When will there be a SERVER MERGE?

[Drunkenpig]

Enjoy

http://imageshack.us/photo/my-images/685/screenshot2012042719545.jpg/

lol. I like the quest tracker.

[Jaavik]

Its not my obligation to server hop until I can play the game with other people.

 

I'm not saying that Bioware shouldn't merge servers. I absolutely agree it should be done, and I believe it will be done eventually. In the meantime, identify your problem and come up with a solution in the meantime. It's pointless to be CHOOSE to be unhappy about having no one to play with, when there are people to play with.

 

When the game launched, every server was maxed out and everyone demanded more servers because they didn't want to wait HOURS in the queues. Bioware explained PUBLICLY that adding more servers was a bad idea because the servers tend to level themselves out after release and they didn't want a bunch of half populated servers.

 

People complained and complained and threatened to leave, threatened to badmouth the company on gaming sites, etc. until they caved and opened more servers.

 

Ta-Dahh!!! a bunch of half-populated servers and everyone blaming Bioware for causing it. And frankly the only way they could be classified as "at fault" for this situation is because they caved to the demands of the customers, just like everyine is demanding they do now.

 

I'm not saying it isn't upsetting. I'm dealing with the same issues myself. I would absolutely LOVE to have several of the servers merged so the people who want to play with other people can. I'm eager to have them allow server transfers so the characters I've spent so much time on can go to populated servers and I can play them again. I'm certain Bioware will take notice of this issue by the THOUSANDS of posts pertaining to it, and I do believe it's in Bioware's interest to keep the players happy. I'm with you on all of that.

 

However, I know that it might take some time to get it done. What do I choose to do in the meantime? I want to play the game. I enjoy playing the game. I went to a more populated server and re-rolled characters there. It's the only option at present. Throwing tantrums in forums and/or crossing your arms, sitting on the floor of your dead server and pouting isn't the way to go. It's not the least bit constructive.

 

If you're unhappy and you're telling Bioware what you want, that's awesome! That's the way it's supposed to be. that's what these forums are here for. If you are just tossing insults at the developers and telling them they have no idea what they are doing, they don't care about your feelings, etc. etc., Then it isn't helping anyone, and we're all just reading a bunch of spoiled brats throw tantrums in the forums while the rest of us are trying to get information on our game and/or making requests and suggestions,

[Frostvein]

Throwing tantrums in forums and/or crossing your arms, sitting on the floor of your dead server and pouting isn't the way to go. It's not the least bit constructive.

 

Neither is telling people that they should re-roll.

[TheSeventhJedi]

Of course it is...

 

Maybe not in the overly-dramatic way you are trying to represent it, but the only way the server becomes less populated is if people (the CUSTOMERS) stop playing on it. It's the same game on every server (not counting PVP aspect), so you can't really blame BIOWARE for the low population on YOUR server. You just happened to roll on a server that a large population has either left the game or gone on to other servers. It happens, adapt and move on...

 

Bioware will try to make the customers happy, but sometimes, you have to do it yourself. If you like the game enough to stay, then either come to terms with the low population, reroll on a more populated server, or transfer when the option becomes available. If you want to just sit here and try to insult or guilt Bioware into doing what you want, go for it, but it doesn't solve your problem.

 

And for those who are complaining that you spent real money to build up the 8 50's you have on your server, you obviously like the game. Play it again somewhere that will make you happier. if the game dies or you quit playing, you don't get to take the characters or gear with you, so whether or not you paid money to create them is a moot point.

 

All I'm saying is there are solutions to your problems, maybe not the solutions you want (at present), but take some control and either go to another game that will make you happier, or start over on another server until you can transfer your favorites over. Stop throwing yourselves on the floor in a ball and whimpering about people not playing with you.

