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I hate how MMOs are split into regions these days.
Varny
Member Posts: 765
I remember the old days when they weren't and I frigging could play with people all over the world. Like star Wars Galaxies had such an amazing community cause I got to meet people who had a different way of life, then learn from them. We had guilds from all over the world and it was just amazing seeing the scope of the MMO. Now however all the MMOs have different regions so that if you're in Europe, you can't play on a US server, unless you buy the US copy and import it. Like frigging has anyone tried to play on the EU servers? All you ever get asked is if you're SWE, if you ain't, then they don't wanna group with you lol.
Every other online game allows us to pick what server we're on. So why am I paying more for an MMO but getting less in return? if I want to play on an American server in CS, I can, so let me frigging choose who I play with in a WoW and all the other MMOs that split the world up.
Comments
I agree. It kinda defeats the purpose of the internet. You have this awesome tool and then developers and more importantly, publishers go almost out of their way to limit its possibilities. But what do I care, I play EVE now =P
If you stand VERY still, and close your eyes, after a minute you can actually FEEL the universe revolving around PvP.
FFXI has the same servers for NA, EU and JP players. The amount of racism is staggering. It's not the picnic of diversity that one might think it would be ...
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Played - UO, FFXI, WAR, WoW, EVE
Currently - Bored.
FFXI really led the way in this; not only do all players everywhere play on the same servers, Square provided an automated phrase-book in the text chat so you can communicate without sharing a language. One of my most fondly remembered parties was a pick-up group where the party leader, a Samurai, didn't speak a word of English. Using auto-translate, she arranged for my Red Mage to open the skillchain which she'd close, with a macro'd call and response, and then I'd magic burst the chain. We consistently hit our timings and it was a hell of lot of fun. Being a Samurai, she was chaining with like two other party members as well. She was pretty good :-).
I agree, this segregation of continents I find to be a downer. I have seen abit of racism on some games that don't have such boundries but I can thankfully say that I believe such things to be in the minority.
I'd rather play with low ping than with huge lag and with "diversity". Yeah, I wouldn't invite laggy guys to my group either, when there are perfectly good low-ping alternatives around. It all comes down to gameplay.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
Both Champions Online and Star Trek Online put all the players in the world on the same shard.
Cryptic is trying a Customer Development approach to MMO creation.
The gameplay doesn't have to be so "twitch" heavy that lag would make a difference.
The gameplay doesn't have to be so "twitch" heavy that lag would make a difference.
Of the two extremes, click and sit back and full out FPS, I'd rather go to the direction of the latter. I know it is a matter of preference but more active combat feels like a combat. Even a turn-based game like Atlantica Online emulates combat-excitement by putting 30 second timers to make your turns more hectic. And for the record, heavy lag hurts this game aswell.
It doesn't have to be Guild Wars or Darkfall for the lag to ruin your gameplay. Even Eve Online which has quite detached, slow-paced combat (compared to the above mentioned) suffers from heavy lag from time to time and it does ruin the game. Some might say it is a gamemaker/gamebreaker in larger battles.
I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been -Wayne Gretzky
The gameplay doesn't have to be so "twitch" heavy that lag would make a difference.
Of the two extremes, click and sit back and full out FPS, I'd rather go to the direction of the latter. I know it is a matter of preference but more active combat feels like a combat. Even a turn-based game like Atlantica Online emulates combat-excitement by putting 30 second timers to make your turns more hectic. And for the record, heavy lag hurts this game aswell.
It doesn't have to be Guild Wars or Darkfall for the lag to ruin your gameplay. Even Eve Online which has quite detached, slow-paced combat (compared to the above mentioned) suffers from heavy lag from time to time and it does ruin the game. Some might say it is a gamemaker/gamebreaker in larger battles.
Large fleet battles in Eve are not exactly a daily occurence, and as its normally over a particular system, then CCP have to be notified in advance so they can strengthen that particular area - it might seem weird but it does work, after a fashion, the reason these battles arent a daily occurence is because the isk losses involved are actually quite staggering.. losing dreads and carriers is bad enough - they can cost from 1.5 billion isk for a dread to 800m isk for a carrier.. and thats without fittings! for titans and motherships etc, .... well losing them is a bit of a blow for the corporations involved and only the really big ones can afford the losses (or cope with them anyway!) the numbers of ships involved in these battles often number in their hundreds. i've been in a couple of these battles in the past.. and their awesome.. half the time you have no idea of whose winning or losing the scale is just too vast.. but.. it is exciting... though having your awesomely tanked battleship virtually instapopped is a bit disconcerting... sometimes i wish my char's name didnt begin with an A.....
You have to change the title to "I hate how most MMOs are split into regions these days."
There are still games like FE with a single server and a single large world where everyone from allover the world plays in at the same time.
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
Unless you can introduce a latency-less internet connection there is no point of discussing this really.
Actually, the combat can be more active but still doesn't have to be so precise that a +-100 ping will make a difference. The combat can consist of not how fast you react to something, but how you react. It is more tactical approach rather than one that needs reflexes, and much more forgiving when it comes to ping.
I'm sure any game is ruined by lag, but the ping difference between regions is not much more than 100 give or take. One tenth of a second shouldn't make or break the combat, if you're not required to act within milliseconds.
when SWG was first released, it used a model where each command cycle was about 240 ms. in an effort to compensate for geographical location no doubt, but i do wonder if other mmo's use this mechanic (command cycle is not cool down timer btw, more like a polling cycle)
There are always some positive and negative things about this. The one that struck my mind right away was latency/lag issues with users connecting from all over. However, talking with some others, the biggest one is localization and support. Central Europe (Finland, France, Germany, Spain, UK) for example is a good 6 to 7 hours ahead of US east coast while not factoring in the extremes.
Glen ''Famine'' Swan
Senior Assistant Community Manager - Funcom
when SWG was first released, it used a model where each command cycle was about 240 ms. in an effort to compensate for geographical location no doubt, but i do wonder if other mmo's use this mechanic (command cycle is not cool down timer btw, more like a polling cycle)
There games with turn-based battles which effectively eliminate the latency, like Dofus. The international community's been great at first. As the community increased a share of a-holes increased too
. People started whining that others speak non-english languages (International server having an American flag icon) so there's servers for 8 languages now.
Well I only get 100 ping on American servers from Europe and thats playing an MMO which isn't twitch based so you can have a bit of lag. When you play COD MW2 you'll actually have 100-250ping on full green bars and that is a twitch based game that has a lot more lag cause theres no dedicated servers.
The whole lag argument isn't an issue, even Planetside was fine and I played on the American server.