My server is dead - we need transfers now, not in early summer

[ironix]

Does it suck for those on dead servers? Sure. But your sever didn't die yesterday. It's been dead long enough for you to roll somewhere else and establish a toe-hold there while waiting to transfer your mains.

 

My server is dying because of the APAC transfers. We lost 50% of our population as we were one of the main Aussie servers. So yes, our server died a couple weeks ago.

Edited May 6, 2012 by ironix

[Baratta]

My server is dying because of the APAC transfers. We lost 50% of our population as we were one of the main Aussie servers. So yes, our server died a couple weeks ago.

 

In no way shape or form should anyone need to re-roll and grind all over again. Simple solution is allowing server transfers or mergers. It's the company failing not the players.

[rawfox]

Chartransfer soon™

[UnmarkedFaith]

In no way shape or form should anyone need to re-roll and grind all over again. Simple solution is allowing server transfers or mergers. It's the company failing not the players.

 

Agreed 100%. Rerolling isn't the solution. Only a simpleton would say that. This huge mess isn't a customer created one. Its a direct cause of the company lack of proper decision making. To even THINK about charging for this service during this cluster F is an insane idea, the mere thought would cause people to quit. Charging once this whole thing is resolved is different but I think the service should be fully free like in rift, Tera, and many other titles. Its the least they could do after pretty much bending us all over and sticking it to us

[EvoEmpire]

Game is going down hill fast, i just unsubbed cause all 4 of my classes are garbage in raids, pvp was fun but i want open world pvp not carebear wz garbage all the time, this game is going to suffer the same fate as Funcom and AoC did...it really sucks it's heading downhill but thats what happens when your not proactive in fixing issues

[PolecatEZ]

I'm a CTO for a software company and I approve this message. Id of fired my DBA for being incompetent. If our company did what this company has done let's just say I wouldn't have a job. Being publicly traded as well, our shareholders would sell and the company would fold... Just upsets me seeing developers lead by morons ruin a product.

 

I've been both a senior game designer, executive producer, and studio manager for 2 major gaming developers, including one that is an EA affiliiate. This is par for the course for EA. EA and some of its partners (lets hope not Bioware) have the bad habit of laying off anyone remotely competent and saving the ***-kissers when the time comes. Senior management in the games industry in general is incompetent to the point of absurdity, which I racked up to the fact that it was generally a young industry (no guilds, no unions, no evaluations at the end of the project). Working in the games industry for major developers is like the Groundhog's Day movie where the same mistakes get made every single project like there is some kind of collective amnesia.

 

The subjectiveness in which both marketting and development determine their criteria for future success is also patently ridiculous sometimes. I could write a multi-volume book series with examples of this.

 

As for people that don't like this game, I will say from my own experience that this is actually close to a bug free launch as it gets. There were some very big SNAFU's, but game-breaking bugs were almost nil. Biggest SNAFU was the arbitrary server limits imposed to try to spread people out. Those wait times in the first weeks had no bearing on reality, the servers could most definitely have held more - it was an arbitrary limit. The arbiters of that limit did have their reasons, but they couldn't anticipate the massive exodus of the player base after a few months. In hindsight, I would not have made the same call and imagine myself arguing to slowly introduce servers as thy fill to the breaking point. Its much easier to add more servers than put the genies back into smaller bottles.

 

From a game design perspective, the stats system was entirely too dumbed down, even for casual players. This is fixable though. What keeps people busy for hours when NOT playing the game is figuring out the hundreds of ways to combine stats with their abilities and then make plans for specific gear to get those stats. In this game, none of that is meaningful. The game is like a girlfriend...if she's too easy, you lose interest.

 

Also, ugly armor. Fire the fashion designer and hope there's a suitable place for him in the afterlife. WW2 potato-masher hand grenades stuck to my back? Really?

 

As for those that say "this can't come now" because of different aspects of the team work on different things...true to a limited point. Management has the power to recombine the SCRUMs or whatever functional units they want at any time, then assign priorities as determined. If team pipelines are kept small and efficient, there's no reason they can't shelve what they're doing and go with another priority...except this is EA and the rule in management is that those who know what is going on are not allowed to make cost/production decisions, and vice-versa.

