Save the drakkar?

[nunnbt473]

Am I the only one who has noticed an ever dropping player base as the years pass? While I do think that Brad has made an excellent amount of effort and progress into developing the game for higher levels and fixxing / maintaining (and yes on occasion adding) things for lower and mid level players, he has forgotten to draw in a new crowd to experience this wonderful things.

I propose this, a simple rewards and incentives program. Get the players to rewrite reviews on preapproved sites with simple criteria. 500 characters, X number of words at places like MPOGD.com .. etc. Once again there would be a list so random would wont just post a random slop on something that will never be read. In exchange the player could receive 50% off of their next months bill or 1 month of lower guild hall access (or upper if already paying for lower). Or if they are already paying for gold, have NL and upper then give them some quirks or something. Let them ask any one question of you they want answered (Aimed @ Brad or sysops).

I also think that a better welcoming for new players is warrented. Most of them tend to skip the school and have some hand holding done when they first start, I think new accounts should be monitored and after some time request them to fill out a survey on how they were helped, what needs to be better, what they liked, what didn't make sense to them..etc. Oh and for the love of us all, leave the stairs in the schoolhouse intact, but hide them and don't let the doors open untill they read the tiles and piece together a password they are forced to tell an NPC or something so they HAVE to go through the school. Sheesh, help us all out there haha.

Possible things Ive thought about in exchange for reviews though were anything from week or month long lasting spells of secondary things (weather it be minor restore or aid or whatever), quirks, discounts on the next payment. Hm, cant think off too many other things off the top of my head though.

[Migam]

I deleted a longwinded rant I had.

Drakkar is oldschool 2-d topdown isometric and tick-based. Drak is mostly those who love the game as well as that genre and the community. Most gamers aren't looking for that, they want something that makes their computer overheat. How do you get people interested long enough to get hooked as we are? It's not the game, it's the genre. You have to discover those into the genre and advertise where they read. Incentives might help but I wouldn't give out any until that new player has paid/played enough to merit that commission.

Don't forget too besides those who went to other games, many play inviso, many have left due to finances, some have gotten into a relationships and have no Drak time. Sure, you could play free but would you after being used to Aleria, Cob, NL?

[Moon]

Most just got bored, or annoyed :/..

[nunnbt473]

It's not the game, it's the genre. You have to discover those into the genre and advertise where they read.

Hence the PRE approved sites. Perhaps we just need to find sites for the correct genre or the correct section. There are some (or most) cases where it is good to advertise in a very particular way or selected demographic, however it can also be good to advertise to the masses. Once again, it is all a matter of PROPER selection.

Incentives might help but I wouldn't give out any until that new player has paid/played enough to merit that commission.

Too easy, add a box with a referral section. Once they have paid for their first month of any pay plan, the one referred automaticly receives up to that amount off of their next months bill and everything gained from the player after that point is just pure profit for Brad / the game. Hence the new player finds a game they like, the older player gets a few bucks off their bill and brad gets their 'continued support'. In order to prevent people from simply using their secondary accounts for their pay accounts you could make it so it is IP based and you could only receive this discount every other month, or up to $20 a year or any number of stipulations.

Don't forget too besides those who went to other games, many play inviso, many have left due to finances, some have gotten into a relationships and have no Drak time. Sure, you could play free but would you after being used to Aleria, Cob, NL?

You might if you lose your job or want to start over or to hide from your wife who yells at you for playing and randomly logs in to see if your ignoring her? Hah.

[xaph]

Think you misinterpreted the situation slightly. KoD is on many different mmorpg sites. It's just the general wealth of players out there are used to more advanced graphics etc. Grabbing the few who would truly appreciate drakkar as it is, aren't likely to visit mmorpg list websites because 99 times out of 100 the listed games are super special, graphically stunning, computer churning, pieces of rubbish with a $$$$ monthly fee and as such, the old-school players just don't wanna know. I'd be very surprised if you managed to gather many (if any at all!) new players via that method. Worth a try I guess but I shan't hold my breath.

And on that note...this topic could rival a furnace for hot air..

*goes back to her cooking. pokes migam on the way out*

[Darge]

...Save the world.

[Migam]

[RayonMazter]

It's not the game, it's the genre.

It's just the general wealth of players out there are used to more advanced graphics etc.

I wouldn't think so. There's tens of millions of people who still play text-based games, crud muds, and flash games. I really don't think you guys have explored very many games out there to really see that that is simply not true. Drakkar is 100x more addictive and even more graphically improved than some of the crappiest games (including text-based) that i've seen thousand-player populations in.

I think the main problem anymore is lack of attraction. I learned about drakkar by word of mouth from a game called Phantasia4, and at first sight I thought there's no way i'm playing this lol. But ever since I went for a stroll around town, sf and saw a bunch of players to talk to, to figure crap out, show me how to tan things, players to hunt with, I ended up sticking around on and off for about 10 years now.

