When will there be a "SERVER MERGE?"

[Jederix]

This type of nonsense is completely false. MMOs have merged servers in the past not because they are in their death throes but for consolidating resources and costs. This happens in EVERY TECHNOLOGY market. ALso the last statement is completely silly and ludicrous. A company already under scrutiny for decreasing population would rather combine their server populations to KEEP what players they have vs a million dead servers and drive off the few players there. I seriously hope you do not manage or run a business of any kind or you're self employed because this mindset is what drives business into the ground.

 

Perception is everything. As soon as the words "server merger" are uttered, the Internet will explode with people stating that SW:TOR is merging servers, their game has failed like all the other MMOs before it. WoW is king.

 

I.E., bad publicity. And yes, MMOs that are dying merge servers, MMOs who made the mistake of making more servers than they needed do not because they want to draw in players, not scare them off.

 

I know this flies in the face of your "you must merge servers now" self-entitlement crusade, but that is the way it is.

Edited April 4, 2012 by Jederix

[Jederix]

Again with the damaging community crap.

 

The only community it damages is the one these people are after. Where a few guilds at the top of the food chain get to dictate the playtime of those they consider inferior.

 

It's less about community and more about controlling others.

[Sintor]

I can only say there is no point on keeping empty servers

[Jederix]

You're pretty wrong here.

 

1. the only 'buzz' about SWTOR right now is that it's a fun single player game and that the servers are ghost towns. This buzz has been around for a little while now and is only getting worse. the PR hit from merging servers can be mitigated easily and it's a single event that will not stay in the memory for long. the prolonged complaining on multiple forums, review sites, etc, about how servers are barren is going to keep driving potential new subscribers away until that goes away. People aren't going to come to a game they percieve as being empty. Sure the initial "Servers merging, F2P around the corner?" headlines will have a negative effect for about a month but after that people will have forgotten abou ***.

 

2. MMOs that are still doign just fine to this day have merged servers and not 'died' so "death throes" is a little extreme.

 

Really? Which ones?

[Kiphere]

The only community it damages is the one these people are after. Where a few guilds at the top of the food chain get to dictate the playtime of those they consider inferior.

 

It's less about community and more about controlling others.

 

I was going to give you a proper response until I read this... now I'm certain you're just trolling to stir up some crap.

 

What exactly does merging servers have to do with what you've said here? How does having a larger population to group with, join pvp matches with, trade with on the GTN, or generally socialize with give any power whatsoever to the "top of the food chain"

 

as it stands, on a lower population server once 1 guild gets any moderate amount of success they become 'the' guild and everyone else is just runnin around trying to get scraps. If anything merging eliminates that so your point is absurd. I don't even understand how a top of the chain guild could dictate the playtime of others in any larger community situation.

 

your multiple responses are just an attempt to stir up drama and I'm personally done even reading what you have to sayin this thread, contribute something valid or just ignore the thread, I don't care if its a valid reason to 'not' merge but just spitting bile for no reason is pointless and you do a disservice to the people who are attempting to better the game by expressing how they (people who 'want' to play the game) feel about the current state.

[Frostvein]

Perception is everything. As soon as the words "server merger" are uttered, the Internet will explode with people stating that SW:TOR is merging servers, their game has failed like all the other MMOs before it. WoW is king.

 

I.E., bad publicity. And yes, MMOs that are dying merge servers, MMOs who made the mistake of making more servers than they needed do not because they want to draw in players, not scare them off.

 

I know this flies in the face of your "you must merge servers now" self-entitlement crusade, but that is the way it is.

 

So the "All the servers but Fatman are dead" threads that are popping up all over the internet are better?

 

Don't want to call it a server merge? Fine. Call it a "population relocation"

 

Seriously, I am so tired of hearing that server mergers would be bad for publicity. You know whats worse then not getting new customers in? Losing the ones you already have.

[Nakazia]

Perception is everything. As soon as the words "server merger" are uttered, the Internet will explode with people stating that SW:TOR is merging servers, their game has failed like all the other MMOs before it. WoW is king.

 

I.E., bad publicity. And yes, MMOs that are dying merge servers, MMOs who made the mistake of making more servers than they needed do not because they want to draw in players, not scare them off.

 

I know this flies in the face of your "you must merge servers now" self-entitlement crusade, but that is the way it is.