 

Here's the problem with that. When I first started on my server, it was fine. Totally fine. It has become less fine as time goes on, but by then, my legacy was set, my main has several hundred hours put into him, and I am NOT going to simply start over. If there's nothing to do (because there's no one to play with,) you correctly identified that I have two options - re-roll on a different server or quit playing. Well, to me, quit playing sounds like the more appealing of those two options. I mean, it's sad, I like the game, but I do not like it ENOUGH to want to re-do everything. Well, if I feel that way, I'm sure others will feel that way. The effect snowballs. Everyone who is willing to re-roll will, and everyone who is not, will simply quit.

 

Now, my own personal experiences show me that people are leaning towards quitting (in the past month my guild has seen a dozen of our most active members quit because there was nothing to do,) but I realize that others experiences may be different. So tell me, are you betting on those willing to re-roll being numerous enough to keep the game profitable?

[rakuenCallisto]

Here's the problem with that. When I first started on my server, it was fine. Totally fine. It has become less fine as time goes on, but by then, my legacy was set, my main has several hundred hours put into him, and I am NOT going to simply start over. If there's nothing to do (because there's no one to play with,) you correctly identified that I have two options - re-roll on a different server or quit playing. Well, to me, quit playing sounds like the more appealing of those two options. I mean, it's sad, I like the game, but I do not like it ENOUGH to want to re-do everything. Well, if I feel that way, I'm sure others will feel that way. The effect snowballs. Everyone who is willing to re-roll will, and everyone who is not, will simply quit.

 

Now, my own personal experiences show me that people are leaning towards quitting (in the past month my guild has seen a dozen of our most active members quit because there was nothing to do,) but I realize that others experiences may be different. So tell me, are you betting on those willing to re-roll being numerous enough to keep the game profitable?

 

This.

 

I'm out of here come tomorrow @ noon est.

 

/closethread

[Drunkenpig]

There always will be people who for some unknown reason will stick with a lousy game. Isnt Vanguard still around?

The few thousand people sending in a couple of hundred bucks a year will cover the operating costs of some PC sized server and two people monitoring it.

You wont get back $300 million though.

[Goyaate]

 

Ta-Dahh!!! a bunch of half-populated servers and everyone blaming Bioware for causing it. And frankly the only way they could be classified as "at fault" for this situation is because they caved to the demands of the customers, just like everyine is demanding they do now.

 

 

you do realize that swtor is a business, right? of course it is bio/ea's fault that some servers are woefully underpopulated. it is never the gamer's fault for demanding _______________. fill in the blank with whatever you wish. gamers don't have a responsibility to consider the long-term health of the game. gamers don't have to consider the ea quarterly report. gamers have Wants.

 

...

 

this is all axiomatic. bio has been making games for a long time. when they made bg2, people were demanding that the class kits be extremely over-powered... gamers like to be powerful. bio was smart enough to realize that if kits were too powerful, characters would be similarly powerful. every gamer wants a powerful character, but bio knew that those same gamers would be the first to complain that the game was "too easy." this conundrum of dealing with player demands is hardly new territory for a veteran developer. blaming the gamer because he/she asked for something that is ultimately bad for the game (not that i am conceding that adding servers was a bad idea) is ridiculous. if bio knew, or should have known, that populations would drop so significantly, then they should have planned accordingly. clearly bio did not plan for the current eventuality or they wouldn't need to be looking for solutions.

 

dts

[JeramieCrowe]

you do realize that swtor is a business, right? of course it is bio/ea's fault that some servers are woefully underpopulated. it is never the gamer's fault for demanding _______________. fill in the blank with whatever you wish. gamers don't have a responsibility to consider the long-term health of the game. gamers don't have to consider the ea quarterly report. gamers have Wants.

 

...

