Why do you think swtor has population issues.

[Solzean]

I'm in a situation that I assume many others are in...I want to play the game but many friends have wound up server swapping all over the place. I simply can not stand to level a 3rd 50 without knowing what is going on with Server Transfers. I want to play the game but do not have the will to waste more time. Especially considering that I might be told I am server transferring to a specific server and not to friends servers.

[SabreMonkey]

I'm in a situation that I assume many others are in...I want to play the game but many friends have wound up server swapping all over the place. I simply can not stand to level a 3rd 50 without knowing what is going on with Server Transfers. I want to play the game but do not have the will to waste more time. Especially considering that I might be told I am server transferring to a specific server and not to friends servers.

 

This is why I'm hanging onto my dead-*** server (Hedar Soongh) and not taking rerolled shots in the dark on other servers. Which ones will be transferrable? Will mine see a bump in population? For now, although sick of being on a PVP server with no PVP (rare pops and, of course, no world PVP to speak of), I'm trying to hang in there.

 

I know that the general chat chatter on HS is that most of our players rerolled on Fatman, so that accounts for a lot of our population issues. Also, there's been chatter of other games (Diablo especially of late).

 

I'm very hopeful that the server transfer/merge/whatever it ends up being will help. But given the TOR history of promising big things then yanking them at the last moment has me feeling sort of cynical...

[trussasp]

SWTOR gets kind of boring, pretty quickly.

[Demarco]

Personally I think this game is suffering from the theme park model. There is a problem with Theme Park games, you grind up to max level, you now have four options... Dungeon Raid for Loot, PvP for Rank and Loot, Re-Roll..... Or the the ultimate choice QUIT the game. This is the way WoW, GW and SWTOR are built and they all have the same point where a player just gets bored doing the same old same old.

 

The better way to make a MMO is to include Sand Box elements into the game so max level players have more to do that provides immursion for them beyond the options stated above. They could become Master Artisians that can craft meaningful items, Home Decorators, Starship builders and Customizers, Farmers, Speederbike Builders, or Material gatherers. Simular to the way SWG and Everquest did things. There are numerous other games that offer the Sandbox concept as well.

 

I'm not saying SWTOR should be 100% Sandbox but rather a morphed blend of the two formats Doing this would provide deversity in the game, it would offer many players the option to open a whole new aspect of the game to play.

 

Why this was overlooked by BioWare in the game devolopement is beyond me.

Edited May 24, 2012 by Demarco

[Jederix]

It has population issues because it has genuinely uninteresting and unsatisfying gameplay beyond experiencing the class stories.

 

Subjective.

[Blistrich]

Why do you think swtor has population issues?

Because it's a ****** game?

[SarethX]

This is not the game we are looking for. Move along. Move along.

[Kyneris]

it doesn't have population issues, it has a server issues. People are way too spread out amongst over 9000 servers.

[Galbatorrix]

Partly true but that can't be the total reason since there are servers that were Full, Very Heavy and Heavy but they are now just Standard or Light. These servers had no population issue. The simple fact is they are losing subs on many servers and only a handful have a really healthy population. I really began to realize this the last few days when I just sat and waiting for a warzone to pop. My server use to be one of those Full or Very Heavy. Not anymore.

 

So while the servers need to be cut down they still need to find out WHY they are losing people on all servers and I assume that is what the OP is trying to delve at.

 

 

I think they lost the FoTM crowd (power level to 50, burn through end game, move on to the next FoTM) and because of that, over all server pop dropped. Once that happens, even the people that planned on staying will eventually leave because they don't want to start over and they don't like playing on a dead server.

 

 

I think fixing server population is the number one thing that can save this game right now. New content, new features, etc normally only cause brief surges. It's being able to find groups and play with others that will make people stay through the surges.

[Galbatorrix]

Because it's a ****** game?

 

 

Are you just getting in your jabs until your cancelled sub ends or what? It's pretty obvious that you're done with this game now.

Edited May 24, 2012 by Galbatorrix

[JeramieCrowe]

So what you guys think.

