What To Do About the Pop?

[Rathgar]

So, increasingly I have been noticing that the town I'm in is turning into a ghost town. I see a few stragglers here and there and thats about it.

What I don't understand is WHY oh WHY?! does Simu constantly try to spread people apart? Is it some sort of master plan to destroy the game?

Solution: What I think Simu should do is try to bring people together into 3 key towns. One for newbies and lowbies just starting out and the other for high level people and a common town which has a hybrid of both high level/low level/merchanting/other (essentially the NYC of Elanthia).

I'm of the personal opinion that the population has bottomed out at around 500 players (even with the intro to monks or savants, I bet it'll normalize back down to 500 or so). We can get at least 150 players in newbie town (1-20th level), Another 150 for capped town (high level), and 300 for general purpose town.

That'll bring back the hustle and bustle of Elanthia and with a ton of RP/Group hunting/fun etc. Further, I think costs for teleporting between towns should be lowered especially for groups that are thinking about hunting together. This will make all the "ghost towns" more accessible and more importantly the hunting grounds attached to these towns more accessible.

What are your thoughts and especially what do you propose these 3 towns should be?

[Fallen]

I think deleting any towns, or heavily restricting access will just force people to leave the game. I think more mechanics, spells, ect should allow people to gather from any point in the game to a single place. Examples would be the spells of 220 having the option to allow people to meet in some limited capacity in a common room. Voln symbol of Dreams allowing people to congregate on an Astral plane. Stuff like that.

[Rathgar]

I think deleting any towns, or heavily restricting access will just force people to leave the game. I think more mechanics, spells, ect should allow people to gather from any point in the game to a single place. Examples would be the spells of 220 having the option to allow people to meet in some limited capacity in a common room. Voln symbol of Dreams allowing people to congregate on an Astral plane. Stuff like that.

Thats actually a decent idea w/o having to delete towns. If there is some mechanic where everyone in the game can gather into like 5 or 6 rooms to RP/Chat/Socialize it will come a long way of bringing people together and perhaps even prevent people from cancelling their accounts.

There should be a portal service in each town (and I think they do have this although I don't use it much) that allows for travel (if you don't have a spell that does it) for a token fee. It envision it as a large Inn, complete with bar/restaurant and a roaring fireplace where people all over could gather and tell stories of their hunts/adventures and so forth.

The Inn should have a place to barter including gemshops,furriers, a BOT healer, and a pawnshop. Should also have a auction room and a gambling den, crafting room(s), and perhaps even a workshop for enchanting.
The Inn could even have a portal to go from the Astral Plane to the playershops and have private rooms for rent upstairs.

Anyhow, the game is starting to lose it's epic scope with the dwindling with the population. The Inn can actually bring about a D&D community atmosphere which will enhance a lot of things about the game.

[Fallen]

There should be a portal service in each town (and I think they do have this although I don't use it much) that allows for travel (if you don't have a spell that does it) for a token fee.

Welcome to Plat.

[CrystalTears]

I don't think people quitting has anything to do with the population size.

[Fallen]

I also think guilds should all have the ability to link up with each other. All guilds have a nexus which allow those with membership to congregate in a room to do whatever. What should be avoided is means to perform transactions. That should be a FWI perk only. The Heart of the Art for Sorcerers works a bit like this, but every guild should have one.

[CrystalTears]

If anything premium and platinum are the downfall of GS more than population and segregation.

[Rathgar]

I don't think people quitting has anything to do with the population size.

I beg to differ, I've been playing this game for so long I've exhausted every mechanical "fun" I can wring from it.
The only reason I play now is for the story and the drama brought upon by characters (players) in the game.

Sometimes this involves hunting (if you notice, you take out hunting mechanics from GS the whole place turns into a giant Chat Room). But most times it involves RP storylines and feeling like you are influencing a greater story. When towns are turning into 4 or 5 player areas your just not going to get this drama or much of anything else. (especially when 2 out of the 5 players are AFK, 1 is a bot empath, and the other 2 are just their to sell stuff and get back to clear.)

[Ignot]

I beg to differ

From play.net (http://www.play.net/gs4/platinum/) about plat:

A Smaller Community of Adventurers
Remember the days when you knew everyone’s name (and everyone knew yours?) Simutronics will monitor our Platinum subscription base to ensure that the community in GemStone IV Platinum never grows too large.


....Werd?

