Game needs to come back alive.

[Pangaea]

Yes, Hi, Hello. I've been talking about making a thread about this for a long time and I feel it's much needed right now. As many of you have realized, the game is dead. There's no other way to put it. It's just dead. Something defiantly needs to happen incredibly soon to bring the player base back up. I don't care if it's Hoenn, staff events/tours, etc. At this point I don't think any of us really care, just that something needs to happen.
At my point of view, the staff is bad, many can agree with me. Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, it's not the players that made the game die, it's the staff. I've decided to post this because I don't want to see this game go away, none of us really do. So I'm not going to hold back while posting this, instead of asking you guys to do something, I'm going to just straight up tell you what needs to be done.

1. Assign someone to official tournaments. (Which would be something I'd even volunteer to do myself)
2. Obviously Hoenn needs to come out. (I know staff wants to improve kanto and johto first, but lets face it, they screwed that idea up.)
3. New staff
4. Battle scene needs to be completely functional.
5. My opinion- more different types of Pokemon.
6. A set story line (bc right now it just ends after the gyms which is dumb)
7. Guild leaders need to have more powers. As a matter of fact guilds need to interact with some aspect of the game.

Now, there are obviously more things that need to happen, but in all honesty and respect, I can connect all those improvements back to the staff. Also, this post isn't suppose to be shaming the staff, so don't go off on me about that.

Also, do not say any of this is impossible, because anything IS possible.

Thank you.

 

[OneMillionRattatas]

You honestly have no idea at all about how this game works. It is beta, run by volunteers and under restrictions you are obviously oblivious too although they are clearly stated in many many forum posts. You're right in one thing only, nothing is impossible. Just NOT NOW.

Also, this is just a staff bashing post, regardless of your trying to say it's not at the end. Again, you have no idea. Open your eyes and take a look around before you post rubbish like this again.

At my point of view, the staff is bad, many can agree with me. Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, it's not the players that made the game die, it's the staff.

Now, there are obviously more things that need to happen, but in all honesty and respect, I can connect all those improvements back to the staff.

I don't know what you mean by 'a long time', this post looks like it was written by a player who's been here a week at the most.

 

[Pangaea]

You honestly have no idea at all about how this game works. It is beta, run by volunteers and under restrictions you are obviously oblivious too although they are clearly stated in many many forum posts. You're right in one thing only, nothing is impossible. Just NOT NOW.

Also, this is just a staff bashing post, regardless of your trying to say it's not at the end. Again, you have no idea. Open your eyes and take a look around before you post rubbish like this again.

At my point of view, the staff is bad, many can agree with me. Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, it's not the players that made the game die, it's the staff.

Now, there are obviously more things that need to happen, but in all honesty and respect, I can connect all those improvements back to the staff.

I don't know what you mean by 'a long time', this post looks like it was written by a player who's been here a week at the most.

Hm. I've been here almost a year, and yes, I have literally watched this game fall apart. I'd appreciate it if you didn't go ahead and bash me without seeing where I'm coming from with writing this.

 

[OneMillionRattatas]

How has it fallen apart? In the last year there have been a LOT of updates, especially compared to most of the years preceding it. You are here focussing on what hasn't been done, and no project can stand up to that sort of criticism.

1. Assign someone to official tournaments. (Which would be something I'd even volunteer to do myself)

This has been addressed by staff in forum posts before. Staff run tournaments take a lot of time to organise and run, and there have been problems with the last two official tournaments that nobody has come up with a good way of avoiding in future. This is common knowledge to those who were around during those times and also to anyone who follows the discussions on the forums.

2. Obviously Hoenn needs to come out. (I know staff wants to improve kanto and johto first, but lets face it, they screwed that idea up.)

Hoenn can not come out until the new client is completed. Again this is common knowledge. In what way have they screwed up improving kanto and johto? Quests have been added, as well as new areas- Cinnabar and Ecruteak updates being the major ones. Plus improvements to the transport system, a complete overhaul of the maps which removed the ugly black borders. Plus two major events since you started and the implementation of regular weekend events.

