Category Archives: Blaugust

Monolithic Servers: One Size Fits All MMOs

We’re here. The last day of Blaugust 2016. My goal was a new MMOBro post for every weekday of August and with this special edition topic, that goal will be reached.

At the beginning of Blaugust, Brian “Psychochild” Green and I began discussing a collaborative project. We went back and forth on a number of topics, occasionally getting sidetracked by various design theories. Eventually we settled two opposing views for MMO servers. He’ll be taking the angle that multiple servers are best. I’ll be taking the stance that a single, monolithic server is best. Technically, monolithic servers are actually multiple server machines clustered together. So by monolithic vs. multiple servers, I mean in how it appears to the player. For multiple servers, think World of Warcraft. Each named server (like Illidan) is a completely separate copy of the game world, with it’s own unique characters, that cannot interact with another server’s (like Blackhand) set of unique characters.

Monolithic Servers in MMORPGs

monolithic server eve online

Eve Online show the potential of a monolithic server.

MMORPGs with a single, monolithic server come in two forms: smaller population MMOs and Eve Online. Not many developers are as ambitious as CCP, the developers of Eve Online. For over a decade now, they’ve dedicated resources to creating a stable play experience for all of their players in a single server. Monolithic server MMORPGs with small population exhibit some of the same qualities as Eve Online, but they often go unnoticed by the general MMO community. Maybe developers are just missing some of the awesome benefits that single servers offer?

Never Miss Your Friends

Multiple servers tend to get real annoying when real life acquaintances get thrown into the mix. I used the following example in advocating for more instanced channels, but I’m not above using it again. Let’s say you and Joe start playing an MMORPG independently of one another. You’ve both maxed out your characters and are integrated into your communities. One day, you learn that you both play the same game and discuss playing together over the weekend. Only there’s a giant hiccup: you’re on different servers. Guess you can throw that idea out the window.

The problem with multiple servers is that playing the same game doesn’t have the same meaning as other multiplayer games. MMORPGs with multiple servers exist as unique pockets in the virtual world. That you can’t interact with everyone playing the same titled game as you is a travesty.

wow multiple servers

This is how many servers start with M in WoW. Easy to get separated, isn’t it?

Always Welcome

Multiple servers might be nice because of uniform communities, but that disregards those communities still existing in monolithic servers. Everyone has their place in a single server virtual world, just like everyone has their place in the real world. It’s not always apparent which server community will make for the best fit at character creation. Further, a player’s approach to his or her favorite MMORPG will change over time. That may mean a change in one’s friend circle, a simple task in a single server setup, is potentially impossible with a multi server setup.

Additionally, there are times when a player really does like dabbling in varying crowds. With a multiple server setup, this is more difficult without creating alts. Alts are good and well, but there’s a sizable number of people who prefer to put their limited time into a single character. The monolithic server lets such players join as many cliques as their heart desires.

Brian does point out that language barriers can segregate communities unfairly. Large communities of Chinese, Brazilians, and Russians speaking their native language might find themselves at odds with English speakers. In the case of a monolithic server, this could be overwhelming. I can see how the player experience for these groups would be improved with multi servers. It allows them to mark a server as their unofficial “home base”. Still, I think that exposure to people of different backgrounds is valuable, which brings me to my next point.


The diversity that’s originates from large, monolithic servers clearly outclasses that of smaller, multi servers. Raiders, crafters, explorers, PvPers, lore lovers, and roleplayers each come to the table with unique outlooks. Getting to partake in each of those thoughts and ideals leads to a more fulfilling game experience. Scientific American wrote an article on diversity with several supporting statistics, leading to the conclusion that diversity makes us more creative, more diligent, and harder-working. That doesn’t directly translate to “more fun”, but it’s almost certainly means the experience is more rewarding.

server diversity world of warcraft

Diversity brings people together

Exposure to new people and new ideas opens paths for players they may not have considered otherwise. The dynamic environment presented by a monolithic server fosters this type of exposure. People may not initially want some of these experiences, but it’s hard to argue that more interaction is bad for an MMORPG. Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, as the saying goes.

Epic Stories Affect Everyone

If I asked an MMORPG veteran which MMORPG generates the most epic stories, the answer I’d expect most often is “Eve Online”. From heists to wars to espionage to corporate greed, Eve Online generates intriguing content for subscribers and non-players alike. A large number of these epic stories are made possible by Eve Online’s foundation as a sandbox MMO. That Eve Online also houses all of its players under a single roof plays an understated role. It’s not like Eve Online is the only sandbox MMO in existence.

