Few days ago, the most important cracked community decided to turn off. I wont talk about their reason and/or if they did the right thing or not. I would like to talk about facts.
Scawen, one of LFS developers, said that Pereulok became a big problem when it had more players than the original LFS (non-cracked master server). Everybody on both sides has their own argument to play on cracked or original LFS. But Pereulok used to had more players than original, and do you know why? I have some theories about:
- Price
Yep. As brazilians who created some threads said, price is one (or the most related) thing that interfeer directly on how many people are playing LFS. 45 US Dollars for a "old" game is too much. It's almost the same price of brand new games, not considering Steam special offers.
I remember Scawen said something like buying licenses will support game development. I agree, but who will pay 45 bucks for a slowly updated game? I think, if he really wanna bring players from Pereulok to S2/S3, he should consider lower the price on next days (temporary), and give a chance for players to play legit. Is better to have 50 purchases at half price than 5 at full.
- Updates
It involves also pricing. But let me talk few words about my background on LFS. I've playing this game since 2004, and bought my first license in 2005. I know about this game more than some people who started last year and has 10k posts on this forum.
Anyway... Updates on LFS are really poor. I mean, real mirrors are cool and bring a improved player experience, but ask the community. What their prefeer? New track, maybe a new car set (not necessary to be real cars like VWS), or the incredible mirror system?
I remember around 2008, 2009 when developers said about Scirocco. I don't wanna bring this subject back, but the players who were playing at that time remember how the community reacted. I remember a lot of people playing and talking about the new car, new physics.
This (real updates) is what keep the community interested on the game. Since 2010, the important updates were Westhill improvement and Rockingham. Maybe we can consider another 2 or 3 features.
Scawen, please consider real updates, to make the money worth the license.
- Community
Actual community is toxic. Hell yeah. Servers are the same, with same players, saying the same things. Nobody give a chance for new servers to grow. If someone plays on server A, he still playing there and does not matter if server B opened yerterday with new features (aka InSim, organization, events, and go on).
It make the servers quantity drop and consequently the community to drop as well. If the only server available for drift/race/cruise/drag/whatever is A, and I got banned from A or I don't like A admins, I will just stop to play online.
Also, the community does not accept suggestions from itself. I met a lot of players who simple does not accept when I say "I don't like server B because....". Doesn't matter if I'm right, or if I have rights to express my opinion. They simply ban because there's no server to connect (as I said, limited options) and there's no way to change my license without spending money (as Pereulok allows).
I'm posting as a Demo because as I said, community is toxic. I don't want to get a ban from some servers, or even lose my account because Swaven... Anyway. There's some players who really still fighting to improve LFS community. I can say a few names and I'm posting to these players.
Scawen, please consider the opportunity Pereulok gave to you closing his Master Server. I... We don't want to see LFS ending, but in opposite, see this game really growing as it should grow, considering its potential and active but small community.
Again, I don't want to apology Cracked servers. But in the way LFS is going today, the players on next years will be found only on these kind of servers.
Scawen, one of LFS developers, said that Pereulok became a big problem when it had more players than the original LFS (non-cracked master server). Everybody on both sides has their own argument to play on cracked or original LFS. But Pereulok used to had more players than original, and do you know why? I have some theories about:
- Price
Yep. As brazilians who created some threads said, price is one (or the most related) thing that interfeer directly on how many people are playing LFS. 45 US Dollars for a "old" game is too much. It's almost the same price of brand new games, not considering Steam special offers.
I remember Scawen said something like buying licenses will support game development. I agree, but who will pay 45 bucks for a slowly updated game? I think, if he really wanna bring players from Pereulok to S2/S3, he should consider lower the price on next days (temporary), and give a chance for players to play legit. Is better to have 50 purchases at half price than 5 at full.
- Updates
It involves also pricing. But let me talk few words about my background on LFS. I've playing this game since 2004, and bought my first license in 2005. I know about this game more than some people who started last year and has 10k posts on this forum.
Anyway... Updates on LFS are really poor. I mean, real mirrors are cool and bring a improved player experience, but ask the community. What their prefeer? New track, maybe a new car set (not necessary to be real cars like VWS), or the incredible mirror system?
I remember around 2008, 2009 when developers said about Scirocco. I don't wanna bring this subject back, but the players who were playing at that time remember how the community reacted. I remember a lot of people playing and talking about the new car, new physics.
This (real updates) is what keep the community interested on the game. Since 2010, the important updates were Westhill improvement and Rockingham. Maybe we can consider another 2 or 3 features.
Scawen, please consider real updates, to make the money worth the license.
- Community
Actual community is toxic. Hell yeah. Servers are the same, with same players, saying the same things. Nobody give a chance for new servers to grow. If someone plays on server A, he still playing there and does not matter if server B opened yerterday with new features (aka InSim, organization, events, and go on).
It make the servers quantity drop and consequently the community to drop as well. If the only server available for drift/race/cruise/drag/whatever is A, and I got banned from A or I don't like A admins, I will just stop to play online.
Also, the community does not accept suggestions from itself. I met a lot of players who simple does not accept when I say "I don't like server B because....". Doesn't matter if I'm right, or if I have rights to express my opinion. They simply ban because there's no server to connect (as I said, limited options) and there's no way to change my license without spending money (as Pereulok allows).
I'm posting as a Demo because as I said, community is toxic. I don't want to get a ban from some servers, or even lose my account because Swaven... Anyway. There's some players who really still fighting to improve LFS community. I can say a few names and I'm posting to these players.
Scawen, please consider the opportunity Pereulok gave to you closing his Master Server. I... We don't want to see LFS ending, but in opposite, see this game really growing as it should grow, considering its potential and active but small community.
Again, I don't want to apology Cracked servers. But in the way LFS is going today, the players on next years will be found only on these kind of servers.