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Server Merges Official?

GPrestigeGPrestige Member UncommonPosts: 523

Looks like Funcom is considering it:

 

http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?p=1979009#post1979009

 

A quote from Famine, a Funcom moderator:

"There is nothing official yet on such a system but I think it's safe to say we are considering it. We do see the concerns in the community for needing it and that is something I have personally taken up with the dev-team in relation. If we receive any additional information on something like this then we will of course post it in the announcement section of the forums."

 

Just thought I'd update this:

http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php?story=20442

 When reading through this thread, pay close attention to how Famine states this is NOT going to happen, and how the dates are not that far back, either.

-Computer specs no one cares about: check.

-MMOs played no one cares about: check.

-Xfire stats no one cares about: check.

-Signature no one cares about: check.

------------------------------------------------------------
-Narcissism: check.

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Comments

  • celdridgeceldridge Member Posts: 188

    Launched in May and server merges coming in Sepyember or October. Does not look good for the steaming pile of crap that AOC is.

  • AmazingAveryAmazingAvery Age of Conan AdvocateMember UncommonPosts: 7,188
    Originally posted by celdridge


    Launched in May and server merges coming in Sepyember or October. Does not look good for the steaming pile of crap that AOC is.



     

    Don't merge the servers and your screwed -

    Merge the servers and you get comments like yours.

    Either way doesn't really effect non constructive comments like yours.

    How about you let the people who pay to play the game inform FC what they think. Don't like it either way, best to move on, prancing around screaming fail isn't healthy you know.

    Merging them can be good for those who have poor levels in numbers on them and I think its the right way to go forward - screaming fail and POS the game is without saying why is OOO.



  • GPrestigeGPrestige Member UncommonPosts: 523
    Originally posted by AmazingAvery

    Originally posted by celdridge


    Launched in May and server merges coming in Sepyember or October. Does not look good for the steaming pile of crap that AOC is.



     

    Don't merge the servers and your screwed -

    Merge the servers and you get comments like yours.

    Either way doesn't really effect non constructive comments like yours.

    How about you let the people who pay to play the game inform FC what they think. Don't like it either way, best to move on, prancing around screaming fail isn't healthy you know.

     

    Prancing around blindly throwing false praise doesn't help either.

    -Computer specs no one cares about: check.

    -MMOs played no one cares about: check.

    -Xfire stats no one cares about: check.

    -Signature no one cares about: check.

    ------------------------------------------------------------
    -Narcissism: check.

  • ArthineasArthineas Member Posts: 231

    I think that the server merges are a very good idea.  Hope is not lost for AoC.  Anarchy Online had a horrible start too and it  became a good game.   It regained  the respect of the fans and media.  Hell PC Gamer even gave it mmorpg of the year one year.

    Will it ever have a huge amount of subscribers?  Probably not, but they can have a very healthy(fairly large) population if they keep improving the game.  The new Conan movie will probably draw in some new players also when it comes out.

     

  • AmazingAveryAmazingAvery Age of Conan AdvocateMember UncommonPosts: 7,188
    Originally posted by Arthineas


    Anarchy Online had a horrible start too and it  became a good game.   It regained  the respect of the fans and media.  Hell PC Gamer even gave it mmorpg of the year one year.  So hope is not lost for AoC. 
    Will it ever have a huge amount of subscribers?  Probably not, but they can have a very healthy(fairly large) population if they keep improving the game.  The new Conan movie will probably draw in some new players also when it comes out.



     

    If servers merge it can be a good thing for those that play, it has benefits I think outweigh the negatives.



  • RaltarRaltar Member UncommonPosts: 829
    Originally posted by zymurgeist


     

     
    You're confused. This is actually about the time most MMOs have server merges.

    Uh... most of the (good) MMOs I've played either went several years before merging servers or they never merged at all.

  • SlytheSlythe Member UncommonPosts: 952
    Originally posted by Raltar

    Originally posted by zymurgeist


     

     
    You're confused. This is actually about the time most MMOs have server merges.

    Uh... most of the (good) MMOs I've played either went several years before merging servers or they never merged at all.

     

    I was going to post the same thing. I can't remember any MMORPG I have played merging servers, let alone even considering doing it in the first 6 months. I'm not saying AoC is doomed if they do merge or anything, but this statement is just not true.

  • afoaaafoaa Member UncommonPosts: 578
    Originally posted by Slythe 
    I was going to post the same thing. I can't remember any MMORPG I have played merging servers, let alone even considering doing it in the first 6 months. I'm not saying AoC is doomed if they do merge or anything, but this statement is just not true.



     

    I think Pirates of the Burning sea did. But its also almost dead now.

    "You are the hero our legends have foretold will save our tribe, therefore please go kill 10 pigs."

  • leftguardleftguard Member Posts: 70

    For sure, I've never seen so many servers offered before by a new game at launch - but my take on it is that they've tried to offer everyone the chance to play in their preferred style AND language - and in doing that, perhaps they've spread the player base out too much. (and I say perhaps because I'm only on fairly active EU pvp servers anyway)

    But as far as I'm concerned, whether they decide to merge the servers or not is entirely up to Funcom, after all they're the guys who payed for the servers. Maybe they bought way too many or maybe the ones they have are just small LOL.

