One Character Per Server?

JoeyNipps

For those of you who have played SWG, this is a known topic.  For others, you may not have encountered it.  I would very much like to hear your STUDIED opinion (please don't just shoot from the hip - think about it as you think about your play style in MMORPGs in general) on this topic.  Remember, this may very well quickly become the standard for ALL MMORPGs.

In SWG, you can ONLY play one character per account per server.  Yes, you CAN play other characters - but EACH one must be on a different server.  This has numerous ramifications.  If you wish to play more than one character on the same server, you are being forced to purchase and pay monthly fees for additional accounts.

While I DO understand and fully agree that game producers MUST be expected to do many (if not all) things to increase their revinues and this MAY be one that will do that as well (pushing many players to buy multiple accounts so they can still play multiple characters on the same server), my personal feeling is this is a "game breaker" for me.  I don't mind paying money to play a game, I don't mind being restricted in many ways - but this goes too far for me.  I find that on a daily basis (as I continue to try to enjoy SWG) I am unpleasantly reminded of this policy and if it were not for my friends playing the game, I would quit on this policy alone.  Worse, I fear that all companies will move to this policy as another potential money making decision - in which case I would be forced to either quit playing MMORPGs or pay for additional accounts - neither of which i wish to be forced to do.

Your thoughts on this policy (as it applies or would apply to you)?

If all else in life fails you, buy a vowel.

Puoltry

It depends on a lot of things.Im playing EvE atm and with this one you have 3 character slots to choose from.Im playing one character and have been for quite some time.Its setup a bit differently from other mmo's as far as skills go.Skills are trainable offline.
But as you progress your character the skills take a HUGE amount of time to train.You cant train skills on multiple characters either on the same account.So it makes you want to play one character.

The whole problem with current mmo's are that with most of them you have:

1.level based mmo's.You get a level and get new skills.The skills are either what your profession gets or its automatic to a certain point when you pick a career.In most of them you cant pick the skills you want.So after a player screws up a character and decides to reroll its a bit disheartening to have to start over again.

The solution?Skill based mmo's.SWG and EvE got it right.Pick ANY skill you want for that character.With this system there is no point in having more than one character.If you can learn ANY skill why would you want more than one?

With this system your free to progress as you see fit .

2.Time is a second problem.The older gamers(im one of them)dont have a lot of time to goof off.Real jobs,families,etc etc come first.If it takes to long to accomplish anything ill tell ya right now getting this segment to play will be impossible.Its why i play EvE im a scifi fan and i can train offline.Its perfection.I dont have ti kill something to get a skill i just train it.So even if it does take a while i dont mind it so much.

I have no problem with one character per server as long as it makes improvements to the genre and the game.There has to be a tradeoff somewhere i suppose.Make it easier to get levels or progress easier.

Bhazir

I don't think this is realy restrictive, if you can just untrain easely and try an other profression as in SWG. But if you play another game where profession (or classes) is restricted from the beginning and no way to change it then I would say 1 char/server is a problem. And I have played SWG for more then 6 months and only started over with one character because the restrictions of the wookiee to wear armor, the next patch they solved that problem.

Also played AC2 for a few months, and there they give 10 chars/server. And what was the result of that? I had 6 chars, and only played realy with 3 of them (1 from each race) and the other 3 where just lvl 2 for muling (there wasn't any bank to store stuff). And if you watch the numbers of players in our guild they went over the top of 800 where only a set of 20 active players. And if someone asked how big the guild was we had a big one with the 800. So statistics where fully wrong.

So it depends on the situation, if you don't have a way to change profession/class then multiple chars are needed, but when it is simple to untrain and change profession/class then you have enough at 1 char/server.
And this works agains some players that just create a second char that takes the opposite side to spy. Let those spies that fully destroy war aspects by spying with no way to take them out when you find them.

"If all magic fails, rely on three feet of steel and a strong arm"

JoeyNipps

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Originally posted by Puoltry

The solution?Skill based mmo's.SWG and EvE got it right.Pick ANY skill you want for that character.With this system there is no point in having more than one character.If you can learn ANY skill why would you want more than one?

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Ok, perhaps you don't see the problems as I do.  BTW, I agree that skill based systems are better in general - but that is not the point.  In SWG (as in most if not all MMORPGs), your character (rightfully so I agree) is limited to how MANY skills he/she can have at any one time.  So, for instance, in SWG (again only for example), you can train and be a Master in practically speaking only two major skill lines at the same time.  Thus, this system forces you to be (practically speaking) totally dependent on other players for a wide variety of in game "needs" - in SWG for example if you are not a Doctor, you MUST rely on finding other players for the buffs that are virtually mandatory to play the game at anything but a low level of play.  Thus, the game forces you to either be a Doctor just for available buffs when YOU want to play the game or waste valuable play time hopping from planet to planet and city to city trying to find someone to buff you (yesterday for example I went virtually everywhere wasting almost a full hour and NEVER found any Doctor buffing).  The ability to have your own multiple characters on the same server (in this single simple example) allows the player to cover his playing needs when other players are not around.

