Mpogd
 

This month we want to try to win MPOGD.COM game of the month. We have already increased our rank from 50 to 3 in just over one day. If we have the same increase again we should be ranked 2 by tomorrow.

Why do we want to do this?

This round saw the first increase in paid accounts in a long time. With the changes in this round and the planned changes for next time we think now is the time to act to try and get some new players in.

So, if you love Planetarion as much as we do, please vote everyday and help us win. :)

http://www.mpogd.com

Re: Mpogd
 

I'm astonished. Is it Wolfpack recruiting, or is the game actually reaching new players?

Re: Mpogd
 

Wolfpack probabaly helped, yes. But considering we normally loose players, an actual growth suggests that we have got better at retaining thoose that sign up. This is backed up through the statisitics we collect. This round has fewer signups than last round, but we still have an increase in paid accounts. This suggests that the new skins and features in this round have had a net positive benefit.

The sad thing is that the PR disastors, bugs, poor manual, etc have really hindered the growth - if we had got things right on that front we could do even better.

So in short thats our goal for next round, get the major bugs out of the game, get the manual to a higher standard and to try to avoid the PR disastors that typically plague the game.

I'm optimisitc that we can do this and really start to move the game forwards.

Re: Mpogd
 

Most people i know just came back for one final rump.
Im sure that is the reason to the increase of player mass (he said optimistically)

Re: Mpogd
 

perhaps, but addiction is a strange thing... what they intended may not be that relevant :D

Re: Mpogd
 

Actually I'd recommend everyone to wait until next round and see what is really going to happen. One can still push Planetarion up the mpogd rankings when it's fun again.

Re: Mpogd
 

Wouldn't it be better to make Planetarion end second on the rankings every month instead of 1st and then wait another year to vote again? Sure, PA would probably get a huger boost at once if it ended first, but by ending second every month it could lead to a steady long-term growth instead of a huge short-term growth.

Re: Mpogd
 

That is one option yes, but we arn't second yet...

Re: Mpogd
 

Sorry for a moment there i got distracted by the game called planetarium football manager on that list.

Planetarion mixed with Footbal manager?

Now theres an idea for next round :p

Re: Mpogd
 

Playing football with asteroids could be fun :p

Re: Mpogd
 

Is mpogd.com still the most popular site for these kinds of things?

Re: Mpogd
 

Haha, very good point.

Re: Mpogd
 

Why dont you quit PA then?

Re: Mpogd
 

people pay for accounts to get new skins?

* bring back excel *
________
Suzuki rv 125 van van

Re: Mpogd
 

1st place now :o

Re: Mpogd
 

mannnn!

we're whooping this now, keep upthegood work guys

Re: Mpogd
 

Look at the history of its rankings: http://www.mpogd.com/gotm/

Planetarion has won GOTM (Game of the Month) 11 times in the past, often several months in a row. Too bad you're only allowed to win GOTM once a year nowdays :)

Re: Mpogd
 

mpogd's poll is laughable. Winning this thing is a few lines of code. :rolleyes:

Re: Mpogd
 

I'm not entirely sure, but I think MPOGD really meant something in the past...?

Re: Mpogd
 

It used to mean a lot, yes. However, even now it is relevant, since we entered the top 5 the signups have increased - this does bring us back to the question though of whether we want to actually win. Would coming second every month be better?

Or perhaps we win mpogd.com once a year, but make sure we are allways doing well in other rankings as well?

Re: Mpogd
 

I don't think people can be arsed to vote on multiple sites every day, so sticking with one of them would be the best. Aiming for second would then probably be the best strategy of attracting as many players as possible since they'll get a constant exposure to the game instead of one exposure per year.

If you go for this you'll have to find a way to make sure people don't vote too much though.

Re: Mpogd
 

Or what we could do is try to find a different thing to win each month.

Re: Mpogd
 

Could be a good idea to just put them all up at once instead of just one per month then. To make people to bother voting, make it so they receive some resources every time they vote. I'm not sure if that's possible with all sites though, but in a game I tried for a few days (Marcoland) I got resources every time I voted, so I guess there's some reference-thingy you could use.

Re: Mpogd
 

The idea of roid/resource incentives for supporting the game on other sites is an excellent idea. How about a reward for placing a link to PA on personal websites/blogs? If we want to be really clever, how about some kind of scripted button which displays planet rank? (e.g. 'my planet is ranked 24th in Planetarion') I think other games (NationStates springs to mind) have made good use of such things.

