[zenith]

gepetto Wrote:I guess we are just different. I would consider normal that in a game with crime money gets stolen from the bank... and thus from players. And after all, you're allowed to "mug" somebody and take their money and that is passe. "You should have put it in the bank". A bank crime doesn't have to have a big impact on everybody's account. If you divide 10-20k$ to 700 players and factor in some sort of level quantifier the sum is negligible.

This thread was about why don't more people play this game. Cause after all out of 4000+ registered users only 700 play it. I would say that more help for beginners would be valuable and would keep them from abandoning the game. Look, the real work is to get those 4000 people to the site. If you get them to register, you've won 50% of the battle. It's much easier to keep them in the game then to make them come to the site.

One of the key things I'm looking for when I play such a game is "what more I can do if I level up". It's the reward that I get for putting up with a few hours of clicking. I like rewards. anything that changes is entertaining. Get me more crimes, more weapons... etc.

I'm sure that the list of crimes can be filtered for different levels. When I level up I get more crimes that I can do. Let's say you're level x. There are probably crimes that you can never do given your stats, i.e success rate <5%. Just filter them out. More success rate == less jail time == more enjoyment for newbies. I bet if they are level 2 and try something that is 4AP and go to jail, in the first 30 minutes of playing the game they will never get back. Even if this sort of thing is done only for levels 1-6 it would still keep people on the site. Once you've hit lvl 6 you're probably hooked anyway, so you'll stay on.

Also from the "what more can I do department": the list of crimes is small. And for different levels of play there are certain "recipes" of crimes that work and are used by everybody. I'm sure there can be added many more crimes with same or just slightly different stats and outcome. Each with different stories... this will keep people entertained. Everybody would benefit from the "story" of the game being more elaborate.

Just my 2c...

You gave me some good ideas for the crimes list. Thank yee. I quick-fixed the crimes page to show beginners a short list of only the crimes they can succeed at. More info in the newspaper.