Post Mortem Section

[Toriad]

Before I explain exactly what I am thinking I would like to get a couple quote snippets from another thread to lead into my thought process.

...what happened to the RageZone hosted private servers...

...The servers come and go a lot, mostly due to lack of activity over time or bad management...

...The individuals who ran servers (TheAJ for RS, IRuleMU for mu, the habbotard for habbo, etc) each sought their own hosting... ...development team fluxuated and diminished for various reasons...

...it was my developer that back stabbed me which resulted in the...

...RageZone's Ran server did not end because of money or stability issues, but because of lack of population...

That follows more or less the chronological points I wanted to make from the other thread, for the complete thread Click Here.

So what I was thinking is, RageZone is a source of knowledge in regards of MMORPG Development and free game severs. In the tagline of the site it says and I quote:

MMORPG development forums and free game servers

With a tagline like this it would seem to me that we would want to provide all the knowledge we can, can as much as I regret to say, mostly out of respect for others, one of the best ways to learn is from other peoples failures, and successes. I think that the community as a whole could benefit in the long run by a small section on the forum dedicated to documentation provided by people, who have experience in or personally ran a server, containing information on the who, what, when, where, and why their projects succeeded or failed.

I was interested in hosting a private server myself but I would like to learn as much as I can about those who came before me, to see what they did right, and see what they did wrong. To get their opinion on what they feel could have been done better.

The beauty of this section is it would require minimal moderation. As it would be less of a "discussion" and more of a "reference", surely there are some amongst us who would write a quick 2-3 paragraph post mortem of their experiences. Hell i'm sure there could be 1 or two who would be willing to write a small essay on the subject to support their fellow developers.

As always, this is just my thoughts, and I have been known to be ... "retarded" ... so take it for what it is.

 

[bobsobol]

It's a fantastic idea... but in my experience, it won't happen.

Private servers succeed for as long as they do. While they are successful, the secret of their success must remain just that, or they fail.

When they fail, nobody really wants to talk about it. They may want to rant and flame about it, but what ever information you get is hardly subjective.

It's a shame. But the only times I've seen serious discussions about the successes and failures of servers is when operators have gotten together again several years after the server closed and tempers have cooled.

 

[kitti]

It really is a great idea, unfortunately:

It's a fantastic idea... but in my experience, it won't happen.

Private servers succeed for as long as they do. While they are successful, the secret of their success must remain just that, or they fail.

When they fail, nobody really wants to talk about it. They may want to rant and flame about it, but what ever information you get is hardly subjective.

It's a shame. But the only times I've seen serious discussions about the successes and failures of servers is when operators have gotten together again several years after the server closed and tempers have cooled.

Talking to developers one on one (privately) will usually prove to be more successful, many people are not willing to disclose that type of information (i.e. their shortcomings) publicly. But props to you anyway for suggesting this.

 

[Tyler]

One man's success, is another man's failure.

 

[Wloczykij]

We had a great WoW server with really cool community. Sadly, it died.

 

[bobsobol]

A lot of the "success" of a Private Server comes down to "customer service" and "reliability". Some of that is hosting, but most of it is just the procedures you put in place, and the relationship between staff members.

Sadly, the biggest threat to private servers success is often Hackers and Cheats. How you handle those will be key.

If you BS your players that you don't have them, when they can plainly see you do, they will leave. If you openly admit your server is riddled with them and you don't know how to stop it, players will leave.

How you keep hackers and cheaters out in the first place, is by being substantially different in your approach to security than your peers. You can only maintain that by rigidly maintaining a "code of silence" about how you set your server up, and what securities you have in place. Which is why you won't get people to tell you how they are so successful.

If you can develop a friendship, and trustworthiness with an individual, they may tell you some of it on the understanding that you not disclose this information publicly. And probably only if they know you have no intention of setting up a similar server yourself. (ie. they will only tell you information they are confident is useless to you)

Beyond that, a community between your players themselves is important. Give them the tools to find new friends on your server, and ensure they enjoy playing together and you reduce their desire to bother even looking at other servers. ^_^

Critically, I've not seen very many long running success stories among "high rate fun servers". Contrary to popular belief, an MMO that you can solo in a couple of weeks doesn't make for long standing player commitment.

... I wonder why.

 

[Dawson]

I've always been interested in seeing a RZ Private server succeed with good hosting, and management and stuff. Issue for me is, the games in which I can develop are games that are not very good for private servers anymore =p I'm pretty much limited to GunZ and L2. Which are over-saturated and dead/dying games. (Mind you WoW seems fairly simple, its just dumbed down C++ for new content)

 

[bobsobol]

Depends what WoW server you use DawsonByrd. Ascent actually did use C++ for the scripting IMS. MaNGOS SD2 isn't anything like C++ to my eye though.

And Cataclysm is "dead/dying", players are quitting it like rats leaving a sinking ship. lol At least, all the Blizz WoW player I ever knew are.