U
Unsthable
27 Feb 2026 21:25
Link
Let me preface this suggestion with saying what I am about to say is not directed as an insult on Andy in any way. While our discussions as late have been better, in the past issues that I have brought up have sometimes been interpreted as flaming or insulting, and this suggestion could easily be interpreted that way but I want to go as out of my way as I can to assure that what I bring up is not about bashing the game operators but comes from a place of caring about the health of the game.
The optics from the operators of Simcountry in terms of community engagement have for a significant amount of time been a stress point that has hindered player entry and retention in the game. The game is absolutely still viable in a competitive market, but by all accounts the game appears unsupported from the perspective of a new player and thus not worth the substantial time investment that true larger success takes in this game.
A few years ago I had brought up a concern that the 'Game News' link, where all game updates and adjustments should honestly be posted as they are made, had not been updated in over a year. It was shortly after that updated. Well now we are looking at 6 months since it has been last updated. For any player that doesn't shuffle through the clunky forum interface, it easily appears as if there have been no balance or mechanic updates on the game in half of a year. The updates that do get shared are also incomplete, both in Game News and on the forums, as many updates happen quietly and go unnoticed until sleuthing players try to figure out why something stops working the way it did before. I truly believe that secret unannounced changes should not be a part of a game that leans so heavily into math and spreadsheets as the primary function of that game.
Andy also has a very inconsistent level of community involvement, primarily seen through the forums, engaging with the player base and responding to questions, suggestions, and general feedback. Nobody in their right mind expects someone to work 24/7, nor do people expect every single thing to warrant a GM response. But the unannounced departures of a week or more, where there is zero response from the GM on anything - this last week there have been multiple posts just in the problems section, which should honestly receive the most prompt responses - really should not happen without having another game representative available to engage with the community. It is just one of those things that can seem minor, but in true optics it is hard for a player to care about the game when it appears that the game managers do not.
I want to again stress I am not saying that the GM does not care about the game and doesn't have plenty of responsibilities and duties that are performed. I am merely presenting the true optics of the game from the perspective of someone with nearly two decades of steady business growth experience. My business may be in a different industry but the concept is pretty universal.
My suggestion is for the implementation of a single or team of Community Managers that can pick up the slack and do their part to keep the players of Simcountry invested in the continuing future of the game. This team should have a direct line to Simcountry development outside of the traditional game channels and support email when they have questions presented by players that they cannot already answer, and any changes at all made by the developers to the game even down to something as small as changing the # of a product used by another corporation in production should be reported to the team by the GM and the Community Manager team would then be responsible for promptly sharing that information in Game News and updating Documentation with concise and accurate information for all players of Simcountry, while actively engaging with players on the forums and in discord even when the GM is available.
Starting out the team could be compensated with free Premium or a GC stipend monthly for performing their duties, nothing of a competitive nature that would give them an unfair advantage in-game. It would be an extraordinarily cost-effective method of improving community outreach and involvement, and it also has a side benefit to retention in showing, as Community Managers would be selected by the GM from among active Simcountry players, that players that invest time and effort in the game are truly heard and play an active role in shaping the game - making all players even those not serving as community managers more invested in the game.
Over time the role could easily expand, pulling some managers away from their active competitive accounts and providing them tools to promote community events - a common complaint is with the current player count it more often than not plays like a single player game. Community events can easily be run by those with permissions and access outside of their personal accounts (with obvious measures to make sure they don't personally gain from the events) like something with a massive war where the Community Manager suddenly has a country with massive defenses and no offense, and in a global coordination all players can declare war on the manager and are awarded prizes based on their participation such that even receiving offensive losses, they will likely receive profit - giving players a stress free method outside of C3 wars to test their offense in conjunction with other players without the 'all or nothing' player versus player wars that have been flashpoints for some. That's thinking far ahead of course but its the kind of thing that shows additional long term potential for the role that aims to maintain and grow the player count to turn some of these uninhabited regions on our worlds into bustling centers of activity.
The optics from the operators of Simcountry in terms of community engagement have for a significant amount of time been a stress point that has hindered player entry and retention in the game. The game is absolutely still viable in a competitive market, but by all accounts the game appears unsupported from the perspective of a new player and thus not worth the substantial time investment that true larger success takes in this game.
A few years ago I had brought up a concern that the 'Game News' link, where all game updates and adjustments should honestly be posted as they are made, had not been updated in over a year. It was shortly after that updated. Well now we are looking at 6 months since it has been last updated. For any player that doesn't shuffle through the clunky forum interface, it easily appears as if there have been no balance or mechanic updates on the game in half of a year. The updates that do get shared are also incomplete, both in Game News and on the forums, as many updates happen quietly and go unnoticed until sleuthing players try to figure out why something stops working the way it did before. I truly believe that secret unannounced changes should not be a part of a game that leans so heavily into math and spreadsheets as the primary function of that game.
Andy also has a very inconsistent level of community involvement, primarily seen through the forums, engaging with the player base and responding to questions, suggestions, and general feedback. Nobody in their right mind expects someone to work 24/7, nor do people expect every single thing to warrant a GM response. But the unannounced departures of a week or more, where there is zero response from the GM on anything - this last week there have been multiple posts just in the problems section, which should honestly receive the most prompt responses - really should not happen without having another game representative available to engage with the community. It is just one of those things that can seem minor, but in true optics it is hard for a player to care about the game when it appears that the game managers do not.
I want to again stress I am not saying that the GM does not care about the game and doesn't have plenty of responsibilities and duties that are performed. I am merely presenting the true optics of the game from the perspective of someone with nearly two decades of steady business growth experience. My business may be in a different industry but the concept is pretty universal.
My suggestion is for the implementation of a single or team of Community Managers that can pick up the slack and do their part to keep the players of Simcountry invested in the continuing future of the game. This team should have a direct line to Simcountry development outside of the traditional game channels and support email when they have questions presented by players that they cannot already answer, and any changes at all made by the developers to the game even down to something as small as changing the # of a product used by another corporation in production should be reported to the team by the GM and the Community Manager team would then be responsible for promptly sharing that information in Game News and updating Documentation with concise and accurate information for all players of Simcountry, while actively engaging with players on the forums and in discord even when the GM is available.
Starting out the team could be compensated with free Premium or a GC stipend monthly for performing their duties, nothing of a competitive nature that would give them an unfair advantage in-game. It would be an extraordinarily cost-effective method of improving community outreach and involvement, and it also has a side benefit to retention in showing, as Community Managers would be selected by the GM from among active Simcountry players, that players that invest time and effort in the game are truly heard and play an active role in shaping the game - making all players even those not serving as community managers more invested in the game.
Over time the role could easily expand, pulling some managers away from their active competitive accounts and providing them tools to promote community events - a common complaint is with the current player count it more often than not plays like a single player game. Community events can easily be run by those with permissions and access outside of their personal accounts (with obvious measures to make sure they don't personally gain from the events) like something with a massive war where the Community Manager suddenly has a country with massive defenses and no offense, and in a global coordination all players can declare war on the manager and are awarded prizes based on their participation such that even receiving offensive losses, they will likely receive profit - giving players a stress free method outside of C3 wars to test their offense in conjunction with other players without the 'all or nothing' player versus player wars that have been flashpoints for some. That's thinking far ahead of course but its the kind of thing that shows additional long term potential for the role that aims to maintain and grow the player count to turn some of these uninhabited regions on our worlds into bustling centers of activity.