This is why people don't play your server

[Radiofire]

Hi there ladies and gents, so glad you could join me.  This is a collection of everything I find wrong with so many of the free servers I try out.  This is completely drama free and not targeting any server in particular, just me saying what's wrong with the world of private servers today.

• Ugly homepages.  It could be the best server in the world, but if when I go to the page it's full of annoying flashing .gifs, completely lacks any kind of layout, and has floating images covering half the text... well, if they can't handle a webpage do they really know their butt from their elbow about running a server?
• Going to the homepage and being forced to register just to learn more about the server.  I'm not going to give out my email just to see the specs and what kind of customs they've got and so on.  And don't even get me going on the high and mighty types who won't accept hotmail addresses.
• Abusing the language, other people or other servers in the server description.  If you can't write up an accurate, well thought out, concise non-chat speak description then it tells the world that your server is run by and going to be full of immature twits.
• Anyone trying to download, install, and/or register getting corrupt files and 404 errors.  Checking things like this should ideally be a routine part of keeping things running smoothly.  I'm no techie, but I think it only takes a minute or two to check.
• Rapidshare and megaupload.  Actually I don't have a problem with these in general when used as mirrors, but if they're not able to host a small installer it doesn't bode well for the server stability.
• VOTE MESSAGES AS FAR AS THE EYE CAN SEE!!  These make me die a little inside every time.  If it's a good server I'll vote for it.  Having them plastered all over the page and popping up inside the game every ten seconds will NOT make my mind up for me.  -Don't mistake this for having discrete vote buttons and a reminder message once in awhile, those are perfectly okay.  I'm talking about overkill.
• Over customization is a mess.  A big big mess.  I'm not talking a few pets here and there, some fancy equips and some new monsters, I mean the massive umpteen billion new things added in until it completely loses the look and feel of RO.
• Ugly interfaces are also under the above category of being a mess.  In fact, so is ugly loading screen art, and ugly installers, and ugly patchers.  Throwing up a little in my mouth every time I change maps, start up, or even run your "omg wicked kewl" custom version of Ragnarok won't keep me there for long.
• Unfindable NPCs  They say they feature jobchangers, stylists, resetters, other custom npcs and so on... but once you get in there everything is either too crowded to get to them or they're not even anywhere to be found.  Rather than spend forever looking and getting treated to an unhealthy dose of newbie abuse, I just go find another server.
• Starting new characters off in a crowded main city.  Made all the more vexing if it's not the usually accepted main city of Prontera.  This is mostly a personal gripe.  I don't like wading through crowds, lag, and skill spam just to leave the city to level and then have to go back into the mess to see if there's a chance of locating the unlocatable npcs mentioned above.
• language language language. It bugs me to no end to see a server and have it all appear to be english only to log into it and get a bunch of foreign languages sent your way.  It's not that I hold anyones native speech against them, just some kind of indication of if I'm going to need a translator or something is all I ask.
• absentee GMs, GM abuse and favoritism. Really?  Do I really need to tell you why this is a problem?
• Disabled job quests and other quests in general  If you can't find the job changer, and you can't do the quest... congratulations, you're going to be a novice forever.  Effectively disabling a quest without actually officially turning it off by making sure a certain item is no longer obtainable on the server is a real kick in the pants too.

While there is so much more that bugs me, unfortunately this is all I can find words for tonight.  Discuss, add to it, argue with me, whatever you like- I just had to get it out there.

[Anti-Static Foam Cleaner]

So true.

[Guest]

lol i agree with 70% of wat he posted....

specially the GM favoritism part >.<

[Radiofire]

*coughI'magirlcough*

What 30% do you not agree with JJJ?

[bulbasteve]

Here is my 30%!

• Ugly homepages.  It could be the best server in the world, but if when I go to the page it's full of annoying flashing .gifs, completely lacks any kind of layout, and has floating images covering half the text... well, if they can't handle a webpage do they really know their butt from their elbow about running a server?

Ok this one made me laugh a little. Only because I'm playing on MouRO and it has NO webpage (which I guess is worst of all) but it's run by Skotlex ya know. So yeah I'm pretty sure not knowing how to design a website has absolutely nothing to do with how you run a server (or run the stuff that your servers run on!). :p

Let's look at it the other way. Why should we assume that someone who knows how to make a pretty website knows their butt from their elbow in terms of working on a server? Wow some random guy with some good html skills has set up a kRO clone! Whoopty freakin doo.

• Over customization is a mess.  A big big mess.  I'm not talking a few pets here and there, some fancy equips and some new monsters, I mean the massive umpteen billion new things added in until it completely loses the look and feel of RO.

Who cares about the look and feel of RO. It was designed for 12 year old korean girls who like to put pretty hats on their sprites (and ok..so I guess that makes me a korean girl). If someone wants to make WoW RO where all the classes and sprites are changed to Warcraft ones...well more power to em! Not every server has got to be a kro clone with a couple of added stuff.

• Ugly interfaces are also under the above category of being a mess.  In fact, so is ugly loading screen art, and ugly installers, and ugly patchers.  Throwing up a little in my mouth every time I change maps, start up, or even run your "omg wicked kewl" custom version of Ragnarok won't keep me there for long.

On the other end...why not no client customs at all? Do I really need a custom installer that will dig it's claws into your data.grf so much so that playing on every other server is impossible just for some wings and loading screen art. Unless you ARE making WoW RO don't put those stupid customs in and let us actually be able to switch servers without tearing our hair out.

• absentee GMs, GM abuse and favoritism. Really?  Do I really need to tell you why this is a problem?

