It’s 2021, why do online games still have to be partitioned?

“The furthest distance in the world is when you are in China Telecom and I am in China Netcom.”

Speaking of game partitions, the first thing that many people think of is always this old one. Old stalker. If you are a player living in the era of mobile games and have no feelings about this, you can automatically replace the two keywords "Telecom" and "Netcom" with "Apple" and "Android", and this sentence will immediately become It's very vivid, and maybe you will even clench your fists if you are deeply affected by it.

Many times, as a game player, you feel helpless when facing game manufacturers. Because the game belongs to them, and you have basically nothing to do with these basic things, you can only accept them. Especially regarding the server issue, once they are not in the same area, they will almost be separated forever.

I remember that when I was in elementary school, the most popular game in the class was "Fantasy Westward Journey". Although this game is not well received now, at that time, "Fantasy Westward Journey" was unknown to people. For children who have played some games, it is an extremely interesting thing. And I must admit that killing giant sea turtles in Jianye City, treating mutated sea caterpillars as treasures, and being killed by the wealthy villagers during the plot has always been one of the happiest experiences in my gaming career.

But when I happily exchanged experiences with my classmates and made an agreement to go home and play together after school, I went home and spent a long time toiling around, only to find that we were not in the same area at all. Being young and ignorant, I was unwilling to give up that precious mutated sea caterpillar - even though I gave it all points of agility, it was basically a waste. However, my classmate was very loyal and simply dropped his original account number, changed districts, and played with me.

As a result, the two of us used Shenzhen’s telecommunications network and forced ourselves to play in China Unicom’s Changbai Mountain area for half a year. Then we naively thought that the game itself was disconnected and stuck. Later, we couldn’t stand it anymore. , both cursed and abandoned the trap.

Life always teaches us some truths inadvertently, just like this story tells me that long-distance relationships will not end well. The problems brought about by Netcom and telecommunications are actually issues of the times. In 2002, China Telecom's business was reorganized, and the business in the ten northern provinces was handed over to China Unicom, while the business in the south was handed over to China Telecom. This directly leads to the different services that different network operators can provide in different regions in the north and south. Southern China Unicom has few network base stations, Northern Telecom has few network base stations, and the network services of the two companies are not interoperable. This has led to the emergence of Telecom Zone and Netcom Zone.

However, the network delay problem caused by telecommunications and China Netcom has gradually become a memory of the previous era. In 2008, China Netcom was directly merged into China Unicom, and China Mobile also joined the ranks of Internet providers. The previous North-South confrontation between China Telecom and China Netcom has disappeared. Moreover, in the subsequent technological development and service evolution, China Telecom, China Unicom and China Mobile have no longer adopted the crude behavior of distinguishing users, and their network base stations and skeletons have basically become common. No matter which operator you use now, you will not be unable to play if you log into the wrong server like ten years ago.

However, although the troubles caused by telecommunications and Netcom have been resolved, the issue of game partitioning is still bothering many players. The zone where my friends are in is always full, so I have to fight alone; the manufacturer likes to switch servers, but the server I play inexplicably becomes a ghost server because of the opening of a new zone; after merging servers, when I wake up from sleep, the server I used to live in disappears directly. . These problems are the most painful.

Zoning is like you and your friend entering the same amusement park, but he and you are in a different parallel world. His place is full and you can’t squeeze in, and then the amusement park operator tells you There are too few people here and the amusement facilities do not provide services.

Players who have been hurt by partitioning must have a hard time understanding why the game needs to be partitioned.

It was originally because of the network provider's problem, but now the three of them are enjoying themselves, why do the games still separate players?

First of all, this can make money, there is no doubt that game manufacturers are not Philanthropists absolutely charge service fees for providing services. The difference lies in how they charge them. Generating revenue through game partitioning is relatively common in games such as MMORPG, because there is a strong competitive relationship between players in this type of game, and the bloody ranking battles are enough to make the masses shout that local tyrants are awesome. . For example, in the cross-server battle in "Fantasy Westward Journey", for ordinary players, the people on the field are basically like gods.

