Server Mergers...please

Really cool charts Ynnek, thank you for doing that!

I think the charts show that mergers are definitely not needed on AB and Freeport (which we already kinda knew), but they also show that some servers seem to see FAR less player activity than the majority as well. If I played on EverFrost I think I'd have a right to complain, for example.

I think it would be really interesting if we could see how heavily skewed the population is to ToV. Basically, activity by zone over a period of time. I'd be willing to bet that the vast majority of activity on each server actually only takes place in a small portion of the available content.

There are several reasons people ask for mergers:

1) "I can't find a group"
- As has been pointed out by a lot of people, this can happen for a variety of reasons. Population matters, but there are other factors too, like the time you're looking, or the class distribution of people online, or just the social climate of the server.

2) "I can't find people to join my guild"
- Speaking as someone who has this problem in particular, population definitely matters here. But what matters more, I think, is the influx of new players to the server. My biggest beef with AB as a server isn't that they have the most people playing. It's that they get all the new folks. That, more than anything else, is slowly starving a lot of guilds of the people they need to keep playing. And before anyone jumps in with the "well join someone else's guild then", keep in mind that a lot of people have a lot of time invested in their guild. Asking them to leave their guild and join someone else's is like asking them to sell their house and most of their belongings and then move in with a complete stranger in the real world. Sure, it might be practical - but many people simply won't be willing to consider that.

3) "I don't see players when I'm out in the world"
- Population affects this, but it's only part of the equation. The fact that many guilds have everything players need in the guild hall, and that players can port from house to guild hall to <insert zone> back to house means that cities will seem unnaturally empty. Likewise, lower-level overland areas will see less use simply because more players are at higher-level areas. Play time also matters. Looking at the graphs above it's clear that a difference of even a few hours in play schedule can make a huge difference in terms of the number of players that you will see.

This is why I keep saying that although I support server merges (done the right way, without forcing people to lose names, etc) as a part of the solution, they're only a part. Even if we merged all those lines on the charts into one, there would still be distinct peaks and valleys. There would still be times when fewer people were online. There would still be places that had less activity than others. The law of averages would help, but the bottom line: There would still be times when you don't see people, can't find a group, or have trouble recruiting for your guild.

I'll address the "I can't find people to join my guild."

Guilds are easy to make and keep. A few days of runs and writs and you're level twenty something. A few more and bam you're thirty and lookee there ya got your own hall and lets shop for amenities! Woohoo! This rocks I don't gotta ask permission for nuthin! I do what I want!

Point being that guilds are rare in the same way the ocean is a little wet. And so even if AB suddenly poofed tomorrow it wouldn't really alter much in terms of new recruits for guilds. Now I'll concede some folks think the idea of their own guild is horrific and would rather watch the grass grow than decorate a hall or run status. But considering the ease with which guilds are gotten, you'd have to have a pretty sweet offer to draw folks into your guild as opposed to them and a few real life friends and family just making their own guild. That has nothing to do with AB and everything to do with current mechanics.

I did an experiment with my best real life friend. We took two characters and started our experimental guild, didn't take us a week to have a hall and all the bells and whistles. Admittedly we were 95, but that's hardly difficult to attain. Add to it some of the old timers have seen guild drama and temper tantrums and walked away from the huge guild environment, set up shop with the three or four friends here that they really trust, and now they happily know some peace and quiet in their guildhall.

Personally if my guild folded I'd probably go join a big existing one, and I mean a huuuge guild, one where the amenities are there but I can be just one of many, as anonymous as I choose to be.

I wish you luck with your guild, I sincerely do. You sound like a nice person and I feel like you speak from a place of earnest desire and respect. I dig that, you seem mature and kind and you'd probably make a great guild mate. It's just the day guilds became easy as pie to make everyone wanted their own, and now that's where we are.

Safe hunting to you,
Ava

Yeah maybe your server is healthy, but i will speak for my server, Storms ( EU server ).
The population is really low and getting a group even in prime time can be a pain. Sadly there is not enough new players / returning players to makeup for the leaving ones...

I think we'll really need a EU server merge soon... How can we possibly enjoy the futur expension when we'll need to wait like 2-3 hours to get a group to play it...

Exactly the people who think servers dont need a mergers are either anti social or they never group up, so they have no idea what they are talking about if you really like grouping and arent part of the top 3-5 servers you will quit the game for sure. I see no reason whatsoever not to merge the servers everythign would be betetr thers nothing bad about it!

Agreed! It also begs the question, if you are in a guild that you enjoy, then why would that guild wish to transfer? If they are a large progressive guild, then the groups are already there for them and they enjoy the company that they keep.

