Quote:
Originally Posted by lumin
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Were the newer zones the reason why the game was ruined for you?
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I think a lot of it was that there needs to be a balance between server population and number of available zones per hunting level range. If we added all of the zones in Live right now without changing the mechanics, would it really be the same experience? You'd be lucky to see another group in the same zone you were XPing in. Heaven forbid you need a rez with everyone so spread out like that.
If you make too much content available, you spread everyone out, it's harder to find groups, and you spend more of your play time looking for groups or attempting to solo, and it just gets old. However, if there's not enough content available, zones are jam-packed... you might be able to find a group easier, but good luck getting a camp or just 2-3 spawns for your group to pull for XP.
To make it more difficult, the level range of your server population is constantly changing. People level at different rates, people achieve max level and then go start alts, etc. The trick is to keep your finger on the pulse of your server population/level distribution and open up content as needed. That's why I think Kunark and Velious worked okay... there were enough high level players building up waiting for the floodgates to open to new content. Then, I don't know exactly when, maybe around PoP, a huge gap between hardcore and casual players was created, further fragmenting the community.
For me, it was more about that then gimping the game mechanics or whatever.