 

this is all axiomatic. bio has been making games for a long time. when they made bg2, people were demanding that the class kits be extremely over-powered... gamers like to be powerful. bio was smart enough to realize that if kits were too powerful, characters would be similarly powerful. every gamer wants a powerful character, but bio knew that those same gamers would be the first to complain that the game was "too easy." this conundrum of dealing with player demands is hardly new territory for a veteran developer. blaming the gamer because he/she asked for something that is ultimately bad for the game (not that i am conceding that adding servers was a bad idea) is ridiculous. if bio knew, or should have known, that populations would drop so significantly, then they should have planned accordingly. clearly bio did not plan for the current eventuality or they wouldn't need to be looking for solutions.

 

dts

 

It's one of those lose/lose situations for every MMO developer in history. Either there is a thread this long about how bad launch sucked because of 2 months of server queues, or mitigate the server queues and endure the "my server is dead" threads.

 

Either way, this is nothing new, people. I fail to see why people are acting like it is something new when it's not. And mergers aren't the answer anymore. Trnsfers are, especially with TOR's unbalanced population. Transfers allows that "fluid" to average out. Merges would make it worse.

 

In TOR's current case transfers>mergers.

[Frostvein]

It's one of those lose/lose situations for every MMO developer in history. Either there is a thread this long about how bad launch sucked because of 2 months of server queues, or mitigate the server queues and endure the "my server is dead" threads.

 

Either way, this is nothing new, people. I fail to see why people are acting like it is something new when it's not. And mergers aren't the answer anymore. Trnsfers are, especially with TOR's unbalanced population. Transfers allows that "fluid" to average out. Merges would make it worse.

 

In TOR's current case transfers>mergers.

 

I already explained to you yesterday why this didn't work...

[Emrill]

Can i just point out i am IN FAVOUR OF A SERVER MERGE.

 

Now....i must also point out taht a lot of players i have spoken to about this are quite mis-informed when it comes to server population.

 

Firstly, just because there are only 10 people on fleet at peak times does NOT mean that a server has low populaion, it means just simply that there are only 10 people on FLEET.

 

Swtor has over 40 areas in the game per faction (planets, ships, pvp, flashpoints, etc) and at any one time there may be a lot more people in one of those other areas than there are on fleet.

 

I'd agree with that if it weren't for the fact I have characters on 3 different servers all this morning listed with 'light' populations. I did a check to see how many people were on each one.

 

On Grand Master Zym there were 20+ on at least three leveling planets. That's a great population level for that time of day so at peek there is probably 3-4x that at least. I didn't check the fleet. The only problem I have playing here is after I played around a little I found out some others I played other MMOs were on Sith Worm and Hanharr.

 

On Sith Worm I have a couple characters from level 50 to in their teens. On the fleet there were 40 people at about 11 am CST. Planets had 15-20 on average. Again a good population level.

 

On Hanharr there were 6 people on the fleet and 2 on Vass and 4 on Corellia. It's servers like this that are the problem.

[JeramieCrowe]

I already explained to you yesterday why this didn't work...

 

Even RIFT did transfers, and then just closed down the servers they emptied. They didn't merge anything. Server merging is outdated. Not to mention more convoluted and complicated than just moving people over and shutting it down.

Edited April 27, 2012 by JeramieCrowe

[zuile]

10.30 BST and there's 52 50s total online on Trayus Academy Imperial side, I like the leveling game so they've got me until I've done each story but this is a joke, they better do something soon for everyone not so patient, also I really do want to actually play flashpoints at some point.

[JeramieCrowe]

10.30 BST and there's 52 50s total online on Trayus Academy Imperial side, I like the leveling game so they've got me until I've done each story but this is a joke, they better do something soon for everyone not so patient, also I really do want to actually play flashpoints at some point.

 

As I just posted (I think in another thread), just yesterday on Coruscant, there were 90 there. On Taris there were over 60. That can't be all new players. If even half of those are alts, that's how many 50s are not playing at that time.

 

So, doing a search for 50s is not going to yield reliable results. Hell, I have 2 50s, but I was on my new level 16 alt. In this game, where it's more fun than any other game in history to roll and play alts, you have to take that into consideration.

