Politician Archive
Thread: Does your town offer incetives to get new people?
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masmun
Thu Jun 10, 2004 7:54 pm
#14
Ive been on both sides when i started this toon off, i was approached by a mayor of a city, they offered several things a house a vech. and the maintance on the house....but in return i asked about how the town fuctioned if it was a good comunity, active and where people helped out their fellow citizens. I agreed to try it out and joined one fo the 2 guilds that they offered in the city...It was a city that was full of help, fun and friends when i left it to create my own city, it was a hard thing to do.
Now as mayor I get feed back on all aspects of the city, what the residents want out of it and what if anythign is offered. at this time we are still begining we now have 11 residents..so we are still new. What i can say we offer is a fun, helpful and rewarding community. As time goes on and we expand and grow we may wish to help new players out, we have a core group of residents and if we provide even a temp. place for people to have fun and make friends. we currently only offer one guild. (all wookiee) and that provides another dynamic group, to interact with...If at any time a resident wished to go some where else as i did, they are more than welcome to take what was given freely and that every one in the city would wish them well in their future endevers, and i would be happy to have been able to help them out and that we might have made a diffrence in there gaming life even if it was just a short period.
X'ent
Founder and Current Mayor
Kashryyykian colony consortiun
server-Kauri
EccoTon
Fri Jun 11, 2004 5:20 am
#15
Mayor as a profession is has one of the smallest numbers of players. Seeing the diversity of ideas is interesting. I think this profession needs a lot of rethinking by developers. What makes politicain interesting, is it is unlike any other profession. There is not direct reward for being one so I think many of us do it and sacrafic the points because people trust us or want us to do it for the group. That is what makes being a mayor unique. The reward is the group itself. I do feel the skill points might need rethinking too for mayor. However I do enjoy riding my savage humbabaa around town just to look at it. That is my reward. Anyone else find themselves just wondering their town? Great view from a savage humbabaa 
Many have responded to the incetives for citizens question. What are your thoughts about city size? Which is related to incentives to get more citizens. I have been feeling lately that bigger is not necessarily better. When our town was new we wanted to work fast to try to get a shuttle before cap. That did not happen we reached our highest citizen level at 60 but alas no shuttle. Now some long term members and myself are starting to see we might not want to keep growing and stay around 40 to 50 citizens. Of course we lost some citizens mostly to non-play only a small number have left for other groups or towns. We still need to bring in a new one now and then to stay around that number. We have not had to many citizen problem to make us want to stay small. Just seems we have a good number now. Does size really matter?
Ecco Ton
Many have responded to the incetives for citizens question. What are your thoughts about city size? Which is related to incentives to get more citizens. I have been feeling lately that bigger is not necessarily better. When our town was new we wanted to work fast to try to get a shuttle before cap. That did not happen we reached our highest citizen level at 60 but alas no shuttle. Now some long term members and myself are starting to see we might not want to keep growing and stay around 40 to 50 citizens. Of course we lost some citizens mostly to non-play only a small number have left for other groups or towns. We still need to bring in a new one now and then to stay around that number. We have not had to many citizen problem to make us want to stay small. Just seems we have a good number now. Does size really matter?
Ecco Ton
Message Edited by EccoTon on 06-11-2004 05:21 AM
roselil
Fri Jun 11, 2004 5:43 am
#16
Dunes of Fury is a guildcity - if you want to live in the Dunes, you have to be a member of the guild.
We have metropolis status (93 citizens), wich is also very needed since the city as its name says, has many dunes and it is therefore sometimes difficult to find a spot to place the houses.
But to answer the question; We do not recruit with the promise of a house, a vehicle, credits or anything - actually our recruting is based on inviting players we have had the pleasure of meeting on hunts, raids or quests - family-members, friends or simply ppl we like talking to and whom we think would make a great guildmember.
Off couse some guildmembers has left the guild, but still lives in the city - not many (about 8) but they are welcome to stay as long as they still respect the city-politics.
If a new guildmember is new to the game, he probably and mostly has a relative, old in-game-mate or RL-friend in the guild, and this person will help him get along - in other cases we have small houses for emergency-cases, since we demand that guildmembers declares residence in the city.
X-caliber-Bria
Fri Jun 11, 2004 10:42 am
#17
Mayor Tacoma
Bria-- Pax Galactica, Corellia
We offera small Corellian house to new players. A small corellian house really isn't worth the time or effort for someonewho is just after a free item or credits. This seems to bethe breaking point of offering a hand to newbies, and the point at which it becomes a bribe(which attacts the wrong crowd)
Anything bigger thena small houseor even offeringfree credits, it seems, really doesn't attract the people we want in the city. We want folks that are looking for a community that helps each other out,we do not want the rift raft that are just looking for the next big city that is offering something substantial for free.
Fneegan
Fri Jun 11, 2004 11:35 am
#18
First, the situation is different for every city. I'm surelarge, already built-up and well established cities such ason Tatooine or in Naboo/Theed with over 150citizens really don't have to offer incentives. But, acity on Rori with 70 citizens probably would want something to attract new players.
