I see a lot of people saying Vulak server was a failure, I assume this conclusion is being made because no one plays there anymore. As someone who hardcored on Vulak and Sleeper I couldn't disagree more. I've played EQ since 1999 on many servers both live and emulated and the sister servers, Vulak and Sleeper, are easily the most fun I've ever had in EQ . Anyone who played on those two servers at a competitive level laughed at the people on Fippy because of how absurdly high the population was there, which made the best camps/raid encounters completely un-enjoyable to try and participate in. If you are gauging the success of a "GAME" by the enjoyment it creates for the user, which I believe would be the most logical argument from a player perspective, then the Vulak server was a raving success for the player base. Krovax (Dark Elf Cleric)
The majority of people just play progression servers for 1-2 years then want a new one. Just because it dies out doesnt mean it wasnt profitable for the entire timeframe. They just have to start up another to get those people back. It should be once every 2 years IMO. I thought vulak was a success even though the pop died out fast. Im sure they didnt lose money on it.
I'm not really knowledgeable on server costs or anything. If server merging is possible, is there a particular reason why putting up a second server is not advisable? Even considering you could tell the population beforehand that they will be merged, as soon as, population starts to die. Would a big company like DB not have the assets already (not utilized) to make this happen if they so choose?
When people say Vulak was a failure, they aren't using that statement to say "Krovax never had fun there, so clearly the server was a failure. They mean in lacked a population of sufficient size and timezone diversity to be sustainably healthy for a time period comparable to other servers of the same type. Vulak didn't have that. Vulak never really had that. Now, those facts don't negate your personal, anecdotal story about how you happened to have fun amidst that smaller population. I'm happy you did. Your personal enjoyment aside, though - your story doesn't change the fact that Vulak was a ghost town outside of the US prime hours even at its peak, and was entirely deserted except for 2 guilds from PoP on.
Sleeper only lasted 8 or 9 months. .. Vulak is still around more then 4 years after launch.. many MMOs don't last 4 years .... I think we can say it was more successful then the previous "second" server.
I understand that Protagonist, the point of my story/statement is to counter the idea that just because the server doesn't survive for some insignificant period, does not mean it is a failure "for the player". The vast majority of people who come back to play on the prog servers are here primarily to experience the world up until Velious and possibly PoP. I am in that camp...I have zero interest in anything past PoP. I have no doubt this server will die soon after PoP as the last two have...and guess what I'm going to have a blast here as well until then. Now...is it a failure for the company to put on these servers that only last 2 years in terms of business profit? That I can not say and frankly I don't care....though I believe most of us can make a fairly educated guess...back to my 2 hour queue...hehe
Something no one is even thinking about. SOE/DBG does not look at a server and hey is this a failure? no they look at the overall subscription. what they do to servers with low or high population is about appeasing the masses, not about success or failure. did the server succeed? perhaps, did it end up attracting new players that stayed? if yes then there is a success... oh wait the server pop dropped, but player base numbers didn't... means they went to other servers... ok what can we do with this server? merge it? what. the point is not if it's high or low population it is all about over all subscription numbers to the SOE/DBG all access pass. this includes EQ/EQ2/H1N1/DCUO and more. why is it that no one sees that they themselves are only looking at the microcosm versus the macrocosm? companies don't look at a product and decide what to do with all other products based upon that one product.
