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TERA merging servers a 2nd time
NHN Korea, the publisher for TERA Korea, announced that the game will go through its second server merge on 2nd June 2011.
During the first round of server merge, 37 servers were merged into 35. In this coming round, the 35 servers will be merged into only 15, with the top 2 populated servers unaffected.
On top of these bad news, NHN Korea posted the company's latest revenue and earnings, with TERA not be meeting the expected figures.
However the game's latest update, Destruction of the Beast, will be implemented as planned on the live servers soon after letting players try out the new content in the test server.
This information was taken from another site, so take it for what it is.
Comments
links or it didt happen.
I never see server merges as bad news, especially with new games (im not saying Tera is new).
I honestly dont understand why new games open up with so many servers. Its no wonder people start playing and dont understand where all the other players are.
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Seems like the game will fail even before it hits NA lol
Shows how about Korea is at making games.
Guild Wars 2's 50 minutes game play video:
http://n4g.com/news/592585/guild-wars-2-50-minutes-of-pure-gameplay
Everything We Know about GW2:
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/287180/page/1
Firstly, please change "Bad News" into something else. It's almost impossible for a company to judge how many servers it needs on day one. The ONLY real measure they can use is their "estimated" hype on the internet which, by the way, isn't always accurate.
So, murging 37 servers into 35, and then 35 to 15 is NOT an indication that the game is doing poorly. What is IS an indication of is a fail is architecture foresight. They obviously thought that they needed the server space for 185,000 players concurrently with 37 servers (general rule of thumb is 5000 MAX per server) in order to keep from having to deal with queues.
I am however surprised that they're taking their damn sweet time with the EU & NA launch of TERA. Obviously either A: They launched in North Korea with FAR too many damn bugs (possibly still in beta?), or B: They think NA & EU audiances demand FAR more polish so they're taking their sweet time.
/shrug
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Their biggest concern of the NA & EU audience is that there isnt enough content to satisfy us.
Something ive read occassionally on their forums is how its your "typical asian grinder" with no real content. I dont know how true it is and i kinda dont care. I think it looks fun as hell but theyre right to worry about not bringing us content. It looks amazing but if we're bored quickly then we wont even give them time to add the content to keep us playing.
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Well said Fadedbomb.
Can I use your post as an argument if I find any other naysayers?
1. I don't believe news without links.
2. It could be a good sign, as koreans usually like bad mmos, so maybe this one is good if it's failing there.
Not only the server mergers, but that are also saying that TERA is not turning the profit that they expected. I don't see that in a good light, and have to wonder if we are even going to see a NA/EU release. Hopefully it does not affect us, we'll just have to wait and see how all this turns out.
The gamers are getting what they asked for. I don't see the problem. The content demands it.
There really would have been a problem, imo, if BHS had ignored the lower populated servers and made a bunch of smoke and mirrors to make it seem as if there were no population problems on many servers.
Several western MMOs come to mind.
As for English TERA? Hopefully we'll be getting the game with the intended end game content and polish that the Koreans missed out on at launch.
Here's your links http://www.mmoculture.com/2011/06/tera-korea-major-server-merge-coming.html
http://betacake.blogspot.com/2011/06/tera-online-korean-server-merges-2.html
I think merges will NEED to be the new way developers plan for new releases. They need a large amount of servers to handle the surge of new players, but they need to keep them flexible so that you can merge them when populations drop. Its inevitable that populations will drop, and in order to ensure that players are well taken care of, you need to have a dynamic structure that will allow for easily switching characters to the more populated servers.
Its amazing that some companies would rather not merge servers and instead pretend like populations are doing just fine, or even worse, try to force players into paying for character transfers.
I would think all companies could probably make due with server merges within the first 3 months unless there is a tremendous amount of growth. Merges will keep the population happy and cut down on excess keeping costs down. Merges aren't a bad thing at all.. they are practical if they are anything.
I am not worried about a game that has been out this long in Korea needing to do some server mergers. That is pretty normal. I just don't understand why they still insist on designing for so many servers rather than for more flexiblity like instancing zones and such.
That they are concerned about not turning enough profit is a bit more concerning.
I am also not worried that people are calling it a typical asian grinder. First every asian game gets called the same thing because every game has people who will not like it and if it is an asian game it will be called a grinder. Second I don't see much of a difference between quest grinding and mob grinding anyway. They both have limited appeal this question usually comes down to how long either of them will make you grind and how well they do about giving you a sense of tangible progress while you grind regardless of the type of grind.
