What is the best way to handle world wipes?

[Jungletoe]

People have different opinions. Throughout my career playing Haven, I had a love/hate relationship with world wipes.

How often should world wipes occur, in your opinion? Do world wipes scare off everyone except the most hardcore? Why do you play, despite knowing that everything you make will be deleted shortly?

[windmaker]

dat signature.. 200% of my mobile screen

[Jesus_Smith_Nandez]

I like world wipes because I feel like it gives me a chance to catch up with all the guys who have been playing all world or have a better setup than me, though I usually end up behind anyway due to irl issues and long spans of inactivity and need another world reset to catch back up

I still built even though the world resets for a few reasons. First of all it's fun (I mean, isn't personal achievement the point of the game?), in case the world doesn't reset for a longtime, to maybe catch up with those ahead of me, and to gain the ability to do what I'm interested in (I.e fight) before the world ends.

Idk I this thread will go to hel but I'm trying to make the discussion logical.

[Massa]

People have different opinions. Throughout my career playing Haven, I had a love/hate relationship with world wipes.

How often should world wipes occur, in your opinion? Do world wipes scare off everyone except the most hardcore? Why do you play, despite knowing that everything you make will be deleted shortly?

Shortly?
It takes 2 years for JLO to even think about doing anything.
They let their game rot and die in a pit of laggy sadness - without even a single word to their player base. For a whole 2 years. While they worked on a game no one wanted.
Not a single word, and they now kind of do care I suppose. Still, they refuse to ever wipe the world for some stupid idiot reason. I don't actually think there is one.

[TeckXKnight]

They're a touchy subject. On one hand you have players who have commit all of their time, energy, and resources into building things this world. On the other hand you have players who haven't invested much in this world and are only willing to play/more if there is a world restart. You hurt one group while benefiting the other if you reset or not. What you gain from a world reset is that players feel like they're starting anew, and what you lose with guaranteed resets is long-term commitment by many players. Knowing there will be a reset means that you can just wait however long for it before you invest yourself in the game to give yourself the best odds, even if the improvement is only in your head.

World resets need to be right for your game, versus an arbitrary period of time. What do you hope to gain from a world reset? If you just want new players to have a shot at competing then just consider how long it takes for a player to become overwhelmingly powerful versus newer players. If it takes a month for a group to feed up their fighters to the point where new players cannot reasonably hope to ever win against them, then a world reset would be not long thereafter. If you're hoping to refresh the environment, then a world reset is the wrong thing to do a proper decay and regrowth mechanics would serve you better.

[Jungletoe]

If it takes a month for a group to feed up their fighters to the point where new players cannot reasonably hope to ever win against them, then a world reset would be not long thereafter. If you're hoping to refresh the environment, then a world reset is the wrong thing to do a proper decay and regrowth mechanics would serve you better.

Is that why players like resets? I thought it was because they like starting in a new world and being refreshed to new parts they've never experienced before.

[Kathdys]

It's good to be reminded of the ephemerality of physical things now and then. Or... digital things representing physical objects, at any rate. Fortunately, in this game, the only things you lose from a world wipe, aside from the marks (or scars) you left on the world itself, are things you could have lost anyway through normal play--your character, their possessions, skills and attributes. All of them can be lost by drowning. Or a bear. Or an angry ranger.

I try to think of games as containing two things: Creating a story, and the gameplay itself. The former is the excuse for everything about the latter that isn't actually entertaining, like heavy labour (which in videogame terms is clicking on the same objects over and over.) Stories last long after their components are gone, so long as people remember them, and the tale of a village in one world of the game can influence the development of all villages in the next game, so it works out in that manner.

Thinking about the game in other terms can be dangerous whether or not world wipes are a possibility, because something might always happen to void the value of whatever effort you put into creating things within the game, even if it's as simple as the developers adding a new weapon that's better than anything you own. This is why I don't trust big MMORPG companies, they constantly devaluate the very things they encourage their players to tirelessly quest for over months, trying to keep them trapped in a endless cycle. It's like a world-overwrite instead of a world-wipe... same effect, more insidious method.

So... My answer is to always remember that in the long run, the only part of the game that you keep or own is the part that's inside you, and your mementos. Everything else is living on borrowed time, and it's best not to get too attached to it, or put so much effort into it that you'd be devastated by losing it. If you relax and have fun more often than not while you're playing, a world wipe won't hurt that much. In-game death and destruction still might, I haven't played enough games that allow it to be sure.

As for the frequency... I'd say they should happen whenever the world map needs to be regenerated to take advantage of a good deal of new improvements or features, or when a compatibility break has to occur in order to make major improvements to the game code. That'll happen, mostly because if there's any other problem in the game that can be fixed temporarily by world reset, it can be fixed permanently with some reprogramming (which may or may not require one), so there's not much use in just pushing the reset button without changing things unless your plan is to just milk the players for money until they get wise. For shame.

[Eemerald]

on a personal level I don't often like world starts, I've been involved in these world starts 4,5,6 and 7.
I didn't mind so much in world 4, as I was new, I had nothing, I didn't get the game, there wasn't anything to lose. The sudden end of world 4 was a little freaky, I lost contact with some of the good players I'd met, many of whom weren't English speakers and didn't use this forum, which was a shame.

But once you develop in a world and spend a long time building, you get into a situation where you're comfortable, you have everything you really need, apart from wall checks and possible recruitment, you're relatively secure, and for me that's a stage I like, it's not exciting, but I don't play for the excitement! I like being able to log in just a few mins when I have a busy day IRL and know it makes no difference, and I can spend time doing other random stuff which doesn't really relate back to EC, like build towns or rebuild towns or whatever. You also build good relationships, your villagers get you and you get them, everyone knows what they're doing, and daily life in a village is easy...there's way less drama later in the world too! A immense amount of drama exists during the start of a new world, which is difficult in a town.

However, new worlds, bring new players, bring a new process of building an working, of developing a town that suits the villagers, of building relationships, the whole process of being out and about more, supporting one another, working on the same end goal, etc etc. there is a nice sense of excitement and community at the start of the world, which somewhat gets missing or needs more work to keep going later in the world.

[loftar]

Still, they refuse to ever wipe the world for some stupid idiot reason. I don't actually think there is one.

You speak as if wiping were the default action lacking strong reasons not to. My view is the other way around.

World resets need to be right for your game, versus an arbitrary period of time. What do you hope to gain from a world reset?

This.

[factnfiction101]

I don't understand why people like a new world so much

Right now being a scrub like me you make progress faster with trading in this old world. I have quality 380 plant fibers, I'm able to craft a bunch of q250 herb tables easily + most of my curios. I'm able to build characters much faster, do much more, have to worry less about leaving my gates, etc... To me this dead game has a lot of life.

Most of the community here seems to think a new world will put them on equal terms with others, but that's an illusion. When players can get stats after 3-4 days and are able to kill you, scrubs don't stand a chance. After the first few weeks a few hundred people quit, then a months time maybe some more will quit. Only the large factions will be here and skilled players.

This is the best time for scrubs, you can easily build your village/alts up. Currently, there's 178 players online.

My 2 cents