When will there be a "SERVER MERGE?"

[Juzzif]

There are servers in EU aswell that just doesn't have nearly enough players to make an MMO function properly. It's really a HUGE dampener on wether or not people continue playing after reaching 50, after the brackets were implemented there's only 50 pvp a certain few hours every day. This problem is mainly ofcourse for republic, as Empire is doing Huttball 24/7 so they're all geared up long time ago...

 

This is a severe issue and I, from beeing online every day doing mainly pvp to level (valor 50 when I reached level 50) haven't been online more than a few hours after hitting 50 because of it. If BioWare don't react fast to this they will lose A LOT of customers.

[drhay]

I think the OP's underlying point is that getting a group is difficult..... the best solution at this point in time is to create a LFG channel that involves the entire server, not just the place you're at.

 

I know I would look for a group to run HM FP's while doing my Belsavis dailies, but I can't. Even if I could, it would take me 10 minutes to get to the fleet and get to the FP anyway (if my fleet pass isn't up). The real reason for issues with finding a group is the fact that travelling around the galaxy is SLOWWWWW and at any one time, a small percentage of the server population is at the fleet.

[Vaalix]

So BW get slated for having a low pop cap - they increase it and ppl slate them as their pop on the server is no longer ranked as high?

 

 

 

And now wanting to merge servers?

BW, imo and history of being involved with several mmos of the last 10 years, will not even consider a server merge so early after rel.

 

Also, to complain about them wanting to fix bugs etc instead of merging a server?

 

They didn't increase nothing.. People genuinely left in droves.. And merges are necessary.

All Republic sides seem dead. I re rolled on the same server empire side and the place is bustling with activity. I remember last friday night prime time, the u.s servers were 95% light and standard with a few heavies.. Make no mistake, they only retained probably 40% of the players who bought the game after the first month but if you rolled empire you may not notice it since the republic side is the one that sucks to play which equates to a low population. Whats scary is if your on a light/standard server on the republic side its a ghost town..

 

Basically a ton of people most likely re rolled empire to get groups and flashpoints easier and that in conjunction with a very poor retention of subscribers it appears dead to certain people.

 

They need to provide serious incentive to play republic. I think double xp and increased purple loot drops for the first 35 levels might help.. They should also offer a yoda race unlock at 50... That would spur on serious interest in the republic side, and also fix the armor so it doesn't look so bad..

[gizbug]

A month ago all over the forums was "OPEN MORE SERVERS", now you want server mergers.

 

Then 2 months from now it will be "open more servers" again. Give the population time to settle down.

 

What does "settle down" mean in this statement?

[HavenAE]

Another True Statement /smile

 

Not really.

 

I highly doubt a couple of months from now people will be saying "open more servers"

 

Yes at launch they were saying open more severs... We also had a much higher influx of people at that time, so there was a reason why they were saying that. I also never once said "yeah open more servers!" Unlike most people I have the capability of foresight. However, that flux has died out and what you see now is about all you're going to see for a while. it may fluctuate a little here and there but over all this is your main player base believe it or not. Why? Every site I've seen that track server numbers show no signs of growth, in fact they show small but steady decline since the 1st week.

 

This game is not a WoW, it's a decent game with a moderate entertainment value, but don't be foolish and believe it is going to blow up to millions and millions of subscribers, the game just doesn't have it in it, at least not without some massive overhauls. I, personally am fine with that, but I'm not going to sit an act like it's something that it isn't.

 

 

As for merging servers being bad press, it doesn't matter what happens you will still have people saying the game is dying until it proves otherwise.

 

Currently you have people saying it's dying because of empty feeling servers, if you merge them yes others will say "See I told you it was dying they had to merge servers." Except anyone with any brains will realize, of course you have a player base drop after the 1st month runs out, it doesn't mean dying. But having empty servers will do much more harm to this game than merging them and dealing with a little bad press.

Edited January 25, 2012 by HavenAE

[Faeldawn]

There are servers in EU aswell that just doesn't have nearly enough players to make an MMO function properly. It's really a HUGE dampener on wether or not people continue playing after reaching 50, after the brackets were implemented there's only 50 pvp a certain few hours every day. This problem is mainly ofcourse for republic, as Empire is doing Huttball 24/7 so they're all geared up long time ago...

 

This is a severe issue and I, from beeing online every day doing mainly pvp to level (valor 50 when I reached level 50) haven't been online more than a few hours after hitting 50 because of it. If BioWare don't react fast to this they will lose A LOT of customers.

 

This ^^

 

For people saying there are loads of players on their "standard" server try rolling an Rep toon and see for yourself. Population imbalance is a huge issue and it's predominantly Biowares fault, they could have limited server creation option to keep the pop balanced, they didn't. They could have used the WAR system of showing the ratio of factions on any server at any time, they didn't. They could have implemented a bonus system for underpopulated factions, they haven't.

