New Server Woes
 

Just a snippet of a quote from another thread for topic reference.
I've always had this attitude that "you get what you pay for". Hence, some
players can be very "trying" to one's patience, especially if they are
donating to help with the costs of the server, then their expectations are
going to increase dramatically, because in their eyes (and wallet), they
are not just donating to help keep the server up, they "think" they may be
donating for the quality of the content as well.
Comparable scenario though: One logs on to Daybreaks EQ servers and "donates"
what ? 15 bucks a month to play on them ? and you do get to "complain".
So YES, even on these servers, if it's a gaming server that needs donations
to provide that entertainment, those expecations are going to be there.
Commonly, there is only one difference between a server that needs donations
and one that doesn't. Servers that are being hosted in a data centre will cost
money, which provide better connections and performance for players. Also,
some who don't have a sufficient server of their own, will seek a data host.

But obviously, if there isn't enough "voluntary" donations to keep the server
up, there could be various reasons for it. The lack of donations/players is
not always about crappy content. (as proven recently and in the past).
Adding new content to keep interest up and attracting more players does not
necessarily mean it has attracted more donators either.

Content development ? players need to realize, "some" of these servers do not
have bigtime professional dev teams like some of the online MMO's do. It
could really be a situation where John Doe, pizza delivery guy, come up
with a plan one day and he's still reading and learning when he puts up a
server for public play. His learning capabilities and skills will be the
"tell all", as to how well he does. But none of these EQEmu servers are
implied to be a "business". It's a gaming hobby for the server owners, just
as much as the players. (at least for me anyways) haha

Observation of mine though: One evening, on the weekend, I was looking at the
server list during it's peak hours and happen to briefly notice, out of
100+ active servers on the list, there was only 15 of them with a population
of over 20,(at the time), with the bigger portions of them inhabiting the
legends list and upper half of green list and 2 or 3 on top of the whitelist.
That example is not something that would set precedence for consistancy of the
player base. But when one is considering hosting a server in a data centre,
I wouldn't automatically assume that those players and donations would be
there for you, no matter how good you did with the development of your server
before you launched it.

It's definately a great feeling when you can work on a gaming hobby like this
and share the passion with others, but I'm not one who would tear my wallet
apart on it, let alone think I needed to prove myself (or cater) to anyone.
Game hobby servers (and players) will come and go. Unforgiving and selfish
players may kick you when your down, but in the end, there is no such thing
as failing. It's not about money, greed, or going bankrupt. It's about having
fun and enjoying it while it lasts.
Stress does not equal fun. We all have a button to shut that off. :P

Some times you just get THAT kind of people who overly enthusiastic and supportive but then quickly become an annoyance.

The following a made up story, that partially based on events that happened a while back somewhere else:


Player A: I REALLY like your server! Its really really cool! I just LOVE everything about it!

Admin: Oh thank you so much.


Player A: Just one thing I wanted to suggest. Why not allow boxing? I think 3x boxing would work fine here.

Admin: Ahh, well I kind specifically didn't allow boxing - its a part of my vision. I really want that 1 players - 1 char thing. Plus content really tuned for soloing, so there is no need to box.

Player A: Well you see there is this server X that does 3-boxing and really works out for them

Admin: Yeah well, I really don't want people boxing.

Player A: Ok I understand. What about adding bots? How about like 3 bots per players? That would be nice no? Server Y similar to yours but also has bots - it works very well there.

Admin: Same reason as with boxing - it would trivialize the content.

Player A: Ok I see. What about adding buff-npcs? How about making buff-npcs in POK that would buff SOW and Hp and port you?

Admin: I specifically didn't wanted any buff-npcs. They usually used to compensate for players needing those buffs to beat original content but our content is scaled down. Each class can solo without outside buffs.

Player A: Well server Z has buff-bots and works really well!

Admin: ....

Player A: I think there should be special uber items to reward donators. So if I donate $10 I could get uber sword that is better than Sword X that drops from Dragon K.

Admin: I really don't think this is good idea. What would be a point of getting sword X from Dragon K then if you can just buy best gear in game?

Player A: Well look Server V sells gear for cash and it works out really well for them!

Admin: I think I really not getting you. You want bots, boxes, buff-npcs, donator gear just like those server X,Y, Z have. Why don't you simply play on THOSE server that have all of those things??

Player A: But I like your server!!!

Admin: Has it occurred to you, that maybe you like my server because it doesn't have all of those things?

Player A: .....

You definately hit the nail on the head with "THAT". That story can end up becoming another
cause for a server experiencing problems with population, or in more serious cases, destroy a
server's goals totally. "Player A" is part of that initial swarm of bees that try to get the server
to follow "them", instead of the server's own goals and try to convince you, that if you don't,
your server is going nowhere. But all one has to do, is have patience.(if feasible)
The "killer bees" will move on and if your patience can survive low population until the honey
bees show up, then the server will stay on track. It can take awhile, haha

"Oh, I hate this state! It's so [insert chosen expletive]!"

"I know, let's move to [insert state name] because they're not so [re-use expletive from above]."

[one year after mass exodus from old state...]

"You know, I really thought that [insert new state name] would be different from [insert last state name]..but, it's exactly the same - go figure!"


"Forest for the trees, detective.."

That is just how it goes. I think Grumpy summed it up well. I do not care how many bugs you squash and how much time you put into it, you have to do it because you want to.

The problem will always be the objectives of the DM (admin) will come at odds with the players which may have new opinions or very old opinions.

I think the big problem we have is that those administrating the servers end up being that close to the user base. Feedback typically goes through channels and wouldn't necessarily go direct to a designer or developer.

I don't have any good solutions for you since depending on your team size there isn't much choice in this matter of distancing yourself from the player base while not alienating them.

We do like to say sometimes that we are not Burger King, we don't make it your way.. kind of as a nudge to the old EQ slogan "you're in our world now".. The experience will have both good and bad in it, but I think the real goal of these servers is the social aspect between players and the experiences they have together (which is really what people want to revisit all the time).

That says a lot. I love the social aspect in the game, but at the same time, there is
"some" players with ulterior motives to have their hand held, asking questions without
having to read the website. There is not much of a problem on these servers with
stuck characters, etc., where an in-game GM has to be there 24/7 for immediate
attention to issues. I also see many servers setting up forums for feedback and issues
but those players have come to wanting to skip that process and have that direct link
to a GM in game.