FREE Character Transfers are Coming!

[FHA-Sal]

The feeling that server mergers will signal decline is ridiculous and insane. It's clear to EVERYONE that server mergers are needed to stop people from leaving due to low server pop. It's a vicious circle that needs to end.

 

EA/BioWare need to man up and admit that the way the servers were handled in the first week was a mistake, and announce in a clear and confident way, that server transfers off those servers, then merging some and closing the dead ones will be a one time correct of that initial error.

 

The gaming community needs strong, healthy, populated servers and they need to start seeing some better communication and transparency from the dev team. All people want is the ability to play a game they like in an atmosphere that is clear and fair.

 

Absolutely RIGHT!

[Amyas]

But srsly i want free time until server transfers are out. Today Logged on and if all the 50's grouped up we would still need one more person to form an ops group. thats assuming six dps and one tank is an optimal raid comp

 

This Bioware opened way to many servers it was just dumb.

[Amentius]

I am interested in a more precise update on if and when these will take place.

I had friends and my guild, leave a different MMO and come to this game when it released.

I'm a stickler and didn't follow until recently. The server we are on is horrible although they tell me it was a booming server a couple of months ago.

So this is how a new person is perceiving the game:

I purchased a rather expensive game as far as MMO's go in pricing.

I rolled on a server with guild mates I've known throughout MMO's for over 9 years.

At peak time we have maybe 28 people in the fleet total, that's not level 50's but total. (Although with this trial weekend we are seeing 90-100 mainly lowbies.

Forget pvp the queues peak for 2 hours a day. Other than that, its a 2-4 hours wait. Who has that much time to wait around waiting for a queue?

The economy is absolutely terrible for a new player. Search the trade and find the majority of items are level 50. What difference does this make? New people need/want things. They can't be bought or if they can they are extremely overpriced by the lvl 50's.

 

I have many friends that have come and tried the game in the last month, and because we all play together they rolled on our server. They refused to buy the game. They didn't feel it was worth the money vested to play like that. But if the action picks up they will make the change.

I personally feel I'm being robbed of the experience of grouping with people for Flashpoints, Unless I ask one of the 7 people left in the guild that haven't left in the last month to help, I am unable to enjoy the experience of 2 and 4 man heroics and pvp.

It's great to make so many friends throughout MMO's and move as a community from one game to the next. It's wonderful to pick up new people as we go.

 

I'm saddened that the response time to moving people is so long.

It would be great to know if there was some light at the end of this rainbow and that it will shine before my first month is up. I cannot see myself subscribing another month if this keeps up.

I have a very small legacy, but the folks I play with don't and it is unfair to keep them where they are.

 

Business sense, take what's left and move them and remove the unnecessary servers before more subs are lost.

Stop with weekend passes and trials, the folks that do decide to try,are going to roll with people they know. If those people are on the EXTREMELY low pop, they will be discouraged and not be interested in sticking around.

[LowlyGentlemen]

Charge for character transfers? Are you kidding me? Then they better prepare for more people leaving the game, like they are now. The game already has downsized massively since everybody realized it's WoW but with a lightsaber. I enjoy the game, but with myself logging on during a primetime and seeing 15-20 people on the Republic Fleet, guess what? I log off.

[tomleiden]

dxun 9 ppl on fleet haha...............

[Iceguy]

I'm on Thana Vesh and server pop is my main issue with the game. Trying to pug a group for a HM? Forget it, not gonna happen. Healers (which I'm not) can't even find groups. I'm an imp and the republic side of the server is almost totally dead. PvP is almost always Imp vs. Imp. I'm not interested in transfers. I don't want to have to do anything over again. I have way too much time invested in my main already, and I'd much rather see mergers. To be honest, if transfers are the only option and I have to pay or do ANYTHING over again (including legacy), I'd rather just quit.

 

I think once mergers happen the game will be a lot more fun, but those of us that have been here since launch are owed some free game time.

Edited May 20, 2012 by Iceguy

[El_Jacco]

I have contacted customer support on this issue a number of times. Currently there have been wait times of over 1 sometimes over 4 hours to get onto a War Zone arena and I am not talking about 3 AM in the morning. People are vacating theses servers fast and I think i will soon be playing a single player RPG on the server (Are there not some new single player RPG's on the market?). Who will buy all my stuff, how will i get my pvp gear if i can't get into a warzone. The questions and the nightmares haunt me. Help!!!! Let my 22 day character not die, let him become part of a large community. I would like to play a MMO i thought that is what i pay for on a monthly basis.

I also have noted that there will be servers merges coming. It sems to be very vague. In early summer. Could we get a little more specific. When one loses customers becuase of a problem, I would expect that there would be a real focus on not loosing more customers. Dragging and delaying and not responding clearly with no precise goals to the ones that are paying for the development of the game is really strange.

 

Bioware - EA think of taking on a new moto.

 

Players make the story. If the players are not there the story ends. That means jobs are lost.

