What kills a server!

[HobbesWasRight]

Most of the terminology, as you say, mentioned in this thread is more or less well defined in the Ragnarok Online community.

No it isn't.

[Yozakura]

All I'm seeing in this thread is a whole lot of vague terminology: "X is 'bad', Y is 'good', there's a distinct 'lack of' that, this authority is 'corrupt'".  Yet two things aren't being provided in this thread universally:


1. Elaborated and clarified criticisms involving aforementioned broad terminology

2. Solutions to the problem


Therefore, what point did this thread serve when it provided minimal insight into what makes a "bad" server, or how to make servers "good again"?

I believe the thread is about what "kills" a server, not what makes it "good" or "bad." What "kills" it are often community- or administration-related stuff, like people not joining unless it's heavily populated already, people going on hiatus because the population isn't huge yet, and admins eventually losing interest.

As for "good" and "bad" servers, there are plenty of bad ones we can all agree with (such as basic things like poorly covered corruption and whatnot), but "good" is too subjective, and you can't really please everyone.

As far as corruption goes, I think it's fine if done right. In fact, it may even be necessary, to some extent. It keeps the administration interested, and if they keep their cover well enough, there's no problem. Preventing GMs from playing in their own server is somewhat retarded, because let's face it, what are they there for to begin with? What's in it for them?

[Roda Frog of Sakray]

hue DBs :V.

But if you really ask me, there are 3 big things, and I'll elaborate on the last:

Pessimistic player base that gives no s*** and wants everything either pre-made or already handed to them
Admins who either don't care about the server or are unwilling to run/pay for it

And finally, specific to low rates, Real life

Now let me elaborate on that whole real life thing:
Imagine this: A server is doing pretty decently, it has roughly 100 players on at any given moment: Now imagine that 2 of the three Guild Leaders suddenly have RL problems. On a mid or high rate, this is fine: they can just have someone else take their place in WoE when needed. On a low rate however, said guild leaders are needed to get stuff together for their guild in PvM, such as gear hunting, MvP hunts or really anything. As a result uild members get bored, they lag behind in WoE, and by the time the guild leaders have time again, their guilds are dead. Now the two guilds leave, making WoE horribly 1-sided.

Scenario 2: Admin has no time all of the sudden. He won't have time for a long time. Server dies due to no bug fixes or updates, and no one is willing to take said admins place.

[HappyDaze]

Imo there is a long list of things that can kill a server. Many servers have an inconsistent feel. There are servers that have things like no autoloot, but then they run events that give away gold and OCAs. So many low rate servers have random high rate features for no reason.
Obviously overpowered donations also doom a server. Also, GMs being too strict with bans will often create scenarios where one group feels like they're being overtargeted by the GMs, and they will leave, which will start a chain reaction that can kill a server. I believe that giving GMs discretion to give discretionary reasonable punishments based on common sense, and not on arbitrary server rules, is important for keeping a server alive.

[MrMystery]

People list specific things but the it's basically broken down into two things: Admins and the Community

The Community
The RO community as a whole is extremely toxic. Bottom line. There are certainly exceptions to this but the RO community as a whole is unwilling to adapt and unwilling to contribute to the community. Keep in mind I am speaking of the community as a whole and not every single player is this way. Overall the RO community is toxic and negative.

Unwilling to adapt:
How many times have you heard, "If you do/don't do X, then I am (or their whole guild are) gone?" I've personally seen it on every single server. People are totally unwilling to adapt to how a server is. People have their idea of the perfect server and the slightest deviation from it is unacceptable. The game is unplayable if they have to build a character differently, or don't have access to the same NPCs that their previous server had. You don't have a healer? Can't play there. No Dark Bacilium? Why would I play with a sub-optimal build? Players in general are fickle and will leave or not join a server over the smallest of issues because they don't want to learn or adapt to anything that they aren't used to.

Unwilling to contribute:
There are a few helpful players out there but a majority of them are not. The new guy has a question about the server and is met with "read the forums/site." Someone posts a suggestion that they think will improve the game and it's met with a "GTFO that's ridiculous." Someone is having troubles in-game or with the client and they are met with a "Do you even google?" Again, it's not always like this but it can be a lot of times. Most players are in it for themselves and don't offer help or advice to other players. Smaller population servers tend to not have this issue as much.  Though on nearly every server you have some players who not only don't contribute, but actively seek to bring down a server. They fill the forums with "server's dead", "people are quitting", or "lag lag lag." Even if these things were happening, flooding the forums with it only makes it worse.

The Administration
The administration can play an role in killing a server as well, though part of the problem stems from the toxic RO community. Game Masters are generally not at fault if the administration is good. "Corruption" by GMs can easily be fixed with proper administration. The bad GM fired and any issue they caused reversed. The problem then lies with how the community handles the situation. Are they going to say good riddance and move forward or will they open a "Rant and Rave" topic and quit the server? (see: toxic community). The administration is at fault when they fail to take proper precautionary measures or action against their staff.

Administration can kill the server simply by not being present. Players overall are fairly demanding in their desire for updates and content on most servers anyway. When things take longer to release or bugs take longer to fix players get antsy and threaten to leave or flood the forums. Even if the server is running smoothly with no issues, players like to see a lot of involvement. This might be due to the traumatized RO veterans but once staff becomes less active people start posting about the server dying (see: toxic community). Running a server takes pretty active staff and a lot of time.