 

There are many, many ways to lessen the impact of faction imbalance, Bioware have done squat to tackle it.

[CG_Osirhis]

This ^^

 

For people saying there are loads of players on their "standard" server try rolling an Rep toon and see for yourself. Population imbalance is a huge issue and it's predominantly Biowares fault, they could have limited server creation option to keep the pop balanced, they didn't. They could have used the WAR system of showing the ratio of factions on any server at any time, they didn't. They could have implemented a bonus system for underpopulated factions, they haven't.

 

There are many, many ways to lessen the impact of faction imbalance, Bioware have done squat to tackle it.

 

Use hyperbolic rhetoric much?

 

So you think it's Bioware's fault that more people wanted to to play Sith than Jedi? And that Bioware should have FORCED people to play Jedi even if they bought this game to play Sith? That totally seems rational...

 

On topic:

I wouldn't mind seeing server mergers as long as they were done smartly. To be honest, I think as this game gets more polished as well as more content, people will return to this game who didn't have the patience to remain before.

[Kypp]

interesting considering the majority of servers were "heavy" at peak time last nite. Only a few light servers but they were west coast. Edited January 25, 2012 by Kypp

[Wizzrobe]

interesting considering the majority of servers were "heavy" at peak time last nite. Only a few light servers but they were west coast.

 

This is incorrect since my server was light and it is an east coast server.

 

I think some people are getting the two issues confused. Server merges would help fix the unpopulated servers, but would not help faction imbalance which is a completely different issue.

[Kypp]

This is incorrect since my server was light and it is an east coast server.

 

I think some people are getting the two issues confused. Server merges would help fix the unpopulated servers, but would not help faction imbalance which is a completely different issue.

 

Oh i'm sorry I missed 1 east coast server my bad. No not incorrect there were a very large number of servers heavy 1 even saw a 5min que as I was scrolling through.

Edited January 25, 2012 by Kypp

[XLauncher]

interesting considering the majority of servers were "heavy" at peak time last nite. Only a few light servers but they were west coast.

 

I wasn't paying attention to the server status last night, but this seems very unlikely. But,

I'll tell you what. We can just look tonight and verify this.

[Jett-Rinn]

Not really.

 

I highly doubt a couple of months from now people will be saying "open more servers"

 

Yes at launch they were saying open more severs... We also had a much higher influx of people at that time, so there was a reason why they were saying that. I also never once said "yeah open more servers!" Unlike most people I have the capability of foresight. However, that flux has died out and what you see now is about all you're going to see for a while. it may fluctuate a little here and there but over all this is your main player base believe it or not. Why? Every site I've seen that track server numbers show no signs of growth, in fact they show small but steady decline since the 1st week.

 

This game is not a WoW, it's a decent game with a moderate entertainment value, but don't be foolish and believe it is going to blow up to millions and millions of subscribers, the game just doesn't have it in it, at least not without some massive overhauls. I, personally am fine with that, but I'm not going to sit an act like it's something that it isn't.

 

 

As for merging servers being bad press, it doesn't matter what happens you will still have people saying the game is dying until it proves otherwise.

 

Currently you have people saying it's dying because of empty feeling servers, if you merge them yes others will say "See I told you it was dying they had to merge servers." Except anyone with any brains will realize, of course you have a player base drop after the 1st month runs out, it doesn't mean dying. But having empty servers will do much more harm to this game than merging them and dealing with a little bad press.

 

There are currently close to 3 million subscribers and that number is growing according to analyst...that is as many if not more than WoW's western market......Blizzard Asian market is dubious and nebulous so that other supposed" seven million doesn't count.

 

So mildly entertaining is knocking hard on Blizzards door so hard in fact they canceled Blizzcon....due to subscriber Hemorrhaging despite what they tell you. Mike Morhiame will tell his investors at the next conference call that WoW is down another million to million and a half mark my words.

 

 

In short if any game is dying your beloved WoW is TOR is doing just fine thank you very much.

Edited January 25, 2012 by Jett-Rinn

[HavenAE]

Use hyperbolic rhetoric much?

 

So you think it's Bioware's fault that more people wanted to to play Sith than Jedi? And that Bioware should have FORCED people to play Jedi even if they bought this game to play Sith? That totally seems rational...

 

No but merging servers can also help with faction imbalances, it's one trick Blizzard does to deal with heavy alliance/horde imbalances.

[HavenAE]

There are currently close to 3 million subscribers and that number is growing according to analyst...that is as many if not more than WoW's western market......Blizzard Asian market is dubious and nebulous so that other supposed" seven million doesn't count.

 

So mildly entertaining is knocking hard on Blizzards door so hard in fact they canceled Blizzcon....due to subscriber Hemorrhaging despite what they tell you.