 

Jacco

[DieJohnnyDie]

I hope transfers get going before GW2 comes out or I foresee a mass exodus (which will happen anyways) because I really want to see this game succeed. Hopefully BW will come out with a bunch of cool content (to include transfers) before GW2 drops to retain and grow their membership. The people at BW aren't dumb and I'm sure they realize the consequences of inaction or delayed action in addressing this problem. Like everyone I'd like some more communication from the Devs instead of treating it like the elephant in the room. Most people are reasonable if you just explain yourself. "We cannot offer transfers right now because of x, y and z issues. We need to work such and such out and then we can have transfers. This is how we'll implement it. We expect to begin some time in [insert month]. Please don't go ape$h!t if it gets delayed. Thanks for sticking with us, here's another free month for being awesome" I think that would quite down most reasonable people. Just my two cents.

[JeramieCrowe]

This Bioware opened way to many servers it was just dumb.

 

It was actually a great idea. You see, BioWare had transfer software ready since beta. The plan was to open plenty of servers to eradicate queues. Not only did that work, but there were no crashes, no maintenance issues (D3, I'm looking at you), very little bugs, and very few CTDs (most people had zero). In short, it was the best launch in MMO history.

 

The plan was then to wait a few months for the typical MMO launch surge to die off (which typically happened) then cull the servers back.

 

That was the plan.

 

Then some element of Legacy, probably one of the last-minute additions they talked about in the podcast, broke the server transfer software, necessitating a rewrite. A failure? Perhaps, but not until that point. But the plan was very sound.

 

The bottom line is that if it didn't break, we wouldn't have half the QQ threads we do, we'd have more subs active than we do, and we'd have a higher morale thus higher tolerance. All BioWare can do now is exactly what they're doing. Pretty sure heads have rolled, and the team working on the software is feverishly at it.

 

It is what it is.

Edited May 20, 2012 by JeramieCrowe

[Sanxxx]

It was actually a great idea. You see, BioWare had transfer software ready since beta. The plan was to open plenty of servers to eradicate queues. Not only did that work, but there were no crashes, no maintenance issues (D3, I'm looking at you), very little bugs, and very few CTDs (most people had zero). In short, it was the best launch in MMO history.

 

The plan was then to wait a few months for the typical MMO launch surge to die off (which typically happened) then cull the servers back.

 

That was the plan.

 

Then some element of Legacy, probably one of the last-minute additions they talked about in the podcast, broke the server transfer software, necessitating a rewrite. A failure? Perhaps, but until that point. But the plan was sound.

 

It is what it is.

 

I'm sure that those who voted for, 'keep legacy in, worry about transfers later' wished they had listened to the 'let's revise legacy and keep the working transfer system'.

[JeramieCrowe]

I'm sure that those who voted for, 'keep legacy in, worry about transfers later' wished they had listened to the 'let's revise legacy and keep the working transfer system'.

 

No joke. Except, I don't think they knew until after 1.2 was live. That would have probably meant pulling 1.2 altogether. Still, I think players would have preferred transfers and then 1.2.

 

It's a bad situation no matter which way they went, though. That's why I blame QA more than anyone else at BW. I know firsthand that it's nearly impossible not to write code that might break something. That's why there's QA in the first place.

Edited May 20, 2012 by JeramieCrowe

[LUCASCASADEIS]

BW, what do you think about kills servers?, because we have 215 servers aprox, if you go to TERA they have only 11 servers, we must have max 50 servers:24 in U.S,23 in Europe and of course 3 in australia , minium 20: 9 in U.S , 8 in Europe and of course 3 in Australia,

 

Please BW you need kill server only for now, if swtor gronw in the future, you can put more server but for now if you want to the people in swtor you need kills 150 servers,

 

example i'm the guildmaster of my guild with a guild with 275 member, only i can see 15 players connect in same time, and 30 total play swtor, i lost 240 member aprox, they are angry because we must kill servers. because if you use transfers, i want go to my guild to other server but I CANT, I cant go to other server with al my guild

 

Please bioware we need kills servers, Merge servers

 

Plese think this BW. May the Force be with you

[_Zhatan_]

So do you still think the lack of players is the problem of this game?

 

The lack of players is caused by the lack of game, server merges, transfers and LFG are only make up for the real problem.

 

This game need a server merge asap but only as first step, the lack of "interesting" endgame, the lack of reasons for want to play it is what s killing the game.

 

The first step is create a reason for players to log, the history ends ad cant be developed fast enough for keep people interested, what a mmo needs to be a success is opossing factions! A reason to fight everyday, for make your side better, and I'm not talking only about PVP , but PVE too... control a planet, change the story of the game, fight in a npc invasion, see how the enemy bites the dust or approaches menacing....nothing of that is in this game.

 

So merges? nice will be cool for 1 year, you can merge again in december , then in march 2013 and go in survival mode with 2 servers at December 2013 is what EA does better.

Edited May 20, 2012 by _Zhatan_

[Durasturan]

No joke. Except, I don't think they knew until after 1.2 was live. That would have probably meant pulling 1.2 altogether. Still, I think players would have preferred transfers and then 1.2.

 

It's a bad situation no matter which way they went, though. That's why I blame QA more than anyone else at BW. I know firsthand that it's nearly impossible not to write code that might break something. That's why there's QA in the first place.

