Dear Daybreak, Could we at least get a comment about the poll results before your teams all leave for the weekend? Even a "Hey we are analyzing the result", or a "Hey we are waiting to reveal the result along with some other information we are not quite ready to share yet"... Something... Anything....
Then again... 6:17 am over there.... i don't know when they start to work but they still have a full friday ahead of them where they could (please please please) share some infos.
us old original eq players are advancing in years and our pizza pop fed, jolt cola fueled hearts can't take much more of this stress of waiting. Won't somebody think of our health and release the results????!!!
i dont really see the need to see the results. more than likely "not interested" is going to be the top result anyway, since it was voted on by the entire live population. and if they decide to go against the server set that got the most votes, people would complain. honestly the poll results are about useless anyway.
i see it different i guess. all the more reason to not bother- useless results are useless. ive mentioned it before, the poll results from the past got us a 51/50 server. that server was utterly useless, and even eventually had its gimmick removed.
51/50 While 51/50 isn't (AFAIK) up for consideration, I'd like to put out some thoughts on that matter: What primarily made 51/50 as a server useless was the fact that this game is not going to get significant true new players, and the market was in the middle of the process of switching to microtransactions. EQ today has the 51/50 gimmick, but in the form of the ability to just buy a level 85 character on a regular server. Now, if EQ had more players sticking with it after all these years, and in fact was getting significant amounts of new players, and the market still supported $15/month subscriptions, something like a 51/50 server would make more sense - it would allow new players to skip the early parts of the game that aren't representative of the modern reality of high level play (and for those who don't want to skip it, well, creating new progression servers, as is happening, is the solution for those players). But with microtransactions and the ability to pay for a level 85 character, there is no longer any value whatsoever to a segregated server for that. I seem to recall the argument for having the 51/50 thing being on its own server was that it would pollute already established servers; with shortcut characters not being fair to characters who leveled themselves up. Funny how the age of microtransactions and the need to just accept that gaming companies will sell shortcuts has changed that...being able to buy a level 85 character is just the 51/50 concept updated for the age of microtransactions and shortcuts. Poll Results On the topic of the poll results, sure, Not Interested might be the winner, but if number 2 is Vote w/more time between expansion openings, then that's relevant because I'd kind of hope that DBG would respond by making sure that's at least one of the servers that opens up. Insanity Your mention of the 51/50 server gives me an idea. Given that these progression servers will require a paid sub, and given what I said above, what if they opened up 3 servers : 1. Standard Progression with longer or shorter unlock times based on poll results 2. Permanently locked server at PoP or somewhere around there, based on poll results 3. Modified progression server that does one or similar of the following: Starts from Classic, Kunark orVelious, but everyone starts at level 50 Starts with Luclin or PoP and is 51/50 Now, if 51/50 didn't work before, why would it work now? The previous 51/50 server, as I said, was segregated...i.e., in order to take advantage of it, you had to start over on a brand new server. As far as I know, the 51/50 server did not bring in truly new players, it was a gimmick for returning players. That's a negative right there (having to go to a brand new server that, except the 51/50, is normal in the sense that all contemporary expansions were available), and has since been replaced by being able to buy a level 85 on normal servers. A Progression 51/50 server, on the other hand, would target the people who want to experience the glory of past raiding, but not the initial experience grind. I can only speak for myself, but my Classic experience was mostly grinding with "can't wait for 50" in my head. Surely there's quite a few people who feel that way? Now, is avoiding that initial 1-50 grind super important to me that I wouldn't play on a standard Progression server? No, but since you gave me the idea, figured I'd mention it.
Your ideas are sound but I doubt the the numbers interested in progression, that they can afford to split up that population into 3 servers and have all 3 remain healthy for an extended period of time.
my main point was, most people knew 51/50 would be a complete failure, for most of the reasons you outlined. but it still won the vote for a new server. polling the live servers is a waste of time imo. you dont get any good and reliable info from the way it is now. the 51/50 server operated exactly as they said it would, it won the vote. if the polling results were reliable, it would have been a successful server. instead it very quickly faded into a ghosttown and even had its gimmick removed so that is just another server. id be shocked if the top vote getting option on the recent poll was anything other than "not interested" because the majority of players play on live and progression has always been a niche of an already niche playerbase. does that mean a new progression server wont be a success? absolutely not. but the polling options arent going to reflect that.
I keep seeing people say this through all the threads. I don't claim to be some kind of magical "dev whisperer" or anything, but I think it's pretty obvious this is just the throwaway option. In other words, they aren't going to count any "not interested" votes. It's just the option for people who don't care about the vote, one way or the other.
which speaks to the problem of the polling system. if you need a throwaway option, why have the poll set up as it is? set it up so it doesnt auto pop up when you log in. that makes people feel obligated to vote. set up an npc ala how it works on progression servers. you have to visit the npc to vote. shows you are at least interested in voting to begin with. if they werent intersted on voting on the topic, they wont bother going to the NPC. no throwaway option needed.
On the last Twitch live stream Holly mentioned they were "very surprised" at the amount of responses they got .. and I do not think she was refferring to the "not interested" votes
Having left eq when the vote for 51/50 server won i for sure wouldnt want another of those server. I remember fondly combine/sleeper server though. That's what i would like on that progression server.I don't recall our guild having trouble doing raid and there was plenty of raiding guild on the server so what did went so wrong on fippy that there was so much drama..I voted for the slower progression server but i can live with a server locked at a certain expansion too.
Yes, I loved Sleeper and I loved my guild there. I was hoping 2.0 would be similar to 1.0, but it wasn't anywhere close to it.
Sleeper was much more of a "race to live" server than fippy. I tried it there and hated the pace. And i play a ton, it's not the left behind aspect. Fippy and vulak just attracted several guilds that wanted to be the "best" at any cost. The combination of that and limited content caused the cesspool that was the early raid scene. And it still hasn't truly recovered to this day. It drove off a lot of people.
The community of players on Fippy was total dog, if anything it was like the worst or "best" of the WoW community showed up and decided to play there. Thankfully they are mostly in one guild now and pray they don't slither on to 3.0
The rule set of the server doesn't have any weight on if hardcore raiders will play on it or not. If they don't build a better option for hardcore raiders, but build this, it'll still be the field of broken dreams. If you think they won't play, because it's slower or locked, you are fooling yourselves. It doesn't matter what you do or where you do it, because there will always be people trying to be the best at it. Bobby may live in Bolgaria and his dream is to be the best pooper-scooper designer, but he swipes his roommates' ideas to get ahead. Cindy may only be a part of a casual group of speed cup stackers, but her desire to be the best in her group drives her to sabotage a child hood friend. Seriously, most of us went through High School. Do you honestly think the size of your school, location or lack of skill of your schools' top team (sports or mathlete) reduced the desire for students to try to be the best on that team? I would bet the answer is a resounding no. Hardcore raiders will be on these servers, including myself. If you don't want it to be a primordial pool of defecating bile, then they should be asking what is being put in place to prevent that from happening.
