Graal Kingdoms

One thing that everyone on Graal has seemed to noticed, is that Unholy Nation is slowly dieing out. The cause of this, is unclear. Not one direct flaw can be the cause of it, but one thing is for sure, something must be done to save this server.

The Money Problem

For the past year, Graal has under went some major financial changes. First of all, Gralats were introduced, which allowed you to purchase Cards, Gold Time, and Holiday Items for selected servers, all individual. While this may seem like a great idea, what it really did was jack the prices for gold up even more. I know this doesn't concern Unholy Nation, but in ways players from GK do eventually get bored, and may possibly stop by Unholy Nation from time to time. Now, this does not happen, as people do not feel they need to pay so much for two servers that hardly get enough updates or have anything to do, so they quit all together.

Now the real issue due to this money problem is the trial observer mode. Unlike before, trial accounts only get a limited time on a server before they are kicked off. On Classic servers, it's about every 10 minutes, and you are forced to sit there and wait. As you can imagine, this gets extremely annoying for any player, and when the player freezes in events, it gets even worse. For any player really wanting to try out the game, it does not help them depict if they like it or not at all. So along with no one making any P2P accounts, trials are virtually unexistant. To a server who's population was about 45% trial, this drops the playercount tremendously. Then, players begin to move on to other servers, or leaving Graal entirely because they feel Unholy Nation is dead. To fix this problem, trial observer mode must be deleted. This does not get you more P2P accounts, it only leaves you with an empty game, and your paying customers leaving left and right.

The No Fun Problem

Apart from the financial problem, there is also a drought in "fun" on Unholy Nation. The game has been transformed into a huge chat room, and virtually no one spars/pks any more. It is understandable that some players do not want to fight, but to new players who are coming on, it is definitely a necessity. Even though players do not fight, it is somewhat understandable as to why. It gets old. You can spar over and over, and though this may be amusing to some, to others it's tiresome. For a while, guilds actually participated in Castle Wars, but eventually people began to realize, what's the point? You get to set your statue for a mere 30 minutes. Really? Is that supposed to make players want to take over the castle over and over again? In order to make Castle Wars worth doing, a reward system needs to be set up.

The top 3 guilds each week shall recieve 10 EP for each member. The members of one of the guilds must go and claim his/her reward 2-3 days prior to the end of the week, or they will not recieve it. This will make it so inactive players do not continuosly stack up points only to return and claim a large sum. At the end of the month, the guild that took over the castle the most, gets a statue in the trophy room, and a personal room inside the castle. Of course the rewards can be modified if necessary, I'm just ranting on about my ideas.

And now I know this may seem weird, but WE NEED MORE ITEMS. Unholy Nation is currently based off events. If there are no events, no one is doing anything. This sounds like a hard task, but until something else comes along to amuse people, this is what is needed. Not only do we need more items, but we also need more events. It gets boring playing, TTPK, Zombie Hunt, Draw-It, Poison Purge, PPK, and then repeat. I know these are the events people like to play, but we need some variety.

The Clearing Out What's Old Problem

As with every server, things need to be updated. So why are there houses still left from players that have quit 3 years ago? It is totally unnecessary. These houses need to be cleared out, and redistributed through auction. Then, we help clean up the unstable economy, and we have players working to make money/ep for the houses.

And what's up with the quests? They suck... Even if there is no change to the current quests for health/swords, atleast make new ones for items. Quests for players to work together on, not necessarily run in, hit baddies, open chest, leave. Make players have to figure things out, make the server work together. Remember, players need something to do constantly, if you want to maintain a server count, this is necessary.

The Guild Problem

What is there to do for a guild nowadays? NOTHING. Why? I do not know, guilds should be the primary focus whenever you are trying to create a server. People love to socialize, and when they are trying to do something together, it increases their amusement. Special quests, wars, and events need to be made specifically for guilds, just to up the interest.

Speaking of guilds, were are the guild houses? More importantly, were are the fortresses? Shouldn't any big guild have some kind of fortress, just so other guilds can break in and invade? This would create unorganized guild wars, and would keep players active even when staff are not on. Speaking of staff.....

The Staff Problem

CORRUPTION, INACTIVITY. This is unavoidable on any server, but it certainly can be dealt with. Starting with what staff we hire. One thing Unholy Nation needs to understand, is that GP CHIEFS DO NOT MAKE GOOD MANAGERS. This occured with Spryte, and it is happening with Crow. For some reason, they are inactive, and they cannot develop. Not only that, they do not know how to manage. Apart from that, you got staff doing whatever, LATs hosting events, GATs making NPCs, where is the organization? Something seriously needs to be done to revamp this whole situation.

The Advertisement Problem

Although this is more of a Graal problem then Unholy Nation, it is still a reason why Unholy Nation is dieing. There is absolutely no advertisement for this game! Not even free advertisement. I am telling you, a lot can be done by just updating the games condition on sites like www.mmorpg.com or www.xfire.com. Potential players from those sites are always looking for new games, and if this game looks dead, no ones going to try it. A little forum activity on those sites can go a long way, and if you wish to play apart in saving Graal, sign up for those sites, give the game a good rating, download Xfire to record your in game hours, and watch the playercount rise. It does not take a lot of advertisement for this game to really start improving.

There are many other problems to address, and eventually I may add a few more, but for now, I will leave it at this. Please provide any feedback and tell me what you agree and disagree with. Also, I know you feel you do not need to, but do whatever you can to spread the word about Graal. Starting by going to

www.mmorpg.com
www.xfire.com

MMORPG.com is basically an online game site that has just about every single MMO out there. A lot of players go there to find new games, and currently Graal is lowly rated, and has bad forum credibility. Please try and help change that.

Xfire is a client you can download to record hours of any game you play. Currently, only about 4 users (including myself) record hours for Graal. When new players look at this, they think it is dead, and do not give a shot. Please download this, and try and help out Graal.

Anyways, thanks for reading this. If you have any ideas, feel free to post.