Current state.
Honest question I would like to hear opinions on,
With the slightly more information we’ve gathered about this new server, Do you think it will breathe new life into the game ? Or do you think it is too little to late and they’ve missed their opportunity?
I personally have never seen the game this low in pop before, there’s no play style options except take what you can get . I don’t want to say it’s over, but …. Is it ? Did we wait to long to capitalize on pumping out something new ?
Curious of everyone’s opinion . I’m not putting a poll attached to this because I don’t think it’s really a clear yes or no. But feel free to be constructive.
With the slightly more information we’ve gathered about this new server, Do you think it will breathe new life into the game ? Or do you think it is too little to late and they’ve missed their opportunity?
I personally have never seen the game this low in pop before, there’s no play style options except take what you can get . I don’t want to say it’s over, but …. Is it ? Did we wait to long to capitalize on pumping out something new ?
Curious of everyone’s opinion . I’m not putting a poll attached to this because I don’t think it’s really a clear yes or no. But feel free to be constructive.
Comments
- The launch of the new event/server will be very succesful.
- There will not be a significant drop off in players because the duration of the event will be too short for this to happen.
- Very few (new) players will transfer to Ywain at the end of the event (this is the real challenge).
New Life? Yes and no. There will be two (opposite) perspectives on this:
For returning players (such as myself) it will be fun to (finally!) play again. The only downside will be the (short) duration.
For Ywain and its loyal fans who do not participate in (or enjoy) the event this could be a devastating blow to population numbers, and even though the plan will be to channel players to Ywain at the end of the event, this is not guaranteed to happen to any significant degree.
Then comes a new event... Rinse and repeat. Each event less succesful than the previous. Ywain will keep struggling.
In the announcement the killing stab from behind is already included... " .... based on playervote... "
Only the few mad fanboys that killed also Ywain are vocal, 99.9% of the playerbase will not vote....
Start Classic, stay Classic, events and PvE like desired.
The gap between a casual player/random and a no-lifer MUST be minimal.
No third-party or automation allowed, CC reduced by 99%. ( In classic it wasnt that much anyway... )
Back -or Sidestyle while in front can not be.
Obviously NEVER EVER introduce things like the TOA-Stuff in RvR. ( The game died because of them.... gap... )
Buff-Bots should not being possible.
No Buffpots,
No multi-boxing.
Just look at WoW-Classic, the time without Raids was glorious... after they introduced them ( playervote ) it went dead again....
I am playing Eldenring and NW now, will wait for DAOC-Classic.........
I am NOT subscribed to DAOC since many months now..... but for sure will sub for Classic... that stays Classic.
Greetings,
Mahv
I’ve said it before but nothing will change until
Drop all fees and make it F2P with no restrictions.
Advertise the game, steam/Influencers/twitch/YT etc.
Make the UI scalable before the above.
Allow a optional sub fee for cosmetics/special titles/mithril only.
Once the player base improves it will remove 99% of problems that are stifling the game now. Splitting the player base is probably the worst move you could make.
Demmps - Vampiir
Mimins - Bard
Dempseas - Warden
Dempsee - Hero
Klick left upper corner of screen (maybe put UI element beside if u get ther something...
and klick oder shift + klick make small adjustments in scale of UI
Running full High Gear equipped 8 men group,
over some causuals in random Drop Armor,
is not really a fight or Art and requirre no skill......
We call it Sport...^^
If the game was ever going to be on Steam, it would be already.
The goal of the server isn't to be a new server that will last 15 years without changes. The goal is for a progression/event/seasonal type server where the server evolves rapidly over time. Static servers die within the first 5-6 months of launch.
Nobody will come play Ywain, even with marketing. Let's be realistic here and understand that the game is 20 yo and that games now embrace a seasonal model instead of static long term models.
Which playerbase did you ask though? Because currently, the project that is drawing the most traction from available daoc playerbase is a strict 1.65 server with a long PvE grind to 50. That server will get 4k+ pop on release, compared to the 300 that play Ywain.
Which crowd do you want to bring in? The 6 friends of the current ywain players or the 4k players that are getting excited for, frankly, a **** server that just offers a clean slate.
The other servers operate on roughly a 6 months life cycle. And they work, ppl get bored after 6 months and are excited to start over when the new one comes around.
The main advantage of a BS server is permanence and that will most likely extend its life a little bit. But thinking Ywain has anything else to offer is just wrong.
i hope i am wrong and teh server will be a sucsses
but i ask me
when the new server dont bring what u all wish...
Who to get blame then ?
I think u all should enjoy the game so long its still running...
life showed me that all good thing ending later or sooner..
so take the time it is give to u, life to short to complain
about everything thats not totally perfect
Nothing is ever perfect. and teh World is not Black or White...
mostly its damn fkn grey
Running full High Gear equipped 8 men group,
over some causuals in random Drop Armor,
is not really a fight or Art and requirre no skill......
