Phone app, increasing simming? changing the game?

DeletedUser42857

Guest
Something I posted in another thread, but possibly worth discussion.

Is the way the phone app is marketed, and then used by people increasing the number of simmers in the game and in turn decreasing the number of players who work as part of an alliance etc.

People see the game advertised, download the phone app, and never get the full experience of being part of an alliance, or being actively part of an alliance. They just see it as a game where they build cities. You only really get the full immersive experience on the desktop version, and I do wonder if peoples first introduction to the game is by the phone app, wether it is viewed as a sim city style game. We now the forums are awful on the phone app, attack reports dont work, its pretty much impossible to plan attacks on the phone properly.

My first question to new members of my alliance if they arent participating in ops, or supporting other members or posting on the forum is "Are you using the phone/tablet app". If they are, it pretty much becomes a non starter.


the play store description:
- Free-to-play strategy MMO with 20 million registered players worldwide
- Start with one city, and expand it to a mighty empire
- Battle with players worldwide and conquer their cities
- Harvest resources and trade
- Make use of the gods' favor and employ their 20 mighty spells
- Research 30 useful technologies, and construct 13 different buildings
- Recruit your army from 27 units, and lead them into battle in real-time
- Fight in alliances, side by side with other real players
- Play your account via this app and on your desktop computer on www.grepolis.com


The focus is pretty much on building cities. Alliances is mentioned breifly, but the bulk of the garb is about building cities. When in fact one of the biggest parts of grepo is the interaction. The accompanying video as well is totally about building cities, researching, and worshipping, not one single mention of joining alliances, working with other players.

And user comments on play store.

Fun This game is fun and addictive. There is always something else you needed to build or another city to defeat on your island

Great city builder game. So much fun, I run two different cities.

Best game ever This is the best game to have if u love the Greek times and want to build a great big city.

Its ok Its a good game for on the go but a lot players so demanding u always be on an forums where are they? < hmmmm

Great game Been playing for 2 months now, had a great big city but was attacked and lost everything.


The way its advertised and marketed on the play store pretty much encourages simming, and clearly from some of the comments on the game, the expectation is that it is a sim game. Not a community based game.

Most experienced or active players use desktop as the main tool for playing, phone/tablet as the backup. Will be see a time when alliances start putting in their requirements for joining "Desktop version of grepo required"? I will admit, I think ive reached that point where all alliance join requests will be asked if they are playing desktop or phone, and if its phone only then they will probably be declined.

not sure what the solution is?
+ registrations through the phone app get sent to a different "sim" type world
+ Inno market it more as a "companion app" to the desktop version (similar to how Grepo Toolbox was advertised)
+ Inno work harder to sell the alliance/co-operation side of the game
 
Last edited by a moderator:

DeletedUser42857

Guest
I guess my thought would be that Inno need to much more heavily emphasise that is a "companion" app to the grepolis online game. Encourage users to see it as a backup to the desktop version, not a standalone game, that really does lead to more simming.

Inno's focus really needs to be on the community aspect, rather than the "sim" aspect.

Mobile devices are rapidly increasing in popularity and I wouldnt like to see Grepo reach a point where it is dominated by simmers, with loads of individual players just building.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

DeletedUser42803

Guest
i agree. Too many of my alliance members don't use the forums, but reply to messages which means they must be on mobile. i mean, mobile is handy for building the odd thing quickly, but you need desktop to plan and wage war with alliances that are obviously gonna beat you so when they do, you leave the alliance and let everyone else get killed :D They were the good times. now it's just building. Also, the intro doesn't tell you much on war and stuff. Only makes you attack one farming village and join/found an alliance. The main part id the city.

We need old grepo back. Guess thats why the hero world exists.......
 

DeletedUser

Guest
they should change the marketing although personally I like simmers as prey. I conquered a 7000 point city with 6 swords once.
 

DeletedUser43011

Guest
You can do a fair bit with the app once you are comfortable with it, I gained around 30k ABP yesterday and most of it sent from app
 

DeletedUser42803

Guest
i guess so. But there aren't enough player getting into the attacking bit of the game. The best part about the game is attacking. but when people only build up city wise, you don't gen enough Bp in my opinion
 

DeletedUser

Guest
just a sentence in bold in the description For even more strategy, and enhanced gameplay please check out the desktop version
and possibly a quest that rewards you for logging in on a computer.
 

