the Vitals of arkenstone .....

[MithrilMinded]

If we were to treat our server as a patient, it looks like arkenstone is suffering from an ilinness. I dont know if if letal, terminal or temporary, but its vital as today puts it in a delicate situation. Low presure , thin numbers of players that seems to be normal after summers over and pre-expansion , but it seem that this year the numbers are even lower . Breathing problems, beloved players from our server have quit, or migrated elsewhere leaving ark without the needed air , tubines oxigen tank(bounder stuff) have prove insufficient to nurse it back to health. finally , ark temperature reseambles a corpse , its inner fire dies slowly and only the distant hopes of HD can spark the flame ....Us lolay arkenstonian can revitalize its condition, inject energy and create a better communicating vessels so the new blood transfusion can be recived without a sudden death.....

will like to consult with the arkenstone people to give thier deferential diagnosis!

( im not a hard science , biology or med student , i just found that the metaphor was helpful to illustrate the issue)

[Adoraith]

I am sure that there are plenty of people getting their poison pens ready to blame Turbine for just about everything you mentioned. However, while Turbine does need to introduce interesting content to keep the game moving forward, we as players have the ability to keep people interested in the game. More specifically my kinship runs group content nightly. Whether its raiding, 6 mans, or the moors (Both Freep and Creep) we keep our members busy and have built a healthy community as a result. In fact, I can't remember the last time we have had to PUG to fill one of our groups. Our membership has been active and online all summer long.

Its been my experience that there are large numbers of players who have little or no experience in much of the scaled raiding content. Whether its because they joined LOTRO later or took a break from the game and have come back, the older raids are "new content" for many players. In addition to our normal raiding schedule, we are running retro raid nights and the resulting interest is very high in my kinship. We also have tried to spice content up by adding extra variables to the raid. Battle for Erebor getting stale? Try it after having your character down 10 of the strongest ales you can find. Trying to fight 2-3 trolls where there used to be one is interesting to say the least. I just aim for the middle one.

Want to keep people coming back? Leaders and Officers of kins need to keep their membership having fun and trying new things.

[Temrhyn]

Arkenstone is not 'dying'. It's just a quiet server. And I know several people who enjoy the fact that you can have a chat in the main chat box without losing it amidst the LFF and Trade hawking.

If you're having a hard time getting a group together, it's likely because you're simply not looking at the right time or in the right place (or both). Ark is a lot busier at some points in the day then others, and those times change a bit depending on what the season is.

And, to be honest, I found you're whole little opening post to be an over-dramatization of the whole thing written by an author with a very active imagination.

[J_Howell]

If you're having a hard time getting a group together, it's likely because you're simply not looking at the right time

This shouldn't be a problem for the OP - Puerto Rico should be able to handle the standard Eastern time scheduling on this server. But this is the reason I gave up on Arkenstone as a dead server over 18 months ago. Back at 75 literally every scheduled group run happened in the late afternoon.

Its been my experience that there are large numbers of players who have little or no experience in much of the scaled raiding content. Whether its because they joined LOTRO later or took a break from the game and have come back, the older raids are "new content" for many players.

Or because they play at dead times. I wasn't capped at 65 for very long, but I don't remember OD or BG groups happening very often, if at all, then. And the 75 experience is what led to my present disinterest in this server - finding Draigoch runs was like pulling teeth, and ToO T1 was literally a once in a lifetime opportunity. No idea why my kin at the time decided to do a run on a weekend afternoon instead of the usual weekday afternoons, but I'm glad it happened that one time!

So yeah, I'd love to see OD, BG, Helegrod, maybe the Erebor stuff if I ever bother buying the instance cluster (caveat: have done level 50 Hele-drake and giant a couple times on my Vilya characters; never done spider or Thorog, never done any of it on-level). Can't imagine that ever happening on Arkenstone though.

There's a reason I brought my warden out of retirement - that way I can at least do 3-mans and see if useful loot drops to pass to my burglar.

And on a positive note, the AH here is actually quite nice. Which I take to mean that the server is humming along fairly well for all the folks on the east coast, at least - somebody must be grouping for supply to be so high at such reasonable prices!

[Whatevaplz]

Last I drop by there were a total of 21 players in GLFF. That's me included so yeah I think it is pretty much dead unless of course we are playing blackjack.

[yourmumsbf]

arkenstone is as dead as a dinosaur

[Castorix]

Population rank of Arkenstone is actually 15/29 (from SOAP services), so in the middle.

[yourmumsbf]

Population rank of Arkenstone is actually 15/29 (from SOAP services), so in the middle.

that just means alot of servers are dead then lol

[MithrilMinded]

yeah, i like exagerating a bit..i actually like the server "quietness",were glff feels like an extension of kin chat..really!.. i dont play too much at afternoons, i actually do from morning to 2pmish cause i have class at night , and the people that hang around at that time are all good ..im not a raiding person (still manage to complete t1 deeds out of pugs XD)and since im just working on capping 4th alt ,i dont have time to group.. aside from running 3 and 6 mans with our kin godmode champ ..i think that atleast on mornings our server tends to be pretty social .

[Monika1984]

It get's busy once the festivals are up and running, and popular gathering places like Bree and Snowborn will have people almost all day long, so I don't feel that our server is suffering from some kind of ''disease''. I also like that it's quiet here, because we can farm ore, wood and other things, do slayer deeds without problems. Though that spider slayer deed in Barrow Downs is not easy to finish, I always find one of you there

[elderlygamer]

Sometimes when you're running around in the moors and every single person suddenly stops, if you listen veeerrryyy carefully you can hear the server flatlining.

[Gilstad]

I joined around the time Rise of Isengard came out, when Arkenstone was the recommended server. I played LOTRO like crazy for a year, and it was great fun because when I got tired of questing or deeding I'd go to the Prancing Pony and fool around there. For about a year now it's been different. The Prancing Pony in Arkenstone is almost always dead, as well as the courtyard outside.

I don't follow too much on what changes they make to the game but it seems it's much easier to level up. I think the idea is for players to race through their levels and get to the endgame. With things like dailies there is lest time for people to just fool around.

I remember in November of 2012, I was getting a bit tired of this game, but a bunch of us were fooling around and role-playing in the Prancing Pony when we decided to invade the trollshaws and cause a bunch of havoc against the trolls there. That was probably the last time I had fun on this server. My character was around level 42 then and is still only on level 49 a year later.

I play more often on the Laurelin server these days, but the people there can be a bit weird. And I like all the costumes I have for my characters on Arkenstone so I can't leave it all behind (pass through different times, leave them all behind....)

There's no way to make everyone happy and still make a profit I guess. I'm certainly not one of the happy one's on Arkenstone any more, and it's been a while since I was.

[lockecd]

I like thread it has a positive appeal to it. Sad to hear that it is some dead. Although things will things are about to change since Ark is one of the remaining Servers!

Congrats !

[MithrilMinded]

I like thread it has a positive appeal to it. Sad to hear that it is some dead. Although things will things are about to change since Ark is one of the remaining Servers!

Congrats !

yeah lol...it picked up since new map, and the hype of being in that top 5 has spread excitement