Hardcore server and casual server?

  • Hey guys in some of the MMOs i used to play community would decide on what server would the hardcore crowd go and where would the more casual players go so we should do the same in case we get more than 1 server per language.

    Benefits of this are obvious we get to play with like minded community. That way casuals wont have to worry about being unable to keep up and hardcore players will find the challenge in PvP.


    What do you all think about this?

  • Will probably end with a couple of hc guilds joining the casual server to "smash some noobs"


    You should be quite fine As long as you avoid the server on which the big guilds decide to go to in advance

  • well my point still stands, only one kind of server

    But i don't understand why have you made your point? I never said there will be 2 kinds of server because it has already been confirmed anyway what i said is 2 servers not 2 kinds of server.

  • not sure if this kind of split is healthy for the community as a whole in the long run.


    I can see why a PvP/PvE server split might be beneficial, since if you're more into one than the other, joining a server dedicated to just that will ensure you'll be able to participate in your preferred activity more easily.


    but the difference with the casual/hardcore split is that they still may want to participate in the same content, but at a different pace and difficulty level. so if a server were to completely lack the other crowd, there might be some content left completely untouched, and as such resulting in the lack of certain items & resources in the server's economy, while there might still be demand for them.

    That way casuals wont have to worry about being unable to keep up and hardcore players will find the challenge in PvP.

    see, I don't really get this - if you don't play the game at the hardcore level, why would you ever have to worry about keeping up? is that not precisely what it means to play the game casually?

  • see, I don't really get this - if you don't play the game at the hardcore level, why would you ever have to worry about keeping up? is that not precisely what it means to play the game casually?

    Its very simple just because someone is casual it doesn't mean they don't want to win in PvP otherwise whats the point of playing it? If i was a casual i know i would be frustrated that i can win only 1 out of 10 arena matches because i cant spend 5+ hours daily to gear up and at that point i would just stop wasting my already limited time on this even though its a major game feature. On the other hand i sure as hell don't want to play arena against people that are too easy to beat because its not fun.


    That being said pretty sure casuals that BO attracts are not GW 2 type of casuals. Bless Online is competitive game at its core and casuals that this type of game attracts are not ppl that consider fashion to be end game but ppl who love PvP but just cant spend hours upon hours playing due to real life obligations.

  • Its very simple just because someone is casual it doesn't mean they don't want to win in PvP otherwise whats the point of playing it? If i was a casual i know i would be frustrated that i can win only 1 out of 10 arena matches because i cant spend 5+ hours daily to gear up and at that point i would just stop wasting my already limited time on this even though its a major game feature. On the other hand i sure as hell don't want to play arena against people that are too easy to beat because its not fun.

    that's why there are things such as MMR in any competitive PvP system. you can't be expected to do well against someone who's playing at a completely different level, so why would the game match you up against them? as you stated yourself, it's not a pleasurable experience for either side. I don't see separating casuals from hardcore players as a solution to the problem you're presenting - any competitive environment pretty much requires players of all levels to stay healthy.

  • that's why there are things such as MMR in any competitive PvP system. you can't be expected to do well against someone who's playing at a completely different level, so why would the game match you up against them? as you stated yourself, it's not a pleasurable experience for either side. I don't see separating casuals from hardcore players as a solution to the problem you're presenting - any competitive environment pretty much requires players of all levels to stay healthy.

    But does Bless have MMR? And what about world PvP? Again Bless is pretty much competitive game and difference between casuals and hardcore will be amount of time they can invest and not playstyle. There are plenty MMOs for casual playstyle you are sugesting so i dont see why would they play this one.

  • But does Bless have MMR? And what about world PvP? Again Bless is pretty much competitive game and difference between casuals and hardcore will be amount of time they can invest and not playstyle. There are plenty MMOs for casual playstyle you are sugesting so i dont see why would they play this one.

    I don't see any reason for the structured PvP to not have any kind of ranking system. the lack of one just creates chaos and bad matches for everyone.


    is the difference in time invested into the game not more or less synonymous of their "playstyle" as a whole? otherwise I'm not sure what you're trying to say there.


    again I'm not sure what you mean by "the casual playstyle I'm suggesting". to assume the entire playerbase of a game would consist of hardcore players just because the game is very competitive-oriented is pretty absurd. if you think beyond the MMORPG genre for a bit, and take just about any game that's entirely built around competition and you'll see they have their fair share of casual players as well - anything from FPSes to MOBAs and so forth.

