EU-Servers

[Timrum]

Hello

Ok before I continue I want to say that I got the "numbers" I am posting from riftstatus.net. I know this is not a official side and he only list - lets call it a "rating" - but till someone hands out official numbers I have to take what I get. I also want to add that a rating of 1 or 0,99 is the lower limit, because the servers don’t have a status below "low" - that alone brings a decent inaccuracy into the hole thing, but in the end it doesn't matter if a server is dead or "very" dead ;)

Some Data:

NA
16 Servers (1xPvE-RP, 3xPVP, 12xPvE)
4 Server with a rating of 1 or 0.99
average rating of all servers (including the 4 with a rating of 1 or 0.99): 1,319

EU
7 English (1xPvE-RP, 2xPvP, 4xPvE)
5 German (1xPvE-RP, 1xPvP, 3xPvE)
4 French (1xPvE-RP, 1xPvP, 2xPvE)
16 servers in total
9 Servers with a rating of 1 or 0.99
average rating of all servers (including the 9 with a rating of 1 or 0.99): 1,123

I play on the Argent server, who is one of those 9 with a 0.99 rating (PvE-RP). I know that Argent was around 1.4 for a while, so it might not be the worst shard.
To say the server is dead may be a bit much - but it feels empty, and if you don't do anything SOON the server might be dead in a few months (along with all the other low-pop ones). This problem is not going to resolve itself , you need to do something.
That people leave the game for whatever reasons is not new, but those that start new avoid low-pop servers. Hell even I would avoid a low pop server if I could chose a medium-pop server as well.

To sum it up:
Trion, you have 9-10 almost dead Eu-Servers do something about it !

[Cienn]

If you play on one of the dead servers, have you tried out one of the higher population ones? You can transfer for no charge once a week. I would just hop around until you find a place that is better. In my experience, if you are on a dead server and you ask for something to be done, they will shut down your dead server and you have to move anyway.

I'm not sure why low pop servers are such a problem when we can move around free.

Additionally, there are several new games out, summer holidays, etc., that will affect the populations for the next few months. Things will balance back out.

[Talila]

Things are what you make them to be.

Argent, as a server, has seen worse. Much much worse - We're talking almost complete collapse of the RP community worse (Roleplayers tends to be some of the most persistent players, not saying that others can't be). In comparison to then, we are thriving, it's a healthy shard in my eyes. I see new people popping along everyday, each one just as nice and kind as the previous.
To say that the shard will be dead in 2 months is a bit much, even more so I would not wish to see it merged with anything, or being the recommended target for another servers population to move from.
Why? Because we're a Roleplay server, the only roleplay server one the Europe side with English as it's main language. If we suddenly see a lot of players forced onto Argent, we're going to lose the respect that the Roleplay community on Argent has worked hard to gain - We've not on the guardian side had an incidence of griefing of the roleplay hubs for months as far as I know. We managed to solve that issue on our own where Trion couldn't do much to help us.
If we think beyond RP, we still have several raiding guilds with full raiding teams and as far as I know they're pretty happy with being around on Argent. Sure we've had some transferring off to other pastures, but if people prefer a feeling of thousands of people rather than a small but happy community then Argent wouldn't be the place for them in the first place.
Proclaiming something to be dead or dying won't help anything.

In short: Don't know about the other shards, but Argent is fine. Hands off.