Multiple servers allow players to have multiple stages of competition. If they cannot beat this stage or do not want to compete, then there are other stages to choose from. There are constantly new areas, and high-paying players have a new stage to compete in the rankings. Players who want to change to a new environment and start over can also enjoy some bonuses from the opening of new areas, and are even willing to increase some payment limits.

This method of profit-making and zoning by exploiting the competitive psychology among players has developed to the most extreme situation, which is frequent server rollover. This is common in many legendary web games, and it may even happen that the entire server only supports a few players.

But in addition to making money, there are still some rigid restrictions. It can even be said that it is because of these restrictions that the revenue model for partitions appears. The main reason for partitioning is to control server traffic, because there are too many Chinese players. If partitioning is not performed, the server costs for the corresponding capacity will be astronomical. Especially the mainstream MMORPG games in online games. In such games, in a server, the data of all player characters are changing and fed back at any time, which imposes a very heavy load on the server. The cost of increasing the number of servers is far lower than significantly expanding the server capacity. That's why we see games like "Dungeon and Fighter" choosing to open new areas to solve the problem after a server is full, instead of expanding the capacity of the originally full server.

Moreover, with multiple servers, it is easier to recover costs. Server consolidation is the most common way to recover costs. Consolidate several low-utilization servers for users, so that the redundant servers can be recovered. cost.

Therefore, partitioning is a controllable and mature operating model for manufacturers, both in terms of technology and profitability. Although this will really cause trouble for players, as mentioned above, manufacturers often do not care about the opinions of players.

However, as times evolve, some manufacturers’ ideas are also changing. Unexpectedly, it was Lei Huo who took the lead and became a "traitor". In the autumn expansion pack "Second School" of "Backwater Cold", the function of players forming teams across servers was added.

In the new version, White Deer Academy will become a cross-server public attack scene that connects major servers. It's like a large square, gathering players from all over the world. The players of "Ni Shui Han" actually have a wide social circle. After frequent exchanges in Tieba, Weibo, official forums and other places, many players know each other, but due to the server barrier, they cannot play together in the game.

The emergence of the cross-server teaming function of White Deer Academy has solved this pain point very well. Everyone can still continue the game in the original environment, but when they want to meet, they can do so in this place Juju. Moreover, White Deer Academy has NPCs that can guide each dungeon through time and space. This kind of happy thing can enhance the relationship between players. I usually make all kinds of boasts on Tieba, talking about how amazing my skills are, but without pictures or facts, it’s time to see the real skills of all the awesome netizens on the Internet.

However, if there is really an "unspeakable secret", the new expansion pack also provides you with two excellent "excuses", that is, the seamless switching of "Second School" and "Dongting Sword" "Copy.

You can completely use the reason that "the team's professional mix is ??unreasonable" to change yourself to another profession. Although there is not much change in level and strength, but if you have problems with Zhuan Hongyin, it is not It's very natural. Moreover, the new version has this function. Maybe everyone is playing the second genre. This kind of novelty is not common. It is completely like playing in a different profession. No one will know whether it is good or not. care. On the contrary, it might be more fun to show off your skills. Bragging about your friend's skills is not as fun as criticizing his skills.

Furthermore, the new copy "Dongting Sword" has new challenges and rewards, and "Nishuihan" this time has set "Dongting Sword" to "reduce liver and burden" for players. Important goals, after clearing "Dongting Sword", "Martial Arts Records" and "Sword Battle", which are almost boring old dungeons, there is no need to play them again, and the rewards will be fully paid.

With such a top-three "Dongting Sword", why not fight it? It is also very reasonable for people who are not familiar with the dungeon mechanism to open up wasteland and rush to the streets.

When I think about it from this perspective, I can’t help but feel that the content design of this version update of "Ni Shuihan" is very exquisite. I don’t know if other modes of play besides dungeons will be added in the future, such as the mahjong version of the Tenkaichi Budokai. It’s impossible to fight, and playing cards is the real joy.

Of course, these are all jokes. The real meaning of cross-server teaming is to give players who are usually unable to get together the possibility of playing together at no cost. After all, among the many online games that are "addicted" to partitions, there are not many that are willing to listen to players' opinions and improve their gaming experience, like "Nishuihan" - if the price of switching to zones can be set lower in the end, then The conscience is still there.