Ok, i wanted to write long structured post, but i dont have muse, so just a few quick thoughts. Originally, i wanted to write this post year ago, but i was busy with TIE at that time, so i delayed it. But now situation seems even more clear for me.

My post is last attempt to improve this game. If all admins think game is ok, then i dont think i can do something with it. And i will try to be as alliance unbiased as it possible.
For the 2 years im back i saw only 2 interesting wars (TIE-RIVAL last summer & MD-SoF few months ago) - that very little to call game interesting. IMO, they key of it is very old game community (by old i consider both age & time of playing game). In old e2025 coalitions was changing almost every reset and now it same for long time. IMO, this indicates game problems. Also, when i returned, there was about 15-20 good alliances. And from that time we lost Rage, NA, Sanct, Imag and down to 10-15. Evo&TIE merged and LCN is about to die. We have only one new alliance for 2 years - DK. Yes, players count is kinda same as it was (526 now vs 608 2 years ago in established alliances), but different alliances has different policies, they form coalitions and so on.

Ok, i think i explained problem well enough to show my position. Now i want to make suggestion (finally).

We should turn our weakness to our power. Our community is old, so they are mostly over 25 age (and also we are very loyal to game), wich means we are working and can freely spend money on our games (and i have to say, in 2013 its ok to pay for play even for under 20 age). 5 bucks isnt much for us, so even if 20% will pay, it still 500 bucks per month. And im sure alot of ppl will be ready to give more. How to use money? Post targets. I.e. "we need 2K $ to make iOS/android app". And start collecting money (yes, idea isnt new, i saw site wich collecting money for some projects, but dont remember name, but i know this site works perfect). As soon as we get it - find someone to do it (alot of freelance sites available). I know admins told once "we are happy to make this game our full time work, but we dont have money/time". So, this will help you to get money or not spend to much time (if work not interesting for you or you cant do it). *here can be big text about changes we need to do, but i skip it till someone ask me it directly* This game need improvements or should die.

If you dont know how to organize it, find someone to help you. I dont point on myself, but if you need my help, i can help you with it also.

PS
It would be nice if alliance leaders would bring this post to their alliance attention, so we can get more opinions. Maybe im wrong and everyone are happy.

Here's the stupid thing. You don't need an iOS or Android app to play this game. Any standard browser on any mobile phone with a browser installed can open this game and play it. Right on your mobile phone...

It takes less than 2 hours to make an app that is essentially just a "UIWebView" that has the initial home page set to EE. But would you call that an iOS/Android app? I wouldn't, and it is unlikely Apple or Google Play would approve such an app.

(A UIWebView is just a standard widget that can display webpages - essentially allowing any app to embed a full fledged browser.)

Also, just because you have an app on the app store, doesn't mean it has exposure. There are 10 new apps every minute on the App Store. The last time I checked, there are over 150 new apps on the app store in the last 60 minutes. None of them will ever sell more than 100 copies at best, even for free apps. 99.9% of these apps just gets buried by the next 150 new apps in the next hour.

So how do good mobile games get known? Marketing. Social Media outlets. Exposure to media, particularly websites that cover mobile games like TouchArcade, Pocket Tactics, PocketGamer, and a few others. Advertising. Even such websites, if you can even convince the editors to give your game a review article, might bring attention to your game for 2-3 days. That's it. If you're just one or two people, this essentially becomes your full time job for that 1-2 weeks trying to contact all these media.

Good games need to snowball by itself, and it takes nothing short of a miracle. Game has a tutorial that is longer than 2 minutes? Half the people won't even get through it and delete the app already.

Next the game EE itself is a very niche game. It has a very niche target market, only enjoyable for players who like to number crunch, and/or run loops with politics. This alone is the biggest barrier, with the large number of new games out there coming out, on both mobile, and on Steam (how many games have you guys all bought on Steam during Steam Sales, but never played them??)

The next problem is the learning curve, it is too steep. A study of some of the gamers today done by Nintendo, 90% of them cannot even get past Super Mario Bros level 1-1 (http://www.p4rgaming.com/...el-1-in-super-mario-bros/). Most gamers today have been conditioned to games that feed the player, and players with short attention span. Even Totalbiscuit just 2 weeks back lamented that the FPS of today are nothing like those a decade ago when the player just gets thrown into battle right away and you die within a few seconds on stage 1 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Q6UQ2QlRH0).

EE also makes it hard to recommend friends this game. Say in school or at work, it is too troublesome to introduce your friends/colleagues to play this game, because you then have to go through the hassle of getting both yourself and your friend on the IP Whitelist.

Practically speaking, my point is that there is basically very little commercial value in EE.

yeah games have steadily been getting easier for years. And note that Super Mario wasn't really considered to be a hard game

(without warping we were able to get to the end of world one within a few days.. I was like 11)

and the games pre-nintendo era were even harder than your avg nintendo game.

People laughed at me 10 years ago when I said games were getting easier then.

:P

actually that super mario thing is fake:

http://translate.google.com.br/...ting%2F130627qa%2F04.html

Heh really? A lot of major news outlets reported it, though I didn't confirm the source.

