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out of curiosity, how do you suggest they help the new players get up to speed with the ones that started first? because given the current player base (which i suspect is not very large and nowhere near as big as the old astronest), all new players will get destroyed in the war and attacked within seconds of coming out of shield (players stand almost no chance against someone 5 - 10 levels higher than them unless they have way better heroes or have spent significant amounts of cash to buy crystals and max out research level alone the current cap which is 20 levels (presumably because of the small player base). This will make most of the new players quit and the cycle will continue and the player base will grow very slowly (if at all). And then you will have the small player base at the top which wont see the game grow, get bored of doing the same thing over and over and attacking the same people, then run low on targets to attack and will eventually leave and the overall player base will decline.
Absolutely, and this is where (as I have always said ) balance is key and hard to nail down as it will forever change as progress is made by everyone in game over time. The fact of the matter is that without paying players any game will ulitimately be bottom shelf in terms of quality and playability. I don't think the strategy of letting players catchup every 10 levels is a good one. It created bottlenecks and reduces the payers feeling of being in control. Can't complete daily missions, have nothing to develop or enhance, can't take advantage of special events etc etc. The player being involved and able to feel in control of progress is one of the fundamental requirements in good game design!
If the problem is not enough players then there are a number of stratagies that can be employed, gifts for inviting new players etc. Just look at any game that you play and most good ones will show what can be done from a marketing perspective to get new players. I would hate to see it but if the game is not creating enough revenue stream then advertising is option, pay to remove ads for example. Tiering game levels for players is a viable option and of course creating more avenues of play, missions, events. If (as is now) all ranks are fighting for the same limited goodies the lower ranks will suffer and become inactive. The capping as it works now does little to remove that. It gives momentary feel good factor until the next cap is lifted. This is not an easy question to answer without looking at the game metrics and analysing them. However, if I were AN I'd be looking at marketing both in-game and out, I'd lift the capping strategy and introduce game componets that allow players to spread there AP over a wider area...so its not all about smacking the low level players.
You can never equalize a game for the casual player and the daily active player, your only hope is that you can reduce the churn rate of new players while keeping the the ones that pay the bills. Eventually it comes down to game content and game play (i'm over simplifying here) a good well planned game that encourages all levels of players to come back for another go is the holy grail not easy to come by, but possisble. AN have a great concept and the game has so much potential. I hope they have the business maturity to adopt strategies to keep it going and make it enjoyable experience for all players. Right now I think they have lost their way or released the game way to early. The worst case scenario is that the game code is does not allow signficant further game development without a re-wrte. Again without inside information all I can do is speculate.
So let's keep our fingers crossed.
Oh and little things like spelling...may seem small but in the big arena need to be fixed. There are enough people on this Wilkia to help with that.