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WildStar opens up free, indefinite megaserver transfers
How's your server's population in WildStar since the switch to megaservers? Does it still feel a little empty? Community manager Tony Rey says that the team has heard the complaints that the PvP servers are quiet, and the team is responding by opening up indefinite free transfers between the PvE and PvP megaservers in both directions. You can move your PvE character to the PvP megaserver as you wish, and vice versa. Rey says that while the team was initially happy with the stats on the PvP realms, the EU PvP megaserver in particular had certain difficulties with player numbers after PvP-to-PvE transfers were opened up but before the megaservers went live. Having free transfers in place does carry the risk of allowing people to level on a PvE server only to transfer over at the level cap, but players are assured that the team is watching for shenanigans and will shut down untoward transfers. These transfers are currently open for an indefinite period of time; Carbine will decide whether or not these free transfers will remain in place after monitoring the health of the server system.
WildStar's megaservers deploy this week
Carbine has just announced that WildStar's megaserver implementation, first revealed in September, will deploy this Wednesday. Megaservers are intended to increase server capacities and deal with fading populations without disrupting players, though they have the side effect of muddying server communities and eliminating the ruleset servers on which players originally rolled. The servers will go offline on Wednesday, October 15th, at 8 a.m. EDT, for up to 24 hours. To make up for the extended downtime, Carbine is giving all players a month's worth of in-game Boom-Boxes and a free day of game-time. Characters level 3 and up, as well as guild, arena teams, circles, mail, and auction items, will move intact, but characters under level 3 that haven't been played in the last month will be nuked. The team is simultaneously introducing surnames to avoid duplicate name conflicts.
The Daily Grind: Do server merges make you more or less worried about an MMO?
Server merges, megaservers, connected realms, server consolidations -- call them whatever you want; a server merge is a merge, and it means a game's population has shrunk and servers need to be shed. Usually, MMO gamers take that as a herald of doom and race to the forums and blogs to argue over the technicalities of who's going where, what stuff will be lost in the transfer, and who predicted something patently inevitable a year ago. Onlookers pronounce the game a failure. But maybe that's the wrong atittude altogether. By the time most games merge servers, I'm usually heaving a sigh of relief. RIFT, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Star Wars Galaxies, EverQuest, even World of Warcraft -- all of these MMOs benefited enormously from their merges or faux-merges, in spite of the way merges look to people obsessed with schadenfreude. For players playing a game whose devs recognize a population problem and fix it while they still have the resources to do so, it's practically a game-saver, not a game-killer. When you're stuck on a dead server in a game that has just enough resources to keep going but not enough to merge, then the game is screwed. What do you think: Do server merges make you more or less worried about an MMO? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
WildStar settles on megaserver names
Players have cast their votes for the new megaservers coming to WildStar, and the decisions have been reached. In North America, the PvE server will be Entity and the PvP server will be Warhound. European players will soon be hanging out on Jabbit (PvE) and Luminai (PvP). WildStar previously announced that it would be merging all current servers onto these four megaservers to facilitate increased population density and player interaction (and, presumably, to clean up the desolated servers). Until megaservers are instituted, players may transfer to other servers for free within their region.
WildStar puts megaserver names up for a vote
Do you have strong feelings about the name of your server? Then you'll want to make sure to get involved with the poll for WildStar players that's running until September 24th at 12:30 p.m. EDT. While the megaserver system has not yet been rolled out, the team is nearly ready and is looking for feedback on just what to call the new PvE and PvP servers for each region. Both server types have five names to choose from. Currently, the North American vote is leaning toward Entity for the PvE server and Deadeye for the PvP server, but there's still enough time for players to change that trajectory. If you don't care about your server name, it's nothing to worry about, but if it matters a lot, jump on over and share your feelings.
