Options for Dyvet.

[Muylaetrix]

a) cluster with ze french. sounds good to me, larger playerbase.

b) cluster with ze germans. sounds even better to me, even larger playerbase.

c) cluster with ze spanish/italian. dunno if the italians and spanish are asking party to be clustered. the amount of players on those servers would certainly make rvr more valid, but not to the level that in 1 year time the same problem can`t arise again. i am ok with a game in french or german, i`d rather not have one in italian.

d) cluster with ze US. nearly impossible due to technicall and account problems. account splitting between goa and mythic seems not an option at the moment.

e) one larger european cluster for rvr, localised pve. dunno how hard that would be to implent.

f) uncluster classic, make classic obsolete, add english classic server to the english cluster. next patch everyone can buy ml`s, artes and whatever with bp.

g) make pve server a `fourth` realm on dyvet. (could be funny, but not a reall option)

h) char transfer to US, a lot of us have chars on mutliple servers in europe, it would be technical nightmare sorting all that stuff out, it would have huge implications, fincancial transactions between goa and mythic over acccounts being traded, accounts being splitted, people who all of a suddon would en dup with accounts they have in europe and US they both have to pay...

i) char transfer from uk to german or french server, and let the dybet cluster die a quiet death... i think it`s an ooption, but it wouldf be a shame for the leftover people to be left in a barren wasteland.

maybe the future of dyvet is a few english alliances on the german or french cluster. dunno.

 

[Manisch Depressiv]

I agree, something needs to be done.

I want add a point though:

j) Log in on Dyvet, play. Join or make a group. Go fight player enemies or monsters.

 

[MaditioN]

or just shut the servers down, which is most likely and cost least money!

 

[Gahn]

or just shut the servers down, which is most likely and cost least money!

That must be their long term fix, the short term one will be some give away 30 days free and try to pump some more money from the olders -.-

 

[Mundokar]

e. sounds great tbh. Should be the way to go.

 

[Ritchie]

or just shut the servers down, which is most likely and cost least money!

Stringing players along for as long as possible saying we are working on somthing without giving any details or any evidence at all that they are doing anything costs less!

 

[CorNokZ]

a) cluster with ze french. sounds good to me, larger playerbase. [I]Fine with me as long as I can choose english[/I]

b) cluster with ze germans. sounds even better to me, even larger playerbase. Fine with me aswell - Don't really care about the language

c) cluster with ze spanish/italian. dunno if the italians and spanish are asking party to be clustered. the amount of players on those servers would certainly make rvr more valid, but not to the level that in 1 year time the same problem can`t arise again. i am ok with a game in french or german, i`d rather not have one in italian. Hardly anyone are ever on these servers, so I can't really see what this would help

d) cluster with ze US. nearly impossible due to technicall and account problems. account splitting between goa and mythic seems not an option at the moment. As you said, nearly impossible and lots of trouble

e) one larger european cluster for rvr, localised pve. dunno how hard that would be to implent. ZERG !

f) uncluster classic, make classic obsolete, add english classic server to the english cluster. next patch everyone can buy ml`s, artes and whatever with bp. Sounds quite nice imo

g) make pve server a `fourth` realm on dyvet. (could be funny, but not a reall option) Could be.. But no

h) char transfer to US, a lot of us have chars on mutliple servers in europe, it would be technical nightmare sorting all that stuff out, it would have huge implications, fincancial transactions between goa and mythic over acccounts being traded, accounts being splitted, people who all of a suddon would en dup with accounts they have in europe and US they both have to pay... Again this is most likely not going to happen

i) char transfer from uk to german or french server, and let the dybet cluster die a quiet death... i think it`s an ooption, but it wouldf be a shame for the leftover people to be left in a barren wasteland. Would be sweet! I miss playing my wizard

maybe the future of dyvet is a few english alliances on the german or french cluster. dunno

 

[Raven]

"omg i helped kill the server now i don't have anything to"


please...

 

[Imgormiel]

"omg i helped kill the server now i don't have anything to"


please...

