Two entries in one day?! Well, most certainly. xP I have something I've been itching to talk about, and since this is the first day of my blog revival, I might as well give you a bonus entry. I'd like to start it off with an apology to Thom (at least, I think that's who it was) whom I told that I wouldn't share this link. But then again, it's not like I'm telling all of Wolf-Haven, just my blog-goers. Besides, people deserve to know... not like it's the end of the world. And they might have found out eventually without any sort of warning.
http://sitepointmarket.com/listings/79226/web-game-domain-for-sale
Didn't expect to see that, did ya? It has been up for quite a while, so it may never sell, or Karl may decide otherwise. But solely for the purpose of this blog entry, let's assume that someday in the near future, Wolf-Haven is sold to a new owner. omg wat do we do naow?!?!?! Time to examine some pros and cons!
Pro: Seeing as how Wolf-Haven has an estimated $500-$1000 income monthly (according to the sale website), the new owner would probably have to spend quite a bit of money to purchase it. What does this mean? I would assume that they would really care about making money. If they turn towards the users to try to please us, they'll receive an immediate answer that we want updates on the site's content. Entrepreneur + needy customers = Wealthy entrepreneur if they give the customer what they want. But hey! Aside from the money-hungry new owner, we get more stuff to do, yes?
Con: I like to see Wolf-Haven as a nice community-built website. You know, tight-knit and all that jazz. Without the original owner, things change. Now it's all about business for the most part. Our little family will never be the same.
Pro: Maybe our donations will actually go somewhere useful...? When Wolf-Haven started, I do believe the profits from donations were meant to keep the site up and running and extras were donated to animal-based charities. Last I heard, however, Karl used the site money to fly over and see Windy. I honestly don't have a problem with this at all. He worked hard to make this site, and he can use the profits as he wishes. Especially now that the TOS was changed to say this: "The creators of Wolf-Haven will spend the donation money as they see fit." But if we were to have a new owner, there's always the chance that our donations will go to a good cause, or at least pay a team of programmers or something to bring us the new content we so desperately long for.
Con: What if things take a change for the worse? Just using this as a random example that popped into my mind... but what if a company like Neopets bought Wolf-Haven out? Would rule changes ensue? I know I'd be pretty upset if we weren't allowed to curse anymore. Or any random changes like limits to how many stat points you could buy, or how many side accounts you could have.
Pro: Assuming a big company isn't the buyer, well, the new owner could be really nice, quite frankly. It could be someone who comes online more often and fits into the community. You know, someone that devotes a great deal of time to the website and actually takes input from users and makes it reality. Maybe they'd not have a problem with allowing for more qualified staff members. Heck, maybe they'd give out prizes to users in monthly competitions or something! I know that's a long shot, but it's not impossible.
Con: If someone new took ownership of Wolf-Haven, they might have an entirely different idea than what Karl had planned. Perhaps they would demote the current staff members (those that certainly deserve to be staff) and choose their own friends. They could change little things that don't matter to them, but that might upset the community. For example, what if they said packs could only have 20 members? Shimmer would be up a creek without a paddle. What if they made PvA and PvP give less XP? There's infinitely many things that could go wrong.
Now, now, I could probably go on forever about this, but those are some of the major things I wanted to point out. Whether or not a new owner would be a good or a bad thing, there's a chance it could happen. But still, a new owner doesn't mean Karl wouldn't come around anymore. In fact, he may still have some say in things if the new owner(s) wanted to listen to his opinions. One thing is certain, however... things would change. Even if the new owner was exactly like Karl and rarely updated things or showed up online, there would still probably be a schism in the community from people quitting or some shiz.
My honest opinion on the subject is a neutral one. I'd like to image some perfect new Wolf-Haven world from a new owner, but on the other hand, I love Karl to death with everything he's already accomplished here. I would also be worried about some of those possible negative changes. :/ All I ask is that you keep an open mind if something ever was to happy. Rage quitting before you even try out the new owner would be a little ignorant of you. Wolf-Haven would never be exactly what it once was, but that doesn't mean it would turn into something rotten. You really can't say that the only reason you visit Wolf-Haven is because Karl runs it. It may exist for that very reason, but he hardly runs it anymore anyhow. Seriously, I'm not trying to say he doesn't secretly code and such, but the website is mostly keeping alive because of Jekyll uploading customs and the other staff just keeping people in line. It's sad that the most fun people have on here anymore is buying new accounts and customs. Alas, what else is there to do?
On a side note, please don't try to start any drama with this by telling everyone that Wolf-Haven is being sold. Like I said, that page has been up forever, and there's no way of knowing if that's ever even going to happen.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Idiocracy of New Packs
Long time no see! That is if anyone is reading this or ever read my blog to begin with. Last night, I had had the idea to start up my blog again since Wolf-Haven is becoming too boring to do any more than lurk on. I was actually going back and reading some of Storm's old blog posts just for the kicks. Then I get on this morning to find that Seasonal must have psychically sensed my idea, seeing as how she recently made a blog post too. *shakes fist* Oh well, more to read for anyone who's as bored as I am when trying to avoid homework. xD
First thing's first, Wolf-Haven is at a stand still. That's a known fact, and I'm not going to bother going too in-detail on that since Sea already has. I'm here to address some issues that have arisen because of this though. I'll probably make more blog entries to lavish upon some of the particulars. For today, that's going to be packs.
