"Reshuffling" the population is only going to frustrate people. Server politics is whatever. They should have advertised the game when they had the chance, but this game is past its prime, and it seems like mimicking WoW content is the only way these devs think they will get any sort of respectable numbers in their player base back. They had a golden opportunity years ago, and they blew it. Merging the servers isn't a "free way" to reach out to people, because some people don't like change, and merging while in the midst of a major update is a good way to destroy the already fragile economy on every server, and in the end, tick off a number of people still playing the game.
Seems like some folks need another reminder: there are no "Devs" for L2NA/EU.
Content changes made by the L2 devs are made for the Korean players, and have nothing whatsoever to do with whether the fairly insignificant NA/EU playerbase is shrinking or not.
If I remember right, there are about 30 (yes, thirty) servers for L2 Korean players.
And we are merging down to, what? 6? 3?
Ofc you're right that L2 has never been promoted very well here, but that is a totally separate issue from game development/content changes.
No developpers for NA/EU is a serious issue, it crippels the way the game
should evolve in european and american standards.
wich are totally diffirent from the way koreans see or play the game.
Even tho there is a slight adaptation to the game it still doesnt match
the cultural diffirences there are in the approach to gaming .
I also think its a big misunderstanding from the Korean NC soft team
towards America and Europe, they still think the gaming hasnt sunk
in big enough to match thei output, the truth is verry diffirent, except
for one thing, in Korea u have a proximity aspect u wont have in
europe or america, players will be miles apart when in korea players
are generally neighbours from each other.
That causes big issues in this game and so needs cultural adaptation.
For this game and all future NC soft games, they all tend to have the
same cultural discordances.
Seems like some folks need another reminder: there are no "Devs" for L2NA/EU.
Content changes made by the L2 devs are made for the Korean players, and have nothing whatsoever to do with whether the fairly insignificant NA/EU playerbase is shrinking or not.
If I remember right, there are about 30 (yes, thirty) servers for L2 Korean players.
And we are merging down to, what? 6? 3?
Ofc you're right that L2 has never been promoted very well here, but that is a totally separate issue from game development/content changes.
Strange. Who does L2NA/EU get their content from with no devs in their department? Oh right, the devs who make the content and disperse it to their counterparts, NA and EU. Then wouldn't the assumption be that these devs get their ideas from POSSIBLY (just a silly guess!) from their player base?
Even beyond the more social aspect of Korean players is the fact that the Korean L2 (from a content and server perspective) is leaps and bounds ahead of the NA/EU version. They are able to choose the types of servers that better suit their gameplay, they have great events which usually put ours to shame, they have an interesting micro-transaction market, they have active gm's, and they get updates relatively quickly. In other words, they have a real game, with real customer service, so they make real money there.
The NA version of L2 is equivalent to someone in Korea saying:
Here...give em this $#1+ and tell em "thanks for playing".
I often wonder what the expectation of the NA market was going in. Server merges is just the logical next step with the kind of support we've been given on this game
Wow...(on a separate note)...I just figured it up...
I've spent over 3500.00 on this game since it's inception. That's a lot to pay for a game when you know there's a better version out there somewhere.
Fundamentally yes, it's a game made by Koreans for Koreans and as long as there are 150,000 or so Koreans paying to play it the game will live on.
But I don't buy the "cultural differences" thing. IMO the game was just badly managed for it's NA/EU audience. Those who have been around for a long time will remember the pleads way back in 2005 for an exp event, like the koreans were getting. 2x exp/sp for a weekend, that kind of thing. We never got one till vitality hit the game. Russians started the game on the premise that if you pay a monthly fee you get 2x exp, game's a hit there. Same applies to privates. NCSoft NA just never listened. Fundamentally the game appealed (and maybe still appeals) to a lot of people, it's just that those people were basically completely ignored by the local game runners and left (whether their qualms were about policing the servers, matching content better for the audience, whatever). Has nothing to do with NCSoft Korea.