 

What sounds worse server merges or loss of subscriptions?

 

Does the fact that there's been multiple free weekends recently and a push for players to invite up to 25! That's right 25! of their very closest friends to try SWTOR give the impression of a flourishing MMO environment?

 

It may be bad pubilicity but it's Biowares responsibility to make some kind of change or suffer the concequences of lost subscriptions from people on dead/dying servers who won't forfeit the characters that they've spent months of effort on.

 

People who were placed on a server with a guild had no choice on which server they were placed and I myself know how few servers there even were to choose from in early game access. No one should have to re-roll because Bioware wants to save face and continue to create an illusion of a thriving MMO.

[SDANCSEC]

Game is dying, for the past 3 nights I have logged on at prime time and waited over 2 hours for a wz that never popped. I am the most populated guild on the server and I am a very well geared healer and theres never enough people on to run an instance. This game is going down the drain and Im ending my subscription this month. Server merges were needed a couple weeks ago. Good Bye SWTOR

[Nakazia]

So the "All the servers but Fatman are dead" threads that are popping up all over the internet are better?

 

I checked Fatman last night at prime time 344 empire players in two instances and 198 republic players on just the fleet alone.

 

I'm pretty sure there has not been that many people across my whole server since maybe the middle of January.

[Dracolindus]

 

But even server merges don't fix the problem. The PvE dailies are flawed by design in that they can't handle a large number of people doing them at once. So you want a low server population for PvE solo content that's not instanced. But you don't want a lower server pop since this makes for broken PvP and weak PvE group content that's a PITA for PUGers.

 

So what's the solution? There are a few ways to solve this, but ultimately free server transfers combined with a cross-server LFG for instanced content will solve most of this. To solve low server population, a moderate reduction/merging of servers would help, but it will also further break the PvE non-instanced solo dailies.

 

you make a good point on why they cant have too high of a population on a server.

 

Heres a question ... how many is "standard" or "heavy"? Anyone know the hard numbers?

 

I'm starting to think it's poor game design,

 

I've said it before. To my best knowledge Veeboo lunx imp side has only 3 HM raiding guilds, And Zakkek Beast has two on the imp side... thats a whopping 40 people doing HM raids ON TWO SERVERS (imp side)... when I played EQ1 there was 4 guilds on my server each raiding 72, that's 288 people RAIDING ON ONE SERVER (and no flashpoints)..

 

You combine poor social game design with lack of end game content... toss in a passive attitude on exploits, people botting in pvp zones... (I can go on listing problems)

 

D3 is coming out soon, Tera is about to have their open beta (I'm downloading tera as I type this), Guildwars 2 is dropping this summer if I'm not mistaken....

 

 

So heres another question

This is SWtoR without new compatition ... what will SWtoR be when the new boys come out to play??

 

Been nice playing with you people,,, too bad bioware didn't make a better game

[nogell]

This happen to warhammer. They launch with tons of servers, then people starting leaving for different reasons. Didn't help with EA pull funding and took away programmers for this game. Now they down to two servers. Shame, the world pvp was the best.

[Frostvein]

I checked Fatman last night at prime time 344 empire players in two instances and 198 republic players on just the fleet alone.

 

I'm pretty sure there has not been that many people across my whole server since maybe the middle of January.

 

Not only that, give it another month or two and the fleet numbers will nearly double. All the rerolls will have hit cap. Seriously, there are more people on Tython on Fatman at 2 in the afternoon then most people have on their fleet during primetime.

[Strixs]

My point is only that they need to be very careful how they handle name issues if they need to merge servers.

 

I can put up with a lot from an MMORPG, but that's the one thing that I won't put up with. Take my name, take my identity, lose my subscription.

 

I am in agreement with Ejedi.

I have 4 lvl 50's all in full purple gear. lvl 30 legacy and 2 more 50's alrdy closing in.

If i lose my names or my legacy name or both. I am done.

This may seem trivial to some. But this is my Starwars Playtime this is my story and immersion style. If that is taken away from me.

 

That is the only thing that would stab me in the back.

[cipher_nemo]

I'm starting to think it's poor game design.

 

Bingo. When Bioware makes a daily PvE solo quest on Belsavis with three leaders to kill, but only spawns three leaders at a time (the 4th is bugged), that means people are waiting around to kill them on high pop servers. And you can only get so large of a group together to share the kill credit.