Whether it’s big or small, every event affects every player in the game. Players will at least know someone who knows someone involved. Market prices adjust based on a new supply/demand. The stakes increase with more people involved, which only creates a stronger cascade when the dominoes start to fall. News spreads fast when its spread by hundreds of thousands instead of tens of thousands. In a monolithic server, everyone plays the same game. If someone accomplishes something notable, it means it was possible for anyone. That makes these stories more real, more relatable. Epic and monolithic go together like hand in glove. Even the word ‘monolithic’ sounds pretty epic!


One of the concerns I see most frequently about monolithic servers is that the game world will be too crowded and/or the lag unbearable. Even with all its expansions, virtual Azeroth would make Hong Kong look spacious if we plopped everyone down on the same server all willy nilly. Realistically, we have two options to combat that. One is using instanced channels, which use multiple “copies” of the same zones (such as Wharf 1, Wharf 2, etc.) where players can travel freely between. The second is to procedurally generate swathes of land masses such as those found in No Man’s Sky.

procedural generation in no mans sky

Procedural generation can be a wonderful thing.

Instanced channels are a better fit for the more static themepark MMORPGs but could also play well in the sandbox. MapleStory is a great example of a game that uses heavy zone instancing. As more players fill up a zone, new instanced zones are created. This keeps the number of players in an area at a healthy amount at all times.

Procedurally generated land would only realistically work in a sandbox MMO where players are given the tools to create content. In fact, an MMORPG with procedurally generated land could make the explorers’ ultimate dream a reality. It might be less fun without enough others to share the new lands, a problem monolithic servers can remedy. The technology is there so why not use it? I’m genuinely surprised with all of the rage that is procedural generation that an existing MMORPG hasn’t tried creating an ever expanding world.

The Debate Continues

Now that you’ve finished reading my side of the argument, head over to Psychochild and read the opposing view. As a veteran MMO designer, Brian’s insights are well founded and thought provoking.


5 Worst Things WoW Did for MMORPGs

5 worst things wow did mmorpgs

World of Warcraft is the beast that can’t be beaten. Well over a decade after launch, World of Warcraft has just released their sixth paid expansion pack. People like to point to declining numbers as the game’s demise, but populations naturally ebb and flow. The venerable MMORPG still boasts millions of monthly subscribers, a claim no other game can make. From all accounts, Legion will be the addictive experience people hoped for from Warlords of Draenor.

This massive success has been great for Blizzard but hasn’t been all rosy for the MMORPG landscape. Due to World of Warcraft’s success, certain design elements and player expectations have negatively impacted the genre as a whole. I’ve enjoyed my previous stints in virtual Azeroth, but when I look to new experiences, all I can see is World of Warcraft’s dark tendrils corrupting them. Fantasy MMOs in particular seem the most infected.

It’s as understandable as it is unfortunate.

Gear Treadmills

World of Warcraft made it extremely easy to hit max level. Progress flowed naturally as players moved from one zone to the next. Quests would reward players with higher level gear and monsters would drop loot to fill the gaps. Everything felt really good, but the entire tone of the game changed at max level. This led to some extreme “alt-itis”, but not everyone wanted to create new characters. For them, progress could only be found in endgame dungeons. Thus, the gear treadmill was born.

Up until World of Warcraft, hitting max level took a lot of dedication. There were some nice pieces of loot to be found in high level encounters of games like EverQuest, but it never felt like the focus. MMORPGs need progression though, so reaching max level fast could only lead to one of two things: alternative progression or canceled subscriptions. Obviously going with the former, WoW chose alternative progression in the form of gear. The problem with this progression is how stiff and repetitive it feels compared to the organic nature of quest progression. Improvements have been made to Warcraft since launch and their dungeon design is top notch. I just can’t help but feel MMO progression innovation has been seriously stifled by the gear treadmill.

Reputation Grinds

burning crusade reputation quests

Our article last week on “why reputation grinds suck and how to fix them” partially inspired this post. Reputation has been part of World of Warcraft for a while, though many may not remember it. Top tier raiders needed to grind reputation in vanilla for high end gear, but for most people reputation was just a number you could level up for the hell of it. These folks were already setting themselves to grind dungeons for gear so it wasn’t a big deal yet. When Burning Crusade launched, reputation became a universal form of progression. A very bad, very boring form of progression.

