All gf wants is to earn more. Since they are earning so well from the game, they should further develop the game with development packages so that the number of spending players increases even more. If there was a management that loved the competitive environment, they would act through global universes. The total number of players in Turkey, Germany, France, Italy, England and Spain reaches 2000. Why don't you have any idea to gather these players under one roof?
Pay to "Win" Ogame - Yin - New Universe
-
-
In the last 12 or so years, GF have become a one trick pony and as long as the money keeps flowing in, they have no reason to change, no reason to clean the game up, no reason to develop it to attract new players, and finally no reason to listen to the players.
The only way to change things is to either boycott new unis or boycott DM, and neither will happen as long as the sun rises each day.
To paraphrase Henry Ford - You can have anything you like as long as it is what GF give you lol.
-
long time no see vulc ^^
GF don't appear to follow triple bottom line. I've no idea about their environmental impact, but they certainly put profits above their customers. Maybe if I had a business I'd also be sucking as much out of the whales as I could while I still could while ignoring the majority. Actually, as long as I can remember, this player base has been angry - i've certainly had stuff to say over the years lol And yet the game keeps going despite our disgruntlement.
In the meantime... i ignore most of the top 10 ranks when looking at my own progress and standing in a uni... Some of the whales seem to play who has the biggest wallet and don't really do much other than gain lots of points, while others use their wallets to over-power their accounts with both points and military and knock other players down without any fear of reprisal. Unless you're the one who's getting crashed/farmed by them.. they don't really affect you if you ignore their stats and just knock 10 off your own ranking scores. In fact, it's them who are allowing me to play a free game (£0 spent in vela, sorry GF lol) , so I just find the walleteering quite amusing really. Each and every new uni will likely have the exact same pattern.. and it's fine, you can choose to play, or not. You can choose to buy DM or not...
-
Hi revol
Sound advice as to your attitude to the game.
I have never in 16 years bothered about Rank or points.
I may, from time to time, look at the guy immediately above as a points target.
I tend to live in my own world concentrating on my alliance and friends for fun and enjoyment rather than concerning myself with what others are doing.
-
To give you an idea, in a recent universe where I'm playing on the French community, by talking to them, I know that the top 4 invested a total of nearly €30,000 during the first month of the universe.
If this is indeed what's happening, then these people should seek appropriate help by professionals.
Also, it begs the question: even for a for-profit company, is it morally right to exploit these kind of people to such an extent?
I mean, if they're rich it doesn't really matter, but in most cases ludopaths are just ordinary folks who waste away savings, retirement funds and properties to fuel their addiction, not unlike what happens with gambling or drug addicts. I've seen it happening. It's not pretty.
-
Im curious if in the past, the comunity gather all together with the same view/opinion on something, and GameForge actually did something about it?
Can anyone answer this?
Sometimes happened, but really rarely. One example is fleet/expos boosters, first thought was possibility to stack them infinity, no add time.
-
Im curious if in the past, the comunity gather all together with the same view/opinion on something, and GameForge actually did something about it?
Can anyone answer this?
I'll always remember the announcement of the arrival of the officers in the French community... It was an evening in February 2007. The CoMa was explaining how they worked and how they would be arriving in a few days' time. It was as if an earthquake had struck the game. The board was very very active at the time, but now... There had been a discussion thread about this announcement. Within 24 hours, the thread had reached 250 pages of posts. It was insane. Everyone was outraged, everyone was announcing the end of the game. The board admin and even the CoMa had to respond to the announcement of the officers to try and calm things down and explain that they shouldn't show so much aggression, otherwise sanctions would be taken. It didn't change a thing and, indeed, sanctions were taken against the heavily disgruntled players. I remind you that we were talking about minor upgrades (10% production bonus, reduced search time, 2 extra fleet slots for a few euros). But it was enough to get the whole community up in arms, because they opened Pandora's box that day. The backlash from players was monstrous: insults to the GF on the board and IG, tagging [AO] (Anti Officers) in nicknames and alliances, even warring alliances that hated each other allied for the common cause, boycotts and top players announcing their departure as a result. Really, the weeks that followed were crazy and the uprising was massive. It's clearly the biggest upheaval the game has ever seen, and everyone thought GameForge would back down in the face of such hostility...
