Time-Zone Specific servers

[AgentBrownEye]

read the thread title.... what do you think? good idea or bad? make organizing a lotta things a helluva lot easier if you weren't trying to compensate for 8hrs just to be in a static with another player...

[Feba]

Why is this in the questions forum?

and no, it's a horrible, horrible idea. Time zone specific LS is fine, confining a server to a time zone or location is a huge waste of resources on SE's part and miserable for the players.

[LyonheartLakshmi]

... confining a server to a time zone or location is a huge waste of resources on SE's part and miserable for the players.
Exactly. Also, just because two players are in the same time zone, it doesn't mean that they can play during the same time of the day. My play time tends to shift around, depending on what's going on IRL. Some weeks, evenings are my best time to be on. Other weeks, I only have a few hours during a morning. Some nights, I have trouble sleeping and I get on in the middle of the night.

[Murphie]

I live in EST, but I play at a lot of different times. How the heck would I figure out which server was right for me?

If they had decided to do something like this at the start, it might have worked out, but we're five years in. It's too late.

[LilithAngel]

This would have been completely BAD for someone like me, who travels to different parts of the world, and plays whenever he can. I pick one server, and I'm screwed for however long I must play on that server (now that we have transfers). TBH, I'd have never played this game in the first place if that was implemented. It pretty much locks out people that don't have a set time to play, or that play at certain times, but those times aren't in line with the rest of the server (that also opens up servers to be language specific, so that if you played in a certain time frame, you're only gonna see a certain language being "spoken". If you don't speak that language, you're fucked).

I take this idea and drive it into the ground with my lance. Painfully. :vent:

[Grizzlebeard]

it's a horrible, horrible idea. Time zone specific LS is fine, confining a server to a time zone or location is a huge waste of resources on SE's part and miserable for the players.

MMOGs such as EQ, EQ2, Vanguard, WoW, Planetside, Lord of the Rings Online would tend to disagree with that wholly incorrect statement. Besides, as with most other regional servers, people from other timezones can choose to play on them, they just have to be aware of the timezone mix of players.

[Feba]

MMOGs such as EQ, EQ2, Vanguard, WoW, Planetside, Lord of the Rings Online would tend to disagree with that wholly incorrect statement.

MMOs such as EQ, EQ2, Vanguard, WoW, LOTRO and Planetside can all be enjoyed somewhat by a player who doesn't have five other people teaming up with them (Well, I'm not sure about Planetside and LOTRO, but I imagine). You can't do that in XI, and when you do get people, they have to be rather specific job types.

I hate the entire concept of server sharding at all, and MUCH prefer a single server for the entire playerbase (this is the main reason I was able to enjoy EVE-online at all) but the way FFXI has it is definitely the best way to do it if you must, since it ensures that a small population can mostly be alright 24/7.

[Murphie]

You can soro in LOTRO.

[Illuen]

I don't like the idea, personally. One thing I love about FFXI compared to the other online games that I've played is that we do have that mix of players around the world, which leads to new friends and learning things about other cultures you normally wouldn't, and just exposing people to radically different POVs that are not as prevalent in their everyday lives. I've met some fantastic EU, JP, and SA friends who I'd of never ran across if The servers were region/time zone specific.