Graal Free To Play on Facebook and Android

[fowlplay4]

GST Spars on Classic iPhone (iOS Users Only) and Facebook this Saturday 6PM EST!

[callimuc]

When can we register?

[fowlplay4]

Originally Posted by callimuc

When can we register?

Now, registration is in the Graal City Battle Arena on their respective servers.

[callimuc]

Oh ok didn´t check by

[JesusFreak250]

aw

[Sonniku4]

Haven't found the time to read all (several) pages of this thread, but here's the way I see it. I might answer some people's questions or simply restate what someone else has said.

Simply put, the people that run the show on Graal have a different way of approaching things. I noticed this with their progression from Classic to Bomy to GK to Graal 3D to Graal Mobile/Internet. There might be some stuff I missed out on or a mistake in chronology, but whatever. Every time they take on a new project, they abandon the previous one. Once again, observe where GK, Classic, Bomy Moon and Graal 3D are at right now.

From my point of view, I see that they only seek to nurture and take care of whatever makes them the most profit. Graal PC stopped earning them money with the lifetime accounts, so they stopped giving those out and started charging monthly (or whatever system we have today). The profits still weren't enough, so they took a poke at mobile gaming. One of the high up people that run Graal has told me directly... Mobile gaming is the future. PCs will become obsolete.

So taking this into account, I am predicting that Graal PC will slowly fade out of existence and Graal Mobile/Facebook/Twitter/whatever they plan will be competing with Farmville and all of the other mobile games out there.

Why should they care about their first fans playerbase and contributors, especially those cheapskate Lifetime Classic players? There is simply no money to be made.

[Tricxta]

Originally Posted by Sonniku4

So taking this into account, I am predicting that Graal PC will slowly fade out of existence and Graal Mobile/Facebook/Twitter/whatever they plan will be competing with Farmville and all of the other mobile games out there.

Graal will not be able to compete with farmville unless alot of things change, even when era makes its appearance on facebook there still wont be much competition. Farmville offers alot more for free without hindering gameplay. While facebook graal does this as well the fact that they want your money is made alot more obvious indicated by the steep prices and hours of griding required to obtain instead of using irl money.

If graal wants to have a chance at competing a more subtle way of convincing people to pay will be required.

Example:farmville gives you some free tractor fuel, "oh dear you don't have enough to plow your whole farm, would you like to buy some more". The decision isnt mandatory but it makes life easier without giving that person an upper hand advantage over others as they can plow fields the lengthy way. If facebook graal works this way and improves the variety of gameplay then yes! it would be in competition, but as for now I think not.

If you think the situation isn't what I have explained I would be interested to hear your opinions

[Sonniku4]

Originally Posted by Tricxta

INSERT POST HERE

If you think the situation isn't what I have explained I would be interested to hear your opinions

Well I said competing, not stating any outcome whatsoever.

The whole idea of free to play with optional perks you pay for is a pretty great idea, if implemented right. Games like TF2 and Farmville appear to have it right, let's see what Graal Mobile does in order to actually reach those levels. Every point you brought up is good.

[MattKan]

Originally Posted by Sonniku4

...

Yep!

Originally Posted by Sonniku4

...One of the high up people that run Graal has told me directly... Mobile gaming is the future. PCs will become obsolete.

That is entirely untrue. Though mobile gaming has certainly picked up, PC games are simply more involved and more fun. I honestly don't want to see a day where all my favorite PC games are shrunk to the screen of the iPhone, (etc.) and if Graal Administration thinks that PC games our dying out, well, I disagree. PC Graal is "dying out" per say, (of course Graal will never truly die out at this rate, but you get the idea) but that is because no more effort is being put into it by the staff team.

Originally Posted by Tricxta and other Graal is becoming the new Farmville munchkins

Farmville

Graal and Farmville are games of two different genres and can't really be compared... However, I do see a point with your "more free stuff" idea, though I think Era iPhone does a pretty darn good job of that already (unlike Classic iPhone).

[Sonniku4]

Originally Posted by MattKan

That is entirely untrue. Though mobile gaming has certainly picked up, PC games are simply more involved and more fun. I honestly don't want to see a day where all my favorite PC games are shrunk to the screen of the iPhone, (etc.) and if Graal Administration thinks that PC games our dying out, well, I disagree. PC Graal is "dying out" per say, (of course Graal will never truly die out at this rate, but you get the idea) but that is because no more effort is being put into it by the staff team.

Well I don't agree with him either, but just quoting what he said... and yeah, we're seeing Graal PC sort of wilting, gradually, because of the lack of involvement and attention given to it.

Imagine they actually DID mention Graal PC in those iPhone and Facebook clients, it would be great. Not even saying that they should directly develop for Graal PC again. We'd get a big playerbase on here again and perhaps there would be even more profit for the company. Why play with tiny touchscreen keys and a monitor? Yes, eventually we'll be able to connect a monitor to our phone, but by then we'll also have internet and processing power in phones that is so powerful that we'll be able to combine the PC crowd with the Mobile crowd.