 

Personally I think the game hasn't delivered original content but is more a rehash of wow like material.

 

Here's why:

 

The original plan was to open a plethora of servers to make launch go smooth. Worked like a charm. Best launch in MMO history. The next step of that plan was to use the server transfer software BioWare had ready since beta to cull the servers back a few months later.

 

Enter the QA failure: An element of Legacy, probably a "last-minute addition" talked about in TOR's podcast, broke the server transfer software they were going to implement shortly after 1.2. BioWare is now left with a decision: completely pull 1.2 and all its content and Legacy to rework the issue and go ahead with transfers, or leave it as is, and scramble to rebuild the server transfer software.

 

Neither decision is a good one. They chose to leave 1.2 in and rebuild the server transfer software.

 

That left us with too many servers still open way past their intended life span. Which results in LOTS of players with decaying morales, which causes these low-morale players to have decreased tolerance of other bugs and annoying lack of desired features, leading to cancelled subs which further exacerbates the whole issue.

 

The resulting low morale is having very far-reaching effects into the rest of the game. For example, people are thinking there isn't any content, when TOR actually has more endgame content than even Rift did at 5 months old.

 

However, had they decided to pull 1.2 and go on with server transfers, the result would arguably not be much different than it is now.

 

I suspect that's why the QA department is experiencing a restructure.

Edited May 24, 2012 by JeramieCrowe

[Evironrage]

Subjective.

 

All opinions are.

To answer the question, many aspects of the game did not appeal to the majority of purchasers. I am pretty sure box sales were great, initial sub numbers were not bad, but consistent subbers is another matter.

The game is not bad, it just did not live up to the hype BW created. Have to give them credit for even generating this much interest in the game. I know I was jazzed about an SW MMO and it was my primary reason for checking this game out, it just did not deliver all that I was hoping it would.

[Jakarn]

Personally I think this game is suffering from the theme park model. There is a problem with Theme Park games, you grind up to max level, you now have four options... Dungeon Raid for Loot, PvP for Rank and Loot, Re-Roll..... Or the the ultimate choice QUIT the game. This is the way WoW, GW and SWTOR are built and they all have the same point where a player just gets bored doing the same old same old.

 

The better way to make a MMO is to include Sand Box elements into the game so max level players have more to do that provides immursion for them beyond the options stated above. They could become Master Artisians that can craft meaningful items, Home Decorators, Starship builders and Customizers, Farmers, Speederbike Builders, or Material gatherers. Simular to the way SWG and Everquest did things. There are numerous other games that offer the Sandbox concept as well.

 

I'm not saying SWTOR should be 100% Sandbox but rather a morphed blend of the two formats Doing this would provide deversity in the game, it would offer many players the option to open a whole new aspect of the game to play.

 

Why this was overlooked by BioWare in the game devolopement is beyond me.

 

Good point but I think Bioware is starting to look at this through the legacy system, being able to customise your ship driod for crafting is a step in that direction.

 

I think SWTOR still has a good population, there is just to many servers, and as was posted before the reason being is because Bioware listened to the customers and added servers for the launch. I think on the next patch with transfers, Bioware may shut down some of those servers.

 

Also those saying that their server used to be full remember there has already been the oceanic transfer. I play on the ocenaic server and most nights there has been about 200 on fleet, less since D3 came out. I think that is the thing gamers have changed a lot over the years, before if you played MMOs you stuck to the one game. If WOW was your thing you stuck to WOW, I myself hated WOW and played WAR.

 

Now days there are so many good games out there (or coming out) that people are floating between them, D3 has just come out so I think there are alot of people playing that. People these days don't have the time or the spare cash, and are a little bit more conservative with both. Why pay $15 a month if you are not using your account, and you know that your characters will be kept. So you cancel your supscription and go play the other game. I also think there are a lot of players still watching this game and if more things are added for the level 50s a lot will come back.

Edited May 24, 2012 by Jakarn

[kirorx]

it doesn't have population issues, it has a server issues. People are way too spread out amongst over 9000 servers.

