Are we getting a server merge soon?

[Olor]

Word to the wise: GEO isn't flavor of the month. It's flavor of the rest of the game's life.

Touche. Well regardless, while I may be (and probably will be) into leveling it up later and gearing it, that's not really a very good solution to my right now problems. And I wouldn't really be able to gear it anyway :/

Besides, with my luck as soon as I had it leveled and not completely awful SE would nerf it.

[Jin_Uzuki]

<_<

[Alhanelem]

The landscape of MMOs, and even all gaming in general, is changing. People have to accept that what once was won't ever be again. We can look back to the good ol' days fondly, but we can't get them back even though we all want to. As much as all of us have loved this game for years and years, times change and today's gamers for the most part aren't looking for a game that will bust their balls. As was noted by another poster, any other game that has attempted to bring back the ultra hardcore style has failed miserably- there just isn't a large enough audience for it anymore. It's adapt or die in this world.

[OmnysValefor]

I'm sure that we'll never see another popular MMO with a grind like Relics, let alone Mythics or Ergon.

That said, I refuse to believe that group-centric MMOs have to be failing so miserably. I genuinely believe that it's how these games are handling grouping that is the problem.

When I played FFXIV 1.x, groups would pull a pack of mobs, claim them all and the an outside person would aoe them down, at no penalty to experience. Noone learned a thing about their class play in a party.

In 2.0, people would FATE grind to level cap and then be tossed into endgame where grouping was a must with again, no idea how to play their class (Example, as an Arcanist/Summoner/Scholar I equipped AOE-flash for fast claiming in fates, because that was the key to success in fates). I'd run into tanks that never figured out that that game's flash was centered on the caster rather than the target, so they'd just be spamming flash til dry on MP and it's doing nothing. I'd find tanks and DPS spamming their single hardest-hitting ability, without the buildup combo doing severely gimped damage.

The random dungeon finder had such a long wait period for damage dealers, and you couldn't use it while in a group (fates) unless everyone in the group wanted to. You couldn't use it while soloing with your chocobo out (an adventuring fellow/trust basically). So if you wanted to use it, you had to be doing something solo. Further, FATE'ing was far and away the faster experience.

There were training leves, both for your class and general game mechanics but they didn't teach anything. The level 10 one could be tanked by a DD just fine and so they did. I get it, wanna get in and get it over with, but nobody learned anything. You might be laughing "Yeah, that's just level 10", but the first dungeon was level 15.

There were class/job quests that kind-of had you perform your role via clunky interfaces. As a healer, you'd heal/-na others, but you had to tab-target to each person. There was no party-interface for the NPCs in these quests. I always kept my baby-tank in current gear and I found the bosses in some of the quests overly punishing if I did taunt off my NPC big brother.

The tank quests often teach nothing about enmity/hate/threat/whatever. You either melee away like a weak DD or you taunt and the NPC tank never really tries to get it back. And since most of the tank quests don't have an NPC healer or DPS, you never get the chance to learn anything about aoe-tanking.

I strive to be a strong tank in every MMO I play, so watch things like enmity and aoe tools closely but not every player gets it and so they get to level cap, are suddenly thrust into groups that way-outgear them, and they're helpless. Some of these games make the first fights you experience at level cap intense DPS races, which causes a lot of strife in the new community. Players that have never been taught how to DPS must DPS like a pro (hi Tonberry King, Demon Wall).

Another thing. Dungeon finders are poorly conceived. They often launch with the basic bonus (finding a dungeon from anywhere in the world) with few of the necessary protections or benefits. People being able to Need gear they can't use, being unable to blacklist/kick rude troublemakers, being unable for form cross-server friendships and most irritating of all: When I would find a good cross-server group, I couldn't go again with the same group. We had to disband and all go at it again. The next healer may be trying to heal in DPS-mode (Like XI's Light Arts/Dark Arts) because it's what his overgeared buddies at level-cap can do. The next DPS may pay no attention to markings or party chat.

---

I agree that the world of MMO players is changing but I 100% believe the reason party-centric multiplayer games are failing is because of how the game as a whole is designed. You start out and they throw you in a canoe on a calm river. You get to level-cap and you're given freight ship to command. "What? It's basically the same thing, it floats and keeps you dry.".

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Once the group-centric MMO is gone, <3 XI, I feel like the best communities are gone. Games where you don't need any help for 90% of activities seem to have awful communities. It sucks.

[OmnysValefor]

Stompa, I concede that the majority of MMO players want instant gratification and soloability any time they desire. The majority of FFXI vets, no matter how much they loved it, would admit that seeking for hours sucked, because there was little you could by yourself aside from crafting.

Still, every game seems to be flocking to a model that ELEVENTY MILLION PEOPLE tried. SE is not the only company that moved on from previous working models (FFXI) to follow something closer to Warcraft's, and it's all for the allure of more players. Other games' successors or sequels (not saying 14 is an 11 sequel) have also done this.

I feel like every modern MMO is a student of WoW's lessons and not their own lessons. It makes sense, they're businesses and want a slice of the big pie, disregarding the pie they had all to themselves.

[Diavolo]

Cerberus' online population at 6:00pm pacific time tonight, a large portion of those being AFK bazaars. How low must a server's population go before those running the game do something about it?

[Pixela]

Cerberus' online population at 6:00pm pacific time tonight, a large portion of those being AFK bazaars. How low must a server's population go before those running the game do something about it?

People like you baffle me.

It's like your sitting in a bath full of freezing cold water, complaining how cold it is and you refuse to pay a guy $12 to turn the heat up. Sure it would be nice if they did a free merge for you but the game is built around low man and higher server loads now. If it really bothers you so much and you put a ton of hours a week into the game, just server jump? or not I guess....maybe you like complaining more.

It might sound like I'm bashing you but I'm not, I'm just being a realist here.
It's obvious they aren't going to do it after all this time, this is the millionth topic post about it and they are all ignored.

[Jin_Uzuki]

He's not refusing to pay anything. The game is not free. He paid for the game and the monthly cost.

[Cesil]

He's not refusing to pay anything. The game is not free. He paid for the game and the monthly cost.

This. We are already paying for that...so why should we be forced to move because they refuse to merge servers? It is not about being cheap/poor, I could EASILY transfer right now..but guess what, there is still quite a few of my friends on Lakshmi, despite the super low population. People need to stop being apologists and just realize a server merge should have happened ages ago.

I am paying to play a MMORPG..massive..multiplayer...not 300 people RPG lol come on.