How turn Dominions from a niche game to an MMO

[Gandalf Parker]

Im not sure of actual numbers on LLama's server. But Mose's did some very large games early on.
Mine has hosted single-age games of over 60 players, maps over 1000 provinces, and a couple that lasted more than a year. Obviously those do not represent the majority of Dom3 games. In early discussions the advantage of an official server for such games was brought up which might have entered into the decision making. Of course now we have more specific numbers on how many small games vs large games are usually created by this community which would help in a new decision making process. We also have more specific info on how much computer and bandwidth would be used.

As to their helping out... Illwinter offered free copies of the game to early server efforts. Johan personally tested, ironed out, and patched some needed changes. Ive been surprised when Tim Brooks (Shrapnels CEO for those that dont know) has posted using the word "official" in connection to fan-based wiki's. Not to mention fan-based documentation being included in official patches. All of that is rather rare. Of course it can all be portrayed in a harsh money-driven light but thats not my style. (and the title under my name gives me an excuse for it so ptthhhhh )