The Power of the People
The AP Southeast community was rocked this week, by the shocking news that our region would be merged into the El Dorado server on US West. Players flocked to the Isle of Aeternum to express their opposition, driven by the brilliant organising power of Gma and supported by multitudes of players and content creators alike. After working into the night to produce evidence of our efforts, it was a blessing and a joy to wake up to the news that the merge was reworked and we are no longer losing our region!
What's happening now?
Server merges are still going ahead, it’s just destinations that have changed. We all know the population has been low and we expect it to remain so until Season 10. It will be lovely to be back on one server together.
When: July 30
What: Cerberus and Crux merge into Delos
What does this mean for Delos players?
For us, all that will happen is that we should see more names in Global chat, more items on the Trading Post, and more activity in territory ownership and the war scene. We can expect Monarch’s Bluff to be taken from Don’t Die Alone fairly quickly, lets hope the new owners see fit to put up crafting buffs on a regular schedule.
What about Cerberus and Crux players?
For players on Cerberus and Crux, you’ll wake up on Delos, feeling much the same. Companies that owned territories will no longer own them and will receive 50k gold in the company treasury for each held territory.
For those who used to play on Delos, it will be a reunion of friends and enemies. For the new players, it’s a chance to make some new friends. For the most part, Delos players are less competitive, which is why we just stayed instead of racing to the top on the new servers. We hope you enjoy living here 🙂
How did we get here?
While many saw the region merge as a cost-cutting measure for AGS, I’m more inclined to believe they thought it was the best solution for population problems in all three regions – AP Southeast, SA East, and US West. I even think they are probably right. However, it was too shocking a move for players to be onboard, even if made with the best intentions.
Players raised their voices to demonstrate that we are not numbers, we are people, and any solution needs to take into account the social and experiential factors.
The first step was making some noise on the official discord. A number of threads were started but ultimately Brittney’s thread gained the most traction.
Even when the slowmode got pushed up to 6 hours, posts kept coming, in protest of the region merge.
As more and more people realised the implications of the merge, the community started making plans to fight back. Gma sent a message out to all company leaders to get together for a photoshoot, which we’ve documented here.Â
Content creators such as DukeSloth, SherlokGnome, and JayOddity expressed their opposition to the merge, and, of course, we talked about it on Narokstar‘s stream too.
Conversations were had in game and online, and ultimately, AGS heard them.
We’ve been asking for a server merge for a long time and when AGS offered the greatly increased population of a regional merge, it terrified us. I hope that we wait until Season 10 to see if that drastic measure is truly needed or not. I really believe that if New World is recognised for the great game it is and the devs can bring in enough to make everyone happy, they’ll be pleased that they didn’t abandon our region.
For now, never take the ping for granted and be kind to one another. See you on Delos!
