Most servers are dead - we need transfers now, not in early summer

[Sleprock]

It's sickening to see Bioware not even acknowledge the bleeding wound of dead servers. No answers for the people filling their wallets on a game crippling problem. Instead they just update the home page with Legacy BS, and weekend passes.

 

Who cares, we want an answer now.

 

Reminds me of the last stand within Baghdad on CCN news where Saddam's Defense Minister was saying that they were in control and that there was nothing wrong. All the while you could hear gunshots and bombs dropping in the distance with a haze smoke plumes everywhere with U.S troops mere miles away.

 

Get a grip Bioware. If this problem is not fixed by the time my sub runs out, then May the Force be you.....and you alone. I will not re-roll again.....

[tloops]

Then tell me why a great decline in population happened on the same day Diablo 3 came out.

 

the decline in population has been happening for months.if anything, everyones 30 days free ran out.

[vinceng]

Just a though, Am i wrong to say that if BW Dev spent the same amount of time merging servers rather than merging threads, we won't have this problem?

 

You really have to hurry up BW, if you need to do it manually, whats stopping you from merging 75 people from a light populated server to a Standard server? Y are we still paying for a MMO when we are getting a Single player game thats not very good the second or the third time around?

 

Pick up the slack BW. well... my sub runs out on 27th anyways, guess i will be going to something else. I love Star Wars, but hate BW.

[Amendial]

because they dont want to have the forums spammed with 20 threads on the exact same topic? Grow up and post your comment where they belong. I am glad they manage the forums like they do, they are not censoring anything, just telling you to post transfer opinions in the character transfer thread. Its not that complicated.

 

EDIT: Apparently the post I was directing this at was removed, responding to the guy QQIng about them closing his multiple threads where he uncontructively complained about server merges.

Edited May 22, 2012 by Amendial

[vinceng]

Oh i don't know, the constructive way of doing things would be like:

 

Me: Hi BW, i think you need to look into the server population.

BW: Seriously? Let me check it out... OMG, i'm so sorry about it, let me try to find out some ways around it, How bout a server merger? Or transfer? I will take sometime tho, maybe give us a month to roll it out. Thanks for the info btw. and thanks for the support.

 

But in reality:

Me: Hi BW, I think you need to look into your server population.

BW: You have to understand that the problem is not with lower population, just lower concurrent users. Btw i won't do it because it will send a bad image for my game. So too bad for your, Reroll and pay me more!

(Goes back to BW HQ)

So what level is your Warrior in Diablo 3?? 15??? OMG this stupid guy tells me we have to do something about the population, Dont he knows D3 is out?

[seanisawake]

The problem was when launch happened BioWare made way too many servers.. We only need a quarter of what we have now. People should of just been patient.

 

In another word I will resub once they provide me with an Xfer.

[Illville]

I will cancel my account even though I enjoy this game if there isn't anyone else to play with on my server. I want to play my character not re-roll on another server. Please, be accommodating. please, set up servers sooner rather than later. Please, realize you have amazingly stiff competition in Diablo 3 and of course WOW. Do something!!!

[Imperialnavy]

The server that I play on, Elysium, is one of the "light" population servers. While its not as bad as some servers (my sympathies to those playing on those servers), PVP has incredibly long wait times, no one is buying ANYTHING from anybody, and even levelling alts are boring there is no one else around around my level. This is nothing new. Several have reported this. If only BioWare has listen to its community and actually done something about it - they could have avoided all this. But I'm not saying anything new.

 

What I want to say to BioWare is this: Stop with this garbage about character transfers. I am a guildleader and I am not fond of leaving something I have worked 6 months at building. Its equity that myself and my guildies have built up. We're not oppsed to going to another server...what we are opposed to are these tranfers that will break us up.

 

We want MERGERS, not transfers.

 

Thank you.

[Ashlian]

LOL yeah sony has always been that way, they were that way in EQ1, they never said anything to anyone, but they also didnt have any messes this big that i can remember.

