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Ahh, I see what you're getting at: Another Gold Server would just be spreading the little time-devoted-to-developing-content yet thinner. After all, if Stefan's making quests for Kingdoms and quests for Zone and a system for G3D and fixing bugs and skinning the client and RC and making a mac RC and a linux RC and coming out with a new version, asking him to make one more world means cutting back on the other two, at the very least...likewise any globals working on two would be working on three...
So: Should the best existing classic server go Gold? Should existing servers offer Gold content? If you could fly on all (or most) servers, would that make Gold more attractive? What needs to be in place to make any of these options possible - better tools so Classic servers can go Gold, better cooperation so we don't wind up with another buttload of worlds that never get out of Dev, ? I know when I left the dev environment was Too Many Scientists, Not Enough Hunchbacks; everyone wanted to make their own perfect world, everyone was clamouring for staff for their server, we had scads of servers with like 3 staffers (and when one left, it was abandoned). If Graal.net came back up and there was good reason for people to share information, that might help...I mean, imagine you could start your server with a serverside movement system, a custom inventory menu, default baddies, projectiles, throwing, push-pull blocks, etcetera, all scripted for you already...it'd save you those first few critical months, get your product publishable in a matter of weeks. Really you'd just have to take the Sample Level, copy and rearrange (and retile) into the dungeons you want...you could have hundreds of cookie-cutter worlds ready for the serverlist.
But then, how do you get 7 teenagers who all want to make 4-Swords Online Their Own Way to agree and work on the same server? I mean, in the short term getting 7 server fees is good for Graal, but in the long run it'd be better if they were all working on different parts of the same server...
Well, maybe that's where the Global Quest comes in. 7 servers, each has 1 quest, each has Global Strings set so you wind up with seven pieces of crystal in Hubworld, which you can unite to reopen the Dread Portal of Akhenaton and get to the Master's Quest on Classic...or something. |