Hello there! I know what you were expecting when you clicked on this topic—a GamePress article, isn’t it? I’m sorry to have disappointed all of you, but I will try my best to write an article that reaches GP standards(I hope).
Introduction of Alliances
In case anyone needs a reminder on what Alliances are, alliances are a feature implemented in the early days of JWA, where a group of 50 players can work together to achieve certain goals such as weekly alliance missions and championships. In an alliance, one could earn coins and DNA by donating to DNA requests and requesting DNA respectively. Another perk of alliances is that you can have Shared Sanctuaries within the alliance, which every alliance member has access to.
Why alliances are JWA’s biggest success
Honestly, I have thoughts about quitting several times, but I did not, and that was because of my alliance. I did not wish to leave them. But why? I think it’s due to these reasons stated below.
1. Alliances consists of real people
I think this is the biggest reason why Alliances are able to retain the majority of the playerbase from just deleting the app. Alliances are made of 50 real players, with similar ideals. They are the ones who share the same troubles and frustrations as you. Matchmaking. Speed ties. Certain OP creatures. They experience this too. It makes you relate with them. Whenever you receive a full donation, surely you must have the thought of thanking your alliance mates. Furthermore, if your alliance has a Discord group, it makes the relatable part even better. In my alliance we have casual conversations with one another all the time, sharing pictures of our pets or complaining about the neighbour’s kid(just a joke, don’t take offence). It creates a bond between you and your alliance mates, and it makes it hard for you to leave. Not saying that this was maliciously created by Ludia as a trap to keep the players sucked in this whirlpool of misery. But I cannot deny that alliances were a brilliant idea. Having a group of like-minded people work together towards a certain goal really creates camaraderie between those people, and it makes it difficult to leave the game, or perhaps, leaving those wonderful people behind.
2. Alliances feel like they are the only thing real in this game
In this virtual game, almost nothing seems real. Your hard earned dinos? Virtual. Your season high score? Virtual, meaningless in the real world. One thing that feels real, and might have an actual meaning in the real world is the bonds you create between you and your alliance mates. I don’t know about you, but I’ve never left a single alliance Discord group, even though I have left the alliance in game. It feels nice to remain in contact with those people you spent months and even years with. Alliance mates are the few ‘real’ things to help you and support you throughout your game journey. Those bonds feel real to me, and probably to my alliance mates too. This real bond is what makes it hard to leave.
3. Alliances allow us to achieve higher
Another thing that alliances offer is friendly competition. Have you ever seen someone show their high score in a tourney and go like ‘hey, I wanna reach that high score and beyond’? I have, and that’s how I feel whenever it comes to tourneys, even though I’m absolutely tired of them. Tired of Rhinos, Dracorex-rats, speed ties, 5% crits etc. But they were the reason why I pushed on for tourneys, not just for the rewards, but as a friendly competition too. Think about it like Dominos. All of us are all heading for the same direction, but we push one another towards the endgame goal together as a team.
4. Alliances encourages community teamwork
One of the features of Alliances are Shared Sanctuaries. And one of the most sought after things out there in JWA is none other than the fabled Level 20 Sanctuary. However, this is not achievable without the help of other alliances. This prompted the community to create CoOps to work together as a collective group in order to achieve level 20 sanctuaries. One of the most well known CoOps are @ARK, and having worked with them myself for a brief period, I really learnt a lot more about teamwork and cooperation. The way everything is organised and communicated simply impressed me. Of course, maintaining such work is no easy job. Shoutout to the ARK leaders like @Phil! Thank you for your hard work! Without alliances, I don’t think such amazing work could ever happen.*
Why alliances are JWA’s biggest success
As I have mentioned above, alliances are a great feature to retain players based on their emotional detachment with their alliance mates, and is one of the few things that people aren’t tired of. Raids? Huge success at the start, but now people are just tired of them. Stat Boosts? Emotes? The arena? Yeah… we don’t need to talk about those. I think Ludia acknowledges the success of alliances too, adding new features to alliances like Championships. Let’s hope alliances will be continually updated and improved on!
*This message is NOT sponsored by ARK or any of the leaders. Just sharing my own experience and thoughts.
Thank you for your time, dear readers. Always feel free to comment down any disagreements or other points you would like to add.
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) and is definitely what keeps me in the game!
