Anyway just for that - it's all about marketing. You can have the best server possible but unless you can sell it properly you won't make it. On the other hand you can have garbage server but if you get the ball rolling, you can make it work. Personally I feel like if someone wrapped such package as a "Lineage 2 Plus" which "takes a new approach to Lineage 2 while staying true to its core" (and such marketing gibberish), threw in couple of thousands USD on advertising (including buying email adress lists of old popular servers + their inactive social media accounts) and maybe even do some of those money prize events, they could make it... But as always, no money no fun, it's just how it is

i dont see any reason why a pvp server should be more than a 20 minute adventure
the whole idea behind a pvp server is PVP itself
the act of dominating over N number of other players until you get rekt - al that to raise your dopamine and ego

what should grab the attention on a deathmatch style server (which is pure pvp) IS the deatmatch itself

so the only thing that would make a pvp server more enjoyable and make people stick to it is the diversity of fighting locations and the amount of players involved
ofcourse role playing for geeks is a must - im sure you are gona be near peeing yourself of joy if on a pvp server its smth big to own a fortress and you defend for hours against zerg after zerg like in LOTR Helms Deep

certainly many kids with insecurities will say theres nothing interesting to do here cuz they cant get overfarmed to get the edge in pvp and go fire up that adrenaline script on another pvp sv to get them gold bars or festival adenas or w/e


as a business development specialist (fo real yo) let me give you the following analogy:
a cafeteria that is positioned in a crowded place and offers only 3 great fuken things -> coffee and croisants and sandwiches/toasts makes usually 3-4 times more net revenue than a mid-class restaurant in the same area. the difference in hassle is 10 times in favor of the cafeteria again.

if the question is why?! and how come!? the answer is very simple0!
The cafeteria does not aim to get people involved, it offers 3 basic products that are very common and in wide demand and even if people dont stay for long they still pay and dont ask too many questions cuz the offer is simple and the client pretty much knows well the product one is purchasing. without diving into the technicalities of such a venue long story short - it runs on low overhead cuz it doesnt need excessive storage space, neither customer space, nor sophisticated electical appliances to cook stuff

on the contrary the restaurant requires shitton of initial capital to start, has high overheads and goes under super strict regulation, always aims to keep people for longer time and always has to answer to questions like "are these pork ribs gluten free and vegan friendly?" or "is this curry chicken ok for my 2 year old kid?"
finally there are so many ways to steal stuff from a restaurant and make profit as an employee out of it that theres another 10-20% of the turnover lost in "hidden costs"


in conclusion while it is all about marketing in the end of the day it is about the product (that 99 vs 1%)
if you want to promote longevity it is not marketing that will make people stay but it will bring them in
what will make them stay is fast hassle free distribution of the goods that have been presented in a simple and clear offer - basically fastfood


leave all those illusions of longevity and community sticking to a server to the low rate projects. let them struggle in the era of digital nomads to keep people in. You just need to offer 30 minutes to 1 hour fun to someone who is busy and wants to put out some pressure. ///shiiid this sounds too much like prostitution but hey its the oldest profession and its all about pvp there too, right? no feelings just pew pew:D

It's a very good analogy with the cafeteria, it's an interesting point... Case in point, we actually we had this little bistro opened recently where I work at, they basically just sell kebab and these KFC-style chicken strips, had me coming there everytime I had a chance because both were just so damn good. Ended up being quite succesful even though there was a similar bistro with much nicer interior and larger menu.

But still... What would be the "kebab and chicken strips" of such PvP server? I mean consider this scenario: Ok, you open PvP server, don't meddle with anything, try to keep everything retail, do some minor advertisement... How exactly would you attract players, ie. how would you prevent the server from having 50-100 active people at start that spirals down to bunch of people sitting in Giran and chatting before the server inevitably closes after realization there's no point paying server costs for a chatting room? //btw. prostitution isn't world's oldest profesion, it's either hunting or agriculture or smth

//offtopic - long before ppl learned to hunt and harvest they learned to sell pussy for food and shelter

when we speak of server longevity we have to always understand and accept it is going to immintently die

i am looking at phenomena such as l2damage which is complete trash but its full of people and donators

so i found out that the first thing that keeps people is the ability to pay to get stuff - in every discord channel of a clan i joined while doing my research i heard 90% of the tiem "how much money did upay for this or that" "i paid only 20 euro at the start" etc

what i believe would keep people in a pvp server is the pvp itself as i mentioned it
make them hunt their enchants and life stones by killing rbs, sieging, pvping

if u get ur items when u kil a player instead of a mob what more do u need to stay on a pvp server

if it dies just wipe it and start over again
if it doesnt work - just copy the l2joke majority of trash servers and give donators +20 items and ///profit

everybody is using adrenalin script to farm nowadays so just forget about making people farm to stay on a sv

//offtopic - y but like... You first need to have something of value that could be exchanged for s.ex... Which would inevitably make the person who gathers/hunts the food the first "profession", wouldn't it? Hunter, collector, whatever... You can't, like, have s.ex with someone just in case something valuable appears in the future... Know what I mean?

As for the server... The paying for stuff to keep the players interested you mentioned is a curious take, and I can totally imagine it working, but it's convincing people to start doing it that's problematic to say at least. I don't know much about the L2Damage but would I be correct if I said that it has a fairly long tradition? I'd even go as far as saying that they didn't always use this model, if I were to bet I'd say they were just regular PvP server when they started and only adapted this scheme once they had enough playerbase to keep the ball rolling. Anyway I guess I see your points there, we just have different views on the matter, that all

Yes agree with you, only talking ,,bla bla blaaah...." and do nothing about the game!
The L2off files for Interlude and Gracia Final are shared long time ago!
Why not make your own L2Server? (L2off ofc) ,,Talk here BIG and LOUD"
All's wants to play on a server their own with custom features or retail, but this is not gonna happen pretty soon guys!

Or you can talk with my IonelSLK#5041 i have some position staff unoccupied on my L2off Interlude Server.