Critical Mass and Server Pop

[Elindor]

Reference material http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Critical_mass_(sociodynamics)

Critical Mass as far as it pertains to sociodynamics (like our game here and its servers) can by applied to the way that servers fill up (or do not), and can teach us some things.


If an empty server continually is passed over because it is empty, it will never generate enough players to "not be empty" and therefore will never reach Critical Mass - having enough population to create self sustaining growth.

If we, as players, want a particular server to be populated, the BEST thing we can do is to JOIN IT and STAY IN IT (especially if you have a small group of players with you).
Even 4-6 people makes a server not "empty" and therefore could generate interest from additional players and finally reach a population level where the server's pop reaches Critical Mass and is then "self sustaining".

So if you find yourself saying "I wish X Server had people in it"....GET IN THERE, and stay until more people show up.  This may not always work, but it will work more often then you think, especially if a couple people do that.  This same effect happens in voice chat servers too...


Think of it this way.  If you sign on wanting to play on X Server but its empty, and instead join Y Server....how many other's did the SAME thing you just did.  5?  10?  20?
That's enough to start populating a server


------

Just a thought.

[Nightingale]

I miss NA2, save siege!

[Tears of Destiny]

This is a great post, though the largest defeat to this is the common mentality "I'm just one person it won't matter if I wait for everyone else to do it."

[Rhekimos]

The critical mass, when it comes to servers is the moment when teams start to be "unfair" and no multi is awarded. This helps to depopulate servers and keep small servers depopulated, since right next to you is the big server which gives multi.

[Sagar]

Keywords for this mod are: GOLD and XP.
cRPG mod is based on that, no matter what people say, "I just want to play for fun, gold is not important ... blah blah." Only high multy is important - a lot of gold to trade and playing in good equipment and high xp for fast leveling, and nothing more. Just remember the servers for the weekend - 200/200. That the server was for three hundred people would be full, why - high multy.
Give players all time x5, team that win get x6, x7 - when loose reset to x5 - servers will be full all time, why - tons of gold and xp. Maybe I will go for lvl 36  
All i want to say is that no one want to play at x1 - x2. Every day I witnessed a lot GTXting and emptying servers because of low multy.

[Rhekimos]

I believe the most damaging thing about the no multi business is putting effort in and only rarely getting the reward. Not being able to reliably upkeep your gear is another.

But if we constantly give out gigantic amounts of gold, that soon becomes the new normal, and play levels fall back to the usual. No multi for small servers drops the amount of gold (and xp) much below normal on the other hand.

[Molly]

Yesterday, around... I think... 23:30 GMT+1..., EU1 had 27 peeps playing in it and EU2 had 19 or something. It ain't that late and I can easily remember times when EU1 used to have 80+ players around that time of the day.

So, to me it doesn't look like there is a server that needs a population to start with but a mod that isn't that interesting and fun to play any more.

It's not about a specific server being low on players but to me it seems that the overall interest is lacking.

My personal situation is that I log in for 1 hour max and then I am bored. All the time the same maps, the same routine, the same... just the same. There is nothing that surprises, nothing that keeps me motivated. There are lot of things that de-motivate me though... the last players are again 3 archers vs 1 2h, they are still kiting just fine btw, again another round stuck with x1, again the same team-based mistakes that will cost the round again, again killed by someone coming from behind cuz my team-mates don't care to help, again the same boring and annoying things... just everything again and again.

I am not saying that this a problem that everyone has - this is specifically my experience with this game lately and I am just so damn bored by it. The only reason I keep logging from time to time is the folks I know and have fun "spending time with" and having a little chat. So, for me it's rather a graphical chat than a game I actually enjoy. 

[Prpavi]

What turns me off servers populated under 30 players is immense impact cav and ranged (around 50% of them atleast) has on the servers, it basically beceomes a shootfest, no place to run, no place to hide.

[Elindor]

On NA side right now, NA1 (battle) usually has like 80+, and then DTV has like 30+, Community (battle) might have 15+ and Siege will either be around 20-30 or it will be EMPTY.

I wrote the original post to refer to filing ANY server, but it was written with NA2 (siege) in mind - because currently there are a lot of "siege players" in other modes because Siege is empty....which is a self-sustaining problem because of the critical mass issue unless players say "ok im gonna sit in an empty server until it fills up" or go into one of the other servers and say "hey siege guys, wanna go play siege?"**

**

(click to show/hide)

Which is what Onimaho, Oda, myself and some others did last night and we made siege go from like 0 to 10 instantly.  People then seeing 10 people in siege, started joining (critical mass).  Soon it was up to 30+.

So the desire to play the mode is there, but the difficulty is one of the server reaching, again, critical mass.

[Elindor]

Other problem right now on Siege is map rotation....something I am going to try to discuss with some of the map dev's....although at this point I fear they do not have access to make the changes anyhow.