 

I had thought this as well, but now i am not sure if this is the case.

 

At launch the servers were loaded with players, my server was pretty much heavy all the time, now it is light.

 

At first i figured, well people were trying it out and so of course we would lose some players...but then something had occured to me.

 

Trying it out? Really? Did I try it out?......Heck no. I bought this game, We all did. SWTOR was not cheap, its was expensive actually. Alot of people payed for collection editions and digital deluxe pakages as well.

 

There was no free ride here, no trial.

The player base at the begining of this game, were committed already.

They, like myself were in this for the long haul from the begining.

 

So what sent them away, certainly after spending 80 dollars or so on a new game people would give it at least 6 months, they were not dropping money on collectors editions just to play Diablo 3.

 

The question now I ask myself is why are people not staying and why did so many leave in the begining, and more importantly, what can be done to prevent more from leaving? Will server tranfers fix the problem or just cover the issue up with temporary server population boosts?

Edited May 24, 2012 by kirorx

[Arkerus]

One reason...

 

They opened too many servers.

 

That's it. It created 80% of the issues we have now. After the "normal" fallout, people on low pop servers couldn't find anyone to run with so it created a death spiral of sub losses.

 

They should have never opened extra launch servers. That was a huge mistake.

 

BUT my faith is there. I am on a light server but I am still enjoying the game. I would like to see merges within the next 6 months.

[JeramieCrowe]

One reason...

 

They opened too many servers.

 

That's it. It created 80% of the issues we have now. After the "normal" fallout, people on low pop servers couldn't find anyone to run with so it created a death spiral of sub losses.

 

They should have never opened extra launch servers. That was a huge mistake.

 

BUT my faith is there. I am on a light server but I am still enjoying the game. I would like to see merges within the next 6 months.

 

Incorrect. They didn't open too many. Refer to my above post.

[Cerdo_hormiguero]

Because a huge, pivotal chunk of the playerbase focuses on PvP. Yet the development team failed to dedicate more than a fraction of their resources to PvP content.

[Esquire]

Incorrect. They didn't open too many. Refer to my above post.

 

Think your right on the money here. There wasn't too many servers at launch. There was the exact right amount. It's been reported that BW sold 2.4 million+ boxes and there is no reason to believe that every one of these sold people did not try the game, all at the same time. That amount of people and servers at launch gave BW the title of "best launch" ever.

 

The problem came up when the gameplay didn't quite live up to the expectations/hype. So people left without subbing after their 30 days that came with the box. That hit the servers. Then, people found gameplay repetitious, nothing really new (you can only really do so much with click on 5 flashys or kill 30 npcs anyway), and the servers and the sub count were hit again. Now the problem remains that end game is very limited, linear, gated by shear difficulty, and all of that has now taken it's toll also. The "new" games are just symptomatic in that they just provided another option for a playerbase that was already bored and/or gated via difficulty and/or population from experiencing what content there was left to do.

 

My ENTIRE guild is now gone. I fully admit it was a small group (about 40) that came over from SWG and the reason that every person left is a bit different to all of them. We lost the 1st ones due to game difficulty. They couldn't progress on their own and did not like the fact they had to ask for help on just about EVERY class quest boss. This seemed to happen more with Jedi Knight classes than everything else. Even the JK forums has thread after thread listing JK as the "hardest" prof to level but the IP draw for this class was probably larger than just about any of the 4 classes in the game. Almost every SWG player who played a jedi over there really looked foward to the class over here for no other reason than dual weilding. It was asked for many a time over there but TOR fulfilled that request. However, when you can dual wield and you still die time after time, it becomes a frustration and the "coolness" factor wears thin fast.

 

At 50, we lost ALL the rest of them. Some due to just shear repetition of dailys, some due to difficulty of HM flashpoints, and others due to crafting was just such an un-needed joke of a system. I don't believe that this guild completed a single HM of all of them and suddenly there wasn't even enough players to even try left. Not many of us played WoW before so the raiding mindset just wasn't there to begin with.

