You guys need to merge servers

[gildhur]

Just got your - rep Gildhur. You're welcome

Keep up the personal nonsense and I'm sure I'll have some more soon enough.

[IowaHawk]

Well, you can spin things any way you want, but Middle Earth appears empty. There are alway more npcs than players everywhere...even in Mirkwood....even in 21st....and totally dead in the earlier areas.

Now this can be that everyone's in a skirmish or other instance, or just that a couple servers are low, or the time of year or its just that the game is huge orwhatever you want....

BUT, if something isn't done, we'll never keep any new people, no matter how low a price is put on the game...people play these things to be around other players, most like to solo, but they still want plenty of other players around.

So, yes merging servers should be seriously considered...or...strong blocks to new folks getting on active servers and incentives to transfer to low pop servers....slower method, and I kinda doubt LotRO has the time left to use that method before critical minimum is passed....if it hasn't already.

[RicardoFurriel]

Keep up the personal nonsense and I'm sure I'll have some more soon enough.

OMG my green dots are not going up... Gonna kill my self. My reputation is ruined... u're epic man...

[Silverangel]

My point remains - that just because you can't get a group doesn't mean that there's nobody there. It just means that those people simply don't want to group. I can't blame them either - if your goal is got level up and advance your character, the quickest way to achieve that goal is by soloing - or even duoing through the content.

Exactly. The rewards are poor. Why bother doing Black Fire or Half-Orc Schemer. No point. Why bother doing GB or GA (afaik) or god forbid Fornost. Just solo through those levels. There is no reward worth taking that amount of time to get. Take skirmishes. Same thing. Turbine's tests and calculations didn't figure the player perspective of the time and trouble invested in putting a group together that will possibly fail anyway, compared to just soloing safely.

At least Turbine can make good low- to mid-level dungeons in the first place. They are most of the way up to WoW's standard.

OMG my green dots are not going up... Gonna kill my self. My reputation is ruined... u're epic man...

+ rep Fixed that for you.

[IowaHawk]

Oh, btw, how are finals going? Not that I expect many students in the gaming population.

Welcome to a new feature of IowaHawk's posts called "Sarcasmvision"! All sarcastic dialog that is used to make a point on the current topic will be colored an obnoxious, eye-bleeding colour so that there can be no confusion as to whether or not IowaHawk is being serious or sarcastic.

[NothingToSay]

My initial two thoughts were:

1) not another one of these threads? *rolls eyes/shakes head*

2) okay, Turbine "gives in" and mergers servers, then what? Would this solve all your problems?

[Nymphonic]

My initial two thoughts were:

1) not another one of these threads? *rolls eyes/shakes head*

2) okay, Turbine "gives in" and mergers servers, then what? Would this solve all your problems?

I like your sig!

[gildhur]

2) okay, Turbine "gives in" and mergers servers, then what? Would this solve all your problems?

It would solve one perceived problem, but create several more monumental ones. Who gets to keep their name if there are duplicates? Who gets to keep their house if there are duplicates in each neighborhood? And I don't even want to think about what it would do to the Moors.

[Comstrike]

And I don't even want to think about what it would do to the Moors.

People play in the Moors?

It must be *insert day, time* because somebody is kvetching about *insert your choice of: needing server merges, PvP, PvMP revamp, the game is dying, they can't find people to group with, people won't group, there is no endgame, I won't play if they do MTs, etc* and seems to think we need another thread to convey the message.

[FyreBrand]

I just thought of something. If you people think your server is dead then you need to stop complaining and either roll a new toon or transfer to a higher populated server.

But throwing a fit in the forums is a lot easier.

I would move servers if I could, but I'm not paying $25 per character. I wouldn't move to a high pop though, except maybe Landroval. My first choice would be Vilya and my second would be Gladden. I'm not rolling new ones there (although I do have 7 on each) and abandoning my Nimrodel characters that have unique deeds.

I know it's just me being cheap, but there are a couple valid reasons why, "just roll a new toon on another server" doesn't work.

Throwing a fit in the forums doesn't cost $25... With all that rep I thought you're smarter... or is all that rep from Gildhur, Saintbass and Iowahawk?

