| The thing is, it's a computer game. They can make the ocean and the land as large as they want, relative to the player.
By the way, several people in the thread have acknolewdged the backing of my reasonment. The proof the single shard model generates crapload of meaningful player interaction is in this very forum, a few threads away. Have a look.
I've never claimed neither player interaction nor player-driven economy can't work on a multiple shard model. I just say, on a single shard they work better - in the case of economy, for example, the larger market size means there are way more production niches because the mass of players willing to buy a certain item is always big enough to be worth someone's time. On a game like wow or eq as a server matures and moves from expansion to expansion many products end up not worth making for the 5 guys who are willing to buy them.
The argument that it'd take months for people to participate in a port battle is a non-issue, if the game's designed for more players it has to be designed to accomodate them - just like EVE is. |