 

Perhaps you didn't play Planes of Power at launch? SOE released the Plane of Time....uncompleted. A little google search on my part turned up this review on Gamespot http://www.gamespot.com/everquest-the-planes-of-power/user-reviews/178869/platform/pc/

 

I linked the entire review because the expansion as a whole actually got over an 8 out of 10. But listen to this:

 

The ugly:

 

Unfinished zones: SOE released the PoP and it wasn't exactly finished. SOE didn't expect guilds to be able to fly through PoP at the speed some of them did and it caused some issues later on.

 

Bugged boss encounters: Like every expansion SOE has released the encounters with many bosses were loaded with bugs and pathings issues. They were eventually fixed but getting your raid that spent the past 3 hours working towards a boss encounter wiped out because the boss fell under the ground and can't be hit is a bit frustraiting.

 

Does this sound familiar? Except that the Plane of Time was actually NOT finished when SOE released PoP. As in the advertised endgame content was not in the game at all. I believe Furor of the Fires of Heaven guild wrote an open letter to SOE threatening to take his guild to go beta WoW. He later became a lead world designer for WoW.

 

It amazes me that no one ever remembers the controversies that rocked the gaming world at the time.....OMGZOR, FoH is leaving for WoW! One of the two best of the best EQ1 guilds, a guild leader everyone on my server knew by name (and FoH was not on our server.....the other best of the best guild, Afterlife, was), with the power to garner an actual response from Brad McQuaid. Classic. EQ1, EQ2, WoW, etc.....they've all had just as many growing pains and fubar moments as SWTOR. People just choose to forget them.

[Ashlian]

The server that I play on, Elysium, is one of the "light" population servers. While its not as bad as some servers (my sympathies to those playing on those servers), PVP has incredibly long wait times, no one is buying ANYTHING from anybody, and even levelling alts are boring there is no one else around around my level. This is nothing new. Several have reported this. If only BioWare has listen to its community and actually done something about it - they could have avoided all this. But I'm not saying anything new.

 

What I want to say to BioWare is this: Stop with this garbage about character transfers. I am a guildleader and I am not fond of leaving something I have worked 6 months at building. Its equity that myself and my guildies have built up. We're not oppsed to going to another server...what we are opposed to are these tranfers that will break us up.

 

We want MERGERS, not transfers.

 

Thank you.

 

I agree completely with losing equity that you've built up, regarding legacy and character names. But what's preventing you and your guildies from choosing to transfer to the same server if you are offered the free transfers? All they seem to be doing is controlling the list of servers people can transfer to. They aren't controlling who is transferring that I'm aware of, or limiting those transfers.

[Kekuhaupio]

Sadly i haven't really played in a while. i also cancelled my sub awhile ago. i say this is sad because i really did enjoy playing. i had 3 level 50's in as many months from launch. unfortunately my server was one that's population died early on and it was just too difficult to find people to play with.

 

Will i resub with the new patches coming out? Probably not, while i am a starwars fan, i am not a fanboy. So by the time this game is fixed ill most likely have found another game to fill my time.

 

Thanks for the fun Bioware, i truly wish it had lasted longer.

[Kaonis]

The problem was when launch happened BioWare made way too many servers.. We only need a quarter of what we have now. People should of just been patient.

 

In another word I will resub once they provide me with an Xfer.

 

I think more of the problem was they only had a few servers at launch and added more continuously as others got too full instead of trying to balance out the loads of people better. They just tossed up new servers with no transfers and just said "Ok pick a new server and lose everything you just did! Hopefully you guys won't just gravitate to a few servers and leave most of em dead". This whole incident is a direct result of BW doing nothing to balance out server pops from the start and cramming everyone into a handful at launch and expecting them to fan out and balance themselves out.