LOL, that's not nice. I give him rep all the time (in fact I'm still on c/d to give him more) because he makes insightful posts often, and I'm super critical of Turber Bros and LotRO. He may be a fanboy, but I like his posts.

[Hordestalker]

BUT, if something isn't done, we'll never keep any new people, no matter how low a price is put on the game...

Quit using the "new people" excuse. Try asking us new people what would keep us or drive us away instead of trying to bring us up as a major point in your debate. If anything would make me, one of those new players, decide not to play it would be players like you. Regardless, if we are nw or not, we are gonna stick around if we like the game and have fun or leave if we don't. Servers are fine as they are.

And as much as I read players complaints about a lack of new content and being bored right now I would think this would be the perfect time to roll a new toon on one of the busier servers solving two problems at once.

[Nymphonic]

I would move servers if I could, but I'm not paying $25 per character. I wouldn't move to a high pop though, except maybe Landroval. My first choice would be Vilya and my second would be Gladden. I'm not rolling new ones there (although I do have 7 on each) and abandoning my Nimrodel characters that have unique deeds.

I know it's just me being cheap, but there are a couple valid reasons why, "just roll a new toon on another server" doesn't work.


LOL, that's not nice. I give him rep all the time (in fact I'm still on c/d to give him more) because he makes insightful posts often, and I'm super critical of Turber Bros and LotRO. He may be a fanboy, but I like his posts.

I try not to be a fanboy because for one thing some of the fanboys are just plain annoying and some of the complaints here are very valid and true.

It just gets under my skin when people that are not in the MMO business make all these wild assumptions with no facts to back them up.

And you do have a valid point of the cost of a transfer. My apologies if my earlier post was too blunt. No offense was intended. Plus one rep for making a good point.

[FyreBrand]

It would solve one perceived problem, but create several more monumental ones. Who gets to keep their name if there are duplicates? Who gets to keep their house if there are duplicates in each neighborhood? And I don't even want to think about what it would do to the Moors.

Having been in games that have merged servers this is how those problems are typically solved:

1. The person with the oldest toon and active account gets to keep their name. If you lose your name you obviously get a free name change. This is the most problematic adjustment.

2. Housing is reset and people are credited with the purchase price of the house. This is the least problematic adjustment.

3. Guilds - I don't remember this one but there were rules similar to characters on transfer. This is almost as troubling for people to adjust to as their characters, but the gripes from this don't come until after people get over the trauma of their character transfer.

4. Moors - This is obviously unique to LotRO, but not any more difficult to sort out than pve rules. Not only that but it seems some people transfer their creeps more often than they change underwear. Creep merges are only really going to hurt the drama queens of pvp that have burnt bridges on other servers.

Honestly I would like to see server merges if only to shake the game up a bit and create a new dynamic. The only rule I would have is only cool people could merge into Vilya. I do think your point stands though, the problems with the game wouldn't be solved, just concentrated.

Bottom line is server merges are very traumatic and unsettling for most of the gaming community and the publisher as well. It can take quite a while for people to identify with their new server and become one community again.

[FyreBrand]

I try not to be a fanboy because for one thing some of the fanboys are just plain annoying and some of the complaints here are very valid and true.

It just gets under my skin when people that are not in the MMO business make all these wild assumptions with no facts to back them up.

And you do have a valid point of the cost of a transfer. My apologies if my earlier post was too blunt. No offense was intended. Plus one rep for making a good point.

I know fanboy is supposed to be derogatory, like carebear, but I refuse to buy into that. I'm playing a game I love, that I'm spending money on, how can I not be a fanboy. I like that fans explain why they like a game and stick with it. I would much rather be a fanboy than one of those guys who hates the game but lurks around just to drag everyone else down.

Just because I don't always agree with some people doesn't mean I don't appreciate their points. It makes for a fun discussion.

Besides, when I'm done being a fanboy I know it's time to move on to another game.