The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar ain't doing so good
If you somehow missed it, last week the WildStar team announced that the game will be squishing into megaservers to help bolster populations. What the hell happened? Contrary to what the developers would like you to believe, this is not good news. It's especially bad news if you're part of the roleplaying community, as you're about to get shoved into a server configuration that's almost specifically designed to prevent you from roleplaying outside of a handful of shared plots, but it's bad news for everyone. And it's bad news for the game when server merges are a reasonable reaction after less than three full months of operation. We all know that the game launched to good reviews, and it's far too early to say, "Well, it failed." At the same time, this is not a sign of a robust and vibrant future. This is the first stage of an organized retreat, and it doesn't inspire confidence. So what, exactly, took place that brought the game from the high of its launch to server mergers today?
Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2's post-feature pack experience
On April 15th Guild Wars 2 got its first feature pack, as packed with features as advertised. After the first day or so of trying to figure out where our town clothes disappeared to, it's becoming clear how much has changed: There's a lot more to take in and adjust to than might be immediately apparent. The experience for new GW2 characters has changed so much that I rolled up yet another alt post-patch to try it out. That was my plan all along, and I didn't do it because I just bought another character slot and didn't have an Asura yet. I chose a profession that's known for being less fun without traits, so I could see what it's like to not have them before level 30. It was not because I wanted another Engineer and already have two Necromancers, two Guardians, and two Mesmers. It was also necessary to use a total makeover kit for legitimate data-gathering purposes. Aww, look how cute he is! I can use all of my unlocked dyes on him, and dress him up in outfits, and -- right, down to business.
Flameseeker Chronicles: Customization and playing together in Guild Wars 2's feature pack
As of last week, ArenaNet has revealed all of the major features Guild Wars 2 players can expect to see in April 15th's highly anticipated feature pack. When I say "highly anticipated," I mean that a large part of the playerbase is collectively vibrating and may soon gain enough momentum to will April 15th into arriving immediately. If they don't manage it, at least we've only got a week to wait. Until then, we've got plenty of GW2 discussion to tide us over. Most of the feature pack announcements have been well-received, and there's a lot to look forward to, but I still have a few minor nits to pick. Blame it on nits being easier to find when everyone's head is 200% bigger.
How Guild Wars 2 megaservers affect guilds, WvW, events, and world bosses
Yesterday, ArenaNet announced that it will soon begin to roll out megaserver technology for Guild Wars 2 in order to eliminate overflow and underpopulated servers. Today, it has delivered a pair of blog posts intended to clarify those plans. The first post tackles guilds and WvW. ArenaNet aims to unify guild chapters split across home-worlds so that all members contribute to and benefit from the same version of the guild. But the studio does note that WvW won't be negatively affected by megaservers and will continue to be based on competition between worlds. The second and more meaty entry focuses on world bosses and events. The API governing boss timers on individual worlds will be replaced by a more consistent schedule such that world boss events will start at the same time across the entire game. There's even a 24-hour proposed schedule ready to go.
Tamriel Infinium: Roleplaying in spite of The Elder Scrolls Online
From the moment I stepped into my first MMORPG ever, I was interested in playing a character, not just some avatar of myself on the screen. I followed the Ultima universe enough to create a believable character in that world, though I didn't play as long as I would have liked. However, my second MMO, Star Wars Galaxies, made roleplay really easy. With a bushel of emotes, character animations, and activities not directly based on combat, Sony's Star Wars MMO solidified my definition of what it meant to play an MMO. Of course, after that, the new MMOs -- with too few exceptions -- stopped lending themselves to quality roleplay thanks to the World of Warcraft design model. The change in scenery didn't stop roleplayers from forming amazing communities. In spite of mechanical issues and linear questlines, the Lord of the Rings Online roleplay community thrives. Rumor has it that WoW's roleplay community actually does something besides dancing on mailboxes in Goldshire. I don't think I have to tell you how difficult it is to roleplay in Star Wars: The Old Republic, but I do it anyway. My friends and I are considering jumping into The Elder Scrolls Online not just to play the game but to attempt to roleplay in it as well. It makes us wonder whether we'll be encouraged by the game to roleplay the way we like to or will have to roleplay in spite of the game.
