Better Advertising...

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Re: Better Advertising...

Postby Arizal1 » Sat Jul 18, 2015 3:14 am

... Hem, I hope I'm not disturbing the "the" debate. I figured this may be the good place to make my first post.

Well, I'm a new player. I actually looked for a game like this in all the internets and found it in some corner or Google, so you may start by me (not that I want any special treatment).

I must say the concept (playing a political party and trying to run a country) is very good. It is like playing Borgen :P . Generally, I like playing single player games like EUIV can be one, but I will not frown upon the possibility for me to interact with other people who (I hope) are interested by politic and by "bland boring generic parliementary democracies" (actually, except for a few problems, I think the German Federation has the best political system in the world and I would have like to play in something like that).

I ended up in Ibutho, and I will stay there and try the one-party state thingie, at least as long as I enjoy it.

I like the job you poured in this game. There are so many variables and it is far much automated than I thought it would be. Now if only I could see the new version you are talking about*... I hope all goes well in that matter.

I don't know if I really have that much advices to give to you. It would be preposterous. but I might as well say that. I found what I wanted to find because I looked for it, but someone less determined than me to understand all of that (the basics, really) might find the road steep. And it wouldn't necessarily be because he would be a fool ignorant. This person could be a good player.

*edit : I found said project and registered. Sorry if I wasn't supposed to do that. Still, I cannot play so that's not a big problem for you.
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Demokrat Konservativen Partei (DKP) (Narikaton and Darnussia) (Particracy Classic)
The Federalistische Partij (Laaglanden) (Particracy Dev)
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Re: Better Advertising...

Postby Siggon Kristov » Sat Jul 18, 2015 4:59 am

Arizal1 wrote:... Hem, I hope I'm not disturbing the "the" debate. I figured this may be the good place to make my first post.

Well, I'm a new player. I actually looked for a game like this in all the internets and found it in some corner or Google, so you may start by me (not that I want any special treatment).

I must say the concept (playing a political party and trying to run a country) is very good. It is like playing Borgen :P . Generally, I like playing single player games like EUIV can be one, but I will not frown upon the possibility for me to interact with other people who (I hope) are interested by politic and by "bland boring generic parliementary democracies" (actually, except for a few problems, I think the German Federation has the best political system in the world and I would have like to play in something like that).

I ended up in Ibutho, and I will stay there and try the one-party state thingie, at least as long as I enjoy it.

I like the job you poured in this game. There are so many variables and it is far much automated than I thought it would be. Now if only I could see the new version you are talking about*... I hope all goes well in that matter.

I don't know if I really have that much advices to give to you. It would be preposterous. but I might as well say that. I found what I wanted to find because I looked for it, but someone less determined than me to understand all of that (the basics, really) might find the road steep. And it wouldn't necessarily be because he would be a fool ignorant. This person could be a good player.

*edit : I found said project and registered. Sorry if I wasn't supposed to do that. Still, I cannot play so that's not a big problem for you.

This guy is not the average new player.

His first communications with me were asking how to respond to other players' actions in-character. He tried to make it clear that he was messaging me OOCly, and he successfully did that.

What we can also see and admire is that he realises that other new players may not be like him. I told him that I expect that he'll get along with most of the community, especially the more experienced players that were here longer than I have been.
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Re: Better Advertising...

Postby Aquinas » Sat Jul 18, 2015 5:42 pm

A warm welcome to the game, Arizal! I'm very glad we've recruited you to our ranks of players :). Like Siggon, I think you've got to grips with some things about the game more quickly than most others do.

You have a good point. Particracy would benefit from being more user-friendly to new players, and this is something we're looking at improving at the moment. Right now, we're looking at updating Particracy's FAQ. As a new, but obviously intelligent/enthusiastic player, I'd especially welcome any insight you have into how we can make that a useful resource for new (and indeed, not so new...) players.

For that matter, I'd also welcome feedback on the Tutorial. It could be updated/expanded in some areas...

