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Unread 19 Jun 2007, 21:24   #1
Smudge
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PA - An Analysis

[yes, this should be in the suggestions forum if you look at it at first but first it needs to be discussed]

At this current moment in #planetarion [the bastion of the PA Community] there is *another* discussion about PA, it's past, it's future, it's pros, it's cons and suggestions which don't get listened to.

And as a #planetarion regular, I'm sick of my log files being filled up so I would like to put forward an idea for discussion - a PA Analysis. This Analysis would be in the form of a complete report which would have input from areas such as
  • Alliance HC thoughts - using #alliances
  • PA Team Thoughts - using a PA Team channel
  • Average Joe thoughts - surveys sent out to users planets
  • Buisness Orientated thoughts - from Jolt's point of view

With these then area's could be investigated [feel free to suggest] and try to get some form of control on PA because at the moment its just going out of control.

The Analysis must *not* be written by a PA Team member because they may have a bias, but of a team of people [which may include a PA Team'er]. All PA Team have to do is realise that they are, in some areas, not listening to the community and should start before the member base dwindles even more.

Before replying to this thread I *beg* of you that you don't start flame wars with each other or anything like that, positive ideas and suggestions and comments only.
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Unread 19 Jun 2007, 21:27   #2
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Re: PA - An Analysis

Excellent. I hope someone actually can put time into this and do it. I volunteer for the project if someone else puts up to take the lead.
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Unread 19 Jun 2007, 21:35   #3
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Re: PA - An Analysis

Love it. Survey to all planets signed up. In detail about whats hot and whats not about the game features. Also a survey that would be easy to brake down in %´s so everyone can see what the base of the community wants. And ofcourse we need to know how many actually responded out of how many players signed up. Find out what people want with the game and let everyone know. As I said earlyer. without pa-team there is no game, and without the community there is no game. So why dont we stop biting eachothers head of and find out where "we" (the majority of the community) want the game to go. And no project is compleete without evaluation, and I think its about time to evaluate.

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Unread 19 Jun 2007, 21:59   #4
Kal
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Re: PA - An Analysis

I was pondering doing a strategic analysis on PA.

But I think before anything like this can happen the precise purpose of it would need clearly defining. i.e. what is it this group would analyse.
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Unread 19 Jun 2007, 22:11   #5
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Re: PA - An Analysis

Quote:
Originally Posted by Kal
I was pondering doing a strategic analysis on PA.

But I think before anything like this can happen the precise purpose of it would need clearly defining. i.e. what is it this group would analyse.
Off the top of my head :
  • Community Contributions - ie how the suggestions from the community are investigated [taking the Suggestions forum and adding some form of QA to it]
  • How the game is run - looking how the game is run from PA Team down to the average player, also including Alliances
  • What the community want - listening to the community and finding out what they think is good, what they think is bad and so on
  • Marketing PA - PA has a limited approach in the world when compared to other games such as Eve and World of Warcraft but it could be maintained to target a nich group of users, ie University students
  • Advertising - note that marketing and advertising are two seperate entities, adveristing would look in to different ways of the game being spread out to get players back
  • Game Mechanics - looking at how the game is actually run at the moment [ie EULA, the Community etc] and seeing what influences there are
  • Critical Viewing - looking at various flash points in the past and appraising to them as to why / how they happened and why / how they were resolved
  • Financial - where the money for credits are going, ideas which have been suggested [ie PA Shop, PA Paypal donation system]
  • The Game - looking at how the game was run [ie in terms of administration, game play ideas, features] from the beginning to present day, finding out mistakes which were made, finding out what good choices were made
  • General Conclusions - looking at everything which has been investigated and making key recommendations to Jolt / SimTech / PA Team to take into consideration

Probably missed out glaringly obvious omissions but I'm tired right now.
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Unread 19 Jun 2007, 22:16   #6
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Re: PA - An Analysis

Quote:
Originally Posted by Smudge
All PA Team have to do is realise that they are, in some areas, not listening to the community and should start before the member base dwindles even more.
Game development is not something you do via committee. One of the most important rules of not only game development but any art is you produce a 'product' that you as the person in overall charge would like and then your have a good product that will find an audience, Ideas should be floated and should be listened to but you shouldn't ever be swayed by populism or pressure.

You see the influence of committees in alot of other art forms, especially the Film and TV side of things and its rarely good. Look at traditional US sitcoms like friends which are written by 10+ writers all pitching jokes which removes much of their substance and turns them into a series of 1 liners or the way for Movies like Alien3 which had a couple of excellent scripts and David Fincher onboard as director (who later proved he knows how to make a good movie with Se7en, The Game, Fight Club, Panic Room and Zodiac) yet due to interference towards the screenwriters and Fincer by the Studio, the Producers and apparently Sigourney Weaver what should have been a movie that sat well next to first 2 becomes the 'retarded cousin of the family that people just dont talk about'

