I do have a certain amount of experience on this topic, and I am rather surprised this is still a problem.
In retrospect, it is easy to see where things went horribly wrong, but I really hoped Jolt would prioritize this game and community a bit more than they have done over the years since they bought it.
I have approached Jolt a while back, asking to buy the game back into the same company that sold it to them in the first place, as it breaks my heart to see it treated this way, but to no avail. f course, the "value" of the name and the game is now probably a bit lower than it was, seeing how 90% of the players are now gone since the takeover. The name has probably been damaged as well, allthough that is possible to repair.
As a full-time developer, I know how easy it would be to build a portal for Planetarion.
That said, I also know how hard it must be if you can't have the same person working on it for more than a short time, before he / she is replaced by someone new who builds things from scratch shortly afterwards. I belive I was told PA would get at least a 50% dedicated developer from Jolt after I left, and such a person could whoop up a portal in "no-time", without having to strart from scratch every 3 weeks.
Laying down fire on PaTeam is a bit counter-productive in this matter I fear, as they have little real control over the resources. They are volunteer helpers, who try to do the best they can under impossible circumstances.
I feel quite confident in saying that Jolt makes little to no money on Planetarion as it is, and haven't made any money for quite some time. This comes as no surprise as it seems to be neglected completely by its owners, in terms of investements, advertising and development. I can only hope that they will step aside and let someone else take over.
Maybe what they need is some good old healthy competition from a new game, made in the spirit of OLD Planetarion but with a modern interface etc. Or maybe they wouldn't care, I do not know.
Planetarion has been dying for a long time, and no new portal can't help it.
It needs far more.
- Dedicated development, on a fulltime / parttime scale
- A business plan covering how to make it grow again, without blowing tens of thousands on marketing
- A GUI revamp (not a skin, but a more modern interface to capture those without a historical pull to the name Planetarion)
- A process analysis of the typical NEW-User behaviour from they see the frontpage, through registration, first-impressions, getting started and becoming an active player. And then apply changes accordingly.
And that is just the beginning.
I don't expect anyone from Jolt to read this, but if you do, I would not be uninterested to discuss buying back Planetarion and dedicating resources towards it. I am sure we can find an arrangementment that will pay off for you in the long term, much more so than just killing it off. Don't get me wrong, I can think of several good reasons for you to do so, and they can all be valid, comercially speaking. I am just saying that even if you are unable to create something more from PA, there might be others who can.
I can be contacted on
[email protected] for any such discussions.
Good luck to everyone involved, it seems there is much to do here.
Kind regards
A slightly heart-broken Spinner
Original creator of Planetarion