When will there be a SERVER MERGE?

[Kaisernick]

Stop QQing?

 

Many of these guys are paying money to play on dead servers, with no pop at all.

 

The hell u talking about?

 

they said early summer it may be in june which isnt far off.

 

and they can allways unsub and resub after the merge happens.

[Unruhe]

and they can allways unsub and resub after the merge happens.

 

I'd like to see the statistics on this (for any game, not just TOR):

 

What percentage of players, who subscribed to your game for X months and then quit, ever return to your game regardless of what content or features you add?

 

I'd also like to see statistics where people weren't baited back to the game with an offer of a free month (like me!)

 

This population thing is a domino effect, and we still don't know what they're doing exactly. Yes, free (and paid) transfers are on the way, sometime, but that's all we have. Are they planning full-on mergers? They need to be planning that and telling us that. Moving 50 guys and gals from a crap server with 100 people to another crap server with 100 people just gives you a super-crap server with 50 people on it, and a slightly less-crap server with 150 people on it.

 

Meanwhile, as we all wait for news of when the "Massively Multiplayer" part of this game kicks in, we're paying 15$/month (or, in my case, 15$/2months and then I quit until mergers) to play on servers that could've been hosted locally as Neverwinter Nights campaigns.

 

As you bleed out subscribers (for any reason, including having nobody to play with) you only hope to get a percentage of them back. There's no way that every single player that quits your game is going to come back, no matter what you do. You need to stop them from leaving in the first place. Getting populations up on a smaller number of servers will only improve the "quality of life" for the existing players and help to staunch the flow.

 

I genuinely like where the game is at now in 1.2, content- and function-wise, but once I run enough dailies to get my gear all upgraded to realize that there are no raids on my server (rep side at least) and forming a flashpoint group takes over an hour of trolling /general, I'm out.

Edited May 8, 2012 by Unruhe

[ctrlanddel]

I fully agree with the last post and I have also cancelled my sub. I shouldn't have to pay for a sub par game!

BW/EA must realise that the bad PR from announcing server merges asap is nothing compared to the bad PR from the 1000s of people unsubscribing after not getting the game experience they paid for.

 

A lot of these subs won't come back now because of their unwillingness to listen or act.

People here thinking there servers are dead, try chundaar that has ~25-30 people online at any one time! And I'm not even talking about post 50 players, or even in the fleet, I mean, TOTAL!

Edited May 8, 2012 by ctrlanddel

[Evangelist]

Dear BioWare,

 

You really need to merge the low population servers. The difference in the "game experience" between a standard population server and low population server is vast. Take The Ebon Hawke(standard) and Hanharr(light) for example. Republic Fleet on Ebon Hawke normally has around 100 players during peak play times, Hanharr has around < 10. That makes it near impossible to make a group for Flash Points, let alone Ops on the low population server.

 

This also impacts the Galatic Market, the difference in the amount of items available is tremendous. For example, search for Scavenging materials for crafting, Hanharr maybe has one page while Ebon Hawke has a minimum of 5 pages of materials to choose from. Augments? Non existant on Hanharr where there are pages of them on EH.

 

Next is PVP, the low population server constantly starts games with 3-4 vs. 8 and with the removal of the match shutdown due to lack of players this leads to a poor PVP experience for players. Getting rolled/farmed is not fun, when its due to the fact that you're outnumbered 2 to 1 it really is annoying. This also handicapps you as a player in the long run because you cannot earn medals when you're constantly in the respawn area because the low number of players on your side makes focused fire easy. Even if you eventually get up to 8 vs. 8 your team is usually at such a disadvantage by that time that you cannot win.

 

Can people re-roll? Sure. Transfer once you add that feature? Yes. It still doesn't change the fact that you have "dead" servers. Servers that cost money to run, servers that are costing you players due to poor game experience because of low population. I know that server consolidation is genrally seen as a "bad thing" in the MMO world but you really grapped up the roll out and ended up adding too many servers in addition to raising the population caps. When the initial "surge" ended it left you with a smaller player/customer base and some "ghost town" servers. Really, I thought I saw a tumbleweed blowing through the Republic Fleet the other day on Hanharr. You guys diluted the populations too much, and then when people began to unsub/quit/got to the end of thier 30 days it only exacerbated the problem.

 

So please, start merging the low population servers. Don't make people pay to transfer off them, that will only further piss people off and cost you more customers. I never see any server as heavy population, so bleeding off some of them with free transfers to low population servers which is the norm is not an option. You have far more light population servers than you do heavy that is for sure, so start merging them. I know people will run around crying "the sky is falling", that "SWTOR is dying", etc. but you guys need to cowboy up and admit you grapped up and then fix the problem.