    I really dont see how server merging at this time equates to failure of the game, or some kind of admission of defeat. Seems like it's just game management to me.

     

  • NogginNoggin Member Posts: 808
    Originally posted by zymurgeist

    I've seen maybe four sharded MMOs that reached 200k that didn't merge or simply shut down servers in the first few months.

     

    I guess Vanguard is in that list, what are the other 3?

  • UnfinishedUnfinished Member Posts: 881
    Originally posted by AmazingAvery



    .... How about you let the people who pay to play the game inform FC what they think.....

    That is the supposed function of the official forums, these are not the official forums

  • noggy1980noggy1980 Member Posts: 343

    Server merges are a hugely positive step and vitally needed, however concidering it now isn't really acceptable, it was obvious 6 weeks ago at least that server merges were needed then and we told them it frequently, if it takes them another couple of weeks to make the decision then a month to implement it (like it took Vanguard) then it's way to late and other than a little pvp patch spike now the populations will have continued to drop rapidly.

    It amazes me how out of touch the developers and management are to just be concidering it now.

     

  • noggy1980noggy1980 Member Posts: 343
    Originally posted by Noggin

    Originally posted by zymurgeist

    I've seen maybe four sharded MMOs that reached 200k that didn't merge or simply shut down servers in the first few months.

     

    I guess Vanguard is in that list, what are the other 3?



     

    Vanguard did merge servers and that was the point the game turned around from sheding subscribers. it took them too long though but they wern't as bad as funcom.

  • FischerBlackFischerBlack Member Posts: 573
    Originally posted by AmazingAvery

    Originally posted by celdridge


    Launched in May and server merges coming in Sepyember or October. Does not look good for the steaming pile of crap that AOC is.



     

    Don't merge the servers and your screwed -

    Merge the servers and you get comments like yours.

    Either way doesn't really effect non constructive comments like yours.

    How about you let the people who pay to play the game inform FC what they think. Don't like it either way, best to move on, prancing around screaming fail isn't healthy you know.



     

    Having been through merges in the past, they tend to have 2 effects.

    1. They improve gameplay for subscribers

    2. They provide a signal to the wider community that sub numbers are shrinking.

    I think its a tough call for a studio to make. They need to balance the welfare of current players with the image hit that comes from the announcement. But of course if it does happen the haters will all do victory dances for a few days.

  • WisebutCruelWisebutCruel Member Posts: 1,089
    Originally posted by gtwhalley


    Looks like Funcom is considering it:
     
    http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?p=1979009#post1979009
     
    A quote from Famine, a Funcom moderator:
    "There is nothing official yet on such a system but I think it's safe to say we are considering it. We do see the concerns in the community for needing it and that is something I have personally taken up with the dev-team in relation. If we receive any additional information on something like this then we will of course post it in the announcement section of the forums."
     



     

    Last time that quote was brought up here on these forums to show how Famine pretty much confirmed server merges, Famine came out screaming how it was taken out of context  because he realized what a big goof he made letting that slip.

    Let's see if he does it again.

  • RaltarRaltar Member UncommonPosts: 829
    Originally posted by Noggin

    Originally posted by zymurgeist

    I've seen maybe four sharded MMOs that reached 200k that didn't merge or simply shut down servers in the first few months.

     I guess Vanguard is in that list, what are the other 3?



     

    Well, since he has a Pirate avatar I would be willing to bet hes a huge fan of full loot PvP games. So we can add Shadowbane to that list as well. Then again, this is why I said "(GOOD) MMOs" in my post. Shadowbane was not a good MMO by any stretch of the imagination. Most other MMOs that have to merge or shut down servers this quickly are not going to be very good either, or enough people would want to play to make the servers full enough to keep them online.

     

    As some other people have pointed out, the AoC devs would be making the right call by merging the servers. If they didn't then soon all the servers would be ghost towns and that won't encourage anyone to play. So the simple fact of the matter is that they need to consolidate their player base and accept the fact that if their game is going to survive they are going to be catering to a very small crowd of players who are going to want to have more than five other people on their server to play with.

    It isn't a bad decision on AoC's part to merge the servers at this point. Quite the opposite, its probably the best thing they will have done for the game since release. But while its not a bad idea... it can still be called a "Bad Omen" of a sort. Its a sign that AoC is finally moving into its position as an unpopular niche MMO.

  • noggy1980noggy1980 Member Posts: 343
    Originally posted by Raltar

    Originally posted by Noggin

    Originally posted by zymurgeist

    I've seen maybe four sharded MMOs that reached 200k that didn't merge or simply shut down servers in the first few months.

     I guess Vanguard is in that list, what are the other 3?



