I tend for standard PvE server but may try an RP server for this. Normally don't do roleplay in actual games (I do it as a standalone activity) however with the kind of environment Pantheon is shaping up to have it might work well. I don't find much personal interest in PvP among the RPG genre though, aside from a tournament or arena thing. If I feel like beating the heck out of other players or that sort of thing I'll go play a FPS or GTA.
I usually tend to look for RP servers first. Community upfront when game releases, may be a bit chaotic. But low and behold, as things dwindle down, RP servers always have the best communities, and tend to last the longest as RPers tend to stick with games for a long time, after they've built that community sense in the game.
Other than that i like to look at population based. I dont like baren games. I like a thriving community. Being part of the forum community, also makes me hope we all end up on the same server. Lets hope for the best. Hell lets make this easy, Kils what server are you rollin? We'll all join you there lol!
I might be the opposite of a lot of the people who replied.
If it's PvE i'd rather a low pop server in my time-zone. If it's PvP I normally go mid or high pop for more action.
My reason for small servers might just simply be inflation and the game economy. I think when the server pop reaches a certain number of characters is can really wash away a lot of the value from things. Also, I'd rather a server/community with accountable people and less of them as opposed to a big server where people don't really care about forming any relationships.
Also, it has to be far easier to track and discourage garbage like gold farming if each server is set to a limited pop.
All of that is relative to the size of the game world of course... can't be desolate but it also can't be very large imo.
Was looking to find a different forum about Servers but found this instead so I thought I'd bring this back to life since it's been awhile since it was last posted on.
I myself LOVE RP, my first succesful character on an MMO first joined an RP guild without me really knowing what the hell I was getting myself into and since then I've been hooked on RP, so naturally first server I goto first and foremost relies on RP, secondly population, and then the server location. I live in more around the West Coast but just for convinience I play on East Coast because people usually hold events later at night, and seeing how EST is 2-3 hours ahead of my times it generally works out.
As others have said, the biggest factors for me are (1) PvP or PvE, and (2) population size. The age of a server is also a big factor, if there is a choice between newer and older servers. For Pantheon, I would really like to play on a well-populated PvP server, if the ruleset is right. If the PvP ruleset doesn't work for me, I'll probably try an RP server.
Cromulent said:Since there is usually only one European server I play on that. It would be nice having a choice of rule sets in Europe though although I guess the European game population isn't enough to have a PvE server, a PvP server and a RP server which is a shame.
This comment reminded me how some games divide their servers by timezone or location. I guess there will be some people who choose a server based on its physical location, but I'm hoping that PRF takes a more global approach to each server. In my experience, servers that have populations from all different timezones are the best. More steady online population throughout the day, a bigger population (but spread out, causing less congestion), and a more interesting competitive-raiding scene since guilds will have varying prime times. It's also just nice to play w/ players from other countries. I'm not sure how today's technical limitations will factor into this decision.
Gnog said:Cromulent said:Since there is usually only one European server I play on that. It would be nice having a choice of rule sets in Europe though although I guess the European game population isn't enough to have a PvE server, a PvP server and a RP server which is a shame.
This comment reminded me how some games divide their servers by timezone or location. I guess there will be some people who choose a server based on its physical location, but I'm hoping that PRF takes a more global approach to each server. In my experience, servers that have populations from all different timezones are the best. More steady online population throughout the day, a bigger population (but spread out, causing less congestion), and a more interesting competitive-raiding scene since guilds will have varying prime times. It's also just nice to play w/ players from other countries. I'm not sure how today's technical limitations will factor into this decision.
I don't have a problem with playing on a US server or a global server if the ping is acceptable but playing on the European servers just means that a lot more people will be active during my play sessions. I think the only games where mixed servers work are games like EVE Online where they have a single mega server for all players no matter where they come from play. That way there are always people active no matter where you come from.
PvE
Time Zone
A feel, if possible, for the types of Guilds on the server. Im looking for a good range of guilds from high end to casual. Ideally I prefer a server with 2 very competitive high end guilds that also respect each other and even at times, behind the scenes, work together.
Most importantly however... the server has to have a cool name :)
I stick with one server as I am very guild orientated but I never put more than 1 alt, if any, into my guild. I prefer to play alts anonymously apart from my guild never mentioning the guild my main is in. Quite often we have made that somewhat of a guild rule.