 

 

In short if any game is dying your beloved WoW is TOR is doing just fine thank you very much.

 

Source?

 

 

 

 

Also I have no "beloved WoW" go through some of my post history and you'll see me flagrantly bashing World of Warcraft., thank you very much.

 

Assumption is the key to all **** ups.

Edited January 25, 2012 by HavenAE

[Enako]

Seems like almost every server is low population. At Peak hours, there are not many people on any one server.

 

hahahaha ahahahaha ahahahah ahahaahah hahahahahahaaaaayyytttt !!!

 

guy youre funny ! tell us more !! tell us more about that alternate reality you are living in !!!

[Enako]

I predict a " free to play" option in the near future.

.

 

and i predict you go back to wow in near future. audieu.

[Seriasx]

I just want server xfers, I'll pay $50 per character right now tbh.

[Enako]

Use hyperbolic rhetoric much?

 

So you think it's Bioware's fault that more people wanted to to play Sith than Jedi? And that Bioware should have FORCED people to play Jedi even if they bought this game to play Sith? That totally seems rational...

 

before this game, in discussions in our guild forum, i told that this would be the first game which would allow all the pent-up 'whooo vader is cool - i want to be darth maul !' crowds' bulging desires about being a sith, and it would be way too imbalanced to that side. especially in pvp servers.

 

and lo.

 

its only natural.

[HavenAE]

all scientists now admit to creationism, smoking makes you smarter, world is in the eye of a fish .... news at 11...

 

if you make facts out of your arse, everything is so clear and evident.

 

.........

 

maybe thats why our 80+ (now probably 90+) guild is still playing the game and raiding and doing whatnot.

 

because everyone left in droves, you see ...

 

Yeah I'm also in a guild with 70+ members and the most I ever see online is 10-15 at peak.

 

So saying your guild has 80+ members means nothing.

Scrimping 8-16 players together to run an operation means nothing. Could you do it if operations required 40man? I mean you have 80-90+ guild members and all...

 

That's also YOUR server, I'm sure you play on a populated one. That isn't all servers. Some have some pretty dismal populations.

 

 

As much as I hate throwing this word out, telling people to go back to WoW, and just pulling fallacy after fallacy out your *** because there couldn't possibly be anything wrong, is typical fanboy behavior.

[Enako]

Yeah I'm also in a guild with 70+ members and the most I ever see online is 10-15 at peak.

 

that has always been the ratio of online to offline people in guilds. when our guild was 120 people in swg, the online people would not pass 20 to 25 at any given point.

 

its a facet of life. people have lives.

 

So saying your guild has 80+ members means nothing.

Scrimping 8-16 players together to run an operation means nothing. Could you do it if operations required 40man? I mean you have 80-90+ guild members and all...

 

if people actually cared about arsing them with 4 hour long 40 man crowded torture contests, we would. but we dont.

 

however, in wow many such guilds cooperated with each other to pull such raids while i was playing them.

 

the usual 'long standing guild' number seems to be around 50 to 80. hence such collaboration. only proraider guilds and whatnot go over numbers like 300, 500.

 

As much as I hate throwing this word out, telling people to go back to WoW, and just pulling fallacy after fallacy out your *** because there couldn't possibly be anything wrong, is typical fanboy behavior.

 

has it occurred to you that, maybe there is nothing wrong for many people playing the game, and most of them dont give two flying craps about 'the population necessary to perform 40 mans' ?

 

i mean, 40 mans .... why ... because we like to torture ourselves with stress after a workday ?

 

no.

 

plain no.

[Wraithwarr]

Seems like almost every server is low population. At Peak hours, there are not many people on any one server. Rift had this issue, and in the beginning, they shut down servers, and allowed people to merge to other servers. It's odd that it takes hours at lvl 50 for a PVP game to pop, as there is hardly anyone on the servers. They also need to implement CROSS REALM Ques. WOW did this, and was a huge success. For any new MMO not to include this off the bat, is beyond bizarre to me. I think Bioware is too focused on fixing bugs than getting these servers in line. Wish I never leveled on what is now a "Low POP" server, as most of the time I feel like this is a single player game.

 

Bioware, what say you?

 

Dark Reaper is heavy in prime time, as are many others.

[HavenAE]

that has always been the ratio of online to offline people in guilds. when our guild was 120 people in swg, the online people would not pass 20 to 25 at any given point.

 

its a facet of life. people have lives.

 

 

 

if people actually cared about arsing them with 4 hour long 40 man crowded torture contests, we would. but we dont.

 

however, in wow many such guilds cooperated with each other to pull such raids while i was playing them.

 

the usual 'long standing guild' number seems to be around 50 to 80. hence such collaboration. only proraider guilds and whatnot go over numbers like 300, 500.

