Can we know the server's architecture of warlight ? How many machines ? Under which OS ? How many connexions per hours, per days, etc.
Indeed very few interruptions in a year i play on warlight... good job guys.
How many people works on it ? (i mean how many administrators). How much it costs ? Is it profitable ? When did it start ? Can we have statistics on evolution of players, members, etc ?
...

Email Fizzer?

There is some technical information on the WL Blog

Indeed very few interruptions in a year i play on warlight... good job guys.

Up until recently there were actually relatively many interruptions, but they were usually very, very short, so you might simply have missed them. As of a few updates ago, downtime has indeed become a rarity.

There's only one administrator / coder / everything: Fizzer.

Last I heard it's not profitable (only source of income is memberships). If you have any good suggestions for that, you should definitely email Fizzer. :p

Not sure if this belongs here, but I'm all in favor of Warlight succeeding and becoming more profitable.

Ideas to make it more profitable:

1) Add some more Member Only Perks/Limitations on Non-members.

Examples:
-Throttle games for non-members (eg: Max Games you can be in at one time would be 10 Multi-day and 2 Real Time)
-Make some niceties in the controls for members, like adding buttons that bring an order in your list to the top or bottom, more statistics, etc)

2) Have a free trial/limited version of mobile client for non-members. Fully unlocked version for Members or purchasers of App.

What not to do:
Make it in any way that a member would have any advantage in a head-to-head match against a non-member. To my knowledge, there are no such features of Warlight that allow a member to more easily beat a non-member (I once had a newb criticize me for adjusting my own luck and not his on a game!) Games that make it easier for people that pay are just silly.

John, I like the recommendations... hard to argue against any of them.

As for the advantage of members vs non, there are no obvious ones. The only thing I can see is the statistics window plotting the 'armies deployed' number but that is something that can be done manually by non-members. Yes it would be a hassle but it is still an available option so can't be criticized.

-Throttle games for non-members (eg: Max Games you can be in at one time would be 10 Multi-day and 2 Real Time)

IMHO, taking features that used to be free away from non-members isn't the way to go. I think it would alienate quite a lot of players.
Making new features available for members-only? Sure, that's fair.

i would have to really disagree with making a cap on games for non members. I dont mind added options for members in the least, but when things become limited for non members, i see a decline in the game quality and experience. dont remove only increase

being able to reserve tourney seats for x days would be a feature that would be appeal to a lot of people. as a member only option of course. imo

Fizzer answered to me by email (thx Ska). Details can be found here :

http://blog.warlight.net/index.php/2010/11/technology-behind-warlight/

profitability: there are lots of possibilities. fizzer seems to have a few in place for future monetization plans (Google ads: http://warlight.net/PrivacyPolicy.aspx, iPhone/Android development).

but it doesnt seem fizzer is in it for money (and the above plans might be free and open to all too). an older player told me he had to be convinced to make paid memberships just to get a little money. and the number of possibilities to increase wl's profitabilty (monthly automatically renewable membership, ladders people want, pay-to-play ladders, pay-to-play tournaments or hosting options, and countless other ways to monetize wl) are probably not at all of interest to fizzer.

my impression: fizzer has someone bankrolling this (so he doesn't lose money) or he has enough money of his own that wl's profitability is meaningless to him, and the only thing that matters is the 'indie' aspect of it all (in the chic times when french was still spoken in england and the fusion of the anglo-saxon language with french was still under way, lots of multisyllabic words were shortened, as a way to show how cool the speaker was...indie seems to be a contemporary version of this): creativity, exploring new ways to make codes, providing something people enjoy.

consider wl a volunteer effort rather than a viable business model and it might make more sense...

John the only advantage a member has against someone is the strong possibiblty of being more experianced than the non member (even though there are quite a lot of experianced warlight people who aren't members 99% of members are quite experianced

Gui, I'm not sure Fizzer regards profitability as unimportant to him as you think. I have heard him talk about it as a problem that needs to be addressed. More likely is that he is very cautious about doing anything that might alienate people from the game and also is focusing his efforts on the development side.

I imagine his major strength is development so he's playing to that, making this game the best of its kind. The business side is being neglected in the short run but it might pay off in the long run.

/conjecture :)

In my opinion the game should always try to go bigger. I hope Fizzer can win enough money to have assistants and programmers.
This game could become THE game when the subject is risk/war on-line games and strategical/tatical turn based games.
This game (as many other strategy games) help the mind and make you smarter.

