Ideas on Revitalizing CN

[Alterego]

Disband GOD is a good place to start.

[leprecon]

I think this is a problem with the game in itself.
Let me start off by going through the lifespan of a noob joining this game:

[list]
[*] Hey look, a simulation game, looks like fun.
[*] Cool, my government can have positions on political ideas.
[*] Hey, look at that, I have got a message saying I should join x.
[*] Mmhh.. another recruitment message from Y.
[*] And now A,B,C, and D have sent me recruitment messages.
[*] Lets get back to the game and buy some land so that my nation looks bigger on the map!
[*] No real advancements or interactions with others. Looks like this is a numbers game...
[/list]
Now this is where people lose interest. The sim game turns out to be a numbers game and about as interesting as accounting.
Now there are two options;
[list=1]
[*] This game is boring, bye.
[*] Let's go and talk to this recruiter over here.
[/list]
This is a politics simulator in my opinion. The people that play this game right are the ones who are interested in helping out your own alliance, protecting friends or advancing a political goal. See a couple of posts above me; "Disband GOD is a good place to start.". That is why people play. What got me interested in politics over nation building was when VE was attacked by GGA a long long time ago. If this hadn't happened I would have quit this boring infra farming game. [b]The majority of this game is played in chatrooms, on these forums, and on alliance forums.[/b] The least part of this game is going to www.cybernations.net and collecting taxes, finding trades (which also happens outside of the game). As a matter of fact, the people that only go to www.cybernations.net to play the game are considered to be the people who are least active and least interested in the game.

When you are just starting to play you don't want to learn how to use IRC. You don't want to join some guys alliance. You don't want to play politics, you want to create a nation and buy land. That is what this game says it should be on the tin.

[b]TL;DR:[/b] people come expecting a nation simulation game, turns out that cybernations is actually a community based politics simulator.

I think this game can only be saved by integrating the community into the game and by recognizing that this isn't a nation building game. Either turning it into a nation building game or turning it into an actual politics simulator. With integrating I would mean that an alliance would have a list of treaties on cybernations.net, or you would automatically be in your alliance's private chatroom by being on cybernations.net. Maybe having a sort of alliance message system in game. I've always found it surprising that the only part of the game on cybernations.net that concerns itself with alliances is that you can set your AA to anything you want.

Edited August 9, 2011 by leprecon

[Hyperion321]

[quote name='The Eye' timestamp='1312837508' post='2775193']
Remember, your ideas are more likely to have an impact if you post them in the [url=http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?showforum=57]Suggestion Box[/url].
[/quote]
Not to be rude, but our suggestions are for the most part ignored, and have been ignored for years. That's kind of why this thread is necessary.

edit: grammar.

Edited August 10, 2011 by Hyperion321

[OrangeBeard]

[quote name='Hyperion321' timestamp='1312939556' post='2776290']
Not to be rude, but our suggestions are for the most part ignored, and have been ignored for years. That's kind of why this thread is necessary.

edit: grammar.
[/quote]
A nicer version of what I said.


[quote name='leprecon' timestamp='1312899723' post='2775832']
I think this is a problem with the game in itself.
Let me start off by going through the lifespan of a noob joining this game:

[list]
[*] Hey look, a simulation game, looks like fun.
[*] Cool, my government can have positions on political ideas.
[*] Hey, look at that, I have got a message saying I should join x.
[*] Mmhh.. another recruitment message from Y.
[*] And now A,B,C, and D have sent me recruitment messages.
[*] Lets get back to the game and buy some land so that my nation looks bigger on the map!
[*] No real advancements or interactions with others. Looks like this is a numbers game...
[/list]
Now this is where people lose interest. The sim game turns out to be a numbers game and about as interesting as accounting.
Now there are two options;
[list=1]
[*] This game is boring, bye.
[*] Let's go and talk to this recruiter over here.
[/list]
This is a politics simulator in my opinion. The people that play this game right are the ones who are interested in helping out your own alliance, protecting friends or advancing a political goal. See a couple of posts above me; "Disband GOD is a good place to start.". That is why people play. What got me interested in politics over nation building was when VE was attacked by GGA a long long time ago. If this hadn't happened I would have quit this boring infra farming game. [b]The majority of this game is played in chatrooms, on these forums, and on alliance forums.[/b] The least part of this game is going to www.cybernations.net and collecting taxes, finding trades (which also happens outside of the game). As a matter of fact, the people that only go to www.cybernations.net to play the game are considered to be the people who are least active and least interested in the game.

