Decreasing players (White Giant)

I Want to discuss the current "crisis" of players leaving the game.

We now have 9,826 countries with presidents that's down by -19 today, 19 people left simcountry in 1 day, Infact not even a day! maybe a couple of hours.

there used to be a time when be used to have 14,000+ countries with presidents and the worlds were nearly full.

Also the world chat is empty most of the time, sad to see.

Sadly the "boom" days are over and the players left in their droves, but we still have time to sort it out and fast.

We must sort it out now and attract people back to the game. we must come up with idea's to save the game from loosing thousand's more players.

Well, this game hasent changed much in a decade. It but all missed the social network boom. Outdated graphics and interface, and still a lacking tutorial for new players. Yes there are reasons. Once one get over the step learning curve it is fun, but the few that learns of the game, fewer make the effort the learn the game.

This game would a hefty capital infusion to hiring the enginners to port the game to the 2010s. One can hope, cause this game is still best in its genre.

I know it has concerned me too, but does anyone actually have any ideas about what to do about it or do we only know that there is a problem but have no idea how to fix it?

Good points NiAi

And hasn't changed much in a decade, Jesus how old is this game? :P

Is the "-19 countries with presidents" actual players? If it is just countries with presidents that could also be a raided C3 being canceled. I know I canceled 3 yesterday but I am still here. I have 3-8 C3's at any given time that I am pillaging for all valuables and then deleting them.

Same thing here, just taking C3s and canceling them.

I was just thinking that player added and delete countrys they control everyday. It goes up and down like other things here.

It colud be C3 raid or empires with no profitable countries just reliquishung control of them

I have also notived today there is more space activity and gc exhanges which suggest even if there are not more players the ones that are here are more active Which is a good sign

I wouldn't worry too much if you enjoy the game play the best you know how and let the other stuff stake care of itself

I remember the number used to be around 12000 in March! We've lost 3000 countries in the space of 8 months or so. Something needs to be done.

*yawns*

*Faints*

no comment.

Improve the game, it might just work...

As a new player (2 days old) I will speak my peace on the game so far.

I started playing a couple months ago, and quickly left, due to the mass confusion of the game.

After playing a couple of days I'm trying to get to understand the game a little but it's still hard.

My biggest annoyance with this game is the Interface without a doubt. The interface of the game is completely confusing. There is a junkload of information being thrown at me, and all I can relate it to, is going to someones house who has collected years of items and not moved/organized any of it.

Some interface suggestions I would throw out:
The desktop, left sidebar, and top menu all have the same things listed, narrow it down. Choose either the sidebar or the top menu bar. Condense options by using the drop menu's like on the top menu, for example put all guides and documents under one menu.
Just looking at the welcome page I see this for guides
Top Menu 1: Documentation
Top Menu 2: Beginners
Side Menu: Game Tour, How-to Videos, What is Simcountry? Beginners Info.

All those can be condensed under one drop-down menu. The same goes for perks, and settings.

If I could create a mock UI I would, but I'm not skilled like that.


As far as new players, regardless of the UI, a lot of decisions are thrown your way, updating the graphics and simplifying things would be a lot easier. It took me a while to figure out how to commit a certain % of my production to the common market.

I like the map idea, something about it kind of annoys me, but I haven't figured it out quite yet.

Simplifying is the key, go through the UI and wipe out what isn't necessary, condense what you can. Simply bringing up the site template to something more Web 2.0 would be a great increase.

(Also updating the forums to phpbb or something better would be nice)

These are just some idea's from a new player, I'm not saying that I know everything. Some of my thoughts might actually make gameplay worse, and if that is the case trash them. However, I think there can be a lot done to simplify, and update the UI and the presentation of information.

Hope to keep playing this game!
Reziun

Those are great suggestions Rezuin. I doubt many long time players would have ever thought about the top menus and side menus being overkill and duplicative.

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Amen Reziun

This is probably the biggest problem with client retention. We live in the age of graphic content that is out of this world. The 8 bit nintendo graphics won't cut it for much longer.