Is the Game Dying?
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by Gulden Draak
Well another huge day in erepublik has come and gone. At the moment , it appears that PHOENIX is playing the fiddle while EDEN is burning down. Of the three main regions under attack yesterday, not even one of them was secured by EDEN forces. While there is a lot that needs to be sorted out within EDEN, it is not the results of the battles yesterday that this article will focus on. To be honest, I really wasn’t that surprised by the results of yesterday’s battles, but as I was looking at the battle statistics today one particular statistic caught my eye. In the battle of Liaoning yesterday, a total of about 18,000 citizens took part in the fight. However, when Liaoning was attacked by the USA less than a month ago, about 21,500 citizens took part in that fight. That is a difference of 3,500 citizens . I was startled by this revelation and I began to look deeper into the matter. Unfortunately, I have come to the conclusion that at the current moment erepublik is dying .
Is this game dying?
However, this is my own personal view and if you have a counterview please PM me or post a comment. I would love to hear from you. Now let me explain why I believe this game is dying, what caused it to die, and if there is any way it can recover. Let me first present you with some statistics. These statistics were taken from this site , which provides excellent statistics on this game. Below, I have listed the percent decrease in population sizes of the top five countries in the eWorld over the last 47 days. The top five countries I have chosen, are based off population size only
Poland
-Poland has experienced a 37.5% decrease in population over the last 47 days
Serbia
-Serbia has experienced a 5.39% decrease in population over the last 47 days
Brazil
-Brazil has experienced a 7.41% decrease in population over the last 47 days
USA
-USA has experienced a 23.44% decrease in population over the last 47 days
Russia
-Russia has experienced a 21.74% decrease in population over the last 47 days
As you can see from the statistics above, all of the five most populous countries in the eWorld are decreasing in size. This is what leads me to believe that the game is dying. If it were just one country that was decreasing in size, that would be one thing. But as you can see every top country is decreasing. These are five countries separated by different geographic locations, different cultures, and different beliefs. However, they all share one common problem, and that is keeping people playing this game. The main question though, is how did we get to this point? These countries at one point in time had large populations and now they no longer have them. What caused us to arrive here?
The grim reaper may be coming for the game. Can it be saved?
In my personal opinion, Lana and the lack of skill involved with the game caused us to get here. For those who are young players, Lana and her friends were not always part of the game. Months ago, there were no strength boosters. Citizens would train everyday and receive a bonus based on their current strength. Citizens at lower strength, would receive a greater bonus and those at higher strength would receive a lesser bonus. The admins claim to have added Lana to the game to help decrease the strength gap between players. However, adding Lana had the opposite effect. The rich got richer and the poor got poorer . Those with higher strength, were the only ones who could afford Lana’s friends. Either they could afford it themselves or they had their governments pay for them. Those with lower strength could not afford it or did not want to spend real life money on it. What would be the point of spending money to try and catch the high strength players, when they are training with Napoleon every day. There is no way the lower players can catch the stronger players, so why spend real life money trying? Therefore, these players kept getting further and further behind until they eventually gave up. Now the question is can the game recover? Will populations eventually rise or will they keep slipping? Is there any hope for the future?
Is there hope?
At this moment, it appears that the future looks bleak. According to all reports coming back from V2 beta, it looks like playing V2 will require a lot of Gold. While final prices are not set yet, the situation does not look good. Today, I urge the V2 creators to think carefully as they set the final prices for things in V2. I understand that this game is a business and you must collect a paycheck, but forcing players to spend Gold is not the way to go about things. To encourage players to spend real life money on this game, make the game have an encouraging environment for all players. If there is an encouraging atmosphere, players will be more likely to give you real life money. Also increasing the number of players playing this game, will increase the likelihood that people will sponsor this game giving you more money. While this is not a quitting article, I am losing hope and a feel that many others are as well. In closing, I would just urge those in charge to think carefully as they finalize V2. Until next time……
Stay thirsty my friends,
Gulden Draak
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Comments
Good article. I'm looking to get out.
V2 won't be the answer, nobody likes the new military module.
requiescat in pace
Agreed
all things die eventually
Since the last battle for Lionking, anti-cheating mechanisms were introduced. Number drops are closely related to that.
Less people fought in LK because they did in RA... I did
Yes its dying. One of the major reasons is that instead of providing gradual improvements to the game, the admin decided to go with the "OH GOD V2 WILL SOLVE ALL" route, which means most people got bored, while the rest will have unreasonable expectations and will join the exodus that is V2 release.