 

 

 

has it occurred to you that, maybe there is nothing wrong for many people playing the game, and most of them dont give two flying craps about 'the population necessary to perform 40 mans' ?

 

i mean, 40 mans .... why ... because we like to torture ourselves with stress after a workday ?

 

no.

 

plain no.

 

You honestly believe my post, or any post on this topic actually has anything to do with 40 man raids?

 

The 40 man comment, was just a for instance, and has absolutely no bearing on whether or not low population servers need merged. I assure you that many people on low population servers care if they are able to find a group for a flashpoint, or if they get to run operations, find help for heroic quests, get to play warzones in a timely fashion, ect...

 

Because YOU and your "amazing guild" run on a high population server doesn't mean there is no call for merges. Stop living in your own perfect little world and realize not everyone had the same luck as you when randomly selecting their server.

 

Has any of that occurred to you?

[Vharna]

I'm definitely in for the long haul. I really do love this game... but it definitely feels like there are way to many servers for the amount of people playing. It shouldn't be so hard to run Flashpoints but there have been plenty of times already when my group just couldn't do it for lack roles being available. Better LFG tools would help also, but I definitely don't want to see instant warps and whatnot (that crap is just stupid). Just a simple menu were you could toggle what quest you want to participate in.

 

This thing is reminding me of DCU Online. I know Bioware is just trying to save face by avoiding merging servers so quickly, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

[Enako]

You honestly believe my post, or any post on this topic actually has anything to do with 40 man raids?

 

i made an example over it. to emphasize something.

 

The 40 man comment, was just a for instance, and has absolutely no bearing on whether or not low population servers need merged. I assure you that many people on low population servers care if they are able to find a group for a flashpoint, or if they get to run operations, find help for heroic quests, get to play warzones in a timely fashion, ect...

 

you are saying that people are not able to find 1 another person in game to do heroics.or 2.

 

lets be reasonable.

 

Because YOU and your "amazing guild" run on a high population server doesn't mean there is no call for merges. Stop living in your own perfect little world and realize not everyone had the same luck as you when randomly selecting their server.

 

Has any of that occurred to you?

 

has it occurred to you that unlike some people, i chose my server carefully ?

 

and my guild was auto assigned to another server, randomly ?

[Mannic]

Since my thread turned out to be redundant, I'll put this here:

 

Last Wednesday night I started this thread: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=197159 where a few of us monitored the state of servers throughout the night. I wanted to get a thread on record prior to the end of the initial 30-day period.

 

On Wednesday the 25th I monitored the servers again, so we would have an apples-to-apples comparison. Both nights were middle-of-the-week, same day of the week, and not affected by holidays or any other major events. On both nights, peak activity in North America hit at around 7:00 PM PST (10 PM EST) which makes sense. PST players are playing after work and dinner, and EST players have not yet gone to bed en masse.

 

On the 18th, there ended up being 58 heavy or full servers at ~ 7 PM PST, a little less than half of all NA servers.

 

On the 25th, there were 23 heavy or full servers, less than 20% of NA serversr. And this was at peak, not in the middle of the work day. To me this result is well outside the margin-of-error and indicative of a clear drop in activity.

 

Given this and the steady complaints we're hearing about dead servers, it's time for Bioware to consider targeted server merges.

 

The only real argument I've seen against server merges is that it's bad PR for a developer to admit that the population of its game is dwindling so soon after release. Presumably, this bad PR would have the effect of discouraging new players from buying the game. This is a bad argument for the following reasons:

 

1. Existing players are more likely to quit if their servers feel dead.

 

2. Existing players aren't going to quit over server merges or bad "PR." The only people such a move could possibly affect would be potential new customers who are turned off by the PR.

 

3. New players are less likely to become long-time subscribers if they buy the game and roll on a server that feels dead.

 

4. Preserving existing customers means you don't have as great a need for new customers. However, if your existing customer base evaporates because of something you could have prevented, you are only exacerbating your own desperate need for new customers to replace them.

 

This is a request to Bioware to begin the process of merging the 50 or so slowest servers, the ones that are the last ones to reach "standard," never reach "heavy," and are the first ones to reach "light" status. These changes won't affect the 30-40 servers that already have healthy populations. It would only affect the remainder of servers that are suffering from the opposite of long queue times, which is long wait times to find someone to play with. And Bioware could counter any bad PR that comes of it by simply saying they did the right thing sooner rather than later, and that they want to assure that both new and existing players have the best possible experience. It's not like pretty much every MMO other than WoW hasn't had server merges, and in almost every case the player base had to beg for them for months before getting them.

 

Self-inflicted wounds can be avoided. Refusing to address a very real issue because you're afraid someone might say "uh-oh" is just going to cause a much bigger "uh-oh" down the road.