Packs! Wolf-Haven wouldn't be quite right without them. Having somehow become and Alpha in almost every pack I've legit joined, I feel like I have some experience when talking about this. In my opinion, the standstill has been nothing but a positive for Shimmer. I regret saying that in that we cannot have many competitions and activity has dropped. Lack of massmails and boss battles will do that to you. But I still feel like we've benefited seeing as how all the other packs are on an even playing field. That leaves only community to make a difference, and many of the great players have flocked to us. <3 ilu all
Now I hate to sound like a prude, but one of the most annoying things I see is the constant creation of new packs that inevitably fail. You have nothing else more entertaining to do, right? Why not make a pack? While it may sound idealic at first, it's not the best idea.
One of the most substantial problems is that there is no point shop yet. Oh, the lack of a point shop... that, coupled with boss battles, are the two things I miss most, honestly. Without a point shop, packs are unable to purchase extra member slots. So new packs are immediately doomed to a limit of 15 members. That doesn't leave pack with much room to grow, in my opinion. Now if your pack is community or roleplaying based, there is some hope. While you can't have a large amount of members, you have enough to keep active and alive. But in all seriousness, how many new pack have over 10 members that post actively in their RPs? Not saying that there aren't any out there, but I am making mention of how few.
Now for the pack owners that set out to run the pack they've always dreamed about, it rarely ever goes that way. What I see most is the making of a new pack coupled with gaining of a few members, followed by weeks of nothing as members slowly drop out or remain inactive. I suppose it's not the pack owner's fault. It's not like Wolf-Haven has much they can do for their members. But I wish people would realize it's a lot cause from the start. You're not going to gain blind loyalty with nothing in return, people.
Just go look at the new packs page. For the most part, they're all dead or soon-to-be. My advice would be to join an already existent pack with at least a semi-active owner and do your best to help revive it. You have about the same chance of success as making your own pack, with the exception that you'd have more member slots available on an older pack. That, and there wouldn't be a flood of pointless, dead new packs sitting around.
Of course, the best thing to do would be level to at least Elder and join Shimmer. /shot
And a shout out to any Shimmer members that might be reading this, thank you for being ever so epic and helping me to build the #1 pack on the website. There may not be a top 5 packs anymore, but we don't need that to know where we stand. <3
First thing's first, Wolf-Haven is at a stand still. That's a known fact, and I'm not going to bother going too in-detail on that since Sea already has. I'm here to address some issues that have arisen because of this though. I'll probably make more blog entries to lavish upon some of the particulars. For today, that's going to be packs.
Packs! Wolf-Haven wouldn't be quite right without them. Having somehow become and Alpha in almost every pack I've legit joined, I feel like I have some experience when talking about this. In my opinion, the standstill has been nothing but a positive for Shimmer. I regret saying that in that we cannot have many competitions and activity has dropped. Lack of massmails and boss battles will do that to you. But I still feel like we've benefited seeing as how all the other packs are on an even playing field. That leaves only community to make a difference, and many of the great players have flocked to us. <3 ilu all
Now I hate to sound like a prude, but one of the most annoying things I see is the constant creation of new packs that inevitably fail. You have nothing else more entertaining to do, right? Why not make a pack? While it may sound idealic at first, it's not the best idea.
One of the most substantial problems is that there is no point shop yet. Oh, the lack of a point shop... that, coupled with boss battles, are the two things I miss most, honestly. Without a point shop, packs are unable to purchase extra member slots. So new packs are immediately doomed to a limit of 15 members. That doesn't leave pack with much room to grow, in my opinion. Now if your pack is community or roleplaying based, there is some hope. While you can't have a large amount of members, you have enough to keep active and alive. But in all seriousness, how many new pack have over 10 members that post actively in their RPs? Not saying that there aren't any out there, but I am making mention of how few.
Now for the pack owners that set out to run the pack they've always dreamed about, it rarely ever goes that way. What I see most is the making of a new pack coupled with gaining of a few members, followed by weeks of nothing as members slowly drop out or remain inactive. I suppose it's not the pack owner's fault. It's not like Wolf-Haven has much they can do for their members. But I wish people would realize it's a lot cause from the start. You're not going to gain blind loyalty with nothing in return, people.
Just go look at the new packs page. For the most part, they're all dead or soon-to-be. My advice would be to join an already existent pack with at least a semi-active owner and do your best to help revive it. You have about the same chance of success as making your own pack, with the exception that you'd have more member slots available on an older pack. That, and there wouldn't be a flood of pointless, dead new packs sitting around.
Of course, the best thing to do would be level to at least Elder and join Shimmer. /shot
And a shout out to any Shimmer members that might be reading this, thank you for being ever so epic and helping me to build the #1 pack on the website. There may not be a top 5 packs anymore, but we don't need that to know where we stand. <3
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