[Peter Ebbesen]

Originally posted by Esben Mose Hansen:

Anyway: interest in the server continues to be low. Anybody know why? Is such a server just not in demand; is it too buggy, does it miss a key feature...? At the current usage level, I cannot bring myself to use much time on it. I will let it run for a least a month, though, and see what happens. I will also watch this thread.

Ok, the following is not based on Dominions 2 as such, but on MP in general. I am pretty sure it is relevant for Dominions 2, though.

A key part of multiplayer games that you KNOW will run over weeks, or even months, of real time is that of having a coherent player group. It is not about random matchup with people who happen to want to join a game. The latter road will often leave you half-way through a game with people who just fail to show up because they are losing, have lost interest &etc. The player group is all about having people you can chat diplomacy with in-between sessions, that you get to know better, and that, because of the closer communication, can usually be relied on to stay dedicated. You take time to plan a game, you decide who plays which nation/faction, agree on winning conditions, optional rules (if any), and general hosting times.

Your site is IDEAL for small and quick MP games with a small number of participants, and such can be played in Dominions 2, but it is lacking in functionality that would facilitate larger games.

Coordination of the schedules and backstabbing of the players involved is probably one of the most important aspects of long-term MP in general, and that often requires a dedicated discussion thread, sub-forum, or ICQ/IRC group set up. The ability to send an ingame-message that will be read next turn is just not sufficient compared to the level of diplomacy needed when eight or ten parties are each trying to arrange a triple-cross for next session. (This happens more often than one should think - probably also in Dominions 2)

Now, it CAN be used if such a group has already formed, and have opened communication lines, in which case your server provides a clear convenience for everybody involved; They can log on at nearly the same time and start a game without risking somebody random joining and spoiling the game setup - so long as the participants can be fairly sure that nobody else by mistake takes their turn.

As such, I would expect interest in small games with casual players to increase as the server stability increases and knowledge of your server spreads, but I would not expect it to get a massive inroad of traffic with regards to larger games unless the player-player issues are addressed.

I could see a situation where a game was arranged e.g. in this forum with its dedicated discussion thread here, with the stipulation that it was played on your server.