And now you see why he's worth his £10 of text

 

[Coldbeard]

Seeing how little effort GoA has put in DAoC EU over the last years, I really find it naive to think any of those suggestions are feasible and likely to happen. Starting to lose a bit faith myself, even though I play on avalon where the population is decent (wonder how long that will last).

They can keep clustering servers, that's a short term solution that only offers a temporary boost in population, it could also backfire and causing more people to quit for whatever reasons. Clustering servers is O K, because the state of the servers are alarming, but the main problem is generally _more_ people leaving the game than people joining the game. A decline in population after all this year is of course natural, but the lack of intervention from GoA has rapidly speeded up the process, and the one intervention caused more dismay than good for the server.

I'm afraid the train has already left the station when it comes to DAoC EU, the population is already so decreased that it causes more and more people to quit. There has been little to no of iniative to bring new players to the game, advertise and promote the game lately. I've heard this argument being countered with "oh but it is so hard to advertise such an old game". That may be true, but I still think that DAoC offers the best PvP system out there and the game has a history and a style that most people could like, but the problem is that the large majority of players, even mmorpg players, have little or no idea of what DAoC is.

They could send out emails to old subscribers offering a week or two free reactivation, they could advertise in game magazines, newspapers, websides, promote the daoc trailers that have been made, one of them was actually very good but what good does that do when noone gets to see it?

There is one box of DAoC at my local gamestore, that single copy of DAoC has been there for as long as I can remember.

 

[IainC]

They could send out emails to old subscribers offering a week or two free reactivation, they could advertise in game magazines, newspapers, websides, promote the daoc trailers that have been made, one of them was actually very good but what good does that do when noone gets to see it?

We've done all of those things in the last month or so:

• Free play time given to ex-subscribers* - Check
• Full page ads taken out in print magazines - Check
• Banner ads taken out on websites - Check
• Carefully chosen journalists given free accounts and press tours to increase awareness in the media - Check

We have a very active PR agency in London who are constantly looking out for places where we can insert DAoC marketing stuff - cover disks, trade publications, magazine features etc. As well as their efforts we also continually look for ways to bring old players back and encourage new ones. The last set of free time emails was sent out shortly after LotM went live and is something we do a few times every year.


*There are conditions before I get the inevitable 'my closed account didn't get free time' responses. Banned accounts are not eligible neither are accounts that have not been closed for very long. An email was sent to the registered email address for each eligible account with a link that needed to be followed to begin the free subscription period.

 

[Nate]

Are there any game expo's that GOA could go to / have gone to in England? I have read that GOA go to French/German ones.

I don't remember seeing GOA ever going to an English game expo. Maybe this is the reason for a lower population in English servers?

 

[IainC]

Are there any game expo's that GOA could go to / have gone to in England? I have read that GOA go to French/German ones.

I don't remember seeing GOA ever going to an English game expo. Maybe this is the reason for a lower population in English servers?

We are always interested in going to trade shows in the UK. We were lined up for a big show at Earl's Court a couple of years ago but it was canceled by the organisers at short notice. Since then there haven't been any proper computer games shows in the UK that I'm aware of - Leipzig is the major European trade fair. We have also looked into going to some other types of games conventions such as Gencon which is primarily for tabletop games, pen and paper games, collectible card games etc but the last couple of venues haven't been able to provide an internet link for exhibitors - which would make showing the game off a little difficult.

 

[Ritchie]

I think most people know that as getting new players will help slightly it will never ever solve the problem of the UK cluster.

People want to know whats being done in regards to clustering us or creating some kind of charecter transfer and i hope you are not in the deciding phase still because you have had months for this, all it takes is the people who make the decisions to sit down, see the options and make a decision on whats to be done and how to do it. Now please correct me if im wrong on that but the sooner things get decided the sooner things get done and i am hoping myself for somthing to be sorted before summer, what are the chances of that? because all this oh we cant say anything at the moment has gone on for far too long.

 

[Icebreaker]

Wouldn't be good to cluster with any other server until all the gimps like Horner, CM, etc have left the Game or the new Cluster will be as empty as our Server is now in a few Weeks.

