The Great Decline

[Great-Ollie]

CC is complete shit anymore. No one plays speeders, freestyle, anything? The new updates are coming out way too fast and furious. I think site will be dead in a couple years IMO. The mods, and management have managed to screw it up real good lol. Unless something changes i will leave when my premium runs up. Done with bs dice, done with lame lagging site, and really done with not being able to get one stupid 8 player ass doodle going anymore. Ass Doodle dying killed the site, freestyle is extinct. Good bye CC, it was fun knowing ya!

[Shannon Apple]

Ollie, moderators don't have any say whatsoever in what comes out of the pot. We are as powerless as the players when it comes to all of this. On the beta we just say whatever we see broken, but we don't have the power to change any decisions that have gotten to that stage. I think people misinterpret what mods actually are quite a bit and blame us.

[Great-Ollie]

Ollie, moderators don't have any say whatsoever in what comes out of the pot. We are as powerless as the players when it comes to all of this. On the beta we just say whatever we see broken, but we don't have the power to change any decisions that have gotten to that stage. I think people misinterpret what mods actually are quite a bit and blame us.

Fair enough. I do not blame all mods, and it was wrong of me to categorize you all into one group. 95 percent of you mods make site run and contribute on daily basis. The bad 5 percent of mods is what i was referring to. I will not get any farther into this debate other then to apologize if i offended any of the quality mods out there.

[iAmCaffeine]

Ollie, moderators don't have any say whatsoever in what comes out of the pot. We are as powerless as the players when it comes to all of this. On the beta we just say whatever we see broken, but we don't have the power to change any decisions that have gotten to that stage. I think people misinterpret what mods actually are quite a bit and blame us.

Actually, the majority of us know that it's the guys in red making the changes and there are some good mods about like Duk, Foxy and TG. I find the way you reply absolutely hilarious when you've been a moderator for all of five minutes. Keep up the good work!

[owenshooter]

I find the way you reply absolutely hilarious when you've been a moderator for all of five minutes. Keep up the good work!

*wipes coffee off of monitor*...-el Jesus negro

[Osiros]

As a new "freemium" player, I actually was looking for a place to play games like Risk and found you guys doing a simple google search. I like what i've seen so far for the most part and don't care that much about things like updated graphic engines, modernizing the website look, etc. In the few games i've played so far, it is what i expected it to be and i find my games fun and constantly refreshing my screen waiting for my next turn. The game inherently is fun and its cool to play on player made maps from what i've seen so far. Just my 2 cents, for what its worth.

[Dukasaur]

As a new "freemium" player, I actually was looking for a place to play games like Risk and found you guys doing a simple google search. I like what i've seen so far for the most part and don't care that much about things like updated graphic engines, modernizing the website look, etc. In the few games i've played so far, it is what i expected it to be and i find my games fun and constantly refreshing my screen waiting for my next turn. The game inherently is fun and its cool to play on player made maps from what i've seen so far. Just my 2 cents, for what its worth.

Welcome aboard, Osiros!

[ChrisPond]

As a new "freemium" player, I actually was looking for a place to play games like Risk and found you guys doing a simple google search. I like what i've seen so far for the most part and don't care that much about things like updated graphic engines, modernizing the website look, etc. In the few games i've played so far, it is what i expected it to be and i find my games fun and constantly refreshing my screen waiting for my next turn. The game inherently is fun and its cool to play on player made maps from what i've seen so far. Just my 2 cents, for what its worth.

Refreshing

[Shannon Apple]

Ollie, moderators don't have any say whatsoever in what comes out of the pot. We are as powerless as the players when it comes to all of this. On the beta we just say whatever we see broken, but we don't have the power to change any decisions that have gotten to that stage. I think people misinterpret what mods actually are quite a bit and blame us.

Actually, the majority of us know that it's the guys in red making the changes and there are some good mods about like Duk, Foxy and TG. I find the way you reply absolutely hilarious when you've been a moderator for all of five minutes. Keep up the good work!

