[Comment] A Way to Save OGame?
In recent months, as many have noticed or indeed caught on to the fact that the number of players in almost all universes in/at OGame.org has been declining for some time and shows now sign of slowing with many dropping below the 2,500 mark. I comment on the downward trend in player numbers and possible ways to reverse it.
Several people have offered potential solutions to what many people see as a crisis within OGame and the community surrounding it. These range from changing the boundries and rules surrounding protection of new players topeople being given more resourses at the start of the game and removing the steep learning curve surrounding players as they begin their OGame career.
Now, “what’s wrong with that?” I hear you ask. Well, nothing is wrong with them as a temporary stop-gap. Which is really all they are. An attempt to stop the flow of players leaving the game and so ceasing what mant see as the decline of OGame. They are the response of a community that feels shunned by GameForge. A community that feels it has lost its
voice and that the owners of OGame are doing nothing to stop the stream of players becoming bored and leaving.
Don’t for a second think that I am saying that these ideas are bad or wrong. In fact, I support many of them. I just think it’s futile and does not tackle the underlying flaw in the mechanics of OGame, and in some cases, the leadership in Karlsruhe.
The success of OGame can be narrowed down to two basic factors. a) The community. The game has a strong and vibrant forum community (which does not seem to have been effected by player loss. Indeed, many retired players are remaining on the forums to contribute, give advice and talk with friends). It is full of interesting people with varied opinions on all subjects ranging from the war in Iraq to the price of Coffee. It counts amongst its group artists and writers, all of whom
are friendly and always willing to help.
And b) the game itself (AFTER the intial learning curve, once a player has settled in). The fact that each universe appears to be its own self-contained political system with shifting alleigences, grabs for power. They’re places where peace and trade flourish. Where mutual cooperation is common place (even in war) and the strategy of warfare can be played out on
a galactic scale with millions of ships battling it out, vieing for control. With each alliance having its own agenda, its own plan for conquest and each being different and unique, it all makes OGame a game worth playing and celebrating. But . . .
Despite all of this, there is still an underlying flaw in the way OGame works. The reason player numbers are falling. Many people have many different ideas on what is wrong with the game. Arguments often include the fact that ‘once someone has been “crashed”[the term for being basically, destroyed] it could result in potentially years of work being lost in what is a infinitecimally small period of time for reasons beyond the defender’s control.’ This often results in players quitting the game. Others say that OGame’s steep learning curve puts players off joining or staying to foster an account into a formidable one able to strike other players. Critics of these arguments retort that it’s a war game, these things are to be expected but this fails to account for why OGame is losing popularity, when other war games are seeing a surge in popularity based on what is, to some extent, the same formula.
Another common reason many put forward to explain the decline in popularity is just the fact the game is simply boring. They cite the fact that doing something repetatively for two or more years becomes tedious and that OGame doesn’t have
the depth to present new challenges to dominant and experienced players. This results, goes the argument, in the process by which original players are leaving and not being sufficiently replaced at a rate high enough to maintain the number of players in a universe at any one time.
But you know what I think is causing a dramatic drop in player numbers? I simply think that OGame is not providing a
dynamic enough gaming experience for a modern person with over 10 billion internet pages at their fingertips. When it comes down to it, the game is simply some text on a screen with some pictures. Granted, there is plenty of strategy involved in creating a successful empire but a large percentage of new players never get to that stage. They simply realise they have to wait hours for an attack to land and get bored. They’re off to find something more engaging; OGame has serious competition in the MMO market, with many free games offering graphical interfaces while using a similar set up. In order to save OGame, GameForge needs to (and has to some extent) realise/d that the status quo is not enough to maintain an effective player base. They needs to realise, as have members of the community, that in order to have a large, loyal fanbase they need to entice the MySpace Generation to the game – to convince them not to play some game with shiny new graphics “because it looks cool” but to play OGame; to use strategy to outwit their opponents and to have the satisfaction of being victorious large battle.
As mentioned, thre are signs GameForge has realised this, but has perhaps not made the best decisions in relation to communication and consulation. Recent months have seen the introduction of the Battlecruiser which has been widely accepted but did nothing great to increase player numbers and the extremely controversial “officers” which saw more than 25,000 people sign a petition against their introduction. One of the most controversial aspects of this feature (apart from the concept) was that of its introduction. It received all of one day’s testing at ogame.pt before it was introduced in .org. This lead to questions regarding how much attention GameForge pays to the opinion of its consumer base.
Now I’m sure someone will have stopped there and said “hey, aren’t you contradicting yourself there? Didn’t you just say they should try and attract a new consumer with features that would appeal to them? Surely they can’t cater to both ‘old skool’ and new players alike.” But to that I argue that they can do both.
I believe that GameForge should have a consultation period with the worldwide community of OGame. They should define and realise what makes the game great and what attracts players to it. They should also ask peoples’ ideas on how to attract new players while preserving the spirit of the game. This would not be logistically difficult and would give the community a voice through to which to channel criticism and suggestions. A way to express ideas on how to save the great game. Maybe together, both the community and GameForge can help make the game be more popular than ever.
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