Originally posted by Z3R01

I hope other Devs learn from the mistakes Mythic made.

They released way too many servers ( said this same thing on the first day of release).

Even at release they only needed about 1/3 of those servers (that might even be too many).

When a Game like WAR that actually relies heavily on player population you cannot have that many servers. WAR was an unproven product with a couple great PR guys.

 

Well, they had to have this many servers. People were filling the servers, all of them. And people, like me, started to hate the queues, just to get in. And if the players wouldn't have quitted later, they woud have then. No one likes to wait 3-6 hours just to get in to play some...

And players also hate it when servers are left to die, due to name collisions, transfers. People, friends quitting, transferring. But I have to say, now that I have transferred. I don't really regret it. There are MANY players all over, even new ones starting. Some cuz of the new careers comming, some cuz of the trials finally arriving. WAR is a great game, and it will develop, like any other, only getting better and better.

I moved from K-Hirn to K-Norn yesterday and I hit a Queue later on in the evening during peak time, haven't had that since launch, only 5 mins but at least it was a good sign ppl had taken up the transfers and that the server had a decent pop now, for how long I have no idea.

Originally posted by qbangy32

I moved from K-Hirn to K-Norn yesterday and I hit a Queue later on in the evening during peak time, haven't had that since launch, only 5 mins but at least it was a good sign ppl had taken up the transfers and that the server had a decent pop now, for how long I have no idea.

 

 

I also did that, Hirn to Norn. Destruction. And they had high populated, and order had medium.

The people here claiming it was a good launch strategy totally lost it in their fanboyism I think.

If the last few months have shown anything it's that this game needs a good population server for it to work well. Mythic probably lost countless of it's lost subscribers due to barren servers and re-re-transfer-rerolled people who got tired of doing that.

I can only assume you people started out on decent servers to begin with but anyone keeping up with the game can tell the people on low pop servers were not sharing in the fun in the same way med/high pops were.

It's better to have queues than what Mythic did imo.

Originally posted by Pheace

The people here claiming it was a good launch strategy totally lost it in their fanboyism I think.

 

If the last few months have shown anything it's that this game needs a good population server for it to work well. Mythic probably lost countless of it's lost subscribers due to barren servers and re-re-transfer-rerolled people who got tired of doing that.

 

I can only assume you people started out on decent servers to begin with but anyone keeping up with the game can tell the people on low pop servers were not sharing in the fun in the same way med/high pops were.

 

It's better to have queues than what Mythic did imo.

The launch was ok. They just opened up way too many servers.

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Originally posted by Pheace
The people here claiming it was a good launch strategy totally lost it in their fanboyism I think.
 
If the last few months have shown anything it's that this game needs a good population server for it to work well. Mythic probably lost countless of it's lost subscribers due to barren servers and re-re-transfer-rerolled people who got tired of doing that.
 
I can only assume you people started out on decent servers to begin with but anyone keeping up with the game can tell the people on low pop servers were not sharing in the fun in the same way med/high pops were.
 
It's better to have queues than what Mythic did imo.

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Really hard to argue with any of this.

Mythic really wasn't on the ball for the first six months, although there were quite a few fans who kept insisting they were on the "right track", "looking good" "great job" "it just gets better and better" "WAAAGGHH" and other enabling slogans, and Mythic believed them. And they believed Mythic when they said things were "working as intended". It was really a cruel cycle of inter-dependance and enabling.

The closings are sorely needed now, but be clear, this was never a part of any strategy after launch as someone suggested. They always intended for these closed servers to stay open.. they wrongly assumed that 750K meant the vast majority of those people would stick around. They don't do this now, they don't survive.

Better to have a healthy handful so people can actually enjoy the game.

Originally posted by Z3R01

I hope other Devs learn from the mistakes Mythic made.

They released way too many servers ( said this same thing on the first day of release).

Even at release they only needed about 1/3 of those servers (that might even be too many).

When a Game like WAR that actually relies heavily on player population you cannot have that many servers. WAR was an unproven product with a couple great PR guys.

 

When WoW launched, it was an unproven product also.  That can be said of pretty much any product made, whether it be computer games or automobiles.

When WoW launched, they did not have enough servers and everybody (myself included) complained about the long wait times to log in.  They finally added enough servers, transferred accounts and took care of the problem.  Mythic, in trying to prevent this from happening with their game, had a more than adequate number of servers at launch, which resulted in some low population servers.  Now they are transferring accounts and taking care of the problem.  If you had to decide whether you preferred long queues or low population servers, which would it be?  And look at DF.  They have only one server and everybody is trashing them for it.  It seems that no matter what the companies do, somebody isn't going to be happy.

Ion

Originally posted by Xantal

I'd say this concludes a pretty successful launch. 

Mythic created enough servers to deal with the incoming first free month subscriptions to avoid massive queues and within 6 months time have successfully balanced all of the servers by transferring the populations off of smaller servers.  I don't know a better way you can create server balance.  Now every server is almost 50/50 Destruction/Order.

