After reading some old articles/posts for games-like-risk, I found out that warlight 1.0 came out in the 2000's, its popularity peaked in 2013 with the release on the itunes appstore, then steadily declined (during the period following the introduction of 3rd party ad's, player -level and -coin systems, and a new dashboard)

Here are a few questions:
Warlight probably won't be losing out to RiseWars or AttackbyTurns anytime soon, and Risk is likely to stick around. But in ten years, will Warlight be just another dead and forgotten game?

What ideas can you come up with to keep warlight fresh?

The game is so narrow that only people with an interest in things like RISK would enjoy it. The stereotypical woman who goes out shopping and doing her nails doesn't give a crap, and the stereotypical (American) man watching football doesn't give a crap about a strategic game.

Things that keep people interested:

- Regular updates with new game-play features (nobody really is hyped about forum moderation, give me a break)

- New tools to make game-play more efficient and increase variety (give mapmakers tools and rewards on their profile!)

- New forms of competition in the game - ladders, auto-games all can be vastly improved.

- Give an incentive to be a part of the community, clan battle system, official events, membership tournaments, make coins usable (even though half the community gets pissed every-time there is a coin update).

I feel like Warlight will outlive most other small indie games not only because it's a very user-based experience (as opposed to a game where only developers can host events), but because of the creative, don't-give-a-damn-about-graphics audience that it attracts.

An MBTI personality type survey I took back in July concluded that 10/11 of the participates on WL had the intuitive trait (N) over the sensory trait (S), with the last one being unsure of which he associates with best.

http://www.humanmetrics.com/personality/type

The results were:

1) ENFP
2) INTP
3) INTP
4) INTP, ENFP, or ENTP
5) INTP or INFP
6) INTP
7) INTP
8) INTP
9) INTJ
10) INTP
11) INTP or ISTP

Though I am still unsure of the advantages of having a highly imaginative community over a reality-focused one. I was hoping to expand this research at the time if only I didn't have school coming up. <_<

The stereotypical woman who goes out shopping and doing her nails doesn't give a crap, and the stereotypical (American) man watching football doesn't give a crap about a strategic game.

What about the stereotypical cat? =^.^=

Warlight has a small, close, tight-knit community that I don't see fading away anytime soon. Obviously, I do have concerns about its growth, but I don't see the game shrinking, at least in the short term.

Edited 12/24/2016 03:52:29

Why this thread's name, "Fizzer is sad"?

http://md-ladder.cloudapp.net

This keeps player interested. Great competition with a variety of different settings and maps. Doesn't get boring easily

Forget gameplay updates, just improve the interface and clear up the clutter.

So many threads are created by new players because it is a pain at first to create and save templates, picking maps etc. If it's designed in a simpler way (though not removing features) then I reckon more people will stick around.

Clear up the maps section, trying to find a map is a pain when there are so many. Delete the maps by sir nick for example, and any others which are bad copies or look like they've been made in 5 minutes.

If Fizzer just copies some of muli's good features, then that would be an easy enough update. The single player add ons from muli are great, and the only reason I can see for fizzer not adding them is he doesn't think they're worth it or he just can't be bothered.

Develop the map developing part of Warlight so that map creators can use gradients in their maps, though I doubt it'll ever happen.

starting to put some of the top uservoice ideas to the "immediate roadmap" would be a good step to keep people interested in Warlight.

otherwise, more and more people will continually "retire" until there's nothing but the hardcore elitist players remain.

Thank you for your answers. I hope we'll see some of these changes in the future.

A common point I think we all can agree on is better developer-to-players communication. Some players might recall that Fizzer tried to do this when he made a blog and held "ask Fizzer anything" sessions on twitch in the past working to that end but then stopped. So it might seem that a different approach, maybe a suggestions box would fix this issue.

+ the guy built this website and kept it running for almost a decade now, he's put a lot of effort in this game without getting much in return; that's why i say fizzer is sad. maybe warlight's different from other games that lose their appeal, drained and tossed away/ "where'd everyone go?", but he at least deserves a break or a pat on the back for what he did

without getting much in return

Advertisment+gambling money?

F.A.G.

https://www.warlight.net/Clans/?ID=221

counterargument: the last post on their forums happened 3 months ago should i be concerned

Forums have been dead for awhile FeelsBadMan

Fizzer said he has been working on something for a month or 2 now though so who knows. Maybe a reworked matchmaking/template system

So many threads are created by new players because it is a pain at first to create and save templates, picking maps etc. If it's designed in a simpler way (though not removing features) then I reckon more people will stick around.

Clear up the maps section, trying to find a map is a pain when there are so many. Delete the maps by sir nick for example, and any others which are bad copies or look like they've been made in 5 minutes.

If Fizzer just copies some of muli's good features, then that would be an easy enough update. The single player add ons from muli are great, and the only reason I can see for fizzer not adding them is he doesn't think they're worth it or he just can't be bothered.

I agree that Fizzer could greatly improve the game if he just listened a bit more to the community and/or starts to implement really really needed simple features that wouldnt even take an hour to code. Map/Player search, easier way to view templates, etc.

I disagree with the "delete Sir Nick's maps" though. While SirNick is being infamous for rather low quality map, it would be highly discouraging for new map makers if maps were deleted just because they are not liked by everyone.

I play warlight only because I don't have the resources to play anything on steam.

So if Fizzer changes the name to WarZone,

I think I'll go back to watching old empire total war campaigns on youtube... -.- (10+ yr old dell laptop and watchful parents .-.)

So if Fizzer changes the name to WarZone

What difference does that make? Just because of a name change, would your "watchful parents" not approve?

Diplomacy has a much broader range, (triggered strat players incoming), but I'm serious, much more fun for the average person to play something like Diplomacy than sit there thinking real hard about how to beat someone 1v1

much more fun for the average person to play something like Diplomacy

LOL !!