Additional servers or meta servers?

[GoNINzo]

I was writing an email concerning the benifits of addtional servers. There are a couple problems with a single server.

1. It puts all our eggs in one basket, if it goes down, we can't play.
2. Not everyone enjoys the same type of play. I'm a slow, methodical player that enjoys playing alone, I don't play with a team. But I like being able to trade items with everyone and the chatter that happens. (I have a tough time playing with a team cause I sometimes have to bail unexpectedly.)
3. I hate the large width walls, I prefer single width because it is a lot easier to navigate and doesn't benfit summoners quite so much. But this illustrates the point that everyone enjoys different features.
4. It'd be easier to develop new features because you could have a 'test' server. I've already hacked in a few things for the mangband source.
5. The lag. Sometimes it just kills me because so much is going on the screen that the 300ms that the europe server causes me to not be able to respond in time. And we have a lot of North American players too.
6. The social groups would be 'better'. Currently, if someone has a problem with a high level person on the tomenet server, they are just going to not play to avoid the issue. It would be better if they had someone else they could play.
7. The cheeze server would show up, but I think that might get people to experiment with wackier things and such.
8. Bug fixes: I heard someone today talking about trying to fix the item display bug because he's so aggrivated with it.

And the meta server should prolly be brought up or redirected.
a. The meta server prolly needs to be fixed. It should be pointed out that mangband has a solid meta server and people tend to migrate where the other players are. Europe would still remain full I'm sure, it'd just be nice to have some variety.
b. More newbies would join, get addicted, and become regular players. By having a wide variety of servers, they could choose from one or more play styles, or even learn on a cheeze server till they learn to play.

I'm just a newbie to TOME, but I've been playing these games since hack or moria. To prove it, check out my old character from back in the day: Marious circa 1995 Plus, I've been running a mangband server for a year and my users are pretty happy with it.

Anyway, just some thoughts, I'd like to hear what other people have to say as well.
--
Gonzo Granzeau

[the_sandman]

b. More newbies would join, get addicted, and become regular players. By having a wide variety of servers, they could choose from one or more play styles, or even learn on a cheeze server till they learn to play.

noobs = "Oooh! a nothing! lets farm it!" | *deaths whines* | *can someone give me items?* | *Oooo i think i'll hostile ppl with no reason!* (i like the last one tho, no complaints there, just that they whine even more so if they get themselves killed that way)

i dont mind new players, but please, read the guide first eh?

[GoNINzo]

noobs = "Oooh! a nothing! lets farm it!" | *deaths whines* | *can someone give me items?* | *Oooo i think i'll hostile ppl with no reason!* (i like the last one tho, no complaints there, just that they whine even more so if they get themselves killed that way)

i dont mind new players, but please, read the guide first eh?

Ah, yes, I hate those players too, but the ones that are really annoying don't get the help they need so they go away.

The ones I'm talking about are the non-computer people who don't understand what an IP address is. They can play TOME and vanilla just fine, but have issues with getting connected and the wacky error messages we have. Has anyone run tomenet recently without referencing a server? Often times, it just hangs on a black screen.

Anyway, getting more people addicted is the way to make it more popular which gives you a wider group to play with. I'm a little biased because I've been involved with multiplaying gaming for a long time now, but I've found the best onlines games are friendly to both newbs and experienced players.

(And no, I won't be playing on a cheeze server.)

[PowerWyrm]

pfft a 5 year old child could connect to tomenet using cblue's setup... just need to click on the bat file and you're through.

[Armada away from home]

some newer players seem to lack the intellect of said 5 year olds though .

I do find it amusing when a new player hostiles my chat character for fun, then runs in fear when i bring back my TL warrior. Sure its only happened once or twice, but more is welcome.

Theres not enough low level players for my tastes right now, I play unwordly exclusively and tend to take lots of risks as i find it more fun that way...And of course i die a lot and that leaves me to go solo. Maybe with at least a meta we could get a few more low levels onto the game

[virus]

only 5 year old children use windows