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Wurm 2016

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Just now, Slickshot said:

Exporting a plan and importing it elsewhere sounds interesting, but it would definitely have to be heavily restricted and monitored, and I'm unsure as to how plausible such a system would be.  I'm no a dev, I don't know, but it sounds like it would be a huge headache.  Interesting idea though.

 

I readily admit that I also think it would have to be subject to some tight restrictions. If it could be figured out then potentially it could help make it easier to remove the too many servers/reduced sense of community bottleneck.

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For all those people that Think unity Has no power or that it can't support Massive online players, I have something for you to look into http://pantheonmmo.com/ This Game is built using Unity5, as well it is a massive online player game.

Anyone remember McQuaid? he was one of the Everquest guys who made Everquest. Do I believe it is worth setting development of Wurm Online on hold for a year while Wurm is put on Unity5 and under C# language? Yes. 

 

I've heard developers say for past X amount of years you can't make a mmo on Unity yet I knew you could, it was all based on the talent of a developer not the engine. Here you have it and your proof. Only a Visionary can see how much Wurm Online is better that the rest of the stuck in the mud mmos that are produced every year. An only a Visionary can see Wurm Onlime on Unity5 engine. Envision Wurm Online like you never have. The Unity5 Engine makes it so easy to add Art straight from Maya/3Dmax more detail texture's with lod system physics etc...  1 click export to platforms with out having to write your code over to support it. Speedtree enviroments, Nvidia physics, Maximo, and more tools on the asset store.

 

I recommend your Development team download Unity personal and play, you will be amazed at what an how fast you can build, add, and do without having to spend years trying to build a engine to do things that one engine can already do.

 

That's my 2 cents an I'm done with this topic.

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5 hours ago, Arkonick said:

1 click export to platforms with out having to write your code over to support it.

This part isn't always true and you can't really find out whether its true or not for you till you try. Static screen dimensions are surprisingly dishonest sometimes. ._.

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Gotta break out the anon trader alt for these fiery situations...

I do not think anybody has proposed this point:

Those in favor of switching to the free to play model propose this:

Do not tell me the popular free to play MMOs  somehow do not turn into this. Think of the Korean MMOs. Think of Runescape. Think of open world games that are free.

You could even expand this into the popular open(ish) world games such as Grand Theft Auto V.

To open the gates to hordes of poor (in spirit) players is to force Wurm from the small town to an alien city. Chances are when I meet a person in local I have a conversation with them as a pass. I go to freedom harbour and the people are a blast there. I engage in Chaos and I am talking to the enemy kingdom - and it's not even trash talk. I pass some dude killing a troll on a horse and at the very least there is a hello. I go to PvE again and there are people from Chaos wanting to buy armor from me. Then there are people with wife and kids I am conversing with on the Freedom tab.

 

We double the numbers - good, but you're already starting to hit the limit.

We do 10x the numbers - 10000 players, and everywhere is:

LELEL I GRIEFED YOU XDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD OH MY GOD

and (silence). Those old enough to not be trouble will simply ignore you as they play nothing but the game itself. The community doesn't matter to them and will suffer with these sorts of people.

 

If you do not believe this will happen, look at the games that end up being only slightly faster paced. You cannot cave into the demographic I just described.

If you do, Wurm dies not financially, but spiritually.

Edited by Toothpick
clarifcation
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Wyrm....as in the Dragon creature with the stinger on it's tail.Game is not free...to get anywhere you have to pay just to have a workable account, then for the decent stuff in the shops...you have to pay out the "whazzoo" ie. for magical chest. At least have double silver or half cost items day/weekend...people will dump funds into that and you see what the effects of cheaper items / more silver available will do also have weekly increment paid accounts amounts, for the people that need to transfer that deed they want or are selling to a non-premium player (hint more deeds= more money  for costs Protected deeds are where you will make your money!). Work with what you got on code, add to it and work the bugs out. Cheaper to keep the car you have running than taking up a new payment...unless you crash the car.

Edited by Traveler777

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I don't think new features will bring in more players, I think advertising will bring in more players...

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On 03/21/2016 at 8:41 AM, Caveman said:

I don't think new features will bring in more players, I think advertising will bring in more players...

Agreed. The core of the game is there. Asking for more toys and features "because it'll bring in players" is usually just an attempt to push an agenda.

 

Problem is, in order to advertise you need money, and in order to make money you need to advertise. Word of mouth has always been Wurm's biggest source of advertisement, so ideally we as players should consciously try to help our game grow. Gaming communities or games similar to Wurm might be a good place to do that.

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20 minutes ago, Fawkes said:

Agreed. The core of the game is there. Asking for more toys and features "because it'll bring in players" is usually just an attempt to push an agenda.

 

Problem is, in order to advertise you need money, and in order to make money you need to advertise. Word of mouth has always been Wurm's biggest source of advertisement, so ideally we as players should consciously try to help our game grow. Gaming communities or games similar to Wurm might be a good place to do that.

