I personally love fresh servers in older games and there are plenty I would return to if they offered them, especially alongside the launch of a new expansion. One of my biggest barriers to starting an established game is the fact that I know it will be top heavy. 

Even in PvE this creates problems such as solo forced play, a cliquey community, a focus on efficiency rather then fun (rushing newbs through content just because they have done it 100 times before etc), and an unaffordable AH, but in PvP based games the problem can become even worse.

But thats me. What do you all think?

I had to vote Yes, because I agree fresh servers have all of the benefits that you stated.

But like most things, its a two edge sword and the many benefits might just be outweighed by the few big disadvantages, mainly that it totally fractures the player community, and penalizes the long term player by not bringing fresh new blood to the servers that they so worked so hard to establish themselves on.

So do you let the long term player transfer his character to the new server?  If so, when, at launch, 3 months in, longer or never?

Sure, they can always re-roll on the new server, but again, how does that reward them for their loyalty in paying subs to the game? 

Part of the "glory" of living in a virtual world is in fact starting from nothing and perhaps building an empire and basking in the glory of your hard work.    With new servers always coming out, why bother, when you'll only find yourself in a dead world after a spell.

I actually prefer EVE's approach, one universe to rule them all.

Give me a new pre-TOA DAoC server and I'd be back within a heart beat.

Originally posted by Kyleran

I had to vote Yes, because I agree fresh servers have all of the benefits that you stated.

But like most things, its a two edge sword and the many benefits might just be outweighed by the few big disadvantages, mainly that it totally fractures the player community, and penalizes the long term player by not bringing fresh new blood to the servers that they so worked so hard to establish themselves on.

So do you let the long term player transfer his character to the new server?  If so, when, at launch, 3 months in, longer or never?

Sure, they can always re-roll on the new server, but again, how does that reward them for their loyalty in paying subs to the game? 

Part of the "glory" of living in a virtual world is in fact starting from nothing and perhaps building an empire and basking in the glory of your hard work.    With new servers always coming out, why bother, when you'll only find yourself in a dead world after a spell.

I actually prefer EVE's approach, one universe to rule them all.

 

I would imagine they could have a process in place of ongoing merges if required. Just merge the last fresh server into the previous one when a new expack comes out. It would be easy to have naming policy etc reflect that if that was the long term intention.

As for new blood to existing servers... well, that wouldnt change. People would still have the option of where to go or return to, starting on a fresh server should never be forced. Plenty of folks would choose an established server, fresh ones would be solely for those that prefer otherwise.

These are folks that would probably never have started/ returned without fresh servers being offered after all. They would never have been 'fresh blood' anyhow.

Yes - Even if I dont like the game or never played it before Im always up for a fresh server.

Fresh servers are great, or as said a single consistent server.

Eg: I'll usually give a fresh EQ server a shot when it rolls along.

Originally posted by vesavius

Originally posted by Kyleran

I had to vote Yes, because I agree fresh servers have all of the benefits that you stated.

But like most things, its a two edge sword and the many benefits might just be outweighed by the few big disadvantages, mainly that it totally fractures the player community, and penalizes the long term player by not bringing fresh new blood to the servers that they so worked so hard to establish themselves on.

So do you let the long term player transfer his character to the new server?  If so, when, at launch, 3 months in, longer or never?

Sure, they can always re-roll on the new server, but again, how does that reward them for their loyalty in paying subs to the game? 

Part of the "glory" of living in a virtual world is in fact starting from nothing and perhaps building an empire and basking in the glory of your hard work.    With new servers always coming out, why bother, when you'll only find yourself in a dead world after a spell.

I actually prefer EVE's approach, one universe to rule them all.

 

 

I would imagine they could have a process in place of ongoing merges if required. Just merge the last fresh server into the previous one when a new expack comes out. It would be easy to have naming policy etc reflect that if that was the long term intention.

As for new blood to existing servers... well, that wouldnt change. People would still have the option of where to go or return to, starting on a fresh server should never be forced. Plenty of folks would choose an established server, fresh ones would be solely for those that prefer otherwise.

These are folks that would probably never have started/ returned without fresh servers being offered after all. They would never have been 'fresh blood' anyhow.

As I said, I had to vote yes because you're logic is sound, guess I'm just hoping someone can come up with some alternate solutions like you offered to prevent legacy servers from becoming ghost towns.

Not sure if it's true, but someone said that over 1/2 of Rift's original servers at launch have been flipped over to test environments, if so, that's exactly the sort of thing I don't want to see happen.

I'm probably worrying too much, WOW added new servers endlessly, yet my original launch server Kel Thuzad has never sufferred any sort of major drop and remains in great shape even today from what I understand.

Originally posted by Kyleran

Originally posted by vesavius

Originally posted by Kyleran

I had to vote Yes, because I agree fresh servers have all of the benefits that you stated.

But like most things, its a two edge sword and the many benefits might just be outweighed by the few big disadvantages, mainly that it totally fractures the player community, and penalizes the long term player by not bringing fresh new blood to the servers that they so worked so hard to establish themselves on.

So do you let the long term player transfer his character to the new server?  If so, when, at launch, 3 months in, longer or never?

Sure, they can always re-roll on the new server, but again, how does that reward them for their loyalty in paying subs to the game? 

Part of the "glory" of living in a virtual world is in fact starting from nothing and perhaps building an empire and basking in the glory of your hard work.    With new servers always coming out, why bother, when you'll only find yourself in a dead world after a spell.

I actually prefer EVE's approach, one universe to rule them all.

 

 

I would imagine they could have a process in place of ongoing merges if required. Just merge the last fresh server into the previous one when a new expack comes out. It would be easy to have naming policy etc reflect that if that was the long term intention.

As for new blood to existing servers... well, that wouldnt change. People would still have the option of where to go or return to, starting on a fresh server should never be forced. Plenty of folks would choose an established server, fresh ones would be solely for those that prefer otherwise.

These are folks that would probably never have started/ returned without fresh servers being offered after all. They would never have been 'fresh blood' anyhow.

As I said, I had to vote yes because you're logic is sound, guess I'm just hoping someone can come up with some alternate solutions like you offered to prevent legacy servers from becoming ghost towns.

I get that worry Kyl, honestly.

I suspect though that a healthy percentage of returners would go back to their original servers (and characters) though. I also personally think that there is an additional untapped market out there for every game that fresh servers would bring in. It wouldnt even require any new infrastructure. 

I don't get this site... the mentallity is baffling.

120 odd views, and 17 votes... that means all those folks were interested in clicking the thread title enough based on the very clear title and then just... stopped.

was the effort of another click so very much?

A new Star Wars Galaxies server patched to pre-NGE rules would bring in tens of thousands.

Originally posted by Novusod

A new Star Wars Galaxies server patched to pre-NGE rules would bring in tens of thousands.

Yeah agreed, but I think most games could. I would love to give a game like DAOC a go on a fresh server myself.