That's an opinion, and seriously... good for you that you enjoy and excel playing content at that speed. I'm glad you and the APAC players who stayed with the game find you can still enjoy it. However, lots of people in your situation left because they didn't find playing content at that speed tolerable, which is likely why the APAC population is small enough that EA considers them an acceptable write-off, given this server relocation. It's a mistake to think that all the people on the West Coast with their newly quadruple ping times will stay, just because some people have tolerated worse.

I have always thought the doom-and-gloom "we're about to go into maintenance mode" attitude was an over-the-top reaction based on little evidence. However, this time I believe it. There was an departure of APAC players when their servers were cut and they had to deal with higher ping to the West Coast of NA. There will be a departure of West Coast players who find that pvp or raiding isn't as fun as it used to be now that they no longer can play at the level they've been accustomed to. Whether this is a fast exodus, or just a trickle... a little less playtime here... a little less there... then a "why do I sub when I only play once or twice a month?" followed by a "I'll only sign-in when there's new content" remains to be seen. This is how you turn a regular, loyal player who raids and pvps and makes alts to play the story again (and drops money into the cartel market) into those people who return to check out the story once and leave the next day. As for what you're saying about EA - so much truth there... how does one mess up an exclusive Star Wars contract so badly? And how do they take a great company like Bioware and slowly strip it of everything that made it unique and wonderful? Anthem-Schmanthem. For the record, I'm not going there.

Fair enough. For curiosity's sake... what's your ping to your server?

Except Bioware and its customer base may have very different ideas as to what is a "reasonable" level. That is why communication is required. Indeed, it's what communication is for.

Which is not very comforting to someone who on Monday had a 21ms ping and is now paying the same price for a 100ms ping. It's noticeable even without the horrible spikes. I have no idea how the APAC players have been sticking it out this long with their 200-250ms ping and I wouldn't expect them to stay around for worse. Boatloads of respect given to APAC pvpers and raiders from my corner.

Aww... thank you. I speak fluent Corporate with a conversational knowledge of Marketing and will be happy to provide any translations one may require at a reasonable rate.

Please reread his statement. He never said he was going to fix the ping times. He said they were going to address performance issues and smooth out any kinks. So... is the new increase ping considered a performance issue? Or is it only the spikes that are considered a performance issue? Or is none of this considered a performance issue and they're more concerned about something else? What is considered a "kink?" The entire game being unplayable by the continent of Australia? Is that a "kink?" No - he was vague. I would assume he was deliberately vague, but giving the benefit of the doubt perhaps he didn't understand his words were ambiguous. Hence, the request (some made more politely than others, I grant you) for a response.

No - that's not what he said. That's what optimists are reading into it. People who were gobsmacked by this have learned not to read into statements like that, which is why we would very much like a response. He said they would deal with performance issues and smooth things out. What does that even mean? Does that mean people with high pings will get lower pings in two weeks? If so, why not SAY that... because that would be a highly effective strategy to shut us all up. And this "toxic" reaction people are having was nowhere near as toxic on Tuesday. This is the result of frustrated people who have been ignored on the forums for a couple days over an issue they have every right to be upset about.

Uh... yes? Look - they just stealth-kneecapped a large portion of their loyal, happy, hypercrate-buyin' customer base. The vague "we'll work out the kinks" is not reassuring to people who were misled regarding the server merges and are now finding the game frustrating at best (WC - do some pvp or WBs and feel like you're running through molasses) and unplayable (APAC) at worst... because "this won't effect your gameplay" is blatantly untrue. It *has* affected our gameplay, significantly. They need to come on and say "Okay - this is what we're working towards as a best-case scenario, this is when we're making changes" or "yeah... this is the new normal" and let us make our subscription and cartel buyin' decisions based on real information, not vague hand-waving.

It's on strike. It liked the West Coast. (It's down for me too)

Location: California Coast Was 21 ms, now 88ms with frequent spikes hovering around 190ms. Edit: Oh wait... spike over 200 during Coruscant WB. Hello, proximity laser.