Here's to WAR's future!  Can't wait for the RvR dungeon :]

Sorry that was NOT why Mythic created all those servers. This 30 day thing to avoid .. lol didnt last 2 weeks. A are you even playing WAR? No really because its not 50/50 on EVERY server. Man thats an out right lie.

You painted a very pretty picture but not the turth.

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Originally posted by Ionselon

When WoW launched, it was an unproven product also.  That can be said of pretty much any product made, whether it be computer games or automobiles.
When WoW launched, they did not have enough servers and everybody (myself included) complained about the long wait times to log in.  They finally added enough servers, transferred accounts and took care of the problem.  Mythic, in trying to prevent this from happening with their game, had a more than adequate number of servers at launch, which resulted in some low population servers.  Now they are transferring accounts and taking care of the problem.  If you had to decide whether you preferred long queues or low population servers, which would it be?  And look at DF.  They have only one server and everybody is trashing them for it.  It seems that no matter what the companies do, somebody isn't going to be happy.
Ion

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Quite a few differences between WAR, WoW and DF though. They are not evn close to being the same apples.

--- WAR= HUGE Hype machine and arrogant marketing campaign. Unfinished Endgame.

---- DF= No Hype (NO adverstising, lawl!). "Endgame" playable and functioning pretty well.

---- WoW= Large Hype, but not an arrogant campaign. Endgame was adequate for release.

The common theme is WAR was the only game that pushed hype about it's endgame, raising expectations to all the people waiting to join, but that was not the worst part. That had nothing to do with servers, really.

WoW also was able to retain hundreds of thousands throughout its server problems, whereas WAR lost people partly because of it, but largely due to other reasons.

DF has long queue lines, but they (Adventurine) do not really care about that. That is actually GOOD news to them that people are complaining they can't get in to play or the game is jammed. Plenty said they'd never get off the ground but now there's a line that's around the corner for it. Queues in a game like DF is an easy matter to fix and you have to understand, that game has only been out less than three weeks. If that's DF's biggest problem after years of planning, they have NO problem.

When they scrape their nickels together, you can bet they'll buy another server. Then another. Then another, if the game has a solid core and room to grow, which by the majority of opinions... it does unlike WAR. There really isn't much room to grow with only two factions opposing each other. Even DAoC had more than that. WAR can only turn into a potentially better version of oRvR "Horde vs Alliance" the way they have it set up. You can bet that will get old after a year. "Order is on top. Now Destro is on top. Now Order is on top. Now Destro is on top." The DF scheme has infinitely more potential as an oRvR pvp game with quite a few factions, so its never going to be just the same two clans owning everything. So the server thing now is trivial to that small a company.

If you ask me, I think they are taking their sweet time and savoring it all, while making sure they don't repeat Mythic's mistakes. You have to realize the whole industry saw this fumble by EA/Mythic, and no one releasing a game after this is wanting to do the same server-wise. This will not hurt DF's base one bit. It will probably infuriate some of the people who didn't preorder because they assumed DF would flop, and didn't want to get ripped off as they claimed, but now a lot of those very same trolls are QQing about not being able to get in. Pretty hilarious if you ask me, lol.

The people actually playing the game are not filling up forums saying they are leaving because the situation is too crazy with one server, or the game sucks. There is also no reports of wholesale ganking; which every troll assured it would be. The more people in there fighting, guarantees guilds and cities are being built with footsoldiers, and there is plenty of competition brewing up without WAR's problem of running through a zone for 30 minutes until you actually find one guy to kill, because there was only ONE other faction to fight. If fact, the biggest cry is from the lazy, who say they HAVE to macro skill shooting at trees from the safety of town, instead of leaving town and fighting other people and raising skills the proper way. In combat. When those types of cowards leave, that game will be much better off.

Realize, that DF does not have a ginormous investment to pay back, or hyped PR guys egos to prove right, or Lead Designer's statements in interviews where they put foot-in-mouth like Jacobs; they are free to develop as a small company the way they see fit. If they are smart, they will continue to keep opening servers cautiously at a steady pace... repeating whatever success and correct things they find on their core original server.

WAR opened over 100 servers, each with the same faulty product. Doesn't matter if they had the perfect amount for the populations, they still would be in trouble more than likely due to the endgame.

Originally posted by popinjay

Yep, they definitely have to close down these 40+ servers... agreed.

They still will have more remaining than Age of Conan as well.

They are closing 63 servers.

www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php

Mythic To Close 63 Warhammer Online Servers

March 11, 2009

Warhammer Online developer Mythic is to close a total of 63 servers for the massively multiplayer online game, with 43 to go in North America and Oceania and another 20 in Europe.

The closures are part of an ongoing effort to consolidate the game’s online population, which started some months ago with a free transfer offer to more popular servers. The now-compulsory moves have been completed this week and the empty servers are set to close.

Mythic was recently forced to confirm layoffs in its customer support and QA teams, although the developer insisted this was not unusual for a post-launch massively multiplayer online game.