 

Sincerely,

 

A Paying Customer

 

(They closed my tread on this so I'm reposting here.)

[vandana_]

We need both merges and transfers.

 

Merges because some servers are already ghost towns.

Transfers because some servers need to stay regardless of their population i.e. RP servers.

[mjackman]

If your concerns are "valid", why aren't you able to voice them without insults, name calling, and wild accusations?

 

Because people who have genuine concerns are labelled 'whiners' and should be blamed for the game's imperfections - because BW changed the game fore their benefit.

 

If you are content with the servers as they are - why are you in this thread? Were paying customers, were getting short changed. If people have complaints, let them complain for gods sake!

Edited May 8, 2012 by mjackman

[mjackman]

The amount of QQing has a very good reason, things in the game have changed to be something you experience as lower quality of service. If you bought a car and found out that it was faulty, wouldnt you go and complain to the place that sold you the car?

 

This. People need to stop trying to defend the game and realise THIS IS A SERVICE WHICH WERE PAYING FOR AND NOT GETTING. If you dont like that someone else is complaining - tough! Its life. I wouldn't feel the need to defend Mc Donalds if someone finds a spider in their burger- thats their business NOT MINE!

[ISTrick]

Finding a viable way to differentiate people with the same name (a main gripe with server mergers) would make a lot of people rest easier with the idea.

 

Coming from a full/bursting server (Dalborra - Asia/Pacific), my experience has been excellent.. but I have played at 5am on a weeknight at times, and I can see what people mean when talking about 'ghost towns' and such.

 

You don't bother trying to group for Heriocs/FPs etc because of the effort required to put together a 3-4 man group to do it.. lucky for me I know I can leave those missions till the next day when the population is back to massive again, but for some this is not possible whatsoever.

 

Would people be against a mk1/mk2/mk3 system if by chance the same name conflict cropped up occasionally with mergers?

Edited May 8, 2012 by ISTrick

[Evangelist]

Finding a viable way to differentiate people with the same name (a main gripe with server mergers) would make a lot of people rest easier with the idea.

 

Coming from a full/bursting server (Dalborra - Asia/Pacific), my experience has been excellent.. but I have played at 5am on a weeknight at times, and I can see what people mean when talking about 'ghost towns' and such.

 

You don't bother trying to group for Heriocs/FPs etc because of the effort required to put together a 3-4 man group to do it.. lucky for me I know I can leave those missions till the next day when the population is back to massive again, but for some this is not possible whatsoever.

 

Would people be against a mk1/mk2/mk3 system if by chance the same name conflict cropped up occasionally with mergers?

 

Personally I'd go with this:

 

1) Active account & inactive account at time of merger, active account wins name conflict inactive account has to pick a new one on reactivation.

 

2) Two active accounts, existing character gets the name just as with a transfer and the merged character has to rename.

[Dotro]

This quote from an article in the Wall Street Journal statement really makes me cringe in regards to the current problems facing the game, the foremost of which is the server populations.

 

"During a conference call, EA chief executive John Riccitiello noted that a higher mix of the “Star Wars” subscriber count is made up of paying subscribers than it was in the previous quarter. He also downplayed the significance of the title somewhat, noting that the company has bigger franchises that are more important to its overall business."

 

link to article:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ea-sales-beat-targets-star-wars-takes-hit-2012-05-07?siteid=yhoof2

[Patched]

This. People need to stop trying to defend the game and realise THIS IS A SERVICE WHICH WERE PAYING FOR AND NOT GETTING. If you dont like that someone else is complaining - tough! Its life. I wouldn't feel the need to defend Mc Donalds if someone finds a spider in their burger- thats their business NOT MINE!

 

But you would still hear:

Based on the percentages finding a spider in only one burger is GOOD. Stop complaining and praise McDonalds.

You should re-roll down to the next McDonalds and get a burger there. Beside that MickyDs is busier and is now offering the McRib which obvoiusly makes it the best fast food around.

[Memphis-Raines]

they gonna do server merge in early summer???

that's about 2 months.

sorry bioware but my account ends in june and if by then there's no server merge i will not extend my subscription.

i'm not gonna pay again to play with 6 ppl on a planet .

and i think many of us think the same so you gonna lose a lot of players.

love the game love mmo cause it's social but that means there must be ppl online to play with.

right now this game is like the titanic ,sinking way to fast .

