If you played TERA, you'll be familiar with the channel system.

If not, well, the way it works is as follows:

1. Everyone is in the same zone but not everyone is in the same instance. People get seperated into channels, or shards of that instance if you will.
2. If you want to swap to a busier channel, or one that your friend is in, you simply click a button.
3. If you want to move to a quiet channel, it's the same as above.

Originally posted by Kaneth

Originally posted by delete5230

Lets see, how can I put this :

I guess I'm old school in a way that I'm longing for a community that I'm just not seeing in any new releases of mmos.  I'm not compleatly up on Elder Scrolls Online, but I take it that will be zoning to play with friends.  If so Ill be dissipointed again !  I would like to know my community on my server.  Will this game be another GW2, where your solo with others around you ?

 

Please don't say " You gotta find a good Guild "  because that a bull crap answer.  Being in a good Guild does not save an mmo where developers key on solo auto grouping.  I'll put it another way.......Do you think all 2 million players will be in a good guild ?

The days of knowing the community slipped by when MMOs became popular. I know I made a lot of friends in mmos in the past who weren't in my guild, but that was mostly out of the fact that I was sitting in a spot for hours sometimes looking for a group. Then when you found a group, you then typically sat in one or two spots camping a spawn location, and could talk in between pulls, etc. This wasn't bad, but it also wasn't exactly the most fun and rewarding experience...well the spamming for group part.

Due to how popular mmos are now, "finding a good guild" is really the key to finding a good community. It's just the nature of the beast. You might have smaller communities pop up among the millions of players, but those seem to revolve around specific types of content like crafting, pvp, and trading.

Yea back then only 400 or so people played per server and it was much easier to get a feel for community.  Today's MMO's are vastly more popular and have tens of thousands of players per server.

its much better off using your guild as your community building blocks, which is what they were designed for in the first place.  Other players are really nothing more then glorified NPC's to me.  Ones in which I will never interact with.

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Originally posted by AZHokie54

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Originally posted by Nanfoodle

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Originally posted by Aeonblades

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Originally posted by AZHokie54 Considering that there a 99% chance that after 6 months for so there will only be a couple hundred thousand people still playing this game, I don't see your problem.

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For a lot of people I would tell them that's the best thing that can happen. A small sustainable profitable player base works better for everyone imo, you know who you are playing with and the people playing are more tight knit in general. A great example is Rift, spiked to 1mil at release and has settled around 200-300k subscribers. WoW clone and all, its the only game that has come out in 2 years that I actually enjoyed and still enjoy.

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I think TESO will do better then that. ES has a huge fan base that are stocked about it. I have lot of friends who are not MMOers that are going to play this. Also there is the MMO crowd that will jump ship to the game for their own reasons. I think we will see 2-3 mill + sales and settle with around 1-1.5 mill that will stick around. Drop my guess by 40% if they go with box sales + sub. 

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So did SWTOR, and we all saw how that worked out.

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Agreed but swtor didn't have anything to keep you playing long term, at launch swtor had an engine that couldn't handle more than 40 players in combat (which ruined open pvp) and a whole 5 bosses for end game raiding (that were on the whole unplayable due to bugs), and their pvp progression was completely rng based, and the re playability was hindered because you were repeating side quests (on the same faction) and zones

TESO can supposedly have 200 player battles, has an rvr system, a pvp progression system (based on daoc's realm points), they have mentioned raids, heroic dungeons, dark anchors (dynamic events), adventure zones etc for pve end game. Also having faction locked PvE means that 3 playthrough's will 100% new content

The RvR system alone means that teso will be a lot more "sticky" than swtor and also if (and its a big if) they deliver on what they have said for pve, the retention rate should be pretty good.

Originally posted by delete5230

Lets see, how can I put this :

I guess I'm old school in a way that I'm longing for a community that I'm just not seeing in any new releases of mmos.  I'm not compleatly up on Elder Scrolls Online, but I take it that will be zoning to play with friends.  If so Ill be dissipointed again !  I would like to know my community on my server.  Will this game be another GW2, where your solo with others around you ?

 

Please don't say " You gotta find a good Guild "  because that a bull crap answer.  Being in a good Guild does not save an mmo where developers key on solo auto grouping.  I'll put it another way.......Do you think all 2 million players will be in a good guild ?

It's just a really good example of game developers being unable to think outside of the box.  They don't actually think when doing game development, they just go and look at what other games do and then copy it.  They hope that they come upon some unique combination of copying other's ideas that will make their game great.

MMO's should be moving in the opposite direction.  Shards at peak gaming hours should have about 200 players on them.  That's enough for 60x60x60 PVP but not so large that you fight someone and never see them again, or save someone's life (or meet them outside of a PVE dungeon etc etc etc) and never see them again.

This is how you build community. IT IS THE COMMUNITY ASPECT THAT DRIVES PLAYER RETENTION.  Graphics and gameplay are what get people to try your game, but if they don't make friends (and enemies) they won't come back.

Saying "FIND A GOOD GUILD" is just lazy game desing.  Design your game so that it encourages players to group and then form guilds of likeminded players.  This is what Everquest, Ultima Online, DAoC and WoW did, and it's why they were able to have strong subscription player bases for years.

I don't see how your argument is valid here - how will there be a lack of community on a mega-server? People create communities wherever they go, it's like living in a huge city versus a small town: people in cities have communities that are just as rewarding and enjoyable as those in the small towns, despite the fact that in a city you don't know 99% of the population, whereas in a small town you know everyone.

