THE MOMENT
"You'd be better off trying the Schoolyard," Britt suggested. She was eating in a restaurant when Brucie stopped by to ask her opinion on an idea. Brucie had just been there long enough to lay out her plan and get Britt's response before the old owner of the place, Donna Chang, visited the table.
"Hello, Brucie," the ancient woman smiled at the new guest. "Will you be ordering?" she asked.
"Sorry, Donna," Brucie shook her head. "Just passing through," she replied, and Donna nodded with a warm smile.
"I'll be nearby if you change your mind," she said and walked away.
"But, the Schoolyard's so crowded! That's why I want to try setting up somewhere else," Brucie answered. She was a Craftsman and hoping to both make some cash and improve her skills. The Schoolyard Server was widely known as the bazaar of bazaars. It was an entire Earth dedicated to being a trade hub for AlterNet players. "And it's got all the crafting stations and supplies I'll need too, just like the Schoolyard."
"The Schoolyard's crowded because everyone goes there," Britt smiled, but she shook her head. "You're getting good, but you're not good enough to pull potential customers away from the Schoolyard. No one's going to go just to browse your wares. You still need the foot traffic that comes with that overcrowding."
"It's a public Server too... I'm sure they have some traffic?" Brucie asked. She trusted Britt's sensibilities, but she didn't see the issue."
"Not really," Britt shook her head. "You read the Server description, right?"
"Yeah...," Brucie replied as she pulled her node out and brought up the Server she was considering. She'd already read it, but it felt like Britt wanted to point something out to her, so she read it again, aloud.
"Telorea was never peaceful. But the wars were local, destructions limited, armies thousand strong at most. Before humans popularized industrialised warfare. Now dwarves forge mighty tanks, orcs arm themselves with automatic firearms. Even the prideful elves eschewed the bow for the rifle," she read it and watched Britt's smile grow subtly.
"And..?" Britt asked.
"That's it," Brucie nodded, still midly confused. "It sounds fine? Dwarven forges and elven gunsmiths sounds like a place I want to be," she added.
"Check the info for another popular server, not the Schoolyard. Try Marciegeddon," she said.
"Okay," Bruce shrugged. She'd checked server info before, even for Marciegeddon. But, this time she was on the lookout for something different, and found it instantly. She swiped back on her node to the Telorea info, then to Marciegeddon a few times to compare, then nodded.
"Ahhh, I really never noticed that...," Brucie nodded with a sigh. The server info for both was pretty standard, but the difference was the abundance of reviews from others in her Class. Marciegeddon had billions of reviews while Telorea had none from crafters. She tried changing the filters to verify and found thousands of PvP-oriented praises. Then, she changed it back to her normal set up, she didn’t need that info. "Do you know why?" she asked out of idle curiosity. She'd already changed her mind about going, but she still wanted to know more.
"It tells you," Britt laughed. "Telorea was never peaceful.. it still isn't. None of the Courts have claimed it, and most people ignore it in favor of more popular servers. Because of that 'never peaceful' line, they don't have any Safe Zones, not even in the markets. You'd need a full team to even try to sell there, and we have other priorities," Britt said.
"Oh, wow," Brucie nodded. "Thanks," she said. No matter how much she thought she'd learned, there was always more. "Alright, then I guess the Schoolyard it is...," Brucie shrugged, then looked around the restaurant to flag down Donna. "...if I'm going there, I have time to eat first."