Originally posted by Kweassa
People must collect the overall opinion of their countrymates, it must be addressed to the developers, and they must also come up with an alternative method to implement in case the change is sanctioned.
Dividing arenas might work, but its basically a retro solution - sort of like, "if a metropolitan city has problems, then drive it back to the stone age so the people are all split up again"..
I don't agree and I'll try to explain why. Whatever solution or game design is inacted, the community at large can't be expected to take part in this process. The reason is that 90+% of them are not aware of the problems or even care. All they know is that players gang up on them, the countries are unblanced, and that lag is often a serious problem. And none know much of game and
community dynamics. That's where the experts come in. It's not an insignificant issue... quite complex actually. A person can earn a PHD on this subject.
One should not ignore past lessons learned for fear of a retro solution. There are more than 15 years of experience on this subject. What of the 600 or so players we see each night? When AW was provided by AOL we saw 2000 players each night, and many more on prime time weekends.
Any MMPOL game
must at some time look at the need to separate the community with multiple arena choices. Even though one can squeeze 1000 players into an arena, multiple arenas will eventually be required if the number of players surpasses that. Multiple arenas may be more a matter of balance than principle. Other factors besides a united player base need be considered. For example, multiple arenas provide players choices. If one arena is unbalanced, or the bases reduced to a point where it's not fun, players can go elsewhere. Arenas can be used to feature plane sets, war periods or the European, Western Front and Pacific theaters... more choices.
Of course, one must wonder why players don't voluntarily opt for the Combat Arena. I'm not sure, I don't do it myself, but I suspect players are like lemmings attracted to the masses. Fighter Ace (the last time I looked in there) has this feature... a massive furball arena (actually a series of small ones made to look like a single arena in which the computer assigns players to areas). There's a mode where players are released in the air and can dive into the action below. It's a mindless melee that grows old fast. But if you give the players a choice of an easy, uncomplicated entry to a game, they will mass there, get bored, and leave.
And one other thing. The primary advanrtage offered by MMPOL games is players vs players and the ability for them to determine their own game play, objectives and rules. A box game must provide this and it soon gets boring, which is the reason for the short life span of even the best boxed games. MMPOL game providers need to captitalize on this opportunity and not try to design the game play... for example the arena reset objective. MMPOL game play should be limited only t6o the players' imagination, which can seem infinite. A built in objective or game design can limit this imagination and result in boredom ("you must play the game this way because that's how HiTech designed it"). The result is something like the endless landgrabbing, gang banging, mud moving, fight avoiding, HOing free for all hamster wheel we see in AH.
grizzly