What concerns me the most about this game is how long it is taking to release in the west. I am not tired of Asian games but I am tired of Asian games that are 6 months or more behind the curve here in the west. That speaks to company simply not caring about having an international product. I understand having a little bit of lag between a korean release and the NA or EU release but it really should be on the order of a month or two not closing in on a year. If localization to other regions legitimately takes that long then it wasn't designed with localization in mind.
EDIT: Looks like some weasel got to my first point just before I did.
All die, so die well.
Usually games do not make a profit until at least a year after launch (gotta pay off those bills ya know).
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The reason they are taking so long to release it in the west is that they want to release it with a level cap of 60 and the lvl 60 patch has not been implemented yet, however the lvl 58 patch will be live in a few days.
Ok, I could live with that then. If they are delaying the release in this way it is not so bad. So long as our version of the game is not a half year out of date or something silly like that.
All die, so die well.
What I do not understand is why they do not pre-merge servers...
In essence when you first launch the game you have....
Server Name 1 -1
Server Name 1- 2
Server Name 2- 1
Server Name 2 -2
Server Name 3 -1
Server Name 3 -2
etc.
So you have 2 servers for each server AT LAUNCH and announce that after say one month the servers will be collapsed to their final form... IE server 1-1 and 1-2 are really the same server just for a while you have 2 options of where to make your characters etc.
That sounds like an interresting idea centkin, I nerver thought about it in that way before.
Velika: City of Wheels: Among the mortal races, the humans were the only one that never built cities or great empires; a curse laid upon them by their creator, Gidd, forced them to wander as nomads for twenty centuries...
Sometimes you want to merge particular servers base on how their populations form over time. But what I don't understand is why they don't prepare the characters for server mergers by using a single namespace rather than pissing people off by forcing most of them to lose their cool names. Especially if they got those names by being in a headstart of some kind. I would like to see more games use a givenname/surname pair to identify characters. Make both names significant like how they did in FFXIV. (About the only thing they got right in that game.) It is a little bit more cumbersome when sending a tell, a mail or searching for someone but I would take that over name clashes down the road any day.
Hell, if you plan the architecture with it in mind you could make it so a character could be logged into any server abitrarily. You could then also unify global chat channels, mail, auctions and LFG functions. Reducing servers in that arrangement could be done during any downtime rather than being some horrible event that you have to warn people about.
All die, so die well.
Actually if you did go with a server 1-1 and server 1-2 type idea where both servers were actually the same eventual server then you could have the name server make sure that no names were duplicated over both launch servers making it so nobody loses their names when the servers come together into the final form.
It is mainly a function of the planning of it that way.
As for having unique names across every server -- I have seen a game try that and for a large game it becomes a real problem. Thing is when you have 6,000 people on a server you have enough names to go around. People might not get their first choice but while Billy or Centaur might be taken -- Centkin is less likely to be.
When you have 50 servers of 6,000 people each sharing the same name pool you get to the point rapidly where there are no even passable names left. You try centaur, centkin, centaurkin, centskin, etc all taken. Then you try a dozen other names -- all taken and end up with something really strange like ishkabibbl or centkin147 which breaks the whole fantasy world thing.
Which is why you use a first and last name as the identifier for each character. Then you can have more than one Billy since their last names are unlikely to be the same. Also, what is to guarentee that you wont have both of your paired servers being very popular. Merging 1-1 with 1-2 might not make sense if both are still full but merging 2-1 with 2-2 might not be enough if both have very low pops. It may make more sense to combine 1-1 with 2-1 and 1-2 with 2-2.
By having a single namespace you allow any server to be merged with any other arbitrarily. Further you could mearge again down the road still with no name conflicts.
And from what I saw in FFXIV, for the week I could stand it, having two name seemed to encourage people to pick more realistic names. I saw very few names looked like they would violate even a strict RP naming policy.
All die, so die well.
nice answer, its this exactly, they hate balanced skilled pvp mmo's and tera its one who requires skill, but its not only that:
Can you see they are paying the game in a pre OB stage? they already know the final version of the game it will be around september and the players are not dumb, they could return after final patch (as we in the west should have in our OB)
A Korean mmo that even Koreans don't like. That's the oddest thing I've ever heard of.
That's almost like hearing of a Somalian who says he's on a diet or a politician who won't hold a baby.
That certainly isn't good you've got to merge servers several times before a game hits your SECONDARY gaming market.
"TO MICHAEL!"
So many assumptions with not a SINGLE link containing FACTS. I
the "innernet"
thats good then..if the koreans dont like the game,western will its always like that good news
it depends on their complaints. if the game is just flat out buggy or whatever, then any mmo loving populace will abandon it, however if they dont like it because it's too westernized, then that might well be good news for those of us who ike western games (or folks like me who like both--- playing eve and aion and enjoying both)
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