Ok, I think its fair to say now, that I've been observing for a while, Lady serco is lacking in new players. The players that are there, coordinate and arrive at important times. But clearly something is wrong with the presentation of the character creation prompt when only vets play serco.

This has been said many times, but please, fix this story aspect devs, its really hurting the conflict, or lack thereof.

The evidence: http://mage.net.tc/vapg/

But, exactly how should the story aspect be fixed? IMO any direct changes to the backstory would be a bad idea, but maybe the Serco perspective CrippledPidgeon is writing could be presented by Guild as official, once it's finished. And I'm also not entirely convinced it's the backstory's presentation of the Serco that is the cause of new players not choosing Serco. True, they do come off as "evil", but so are the Undead in WoW, and plently of people play as Undead.

I wish I wasn't stuck at work so I could see the mini-description on the character creation screen. Anybody want to quote it here?

Two things in regards to this:

1) It would probably be better if neither side was portrayed as being more 'moral' than the other. People like to play the hero more than the villain.

2) If I am not mistaken, the character creation screen lists Itani first. New players who have no reason to pick one over the other just go with the first choice and then play it for a while. I bet if the order that teams appear in the selection list were randomized you would have a more even distribution.

It's also color choice. Red is the threat color.

From a new gamer's perspective, the game is already pretty scary (because it's new and strange), so they'll pick sides that are the least threatening. UIT is the least threatening, and Itani seems pretty non-threatening too. Hence, the new players choose one of those.

(Itani should prefer a dull, monkish brown, don't you think? And Serco should be biolab blue-green.)

Sooo... What exactly is the problem?
The red team has ALWAYS had less players than the other teams, and guess what, it didn't fall apart yet.

Red threatening? It's a power color, I think people have a bit more brains then your giving them on this. Perhaps they chose itani simply because they liked the way they sounded better then Serco. Personally, when I made my choice, I read all the descriptions and thought about which one I wanted to be [first] and then made my choice. I actually have one of each nation, and play all of them at times. But to say that they simply choose the first one, that seems a bit to simplistic. People will choose who they are interested in playing. If serco are not appealing then they will not choose them as much. I think the back story is fine and has worked out well so far. As for being the hero vs. the villan, I'd have to say that it's probably 50/50, in other games I usually play the villan simply because they usually get more interesting items and gear. Hero's usually have to live by stricter guidelines. Here that is not a factor so it really does not matter, as it's been explained to me several times, you make yourself who you are by your actions in this game, so I don't think the story or the descriptions really matter.

I chose UIT because I bought the game for the trading aspect. I thought heavily about being serco, because I thought there would be more difference in ships/abilities, etc, but ended up choosing UIT because I came from games like Tradewars, Elite, and Space Trader. I read the backstory before even installing the game. But I am a linux guy, so I rtfm first :)

I chose Serco before we were called Serco because I liked the red color (particularly on the vulture). Back then your ship color was your nation color.

I kinda like the backstory too.

I read the backstory and decided itani were a lot more my style than Serco - they're more humble, able to take an objective view of things, willing to consider others points of view, and they're peaceful yet will fight if forced.

Then i heard of the population imbalance and decided that i didn't want to be thought of as just another 13 year old who joined the blue guys 'cos theyv got l33t jedi powers!!!!', so and i went with the fun loving evil Serco style :P

The thing that took me the longest time to set up my character was the government screen. I read (most of) the backstory, and decided that Itanis sounded boring, and eventually ruled them out. Then I spent, oh, somewhere around ten or twenty minutes admiring the different ship types (naïvely assuming that government ships were specific to governments) and decided that the UIT Marauder was by far the coolest looking ship. The Serco ship was a joke -- it looked like an ugly hunk of cargo. I was torn between the neat ship and the assumed promise of better armor and guns, and initially picked the UIT. After playing the game for a while, constantly being told by Serco players that my dreams of being a UIT pirate were hilarious, I ended up deleting my UIT character altogether and joining the ranks of the Serco. I am quite partial to a cold-hearted blast of weaponry with aims of stealing cargo. Even if it is usually more profitable to stay docked, I always have the hope of killing the right player at the right time, getting screamed at for being a jerk or a noob, and drifting towards a station with a cargo hold filled to the top with its maximum of a few units of incredibly valuable cargo.

