How important is an alliance's theme?

Athens gained Banned Member because of our theme. sigh.

On a scale of 1 to Not At All, I think I'd go with Not At All.

I didn't join MK when it was formed because of its theme.

Answer is C, its always C

Very, without that initial attraction you can't make much of a connection.

Depends on the situation. Attracting experienced players, it's not very important. I didn't join MK because of the "mario" theme at all. However new players might find this attractive and apply solely based on that.

To most old timers, it's not that important at all. However, in the grand scheme of things, it can help recruiting, because it can rally in more people who are new to the game.

Firstly, I think there is a distinction between theme and culture. Theme is not important. You can have a successful group without a theme. If you lack some type and some level of a culture, you'll never have an interesting community, and you will fail.

Sparta. 300=recruiting godsend

Have a theme? Good. Don't have one? Also good. Both can be made to work, as Lord Boris said, it's the culture of an alliance that really dictates if it lives or dies. Themes are nice, and they do indeed help attract new players, but that's not really a determinant of how well the alliance will fare and can be done without quite handily.

Me being a LOVER of Wolves, Wolfpacks Theme was perfect for me. My wife is Cherrokee and our house is decorated with wolf stuff. We even have a Wolf

The Answer is clearly 42, 15,498 or 15,532.

As long as it's not a Star Wars theme, your alliance is on the fast track to the it list.

-Bama

Theme isn't that important, but it can help create the unique culture of your alliance.

A theme for an alliance simply makes it easier to create a culture. Sometimes.

There is no "need" for a theme in an alliance, it's the culture that matters, especially with older nations. However, having a theme can make it easier to develop a culture (as most people who join will already have something in common other than being humans, or AI bots, whichever the case may be...), but sometimes you don't need to make it easier.

I agree with this. Culture is important, and most themes are lame anyway (and I know something about lame themes).

A theme is only important for making unfunny jokes and annoying announcements including it, so not very much imo.

This.

Personally I feel theme and culture are both rather important. Those are the qualities I look for on a game when I look for an alliance.

I'd say the theme is only important so you can make announcements with lots of references to your theme. It might encourage new players to join. But as time goes on, its the culture that becomes more important, and the relationships you forge with other alliance members.

I chose my alliance based on the fact I like a RP an umbrella.

I would actually have to say that a theme is important. Your theme gives a peek of what your alliance is and what it can do.
Your theme also can make your alliance memorable, like MK (Mario), Athens (History), New Sith Order (Sci-fi and Star Wars).

All of these will be remembered by everyone. Mostly because of the theme and people in charge.
So, if you:

a) Are a good leader, +1 because you could lead your alliance to victory of some sort
c) Have a good theme, another +1 because if it's good, you may have a memorable alliance

I hope I made a little sense here >.> <.<

Not very. It provides us a bit of material for when we want to make a photoshop, that's about it.

A theme can be a useful 'draw' but, as Boris intimated, without a community/culture to back it up, it's meaningless.

Doesnt matter if you have one or not. I think it makes you more interesting if you do tho. Like NSO, to me thats interesting or my own alliance The Dark Brotherhood, completely made to match it in the Oblivion game. It makes it more fun and like Ivan III said, makes ppl remember you better. To me, an alliance without some sort of theme is pretty boring and unimaginative.

A theme to me isn't important its how close your community is inside the alliance.

depends on whether it's a popular theme and how strictly they stick with it.

Sparta and athens and all them probably gained a hell of a lot because of their theme. NSO may have, but they gained more out of who runs it than anything else, it's important if it's something everyone recognizes and if it's something that everyone generally has a positive view on.

It's not so important in every other case. Hmm.. I guess you can say it can help, but it's not anything that will make or break you.

Not really at all.

Honestly, I didn't join MK because ~MARIO~ or anything silly like that, and I wouldn't join anyone else for similar reasons. Also, many good alliances have no discernible theme; see Umbrella, for instance.

The theme is important to new players, but usually not to old players. I joined IAA, but I have never seen Star Wars. Unless Family Guy's Blue Moon counts.

Anyway, a new player might be attracted to a 300, Star Wars, or Mario alliance, but old players tend to decide using the people.

Therefore...

Importance for new players = 67%
Importance for experienced players = 2%*

*May have a 2% margin of error.

Don't you wish, from time to time, that you could have back the naivety at how PB functioned that we all had when we first started playing?

I joined the Marmot Kingdom because of my love for all things Marmot.

Theme and culture allow alliances to seperate themselves form an other alliance. You will find alliances with a strong, tasteful theme will succeed far more often then generic alliances that shun these ideas. Alliances that take there theme and just use it to make references in treaty announcements are underestimating the potential their theme ideas may have. Plus, ntohing creates more loyalty to an alliance more than a shared interest in theme and/or culture.

Unfortunately, as you can see from some of the posts here, my sentiments are not shared by everyone and theme continues to be an undervalued aspect of an alliance.

But do you own the most important of the wolf-based accessories?



I am truly jealous...

I doubt there's anyone in MK who DIDN'T join because of the Mario Theme.

I thought this was the Marmot Kingdom....

Dear Christ,

WHAT HAVE I DONE?!!?


Anyone with a theme leaning towards the Xerinae family of animals, please contact me. I need a new alliance as soon as possible; Mario themes are dumb.

When I was new, I joined GPA because it was the "hippy" alliance.

I didn't join MK because of the theme, though it didn't hurt.

Do you have one of those awesome wolf shirts? DAMMIT skones beat me to it

I figure theme can be a factor more so for players new to the game when they're considering an alliance (I mean, alliance theme probably attracted quite a few new players to Sparta when 300 was big, and likely still does, for example).

Then again, theme played no part in me joining the NPO when I first started playing (I joined them because I was on red and because they were the big red team alliance) nor when I joined MK (I joined them because it's where most of the other jrcommers migrated to).

No doubt that shirt will get you laid within 5 minutes of putting it on.

You mean Umbrella isn't a Resident Evil themed alliance?

God, what a letdown.

No, it isn't. Our military divisions are named after Resident Evil things, but that was a later addition. No Rihanna either.