Originally Posted by DustyPorViva

Staff are not necessarily "high up" and they don't really "run Graal." They are just players like you that got a staff position for whatever reason. They might actually be good at their job, but that doesn't really mean they're really in the know.

I'm not talking about a manager of a server.
I'm talking about the guys that are running ALL of the servers. The guys in charge of the business and the money.

Originally Posted by DustyPorViva

1. They don't have to, but businesses that treat their fans/loyal customers better do better.
2. Also, just because people have lifetime Classic doesn't mean they're cheap. Graal hasn't been worth paying for in a long time, it's not our fault.

1. So freaking true.
2. Myself being one, also true. I payed Graal and then even paid for Gold time after, when it was awesome enough.

The thing is that I don't disagree with any of you, I'm just putting their perspective on the table, as best as I can interpret it.

[DustyPorViva]

Originally Posted by Sonniku4

One of the high up people that run Graal has told me directly... Mobile gaming is the future. PCs will become obsolete.

Staff are not necessarily "high up" and they don't really "run Graal." They are just players like you that got a staff position for whatever reason. They might actually be good at their job, but that doesn't really mean they're really in the know. There are only two people that really work for Graal(maybe a very small handful of others that get pay from them, but they're not in on the business--they're not actually employees) and that's Stefan and Unixmad. So unless it was either one of them, take it with a grain of salt.

And... of course PC Graal is dying. They ****ing abandoned it. Graal was getting no attention for years. The only reason it's getting any attention now is to meet the needs of improving the iPhone version.

Originally Posted by Sonniku4

Why should they care about their first fans playerbase and contributors, especially those cheapskate Lifetime Classic players? There is simply no money to be made.

They don't have to, but businesses that treat their fans/loyal customers better do better. It can also make people more willing to pay for something even if they don't feel the price justifies the content. Also, just because people have lifetime Classic doesn't mean they're cheap. Graal hasn't been worth paying for in a long time, it's not our fault. You also fail to mention that the PC Graal has a vastly different pay system than the iPhone/Facebook version. Those versions let you basically play for free and let you pay for benefits. The PC version makes you pay a large fee($60) for a subscription to play a few servers with hardly any decent content, small playerbase(especially compared to the iPhone servers), and a lot of times, horrible staff. That's not even taking into account the costs to rent a server. Ya, before iPhone was around people who cared about Graal was paying out the ass for little content, while most people who play iPhone/Facebook play it for free or shell out a few dollars. Ya, we're the cheap ones.

[Venom_Fish]

Originally Posted by DustyPorViva

Staff are not necessarily "high up" and they don't really "run Graal." They are just players like you that got a staff position for whatever reason.

From the way some of them act (Tigairius), you'd think they built Graal from scratch and own the damn thing.

@Stefan
Do we have a specific release date for Era Facebook and Graal Android yet?

Also, have the customized controls for Graal Facebook been completed yet?
Ex. making movement keys numpad or something.

[gaben]

Originally Posted by Venom_Fish

From the way some of them act (Tigairius), you'd think they built Graal from scratch and own the damn thing.

@Stefan
Do we have a specific release date for Era Facebook and Graal Android yet?

Also, have the customized controls for Graal Facebook been completed yet?
Ex. making movement keys numpad or something.

What, you planning to go hard on Facebook Grawl as well? ...Uh..."No"? I guess I can understand it though, with an 800 player count on iPod Era it seems only logical to own it up there.

OT: Of course there is hierarchy. I don't know what you expect though, it's just a fact of life. The players that see the sun at midnight will be better than the players that see the sun in, well, the morning?

Originally Posted by Rave_J

honestly
if i was unximad
i would find a investor
and say hey i came this far on my own ect

He never really came this far on his own. The majority of content on Graal is player made. Also, first and foremost who would want to invest in Graal anyway?

I mean, honestly. Although...I do like how you can use Super Rewards to earn gralats now.

[Rave_J]

lol graal cant take farmvill or cityvill due Zynga is a whole lot bigger as a company then eurocenter thats like a privite computer company to take on apple or microsoft


but i think unximad and stefan needs to sit down
honestly and make a decision
to keep graal online and start fresh and actually try to improve the game or go cut there lost on graal an
release (meaning selling it) as a prebuilt platform game engine

[Sonniku4]

Originally Posted by Rave_J

but i think unximad and stefan needs to sit down
honestly and make a decision
to keep graal online and start fresh and actually try to improve the game or go cut there lost on graal an
release (meaning selling it) as a prebuilt platform game engine

If I were them...

• Continue building Graal Facebook.
• Continue building Graal iPhone.
• Promote Graal PC and make it worth paying for.
  - Study the economic systems of other video games, such as TF2 and other ones that have a cheap game platform with pay for perks that you can get anyway through grinding, then see how that sort of economy can make Graal even more profitable.
• Attempt to connect Graal Facebook with Graal PC (maybe they can share whole servers).
• When technology allows, connect Graal Mobile as well.