Server improvement

[zbaam]

don't know what you guys think but i would surley enjoy if u open another realm cataclysm>4.0.6 > wotlk ...also i think it would raise up the population

i think shocker should really think seriosly about opening another realm

[Wedinn]

Nobody will stream Freakz gameplay, because streaming on private servers recently became an issue, and you risk getting your accout banned for doing that sort of thing, so get that out of your head. Regardless, here's my opinion:

1. Population-wise, the server is rather healthy and performing well compared to others, so I do not see the point of struggling with improving the experience in this regard, because Freakz is already the best and most populated MoP private server (even though few people are actually interested in Mists of Pandaria). I believe the staff's efforts shouldn't go into nonsensical, agressive and obnoxious advertisement campaigns (an overly high ammount of events, flashy advertisements and attempts at bringing in new players would give off the impression that we're desperate, and either build a lot of hype or backfire and reflect badly on the staff).
If the Freakz team sees fit to get more players, it should be done in a subtle manner (i.e: Purchasing golden membership status on Top sites to implement banners, hold Q&A sessions with players and potential players in order to quickly get a grasp of the community's demands, questions and concerns, get in touch with reviewers) This should also be reflected in the quality of the staff member support, overall impression and gaming experience (I don't mean to say that the staff is doing a bad job, but having a clean and welcoming playing enviornment and a high degree of player-to-team communication is an important factor in gaining more players. Staff recruitment should be open in terms of both development and support to professional individuals that seek to better the server.

2. Eventually starting a forced integration of the Romanian players into the English community would greatly benefit you: I reccomend shifting Freakz's focus to an international gaming scene and tidying up the forums in order to reboot the digital enviornment. What I mean by this is that you should attempt to put together means of globalizing the server: The community's toxicity and lack of interest towards speaking English or accepting an international approach is rather worrying. I agree with what has been said before: Scrap the god damn racism and enforce your policies. Even though I am Romanian, I would gladly:
- Speak English
- Bear witness to, and accept a forced integration
- Accept English players (or non-Romanian speakers) into the community
...so I don't see why others shouldn't. I reccomend staying on the lookout for people that wish to better the community in terms of English player integration (GMs whose sole purpose is to handle globalozation, maybe?) and not merely answer tickets and call people names in [5.global]. The Romanian and English communities are split, but they should instead act as a whole, and I'd much rather see the Romanian community be assimilated by the English one than the other way around. And it's not just a lack of interest regarding globalization, but also regarding the betterment of the already-existent community. People don't like playing here because the people are toxic and the team won't do anything about it.

3. I agree that the staff shows no interest in what it's doing, and this drives people away from Freakz. I wouldn't stay here for long if I were a foreigner and knew that the staff won't bother to better the community. I too want to bang my head against the wall when I see the staff barely connecting with the players ans instead remaining soulless drones bound to the Administration's guidelines. The staff should be made of people who you'd like interacting with, and being helped by. All I see on the forums is 3-4 lines-long responses from the staff with no effort put into them & the topic being closed, and that carries on in-game, where the Game Masters come to ban a rulebreaker, insult a random loser on [5.global] and leave.
I mean, Jesus. If I were a staff member I would, quite literally work with the highest possible ammount of dedication and actually do my best to be helpful and appreciated. Just because you're a staff member that doesn't mean your sole purpose is to answer tickets and mute those that "Ruin the server's image".
A staff member should be a dedicated, cheerful person who likes and is liked by the playerbase. Speak in that damn global chat, address concerns and help people out whenever you can, otherwise you're obsolete.
As a helper, I can't help but roll my eyes when seeing the team locking themselves in guidelines and policies, and manifesting such a high degree of arrogance because "Hurr hurr, I'm a staff member, I'm important". The staff is meant to be a team of dedicated humans, not boring drones.
How is a new player supposed to feel welcomed when the staff barely interacts with him like an actual human? I've never seen a GM do anything in-game or put the slightest ammount of interest in their work, but they still feel like they have the right to wave their "Blizz" tag around and act like they're better than anyone else.

A fair balance should be struck between helpfulness and professionalism.

Wedinn
Former Game Master & Discord Community Manager
(January 2017 - February 2018)

[Sumoo]

andreir wrote:

because Freakz is already the most populated MoP private server

What?

[mental^depress]

Sumoo wrote:

andreir wrote: because Freakz is already the most populated MoP private server What?

