Daniel Erickson on Server Population.

[ViperI]

It's this exact attitude that caused this problem in the first place. People felt too entitled to wait in queues, and cried and whined about it. Bioware over-reacted and created way too many servers... but they are not the only ones to blame. So what you waited years and pre-ordered? So did just about everyone else that's trying to play at release. Welcome to MMO's, it has ALWAYS been like this. If you don't like it you can play a single player game.

 

Entitled? Heck yes I feel entitled to something that I've paid good money for. And why shouldn't I? Don't confuse this with an entitlement attitude that expects something for nothing, We paid our money to play at release and that's what we expect to be able to do.

[Cerion]

Regardless, they need to proofread their official statements. They are professionals, after all.

 

Why do you assume it's bioware and not the fault of the journalist?

[IrotNoot]

Quality sig, btw. Yeah, this x100.

 

It's pretty obnoxious how the player-base is going out of its way to logjam The Fatman, if I had rolled there initially I would be annoyed.

 

X-fer and merge all you want, but there's 2 things I will not do under any circumstances:

1) Sit in a queue to play

2) Give up my character names

 

This ^^... When I created my first character on day one at 7:30am, first wave of pre orders, there was literally no one on The Fatman, I now have 5 characters, 3 50's and a legacy lvl of 28 and I had a 45 minute queue last night from all of the re rolls jamming it up. Why they are allowing more accounts to continue to create their first character on The Fatman is unbelievable to me.

[KBSIP]

Paid transfer= you get to pick the server.

Free transfer= Only available to certain servers(=the numerous dead ones where you have like 40 ppl on Fleet most of the day) Destination server decided by BW

 

This is how WoW did it back in Vanilla.

 

40 people? jesus, you lucky duck. Max I've EVER seen on my fleet is 25, and I'm a friggin imperial.

[Balrizangor]

They better be free transfers.

 

They are in part to blame for the problem, so to charge us for a solution would make me cancel faster then girls taking off their clothes when they see me.

 

 

Actually, a part of the player base is at fault more. They day the game went live, you should have seen the 100rds of whine posts about server queues and that BW were idiots for not opening up more servers. Then you had the people that went directly to the lowest pop servers they could find so they wouldn't have to deal with queues without thinking about the future when people would, like any new MMO, stop playing it.

 

My group and I picked a heavy server, dealt with the long queues and now, we are on a server with a solid population (120-150+ on fleet during prime and weekends, not counting what is in PvP or other planets at the time).

[BJWyler]

Someday, someone will invent a dynamic scaling MMO backend that will make server merges and character transfers a thing of the past. It's really too bad Bioware couldn't have been the one to come up with it.

 

Anet with Guild Wars. There were no servers in the traditional sense, so no low population or ques. Not sure how they did it, but it would be nice for the "traditional" MMOs to find a way to do it.

 

If they did that and I lost my character names, I think I'd probably just up and quit right then and there. The name (and legacy name) IS my character and put a lot of thought into it, a swell as into the names of my alts.

Which is probably one of the reasons why they are taking longer to implement it. I know one article mentioned that they needed to make sure they do it right because of the Legacy system. Here more than in other games, character name is an important part of the gameplay, so I am fine with it taking longer if it means less problems with naming conflicts down the line.

 

BJ

Edited April 18, 2012 by BJWyler

[AkenoOuhatch]

I'd pay a MT to xfer OFF of Fatman. I don't have much time allotted in my schedule for playing games, and I really hate wasting most of that time in a queue. I don't want to reroll because I'd prefer to not lose all of my legacy progress and definitely don't want to play the same class quests all over again.

[TKMaster]

They better be free transfers.

 

They are in part to blame for the problem, so to charge us for a solution would make me cancel faster then girls taking off their clothes when they see me.

 

If thier partly to blame then the player base is partly to blame too. I was here in EA and saw the endless crying for more servers. Also you play MMO's...you'll never have a girl take off her clothes for anything less than money, quit acting.