     

    Well, since he has a Pirate avatar I would be willing to bet hes a huge fan of full loot PvP games. So we can add Shadowbane to that list as well. Then again, this is why I said "(GOOD) MMOs" in my post. Shadowbane was not a good MMO by any stretch of the imagination. Most other MMOs that have to merge or shut down servers this quickly are not going to be very good either, or enough people would want to play to make the servers full enough to keep them online.

     



     

    If you were a PVEer sure shadowbane was a bad mmo but most hardcore pvpers look back at shadowbane as one of the top 3 pvp mmo's of all time and many think it's number 1. shadowbanes pvp, city, seiging and things like mines and runes to encourage conflict make it 10 times the pvp game that aoc is.

    Graphics were shit, clicking to move is sucky, it was buggy, it was exploitable, there was little pve content at all but damn the game rocked for pvp, no mmo has come close to getting the blood pumping like shadowbane could, nore got close to provideing such a great conflict system that made enemies and very close life time friends.

    shadowbane 2 please but with a decent budget.

    I was much more excited about AoC than War as it looked like AoC would provide some of what we missed from shadowbane but we couldn't have been more letdown and disapointed and while War is a casual pvp mmo it still provides massivly more pvp fun than aoc unfortunatly.

  • AzrileAzrile Member Posts: 2,582
    Originally posted by FischerBlack

    Originally posted by AmazingAvery

    Originally posted by celdridge


    Launched in May and server merges coming in Sepyember or October. Does not look good for the steaming pile of crap that AOC is.



     

    Don't merge the servers and your screwed -

    Merge the servers and you get comments like yours.

    Either way doesn't really effect non constructive comments like yours.

    How about you let the people who pay to play the game inform FC what they think. Don't like it either way, best to move on, prancing around screaming fail isn't healthy you know.



     

    Having been through merges in the past, they tend to have 2 effects.

    1. They improve gameplay for subscribers

    2. They provide a signal to the wider community that sub numbers are shrinking.

    I think its a tough call for a studio to make. They need to balance the welfare of current players with the image hit that comes from the announcement. But of course if it does happen the haters will all do victory dances for a few days.

    This is really the test of the new post-GG funcom

    Will it..

    1. Make the gameplay better for it's subscribers by merging servers     or

    2.  Keep it's own ego inflated by pretending there are not major issues with the # of subscribers they have.

     

     

  • GhistGhist Member Posts: 275

    Merging servers usually is the sign of a dying game for most players.  At least I haven't seen too many games last long after a server merge.

    That being said, a server merge usually is a good thing for the players left.  It's a way to increase the economy, chances of grouping and PVP.

    On a whole you cannot look at a server merge as either a positive or negative thing as it is a positve response to a negative situation.

    Waiting for the next thing

  • BigMangoBigMango Member UncommonPosts: 1,821

    AoC has 26 servers only for Europe (while lotro for example has only 11, lineage 2 has 8 and that's including Euro+US, etc..). I don't know how many they have in the US, but if they have as many as in Europe that would be about 50 servers total. That's a lot of servers.

    On the Euro servers, some servers are rather empty while some others like Crom are very busy. I have chars on 3 servers, so I can see the difference. And the reports I see on the forums confirm what I see.

    The game is far from dying, it's just that some servers are rather empty, so merging the empty servers and leaving the busy servers as they are would be the best thing for the game.

  • S1GNALS1GNAL Member Posts: 366

    Its been confirmed many times that busy servers at peak times got around 500 players online, while empty servers at peak time got around 200 players online.

    Good luck with another year of bugs after merging servers.

  • GPrestigeGPrestige Member UncommonPosts: 523
    Originally posted by S1GNAL


    Its been confirmed many times that busy servers at peak times got around 500 players online, while empty servers at peak time got around 200 players online.
    Good luck with another year of bugs after merging servers.

     

    500 isn't good, right? Even FFXI has generally 2,000 people on minimum at any time of day.

    -Computer specs no one cares about: check.

    -MMOs played no one cares about: check.

    -Xfire stats no one cares about: check.

    -Signature no one cares about: check.

    ------------------------------------------------------------
    -Narcissism: check.

  • woody1974woody1974 Member Posts: 257
    Originally posted by celdridge


    Launched in May and server merges coming in Sepyember or October. Does not look good for the steaming pile of crap that AOC is.



     

    Is "Sepyember" a 13th month were gonna add in the calendar?

  • YamotaYamota Member UncommonPosts: 6,593
    Originally posted by zymurgeist


     



    Originally posted by celdridge

     

    Launched in May and server merges coming in Sepyember or October. Does not look good for the steaming pile of crap that AOC is.
     
     

     

     

    You're confused. This is actually about the time most MMOs have server merges. If anything they have waited a bit long.

    Oh and that's not prancing. Prancing looks like

     

     

     This

     

    I think you are the one who is confused. You have server merges if the total population of the servers are not enough to adequately fill the servers. Assuming it was once adequate, say at launch, it means this game has, instead of gaining subscribers, lost subscribers. And that is usually not a good sign...

  • DistopiaDistopia Member EpicPosts: 21,183

    The bottom line is, they over gauged their respective playerbase and added to many servers. You know what they say hindsight is 20/20...

    For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson


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