I even see a benefit to a mega server because the chances of meeting people more like you are higher. It may take more time to get to know the "right" people, but you will and it will be just as rewarding to you in the long run. 

Originally posted by zomard100
Please do not be offended but it looks to me that you are the guy who likes to spam general chat with nice words. I am totaly oposite from you and yes if you want to chat with someone  find a guild, some of us like to play and not to listen daily problems of any kind

I'll agree with this there is a fine line between being social and airing your life story on general chat. As long as people remember general chat isn't their soapbox we will be fine :)

Originally posted by zomard100
Please do not be offended but it looks to me that you are the guy who likes to spam general chat with nice words. I am totaly oposite from you and yes if you want to chat with someone  find a guild, some of us like to play and not to listen daily problems of any kind

LOL who was this directed to?

Originally posted by Nanfoodle

Originally posted by zomard100
Please do not be offended but it looks to me that you are the guy who likes to spam general chat with nice words. I am totaly oposite from you and yes if you want to chat with someone  find a guild, some of us like to play and not to listen daily problems of any kind

LOL who was this directed to?

To OP :)

(disclaimer: not directed at anyone, no intent to flame, bait or forms of insult.)

to think you Knew you're server community before/in the past is utter Bull.  you dint know anyone but you're guild mates, the worse trolls of the server and you're guild/local enemy. 90% of the other players you never meet/saw. its what 99% of the players do, Find like-minded players,  were their play styles mixes (me being 20%pvp 60%rp 20%Pve) and by the natural order of things you would meet you're Nemesis, enemy's and friend that way.  ( Most Trade is by AH or forum or in the old days NPC vendors.)

PvP player love to rush PvE get into PvP they know the other PvP players/lovers and dont give a rats ass about those weirdo's role-playing or screaming that PvE should have PvP rewards.  the only group who in general does not give a damn about anyone and is known by the whole community at large are the few main ass-hats aka Trolls.

A server community does not play together, they co-exist in a hopefully good friendly way and that makes a good community, were each game-play style is helpful to those who want to learn more about that play style.

Mega-server is not new (AoC, CO,STO,Neverwinter, wildstar,SWO) to name a few i can think of whitout checking .                         its old, only now they add a mechanic that  lets  -you-  choose what "instance"  -you-   want to play in so that  -you-  can maximize  -you're-  fun playing whit others that love to play the game like   -you-   without blocking  -you- off from other game play styles or mixes and personalities between them.

Originally posted by zomard100

Originally posted by Nanfoodle

Originally posted by zomard100
Please do not be offended but it looks to me that you are the guy who likes to spam general chat with nice words. I am totaly oposite from you and yes if you want to chat with someone  find a guild, some of us like to play and not to listen daily problems of any kind

LOL who was this directed to?

To OP :)

Why don't you just close general chat, then you don't have to get uppity about people saying nice things.

Originally posted by Eladi

(disclaimer: not directed at anyone, no intent to flame, bait or forms of insult.)

to think you Knew you're server community before/in the past is utter Bull.  you dint know anyone but you're guild mates, the worse trolls of the server and you're guild/local enemy. 90% of the other players you never meet/saw. its what 99% of the players do, Find like-minded players,  were their play styles mixes (me being 20%pvp 60%rp 20%Pve) and by the natural order of things you would meet you're Nemesis, enemy's and friend that way.  ( Most Trade is by AH or forum or in the old days NPC vendors.)

PvP player love to rush PvE get into PvP they know the other PvP players/lovers and dont give a rats ass about those weirdo's role-playing or screaming that PvE should have PvP rewards.  the only group who in general does not give a damn about anyone and is known by the whole community at large are the few main ass-hats aka Trolls.

A server community does not play together, they co-exist in a hopefully good friendly way and that makes a good community, were each game-play style is helpful to those who want to learn more about that play style.

Mega-server is not new (AoC, CO,STO,Neverwinter, wildstar,SWO) to name a few i can think of whitout checking .                         its old, only now they add a mechanic that  lets  -you-  choose what "instance"  -you-   want to play in so that  -you-  can maximize  -you're-  fun playing whit others that love to play the game like   -you-   without blocking  -you- off from other game play styles or mixes and personalities between them.

This post displays a fundamental lack of knowledge about social psychology.

Originally posted by ShakyMo
Azza
It was 1500 per server in daoc, or was it per realm so 4500, can't remember. I would expect EQ and ac and what not to be similar.

When I played on Guinevere it was one of the most populated @ about 3-4k

EQ held about the same amount (3-4k) per server, as did SWG

 Each server became its own microcosom. You did get to know your community very well.

Originally posted by PyrateLV

Originally posted by ShakyMo
Azza
It was 1500 per server in daoc, or was it per realm so 4500, can't remember. I would expect EQ and ac and what not to be similar.

When I played on Guinevere it was one of the most populated @ about 3-4k

EQ held about the same amount (3-4k) per server, as did SWG

 

 Each server became its own microcosom. You did get to know your community very well.

Keep in mind it's not the server number of account that is important, it's the number of people who play generally when you play.  On a more popular EQ server we probably had 1500 players playing on a Friday night.  But then when you narrow it down to people in your level range it's probably like 500, which was workable.