Shouldering the Burden

[Bad JuJu]

I can't tell anyone I know I play CN (for over 3 years now!) because then they would see that I was in FAN and to what lengths I have acted on their behalf in the past and all I would ever hear is "You're mean hrrrrrrrr" when in real life I'm a 44 year old father of 2 who is very active in my sons scouting and a fairly liberal person overall.

Edited January 18, 2010 by Bad JuJu

[Hyperbad]

I've spoken to a few people about the game but they all end up with a puzzled look on their face like I stopped speaking english. Most of them then laugh and say it's to much, I need to get a life or something. I did manage to recruit a coworker back around May who joined WAPA but he was never into it, still isn't. He can't be bothered to read anything on the forums and so feels the game lacks any sort of purpose. I've tried to get some girlfriends into the game but when they ask for your help on how to delete a file or how to make a web browser bigger (maximize it), expectations aren't running very high.

In the end I stopped talking about the game let alone recommending it. Most people I know just aren't very aware of politics or foreign relations but are more into other things. It would take to long to explain basic concepts the community feels then the actual issues for it to be worthwhile, not to mention I'd have to repeat myself endlessly because they forgot.

I'd talk about it on facebook I guess but my relatives are on my friends list and I face palm enough as is.

[TheyCallMeJeezy]

I got my girlfriend to start a nation almost a year and a half ago...she likes buying things so I figured buying infrastructure and being my tech farm would keep her happy.

Now she's all like "i want improvements and wonders", she also likes changing her nation bio a lot. I've created a monster.

[Thorgrum]

I told 2 or 3 friends its a nice way to kill a lunch break (creating a nation) and have some fun, one of them I think still has one. Playing the game is a different thing entirely. That would entail spending hours on IRC and committing the largest crime in human history, wasting time. Creating nations is easy, playing the game entails contacts and or being in the right channel at the right time when some chuckle head goes off. Plenty of people can create a nation but the game is dying, the cancer is IRC and the little cabal of people who have been in the game for years.

Sure the game could be made more dynamic I suppose with features, but it is what it is. As an entertainment source if it wasnt for the OWF and some of the shens here it would be pretty boring, it largely is already (collecting taxes every 20 days is a 10 second hoot though). So sure Schatt i'll tell those guys again to create a nation, but they wont play the game really, its huge waste of time.

[Alfred von Tirpitz]

If the guys i talked to of CN were to join, i am pretty sure we would all get deleted and banned. Same network

[Doitzel]

I tried on my friends. They don't see the appeal. I don't push the issue with anyone, ever. I like to keep my RL separate from here.

[Asriel Belacqua]

I got my girlfriend to start a nation almost a year and a half ago...she likes buying things so I figured buying infrastructure and being my tech farm would keep her happy.

Now she's all like "i want improvements and wonders", she also likes changing her nation bio a lot. I've created a monster.

I hate how that happens... You expect someone to join the game and be a good little tech farm, and then they go all DEVELOPED COUNTRY on you. Shame on them.

Edited January 18, 2010 by Asriel Belacqua

[Starcraftmazter]

real life friends

Say who now? You lost me there mate

In my experience it is difficult to convince people to play CN and/or explain why it is a worthy waste of time. It is easier to do it to people who are interested in politics - but even then, they may get bored.

[Uralica]

I hate how that happens... You expect someone to join the game and be a good little tech farm, and then they go all DEVELOPED COUNTRY on you. Shame on them.

In the case of the guy I recruited, he was more like a foot soldier than a tech farm (Besides, I was still tech-selling size myself). He actually joined hoping it would be more like SuperPower 2.

Also, the guy who got me into CN via his music website (he's in WF) is kinda lazy when it comes to nation-building. I've only had this current nation since 27 July of last year, he's had his since Christmas of '06, and I'm bigger than he is

http://www.cybernations.net/nation_drill_d...Nation_ID=84729

If he tried to get me to be his tech farm, I'd be more like, "get lost, Bovril Boy!" (inside joke, long boring story that no one wants to hear )

Edited January 18, 2010 by Uralica

[Asriel Belacqua]

In the case of the guy I recruited, he was more like a foot soldier than a tech farm (Besides, I was still tech-selling size myself). He actually joined hoping it would be more like SuperPower 2.

Also, the guy who got me into CN via his music website (he's in WF) is kinda lazy when it comes to nation-building. I've only had this current nation since 27 July of last year, he's had his since Christmas of '06, and I'm bigger than he is

http://www.cybernations.net/nation_drill_d...Nation_ID=84729

If he tried to get me to be his tech farm, I'd be more like, "get lost, Bovril Boy!" (inside joke, long boring story that no one wants to hear )

That nation is just barely smaller than mine and I've been here since... August of '06. Size means nothing!

[Beaver Death God]

That nation is just barely smaller than mine and I've been here since... August of '06. Size means nothing!

Quite intriguing.

