As most of you will know, we are currently considering clustering the English servers. We've had one poll on this and are currently running a second. Numbers however only tell us so much and so we are looking for more detailed feedback about your views on this subject.
Firstly I'll lay out what the principle advantages and disadvantages of clustering are.
The advantage:
+ The populations of Prydwen and Excalibur will increase immediately. This will mean there will be more people available to group with, raid with or RvR with.
The disadvantages:
+ Excalibur and Prydwen will become essentially one server with many duplicated zones. New players (of which there are many since Catacombs) will only have a choice of one realm. Players who currently play both servers on more than one realm will find that it is harder to swap between their characters. Existing players who want to try a different realm to their main characters will have to either open a new account or delete all the characters on their main account.
+ There are many well defined and closely knit communities on both servers. The sudden introduction of so many new allies and enemies will undoubtedly change those communities for ever. Game economies will most certainly change and, in genera,l items will become far more expensive across the board. This is likely to affect Prydwen more than it will Excalibur.
+ Clustering is irreversible. Once we have taken the step we cannot go back to having separate servers for Prydwen and Excalibur. If you don't like it afterwards there is no changing your mind.
Why Cluster?
Keep in mind that when Mythic clustered servers, they were responding toa situation where some servers had a primetime population of less than 300 people. Our servers have prime time populations of close to 1000 for Prydwen and 1500 for Excalibur. They are by no means dead servers, last night on Prydwen there were approximately 250 people in New Frontiers zones which is a very healthy RvR population. The smallest realm (Hib/Prydwen) is still able to run large scale raids with little difficulty. Not clustering now still leaves the possibility open for the future should populations drop low enough to require it.
I'd like to know why you voted the way you did and why your choice is the best one for the servers. Abusive, offtopic or spam responses will be deleted.
Firstly I'll lay out what the principle advantages and disadvantages of clustering are.
The advantage:
+ The populations of Prydwen and Excalibur will increase immediately. This will mean there will be more people available to group with, raid with or RvR with.
The disadvantages:
+ Excalibur and Prydwen will become essentially one server with many duplicated zones. New players (of which there are many since Catacombs) will only have a choice of one realm. Players who currently play both servers on more than one realm will find that it is harder to swap between their characters. Existing players who want to try a different realm to their main characters will have to either open a new account or delete all the characters on their main account.
+ There are many well defined and closely knit communities on both servers. The sudden introduction of so many new allies and enemies will undoubtedly change those communities for ever. Game economies will most certainly change and, in genera,l items will become far more expensive across the board. This is likely to affect Prydwen more than it will Excalibur.
+ Clustering is irreversible. Once we have taken the step we cannot go back to having separate servers for Prydwen and Excalibur. If you don't like it afterwards there is no changing your mind.
Why Cluster?
Keep in mind that when Mythic clustered servers, they were responding toa situation where some servers had a primetime population of less than 300 people. Our servers have prime time populations of close to 1000 for Prydwen and 1500 for Excalibur. They are by no means dead servers, last night on Prydwen there were approximately 250 people in New Frontiers zones which is a very healthy RvR population. The smallest realm (Hib/Prydwen) is still able to run large scale raids with little difficulty. Not clustering now still leaves the possibility open for the future should populations drop low enough to require it.
I'd like to know why you voted the way you did and why your choice is the best one for the servers. Abusive, offtopic or spam responses will be deleted.