But anyway - enjoy Ibutho!
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Re: Better Advertising...

Postby Arizal1 » Sun Jul 19, 2015 4:08 pm

Thank you very much for this greeting!

There are a few things I can think of as possible improvements to the game and to the forum, already.

In the forum, to begin, it would be great if there were a section "suggestions" and a section "new members" (in which you could move those nice threads asking for our political ideals and maybe also the "Lonely nations thread), so that your new members don't end up having to look everywhere to find how to enter in contact with you.

In the game, currently, as I don't have a perfect knowledge of all the laws, I find myself creating bills named "test" in order to view what are my options in term of provisions I could add to my proposals. This should not happen. I feel like it would be better to be able to add provisions, and then to name your bill, and describe it.

Also, there are nice information which seem misplaced and less useful than they could be. I saw in the "news" panel a map of my country with the distribution of seats on it. Why not use this map in the "geography" section (or next to the "geographic map"? It would give the player immediate information on where he is stronger in the country.

Then, as the heart of this game are the bills, they should be moved above things like diplomacy, economy, demography and culture.

Finally (for now), there is this nive "Cumulative Seats History" graph. It seems a pretty good idea, and I would love it if it could actually be readable. I suppose the numbers on the left mean the percentage of seats, but as we are in 3878, I don't understand why we are at 22,500 on the bottom. And all I see is variation of seats for party which no longer exists and should more be in an "history" section than in "election results". These bars representing elections are so small that I cannot see my own party in it.

I don't know how much limitations the engine makes to this idea, but if it could be either customizable or if it began at the foundation of a party represented in the assembly (or our parties), it would feel more useful than now.

Sorry to give you work while you have to create the sequel, but those are the things I would like to see if it is possible.
The Social-Liberal Caucus (Ibutho) (Inactive) (Particracy Classic)
Demokrat Konservativen Partei (DKP) (Narikaton and Darnussia) (Particracy Classic)
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Re: Better Advertising...

Postby Siggon Kristov » Sun Jul 19, 2015 4:22 pm

Arizal1 wrote:There are a few things I can think of as possible improvements to the game and to the forum, already.

In the forum, to begin, it would be great if there were a section "suggestions" and a section "new members" (in which you could move those nice threads asking for our political ideals and maybe also the "Lonely nations thread), so that your new members don't end up having to look everywhere to find how to enter in contact with you.

Good idea. I like it.

Arizal1 wrote:In the game, currently, as I don't have a perfect knowledge of all the laws, I find myself creating bills named "test" in order to view what are my options in term of provisions I could add to my proposals. This should not happen. I feel like it would be better to be able to add provisions, and then to name your bill, and describe it.

You can rename your bill and edit the description before setting it to vote. You can also view the existing laws without creating a bill.

Arizal1 wrote:Finally (for now), there is this nive "Cumulative Seats History" graph. It seems a pretty good idea, and I would love it if it could actually be readable. I suppose the numbers on the left mean the percentage of seats, but as we are in 3878, I don't understand why we are at 22,500 on the bottom. And all I see is variation of seats for party which no longer exists and should more be in an "history" section than in "election results". These bars representing elections are so small that I cannot see my own party in it.

I doubt anyone has gotten around to understanding that graph, so we're in the same boat.

Arizal1 wrote:I don't know how much limitations the engine makes to this idea, but if it could be either customizable or if it began at the foundation of a party represented in the assembly (or our parties), it would feel more useful than now.

Sorry to give you work while you have to create the sequel, but those are the things I would like to see if it is possible.

Unfortunately, the reason for moving on to the new game is that this one is unfixable and no further development can happen. The most the developer can really do is to come in now and then to fix bugs. Where development has not occurred properly, it is up to the community to work around it by creating protocols that guide understanding/interpretation, import/export tables, spreadsheets, etc.
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Re: Better Advertising...

