Glorious Alpha Two Testers!
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Phase I of Alpha Two testing will occur on weekends. Each weekend is scheduled to start on Fridays at 10 AM PT and end on Sundays at 10 PM PT. Find out more here.
Check out Alpha Two Announcements here to see the latest Alpha Two news and update notes.
Our quickest Alpha Two updates are in Discord. Testers with Alpha Two access can chat in Alpha Two channels by connecting your Discord and Intrepid accounts here.
Comments
Why would streamers join the same server as other streamers?
I dont see what they will win by doing so. But i see what they might lose..
Imagine 2 streamers go in 1 server. obviously 1 of the streamers will be the dominating force on the server. And this will hurt the other streamer views, reputation and ect.
Imagine you are streamer. Why tf would you risk being in server with other streamer where 1 of you will lose from this. Instead to go in server with no other streamer, dominate the server, get free wins everywhere and ect?
I didn't say they'll all play on the same server realm either. Obviously some of them benefit from keeping their community locked in with them isolated from subscription competition, but a lot of them will still want to play together.
You missed my main point anyway. There will be many server realms. Just avoid them. On release, find out which server realms the top 30 streamers will go on. Pick a different one. Other server realms will primarily have communities that don't revolve around streamers.
There will probably be forum threads tracking this information on launch day.
Yeh,... NO!
If you want to watch videos of good fights, you wont be watching Big Streamers with zerg community in the first place. The content these streamers make, and that people watch is them dominating zones. Griefing other players, and ect. People dont expect them to make some grand fights at all,
that they will split in all servers, instead them all going in 1 server
Where do I state ANYTHING about them "not having the same right" to play the game? Did you even read my comment? And the fact that you would then go on to tell others who has more or less "validity" is just icing on the cake. Better keep it down, mate.
How will you know if you are not watching the streamer(s)?
Find out 2 months in that things are shit becuse of this and you are stuck or have to re-roll.
Better have servers with a streamer tag and some that are for regular joe.
Again, there will be threads discussing this at launch, if you don't want to do it yourself, or you can share the work with other people you're playing with.
I agree that that would be ideal, I'm just saying it won't be a problem whether the devs do this or not. And Steven has said he's not particularly interested in doing it.
Also, everyone plays in their own way. There's gonna be as many guilds as there are gameplay styles. And a lot of those could be "less representative of real people's interests". Like, if you're a pvper and then you come across a full RP guild - would their interests match yours? What about that RP guild meeting a hardcore raid guild that only cares about bosses?
In other words, there's nothing "normal" in mmos. And the only problem with streamers is that people drag that metanarrative into the game. If you just treat that megaguild as "a tyranical charismatic leader managed to control hundreds of people" - the game would be way more fun than going "waaaaah, this big twitch dumbass came to my server with his followers, waaaahhh".
I play both.
It can be hard to relax in games with open PvP.
I totally get someone who wants to be in MMOs while PvE relaxing, although I've returned to doing the RPG thing for my PvE relaxation.
All Intrepid has to do is provide the right number of servers at launch and anticipate the drop off and merge system mechanics when the hype train derails...
Though if Intrepid wants to provide and accommodate streamers by making a specific server for them that is also ok, as long as it does not result in non streamer servers being neglected or effected in some detrimental way as a result.
Personally would not be pleased if Intrepid shows favoritism or get sucked into the streamer hype train themselves. In which case having all the servers be the same is more appropriate.
As a player you either have the choice to join and participate in 'streamer content' or join another server with other like minded players who don't want to interact with streamers...
there a pros and cons to both options.
For sure.
They are the ones that will populate those last few servers.
Keep in mind, if there is only 1 European server and 2 NA servers, that is still up to 150k active accounts, and 30k concurrent players.
If the game has those 3 servers and they maintain that population 3 years after launch, that is actually still a financially successful game. That is $27 million a year in revenue just from subscriptions.
You don't.
I'm saying that there is nothing Intrepid could or should do about it, because playing the game their way is perfectly fine.
You are suggesting that people that have been waiting years to play shouldn't be subject to *whatever* other players wish to do in game, and that is just outright incorrect.
This game is literally about you being subjected to what others are doing.
This should be a NIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICE Warning-Test of what happens if You are still to unsocial to form and join Guilds when the Game gets released.
GET ALLIES.
Or be dominated by those who managed to get some.
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
✓ Guild is " Balderag's Garde " for now. (German)
Ye i mean when Wow for example provide new expansion, it can be quite fun the first few months till you explore everything. After this it becomes a chore that me personally dont find fun.
Would much rather play something like God of war, Dark souls, Elden ring or something like this to relax from a PVP experience. But The PVP has its own charms that bots in pve cant provide.
Not 30 nodes, only 5.