Tamriel Infinium: The Elder Scrolls Online's rationale for roleplay
After reading the roleplay-oriented AMA that released Monday on the official Elder Scrolls Online website, I resigned myself to the fact that I'm never again going to get to play an MMO with chat bubbles. I will miss you, my lovely communicative vesicle. I shall remember fondly the times you allowed me to easily distinguish between those who spoke right next to me and those who sat halfway across a tavern. Apparently, you are now a dated device that no longer holds importance to designers looking to make a game that revolves around player-to-player communication... I know that chat bubbles are not the only important device in the roleplayer arsenal of storytelling tools, but that doesn't mean that I don't find the irony humorous. And I am extraordinarily happy that developers took the time to answer some very important roleplay-related questions. As someone who happens to be very interested in the ability to roleplay effectively, I'd like to take a few moments to discuss the answers the developers gave. And surprisingly the discussion we had last week about the ESO community-building tools fits in quite well with the theme on the whole.
DC Universe Online merging regular servers into MegaServers this Monday
DC Universe Online's rapidly approaching MegaServers unification program will be joining heroic forces together, whether they like it or not. The costumed crime-fighting MMO's 26 worldwide servers are set to be merged into 4 "MegaServers;" 1 PC and 1 PS3 server for the US, with twin servers created for the EU. Previously hailed as "Super-Servers," MegaServers will give players the ability to switch between PvP and PvE styles of gameplay, and hopefully, new people to actually play with. The merge will begin for EU servers on Monday morning, with US servers following on Tuesday and Wednesday. As is the way with these things, some players will be forced to change their names after the merge, as two characters cannot exist with the same name on the same server. Head past the break for a few new name suggestions, as well as a full list of which servers are merging where.
Alter-Ego: What's in a name?
While it is incredibly tempting to go off on a tear about the major decision announced this week to reboot the entire DC Comics universe, starting 52 new comics at issue #1 and essentially retconning every hero and villain we've known to date, this week's column isn't about that. After all, this isn't a comics site, and we've already heard from the DC Universe Online developers that the continuity in the game is separate from that of the overall DC Universe. (Considering how much we heard that noted in the recent chats, we wonder whether Sony Online Entertainment didn't know this major shake-up was on the way.) As such, I suspect we will see the game's storyline remain essentially intact, at least until the point at which we finally take down Brainiac once and for all. After that, it's anyone's guess. Depending on how the reboot works, it might well shake up the game's direction if the new comics are doing well with readers. No, instead our superpowered game is getting its own different version of a restart in the promised upcoming MegaServer merges. While before we had multiple servers, each side will now have two -- one PvP and PvE for both PC and PS3 players -- giving us a total of four. Over this mad-scientist server-mashup, the issue of collisions looms. This week, we also found out that the merges will not only affect player names but league names as well, ensuring that there is plenty of confusion and concern on the part of the playerbase. Will MegaServers be the bane or balm of DC Universe Online's population issues? What precisely are the facts and fallacies? Whom will this affect? Join me behind the break as I take a look at the overall situation!
DC Universe Online's megaservers to use phasing rulesets
When DC Universe Online first announced its "super servers," the whole matter seemed pretty cut and dried. These were server mergers under another name, right? Well... perhaps, but perhaps not quite. As a new piece on the merger explains, the servers are going to continue to operate both the PvP and PvE rulesets as before -- players who select the PvP type will be in a phased instance with other PvP players, while PvE players will be in a separate phase. There's also some discussion about switching phases to ensure that you and your friends wind up in the same place. The overall feel is that the team is aiming toward a Guild Wars-style environment, with a single server and multiple instances within that server. DC Universe Online players can take a look at the answers and form their own conclusions, although the fact that these servers still segregate PC and PS3 players will likely remain a sore point.