 

That's why the global LFG channel works so well on my server. Last week, using only Tatooine and LFG channels, I got a full 24-man together in about 20 minutes not once, not twice, but THREE times in two days. A lot of them said, "let me switch to my 50".

Edited April 27, 2012 by JeramieCrowe

[spne]

From Guild Wars 2 facebook announcement:

Hey everyone, we have an update for you on World selection and transfers. In order to test transfers and world balance, from Friday, April 27 at 15:00 PDT to Saturday, April 28 at 18:00 PDT, players will have free and unrestricted World transfers. ~RB2

 

 

So... Guild Wars 2 is in beta.. and it's testing TRANSFERS.

I'm usually quite patient with Bioware but... we need those transfers soon or we might start seeing more problems in the future.

[Goyaate]

10.30 BST and there's 52 50s total online on Trayus Academy Imperial side, I like the leveling game so they've got me until I've done each story but this is a joke, they better do something soon for everyone not so patient, also I really do want to actually play flashpoints at some point.

 

 

1800 est on zez-kai-el

 

there are eight 50s on the pub side.

 

dts

[JeramieCrowe]

From Guild Wars 2 facebook announcement:

Hey everyone, we have an update for you on World selection and transfers. In order to test transfers and world balance, from Friday, April 27 at 15:00 PDT to Saturday, April 28 at 18:00 PDT, players will have free and unrestricted World transfers. ~RB2

 

 

So... Guild Wars 2 is in beta.. and it's testing TRANSFERS.

I'm usually quite patient with Bioware but... we need those transfers soon or we might start seeing more problems in the future.

 

That would be the first time in MMO history. So don't fault BioWare.

[Goyaate]

As I just posted (I think in another thread), just yesterday on Coruscant, there were 90 there. On Taris there were over 60. That can't be all new players. If even half of those are alts, that's how many 50s are not playing at that time.

 

So, doing a search for 50s is not going to yield reliable results. Hell, I have 2 50s, but I was on my new level 16 alt. In this game, where it's more fun than any other game in history to roll and play alts, you have to take that into consideration.

 

That's why the global LFG channel works so well on my server. Last week, using only Tatooine and LFG channels, I got a full 24-man together in about 20 minutes not once, not twice, but THREE times in two days. A lot of them said, "let me switch to my 50".

 

 

...

 

this kinda post amuses me.

 

at 1840 est i have 9 total people on coruscant and 8 on taris... pub side. there are eight 50s on at the moment. your anecdotal evidence is fascinating, but hardly relevant.

 

dts

[JeramieCrowe]

...

 

this kinda post amuses me.

 

at 1840 est i have 9 total people on coruscant and 8 on taris... pub side. there are eight 50s on at the moment. your anecdotal evidence is fascinating, but hardly relevant.

 

dts

 

It is relevant because it illustrates, if you're capable of any extrapolation at all, how free server transfers will fix the problem on your server. And also how server merges will break the game.

[Goyaate]

It is relevant because it illustrates, if you're capable of any extrapolation at all, how free server transfers will fix the problem on your server. And also how server merges will break the game.

 

...

 

how on gawd's green earth does your anecdotal evidence prove the failure of merger? and as far as i can tell, nobody has ever suggested that free transfers would be bad for the folks on under-populated servers. sooooo, your point is... what?

 

dts

[JeramieCrowe]

Some good news today!

 

When will character transfers be available for everybody?

We will be rolling out our Character Transfer Service in early summer. First we’ll have some targeted free transfers from/to specific servers, but that will be followed with a broader system where you can either take advantage of free promotional transfers to specific servers or paid transfers to the server of your choice. We know everyone has more questions about character transfer, and we’ll reveal more details closer to the launch date.

Edited April 27, 2012 by JeramieCrowe

[JeramieCrowe]

...

 

how on gawd's green earth does your anecdotal evidence prove the failure of merger? and as far as i can tell, nobody has ever suggested that free transfers would be bad for the folks on under-populated servers. sooooo, your point is... what?