 

As for the server combines, they can do it and should ASAP. My bet on the delay in this feature is setting up the billing logistics while the accountants crunch numbers to determine the strategy. They already failed at economic systems (both player base management and in-game economy) and they know it. This is their one chance to fix it and the designers/producers don't want to screw it up. EA doesn't let production teams make a move with anything that involves actual money without blessings from higher-ups that have no freaking clue what's actually going on, so sip a marguerita while you wait. I'll just be happy to take potshots from the sidelines happy that this isn't my project

[EvoEmpire]

The whole games dead, it's not just your server, half the classes can't raid cause of terrible PvE balance issues, 14 of us unsubbed today.....Lack of fixes and lack of listening to the community has brought this game to it's demise

[Sorrasht]

I've been both a senior game designer, executive producer, and studio manager for 2 major gaming developers, including one that is an EA affiliiate. This is par for the course for EA. EA and some of its partners (lets hope not Bioware) have the bad habit of laying off anyone remotely competent and saving the ***-kissers when the time comes. Senior management in the games industry in general is incompetent to the point of absurdity, which I racked up to the fact that it was generally a young industry (no guilds, no unions, no evaluations at the end of the project). Working in the games industry for major developers is like the Groundhog's Day movie where the same mistakes get made every single project like there is some kind of collective amnesia.

 

The subjectiveness in which both marketting and development determine their criteria for future success is also patently ridiculous sometimes. I could write a multi-volume book series with examples of this.

 

As for people that don't like this game, I will say from my own experience that this is actually close to a bug free launch as it gets. There were some very big SNAFU's, but game-breaking bugs were almost nil. Biggest SNAFU was the arbitrary server limits imposed to try to spread people out. Those wait times in the first weeks had no bearing on reality, the servers could most definitely have held more - it was an arbitrary limit. The arbiters of that limit did have their reasons, but they couldn't anticipate the massive exodus of the player base after a few months. In hindsight, I would not have made the same call and imagine myself arguing to slowly introduce servers as thy fill to the breaking point. Its much easier to add more servers than put the genies back into smaller bottles.

 

From a game design perspective, the stats system was entirely too dumbed down, even for casual players. This is fixable though. What keeps people busy for hours when NOT playing the game is figuring out the hundreds of ways to combine stats with their abilities and then make plans for specific gear to get those stats. In this game, none of that is meaningful. The game is like a girlfriend...if she's too easy, you lose interest.

 

Also, ugly armor. Fire the fashion designer and hope there's a suitable place for him in the afterlife. WW2 potato-masher hand grenades stuck to my back? Really?

 

As for those that say "this can't come now" because of different aspects of the team work on different things...true to a limited point. Management has the power to recombine the SCRUMs or whatever functional units they want at any time, then assign priorities as determined. If team pipelines are kept small and efficient, there's no reason they can't shelve what they're doing and go with another priority...except this is EA and the rule in management is that those who know what is going on are not allowed to make cost/production decisions, and vice-versa.

 

As for the server combines, they can do it and should ASAP. My bet on the delay in this feature is setting up the billing logistics while the accountants crunch numbers to determine the strategy. They already failed at economic systems (both player base management and in-game economy) and they know it. This is their one chance to fix it and the designers/producers don't want to screw it up. EA doesn't let production teams make a move with anything that involves actual money without blessings from higher-ups that have no freaking clue what's actually going on, so sip a marguerita while you wait. I'll just be happy to take potshots from the sidelines happy that this isn't my project

 

In a nutshell...

[Baratta]

I am not paying to play another month of this garbage while they try to fix it.

[mypadinla]

In a nutshell...

 

In the Film/TV industry management/project manager would have been fired several months ago. What BW/EA/Lucas Arts did here is totally unacceptable business practices.... but who cares they already got our $$$

[LifeOfMessiah]

Same on Uthar Wynn and countless other servers

 

I'm still on my daily from 3 days ago, since no WZ are popping even at prime time (9PM)

 

On Sedyn Kyne, I haven't turned in a Weekly since 1.2 came out. I turned one in that day from the previous week, then picked one up the following week, and have been sitting on it ever since. There have been a total of 6 PvP matches on our server since 1.2 came out.

Edited May 6, 2012 by LifeOfMessiah

[LifeOfMessiah]

BTW, I have become SO BORED with this game that I have resorted to playing Star Trek Online, which turned F2P this past winter.

 

Need I say more?

[Rutrict]

Hell at this time... I'd be kewl with Lucas coming in and doing anything... can't be worst than what EA is doing....

[ironix]

I've been both a senior game designer, executive producer, and studio manager for 2 major gaming developers, including one that is an EA affiliiate. This is par for the course for EA. EA and some of its partners (lets hope not Bioware) have the bad habit of laying off anyone remotely competent and saving the ***-kissers when the time comes. Senior management in the games industry in general is incompetent to the point of absurdity, which I racked up to the fact that it was generally a young industry (no guilds, no unions, no evaluations at the end of the project). Working in the games industry for major developers is like the Groundhog's Day movie where the same mistakes get made every single project like there is some kind of collective amnesia.

 

The subjectiveness in which both marketting and development determine their criteria for future success is also patently ridiculous sometimes. I could write a multi-volume book series with examples of this.

