Age of Conan

Raiding is a very controversial topic; many people choose to play or pass on a game based solely on the inclusion or omission of this feature.   I don't want to start another discussion on raiding because that has been covered in excruciating detail in past threads.

I am simply pondering why devs put themselves in the position of alienating potential customers by choosing one side or the other of this thorny fence? AoC is too far in development for any significant changes but why oh why don’t devs of new games design their end-game dungeons in such a manner that they can easily be scaled for either raiding or small groups? Offer raiding and non-raiding servers, make both camps happy, get more customers, and avoid the whole drama associated with the subject.

Why don’t devs do this?

They really believe it would have no effect.  They are wrong, but that is what they believe.

Simple answer...you cant please everyone even half the time. Why should they? If you raid then raid and if you dont dont. O yeah I remember its because raiders get great gear whereas non raiders think small group content should yield the same rewards. This isnt going to change anytime in the near future if you look down the pipeline.

Funcom has separated PvP and PvE content so that you really only have to do what you want and you will not be penalized for doing so. Thus, negating your entire perspective.

This is an interesting question and it's something I've wondered about too.  I remember this came up on the Vanguard development boards and the raiders who joined the discussion were horrified at the idea.  Partly they were afraid that the raiding servers would be so severely underpopulated that they would eventually be closed down and partly they were upset at the idea of being on a server with raiders only because then the uber raid gear would have less relative meaning because everyone on the server would have it (because they are all raiders).

But splitting servers based on raiding or non-raiding would certainly be informative.  I'd love to see which type of server would be most popular and what the population ratio really would be. 

I don't really have the energy right now to get into another debate about the place of raiding in AoC but I just came from browsing the official forums and there is a thread going on over there right now in which FANS of the game are reasuring a raider type by telling him that the best crafting gems will come from PvE raiding.  Seeing as how crafting is, at the moment, the only known alternative to raiding and supposedly the way that top PvP gear will be aquired it's intersting to note that if they are correct then PvE raiding will be required if a person wants the best crafted gear (and thus the best PvP gear).

Now when I said the same thing on this board people told me I was full of it.  So I was rather shocked that in that thread on the official boards nobody went rushing in to set them straight.

Originally posted by gestalt11

They really believe it would have no effect.  They are wrong, but that is what they believe.

 They are definitely wrong.  There are many people that will absolutely stay away from a game with a raid-centric end-game and many that will gravitate to such content.  Without taking a position for either play-style, I believe it is a significant enough issue to warrant separate servers.  Again, it is not necessary for a company to decide which is better, just offer both and let the players choose.  Given the ridiculous expense of creating a MMOG these days, it seems silly for devs to risk losing many potential customers by coming down on one side of such a controversial topic.

Originally posted by Drevnar

Funcom has separated PvP and PvE content so that you really only have to do what you want and you will not be penalized for doing so. Thus, negating your entire perspective.

I wasn't asking how Funcom has designed their game.  This was a generic pondering that would have been more at home in the general forums.  The only reason I asked it in the AoC forum is because I was here doing some research on the role of raiding in this upcoming game.  I couldn't help but be struck by the passionate posts on both sides of this topic and decided to ponder aloud.

Originally posted by Neanderthal

This is an interesting question and it's something I've wondered about too.  I remember this came up on the Vanguard development boards and the raiders who joined the discussion were horrified at the idea.  Partly they were afraid that the raiding servers would be so severely underpopulated that they would eventually be closed down and partly they were upset at the idea of being on a server with raiders only because then the uber raid gear would have less relative meaning because everyone on the server would have it (because they are all raiders).

This is funny.  You are implying that the appeal of raiding to (some) raiders is not the actual act of raiding but the elitism associated with their willingness to "endure" such activities.  I suspect that—for some raiders—this is probably true.

Originally posted by Neanderthal

But splitting servers based on raiding or non-raiding would certainly be informative.  I'd love to see which type of server would be most popular and what the population ratio really would be. 

That would indeed be an interesting experiment. 

Originally posted by Neanderthal

I don't really have the energy right now to get into another debate about the place of raiding in AoC but ...

Let's definitely not go there.  It's all been said. 

Hi OP,

You offer a good point of view of some of the mmorpg populous. I think the only real way to gauge interest in this is from feeback after a point of time from release. Right now is just a snapshot of the community, and from what I've read a call for this type of thing has probably only happened twice maybe in the last couple of years, without much support for it I'm afraid.

From Funcoms eyes I would get that, you don't have to raid to progress in the game. Its not forced on you (although some other think it is (mis-informed) ) . If you can get past that part, then is it more to do with the raid community on the server? That player type you don't want to mingle with, or just the content?

but then you have people like me who like raiding just not all the time, and like to pvp just not all the time. and lvling 2 chr's just to statify both sounds/feels too much like EvE =p

Originally posted by Drevnar

Funcom has separated PvP and PvE content so that you really only have to do what you want and you will not be penalized for doing so. Thus, negating your entire perspective.

I don't think Drevnar could have put it any clearer.  As I understand it the pve gear has no impact on the pvp aspect of the game, just as the gear you get from pvp will have no impact or be more or less useless for raiders.  That way you do what you want and get rewarded accordingly.  This is a non-issue if you ask me and it's j