Re: Mpogd
 

We are looking into the first item, and I like the idea of the second.

Re: Mpogd
 

Anyone then viewing the blog would be able to work out who the person was. It would have to be made very clear that whatever system was in place, if it meant that their co-ords were revealed it's not our fault / problem.
Something slightly less easy to break down would be, for example the maximum and minimum ranks and the graph as given on the history page.

Re: Mpogd
 

I don't think most of us care about hiding our coords any more (I certainly don't).

Re: Mpogd
 

People who don't want their coords could simply not use that banner on their site then, or alternatively use another one which doesn't reveal the coords.

Re: Mpogd
 

Please, for the love of god, don't give me even more roids, I feel fine with my current roid count, and getting more roids will just be a disatvantage to me. I don't want the roids, I don't want the attention, you're just going to get all the small players bashed. And surely you realise that ultimately, this will chase away more people than you could ever hope to gain from MPOGD.

Re: Mpogd
 

As everyone is bigger by an equal amount why does that make you any more of an attractive target than you were before?

Re: Mpogd
 

.... You seriously should play another round actively and "hardcore" Kal, maybe you understand how some of the game features (don't) work.

There is a "safety" level for having roids per X amount of value you have. For example having 1 million value and 300 roids doesn't make you a vcery attractive target, opposed to having 300 roids and 200k value or 1k roids and 1 million value. Smaller planets got relatively many roids extra, a 1,5k roid planet with 2 million value planet will barely notice the difference while a small 2-400k planet might have gotten above his safety level and is now regarded an interesting target again with the roid gains you get from attacking it.

And next time, please give out roids at a time were barely any attacks land. Now you have alot of players who simply lose more roids because they were left undefended over night.

Re: Mpogd
 

Oh Im sorry Wandows, did Visions 'safety' level go bust when everyone got 75 roids? Thats really too bad.

Wandows: Please stop asuming that the game mechanics work like you asume they do. Do you honestly believe that planets with 400k at this point play "low roids to keep safe" ? This might apply for a small percentage of the active players who actually cares about such things. The rest will just be happy they got a few ticks worth of extra income.

Im sorry if you feel its a problem that planets seem like good targets. Perhaps we should make the bonus to remove roids next time so fat planets wont look so juicy ? Or how about you make out a list and definition on who is deserving of more and less roids, then you hand the list over to the proper official, and tell them this is how it should be.

Why didnt you come moaning before the actual roids were handed out btw? The announcement was there, or did you perhaps want to wait until it happened, before your mind turned angry, and you felt the need to stomp on everything that happens in the game.

Moaning is REALLY easy isnt it ? Be happy that things are actually happening, instead of being a crying puppy on the- road to cryville

Re: Mpogd
 

ow right, i'm terribly sorry. I know i shouldn't play a game according to how i assume the mechanics work, my bad :(. I have been around for many rounds. Basicly non-stop since r3. I have been in almost any position in the game in terms of galaxies (very active to very inactive). I think i have plenty experience with crap planets to know that there are cases where you try and stick to a save level of roids to avoid being a too obvious target.

Now i personally have no problem with getting the 75 roids and thus i never complained about it since i like getting some free roids (no i didn't in the post above either, i just replied to Kals argument). 75 extra roids do have a different impact on your planet depending on your value and size. Some players just have different strategies and do not wish to look like a nice target for whatever reason, not everyone plays to get a shitload of roids and high value you know. So instead of just looking at your side of the coin, you could try and turn it around to see there are also other ways of playing where it might make a (small) difference.

edit
You might have missed it, but i do not mind the extra roids myself nor does my alliance (which is xVx, not Vision)

Re: Mpogd
 

As much as I dislike agreeing with Idler I agree that since everyone got the roids this wont really have an big impact on the game. Maybe only on xans since they were the ones who took advantage of the roids being equally shared.

Re: Mpogd
 

Because having 300 and gaining 75 roids has a much larger impact than having 1500 and gaining 75. Of course, I can see that this is not just a disadvantage, after all, my income grows by the exact same factor. However, that is of little meaning to the small allianceless newb if (s)he's in a small galaxy which gets double booked because it's so fat.


I for one did not realised what would happen until it was too late, and this could very well be possible for Wandows as well. Note by the way, I'm not complaining about what happened already, what's done is done. But when I get a mail from Kal saying we might get yet more roids, I do feel obliged make my objections clear.

Re: Mpogd
 

Congratulations on helping us win - well done everyone.