Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
RE: Mark Jacobs and Everyone Else - Single Character Servers?
Terrawen
Member UncommonPosts: 21
- <li line"="" data-sender="terrawen">
terrawen: Question: In the spirit of enhancing community spirit and faction loyalty, will you consider optiing for single character servers (SCS), wherein a player is only permitted one character per server. There are pros and cons, people generally dislike it, but it removes the ability to become self sufficient and increases your reliance on other players. DAoC supported different server types, which again has pros and cons, adding variety but further splitting playerbase - would you be open to adding an "SCS" server as a test ground?
Question was asked during the Live-Stream. I'll expand on the thought.
I understand that what I personally enjoy in an MMO is often not popular among the mainstream. I accept that. I also understand that if you stray too far from the mainstream, your MMO project can quite easily fail. It's a constant risk. SCS is one such concept that I enjoy.
Imagine yourself playing an MMORPG. The character you're playing is a blacksmith. As you go to smith a shiny new sword, you realize you're all out of iron bars. That's okay though, because you can press ESC on your keyboard and switch characters because you have another character that mines and smelts ore. Iron bars get transferred, shiny sword gets made, end of story. I suspect many of you have experienced this scenario or one very close to it and being self-sufficient is extremely convenient. It's almost as though you can play the MMORPG without interacting with.. other.. people..
I acknowledge that most people like convenience. Here's the difficulty. I like convenience, but I happily trade it for a) enhanced community spirit and b) a more immersive and social gaming experience. Community reliance is something lost in today's MMO market where it seems that each game tries to be more convenient than the last. I personally miss having to wait at the dock for the boat to arrive in EverQuest because it is my impression that that extremely inconvenient experience actually made the world feel more like a world, something every MMORPG should strive for in my opinion.
My background and reasons for desiring SCS have been established. There are pros to having this system as I think I've outlined above and there are cons as well which I went into less detail about. I anticipate extreme disgust at this concept by the community at large, but nevertheless, here it is. How do you guys feel about having a SCS in Camelot Unchained? Would you play on a server where you could only make one character, eliminating your ability to be versatile or self-sufficient?
Comments
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
Very rarely popular.
I like the SCS but as pre your example, most games allow 2 main trade skills (Swordsmith and miner) So in that reguard you would not need a second toon.
I would like to see maybe account wide tradeskills, maybe that would work to help both sides, those that like alts and those that one trade per server/account
Not much, but if you're willing to shell the funds for a new account + monthly fee then by all means have at it.
You make a good point. I wanted to keep my example simple, but I agree with you that most MMO these days allow a crafting profession and a gathering profession. To make my example more complex, you could say that a sword actually requires 4 seperate professions to create.
1. Miner: to harvest the ore, then smelt it.
2. Blacksmith: to hammer the metal bars into the shape of a sword.
3. Carpenter: wooden handle, fastened to the metal shaft with a bolt or two through the middle.
4. Leatherworker: handle is wrapped in leather strips for grip, comfort, cushion, whatever.
Ultimately it depends on how the crafting system works, but this is just an example.
so, basically, instead of solving alts issue, you just made alts cost more money.
No solution. I'm not sure you could really do anything, but they would be the minority unless we have a problem with buffbotters again.
While i love the idea of single character per server concepts, i have found it didn't really work (for me) in practice.
In SW: Galaxies, it was SCS, what i found is people will just buy another account, or worse, travel to different servers for their alt fix. Travelling to a different server in an RVR game i can't imagine is a very good thing, ecspecially if both servers are "under the gun" at the moment. I like to have alts, and i don't want to have to choose which server/realm i feel like fighting for at the moment.
I would feel much more realm pride if i could have my characters all on the same realm, and i'd prefer not to have to buy multiple accounts.
but thats just me
You could make an alt for free on another SCS.
Galaxies is where I played with SCS too. While in my heart I consider myself an Alb, for sure if ever the world suffered an apocalypse and mystically became divided into the Hibs, the Mids and the Albs, I'd be on a boat heading for wherever the Albs set up camp. That said, I had 3 servers I played to get my hib and mid fix too. I was under the impression most people sort of bounced around at least 3 servers in DAoC.
He was interested in the community's reaction.
I guess i just don't really understand how bouncing around 3 servers fosters community and realm pride.
/shrug
I can't imagine that the SCS with "real" character interdependancy will attract much of a crowd in today's MMO environment. It might be a very successful niche game though.
I'd certainly give it a shot, but I doubt there'll be login queues on launch day
It will certainly be nice to have that "old skool" experience in a modern MMO though. There's some people that actually enjoy that real world simulation aspect of MMO's, and quite a few who've never experienced it. It's simply not available in the current crop of AAA-quality games.
I would say it will be 50-50 at max. Probably more like 20-80. While I like the idea of a single-character server, I'd rather see only one ruleset for the game and one type of server. If possible, only one server per se (although with 50k+ players it might not be a viable option). Splitting the community over too many servers never goes well.
So in essence, if a given game server can only hold 10k players, then by all means create one server for SCS. I would play on that server for sure, because I've always hated alts and alting.
having single char servers would reduce realm pride not enhance it!
edit to include, "o were getting our butts kicked here lets go play x server where there currently winning" instead of "hang on let me grab my mage who would help change the tied of this war"
Pardon, I didn't mean to imply that it does. As it is now, Mark laughed at the idea of having characters from different factions on the same server, so you'd need to switch servers if you wanted to experience a different faction anyway. The people that are interested in having characters from multiple factions can still only do that by making a character on a different server, same as normal.
For every minute you are angry , you lose 60 seconds of happiness."-Emerson
terrawen: Question: In the spirit of enhancing community spirit and faction loyalty, will you consider optiing for single character servers (SCS), wherein a player is only permitted one character per server. There are pros and cons, people generally dislike it, but it removes the ability to become self sufficient and increases your reliance on other players. DAoC supported different server types, which again has pros and cons, adding variety but further splitting playerbase - would you be open to adding an "SCS" server as a test ground?
Perhaps i misunderstood the question.
I doubt he will do it because MJ said he really likes alts. Also respecs will be hard to come by. Kind of pointless to only have 1 character on a server if you can't really change around your skills and try something else out. That is where an alt comes in.
Definitely it will have 1 faction on the server, so people don't jump from side to side all the time.
When I said "Pardon, I didn't mean to imply that it does" I was referring to the bouncing between servers. If you're playing on multiple servers, that, in and of itself is not promoting community spirit. I agree with you on that. But SCS doesn't change that, because you will still need to "bounce to another server" if you want to play a different faction.
I dont see how having alts of the same faction on the same server is a detriment to the game. Pushing players to play on other servers to do alts just ruins the sense of factional/server participation.
This is not a skill based game it will have classes, which will in hand encourage alts.
Lolipops !
DAOC Live (inactive): R11 Cleric R11 Druid R11 Minstrel R9 Eldritch R6 Sorc R6 Scout R6 Healer