3. New staff

What do you mean by this? If you're not staff bashing be clear that you're not just asking for the current staff to be replaced.

4. Battle scene needs to be completely functional.

Battle system has had numerous updates in the past year, again more than it had seen in years beforehand. Again making a completely functional battle system requires a better game client and server so all that can be done to improve it right now is being done- and again this is common knowledge.

5. My opinion- more different types of Pokemon.

Which pokemon? Make new ones? Put more hoenn pokemon in kanto and johto making hoenn pointless when it does finally come out? If you have a practical suggestion as to which pokemon to add I'm sure staff would listen. I've seen staff asking for this and few practical responses every being given.

6. A set story line (bc right now it just ends after the gyms which is dumb)

As with running tournaments this would take a lot of time to organise. First a story has to be put forward that enough people agree on, then NPCs and quests made for every part of the game. It could be done step by step of course, but it goes back to time. Are you suggesting the storyline becomes a high priority? How high, and what would you put it ahead of? This is probably the one suggestion I'd agree with up to a point- if it didn't take time away from other staff projects.

7. Guild leaders need to have more powers. As a matter of fact guilds need to interact with some aspect of the game.

Again this argument has been put in other better thought out forum posts and has been clearly explained there that it requires the new playerdex for that feature- and adding it now would mean spending more time on the old playerdex than the new one and obviously putting back the new playerdex further.

If I come across as bashing you it's because you are coming across as bashing a good game while not actually not actually coming up with anything new.

 

[Nikola]

There was a bit more extreme and in depth discussion in my topic made not while ago. I must admin that my suggestion is a bit radical and may not be plausible for older generation of the players. However, when you think more about it you get the reasoning very fast, it was suggested for the greater good of our people. As a veteran and one of the most wealthiest and powerful players ever played this game I am going to give two cents for this topic.

-Atm staffs are doing the weekend events. However, I can see players dissatisfaction echoing around the forums but they never gave any solid input why would they feel like that. I personally like the concept and can't say anything bad about that one no matter if I had a bad luck or something because I never found any tauros on the event. I can't ignore other variables of the event just because I had ****ty luck. As for the official events of a larger caliber such as Legendary cup and 2013 official event, players were moaning about the prizes given and brought up one of the most famous stories in PWO and that is the staff having their favorite. Those made a huge mess in community because people were literally saying "**** you, we don't appreciate what you have done. Maybe around that time I've learned that people are forgetting how and why to appreciate something. If theres any miracle and we get another official event, players should be given the odds before event even starts because most of the PWO players are bit specific. they don't like being baffled and teased, because they think youre plotting against them.

- If am going to be selfish here which I don't want I can say that Hoenn will not do much for me because I already have almost everything from Hoenn in my Pokemon box. I would be probably stat hunting some nub Pokemon once in a while. I've had Hoenn for years in Token Store though. However, newer player will find that as a revolutionary update theyve been waiting for a while by now. People who are about to join will think of like it's something normal not worthy of talking about and they might even start asking for Sinnoh while suggesting few fixes for Hoenn, like they do now for Johto. Pretty much the never ending story of players asking for something new, that will be always happening, it's normal.

- I wonder why do you think that PWO needs new staff while the current ones are active or not active? I have a feeling that you are more thinking about certain rank then staff as whole? From what Ive gathered through years...I can only see a problem with past GMs and DEVs who even committed high treason and ruined many aspects of the game that are never going to subside, such as injecting a good portion of spawned Pokemon into circulation. Even today you can see a lot of them being active on the accounts of innocent players who payed for those as they were proper and legal. They even started deleting forums and stuff while the main villain in this story was a DEV and thats Zidonuke. His acts also resulted in high treason while ruining the whole staff image. I can't see any other issues with current staff atm.