When you are just starting to play you don't want to learn how to use IRC. You don't want to join some guys alliance. You don't want to play politics, you want to create a nation and buy land. That is what this game says it should be on the tin.

[b]TL;DR:[/b] people come expecting a nation simulation game, turns out that cybernations is actually a community based politics simulator.

I think this game can only be saved by integrating the community into the game and by recognizing that this isn't a nation building game. Either turning it into a nation building game or turning it into an actual politics simulator. With integrating I would mean that an alliance would have a list of treaties on cybernations.net, or you would automatically be in your alliance's private chatroom by being on cybernations.net. Maybe having a sort of alliance message system in game. I've always found it surprising that the only part of the game on cybernations.net that concerns itself with alliances is that you can set your AA to anything you want.
[/quote]

I think there's a lot of truth in what you said, actually. The reason my first nation went inactive/ I lost interest was because my alliance went inactive, our community was boring, I wasn't on irc a lot, and basically the game itself is boooooring.

This round I'm on irc a lot, more active in my alliance, and I at least monitor world events on the OWF, occasionally posting like this. Its definitely a community game, which should be advertised more than the fact that you create your own nation.

[Ejayrazz]

Lots of people talking. Let's see which alliance will begin making the move, because as of now the only thing we can do is use what resources we have.

[kingly]

i know its kinda out there, but what if the community came together to buy the game from admin and get it under new management, one that will give us the long needed upgrades?

[Ironfist]

[quote name='The Eye' timestamp='1312837508' post='2775193']
Remember, your ideas are more likely to have an impact if you post them in the [url="http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?showforum=57"]Suggestion Box[/url].
[/quote]

If by impact you mean a nice read on a Sunday afternoon, sure. We can have our coffee, musing over some new ideas, and then forget them like an old newspaper.

[OrangeBeard]

Kingly you a fan of getting banned
I dont think that will solve any problems, honestly. Whos going to make those updates? Cut the guy some slack, its not like he expected it to grow this big at all. Changing game mechanics would take months, maybe even years. I work in the gaming industry, slightly different, but I know it can take a long time to update platforms, basic math and AI functions, responsive mechanics, etc. And we have teams working on that, all day, months on end.

If you're serious about this buying thing, which Im not sure anyone even has the money for, buy the services of someone extremely familiar with browser games, techy stuff, game mechanics, etc and have him work with admim and our suggestions in updating the game. THAT is something Id donate money too. If we're the ones supporting it then admin may go for it - maybe even a super special bonus for every 10 bucks you chip in to this fund. People would probably go for it.

[Prime minister Johns]

[quote name='leprecon' timestamp='1312899723' post='2775832']
I think this is a problem with the game in itself.
Let me start off by going through the lifespan of a noob joining this game:

