I fear the next post from our CM, GM or someone within NCWest will read:
"...Hello all,
As many of you have noticed and called out, we have struggled with the resources devoted to the game in the recent past. These issues derive from the fact that the overall company strategy has diverted from L2 into other areas, and while L2 has remained a strong legacy game within our portfolio, the company has decided to look to the future and to provide our player base with exciting new games which we hope you will all join and appreciate. That being said, it's sad for me to announce that during the next maintenance period, scheduled for Wednesday, the game servers will be merged into a single new server which will be simply called L2. The details for the merge and notes for the final upgrade will be provided at that date.
The maintenance will be a prolonged one lasting about 24 to 48 hours, as this new server will receive the latest available english game files. After the merge and update takes place, there will be no future updates and the status of the game files will remain "as is" for the foreseeable future. While L2 in Korea continues to evolve, the gap between our servers and the servers in Korea has grown too large to be manageable and our choice is clear, either we move on or devote the available resources to try to catch up, the decision has been made to do the former.
That being said, we will also cease to provide all forum support and there will be no events on the new server. To alleviate the effects of this, there will be a revision of all past event items and an update to the L2Store so the primary event items can be acquired at any time without restrictions. Prices will also be revised to reflect the new service level that will be provided to the game.
There will continue to be weekly maintenance breaks for as long as necessary, these will take place every Wed at 06:00 and will take anywhere from 4 to 8 hours. There is no need for a weekly notification regarding these shutdowns as they will only be standard database maintenance with no patches, fixes or changes on them, so this will be the only notification related to those.
If there is any future change in plans worth communicating, there will be a post here in the forums, otherwise I want to tell you it's been a great experience for me to be a part of this community, I hope we'll meet again sometime in other forums and games. On behalf of everyone here, I want to thank you for your continued support through all these years!.
Yours,
The Lineage II Team..."
And with that L2 will die and become history... The new server will live for as long as the revenue continues to provide some margin, but in a matter of 2 or 3 months, it will dry up as no one will invest in something with no future. Once the server has dried up, there will be a complete shut down and we will hear no more about it... it makes me sad just to think about it but the current situation leaves no room for doubt, this is the path we're threading...
I would add:
"Thanks to the devotion of small player base that supported this project for the last 5 years.Those can contact support for legal help on their mortgage they made off their house to support Lineage II and NCSoft in general, this is the least we can do for you!"
The game is still doing fine, our Development resources are shared among of all regions and the game is not 'dying' in any region.
This means we have years of content we will have access to like everyone else. Specifically the Lineage II Director, Mr Nam has a lot of exciting plans for the game. And we haven't event touched on the Lineage II Classic Server project yet which would bring in a lot of fresh meat if we find it viable to bring it here.
Additionally our current player population is more than healthy to keep the game running and consolidating the servers is not necessary or going to make any significant benefit to operation costs. However, we feel there are areas that can be improved though because of the difficult exp curve and item progression is turning away people out of frustration after a certain point.
With the upcoming launch of Lineage II Revolution Mobile (http://l2.netmarble.com/en), we expect more awareness of Lineage II in the west also which is great for both us and Netmarble.
This is good to hear Neutron, and I am glad it is this way, as I've stated multiple times I love this game, there is nothing out there that holds a candle to L2 and that is quite an achievement. I will not leave this game unless I am forced to and I will probably still be playing when eventually the end comes, which I hope will be many years from now.
The game is still doing fine, our Development resources are shared among of all regions and the game is not 'dying' in any region.
Additionally our current player population is more than healthy to keep the game running and consolidating the servers is not necessary or going to make any significant benefit to operation costs. However, we feel there are areas that can be improved though because of the difficult exp curve and item progression is turning away people out of frustration after a certain point.
Well...
sad is that current GM and CM activity is less than enough to keep the players happy and feel that NC West Staff care about players base
However, we feel there are areas that can be improved though because of the difficult exp curve and item progression is turning away people out of frustration after a certain point.
You are saying this while pushing yourself additional items into the servers via the Embryo Reward Boxes. The solution to the problem is very simple: no more events, no more items. And a great part of the existing items can be removed by deleting the accounts of the item holders under some pretext (impoliteness (http://boards.lineage2.com/showthread.php?t=294234#5) offers itself; just look at the Chronos forum section). This would have the additional advantage of significantly reducing your revenue, providing you with a point to push for a more sustainable business model. I personally think a substantial account creation fee is the way to go, mainly to keep out bots, but also to encourage new players to read up on the game before they commit themselves. As far as prices are concerned, you could take inspiration from "Ashes of Creation": https://www.ashesofcreation.com/projects/store/
The level gap can never be closed in a game as old as Lineage 2. New players will never catch up to veterans like Draecke who have been playing constantly since Open Beta. But again, the solution to the problem is easy. Make the exp curve in the lower levels steeper, while at the same time providing players with something meaningful to do during the years they will spend in the pre-85 range. With bots being eliminated by a 250 dollar account creation fee you can raise the drop rates to pre-Tauti levels, so that lowbies can provide the high ones with the materials they need for crafting. As far as PvP is concerned, take your inspiration from Lineage 2 Classic, where Gludio Castle can only be sieged by low-level clans and the Siege is basically a race against the system. Extend the Blessing of Protection to lvl 85, and harrassment from high-level players will become impossible, lowbies can PvP among themselves.
I dont know how many different staff the game actually requires to support it, but I do know that the hundreds of thousands of dollars gambled away on the events once a month more than covers it.
Game certainly doesn't do fine comparing it to other mmos, but I'm sure everyone has their reality. I love lineage2, but still I'm realistic and I spend money on other mmos while I don't spend a dime on l2. (I'm not complaining or crying, before anyone tries to show me their keyboard warrior skills). I found a way to enjoy the game without having access to the game's full content. '-'