- Personally, I wouldn't touch anything before we get proper battle code. Battle code has to be removed and re-written from the scratch IMO. In my opinion and from my experience, the battle is the most important aspect of the game, I even put trading after it. That is the reason why I was focusing to other aspects of the game, to become competitive and show the product of my work through the time. More or less the battle means everything to me, after friends of course.

- If we get natures and abilities everything will change, a lot of Pokemon will become useful. You are not going to hunt for a certain Pokemon and its stats, you will hunt for certain Pokemon, nature, stats and ability. Will give a whole new dimension both to hunting and battling. I am strongly against adding anything new before that because they will be overused in a day or two. I mentioned that "overused" term already in my topic I linked you above.

- I do agree that the story needs revising. Take NPCs or 2 for example, they barely follow each others story wise, excluding the events of course.

- I also agree that leaders should be given at least basic stuff to manage the guild properly. However, I am afraid that no meaning of the guild will be found just because you have option or two more. I often get inspired when i see a newbie asking " what use do I have being in the guild". Their question gives you a lot of answers and ideas too. I believe that system is yet to be redone and I know it's probably almost complex as battle engine, if not more.

No matter what update happens I will be probably doing the same thing because I did my time already. If I feel like battling or trolling I can always do that because I can always adapt to any changes made. When I was polishing my skills I was thinking about that and what might happen in the worst scenario. However, I decided not to be selfish and I am looking forward to any changes made for the sake of our people and those who are yet to join this game. When I was suggesting the game reset, among many other things I had those you named in my mind long ago. I was thinking about how to give the same chances to everyone (newbies and vets), how to make people appreciate what they have, how to prevent stuff and Pokemon being overused...That is how the idea about the reset came to my mind. Personally I don't care about myself because I did my time, I helped out to many people and guided them through the dark valley and tough times. I even rewarded their loyalty by giving them some of my stuff and actually opening my heart for them and I will keep doing so because I can't nerfe myself no matter how much I am trying. I am advising and encouraging every veteran to do so, loyal members and newbies will have a much greater role in this society then we, we already did our part it's just a normal circle that will always happen. Every person has a potential to be a force for greater good, some of them might require showing the direction so why not? I totally understand how a lot people are feeling and I am aware that we have fallen under hard times. Such topics started to echoing recently and pretty sure they will be echoing a lot more. We can't allow our emotions to dictate with our decision, this is the worst time to be selfish and start panicking.

 

[Merse]

There were some great updates in the past year. We had much less new stuff in the year before and the player base was still increasing at an almost alarming rate. Pokemon MMOs became popular and everyone wanted to be part of it. But most of the projects were shut down because the staff lost interest, or because the game was so easy that soon everyone had everything and the players left the game. There are only two or three Pokemon MMO projects which can keep up a more or less steady development pace and they are all suffering from burnt out staff members, veteran vs. newcomer conflicts, stained economy, lack of "whothat'shuge" updates etc.
But the major issue is in my opinion is Generation VI. which, thanks to 3DS technology made an almost-MMO Pokemon game. Frankly, if XY would have all the regions, every Pokemon MMO could be shut down. And I see thge major issue of PWO in that. GameFreak realized that people want a Pokemon MMO and they started to work in that direction, which could render Pokemon MMOs pointless.

 

[Soul_Trainer]

You honestly have no idea at all about how this game works. It is beta, run by volunteers and under restrictions you are obviously oblivious too although they are clearly stated in many many forum posts. You're right in one thing only, nothing is impossible. Just NOT NOW.

Also, this is just a staff bashing post, regardless of your trying to say it's not at the end. Again, you have no idea. Open your eyes and take a look around before you post rubbish like this again...

Who do you think you are? Lol a new member mercilessly criticizes a 1 yo member for.. having no idea about what is going on?