[Muffinmans]

Hello

Ok before I continue I want to say that I got the "numbers" I am posting from riftstatus.net. I know this is not a official side and he only list - lets call it a "rating" - but till someone hands out official numbers I have to take what I get. I also want to add that a rating of 1 or 0,99 is the lower limit, because the servers don’t have a status below "low" - that alone brings a decent inaccuracy into the hole thing, but in the end it doesn't matter if a server is dead or "very" dead ;)

Some Data:

NA
16 Servers (1xPvE-RP, 3xPVP, 12xPvE)
4 Server with a rating of 1 or 0.99
average rating of all servers (including the 4 with a rating of 1 or 0.99): 1,319

EU
7 English (1xPvE-RP, 2xPvP, 4xPvE)
5 German (1xPvE-RP, 1xPvP, 3xPvE)
4 French (1xPvE-RP, 1xPvP, 2xPvE)
16 servers in total
9 Servers with a rating of 1 or 0.99
average rating of all servers (including the 9 with a rating of 1 or 0.99): 1,123

I play on the Argent server, who is one of those 9 with a 0.99 rating (PvE-RP). I know that Argent was around 1.4 for a while, so it might not be the worst shard.
To say the server is dead may be a bit much - but it feels empty, and if you don't do anything SOON the server might be dead in a few months (along with all the other low-pop ones). This problem is not going to resolve itself , you need to do something.
That people leave the game for whatever reasons is not new, but those that start new avoid low-pop servers. Hell even I would avoid a low pop server if I could chose a medium-pop server as well.

To sum it up:
Trion, you have 9-10 almost dead Eu-Servers do something about it !

There isn't much they can do. They have to have a PvP, RP, and PvE server for each language. They could merge the pve servers of each language, but thats about it.

[Timrum]

If you play on one of the dead servers, have you tried out one of the higher population ones?

Yes i have a low level char on Brutmutter (the highest pop-server in EU) and to be honest this server feel healthy. The reason i / we (as a guild) are not transferring is that argent is the only english-RP Server left.

Additionally, there are several new games out, summer holidays, etc., that will affect the populations for the next few months. Things will balance back out.

I know that problem, it is not new and to be honest i doubt it (at least regarding for my server) - the population is as low as it is since months.

In short: Don't know about the other shards, but Argent is fine. Hands off.

Sorry i don't see this. Iam not hoping for a load of new players, but you can not deny that ~15%-20% more people would be good for Argent.

Also i don't want to focus on Argent - almost 60% of the EU-Servers are low-pop severs

[Alex113]

EU is BloodIron and Icewatch, nothing else is left. And since there are no more servers left one of them is bound to become the go to shard once something happens and a few more people leave. Only a question of which one will that server be now

[spaceboots]

Move them to Germany I hear they know how to do things correctly.

[Naesraen]

Although your diagnosis is good - riftstatus.net is good enough for these purposes - the solution is not nearly so obvious, primarily because we're split in the EU by language groups. The total server population in the EU servers is not, I would suggest, significantly smaller than the US population, however it is split over three times as many servers as the US population.

This makes solving the problem of empty servers more difficult - of the 9-10 empty servers, 3 are PvE-RP servers. Merging these won't fly, whether or not the language-denomination remains. Do we think that Argent would easily absorb a larger population than it already has of German and French speakers? Or better, given that the DE servers are the largest, even the empty ones, will you go to the German PvE-RP server when Argent is shut down? Or just, like everyone else, go to Icewatch or Riptalon? That would be effectively removing RP servers in two language groups, and Rpers won't wear that.

Likewise, Rp-ers won't wear merging Argent with, say, Riptalon - and those on Riptalon would not agree to it being suddenly designated an RP server. So 3 of our 9-10 empty servers have to stay that way.

Then there's the French: for whatever reason, French servers in MMOs are always relatively more empty than their German or English language brethren. French people simply don't seem to play MMOs in anything like the proportion that German people do - there's a reason why gamescom in Koln is the biggest (by visitor numbers) games convention in the world. The English play MMOs somewhere betwen the rate of the French and the German - but less than their US cousins; the population on EN servers in MMOs is always at least half EU people playing in their second (or thrid) language.

But just as we can't merge away the last French RP server, we cant merge away their last PvP server - so that's a fourth server that has to remain empty. Likewise in the EN and DE server groups, we can only merge away one PvP server, and maybe 1-2 PvE servers (1 in the DE group, maybe 2 in the EN group). So at least 6 servers are going to have to remain empty, simply to allow the full coverage of server type by language group.