 

dts

 

Population in an MMO is "fluid". If you just merge servers, the problem of "light" and "heavy" will still be there. In fact, some servers will still be empty while others will have queues. That's obviously bad for the game.

 

However, transfers will cause the "fluid" population to automatically find lower ground, thus leveling the population across all servers, or a strategically chosen group of servers. If you tell a low-pop server "You have x many days to transfer to a server of your choice, then we're shutting this one down" that fluid movement is more advantageous than just merging it with another low-pop server.

 

This is what RIFT did, and it worked beautifully.

 

Is that clearer?

Edited April 27, 2012 by JeramieCrowe

[Jaavik]

So i just have to leave their precious 1.2 legacy behind, everything i have achieved and start a new on a different server just because BW don`t know how to manage servers? And that somehow sounds fine to you?

 

That's NOT what I'm saying at all. Once they actually IMPLEMENT server transfers (which I'm pretty sure they will do before mergers), then you can regain the legacy you started. Same goes for whenever they get around to mergers. I'm not telling you to abandon what you've done, just back-burner it until the fixes are made.

 

I understand if you have a lot of 50s that you don't want to pay to move. I would suggest that the developers maybe offer FREE transfers for any 50s. Would that be agreeable?

 

All I'm saying is offer some genuine ideas instead growling and barking at the devs.

Edited April 27, 2012 by Jaavik

[Jaavik]

Neither is telling people that they should re-roll.

 

Actually, it's VERY constructive, but only if your desire is to play the game with other people. It's the only option you have at present. Whether or not you find it desirable. It's more constructive than sitting on a dead server waiting for transfers/merges.

 

I just don't understand why so many people think the only way you get anything accomplished is to be as aggressive and nasty as they possibly can. I can't speak for the devs, but as soon as I saw crap like "You don't know what you're doing!" or "You only care about money!", I would skip that post and go to the next one.

 

We all want the same thing. We want to play with the characters we're invested in on servers with huge populations so it's easy to find people to play with. I get it. How do we accomplish it? How do you get their attention? Is throwing attitude the best option?

[Jaavik]

However, transfers will cause the "fluid" population to automatically find lower ground, thus leveling the population across all servers, or a strategically chosen group of servers. If you tell a low-pop server "You have x many days to transfer to a server of your choice, then we're shutting this one down" that fluid movement is more advantageous than just merging it with another low-pop server.

 

I never played Rift, so I'm not sure what they did, and I'm not trying to argue. Your statement seems counter-intuitive in the sense that if you give someone the chance to transfer to another server, wouldn't they head for an already highly populated server over a medium populated one?

[Jaavik]

Here's the problem with that. When I first started on my server, it was fine. Totally fine. It has become less fine as time goes on, but by then, my legacy was set, my main has several hundred hours put into him, and I am NOT going to simply start over. If there's nothing to do (because there's no one to play with,) you correctly identified that I have two options - re-roll on a different server or quit playing. Well, to me, quit playing sounds like the more appealing of those two options. I mean, it's sad, I like the game, but I do not like it ENOUGH to want to re-do everything. Well, if I feel that way, I'm sure others will feel that way. The effect snowballs. Everyone who is willing to re-roll will, and everyone who is not, will simply quit.

 

And I get that. I'm not saying you shouldn't be frustrated, and i hope the devs take a close look at this post of yours and understand that many of the players feel the same way. I want to light a fire under them to get them to fix this problem, which i consider to be the biggest problem they have. I think the game is a solid product, it's fun and obviously people want to play it enough to have so many high level characters. You guys worked hard on them and there's no denying it.

 

I'm personally disappointed that this particular thread has been rolled over because of how active it is and the devs have yet to really address everyone's concerns. I would like to see some solid information about what is being considered and when. It's a very serious problem and they don't want to lose the more hardcore gamers on here that have been loyal to them thus far.