[CrystalTears]

I beg to differ, I've been playing this game for so long I've exhausted every mechanical "fun" I can wring from it.So who has been quitting because of a smaller population? GS has WAY more problems that cause people to say fuck you Simu and leave.

[Stanley Burrell]

Make 21938433404403293 multis. Yes, 21938433404403293.

[Suppa Hobbit Mage]

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[CrystalTears]

But they do SHM! They do! Just because we don't see it doesn't mean they don't.

[Inspire]

Most people probably wouldn't care for it..

But I'd like to see:

19.95 - basic - 5 character slots
29.95 - premium - 10 slots
39.95 - platinum - whatever

[crb]

So who has been quitting because of a smaller population? GS has WAY more problems that cause people to say fuck you Simu and leave.
People play games like Gemstone for the interaction with other players, else we'd all sit and play single player RPGs on our xboxes.

A lower population means less interactions means people get bored, means people leave, means lower population, means less interactions, means more people get bored, means more people leave.

It is a cycle.

The best solution, is to increase the playerbase.

Adding a portal system is hokey. It'd just make all towns ghost towns except for the landing, it'd remove any concept of geography for things like invasions and merchants.

A global ingame amunet would help, I took a 6 month break a few years ago and without PSInet I probably wouldn't have been made interested again.
A global amunet would also be a cinch to code (they just remove existing restrictions).

Maybe make 150 "Astral Projection" there you go Fallen. Allow you to project your soul into anywhere in the game. Sit in Ta'Vaalor but send your soul to chat up someone on Teras, with lore being the same requirement as say Locate for distance.

[Izzy]

How about a new poll: Who's the most fucking annoying new poster who does nothing but bitch and moan.
a) Rathgar
b) Rathgar
c) Rathgar

I swear to god every other thread you post is "how do we fix this" or "more tedium less fun" or something nearly identical. Fucking go find another game already. You clearly don't like this one.

/rant

[crb]

Most people probably wouldn't care for it..

But I'd like to see:

19.95 - basic - 5 character slots
29.95 - premium - 10 slots
39.95 - platinum - whatever
They need a $5 a month tier. Especially in this economy.

Lets look at the facts.

1. Skilled technical labor has gotten cheaper, back in the 90s people with degrees in every technical field Simu would need could name their price because of a massive shortage, now there is an abundance, including overseas labor.

2. Bandwidth has gotten cheaper, while bandwidth requirements (lower player population) have shrunk.

3. Storage, computer processing power, all have gotten cheaper, while again requirements have shrunk, AND supposedly the change to GS4 made the core code much more efficient.

All of Simutronics' input costs have fallen, but they have raised their prices.

[The Ponzzz]

I honestly think they should change their subscription levels around a bit and add a few to the mix.

Basic - $6.95, one character slot and limited access to the game. Things to limit could be no ESP, no society, limit verb usage, etc.

Standard - $14.95, what the current lowest offers now.

Premium - $29.95, drop price.

Platinum - $49.95, no change.

Diamond add on - +$10 subscription to have multiple log ons.

Fallen - (no price set), People want it, DR has had it, give GS the chance.

After that is said and done, I'd use every free MUD resource there was to advertise. And from there, look into buying some web banner space from fantasy RPG oriented web comics (expensive these days).

That is if I was a marketing director for GemStone.

[phantasm]

This poll is so confusing that no one voted.

[CrystalTears]

People play games like Gemstone for the interaction with other players, else we'd all sit and play single player RPGs on our xboxes.

A lower population means less interactions means people get bored, means people leave, means lower population, means less interactions, means more people get bored, means more people leave.And I'm just saying that I don't think people leaving is primarily because there's less people to interact with.

I agree that his game needs more players and they need to advertise more. But I also realize that new players would not put up with some of the shit that the rest of us do simply because we've invested time playing. Someone new won't have the stamina nor determination to look past the flaws for the beauty like we did, not with all the options out there.

[LordBacl]

I have always thought that removing some "realms" would be a great idea. Let people teleport between Solhaven and the Landing and Icemule. You can hang out with your friends in whichever town you like, but hunt whatever hunting ground you need to.

Maybe instead of each town being its own realm, we'd have the Elven Nations as one big realm, teleport/fog/etc between Ta'Vaalor and Ta'Illistim to your hearts content. Land/Solhaven/Icemule as another, and River's and Terras can each still be their own realm. Reducing chronomage fees and releasing cross-realm gold rings (each only teleports once between realms before getting snagged, but drop on creatures).

Just some ideas.


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That's a good one too.