1) Let the "care-bears" play on a server where every monster has 1 hit point and they will reach max level in a week with absolutely no death penalty or item loss whatsoever (an exaggeration obviously)....

2) Let the "casual" gamer play on a server where the monsters all have 2 hit points and they will reach max level in a month with practically no death penaltly or item loss whatsoever (another exaggeration obviously)...

3) Let the "casual-harder-core" gamer play on a server where the monsters are moderately hard to kill (some chance of death) and may reach max level if they work hard enough over a year with some death penalty and item loss along the way

4) Let the "Hard-core" gamer play on a server where there is a good chance you will no survive an encounter with a monster of your level, only the gamers who work really hard and are smart  would make max level after 3-5 years (if there even is a max level) and there is a significant death penalty and item loss

5) Let the "Insanely-Die-Hard-Core" gamer play on a server where it takes a group of level 1s to take on a single level 1 ant and possibly come out victorious, the chances of making max level is slim, and would take a decade or two to reach, with a perma-death system and obvious item loss.

I know this is all extremely exaggerated, but why cant games (any or all) do something like this?  This would appeal to almost everyone.  Same game, just more "accomplishment" the more difficult the server you play on.

Im still ranting, and I know how suggestions like this are generally picked apart...I would think games would want to at least give people the OPTION of playing in a Non-Care-Bear world.  A lot of these games have beautiful worlds and a TON of work has gone into them...they are just catered to the "care-bear" crowd.  Make your game have a server or 3 that caters to the gamers who want a more difficult challenge.

I would think because of the man hours needed to keep everything balanced across the different servers would cause problems.  Scaling of items, abilities, mob abilities.  That is a lot to keep balanced all the time.

Originally posted by Horusra

I would think because of the man hours needed to keep everything balanced across the different servers would cause problems.  Scaling of items, abilities, mob abilities.  That is a lot to keep balanced all the time.

Why does it have to remain balanced?  This isn't server vs server wars.  Same loot, same everything, just make the mosters harder and make the penalty of death and item loss/degradation different.

My experience (from a past life) is that testers and support absolutely *hate* you when you say "hey, I'm just going to put two slightly different versions of this product into production"

Originally posted by Alasti

1) Let the "care-bears" play on a server where every monster has 1 hit point and they will reach max level in a week with absolutely no death penalty or item loss whatsoever (an exaggeration obviously)....

 

2) Let the "casual" gamer play on a server where the monsters all have 2 hit points and they will reach max level in a month with practically no death penaltly or item loss whatsoever (another exaggeration obviously)...

 

3) Let the "casual-harder-core" gamer play on a server where the monsters are moderately hard to kill (some chance of death) and may reach max level if they work hard enough over a year with some death penalty and item loss along the way

 

4) Let the "Hard-core" gamer play on a server where there is a good chance you will no survive an encounter with a monster of your level, only the gamers who work really hard and are smart  would make max level after 3-5 years (if there even is a max level) and there is a significant death penalty and item loss

 

5) Let the "Insanely-Die-Hard-Core" gamer play on a server where it takes a group of level 1s to take on a single level 1 ant and possibly come out victorious, the chances of making max level is slim, and would take a decade or two to reach, with a perma-death system and obvious item loss.

 

 

I know this is all extremely exaggerated, but why cant games (any or all) do something like this?  This would appeal to almost everyone.  Same game, just more "accomplishment" the more difficult the server you play on.

 

Im still ranting, and I know how suggestions like this are generally picked apart...I would think games would want to at least give people the OPTION of playing in a Non-Care-Bear world.  A lot of these games have beautiful worlds and a TON of work has gone into them...they are just catered to the "care-bear" crowd.  Make your game have a server or 3 that caters to the gamers who want a more difficult challenge.

 

Imagine for one sec that you are a game developer. Doesn't even have to be an MMO that you're making. Let's say it's single player. You work and work at this game, and just a few days before you're set to launch, the guy in charge plays through the game and says "This isn't right for our target audience at all. The game needs to be much more difficult. Increase the difficulty by Friday."

So in those few days, you hectically ramp up the hit points on enemies, reduce the number of powerups, shorten mission timers, and lengthen cooldowns. No editing levels to make them harder to traverse or modifying the AI to make it harder to defeat; that would take more time than you have. In the end, the game you ship will be more difficult, but will it still be good? Will it be anywhere near as good as if you'd been working on a hard version from the start? Certainly not.

When you ask for 5 different kinds of servers, what you're really asking for is for the developers to make 5 different games, putting effort into just one of them and half-assing the other 4 by screwing a couple of numbers. Or alternatively, make 5 different games and put an equal amount of effort into each of them so that none of them are nearly as good as 1 game would have been. You cannot just take an existing game and triple the numbers and expect it to work like a charm. You would have to design the game with that level of difficulty in mind from the very start.

And there's something you touched upon but probably did not realize. For number 4, you said "good chance you will not survive an encounter with a monster of your level." But level is just a number. Just because the enemies that you're able to solo at 35 are wearing a nametag that says "Hi My Name is Undead Drake and My Level is 25" instead of "Hello My Name is Undead Drake and My Level is 35" doesn't mean that the game is harder. Players make their own difficulty by deciding what to fight and under what circumstances (solo or partied). If a player chooses to only fight monsters that they can solo handily, the only difference between all your servers is that levelling up on the hardcore server would take much much longer. Needless to say, that's the worst form of difficulty.

Mostly, I think it's because people would get their feelings hurt by realizing that most of them aren't nearlty as good as they think they are.

People who are proud of their ICC 30% LK25H kills should have never been in the encounter, but they might quit the game if you told them that.

I would say it's possible, I don't know about practical.