My suggestion to the money problem are:
ST= short term (no investments)
MT= medium term (need a little structure)
LT- long term (a good structure)

1) Google ads for free players (make it small, don't shout it in their faces and they will get that is good for the game). (ST)

2) Make new Single Player maps and some different stuff to make a 2.0 version and spotlight again at KONGREGATE one more time (i am a kongregater), try to talk to their staff about making their version with intern multiplayer options, make them come here after they win their achievment). This is warlight score on kongregate (Avg: 4.22 of 32,259 ratings) and its awesome. (MT)

3) Make this with other flash site games (MT); try in social media too (LT).

4) In the mobile version make the SINGLE PLAYER version FREE, the multiplayer version 0.99, a lite multiplayer version with ladders 9.99, the big version 29.99 (with full access like this one). (MT)

5) You need to SPOTLIGHT in all mobile apps sites. So for that we need that all the players in here make a huge effort to gave lots and lots of 5/5 votes, to be downloaded as much as possible and with a 5 start painted rating. (MT in the same moment as 4).

6) Talk to a Lawyer (do we have one in here?), study the risk/war patents, make this game your own Boardgame. In every country there will be a TOY company that is not Hasbro or GROW that will love to have a new boardgame in their catalog. A standart Box with double-side board strategic 1v1/Europe map, and a set with 6 colors could be sold for 19.99-29.99. New colors 1.99 to 4.99 and new maps 4.99 to 9.99.

7) Warlight is a GAME of CHANCE, it has luck involved, so it can have a bet system between players and paid tournaments (that 60% to 75% of the money will be gave it back to the winner/top finish) My advice the luck in this games should be higher than 16% so it plays a bigger part. (MT)

8) STOP FREE TOURNAMENTS, they are extremely counter-productive, dozens of people should not wait for MONTHS with HOPE of winning the tournament, they should be buying their memberships TODAY. (ST)

9) This one is for players that have more than 500 games: STOP BEING CHEAP. At least 80% of you can afford it and have access to a credit card. You spend 29 dolars in ONE or TWO take-out foods while you are playing your hundreds hours of warlight fun. (IMMEDIATE)

I am a salesman and a marketer, and i think the information here is worth a good buck.
I would love to talk about making any of those reals.

Got another idea for more members features:

Add an advanced setting for cards that Members can tap into when creating games, similar to how members can invite more than 6 people to a game.

Examples:
-Vary the number of pieces and magnitude of effect: A reinforcement card that is in 3 pieces and gives fixed +5, and another that is in a 6 pieces but progressive.

-Airlift Card that can airlift to a non-teammate (feature may be helpful in ally situations).

-Diplomacy Card with Selecting Neutrals is an option, preventing someone from expanding into neutral territories.

-Team Sanctions

-Cards that are played in sequence of orders, rather than at a set time (so that abandon and lift don't happen before attack/transfer and blockade and gifts after.) Allow airlifting into a territory that is not yet taken, or attack out of a territory with lifted armies.

isnt this discussion still relevant?

no...? yess???...

I agree, I saw some great ideas.
But Dunga's nr. 6 doesn't seem feasible. WL maps generally have a lot more territories than the original risk game. So you'd need thousand of armies of each colour, just for a map like Europe. And I'm not even talking about USA big.
And Warlight turn system is unique, and could probably not be easily transferred to the real world. Maybe if you wrote the orders on a piece of paper, but that would get difficult to manage. And who assures that the orders commit in the right sequence?
And the cards would be a problem too. What determines who gets what cards?
And, last but not least, the variable luck system can only be accomplished by a computer program. You can't make dices with variable numbers of sides.

I do like the idea of betting money on players. But that might make this site illegal in some countries.

I think not wanting to make money off it is noble, but IMO he should look for ways to enhance the game. That may require revenue sources and then using that to invest back into the game (hire someone to enhance it). I mean it is great as is, but In technology if you are not growing you are dying. Everyone gets bored of even their most favorite toy eventually.

So, he doesn't have to profit, but he can use other routes to boost the game. Easiest way IMO is to do forums with small ads on the bottom. It would generate a little extra income, boost site traffic/awareness, and then pay for some of those other things. And it wouldn't impact users either (charging for other stuff, etc). Plus, you can always end the ads later once you pay for the enhancements.

Also, my wife's cousin is a patent attorney. Not saying Fizzer is interested in that sort of advice, but if so I'm sure he could provide some.

i agree with most of what dunga said, completely disagree about limiting non-member games though john :P

also, ads should be optional for everyone, they don't bother me at all so i'd keep them even though i'm a member but they might make some people quit immediately
also advertise messing around with the settings to new players, for example to disable some of the spammy email stuff (i recieve 0 emails from warlight now, i put an old email adress in and checked it after a few months to find thousands of unread emails, most from warlight)