The more I think about it, the more a merge between K1 and K2 stands out as the best possible option for the long-term health of the project.
When I started playing on Kronos back in the summer of 2015, I was really impressed by it's quality. The game staff were fast-acting (Gurky would appear within minutes to help you out if you had an issue), they were friendly, and were clearly passionate about the game and the community they had worked hard to build. Equally important to me was the fact that there was consistently no lag, which was a night and day difference coming from a place like Nostalrius, where it was practically unplayable during peak EU/China times every day. I enjoyed Kronos so much that I recommended it to all my friends from back in retail vanilla, and brought my imaginary Corecraft guild here to play (Risen on alliance).
Fast forward one year. In the current state of things, there's no way I would still recommend K1 to anyone new who's looking for a vanilla server to play on. I'm not going to waste anyone's time discussing what those problems are, since they're already well-documented, but I am going to point out something that's become more and more obvious to me over the last few months--something that it will be difficult for the staff to admit: opening K2 was a huge mistake, and its continued existence is threatening the long-term health of both K1, and the entire Kronos project.
It's pretty simple. One server = a unified community of players and staff. Two servers = divided community, one server ends up cannibalizing all the potential new players from the other, and the game staff effectively has its workload doubled, all while having to divide its attention between two distinct communities. It might have seemed like the best solution at the time to deal with all the Nost refugees, but the only thing opening a second server succeeded in doing was to significantly worsen the overall quality of product for both servers.
A merge needs to happen, and the sooner your team can come up with a plan of action, the better. My own recommendation: give K2 a 2-month war effort, followed by 1 month to progress in AQ, then merge. The K2 players who are truly loyal to the project will stay, and a unified Kronos will emerge, stronger than it ever has been. That's just one way it could be done. However you choose to do it, it needs to happen soon. The longer K2 remains in existence, the more likely you will lose not only the Nost bandwagon hoppers, but the Kronos vets who really do care, but have been frustrated for months now by the neglect, and feeling that we've become nothing more than an unwanted step-child. Once you lose those people--the ones who are your backbone on K1, the future of the entire Kronos project will be looking pretty grim...
When I started playing on Kronos back in the summer of 2015, I was really impressed by it's quality. The game staff were fast-acting (Gurky would appear within minutes to help you out if you had an issue), they were friendly, and were clearly passionate about the game and the community they had worked hard to build. Equally important to me was the fact that there was consistently no lag, which was a night and day difference coming from a place like Nostalrius, where it was practically unplayable during peak EU/China times every day. I enjoyed Kronos so much that I recommended it to all my friends from back in retail vanilla, and brought my imaginary Corecraft guild here to play (Risen on alliance).
Fast forward one year. In the current state of things, there's no way I would still recommend K1 to anyone new who's looking for a vanilla server to play on. I'm not going to waste anyone's time discussing what those problems are, since they're already well-documented, but I am going to point out something that's become more and more obvious to me over the last few months--something that it will be difficult for the staff to admit: opening K2 was a huge mistake, and its continued existence is threatening the long-term health of both K1, and the entire Kronos project.
It's pretty simple. One server = a unified community of players and staff. Two servers = divided community, one server ends up cannibalizing all the potential new players from the other, and the game staff effectively has its workload doubled, all while having to divide its attention between two distinct communities. It might have seemed like the best solution at the time to deal with all the Nost refugees, but the only thing opening a second server succeeded in doing was to significantly worsen the overall quality of product for both servers.
A merge needs to happen, and the sooner your team can come up with a plan of action, the better. My own recommendation: give K2 a 2-month war effort, followed by 1 month to progress in AQ, then merge. The K2 players who are truly loyal to the project will stay, and a unified Kronos will emerge, stronger than it ever has been. That's just one way it could be done. However you choose to do it, it needs to happen soon. The longer K2 remains in existence, the more likely you will lose not only the Nost bandwagon hoppers, but the Kronos vets who really do care, but have been frustrated for months now by the neglect, and feeling that we've become nothing more than an unwanted step-child. Once you lose those people--the ones who are your backbone on K1, the future of the entire Kronos project will be looking pretty grim...