You know what? I am tired of the passive aggressive way that you reply to everyone, especially your attitude toward me recently. I was replying to one person and it didn't involve you. Being a "mod" for 5 minutes or 5 years, it should be pretty obvious to me what our purpose is. Great Ollie is a respectful person who I have much respect for. He totally understood what I was trying to say. My reason for being a mod is a specific volunteer project and that's that. I don't see what it has to do with you. Now if you don't mind... Actually, you know what, you irk me too much and I have no reason to have to read what you say. I am just going to put you on ignore again where I should have left your snipey ass. Then you can have fun insulting me while I can't see it.

As a new "freemium" player, I actually was looking for a place to play games like Risk and found you guys doing a simple google search. I like what i've seen so far for the most part and don't care that much about things like updated graphic engines, modernizing the website look, etc. In the few games i've played so far, it is what i expected it to be and i find my games fun and constantly refreshing my screen waiting for my next turn. The game inherently is fun and its cool to play on player made maps from what i've seen so far. Just my 2 cents, for what its worth.

It's nice to hear that from someone new. Welcome! =)

[iAmCaffeine]

Ollie, moderators don't have any say whatsoever in what comes out of the pot. We are as powerless as the players when it comes to all of this. On the beta we just say whatever we see broken, but we don't have the power to change any decisions that have gotten to that stage. I think people misinterpret what mods actually are quite a bit and blame us.

Actually, the majority of us know that it's the guys in red making the changes and there are some good mods about like Duk, Foxy and TG. I find the way you reply absolutely hilarious when you've been a moderator for all of five minutes. Keep up the good work!

You know what? I am tired of the passive aggressive way that you reply to everyone, especially your attitude toward me recently. I was replying to one person and it didn't involve you. Being a "mod" for 5 minutes or 5 years, it should be pretty obvious to me what our purpose is. Great Ollie is a respectful person who I have much respect for. He totally understood what I was trying to say. My reason for being a mod is a specific volunteer project and that's that. I don't see what it has to do with you. Now if you don't mind... Actually, you know what, you irk me too much and I have no reason to have to read what you say. I am just going to put you on ignore again where I should have left your snipey ass. Then you can have fun insulting me while I can't see it.

Sorry about your little butt.

[Gillipig]

Ok... I didn't want to post another serious post. But what the hell, I guess this dead horse could use one last beating...

Why CC is dying is because it's not changing. It's not adjusting to modern days. The new administration is looking backwards and trying to re-realize the glory days of CC by trying hard to figure out "what went wrong"...

There's nothing wrong with CC per se. It's just stuck in the early 2000s internet. We're halfway through the 2010s already though so whatever it was that made CC popular initially isn't going to cut it anymore.

What needs to be done is toss out the constraints. Stop being a risk clone, stop being constrained to a format that only caters to an increasingly narrow niche. Being able to play risk online was novel enough in the early internets to draw people in. The novelty was extended by being able to then play the same game but using custom maps.

The novelty has now worn out. An online game like CC can never provide the same things the real boardgame can, so it's pointless trying to provide a boardgame anymore. It's time to move on and do something more.

Another thing: all the current maps needs to be scrapped. This is because these have all been designed around a web engine that was already dated 10 years ago. The UI on CC is laughable. Numbers printed on static jpg images? What the f*ck, this isn't the dark ages anymore. We need proper, interactive maps with proper UI. MajorCommand sort of partially had the right idea about that, apart from using the idiotic, craptastic, slow, buggy, programmed by a bunch of mentally handicapped monkeys... yeah, I'm talking about Flash. Flash needs to die a slow and painful death. Anyway... apart from flash, MC also ran to the same mistake of being constrained by the "risk" boardgame. Especially with CC already filling that niche.


So to recap, main points: CC needs to cut off the old dead weight, stop clinging to the past, and move on. Scrap everything and start fresh. Move beyond just "online risk", and instead start offering a more varied strategy-based gaming suite. Different game engines, different types of strategy games, move beyond the "board game" format because real boardgames already do that much better. Modernize the UI, create a flexible engine with modern web technologies.

But yeah... I realize there's pretty much 0 chance that any of this will happen. What's more likely to happen is, the current owners will try to squeeze as much profit as they can from the site with minimal investment... and the site will keep declining, until it no longer makes a profit, and then it'll quietly fade away.