And here we are, 17 years almost to the day later, at the same stage. Pay options have multiplied, the community has certainly shrunk since 2007... But money has never been so much a part of the game.
That's why, after all these years, this debate about metal packs is sterile in my eyes.
-
I remind you that we were talking about minor upgrades (10% production bonus, reduced search time, 2 extra fleet slots for a few euros). But it was enough to get the whole community up in arms, because they opened Pandora's box that day.
If I remember correctly, at the time the only pay option was a cosmetic upgrade, you paid $5 for some actions to become more convenient and to get access to the Empire screen that helped you get more details about all of your planets, and a lot of people paid that per month. I feel like I was one of the few who actively played who didn't opt for that perk. It was one of those things that helped support the game and people were happy to do it. I think the main issue people had with Officers was the resource generation bumps, even back then, because it specifically put the mining players at a disadvantage if they didn't buy those perks. That essentially broke the leader board because everyone grinding their way up the ladder now felt like all their forward progress would be unfairly halted. It was a sign of the exact kind of balance breaking changes that were to come.
It's like that period where first person shooters were allowing players to massively buff their characters to be both bullet sponges and to churn out high DPS, leading new players to the game to get wrecked because they didn't have those perks. OGame saw the immediate financial win falls and went for them, probably assuming interest would drop off over time regardless and may as well milk the cows while they were there. I doubt they expected OGame to even exist to this point and their money making strategy is still focused on "get the money while the getting is good" rather than recognizing the game is apparently quite fun as far as these sorts of text based games go, a lot of people have good nostalgia for it, and that maybe they could sustain more players if the game were better balanced again. -
Display More
Im curious if in the past, the comunity gather all together with the same view/opinion on something, and GameForge actually did something about it?
Can anyone answer this?
I'll always remember the announcement of the arrival of the officers in the French community... It was an evening in February 2007. The CoMa was explaining how they worked and how they would be arriving in a few days' time. It was as if an earthquake had struck the game. The board was very very active at the time, but now... There had been a discussion thread about this announcement. Within 24 hours, the thread had reached 250 pages of posts. It was insane. Everyone was outraged, everyone was announcing the end of the game. The board admin and even the CoMa had to respond to the announcement of the officers to try and calm things down and explain that they shouldn't show so much aggression, otherwise sanctions would be taken. It didn't change a thing and, indeed, sanctions were taken against the heavily disgruntled players. I remind you that we were talking about minor upgrades (10% production bonus, reduced search time, 2 extra fleet slots for a few euros). But it was enough to get the whole community up in arms, because they opened Pandora's box that day. The backlash from players was monstrous: insults to the GF on the board and IG, tagging [AO] (Anti Officers) in nicknames and alliances, even warring alliances that hated each other allied for the common cause, boycotts and top players announcing their departure as a result. Really, the weeks that followed were crazy and the uprising was massive. It's clearly the biggest upheaval the game has ever seen, and everyone thought GameForge would back down in the face of such hostility...
And here we are, 17 years almost to the day later, at the same stage. Pay options have multiplied, the community has certainly shrunk since 2007... But money has never been so much a part of the game.
That's why, after all these years, this debate about metal packs is sterile in my eyes.
I remember time when only commandor was in the game. I also remember that there were many, many of my friends actively playing this game, and do you know what? I am the only still playing it, albeit with big breaks and never for long. Even judging by the activity on the forum, I can see this is nothing but a shadow of the past. And if they continue pissing off the players, they will continue leaving. Without anyone to crash with bought fleets, whales will depart as well.