[ShadowyFox]

So I'm as pissed as the next guy, but Fatman is not the only good server left. As far as I'm concerned, this has happened on a lot of MMOs. I've rerolled from Saber of Exar Khun to Canderous Ordo not because of population but because I found it wasn't the environment I wanted. It's personal preference, really on all but the very low population servers.

 

I'm not trying to troll, but if you realized the server was dying, it's not that hard to reroll. Not hard to get the looks or the gear again, if as you say, you can't do any of the 50 stuff or most FP.

 

From the sounds of it, BW wants to make sure that when they do the server transfers, it doesn't F up things. Cause that's happened on a lot of different games where toons get lost during transfer. I personally don't think the game is dying. I think servers are dying from an overreaction like most post launch games. It happens, people. It still happens and will keep happening on every game an every expansion to any established game.

 

If your 50 has quest gear, suck it up. To me, names are great and all but the people you group with make this an MMO. If you want a particular name, either stay where you are, find a server it's available...or suck it up and change names. Cause sometimes that's what we have to deal with when a feature isn't ready.

 

So yeah, there's my input.

[Liamo]

Mergers never will be. No company in their right mind, unless their game is truly in its last death throes, would ever merge servers.

 

Way more bad PR in that one move than having a million dead servers can ever generate.

 

They don't seem to "get" this. There is a reason Bioware isn't agreeing to it. Saying "yes there is a server merge incoming"="Yes, internally we have an end date for the game and we plan no more substantial updates expansions....enjoy your dying game-now with more people per server...for a short time anyway."

 

So, what happens when, 6 months from now, we need a merge again, and again? You do realize a merge = no new content and the pulling of development resources. It's a "circle the drain" attitude" when servers merge.

 

If the problem that has cause low populations isn't fixed, then merges are a waste of time. May as well shut the game down. Really the same thing.

[Liamo]

This type of nonsense is completely false. MMOs have merged servers in the past not because they are in their death throes but for consolidating resources and costs. This happens in EVERY TECHNOLOGY market. ALso the last statement is completely silly and ludicrous. A company already under scrutiny for decreasing population would rather combine their server populations to KEEP what players they have vs a million dead servers and drive off the few players there. I seriously hope you do not manage or run a business of any kind or you're self employed because this mindset is what drives business into the ground.

 

What game has been "successful" after they did server merges. In all these replies, I've NEVER seen someone say "Matrix Online did it and look at how well they are doing now!" for example.

 

Give me a few "success stories" since you claim it's "false."

 

Most people, that I know, won't even try a game that has merged servers because they know it's not long for this world.

 

Now, they won't like playing on empty servers either but why isn't there a BIGGER push to fill up the empty servers than to just "merge them?"

 

It seems we are looking at this from the wrong perspective, imo.

[Drunkenpig]

BW went crazy with the number of servers they have. This isnt a case where they are merging 25 servers down to 5.

The concept that they wont merge servers because its bad pr, but they will allow the game play experience to suffer significantly instead, is idiotic.

[Wreckriem]

I left WoW after six years with no desire to return, I love this game, but if I log on to my server and see twenty people on fleet again tonight I might pull my hair out.

 

I JUST WANT TO RAID.

 

Give me the playerbase to recruit and do that ffs.

 

Should I find another server? Why? Every other server listed is at "Light" population. Why waste time levelling another toon(s) just to have the same issues there and ultimately quit the game with a grudge against the developer.

 

I have a group of five guys together from WoW playing on Thana Vesh, we have been trying to recruit new people for months. We haven't gotten one, NOT ONE. We can't even fill one eight man Op in months and months... That's pathetic.

 

What's funny if I've maybe posted once on Blizzards forums in the six years I played their game, but couldn't make it six months in this one before it boiled over.

 

I LOVE THE GAME - I HATE THE SERVER SITUATION.

Don't let this crap ruin your game, for real.

Edited April 4, 2012 by Wreckriem

[Kiphere]

rerolling 'is' an option but the game itself is very punitive for rerolling because of one thing... legacy.

 

I had a hard time rerolling the first time because I had legacy 8, a couple guys at 40 and multiple other characters in the 20-35 range, I had a couple craft skills at 400, decent amount of change in the bank, etc. Leaving all that behind was rough but I did it to play with some friends (who ditched me later cause they couldnt get a raid going due to low pop).