[DarthSabreth]

my mains server = Lord Adraas all imp, has no slots available so i re rolled republic alts on kath hound and omg that server is dead. during prime time hours there is max 27 total players fleet and 1 - 8 players on most planets. while i love this game and my main is on a fairly desent population server, my republic alts are on a dead server. it would be really refreshing if they opened up the free server xfers sooner than later.

 

i can definutely see how a very low pop server would give new players a wrong impresion about the game.

[Eommer]

Just a though, Am i wrong to say that if BW Dev spent the same amount of time merging servers rather than merging threads, we won't have this problem?

 

hahaha I love it. pure gold...

[psi_overtake]

I agree completely with losing equity that you've built up, regarding legacy and character names. But what's preventing you and your guildies from choosing to transfer to the same server if you are offered the free transfers? All they seem to be doing is controlling the list of servers people can transfer to. They aren't controlling who is transferring that I'm aware of, or limiting those transfers.

 

I agree as well, but then that destroys a bit of what SWTOR devs say they want to preserve: community. There are people I love and hate in PvP (both of which are good things), and people I'd add onto a raid and people I'd never invite again. They won't do X-server things because they want to preserve community, but they'll allow servers to be broken up with transfers?

 

The players want mergers, and SWTOR's "preserve the community" philosophy would be to go with mergers, too. There are only 2 reasons why they'd offer transfers and not mergers:

1. Political

2. Technological

 

I hope they get over the first one and are developing ways to overcome the second one

[Blavatsky]

Perhaps you didn't play Planes of Power at launch? SOE released the Plane of Time....uncompleted. A little google search on my part turned up this review on Gamespot http://www.gamespot.com/everquest-the-planes-of-power/user-reviews/178869/platform/pc/

 

I linked the entire review because the expansion as a whole actually got over an 8 out of 10. But listen to this:

 

The ugly:

 

Unfinished zones: SOE released the PoP and it wasn't exactly finished. SOE didn't expect guilds to be able to fly through PoP at the speed some of them did and it caused some issues later on.

 

Bugged boss encounters: Like every expansion SOE has released the encounters with many bosses were loaded with bugs and pathings issues. They were eventually fixed but getting your raid that spent the past 3 hours working towards a boss encounter wiped out because the boss fell under the ground and can't be hit is a bit frustraiting.

 

Does this sound familiar? Except that the Plane of Time was actually NOT finished when SOE released PoP. As in the advertised endgame content was not in the game at all. I believe Furor of the Fires of Heaven guild wrote an open letter to SOE threatening to take his guild to go beta WoW. He later became a lead world designer for WoW.

 

It amazes me that no one ever remembers the controversies that rocked the gaming world at the time.....OMGZOR, FoH is leaving for WoW! One of the two best of the best EQ1 guilds, a guild leader everyone on my server knew by name (and FoH was not on our server.....the other best of the best guild, Afterlife, was), with the power to garner an actual response from Brad McQuaid. Classic. EQ1, EQ2, WoW, etc.....they've all had just as many growing pains and fubar moments as SWTOR. People just choose to forget them.

 

Your memory of Planes of Power seems to have been generated from this online article. As noted by your " OMGZOR" your gaming experience clearly beings with WoW.

 

The guilds you mention were not the top EQ guilds and the " controversy " you speak of amounted to nothing more than a minor roadbump in what was the likely the greatest expansion ever.

Edited May 22, 2012 by Blavatsky

[Torcer]

Perhaps you didn't play Planes of Power at launch? SOE released the Plane of Time....uncompleted. A little google search on my part turned up this review on Gamespot http://www.gamespot.com/everquest-the-planes-of-power/user-reviews/178869/platform/pc/

 

I linked the entire review because the expansion as a whole actually got over an 8 out of 10. But listen to this:

 

The ugly:

 

Unfinished zones: SOE released the PoP and it wasn't exactly finished. SOE didn't expect guilds to be able to fly through PoP at the speed some of them did and it caused some issues later on.