[list]
[*] Hey look, a simulation game, looks like fun.
[*] Cool, my government can have positions on political ideas.
[*] Hey, look at that, I have got a message saying I should join x.
[*] Mmhh.. another recruitment message from Y.
[*] And now A,B,C, and D have sent me recruitment messages.
[*] Lets get back to the game and buy some land so that my nation looks bigger on the map!
[*] No real advancements or interactions with others. Looks like this is a numbers game...
[/list]
Now this is where people lose interest. The sim game turns out to be a numbers game and about as interesting as accounting.
Now there are two options;
[list=1]
[*] This game is boring, bye.
[*] Let's go and talk to this recruiter over here.
[/list]
This is a politics simulator in my opinion. The people that play this game right are the ones who are interested in helping out your own alliance, protecting friends or advancing a political goal. See a couple of posts above me; "Disband GOD is a good place to start.". That is why people play. What got me interested in politics over nation building was when VE was attacked by GGA a long long time ago. If this hadn't happened I would have quit this boring infra farming game. [b]The majority of this game is played in chatrooms, on these forums, and on alliance forums.[/b] The least part of this game is going to www.cybernations.net and collecting taxes, finding trades (which also happens outside of the game). As a matter of fact, the people that only go to www.cybernations.net to play the game are considered to be the people who are least active and least interested in the game.

When you are just starting to play you don't want to learn how to use IRC. You don't want to join some guys alliance. You don't want to play politics, you want to create a nation and buy land. That is what this game says it should be on the tin.

[b]TL;DR:[/b] people come expecting a nation simulation game, turns out that cybernations is actually a community based politics simulator.

I think this game can only be saved by integrating the community into the game and by recognizing that this isn't a nation building game. Either turning it into a nation building game or turning it into an actual politics simulator. With integrating I would mean that an alliance would have a list of treaties on cybernations.net, or you would automatically be in your alliance's private chatroom by being on cybernations.net. Maybe having a sort of alliance message system in game. I've always found it surprising that the only part of the game on cybernations.net that concerns itself with alliances is that you can set your AA to anything you want.
[/quote]
I would just like to add that if we actually RPed alliances & blocs as having agendas that stretch beyond making their numbers bigger than everyone else's numbers then it might be far more exciting.

If we had alliances from every part of the political spectrum RPing those ideologies to the hilt then it would be a recipe for never ending drama which as we all know is the grease on the axle that CN revolves on.

[New Carnoly]

[quote name='Tigerking' timestamp='1311754297' post='2765044']
I always liked the idea of having a giant, multialliance offsite recruiting contest, where alliances could compete to recruit people both to CN and to their own alliance. It creates an incentive for the alliances to participate, I would think. the process, I would think.
[/quote]

I think that that is a great idea to be honest, but there would need to be some way of getting the idea out to people. People who do not play CN would not just randomly appear at the contest. There would need to be some advertising on TV by Admin. also, it might attract new players to CN quickly, but how long until it just fades out again? There has not been a change to the game(major that is) in as long as i can remember. The game is really a two click game. Come, pay your bills, collect taxed if your backcollection is done and then there is nothing to do after that. I think honestly the only thing to save the game would be a major change in game mechanics.

[Alterego]

How about turning CN into a club that invades other worlds and builds alliances called "Planet Bob" with thousands of members? Take 13 alliance leaders and turn them into the Council of Cybernations. This council will lead an alliance of thousands of members using their CN names to conquer other worlds. The council will vote on all matters.

We can use our CN know how of deception, spying, log dumps, manipulation and total war to kill or conquer other games. We can keep Planet bob ticking over as our alliance forums and open up new private sections for long term CN players only to make sure we dont get infiltrated by other games.

We can still play politics and war games here but turn standard edition into tournament edition game. All allies having a bit of fun while focusing of conquering there other games. If we take our hatred of each other and direct it outward to other worlds in the cyberverse the way NPO did (without the hate)when they originally came here we should be able to squash all comers.

Can you imagine a game where we have spies in every single major alliance in that game feeding information back to a spy master on the Council and Agent Provocateurs inside the same alliances with a different agenda while having a main alliance taking sides based on the intel and pushing alliances the way we want them to go with our other agents.

