Server Merges

The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly

By: Savanja

On January 30th, Senior Everquest II Producer, Scott Hartsman dropped a rather large bomb on the EQ2 community. The
majority of the servers would be merged with other servers to increase overall server populations. The reasoning behind
this is that while populations are still very stable (EQ2 is NOT dieing), the size of Norrath has just about doubled with
the additions of an expansion, and two adventure packs, spreading that population over a greater space. This, in theory,
will give a better gaming experience over all, bringing more interaction between players.

This was huge news. And as such, there were strong reactions through out the community. Arguments from both sides of the
fence immediately started flying.

I tend to have a more neutral stance on things like this. I can see the reasoning behind what is going on, but at the
same time, moves like this by the beloved game creators, they leave a bad taste in my mouth, and very much send fear flying
throughout the community with rumors of a dwindling game.

The Good

The benefits that I can see from this radical decision seem obvious to me, and I gather these points were on the minds of
the EQ2 “Gods” when they were contemplating the shake up of the entire playerbase. I’m certain that this was not an easy
decision for the developers to come to, as they had to have known that people would generally freak out at this kind of news.
And quite honestly, nothing is scarier than a angry gamer.

  • For the Gamers:

Picking up a group is always going to be easier in a densely populated server. And for casual players that choose not to
be guilded, this will be a huge bonus. No one wants to sit around, with his or her “LFG” tag up for hours, it burns up game
time, and for those that have limited game time, this can be a huge killjoy.

Higher population servers also mean a larger selection of goods on the brokers. On my server, Neriak, it’s not uncommon
for us to have to watch the broker for days, if not weeks, for an item that we need. I’m the kind of person that wants my gear
and abilities updated the very moment they need it, and not being able to get what I need because there just aren’t enough
crafters on our server to make the goods, is frustrating. I’d go over my whole “Ironwood baton” fiasco, but I’m still sensitive
about that. *sniff*

The biggest benefit, in my oh so humble opinion, to the server merge, is more friends. I like being part of a tight
server community. I like making friends, and now I will have a whole new batch of people to terrorize, err, I mean, get
to know, on Kithicor. I’ve been spending a little bit of time perusing the Kithicor forum, and they seem like nice, slightly
kinky, people. And I’m all for that.

  • For the Guilds:

For the small, and perhaps dieing guilds, this gives great opportunities for recruitment. It also gives players a far
broader range of types of guilds to choose from. Not every one player fits every one kind of guild, and options are
always welcomed. This also brings more chances for the smaller, casual guilds to set up guild alliances, so that they may
also get involved in some of the higher end raiding content, generally available to only the larger hardcore guilds.

The Bad

And for every upside, there is always a downside. Such is life, eh?

  • For the Gamers:

High population servers, plus dense traffic zones, equal lag. Now I am aware that there has been some zone clean up going
on, with the hopes that these high traffic zones can actually be tolerable. But anyone that has been in Qeynos Harbor during
peak play hours knows that lag can hit hard when there are lots of players around. This is so very annoying, and actually one
of the few reasons why I had transferred from Antonia Bayle (high pop server) to Neriak (low pop server) this last summer. I
simply do not have a stellar gaming system, so when all those people are running around, I’m viewing it all in slow motion.

Another bummer is going to be mob and node hogs. Competition for quest mobs, and tradeskill nodes are going to be a pain.
Not everyone operates on a friendly sort of, first come, first serve policy, and I foresee a lot kill stealing, and node ninja’ing
happening while people get used to have double the population after the same things that they are after.

Name changes. This one, for some reason, has been the biggest complaint. Generally, people become attached to their
characters, and this completely includes name choices. As it is, it seems that at least 1 or my 3 characters will be losing
their name, and this makes me sad because that character was named for sentimental reasoning, and I’ll be sad to see the name
have to go. And I’m certain that a lot of other players feel the same way.

  • For the Guilds:

Friendly guild competition is always so fun to watch. My guild is a fun and casual kind of guild, so these aren’t things
we get involved in, but I’ve always enjoyed seeing the larger guilds make a name for themselves hitting big content first,
making discoveries, and unlocking, umm, the Frogloks?

But this can turn ugly when there are too many large, high-end guilds competing over the same things. Jealousy and petty
feelings can get in the way of healthy guild rivalries, causing bad feelings all around.

And just as KS’ing could be an issue for players in general, contested raid mobs could also show up with this same quandary. A
guild isn’t really going to want to spend a bunch of time organizing a raid, to show up and find another guild has the same
thing going on. I hope in this sort of situation, it can be worked out amiably, but it isn’t always, and it is a concern.

Probably more upsetting than one losing their character name is the unfortunate problem of entire guilds losing their guild
names. The plight of one particular guild comes to mind. Retribution of Oasis would be losing their name to a guild on
Steamfront that is inactive, simply because the guild on Steamfront has had use of the name longer. Issues like this are the
sorts of things that people worry about, and we sincerely hope that CS will deal with problems like this, one by one, to instill
faith with the playerbase.

So really, there is no right or wrong here. Depending on what your concerns are, the server merge can be good or bad,
or both! I personally see it as a double edged sword, and I can agree with both sides of the debate. And for me even more
concerning than the after move growing pains, are the technical issues that have arisen with the first server merge.
I truly hope that the following merges go much smoother than the Faydark/Befallen merge.

Note to SOE: Please don’t break my stuff!

And The Ugly

The ugly part comes in when people resist the inevitable and wreak havoc, as we are seeing on the forums. Regardless
of how one feels about it, it’s going to happen anyway, and no amount of complaining is going to change that. I hope that
everyone realizes this, and simply makes the best of the situation we have been handed.

In the end, we all just want to have fun. And the best way for that to happen is if everyone works together to make out
new server homes a great place to be.

I will bid my fond farewell to my home, Neriak, and a hearty hello to my new friends on Kithicor.


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Last Updated: Mar 13, 2016

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