A common practice in Illyriad™ is to ship caravans loaded down with basic resources (iron,clay, wood, stone, food, gold) to new players that ask for these shipments, or even just say they are new to Illyriad™. While this is the first time I have ever seen such active dedication to supply new players in a game, I wonder if it's an actual aid to player growth, or a deterrent.
I have thought about this practice for a decent amount of time, indeed I can honestly say that I started having negative thoughts about shipping new players building resources since the fall of 2011. Since the fall of 2011, I started to notice *or perhaps I started talking more in chat which lead to me noticing* more new players begging in global chat for resources. It could be as obvious as XXX asking "Hello I'm new and I would appreciate my resources from the Fantastic Community! Thank you!", I noticed that established players would then usually respond in a standard response "Care a vans in bound good buddy!", usually without even looking at the beggars population or alliance status.
Upon closer investigation I noticed a growing chain of players ranging from "five to six hundred" population begging in GC for resources, this shocks me because there seems to be a complete abandonment, an encouraged abandonment among new players to build your own resource production up for your city needs and to instead expect established players who did the work to supply you. When I was at three hundred population, I had a personal resource income ranging from one thousand to two thousand building resource *iron, stone, clay, wood* per hour, yet sometimes when I ask the beggar I get a horrifying answer *oh 28, 32, 25, 30 p/h*.
It makes me wonder, why are these resource shipments continuing to be sent to new players? Some claim that they encourage new players to stay in Illyriad™, though it's obvious that others liked the game for what it was and stayed long enough to establish themselves in the game without the need to beg, a simple thousand minimum stayed long enough for that. Besides, is this how you really want players to stay in the game? Reeling them in by offering *tribute* instead of getting players to stay for the *game*?
Is this a recruitment tactic? Do you bestow new players with dozens of resource shipments in hopes they will join your alliance, then lie and say "nah I'm sending this because I care, not because I want them to think my alliance is friendly and a good fit"? I have no idea...
I honestly take no part in these actions, I may send a shipment or two to members that accidentally ques too many cows and are in danger of running out of food, but I don't encourage reliance on others to progress through Illyriad™. I have personally spend months working on increasing output for resource production in all my cities, even now the majority of my cities have an average of 6k p/h on building resources, I look on to that with a sense of pride and achievement. I highly doubt those that require shipments from others to advance in this game get the same sense of accomplishment, so are they cheating themselves? Should shipments be banned? What do you think?
From Angrim who lacks the ID to post this
ReplyDelete"the devs have concluded that gifts to new players do help them stay in the game. that makes sense on two levels: first because the beginning player is in a terrible resource shortage initially, and gifts to players below 100 population are a vital lifeline that keep players much more involved in their first few days; second because new players meet more people, and thereby increase the chances that they will make connections that keep them coming back.
as far as it being a recruitment tool, a resource gift is a very effective way of introducing yourself to a new player. think of it as a baked good one might bring to a new neighbour. it offers an opening for further conversation. whether that leads to recruitment or not is an open question. the smart player considers all opportunities and chooses for him/herself.
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