So we have tons of small guilds (mine included), why are they small? Obviously by choice. If not by choice, then the small guilds could join together and form larger guilds.Just throwing out a thought, they could add a "Guild looking for a merger" type mechanic to the game, offer some sort of incentives:

• Full refund of the status points going towards the newly merged guild to build a new hall.
• Free guild name change if desired.
• The guild leaders of the merged guilds become co-leaders.
• The highest level guild sets the guild level. Then each of the remaining guilds to be merged have their points divided up by the amount of guilds merged and added to the guild experience: So if you had three guilds that were level 30 merging with a level 35 guild, that guild might level to say level 40?

The above would give you a picture of the amount of players that truly want to be part of a bigger social setting. Lets face it, that is what would have to happen anyway, without the perks, should the servers merge and people moving over become un-guilded. They have to assimilate or the same situation of no groups will continue.

My bet however is that you will find that those in smaller guilds, just like those not looking for pugs, will continue to play the way they always have, by choice.

Reasons not to?

• Contested zones full of PL groups causing leveling toons to not be able to find quest mobs that are still alive
• Lag in major quest hub areas (ToV is horrible for that...my low level crafters die often due to lag that hides a sentinal sneaking up on them)
• Writs - don't you just LOVE doing a writ when 20+ other players are killing the same quest mobs? (especially bad during double xp or double status events)

I'm sure there are others, but those are just the 3 that spring to mind immediately.

You left out:

1. They are part of a guild that actually does things that they enjoy together and the population suits them just fine.
2. They enjoy grouping with a set of friends they either came into the game with, or made on the game that provides them with groups. Something you would have to do if the merge took place and you wanted to insure you had groups.
3. Either too many people are looking for groups and could form them together ~or~ to few are looking for a group and there is no problem. Simply put, Joe has 30 quarters in his pocket, he rather have paper currency, so he converts 30 quarters into seven dollars and two quarters are left. He can lament about still having two quarters, but that's just the way it is. Instead, Joe meets up with his family and they put together another 120 Quarters to convert into thirty more dollars, Joe still has two loose quarters that he dislikes.
4. Those that enjoy not having to constantly fight over every contested area and node get frustrated with the game (Much like when we had serious gold farmer/bot issues) get disgusted and leave. Try to enter some of the more popular public dungeons and instances at level with a group even now and you will be disappointed by the power levelers and farmers blowing through the zone and killing everything in site in 30 minutes or less.

The accusation that people are anti-social is pointing the finger at the wrong group. Those who are social and enjoy playing the game, even if it means changing characters or mentoring are often grouped. It's the people who can't be bothered grouping or helping out unless it serves a direct benefit to them that are anti-social. Even if we went with your anti-social opinion, those already grouping would still be grouping with their guild/circle of friends and the anti-social crowd would still not be looking for groups. No problem solved.

Thanks Ava. And you're right - it is far too easy to make guilds and get amenities these days.

The problem that I have is that my guild is 11 years old, and the people in it don't want to give up that history. It doesn't matter that it could be recreated, they have an emotional attachment because they spent so much time - years - working for what they have now. It puts me as the leader in between a rock and a hard place. We would probably have better success if we just pulled up stakes and transferred to AB, but my core members don't want to leave everything behind. So the only real choice I have left without abandoning them is to try and recruit on CB - which is proving extraordinarily difficult to do. Some of that difficulty is self-inflicted. Quality matters, and there are things I won't do - blind inviting new characters outside Halas, for example. Or just taking anyone who responds to an advertisement in chat. But yeah - for someone serious about building or rebuilding a *good* guild, it's really tough right now, probably even on the most active/populated servers.

Hell, I'd be willing to entertain offers of mergers with other small guilds on CB, and I even say so in my forum recruitment post. But it seems that most other guild leaders of similar guilds either aren't interested in merging into another one, or aren't willing to give up their own history and identity either. So there we sit, scrounging for the few people we can find, and counting ourselves lucky if we get one new recruit in a month. It's a far cry from how things were just a few years ago, and honestly if any more of my core members stop playing for whatever reason, I'll probably just give up and go do other things while I wait for EQN. That's depressing to say, but it's where I'm at personally.

As a side note, you don't even need a guild for crafting now that you can have harvest depots, fuel depots and such in a published house.

If you're on Freeport, check out the house on hall of fame that has an open depot and all crafting stations. It shows up if you do a sort by title. I suppose some would say that's anti-social, but what could be more social than making something available to everyone on the server?

Edit: All NORMAL crafting depots. No frostfell ones last time I was there.

Everything would be better?

I already usually have to wait several hours to be able to grind alts from 90 - 95 due to more players being in SS than mobs...

And no, stealing the mobs from under their nose is not an option as they then simply spam soe with false allegations about botting.

Also each time new content is released all hell breaks loose when players turn on each other fighting for quest updates and so on.

Do players actually claim that you're running a bot if you manage to pull a mob before their aoe sweeping group gets it?

Edit: and if you aren't, why not just let SOE swat them for spamming incorrect allegations?