Admin Can't Help You
This has been a tears-long trend in posting, but this week I've noticed it more than I've become used to. What's that? The Admin blaming. It's Admin's fault the game is dying. He needs to change the game more often; he needs to advertise more; he needs to encourage dynamic politics; he needs to start at 0 again.
It's allllll about Admin.
Can I point something out--with all due respect to Admin. Aside from creation, this game didn't hit 40,000 nations because of anything Admin did. No advertising, no paid staff, no capital campaign. The server itself indicates that Admin had no idea what he was on to: it crashed monthly and during every major event. The first forum, the first first forum before the Invision free forum was some godawful hideous crap that isn't even archived; why? Because who thought anyone was going to be using it?
Admin doesn't even take credit for the growth of the game. When, at the height of game popularity, Escapist Magazine asked him "What attracts and keeps players in Cyber Nations, and how did you build up such a big community [40,000 nations] in 18 months?" he said exactly what we know: "I think it has something to do with the fact that something is always happening in Cyber Nations. Every time I log in there is something new going on, one group flexing their muscles and on the brink of war, another group trying to keep the peace, another group getting caught for spying on another alliance. ... It's that kind of excitement that seems to drive new players to the game and keep them coming back." (read the rest of the article here)
And that really is what we know. ". . . it has something to do with the fact that something is always happening. . ."
Three years ago, that was the answer to "why is CN growing so fast?" And today it is the answer to the question "why is CN losing ground?"
Game updates--pardon me, denizens of the Suggestion Box--are not exciting. I can count on one hand the number of times I have read the game update log. The Trade Calculator, which had been needed for years, was in-game for months before I knew it had been added. For nations with a metric ass-tonne of money, there is nothing amazing about a new wonder. Dropout newbs, believe me, would not give a damn if there was a new resource.
In fact, the only thing that Admin has done that majorly bummed me out is when he removed the whoooooooosh-BOOM! sound effect from the cruise missile attack screen. When I was getting ground into hamburger during the Unjust War, turtling before we called it turtling with no way to retaliate except CMs, it was soooooo satisfying to hear that noise.
As far as I know, the bugs have been worked out, the game works, it's a better game than it was in 2007. The simple fact of the matter is that we have lost population during the period of innovation. Navies, moon bases, ecstacy-tablet resource icon, trade calculator--none of those things stopped a decline in nations. Why would anyone sit around and say that more of those things would bring more people? We know by observation of reality that that is a false assertion.
We know by observation of reality that the thing that brings players is ". . .something is always happening. . ."
The decline in playership is the decline of the players themselves. You're fat and decadent. You're self-absorbed. The 4k NS nations of 2007 had nothing to lose in a month-long super global war; at least nothing that they couldn't get back in 2 weeks of peace. Get out of your hallowed halls of imperious supernations; this is a nation-building game. Grind your nations down and you will have to rebuild them again, you'll have to play again. Fight wars without epic earth-shattering consequences or stakes, and your friends have a reason to join and fight for fun, too.
Do something, fatasses.
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