, then you need help. It's fine the way it is.

[Skyld]

Originally Posted by Devil

I'm still not swallowing the tripe about it being too hard to download Graal.

There isn't a million pages to go through, and if you lack the attention span, or are totally brain-dead and can't manage to find it takes barely 5 minutes to get the game and start, then you need help. It's fine the way it is.

Well, in my opinion, the flash webpage is not really all that useful. It is confusing for some people; there should be fairly defined "Downloads" and "Subscriptions" buttons on the main page that you shouldn't have to find through navigation bars.