If you need GMs you haven't coded your server correctly. If you can't make /ex work in all chats, if you can't make it so you can't loot other peoples stuff, if you can't discourage PKing within the actual system then you shouldn't be running a server. If you need to use your gm powers for all the extra gm stuff like to spawn mobs for an invasion or to have any other sort of event, you just need to learn how to code your damn game (or make the players care enough to run them themselves) and spend a little less time making a fancy site.

[Guest]

• Ugly homepages.  It could be the best server in the world, but if when I go to the page it's full of annoying flashing .gifs, completely lacks any kind of layout, and has floating images covering half the text... well, if they can't handle a webpage do they really know their butt from their elbow about running a server?

oh pish so they have a home page that needs a little work....

• Anyone trying to download, install, and/or register getting corrupt files and 404 errors.  Checking things like this should ideally be a routine part of keeping things running smoothly.  I'm no techie, but I think it only takes a minute or two to check.

mistakes happen?

• Rapidshare and megaupload.  Actually I don't have a problem with these in general when used as mirrors, but if they're not able to host a small installer it doesn't bode well for the server stability.
  

as long as they can download it its fine by me

• Over customization is a mess.  A big big mess.  I'm not talking a few pets here and there, some fancy equips and some new monsters, I mean the massive umpteen billion new things added in until it completely loses the look and feel of RO.
  

hey some ppl like the customs =P

• Starting new characters off in a crowded main city.  Made all the more vexing if it's not the usually accepted main city of Prontera.  This is mostly a personal gripe.  I don't like wading through crowds, lag, and skill spam just to leave the city to level and then have to go back into the mess to see if there's a chance of locating the unlocatable npcs mentioned above.
  

more ppl = more talking = more fun = more love <3

• language language language. It bugs me to no end to see a server and have it all appear to be english only to log into it and get a bunch of foreign languages sent your way.  It's not that I hold anyones native speech against them, just some kind of indication of if I'm going to need a translator or something is all I ask.
  

i support multilingual communities anyway... ppl are from all over the place and i like that ^^ everyone has a diff life and diff view and sometimes a diff language =P

[Radiofire]

Some clarification on things I said:
Regarding ugly homepages- there's nothing wrong with simple layouts, even cut and paste ones that can be found anywhere are a-okay by me.  It's the ones that make it impossible to find any of the information I'm looking for, have retina searing color choices, floating images that cover large sections of text making them unreadable etc.  Even running with NO homepage is fine, as long as it's not having to do an effload of searching to find information.

Corrupt downloads- mistakes happen yes, but they can be fixed.  I stand by what I said about checking regularly to make sure everything is operational.

RS and MU- they can be a pain in the butt sometimes, but they're not really deal breakers.  I just get really cranky toward those sites sometimes.

I did not say customization was a mess, but rather OVER customization.  The kind that makes you start the game up and kinda go well wtf is this shizz and have it fritzing out and killing your game.  Customization has the potential for great things, but is also easily abused.

More ppl = more ppl telling the newbie to GTFO = no fun =  no love at all </3
The only thing is you can't really tell just how friendly a community is until you start, so it's hard to gauge just from initial experiences.  Generally speaking however, I haven't had pleasant experiences in starting off like that and unfortunately that's the only basis I have to go on.

HEY!  I support multilanguage too.  Buuuut I'd like to know if I need to learn German or Finnish or Swahili or Klingon or whatever just to be able to understand what the other players are saying.  If you go to another country you learn the language right?

[Anti-Static Foam Cleaner]

Who cares about the look and feel of RO. It was designed for 12 year old korean girls who like to put pretty hats on their sprites (and ok..so I guess that makes me a korean girl).

I laughed massively because about half the customs are about either changing the looks of or adding more hat to your sprite.

If someone wants to make WoW RO where all the classes and sprites are changed to Warcraft ones...

...then he can play WoW and not RO in the first place.

[Ayuneko]

absentee GMs, GM abuse and favoritism. Really?  Do I really need to tell you why this is a problem?

and I'll say something more - for me GMs should NOT have legit characters or... if they really want to - don't tell anyone about their GM accounts >__< + being guildless would be fair too :/
happend to my last server and I hope to not see it anymore...

[Plague]

I agree with just about everything RadioFire said, especially the part about the languages. I swear almost every server I have joined have looked totally english from the looks of things on the homepage, Then you login and everyone speaks Tagalog. Its just a warning would help. I personally like Pinoy servers better though. I should learn how to speak it XD....But anyway I don't think there is anything I don't agree with. So yeaaaa...

[MrrgleCaek]

What about voting zombies? Big server's seem to have that =O
Is that why people don't play on small servers?

[Anti-Static Foam Cleaner]

No, people don't play on small servers because they aren't... rolling.

[bulbasteve]

What about voting zombies? Big server's seem to have that =O
Is that why people don't play on small servers?

Look at the post right above you, that seems to be a big reason

The thing about these voting sites are...unlike RMS, it isn't exactly an english dominate field.

Between botters, venders and people who don't even speak your language there probably isn't that huge of a difference between some servers.

Granted really small servers aren't popular because people are lazy, stupid and don't know a great thing when they see it *bitter*

[Imago Dei]

</3 Corrupt GM's. =(
Ruined a server that I had been on for 2 years. Sucks...

I've now learned my lesson and will never ever play on a server that you can play $100 for a god item or mvp card. Talk about imbalance.

[Radiofire]

YES.  I forgot to include that.  Selling +3346938472347823465987 godly "donation" items that cost a fckton of money.
THOSE are irritating.
Free servers.  F.R.E.E.  Does not mean pay an insane amount of money to be able to get anywhere and still possibly have them remove it in a rollback.