I haven't seen anywhere that the optimal size of a node is, "As many as possible" though, and you can't exclude people from a node AFAIK. So if I want to go to a streamers node and become a citizen, as long as I pay my taxes I'm using up a slot and I don't have to join the guild..
✓ Occasional Roleplayer
✓ Guild is " Balderag's Garde " for now. (German)
That is false. Read again. My entire point is INFLUENCE FROM OUTSIDE THE GAME like trying to run an entertainment show. I have no problem that some people want to do that.
But what I don't understand, nor accept which you didn't address either is, why I have to be subjected to someone elses business endeavor in my freetime. Without consent, without payment. That is why the only thing I ask for is an information option so I can avoid being used as a prop in someones entertainment business. And giving players the information to make an informed decisions is not much to ask.
I think its only fair that Intrepid follow the sentement and classify / tag servers for and not for streamers.
Again, because that has literally always been a part of the game.
Streamers are free to play the game how they want, and agreeing to play Ashes is agreeing to be subject to how others want tonplay the game.
Honestly, your take here is exactly the same as people complaining that they don't want open world PvP. If you play Ashes, you are subject to what ever other people playing the game wish to subject you to. You do not get to decide other than opting to not play the game. Streamers streaming is a part of that.
This has always been the deal.
In your mind though, what's the cutoff for this?
Like, if my group decides to pivot to streaming AoC for some reason after already starting to do pretty well and therefore 'reaching the threshold where it might be entertaining', and you're already on our server, what is IS supposed to do about that, for you, flag everyone who pulls up a stream or even hits 'record' on their stuff, with a little icon?
Seriously asking if that would be enough. Because, sure, you can say 'no, I mean big streamers', but all big streamers are small first.
The cutoff would be: If your community is formed around one or more personalities with a public social media audience, you're invited and encouraged to play on one of the streamer server realms instead of another one.
If there happens to be a famous person in your community, but their presence is not central to your community's identity, you're fine to play on any realm.
Now, at the edges of this definition, in a universe where streamer server realms would exist:
Essentially, the point is, if all it would take is to give a few servers a tag that says "streamer-friendly", while strictly disavowing any promises of enforcing that as a moderation rule...why not just do that?
But again, I have no horse in this race, I think either solution is fine, because players who care should care enough to research which servers are safe from most major streamers before they create their character.
All of this right here is good. I have been super concerned with the state of affairs involving a content creator fan bases. No one plays these games to get dominated by a large group of people in a "your either with us or against us" mentality that will get formed along side these groups. Asmongold is the best example of this where when he creates guilds on new servers...they don't go away. in fact they will stick around for a very long time in hopes that whenever he does return they will already have a spot in the limelight. He has such a genuinely large following that ANY server he is on is now "his" server. Sure, you could say its the name of the game and they have a right to do that but...that's not a healthy gaming experience for people who aren't a part of that group.
Pirate softwares groups genuinely scares me because not only is it a, at this point in time, 3500 Strong, their is also a tremendous amount of organization and planning going into it. They WILL be a force to be reckoned with. Luckily we know what server he will play on so we can avoid it but...who's to say other streamers won't follow suit? its a very tough math problem to solve.
Tagging if useless given that streamers often have an incentive to move to realms/servers where they would be the only one and able to dominate, thus anything tagged as not for them is immediatly what they would want to go to. Unless the tag is enforced with bans (which I don't think is viable or desirable) then it's pointless.
What WOULD work is a simple differentiation of servers. Give certain servers a double or tripple guild size (both initial and at each size expansion upgrade) and groups will self segregate to ones that fit their prefered playstyle better. The Big Fish will go to the Big Fish pond and the small fish will go to the small fish pool without any heavy handed control.
And BOTH sides will love it because they have been disagreeing over guild size from day one.
And best of all it's a trivial easy system to program and test durring the Alpha.
I played many games on different servers. Most miserable experiences were always on the ones with a huge streamer+megaguild.
PS: I have big doubts that any policies regulating big streamers will be implemented considering how Steven is catering to them on streams and in comments on their videos (I understand why he is doing that; don't get me wrong). For now, my plan is to wait 1-2 days after launch, missing precious jumpstart, but choosing the server to play optimally.
If you decide to do that then I'd say: Pay to transfer to a server where streaming is allowed.
Again the point is that outside incentives undoubtly change player behavior. Therefore if someone wants to leave the option open for that, then they can just play on a server where streaming is allowed. And mind you: I am not saying "push those streamers into a far corner". I am pretty sure that most people are much more relaxed about this than I am. I'd just like have a corner of gameplay for a change where there is no reason to deal with cameras, potential clout chasing, this BS drama (see recent AoC news with the ban hammer situation) or someone making decisions ingame to earn money with something that everyone else has to pay for.
I want to play with people that are acutally there to PLAY undisturbed by the clout chasing, efame BS.