This is one reason why I try to semi-regularly post Wurm Online screenshots in the /r/gaming subreddit on reddit.  It's certainly just a small drop of water in an ocean, but it's still something.  I'd recommend other reddit-Wurmians to do the same on occasion. 

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20 hours ago, Fawkes said:

so ideally we as players should consciously try to help our game grow.

if-you-re-good-at-something-never-do-it-

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11 minutes ago, Zerocool said:

if-you-re-good-at-something-never-do-it-

Unless you're passionate and money isn't the objective for you, then by all means ignore the Joker.

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23 minutes ago, Dairuka said:

Ignore the joker?

 

Now you're talking crazy talk.

Why so serious?

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1 hour ago, Slickshot said:

Unless you're passionate and money isn't the objective for you, then by all means ignore the Joker.

 

Its almost like there was a happy medium that got completely botched and is abused regularly. Some kind of system for crediting players who bring fresh players into the game. Boy, something like that sure would have been nice. But you're right. I have no passion for this stopwatch game and I have some misplaced sense of entitlement when bringing in business to a dry husk.

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3 hours ago, Zerocool said:

 

Its almost like there was a happy medium that got completely botched and is abused regularly. Some kind of system for crediting players who bring fresh players into the game. Boy, something like that sure would have been nice. But you're right. I have no passion for this stopwatch game and I have some misplaced sense of entitlement when bringing in business to a dry husk.

Not sure what you're on about, but I speak personally when I say there is nothing wrong with supporting something you love for free.  In fact, showing your commitment and support without the promise of personal gain is very humbling for some. :)

Edited by Slickshot
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I'm saying this game's reward for word of mouth is broken and ######. I'm also saying the game doesn't deserve and has not earned the level of commitment you suggest, especially compared with more populous and financially successful MMOs across the board.

 

Herp derp community game that lacks incentive to build communities. Expecting free advertisement for a subscription service is way too much to shoulder your customers with. That is completely unfair. If they choose to? Fine. Expecting it? Expecting it to be its own reward? Gtfo. That is greed of a far worse kind. Even Facebook games know better. They have designed around knowing better.

 

It is not the responsibility of the playerbase that the game survives.

Edited by Zerocool
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Thank you Slickshot. You have made me realize that the relationship between the player and the business that runs this game is unhealthy and I don't want to support it anymore. The notion that I should be advertising the game for free with no expectation of return coming from another player put things into perspective. That is an absurd and emotionally toxic place to be.

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27 minutes ago, Zerocool said:

Thank you Slickshot. You have made me realize that the relationship between the player and the business that runs this game is unhealthy and I don't want to support it anymore. The notion that I should be advertising the game for free with no expectation of return coming from another player put things into perspective. That is an absurd and emotionally toxic place to be.

I'm sorry you feel that way.  You know where the door is.

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8 hours ago, Zerocool said:

 

Its almost like there was a happy medium that got completely botched and is abused regularly. Some kind of system for crediting players who bring fresh players into the game. Boy, something like that sure would have been nice. But you're right. I have no passion for this stopwatch game and I have some misplaced sense of entitlement when bringing in business to a dry husk.

Game could use a referral system, reward people with game time and idk maybe a seryll lump?

 

Sorry to see you quitting because of Slickshot's post though.

Edited by Niki

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I don't think F2P is a solution. Games that make a lot of revenue from this model are games that have a lot of turnover; only a small percentage of players actually buy stuff on a regular basis, which means you will need a LOT of free players to make this business model work, and I don't think the servers can handle this. Not because of outdated programming, but socially it would be a nightmare to have a couple of thousand of players on each server, who pop in and out to put half a building up that is then forgotten. And can't be destroyed.

 

I would quit playing if it would become F2P. The community as it is now is one of the main attractions of the game for me: people who are more thoughful and usually more friendly then in a lot of other gamers for instance. There is something inherently wonderful about a game that makes sure it sometimes takes a year before you get what you want; it attracts people who are patient.

 

I do believe advertising would help a lot, but sometimes I think Rolf doesn't really understand the core appeal of his own game. It's no use promising people wild kingdom conquering experiences, thundering pvp, or the idea that you are the king of a world that can change at your own whim, which is sort of the feeling you get when you read the homepage.

This isn't a fast paced adrenaline adventure game with boundless possibilities that change every week. And that is totally fine. Wurm is a slow game, and I think it is better to find out why it works, and advertise that, instead of trying to sell it with hollow words that make the game into something that it isn't.

 

For me playing wurm is like reading my favorite book. And books are more powerful then movies to me, since I make the pictures in my own head while I read, and they are always prettier then whatever movie can conjure up.

Wurm sort of works the same. Yes, the graphics are a bit clumsy, and yes, it takes ages to be able to build even a simple house. But what it does in my brain is that I always see my Great Plan for the future. Always. The game makes me dream of the stuff I will have built in a week. And the things I will have finished in a month. Or even 6 months. All these wonderful little plans I have, all with their own timescale and all of them will be done, some day.

