Server Merge Commentary: Channels, Compensation, and the Staff

Since there are still people in the forums who are just jumping straight into the rants-n-raves mode before knowing what's going on, read this or die:

IAH is implementing a server merge for SEA / ANZ Granado Espada effective 7 October 2008.

News and Sources:

Granado Espada World Migration Official Announcement

Bulletin 1: World Migration Family and Faction Migration Guide

[More bulletins to come, apparently, and I will update the post as they are released.]

Official Forum Threads for Comments and Complaints:

Granado Espada World Migration Official Announcement

It's Maintenance Day! Ask [Mee Pok Tah] about the World Migration here!!

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I'm still not tout a fait ["completely"] happy with the continuing wait-and-see tactic regarding the number of channels available to players after the server merge. As I quoted in the previous entry, Hrin was left saying something about IMC, HBS, and IAH deciding on whether there would be more channels in the new servers only after the merge had been completed.

Maybe I should say it a little more strongly, though I'm not sure what good it might do me right now:

One of the fastest ways to assure the SEA / ANZ GE community of players, right the heck now when the news is still fresh enough to cause shock and anger, is to say that there WILL be more channels already implemented in the new servers, ready to use when we all log back in.

Corollary statements:
- More channels will assuage the fear of overcrowding, especially in the merged PK server which will play host to the denizens of the THREE old PK servers.
- More channels may allow for more boss raids, which will mean that better loots and items may become more accessible to more people and thus affect the new servers' economies.
- More channels will negate the fear associated with "Where will the newbies level now?", because more channels equals more space for everyone to level in.

There was a brief description of the supposedly new hardware and servers that IAH bought, which they'll be migrating GE to. The burden of proof of those new servers falls squarely on IAH - prove how new and how robust those things are by programming them to hold more channels.

I still remember the outcry when SEA / ANZ GE transitioned to its commercial phase because in that transition, all of the Channel 3s were dropped most unceremoniously. That lingered as a sore wound in the community because up until then, everyone had most cheerfully utilized the wide-open freedom of the New World in three separate channels. The irony of that wide-open freedom being abruptly curtailed, just when the game went into wide release and presumably looking for new players, was a hard blow to deal with.

The suggestion has been to bump the number of channels back to, at the very LEAST, three in each new server - and there are even those who are advocating four to six channels. My two cents involves assigning two channels for each of the old servers:

New PK server Bach: Six channels, two for each of the three former servers Cervantes, Caravaggio, and Vivaldi

New Non-PK server Rembrandt: Four channels, two for each of the two former servers Carracci and Pachelbel.

And, following the second corollary statement above, opening boss raids in at least two channels apiece, as initial concession to the large numbers of raiders pouring into each of the new, after-merge servers.

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I also do not agree with having only the World Migration Package as the compensation for all players. The suggested items to be included in the package might not satisfy everyone. I might have suggested adding one thing to that package: 15 ABS for everyone. I'm not joking, at least this gives people a chance, however much of a chance that game is, at getting good items, as compensation for many items that may be lost in the process of merging.

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Finally, for everyone what's going to the Black Party GE PH Anniversary event on Saturday: Let's at least PLEASE try NOT to overwhelm CM Aethrin with too many questions about this server merge. My best piece of advice will be to READ THE LINKS ABOVE before going - and if you cannot find an answer to your burning questions, only then can you go ahead and attempt to have the CM look into it.

Be advised that the forum threads are already being manned by staff who are already making extreme efforts to accommodate everyone's questions. Ask THEM first, and preferably BEFORE Saturday - they're right there so ask them already!