SO DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT AND QUICK

thank you

[rakuenCallisto]

HA!

 

I am laughing uncontrollably right now.

[Sanxxx]

HA!

 

I am laughing uncontrollably right now.

 

You found another person on your server ?

[rakuenCallisto]

This quote from an article in the Wall Street Journal statement really makes me cringe in regards to the current problems facing the game, the foremost of which is the server populations.

 

"During a conference call, EA chief executive John Riccitiello noted that a higher mix of the “Star Wars” subscriber count is made up of paying subscribers than it was in the previous quarter. He also downplayed the significance of the title somewhat, noting that the company has bigger franchises that are more important to its overall business."

 

link to article:

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/ea-sales-beat-targets-star-wars-takes-hit-2012-05-07?siteid=yhoof2

 

It's really, really unbelievable the level of incompetence EA has.

[rakuenCallisto]

You found another person on your server ?

 

Just before I unsubbed (a little over a week ago) me and my friend were the only people Hoth, besides one other dude. I could not stop laughing when I saw Hoth: 3.

 

One of the biggest main planets, on a "Standard" server (yea right) during peak times only had 3 people on the entire planet. And me and my friend were the other 2.

 

That means some other guy is roaming a huge wasteland of a planet (HEH literally, no pun intended) probably thinking the same exact thing.

Edited May 8, 2012 by rakuenCallisto

[JeramieCrowe]

We need both merges and transfers.

 

Merges because some servers are already ghost towns.

Transfers because some servers need to stay regardless of their population i.e. RP servers.

 

Nah, don't need merges. Just need to have the players transfer off the dead ones and close them down.

[Patched]

Nah, don't need merges. Just need to have the players transfer off the dead ones and close them down.

 

And for the people who don't transfer or are not active? Are you going to "merge" them or "delete" them?

[MysteryManJC]

I have to say that seeing feedback related to not wanting to merge servers is strange to me. Server merges have been successfully done in a lot of mmo's and they should be done in TOR. Transfers only solve problems for people who want to transfer or who can afford to do that sort of thing. As a whole, I do not think transfers address the population issue effectively. I think merges would be a positive thing.

 

The fact is much of the decision making in life is driven by perceptions. The perception by a large quantity of people is that the game is dying which is based in large part on people not being logged into the game. What Bioware thinks at this point is irrelevant for the most part because the community is crying out for action which results in a rise in population on their individual servers. I am not sure why there would be a stance against merges as the few negatives are far outweighed by the positives. I would give up my toon name for example if it meant the active population of my server was increased by a factor of 4.

[Lorgrin]

So out of curiosity mostly, I decided to visit the Tera website. I admit I dont know anything about that game. I decided to look at the server status page. I noticed one important thing.......SERVER TRANSFERS!!! TERA has server transfers while mr. high and mighty SWTOR does not. What is wrong with this picture?

 

Thats it I'm done with this game. And yes you can have my stuff. I really doubt I will be back. Dont know where Im going. Perhaps Diablo, GW2, .....maybe Tera. Just anywhere but this mess.

[WoodChipper]

We need to merge servers without a doubt

[Frostvein]

So out of curiosity mostly, I decided to visit the Tera website. I admit I dont know anything about that game. I decided to look at the server status page. I noticed one important thing.......SERVER TRANSFERS!!! TERA has server transfers while mr. high and mighty SWTOR does not. What is wrong with this picture?

 

Thats it I'm done with this game. And yes you can have my stuff. I really doubt I will be back. Dont know where Im going. Perhaps Diablo, GW2, .....maybe Tera. Just anywhere but this mess.

 

Tera also has a functioning LFG and like, 1000s of people per server.

Edited May 9, 2012 by Frostvein

[JeramieCrowe]

And for the people who don't transfer or are not active? Are you going to "merge" them or "delete" them?

 

Well, if they do what Rift did very successfully last year, once the server goes down, the ones that didn't transfer merely picks a server, clicks "Login" and that fast everything is transferred. A name prompt if there happens to be a conflict. It was easy, painless, and just as fast as simply logging in.

[JeramieCrowe]

Tera also has a functioning LFG and like, 1000s of people per server.

 

Don't forget to mention that LFG and server transfers at launch are the first time in MMO history. TOR has plenty of its own "firsts". No need to take 'em all.

[Pwnberries]

a fix two months away is not a fix. There will be irreparable damage done to the community far before then. It needs to be two weeks away... not early summer... more like by end of may.