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Bringing the M back to MMO - Server Merges
Bronks
Member Posts: 222
I'm sure we've all experienced it... liking a game that has a low population or returning to a game that we once enjoyed only to find our former server home vacant. In most cases, the came companies do not offer free character transfers (and is some cases will charge a rediculous amount of money to transfer your character). I wonder, why keep a game running with over a dozen servers when one or 2 would do the job just as well, and increase player interaction thus bringing the MASSIVELY back to Multiplayer Online and ultimately benefiting all who play.
I am not in the tech industry and have no clue about server usages and bandwidth and whatnot, so I do not know the ramifications of a server merge. I have been subject to three server splits before (one in EQ1 and 2 in WoW) so I would assume it would run along the same idea, only in reverse.
Can anyone in the industry (or anyone in the know) tell me why games that are meant to be played with a huge player base are forcing gamers to remain distanced from the Massively Multiplayer experience?
I do know that some games have closed servers but it seems a reluctant thing that companies do, and I was never personally affected by a merged server.
I do understand the inherent problems with merging servers on a game like SWG or Horizons where there player owned buildings scattering the land, but one easy way to overcome this problem (in my mind) is to wipe the slate clean and offer everything in an escrow account as is done on most modern games with player housing (LOTRO or EQ2 for example(.
I remember for the longest time when AO and Shadowbane both started their decline in populations. I think both games could have kept up greater momentum with a massive server merge, combining all players into one big happy family again.
So, why not merge?
Comments
I support having diffrent servers, with diffrent rulesets for each, but yea I don't see why they don't merge all the servers down to 1 or 2 populated servers.
Some players prefer to play in a rather empty world, im not sure why but I guess it could be fun if you form a tight knit friendship/guild or somthing with the people there.
I like the fact Eve online only has 1 server, works very well from what ive seen.
I am pressed for time to write a decent reply but I completely agree and as games get older this should be a common practice.
Sent me an email if you want me to mail you some pizza rolls.
Server merges is just a thing you have to do when a game gets old and low populated, I have been scared away from a few games I actually liked, but they had a way too low population.
Especially SWG could use a merge imo, though I do know the problems with it as the OP also stated.
'Peace Is A Lie, There's Only Passion'
One thing to remember about Eve is that its content encourages a spread out population. So other than say Jita, you don't run into the massive population lag you could on other games.
This is not because Eve is technically superior when it comes to lag. It is basically because of their content model and design decisions (such as travel times). There are people spread out all across the Eve-verse and crossing the Eve-verse in a normal ship can take hours.
Contrast that to WoW if you put 30,000 concurrent people on the server it would just crash mainly because of the city zones (Ironforge, Orgrimmar etc.)
The fact that these two paradigms have vastly different population specs and only partially for technical reasons should ring some bells as to how you can really tell an Amusement Park game like WoW from a simulation type game like Eve.
Not saying one is better than the other. But many things that are called "immersive" are more appropriate or useful than they are in the other.
I know why it is in EQ and EQ2.
Believe it or not, they keep servers low and make money from the transfers when people go to another server.
50$ per server transfer.
I know why it is in EQ and EQ2.
Believe it or not, they keep servers low and make money from the transfers.
50$ per server transfer.
Yup I can attest to that. I'm a Station Access guy that was going to go back to EQ1 but there is no way in hell I will pay $50 per transfer. I really can't believe it is more profitable to pay to have a server running and collect on the transfer fees than it would be to merge and get gamers back into the 'crack' aspect of EQ. I know if I told 10 friends that I was having a good time in EQ1 they would come and check it out...
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It drives me nuts when games have multiple servers. The least they can do is just run cloned servers. How many times do ya find someone with the same game, but cant play with them cause there on a different server.
Eve's design is far better than WoW's. One world One server
Own, Mine, Defend, Attack, 24/7
I don't mind multiple servers when the game has a huge population. What drives me nuts - especially right now is Age of Conan's instancing. I can chat with people in other instances to group up at a certain location BUT they could be in another instance. IF that is the case, we all have to choose one instance and someone's gotta port there.