Although Warhammer Online attracted 500,000 registrations in its launch week, current subscriber levels are now at 300,000. Both Mythic and publisher Electronic Arts have indicated they remain committed to the game.

Originally posted by popinjay  

 

 

Quite a few differences between WAR, WoW and DF though. They are not evn close to being the same apples.

 

--- WAR= HUGE Hype machine and arrogant marketing campaign. Unfinished Endgame.

---- DF= No Hype (NO adverstising, lawl!). "Endgame" playable and functioning pretty well.

---- WoW= Large Hype, but not an arrogant campaign. Endgame was adequate for release.

 

The common theme is WAR was the only game that pushed hype about it's endgame, raising expectations to all the people waiting to join, but that was not the worst part. That had nothing to do with servers, really.

 

WoW also was able to retain hundreds of thousands throughout its server problems, whereas WAR lost people partly because of it, but largely due to other reasons.

DF has long queue lines, but they (Adventurine) do not really care about that. That is actually GOOD news to them that people are complaining they can't get in to play or the game is jammed. Plenty said they'd never get off the ground but now there's a line that's around the corner for it. Queues in a game like DF is an easy matter to fix and you have to understand, that game has only been out less than three weeks. If that's DF's biggest problem after years of planning, they have NO problem.

 

When they scrape their nickels together, you can bet they'll buy another server. Then another. Then another, if the game has a solid core and room to grow, which by the majority of opinions... it does unlike WAR. There really isn't much room to grow with only two factions opposing each other. Even DAoC had more than that. WAR can only turn into a potentially better version of oRvR "Horde vs Alliance" the way they have it set up. You can bet that will get old after a year. "Order is on top. Now Destro is on top. Now Order is on top. Now Destro is on top." The DF scheme has infinitely more potential as an oRvR pvp game with quite a few factions, so its never going to be just the same two clans owning everything. So the server thing now is trivial to that small a company.

If you ask me, I think they are taking their sweet time and savoring it all, while making sure they don't repeat Mythic's mistakes. You have to realize the whole industry saw this fumble by EA/Mythic, and no one releasing a game after this is wanting to do the same server-wise. This will not hurt DF's base one bit. It will probably infuriate some of the people who didn't preorder because they assumed DF would flop, and didn't want to get ripped off as they claimed, but now a lot of those very same trolls are QQing about not being able to get in. Pretty hilarious if you ask me, lol.

The people actually playing the game are not filling up forums saying they are leaving because the situation is too crazy with one server, or the game sucks. There is also no reports of wholesale ganking; which every troll assured it would be. The more people in there fighting, guarantees guilds and cities are being built with footsoldiers, and there is plenty of competition brewing up without WAR's problem of running through a zone for 30 minutes until you actually find one guy to kill, because there was only ONE other faction to fight. If fact, the biggest cry is from the lazy, who say they HAVE to macro skill shooting at trees from the safety of town, instead of leaving town and fighting other people and raising skills the proper way. In combat. When those types of cowards leave, that game will be much better off.

Realize, that DF does not have a ginormous investment to pay back, or hyped PR guys egos to prove right, or Lead Designer's statements in interviews where they put foot-in-mouth like Jacobs; they are free to develop as a small company the way they see fit. If they are smart, they will continue to keep opening servers cautiously at a steady pace... repeating whatever success and correct things they find on their core original server.

WAR opened over 100 servers, each with the same faulty product. Doesn't matter if they had the perfect amount for the populations, they still would be in trouble more than likely due to the endgame.

You really need to post this over on Forumfall. People just don't get it and need to be educated. Thanks!

Yup.

Mythic also has a solid grasp on the future of their game.

This is great news.  Alot of poeple were stuck ondead servers that were there to facilitate all the peorple who played only fo rthe first 30 days.

About time ;) 

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Originally posted by BigMango

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Originally posted by popinjay

Yep, they definitely have to close down these 40+ servers... agreed.

They still will have more remaining than Age of Conan as well.

---

 
They are closing 63 servers.
www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/news_index.php
 
Mythic To Close 63 Warhammer Online Servers
March 11, 2009
Warhammer Online developer Mythic is to close a total of 63 servers for the massively multiplayer online game, with 43 to go in North America and Oceania and another 20 in Europe.
The closures are part of an ongoing effort to consolidate the game’s online population, which started some months ago with a free transfer offer to more popular servers. The now-compulsory moves have been completed this week and the empty servers are set to close.
Mythic was recently forced to confirm layoffs in its customer support and QA teams, although the developer insisted this was not unusual for a post-launch massively multiplayer online game.
Although Warhammer Online attracted 500,000 registrations in its launch week, current subscriber levels are now at 300,000. Both Mythic and publisher Electronic Arts have indicated they remain committed to the game.
 

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Yes, I omitted all but the NA ones in the original post. The NA market is the strongest link that gives us an idea where the game stands and is headed. EU is just as important but with GOA's fumblings overseas, there is no telling what the actual toll over there is going to be when this is all said and done. GOA really shortchanged EU WAR customers badly.

By comparision, NA ones have had it rather peachy.