let's hope one day they merge servers one by one
i'd rather be having 3-4 servers than 16

Its one thing getting a good idea that would be great, but its another thing trying to get GF to implement the idea or change. With that being said, I dont think anyone at GF plays the game. Could be a reason for all the horrible problems.

Dumb bugs like being able to station 1 unit in 1 spot is a bug, but that might, MIGHT be fixed in a couple years if the game makes it that far.

Also, the navy setup is better than before, but way to expensive. I think it all comes down to whatever suit is running things New players quit easily because usually they end up becoming occupied towns and are told about how great getting 10% of what the player occupying you gets from a pillage. Such a great thing, but with that comes not even playing the game but just being sat on.

Lots of new players on the new servers are targeted for when there doing GR upgrades. I love seeing players with big accounts saying, "Well you should of built up your warehouse" or some other equally dumb idea. What tiny player has a protection level to cover 70k goods? I know none of my accounts do. Players end of hitting these small players towns once every week just to see if there doing any GR upgrade.

Now that is a problem, but no one seems to mind it. Were to busy trying to find OTHER reasons that new players wont stay.

I think if you want to know the situation with Gameforge you have to do a little research for yourself and with a little information you can make some assumptions about the past and possible future of gameforge and thus ikaraim

I will provide you with this short (hopefully) Informative (hopefully) thiny majig

A little while ago Gameforge acquired the majority share of frogster a similar game company who created runes of magic etc ( not that I have ever played that) well this acquisition was supposed to go smoothly and what their CEO said recently is that it did not, on paper the merge was great but in reality they faced many opposing creative design issues and by his own admission GF was sick, they culled over 200 staff during the integration as they found that when they did integrate there were alot of section overlaps. So they took the time to get things right, as per say an alliance might do before it goes to war, same difference.

On top of this they also branched into the Asian Market but it cost them alot of money for little return due to the unexpected nature of many asian markets. ie China and other communists states where they are expected to sign the kinds of agreements you only find in communist areas and they tried to continue but they simply could not. So as you may or may not know they pulled out of the Asian market and it is in big part why we have been flooded with Vietnamese, Chinese players. The way in which some of these players(I dare not say many) play is in part the reason why gameforge was not making coin, you dont need to buy any ambro if you simply find a way around the mulit accounting bans

Though the market reports suggest that Gameeforge is well positioned during recent financial crisis having cleaned up and now having staffed back up to about 80% of what they had with the 2 companies. They also say that up until recently GF was the electronic game industry in germany but their success has opened the path for others, so this also increases competition which history suggests with most things, that is always a winner for the consumer in both price and quality or X product. They have also made some impressive lead staff acquisitions from companies like Ubisoft (Assassins Creed) Ensemble Studios(Age of Empires). Since pulling out of the asian market they have reviewed their business strategy and are now going to be putting the majority of their focus in US and Europe as well as Turkey which they see as a market into Africa and the MIddle east.

I think if you take all that in mind you can see why Ikariam has been not so great these last few years, it is that alliance analogy again, if you have an alliance that has internal problems its going to reflect in EVERYTHING it does, but the positive is that they are coming out of the hole, they are expanding their income base which yes provides stupid little app games but in every market you have your upper and lower echelons of what is acceptable and what is not to any particular consumer. So if you put all that together I think that in the next 12 months we are going to see a reinvigorated Gameforge with a singular business strategy focus made up of several portfolios and this is going to start to reflect in the level of game that we get.

One thing to consider though is that in any gameforge press releases, or market reports Ikariam is rarely ever mentioned as what they are famed for, usually Ogame and a few others get the mention, so it may very well not be a priority for them......and who's fault is that?

Ours.....as players and in a lot of ways as westerners(obviously this is a generalization but it is a us server) I am from Australia but we are still in the westerner/1st world bracket. we love to complain and moan but when it comes to doing something about it, we dont often do much or we do things the wrong way and then our frustration causes us to say "why bother" so then ppl persist in posting threads about Ikraima dying that are pointless and I mean no offense by that. What I do mean is that if you love this game so much(like I do even though it and gameforge also give me the craps sometimes) the write a letter to the COMA write one to gameforge customer service, if 1000 ppl from .com sent them a letters they would be like "hey whats going on here"

I think that if you want this game to be better and lets face it we dont have alot to lose, then what is it worth to you? I was told once that a dream/goals worth= whatever it takes. So we could come here and whine and hassle poor BFF or we could stop sitting idle by like we are somehow powerless and give it a go and see what happens. No movement or change that has ever stuck in society started with idle complacency. Its not just here its reflective in our appreciation of democratic rights and right to vote, we get the same mentality "oh woe is me my vote isn't going to change anything" and its not but 10001 will.

You have to make Gameforge care and that is only going to come if ppl really do care and what to do something about it

And if you do write them a letter don't be like " ahhhmmmmmm I want gold pillagn back cos since then I can't even support a a gazzilion military and I just cant fight so i cant play"
Be constructive in your approach SAY IT> EXPLAIN IT> SUPPORT IT
" One of the problems players are facing is gold. It is my opinion that Ikariam is somewhat torn that in part it is a game of self but also a game of teams ie alliances. The trouble is that we feel some of the elements of the economy are out of sync with what Ikariam represents itself as. For Instance some players prefer to fight and some support those fighters through gold supply, this was later tempered by the changes to the market in which they are now average prices making it harder to transfer gold. This causes problems for fighting sections of alliances as the cost of units and war is huge, an average 1.8 million point player could only for a short time reasonably support a military on their own that would be of any use to the player or alliance.

It is no secret that games such as ikariam often thrive on the bonds between ppl that are formed, both in personal and professional alliances and it is that interconnectedenss that will drive the success of Ikariam and other GF games. So I would encourage GF to look at ways to better balance the economy of the game system to create that interconnectedness so that players can more easily work together. In doing this you create activity on servers, activity means $$ spent and thus profits ultimately for GF.

Filling the water bucket constantly does not change the fact that there is a hole in it and in that sense, it is well known in business circles that it can cost up to 8 times as much to get a new customer than it does to keep existing ones."

Blah Blah Blah yes it takes much much longer to write that but when you are trying to convince someone of an idea, its always best to make that idea in their best interests and of course its in GFs best interests to keep us and look after us but don't just complain offer a solution because it saves some guy at GF thinking and they can make great changes and take the credit for it for all I care as long as the game is cool.

I am not always the greatest supporter of Staff "stuff" and BFF can attest to that, she has dealt with me lol but coming here and posting threads like this is just as helpful as yelling at the girl in drive thru, she didnt make your burger, she is not the manager so what change is that going to produce? none
And no offense BFF but you are more or less the drive through girl at Gameforge lol, you are a part of the function but that does not mean you have any authority to get things done at gameforge, you need us to tell you things so that you can tell the person above you and then it goes up and it gets diluted in the chain. Its not the staffs fault its just what it is and the nature of business especially in the E-era. It also alot of the problems that come about from player/staff interactions because players misinterpret staff members roles, the guy who sold you the chicken in the deli has no pull with the CEO, and I think in that respect alot of unreasonable pressure/expectation is put on staff. So that is why I reiterate go to the Coma, write to Gameforge if you really want change then make yourselves heard to the ppl who can get it done cos after all you have nothing to lose because you already claim that the game is dying and I do not disagree with that it is, but one person or a few cant do it we need a community behind it. and not a community of whingers, a community that is proactive in part of and in providing solutions.

mmmmm.....That was shorter than I expected lol

That is what I think and I am always right lol