If I had come to the game today, I would have uninstalled the game the same day without thinking twice about it. There's what? 5 low level'd people, no incentive at all unless they pay under the assumption of greed?
Ofcourse it's not greed, but it would appear that way when there is so many limitations in such an older game in the start.

Brad is focusing on us (the ones who have been playing forever), when he should be putting some focus on new players. New players attract more new players. I think brad should give free players more to do, more incentive, as it will bring free advertising to the game, and improve the player count, which in turn increases subscription counts.

People REALLY need to stop giving new players everything in the game as well - It kills their spark to play the game, so does leaching the entire way. You're supposed to play the game for fun, not to look and feel big about yourself - it's numbers, and personal achievements is what keeps interest around here. What happened to the fun of doing Mummy, RB, prison mino? Oh yeah, high end players feel they are being nice by giving breshes and chips and wardens out. wrong..

I'm paying $17.50/month and that will probobly be an uphill battle in time as i'm sure i'll be forking out more in the near future - so this is not a bias vote based on me being a free player - at all -.

1. The lobby is nice, and simple, but I think like in IEN, there should be a seperate attractive lobby as an enterance can be everything.
2. Put the damn hp doc maxes back to normal for free players, let them access other alts and aleria - this kills the game, and kills much incentive for new players. Word of mouth is clearly the best bet - obviously those ads didn't work out too well =p
3. Speak even more often with the community and take more majority votes instead of the frequent "brad" votes. I think the community knows what works best for them, more than you or a 1-2 high-enders do.
4. The game is over 20 years old, correct? We all know brad has worked hard on the game, but somehow a lack of moral and motivation seem to be shown - maybe find someone with more time on their hands and someone with the same visions you have brad, to help develop. Flisk doesn't seem to have the time, and Omni clearly stated at least once his time is short.

I am aware you run a business, have a family, and drakkar is by far not your only time-taker, so why not?

5. While people may not agree with me at all on 1-4, I think I can speak for many, that secrets in the game really spark interest and motivation to adventure and try new things in the game. What would you think about adding more of these to both lower and higher end content? Look at the interest that grew in the Mausoleums post...

[nunnbt473]

I think it was excellent incentive to go pay by adding only alt 2 quests and increased round timer etc and I know free accounts are supposed to basicly a tester, but doing things like dropping the hit doc maxes and making classes essentially unplayable beyond a certain point by cause of 1 shot death is a bit much. I think adding level requirements was an excellent idea as well as making most items tie to the account, but more of it needs to be done. Bresh shield does not have a requirement, but RD gauntlets do, wtf man! Slith robe, slith staff, bresh sheild, wardens dagger, str hally and many other items should have level requirements added.

Now the suggestion everyone is going to hate. 1) I suggest no NL gear in nork, besides they hardly need it because by the time you are 50/30 all you really need is a crap weapon from N1 to solo most things. My main proposial is this though, once you go to cob, you cant go to back to nork/alerian and once you go NL you cant go back to cob. I dont know if this is a good proposial or not, perhaps make it like an Mjorin thing where you lose your discs and cannot take your gear with you? but if you do a long enough quest then you can eventually make it back. This would discourage some of those 68/36 players from running back from NL when board to solo every lair in nork and hand them out like hotcakes to someone who has never even heard of the quest.

[Migam]

There are those who join lobby only to talk crap, another game is better, this includes Drakkar vets. Just leave quietly then.

I tried textbased in the past. Free, some were single player, dialup and bored. I still maintain some players only see genre. That doesn't mean they couldn't be convinced to try it. After playing Islands of Kesmai (ascii-text "graphical" dsiplay), when it became Legends of Kesmai (graphical FE similar in genre to Drakkar), I loved it more and wouldn't go back.

Then it ended and closed down. I found Drakkar after a year of searching for something like LoK. It was on a Gamer website that sorted by genre and you could search for terms like 2d and tick-based. If Drakkar is added to many gamer sites and we rate it and add comments, that might work. You might say, what for? No incentive program. Well, I'd gamble that if Brad got a huge player base, he might see it to his benefit to ease back some of the fees and come up with packages significantly cheaper due to volume. His server costs are covered, he could afford staff to help, look at the cost of other games.

I've ranted about new players being given everything. Add to that those killing and dumping lair crits in portal. Ever stop to think a group of smaller players might have that on their list of a guild hunt that never seems to be in?

I also ranted about those who insist NL gear needs to stay in NL. You can search forums for my post but no, I don't agree. It's not about needing gear to kill Nork lairs. It's about having to locker every item to run naked to Jil (not all players in NL can survive that). It's about Cob having a huge amount of lockers, and at least 4 portals to Nork right next to lockers vs only 1 in the NL Borderlands. Add to that having items like tiers and NL majors that you cannot take out of NL so you need, tada, locker space in NL for them. No, you don't just find the tier you need and discard the ones you will need later... you save em.