// Nah, i'm really shocked to see that, even in 2016 after so many years after internet and forums were discovered, some people are still posting stuffs without even checking / reading what they wrote there, incredible.

\\

• You could try and improve the main page, i mean, especially the line where all of the things are listed: Server Info, Streams, Guides, etc.
  I've met so many people that didn't even knew where guides are listed on this forum, and people that didn't even knew if there are any guides on the forum.
  
  
• Encourage people to do PvP guides for other classes, really now, look at the guide section, there are only 4 PVP guides and 22 PvE guides, really? I mean, how are some people supposed to know PvP if there are only 4 PvP guides vs 22 PvE ones. Encourage them with better rewards, vote points, $$, anything that would please them to do PvP guides for other classes.
  
  
• Make this forum part more friendly:
  Make it with sections from you can select and put them somewhere up, not down. A ton of forum users are getting lost into this part, trust me.
  
  
• Make the forum text size bigger. There could be people that don't see that well, and they need to zoom in. For example: https://forum.wow-freakz.com/WoW.Freakz.ro-c23.html ; If you check the page, the forum text / letters might look very small to some people. Just adjust it a bit. ( Not by too much ).
  
• Remove the ''X viewed your profile'', it's just a fanboy thing. It doesn't need to be promoted that much. It could make people feel that they are ''too important''.
  

Also, for my full opinion, check here, 2nd post: https://forum.wow-freakz.com/Reviving-PvP-t430107-0.html

[Hawtydaboss]

mental^depress wrote:

[*]Encourage people to do PvP guides for other classes, really now, look at the guide section, there are only 4 PVP guides and 22 PvE guides, really? I mean, how are some people supposed to know PvP if there are only 4 PvP guides vs 22 PvE ones. Encourage them with better rewards, vote points, $$, anything that would please them to do PvP guides for other classes.

I was thinking of telling that here as well,i totally agree with you mate.I meet people in game that ask me questions regarding my class and for some reason they don't bother asking in forum..However,that is a great idea since people that aren't much experienced will then search for what they want to improve with and read it/ask something.A re-design is needed for sure.I've been thinking of organising it a little bit(not even a little bit,completely)we need to have easy-finding sections @forum.Right now things look so same-color and most of the information is not taking people's eye.

I read the whole post of that guy Andreir,liked it a lot and i agree with everything.Didn't know about the first thing which he said that there is a rule to not stream in private servers,but i still see vanilla/bc/cata/mop streams..sooo i guess it's okay and i would bother not streaming only if twitch are instantly banning you when you launch your stream for few minutes,but like this,not really.Hopefully,in one month i will upgrade my pc,perhaps buying new one and if that happens,i will be full-time streaming.(That's a thing i've always wanted to do in this game,movies too).

The other thing i wanted to mention more seriously this time again is that like Andreir said,you need to hire new Game Masters(especially people that have experience in PvP and have the time to take this position).Currently most of your(perhaps all)GMs you have are PvE players which cannot really give a professional PvP advices how to deal with organisations,fixes,major>minor bugs,tournaments,events,new features,promotions,etc...It has always been PvP>PvE in this game and that doesn't really work out here,so something has to be done.Start making decisions.Part of success is trying/failing/succeeding,so just try what people say(there have been given a lot of suggestions regarding pvp promotions,website design,new features,advertisements,etc)and if something doesn't work well,change it back to the old status perhaps coming up with something else that will or might work.Stop "doing nothing" and start making changes,a lot of things are custom,yes,but blizzard make changes to the game with every patch/expansion that comes,to make it better/worse for players(in our case,better).There are PvP servers with professional Devs that are making custom nerfs/buffs to classes,so they can make pvp more balanced since blizzard didn't do that.Don't be afraid to try out new things(don't get me wrong,i'm not telling you to start making custom changes to classes,but do what people suggest).

@Advertisement: Liked the golden membership.You for sure know how it goes when you open a random website and things start popping up (not adds,advertisements)and you currently don't need this information,but lately something happens and forces you to make use of it.Well,people will open these websites to find a server,perhaps vote or whatever and Freakz will pop on their screen with good advertisement.

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[Evydence]

First of all, I like that there are some people who actually want to help the community, not trying to kill it by spreading words..