[TKMaster]

Entitled? Heck yes I feel entitled to something that I've paid good money for. And why shouldn't I? Don't confuse this with an entitlement attitude that expects something for nothing, We paid our money to play at release and that's what we expect to be able to do.

 

And you cried for more servers, you got them and then cried even more.

[ViperI]

And you cried for more servers, you got them and then cried even more.

 

Not sure what your point is here. If you pay for a preorder, you expect to be able to play on release day, not sit in a queue just waiting to log in. That's pretty simple and straightforward. It's on Bioware to provide that quality experience and solve the problem of a shrinking population. Massive queue times at release that make the game unplayable are unacceptable. Empty servers 4 months after release is also unacceptable. Bioware knows how these trends go, they should have designed a better system to compensate for those changes. They didn't do that and now they're hearing the backlash. These are legitimate complaints, Mr fanboi.

[Eillack]

Whats the bet they'll be micro-transactions?

 

Well this isn't Crpytic, so I doubt it.

[KrittaB]

Not sure what your point is here. If you pay for a preorder, you expect to be able to play on release day, not sit in a queue just waiting to log in. That's pretty simple and straightforward. It's on Bioware to provide that quality experience and solve the problem of a shrinking population. Massive queue times at release that make the game unplayable are unacceptable. Empty servers 4 months after release is also unacceptable. Bioware knows how these trends go, they should have designed a better system to compensate for those changes. They didn't do that and now they're hearing the backlash. These are legitimate complaints, Mr fanboi.

 

If you don't think Bioware has planned for this you need to open your eyes. Offering transfers too early would wreak complete havok on all servers. It would be chaos. Most servers would immediately be deserted and we would have 4 or 5 Fatmans on our hands with 1+ hour queues to get in. You know this would happen.

 

By waiting, the problem somewhat solves itself. People willingly re-roll on other servers, but at a much slower pace since it isn't free and they can't move their high level characters. Then, once most of the people that are willing to do that have done so, they can offer server transfers to the rest, but restrict which servers they can transfer to, keeping server populations more in check.

 

 

Contrary to popular belief, giving people exactly what they want and exactly when they want it is rarely the best option for the population as a whole.

[DiabloDoom]

I'll pay. Hell I'll even take a mortgage and pay for everyone else's if it means it will happen.

[Kalfear]

"One of the problems we’re running into right now is kind of a classic MMO problem, which is that our overall population of players has not changed, but our peak concurrent users has changed," Erickson told NowGamer following last week's 1.2 Legacy update.

 

Link: http://www.nowgamer.com/news/1324496/swtor_bioware_reponds_to_criticism_server_merges_still_possible.html

 

yeah sorry I stopped freading there

 

If hes not going to be honest about population levels then why bother listening to the rest!

 

Anyone thats been here since launch knows their friend lists have disappeared 2-3 times over from cancelations.

 

The population most definately has changed.

[RickRedOne]

Not sure what your point is here. If you pay for a preorder, you expect to be able to play on release day, not sit in a queue just waiting to log in..

 

Two things.

 

First "pay for preorder" You didn't pay any extra for preorder. You paid the same as if you bought the game on day 1. What you got was the guarantee that you would have the game at launch.

 

Second. Yes you expect to play the game on release day, and BW added servers to make that happen. But when a million people try to access the game at the same time in the first week, then only way to fix it was the add servers. But as with every popular MMO's launch people start spreading out their playing time as the game gets older. You don't have people on for 10+ hours at a time so they can get to 50 in 2 days. (Then complain there is nothing to do.)

So now you have servers that are low on concurrent logins. Also people started on one server, later found friends playing on other servers and rerolled. People rerolled on different servers for many reasons. And this changed the population on servers. It takes time for them to settle and adjust.

 

This has happened on every big MMO, and will continue to happen. If you don't think GW2 will have the same problems you are living in a fantasy world.

When transfers do come (and they will), things might not get better. Think of half the population leaving a moderate populated server, because they think some other server is better.