[Asriel Belacqua]

Quite intriguing.

Just goes to show that friends>Infra is a statement that is actually believed by some people. *cough*

Also, my friend joined and went all developed country on me... He's bigger than me now.

[Tomcat]

I try to avoid letting anyone know that I play this terrible, terrible game.

Bingo. I'd be embarrassed if anybody I knew IRL found out i waste my time here.

[Dagrr]

I briefly mentioned CN on yspilots and offered some game money to anyone who wanted to join. Didn't get any takers, but I didn't try all that hard either.

Told my old GF about CN once and I got a weird look. Haven't mentioned it to any nonplayers in RL ever since. I suppose that could change though; I once considered writing a paper about CN.

[Mayzie]

So far I've convinced six of my RL friends to join 1TF. I've not tried out these new invite friends functions though and probably wont do on Facebook due to work people on there.

[JWConner]

I was actually "recruited" into CN by my former roommate. We each played for close to a year together before we stopped living together, and with that, he actually quit playing. A year and a half later, I'm still here.

As for recruiting my RL friends...yeah, not so much. I used to make fun of people who played online games. Now that I'm one of them, I kinda keep it to myself. No need to incorporate my RL with my CN life.

[Turbomammoth]

Must agree with some peoples here:

I'd prefer any day to plea "Porn" rather than "CN" if ever I was caught on work hours.

[Nintenderek]

Way back when I originally found this game, even before I got into the alliances and forums and all the stuff that actually makes this game fun, I told several RL friends who had also played that other game with me about CN, just because CN had war and that other game didn't. Those friends actually got into the alliances and forum stuff before I did, several of which became alliance leaders and what not, while I couldn't figure out how to get the forums of most alliances to work. 2 years later, I finally start to get into what really makes this game fun, just as they started to fade out of the game a bit. These days, they don't play any more, but they still ask me about stuff in CN from time to time, just to see how everyone is doing.

[ModusOperandi]

What a wonderful discussion.

By my logic, the obvious method suffering most is the recruitment link.

Tell me, honestly, aside from a few of us who have been successful in getting one or two real-life friends involved, our biggest weakness is the fact that we are a text-based browser game.

To get people interested, we have to appeal to their sense of sight; this means having a Big Bang of illustrative, entertaining and attractive interaction.

We need to become easily appealing.

(so.. tell us Modus since you always seem to think that you know everything,)

Meet me at Saundustee, those who are interested in taking the continuing success of our beloved Bob planet into our hands; our Creator, blessed be thy administration, has instilled the Great Spirit into the hearts of the Old and New World.

We shall create an attractive medium for the Bobiverse by making an attractive forum that everyone can link to to show their friends Admin's creation and keep them here by showing them an illustrative portfolio of Bob history, recent news. alliance profiles, videos and our well-established deeply-knit community.

We have four years of tradition to work with.

Are you telling me four-to-five of us can't accomplish this after all Admin and his staff have done for us?

Let's give back.

[Reptyler]

I joined this game because of a RL friend, and I have since brought my best friend into this game. It's a wonderful sort of nerd love we share.

[WcaesarD]

I got recruited by my RL friend, recruited my then roommate to play the next day, we've both got nations nearly 1000 days later. I've had 5-10 people join and play for at least 3 months, at least half are still playing. Never recruited anyone from online elsewhere though.

[Fernando12]

Retention rate of new players when they start with $50,000 - LOW!

Retention rate of new players if start up gives them $3,000,000 - HIGH!

Seriously, a friend of mine entered the game a while back and said his start up funds were $50,000...you can't do anything with that unless you immediately join an alliance and get funds.

[Lord Brendan]

Retention rate of new players when they start with $50,000 - LOW!

Retention rate of new players if start up gives them $3,000,000 - HIGH!

Seriously, a friend of mine entered the game a while back and said his start up funds were $50,000...you can't do anything with that unless you immediately join an alliance and get funds.

This is a fairly interesting idea actually. Most players that go on to stay active will probably do so because they received starting aid of some sort, allowing them to get a bit of a feel for the game. I imagine it's easy to quickly lose interest if you can't do anything for several days.

[Schattenmann]

This is a fairly interesting idea actually. Most players that go on to stay active will probably do so because they received starting aid of some sort, allowing them to get a bit of a feel for the game. I imagine it's easy to quickly lose interest if you can't do anything for several days.

At the same time most of them discard recruitment letters without reading them, precluding them from development aid from the get-go.

[wickedj]

I got my girlfriend to start a nation almost a year and a half ago...she likes buying things so I figured buying infrastructure and being my tech farm would keep her happy.

Now she's all like "i want improvements and wonders", she also likes changing her nation bio a lot. I've created a monster.

Question: Would you live to see tommorow if she saw this post?

Also, just for you Schatt i posted my recruitment link on facebook but the problem is most of those nerds play this game lol

Edited January 19, 2010 by wickedj