UF News: An interview with Mehul Patel, creator of Utopia

[Dungeon]

Loved the Interview, Best one yet in years. Thanks for taking the initiative for going after some very intriguing answers!

[happyman]

wow ..this was actually good ...

[Caelum]

Sorry Biship, but I completely *agree* with #7. I know it is a knock on how you guys currently run it - but look...there are 4,000 people that play right now as opposed to the tens of thousands before.
Yes, a lot of that can be attributed to the fact that the internet has changed, but Utopia is still a great game and there isn't much like it out there.
The problem is it is NOT noob friendly - most of the best players just flock together leaving the noobs to the ghettos. Since we can choose where we go, the ghettos are unlikely to ever be anything but a ghetto. Their odds of getting a really good, experienced player (I distinguish the two things because experience alone does not make you good at this game) are like winning the lottery. So you have the upper tiers beating the hell out of each other, while the lower tiers are just blind leading the blind. I see new players join up, get discouraged, and leave because they don't have good enough leadership.

In my opinion - which is an opinion - that is the biggest flaw in this game right now, and it will be the cancer that spreads until the playerbase is so small that every age ends up exactly the same.

[khronosschoty]

Sorry Biship, but I completely *agree* with #7. I know it is a knock on how you guys currently run it - but look...there are 4,000 people that play right now as opposed to the tens of thousands before.
Yes, a lot of that can be attributed to the fact that the internet has changed, but Utopia is still a great game and there isn't much like it out there.
The problem is it is NOT noob friendly - most of the best players just flock together leaving the noobs to the ghettos. Since we can choose where we go, the ghettos are unlikely to ever be anything but a ghetto. Their odds of getting a really good, experienced player (I distinguish the two things because experience alone does not make you good at this game) are like winning the lottery. So you have the upper tiers beating the hell out of each other, while the lower tiers are just blind leading the blind. I see new players join up, get discouraged, and leave because they don't have good enough leadership.

In my opinion - which is an opinion - that is the biggest flaw in this game right now, and it will be the cancer that spreads until the playerbase is so small that every age ends up exactly the same.

I hope Bishop is right and you are wrong, I do think about this one, a whole lot. Regardless, thank you for your valuable input on this.

[chalsdk]

I hope Bishop is right and you are wrong, I do think about this one, a whole lot. Regardless, thank you for your valuable input on this.

Account trading was quite big back then. IF 3 players left one kingdom to join another, they did just take over a new account.. so in that regard Bishop is right. I was a noop back then and did never tuch the top, and i think the most of the game are carried by the random Goo that goes on in the getto, and there I think it was not to bad.

to sum it up . MASSIVE problem in the top, but the rest, no - and that might have done a diffence. Did the top still harvest the gettoes yes, but i dont remeber it was such a big problem - might just have been me.

If anything the game needs to reword lower lvl of activity - I strongly belive that was one of the strong points why it was sooo succesfull - and bring back the flavor!!! (Dragon eating a few peas from time to time, eat a bit food and burn a few farms -> Randomly in the entire kingdom..+ more I demand to execute the generel for treason!! - or read funny text while i try to riot myself!)

[khronosschoty]

Account trading was quite big back then. IF 3 players left one kingdom to join another, they did just take over a new account.. so in that regard Bishop is right. I was a noop back then and did never tuch the top, and i think the most of the game are carried by the random Goo that goes on in the getto, and there I think it was not to bad.

to sum it up . MASSIVE problem in the top, but the rest, no - and that might have done a diffence. Did the top still harvest the gettoes yes, but i dont remeber it was such a big problem - might just have been me.

If anything the game needs to reword lower lvl of activity - I strongly belive that was one of the strong points why it was sooo succesfull - and bring back the flavor!!! (Dragon eating a few peas from time to time, eat a bit food and burn a few farms -> Randomly in the entire kingdom..+ more I demand to execute the generel for treason!! - or read funny text while i try to riot myself!)

True!

[Krozair]

I liked the interview - great to hear a very considered opinion from him. Re point 7 - I agree with both sides...I loved the fact that we were able to finally and legally form an "Anzac" kd... I also miss working in a ghetto and helping train up new players...but suppose we cannot have everything...if we could I would love to have 2 legal accounts.... 1 for playing in my current KD and a 2nd one where i could play in a ghetto and help to train and teach newer players - a "mentor account"...oh well...if wishes were horses beggars would ride

[UtopiaExpert]

if we could I would love to have 2 legal accounts.... 1 for playing in my current KD and a 2nd one where i could play in a ghetto and help to train and teach newer players - a "mentor account"...oh well...if wishes were horses beggars would ride

This comment should be moved to the suggestion's section. Then again, it would mean I could not reply to it. But I wholeheartedly agree

[mbking92]

After reading debate on #7 I get both points of issues at one end you dont want to leave friends/people you played with and built a rapport with. However, you also don't want to have very competitive people run people who have less time or are not very good off the game. One way maybe to look at it would be some kind of ranking tier system where it would separate a certain amount of kingdoms based on rankings. The way it would work would be each tier could only fight their tier for that age which would consist of people around your skill level. X amount would get demoted and promoted and maybe it would also take into account leaving/incoming provinces. This way if you needed to take an age of or so you could join a lower tier without feeling the pressure to play at high level also people who do their own thing/are not good would play with people like them so they wouldnt get crushed as much in game and might enjoy it. This way you could random go in and play at certain levels but at higher levels kingdoms would have to invite you in.

[splackavellie182003]

Good interview! Enjoyed the read. I do too miss the random part of the game in its earlier days. It avoided all these well formed kingdoms that have the "Elitist" mind set because they can recruit players all they want.

On the other hand I think the invites are good but should have a limit so you can just buy 20 people worth of credits and form a superior kingdom. People need to learn how to play with the inactive players they have in their kingdoms (I do...) and if they don't work out you raze them and wait to see what you get in place.