 

I'm past my previous server now, I've got a 50, a second that will be 50 this week or early next week, three crewskills at 400, legacy 13 and a ton of credits in the bank and materials banked up for my 1.2 alts to power level their crewskills as well as unlock the race I want and buy some other legacy unlocks. I've got plenty of 'gameplay' left with my alts because of legacy but I PVP and with no Q running most of the time half of what I 'want' to do is unavailable to me. I'm not re-rolling, I'm not starting from scratch RIGHT when the patch that gives me something for that legacy level and cash farming hits the servers, I'm just not doing it. When my fun dies I'll cancel, i'm not going to pay to fix a problem with a game I'm already paying for.

 

The issue is obvious, the fix is obvious, the PR excuse is weak. The game can die off because of the population issues or it can take the temporary PR hit from doing a merge.

 

The game is taking PR hits NOW, fast action that has a positive impact on the existing community will be a positive PR move. People will say "It's going down the drain, they merged!" but when all the current players are happier because they have groups again and WZ Q's and people who quit already because of the low population come back, that little PR hit will mean nothing.

 

Right now you have options.

Wait - patience runs out eventually you quit.

Reroll to one of the few 'good' servers - Potentially be happy and stay or.. get frustrated with all the 'catch up' you have to do and quit.

 

How many people will 'quit' because of server merges? how many people will come back?

[FCI-DK]

BW went crazy with the number of servers they have. This isnt a case where they are merging 25 servers down to 5.

The concept that they wont merge servers because its bad pr, but they will allow the game play experience to suffer significantly instead, is idiotic.

 

yeah,, and try to have them to admit it,,, they just give a s-hit about players on low pop servers,, they just want our mony

Edited April 4, 2012 by FCI-DK

[Wreckriem]

The issue is obvious, the fix is obvious, the PR excuse is weak. The game can die off because of the population issues or it can take the temporary PR hit from doing a merge.

 

Yep.

 

Rabble Rabble!

[Photoshop]

Yeah, I feel ya OP.

 

My server is dead now too and I wont be subscribing again until they is some sort of server transfer.

[setablaze]

Now, they won't like playing on empty servers either but why isn't there a BIGGER push to fill up the empty servers than to just "merge them?".

 

I think you're looking at it from the wrong perspective.

If Bioware is concerned more about the impression merging servers gives people *not* playing the game at the cost of punishing players who are playing ... good luck!

 

Yes, the dreaded "server merge" is usually the first public sign a game is dying but SWTOR is a bit of a special case. They launched with way more servers than necessary hoping to avoid frustrating players at launch. Good for them. But clearly they could have a contingency plan in place in case, gasp, the number of players actually decreases?

 

Lastly, I don't care what the solution is: Try to fill up servers (however that will work), server transfers, merging, whatever.

 

I logged in at 4pm ET today and there were 3 people in the Republic Fleet. WZ queues are long and usually end early due to lack of players. There is no market to sell or buy things (many categories are empty). There is no community. Barely anyone looking for groups. It's DEAD. So whatever the solution, I don't really care, just do SOMETHING!

Edited April 4, 2012 by setablaze

[Kiphere]

There are 215 servers including euro and asia pac. They supposedly have 1.7m active subscriptions (no idea how many of those are chinese bots but whatever).

 

That leaves on a perfectly balanced system about 7900ish active subscriptions per server.

 

Assumign ~35% of the active subscriptions log in during prime time (this is actually a pretty fair number if you put some thought into it) you've got just around 2770 people, so 1380ish per side.

 

We're already seeing some servers mentioned as having close to 800 people online at prime time on the fleets if you combine both sides, it's safe to assume a lot more than that are 'everywhere else' which quickly puts servers like Fatman at 1.5-2 times higher population than would be expected if all servers had equal population. This means somewhere out there is a server that is completely unneeded because all it's people are accounted for elsewhere. The pain is spread out though and some servers are much higher than their 'fair share' others are just a bit higher, some are just a bit lower and a number of them are exceptionally low.

 

Those numbers also account for just 'active subscriptions' Assuming 35% of your active subscriptions are online at prime time is a pretty aggressive assumption, how many of you have had an 'active subscription' to a game you hadn't logged into for more than a month or two? I know I have.