Edited August 13, 2011 by Alterego

[Sylar]

[quote name='greco' timestamp='1312503734' post='2772198']
I actually agree with blacky after 5 years on bob it's not so much fun to rebuild it would make use of banking nations again... Haunt seen the use for a bank nation in years.
The losses are so much greater that I lost intrest in rebuilding ( was over 9 k tech). I deff given up on that

1 thing I always wanted to know was how many times I have actually been nukes
A nuke count would be great ( as the casualty count is )
I say put losses count in for everything infa as TE
And tech losses give us a badge of honor
[/quote]

this really needs to happen, also the game could use some advertising of some kind.

come on Kevin you used to work at google,apple, and the bbc you can forget about CN.[img]http://forums.cybernations.net/public/style_emoticons/default/awesome.gif[/img]

[greenacres]

The writing's on the wall here, guys. We're all sitting in the same boat waiting to be rescued, talking into a little box or radio or what have you, hoping that someone will hear our suggestions, and in some cases our pleas. We do this because we think we're going to be heard, we assume that there's someone on the other side of that little box or radio, taking note of what the people want and are in need of, but there's no one on the other side. There's no one listening to your ideas, and it's been that way for a long, long time.

[Sardonic]

The way forward is obviously for somebody to make an interface, complete with graphics and animation, so that people can play CN from a Facebook App. It could very easily be huge if the presentation was clean enough.

[Sigrun Vapneir]

[quote name='Charles Stuart' timestamp='1311768459' post='2765130']
More mergers, less protectorates and micros. The issue isn't people joining the game because people continue to sign up, the issue is people remaining in the game, people stick around for the sense of community found in an alliance. It's sad to say but larger alliances have larger and better developed communities than smaller ones.
[/quote]

I think you have it exactly backwards. Many new nations are created here every week. They are spammed silly so it's safe to say they know about the big alliances, where they can go if they want to completely abdicate the role of nation ruler and let someone else make every decision for them. The best communities here are small and tight-knit, and the people in them usually did not just join in response to a spam right after they created, they spent months or years learning the scene and finding a place where they fit.

The game is advertised as a nation simulator, where you take the role of a nation leader. My humble suggestion to improve retention rates would be to let people that sign up for that game play that game, rather than raiding them out of existence or force-recruiting them. It's no wonder most leave, just based on the way the 'community' here treats the unaligned.

Edit: Also, this thread like every other thread on the subject is full of absolutely horrible and counterproductive ideas and I dont mean to pick on you personally. But I am very glad admin doesnt pay attention to these threads, or to the suggestion box. Better by far for him to never change the game again in any way than to implement most of the suggestions I have read.

Edited August 14, 2011 by Sigrun Vapneir

[Bob Janova]

[quote name='Sardonic' timestamp='1313360724' post='2780817']
The way forward is obviously for somebody to make an interface, complete with graphics and animation, so that people can play CN from a Facebook App. It could very easily be huge if the presentation was clean enough.
[/quote]
I'm not sure CN has a short enough time frame to appeal to the obsessive-click gaming demographic that seems to like Facebook games. Graphics and particularly animations take a lot of time to create but it might be worth Admin's time having a crack at that.

[zzzptm]

I'm not going to re-read all the thread, but if anyone suggested ponies are a way to revitalize the game, he's on my list.

That is all.

[HeroofTime55]

[quote name='zzzptm' timestamp='1313366813' post='2780932']
I'm not going to re-read all the thread, but if anyone suggested ponies are a way to revitalize the game, he's on my list.

That is all.
[/quote]
I love how everyone happily !@#$%*es about the problem on a bi-monthly basis, but the instant someone does something to help bring in fresh blood, he is instantly attacked, in a very OOC way, by so many people, for what he did.

Perhaps you need to re-evaluate if you really care about this situation, or if you just want CN to die.

(PS: CN isn't dying. Every community declines, but it hardly means it's dead, it just means it isn't the latest fad on the internet anymore. CN is going to keep going until admin decides he's had enough of us all and pulls the plug.)