My son joined a big player city and he ACTUALLY had to wait 3 - 4 days before he was given zoning rights. Imagine!! Myself, as mayor on Rori, if it's 2 a.m in the morning and I'm about to log and someone says they want to join our city - I say - I'll set you up right now. Being on a remote planetand needing a shuttleport, we don't want to lose our shuttlport - once was enough.
When I started the game, I had 250 bucks in my pocket and walked for 2 - 3 weeksdoing missions to be able to afford a speeder (30k at the time) to get around. Wasn't I glad that I bumped into a player city where the mayor set me up with a house and speeder anda community of friends to help with my many questions, gameplay and profession.
Now I'm a mayor and I offera house, speeder and some credits. You can't give a poor person a free house when they can't afford to pay the maintenance. And now with the speeder bug fixed, if you give them a speeder, it's gonna cost them 3-5k occasionally just to fix it while they make 500 cr per mission. Oh, and give them tax on top of that. So, why is it they want to join your player city again ? A city that caters to new and broke playerswho yet have a profession is much more different than a city that caters to elites (mastered professions) and those who are very well off.
As an Architect, I'm loosing a little business andI may be affecting the overall business economy a little by giving these freebies but it's well worth it to help NEW PLAYERs become part of a player city, a community and help them get into the game as soon as possible rather than leave them stranded on there ownfending for themselves.
Most players don't join a player city to take the perks and run off with them. But, we are challengedwith the 1month free and now the 14 day free game trials where ppl may take up these generous offers and not continue afterwards.
I think it will become more challenging over time to get new players and also keep the old ones. The Space Expansion will helpadd new players but something similar to the Space-X will always need to be added to keep the game alive, attract more new players and keep the old ones.........we'll see.
I've even had many player who have left return their gifts.
That was a longer then expected anwser - Yes - I feel in certain circumstances joining perks is beneficial.
LadyIllyria
Fri Jun 11, 2004 4:05 pm
#19
We do not actively recruit for our city.
However, one day I rode around and discovered a generic house on the other side of the hill from our city, about 150m from one of our houses. Luckily, the individual had his name actually on his house, so I was able to contact him. In order to maintain the appearance of our city, I offered to give him a new house (tatooine style to fit in with ours), if he wanted to move into the city itself. So, I placed the medium tatooine house, changed the sign to be exactly the same as all the other signs in the city, put maintenance in the house, and /transferstructured to him. He had a friend that started hanging around and finally ask if he could join the city too to be with his friend. I went and grabbed another medium house, fixed the sign to conform with my standards, put some maintenance in it, and /transferstructured.
I figured that if I want uniformity, I could at least provide the means of said uniformity, and put the maintenance in their homes as my way of saying thank you for keeping said uniformity. I asked that they did not change their signs, not demanded, but simply asked if they would. So far, they have. If they decide to one day up and move, the house is theirs (business write off).
Heh, I guess I went ahead and turned our Estate into a city just because I got tired of this one guy dropping his harvesters right in front of my guild hall in our courtyard. The first time he did it, I asked if he could move it, he said he would when the spawn was over. The third and fourth times I started getting really annoyed. Otherwise, I probably wouldn't have gone to the trouble of changing professions just to accomodate the ability to have politician.
On the other hand, the other city I use to run, I did start offering such deals because my city council was pushing me really hard to get a shuttleport. The only way we could have a shuttleport was to get citizens. Since they didn't want to trouble themselves with having to do the recruiting, I ended up having to resort to bribes to try to meet the council's 'wishes'. In the end, the council all turned into hologrinders and the city (and guild) failed. I kept the city alive for four months after they all left and the guild disbanded, even made arrangements for another mayor to take over, and tried out some other ideas. In the end though, I deleted the character after the city hall finally went poof (no really, she refused to become a part of the empire and died a glorious death for the rebellion!) My new character on that server is a storm trooper and is currently enjoying all the clothing and armour and such that she seized for the glory of the empire.
Err, what was the topic?
Mistress Kyphi Makarha
Tanooshman
Tue Jun 15, 2004 7:12 am
#20
Nexus Actively recruits - especially hard when we fall below 60 citizens.
We have a standing offer for the loan of a house as long as the new citizen stays as a registered citizen. The house comes with one weeks paid maintenance. Should they decide to leave we ask they return it. (We have lost a house when a player Deleted their character, not knowing their items went poof.)
The program is open and current citizens can refer candidates to participate. The Mayor has an informal chat just sufficient to be clear they have an understanding of the costs and rules associated with housing. If the player has never placed a house before, the Mayor places it and transfers structure.
We also have a lot-lease program - aimed at newer players. The player is directed to a resource area, provided with a harvester, put's it down and adds City Authorities to the Admin list. The player is paid 1k for up to 2 lots on the spot. The city collects all resources and pays all costs. When the resource depletes the player redeeds the harvesters, returns them to the City and is paid 1k for each lot for each day.
This money can be very important to newer players. The lots are too important to mature players to lease for 1k a day.
Of the 8 citizens that have joined recently - only 3 sought participation in any Citizen assistance program.
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