 

Bugged boss encounters: Like every expansion SOE has released the encounters with many bosses were loaded with bugs and pathings issues. They were eventually fixed but getting your raid that spent the past 3 hours working towards a boss encounter wiped out because the boss fell under the ground and can't be hit is a bit frustraiting.

 

Does this sound familiar? Except that the Plane of Time was actually NOT finished when SOE released PoP. As in the advertised endgame content was not in the game at all. I believe Furor of the Fires of Heaven guild wrote an open letter to SOE threatening to take his guild to go beta WoW. He later became a lead world designer for WoW.

 

It amazes me that no one ever remembers the controversies that rocked the gaming world at the time.....OMGZOR, FoH is leaving for WoW! One of the two best of the best EQ1 guilds, a guild leader everyone on my server knew by name (and FoH was not on our server.....the other best of the best guild, Afterlife, was), with the power to garner an actual response from Brad McQuaid. Classic. EQ1, EQ2, WoW, etc.....they've all had just as many growing pains and fubar moments as SWTOR. People just choose to forget them.

 

No, it’s not even remotely similar. Plane of Time was the end of high level Raiding Guild Progression, content for an extremely small sliver of EQ within a month of POP’s release. Verant and SOE were pretty darn incompetent at times, but POT is hardly comparable to a low server population problem that literally affects most of the player base and makes it nigh impossible for them to experience multiplayer content.

 

Plus, EQ, for all of its faults, had an excuse for many of tis mistakes – it was effectively the first and had no one to learn from. Every MMO developer since EQ should take lessens from the mistakes of previous MMOS. World of Warcraft’s design was basically EverQuest minus EQ’s asinine design decisions, IOW, WoW learned from many of EQ’s mistakes. TOR should also have learned from the mistakes of previous MMOS, and it did not. This Server Pop issue IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE, the answer is obvious, there is no excuse for not anticipating it since every MMO since WoW has experienced sharp pop decline in the months after release before stabilizing.

[Imperialnavy]

I agree completely with losing equity that you've built up, regarding legacy and character names. But what's preventing you and your guildies from choosing to transfer to the same server if you are offered the free transfers? All they seem to be doing is controlling the list of servers people can transfer to. They aren't controlling who is transferring that I'm aware of, or limiting those transfers.

 

Believe me, we've considered it...right now, we'd have to start all over again...not mention we have 6 bank tabs, sorry - vaults - ad if we're going to transfer - I'd want assurances about our guild name AND a refund to the cost of putting the guild back together again. If this was JUST me, I'd be on a busy server in no time - but I am considering my guildies at this point (who have also worked hard).

Edited May 22, 2012 by Imperialnavy
missed something

[Kllashaa]

It'd be nice to get an articulate response to OP from a Bioware rep, rather than a canned form response.

[Motoeric]

bump for justice

[Desiirea]

Dear Bioware,

I just logged off your game in frustration. I sat in queue for 1.5 hours and got one WZ pop during prime time. Sitting on the fleet jumping around felt like a big waste of time (even though I enjoyed the people I was chatting with). I am not paying $15 a month for a glorified chat room. This is an MMO, and I would like to do something constructive with other players when I am logged on. Supposedly my server is one of the better populated ones? Fix this.

Love, Desi

[Vlizer]

Didnt take time to read this whole thread, but at this point transfers are pointless. Just merging the servers together would be the better starting point. There's like 3 times the amount of servers needed.

 

Not having cross server pvp at this point ? Every guild i've been pvp'n with and against for the last 4 months has unsubscribed with a few stragglers rerolling on either Jedi Covenant of The Fatman.

 

****** game on life support, FFS how does this happen ?

[Quilland]

...

This is a MASSIVELY MULTIPLAYER game, for most people it is not in any way "massively" and for many on abandoned servers, it hardly even counts as "multiplayer." If you don't have the throngs of people on a server, the game is less fun and it will die, as will your profits. FIX IT.