  • What i am trying to say is that there are 2 types of casuals. You got ppl who play the same way like hardcore players play but dont have same amount of time to invest and then you got the casuals that have completely different playstyle such as ppl who spend more time smelling the flowers than actually doing content and progressing. I doubt Bless Online will attract the later type of casuals meaning that your comment about casuals being needed is wrong because casual or not everyone will play the same way just invest more or less time. Now ofc nothing is absolute so we will def have smelling the flowers casuals but they will be minority. Obv i could be wrong but so far split between server with hardcore guilds and casual guilds has proven to be the right move so far in other mmos and its not like we can force ppl to chose certain server but id we decide on unofficial hardcore and casual server they can make the choice themselves. Sorry for the wall typing on phone.

  • This post will be a bit sloppier than usual. I get back into using the forums and I break my wrist setting me back to step zero. Not trying to share my problems with the entire world, just know for once the formatting of this post wont be do to exhaustion or sheer laziness on my end, I just have one good arm at the moment.


    While the idea of having a casual and hardcore server has worked with some games in the past, I don't see it working with Bless. There are already so many large guilds that are full and claim to be hardcore or semi-hardcore, such as the Iron Bank, and Envy it will be extremely difficult to have these guilds get together and decide to play on the same server to improve the gameplay experience of unaffiliated players. On the other hand, players who are truly casual wont care enough about being behind the hardcore players anyways. MMOs reward players based on the time they put into the game and therefor players who put the most time into playing the game will naturally get ahead. Attempting to divide players up based on their play time only highlights this issue.


    Putting all the "tryhards" together will make progression sillily difficult for some and can create an unbelievably toxic community where elitists will berate the players who try to join this server post launch, or even players who can't keep up with the initial grind when they thought they could. On the other hand, putting all the "casuals" together could create the opposite issue. Players who are at the top could be seen poorly in a casual community as being somebody who should be on the other server. By dividing the playerbase you can potentially create unrealistic expectations on both sides.


    Unrealistic expectations aren't even the worst case scenario here, if we did do this at launch and everything goes well, there are problems you create down the road. The hardcore players would consume content much faster than the casuals (to be expected) on normal servers this problem isn't as noticeable as players have lots of things to do in game, things they can do on the premise of 'not everybody tries hard so I can mess around for some time and not lose my ranking'. All but the hardest of hardcore players would quickly suffer from burnout as they are expected to do so much just to remain relevant on an artificially created competitive server. Once again, on the other hand, casual players may feel like lategame content is almost unclearable due to the lack of competitive players on a casual server. World bosses would be a mess and when Neowiz eventually releases new content they would need to consider not just a whole community, but two distinct communities and how they would react to change. They can't balance the servers differently as that would be like playing two different games and the quality and direction of new releases may suffer.


    Also players who don't identify as either casual or hardcore would have a hard time finding a home with a 'community agreement' such as this as would friend groups who don't all play the same amount. For example me and some friends are planning on playing Bless. Three of us are casual, four are 'hardcore' and two are self-proclaimed "Semi-Hardcore Ninja Looters of the Fourth Zerg". This eclectic group (and those similar) would suffer, as would all players who feel they are somewhere in-between.


    Its understandable to want to enjoy playing a game and worrying about the game itself but splitting the community (one of the highlights of MMOs) isn't the way to ensure everybody can succeed. Sadly to say Bless is a competitive game at its core, the majority of late game content is locked behind large amounts of competitive PvP and PvE; however, there are systems in place to 'protect' casual players, here are a few of them.

    • Players can opt out of world PvP until level 45
    • The 3v3 arena has an MMR system, the 100v100 has something similar.
    • World Bosses are on a first-come first-serve basis, anybody can get in as long as they show up first
    • The hardest of hardcore content (capital wars) are only available to top players
    • As the game is social, you can call for help if you are getting ganked / killed in the open world
    • Players who are significantly stronger than you probably don't care about what you are doing anyways


    If these protections don't feel like enough, Bless probably isn't the game for you. I hate to say it, but it really isn't. There will be plenty of people to fight who are at your skill and equipment level in the world and you won't win the majority of (or even 50%) of your fights until you spend time learning the game like everybody else does. The majority of the playerbase won't be hardcore, there will be a casual community and those in-between.


    Time to rest my arm. If this post is too miserable I will edit it some more soonish.

    Congratulations!

    You just read another wall of text!:thumbup:


    Formatting may be strange for some time, it is hard to type with a broken wrist...

    The post was edited 1 time, last by Tycon ().