Good article. I'm less concerned about eRep's long-term health than you, but certainly it's in a dip now.
The question to me won't be how V2 fairs over the long run, but how many of those of us in V1 will stick it thru. People detest serious change, life point.
The military mod will be a big change for those heavily vested in the current style, I have no doubt. But newer people entering won't know the difference. Same as the Treasure maps, in example.
If the whole game, across the board, were to shrink to half it's size, but the citizens remaining invested quite a lot of rl money ($20 a month, anyway, idk) my gut says those players will be pretty serious about stuff. Could equally improve game play across the board.
And just talking out loud, offering a possible contrarian point to consider.
I have no doubt we will lose a lot of old-timers, who will have the hardest time making the changes, being vested emotionally in the current system the most/longest.
One reason why there was less attackers is that the battle was China vs Serbia. China having a lower population then USA would account for that disparity. If MPP were involved you would see more people involved in the battle. Just moving will keep most 2 clickers from moving to join the battle on both sides.
ooohh you (EDEN) lost all battles and sudenly game is dying....
erepublik is dying the moment it was born. in fact, everybody is
@Miljan- Serbia, Russia, and Brazil are all decreasing as well. Not just EDEN nations
There is a lot of sense in here, and ofc it is all about the company, not about the community of game-players, i.e. US.
eRep gameplay development has always been patchy, testing outrageously bad, absent, or late. Lana and v2 and treasure maps and what-e-vah have all been a way to reach the holygrail ARPU off the subscriber numbers the VCs were promised.
I think we are past the time when anyone is listening.
Scaling this game has never been on the top of anyones list, we've all seen enough chickens and bad decisions to know that already.
For those whom a free MMOG means just that, its curtains, I think.
For those spending RL cash, you are never reasonably gonna spend whats being biz-planned with no proper analysis.
And for those like me who play on on the move, eg on netbooks, the new game look and feel will be too heavy on graphics to be anything like acceptable.
The whole team, project, and business growth plan needs a re-think.
Sad, harsh...
but true.
Anyway, we are a gaming community, and if this fails us, we'll all find a new place.
And start the whole cycle all over again.
Hoo-rah.
😐
Maybe it's the world cup causing people to ge t away from computer screens maybe its people with a life during summer or maybe it's a sign multis are being cracked down on??
Dos Equis is p good beer imho. XD
Another good article. eRep is notoriously circular, we will continue to see interst wax and wane. Its been like this for as long as I've played. Not sure what V2 will bring though, tbh. I'm a beta tester, have been for weeks. Not all that impressed with it myself.
I enjoy your paper, keep 'em coming dude.
ePopulation is shrinking because of the new multi rules 😉
It's not profitable to keep producing multies, just look at the ePoland...
It's not Lana or boredom, we have that for at least 6 months now...
your paper is the best. why you dont have a media mogul award by now is beyond me. keep writing this stuff. it's great
Everyone who has tested V2 can see that it is going to cause a mass exodus from this game. While the enhancements to other aspects are pretty solid, the war module epically fails.
From my experiences so far, there will no longer be a need for organized armed forces.
You deploy on map chaotically, fight maybe three times if you're lucky (b/c you sustain damage even when the unit your facing is significantly weaker), and if you die you can deploy back into the battlefield sometimes on the front lines.
There are no limits to the chaos that will take place or amount of gold needed for the infinite number of boosters, upgrades, and weapons.
If you think Lana's had a negative effect on the game, just wait until you see what this version is going to do. Not to mention the fact that the battles are time consuming, confusing, and just plain boring.
With that said, keep your articles coming Gulden. You have published some really good work over the past several weeks that I have been reading.
no theyre just deleting the dead and banned accounts. quite a normal thing 😉
v2 could bring a lot more new players as v2 offers more possibilities. erep was quite good but compared to some other browser games, it was quite boring. v2 could bring more action, and not just in a sense of battles and short-term wars 🙂
ill just wait and see 😃
I love your articles 😛 I think a main reason might be because we can't move because of Congress, and last time we didn't have to move at all, some citizens just don't like moving.
Thank you for all the kind words everyone. While I understand that new anti-cheating rules have had some effect, I still believe that players are losing interest. I don't know how it is in other countries, but here in eUSA I have noticed a lot of normal citizens quitting lately. I am afraid that this trend will increase in V2 because of all the Gold we will have to spend to keep up
I could go in depth into this but I won't.