When I first started playing, I felt as though I had more in common with the Itani, as I had read the entire backstory prior to subscribing.

On top of this, when you create a new character it shows you how much space each nation has control over. I saw that the Itani had much more space, so I felt that, being new, I would be safer and free to learn about the game without going through any sort of griefing.

I recall back when I was Itani, I made a brave attempt to fly to the edge of Itani space, and then I crossed into Edras. It was my first time in grey space, and I did not stay very long ;)

After a few weeks of being Itani, I changed to UIT, and I haven't looked back.

You know what's funny... I remember doing the Tutorial mission, but I don't remember anything I did in it...

I was initially UIT, but after a few weeks ingame, I realized that I liked the serco nation people a whole lot, and decided to join... sadly, I haven't seen the itani nation side of things (although, after having a chat with some itani, they seem to have some interesting characters too :D...)
Serco nation has a very strong community, but it could do with some new blood...

To say the truth...

I like the itani side and story way more then the serco one (unfortunately). I can identify myself way more with them then with the serco.

However seeing the nationinbalance I decided to go with serco (took me a looooong time to decide this since I have always been itani). Besides the backstory at the moment is so far off from the real inside mechanics that it really gives a bad idea of what choosing a side actually means since in reality it means nothing. Both sides have cool people(not correct trisides is better :D).

If I had chosen any other nation there is no difference in how I would act. Nor is there any difference in the actual feel of the nation.

Therefore I ruled out the backstory and just went on observing the playernumbers for a couple weeks. Which clearly are not in the favor of the serco. But most newbies will in mt opinion first of all go itani for the hero part and then go UIT since that has the option of not having to do anyhting but still retaining the ability to do everything.

cheers

<I was initially UIT, but after a few weeks ingame, I realized that I liked the serco nation people a whole lot, and decided to join>

What? People like Asp, Hoax, Lin, and I weren't good enough for you?

*is offended*

But the Serco backstory really does put me off. The Itani back story is a lot more my style, but it attracts the wrong kind of attention. Someone mentioned 13 year olds who are just in it for the leet powers.
UIT is the compromise. Freedom, liberty, democracy. YAY!

I think there should be a part of the web site dedicated to player written stories. I know many of the stories we write present many different views of the game then what the back story does.

interesting, I always thought of the serco as the "good" guys to some extent. But then I am a heavy believer in science and if I had been attacked by someone years in the past and then they suddenly reappeared I would be suspicious and wonder if they were going to attack again. A serco prespective storyline would be very interesting would like to see it when it is done. I agree however we don't have any new players, oh and we coordinate and arrive at important times...wow missed that would love to help coordinate and such so if you know who is in charge of that by all means let them know I'm interested!

I used to be blue team, but I switched to Serco after retail. I didn't feel like helping the population imbalance. Plus, Serco are fun to play. :-)

(Actually, I've been way too busy to do my part in helping balance, but... yeah...)

Anywho, I think part of the problem is the (obviously biased) backstory portrays Serco as utter barbarians. Not all of us are, though. I roleplay a fairly educated, open Serco. I fight to defend my people, not necessarily because I hate the Itani. I'm all for peace, but I'll fight back if I need to.

Magus heh ... he lives!

>What? People like Asp, Hoax, Lin, and I weren't good enough for
>you?

You're describing Gold Nation anyway, who knows where Asp is, Lin is pinnacle of Serco society and only the Alpha/Beta's remember the Atlas of Doom! DOOM I say!

nono you have it wrong. The Amazing Flying Atlas please :)
~evoli

Yea I can remember that, I also remeber when the frig was great big station...