POLL: Open V2 Registration Temporarily?

[Meiun]

A couple of members have mentioned the idea of opening up V2 donor server registration to the public again. Generally speaking, this is not something I would want to do as a permanent thing. V2 has been officially out of development for quite some time, and even if not many new players joined it would still add a number of new moderation concerns that I simply do not have time to deal with (any time I do devote to Stick Online, I generally want to be devoted to V3 development).

That being said, I would not be completely opposed to temporarily opening up the registration to the public again for a few days. Just long enough so people could make an extra account for themselves, invite a friend to play, or acquire an account when you were otherwise unable to donate, etc.

My main concern with doing this is whether or not current donors would somehow feel cheated at the idea of people suddenly being able to get accounts without donating. I would not imagine that many of you should, seeing as it is a donation and not a purchase (donor access is more of a thank you), but I would still like to leave it up to a vote.

Keep in mind, that even if I did end up doing this, it would be done under the assumption that people would limit themselves and not abuse the registration. In other words, if you wanted to make an extra account or two for yourself, feel free. But I would not want players "stocking up" on dozens of accounts, or in any other way abusing the process. If things became an issue, I would reserve the rights to delete excess account, and or turn off registration at will. I also reserve the right to decline the results of the poll if some unforeseen reason came up that would make opening up registration unusually troublesome (not likely).

[Titan]

I think(assuming its not to time intensive) it would be cool to see registration open up every couple of months. This would cut down on people wanting to stock up on tons of accounts(hopefully) but not allow the population to suddenly explode.  This might still be a bit ambitious and could still create to much of a need for moderation, but just a thought.


Anyways, as I personally would not feel cheated at all and would welcome the idea. I think it could(at least temporarily) get a fair number of people on. Like 7-10 instead of 2.

[Tidus]

Being the only one on every time you log on gives a greater sense of being cheated imo since you can't fully enjoy the game without others around you messing about (not saying I feel cheated at all though, just saying).

I'm all for it!

[Danimal]

I'm still around and would quite happily keep as much of an eye on things as I can. With that said activity is nearly always a plus, personally I support anything that keeps people interested.

[jackel1994]

I'm still around and would quite happily keep as much of an eye on things as I can. With that said activity is nearly always a plus, personally I support anything that keeps people interested.

Igu for mod 2013.

[Mr Pwnage]

If this were to result in a significant population increase like the good ole' days I could easily see myself playing again. I seriously doubt many donors would be in opposition to have people online to actually play the game with! I would also like to add  that while I am still a broke college student, if you had to move over to an official server host again to support a larger number of players, I would totally be down to help you cover those costs.

[crozier]

So, out of curiosity, will SO be getting a newer flux of mods in the future (cause it seems like Dan, Venuse [who I haven't seen play the game in years] and you- Meiun- are the only mods left). Will the ex-mods like Jake, Lingus, Scotty, Chaos, DT, etc be getting back into their previous glory? Or will the future mod status cater to newer, respected, intelligent people like igufed, Lucifer, t-rok, etc?

[tehrozzy]

I for one would love to see registration open for a couple of days, even if its only a one-off.

[T-Rok]

If registration was to open, it would mostly only be used by the current players due to the donation pool. So things you can take from this:

-Old players could possibly increase their activity levels, leveling a new account to try a new build
-New player registrations would be next to zilch
-My bank account would not decrease as much as it normally does

[Tyco-RC]

I'm all for this idea. Its a shame to see such a great an fun game going to waste.

But I can totally see why Meiun has concerns. I hope one day the game will be back to the good old days and this amazing community of people are brought back together.

Being a long time player like most people here, I feel I'm well known within the community by most players and would love to become more involved with everyone. If the game is opened up I'd be on most days for as long as possible and try my best to keep new players informed about the game and help out with anything I can within the game itself. (Like levelling/Boss spawns etc).

I was thinking, if its not to much effort on Meiun's part to maybe make a few select/trusted people temporary Mods. Maybe with limited abilities to keep some order and to take some strain off other Mods like Danimal. 

[DNH]

Very nice idea, thank you for reading my post.
I activated 6 Accounts here through donating, nethertheless i wouldn't feel cheated if this game would get open for public since it could bring fun back

Greets

[sly 3 4 me]

This sounds like a good idea overall, as it would allow the current individuals who simply visit the forum every few days to check for updates to have a chance at playing. I could see a bit of a problem though if people start asking again in a few months and then being given the reason that it was 'open' for a week or so, and then that individual being disappointed at missing the opportunity. People always find a thing to be a mad at though anyways.

[igufed]

I definitely wouldn't feel cheated if this were to happen. 

I wouldn't expect it to pull in too many newcomers, if any.  I'd see most of the activity it generates being people who already have access trying something new out since they would be able to freely do so..

[Lucifer]

Before I shpeel for a little bit, as long as you determine that reopening registration for a few days wouldn't cause you any unnecessary stress then by all means go for it, I'm sure there's a good chunk of people who would appreciate opening a couple more accounts & getting their friends to try the game out.

If your goal here is to appease our occasionally needy community, I don't think that this compromise is addressing what DNH and countless others have asked for in the past. They don't want short-lived activity via new accounts for themselves and their friends, that wouldn't solve the problem, they want an active community back, the "MM" of MMO. You designed Stick Online from the ground up with a community in mind; from the use of other players to traverse the pits to a limited local chat system, from the original make friends or die PvP system to a chance-based loot system that ensured some players would be more powerful than others, from a cap-based exp system that discouraged solo play to the gigantic Sand Golem nigh impossible to kill by yourself. You know better than any of us that SOv2 simply doesn't work when you're alone, slowly grinding for incredibly rare items with nobody to show them off to.

However, as you've explained many a time and what the majority of us have accepted is that that there would be no situation in which repoening SOv2 would not involve your time and energy better devoted to SOv3. That's OK! I wouldn't even want you to reopen SOv2 at this point, it's 2013! The majority of this community is in college or beyond and busy as can be by now, on the off chance that there would even be an influx of new players to this 7-8(?) year old game I don't think we'd even have the energy to deal with the inevitable raging teenagers without ruthlessly flaming them.

Anyways, it's always good to know that you're still around, but I don't think you need to worry about SOv2. If you want to keep us happy, all you need to do is show us some art from Venuse & Cero every once in a while, or even better discuss with us some ideas you've had rolling around in your head. We're going to be waiting here impatiently regardless.

[Meiun]

Assuming all goes well, I don't expect that opening registration up for a bit should cause me any extra stress. As I mentioned in my initial post, if it did end up doing so too badly I would just close it again. While new players are certainly welcome, I'm not expecting many either (for reasons many of you have already illustrated). This is more targeted to be another very small "thanks" for all the support I've gotten over the years, and a chance for you all to get a tiny bit more out of your donations. Really though, it's also largely just for the heck of it.