Despite of the level of ignorance you show here, she is clearly right about for what she said in OP. I am 2 yo in this community, experienced "any" kinds of things that can happen to someone here.. And I agree with her.

Maybe the tone of OP was a bit harsh, but that does not justify to call it full of nonsense as it actually makes sense.

With peeps we have just talked about the game's progress etc in chat. Everyone actually agrees with that the game is dying slowly. Blaming staff for that reason might be a bad action to take, however nothing changes the fact that everything is literally up to them.

I dont really call them "bad" or "lazy" or "non-professional" as I had personal experiences with almost all of them, making me understand how experienced, mature and professional they are. But, despite of them being great at their job, the game would still be at a far greater stage if guild-battles etc systems had been implemented =)

But oh well, the reason why I did not create such a post like this is because I know that this game is only an indie game, therefore not much should anyway be expected in the first place. That does not mean that peeps should not expect more ofc, but it cant still be helped as the staff we have here are not paid, and nothing other than their loyalty holds them here hard-working.



Tl;dr:Yeah it is staff's fault that the game is dying. But the game is an indie game and if they were not here before, there would be no game to play in the first place. And we are not consumers having paid for this game to get some basic consumer rights. So even tho the conclusions stated in OP are I also believe more than correct, there is still not much to be done about it other than showing our support to them and motivating them for more and better!


Best of Regards
Soul

 

[Rigaudon]

Curious.

What are the symptoms that make you feel the game is dying? In this topic I have seen posts about how to make the game "not dead," but no posts about why people feel it is dying in the first place.

It is not obvious to me and I would like to understand your perspective, so details on this would be appreciated.

 

[Professor.Oak]

Curious.

What are the symptoms that make you feel the game is dying? In this topic I have seen posts about how to make the game "not dead," but no posts about why people feel it is dying in the first place.

It is not obvious to me and I would like to understand your perspective, so details on this would be appreciated.

Personally, I believe the assumption falls under that there has been a vast reduction in players online then say even 5-6 months ago. The player cap has also been reduced to reflect this. 5-6 months ago I would see anywhere from 500-800 players online where as now it is currently at 150-300 players daily.

 

[Soul_Trainer]

Curious.

What are the symptoms that make you feel the game is dying? In this topic I have seen posts about how to make the game "not dead," but no posts about why people feel it is dying in the first place.

It is not obvious to me and I would like to understand your perspective, so details on this would be appreciated.

Personally, I believe the assumption falls under that there has been a vast reduction in players online then say even 5-6 months ago. The player cap has also been reduced to reflect this. 5-6 months ago I would see anywhere from 500-800 players online where as now it is currently at 150-300 players daily.

*looks around* where is the dam like button... Well, it is one of the easiest ways to understand why people think so. But to be able to understand the cases fully, you should be an old member (IMO). I dont think otherwise you could understand easily.

 

[Rigaudon]

Population is the concern, then?

Interestingly enough, I believe early players would be able to pin this immediately. After all, they would have recently experienced what I'm thinking is the actual reason.

The current registration system was created in an attempt to reduce the population- we were being flooded with players. Looks like it has worked. (Even to the point of making players concerned.)

The rest of the suggestions are issues of staleness and not necessarily game death. (In which case we're doing our best with what we have. Sincerely, I'm sorry if it isn't enough right now, but I am certain we will get there eventually. Patience and understanding would be greatly valued in the meantime.)

Anyway, should be a possible adjustment. I'll ask Bluerise about it and see what his opinion is on the matter, but beyond this point the subject will probably become a non-public discussion.

 

[Professor.Oak]

The current registration system was created in an attempt to reduce the population- we were being flooded with players. Looks like it has worked. (Even to the point of making players concerned.)

The current system has been in place for a quit a while and we haven't seen a consecutive drop in users like this in that time that I'm aware.

