Now here is my suggestion. A "vote shop". I encountered this wonderful idea while playing Rising Force Online (RF) on a private server. Now, this private server does exist for profit, and does have a cash shop, but they only got to be really successful because of the vote shop. The vote shop exist to encourage players to vote for their shard, and gives a little reward in return. Every time players click one of the vote links on the forums or shard homepage, they are also asked to submit their account name that they wish to vote with. Once that is registered, they are then forwarded to the voting site and can vote for the shard. With every vote registered from a valid account the player gets awarded "vote points". Those vote points can then later be used (when accumulated) to purchase in-game items. This gives players a real reason to vote for their personal gain, even though they don't care for the shards well-being or prosper.
Now, I can't specifically say many things about how this would be executed here, I just want to get this idea out there and perhaps give this shard a better chance to survive for many years to come.
I can give some examples/ideas/suggestions on how this could work here, but again, nothing specific, just suggestions.
- Players would be allowed to vote 1 time a day (a 23h30min limit between votes) for each account on each voting site.
Players would get a reward of X vote points (vp) for each successful voting one each voting site. The amount of vote points received would have to be decided by staff.
Vote Shop items could either be items not able to obtain in game (for some reason) but have a purpose, or voting trophies that can be used as regular trophies, or perhaps some common items that are always needed, like resources, bandages, newbied items, rewards available through trophes, or perhaps even daily rares. Prices in vote points would have to be decided by staff.
When making a purchase vote points would be withdrawn from the players account and item purchased received on next log-in (one would possibly have to be logged out from the game when making purchases).
Vote points would not be tradeable, but some/most item in the vote shop perhaps could be.
People do things for their own gain, and what better way is there to encourage people to vote than giving them something for their effort? Everyone wins! It's in fact a win-win-win situation where players vote for the rewards, new players find a wonderful shard, and the shard prospers with more and more players (that also vote). It's a never-ending circle of goodness. ;)
