as anyone knows who has followed travian, the MMORPG, it was once an immensely popular browser based game strategy game. debutting last summer, it had an instant following and was so populatr they issued multiple language interface servers for the original travian version.
the problems for travian version three (T3) started in the complaints they were getting in the player forum that the game play was unbalanced. basically teutons have the benefit in the beginning followd by gauls and romans. three races with individual supposedly equal attributes.
travian is a survival of the fittest game, not sim city. so if you dont raid every day, try to destroy your neighbors, join an alliance and have a sitter, you will be eliminated fast. But not wanting to lose their money base, travian last year added up to six servers of the original travian version. if you bought a longterm travian plus membership in server 3 for exmaple though and became a farm, your money you pay was not transferrable to a new server. it was just lost.
this made many money paying subscribers angry and so they quit in droves. so travian began looking for money sources in banner advertising. they tried this out in the german servers without much complaint from the german players.
meanwhile the travian help forum became infused with many sarcastic seasoned players who would belittle n00bs, tell them to grow up or that they just plain stupid if they couldnt succeed at travian. this further alienated the fan base,
so that now we have travian version three. (T3). its was released a month ago and it had adult oriented banner adds, and trojan virus in its banners. again folk who applied for the new travian plus lost their money and even worse because they have changed the tech tree in (T3) even more thousands of users became instant farms. in fact, they shortened the noob protection down to three days, and declared folk inactive if they didnt play for just FORTY EIGHT HOURS. this 48 hour inactivity rule was no where in the travian plus enrollment terms, and as such could be viewed as a denial of service, a bait and switch sort of operation.
now travian continues to roll out this newer (T3) with its shortened n00b protection, and 2 day inactivity rule, to all the servers. the travian forum has become a place where normal players are regularly insulted by travian moderators, and foreign players who dont speak english well, constantly scolded by the English speaking moderators to either learn english or not post in the travian forum.
overall travian is pretty much ruined, and is getting a reputation that all they want is the money regardless of the quality of service it is offering its clients.
Travian version 3 (T3) bait and switch??