We call it Sport...^^
Is that how you would approach running a business? Don't do anything until it dies cause it's been long enough?
but as i was in clinic for longer time last years,
i readed lot of thread s on Postcount and here::specaly about new server and player wishes and so on,
here is another thread... "what player wants on/from new server" or so..
and if u read this all u´ll get alot of different opinions...
some like toa some not.. some want Low leveling some fast etc etc
and from some player, i get the feeling when it s not ALL exactly so;
like they wish they so or so dont want reactived.....
years ago all cry´d for new content... and a thing they called "evolution"..
ok Devs try to give us that..
and some change are nice some not...
(my old crew broked over some of the changes, beside of private issues)
i personaly hate complete the necro changes for an example..
but mainly Playerbase reaction was, all unpleased.
But i get sometimes the feeling; when i talk to "old Players"
some expect a "goose that lays golden eggs" or like we say in german
"Eierlegendewollmilchau"
(a animal that give eggs, furr, woll, meat, milk,bone and so on and top of it,
its best cook itself readdy to eat.,,,
(translator tell me its in english "jack of all trades" not sure if this is right)
and this will never exist, or happend.
and i am pretty sure, no matter, what Devs try to do with new server
some will be terrible unpleased, and will still complain sidelongs about...
as to preachiate that the Devs still try..
(and this is since 20 years one thing that never change in daoc forums, complains, moanin etc)
and i woulded only mention that sometimes, is better to get into a compromise
as to loose all trough beeing totaly unflexible in accept situations
i really dont like some changes, (was one reason too for try out alot other stuff last decade, beside my health and other problems)...
but i did make my peace with it now...
cause the game that was a kind of my "first love" in MMO
is in the core still playable and "there"... and i am happy about this
not one of the games in last decades really satisfy me in PvP like daoc did
My post was not about how to "leading a buisness"
in some points Devs are helpless,
some things depends on the Comunity,
(make more videos show them, explain why we love DAOC so etc , mouth to mouth propaganda, talking Positive about the game, not only get fixed on negative, somthign positiv must be still in or know u much other games that runs so Long ? alot trippel A titels last decade runnned the half of the time, and importants dont be always negative and look for the hair in the soup)
and some player dont left the game cause its "unplayable"
some simply "growing up"... other gettin married, a job that let them less time....
or Kids tehy spend main time on or other thing getting Important or Whatever,
All the life is about changin,
(Some Player stay away too cause the personal situatuon is changed and some has nothing to do with the game directly)
The population will never get so high again as it was 15 years ago, that the thruth i see,
all other is wishfull thinking, my opinion. New server Back or Fore, and so mre u all get fiex as so greater is later the disapointment....that s was fear me a little. and what then comes on post into the forum, think about that u maybe agree with me that this is a danger too.
Maybe when u drive a hart Merchandisin Campain: u can raise it a little
but i dont belive BS can afford it.. and EA surly not willing to spend tons of Money into it
MAybe bring it on steam (but steam want ca 30% of all income so far i know and readed in an other contex, that surly a hart reason for BS/EA)
They will let it runs so long possible.... but its still a Comercial point, and when DAOC dont calculate it itself anymore and get Carried about the Numbers,
I am pretty sure EA plug the power line, without to care one minute, about how sorry we all feel then are or how emotional hitted some maybe get...
They have the responseability to the Shareholder s, not to US the playerbase..
its a Public Company that is traded on the Stock Exchanges,
that the opinion that counts for EA bosses... not our one.
and as more player stay away (for what reasons ever) so earlier will we get to this point
thats surly not nice at some points, but that the world we Live in..
(other option is Buyin massive EA papers, maybe we should try get Elon to the game and make him addicted, but who fly us to MARS then when he spend his time in RvR ?)
my post above was only a try, to give the hint to make the best out of it..
and not stomp with the feets up, when its not all so like we wish, it would be.
"QQ when i dont get what i wanna i dont log in anymore"
when its closed one day, is not more anything left to complain about.... keep that in mind
i am not sure about the Bilanz of the game / BS
but i dont think thats on same level positive as it was 10 years ago
(specaly in current situation on the of world economy)
that explain long patch times lesser new content etc etc...
they dont have the "big" pool of employes that they can please all of us completly
BS try to keep it up, and we must be thankfull for it,
that they try this is cause some of them love the game too, and no i am not a fanboy, but, has have the last years alot time to think about things and my Health Status let me see alot of things in a different angle as i did years ago..
Life is Short, So dont waste it with being angry about things, u cant change directly...
