graal's issue is that servers were never meant to really stick around for years and years at a time. early graal had servers going up and down within a span of <24 months.

classic was always there but that's because it was the official server. its players were always a bit socially awkward though because who would actually stick around on one server for half a decade when there were all these fun and interesting communities to visit (delteria, enigma, sanstrata, unho- nvm not that one, valikorlia, etc).

classic had some of the best events when it had serverside HD but theres no way theyre having those on iclassic, so a lot of what made the server fun in its later years can't even be added here.

iclassic is just a shell of "real" graal. i used to kind of enjoy it because of friends but when you take a step back, it really is a **** server  

Posted by Crono

iclassic is just a shell of "real" graal. i used to kind of enjoy it because of friends but when you take a step back, it really is a **** server

Posted by Crono

iclassic is just a shell of "real" graal.i used to kind of enjoy it because of friends but when you take a step back, it really is a **** server

Agree
But
Even a pile of **** has to have a top, Hello iClassic aka Real Graal



To my fellow iGraalians, pay no attention to crono he’s just bitter BETA graal aka PC graal never amounted to anything. That goes to all BETA graal players. They’re resentful that unixmad and u know who decided to go where the potential really was and that is iGraal.  

Posted by GOAT

Agree
But
Even a pile of **** has to have a top, Hello iClassic aka Real Graal



To my fellow iGraalians, pay no attention to crono he’s just bitter BETA graal aka PC graal never amounted to anything. That goes to all BETA graal players. They’re resentful that unixmad and u know who decided to go where the potential really was and that is iGraal.

nice troll  

Lately less and less interested. There's a handful of issues in retrospect.

Greedy new implementations of profitable activities. (Nuff said. )

Lack of novel explorable, static content (waiting years for a certain town starts with a b and ends with aboard)

Fixes on current issues slowing or absent (appears as lag, but optimization needs serious attention, not to mention a ton of minor issues that we've just come to live with and accept)

Removal of staff contact in game (they seemed to be so present and really part of the community earlier. Now they're practically invisible)

Various divisions of the playerbase causing regions to become uninhabitable (language barriers, those military kids taking over wide swaths of area with Noob accounts advertising their recruitment for example )

Homogenization of events (easter coming up. Gonna look just like the last 5 times, and I'm not interested in an undefined mount enough to grind 100 eggs with my limited free time. That said, Halloween has done something right with the regional open area, but failed so poorly with the grab bags just adding more to the list. Items were special when you got them one year and then they were gone. Last year I dropped all my candy on furniture bags and got absolutely nothing fresh.)

UI ux needs an upgrade. I've asked that before, and it was tweaked, but the main menu system still looks like an Ms paint job over top of a folder system. Could be greatly improved.

What has been good?
I liked the 10th anniversary. Really well implemented, to the point I was hopeful that the game would just be riddled with time portals forever.

The minish cap style shrinking and growing content at that one nexus. We need more interesting mechanics like this. Stuff that is neat and engaging and not just recolors of pre existing content (blah blah not "classic" - there were weapons, adventures, collectibles, and far more collaboration in the early days!)

Reflecting on the time I've spent, the most enjoyable parts of the game have been novel, innovative, fresh, and have gotten players working together to tackle whatever the objectives were. Anyone remember the release of big city? That first two or three days it was mysterious and fun.

Sustainable, modular content with that sense of exploration and cooperation is what we need more of.  

Have we ever stopped and considered the fact that this is perhaps the way Graal is meant to be? We all may have an emotional attachment to this game and that is something I’ve always loved about this community. At the same time, we are clouded by emotions like nostalgia so much so that we forget one simple fact; Graal is a business owned by people who want to make money. I believe Graal is meant to be this way. I think it’s a classic (no pun intended) case of “if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it”. If this is a model that generates the profit that its owner is looking for then I can’t blame him or anyone associated with the paid development of this game for not pushing it to be something it’s not meant to be.

No, Graal Classic will never be that deep and riveting MMO with quests and hundreds of thousands of players worldwide but the model works. A new generation of players comes in, plays for a few years and then when they move on, someone else just takes their spot.

At the end of the day, even though most of my old friends from this game have moved on, I love coming in from time to time and remembering all the old memories I have with this game.  

you can't really say graal as a whole is "meant to be" like this when it wasn't during the time it was as it was intended to be

its only after the mobile servers came out that those specifically are the way they are. even they weren't "meant" to be the way they are today, it's just the state of the game/devs.  

Posted by iHot

Have we ever stopped and considered the fact that this is perhaps the way Graal is meant to be? We all may have an emotional attachment to this game and that is something I’ve always loved about this community. At the same time, we are clouded by emotions like nostalgia so much so that we forget one simple fact; Graal is a business owned by people who want to make money. I believe Graal is meant to be this way. I think it’s a classic (no pun intended) case of “if it ain’t broke then don’t fix it”. If this is a model that generates the profit that its owner is looking for then I can’t blame him or anyone associated with the paid development of this game for not pushing it to be something it’s not meant to be.

