Temporary Shard Visit (Suggestion & Debate)

[Lord Frodo]

^ Nowhere in post you quoted is people leaving for a more populated shard


You somehow managed to find a great deal of things I never really said from my post. I wasn't even waving a flag on behalf of hard merges as such. I don't live on a busiest server at all, and like it well. It's just that if we get all boring and objective, then in very undeniable sense the game has way too many servers for amount of people playing. In great many Shards, UO looks and feels so much more quiet than it should.

Soft merge where some new expansion would provide new lands, dungeons and pvp areas on one shared server for all shards would redeem much of this.

UO has way too many shards for it's own good. Community is spread too thin. Instead of precious few more or less lively shards and quite a number of very dead ones, we'd much benefit from having only two or three shards.

Read your own post. and here is what I said " If YOU want more community you are more than welcome to transfer to a more populated shard." And again I ask IF you reduce the # of shards as you suggested please show your data on how this will effect the population and will this really make UO better for everybody or just a select few that think it will. I can tell you 3 people that will close all of their accounts if this were to happen so what is your proposal to gain 30+ accounts being lost? Only UO could give us exact numbers as to shard population and we both know that will never happen and the only way to get even an idea of how this would be accepted is to put a poll at the log-in screen so everybody, not just the minority of Stratics UO Players could decide. This is no different than the VvV Siege debate that oh look at the Stratics people that want it but when the DEVs went to Siege it was determined that VvV was NOT coming to Siege.

 

[Flagg]

^ I've mentioned in the last two posts how I think it is almost impossible to reduce the number of shards. I don't think it will ever happen. I've said as much in both of the posts that got you all upset. As such, the whole debacle about you and your three buddies surely insta quitting if devs do this or that basically amounts to you arguing with yourself.

Yet, I absolutely think UO, generally speaking, has way too many shards in any objective sense. Frankly, I also think one can't even debate this. It is undeniable enough. You can hide behind some oddball demands of hard data all you please, it doesn't change what is (or rather, isn't) all around you in most servers you log into.

I live on a quieter server and am quite happy with my experience at the moment. Even though I really wish there were a vibrant community around me, I'm not thinking about Xfer or askin for some huge server merging as such. Yet, generally speaking, I have no trouble admitting game has utterly absurd and harmful measure of different servers given the current population. These two lines of thought are not mutually exclusive.

Rather than getting all excited about you and your three buddies, think for a moment about all the new players and returning vets who log to UO after some 5-10 years away, but do not happen to log to the two or three ( even that is bit generous..) truly busy servers. These people don't necessarily have their three buddies to blackmail the devs with. They don't have network, connections and possibilities some 10 year old guild&assorted connections afford. Yet, just like you and me, they prolly don't want to switch servers either; they have their characters, memories or even friends and houses on server X. They won't Xfer. They see silent cities, empty lands and slow general chats. They see a very silent game when, in fact, UO still has quite impressive, only hopelessly dispersed wealth of players.

Yet, for the most part, " it is what it is" sums the situation well enough. I believe devs can't and won't do any hard shard merging. Almost nobody would want that.
For sake of clarity,
Hard shard merging=" Hello guys. Dave the Dev here! We've decided to merge Drachenfields and Europa into one single server. Some of you lost your houses! Have a nice day!"

I think Soft merges could be a very good idea and might actually happen though.
Soft merge= Imagine a New expansion with new lands/dungeons/pvp zones/champs/etc that isn't available on ATL or Europa or Lake Superior or etc at all. Instead, it'd be on a shard entirely of it's own. In shard where all characters wishing to play would always transfer for duration of their visit.Blam, entire community together and land filled with life and all unpredictabilities that other peoplke afford.