In order to play dungeons on the highest difficulty, keys were required. Keys could be acquired by running the dungeon on normal difficulty over and over to increase reputation. Additionally, many new dailies and reputation grinds opened up to players. High levels of reputation led to rewards like great gear and unique mounts. Reputation for WoW and MMORPGs has changed over the years, but they generally exhibit the same principles: repeat content to progress. One of the things that made World of Warcraft so enjoyable in the first place was trashing repetitive mob grinding. But here we are with them instilling lazily designed, repetitive progression into MMORPGs across the world.

Two Faction PvP

Alliance! Horde! Alliance! Horde!

Coming right off of Dark Age of Camelot and Shadowbane for World of Warcraft’s launch, I was a little skeptical of the two faction system. How could two factions compete against three or an open system? On the other hand, the immersion that Alliance vs. Horde offered obliterated previous competition. I loved Warcraft as a kid, and I was not alone. Maybe it would work out well after all?

It didn’t. Well, at least not for the genre.

Despite it’s name, World of Warcraft is not a serious PvP game. It’s a casual PvP game with accessible arenas and battlegrounds. Even on the PvP servers, PvP was little more than a diversion. Sure, it was fun training back and forth between Tarren Mill and Southshore. Sneaking into high level enemy towns had its moments. But there just wasn’t any weight to it. I think Blizzard realized the difficulty in balancing such a system so they turned to instanced PvP. And yet, MMORPGs such as Aion, Rift, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Allods Online, Warhammer Online, and a slew of less popular titles decided to run with the two faction system for their open world.

Two faction PvP does not work. It’s inherently unbalanced. One side will always outnumber the other side. The lack of dynamic alliances create repetitive scenarios. Blizzard saw the issues early on, but other publishers just saw the two faction system working.

Killing Groups

World of Warcraft changed how we leveled in MMORPGs in a huge fashion. At first, I welcomed this change. No longer was I dependent on finding a group to level. No longer did I need to dedicate several hours in an evening to sense accomplishment. World of Warcraft’s quest system let players progress at their own pace and accomplish something on every login. While adventuring through Azeroth, I never considered this an issue. It wasn’t until much later that I saw the ramifications.

just some typical wow quest grinding

Allowing almost all content to be defeated individually destroys the need for a group. The only people I knew playing WoW were people I knew before I started playing. Outside of friends of friends who joined our guild, I didn’t really meet anyone. The game wasn’t structured for that. Then max level comes along (with that damnable gear treadmill) and now all of the sudden a big guild was needed to keep advancing. The game went from lighthearted individualistic leveling experience to hardcore group based content at the flip of a switch. I can imagine how frustrating it was for those getting along just fine by themselves.

This set the standard for MMORPGs who wanted to be the “next WoW” (Hint: no one will ever be the next WoW). Level up via solo quests, then funnel people into group based dungeon activities at level cap. People in World of Warcraft (and other MMORPGs) now feel less like people and more like tools. Dedicated grouping has been on life support in the genre for a while, and WoW is largely to blame.


Perhaps the worst thing World of Warcraft did to MMORPGs is set the expectation levels too high. WoW didn’t have the greatest launch, but Blizzard quickly turned the game into a powerhouse. In true Blizzard fashion, they didn’t revolutionize so much as evolve. They took what made EverQuest great (the largest Western MMO at the time), polished it to the nth degree, and made it widely accessible. And say what you want about the company, but polish is something near synonymous with Blizzard now. The game is intuitive and well designed with few ambiguities. It never gets in it’s own way, something many other MMORPGs are guilty of.

Obviously, that polish is a good thing for World of Warcraft. However, it also set the expectations unrealistically high for first time MMOers. In the MMORPGs that followed, almost all of them were multiple tier levels lower in presentation quality. Some great ideas and concepts were passed over by the masses because of rougher designs. I think in many ways, WoW just set expectations too high with that classic Blizzard polish.

Double Edged Sword

World of Warcraft is a fantastic MMORPG. It does what it does very well. I’m not arguing that. Unfortunately, success breeds copycats. In the MMORPG genre, that’s not really good for anyone.

Best PvP Systems for MMORPGs



baby knows only one pvp system can win

5. Duels


4. Battlegrounds


3. Arenas


wow's pvp arena system

WoW’s PvP arena as an e-sport


2. Open PvP




1. Faction Wars


DAoC Pvp system rewards

This castle could be yours!




