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We all understand the reasoning behind the mega server.
To recap, it keeps the world full. Better yet it keeps the population continuously comfortable. As with all mmos they loose population as time goes on, good or bad this will always be a given.
We all already understand that tools are in place to bring guilds and players together. Are their problems and minor bugs associated with this system ?......Yes, I'm sure we can all agree to this......Can they be worked out in time ?.....Yes.
But....And this is IMPORTANT :
It hurts the community anyway. It will always hurt the community no matter what fix developers could come up with. With joining a Guild, being able to click on that player next to you, being able to group with friends for extended periods.............IT STILL LEAVES A FEELING OF LONLY...... Its a small but very strong feeling that lives in the back of your mind that you can't shake. You always know that you will not see that guy over their ever again. You know that player that you click with after you played a dungeon will disappear forever even if you add him to your friends. We all know that some CAN go above and beyond to make and keep friends if your the extreme social type ( and I'm one of them ).....YOU JUST KNOW ITS LONLY, UNLIKE THE ORIGINAL INTENT OF AN MMO. With this feeling you know your time playing Elders Scrolls will be short lived, and not am mmo that will last for years.
Understand this poll will not reflect an accurate count. Many left the game for this and other reasons and will not be here to vote.
Comments
For me !.....What keeps me playing an mmo after the honeymoon, after I learn my abilities and what the world has to offer is COMMUNITY.
I'm the type with all video games, I get tired of them quickly after I understand the full ideas of a game.
What's different about mmos is community. I like the feeling of having a different game play every time I log on. The community changes my direction every single time !......I never know what direction others will take me.
With ESO, with the mega server, I know I will mostly be playing alone unless I que for a dungeon. Does it definitely have to be this way, are there tools in place to group ?.....Yes. Because of the mega server, most others intent are not my own. They would rather play alone. " they think why bother "
You can't even begin to fathom the real meaning of loneliness.
Wildstar servers are completely dead. You could play days and only see 1 person, if any.
I left Wildstar, and came back to ESO, and that was one of the reason. I love seeing people. Helping the random person that passes me by.
Friends lists and guilds.. those are where you put people who you want to get to know better.
If you make efforts and people don't make them back... it is their fault not your.
Trust me you could have it a lot worse.
Merging servers is always the best option for a bad game. Old school or not, its still the best option.
Even with World of Warcraft this would be the best option, but they find it more profitable to whack the players $25 to change.
I definitely feel ZOS made the right call with designing ESO with a mega server. It prevents the inevitable server merge that all MMOs face. It also gives the appearance of a full world regardless of how many people are playing. That's not bad design. That's good design.
"If I offended you, you needed it" -Corey Taylor
Most people say they feel very lonly?
I gotta call BS on that....i run into people all the time withen 2 minutes on most parts....
I would say that this is just me, but this is a megaserver so its not...
got to admit that i like the current server in esol. no matter where i go i'll run into someone. if i'm on my way somewhere and see someone in a bit of trouble, i'll throw a few heals or jump in the fight then just run on. quite often if i'm in the brown stuff someone will just run by having seen the flashes from the combat and do the same. (this is the eu server i'm on - not sure if it's like this on the na server).
the number of times i'll get invited to a group at a dolmen or world boss is a real bonus. even if you dont see those people again it dont hurt to say hi. last night got invited into a group at one dolmen and ended up doing 3 of them with the same group.
this is the kind of thing i'd expect to see with a good population and a good community. if you have a large number of servers you spread the player base amongst them and that would mean the population of the servers would not be as healthy as on the megaservers. you'd be struggling to get groups together and have a harder time finishing the boss's and group content.
i've played on games with multiple servers, having been in asheron's call and vg for years. and although a smaller population means people get to know your name and guild if you are helpful it also means you can have problems getting groups together for larger events. some games have even had to merge their servers not once but multiple times as the populations diminished. leading to name and guild clashes amongst other things. (why do so many people lack the imagination to think of a different name to drizt etc from books and films?)
i cant see this game having to worry about merging servers for a long time, if ever. as long as the devs keep working on the game and dont let it run along on autopilot the population should stay healthy and be enough to keep both servers happy
i look this wrecked because i've got GIST.
Whats your excuse?
http://deadmanrambling.com/
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
Good answer, PvP is where it matters the most to not use a megaserver. Many players who want to group in PvE already have their friends and guild. Random encounters will just be random for those who solo. If you hit it off with someone, use the friends list. Megaserver is better than servers for PvE IMO for a themepark. Especially with an IP like ES.
Edit: Day dreaming below. I kind of got carried away. O well, it is Sunday.
I would like to see some changes though once the Thieves guild and Dark Brotherhood/Justice system arrive. Something like allowing every level cap player the choice to enter an instance of the game world where every mob/npc is also at level cap. Could be a way to have open world gameplay for those that want it. With the Justice system having other players as guards, this could be a lot of fun. Could make it like Cyrodiil shards for end game, but with the entire map. Could allow for housing as well, but you would have to be level cap first.
How many people long for that "past, simpler, and better world," I wonder, without ever recognizing the truth that perhaps it was they who were simpler and better, and not the world about them?
R.A.Salvatore
While I agree with the first part of what you say, you lost me at the end. I am no math genius but I wouldn't care for a game split into 2000-3000 servers
It sounds good. Being able to get to know most players on a server, building a reputation and so on. But there is a big problem with this. The problem is today's turnover of players.
Not very many players play one game for a long time anymore. Having only 500-600 max could drop to 20-30 players after the first month. It just doesn't work anymore with the number of choices and the lack of focus of most gamers. As well as RL responsibilities decreasing the ability of players to stay online.
