Something needs to change

[Pochucker]

I think its fairly obvious that long time players are losing interest at an ever increasing rate. A large number of these players are people who have supported the game financially. If we don't have some "hope" soon , many more will join the exodus. Without getting too vitriolic (yes one of my specialties I know)I'm going to throw out a few random large scale ideas for the future.

What keeps many players here are two things - one the friends they have made along the way or their desire to help others. Notice I didn't mention actual "game play" ?. That's because for the high level player it is insignificant. The incentive to log on every day certainly does not come because of the game play. However neither of the two reasons I mentioned will last forever and certainly no reason to keep supporting the game.
The number of long term players who have left is mind boggling and to keep supporting others will get old at some point --especially since the turn over rate of new players is higher than its ever been.

So what can BB do? As a long time player said to me last night "I just want my guildies back and to fall in love with the game again"

Well how about help us make communication with friends easier and more interesting. Most guilds have two or three other guilds that they are very friendly with for various reasons. What I have seen in other games is one of the benefits of having "alliances" is a "alliance" chat room, where your allies could all chat. Usually was limited to two or thee guilds if I remember correctly. Or if that's not possible how about a system where you could invite a small number of non guild members to chat for a limited time.

As far as game play is concerned we need something to strive for --more goals more "stuff"! New isles which you have to earn in someway would be great. New adventure would spark interest. And (gasp) new levels would be amazing. Even something like a special general buff to make the generals go faster or at least return to camp faster would be nice. (obviously possible based on PVP generals). Speaking of that if all that time and effort put into pvp, which the majority of players did not want anyways, had been been put into normal game play things would be much better now.

One other thing that is a joke and discourages many active guilds - the guild inactive system. So many large guilds aren't really "large" guilds. Worst I've seen is guild of 90+ players with only 15 active players. But inactive rates regularly hover around 50% on many guilds. Human nature has many new players looking to join the biggest and presumably best --when they join guilds that aren't what the claim to be many quit quickly.

Take away the advantage real or perceived of carrying inactive players. My suggestion would be three weeks then system boots them auto from guild -you have the mechanism already I believe.

These are just few Ideas -the real point is long term players need HOPE! Throwing us a bone like a new building now and then will not keep the high level players here.

[Moonlime]

bigger islands sound good to me and also get rid of the "complete 2 adventures for the guild quests!"

[Drischavrel]

I agree absolutely. I've watched many long-time players leave this game over the past year (many of them paying players), and it seems like nothing is being done to give them incentive to remain. This is not even mentioning the fact that so few new players join and remain active that many guilds are desperate enough for numbers that they are snatching people out of global at level 1. I think all of Po's ideas are good ones, especially being able to add allies to guild chat, which is something I've wanted a very long time - having everyone go to another global just doesn't cut it. Though I would alter the idea for the inactive system a bit - rather than auto-booting inactives (often there are people a guild wishes to keep despite inactivity for whatever reason), I would say just show on the guild list how many active players a guild has rather than or in addition to giving a total member number. And one thing Po didn't address that I would like to bring up is that this is a game that is mainly interesting to adults (sequitur: most paying players are adults!), so to have general chat restricted to topics appropriate for children also restricts people from forming close-knit friendships and communities like we used to have in Ares, which is the very thing that kept so many of us coming back for so long.

[Snacknado]

Ive been playing the longest out of anyone currently in this thread but the main reason why i have never lost interest is because i make goals for myself- ie-have an island with only buildings that use licenses that are gold chains and expert buildings only, make a 15 lvl5 cannon forges and the rest of its needed chain, take new players under my wing and teach them trade and any other pro-tips (and see a lvl38 be more "rich" than most yr+ lvl50s), help keep keep my OWN guild active and filled with fun activities.
Having another tab for alliance tab would be cool but my guild alliances already have our own chat tab, a global room- where we hold alliance trivias and other games and some just hang around there trading lootspots, buffs and resources- But after a main alliance event a lot of players do switch back to global-1 so having a separate tab solely for your alliance guilds would help keep the chat activity in alliance chat up.
With the guild inactivity I could go either way on it- I wouldnt mind if they auto booted inactives (would save me time and work as an Officer of manually doing this) but on the other hand, some guilds may have a special bond with a player who is taking a break or whatever- where they want to keep them in their guild even while they are inactive. Like i said I could go either way on this but I think it would piss more people off than make happy

