The Old Nation System

[Shad]

[quote="RedCydranth":2k3c8bu9]I understand that it is for fun, but there's little fun to be had when from the get go the odds are heavily stacked in favor of one nation. This was one of the primary failures of Final Fantasy Platform. Early on, nation balance and identity is important. This is hard to create when 1/3 of the people playing your game all belong to one nation.

Had I been alerted of this project 2 weeks ago, I'd have tried to help a lot more on this project, but I just found out about this today and it already seems to me that it has turned more into a popularity contest and a recruitment contest than anything else.

When I chose my nation, I had no clue which other members were in what nation. I based it basically on which Nation Leader I wanted to work with and let the rest fall into place. After I PM'd Rugner telling him I wanted to be in SME, I hopped onto mIRC to see what others were saying about this game and almost immediately I got the vibe from everyone there (just about everyone there is Falenan) that this was more about being in the clique than having fun with a new system. Nobody was intrigued on how the system will work or what new features you've put in. All they talked about was who they got to join their nations and it was a flame war.

I know it is hard to break bonds created in the old system, but that's what the term "fresh start" indicates. I personally feel the best way to have done this was allow each nation leader to select 2 or 3 members of his/her choice to start up the forum before the floodgates opened. Then when the flood gates open, make it random. Disallow movement between nations for 6 months and try and get people to establish new identities for their new nations. Zexen being the Candyland was something the Suikox Zexen established as their identity. This new game isn't Suikox. There shouldn't be Candyland over there. Let it be done with. It's hard to have a fresh start to a new game when old allegiances still remain in tact.

This is one of fuji's strongest points to his game. It throws all old allegiances and nations out the window. It forces a fresh start and focuses on individuality. I'm not trying to say your game is weak or inferior, as it's not even technically started, but given my past experiences with FFP, unless you find a way to establish an early balance, this will ultimately fail. I don't like to be "that guy" and rain on the parade, but this is the inevitability of it. You can encourage all you like, but unless you as an admin, put your foot down and make things go your way, people will abuse your system. Ask Vex about it. Early on everyone and anyone tried to abuse the system to get things the way they wanted. For quite a while Vex was actually pretty unpopular amongst the masses for all the punishment he handed out for being a strict admin about his war game. But, in the end we all loved him because it was through this strictness and adherence to his set of rules that made his game so amazing.

You're trying to appease the masses and your game will suffer because of it. Unless you're willing to put on the iron gauntlet and slam your fist down and force people to bend to your will for the betterment of the game, this game will continue on a downward slope. I'll join in and see how it goes, but I can't see it lasting too long on the road it is on. I sincerely hope I am wrong and will try my darndest to not see it fail.