You could use the which came first, the chicken or the egg argument. Saying that if servers were small, that there was more server pride that players would stay. I just don't think so in today's gaming world. But that is just my 2 cents.
How many people long for that "past, simpler, and better world," I wonder, without ever recognizing the truth that perhaps it was they who were simpler and better, and not the world about them?
R.A.Salvatore
I voted "not lonely at all", based on what the OP seemed to be talking about, never seeing the same people again.
I've never had a problem meeting people again that I had fun grouping with - just add them to friends list and we chat all the time from then on (they can't even escape me on alts, the friend list is account names, muahaha.) Want to group, or even just hang out in the same area? Right click, travel to player, boom I'm there. Hasn't been a problem. Same with guilds - anyone on the guild list, at all, right click, travel to player, done.
There is no downside to having 1 server per region for the entire game. THis whole crap about wanting server to have a community really annoys me to no end. Really? Why not have a good community on a mega server? Because of nostalgia much and hating on this game. I can't see another reason.
@OP, your topic doesn't even make sense. 10 servers per region vs 1 server per region? Is that even a reasonable question? Of course, it's better to have all your players in one place. This way you get a lot more opportunities to interact with people and you also never need to worry about your server dying.
Jesus, haters are going to pick on everything.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
How would a mega server remove "faction" pride? Makes no sense. Servers have nothing to do with factions.
Server pride is something that never should have existed. It existed because there was no way to make one world.
My only real issue with mega server(s) is that you really do lose the feeling of being able to meet the same community of people over and over.
Just as an example lets use World of Warcraft back in its primer days. I played on X server and it had a cap of X,XXX people on it. While leveling you would generally meet the same people many many times over the average course of leveling up. Doing dailies you would generally meet them same people doing the same dailies / in the same generaly areas. You generally get to know the people around you as your leveling up.
Say Joe the healer rezed me afew times whenI died questing over a few week period. You generally tend to remember things when the population overal is smaller / more limited.
Where in a mega server setup your chance of meeting that person that rezed you is much much smaller. As there could be 20+ instances of the same zone running at any one time. If you have 200k people online with each zone holding between 100 to 150 or so players. Thats ALOT of multiple same instance zones running.
It is nice to see lots of people out doing there things, but at the same time the more people there are the less likely you are going to remember heroic things happening (someone helping you, ect.)
IMO it's the best way to make your game play more personal and get to know your community, all the while splitting up different playstyles to suit individual needs. It is reminiscent of the early stages of the genre when everyone knew everyone and their was no general asshattery going on. When your name matters you play by a certain core set of rules and when it is much easier to make your name matter in such a smaller populace it becomes easier for the servers to police themselves.
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
Differences of opinions between us in more ways then one. While I started in the genre at an early age it was very common for everyone to know everyone else and this kept the general bullshit and drama to a minimum. Whereas when no one knows your name, anyone can get away with anything! Ruining the core gameplay for many. Of course server and factional pride matters.....It is why a game like Asheron's Call and DAoC had well respected persona's and the overall feeling of pride and respect for your fellow gamer was at an all time high. Whereas games such as GW2, WAR or ESO have failed in this regard because no one has any pride in their side its all me me me me!
To me Factional pride and Server Pride is EVERYTHING in an MMO....all else comes second! And till that core pride is reinstituted you'll never see a game as well liked and respected as AC and DAoC were. That is the plain hard cold facts!
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
ESO's PvP is quite cool. If I had a penny for every time, someone rambled on how DAOC was the best thing to grace this planet, I would be the richest man in the world. All this talk about faction/server/whatever pride makes you think that poeple only cared about this. Was the gameplay bad so it isn't worth talking about?
But yeah on these forums EQ/UO/DAOC are just brilliant games which can't do no bad. They were the epitome of top tier gameplay. Makes you wonder when will people stop talking about games which are ancient history by now. Ooh, wait, never. That nostalgia really is sick. I am sure that if people were given EQ/UO/DAOC now in what people consider the prime time of their games, most people would NOT like them. But there you go.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Citizen: Preach your filth elsewhere!
Troll bait to annoy people who actually like the game.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
Playing: Smite, Marvel Heroes
Played: Nexus:Kingdom of the Winds, Everquest, DAoC, Everquest 2, WoW, Matrix Online, Vangaurd, SWG, DDO, EVE, Fallen Earth, LoTRo, CoX, Champions Online, WAR, Darkfall, Mortal Online, Guild Wars, Rift, Tera, Aion, AoC, Gods and Heroes, DCUO, FF14, TSW, SWTOR, GW2, Wildstar, ESO, ArcheAge
Waiting On: Nothing. Mmorpg's are dead.
To me it feels no different than the last 20 MMOs I have tried (as far as chat goes). The only difference is that now I always have people all over the place so it feels like a populated game at all time and in all zones. In other words, the game feels populated whether there are 20,000 subs or one million. Since for me I only care about the population of the server I'm on, I'm a very happy person with the mega server...one of smartest decisions they made. I could care less about sub numbers. The mega server makes that irrelevant.
As far as the OP, the objectivity of this thread is diminished when you post in another thread "The mega server idea is crap from the start.......Bad idea !".
There Is Always Hope!
feeling lonely has nothing to do with seeing random people running past you, its seeing the same people.
I rememer when WOW started with multiserver battleground, sure the bgs popped faster, but the community/ rivalery was lost, and a feeling of being alone in a faceless crowd came creeping in.
Herald of innovation, Vanquisher of the old! - Awake a few hours almost everyday!
Well, without communicating i dont think you should just expect to see the same people over and over again.
Tamriel is a big place, and there are lots of players.