Is online Chess declining too? Just a question, not particularly barbed, perhaps I am wrong but as far as I know online Chess is not declining even though it have stayed the same for a very long time. You may say it is not fair to compare RISK with Chess because Chess is a much more popular game and have several hundred years of history and tradition to help it, but in it's core it's also just a boardgame. I think the important difference between the two is that Chess is skill based, and RISK is luck based. A luck based game doesn't have the utility of a skill based game because it's not challenging enough. I think this is the problem, RISK is when it comes down to it a pretty simple game and a game like that can't rely on a big enough dedicated fan base to stick around, they always need to attract a large amount of new members because so many old leave after having played it a bit. For most people it eventually gets boring, the same is not true for Chess.
The owners have been running this site as if it has greater utility than it really does, focusing too much on the needs of the seasoned users, desperately trying to keep them around by making more medals, achievements and settings and allowing all kinds of add on's that only serve to clutter up the site and make it less accessible for newcomers. The right strategy going forward would probably be to ignore the seasoned members needs and just think about appeasing the new users.

[KraphtOne]

If you went to a chess site and on that site they had 20 different ways to play chess and the only games to join were games that weren't actual chess then you wouldn't play chess there...

They've flooded the market here with too many different game types and it's turning people off...

[Osiros]

Speaking of medals, how do you get them to display on the right side of your posts? I think i have 2 already, but they dont display yet. Sorry to be off-topic here....

[IcePack]

I don't believe you have any medals yet, they'll appear once you've earned them.

[BigBallinStalin]

As a new "freemium" player, I actually was looking for a place to play games like Risk and found you guys doing a simple google search. I like what i've seen so far for the most part and don't care that much about things like updated graphic engines, modernizing the website look, etc. In the few games i've played so far, it is what i expected it to be and i find my games fun and constantly refreshing my screen waiting for my next turn. The game inherently is fun and its cool to play on player made maps from what i've seen so far. Just my 2 cents, for what its worth.

We're a dying breed, Osiros. We'll soon be swept into the dark recesses of archive.org.

[Shannon Apple]

Speaking of medals, how do you get them to display on the right side of your posts? I think i have 2 already, but they dont display yet. Sorry to be off-topic here....

You need to beat 20 unique opponents in standard games to get the standard bronze medal which is usually the first one people get. Typically bronze requires defeating 20 unique opponents on the various settings that medals are awarded for. You don't have enough games played yet.

[BigBallinStalin]

After years of observing the GD, the Suggestions, the general Q&A I've had with mods, and the brief interactions with the owners/admins, I've reached the conclusion that the Great Decline is predominantly an external cause. People who like Risk might find this site, but the marketing toward those potential customers is unknown in its effectiveness. What is true is that CC faces an external problem: the demand for Risk-esque games is declining. Newcomers to online games want flash-based, interactive, animated, and noisy games. The CC platform cannot provide for this recent surge of gameplay.

We are the final few. We are those who know what boardgames are, and we are aging past the newcomers of the Internet. This Risk-based market in the West is in decline, and very few beyond its borders know what we play. Meanwhile, many producers are providing newer games which satisfy the recent change in preferences, and those preferences are hardly in line with the boardgames. It is inevitable. Accept the Great Decline. Enjoy it while you can.

[KraphtOne]

After years of observing the GD, the Suggestions, the general Q&A I've had with mods, and the brief interactions with the owners/admins, I've reached the conclusion that the Great Decline is predominantly an external cause. People who like Risk might find this site, but the marketing toward those potential customers is unknown in its effectiveness. What is true is that CC faces an external problem: the demand for Risk-esque games is declining. Newcomers to online games want flash-based, interactive, animated, and noisy games. The CC platform cannot provide for this recent surge of gameplay.

We are the final few. We are those who know what boardgames are, and we are aging past the newcomers of the Internet. This Risk-based market in the West is in decline, and very few beyond its borders know what we play. Meanwhile, many producers are providing newer games which satisfy the recent change in preferences, and those preferences are hardly in line with the boardgames. It is inevitable. Accept the Great Decline. Enjoy it while you can.

dude, there are literally 4 million people playing solitaire every day on yahoo...

the problem is all these gaming sites taking normal games like spades and hearts and in this case risk and say "we need to add flash and make this game pop like some of those facebook games" and it makes the game, what's the word i'm looking for... it makes the game shitty...

[Robinette]

If you went to a chess site and on that site they had 20 different ways to play chess and the only games to join were games that weren't actual chess then you wouldn't play chess there...

