Server Bias

Ideas and suggestions for game mechanics and rules.
t-ice
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Re: Server Bias

Post by t-ice »

Ithildur wrote: Again, static content etc. are definitely sweet, but a regular core of players interacting consistently with a DM creating a sense of ongoing story together is what makes ALFA; it's the kind of 'content' that ALFAns are primarily going to be drawn to.
Yes, we go again to the point that "herd mentality" is the biggest single driving factor. The fact that people stick together in a multiplayer game is obvious, and repeating it takes us nowhere. The effect overall only serves to concentrate the playerbase to one or two servers. N+1 will be there because N is there already.

So if we want to help with spreading the playerbase, we need figure something that makes a "core unit of regular players" choose some other server than the most popular one. The only ways I can come up with is either via static content (so that static rewards are reduced based on how much statics overall are run on the server, makes sense from supply/demand perspective), or by DMA and HDM actions that cajole and coerce prospective DMs to some other servers than the 2 most popular. (Which I think to an extent is operating behind the scenes already)
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Re: Server Bias

Post by Rumple C »

there has allready been a shift of player base with the new shiny campaign in the moonshaes, which i thought was very classily advertised.

I expect more of a shift when the next 2 servers go up.

Might be a good time to try to entice back old players to new servers and campaigns?

And advertise for new players - in the right places (say in the candlekeep forums?)

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Adanu
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Re: Server Bias

Post by Adanu »

The new campaign is once a week, it'll take more than that to keep Moonshaes populated.
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Rumple C
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Re: Server Bias

Post by Rumple C »

unless there is server hopping going on, it is a very very good start.
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danielmn
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Re: Server Bias

Post by danielmn »

When dm's aren't on, there needs to be something to do. When there isn't, players won't log in when dm's aren't there. When dm's aren't there a majority of the time, and there's nothing to do, players don't log in. Players get bored, and server hop after a while to other more active servers. They hop back when there might be something going down as far as dms. And a pattern is established. Dms from other servers attempt to bring players from other servers back to the lonely server through dming cross server plots. THose that have remained on server begin to wonder why they even bothered staying. And people from other servers get dmed on the server, until the plot takes them away from the server, and those that have stayed on server the whole time become all the more frustrated, and log in less and less, until they no longer log in at all. WHich is a shame, in that they are the ones that are sticking to the hardcore rp model the most, resisting jumping ship when times get bad because it would be OOC for them to do so. They end up punished, meanwhile others are rewarded further for staying on more active servers and traveling willy nilly. There has been a push to make traveling between servers more abundant so that the playerbase is sort of fluent between the servers...all I've seen accomplished so far is a herding of most players to one server. Go figure.
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Re: Server Bias

Post by I-KP »

Rumple C wrote:unless there is server hopping going on...
Which there will be. No-one should be made to feel guilty for changing servers twice in one RL week, and the MS campaign, such is its nature, operates on comic book time thus will not preclude such behaviour - yet! ;)
Rumple C wrote:...it is a very very good start.
Indeed it is, and kudos to CNS for starting to rock the boat.
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Cast_No_Shadow
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Re: Server Bias

Post by Cast_No_Shadow »

I have specifically told the players in my monday campaign to server hop if they want as I am fully aware that I am only avaliable for one night a week. I hope to start helping build ms into a server with enough going on to keep a good playerbase around all week but it isnt there yet and it is hardly fair to attempt to force players to stay couped up bored for 6 days a week just becuase I cannot play that often. Server hopping might not be the most ic thing ever but its a sacrifice we have to make for the sake of fun and something I in my position see as a boon without it turnout to quests like mine would be poor and you really would have one server over all others.
t-ice
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Re: Server Bias

Post by t-ice »

When dm's aren't on, there needs to be something to do.
That's one key, but again that's just the obvious surface of it. Question is what should that "something" include and not, so as to counter the pull of the most populated server(s).
t-ice
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Re: Server Bias

Post by t-ice »

Cast_No_Shadow wrote:Server hopping might not be the most ic thing ever but its a sacrifice we have to make for the sake of fun and something I in my position see as a boon without it turnout to quests like mine would be poor and you really would have one server over all others.
If this is really so, then I think we seriously need to consider whether the Hardcore roleplay Pillar, or the One PC per player Pillar is the more important one. Because we can't have both.
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Re: Server Bias

Post by Rumple C »

t-ice wrote:
Cast_No_Shadow wrote:Server hopping might not be the most ic thing ever but its a sacrifice we have to make for the sake of fun and something I in my position see as a boon without it turnout to quests like mine would be poor and you really would have one server over all others.
If this is really so, then I think we seriously need to consider whether the Hardcore roleplay Pillar, or the One PC per player Pillar is the more important one. Because we can't have both.
I do not necesarily agree (respectfuly).

So the "group", not being specific here - could be any group! has a dm'd event once per week. If there was a little more to keep them occupied during the week, then there would be no need to "server hop" in search of something (or avoiding boredom).

Ideas - another dm event, a static, or (and i think this is an underused tool) an encounter set up by dm's previous.

I have seen it (well, by post) on BG. Rumors coming back from X place of something going on (encounters placed by dm). The DM does not need to have any involvement beyond populating somewhere with critters, placables, and light loots (and an ic posting). * Even better if it is related to the plot, with something to discover....

