I'm wondering why the Trakanon server hasn't been merged yet. That place is a ghost town. General chat generally has no more than 25-30 people.
If Daybreak can get on top of all their database issues I think server mergers would be good for the game. Especially if they can do instancing well. There are always winners and losers when server merges happen because some people take the the opportunity to try new guilds when a merge happens. Sometimes you see consolidation of raid guilds. It may not be good for some guilds but it ends up being good for the raiders... till time marches on and more people leave. Yes it is a band aid solution if you don't bandage every so often you bleed out. P.S. Full disclosure though. I should mention my guild has always picked up a lot of members after server mergers so historically we have always benefited form them.
Why on Norrath would they merge servers now that they a marketplace item to sell to you that lets you change servers. Make micro-transactions off of people OR spend DBG's company money to force it on people. This doesn't seem like something they'd do unless they find a cost benefit to doing it.
Please do merge all the standard rule-set servers. If the special snowflakes need a special server - bring back Stromm. Make it Gold Members only, or Gold+, and no Krono-funding allowed, so they can feel extra special. I love meeting new people, and seeing old friends who have x-ferred away. EQ is an unnecessarily fractured community.
The cost benefit is in keeping more players continuing to play. Larger server populations usually do that though I am sure arguments will be made otherwise. My opinion is server mergers are good for the game. If it wasn't for the fact boxing has become some a big part of the game it would be very obvious that the server populations on Live servers are very low. And I suspect many who are against server mergers box most of the time. For those who like real groups I think server mergers are a good thing. I also think larger server populations will help retain returning players who come back to the game.
People that box will still box. People that group find groups easily. Merging all the servers would be a terrible idea.
Many still have problems finding groups. Also mergers make for healthier raiding and less cut throat recruiting.
That makes no sense at all. Whether guilds are on 1 server or 750 servers, they still need a set number of people to raid depending on their guild. Recruiting would not change whatsoever, nor would raids. Honestly, people that have trouble finding a group... there is usually a reason for it. No one wants to group with a healer that lets their group members die constantly. No one wants to group with a tank that can't keep agro. No one wants to group with a DPS class that gets out DPS'd by non DPS classes. A competent player (And I'm not talking an extremely good player, just adequate) can usually find a group from what I have seen. People can also be amazingly impatient about looking for a group. Person says in guild "LFG!". Less than 5 minutes later.. Person says in guild "Screw this game, can't find a group. I'm logging".
Even better smokezz, three lfg at same time...never invite the others. Then complain in chat that nobody in guild groups due to bots.
I think he means more, the healthier the population, the less poaching tends to occur. Poaching will still happen, but as servers shrink - recruiting practices become more cutthroat.
I played a bit after there was a deal to purchase the older expansions. I have quit playing even though I paid the money. The game feels more like a job to me and it is hard to get going. Merging servers will not change my feelings on this but it might help people who put the time and energy into the game. The people who leave after not finding a group after 5 min, which is unreasonable, but how much time SHOULD it take. 10 minutes, 20 minutes, 60 minutes. Truthfully, I do not have the time I used to have to spend playing a game for 4 hours or more per night. I did enjoy playing in the past but the nostalgia that I had when playing again did not keep up with the time I would have to put in to get back to the high level I used at which I used to play. Nothing against Everquest. I just wish that the time cost was not as high.
First paragraph? Makes no sense. Raid guilds do better when they have a lot of possible recruits. Silly to say a smaller player pool to draw from is better then a larger one. The very top tier guilds get most recruits from the mid tiers mid tiers get them from each other and the casual guilds. Since most real raid guilds dont want to use boxes on raids that means they need a lot of people in proportion to the server. Recruiting gets a bit mroe cut throat down the line. And I am seeing raid guilds losing enough members that they can't raid anymore. Consolidation of servers improves the pool of players and makes this less intense as far as recruiting goes. Easy answer but no... a lot of time a person trying to find a group has nothing to do with them being a bad player. The smaller a server population the more often it is a matter of timing. Being on when groups are getting formed or being on when others want to join the group you are forming. I will agree some are somewhat passive in regards to group building and wait for invites but that is not the whole story. And grouping gets even leaner at non peak periods. It is silly to say grouping is better with a smaller amount of players to draw form and that it does not irmprove when the number of players from is larger.