Postby Aquinas » Sun Jul 19, 2015 5:27 pm

You make some excellent points, Arizal. As Siggon explained, coding work has ceased on Particracy Classic, so we are unlikely to see any big changes to the game itself. Although we can innovate with our own role-play conventions, and we do have Particracy Dev/P3 to be excited about.

You've gotten me thinking about improving the forum for new players. I'm not sure we need a New Player sub-forum...but maybe we could do with a stickied thread called "New players: introduce yourselves and ask us your questions!" or something like that. As far as questions go, by the way, feel free to start threads and fire away. Or you can always use the Questions & Requests thread.

I sympathise with what you said about the inconvenience of having to make a bill with its title etc. before you can add the actual proposal. It's unlikely we can do anything about that, though. As Siggon said, the options are either to rename and edit the bill before putting it to the vote, or checking out your nation's existing laws first (which you can do in the "Legislation" bit on your nation page).

As for the Cumulative Seats History graphs, I can tell you they looked much more intelligible a decade ago, even if today they look like they belong in a modern art exhibition.

By the way, I hope you will continue to tell us about your impressions of the game and how we can improve it (particularly the things we *can* actually improve like the forum and some of the documentation/presentation). We old-timers too easily forget what it is like to be a new player...
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Re: Better Advertising...

Postby Siggon Kristov » Sun Jul 19, 2015 5:33 pm

Aquinas wrote:You've gotten me thinking about improving the forum for new players. I'm not sure we need a New Player sub-forum...but maybe we could do with a stickied thread called "New players: introduce yourselves and ask us your questions!" or something like that. As far as questions go, by the way, feel free to start threads and fire away. Or you can always use the Questions & Requests thread.

I think a sub-forum for new players is a good idea. The point is grabbing their eyes as soon as they join the forum, not having them navigate to other threads. Questions & Requests is stickied, but people still create new threads to ask short questions that get quickly answered. It would be nice to have a sub-forum with some Forum FAQs and a link to the FAQs page in game. Some players, including Arizal, find it difficult to even navigate in-game.

Aquinas wrote:I sympathise with what you said about the inconvenience of having to make a bill with its title etc. before you can add the actual proposal. It's unlikely we can do anything about that, though. As Siggon said, the options are either to rename and edit the bill before putting it to the vote, or checking out your nation's existing laws first (which you can do in the "Legislation" bit on your nation page).

What I usually do is to put "Pending" as the title and description, and edit it after I decide what the bill will be about.
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Re: Better Advertising...

Postby Choice Party » Sun Jul 26, 2015 10:01 am

Well if I knew about this game, I would have quite literally joined it years ago. So some advertising would be a good idea, however I think an easier to read and less wordy turitol might come in handy, especially for younger players.
Choice (Dolgaria) 3811-3832
Choice (Luthori) 3832-3875, 3899-3934
Choice (Kalistan)3875-3883
Choice (Hutori)3883-3899
Labour (Selucia)3934-3944
Progressive (Dolgavas)3944-3959
New Choice (Luthori) 3959-3982
LSP (Gaduridos) 3982-4004
Democratic (Mikuni-Hulstria) 4004-4038
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Re: Better Advertising...

Postby Aquinas » Sun Jul 26, 2015 1:19 pm

I agree about the tutorial, and would really welcome help & feedback on re-doing it. There is also, by the way, an issue with the tutorial link on the main page not working. That is on my list of things to ask Wouter about.

On the subject of getting Particracy more broadly known, does anyone here have any experience/expertise in using wikipedia? Particracy could do with an entry on wikipedia. There are also certain wikipedia pages where I think we deserve a mention too. eg. Government simulation game, List of multiplayer browser games, List of free multiplayer online games...
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Re: Better Advertising...

Postby Farsun » Sun Jul 26, 2015 2:35 pm

We had one.

I'll mount a campaign to find some sites and I'll drop them here. I have some contacts still throughout the RP world.
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