Server Merges Kill off community?

General Discussion General Discussion
1

Why I ask
Our Smaller server of 600 Members recently merged into a larger already set server.
This server had I am sure 1-2k almost members already having the foundation of their community.

Our server, small, yet we all kind of knew each other and played with each other and it felt more like a community.

After the Merge, Our community is just non-existent, over whelmed by the already put in-place community of the larger server.

This is not an issue of resources, everyone seems to have top tier stuff, but always ask for people with 620+ GS to run dungeons etc.

They only choose the people they know and as an outsider you have to go beyond in order to even be chosen or understand the way the server works.

What has happened is, you have merged 2 different eco-systems into 1, the bigger more stable foundation eco system has just eaten us up.

Is there a resolution to this?
If a server is getting 500-600 members and it grows slowly, leave it be, a community is a fragile thing, you can’t just rip one community out of a fun friendly environment into a fully kitted and high expectations environment, it does not work and never will.

I would rather wait for cross-server OPR etc.

“Just leave the server 9-brain”
I definitely understand some people will just say leave it.
Yes, I could leave, that would also mean leaving my friends I have made and the connections I have made in the previous server.
This is not a solution though, and just adds to problems.

Conclusion
Merging servers alienates the smaller communities and just burdens larger communities.
The larger ones depending on the server can be more hostile in the sense that making friends won’t happen as easily and you will have Governers running around with Egos bigger than their stomachs.

Leave the smallers servers alone, especially if they have 500+ users on server/playing/enjoying the content.

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I’d just go with the standard “Everytime server merges happen, something breaks” rule of thumb. Seems to be the general rule so far.

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So true, whether it is community, markets, or bugs.
Something always has to break.

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You can’t satisfy everyone.

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Agreed, you can’t I understand OPR in smaller servers is tough, the server was new and we still had people levelling up.
It may have satisfied the PvP members, which is fine, but it has destroyed what was really left of our own community, which is what MMOs are really about in the end.

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Personally, I would like to see some sort of voting system placed into the mechanics of server merges where once a month or quarter or whatever everyone who logs in to a server is presented an option to choose to merge or not. If you reach a certain threshold then your entered into a pool of servers to be potentially merged. If the population votes against a merge then AGS just leaves it alone. Let the players as a whole democratically vote on it.

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Agreed. This is why the Devs should just ignore everyone and do their own things :slight_smile:

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Community is fine until you can’t do content because of lack of people.

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That is actually a nice idea, definitely a real community based idea which is also fantastic!

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Actually if the community as a majority is content even that last part is fine. Not everyone wants a large community so that solo and casual players have access to on demand content. In those instances those players can transfer off and go find what they are lookign for without screwing over the larger community on the server they are already on that they consider too small.

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It absolutely destroys communities. I was on a smaller server an we had a lot of almost RP level drama and it was super fun. It merged into faceless grind of max pop, community stuck together at first, but a week in, friends lists where getting empty. This small server was the most fun I had in NW and it was slowly growing with a lot of tourists that wanted to grab resources staying for good.

Having said that there’s obvious cost issue on AGS side and game server requires a cluster of computers. I wish they had designed it so that transfers are free, there are low pop servers to choose from, and people just transfer servers whenever they want to keep up with friends. Global OPR, Arena and market would solve majority of issues.

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12

Agreed, I would love it if they didn’t have transfer fees.
I know why due to bots etc moving around.
This would help users or entire Companies move and have the choice to do so, rather than be forced into doing it.

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Doesn’t “every” mmo out there, that has transfer server ability, charge a fee to do so generally? :slight_smile:

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Cross server content: OPR, dunjeons, market, wars, invasions, arenas, etc… And problem solved.

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While I agree that smaller “village servers” had better communities, did the changes to Territory income not basically make that no longer viable?

And what happened to the members of the smaller server? Did they leave? Otherwise their Companies could still help each other with runs and just ignore the Companies from the bigger servers who are asking for higher GS.

If the territory control model had been deleted, there would be no reason to ever merge servers. All server populations would be mostly viable. The main thing would be whether you could find people to help you run Expeditions but there are ways around that. Solo modes or no caps to runs (so that established players can help lowbies with whatever content they needed).
SWTOR for example has both – solo modes for almost all their flashpoints, and scaling so that all flashpoints drop relevant loot for characters of all levels that qualify to enter that flashpoint.

Sure but in other MMOs you don’t have to server transfer so frequently as New World it seems. The limited population server model because of the territory control model in New World makes it an issue that other games simply don’t have.
Players in other MMOs don’t transfer out their whole company because they can’t win a territory in this one. They can’t take gold from settlements and let them degrade then transfer out with the money. They have bigger populations to support all their instanced content.
In other MMOs people transfer to be with their friends, not because their server is dying. If their server were somehow in fact dying, they’d get merged and it would be good for literally years without needing another transfer due to population.

The territory control model causes all sorts of issues and should have been deleted as soon as possible. Forcing small server sizes is just one issue that creates all sorts of related issues.

So we see in online games that devs increasingly have basically solo play options. Sure it’s nice to find a community but sometimes it’s hard and soloable content means you can still play the game no matter what, even if it means turning off general chat.

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What breaks exactly?

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Nope. This is not fair to those on the same server who want to do anything other than farming. Farming raw mats is the ONLY thing that small pop servers have over large population severs.

Territories simply can’t pay for upkeep. Invasions never get won. OPR or even arenas take 40+ minutes. Expeditions are only doable if you already have a 5 man.

I will bask in the tears of players crying about their 500 pop sever getting merged. You’re simply wrong and there’s hundreds of metrics to back that up.

Wrong. Small pop communities are terrible. You only think it’s good because you’re in the one company that exists on the server and subsequently controls it.

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Meanwhile my server has 100 people online

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Despite all the fanbois and tryhards that will flame all over this - server merges are a sign of a dying game that has been incredibly mismanaged from the start.

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Which we don’t have rn since it takes time to do. It isn’t quick solution for current problems.