So suddenly folks have a reason to buddy up at least twice a week (spread it out over the week...), and that should keep then relatively entertained, can rp, shop etc during the "off" days, DM event once a week, DM set encounter once per week. Not bad? (and even better, any DM can pop in and set something up), keeps folks on their toes amd active.
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t-ice
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Re: Server Bias

Post by t-ice »

Rumple C wrote: I do not necesarily agree (respectfuly).

So the "group", not being specific here - could be any group! has a dm'd event once per week. If there was a little more to keep them occupied during the week, then there would be no need to "server hop" in search of something (or avoiding boredom).
Well, the "need" for server hopping is always subjective. Apparently some people play this game dozens of hours a week, so how much is a "little more" depends.

It's nice if enough content exist to eliminate the need for server hopping. But arguing for it is kinda pointless. Like trying to prove to the hungry man that "look, the amount of food should be enough".

The question to us, as a community, is what to do regarding server hopping. Or how to spread the game beyond one or two servers. We're getting towards the "central hub plus adventure locations" model, where everyone resides at a "central" server or two, and many players server hop back-and-forth every so often to catch campaigns on different servers. Do we encourage the hopping to get game, hardcore in-character roleplay be damned, do we want to restrict and slow down hopping, or do we allow for extra "campaign PCs" to keep it IC while allowing for players to play and have fun, opening other cans of meta-worms?

The core problem with server hopping is what danielmn says up there, and it's the same that we have with static content and farming: Our game design rewards those who roleplay the worst with the most gaming and the fastest level progression. Compared to those who stick to their hardcore RP guns and end up leaving themselves out cause it's not IC to.
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Re: Server Bias

Post by I-KP »

Rumple C wrote:
t-ice wrote:
Cast_No_Shadow wrote:...Server hopping might not be the most ic thing ever but its a sacrifice we have to make for the sake of fun...
If this is really so, then I think we seriously need to consider whether the Hardcore roleplay Pillar, or the One PC per player Pillar is the more important one. Because we can't have both.
So the "group", not being specific here - could be any group! has a dm'd event once per week. If there was a little more to keep them occupied during the week, then there would be no need to "server hop" in search of something (or avoiding boredom).
If a player is server hopping in order to play a part in two (or more) concurrent plots then I would say that player is venturing onto unstable ground; however, if a player is server hopping because there genuinely is nothing else to do on a server when not questing then I wouldn’t seek to bring that player to book.

CNS’s campaign apparently exacerbates the above simply because it is a long distance, long duration affair; analogous to being locked up in prison. For a game such as this (ALFA), and for players such as us (with real lives), it isn’t reasonable to expect all involved to restrict their actions to one location between sessions, thus the pragmatic DM calls comic book time. (Personally, I’m comfortable with between session play restrictions such as these on the understanding that the scheduled sessions are as concrete as is practicable. As a primarily social RPer this sort of thing holds a certain appeal but I wouldn’t feel comfortable if the more action orientated players were to be similarly restricted.) When comic book time is called it tends to feel less clunky when all concerned remain within the general vicinity between sessions, i.e., the same server as a minimum. Where it starts to feel a little stretched is when said players then choose to scatter to various servers, and where it starts to feel decidedly questionable is when some of those players then become involved in concurrently running plots on multiple servers.

(Personally speaking, if a DM is going to the effort of running an event that I can take part in it is only fair that I exercise a little effort in return in keeping it all as believable as possible between sessions, thusly staying within the vicinity of an event when comic book time is called. I don’t server hop often and when my chosen server falls upon leaner times I tend to hibernate until things pick up again, so perhaps it’s easier for me to accept the implied restrictions of comic book time than for some. This is not to say that there is a ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to adapt to comic book time, more just to illustrate that people interpret abstract mechanisms in different ways.)

I do not believe that such things can or even should be directly legislated for, but I do think that it can be indirectly influenced with the application of mechanics such as RL holdover time for inter-server travel.
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kid
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Re: Server Bias

Post by kid »

If a player wants to be a part of a BG plot on mondays and MS plot on fridays...

I'd say no.
Thats greedy and Meh.

If he goes to RP cuase he has no one to RP with I can understand it though...
I personaly would not like it much.

If he would stay on the server even when its tough and be as loyal to RP as humanly possible... I will give him a +3 armor and salute.
But.... thats me. (:

Anyway... if players on server X would stay on said server, get togather and RP, im sure after a while that would draw some DM interest.
I know that if current MS group would simply log once in a while and play togather... just talking or even adventuring on thier own or what not it will draw my interest and want to DM em.
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Adanu
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Re: Server Bias

Post by Adanu »

kid wrote: Thats greedy and Meh
People are greedy, and rightly so. People have needs, and bores, and likes. Expecting people to be bored to appease your view of what roleplaying is not going to make people listen.
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Re: Server Bias

Post by I-KP »

kid wrote:I know that if current MS group would simply log once in a while and play togather... just talking or even adventuring on thier own or what not it will draw my interest and want to DM em.
Server seeding can be successful from time to time. I used to do it on MS (as did/do several others): fire up NWN2 then play something else (usually Terraria) whilst keeping an eye on the CE window for log-ins and /tells. The trouble is once a server reaches a tipping point in lack of activity server seeding becomes a waste of time. The only recourse then is to try and schedule with others via this forum or the bitchcraft channel (aka. IRC) but without DM support, and/or on a server where there isn’t much to do without a DM, this rarely yields fruit.

Anyway, I saw a post saying you'd stopped DMing on MS. Does this mean that you've crept back in under the skirting board..?
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