I saw all your comments, and I love them and how do you think about them in particular. I agree that we need more GM's, but the problem is, who? We can't just bring a random guy from global chat (even if it could be a very good GM in future), because we need to know before we give them that, we need to know if he can do it, if he have that wish to help, not just for rewards/power. At the moment we choose people that help on forum, wich in my oppinion isn't the best idea either, because just saying "Yes, uninstall that, do that, go there" isn't helpful at all, but that's the problem because because no one really makes himself remarkable in game,, just because we aren't in game logged as GM, that doesn't mean that we don't see you, and most of the people use global just for troll/stupid jokes/flame, a few of them really used it to talk with people about the game itself, to help people with something, so the part with "new GM's" is delicate.

Code:

I agree that the staff shows no interest in what it's doing

I kinda agree and disagree with this, I really don't want to start talking about this, but all of us know about that, so no need to enter in this subject.




As for starting of events, we always do events, but people just don't want to come, because X will come, I don't have a chance, or GM X will be there, I don't like him, or Hunter/dk/war/etc op and I'm not one of them/etc / YOU need to start to join at those events, they are made for FUN, just because they had rewards that doesn't mean that this is the reason why you should come and join them, and about that PvE over PvP...in the last year were made over 3 PvP events, and not only 1 PvE, as you can see we focus really hard on PvP stuff, but you guys just want too more from us, we can't just make events all the time, that will make them something ussual, and that "special" thing about them will gone.




If you gonna hit the king you're better kill the king

[Hawtydaboss]

I meant with it that PvE is more played here than PvP.I agree and disagree with what you said @rewards regarding events.It's true that people should join the events not only for rewards,but let's face it,i doubt someone will go to work and in the end of the day/week/month receive nothing...I know it's not the same,but as an example i think it makes it clear what i mean.Also,i don't think you fully understood what Andreir meant with "there are no gms online most of the time".His point (at least i think that was the actual meaning of what he wrote)was that there should be at least one staff member that should take care of the server and be there for the players that are in need and not only.Ever since i started the game,especially in the early years i enjoyed a lot talking to a GM.There is always at least one Game master that is loved more than the rest of the staff members for reasons.For me personally,back in the time i really liked Raster.He was trying to explain to the head gms something of a current situation,communicate with players all the time,always helped me when there was something wrong,he even played PvP with us & more.Briefly said,he was there for the server.Of course you cannot take some random guy from global chat,but that's what applications are for.Open the GM app section and see how it goes.You need creative people with good ideas and also the most important - with experience.Since i play here,after Raster quit his position as a GM,the only Game master that i liked how he does his job is Dreadblade.Don't get me wrong,i don't mean that the rest of the staff members are useless or they're not doing their job,but there's truth that they don't do it completely,in addition to that i don't really take serious these "race events" and the rest of them since i don't think that really satisfy players and stimulate them to play here and that also it is not really in my interest overall.I really would like to see people like Dreadblade and also as an recommendation for the future,Azwraithz,as GMs.However,Shocker is the one that does most of the job and that's how it is supposed to be i guess,but i really see Freakz in a really good status with good devs,communicative in game GMs,good event/tournament makers and also if the staff members that the server's future rely on take things way more serious.

Edit : Also regarding merging with another server.@Shocker,why don't you try merging with some low populated server?I think even 1k players + would help.

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[Wedinn]

Hawtydaboss wrote:

Post before this one

I agree with this. I simply could not agree more with it. I won't go into detail about how, or why, but I'll just say that I agree with it. The points you bring about PvP and open GM applications are really solid and well-thought out, and I really believe the implementation of your suggestions would mean nothing but improvement for Freakz.

As for what Evydence (sorry if I triggered your voicemail) said: What if it's a random person from [5.global], what if it's that person that you enjoy hanging out with in Elwynn Forest? Improvements must be made regadless of how they'll be done, because people need dedicated individuals that they can interact with, and I have come to this conclusion during the 4 years that I've spent on Freakz. The old mentality must be forsaken, and we must acknowledge that improvements must be made at all times, because, after all, no server is perfect.

The main reason why I am so vocal about this is that, on Freakz, people are heavily bound to the "Good old days" and refuse to accept change. As I said in my previous (and liked, for some odd reason) post, I would much rather see a reboot than a continuation of the toxicity that the community perpetuates. This has also been repeated time and time again and said on unrelated websites and online forums, so if I were a staffber, I would certainly treat that as a warning sign.

In short, I am for the implementation of a subtle advertising campaign and opening of staff positions, and I really believe Shocker should look into this.

As for merging with another server, I don't really care, and I've already explained my stance on population in the other post.

