Hellbound and why NA servers are not Korea

So recently im sure we all heard of the implementation of many skills for classes, for example 3 kamael skills were added in the range of level 77-78 for difference classes, TK's got smart cubic etc all of these different things.

Currently most servers that are now teon/bartz/franz are trapped still in stage 1 or stage 2 of hellbound. It needs to be pointed out that these books are dropped in the Castle of hellbound and will honestly not be ever achieveable, or at least in the next 6 months because were far off ct2 and well Kain for example, we arn't even 1/4 into the first stage of hellbound, that how little people play and even want to try get hellbound worked.

Just my 2 cents that some things deserve to be changed for USA consumers in this regard if you are not going to server merge or similar (already had a good 150 actives move from kain) so cant really do alot at all for that type of thing.

Honestly yes i know nothing will be done by NA, because they wont interfear/help the consumers on these issues but just my 2 cents i had to put out there. Really sad my Kamael wil never have these spellbooks also indeed!

Don't want to turn this into another "server merger" thread, but hopefully sooner or later NcSoft will get a clue and understand that they are needed. It would help the Hellbound problems and lack of people for groups, that's for sure.

Thats the last thing im trying to get accross in this thread, but the way its turning out into needing alot of people to progress the server stages, it seems like they want it to get there

A merge would be a huge mess for castles/clan halls, clans & toons with similar names.

Nc makes more money by allowing people to pay a transfer fee. Why fix dying servers at their expense, when they can allow players the option of moving to greener pastures.

I think the game will die before a merge is done. A huge chunk of the player base dropped off the map in C2, and only now are they implementing features that would have kept many in the game. By the time a server merge is considered, there wont be anybody left on the non-euro servers. :(

A merge would be a huge mess for castles/clan halls, clans & toons with similar names.

See, I read that think - wow it would be fun to have everything mixed up, all castle ownership up-in-the-air - the chaotic chronicles were called chaotic for a reason. Since I came back, one thing I really miss about the C1 days is how dynamic and political everything was.

Nc makes more money by allowing people to pay a transfer fee. Why fix dying servers at their expense, when they can allow players the option of moving to greener pastures.

That's a good point. But still, there is a cost/benefit analysis here - revenue to be gained thru server xfer vs. revenue lost by players that stop subscribing because they feel the game is "dead" or there simply aren't enough other players to play with.

One thing I will say though is that, it seems to me, NCsoft NA has always been either very lazy, very disinterested, or simply not given much authority, when it comes to how L2 has been managed. This game had a HUGE launch and could be doing far better in NA, even to this day, imo, if management had been more attentive.

There's really not a good reason why the game should be significantly more popular in Europe than in the States, other than for the management of each division. In fact, there isn't really THAT compelling a reason why it should be doing so much better in some of the asian markets, which have to compete with WoW just like we do here. It just comes down to management imo.

Well, you have to realize that EU never had any separate management for Lineage 2. Hell, originally it did not even had single server or billing region, later Teon was just some east-coast "ruin of despair" with changed times ... Yet, there are more Euro and Russian players than NA as it seems.

Merge those US servers and open one or two new Euro ... talk about flexibility and reflecting market needs. NC is acting strange when they apparently do not care about NA itself while screwing up Euros whenever they can.

There's really not a good reason why the game should be significantly more popular in Europe than in the States, other than for the management of each division. In fact, there isn't really THAT compelling a reason why it should be doing so much better in some of the asian markets, which have to compete with WoW just like we do here. It just comes down to management imo.

No your wrong.

People in the US don't have the time, or attention span to play l2. The grind is so steep that by the time they reach a competitive level they've put in over 1 year time.

I completely understand why L2 fails in NA. People have so much going on in their life's they don't have the time it requires to be competitive, unless they resort to other means (leaching, botting, P leveling). Then when someone tries to become competitive, they get a stigma over their heads for using a means that NCsoft deemed inappropriate.

so we have 8 servers dedicated to usa, and 3 servers made for Euro players. Even tho the vast majority of US servers are filled with Euro players; everything from Greeks, to Russians, to sweetish.

The thing is, its reversed. It should be 8 Euro servers, and 3 US servers. Or 4 US servers (and the 3 euro ones), and a few alternative type servers. 1 for casual players, 1 for high level pvp.

and to that other guy...who cares about castle? put them top NPC..NPC all clan halls, and refund the clan that had it before.

there are 5 siegable halls, and 21 fortress that can be held.

I completely understand why L2 fails in NA. People have so much going on in their life's they don't have the time it requires to be competitive.

That's exactly true, everybody thinks so and says so, but yet absolutely nothing is done on NC's part to change that, and it would be so simple...

Yes, here i am again with the Relaxed Server thingie (like you said it yourself), i mean, come on, L2 is such an awesome game it would crush all other MMO if ppl could play on a dedicated 5x or 10x server...

Heck, even in Korea they have one !!! Well, ok, it's not exactly a 5x or 10x, but it's still is a Relaxed Server in a region of the globe where it's not that much needed, and in another region where it is absolutely needed (NA/EU), we dont get one ?

