Giving back to Planet Bob
Entry posted by Lord Hitchcock
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I want to acquire some ideas for an initiative Monsters Inc is planning- and one that gives back to Planet Bob.
Our members are in the lower tier and fortunately for us, we pack enough wonders to war forever while having fun. And we do care about the community.
Members here, whether it's a micro or sanctioned alliance, color dominate or neutral, we all feed off the community to some extent; and we all know the numbers in cyber nations are dying. I can't tell you how many threads (Dajobo had a great discussion on this, except the lack of specifics really made it hard to fully suppor) / discussions / ideas have been tossed around and to no avail, there haven't been any significant results.
The Apathy Report made a great informative piece on this matter a while back and here is a cliff-noted summary:
1) Less number of new players joining.
2) The number of new players joining are not staying.
Now the second one is one that really gets me, if you think about it, of 20 new nations joining, I'd dare say maybe 1 sticks it out for a year. Based on this, there are things that we can control, things that we should control. And Monsters Inc is going to attempt this very initiative by protecting new, unaligned nations from raiding. Now of course, I understand that larger nations raid for land, and alliance ghost bust; and those actions serve a purpose. It's the three week old, no war chest noob eating nukes that is the concern. So here's where it currently is:
Criteria for protection from raiding:
1) Nation is less than one year old- make it here a year and it gives a ruler enough time to understand and enjoy the mechanics that we all love.
2) Nation is equal to or less than 15k NS- 99% of unaligned nations are below 10k, if a nation unaligned makes it to 15k and less than a year old, then they have an idea of game mechanics.
3) Nation is unaligned or in an alliance of 5 or less (majority of those members being less than 1 year old).
And I think these are all reasonable circumstances. Of course there will be an argument of "that's what alliances are for" or "our alliance will make our own rules" or my personal favorite "if m inc wants to give back to planet bob, disband immediately" (haha petro, beat you to it!).
On a more serious note, this would work. In the sense of improving the compounding decline of player retention.
A couple more ideas: Having larger alliances support the initiative, not monetarily per say, but pledging not to ping new nations, and make it a community movement. And by making it a community initiative, I even thought about if anyone wanted to make a google doc, something we could pitch out to the victims, explaining which alliances are which, difference between neutrals and non, and perhaps even a welcome to planet bob.
I am completely open to thoughts and suggestions on this matter. There is plenty of time before the end of the current war and lots of time to really make this a community voice and I look forward to working with you. Cheers!
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