They've flooded the market here with too many different game types and it's turning off the people who came here looking for RISK...

fixed...


And it seems to me that Krapht is spot on here...

[GrudgeBringer_]

For what it is worth, here is my 2 cents:

1. I am 63 years old and know absolutely NOTHING about programming (or care too for that matter as I am too damn lazy to learn it and then put it to use).

2. I play this game because I played it when I was a kid (yes, with the wooden squares and oblongs that meant 10 armies) period.

3. We even changed the rules as we didn't care for the escalating 'spoils'/ reinforcements and took out the Jokers as we felt they has too much power. We also made one other change (now this was in approximately 1961, which makes this sooooo weird.) to the game. We said you could ONLY attack from 1(one) country/province/region/square.... to any adjacent 'provinces of the cluster you originally attacked from (though you could drop anywhere). Yep, made for a longer game....Yep we didn't have the skill at age 11 to foresee the 43 moves it would take to win the game in one move. But you know what...we LOVED THAT GAME!!!

I get on here just as they introduced 'Trench'...not only did it take me back 50 years (yep, game has been around that long), it was a GREAT alternative to players who wanted a more chess like approch.

4. The maps are bad? Well, some really are, especially those that have 40 lines of directions attached to them in very light print for winning conditions. However, you still have beautiful maps on here. Ever here of Eurasia and the new beta France 2.1 (though I think the winning conditions should be able to turn off the Paris option, as it makes it TOO easy to win by random placement.) and other GREAT maps.

5. The dice suck...plain and simple!!! But ya know what, REAL dice can suck too...just as bad.

6. I liked some of the suggestions about maybe turning the regions to the color the occupying faction, and it can always stand some improvement.

7. But IF it is declining on here, it is because this really IS an old fashioned game and is supported by old fashioned people. And sooner or later it will fade away in its present form. But HEY, A LOT of us like it pretty much (except they just HAD to screw around with the interface) as it is. I suggest you guys that want a 100% makeover scour the internet until you find it. I doubt you will be missed.

THIS IS MY OPINION ONLY AND NOT DIRECTED AT ANYONE OR MEANT TO START AN ARGUMENT!! (besides, I could have a heart attack yelling at someone at my age)

[EBConquer]

Good post, Grudge. I'm in total agreement except for the heart attack part.

[rhp 1]

Christ.. Agreeing with Krapht is unfortunate, but the guy is speaking the truth. I'm all for making incremental changes to attract new players and keep existing members interested... But when you make so many changes that you alienate such a huge portion of ur existing members, well, you're doing something wrong and probably should pump the breaks a bit. I mean.. CC has basically had a huge effect on destroying one of the major settings of the site (freestyle). And while I'll agree fs was def slowing down over the years, it literally went from getting slightly harder to find fs games and get games started... To.... No more freestyle of any kind in the span of about 8-10 months... That is not a membership problem, that is a mechanics of gameplay/settings/rule changes problem... Its simply sad.

[owenshooter]

That is not a membership problem, that is a mechanics of gameplay/settings/rule changes problem... Its simply sad.

which has been said MANY times... i completely agree with this... too many settings has ruined this site...-el Jesus negro

p.s.-rhp, you rock it at the :31 mark!!!

[rhp 1]

That is not a membership problem, that is a mechanics of gameplay/settings/rule changes problem... Its simply sad.

which has been said MANY times... i completely agree with this... too many settings has ruined this site...-el Jesus negro

p.s.-rhp, you rock it at the :31 mark!!!

Heh. U seem to have some odd fascination with my beard. Which is cool, join the club (though most are women, which makes ur input awkward, to say the least) Though... neither I, nor my beard, looks like Wilson's. But carry on as u see fit to do so

[nietzsche]

Maybe if there weren't as many options, people would get stuck together playing Classic 6-man sunny escalating (old-escalating). And they would have good times and play again, again, again until people enjoys playing for the fun of it like back in 2008.

No wait. Lol @ me. No, there should be 1 map for every 2 players. With complicated stories so that those who want to make points the most have an edge of your casual, easy going fella that just wants to have a good time. Also, more stars please. And keep creating eastereggs, they are so fun to find!! I think people call them bugs, lmao ignorants.