Hey,
Longtime Euro Mir player here.
So, what has become apparent to me after watching various servers go up and down, is that the Mir 2 community (I was never a part of Mir 3 really, so can only comment on Mir 2 and the servers that go up) ****ing LOVES IT when a private server goes under.
I read on LomCN "lol this server uses these files, GOOD LUCK" and "If I was running a server, I wouldnt do what you are doing, you suck", to paraphrase. It seems that the pool for Mir 2 private server players is quite small. And a not insignificant percentage of that audience has at least attempted to run their own private server, or has some investment in the process of servers, be it a knowledge of the files, an ex gm etc.
Then, there is another not insignificant portion of the community who has not done this, but demands a level of perfection on the scale of a funded company, despite knowing about the challenges they face with buggy server files etc.
The same problems crop up again and again, "You are not dealing with cheaters!", "your files suck", "you made the wrong rates", "the bug that I encountered is far more important than any informed decision you are making about the running of your server"
What I'm trying to say is this: The Mir 2 community, as it stands, is so negative, so down on anybody with the time, money and inclination to run a server, that nothing is getting off the ground for much longer than 6 months and staying above 100 players.
What we all want, despite which rates we each prefer, is consistency, somewhere we can go back to and find our character, without having to build them up again. Yet the rate of complaining not only serves to damage the willpower of those who run the server, who no doubt have other pressing matters in their lives besides running a private server of a poorly coded Korean MMO, but also the negative comments on forums drive away people who might have otherwise given the server a go. It looks bad. And it only spirals down, never up.
We need to be more patient. If a legit licensed operation started TODAY, how long would you give them to get the server "launch ready". 3 months? Id hope you'd say 6 months if you really cared about the longevity of the project. But often we join a server mere weeks, even days into it getting its IP for the first time.
So if you gave a legit operation to go from opening the doors of the office on the first day to launching into gold from beta 6 months, why do we expect 1 or 2 people, running a server in their spare time, to have all the answers and all the bugs fixed in no time at all? Should this 1 person spend a year testing a server in isolation, just them running round, in the hope of finding every possible bug?
See, heres what I see happening, dear reader, who clearly rates Mir very highly if you are even passing your eyes over this text:
- The pool of past fans and potential private server players gets smaller and smaller over the coming year or two, to the point where theres not enough people, with enough faith, interest and investment to support a private server for any length of time, or in any great numbers. Until the eventual fall off leads to an increasing lack of interest to the point where there is nobody even willing to run a server that is particularly worth playing outside of the the enjoyment of themselves and their friends, for a weekend or two.
- We need to give each private server time.
- Be wary of the perception we are sending to our increasingly smaller community by our forum posts, and be mindful when reading ourselves, that those who feel wronged shout the loudest, and there may well be a silent majority enjoying the server, which will eventually die through natural drop off and a lack of new players.
- If we have knowledge, offer support, in private messages to the server owners, on how to fix bugs or overcome problems, and not simply try to shame and bully them into listening to your fantastic fix-all solution, despite not having any of the server-end information that may inform them differently.
- If you like a server, its rates and setup, but things are laggy or buggy, stick around, or keep coming back to that server once a week or 2 weeks, to show the owner that you still want to play, and they still have hits on their project.
You may disagree with me, that's fine. However if we don't, through careful consideration, make a concious effort to protect our community, and support where we otherwise might not have to ensure the survival of something we like, we may lose this community and more importantly, this game forever.
Either way, this hostility to your fellow fans of Mir has got to stop.
Please discuss.
Longtime Euro Mir player here.
So, what has become apparent to me after watching various servers go up and down, is that the Mir 2 community (I was never a part of Mir 3 really, so can only comment on Mir 2 and the servers that go up) ****ing LOVES IT when a private server goes under.
I read on LomCN "lol this server uses these files, GOOD LUCK" and "If I was running a server, I wouldnt do what you are doing, you suck", to paraphrase. It seems that the pool for Mir 2 private server players is quite small. And a not insignificant percentage of that audience has at least attempted to run their own private server, or has some investment in the process of servers, be it a knowledge of the files, an ex gm etc.
Then, there is another not insignificant portion of the community who has not done this, but demands a level of perfection on the scale of a funded company, despite knowing about the challenges they face with buggy server files etc.
The same problems crop up again and again, "You are not dealing with cheaters!", "your files suck", "you made the wrong rates", "the bug that I encountered is far more important than any informed decision you are making about the running of your server"
What I'm trying to say is this: The Mir 2 community, as it stands, is so negative, so down on anybody with the time, money and inclination to run a server, that nothing is getting off the ground for much longer than 6 months and staying above 100 players.
What we all want, despite which rates we each prefer, is consistency, somewhere we can go back to and find our character, without having to build them up again. Yet the rate of complaining not only serves to damage the willpower of those who run the server, who no doubt have other pressing matters in their lives besides running a private server of a poorly coded Korean MMO, but also the negative comments on forums drive away people who might have otherwise given the server a go. It looks bad. And it only spirals down, never up.
We need to be more patient. If a legit licensed operation started TODAY, how long would you give them to get the server "launch ready". 3 months? Id hope you'd say 6 months if you really cared about the longevity of the project. But often we join a server mere weeks, even days into it getting its IP for the first time.
So if you gave a legit operation to go from opening the doors of the office on the first day to launching into gold from beta 6 months, why do we expect 1 or 2 people, running a server in their spare time, to have all the answers and all the bugs fixed in no time at all? Should this 1 person spend a year testing a server in isolation, just them running round, in the hope of finding every possible bug?
See, heres what I see happening, dear reader, who clearly rates Mir very highly if you are even passing your eyes over this text:
- The pool of past fans and potential private server players gets smaller and smaller over the coming year or two, to the point where theres not enough people, with enough faith, interest and investment to support a private server for any length of time, or in any great numbers. Until the eventual fall off leads to an increasing lack of interest to the point where there is nobody even willing to run a server that is particularly worth playing outside of the the enjoyment of themselves and their friends, for a weekend or two.
- We need to give each private server time.
- Be wary of the perception we are sending to our increasingly smaller community by our forum posts, and be mindful when reading ourselves, that those who feel wronged shout the loudest, and there may well be a silent majority enjoying the server, which will eventually die through natural drop off and a lack of new players.
- If we have knowledge, offer support, in private messages to the server owners, on how to fix bugs or overcome problems, and not simply try to shame and bully them into listening to your fantastic fix-all solution, despite not having any of the server-end information that may inform them differently.
- If you like a server, its rates and setup, but things are laggy or buggy, stick around, or keep coming back to that server once a week or 2 weeks, to show the owner that you still want to play, and they still have hits on their project.
You may disagree with me, that's fine. However if we don't, through careful consideration, make a concious effort to protect our community, and support where we otherwise might not have to ensure the survival of something we like, we may lose this community and more importantly, this game forever.
Either way, this hostility to your fellow fans of Mir has got to stop.
Please discuss.