And then, what if we merge away, say Sagespire, Steampike and Blightweald in the EN group? Do you really believe those people will come to an RP server? Or will they go to Bloodiron, Icewatch or Riptalon - leaving Argent even deader than it is, relative to the other servers?

I'm not saying there's no solution here - Trion have shown themselve to be very good at severing Gordian knots, so maybe they have a solution in mind - but I'd hazard a guess that the solution is 'wait for populations to start coming back with the Storm Legion announcement'.

[edit] Muffinmans said it much more clearly and efficiently than I did

[Warbs]

The current EU shard state is bad, just hope the x-pac will breathe new life back into Rift.

[Feine]

Things are what you make them to be.

Argent, as a server, has seen worse. Much much worse

...

In short: Don't know about the other shards, but Argent is fine. Hands off.

I'm not sure how you are seeing this. Actually Argent is at its lowest level of activity ever. I don't know what the state of the Guardian side is like, but certainly Defiant activity has never been lower, both roleplayers and general population.

[Lasur Arkinshade]

Yes, EU servers are in a terrible state at the moment. They really, really are.

Bloodiron, I believe the second most populated English-speaking EU server, suffers from a very, very limited zone population. Freemarch population pretty much never reaches 20 players. Think about that. That is abysmal. Freemarch should be one of the most popular zones - it's where all new Defiants enter the world after leaving Terminus. And it's barren.

This proves a very major problem when considering that the major zone events require a certain amount of people to be in a zone to occur. In short, it is uncommon for a zone event to occur on Bloodiron, and certainly exceptionally rare for a major zone event to take place.

This has become such a problem I've been forced to reroll NA-side if I want to stand even the slightest chance of being able to enjoy the game. That comes with its own issues, notably time zone problems and minor lag.

And here's the really big problem: Despite the free server transfers and lack of region-locking in Rift (well, at least, lack of region-locking between EU and NA), server transfers are still restricted by region. I cannot transfer back to EU servers once things stop looking so bleak (eg closer to Storm Legion's release). That means I am faced with an ultimatum if I want to play Rift at all:

-Play the game on EU servers and cope with a degraded play experience due to a very, very bad lack of population

or

-Play the game on NA servers, commiting that my character will forever be tied to these servers and I will be forced to deal with minor latency issues and the problem of timezones.

This is not good.

However, I do not think this is within Trion's power to fix. They cannot magically force more EU players into the game.

So here's what I suggest to make these population issues more bearable for everyone:

EU to NA and NA to EU server transfers. It's only logical.

Get on it, Trion. You know you want to.

[Himo]

Sorry i don't see this. Iam not hoping for a load of new players, but you can not deny that ~15%-20% more people would be good for Argent.

Bringing non-RPing and non-English speaking players is not going to improve Argent and will have a detrimental effect on the community. If there was another English EU RP shard then this would be a possibility for a merge however there is not.

A larger community does not necessarily mean a better community. I love the atmosphere on Argent and if it was to take any steps towards the behaviour I have seen on some of the larger shards then this would seriously damage my interest in the game.

I do agree that population issues need to be addressed however but this should not be done across shard types or language barriers. This is exactly what makes balancing the EU shards so difficult in comparison to the NA shards.

[Nicething]

RP servers are always dead what u expect ? RP is one of the less importan parts in any MMO for most of the Players...
and new players wont join RP Servers .. maybe 1% of em, RP is ya kinda freaky ..

Just switch Server. The PVE Servers are in a good shape if u ask me ^^

[Asidia]

Blightweald took a virtual kick in the gonads.
Left crippled now, so sad. :<

[thoroar]

Blightweald took a virtual kick in the gonads.
Left crippled now, so sad. :<

I'm sad too! :'s

I really think they should leave them how it is tbh. Merging French/English/German servers would not be a good idea. There would be terrible problems with the language barrier.