I've always preferred real groups. The reality is that there's little group content any more. Progression segregates people in to different stages and requires you be at that same stage. Unless you have a consistent group you play with every day and do it all together, you'll be dependent on boxing your way through. Well, they've forced Hunter on us by tying 3 of the Heroics to it. Seems that would be a good opportunity for random groups. No, if I have to be bored going through a bunch of named camps that drop nothing of use, I might as well get my boxes that I depend on Hunter as well. And I sure don't want to kill place holders for 5 hours hoping to get a named for someone else that I've already killed when I have 20 others I need to check off and be done. Exp/AA come so fast, we're not dependent on sitting in various camps. We're not logging in looking to join people to share the misery of the grind together. Plus, if I need my boxes to do things, they need to get exp/aa. See the cycle.... Yes, there are still people that don't box and they're grouping. They're also way behind the curve in getting stuff done. They have to either find people doing the exact things they need, or get kind people to go back and help out. Removing the grind, forcing linear progression, making itemization boring, multiple global chat channels, and very trivial content have destroyed grouping. Merging servers and making a denser population aren't going to restore grouping. It will likely just frustrate people that need to compete for spots to get crap done they really didn't want to do to begin with, but has been forced upon them with current check box, linear game design.
All of what Segap said and more to add. Guilds on all servers need more for their rosters. There just arent enough skilled/knowledgeable players of key classes to go around to fill out rosters. Merging servers would make poaching from other raiding guilds even easier, not harder as you suggest. People would not have to pay for server transfers, would get to keep their alts and boxes, and keep their "friends" while moving to another guild. As key members/classes move out of one guild and up the food chain that will leave the majority of the members left behind ineffective and unable to raid. You can't just replace those people with random folks who have never raided. People will quit well before those people ever even have the time/experience to start developing those skills since guilds will not be able to beat events. If they did server mergers today I guarantee half the guilds ranked between 15 and 25 would cease raiding by summer and the bottom half and less desirable classes from those rosters would likely quit since they wouldn't be able to join other functional raid guilds. Edit: So that means fewer raiding guilds and fewer opportunities for people to get into raiding. You would get an even further consolidation of game/class knowledge that would reside within the forums of a fewer guilds. As for returning people, they would be returning to defunct guilds or rosters that are full with no place for them. In both cases those people quit again. I have a feeling you do not understand how raid guilds function, what they need, and the fickle nature of their membership.
they definitely should merga Vulak and Vox... together. They can both go from 15 people in genchat to 30. They clearly could care less what happens to your orphaned characters at this stage.
I don't box and I don't like crowded zones. Most of the zones I game in rarely have too many players in them, and I am very happy with that. Now if the mobs are increased to handle large numbers of players, and zones are made larger or instanced, then a merge would be okay. Otherwise I prefer to not see a merge.
Larger pool of players means more available to recruit. Some lesser raid guilds may merge and be able to do higher level content. Merging good. Not merging bad.
Thats what instances are for. No zones other then maybe pok lobby and EOK zones are going to be swarming with players. But they could ease up on the pick zones requirements a bit on live servers after a merger and everyone would be happy
A lot of the mid to lower tier raid guilds are carried by a small number of great players. If there is a mega merger, it becomes much easier for those players to find new homes where they don't have to carry the load and pull others through content. Long time friends, a plethora of alts, attachment to a certain server keep people where they're at. A merger removes those chains. You will see fewer raid guilds if they merge all the servers. Likely see the lesser players that want to raid, but aren't really capable of pulling their weight quit once the migrations begin and they're left behind. Some of the dead weight in the 5th-10th spot guilds will likely be cut to absorb the newly available talent from lesser guilds, also pushing people out of raiding and to quitting. It would be a boon to the top 10ish, a disaster for the rest unless they can fill some unique niche like odd time zones.