If all else in life fails you, buy a vowel.

Bhazir

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Originally posted by JoeyNipps

Ok, perhaps you don't see the problems as I do. BTW, I agree that skill based systems are better in general - but that is not the point. In SWG (as in most if not all MMORPGs), your character (rightfully so I agree) is limited to how MANY skills he/she can have at any one time. So, for instance, in SWG (again only for example), you can train and be a Master in practically speaking only two major skill lines at the same time. Thus, this system forces you to be (practically speaking) totally dependent on other players for a wide variety of in game "needs" - in SWG for example if you are not a Doctor, you MUST rely on finding other players for the buffs that are virtually mandatory to play the game at anything but a low level of play. Thus, the game forces you to either be a Doctor just for available buffs when YOU want to play the game or waste valuable play time hopping from planet to planet and city to city trying to find someone to buff you (yesterday for example I went virtually everywhere wasting almost a full hour and NEVER found any Doctor buffing). The ability to have your own multiple characters on the same server (in this single simple example) allows the player to cover his playing needs when other players are not around.

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The problem you mention are just game breaking things that is the biggest problem in SWG: buffs and armours. Get buffed with master doc buffs and a realy good full composite armor and you just solo high level content on your own, and if that doesn't work the most just call to nerf it because it is impossible to do (look to the corvette).

If the game is better balanced and you can don't need doc buffs and full composite to be good. And the 1 char/server in SWG solves some problems with just buffbots that show up and spoil the game. In SWG you would even spoil the game more in the state I knew it. Buffbots are bad for community and realy bad for pvp and even pvm, they just destroy the need to group and communicate.

"If all magic fails, rely on three feet of steel and a strong arm"

Sarnath

Well, I oppose one character per server in a MMORG. If you wantto see how the dynamics change within the same game from 1 per server to say 3 or 4 per server, then play Neocron. Some servers are only 1 character and others are 4 per server. Like SWG it is also full scale PvP, the only real difference is that SWG makes false claims saying that PvE can play etc. Technically they can but their lives are made miserable by the fact that it is VERY easy to pick up a Temp. Enemy Flag (TEF) without meaning to or wanting to do so. Witness dancers getting TEFs for healing Imperial/Rebel soldiers fatigue and then being killed by the opposing faction. I have seen it happen.

Neocron has "safe" zones where people can trade in safety but other than that, it is also full scale PvP. One character per server means it is EASY to hold you accountable. 4 per means trying to learn the identities of your alts and punsihing them as well. In other words, one per server makes life vastly easier to hold a player accountable for his/her actions. In a PvE enviroment, this is not usually necessary and makes the game much more enjoyable if you are allowed to have more than one character per server. Neocron allowed for both 1 per and 4 per server. If you want to see first hand different and how large the impact of allowing more than one character per server changes a PvP style game, then Neocron is the game for you. You will be able to see 1st hand how it works, without taking anyone's word for it.

If you are a PvE stylist, then you will definately have more fun with being able to have more characters on one server. That is why we play these games isn't it? To have fun? For me it is. PvP got real old real fast for me, so I tend to play PvE style games. Bottom line? I think 1 per server works best for PvP games while at least 5 per server works best in PvE games.

stephen_sof

i think since it doesnt have a class and its skill oreanted its ok but should have some plastic surgery ingame since thats the only thing that makes it so you would want a diffrent charactor

"It's the darkness that brings us power"
SOF site come join

Acaeus

RP enforced servers should allow 1 character only. All other servers should allow several chars. PvP servers that implement faction/race/group wars should only allow chars of the same group/faction/etc.

Bhazir

hmm see 19 votes, but not everyone says why. I'm also intressted in the why, not just this or that.

/bump

"If all magic fails, rely on three feet of steel and a strong arm"

jimothypetro

It's the worst idea ever.

On ign.com(I think) they did an article, about companies and the monthly fees. They said MMOs would still make money at charging $6 a month. It's a bunch of crap that as the cost of bandwidth gets lower, the cost of MMOs have gone up 50%, and we are limited to how many characters on an account we could have(to an extreme number like 1 per server, or 4 per account, etc.)

In all honesty, if EQ2 would have had 10+ character slots available, I would have bought it instead of WoW. I was leaning towards EQ2 until they made that decision, and after they said it, it was all WoW for me...

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"There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
-- Ken Olson, chairman of Digital Equipment Corp, 1977

stephen_sof

EQII had one character???

lol shit thats dumb as hell

what if you want mroe tahn just one race or class then what you have to delete your other character

the dumbest fing thing ive ever heard before i hope SOE gets runned into the ground by DnL

"It's the darkness that brings us power"
SOF site come join