No, Graal Classic will never be that deep and riveting MMO with quests and hundreds of thousands of players worldwide but the model works. A new generation of players comes in, plays for a few years and then when they move on, someone else just takes their spot.

At the end of the day, even though most of my old friends from this game have moved on, I love coming in from time to time and remembering all the old memories I have with this game.

I suggested a number of changes in monetizing and for profit changes that have been implemented. There were unnecessary tweaks, however, that went from profitable to excessive. There should be a discernible threshold where players who pay get a definite increase in benefits (even if they're just cosmetic for the most part). that's healthy for a game that runs on in app purchases..

What's not healthy is eradicating already limited gameplay for a few bucks.  

Posted by Crono

you can't really say graal as a whole is "meant to be" like this when it wasn't during the time it was as it was intended to be

its only after the mobile servers came out that those specifically are the way they are. even they weren't "meant" to be the way they are today, it's just the state of the game/devs.

Graal on PC was a different model. It encouraged creativity from its players and development of servers for everyone to enjoy. Now the extent of player development is making graphics for a hat store competition.

Graal lacks competent developers. The same few people have been working on iClassic for years. There’s almost nobody in the community who could fill the shoes of someone like say, Dusty for example because there’s no incentive as a player to learn how to develop the game. On PC there was a genuine interest in learning the ropes of development but the mobile servers do a terrible job of fostering that same creativity.

If Graal ever did decide it wants to be more than a cash grab I think they need to invest in producing some actual developers.

Posted by 4-Lom

I suggested a number of changes in monetizing and for profit changes that have been implemented. There were unnecessary tweaks, however, that went from profitable to excessive. There should be a discernible threshold where players who pay get a definite increase in benefits (even if they're just cosmetic for the most part). that's healthy for a game that runs on in app purchases..

What's not healthy is eradicating already limited gameplay for a few bucks.

As I said before, the game is a cash grab. It’s meant to be a cash grab, everything that’s released is made to make you spend money and there’s no real “content”. I have no doubt that developers are pushed to focus on creating systems that force players to spend the most amount of money. There’s nothing wrong with that until it infringes on already limited content as you said.

Here’s a video from nine years ago of iClassic quests that never came out:

 

yo soy jugador del 2016, se que no es mucho tiempo, pero si quieres saber mi razón para seguir jugando es la siguiente:
Simplemente es poder decorara mi hogar, con temáticas distintas, y poder jugar con mis amigos, aunque sea solo hablar con ellos, es divertido aunque no haga nada productivo c:  

@iHot

“Graal lacks competent developers”

You can say that’s been the case since the beginning. In my personal opinion Dusty is the only competent developer. No insult intended to the other guys that are good at 1 thing (fp4 scripting/crono levels), but it seems that dusty is the only one that is well versed in all aspects (gfx, levels, gani, and scripting). My only issue with him is that he develops for the Blueh’s and 4-looms of Graal (no disrespect loom).

But I do agree that player interest in development died with the iPhoners. I think that’s a good thing because you don’t end up with 1000 Antagos claiming graal was stolen from them. <3 Antago  

Posted by GOAT

@iHot

“Graal lacks competent developers”

You can say thatÂ’s been the case since the beginning. In my personal opinion Dusty is the only competent developer. No insult intended to the other guys that are good at 1 thing (fp4 scripting/crono levels), but it seems that dusty is the only one that is well versed in all aspects (gfx, levels, gani, and scripting). My only issue with him is that he develops for the BluehÂ’s and 4-looms of Graal (no disrespect loom).

But I do agree that player interest in development died with the iPhoners. I think thatÂ’s a good thing because you donÂ’t end up with 1000 Antagos claiming graal was stolen from them. <3 Antago

Scripting is probably the most important aspect of development that Graal is sorely lacking. There seems to be a lot of interest in GFX because itÂ’s something thatÂ’s interesting and easier to learn than Graal script. Levels and Gani development are less popular but itÂ’s still easier to find people who have interest in those areas of development. Dusty is one of a few great developers that have worked on the game for years but guys like him are few and FAR between. Guys like Dusty and fp4 arenÂ’t gonna be here forever.

I’ve always wanted Graal to reach its full potential and be a more dynamic game that more closely resembles the game it tried to copy (A Link To The Past). IÂ’ve gotten past that though and just learned to appreciate the game for what it is. Still, as one gets older and can see things from a different perspective I canÂ’t help but always get a little pissed off by how hard of a fall the community took. ThatÂ’s what made Graal great.