DeletedUser42857

Guest
I think thats the thing Chalna, it needs something to emphasise that the app is just a limited version of the full desktop experience. Theres a lot of "city building" games on play store, and it just comes across as one of those, which leads people to do just that.

The comment from one user on "people keep moaning i should use the forum, where is it", is something a lot of alliance leaders will recognise as familiar.

You can do a fair bit with the app once you are comfortable with it, I gained around 30k ABP yesterday and most of it sent from app

But does the way the app is described and marketed encourage that style of play?
 

DeletedUser22650

Guest
ppl discovering grep on the app isnt the only problem with it either, ive allways said its jeopardy that makes ppl log in time and again, with the app alot of players know theyre safe so theres no need to rush to a pc and check in, i know players that sit stagnant for months only to log in and snipe when they get inbounds, when to many on a server are playing like that it gets boring and lowers the jeopardy even more, even for non app users it makes for tired slow servers
 

DeletedUser

Guest
Personally I just use the app while im out to check for attacks I couldn't play on my mobile non stop it would send me crazy the real fun begins when on my PC as then i feel i have real control and can view everything in better detail and chat, I mean the app is great and allows people who don't have a PC to play but for me it isn't the same and detracts from a great war game.
 

DeletedUser22650

Guest
if they could make it so you could play properly on the app id be all for it, more players actually playing at any given time has to be a good thing, i just think as it stands its lowering the play rate
 

DeletedUser37948

Guest
the app is great for me as i can login at work where i dont have a pc and also ive had internet issues and when that happend it was a godsend

with all changes there are possitives and negatives for me personaly the pluses outway the minuses
 

DeletedUser22650

Guest
indeed, but they could outweigh them more if the minuses are identified and eliminated.....go inno, get on it :p
 

DeletedUser42857

Guest
the app is great for me as i can login at work where i dont have a pc and also ive had internet issues and when that happend it was a godsend

with all changes there are possitives and negatives for me personaly the pluses outway the minuses

Oh the app is great for the pc players, allows us to login from work, or when we are out. Have attack warnings so we dont have to stay glued to the computer. I can actually imagine the app on a tablet is very good.

But the question is, does the app fully explore the social side of the game, and does the way its marketed on the play store, whether deliberately or not, as a city building game, encourage the social aspect.

For me, the social aspect, working as part of a team, being part of an alliance is 90% of that game. without that it would pretty quickly get boring, and I do think Inno should address that aspect much more in the marketing of the app, and in the videos, introduction to the app. Players who become part of an alliance, make friends through the game, are much more likely to stick around for the long term (and in turn more likely to spend gold). And players who see it as a city building game are more likely just to sim to the detrement of themselves and grepo.

when i see comments on the app store like "im in an alliance and they keep on going on at me to go on the forum and participate" that fills me with dread.
 

DeletedUser

Guest
I honestly think that this problem will eventually solve itself. A strong alliance can easily wipe out a handful of simmers. They'll either learn that this is a war game or they'll die off.
 

DeletedUser22650

Guest
that wasnt the problem we were talking about, we're saying if any phone players could play properly they would be better players and hold their interest longer and avoid wasting potentially talented players, more proper players on the servers equals more fun, easy takeovers from simmers is going to get boring much faster
 

DeletedUser

Guest
there are worse things than simmers. I love people who just play on the phone app because normally they are easy kills. I am aware that is not the best reason for not changing things . inno does need to make changes to marketing and layout though.
 

DeletedUser

Guest
Before changing anything they should try to fix broken stuff first... alliance forum is still broken on android...
 

DeletedUser

Guest
I think some simple changes to the app description (as a few others mentioned before) would fix most problems. Also to lessen the whole "build up your city" in the tv spot. Yes, that is indeed part of the game, but actually only a very small part of the game; teamwork within an alliance to conquer your enemies is probably the largest part of the game. If you refuse or cannot work with others in your alliance then what is the point?

I've never used the phone app but some of my alliance mates tell me it's just awful, such as you cannot use BBCodes (which seems absolutely ridiculous) and you cannot see forum surveys from the app either. I think many things need to change, perhaps the easiest being the app description.

edit: also thank you dimspace for bringing this up, I had no idea that this may be the reason why so many simmer abound in our alliance and world servers :)
 
Top