About time?

Garao

Do you think it's about time IRE started working on a new game?

Garao

What with the Tears of Polaris game cancelled (personally, I'm kind of thankful. Random space game wat?), do you think it's about time that IRE started working on a new game and calling for volunteers to help and give ideas? It's been around four years now since the last IRE game came out. Comments, @Tecton and @Sarapis ?

Tvistor

I voted in a different category because I hear opposites attract and you are so handsome.

Erasariel

Not at all actually. The main thing is that, as far as personal experience on the three other IRE games goes, there are too few people. I believe that IRE should try to step up marketing the remaining three games and maintain a decent population before even planning to make a new one.

Remember, MUDs can only go as far as its users. If there are no players to shape the world with, even the best worlds will be worthless.

Cooper

I personally think they would be better off giving all of their games more attention than they get now instead of starting a new game. Polaris was shut down, Earth Eternal was shut down, sold, restarted, then shut down again, etc.

Alyssea

They need to work on improving their current games, not make a whole new one. Even Achaea doesn't have many people, and IRE needs to be enticing people from other games to join their current ones, not spreading people who play the current ones further out and into new games.

Garao

All fair points, I retract my wish for a new game and instead hope for something awesome in achaea.

Vaehl

Nty.

Blujixapug

The last one, Tears of Polaris, was a hilarious failure. A sci-fi game would and should have been amazing, but it had no developmental oversight, so they ended up scrapping like 4 years of work when Mr Saunders finally discovered the guy in charge had been half-assing it.

In general, new IRE games seem to cannibalise the playerbase of existing IRE games, rather than attracting new players from the internet at large. The games already have issues with playerbase size, so releasing a new one seems like a questionable idea.

I still would like a full-on sci-fi game that doesn't have Lusternia's rainbow stoner excess and heavy fantasy/steampunk/wiccan leanings, to contrast with Achaea's high fantasy, Aetolia's dark high fantasy, Imperian's harsh high fantasy, and Lusternia's phantasmagoric high fantasy.

Siena

No because I prefer Achaea over the other games. (I do like Aetolia too however) Their current games need more love. I am stuck on Achaea and don't really bother with the others much.

Tanaar

Players and admins for niche games like text MUDs are a finite resource. Instead of spreading too few players over more games, I'd rather not see them siphoned off into yet another. Invest in improving existing games; look at the good it's done Achaea over the last fix or seven months.

Kyrra

I invest credits into Lusternia and barely play. I just don't feel the same immersion there that I do with Achaea. Love the game and my character, but it's a matter of whether I want to spend my time here or there.

Would be nice if Iron Elite went across all IRE games too. I couldn't justify a second payment every month for another IRE game.

Mannimar

Kyrra said:

 Would be nice if Iron Elite went across all IRE games too. I couldn't justify a second payment every month for another IRE game.

QFT

Mariel

I agree that more attention should be given to advertising/marketing/getting new players in than spreading the existing players too thin.

Though with that said it seems that all the big sweeping changes to the IRE websites (and the addition of an IRE blog) are attempts to do this. I can't say with any authority or proof as to whether they've worked one way or the other, though.

Dakuan

Disapointing that all what IRE does is fantasy games. There are so many cool settings, why not explore new grounds?

As for me, I would really like to see new IRE game about distant future and space exploration. Or, if its another fantasy, game based on Martin's Song of Fire and Ice series (yes Im a fan). The latter I think will bring alot of new players, since there is such a huge fan base.

Also, IRE games are mostly so similar in codebase and gameplay that I wonder why IRE didnt connect them in one HUGE game? So you could explore them with one character travelling through dimension portals. It would solve problem with poulation, unite communities of all IRE games and become biggest MUD in history.

Dakuan

By the way, there is a game that just screams to be converted into IRE type mud, since it is all about clans conficts and dynamic changing history. Game is called "Legend of Five Rings" and was in development for nearly two decades. The lore there is fashinating.

Sultani

Not unless it's a drastically different world with new options of gameplay. There are enough IRE games that share quite a bit of similarity and I think that was viable during more populous times in the MUD community but now it would be smart to improve upon what's already out there. I'd be thrilled to see more expansion on PVE options as well as a more organized and user-friendly quest system.