 

As for people that don't like this game, I will say from my own experience that this is actually close to a bug free launch as it gets. There were some very big SNAFU's, but game-breaking bugs were almost nil. Biggest SNAFU was the arbitrary server limits imposed to try to spread people out. Those wait times in the first weeks had no bearing on reality, the servers could most definitely have held more - it was an arbitrary limit. The arbiters of that limit did have their reasons, but they couldn't anticipate the massive exodus of the player base after a few months. In hindsight, I would not have made the same call and imagine myself arguing to slowly introduce servers as thy fill to the breaking point. Its much easier to add more servers than put the genies back into smaller bottles.

 

From a game design perspective, the stats system was entirely too dumbed down, even for casual players. This is fixable though. What keeps people busy for hours when NOT playing the game is figuring out the hundreds of ways to combine stats with their abilities and then make plans for specific gear to get those stats. In this game, none of that is meaningful. The game is like a girlfriend...if she's too easy, you lose interest.

 

Also, ugly armor. Fire the fashion designer and hope there's a suitable place for him in the afterlife. WW2 potato-masher hand grenades stuck to my back? Really?

 

As for those that say "this can't come now" because of different aspects of the team work on different things...true to a limited point. Management has the power to recombine the SCRUMs or whatever functional units they want at any time, then assign priorities as determined. If team pipelines are kept small and efficient, there's no reason they can't shelve what they're doing and go with another priority...except this is EA and the rule in management is that those who know what is going on are not allowed to make cost/production decisions, and vice-versa.

 

As for the server combines, they can do it and should ASAP. My bet on the delay in this feature is setting up the billing logistics while the accountants crunch numbers to determine the strategy. They already failed at economic systems (both player base management and in-game economy) and they know it. This is their one chance to fix it and the designers/producers don't want to screw it up. EA doesn't let production teams make a move with anything that involves actual money without blessings from higher-ups that have no freaking clue what's actually going on, so sip a marguerita while you wait. I'll just be happy to take potshots from the sidelines happy that this isn't my project

 

I'm going to save this for future canned replies to all the "ZOMG database management is hard and takes many months to test!" replies that will inevitably show up in 5-10 pages.

[NicolasO]

I've been both a senior game designer, executive producer, and studio manager for 2 major gaming developers, including one that is an EA affiliiate. This is par for the course for EA. EA and some of its partners (lets hope not Bioware) have the bad habit of laying off anyone remotely competent and saving the ***-kissers when the time comes. Senior management in the games industry in general is incompetent to the point of absurdity, which I racked up to the fact that it was generally a young industry (no guilds, no unions, no evaluations at the end of the project). Working in the games industry for major developers is like the Groundhog's Day movie where the same mistakes get made every single project like there is some kind of collective amnesia.

 

The subjectiveness in which both marketting and development determine their criteria for future success is also patently ridiculous sometimes. I could write a multi-volume book series with examples of this.

 

As for people that don't like this game, I will say from my own experience that this is actually close to a bug free launch as it gets. There were some very big SNAFU's, but game-breaking bugs were almost nil. Biggest SNAFU was the arbitrary server limits imposed to try to spread people out. Those wait times in the first weeks had no bearing on reality, the servers could most definitely have held more - it was an arbitrary limit. The arbiters of that limit did have their reasons, but they couldn't anticipate the massive exodus of the player base after a few months. In hindsight, I would not have made the same call and imagine myself arguing to slowly introduce servers as thy fill to the breaking point. Its much easier to add more servers than put the genies back into smaller bottles.

 

From a game design perspective, the stats system was entirely too dumbed down, even for casual players. This is fixable though. What keeps people busy for hours when NOT playing the game is figuring out the hundreds of ways to combine stats with their abilities and then make plans for specific gear to get those stats. In this game, none of that is meaningful. The game is like a girlfriend...if she's too easy, you lose interest.

 

Also, ugly armor. Fire the fashion designer and hope there's a suitable place for him in the afterlife. WW2 potato-masher hand grenades stuck to my back? Really?

 

As for those that say "this can't come now" because of different aspects of the team work on different things...true to a limited point. Management has the power to recombine the SCRUMs or whatever functional units they want at any time, then assign priorities as determined. If team pipelines are kept small and efficient, there's no reason they can't shelve what they're doing and go with another priority...except this is EA and the rule in management is that those who know what is going on are not allowed to make cost/production decisions, and vice-versa.