Edited August 17, 2011 by HeroofTime55

[Melancholy Culkin]

[quote name='HeroofTime55' timestamp='1313542667' post='2782509']
I love how everyone happily !@#$%*es about the problem on a bi-monthly basis, but the instant someone does something to help bring in fresh blood, he is instantly attacked, in a very OOC way, by so many people, for what he did.

Perhaps you need to re-evaluate if you really care about this situation, or if you just want CN to die.

(PS: CN isn't dying. Every community declines, but it hardly means it's dead, it just means it isn't the latest fad on the internet anymore. CN is going to keep going until admin decides he's had enough of us all and pulls the plug.)
[/quote]

You present a unique situation.

[HeroofTime55]

Right.

Every time a WN/WS group comes around, you all cry that we have to "leave OOC out of the game" [size="1"](Note: I don't disagree with this)[/size] but, you know, god forbid some people show up who have the sheer audacity to enjoy a cartoon! They must be done away with!

[New Frontier]

[quote name='HeroofTime55' timestamp='1313548770' post='2782572']
Right.

Every time a WN/WS group comes around, you all cry that we have to "leave OOC out of the game" [size="1"](Note: I don't disagree with this)[/size] but, you know, god forbid some people show up who have the sheer audacity to enjoy a cartoon! They must be done away with!
[/quote]
How old are you?

[HeroofTime55]

[quote name='New Frontier' timestamp='1313548906' post='2782574']
How old are you?
[/quote]
You really would like to know? I'm 22. And a lot of the people who just came over share that demographic with me. I didn't bring in an army of 12-year-olds, if that's what you're worried about. We're old and intelligent. In other words, the sort of people who could positively contribute to the community.

But, of course, none of that matters since we happen to enjoy a cartoon!

[Melancholy Culkin]

[quote name='HeroofTime55' timestamp='1313549113' post='2782579']
You really would like to know? I'm 22. And a lot of the people who just came over share that demographic with me. I didn't bring in an army of 12-year-olds, if that's what you're worried about. We're old and intelligent. In other words, the sort of people who could positively contribute to the community.

But, of course, none of that matters since we happen to enjoy a cartoon!
[/quote]

You actually just confirmed all of our fears.

[Hereno]

I mean honestly the bronies aren't that bad. I know more than I'd admit to IRL and they're some of the most intelligent people I know. Once you get over the "holy $%&@ I'm watching MLP" factor, the cartoon isn't that bad. I mean hell, there are Dr. Who references and everything. As long as HoT's buddies don't turn into /b/ 3.0 (which I'm sure they won't), I don't really see what the problem with bringing 50+ new players is. They're not pedos or furries or anything dreadful like that. I mean honestly, [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauren_Faust]Lauren Faust[/url] is very good at her job. Look at that record.

tl;dr Hate on HoT IC for being HoT IC if you so desire, but I've heard way too much whining and !@#$%*ing about the ponies.

Edited August 17, 2011 by Hereno

[Melancholy Culkin]

[quote name='Hereno' timestamp='1313559054' post='2782683']
I mean honestly the bronies aren't that bad. I know more than I'd admit to IRL and they're some of the most intelligent people I know. Once you get over the "holy $%&@ I'm watching MLP" factor, the cartoon isn't that bad. I mean hell, there are Dr. Who references and everything. As long as HoT's buddies don't turn into /b/ 3.0 (which I'm sure they won't), I don't really see what the problem with bringing 50+ new players is. They're not pedos or furries or anything dreadful like that. I mean honestly, [url=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lauren_Faust]Lauren Faust[/url] is very good at her job. Look at that record.

tl;dr Hate on HoT IC for being HoT IC if you so desire, but I've heard way too much whining and !@#$%*ing about the ponies.
[/quote]

I mean personally, (OOC reasons aside) as long as they don't spew their pony !@#$ everywhere and contain it to announcements then I could really care less. It's just fun to see everyone's reactions :>