I'm bored and I've been thinking. Dangerous thing, that.

Basically, the thing that attracted me to (Or at least kept me from leaving) Lusternia is the amount of power you can have over the game world. Things like illusions, designing and manses are making use of the advantage text games have over graphical ones. Lusternia's combat is utterly uneappealing to me because it can't live up to a game like, say, EVE online (I understand some people like Lust's combat over that of graphical games, but I don't. I like my fights twitchy, not typey.) Me and other members of a certain class of players (Let's call them Architects, to borrow from the psychological profile and avoid other more descriptive terms like "nutjobs") focus on this. I stayed on Lusternia because (Or so I thought) on Lusternia, you can go ahead and change the game world.

And Lusternia, more so than most other IRE games (Except maybe Imperian and Achaea, but I wouldn't know too well how their guild charter system works and Achaea is knee-deep in roleplaylessness) took interesting steps in the direction of empowering players - Manses are a big example of that, as are constructs.

But simultaneously, it seems profoundly afraid of going all the way with that. There's a general perception that the administration needs to keep a leash on things; organizations are inherently very dependant on their patrons, and in-game gods are both very powerful, and very prone to direct intervention (Lisaera flooding New Celest comes to mind, as does Raezon blowing up an Elcyrion shrine, but both those things were more or less harmless - it's gods influencing and dictating policy (VIRAVAIN, I am looking at your past incarnations and quite possibly at you too) that is malignant.)

Basically, this is what drove me off. Lusternia has unrealised potential, but it seems bent on harnessing the creativity of players without letting it take control. This class of player is, in my opinion, being more or less driven off - The ones that stay are the ones who keep strong attachments to the game (I quit precisely when my attachments to the game blew up on me - Building new ones didn't seem worth the effort, among other things). I've been watching the game and stayed here mostly because I rather like the playerbase (Or at least, sections of it - You know who you are.)

And yes, I'm aware that this is all the perspective of myself and maybe a certain type of player. I'm not sure of how many people feel the same way about the game I do (Reason I'm posting this, by the way) and quite possibly, players interested in that kind of game play may not even be the game's target public - But I think they're the only ones that will inherently be more interested in a text game than a graphical one, everything else being equal; and personally, several of IRE and Lusternia's selling points (Which often don't live up to the game's reality) seem to appeal directly to this type of player.

As I posted in the CNT thread, I honestly think that it's easier to keep old players than it is to attract new ones; that old players will endure unfavorable changes, whereas new ones need to be actively lured.

I came from Achaea for a similar reason--conflict quests gave the impression of impact on the game world, commodity quests and power quests gave the impression of a gritty, harsh world that needed the players to survive (back when all the orgs were poor and power wasn't so incredibly easy to get).

I also like the high cost of entry for freely designing things. Manses, cartels, these things ain't cheap. I feel that it helped to cut down on a lot of the nonsense created by Achaea's crafting system.

However, these things don't cater to new people. Commodities stockpile so well that people cry when there are shortages. Power is absurdly easy to gather. Things are peaceful. All of this was in the name of attracting more players by giving them a more comfortable start.

I'm not advocating a level of scarcity and want on par with Armageddon. I am, however, concerned at how some things are getting chipped away to create a softer, sterile world.

Anyways, need to go. Novice. Finish later!

I think it's easy for any game to keep it's older players than it is the newer. If you look at Achaea, there are so many people there who are upset over the autoclass and house system. The lack of RP. But they stay there, hoping that things will imrpove. I was like that for awhile, and it took someone really hurting me IG to leave. And really, that was one thing I'm totally happy happened. In fact, I think that if I were to see these people again, I'd thank them.

I can see where you're coming from, and I think you make a good point.

I'm not entirely sure I get what you're trying to say as a whole there Verithrax. But I do understand enough to say that I agree with you to a degree, there's a lot of this elusive, 'you can change the world' type allure that seems less tangible then it's advertised to be.

I suggest, that simply, maybe you're expecting too much from this kind of game as an 'Architect' sort of player. They have an outline and world they've created with a specific flavour and style too it, and though the world is put in the hands of the players, they can't let them simply run free willy nilly altering it and changing it as they please.

I don't think you'll ever see them going all the way with allowing players free reign over changing and affecting the game world, in short, they can't get away with allowing such to be easily done. It's something that is done through arduous, hard dedication to doing so over the course of a long time and with a small amount of luck perhaps in accomplishing the goals an 'architect' might have.

The problem is inherently they can't afford to do so and otherwise lose cohesiveness of the games world and RP in allowing it. Nor are a lot of players that would then have access too it trustworthy to have that sort of power to alter the gameworld, and they've not the staffing or patience to that closely monitor such things as busy as they are with everything else.


Maybe what you really need is a lot of play-dough. I love play-dough.

I have to agree that retaining older players is easier than attracting new ones. I continued to play Achaea long after the fun of it was gone completely. If not for my enjoyment of Lusternia, I'd still be playing there and hating every minute of it.

The more you have invested in a game (time, money, social life, energy) the more difficult is to leave it for good. Especially if there's not an interesting enough alternative.

XCOM!

Offtopic but I agree. X-Com FTW.