Original news article: Schnurrbart: Framtidens eRepublik Published in Sweden.
The activity among browser based games has dropped significantly in recent years.
In order to understand the situation it’s enough to see at the game statistics from Tribal Wars, Supremacy1914, AstroEmpires, The West, Runescape or Habbo Hotel which also seems to close its nordic server this month. All these major browser-based games had between 3000-6000 active and dedicated Swedish players. But in recent years they have lost well over half of their dedicated players and new players don’t register as often as before.
It is required that both players and developers have a vision for the future for the company to be able to avoid a bankruptcy. (The fundamental idea of supply vs demand / investments)
The decreased activity among browser based games is caused partly because of the normal imprinting of the game world: Younger generations rather prefer console games, Facebook-games gain popularity, players rather buy one time cost games, there are better computers at cheaper price and the FPS genre is growing stronger each day, while the RTS genre's popularity is decreasing.
Several underlying causes for the decline in activity are found in the browser games themselves: All updates that have made the games unfriendly for beginners, for example by constantly increasing difficulty in order to make progress/grind and the changes in the economy to try to grab every single coin the players' have.
The older community may also have distanced themselves from beginners. It is not as effective to provide support in the form of money, materials or weapons, as it is to provide support in the form of an attempt at a friendship, which the more experienced group of players probably have created over the years.
I've experienced the last cause in my community outside of eRepublik. I have sometimes felt that it is difficult to always give a warm welcome to newbies when you've done it so many times before and seen your attempts almost always fail. It has also been a lack of resources, managers and knowledge when it comes to how to deal with new players.
The part of integration is not responsibility a newbie can have alone. The reception that beginners get when they attempt to integrate themselves into the community has a great significance. When experienced players behave arrogantly towards beginners they are obviously counterproductive.
However, it is Plato himself who is the greatest threat to eRepublik. Plato must choose between having a dying group of elite players or regain a larger group of mediocre players before it is too late to make a decision.
TL;DR:
I suggest the boycotting of Plato to stop his self-harming behavior before it's too late.
Force Plato to listen by intensifying the diplomatic communications to act against Plato. Governments should propagate to their citizens that they should lower the amount of money they spend on the game. Not to make Plato go bankrupt, but to force him to listen on the players.
Join the Anti-Platonic movement.
Relevant articles:
XxVan HelsingxX: Proposals to change the economic module
Radsoc: A party of a new type! Power to the players!
The individual's welfare is the peoples welfare. Peoples' welfare is the state's welfare.
Please forgive my poor English grammar.
Edited by Wilhelm Strasse, 11 April 2015 - 01:40 AM.
