Server status reaching critical levels

[Mereni]

Don't pretty much all games have a point where you reach the 'end'? Most MMOs have characters leveling up and when you reach the top level, you're pretty much done. There might be a few top level monsters to kill in groups, but if you manage to work your way through those, that's it, or if you don't have the time to go on long raids you reach the 'end' of what you can do with your character much sooner. The point is to have content enough to entertain and occupy someone long enough that they keep paying for the subscription or decide to buy some of those extras.

Salem being a sandbox setup alters the dynamic a little bit, but it's still pretty much the same story. People will reach the 'end' eventually no matter what. They will have all the skills and all the things. The question is, will they have so much fun, that they want to do it again with a new base and new character? Will they enjoy the game the first or second time around enough to buy stuff from the store? Will there be enough things to do that making a new base might be worth the effort and expense? Right now the answer is mostly 'no', except for those few who have managed to stretch the entertainment out by messing with other people, and even that is starting to get boring.

[Procne]

Don't pretty much all games have a point where you reach the 'end'? Most MMOs have characters leveling up and when you reach the top level, you're pretty much done. There might be a few top level monsters to kill in groups, but if you manage to work your way through those, that's it, or if you don't have the time to go on long raids you reach the 'end' of what you can do with your character much sooner. The point is to have content enough to entertain and occupy someone long enough that they keep paying for the subscription or decide to buy some of those extras.

Salem being a sandbox setup alters the dynamic a little bit, but it's still pretty much the same story. People will reach the 'end' eventually no matter what. They will have all the skills and all the things. The question is, will they have so much fun, that they want to do it again with a new base and new character? Will they enjoy the game the first or second time around enough to buy stuff from the store? Will there be enough things to do that making a new base might be worth the effort and expense? Right now the answer is mostly 'no', except for those few who have managed to stretch the entertainment out by messing with other people, and even that is starting to get boring.

My point exactly.
But look at Haven - people could keep playing it for over a year, even during times od great lag. And they still keep playing or return to the game, even though it has been receiving practically no meaningful updates for years. Although even there is always a steady decline in population since server start.
Why people want to continue playing Haven? Would the same reason work for Salem? If not then why?

[Darwoth]

revert game systems to pre purity nerf, market it to the pvp crowd.

enjoy 3k+ population and endless forum drama.

enjoy good cash shop returns as the pvp crowd tends to be older and have jobs.

[Mushibag]

revert game systems to pre purity nerf, market it to the pvp crowd.

enjoy 3k+ population and endless forum drama.

enjoy good cash shop returns as the pvp crowd tends to be older and have jobs.

^This

[Greb]

revert game systems to pre purity nerf, market it to the pvp crowd.

enjoy 3k+ population and endless forum drama.

enjoy good cash shop returns as the pvp crowd tends to be older and have jobs.

^This

^This #2

[martinuzz]

Add me to the list of "I hate it when Darworth is right"

[Icon]

Darwoth is right alot more than people want to admit to, this is no exception. #agreewithallofthis


that's right, hashtags, deal with it

[Potjeh]

Ye olde purity system adds like a month tops to the time it takes you to get to the point where there's nothing left to do.

Oh, and I've got another theory on why Salem is so much more tedious than Haven - containers. It takes bloody ages to get sufficient sheds and cupboards, much longer then it takes to set up all the stuff that you need them for (fields, mostly). Chests just don't work because of their ridiculous hitbox, and urns are too damn small and thus tedious to use. In Haven you can quickly whip up all the cupboards you can possibly need.

[Darwoth]

maybe for you. for everyone that wants to be competitive they have the option of CHOOSING how competitive they want to be via how much food they care to prepare and stuff into one asset, vs the current situation where the game decides for you and tells you that no matter what you do it will take a year to make a character worth a *****.

furthermore since the games community dynamic would have shifted from carebear to pvp every town on the server would have their ovens and fields running constantly giving carebears and crafters something to do, and there would be an end game of various guilds vying for control.

under the old system i never ran out of **** to do, under this one there isn't **** to do.

[Icon]

^ I think that's what pisses me off the most, I sank alot of daily time in when I was developing Bearbait, and got him leveled up nicely in a fair amount of time, now any 12 year old with a free hour before school can keep right up with me. So what's the point?

in fact, I think a pvp server with the old, old school 100% purity system still in play would be fun as hell... 1k humor fights with characters that are replaceable.