I'll never get why a company like NCNA doesnt want to make such easy money...
No new devs to hire, nothing to change, just add a new server and set the drops to 5x or 10x, even a monkey could do that :p

No your wrong.

People in the US don't have the time, or attention span to play l2. The grind is so steep that by the time they reach a competitive level they've put in over 1 year time.

Well, if that were true, then there would have been a mass exodus about a month after L2's launch, before people ever hit the level cap. But that isn't what happened. A lot of people hit the level cap. Or got ****ed close. AND THEN they quit.

I have been hearing these arguments about Americans being so different and having no tolerance for grind.. yet top raiding guilds in mega-grind games like EQ and WoW are always U.S. guilds. Isn't that wierd? And when NCsoft conducted a survey of what players liked and disliked about L2, the answers given by Korean players were almost identical to the answers given by American players.

It's pretty funny to suggest that Americans are "too busy" with our jobs and what not.. I guess people don't work in South Korea? It's just a completely cliche and generic argument that I've heard so many times and that has been discreditted so many times hehee.

It is a hard grind, but that isn't because it's an asian game, it's because it's an older game. You can play plenty of American and Euro mmo's from the oldschool of thought that are just as grueling. (well.. almost..)

Main reason I left was indirectly the grind.. but it was really the pvp system as a whole. The game punished you SO harshly for ever pvp'ing. It was absurd. Also many people left because, in addition to not responding on PvP rules, NCsoft would not take a hard line against bots and gold farmers. Yes that argument goes all the way back to launch.

NCsoft NA just hasn't been willing or able to take this seriously enough, and they lost 1000's of subscriptions because of it. Once they finally did act, they did so by using Gameguard, which probably cost them a few more lost subscriptions because of all the technical difficulty it causes. To top it all off, they had a real amatuer for their first P/R guy on these boards, and almost no messages from senior management, so the customer service was very poor.

Of course the game is oldschool mentality and does have a grind. I won't deny that. But in the longrun, every mmo is a grind. You complain it takes a year to gear up in L2. It takes a year+ to gear up in WoW, if you consider the reputation and raiding grinds. Only difference is how the grind is packaged and presented to you. :P

I think the real failing of L2 in the NA market was due to bad management and service, to be honest. It took me three years to get over how badly burnt I felt by it and finally come back. ^^

so we have 8 servers dedicated to usa, and 3 servers made for Euro players. Even tho the vast majority of US servers are filled with Euro players; everything from Greeks, to Russians, to sweetish.

Totally agree. And sweetish people must be very very nice!

We are ;)

yet top raiding guilds in mega-grind games like EQ and WoW are always U.S. guilds.

WoW is a mega grind game? LOL?

The end content is. You hit max lvl in a month then spend a year trying to get your equipment by doing the same instance over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and... you get the idea

yet top raiding guilds in mega-grind games like EQ and WoW are always U.S. guilds.

WoW is a mega grind game? LOL?



Absolutely. How many years have you spent raiding in WoW?

Indeed, and to make it "worse" the WoW player has to grind pve/pvp for a year again after an expansion they payed for :)

And don't forget the butt ugly graphics of that game too.

Our game is soooooo beautiful compared to that crayon crap!

People in the US don't have the time, or attention span to play l2. The grind is so steep that by the time they reach a competitive level they've put in over 1 year time.

You don't need to "reach a competitive level" to enjoy playing L2.

People in the US just don't like the game worlds that are so obviously controlled by cheaters. Those "Euro" players you see are mostly East European players, who, due the recent history of their countries, are more willing to tolerate cheating.

due the recent history of their countries, are more willing to tolerate cheating.

whats history of anyone's country has to do anything with tolerating cheating?

why cant i make the connection?

You don't need to "reach a competitive level" to enjoy playing L2.

People in the US just don't like the game worlds that are so obviously controlled by cheaters. Those "Euro" players you see are mostly East European players, who, due the recent history of their countries, are more willing to tolerate cheating.

Wow... go bomb some more 3rd world countries?

There are very few generalizations you can make about any country full of people.
Most of the opinions here have just been silly.

If I was going to characterize why NA players respond to L2 the way they do, I'd say it is more related to the fact that American's tend to have a high expectation that "things work".
We expect all 3 pickles on the McDonald's hamburger to be present, we expect our cellphones to not drop calls, we expect our cars to start every morning, and we're usually pretty consistent in expecting applied 'rules' and explanations to be reliable (and for them to be consistent).
Certainly that doesn't describe every American.
Is there a common theme among American's? Actually no. But this country does tend to PRODUCE fairly well--which begins to set expectations in Americans that things produced will work well and as expected.

L2 has been a stumbling, disconnected, unplanned platform for the past 3-4 chronicles.
I'd guess that is what is frustrating to Americans--to the degree you can categorize them.

As for bombing 3rd world countries, which one did you have in mind?