From what I have seen of V2 I will not be playing it when it comes.
I worry about the future of the New World 😕
Another great article.
Great article.
I've been considering leaving for some time now...
>V2 won't be the answer, nobody likes the new military module.
Yeah. It looks like v2 will do more to isolate more new members than improve retention. 🙁
I smell an exodus to vNations.
Great article, as always.
this is a great article. always loving reading it. has anyone started to look into new games or anything like that? pm me or just leave a comment. thx
The reason Gulden is not Media Mogul is become the game has been dying for a while. I'd posit that the game started dying before Lana appeared. It began its spiral when you could buy gold. Lana's arrival only accelerated the death.
The use of RL money to get ahead weakened the strategic planning necessary. Now, there is a glut of gold available (see the amounts spent in last 3 battles by BOTH sides). Instead of the grace of strategically deployed forces and planned attacks, we now have battles that are simply meat grinders. Need to send troops to a foreign country for a war? No problem, it's relatively cheap now. While this is truly not a reality for the younger players, it is for the older of us. And the incentive or challenge to bring up the younger players into the active community has all but disappeared. The cost to bring up younger players (factoring in attrition) is higher than that of bulking up the older.
Enough rambling. The only way to save V2 is to set everyone back at the beginning (level 1), give everyone a chance to choose their starting region, and tie the cost of moving to the overall eRep economy. Of course this spits in the face of those who used RL $ to help their current character.
The main problem with the admin is that they never listen to the players
vote
Even us mercenaries are bored. *sigh* What's on Discovery Channel?
I think a lot of people are busy playing in the V2 beta, but I'll agree... It's all I can do lately just to 2-click and keep up with deployment orders, I'm finding myself increasingly disinterested in eRep. And if what I see in V2 is true, it'll just increase the gap between rich veteran players and those who never had a lucky financial break. And nobody wants to play on an endless treadmill where you get nowhere.
I was thinking the same because of my rapid advancement in citizen ranking. The only answer is that many players are leaving.
This game has been scheming to eat our money from the beginning. It never was a good game, it never was a properly working game. It has all been a scheme.
You think you're getting some training from Lana and *boom* suddenly you're some surprise rearseks from Napoleon.
Everything has been a smokescreen to eat your money.
From Lana, to Treasure Maps, to Hospital rule changes.
V2 is no different. It will not stop. Admins will eat your money until you have no gold left, and you'll be faced with the question:
Buy Gold? or Leave Game?
I hope in everyone's sane and objective decision is to leave the game.
These people are nothing but crooks and thieves disguising themselves as community builders and pretending to care for their users.
I don't think they are crooks, but I do think they aren't experienced or skilled enough (in this narrow sector) to manage their growth and success. Or to have decent interaction with their customers. Biaised mods and laissez-faire attitude to API dev shows this, too.
Interesting to see people looking at new games as an alternative. That's something we could pursue in parallel.
*cough cough*
If some aren't...already 😉
Wait a second, wth is billy?!?
A tad depressing, but probably true. To take an optimistic view, maybe the game will get a boost from the millions of high school students going on summer break here in America.
@Wilders: We can only hope so. Summer boredom is what brought me here.
I've already gotten bored with the beta test...... Not a good sign.
My My! Voted! Thanks for writing such a good article G Draak! I am inclined to hold any decision to leave in abeyance until after I am several months into V2. Who knows, the old dog may learn to like it better just from the challenge of adapting to a different set of mechanics.
loft
It happens with every game people get tired of certain games and just leave/disappear and unfortunately not enough new people. Summer tends to make people dissappear from my experience because everyone is on vacation going outside. Everyone should enjoy the sun and warmth while it last!!!
Once class starts again and cold temp people will wanna find something to do some might come back or we might get a jump with people.
the game is dying!
I think that part of the problem stems from a lack of in-game goals. New players join, see the fancy career chart and get excited. Then, after a week of playing (if they last that long), they realize that the goals that they don't accomplish immediately will take them months to accomplish, if ever. They feel like even two clicking is useless and quit.
v! Nice article. After see the stats of LK, I thought the same. Also, have a look at the huge damage of few players (tanks) comparing with the population: I have counted almost 9M damage only in 200 tanks in the defensive side... 17M in totally. Something is not OK
i shall live forever lol and when you reach 0 wellness you die right
number 700 subscriber
Gulden Draak, think of it this way: we're weeding out all the weaklings. Natural selection big boy.
If it's not dying now, Version 2 will probably kill it stone dead.