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Should MMORPGs/MMOs let you host your own server (like Ark)?
TheScavenger
Member EpicPosts: 3,321
Would MMOs and MMORPGs benefit from people hosting their own server? Not a private server, but an actual server that anyone can choose to play on, listed in the MMOs server browser?
Like EVE Online, people could make servers PVE only. Or PvP but with 10x (or however much) skill training (so skills would train 10 times (or however much) faster on these servers). Or in WoW, people could put up classic servers or variance of the new expansion. Like mobs could be 5 x harder than the normal servers, or time to level could be turned drastically down (since its kinda too fast as it is).
That is just some examples taken from Ark unofficial servers.
This would highly benefit the MMORPG/MMO world. People could make servers that fit their own needs. The population to the game would go way up, but population would be dispersed. The only downside is the person(s) hosting (the admins) would need to pay for the server...but this would also benefit the company as they would actually make more money.
What do you guys think? Ark does this and its highly successful. And its great because in Ark, I can join a server that fits perfectly. Where as, most MMORPGs/MMOs I find I want to change a ton of stuff (like make leveling in WoW an actual journey, not a trip to the supermarket)
Like EVE Online, people could make servers PVE only. Or PvP but with 10x (or however much) skill training (so skills would train 10 times (or however much) faster on these servers). Or in WoW, people could put up classic servers or variance of the new expansion. Like mobs could be 5 x harder than the normal servers, or time to level could be turned drastically down (since its kinda too fast as it is).
That is just some examples taken from Ark unofficial servers.
This would highly benefit the MMORPG/MMO world. People could make servers that fit their own needs. The population to the game would go way up, but population would be dispersed. The only downside is the person(s) hosting (the admins) would need to pay for the server...but this would also benefit the company as they would actually make more money.
What do you guys think? Ark does this and its highly successful. And its great because in Ark, I can join a server that fits perfectly. Where as, most MMORPGs/MMOs I find I want to change a ton of stuff (like make leveling in WoW an actual journey, not a trip to the supermarket)
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ARK can get away with this, as there are no broader social features. Everything is organised into small groups anyway. In games that require markets, dungeon group population, open PvP, the population matters a lot.
The other thing to consider is quality of service. Developers invest a lot of money into MMOs. They generally want to be in control. I think that is the main reason why most private servers get shut down. If your brand perception hangs on some 15 year old hosting a server the right way, it's a risky business.
I had an idea for my Minecraft server, where I would host a hub world. People could then host their own islands, accessible from the hub world. They would be given the tools to modify the server, with the ability to link into the main hub systems. For example, they could set up their own individual markets and then link them into the hub market network.
Perhaps that approach is more acceptable, as you are not handing over the control completely.
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Others don't want to grind skills for 1000s of hours (like in EVE Online) and just want to get to the meat of the game (which is the PvP). So if EVE allowed this, people could greatly lower skill training time and make whatever other changes on the player hosted server, then people can join those servers. I'd never play EVE because it takes far too long to train skills, but I would play if they did something like this and people made skills train faster. And maybe ships could cost loss resources on these servers, so there is a bigger focus on just PvP.
It is a con though, since the population would greatly disperse on these servers. But, I think it would still balance out with more positives out of it. Ark does have a lot of dead servers, but if the player is paying for it (like Ark, I run a server for 15 a month)...then the company doesn't actually lose anything at all.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
MMO's these days run on powerful hardware, or the most recent ones on Cloud / Instance systems.What would make run yours rather pointless because it's looses the first M.
Usually the cloud system for MMO's is a smart bet, allowing a game world where players wouldn't be locked to X or Y server and can float around to play together, not being able to do so is one big annoyance on many MMO's.
Maybe hosted it on Battle.net like Diablo
Its an interesting concept.
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Could an MMO be made so that people can make their own servers? Many have done that for the past 15+ years, from 4th Coming to Fasaria.
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I don't know anyone who runs their own cluster of servers at home that would be capable of hosting an MMO. The tech needed is just too expensive for the majority of people and you'd only need the tech is you already host something web-based and large scale.
On top of that, you then have connectivity issues. Running a server with 1000+ people concurrently using it requires a lot of bandwidth - I guess your average fibre connection might be able to do it but not very well. You'd want much better connectivity to create a reliable server.
Finally, there is the copyright and security issues. To be able to host your own MMO server, the developers would need to release all their server code to you. That will never happen. First, there is copyright issues involved - by releasing their server software, you could analyse the code and steal anything interesting / useful. Then there is the security issue - by releasing the code it makes it much easier to analyse and find holes in the security, therefore compromising the entire game. That is too big a risk.
Games out there that do let you host (like ARK) aren't MMOs.