But you can't JUST port there from wherever you are, you have to trek across the friggin map to find a Resurrection spot and transfer there. THEN you have to trek back to wherever the quest is to meet the people there who have been waiting patiently [usually] for like 5-10 minutes for you to get your arse over there so you can all do your thing.
Very annoyingly stupid game design choices. There's sadly many of them in Age of Conan currently.
I do enjoy the game, but a LOT of things tick me right off about it and the way the populace is set up is definitely up there.
BOYCOTTING EA / ORIGIN going forward.
I would like to see a game with "dimensions" I'll call them, like AoC has, but you are free to switch dimensions at any time. If there are only 5 people in an area, just automatically merge them into one dimension. If there are 500, split it off into 5. This way the servers wont die from overpopulation, and the game will always seem as populated as it should. You could even use some algorithm to try and keep all friends in the same dimension, at least when they are in the same location. It would work best with zones, where a dimension is picked when you enter a zone (switching dimensions probably would require reloading a zone).
Technically, a server merge with typical games shouldn't be that difficult, but from a design standpoint it's pretty complex. You can have vastly different economies, so what you have is a logistics nightmare. You have to migrate over characters, guilds, items on auction, etc. I can't see it being easy. But I do think it should happen more often.
Good post.
as long as you dont go into junta and log out and get stuck logging in for hours., or whatever the space trade hub is called, thats just horrible, trying to fly through that area just plain sux, it is the wall of lag, i hated going in that area, it would sometimes even boot me off, but i do like how eve has its zones set up and ya load into them through the stargates and the instances for some missions are cool where you use the hyper thing, reminds me of eq2 in space.
playing eq2 and two worlds
Exactly how I feel.
And to add more on, if there are multiple servers...the bigger the game world the bigger the server pop limit should be.
(rant on)
Why make a huge game world, but limit the pop to 5000 or less? What about 10k at once or 20k or something if the world is huge...not these lame a** servers with 1-3k pop limits. Eve can handle a huge population on one server (with some lag in some areas), but besides that...other MMOs should be able to do that too, especially since Eve is older now and server technology as improved since then. Why don't they? Probably because its more expensive or something and they would rather have more money. BIGGER game world BIGGER server limit.
(rant off)
I totally agree. I feel like if a server can handle 5k then create some way for users to switch between servers as they login so they can get together. It just doesn't make sense to divide it up like this, and then have all of these old servers where everyone is at the end game and it is dead otherwise.
I actually don't know about that.
The thing is, in RL you also only want to hang out with certain people. Online there are also just some sites you want to visit.
I think MMO are sort of splitting people by preference too now. ATM it's just language and PVE PVP but it could very well be CASUAL-RAID-RPG-QUEST, or RELAX, NEWBEE etc next.
I don't think servers are a bad thing, I consider them a good thing in a way.
But I hate if companies like $oE abuse it just to charge for transfers, that's not nice.
The way guild war does it is cool.
Get rid of the concept of localized servers. One of the greatest things about 1st gen MMOs is the servers were meant for the entire world. I loved playing AO with Russians, Japanese, Norwegians, Swedes, etc etc. There were people online 24/7, as if all your American buddies were asleep in the morning, Europes gamers are in full swing. There was ALWAYS something to do it was always someone's peak time, now with localized servers most servers only have a decent amount of players on from 4-12 EST (or whatever time zone your server is localized on).
edit: FYI Eve has multiple servers, it's one of the reasons why it's zoned.
Also it's dumb when you split up the server population with horde and alliance that can't talk or party together.
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
if I were to kill a titan tomorrow and no CCP employees showed up to say grats I would petition it.
Waiting for: the next MMO that lets me make this macro
if hp < 30 then CastSpell("heal") SpellTargetUnit("player") else CastSpell("smite") end
I always thought the server chat split was an interesting idea but too extreme. I would have rather had region-wde global chat and region-wide facitonal chat for pvp planning and such.
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I wonder why games like WoW don't just let you log into whatever server you want with any of your characters. I honestly can't see a reason preventing this.
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im to lazy too use grammar or punctuation good