What makes a server... "good"?

Started by Usagimimi, May 22, 2010, 10:56 PM

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Kei

Quote from: DeePeeSure, the community can be nice (and in many cases it isn't), but the server can still be crap. I'd say at least 50% of the servers that have over 500 players are completely crap.
I made similar experiences.
And that's the problem. As already said by DarkDevice, As long as the advertisement works and the community is big enough, the server can be a corrupt doomsday device with mvp cards / +100 stat wings and it'll still be successful. And on the other side, there's servers with brilliant balancing / interesting customizations / MouRo features and they'll most likely stay below 50 population for a long time.. due to lack of players o_O Irony?
What is it that draws people to a populated server? The high chances of competing with worse players? Party availability? I don't get it.


DeePee

#31
It's pretty easy to make a very popular server. Just make an awesome website or pay someone to do it. Announce that it's a completely new start and everyone will have equal chances. Build up a community before launching and advertise everywhere that your server is opening soon. Once it's up, pay RMS and Topsites to show your banner everywhere.
Make sure it's not too difficult to start on the server. Preferably a mid-rate. Add 3rd classes and that sorta stuff. Within a few months you'll have hundreds of players, maybe even reaching 1000+.

This obviously doesn't make your server good. It just means you advertise a lot and look good on the outside. Nice website, fresh start, easy to get rich, 3rd classes, that sorta stuff is what attracts players these days.

Lots of players all jump on the same new "promising" server and keep doing it over and over again even though most of these servers close down after a while. Be it due to admins running off with donation money or the admins being incompetent and getting hacked or getting database corruption/wipes.

Tachibana

Or you can be like us at Vision and have around 25-45 people on average then have a popular server close (VastRO in this case) and have at least 200 from said popular people come to the server in the span of a week. Then they spread the word around and you have your populated server

But yeah, imo advertising about a month or so before you open is always an excellent move since it allows players to come check it out, allow their suggestions to be heard, there is no worrying about whether the server has a huge amount of MvP cards or OP items. If they see something they dislike, they can just leave the server without having invested any in-game time. Probably the biggest factor is that it allows a community to grow and get a sense of how the server will be (how friendly, serious, etc.)

GOa_uLDVI

-Always speaks in english. Do an effort even if its isn't your own language. I'm French from Canada.
-More enemies spawning.
-Helpful peoples.
-a lot of events.
-a lot of quests.
-Priests doing their job of buffing other peoples in a full-time part job
-a good gms staff
-a good community.
-advertising peoples who sell their items too expansive..

Lucian

#34
I think it all comes down to proper staff. That's the 1 reason most RO servers go down.

Sugar

Besides having a good looking website, advertisement, and all that technical stuff, I think an active and caring GM team is the most important element in helping a server stay alive and attract newer players.

There has been just too many examples of servers with a promising start, that failed to live up to its name just because the GMs started "disappearing" a while after the server opens. ._.
For some reason, GMs like to disappear....at least on the servers that I've played on /swt

Salty

In my personal opinion, I think the staff is what makes a server.

A proper, dedicated and reliable staff can moderate the community if it's full of bots and trolls, they can make wise and quick decisions that benefit the server, they can make changes quickly and answer questions within 24 hours and lastly they don't disappear once the server reaches peak.
My one pet peeve with RO is that once a server reaches it's apparent "peak" i.e for most owners it's usually at around 100 players, all the GM disappear and let the server run on its own. Dumb move in my opinion.

OP Donations is debatable since it's for incentive to donate and ultimately keep the server up, but then again it depends on how good the server is, leading back to my point on staff. Just my two cents.
Just an average RO player.

DeathLock000

For me a good server could be one with the following features:-

  • Administrators that think practically and actually take the opinion of the crowd of the server.
  • A server that does not have over powered items exclusively reserved for donators.
  • A server that is stable and suites multiple time zones.
  • A server that has amicable, social and friendly users.

Euphie

Would this be considered necroposting? :[ I joined a few days ago and was going to post a topic like this, but since this is already here, I'd like to comment as well.

To me there are three basic things that make up a good server.. in order from most important to least important.. The Staff, The Community, and The Features.

A reliable staff can keep a server going for years even if the population is low. The staff ends up being the face of the server, the main representatives. No one wants to play on a server where the admin does under the table deals with players to get special equips or treatment (unless they're into that =.=). So long as the staff is active, caring, knowledgable, and just generally good people.. the server will benefit.

The community is based mostly on opinion I guess.. what different people look for in it, but to me so long as most of the pop is nice, I would definitely stay. From my experience, it is pretty hard to get player count up and takes a lot of time (if you're not corrupt :p). Even in a small community, so long as the people are friendly outside of woe (people change inside of woe xD) then what more could you ask for.

The features to me are important, but the least important of the three. People like to be entertained... and a default eA install wouldn't draw too much attention? Even on servers that like to stay as close to kro as possible still have little customizations here and there to draw attention. If its a default install.. why would someone choose to play your server over other people's?

Well thats it basically o.o great staff, good community, some customizations = good server.

Check out previews of our upcoming fully custom client!

Kuprin

What I think makes a server good, is a competitive environment that doesn't just say "whoever grinds the most wins". That by definition is not competitive, it's elitist, and there is a clearcut logical difference. Generally this means super-highrate servers with official caps and aspd limits, but I still believe this kind of environment can be cultivated on a LR or MR.
Embrace the invigorating spirit of sport! Come, fight me!

Yomi

I might say ..

• Staffs.
• Features / Gameplay.
• Population.
• Advertisement. :)

Sounds weird but that mostly I see nowadays.
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Kuprin

Overall I will agree with this as keys to success for a server. Longevity, less so, but those four simple things will get you the usual one-year shot.
Embrace the invigorating spirit of sport! Come, fight me!

ShapeShift

What makes a server "Good"
-GM friendliness
-Gm availability
-server friendliness
-Server economy
-Eventfulness
These are just a few things that make a server "good" to make sure a server has most of these quality.

Euphie

Seems like the main thing all of these have in common is the staff.. Seems harder and harder to find a good, stable staff nowadays.
Still don't know about population making a server good.. I can think of at least one server that is quite large and well... is not so good xD
From what I've seen, people feel 'bound' to a server if they have a lot of items, even moreso if they donated.. seems hard for people to be okay with starting over :[

Check out previews of our upcoming fully custom client!

ayal

1.if there's economy going on inside the community.like vending things trading and selling stuffs.
2.different players from different countries probably.
3.no imba items.a well balanced job creations.
4.friendly and fun game masters who seeks their players opinion about what stuffs to implement or not in the server.
5.players who are loyal to the game itself to provide population growth.
6.there should be npc events.
7.administrators who are always there to help the players and who thinks mature for the servers goodness.

just from my own point of view.hanya dari sudut pandang saya sendiri.^_^
orang adalah orang-orang^_^