Server Transfer vs Server Merges and the Great Hypocrisy

[SvnStrSlm]

Can anyone name a game that merged servers in the first year?

 

Rift and now it has 15 very well populated servers and a great community.

[trussasp]

DCUO merged (as well as went F2P) before the end of their first year.

 

Also... as time went on, the increasingly negative tone on the forums was remarkably similar to this place, heh heh.

[Jederix]

Rift for one. Also EA's other debacle Warhammer Online. Aion also.

 

This comment tells me you do not know what a merger is. What Rift did was offer transfers, then close dead servers (I believe this is the procedure they used; never played Rift, just going on heresay).

 

Merging requries a physical merge of the data from the servers, which is a messy, complicated business that is worth much more trouble than it is worth. It is also a bad move publicly, as the Internet would then explode that the game is truly dead on all websites everywhere and good luck getting any new players after that.

 

That is the great debate; those calling for mergers are misunderstanding what a merger actually is. Some will argue it's just semantics, but I think the difference between the two is night a day.

[Kiaxn]

Wow some of you people surprise me in your lack of logic .... WHOLE server emrges are NOT as simple as the click of a button ... it us physically impossible to do a full server merge and if they did ALOT of people would be upset.

 

Like seriously step back and look at the situation

1. Legacy crossovers

2. name crossovers

3. Guild crossovers

 

I can tell you right now that id be upset if I had to rename my characters and half of them were already taken.

 

Just a thought.

[Jederix]

Rift and now it has 15 very well populated servers and a great community.

 

No, Rift did not merge servers. You do not know what a merge of servers is (I explained above). What Rift did was offer transfers, then close their dead servers. This is not the same as a server merge.

[Apocalypsezero]

Because BW and EA are complete idiots when it comes to MMOs. It might be harsh to say, some of you may not like it, but it is a genuine FACT.

 

EA has NEVER had a successful MMO...EVER. Go ahead, google, and come back to me with any MMO they have been successful with.

 

BW are complete greenhorn noobs in the MMO arena....because well...this is their first MMO so naturally they will be idiots....though they wouldnt have to be if they done more homework and actually learned what it takes in 2012 to make a successful MMO.

 

Bottomline....we dont have very smart people behind this project.

 

Wow, I feel pity for you.

 

First we would have to look at what defines success in a MMO, is it an exact number?

Seems everyone thinks its 10 Mil players some days

 

With that said, choosing where you can go is better then being forced where to go.

 

If you remove the 800 pound gorilla(WoW), success in the MMO area takes on a very different meaning. Is SW:tOR successful? Yes, but it can, as any game can, be improved upon. But those improvements won't be to everyone's liking.

Edited May 23, 2012 by Apocalypsezero

[Nuriel]

I'm not sure what are they trying to acomplish with transfers, I play on an Euro realm that once was very heavy and now joined the light club.

 

Out of 91, let me say that again: 91!!! Euro realms, 70 are on a light status atm, in what is considered prime time.

 

What will character transfers acomplish exactly? people will transfer randomly into the few standard+ realms leaving the light realms...empty. Comunities will get split for no good reason.

 

What will you do with the 70 empty realms (on Europe alone) after transfers? shut them down? even if it still contains players that for some reason didn't transfer?

 

I'm not saying transfers are bad, but given the option, realm merges seem the logic solution.

 

I really can't find 1 point in favor of transfers 1st, merge/shutdown 2nd, unless this "Character Transfer Service" you talk about is going to be payed, and you are just trying to milk money from your already "short" playerbase.

If that's the case, it's truly pathetic.

 

In present time, Europe could probably have a healthy population distribution with ~25 realms.

 

Well, I'd do it like that, that I "mark" like your 70 servers with lowest current active population for closure in the future. Some blinking message for all the players (and email to the accounts for those who do not login currently) and make those servers unavailable for creating new characters. All the players would just transfer to the rest and fill them up.

 

Edit: ah, and concerning the question why transfers better than merge? People get freedom of choice of where to transfer to. Let's say I have my characters on empty server x, which is merged with y and z, but I have friends on half-full server A, which is merged with empty b and c and I'd like to go there...with a merge I don't have a chance to. With transfers I do. If transfers are managed properly, more people should be happy with those than with merges, I'd say.