[Digital_Utopia]

Exactly. The rewards are poor. Why bother doing Black Fire or Half-Orc Schemer. No point. Why bother doing GB or GA (afaik) or god forbid Fornost. Just solo through those levels. There is no reward worth taking that amount of time to get. Take skirmishes. Same thing. Turbine's tests and calculations didn't figure the player perspective of the time and trouble invested in putting a group together that will possibly fail anyway, compared to just soloing safely.

At least Turbine can make decent low- to mid-level dungeons in the first place. They are halfway to WoW's standard.

That's certainly true - even before the leveling curve change, it was usually so quick to level past these instances that nobody bothered. Face it, even if the rewards were pretty good for the level, those rewards wouldn't be viable long enough to even mattered.

I like how players can go though the game without sacrificing their own preferred playstyle, by having multiple avenues to get equivalent gear. However, Turbine has consistently forgotten a key element to this concept. While you should never force someone to do something they are unwilling to, you should at least give those "on the fence" players a reason to try new things. In that regard every single instance in this game falls short - because the only half-way interesting items available in these instances, and nowhere else, are stat/gear related.

Oh sure, you can go into the current end-game instances, or even the Moria radiance cluster and come out with mithril flakes, IXP runes, or relics - but you can get those nearly as easily by soloing. How often have you gone into one of these instances, have something drop and said: "Wow, these stats aren't so hot, but this definitely looks sweet!"? Chances are that's somewhere between slim and none; which is really sad in a game that has so much potential for character appearance customization.

Never underestimate the power of fluff when it comes to getting people to try new things. It's been proven time and time again to work in the real world. As long as these items are plentiful enough, and drop frequently enough to give everyone a good chance to be able to walk out with at least something - you'll give more reasons for people to go through the "hassle" of finding a group - even if they don't particularly want any of the "big" rewards. Who knows? They might even find it fun regardless of the reward.

[Loth_Don]

If t3 12man skirmishes dropped symbols I think more players would work towards it and try it out(and maybe find out that some are actually fun). As it is it seems the majority of the population figures why bother and just soloes or does 2-3 man groups.

Oh and merging servers is a silly idea at this point in the game. Not even halfway through the books content-wise- a lot of new subs and resubbing to be had in the xpansions to come.

[Happyfish]

I think the game is more heavily instanced now than in the past, perhaps making it feel more empty. I know for about a week I didnt move from dolven view while I ran IXP instances and skirmishes. I was playing Lotro, but I certianly wasnt in a persistant world with all the instance hopping I was doing. I like that you can pop in a skirmish from wherever, but for me they have definitely reduced the sense of scale in the game. So while I may have been counted in the digital's server census, I certainly am not active in the community aspect of the game atm.

[auximenes]

Dont even say they dont need it. Like now.. I am the only one around.. and the MOST I ever see is in BREE.

What server are you on?

[Hammerfast]

What server are you on?

Does it matter. Does the fact that this poster is on a server that isn't yours invalidate the fact that his/her server is dead most of the time?

The Turbine lovers have all kinds of ridiculous answers to the problem: play during peak hours, move to another server, etc. At a cost of 25 dollars per character I'm not about to move my 18 characters to another server!! And if a person can't play during peak hours, then he can't play during peak hours. Simple as that.

The populations of the servers is a problem. It sounds like those playing on the top two servers are content, but that doesn't mean the slower servers aren't suffering.

My favorite one is the "stop whining" comments. How mature of those posters! Since they aren't having a problem, there is no problem. Where I come from we call that blind......and braindead.

The most useful purpose of the forums is to air complaints. It isn't a social gathering. Game forums are there to provide a forum to discuss the game and issues in the game. Just because one poster is too blind to see an issue doesn't mean it doesn't exist, so back off and let the posters post! If we all clam up and "stop whining" Turbine will never have a clue whether we like something or hate it.

Why can't some posters see that? It's not rocket science after all...

[Kyrra_T]

No no if you're going to complain and exclude players on the top servers from complaining then you need to exclude the top 3. Brandywine, Elendimiir and Landroval. Everything that happens relating to over populating happens to them first, therefore we must all be excluded from the debate or none of us can.

[NinetyEight]

There should definitely be a server merge. I vote all the stinkers, twinkers,
blinkers and nods get merged to one server.

