Having built up my Empire and researched most of the technologies, I find that making ships and smashing things around lacks long term appeal. I realize that for many players, this is the entire point of Zorg Empire, and for the current player base, it's a lot of fun. I don't mean to question why you like it, just to report that it really isn't enough for me. And I believe that it also won't be enough for most prospective players you will find on the Internet.

Every person I've ever talked to about Zorg Empire either stopped playing after a few days, or showed zero interest after looking at the first few screens. If you want to expand your player base beyond the current clique, you should reach out to those non players for whom the game currently isn't enough, by making one or more additions, such as:

* A story and the option to have named individuals, for players who like drama and characterization
* Better galactic maps and outcomes for expeditions, for those who like exploration
* Population management, for those who like administration and a feeling of immersion
* Better science, for those who like realism
* More in depth racial characterization, for those who like customization

Zorg Empire already has enough ships, enough building options, and enough technologies. It's already able to appeal to wargamers who just want to construct mighty armadas and raid enemy empires. For myself, I wouldn't care if you removed half of the ships, the Nanite Factory, Terraformer, and so on. There's no reason to take any of that away; leave it all in. It doesn't hurt Zorg Empire in the slightest to have so many options like these available. But continuing to restrict focus to the wargaming element alone won't ever improve the game in any meaningful sense. As I see it, only broadening Zorg Empire can do that.

So for any of the above additions that you make, I predict you'll be able to increase your player base by a factor of two. You have only to consider the success of games like Master of Orion, or science fiction shows like Battlestar Galactica, to see how crucial these elements can be to developing and maintaining interest.

I can't guarantee that I'll stay around, in any case - the only thing I would really need to see would be the ability to customize my species and culture; I can imagine everything else up. You may not even want to appeal to me in the first place, since I doubt my preferences are that common. But you've got a wonderful start to what could be a really big game, and there's a whole world of people out there whom you could accommodate and entertain, if you set your mind to it.

I agree with Mark 100%

+9000
Please comment on this zorg, wed love your input!
Please keep up the posts Mark!

hear hear, its what I said before.

take all the ideas, all the player input

and give us Z 2

bigger and better

able to hold its own with those other games out there

I really hope they take Mark's post into consideration .

The game is what it is. It is not a "god" game. It is a simple. browser based, real time war game. It has strategy elements and everything that most players want. A few tweaks here and there to improve the game on the basis of what it is, by all means. The immersion in the game is irrelevant. Making the game too complicated would detract from what the is the basic essence of the game. If you want more than is here, play civilization or some other game. Holding its own against other games? If those other games are in any way different, then play them to. If that's what you want. Immerse yourself in what is already here. That being other folk from around the world. No better interaction than that, real time, real life people. No AI, just real live players.

wow oz, chill out

we are trying to help the game grow.

dont really need any negative comments as such, why?

simply because if admin dont like any ideas, they dont implement them

(which is most)

whose says this is the only game others play? for me its not

I play many strategy games

this is ok, but just ok.

I have been here for years, why? the game no! the friends? yes!!!!

No need to chill out, I am always chilled. Just stating the facts. Most folk that do play this game play for its simplicity. I have said before, we don't need to know what certain members of the population of our worlds are eating for supper on a Friday night. The beauty is in the straight forward simplicity of its design. As I also stated, I do feel things can be added to tweak the game, make it more interesting. But if you make it too in depth, players will come, have a play and think there's too much to take on board. Making the game grow, there are always people joining. Growth is not the question. The thing we need to be doing is keeping those players once they have joined. Again, as I have stated before, there needs to be an incentive to keep those said players in the game. Whether it being an increase in the score level for newb protection across all servers or a reduction in certain researches,enabling players to get up and running more quickly. Even the amount of rubies and resources given to each newb.

Change just for the sake of change is a non starter.

I too play many games, I never said that this was the only game you play, what I did say is, if you want more in depth game play, then find another game that has it. If as you say, you have been playing this for years, there must be some attraction in it as it is for you to have stayed in the game so long. It it ain't broke, don't fix it. Just try to keep those new players playing.

I think mark is saying that the wargame part of the game is fine, just that the game needs to be more mainstream to keep more people. a lot of them seem to think this is boring, some of us are cool with the current set-up but the large numbers of inactives who don't even start point out that it is too boring initially at least, for the new people.

I have played many other strategy games, and the biggest difference between the more successful ones, and this game, seems to be that this one's user interface looks... spartan to say the least. more successful ones tend to not be as heavily stripped down as this one. Now, im not gonna advocate that this game has flashy graphics everywhere, but small changes that keep the game from being largely looking like a bunch of text, would probably go a long way. there are probably other ways to make the game look more interesting, without drastically changing the gameplay, but the main point is that it is too focused on a specific group of people, whom you can think of as "harder-core wargamers" or such

Agreed. To a degree, all that glisters has an appeal. Visually there IS something lacking in the Zorg Empire Universe. Animatons perhaps? Or just a nice advanced, cleaner interface?