I find it hard to explain to people why I play ee.

Thanks for answer Xinhuan. iOS/Andorid app was just example. Im not even sure, if its important or no, but having one would be nice. We can pay for advertisement also.
That wasnt main point of my post. The main point was to get new players. And also use players help to do it.


As for other part. My parents told "used to be better", my grandparents told "used to be better", i even remember my grandgrandparents told "used to be better"... And my friends likes to tell "used to be better":) Its just human mind - always tell, that it was better:)
Actually, there is alot of popular games close to EE (big part of math). So far i can give Travian & ogame as examples, but im sure you can find more examples with little help of google:) Yes, i also think EE needs some more pictures (and we can pay for pictures also). Maybe we wont get millions of players like WOW, but im sure we can reach 2K-5K as it was in e2025. And lets be fair, we dont really need million, because server will die with 100K countries FS. Imo, target is about 5K players to enjoy this game (and some younger players, who want to lead alliances and so on). Im absolutely sure we can do it without real problems if admins really want it.

Oh, and yes, games easier now. But its not hard to go allx rep casher and get solid result:) EE game isnt hardest i played.

I just wonder, qz, pang, zarcon, did you even read my post?

Not interested i guess Duna. or just busy.

Travian has an actual graphical interface. A text game isn't going to draw a crowd as a phone app. In the current design it will be useless as a Facebook app too, because no social element beyond forums. Well in my opinion but I don't use FB. Also the forums aren't cohesive, hosting sites are separated from game and alliances are separated from each other.
Hardly no one uses IRC anymore, and most of the earth players just idle anyways.

Also pushing people into solo servers is completely backwards, I am not sure where this idea spawned from but no one has been playing this game because of solo servers. Ask almost anyone and they will say they stay for their alliance.

I hate to be the downer, played this game for a dozen years, but the fact is it is what it is. This is it. Either the game gets shaped into what is desirable for the current generation that would be interested or we just come to terms with the fact that we are a dieing breed playing a relic of early internet entertainment.

For proof, when was the last time we seen someone new post on these forums or join the community?

outside spambots?

Even if you include them there have been a handful of new people since 2005 that didn't take one look, turn 360 degrees, and walk away.

Obvious, we can also add graphic here. And i see alot of graphic we can add.

As for IRC - i saw IRC link at travian:)

And i dont see any pushing to solo servers in this thread.

Actually, i tryed to recruite few resets ago - alot of ppl joining (most of them are like "i played 10 years ago and want try again"), but the game is hostile to them.

And again. The main idea is not to improve the game itself, but improve attitude.

I can change a bit question. Pick any game you know for more than 5 years. And ask "would this game be so popular if it would do nothing for 5 years?". No game can be popular if it do nothing.

There are plenty of new players on Solo servers, many with under 10 posts, starting to post.

Not only that, you seem to think Alliance is the center of the game, but it isn't. There are more players that don't play Alliance than players that do. And many such players believe that solo server require true player skill, alliance servers less so because a lot of it is hidden behind the clan policies, and any rank 1 finish on it is not a solo effort.

For any newcomer to the game that wants to see how the game is like, they typically just want to try it out solo for a while first before engaging in a community (like Alliance). That's just the nature of things. To expect any newcomer to immediately choose to join a clan is unrealistic, let alone that new player opting to give out his real life phone number and details "just to stonewall".

Even if players started their first country on Alliance first, their first country would be untagged, and it would take at least 2-3 weeks before they even figure out they need to join a tag.

masterfu has been quite active (sadly posting to mostly elsewhere than where allowed).

No new player to the game is going to start solo and keep at the game without finding an alliance. Never has really worked this way. Anyone that is here today has branched out into an alliance. Could be FFA, Alliance, or Team. Might even be Primary with a group of allies.

While no, jumping headlong into Alliance server may not be a great experience this just shows that the game must evolve.

Make primary like a newb starting zone then. GDI automatically on from start. Full blown interactive tutorial. Then explain the enjoyment of alliance play and introduce the alliance based servers.

While this thread hasn't gone down the path of recommending recruitment to solo servers, most have. It's a bad idea unless said solo server is equipped to teach them game mechanics and then teach them to branch out.

Also most people I still talk to from the post tag generation of players started on 1A got farmed and recruited elsewhere. It was how we started and why we still are here probably.

It isn't just little pictures for stuff it is the entire way we interact with the game. Travian has an interactive world, we don't. I am not saying I would prefer that, but I believe to bring in fresh players in mass it likely is a requirement.

I agree the attitude of the entire game has created an environment where a truly new player wouldn't feel welcome, we are dinosaurs. We aren't going to have a community like we did in 2k. We have to accept that what brought us to this game 10+ years ago isn't going to bring new players now.

Actually a perfect example is WoW, they make regular updates for better or worse and have even done a pretty massive reboot with Cataclysm. Yet they still are leaking subscriptions like a sieve. Without completely changing fundamental concepts of the game they will never see 11million players again. They will probably never see positive growth beyond the first month of an expansion again actually.

start to think about this game? another noob?