Edited May 23, 2012 by Nuriel

[Wadgod]

character transfers alone in the situation SWTOR is in will solve nothing they will do nothing.

no 1 will want to transfer from an awesome high pop server thats doing well to a dead server and from what i hear they only allowing low-low pop and high-low pop transfers, low-high pop transfer u will have to pay for.

 

Theres no 1 left on the low pop servers to transfer, will be completely useless unless we all transfer to the same 2-3 servers. Then that still leaves the question of the now totally dead servers with no active players left on them what r u going to do just leave the servers active and when new ppl join them all they is an empty wasteland of a game.

 

help us server merge your our only hope

[-Eternal-]

Can anyone name a game that merged servers in the first year?

 

I can't name a game that had needed server transfers or merges in the first year but that is why they will not merge. It will make them "look bad" to investors. Server transfers are more PR friendly.

Edited May 23, 2012 by -Eternal-

[Zyriak]

Seems that most people don't know anything about how transfers work... It's not randomly... And the purpose of transfers is actually to close dead servers to make the chosen servers bigger so actually it's practically the same as merges but the bigger server doesn't have to "move". Actually it solves most problems that merges have.

[Sasheria]

Seems that most people don't know anything about how transfers work... It's not randomly... And the purpose of transfers is actually to close dead servers to make the chosen servers bigger so actually it's practically the same as merges but the bigger server doesn't have to "move". Actually it solves most problems that merges have.

 

bingo!

 

Also transfer allow players to move to the more populated server of choice. TOR can restrict which server people can transfer TO that way they can close off dead servers.

 

A merge will force people to certain server they might not want to play (yea it can happen)

[Jederix]

Seems that most people don't know anything about how transfers work... It's not randomly... And the purpose of transfers is actually to close dead servers to make the chosen servers bigger so actually it's practically the same as merges but the bigger server doesn't have to "move". Actually it solves most problems that merges have.

 

Except for that little business of the player actually having to conciously transfer their character. This is why the merger cries are here; no one wants to actually take any initiative with the problem, they just want Bioware to do it for them.

 

The cries, if they did actually merge servers, would be tremendous because they would only cause more issues than they would solve.

[trussasp]

DCUO merged (as well as went F2P) before the end of their first year.

 

Also... as time went on, the increasingly negative tone on the forums was remarkably similar to this place, heh heh.

 

 

 

Hi all:

 

You can expect something like what I mention above for DCUO, to happen here.

 

I cannot remember how many servers it started with (maybe 10?) because I barely got through the first month I paid for, much less paying for any extra months.

 

DCUO launched in January of 2011, and the server mergers happened around August 2011.

 

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/08/07/dc-universe-online-merging-regular-servers-into-megaservers-this/

 

http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/05/01/dc-universe-online-moving-to-super-servers/

 

http://www.joystiq.com/2011/05/02/dc-universe-online-super-servers-to-address-queue-time-issues/

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DC_Universe_Online

 

 

 

TLDR.... jibber-jabber all you want, this is what you can expect...

[Skodan]

Can anyone name a game that merged servers in the first year?

 

does it matter?

 

really, if you have 20 servers that have an average of 40 players why not reduce that to 4 servers with 200 players on at a time

[JediMasterSarynn]

Rift for one. Also EA's other debacle Warhammer Online. Aion also.

 

Rift, Aion, Warhammer, CoH, Vanguard, EQ2, and likely several others.

[JediMasterSarynn]

I can't name a game that had needed server transfers or merges in the first year but that is why they will not merge. It will make them "look bad" to investors. Server transfers are more PR friendly.

 

This just isn't true. Every game I've played outside of WoW has had server merges (and sometimes transfers as well) within the first year.

 

EDIT: Since 2003

Edited May 23, 2012 by JediMasterSarynn

[Sydth]

please point me in the right direction if this has always been answered.

 

I just watch the 1.3 Highlight video and what little they mentioned about Server Transfers gave me the impression that we can hop around servers as we please.