Enjoy the oportunities thats give to u... and do the best, u can out of it,
Change the Mindset, how to look on things
Seem to me sometimes, that some take this all here terrible Seroius,
and forget to take the fun we all can have together.
and sry Shoke, for bad english, wrong sentence construction, misswriting etc
is not my language
and i hope its readable and u get the sense in it of what i mean.
Sweet Greetins Omarius
Running full High Gear equipped 8 men group,
over some causuals in random Drop Armor,
is not really a fight or Art and requirre no skill......
We call it Sport...^^
Nonetheless, it is difficult to retroactively fix mistakes that have accrued over the years on Ywain and expect the server to rebound without a major lure to spark interest. Considering what Broadsword has done since they've taken stewardship of the game, PvE campaigns (OW & Cursed), Come Back to Camelot "marketing" campaigns, Endless Conquest, & the Catch-Up in Caledonia event, they have enough data to know what works and what doesn't in terms of bringing players back and retaining them. Without any doubt, a clean slate will bring players back with minimal effort. The real problem to address is player attrition. This is where BS has their work cut out for them because the DAoC player base is extremely fickle.
A seasonal server could work for DAoC as it's essentially occurring right now in the freeshard community. However, that is not a solution to the player attrition problem; but rather an effect of it. Therefore, without addressing player attrition, any new server has a high probability of being unsustainable in the long term, forcing a "reset" when population drops below some critical threshold. Depending on the creativity and responsiveness of the development team, this can either be a major boon or bust for the game.
MMORPGs have evolved over the game's lifespan to cater to folks who simply cannot invest a substantial amount of time playing; however, progression still remains as a core element. DAoC progression is primarily tied to Realm Rank and, consequently, becomes the major form of disparity between casual and "hardcore" players. The perception that Realm Rank disparity is the reason casual players cannot compete against hardcore players becomes an easy excuse to stop playing altogether. Therefore, character progression in general likely needs an overhaul to minimize this line of thinking. How best to approach that particular issue is unclear, at least to me.
Flexible like a Concrete-Wall......
If there are still open questions...
Make an event... create a BG to test the Idea out...
Realm-Rank ??..... Event or BG with RR15 for everybody.
Gear ??..... Event or BG with different free-sets of OP-Gear for everyone.
Classic works or not ??.... guess.......
Just use the little gray matter between your ears...
If they really would be interested in finding a way to increase the player-base they could do easily.
The fact that they are not doing anything shows that they are not interested.
The only way to force a solution is to vote with your wallet.
Everybody should get rid of his description and tell the little suckers that they will come back if there is a solution.
Dont be scared about the game, the code is out there... it will never die.
The players dont need EA/BS, but EA/BS need the players....
Feel your power, use it....
Mahv
All I see is all players want a different version of the game and it's been very telling that there is no real version of this game that will work for the old community. That is why this game needs to be revolutionized and push this game towards new players. I know how hard that will be as this game is ancient and looks very clunky but you'll be surprised how many people out there like old clunky games. I'm not saying push all the old players out but the only way a game will continue to be long lasting is getting new blood which would give life to DAoC.
I think there needs to be major improvements definitely to ywain to make it more new player friendly and it needs population to keep players in the game. You can't have a dead tutorial zone for no one to play with, there needs to be population and this game thrives on population, so if broadsword are listening. They need to look at how to make the game new player friendly and push for advertisement on steam/origins. If you can't do that now then the game will slowly descend into the achieves of mythic/EA catalog of dead games (shut down and put away to bed basically).
And that's where the issue is!
If you don't invest in new players then the new server is pretty pointless. I've seen it all before and it will end pretty quickly. It may have a big boom at the beginning but will lose players after a couple of months and the server will be probably have the population of ywain as it is at the moment. I maybe wrong and they may pull off a miracle of keeping players but I just can't see returning players coming back when they have different opinions/versions on what DAoC is.
Plus players have mentioned that they wont pay subs for this game any longer. It might be something that Broadsword will need to look into on how to make this game F2P, That's the only way possibly you'll get more players back. The restrictions on the EC accounts will not lure people back the way it is right now.
And that's where Talal has mentionned more of an "event, progression" server than the classic server some people have stuck in their heads.
Not targetting new players doesn't mean that freeshard players won't want to play. It's more people that haven't played daoc before and start from scratch wont be the target audience for the server. Considering this is a 20 year old game, with some quite obscure mechanics, completely outdated UI and pretty bad graphics, this decision makes total sense.
So if the server lasts a couple months, considering this is getting built more like an event/progression then I feel it could be successful in the long term.
Shards are going big on trying to build the "perfect" daoc based on pure arrogance on their part, but their main issue is that if they feel like it they can delete everything. The only place that offers permanence is whatever broadsword will come up with and that's a huge thing shards will never have.