And casual has nothing to do with difficulty.

there is no need for different servers when you can just make different level zones. if you dont like how hard a zone is, then don't go there.

having to change server every time you want to test yourself in a harder zone is completely retarded.

Originally posted by Kyleran
Because it does not make good financial sense, no other reason necessary.

/thread.

Dividing up the community this way would be disasterous for server populations. Instead of having say 2 servers, one PvP, one PvE, the game would need 10. This would split the population up way to much. 

Well look at how it is now they dont even provide you with one singel pve server in any game for the last 10 years or so.

Strange since the games are basicly pve and they provide with pvp servers and you can even choose pve server but you cant choose server without pvp.On pve servers there are lots of pvp options and I have the feeling that those who realy are scared for pvp choose pve servers and try to show off there.Gees I realy hope one day there will be non pvp servesr.

I dont give s****t for all semi bad pvp gamers flaiming here, but basicly those mmorpg's are pve games and we should have non pvp servers if we want.

Originally posted by Alasti

Originally posted by Horusra

I would think because of the man hours needed to keep everything balanced across the different servers would cause problems.  Scaling of items, abilities, mob abilities.  That is a lot to keep balanced all the time.

Why does it have to remain balanced?  This isn't server vs server wars.  Same loot, same everything, just make the mosters harder and make the penalty of death and item loss/degradation different.

That "just" is just the thing that makes you wonder. It is not that easy and simple as you think. Sure you can do something half-arsed, then again you can do something well, in any case it takes time and effort. Nothing is "just" anything. You have to plan, design, make prototypes, implement, integrate, re-iterate, document, test everything separately and combined with engineers, in-house and outside testers, debug, fix, re-design, make it easy to maintain, make it expandable, make it robust, train staff, make sure everyone is on the same page, do not blow the budget, stay in schedule, and try to listen to whiny fucks who do not know shit about software engineering but they think they know better.

Do you think that its easy but they just don't give a fuck? Making and maintaining a good game with one working, well-made rule-set seems to be hard enough work, but maintaining multiple rulesets and versions at the same? ... Not to mention you have to be working on the next game or expansion while you're doing it.

We already have it for raiding. 3 difficulties: LFR, normal and hard mode.

We just don't have it for leveling. Those who really want leveling to be hard do the "iron man challenge" (google it if you don't know what it is).

Originally posted by Quirhid

Originally posted by Alasti

Originally posted by Horusra

I would think because of the man hours needed to keep everything balanced across the different servers would cause problems.  Scaling of items, abilities, mob abilities.  That is a lot to keep balanced all the time.

Why does it have to remain balanced?  This isn't server vs server wars.  Same loot, same everything, just make the mosters harder and make the penalty of death and item loss/degradation different.

That "just" is just the thing that makes you wonder. It is not that easy and simple as you think. Sure you can do something half-arsed, then again you can do something well, in any case it takes time and effort. Nothing is "just" anything. You have to plan, design, make prototypes, implement, integrate, re-iterate, document, test everything separately and combined with engineers, in-house and outside testers, debug, fix, re-design, make it easy to maintain, make it expandable, make it robust, train staff, make sure everyone is on the same page, do not blow the budget, stay in schedule, and try to listen to whiny fucks who do not know shit about software engineering but they think they know better.

Do you think that its easy but they just don't give a fuck? Making and maintaining a good game with one working, well-made rule-set seems to be hard enough work, but maintaining multiple rulesets and versions at the same? ... Not to mention you have to be working on the next game or expansion while you're doing it.

Balance is not between servers.  You can not just increase the hp of a mob by double and make it harder.  At some point it would be rediculous how many hp a mob might have.  Also damage is the right factor1 or is it .8 to make the balance you want between time to kill, damage it does, and the level the mob is.  How much stronger does loot have to be to create challenge, but keep you able to deal with the mobs.  You have to balance the mobs to the characters as far as level to level.  To make your challenge are the mobs going to be all groups?  How does that work out as far as exp or skill gain.  Will you level too fast now?  All that stuff has to balance.

Originally posted by Horusra

Originally posted by Quirhid

Originally posted by Alasti

Originally posted by Horusra

I would think because of the man hours needed to keep everything balanced across the different servers would cause problems.  Scaling of items, abilities, mob abilities.  That is a lot to keep balanced all the time.

Why does it have to remain balanced?  This isn't server vs server wars.  Same loot, same everything, just make the mosters harder and make the penalty of death and item loss/degradation different.

That "just" is just the thing that makes you wonder. It is not that easy and simple as you think. Sure you can do something half-arsed, then again you can do something well, in any case it takes time and effort. Nothing is "just" anything. You have to plan, design, make prototypes, implement, integrate, re-iterate, document, test everything separately and combined with engineers, in-house and outside testers, debug, fix, re-design, make it easy to maintain, make it expandable, make it robust, train staff, make sure everyone is on the same page, do not blow the budget, stay in schedule, and try to listen to whiny fucks who do not know shit about software engineering but they think they know better.

Do you think that its easy but they just don't give a fuck? Making and maintaining a good game with one working, well-made rule-set seems to be hard enough work, but maintaining multiple rulesets and versions at the same? ... Not to mention you have to be working on the next game or expansion while you're doing it.

Balance is not between servers.  You can not just increase the hp of a mob by double and make it harder.  At some point it would be rediculous how many hp a mob might have.  Also damage is the right factor1 or is it .8 to make the balance you want between time to kill, damage it does, and the level the mob is.  How much stronger does loot have to be to create challenge, but keep you able to deal with the mobs.  You have to balance the mobs to the characters as far as level to level.  To make your challenge are the mobs going to be all groups?  How does that work out as far as exp or skill gain.  Will you level too fast now?  All that stuff has to balance.