And because I have to invest so much time in something, my brain really believes that I live on my deed. Which is great. Humans are interesting that way; my poor clumsy brain really thinks that I come home when I enter my deed after my travels.

 

Maybe it would be a plan to ask players why they are hooked on Wurm, and use that for advertising. And forget for a minute about your list of complaints, since complaints don't sell. Why do you love the game so much.

You might attract new players that will play the game for what it is, instead of turn away after a few weeks. Done smartly, you might even attract players that are usually a bit wary of MMO's because they don't like games that have blood splattering all over the place or playground drama in every dungeon.

 

(tl;dr: stop trying to make the game into something that it isn't. Get people who like this kind of game to hop on board)

 

 

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Holy emotional meltdown, Batman. Who'd have thought "feel free to tell your friends about the game" would be met with "NO! PAY ME, ######! SKREEEEEEE"

Edited by Fawkes
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~650 (3/26/2016 21:00EST) players... 3 years i have been here.... down to only 650 players. where are my friends Aeris and Shrimpiie? the old agers fatboy(original) rockybalboa(original) and many more, there is no reason this game should be losing people at such a fast pace, i see so many people playing WU that I wonder, "Why was the 1 thing that was supposed to bring in new players the 1 thing that is seeming to destroy it?" i can't afford the 20$ premium fees anymore and the amount of time it takes to complete tasks is just too far for a father and working man to bear at a competitive pace. but i still enjoy my relaxing farming and fishing(the best thing to do in my book is take a row boat and go fishin :) ) this is a 50% game. where your the 50% that loves the adventure and true love of the MMO build, or the 40% that wants something different, with a 10% not even really knowing what they truly want. im burned out for now. but that doesn't mean i want this game to die. I hope in a few years my own daughter will be able to have me teach her how to wurm oldschool and enjoy the adventures i have had. but for now, WU is the most relaxing and affordable i can get.  Please correct me if im wrong. but is the population dying or just a bad time of the day/year?

 

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2 hours ago, DocStineTM said:

~650 (3/26/2016 21:00EST) players... 3 years i have been here.... down to only 650 players. where are my friends Aeris and Shrimpiie? the old agers fatboy(original) rockybalboa(original) and many more, there is no reason this game should be losing people at such a fast pace, i see so many people playing WU that I wonder, "Why was the 1 thing that was supposed to bring in new players the 1 thing that is seeming to destroy it?" i can't afford the 20$ premium fees anymore and the amount of time it takes to complete tasks is just too far for a father and working man to bear at a competitive pace. but i still enjoy my relaxing farming and fishing(the best thing to do in my book is take a row boat and go fishin :) ) this is a 50% game. where your the 50% that loves the adventure and true love of the MMO build, or the 40% that wants something different, with a 10% not even really knowing what they truly want. im burned out for now. but that doesn't mean i want this game to die. I hope in a few years my own daughter will be able to have me teach her how to wurm oldschool and enjoy the adventures i have had. but for now, WU is the most relaxing and affordable i can get.  Please correct me if im wrong. but is the population dying or just a bad time of the day/year?

 

It honestly depends on what you consider dying.  This version of the game has lost several players, but some have returned from WU or various other adventures.  As far as I know, the premium subscription accounts have fallen by about 35%, but seem to have steadied.  The biggest exodus came during the first two months of WU release, and decreased dramatically since then.

 

All in all, I don't consider the game to be dying, but that's just the opinion of a veteran Wurmian who has seen many come and go over the years.  Hope that helped to answer your question.

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I don't think F2P is the solution at this point as the revenue would then mainly need to come from cosmetic items, but who's going to create/design those items? Unless I'm wrong Wurm's dev team isn't exactly big enough to churn out enough cosmetic items to create a steady revenue stream from cosmetic items while also keeping up with standard development. This of course is a bit of a chicken an the egg problem, as with a good enough cosmetic item revenue they could hire more artists and further increase said revenue, but if they make such a switch right now they're probably more likely to sink the ship alltogether if they lose the revenue from premium subscriptions. It also depends on a high turnover of players, which requires a lot of advertising, which is really expensive and not always effective either.

Going F2P isn't some kind of holy grail which will work out for the best for any game, just look at Wildstar, it went F2P after a lack of subscriptions and now almost the entire dev team has been fired because it still performed badly. Clearly the actual issues should be addressed, instead of going F2P and ignoring what actually needs to be improved.

 

I feel that they should continue to expand upon Wurm. It would be great if the world itself could become more alive, with tribes of trolls/goblins etc working together. Let there be some active PvE instead of the environment/world just rolling over and dying like it does now. Less maintenance on deed would also be great, stuff just shouldn't decay anymore so people can actually play the game instead of ending up in a vicious circle of continually maintaining what they've build while building more stuff, which they then also have to maintain, until they eventually quit out of boredom because they don't have the time to do anything but take care of maintenance. This has certainly improved a lot over the years, but there's still plenty to improve there and in other places.

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