 

I think that if 1.2 had succeeded than we wouldn't have needed the server transfers merges at all, if instead of dropping 400k it gained 400k.

 

Honestly I blame the failure to deliver ranked WZ more than anything else. I know (personally in IRL) three people that resubbed just for that, they really love pvp and stabbing fools with lightsabers. Then BW pulled their horrendous'y unethical bait and switch which people were SOOOOO insanely angry about they were calling for class action lawsuits over truth in advertising. I'd be willing to bet that 100k people quit the day 1.2 launched, maybe more. The forums were ON FIRE. Dozens of threads filled with thousands of "I quit" posts all because of BW's lies.

[Benets]

Seems that all MMO game companys keep doing the same mistakes. Seems that all MMOS turns bad cos' companys keep doing the same things all the time. This game needed transfers since it's release and they (BW) keep doing other things when they should rush some basic things.

 

Meanwhile this game lost a lot of players that get tired of level chars and cannot go to a playable server. Nice job, soon this game will be remembered as the promisse that nave came to happen.

[Raznok]

Look this has probably been said a million times already but for good reason

 

this game is slowly dying, its not cause the game is bad but because of the players that we have are all spread thin because the game has too many servers. i know that when the game launched they needed all of them to support that large amount of players that started playing, but they should have anticipated that most of those players would leave cause they didn't like certain things about the game or they were playing until something else came along. what we need now is to merge a massive amount of these servers together so that the large amount of people that enjoy this game can all be together so that there isn't a massive populations problem on so many different servers. we all shouldn't have to start over or wait another 4 months or however long it takes to get server transfers going, and even when that does get moving it wont truely solve the problem.

 

Bioware, i really love your company, a lot of your games are amazing and i understand that you're trying your hardest to keep everyone pleased. but its time to understand that u overestimated some things and its time to start getting rid of servers

[Astrolia]

The running joke on my dead server is that many of us past hardcore WoW players that came here for a change and/or casual play or even new hardcore play are considering going back to Wow just to be able to play a game that we pay for. As of right now, I'm paying for a game I can't play. GG there BW, GG. (Note: i love how you totally hooked me in with better pvp play in 1.2 as Pub actually wins now, so I committed to 6 months, then 2 weeks later, everyone leaves the server, well played BW, i concede defeat, well played...)

[Moomintrollop]

So, what about people that LIKE moderate to low population servers? what about people who prefer to have like 60 or fewer people on Fleet during Prime Time?

 

Yes, that would be just peachy, quiet, but playable. However, there is virtually nothing left that is "standard" pop, especially in Europe. See:

 

TORStatus - European Servers - Population Trends

 

On my server, a light server that had queues in the first week, it is more like 3 on the pub side, 13 on the imps, at a busy time, at the weekend. This means that you can't really play any of the content designed for multiple players.

 

(Already cancelled some time ago, but with all the free time, had 83 free days left or somesuch, so was putting some levels on an imp, in the hopes of seeing another player. D3 EU was down, and I had already gone for a long bike ride and caught up on my laundry )

Edited May 20, 2012 by Moomintrollop

[ESTistheGAME]

by the time they realize that is the right move it will be to late, this game is already on a decline with more and more people quitting everyday. Bioware says subs are still the same and they play less which i call BS, sure i will love to pay 15$ a month and not play.

 

This entire mess could have been avoided if they had less servers with high pop caps at launch and/or if they prepared transfers ready to be released in case of low pop issues.

 

Actually on the contrary they are increasing just because people are quitting on your server doesn't mean that the game is dropping population. I know plenty of people who went to better populated servers or new people who joined late and went to those servers. The only time the game has actually dropped was after the first month was up and those who have quit playing because of Diablo III, but most of those people still actually play this game and haven't even quit.

[boniator]

game on a server at the best time there are 24 people

two weeks ago that I do not play wz

my patience has a limit.

sorry me english i spanish

[Benets]

When transfer's aviable only a couple of people will still playing the game. Everybody should stop playing to force them to make something that should have from the begining. Plus transfers should be free all the time. Like once each 15 days. Rift have free transfers once a week.

 

They should stop giving free trial weekend and do something usefull, like fix and improve some things. Stop think only to people who do not have the game and start think about people that already have the game, cos' I feel neglected. Seems that "You already have the game, i don't need to apraise you".

Edited May 21, 2012 by Benets

[MbaxterBeau]

If you are concerned about being on a high pop server come play on the Fatman. It's a very fun server.

[MadHobbit]

I think one of the possible reasons is a LOT of people rushed to lvl 50, then after umteen WZ ,got bored, saw similar in City of Heroes.

[Raznok]

If you are concerned about being on a high pop server come play on the Fatman. It's a very fun server.

 

yea i would love to, but the problem with that is i have a lot of thing i unlocked with Legacy and 3 lvl 50s that i still play. so just up and changing servers isnt possible right now cause BW is taking its good old time with this server transfer thing, im pretty sure i saw something saying that they tested it live in like Asia or something, *** why not here?

[Loxroxx]

Fatman is fun on my level 13. Too bad I had to leave behind 3 level 50's on other servers just to pvp.