Sep 10th 2023, 15:37:33
I am of the opinion there are a few reasons for this.
1. The game lacks development, and QUALITY development. I recently started playing AstroEmpires. Here is a thread from their forum from one of their developers talking about changes for 4.0.
https://forum.astroempires.com/...opic.php?f=3&t=127541
Look around their forum a bit, you'll see they have CONSTANT development. This is important.
2. AstroEmpires aims to be new player friendly. EE does not. Look at that development thread, and some others on there. They specifically cite making changes to make the game new player friendly. That makes a huge difference.
3. Monetization (to support development) - seems better in AstroEmpires than here. I don't see a compelling reason to monetarily support this game aside from good will. In AE, it makes a HUGE difference in alliance wars. You can also 'upgrade' other people's accounts for them. And the price is reasonable for most adults. I'm sure the devs don't spend time on this game cause it doesn't make any money. Monetize it a little bit, more effectively, and put some effort into it. It has a long, storied, history. No reason it shouldn't be able to recruit players back, or new players.
4. On the topic of being newbie friendly, one thing that I think is a huge barrier to entry for this community as compared to AE is outside the game tools. I'm personally of the opinion that the IRC chat bots, the GHQ sites, etc, all create HUGE barriers for new players to come in and be competitive. Especially for new alliances. Hell, if people don't get on the forums/make connections with seasoned players, they will probably never even know that these tools exist, and how far behind they are.
And even if they do learn about the tools, getting them setup, and getting other new players to use them is another big hurdle.
I've personally run warchats without bots. It's harder. But I personally wish that's how the game was. Unpopular opinion I would imagine.
5. Time commitments. EE is not a game that requires a lot of time, which is a selling point.... Except it does. Because of the bots, walling is a requirement to play at top of the game. I've done it. It SUCKS. I hated having alerts on my phone. I don't know a solution to this, but I think it's something that drives players away. In a perfect world, I'd love to see a war that takes place over a longer period of time and the winner/losers of the war aren't mostly dependent upon who can get alerts on their phone the fastest and login to wall. Again, probably an unpopular opinion.
6. The ability to completely ruin someone's set/round/whatever. In AE you can get 100% fleet destroyed, and lose all your planets. And they are gone for 10 days max, and the longer they are occupied by the enemy, the more costly it can become for them. You can still win wars, and destroy your enemy. But it can't be done overnight, and the game afford the ability for others to 'get back in the game' even after taking a huge blow. EE is unforgiving in this regard, and again, makes it difficult for new players to continue playing after they get wrecked initially.
7. The one I've been harping on for eternity - this community is BRUTAL. Everyone is mean to everyone else. I think it'd be better for the community if the forums didn't even exist. If we don't go that route, than all posts that are even remotely insulting/aggressive toward others should be deleted. We do not look like a welcoming community, in the slightest (my posts included).
None of this may matter, nobody may care. But that's my opinion as to the issues with this game, and why it's not as popular as other text based games.
Oh, and for the record, I agree Clan GDI was a bad change. I get why it was done, but I think it does nothing to address the real issues the game has. If you addressed, or tried to address, some of the things I outlined above, Clan GDI may not be necessary.