 

Well said, I got tired of playing with an entire planet to myself and my guild could no longer raid due to people leaving.

 

Bioware could fix this and should have long ago. Someone brought up legacy as an issue for transfer, that is a specious argument. The simple fix is refund any money spent on legacy, break the legacy, and let the player reform the legacy on the new server.... simple. as. that.

 

It doesn't really matter to me though, I've already unsubscribed. Came back to check the forums and still doesn't appear to be any official response to the complaints about server population or any official release of information on plans to fix it or any official release on a timeline.

[Drakkip]

Perhaps you didn't play Planes of Power at launch? SOE released the Plane of Time....uncompleted. A little google search on my part turned up this review on Gamespot http://www.gamespot.com/everquest-the-planes-of-power/user-reviews/178869/platform/pc/

 

I linked the entire review because the expansion as a whole actually got over an 8 out of 10. But listen to this:

 

The ugly:

 

Unfinished zones: SOE released the PoP and it wasn't exactly finished. SOE didn't expect guilds to be able to fly through PoP at the speed some of them did and it caused some issues later on.

 

Bugged boss encounters: Like every expansion SOE has released the encounters with many bosses were loaded with bugs and pathings issues. They were eventually fixed but getting your raid that spent the past 3 hours working towards a boss encounter wiped out because the boss fell under the ground and can't be hit is a bit frustraiting.

 

Does this sound familiar? Except that the Plane of Time was actually NOT finished when SOE released PoP. As in the advertised endgame content was not in the game at all. I believe Furor of the Fires of Heaven guild wrote an open letter to SOE threatening to take his guild to go beta WoW. He later became a lead world designer for WoW.

 

It amazes me that no one ever remembers the controversies that rocked the gaming world at the time.....OMGZOR, FoH is leaving for WoW! One of the two best of the best EQ1 guilds, a guild leader everyone on my server knew by name (and FoH was not on our server.....the other best of the best guild, Afterlife, was), with the power to garner an actual response from Brad McQuaid. Classic. EQ1, EQ2, WoW, etc.....they've all had just as many growing pains and fubar moments as SWTOR. People just choose to forget them.

 

During PoP I was in the top raiding guild on our server. Yes Verant/Sony tuned content on the fly (Rathe Council was broken for weeks), but let's not get overly melodramatic about it. The comparison of Po Time to anything in SWTOR is laughable at best. There were multiple tiers to the planes requiring group/raid content to progress to the next tier, facerolling EV doesn't even compare. The fact that content needed tuning to be beatable is way different than only having 20 level 50's on your server at primetime. Hell our guild used to field around 100 people a night when we were raiding PoP.

 

No, it’s not even remotely similar. Plane of Time was the end of high level Raiding Guild Progression, content for an extremely small sliver of EQ within a month of POP’s release. Verant and SOE were pretty darn incompetent at times, but POT is hardly comparable to a low server population problem that literally affects most of the player base and makes it nigh impossible for them to experience multiplayer content.

 

Plus, EQ, for all of its faults, had an excuse for many of tis mistakes – it was effectively the first and had no one to learn from. Every MMO developer since EQ should take lessens from the mistakes of previous MMOS. World of Warcraft’s design was basically EverQuest minus EQ’s asinine design decisions, IOW, WoW learned from many of EQ’s mistakes. TOR should also have learned from the mistakes of previous MMOS, and it did not. This Server Pop issue IS NOT ROCKET SCIENCE, the answer is obvious, there is no excuse for not anticipating it since every MMO since WoW has experienced sharp pop decline in the months after release before stabilizing.

 

Although I agree with most of your post, I don't think anyone was raiding Po Time a month after release... seeing as several encounters (See Rathe Council) were still broken for longer than after that after release.

[Kellour]

Dear Bioware,

 

What do you Metrics say now?

 

Sincerely,

Bored out of my Skull.