Either way, the recent increase in Pokemon MMO competition, in conjunction with too few "significant" updates to PWO are in my opinion the leading causes for player reduction.
I recognize that the staff have limitations that prevent them from making these kinds of updates as should anyone that knows the on-going issues with the game, however I have to wonder how much effort is going to looking for work arounds or working with these limitations to bring a better or significant updates to this game.

 

[Rigaudon]

Alright, I harassed bluerise and creobis dug around for numbers to see what I could find. I'm very serious about trying to find what is making you all feel like the game is failing for you.

For security reasons I can't give exact dates. The years are not posted in order.

Accounts made this year by month:
Jan- 8902
Feb- 8345
March- 7821
April- 7477
-----
Year A:
8,153
3,482 <--service issues/outage
538 <--service outage
1,811 <--service issues/outage
7,572
------
Year B:
14,005 <--current registration system, but with more forgiving send-out periods
11,303
11,278
6,037 <--service outage
8,125 <--current registration system
7,498
----

Overall, the numbers haven't dropped from the normal 7-8k. When they do, it's because of major service outages, but they recover to the 7-8k after a month or so. Could there be any other reason the community feels like it is dying in terms of population? Or is the game just feeling stale?

 

[Merse]

Not to mention that there was a time when an insane number of bots and alts were registered and played for the single reason of cheating. Many of those fake farms were deleted since then. I remember when the system was updated to detect bots, the number of actually playing accounts was reduced by 30% or so the next day.

 

[Pangaea]

I do apologize for sounding a bit 'harsh' as some of you call it. Now, I can't remember who said what, but I do remember what was said.

So, someone asked why I feel the game is dying. Well, like someone else said, the number of daily active players has dropped at an alarming rate. I feel this is leading back to the storyline issue. A new player joined, defeats all the gyms, sticks around for MAYBE another week seeing if they can do anything else, then they leave and we never see them again. An easy fix to make people join and stay, is advertising. advertising is the key to success. I have a very simple and reliable way to do this too. Possibly make a contest for us players to see how many people we can get to join. The person with the most REAL joins gets a prize, might it be a special pokemon, vouchers, etc.

literally everything ive said to make the game better is the reasons the population is dropping imo. such as the guilds. You guys implemented guilds, but gave them little to no use to the bigger community.

Also, can I just say that the registration part of the game is incredibly hard to understand. I mean I know i'm a girl and all but dang, it took me like 3 days to figure out how to register. l0l


edit- I feel as though I should clarify about the new staff part. I didn't mean replace every single staff member. I'm sure there are some staff members that are inactive. I meant possibly add more staff members to the team, because we all have ideas that (im sure) every single one of us would like to help work on with the older staff.

 

[Soul_Trainer]

I do apologize for sounding a bit 'harsh' as some of you call it. Now, I can't remember who said what, but I do remember what was said.

So, someone asked why I feel the game is dying. Well, like someone else said, the number of daily active players has dropped at an alarming rate. I feel this is leading back to the storyline issue. A new player joined, defeats all the gyms, sticks around for MAYBE another week seeing if they can do anything else, then they leave and we never see them again. An easy fix to make people join and stay, is advertising. advertising is the key to success. I have a very simple and reliable way to do this too. Possibly make a contest for us players to see how many people we can get to join. The person with the most REAL joins gets a prize, might it be a special pokemon, vouchers, etc.

literally everything ive said to make the game better is the reasons the population is dropping imo. such as the guilds. You guys implemented guilds, but gave them little to no use to the bigger community.

Also, can I just say that the registration part of the game is incredibly hard to understand. I mean I know i'm a girl and all but dang, it took me like 3 days to figure out how to register. l0l


edit- I feel as though I should clarify about the new staff part. I didn't mean replace every single staff member. I'm sure there are some staff members that are inactive. I meant possibly add more staff members to the team, because we all have ideas that (im sure) every single one of us would like to help work on with the older staff.

You did what you had to do, dont feel bad about it! And I am also down to learn more about the trade request you have in your sig =))


Regards
Soul