Locked Servers — Cultural Changes?

For the locked servers… I.E Asura, Bahamut, Odin, Phoenix… have you noticed any cultural changes since the borders have gone up?

Any differences in how people interact? Anything of note?


On Bahamut the biggest thing I’ve noticed is: 1. Less people (ppl swapping off to play with friends), 2. Less RMT shouts, 3. More anti-merc culture.

Seemingly (anecdotal) less ppl buying Gil. I see far less clearly returning players wearing +1 AH-buyable accessories covering their fresh jobs.

Nope, didn't notice anything other than slightly less people but I'm not even sure that wouldn't have happened regardless so it might not be a direct consequence of the choice to lock the Asura server.

How can you tell that without any doubt?

How's the stock of REMA bazaars at Oboro and Paparoon? Not sure if other servers were aware but there was enough supply to finish any REMA currency on demand (for multiple people per day), 24/7/365 for years, no different than going to the corner store to pick up a 6pack.

Not a terribly huge change on Phoenix (and I've been here since the beginning). More RMT/merc shouts. Started seeing shouts from merc buyers from time to time, which weren't really there before.

More bazaars, better stocked AH - but the market does markety *** - some prices raise, some lower, some stay the same. Saw HPB get up to 900k/stack, which I found wild. Things like emp ws coins and relic forgotten things and dyna shards/voids are way cheaper. Cost of dyna crafted weapons has stayed relatively the same despite more shields. Cost of hoxne stuff about the same. Edit: Oboro/Paparoon bazaars are about the same, both in quantity and price.

Ambu waits aren't any longer, but about 10% of the time I'll need to wait to enter ein or a bcnm. 2/3 of sov behe pops were in use when I went to vanabout it, that used to be pretty rare.

Limbus has seen a bunch of race changes, which is a bit jarring. Have heard from a handful of folks who'd taken decade-long breaks come back and been enjoying it. Assist channels see more use.

Any given time we're at 1300-1700 chars online, where before we'd be lucky to push 900. A LOT of people are multi-boxing and that doesn't seem to have caused any major probs.

I see more multiboxxers and people who started multiboxxing in general which makes me sad. More people I notice taking up "I will just merc this" or "Can anyone carry me for x-thing?" attitudes from people who had started or recently returned earlier this year.

Beyond that, Enoch's assessment seems accurate. Supply of things seem more plentiful in general. It's noticeable when someone is doing a new empy/mythic/ergon and you notice the supply suddenly dip before gradually rebounding. I have filters setup to mitigate most of the merc related shouts now; that didnt used to be a thing in the past.

How can there be more multiboxing if they can’t start new characters? Are you sure they weren’t always there?

Mostly referring to the surge that swooped in here with transfers before the server locked.

i feel like the majority of "cultural changes" on phoenix at this point aren't going to be due to the server lock, but rather the fact that it was the most populous unlocked server for a time, and that caused a lot of people to transfer so they could play with friends and start other characters.

Idk if you guys have seen this. But I’ve seen a rise in discord posts about ‘buying accounts so can multi box or friend can play on server’.

account swapping has been a big industry for a long time, with key figures posting here for years and you probably never knew.