Ikariam: Retaining Alliance Memberships

It’s the summer folks, people have lives to live, things to do, places to be, and sometimes in all the hassle, they will neglect to log in to their once important Ikariam accounts. The end loser is the alliance, which although it will not go down in score unless the player is removed, suffers from having to keep an inactive member when the slot can be donated to a more active member. Every alliance goes through a similar time in one way or another, a holiday arrives and voila, your active member list shrinks down in size. And although by holiday’s end it might have regained it’s original size, occasionally it might miss the original length by one or tow members. Sometimes these members are tiny recruits that were just seeking an alliance in order to gain experience. Sometimes it is a key member who played a big part in the community. Whatever the case, there are several steps you can take to ensure that your alliance’s active member list springs back to it’s grand size every single time.
   

Use message boards. And I don’t mean the official Ikariam Forum, but a simple external forum. There are many companies that will host a message board for you, an example is zetaboards.com. Many alliances often neglect the power of a message board, even though when used correctly, it can become a powerful tool for your community. Forums offer an easier way for members to communicate with each other, as well as allowing them to easily get involved in alliance activities. Simply relying on Ikariam’s in-game circular system to communicate with all your members isn’t enough. Almost all larger alliances use a message board in some form or another. And having a message board is the only possible way for your alliance to evolve to a multi-wing alliance, or to have a training wing. Many forums also give you the option to host your own website, allowing you to create your own alliance page online which is accessible by everybody. But how does a message board help keep members active? For one, it allows your members to participate without breaking their own vacation modes. Your members will still be able to communicate with each other, even though they have placed their accounts on vacation mode. It also allows them to better receive announcements. Placing announcements on your message board will allow your members to subscribe to your message board, so they will receive your announcements whenever they check their e-mail. By also placing a chatbox (such as chatango, a free chat box which is easy to install into your forum), your members will be able to chat with each other. Suddenly, their fellow member becomes more than just a name on a list, and turns into a person who can respond to questions and can carry out a conversation.
   

Another option to help retain members is to encourage them to enter vacation mode. Although vacation mode stops all activity on a member’s account, it protects them from attacks by other players while they are inactive. Being attacked while a person was enjoying their vacation has been known to contribute to loss of interest in their game account. Encouraging a member to enter vacation mode helps to guard against this possibility. So if a member mentions that they will gone for a few days, ask him or her if they have considered entering vacation mode.
   

Extend the amount of time a person can be inactive until you give them the boot. It’s the holidays, and you yourself probably have funner activities to do. So don’t be the over-expectant boss and threaten removal unless the person arrives on time. If you do extend your policy, keep it until a week after the vacation has ended, at which point it is probably safe to revert to your official inactive policy.
   

Make plans, contingency plans, and assemble more members to help govern your alliance. Just because many of the alliances have slipped into a slumber mode doesn’t mean that the band of pirates has. Plan out goals for your alliance to achieve during the holidays. Although people are inactive, they will still check in once in a while to help out. Also plan out contingency plans. How will you organize and coordinate your players if you are attacked? Don’t rely on your larger players to be active during the holidays. And assemble more members to help lead the alliance during the holidays. If a leader goes inactive, there should be a member capable of stepping up and taking the responsibility of leading the alliance. Making these plans ahead of time, can save your alliance from a lot of trouble. Having a contingency plan for the holidays will also allow you to better respond to an attack on your alliance by a band of pirates, and show to the rest of the server that your alliance isn’t a pushover.
   

This guide isn’t fool proof. You may do all these things, but in the end, members still leave your alliance. If all else fails, remember that actively engaging you members and making them feel at home in your alliance is always the best remedy. Don’t be the leader whose name is listed on the alliance page, but whom nobody has ever heard speak.