Gameforge may profit from ogame but at the same time it kills good will among players and without players there is no game and no profits. Personally, seeing the situation on Yin or each Polish server, I should not give ogame n-th chance and leave it for good, even though it is a fun game and people we meet here are very big and important part of it.
-
I don't want to create another thread because it will probably be closed. But another universe destroyed by GameForge is Wurren. I started playing in this universe, which was one of the most balanced in recent times (for me). Due to many events, one after another, several players have already exceeded one thousand euros invested each. It was on a nice uptrend (balanced, with players from different alliances at the top) until a few days ago when some started pushing metalpacks one after the other.
Very disappointed and disgusted that this game is effectively ruined by the policy of having profit and only profit, in the shortest possible time!
-
I don't want to create another thread because it will probably be closed. But another universe destroyed by GameForge is Wurren. I started playing in this universe, which was one of the most balanced in recent times (for me). Due to many events, one after another, several players have already exceeded one thousand euros invested each. It was on a nice uptrend (balanced, with players from different alliances at the top) until a few days ago when some started pushing metalpacks one after the other.
Very disappointed and disgusted that this game is effectively ruined by the policy of having profit and only profit, in the shortest possible time!
I agree, but it had to happen sooner or later.
I think on W they waited until they had a decent level of Mines/LF to use the money.
The game works like this, you have to take that into account. Unfortunately.
-
Asset striping is an established business practice. Take a company/product with a good reputation, increase the price or reduce quality to exploit those who still buy because the product used to be good. When enough people stop paying, then close the company/product.
Enough people think ogame is worth $1000 per server that Ogame still has a long future. If you want something cheaper there are many alternatives
-
Enough people think ogame is worth $1000 per server that Ogame still has a long future. If you want something cheaper there are many alternatives
A low activity server does not exceed 20, say 30$ :)) anyway, multiple universes can be merged and kept on one server. So OGame probably offers a xxxx% return on the required investment, but they seem to have no respect for that.
-
We as a community need to stop complaining about whales/metal packs/p2w as that is clearly futile. Instead, we need to start putting our heads together to think of what can be done to make the game more fair and balanced regardless of their existence.
Sooner we can do this, the more hope we have of fixing the currently broken state of the game.
-
^ price adjustment on Resource Packs making them all worth the same value is a start.
And a Cool down / Reduction of value for repetitive purchases, ensuring that players who purchase the 1 Pack wont be Penalized compared to a Whale who purchases 100 in a day.
(although only for merchant packs, not the Free Resource packs we get occasionally from rewards)
one way is to Limit Exactly what is included into Resource Packs past the First daily Pack. Such as to only include be 100% of Base mine Production, +25% of all other Boosts.
this is one way, that i can see GF opening up the game to allow Active Players to Benefit from things such as Crawler Cap Being Removed,
only able to purchase DM in the Server Local Currency, and server transfers to have purchased DM Ratio's to match the local currency.
Reduction In resource Production Boosts Price (10%,20%,30%,40%), to encourage Active Players who Rarely Use Vac mode to Invest,
just my 2 Cents, not every Suggestion Will please every player. but resource packs need to be Nerfed for Those who Spam them. and Balanced Because of how Metal Is usually 3x your Duet Production, but 1/3rd the cost instead it should be the same for each resource @ 126,000DM ( or some middle Ground Value)
-
None of the suggestions are likely to be feasible in the near term, based on stuff KaZe has conveyed from GameForge. That being said, commenting on the suggestions:
^ price adjustment on Resource Packs making them all worth the same value is a start.
Seems correct, there's no reason for Metal Packs to be so much more effective than Deut Packs.
And a Cool down / Reduction of value for repetitive purchases, ensuring that players who purchase the 1 Pack wont be Penalized compared to a Whale who purchases 100 in a day.
(although only for merchant packs, not the Free Resource packs we get occasionally from rewards)
one way is to Limit Exactly what is included into Resource Packs past the First daily Pack. Such as to only include be 100% of Base mine Production, +25% of all other Boosts.