 

Do transfers need to happen: Yes

Do they need to be controlled (much like WoW does when it opens up free transfers): Very Much YES

They need to happen in stages, not all at once. Or server population threads will just be a recurring theme over and over.

[FeelFlow]

Great, a good reply. I think that he knows the score. I'd like to hear a lot about future plans though - we've heard a little bit about the LFG tool and a little bit about servers here - time to tell us all about the quality of life updates that are (hopefully) in the planning stage.

 

And hopefully some more traditional SW armour sets. Those high level armour pieces.... My eyes..

[ViperI]

If you don't think Bioware has planned for this you need to open your eyes. Offering transfers too early would wreak complete havok on all servers. It would be chaos. Most servers would immediately be deserted and we would have 4 or 5 Fatmans on our hands with 1+ hour queues to get in. You know this would happen.

 

By waiting, the problem somewhat solves itself. People willingly re-roll on other servers, but at a much slower pace since it isn't free and they can't move their high level characters. Then, once most of the people that are willing to do that have done so, they can offer server transfers to the rest, but restrict which servers they can transfer to, keeping server populations more in check.

 

 

Contrary to popular belief, giving people exactly what they want and exactly when they want it is rarely the best option for the population as a whole.

 

Or they just quit. But hey, you probably figure that's "problem solved" as well.

[Pantheros]

Erickson said that current server merging would have resulted in large queues with the 1.2 update.

 

That was a little optimistic. Fatman is the only server that's had a queue since launch. 1.2 didn't do much to change that.

Edited April 19, 2012 by Pantheros

[ColonelM]

I'll pay. Hell I'll even take a mortgage and pay for everyone else's if it means it will happen.

 

Right there... Awesome.

[faymar]

"One of the problems we’re running into right now is kind of a classic MMO problem, which is that our overall population of players has not changed, but our peak concurrent users has changed," Erickson told NowGamer following last week's 1.2 Legacy update. "

 

But but all the haters said OMGzorz mass exodus!!!!!

 

There are only five people left playing!!!!!!

 

Edited April 19, 2012 by faymar

[Kthx]

Anyone thats been here since launch knows their friend lists have disappeared 2-3 times over from cancelations.

 

Not a single person has disappeared form my friends list (and that's not because my list is empty).

 

There, my anecdotal evidence just canceled out yours. Your move.

[Cerion]

yeah sorry I stopped freading there

 

If hes not going to be honest about population levels then why bother listening to the rest!

 

Anyone thats been here since launch knows their friend lists have disappeared 2-3 times over from cancelations.

 

The population most definately has changed.

 

What part of subscription =/= concurrent players DON'T you understand? In this case, your perception will not equal reality. BW has hard numbers on their subscription numbers. They've reported that those numbers haven't changed substantially. What HAS changed is the number of hours people are playing. This in turn creates the illusion that people are leaving/canceling in large numbers. Server status goes from Heavy to Light, not because of any mass exodus, but because people are playing less often (ie, are less obsessed).

[asbalana]

That was a little optimistic. Fatman is the only server that's had a queue since launch. 1.2 didn't do much to change that.

 

I believe that Harbinger had ques (although not that long) since 1.2.

[Rayla_Felana]

That was a little optimistic. Fatman is the only server that's had a queue since launch. 1.2 didn't do much to change that.

 

Wrong, there were four European servers that had queues on 1.2 release and that lasted for 2 days, The Red Eclipse the regularly most populated PvE server in the EU was actually only heavy at the time.

 

There is more evidence to back up Erickson's claim than any claim I have seen on this forum.

 

Server Transfers I support, Server merges are needed, but not nearly as much as these forums seem to suggest.

Edited April 19, 2012 by Rayla_Felana

[zuile]

Transfer all light pop servers in a single region into one light pop server to make a heavy pop, or if it still wouldn't be heavy to a standard pop server then bring in xserver FPs,operations and pvp later so if there's another big drop in pop it won't matter. Xserver from launch would of dealt with most of this except for the lack of heroic quest groups, oh well not everything can be fit in easy.