 

As for the server combines, they can do it and should ASAP. My bet on the delay in this feature is setting up the billing logistics while the accountants crunch numbers to determine the strategy. They already failed at economic systems (both player base management and in-game economy) and they know it. This is their one chance to fix it and the designers/producers don't want to screw it up. EA doesn't let production teams make a move with anything that involves actual money without blessings from higher-ups that have no freaking clue what's actually going on, so sip a marguerita while you wait. I'll just be happy to take potshots from the sidelines happy that this isn't my project

 

Amen, like you, I'd of been fired and probably never make it in the software industry with any firm ever again had this been a project I was in charge of rolling out.

 

It's not that I hate this game or pray for is demise, I actually originally enjoyed it, however the over redundancy without an option to "turn it off" is massive annoyance. I really would love an option called "skip all dialogs and auto pick dark or light side". I spend most of my time mashing the space bar as I have seen it , done it , and over it.

None the less, I really wish BW would just do the right thing here. By the time 1.3 comes out their population in game will be so severly hindered that they shouldnt even bother releasing another update. Seriously, "The Legacy Patch"..... it was advertised as the god send of patches, the huge hail mary, the savior for SWTOR. Most people read the patch notes or asked a buddy and responded with a MEH.

 

One thing I have learned about being in the software industry is, if you promise your customers something, you either deliever or plan to close your doors as your majority customer base will leave due to distrust and being let down. Half a@@ing something is worse then not doing it at all.

 

And I agree with you 100% about the server issue. They should of raised the caps, they should of FIXED the server back end issues to handle more capacity, hell we do it even to this day in our applications. I'd prefer to fix or enhance our server software (backend windows services that host client connections) then roll out additional boxes. Sadly BW chose the opposite and they created this epic mess.

 

I dunno, EA and their CFO and his team can crunch numbers all day , project earnings from charging users for a service that should be free, the fact of the matter is, there wont be many people around willing to pay a price for something that they caused in the first place. All I can say is thank GOD there are options for players these days, definetly all the new blood entering the market in the next few weeks.....

[UnmarkedFaith]

In the Film/TV industry management/project manager would have been fired several months ago. What BW/EA/Lucas Arts did here is totally unacceptable business practices.... but who cares they already got our $$$

 

Sadly I dont think Lucasarts has any control on what BW/EA is doing. Knowing how this industry works, I am guessing they are simply paying Lucas arts royalties for the genre. However I am sure their just as pee'd off as the rest of the crowd.

 

The only chance this game has is if BW shutsdown and a credible company soaks up the Intellectual Property / buys the code and does SWTOR the right way.... here is to high hopes....but with the way BW will have destroyed this game by then I doubt anyone would want to consume such a cluster freak.

[Valperion]

Sadly I dont think Lucasarts has any control on what BW/EA is doing. Knowing how this industry works, I am guessing they are simply paying Lucas arts royalties for the genre. However I am sure their just as pee'd off as the rest of the crowd.

 

The only chance this game has is if BW shutsdown and a credible company soaks up the Intellectual Property / buys the code and does SWTOR the right way.... here is to high hopes....but with the way BW will have destroyed this game by then I doubt anyone would want to consume such a cluster freak.

 

All of a sudden, I'd like to play a "good game".

 

Playing "KOTOR1" for the 5th time, seems like a good idea now.

[Redmarx]

The whole games dead, it's not just your server, half the classes can't raid cause of terrible PvE balance issues, 14 of us unsubbed today.....Lack of fixes and lack of listening to the community has brought this game to it's demise

 

This.

[UnmarkedFaith]

This.

 

Instead of LISTENING to us their mass deleting our posts lol.

 

Imagine this, imagine if they spent HALF the time thats invested in modding this forum ..in coding..... where the game could potentially be

[Redmarx]

Instead of LISTENING to us their mass deleting our posts lol.

 

Imagine this, imagine if they spent HALF the time thats invested in modding this forum ..in coding..... where the game could potentially be

 

Pretty much not listening to players is why SWTOR is a dead game with under 400k subs.

[Leggomy]

Love how everyone in this thread is the CEO of a major software company yet here they are on swtor's forums. Got news for you guys noone is buying it. Edited May 6, 2012 by Leggomy

[Leggomy]

Pretty much not listening to players is why SWTOR is a dead game with under 400k subs.

 

Citation needed.

[Redmarx]

Citation needed.

 

Link provided in other thread.

 

Yeah, the one that got deleted, ask moderators to undelete it if you want the link.

[Blondesolid]

2 hour que's tonight on Krath =/ Managed a match and was outnumber and vs a decent premade lol, huttball match lasted about 3 minutes. It's getting to the point of just saying eff it now.

[ironix]

Love how everyone in this thread is the CEO of a major software company yet here they are on swtor's forums. Got news for you guys noone is buying it.

 

As shocking as it is, he is. I could name the company that he worked for as well, but I won't. A few minutes with Google confirmed his experience.