I have no clue how Aion is doing, I 've only played it for a week, but that's a game that was designed to appeal to wider audience than lineage 2. But it can still fail if they don't manage it right.
Fundamentally yes, it's a game made by Koreans for Koreans and as long as there are 150,000 or so Koreans paying to play it the game will live on.
But I don't buy the "cultural differences" thing. IMO the game was just badly managed for it's NA/EU audience. Those who have been around for a long time will remember the pleads way back in 2005 for an exp event, like the koreans were getting. 2x exp/sp for a weekend, that kind of thing. We never got one till vitality hit the game. Russians started the game on the premise that if you pay a monthly fee you get 2x exp, game's a hit there. Same applies to privates. NCSoft NA just never listened. Fundamentally the game appealed (and maybe still appeals) to a lot of people, it's just that those people were basically completely ignored by the local game runners and left (whether their qualms were about policing the servers, matching content better for the audience, whatever). Has nothing to do with NCSoft Korea.
I have no clue how Aion is doing, I 've only played it for a week, but that's a game that was designed to appeal to wider audience than lineage 2. But it can still fail if they don't manage it right.
NC Soft NA made this game what it is. It was actually a pretty populated thriving place to play. Then they started basically ignoring the problem that they had with bots. It was the repeated denials or attempts to cover up a pretty obvious problem that caused alot of the legit player base that enjoyed the game to leave. Had they kept that in check, you would probably see a significantly larger player base today. When you can not find a hunting spot because automated toons are playing there 24/7 and the company responsible basically ignores the issue, people tend to get fed up and leave. At least they are trying to curtail the problem now that they have lost 90% of their players.
So yes, it was NCNA that lost the majority of the player base on its servers, not the game itself.
Strange. Who does L2NA/EU get their content from with no devs in their department? Oh right, the devs who make the content and disperse it to their counterparts, NA and EU. Then wouldn't the assumption be that these devs get their ideas from POSSIBLY (just a silly guess!) from their player base?
hum, try re-reading my post?
i didn't say there are no L2 devs lol, just that the only real L2 devs in existence are in NC headquarters in Korea
and yes, they surely do get some of their ideas from their playerbase, their KOREAN playerbase, which is 10 times (or more) bigger than the NA/EU playerbase
Seems like some folks need another reminder: there are no "Devs" for L2NA/EU.
Content changes made by the L2 devs are made for the Korean players, and have nothing whatsoever to do with whether the fairly insignificant NA/EU playerbase is shrinking or not.
If I remember right, there are about 30 (yes, thirty) servers for L2 Korean players.
And we are merging down to, what? 6? 3?
Ofc you're right that L2 has never been promoted very well here, but that is a totally separate issue from game development/content changes.
I don't see any point to your post. Flipsy was talking about devs in general, so what's the issue?
i didn't say there are no L2 devs lol, just that the only real L2 devs in existence are in NC headquarters in Korea
and yes, they surely do get some of their ideas from their playerbase, their KOREAN playerbase, which is 10 times (or more) bigger than the NA/EU playerbase
This:
I don't see any point to your post. Flipsy was talking about devs in general, so what's the issue?
The good thing about this game is dieing:
Soon we all have plenty spare time, we can go in rehab and work on our social skills.
wat!!!! You mean I have to talk to people and not wear my comfy head set when I'm doing it!??!! OMG! I'm going to have to PK someone . . . and I have this thing about chickens now - every time I see one I think it's going to try to steal my buffs!!
This game wont die...lets face it. There always will be people playing in or even come back to l2. I have many friends who came back from aion for example.
