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1. Stop creating new servers, temporary, test, or otherwise. You damage the permanent servers every time you do this, and create your own avenues towards player loss on them. Unless you're changing some core mechanics to the game, this is only going to continue to harm your playerbase overall. This leads me to point two.
2.Start polishing what you DO have. If you want to experiment, do so. Making the permanent servers more distinct, so people who want faster play, or more established lanes of power, all have a home. If you're really interested in creating content that has broader appeal, you need to start doing so with servers that already have established playerbases. They're invested. They're here, (for now.) It's up to you to keep them engaged, not other players. Sandboxes only work up until someone builds all the things, gets all the achievements, and an income that sustains all of it. That leaves good players out in the cold in regards to content, leading to player apathy and worse, boredom. This game is already pretty yawn inducing, if you're not into politics, journalism or nationalism in any capacity.
3. Making sure your staff are adequately representing your business appropriately. I've been over this multiple times, but choosing employees, and I very loosely use that term, because in the past, you've allowed staff to get away with some pretty damaging practices, which, speaking of someone who has run his own business in the past and will do so again in the future, the last thing I'd want is employees who chase off valuable, PAYING customers. Especially community leaders that bring their own communities and friends with them for the ride. I can't even count how many instances of outside gaming communities that have come in, boosted player counts, created their own communities here, then were run off by bad business practices or staff members with axes to grind. You need accountability of a tangible nature, and consequences for poor practice. Period. Remember when we had players like Miniteck, LAZ, Ranflax and Smack, who all were great ambassadors for your brand and genuinely cared about not just improving the game, but improving the individual player's experience with it?
4.
5. Back to basics. Remember when you used to poll us on upcoming ideas and we'd respond to what we thought were valuable content and additions with our wallets? Whatever happened to that concept? I thought it was a great way to keep your fingers on the pulse of what the everygamer wanted. I think it may even be worth exploring again. You've gotten a bad reputation for not listening, and no, discord/skype meetings don't count, when your credibility has been reduced to nill.
6. Understand your niche, then target it, then OWN it. Let's face it. There's millions of games out there. Most of them far more visually and aesthetically pleasing than this one. The type of player even interested in a game like this are always going to be a bit niche. That's who you should be targeting, not failing to understand why babybooms aimed at mainstream players are always going to ultimately fall short, simply based on this being one archaic form of entertainment. There's not many people clamoring for a largely text based sandbox game based on geopolitical structures, simple combat, economics and light journalism. There IS a demographic for it, however, and I think maybe targeting those people needs to be at the forefront of any marketing going forwards, as well as taking a look at what the games in this genre are doing right as opposed to what e-sim is doing.
Lastly, understand that these points all relate to MY experience with the game. If you agree, awesome, if you don't, equally awesome, but I think it's understood that everyone wants some kind of change to happen, and not just change for the sake of change, but positive change with established goals, a roadmap to get there and regular communication of when it's gonna happen.
May your paths to success be short and fulfilling.
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[LO] I Hate Elections (10 years ago)
About the game:
USA as a world power? In E-Sim it is possible!
In E-Sim we have a huge, living world, which is a mirror copy of the Earth. Well, maybe not completely mirrored, because the balance of power in this virtual world looks a bit different than in real life. In E-Sim, USA does not have to be a world superpower, It can be efficiently managed as a much smaller country that has entrepreneurial citizens that support it's foundation. Everything depends on the players themselves and how they decide to shape the political map of the game.
Work for the good of your country and see it rise to an empire.
Activities in this game are divided into several modules. First is the economy as a citizen in a country of your choice you must work to earn money, which you will get to spend for example, on food or purchase of weapons which are critical for your progress as a fighter. You will work in either private companies which are owned by players or government companies which are owned by the state. After progressing in the game you will finally get the opportunity to set up your own business and hire other players. If it prospers, we can even change it into a joint-stock company and enter the stock market and get even more money in this way.
In E-Sim, international wars are nothing out of the ordinary.
Become an influential politician.
The second module is a politics. Just like in real life politics in E-Sim are an extremely powerful tool that can be used for your own purposes. From time to time there are elections in the game in which you will not only vote, but also have the ability to run for the head of the party you're in. You can also apply for congress, where once elected you will be given the right to vote on laws proposed by your fellow congress members or your president and propose laws yourself. Voting on laws is important for your country as it can shape the lives of those around you. You can also try to become the head of a given party, and even take part in presidential elections and decide on the shape of the foreign policy of a given state (for example, who to declare war on). Career in politics is obviously not easy and in order to succeed in it, you have to have a good plan and compete for the votes of voters.
You can go bankrupt or become a rich man while playing the stock market.
The international war.
The last and probably the most important module is military. In E-Sim, countries are constantly fighting each other for control over territories which in return grant them access to more valuable raw materials. For this purpose, they form alliances, they fight international wars, but they also have to deal with, for example, uprisings in conquered countries or civil wars, which may explode on their territory. You can also take part in these clashes, although you are also given the opportunity to lead a life as a pacifist who focuses on other activities in the game (for example, running a successful newspaper or selling products).
At the auction you can sell or buy your dream inventory.
E-Sim is a unique browser game. It's creators ensured realistic representation of the mechanisms present in the real world and gave all power to the players who shape the image of the virtual Earth according to their own. So come and join them and help your country achieve its full potential.
Invest, produce and sell - be an entrepreneur in E-Sim.
Take part in numerous events for the E-Sim community.
