The Thing About Private Servers

[teOx]

everyone would learn faster on private server. it makes sense cuz you level so fast and get to places and MVPs that you wouldnt be able to on official servers for... well... 5 times the playing time.

but the fact is when you pay to play, you will play more seriously. most of the time. the difference between the top tier players of official servers compared to the top tier players of private servers is pretty huge on??average. even comparing average heRO player to an average iRO player, the difference in skill and knowledge is huge in favor of the iRO player.

one of the biggest things official players mention is that private servers Svn emulation is at best a simulation of the actual game, littered with bugs, and coded by a team of people who have generally never even played the real game. i didnt feel this as much, but recently found to be very true. many things that should work on RO, do not work in Pservers. so i now find that to be accurate, particularly when it comes to high end mvping but also in alot of other aspects. not that eA hasnt done a damn good job. they do the best they can.

bots are more rampant of course cuz there is often real money involved. and the free trials werent helping.

official servers are full of asshole elitists. there is far more drama on officials too actually, its not even comparable.

both have their pros and cons.

summing up answer to OP question, yeah officials are far more hardcore in general and on most levels. and you cant get the woe/pvp experience that officials offer anywhere else. the truth is of course that most of us do not have the time/money to waste on being hardcore in a game, and private servers are an awesome alternative that suits most of us better.

also, about catching up. yes its far easier on a private server thanks to the rates, but a newcomer on heRO would catch up 10 times faster joining a large guild like LW where we help them learn and catch up and transcend chars within a matter of days. the same situation would occur on any older/established server, whether private or official