Wedinn
Former Game Master & Discord Community Manager
(January 2017 - February 2018)

[Evydence]

I'm for your ideas, but let's see if Shocker and the rest of GM's staff can accept this, you are right when it's come to talk about "good old days" and no chance, not because they aren't good, but because of fear.




If you gonna hit the king you're better kill the king

[Hawtydaboss]

I wanted to check if there are any MoP servers that could be good for merging with Freakz,but then i actually noticed that Freakz is not even in the list of these websites(MoP servers list).

http://wow-servers.com/mop/
http://topg.org/wow-private-servers/version/Mists-of-Pandaria/ <---- There are servers i have never heard of,but i didn't really see Freakz :\ (first links that popped out for me after i wrote "mists of pandaria servers"

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[Wedinn]

All of those servers are bad. I reccomend not merging with any server, but instead trying to improve what we already have. Would you really want to merge Freakz with a 999x rate fun server just for the sake of getting more players?

Wedinn
Former Game Master & Discord Community Manager
(January 2017 - February 2018)

[alex21112]

Hawtydaboss wrote:

http://topg.org/wow-private-servers/version/Mists-of-Pandaria/ <---- There are servers i have never heard of,but i didn't really see Freakz :\ (first links that popped out for me after i wrote "mists of pandaria servers"

Actually our server is on that website but it has no tags like the other servers in the link you mentioned: Mists of Pandaria;5.4.8;Custom rates etc...
If the tags were added,Freakz would be on top of the list from your link.

As for http://wow-servers.com/mop/ Freakz is still tagged as an Cataclysm server :\

[Hawtydaboss]

andreir wrote:

All of those servers are bad. I reccomend not merging with any server, but instead trying to improve what we already have. Would you really want to merge Freakz with a 999x rate fun server just for the sake of getting more players?

I linked these links just to show that freakz isn't inside those lists,not that i'm suggesting to merge with any of these.And i was also checking the websites that show up after searching "mists of pandaria servers"

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[mental^depress]

andreir wrote:

All of those servers are bad. I reccomend not merging with any server, but instead trying to improve what we already have. Would you really want to merge Freakz with a 999x rate fun server just for the sake of getting more players?

First of all i want to tell you that everything you've said above it's false.

Second of all, wow evolved way too much, new players and others are searching for a server where you can fast level and do the endgame / endgear / endpvp things after that. People are getting bored of leveling 1-90 / 100 in a medium / big amount of time, that's why they choose other 50 / 100 x or insta level servers, that's why those servers have such an high population amount + ( many of the same nationality ( Russian )), etc. ( Don't get me wrong, i've leveled on many privates on 1x and also on retail; I'm not promoting the fast level there at all, i'm just showing you the way that the players choose to play nowadays. )

http://wow-servers.com/mop/ - From this list, the first server is the one with the highest amount of players EVER. I've never seen such horrible server with so many players. Yet, players play on it because they can level faster and access the available endgame content / pvp. The third server from the list, again, many people left it ( i'm talking especially about the PvP realm ), guess why, because it's 2016, many players don't have the same appetite for WoW or PvP, and now they are stuck with only few players. The 4th one, it's a bit decent than others i've listed, works a bit better than them and people are playing there only for 3 reasons: 1. More players, because their XP rate is quite high; 2. ( Optional ) Russian Language, in general, there are many russians there; 3. Some class specs that are quite weak here are working different ( Retribution Paladin, Shadow Priest, etc. ).

I'm not trying to promote any of them. Instead, i've just listed the reasons why those 3 servers are still listed there, and why two of them have such a high amount of players.

[Frostfang]

Im not really trusting w******'s (aka Molten) online players number. They are know to fake that. 12k players on 1 realm? please, i doubt you can even find a host for so many players. Every review about Freakz i've seen so far has said that Freakz is focused on End Game content both pve and pvp, that our leveling doesnt suck that much, but its not awesome also, both in terms of questing and rates. Leveling is pretty fast here and 99% of quests work (properly or autocomplete). Our Genesis is what it is. I dont know if opening a new realm is an option but thats 2 edged sword. We can either gain a lot of new population, or split the population we already have and realms would seem empty. There's no much thinking about it. Either you take the risk or you dont.

All ideas you guys said are nice at some point but its impossible to implement them all at once.
I agree with merging 2 globals into 1 and making it english only. Its gonna take some time and a lot of parenting but its good. About recruiting talk to some people, see what they have to offer, what you ask for, maybe trial period idk how those things go.

Someone mentioned reboot. I dont know how you meant that but it can be good, but thats discussion for another time.

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