It seems the days of challenging and upsets are gone. Once an alliance establishes supremacy nobody is left to challenge them. Why should they? There's now 4 new worlds open at this point and its only been a month or two.
... the typical MRA rise and the good alliance sweeps them out for the first seed. Then the world dies. Does anyone else have a problem with that? That pretty much kills the world and the fun when a world drops from 30k players to 5k players within a month.
I think Innogames should think about slowing down the world output to put quality and interest back in the game. It’s almost not a challenge for some teams anymore once a month passes and I miss that. Anyone else agree?
I am glad you started this thread, because this phenomenon has troubled me since I started playing Grepo (my first world was Delphi - so I have no memory of the good-old days - just Gen 2.0 and hence). This is a real and serious problem with the game - affecting its attractiveness and viability. I will be quite clear about my direct experience - what I have seen on Speed3 worlds is the relatively quick formation of a dominant alliance - made up of a large group of veteran players (who seem to know each other from previous worlds). In fact, the group is usually seeded by a veteran pre-made or two that start on Day 1 in the core oceans. These vet seeds quickly form a powerful and utterly dominate alliance that may morph a bit for a month or two - merge with another vet group or change names - but in essence this initial alliance sweeps out the core oceans and dominates the server. These players have the demographics and appearance of a fraternity - so I call them FratBoys. The MRA noobs are just live cattle to be consumed - too inexperienced to realize they will be slaughtered as needed. The random late starting players are faced with impossible odds. This is why most of the other players abandon these worlds. If you are foolish enough to stay - you are probably aren't very bright and unlikely to accomplish anything except give the FratBoys some sport - like caged game released at private hunting clubs. I get a chuckle at the hypocrisy I see when the FratBoys kill a server, and then complain about the lack of action and waste of their investment of time and money. "Don't quit" they plead "Stay and fight." Jeez - what do they expect when 60% or more of the talent is concentrated in one club.
I have struggled with this - and I don’t know exactly why this happens repeatedly. I do think this situation has evolved as a consequence of the game design and human nature. The game is difficult - if you want to be competitive it takes a huge amount of your time and some money so naturally you want to protect your "investment" and maximize your chances. You quickly learn that a lone player is helpless no matter how big or clever - and the quality and size of your team determines your fate. You also learn that proximity is critical, which makes your start very important. If you first drop into a remote or hostile place far from your friends, then you have greatly hurt your chances.
So what happens? The smart vet players drop into a core ocean together, consume the MRA noobs, and link up with like-minded players - another FratBoy alliance is born. I don't know first-hand if it is the same on Speed 1 and 2 worlds - but I assume it is. The phenomenon is just more pronounced on Speed3 worlds because these worlds develop and die at a much faster rate.
I think there are solutions to this problem, but Nod - your solution just won't work. You can't force good players to stick around on a dying or dead world by restricting access to new worlds that offer hope of victory. These displaced players will just stop playing Grepo altogether and your solution will just hasten the demise of the game franchise. I think the real solution lies in the attitude of the vet players. But I am out of time ... so that discussion must wait for another post.
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