 

[Manisch Depressiv]

So gimps are a danger to a server?

Hear, hear!

 

[Gahn]

So gimps are a danger to a server?

Hear, hear!

Griefers are tho, and i'd say that Uk cluster is a perfect example of it.

 

[Imgormiel]

Griefers are tho, and i'd say that Uk cluster is a perfect example of it.

Always has been a problem of this nature on DAoC in general, and tbh it's not gonna go away any time soon either.

 

[Scrinthe]

[*]Full page ads taken out in print magazines -

Just got my PC ZONE through the post this morning.

Fullpage Advert for DAoC ...

Nothing interesting ...

A castle set in trees that look from the Original Game

Plus 2 months subscription card that comes with the Original game ...and three free expansions.

Nice to see a advert ...but it does not look like it is trying to get new players...

Where is the WoW ( sorry for pun ) factor that should be there on a full page spread as you turn the page and see it ?

 

[Raven]

yeah the adverts are pitiful, they should try and arrange to have some of the better pvp vids put on game mag disks, could even put the months trial along with whatever expansions you get free these days on there.

but as someone said above, stringing people along with "we are working on it.........but its a secret" is far easier.

 

[Tuthmes]

We've done all of those things in the last month or so:

• Free play time given to ex-subscribers* - Check
• Full page ads taken out in print magazines - Check
• Banner ads taken out on websites - Check
• Carefully chosen journalists given free accounts and press tours to increase awareness in the media - Check

We have a very active PR agency in London who are constantly looking out for places where we can insert DAoC marketing stuff - cover disks, trade publications, magazine features etc. As well as their efforts we also continually look for ways to bring old players back and encourage new ones. The last set of free time emails was sent out shortly after LotM went live and is something we do a few times every year.

Yet more and more people are leaving.

To put it into perspective:

- The Italian server regulary has more players then Prydwen and Excalibur (Dyvet).

- Some Freeshard servers have more players then Dyvet. Yes i know Freeshards is a big nono here, but. When a "free" clone game has more players then its paying counterpart, it should ring some alarm bells.

- You give away free month's to old players, yet the serious decline started ~ december. See http://daoc.darkzone.net/server/eu/prydwen/ and http://daoc.darkzone.net/server/eu/excalibur/
This in retrospect to the EU server as a whole http://daoc.darkzone.net/region/eu/ where hardly any decline is noted.

Could go on on the why's and why not's, but let's not. I think it's clear something serious has got to be done and done fast. It's in a negative spiral, cause more and more people are leaving, because of the low population. Dyvet is loosing a lot of it's "core" players and not because the game in general doesnt appeal to them.

 

[Nul]

We've done all of those things in the last month or so:

• Free play time given to ex-subscribers* - Check
• Full page ads taken out in print magazines - Check
• Banner ads taken out on websites - Check
• Carefully chosen journalists given free accounts and press tours to increase awareness in the media - Check

A bit late if its only last month... But still very nice too see u doing this to keep
the best MMORPG game alive in europe. I know there would be more players if
they knew about DAOC at all.

/Semi active Excal/Europe - Active Kay/US ...

 

[Imgormiel]

Yet more and more people are leaving.

To put it into perspective:

- The Italian server regulary has more players then Prydwen and Excalibur (Dyvet).

- Some Freeshard servers have more players then Dyvet. Yes i know Freeshards is a big nono here, but. When a "free" clone game has more players then its paying counterpart, it should ring some alarm bells.

- You give away free month's to old players, yet the serious decline started ~ december. See http://daoc.darkzone.net/server/eu/prydwen/ and http://daoc.darkzone.net/server/eu/excalibur/
This in retrospect to the EU server as a whole http://daoc.darkzone.net/region/eu/ where hardly any decline is noted.

Could go on on the why's and why not's, but let's not. I think it's clear something serious has got to be done and done fast. It's in a negative spiral, cause more and more people are leaving, because of the low population. Dyvet is loosing a lot of it's "core" players and not because the game in general doesnt appeal to them.

I hope I am right saying what Req has said already is only a snippet of what is to come. Not that I know ofc but I hope I am right