There should be no server merge. I vote all servers remain as is.
That is all

Cheers, peace and love,
Rezzah

[rmj0411]

Does it matter. Does the fact that this poster is on a server that isn't yours invalidate the fact that his/her server is dead most of the time?

The Turbine lovers have all kinds of ridiculous answers to the problem: play during peak hours, move to another server, etc. At a cost of 25 dollars per character I'm not about to move my 18 characters to another server!! And if a person can't play during peak hours, then he can't play during peak hours. Simple as that.

The populations of the servers is a problem. It sounds like those playing on the top two servers are content, but that doesn't mean the slower servers aren't suffering.

My favorite one is the "stop whining" comments. How mature of those posters! Since they aren't having a problem, there is no problem. Where I come from we call that blind......and braindead.

The most useful purpose of the forums is to air complaints. It isn't a social gathering. Game forums are there to provide a forum to discuss the game and issues in the game. Just because one poster is too blind to see an issue doesn't mean it doesn't exist, so back off and let the posters post! If we all clam up and "stop whining" Turbine will never have a clue whether we like something or hate it.

Why can't some posters see that? It's not rocket science after all...

"The populations of the servers are a problem, merge servers now!" is an opinion, not a statement of fact. The next step in making an argument is to provide evidence to support the statement of opinion that has been made.

When it comes to things like this, I don't think expressing the opinion is the problem. Expressing the opinion and then continually spamming anecdotal evidence to support the opinion, i.e. "I can't find a group at level 18 on a given day of the week" or "I was in the Lone Lands the other day and saw zero people for 2 hours," is where the problem is created. I can empathize and attempt to understand the feeling the OP is having in regard to server populations, thus "validating" the feeling. I'm sorry that you feel alone in the game. I can then propose solutions to help deal with the problem. However, that doesn't necessarily include validating the opinion, if the opinion is found to be incorrect.

In my view, (1) These posts come up pretty much weekly and always result in a flamefest. People are probably just tired of rehashing the same thing over and over to come to the conclusion that Turbine/Warner will likely NOT be merging servers anytime soon and (2) There is an astounding lack of evidence which has been presented thus far in support of the "server pops are low" by the OP and his/her supporters. In contrast, others have presented hard numbers which dispute (or at the very least bring into question) the validity of the opinion, "Server pops are low and servers should be merged." The OP and supporters of the OP have the choice now of presenting evidence to further validate the opinion, concede that their opinion may be unfounded and instead ask for help with how to find groups in the game, or continue providing anecdotal garbage that proves nothing and (probably) continue to get flamed mercilessly.

[Rhoric]

Firefoot is like low to mid level population and I still see lots of people during non peak hours. I can go on at anytime of the day or night and still see lots of people. So how is there a problem. Server merges is just going to piss players off causing them to leave. I have seen it elsewhere in other mmos.

[EthonaStarEVA]

Dont even say they dont need it. Like now.. I am the only one around.. and the MOST I ever see is in BREE. And people will say this also. What they DONT tell you is the LEVELS. Now ask HOW many THEIR level.

The most I see around me is 1-9. The reg is about 4. So to find a group is like never. And join some guild or what ever you want to call is it nice but who wants to group with some that are 5-20 levels higher than you.

Some servers are just dead. Try AOC. Yes they seem to have less people but they only have 4 servers yet each is packed. lol the chat never stops.

Just saying dont have to merge all just one.. two.. so theres more people on.. makes is more fun. So far up to level 18 no one wants to group. And try to BUY stuff from the AH.... just not worth it..

Now people that have high toons will say..ooh is fine.. I have not MET ONE person 1-25 that says ..oh its fine.. I love playing a solo MMO where no one else is around.

So merge or at least give SOME the FREE transfer.

oh yeah you're very much right but after you read your own thread and the many 100s like it you'd left with asking your self this ? :

are the players of lotro trying to kill their own beloved game?

the answer is YES!!! they are because they refuse to see the truth. i highly doubt turbine would merge servers because they are a very arrogant company.

[Sapience]

I think this discussion has run its course. There are no plans to merge servers.