11/23/2010

No Room to Breathe

Is instancing overall good or bad?

These people that go into their own instances are removed from the actual game world. I like my game world to be busy and crowded. At the same time, I like having my own instance so there isnt' kill stealing, leeching, ninja looting and having that protection from being ganked.

But if everyone has their own instance, the world becomes empty.
Right?
Well, not necessarily; there will always be people who like to solo, or don't like/need to do things that require an instance. At the same time, its the responsibility of the developers to ensure the servers are populated to a degree so its not over-crowded or empty.
Its possibly the reason why Mythic recently introducted the Skaven to WAR; to get people out of scenarios and back into o-rvr. Nothing was worse/boring in that game than attacking empty keeps in zergs.. and even worst protecting a keep with an empty battlefield.. hence the beauty of cultivation and the mods for them... GOOOOO DYES!!

Once again, reminisce of a simpler time when there were no chat channels, where possibly the most populated place was the bank (it still is in a way) and b/c of that everyone hawked their wares there. The screen would be flooded with text. People had their favorite vendors and hangouts, there was guild housing.. and places that was normally deserted b/c it was out of the way, but still visited for the rare services they provided. I loved the city of Magincia in UO where the graveyard was always busy with people and undead, or the quiet of Yew's monastery and how exciting it was when people were actually there. Or letting out a sigh of relief when bogged down with loot from a dungeon and finding out the new comers to the dungeon were friendly and not gankers. The world was busy b/c alot of people were online and in the same area. The world could be empty but have alot of people online not because they were in their own private instance, but b/c they were somewhere else in the same world, making it busy in that area.

1 comment:

  1. I sort of have the exact feeling when I was leveling my brand spanking new Dwarf Warrior in the old world. You had TOO MUCh room to breathe. Places like Dalaran slowed down to a crawl with the lag, due to the sheer volume of endless players flocking to the capital city. The rest of the (old) world was barren, devoid of any life except that which wanted to rip you apart with kobold knives or diseased fangs.

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