What Top Korean MMOs Say About The West

lineage 2: a top korean mmo





mabinogi, one of korea's top mmos








The Evolution of Recruit-A-Friend Programs


recruit a friend program in tera

Until recently, MMOs and MOBAs only incentivized the recruiter and not the recruitee for participating in recruit a friend programs. It made little sense because the recruiter was already incentivized by wanting to play with their friends. MMOs already had that group of recruiters buying into pitching their game. What MMOs lacked was a reason for the recruitee to choose that friend’s game over another one. This is mirrored everyday in non-MMO products too via word of mouth. Word of mouth is a powerful tool in promotion and it results from passionate fans, not extrinsic rewards. Humans generally want to spread the word of products and services with which they’ve had good experiences. Yet online games, especially free to play MMOs, have long seemed to consider extrinsic rewards for friend recruiters the best vehicle to fuel growth.

Analyzing Recruit-A-Friend Programs

League of Legends took this self centered style to the max level with their old referral program. Recruiters could earn a ton of Riot Points (the game’s premium currency), rare skins, and even content items named after them. Of course, no ordinary person could possibly earn the top tier rewards and instead was dominated by online personalities such as TotalBiscuit. It’s unclear how this referral program impacted League of Legends’ status as a gaming powerhouse, but it has since been discontinued. That they’ve dropped incentivizing recruiting friends is indicative that Riot no longer believes it’s a strong growth driver.

Other MMORPGs have chosen to evolve their programs instead of trashing them. World of Warcraft tries to promote friends playing together via EXP boosts and friend summoning. Leveling and travel is pretty easy in WoW though so I’d question the efficacy of such a program. Final Fantasy XIV gives more tangible benefits to both friends and recruiters after a subscription is purchased. These rewards encourage low level play and partying together like an EXP boost below level 25. That rewards are capped at five recruits is odd but does suggest Square Enix is more interested in small friend groups over referrals from online recruiter warriors.

Star Wars: The Old Republic shows greater signs of adapting to the times. First, previous subscribers who have been unsubscribed for 90+ dates can be “recruited”. Most recruit a friend programs disallow old subscribers for some bizarre reason. Hoping old players return makes a lot less sense than actively trying to draw them back in. Recruitees receive unfettered access to content through level 50. New players also get a Jumpstart Bundle to make leveling easier. Recruiters receive Cartel Coins (premium currency) for each friend actively subscribed.

Among the top MMO games, the greatest disparity in recruit a friend programs lie between RuneScape and TERA. RuneScape runs an older model which heavily rewards recruiters while giving recruited friends a measly 10% EXP bump for seven days. No one’s buying into that. On the other hand, TERA is the gift that keeps on giving. TERA’s BuddyUp System lets veteran players (over level 40) mentor/recruit anyone who hasn’t played in 30 days. Mentors earn rewards while recruits level and guess what? Recruits also earn level specific rewards for leveling under their friend’s tutelage. Additionally, playing together increases a quantifiable friendship level that offers benefits such as the ability to teleport to one another.

‘Spawning’ Recruits

It's a spawning pool. Get it??

It’s a spawning pool. Get it??

One idea I have not seen adapted to subscription or buy to play MMORPGs is the concept of spawning. For those unaware, spawning allows someone who does not own the game to play it, as long as they group with someone who does. It’s used in StarCraft 2 and older Diablo games. The hope for the developer is that the new player will get hooked enough to want to play without their friend. The only way to do that is, of course, to purchase the game. As cool as virtual item rewards are, playing a paid game for free is far more encouraging. Strong rewards for recruiters would also be justified with ‘spawning referrals’ because of the larger time investment. Spawning in MMORPGs could be exploited but simple restrictions could be put into place to avoid such situations.

Honestly, recruit a friend programs have always seemed like an afterthought. Times are a-changing though. Developers are clearly showing promising signs of adaptation in recent years. However, that evolution is far from complete. Proper recruit a friend programs can drive tons of new players and are worth investing in. Word of mouth is an exceptional marketing vehicle that MMOs will need to get creative with to properly utilize. With the ability to hand out infinite virtual goods for free, it’s just a matter of finding the right mix. MMOs want to get players hooked, and get them hooked early. And nothing is more captivating than a friend to play alongside.



Frankensteining My Perfect MMORPG


perfect mmorpg is not perfect world



Character Creation





Blade and Soul's combat is a fit for perfect MMORPG







The dungeons in WildStar are the best


Etc, etc.