and my goals change as i accomplish them at first it was have an island full of WT then when FMs came out it was have an island filled with all FMs then moved to have 75 lvl5 coinages and the rest of its chain lvl5, then moved on to cannon chain (just finished with all my 15 forges but i will need to add more huts and wheelmakers), once i finish that i will most likely start on either a xbows or dama chain, not sure yet- but Once i achieve one goal I make up another one to replace it
But my main goal has been for a while to remove FMs so i can fill the remainder of my 116 unused licenses with all lvl5 expert building. And as for building space goes- sure if you have low lvl buildings you will need space, but not if you get rid of low lvl building as you progress and replace them with higher lvl buildings, no one would have any issues regarding space and it would give that player something to keep them occupied with.

[Drischavrel]

While other globals work for inter-guild events, the purpose of an allied chat would be the ability to have people from other guilds join in during general, everyday conversation. The problem is that many like to keep their eye on g1 or g5 (for auctions), so even the ability to have more than 1 global open at once would satisfy the issue. And if you can set goals for yourself and keep yourself entertained that way, that's great, but many players (myself included) remain mostly because of the community.

[BB_Endesmor]

Hello,

Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us. I will make sure to forward this thread.

Feel free to keep the discussion going, it is interesting!

Cordially,
BB_Endesmor

[Captain_Chris]

I agree with everything said already except the autoboot system. I know players who have had to take a couple weeks off for vacation or travels. I also last year spent allong time in the hospital and being able to come back to my guild was awesome. I just dont think auto boost would be a good idea. If anything it would add to the reasons why people are not in guilds because if they get kicked automatically from the guild then whats the incentive? We already have lost the guild market for the most part to trivial things most players dont want, guild quests have gotten much harder. I mean if you add all of that plus an auto boot system, then there really isnt much reason for guilds. It is up to the guild leader to keep in touch with its players but one of the few things that is left for guilds is that guild leaders and officers still have control. I dont force my people to be online all the time because I know all too well things happen and real life occurs. Some of my players i keep in touch with outside the game like through facebook etc. That all said I do agree allot of guilds keep inactive players for the wrong reasons, but I just dont agree with an auto boost feature. This situation was made much better in my opinion when they made the changes to the guild quest system. I dont agree with a ton of dead players as its been said but I dont think taking the control away from each guild is the way to go. Thats just my opinion.

As far as losing players, absolutely. There is a mass exodus in the game. So many people I have played with have grown bored with the game. I think we really need better connections to the servers so people arent always fighting to log in and we should absolutely consider more adventures and more levels. The other thing I see is allot of the higher players have so much resources stored up that there is no possible way for them to use them all. Where is the incentive when your stockpiling and have nothing to use the resources for? That certainly would lower the fun for high level players. Focusing on improving the game we have instead of adding all these new features that you have would go along way towards keeping long time players interested. Thats my opinion.

[Pochucker]

Its not the end of the world to be booted and rejoin the guild.

[Snacknado]

thats true Pochucker but i dont think anyone should tell someone how to run their guild, if they want to have a guild full of inactives what is the big deal? new players will join the guild and see it is full of inactives and then ask for things in public chat and then other players will say that if their guild doesnt help them then they are in the wrong place and then they leave and join else where, but if a guild leader wants inactives in his guild, that is his/her own choice. if a new player quits the game because their guild isnt helping them, then they really did not give the game a chance in the first place- and this game takes a lot of patience, dont think they would have lasted long anyway.

[Eriond]

I agree with much of this ... and will add that FIXING the existing guild quest system would also add a lot. The tasks are often either financially foolish or simply boring/onerous, with the rewards in the guild market being extremely limited, and once folks cross a certain line, it can become a point of contention within any guild (i.e., "why isn't your guild quest done?" "because trading 20 cannons for 17 guild coins is dumb" "but if we don't get the quests done how will we attract new members?" "*sigh* is that really all the guild is for?" "what else is there?")

Guild chat/friends may be one of the strongest things to keep people in this game; anything that can be done to strengthen that element is a plus.