Why are these things still implemented?

[Stephen]

I have been waiting for over five weeks, Stefan must approve some proposed content before I can continue. The biggest problem I'm facing, while I wait for his approval, is the lack of a competent scripter to create and modify new or existing systems.

It is shamefully easy to submit system outlines and proposed content... bringing it into existence on the other hand...

e: Reading over your ideas, a lot of them are dangerously short-sighted. The situation is not as desperate as you think, and making rash decisions to get a few quick players may hurt the long term growth of Zone. There's no doubt in my mind that a lot of your suggestions, while immediately effective, would do serious harm in the long term.

However, this is a natural and important step. We must get our concepts and ideas together, discuss them, highlight the most important, and prepare them for development.



List Criticism & My Opinion

Originally Posted by luffy620

Increasingly poor support for trial/non-pay players. These are possible new subscribers, and should be your MAIN priority at the moment

Support for trial players is unchanged from the previous administration - the status before that, I am not sure of. However, that is a poor tactic. You must first practice customer retention before you try to get new customers. It's more effective to keep players you already know are playing and (most importantly) PAYING than to try to convince some new people to do that.

Originally Posted by luffy620

Redaction of permanent basic weapons/items such as Jet-pack

Not sure what you mean with "Redaction", but consider it like this - the Jetpack is probably one of the biggest sellers. Why in the name of Good GreySkull and Conan's mighty sword would we remove something so successful from the market?

Again, I realize you want new players - but shooting yourself in the foot is not a great way to start a marathon.

Originally Posted by luffy620

Removal of "laming" and "game breaking" options that some people did not favor

Laming can be really frustrating. Interesting thing is that these core and almost primal emotions (fear, anger - even frustration) help keep the game active. They draw people together as a community, and they split groups down the middle. Who doesn't like a good e-war?

What can I say? Do onto others...

Originally Posted by luffy620

. . .if anyone does want to join, the completely unfriendliness to beginners/trials immediately puts them off.

. . .if I didn't have my old stats and history with this game, I would never even sign on anymore.

It is dangerously easy to let your own perception represent reality. Zone is kind of nice because you can practically log in and immediately begin pew pew pew'n. If you don't know what to do you can play monkey-see-monkey-do and follow someone.

Originally Posted by luffy620

Keep the gelat system, I know that the game needs whatever money it can get to stay alive.

Now we're talking.

Originally Posted by luffy620

That, or look into ad-revenue to help dumb sub costs. There are almost no ads on the Graal homepage, in game, or anything.

I know when people are young they try to emphasize, "If you build it, they will come". I'm afraid that won't cut it in advertising. People accessing the Graal Online website are already at high risk of bouncing, what in the name of Glorious Mother Goose makes you think they'll say "Oh hey, look - healing magnet bracelets. That's EXACTLY what I was looking for!"

Originally Posted by luffy620

I have read tons of threads with the same "bring back perm weapons/temp guilds etc etc" but it remains the same.

I'm a pretty big fan of "wisdom of the masses", but in this case it would certainly be wrong.

Originally Posted by luffy620

Its just idiocy to keep features that NEED A PLAYER POPULATION TO ACTUALLY WORK OUT, on a empty server.

I cannot really think of a single feature like that, with the exception of Squads. I'm currently in an epic battle of email messages with Stefan to get some new development started.

Maybe you can list some? Otherwise, it sounds a lot like rhetoric.

Originally Posted by luffy620

-Make the basic rifles (red/blue) and jet-pack permanent for zone cash. If you new players have items permanently, maybe they'll stick around to USE THEM.

Another instance of shooting yourself in the foot before your big university run. Sorry Chuck - I don't think you'll get that scholarship you wanted.

Originally Posted by luffy620

-Bring back cookies. I don't care if they're abused, not every beginner is as good as you or me. The best game times I ever had were times I stayed alive for longer periods. No one likes trekking back to the same spot to just die over and over. This is why games have healing.

Cookies are one of those things that fall under laming, so I don't initially disagree with you. On the other hand, I have had the sad experience of hunting a cookie-eating-rat-faced-jerk for over 10 minutes and then getting lamed by another player before I could get the kill. Nerdrage.

Originally Posted by luffy620

-Hotkeys Hotkeys Hotkeys! These should be standard for everyone. Its a game staple, it may make abuse easier, but its dumb not to have them. It shouldn't be a pay factor. Never. If you want it to be a P2P service, make it free to all but enhance it for payers.

Hotkeys are pretty awful in general.

Originally Posted by luffy620

Keep the Gelat system up. Just make some of the items that shouldn't be Gelat items (explosives, simple weapons, etc) non-Gelat again.

Silly Rabbit, you already said that!

Originally Posted by luffy620

-Instead of basic weapons being for-pay only, make GOOD DEALS for Gelats. Like a super big pack of explosives that would save you tons of zone money. If someone is in the middle of the game and really wants more pipes/proxies, and they see an option for like $2 to get 100-300, instead of spending all their money they use for food on them, they might just spend $2. Make the very best weapons like 100k zone money, but only $4-5 on gelats. People pay for TIME savers, but hate when something is restricted to pay. This also gives incentives for people with less money to play LONGER. Longer playtime = more fun. More fun = word of mouth. Word of mouth = more players.

Happy to see you're throwing some love to the gelat system again, but I'm afraid you again have a big hole in your foot. We don't need to panic and throw cash into the air for everyone to grab just to make a few friends. This is the lifecycle of every server that has ever existed, it happens. We just have to figure out effective ways to work with it.

Originally Posted by luffy620

-Gelat items should be permanent. Or at least last as long as your account does. Micro-transactions aren't amazing. If I a gold subscription, you shouldn't be making me pay more.

*boom* Ahg, my foot!

Originally Posted by luffy620

Gold Accounts get free gelat items. Like 5 per however many months they pay for. Since Gelats are spread out between the entire game, this would save them Gelats to use on GK or another server.

I'm pretty sure we already have starter packs?

Originally Posted by luffy620

We aren't that hard to please. Just give players INCENTIVE to play. Make some sacrifices for a little while to gain some players, and THEN drop the weights onto the server when it has the manpower and people are faithful enough to give up some cash for something you made for them to love.

I really think I am accurate when I say your approach is too rash - works in the short term, does damage in the long term. I think the quoted message above reinforces my accuracy.

I doubt anyone read the list, this is more for Luffy's sake. It's important to note that I really encourage suggestions, but it's also important to note that I maintain the privilege of deciding which are effective and which are not. Not every suggestion is going to be a block buster, and some of them will require a lot of criticism and discussion before they can be approached for implimentation. Try to keep it in mind when you are preparing to submit your suggestions.