Sure, many players left...but dying? I dont think so. This game continues even with lesser players and as we see newer updates arrive.
wow like updates? get real, you all act like wow was the first mmo and the first to come up with what it does. stop talking nonsense. (by "you all" im only refering to people constantly bringing up world of warcraft as part of an argument)"
merge servers, keep the updates going, and lower prices, if not make it free. since its an OPEN PVP game, all the degenerates that flood in would make good PK cannon fodder. just make sure to limit people below level 75 from talking in shout / public channels :D
In my opinion at this situation we are now with lower population in all servers, the best thing is a merge and thats good for me. I dont think we will loose something with this change. The question is, if all servers will merge and there will be only 1 server each like 1 NA and 1 EU or 2NA and 2EU or whatever. The only thing here for me loosing is time to play since the servers are down today for 10hours and later on with the freya update even more :D
Hum and i dont think l2 will ever be a f2p. I mean people still pay for play L1...
It has been said the game is old and dying. There are other more beautifull, more action packed games, and so on. The original player base got lost because better games appeared out there. There has been not enough advertising and so on.
While all those issues have a part in the decline, should i remember you that ppl play in the millions browser based games ? I estimate to 100 mill+ the playerbase for those, such as strategy (travian and the like), sport and business managers online (hattrick, mafia style games), space strategy and so on. While they are much better than the ones i was a developper on 10 years ago on the "grafix" part, the base idea is the same, more or less same for MMOs.
Why do you come to play L2 ? To "own" show you are "Pr0" and "cool", to stare at semi-naked chars and so on ? Then you are 12 yo and you are more or less lost already for the game. Getyourself up to the top, "finish" game and move on.
But the rest of us dont really play for that. We know ppl all over the world and wile "grinding" the game is more or less a sophisticated IM where we learn and teach languages (mostly English), talk about life in different parts of the world, encourage each other and even help with money and rl items someone in need. Of course, other ppl have other objectives, and I can, for instance, describe about 10-15 of "main" ones. Who cares they can never be reached in majority ? The destination should not be the end, the end should be the journey itself.
The only sure thing in life is that after the journey of existence, more or less happy, there is the death, the final destination. You are really that keen to reach it faster than me ? Then play away, go over my body, jump the stages, prove you are 2fast2furious.
GF, GL, BB.
M
It has been said the game is old and dying. There are other more beautifull, more action packed games, and so on. The original player base got lost because better games appeared out there. There has been not enough advertising and so on.
While all those issues have a part in the decline, should i remember you that ppl play in the millions browser based games ? I estimate to 100 mill+ the playerbase for those, such as strategy (travian and the like), sport and business managers online (hattrick, mafia style games), space strategy and so on. While they are much better than the ones i was a developper on 10 years ago on the "grafix" part, the base idea is the same, more or less same for MMOs.
Why do you come to play L2 ? To "own" show you are "Pr0" and "cool", to stare at semi-naked chars and so on ? Then you are 12 yo and you are more or less lost already for the game. Bot yourself up to the top, "finish" game and move on.
But the rest of us dont really play for that. We know ppl all over the world and wile "grinding" the game is more or less a sophisticated IM where we learn and teach languages (mostly English), talk about life in different parts of the world, encourage each other and even help with money and rl items someone in need. Of course, other ppl have other objectives, and I can, for instance, describe about 10-15 of "main" ones. Who cares they can never be reached in majority ? The destination should not be the end, the end should be the journey itself.
The only sure thing in life is that after the journey of existence, more or less happy, there is the death, the final destination. You are really that keen to reach it faster than me ? Then bot away, go over my body, jump the stages, prove you are 2fast2furious.
GF, GL, BB.
M
I usually don't agree with what you write, but this is very well written.
+1
wow like updates? get real, you all act like wow was the first mmo and the first to come up with what it does. stop talking nonsense. (by "you all" im only refering to people constantly bringing up world of warcraft as part of an argument)"+1
Just off the top of my head, here's a list of things that were given huge acclaim in another game that L2 mimicked:
Shadowstep
Charge
Rest
Instances
*sniff sniff* smells like WoW.and other games that were here before L2 and WoW don't have things that are the same?
*sniff sniff* smells like LotR / EQ / etc etc etc