This is good, but isn't going to happen because it discourages people from whaling $1k+ into the game in a month.
only able to purchase DM in the Server Local Currency, and server transfers to have purchased DM Ratio's to match the local currency.
This has already been implemented as of last June -- you can only purchase DM denominated in Lira if you're in a Turkish Server, or Real in a Brazilian one. They also simultaneously killed cross-community graveyard transfers to fix that loophole as well.
As for global merges, lol, who knows what will happen then.
this is one way, that i can see GF opening up the game to allow Active Players to Benefit from things such as Crawler Cap Being Removed,
Reduction In resource Production Boosts Price (10%,20%,30%,40%), to encourage Active Players who Rarely Use Vac mode to Invest,
These two suggestions sound like "please make my point growth as a barely-active miner higher", do you have an argument besides "it'd be good for me"?
but resource packs need to be Nerfed for Those who Spam them.
Even though I'd also be in favor of this change, isn't going to happen because of how much profit GF is making. KaZe has confirmed this.
As an aside, GF started out pricing all resource packs at 120k each, but then reduced the price of metal (and increased the price of deut), likely because the clown who is in charge of monetization doesn't actually play the game, and thought "the trade rate of metal:crystal:deut is 3:2:1, so the cost should be 1:2:3". 🤦♂️
-
We as a community need to stop complaining about whales/metal packs/p2w as that is clearly futile. Instead, we need to start putting our heads together to think of what can be done to make the game more fair and balanced regardless of their existence.
Sooner we can do this, the more hope we have of fixing the currently broken state of the game.
There is only one solution. Make our own game. Not a ogame clone but a game on the same fundamentals. If anyone is interested joining us, dm me
-
We as a community need to stop complaining about whales/metal packs/p2w as that is clearly futile. Instead, we need to start putting our heads together to think of what can be done to make the game more fair and balanced regardless of their existence.
Sooner we can do this, the more hope we have of fixing the currently broken state of the game.
There is only one solution. Make our own game. Not a ogame clone but a game on the same fundamentals. If anyone is interested joining us, dm me
I had an idea like this a while ago. It's hard work, and your enthusiasm will likely fade over time. Anyway, you shouldn't think about removing Dark Matter or money from a game, because it will become frustrating to work for free, but you should keep a balance, not copy what GF did. However, it is in the human spirit to be selfish and you will probably end up the same way.
In OGame it is so easy to have competitive servers by putting a 1mln DM cap on each player, but no one will do that. Maybe you will. But after a while, you will think that your profit is too small for your work and you will raise the limit, reaching the same problem: pay to win players vs dedicated.
-
Display More
We as a community need to stop complaining about whales/metal packs/p2w as that is clearly futile. Instead, we need to start putting our heads together to think of what can be done to make the game more fair and balanced regardless of their existence.
Sooner we can do this, the more hope we have of fixing the currently broken state of the game.
There is only one solution. Make our own game. Not a ogame clone but a game on the same fundamentals. If anyone is interested joining us, dm me
I had an idea like this a while ago. It's hard work, and your enthusiasm will likely fade over time. Anyway, you shouldn't think about removing Dark Matter or money from a game, because it will become frustrating to work for free, but you should keep a balance, not copy what GF did. However, it is in the human spirit to be selfish and you will probably end up the same way.
In OGame it is so easy to have competitive servers by putting a 1mln DM cap on each player, but no one will do that. Maybe you will. But after a while, you will think that your profit is too small for your work and you will raise the limit, reaching the same problem: pay to win players vs dedicated.
Of course it is hard work, but with more people on board, we could make it doable. Also, with something like a patreon/kickstarter, introducing DM is not necessary in the beginning and even in the later stages of the game, p2w is not always the answer. The bottom line here is: I would like to make a game I would love to play, if there is p2w in it, I wouldn't bother starting the project.
There are many ways to make money from ogame without being blatantly p2w, but gf picked the easy profit.