Administration can also become unhappy or disinterested in the server. Even if things were otherwise fine many times the administration simply becomes bored of the server. Maybe the server didn't turn out how they wanted it to. Sometimes players request so many things that in order to please to community, the administration approves it and the server drifts one step further away from the vision the administration had. It takes continuous desire and motivation to be an admin. Otherwise, the above issues start occurring. Admins become apathetic and let their GM's run amok or don't put out updates often enough.

Solving the Issue
I don't want to be totally negative so here's how I think you make a successful Ragnarok Online. Firstly, the community needs to take a step back and play the server for what it is. Let go of previous servers. Let go of previous notions of how the game is supposed to be played. Let go of what you think was intended by RO's developers. Second is to for the community to actually try to make the server a better place. You don't need to spoonfeed other players with zeny or items but there's no need to try to be a hilarious troll in every post. You don't need to sugar coat things, but there's a difference between stating why you disagree and being a jerk about it.

If somehow you can get the community to be that way then you basically need a few trustable and dedicated admins who can properly manage the staff as well as the delivery of content. The administration shouldn't have unreal expectations for the server and should stick to creating a server that they enjoy creating as to keep their interest and dedication to the server.

[Bue]

People from both groups comes from all walks of life.

Both groups solve and cause problems, so this isn't anything new.

The real problem is that this is an aging game.

Recycled 'custom' content on private servers.

Cheap gimmicks and low quality production values.

Unqualified people running servers and holding positions.

The list goes on.

What really kills a server is lack of funds and skills.

Servers die by the masses because administrators can't turn profit and have absolutely no clue what to do.

Players aren't organized outside their guilds as far as I am concern.

So players aren't voicing their opinion other than the usual irrational hate that we are exposed to here.

Proposed Solution
Use the original mechanics; develop a new itemization scheme and enhance the difficulty of the monsters.

Same game by mechanics, but different content in terms of items and monsters.

Players should be more engage with the game; new items and monsters should change the way players trade in the economy and different hunting strategies.

And I think that is always the solution to a successful game.

[excellence.ragnarok]

So I'm going to try to make a thread where you post something that you think kills a server. I'll start....
One major thing is what I like to call "Server-Hoppers" or guilds/groups of people that join a fairly new server with great potential, and totally screw things up like( i.e. A certain guild that has to do with long lasting pain on a certain part of the body not in the front  ), hoarding MVPs to control/kill the market.

Now someone else give it a go! What really grinds your gears, what kills your fresh server that you worked so hard to create or level in?

In my opinion
What Kills  A server is
1. Bad Habbit GM
2. Money Talk GM
3. Corrupt GM
4. Bad Community Talks
5. No Strict GM
and many more

[IvoryMouse]

Were also forgetting one big key thing.

Language Barrier. Nothing is more frustrating than trying to speak to someone who doesn't speak your language.

[Cawliflower]

I've got a lot of experience. I'm all about trying everything & seeing the result. Over the last billion years, I've made all the mistakes in the book.

The following is a list of things I've done or actually seen done. Many of which I didn't believe in to begin with.

A few that come to mind...

• Cookie (ironically, this sadly brings players)
• Weaboo Administrators with no experience
• Acting as if you're the genius behind making this game balanced and trying to balance it
• Naming your server International Ragnarok Online
• Using Hercules
• Lack of talent/development team/updates
• Too much transparency/lack of security
• Running a server with a power-mongering scepter
• Selling OP items such as 4 slot narutaro headbands
• Wings (especially with stats; explanatory) of any size
• Roleplaying Healers
• Hiring wild-west programmers (see *athena projects)
• Re-inventing the cogwheel/over-complicating processes/not streamlining monotonous processes
• Weekly or bi-weekly game update cycles - seriously, out the gate, set the expectation of month (or longer) updates with a detailed QA process and public beta environment. Just do it. No questions asked
• Consulting the community... about everything. Yes, the community will enjoy War of Emperium. They don't need a poll to say otherwise
• Reddit instead of a forums
• Domain-related: Any URL that is too complicated or with a symbol/hyphen in it, play-insertroservernamro.com, etc. etc. Simplify your identity, and name as a server
• Lack of proper advertising/SEO/etc. Seriously... Google and learn how to market your server
• Pay-to-win donation shops
• 100x rates or above. Unless you want your server to die in 5 minutes
• Claiming you have a storyline which involves one NPC guiding you around initially and disappearing into oblivion
• Game Design teams overseen by an individual that doesn't actually run the game thus preventing development moving forward
• Caring about your reputation, having too much pride, NOT ignoring the little things (really... who cares if a player called you a name. Move on. You're the owner. Own it.)
• Not spending a minimum of 3 months on pre-production development. Seriously, we don't need any more copy+paste RO servers.

I'll probably have more to add at some point. This is just the beginning.

[Irreverence]

Some of those are actually pretty solid suggestions/guidelines. good post.

[GM TruFlip1011]

server stability is of great matter.
i've played aero and they'd have rollbacks like crazy. which really was discouraging.

website downtimes.
when one cant login, they'd check the website for news. see what's up. but as some would have EVERYTHING ( forum, website, server, cp, db ) on one host, and when the host powers out, BAM! dead.

highrate
they just dont have that much challenge. a week of playing it and you'd have all the items.
all there's left to do is pvp. and people even sitll would get bored of it.

imbalance.bugs.