What PA needs isnt more 'cooks' but someone to step up and fully take on the mantle left by Spinner. Someone with a solid grasp of game development, someone who has a clear idea of where PA is going and someone with the dedication to stick it out without buckling under the pressure of the community demanding they pull the game in 5 million different directions
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Unread 19 Jun 2007, 22:22   #7
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Re: PA - An Analysis

Yes Wakey, a game developer type person is most definitely needed, don't get me wrong but to develop the game they need some form of background or basis to work with. If you asked a PA Team'er what they thought of the game and how it could be improved they'd say one thing, if you asked an Alliance HC they'd say another thing and if you asked an average Joe, they'd say something else, leaving the said game developer totally confused and in need of ice cream.
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Unread 19 Jun 2007, 22:48   #8
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Re: PA - An Analysis

I'd like to help however I can, if Smudge'll let me

It does seem like a good plan to me - there are dozens of ideas out there, some good, some bad. Only problem is that no-one who is willing to code them in is going to want to trawl through hundreds of lines of irc text, pms and surveys to try and find them.
I really do hope that doing something like this will enable people who've got good, well thought-out ideas, to get them heard.

Last edited by ShiningYoshi; 19 Jun 2007 at 22:56.
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Unread 19 Jun 2007, 22:59   #9
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Re: PA - An Analysis

I'm fairly up for this. But I'll make one thing clear, this would not be about desiging the game, it would be a stocktake, finding out where we are, what our options are in fairly high level terms.

An example outcome might be: improving micromanagement is a good thing.

The outcome would not be: improve micromanagement by twekaing changing the way population applies to research.

Any large scale analysis such as this can only posisbly be done at a top-level otherwise it would take far far to long and take up too much of people's time.
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Unread 19 Jun 2007, 23:01   #10
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Re: PA - An Analysis

I'll help out with anything, even if it's just get stuff out there and do research for you clever ones to analyze producing exciting graphs and PIE CHARTS!
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Unread 20 Jun 2007, 02:09   #11
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Re: PA - An Analysis

I find myself agreeing with wakey on this one.

What you need is a person with some level of knowledge and talent in actual game design, and what he would need is creative freedom for this game to ever move past the current deadpoint.

Only thing that will collecting, sorting and processing of community ideas accomplish is to give a rather vague image of what majority of (current) players want - it will in no way tell you what to do to actually improve the game. The gap between a player and a game designer is pretty hard to transcend, especially as players usually always think inside the current game box, instead of actually (re)building the box to suit their conception.

Even if there are "good" ideas laying around, they will be few and far between, usually not something that some majority in the community would support, and it would again take an actual game designer with adequate talent to notice them or be inspired by them.

On a quick note, I've reviewed much of the suggestions forum a few months ago, and Heartless' ideas on scoring and research/development seemed to stand out as most appealing (in my opinion) at the time. Just wanted to point in that direction (too tired now to dig out the threads).
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Unread 4 Jul 2007, 16:12   #12
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Re: PA - An Analysis

*bump*

Anything being done with this Kal? The current game down situation might be something which should be properly addressed with this?
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Unread 4 Jul 2007, 19:04   #13
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Re: PA - An Analysis

I'm very much in favour of an analysis as suggested, speaking as an 'average Joe' of the game, returning last round after years of absence.

I think the overall target should be to find ways of increasing the player-base, without sacrificing the elements of strategy, co-operation within galaxies and alliances and the community in general. As long as those elements remain, I'm willing to consider all changes which can increase the number of players again.

There is, imho, two key factors one should look into. The first one is guidance for players who have never played this game before and players who have been away for long. It could be as easy as rewriting and recoding the manual. In its current state, it is hard to get an overview of the key elements of the game. The system with basically the same keywords as the in-game menu is useful when you've come inside the game, but i guess it's confusing for people who haven't logged in for the first time yet. The manual does not encourage new players to sign up to this game. And why can't you get it printed out in one piece ? (note: possibly just my lack of skills)

The second element is that all features of the game ('cept com-unit) should be easily accessible with browsers found in phones/pdas. If that's the case, I think there's a large potential for growth. Not only because such phones are getting very common, but also because a tick-based strategy-game which can be played on phones would be considered new and interesting for a lot of people (note:this a guess based on my own interests - could be dead wrong :P ). I currently access the game from both pc and phone, but there are certain features which need considerable adjustment. One is in-game messages, which are rather improtant when you cannot get onto irc. The 'curtain'-thing for reading these took me quite some time to by-pass on phone. It similarly took me ages to work out how to move ships between fleets with my phone.

If an analysis is started, I will certainly contribute by responding to your survey about the game in it's current state. I would also like to receive a chance to express views on revisions/changes before they are implemented.
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Unread 4 Jul 2007, 19:49   #14
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Re: PA - An Analysis

Quote:
Originally Posted by Spng
Regards. Spng.
(dont be pissed about me only playing from r17)
If anything, I'd view that as an advantage. You aren't a jaded player from eons ago. You found something relatively recently in the game that attracted you, and you stuck around. You won't clamour for the changes of rounds past, and hopefully will welcome adaption and evolution of the game!
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