Nothing more than a Question

[Aaelefein]

While I appreciate the idea of increasing the apparent population, Aaelefein, I am not in favor of combining the shards.

When I come to Istaria, I do not want mention of real world politics, popular culture, and especially do not want lengthy discussions of other games. I want to be focused on the world of Istaria. Would you be happy to pay to see a movie, just to have loud mouths in the audience talking about how other movies compare with it, or how real life is different than what is up on the screen? It is just plain rude of people to do that in the public setting when the expectation is immersion in the fantasy. Most people on Order respect that, thus I am happy there. I do not want to be stuck without the option of the rp shard, nor be forced to only one public chat (roleplay) to avoid rl chatter.

No, and I agree...this would be another consideration as well as mentioned in my post previous to this one.

It is also something that would have to be maintained on the Order shard - though I would like to see those comments I've seen posted about Order being 'Very strict when it comes to RP" - which is something I have never experienced once since joining order about a year after the merger. I've seen people 'wrist-slapped' (by other players and quite politely) for veering away too much or for an extended period of time, but never for NOT RPing.

The only bad experience I had was just before joining the Bane of the Aegis - when I was kicked out of a guild because I wasn't logged in often enough (apparently 4-6 hours a day wasn't enough - go figure) - tame compared to some of the things I encountered in WoW.

And in the cases I've seen you describe above...when something like that has come up, which usually happens in Market Place when things are slow or a comment is made...you know how conversations tangent...the speakers take it to a private room.

[awdz]

Just to be clear, I'm not saying I encounter rude people on Order, I'm saying that is how being on Chaos would feel to me because of what I look for in the game. It would not be fair to expect those [looking for what Chaos has to offer] to be happy to have to align with the immersion aspect of Order, either. The two shards work well for serving the different gaming environments.

[Guaran]

Just to be clear, I'm not saying I encounter rude people on Order, I'm saying that is how being on Chaos would feel to me because of what I look for in the game. It would not be fair to expect those [looking for what Chaos has to offer] to be happy to have to align with the immersion aspect of Order, either. The two shards work well for serving the different gaming environments.

If ever the shards did combine for whatever reason, I think players could easily work around this by simply making an rp-general chat, and rp-dragon chat, and maybe an rp-marketplace chat. when someone is in the rp channel they would stay in character, the others more lax. We have a General chat and no one uses it. Marketplace is our general chat too (on Chaos). If marketplace needs to be in character on the rp shard, just add that last one as a pre-created channel. Players could join whichever channels they wished, no one would step on anyone elses' toes really.

Of course doing the above would in its own way semi-divide the population, and might undermine the idea of a more populated world...

But yeah, I think offering the separate shards is the best answer to your point.

[Racktor]

I would love a more populated world via server merge, but honestly, I would hate to lose my lair and would only ever look at the option as a last resort. I was honestly wishing for it before Christmas and was tempted to suggest it on the forums, but I waited until double EXP to share my opinion.. and my opinion changed, so. My opinions have really already been stated so I won't say much, but Guaran reminded me of an idea I had:

Like how we have emote, have a chat "channel" for rp. So you type /rp and it puts "[Roleplay] Racktor says, '<text>' " instead of just the "Racktor says". Not only is this clearer for any roleplay that would occur in public between players, but it can also be disabled or moved to another chat tab entirely if RP bothers someone or someone wishes to keep it separated from the general area chat. Would be a checkbox in our chat options just like yell, emote, talk, guild, group, etc is.

[Jstntron]

I would like to add that VI literally just overhauled their essentially original dedicated server hardware for the game, so a shard merge would be a kick in the face if they just bought thousands of dollars worth or more of rack mount servers to run the current shards.

[awdz]

Like how we have emote, have a chat "channel" for rp. So you type /rp and it puts "[Roleplay] Racktor says, '<text>' " instead of just the "Racktor says". Not only is this clearer for any roleplay that would occur in public between players, but it can also be disabled or moved to another chat tab entirely if RP bothers someone or someone wishes to keep it separated from the general area chat. Would be a checkbox in our chat options just like yell, emote, talk, guild, group, etc is.

That is already possible for individuals by setting up an alias command. I use /mp for Marketplace chat all the time, as I set it up long ago. I *think* the command I used was:

/alias mp chat marketplace

Make sure to have a space on the end of that command.

[Racktor]

I didn't mean that, Awdz, though I did call it a chat channel. ^^; Let me reiterate.

Know how you can write /yell <text> and it says: "Racktor yells, '<text>'" into the local chat? Or how you write "/emote <text>" and it says "*Racktor <text>" in the local chat? I'm proposing a "channel" like that, for local chat, but not an actual chat channel. That already exists as the Role-Play channel.

It would allow for role-play and non-role-play to exist side-by-side in local hotspots such as NT or Dralk.

[Shazo]

I somewhat agree to the idea and somewhat don't.

Would be nice to see more people on, more plots ocupied when I fly over them and entire spots are empty or with just a little shack on it. Also more lairs to make parties in, more hunts, friends. Aye, I like that idea.

BUT

I don't precisely like it from the side that it would be harmfull to some people. Plots would have to be removed because I'm very sure theres lots of plots that are occupied in the same spot both in Chaos and Order. If there was any possibility to move said plots to another same size space of choice for the transfer, same goes for lairs, it wouldn't be that bad of an idea.
Of course, I don't think that would be possible. Also, some people ran from Chaos to Order, or viceversa to a new place to start over again and not being bothered, for friend issues, family, RP or any other matter. Merging those shards into one would give them no choice but stick with the only option they have. Personaly I didn't experience such a thing, but I know about people that do.

My final conclusion is, it would be nice to repopulate the game as it was intended to, but there would be lots of conflicts between either players, plot/lair spots being taken on both sides and generaly, a lot of technical issues. It's not like you can move an entire plot from one server to another that easly since its basicaly build within the only oe large world the game has, instead of smaller maps separately in another MMO's.

So, its a no from my side.