[Aelflaed]

I just hope they give us a list of destinations servers - a SMALL list - and let us pick the one we want. Mergers should be a last resort. Maybe at some point - not too far off - they should do a mandatory (free) move for those left on small servers, or move those dormant accounts themselves - but I definitely want some say in where I go. Mergers mess that up - and the name/legacy/guild issues would be incredibly annoying.

 

It's boggling to see that list of servers. I can't imagine why they ever thought that was a good idea.

Edited May 25, 2012 by Aelflaed

[LoKiei]

I just hope they give us a list of destinations servers - a SMALL list - and let us pick the one we want. Mergers should be a last resort. Maybe at some point - not too far off - they should do a mandatory (free) move for those left on small servers, or move those dormant accounts themselves - but I definitely want some say in where I go. Mergers mess that up - and the name/legacy/guild issues would be incredibly annoying.

 

It's boggling to see that list of servers. I can't imagine why they ever thought that was a good idea.

 

Mergers are better. They keep the current populations intact.

Edited May 25, 2012 by LoKiei

[Badaya]

Mergers have one major issue that simply can't be resolved in a way to satisfy everyone, names. Who gets to keep their name and legacy name in the transfer? Many people love their characters and their name and legacy name and what happens when someone else has their name on the merger? Who gets to keep it? Who has to rename? It would create a massive nightmare for the devs. By going with transfers you accept the fact that if you transfer you might have to change your name. It saves a ton of anger from players by going with transfers, even if it won't solve all the problems.

[Senatsu]

Transfers highly risk spreading the population even thinner, while merges only make the population more dense. Lots of people are yelling about all the paradoxes with Legacy, but if BioWare took 2 designers, put them in a room for 10 minutes and told them to work it out, then those paradoxes would be solved.

The technology and information to make server merges have been around for a decade, which leads me to believe it's EA preventing the merges because it will look bad, but to be fair the EA name makes the game look bad already and much more so than any server merge could ever do.

 

Mergers have one major issue that simply can't be resolved in a way to satisfy everyone, names. Who gets to keep their name and legacy name in the transfer? Many people love their characters and their name and legacy name and what happens when someone else has their name on the merger? Who gets to keep it? Who has to rename? It would create a massive nightmare for the devs. By going with transfers you accept the fact that if you transfer you might have to change your name. It saves a ton of anger from players by going with transfers, even if it won't solve all the problems.

 

It's quite easy to solve the whole naming issue, just give both players a free name change upon their next log in and if they both want the same name then it goes to the person who logs in first. It's the most fair way of doing it.

Edited May 25, 2012 by Senatsu

[Morrolan]

Transfers highly risk spreading the population even thinner,

Not when they're dictating what servers you can transfer to.

[Grimne_Lothos]

Mergers are better. They keep the current populations intact.

 

the communities that want to remain intact will remain intact even with transfers. People can simply choose to transfer to the same server. Most people in this game however dont care about remaining together since it is normally endgame which develops bonds and this game has none

[Darth_Victus]

I am guessing the OP missed Daniel Ericson talking about merging the servers into a few "Super Servers"

 

Also, server merges are a short sighted solution and in my experience will cause more problems down the road then they fix immediatly.

 

With server mergers, some playes will lose their names and legacy names due to the "native" server already having a player with those names. This may seem like an insignificant issue, but for some its pretty important. Especially when you account that players put time into building their alter ego, and gaining a reputation under that name. Only to have it taken away due to a merger.

 

Also looking at guilds that may loose their names as well. Again, may seem like a small issue to most, but to a fair number it is important.

 

Offering free character transfers before hand to let players choose which server they want to play on with the friends/guildies is a far better solution to start with.

 

Now, what they may do is consolidate what servers are still close to dead after the transfers and then merge them into larger servers before they move on to the "Super Server" set up, but at this point it is just speculation.

 

Just my two credits on this.

[Senatsu]

Not when they're dictating what servers you can transfer to.

 

And what will happen to those servers who are being left? They will be completely empty just wasting power. People who are competitive will be all "f this" when tons of people transfer to their servers, and fanbois will go after them, then we will be back where we started. Seen this happen so many times before. SWTOR has half the number of servers WoW has and 1/10th the population, I would say that calls for server merges. Unless BioWare is going the tricky and troubling route of making everyone server transfer and then slowly shut down the completely empty servers, just to keep EA happy.