As for insisting that once you reach one alt, you are locked out of the previous, that's a load of crap. I am not paying for 1/2 a game. It seems only the low level or free accounts have these opinions and now it's more like a bias against larger players. Just because some large players go overboard in Nork, that's the minority. Should I look at every new player or free acct as a bunch of jerkoffs that spam, promote other games, greedy beggars just because a few are?

I do get gear for my smaller slots, I have a 2nd acct I gear as well. After taking years to get one pally to exp50, there is no way I'm going through that experience each and every time I want to play a new class. Brad made 2 smaller lairs unhittable by larger players, that's the direction to head to. I can live with my 2nd smaller acct soloing a lair but I should have the right to rescue that gear on a bigger slot without begging for help. If he restricts access to a previous alt, I'll move on. I've paid and played too long for Drakkar to code common sense and restraint into this game.

The fact that I can gear my other slots or another acct... wait, that's more money for the game, isn't it? The fact that some new player might see a Killer hally and might be another person with another reason besides higher hp doc, better skill, events, better alts... it's that guy saying damn! I'd love to pay to play and get a hally like that!

[nunnbt473]

Add more lockers, or temporarily suspend the gear you have on in memory so it is automaticly restored when you reenter NL and the same with nork. Sort of a second body sort of a thing where you have the same body, one in each scenario perhaps. Very doable code wise, however it would require more memory usage of the servers. Not a lot but over the course of every character I am sure it would add up. Or add more lockers or portals in towns to nork. I am not saying it couldnt be improved or is perfect, but it only takes a couple of 50/30s who ransack nork to hand every noob every nork item they will ever need and destory guild hunts.. etc. I am sorry, but if I trap 10 men in a room and I know one of them is hilter, I'll kill all the _insert favorite word here_ to get the one if its bad enough.

[Doro]

Speaking as a returning vet (old newbie) I have seen the upside and downside of this game.

Upside: revisiting some of my fave locations at reliving the past in my mind.

Upside: chatting to people that I barely remember only to be reminded of some event in the past which brings back memories I had unlocked for me just by a simple phrase or two.

Upside: being able to help other players, but on my terms - you WILL come into the lair and run the risk of an eat, I WILL NOT bring gear out for you.

Upside: almost everything in the game; all it's little bugs and glitches that no one mentions, but are recognised as being part of the Drak experience.

And so I come to the Downside which is the total lack of respect by some people when chatting in the lobby - I could go on, but won't.

A simple "Hi" back from anyone would be nice as well on occasion - a wall of silence is as bad as abuse!

A new player entering the game for the first time is presented with a boring text chat area which on many occasions looks like a soapbox from Hide Park corner. There are few rules or regulations in lobby and once someone steps over that invisible line it's just plain too late to do anything about it.

Sysops politely suggest going to another channel or outright disconnect them, but their words and thoughts are there for the reading and leave a taint on the new player's experience.

What a welcome to the game!

My thoughts are somewhat different to many others (I have had 100+ accounts on my iggy list before now), no I am not intolerant I just wish to be able to choose what I read.

And so my idea is, not to get new players in, but to keep new players before they get scared off from the lobby is to change the intro to their first experience of Drakkar.

The game will either stand the test and the new player stays, or it won't - little can be done about that.

What often raises my eyebrows is the constant reminder of how good the old Drakkar pub was.

We could join an open table, close a table to have a private chat, invite on line accounts to come into chat or hang out at the bar getting drunk and throw darts at the bird on the windowsill.

So there you have it, Doro has saved the game yet again.

ho

PS a spell checker would be nice in here too!

[nunnbt473]

Tables = the old lobbie from iEN, which I kind of liked and firefox has a built in checker

[Doro]

Me again . . .

I just created a new account (like a newcommer would do) and ended up here:-
http://drakkarzone.com/signup/signup_success.php

The link to download the software doesn't work!!!

Has anyone pretended to be a newbie and checked their experience?

[Omni]

Thanks for the catch Doro. I notified Brad to update the link to the correct one.

Omni

[Doro]

Clicking on the News button in lobby take you to a page that says "Latest game changes posted <here>".

That link doesn't work either

[Mars]

The download links should all be corrected now

[srflynn64]

One problem about drak is if your in any country but the states its a more than exspensive game to play.

I was paying in excess of $100 a month while the game was cheaper for me coz of the currency conversion, now if i was to play i could almost certainly be paying double that amount coz of the exchange rates.

yeah you get the benifits of it being cheaper or down side of more expense with exchange rates but paying over £80 a month for a game when there are ones that you can pay less than 20 a month.. speaks for it self

[nunnbt473]

Thats an excellent point if you're trying to get a broad demographic, however to accept different currency it might require a different, I can't think of the exact word, but a different merchant / supplier for credit lines. I don't know how much of a loss it would be to accept any currency and eat the loss or if it would even be effective if people all tried to backwards convert from US currency into foreign ..etc. but an excellent notion to think about.