No, but I noticed they updated the server detail on Harbinger to say "East Coast." Glad to know what their priorities are. Tone deaf. How can so many people be so tone deaf?

No, he said they would use the next two weeks to "smooth out kinks and address performance issues." He does NOT state whether or not Bioware considers the West Coast higher pings a "performance issue." He was vague. We have no idea whether this is considered the new normal or whether it is something they are trying to fix. Hence, the ire and the requests for communication.

At least we have a better idea of why the roadmap took so long. The back-and-forth between the legal and marketing departments probably took months. As far as "his desire to ignore story and focus on group content" is concerned... can we all take a moment to appreciate the sheer absurdity of focusing on group content, only to force people into high ping and lag times that will remove what desire they had to do group content???? What is the POINT of server mergers to increase group play if you're going to do that to an entire coast of NA and the continent of Australia? "We're going to bring you all together! We want everyone to have an upgraded experience! Except Australia and California. We hate those douches."

My ping is slightly worse today than yesterday, with more lag spikes. I think they're way too busy trying to make things worse. That way, when they go back to the horrible ping we had yesterday, they can say "hey - we reduced it to only triple your original ping instead of quadruple! Doesn't it play better than quadruple! Aren't you happy?"

My point is - I think they'll do another name purge when they combine the two NA servers, they'll have the mechanism in place. I also think that's going to happen faster than we would have assumed... I suspect Hot Prospect Satele Shan will be another ghost server in less than a year and a single NA server is in the cards.

My theory is they did it this way to minimize the Name Exodus. They are facing a Ping Exodus and a Name Exodus. If they were to merge all the servers at once, these Exoduses (Exodi? Exodussis?) would happen at the same time. Someone happily playing on the east coast with good ping could lose their name to someone playing in Australia who will quit anyway because they can't do a warzone or raid without dying from lag. You potentially have two rage quitters in that scenario. This way, the Ping Exodus happens first, freeing up names for the subsequent NA server consolidation down the road... I give it less than a year.

You've got to be kidding. You're saying you seriously don't understand why a reasonable person would assume two locations? You don't understand why people would infer that given that a) they announced they were merging all the west coast servers together and b) they were merging all the east coast servers together, and c) up until today the west coast servers were on the west coast and they never once disclosed they were moving them to the east coast? White knighting is one thing, being deliberately obtuse is something else.

Yeah - but of course those spikes "won't affect gameplay." Totally won't bother you in a warzone or anything.

I'd rather they give away my sub reward than my ping. Oh, wait... they did that too...

New PVP warcry - "Throw out class balance! Nerf EAST! Buff WEST!"

Anyone who has ever played in a WZ on an opposite coast server knows there's a difference.

I am so angry about this - I've been irritated with Bioware before, but never this degree of flat-out angry. The decision to stay on Harbinger - Hot Prospect - Satele Shan was because of ping time. They neglected to give us a key piece of information that would have informed character and legacy transfer decisions. Furthermore, they've degraded the gameplay experience for people who stuck to their coast. As someone on the WC, I've tried out WZs on East Coast servers before - the difference is noticeable. Why would they do this to an entire coast of people?

Why do they always neglect to mention these kinds of details in their announcements? Nowhere in the 80,000 paragraphs detailing the plans for servers mergers do they mention poorer pings for WC players... until after the fact. There is literally *no* difference in my ping whether I'm on a West Coast or East Coast server, and I'm in CA. West Coast players got @#$#$ over in this server merge. Perhaps knowing this ahead of time may have affected our decisions about where we decided to play or transfer legacies, or whether we want to play at all. Bad form, Bioware.

As a west coast player, I now am experiencing triple the ping time I used to have on Harb and BC. I signed onto an east coast server and it's exactly the same, which I've always felt was comparatively sluggish. There's no difference in the ping between WC and EC after this update. Am I to understand that the server "improvements" have resulted in worse play conditions for west coast players? Or is this an issue that is going to be worked out?