 

What games did we chose to replace TOR? That's kinda a mix as well. A few of us, me included, went back to STO even with it's F2P, NGE-ed, and P2W status. A couple even went to WoW to try that. A few more are waiting on TSW. None tried Diablo. Most all of us spent the large bucks for the CE (I bought 2 for me and the wife) and looked forward to playing this game together as we had in SWG for years. After this, I highly doubt that all of us will ever get together again for a long term situation (years) like we had in SWG.

 

It looks to me that if they do not fix the reason(s) why people are leaving this game, in droves, that their server merges/super servers will just be more of the same. They will thin out by shear sub loss boredom/problems and you guys who are left will be doing this again in another 5 or 6 months.

Edited May 24, 2012 by Esquire

[Xrayll]

Without going into detail just a quick overview of what I think caused it.

 

- Static worlds.

- Too little pve endgame content.

- Too little pvp endgame content.

- Useless crafting profs.

- Broken economy.

- Class balance and class rebalancing.

- Lack of features be it on a character or guild level.

- Broken promises.

- Badly implemented gearcaroussel. ( Lootmanagment, drops etc...)

- Lack of and variety in fluff.

- Disapointment of non multiplayer spacegame.

- No achievements, records that are kept, stats so it doesn't really matter if you play or do not play. ( maybe this belongs with features)

- Repeating planetstories is not enjoyable.

- Too much talking, too little playing in flashpoints.

- The duration of traveling.

- Number and loading time of loading screens.

- Wide variaty of bugs and glitches.

 

There are probably a ton more but these are the first that come to mind.

Edited May 24, 2012 by Xrayll

[GalacticKegger]

Here's why:

 

The original plan was to open a plethora of servers to make launch go smooth. Worked like a charm. Best launch in MMO history. The next step of that plan was to use the server transfer software BioWare had ready since beta to cull the servers back a few months later.

 

Enter the QA failure: An element of Legacy, probably a "last-minute addition" talked about in TOR's podcast, broke the server transfer software they were going to implement shortly after 1.2. BioWare is now left with a decision: completely pull 1.2 and all its content and Legacy to rework the issue and go ahead with transfers, or leave it as is, and scramble to rebuild the server transfer software.

 

Neither decision is a good one. They chose to leave 1.2 in and rebuild the server transfer software.

 

That left us with too many servers still open way past their intended life span. Which results in LOTS of players with decaying morales, which causes these low-morale players to have decreased tolerance of other bugs and annoying lack of desired features, leading to cancelled subs which further exacerbates the whole issue.

 

The resulting low morale is having very far-reaching effects into the rest of the game. For example, people are thinking there isn't any content, when TOR actually has more endgame content than even Rift did at 5 months old.

 

However, had they decided to pull 1.2 and go on with server transfers, the result would arguably not be much different than it is now.

 

I suspect that's why the QA department is experiencing a restructure.

[edited] We're usually on the same page, but I have to disagree with you on this one. Petulant nerd ragers screaming bloody murder about login queues during early access all but forced Bioware to add those 70+ new servers at launch. Had BW ignored them and stuck to their staggered rollout plan instead of graciously giving the mob what it wanted in bulk, this wouldn't even be a topic.

 

The server login queue issue was resolved in less than a month after dialing in the pop caps. But by then impatient rerollers had spread the populations too thin. Then they ultimately bailed, making it even worse. This put the verstoppen on the game's post-release evolution objectives you quite accurately described, forcing Bioware to circle the wagons and scramble to DEFCON 1.

 

But it all started with this.

Edited May 24, 2012 by GalacticKegger

[JeramieCrowe]

We're usually on the same page, but I have to disagree with you on this one. Petulant nerd ragers screaming bloody murder about login queues during early access all but forced Bioware to add those 70+ new servers at launch. Had BW ignored them and stuck to their staggered rollout plan instead of graciously giving the mob what it wanted in bulk, this wouldn't even be a topic. The server login queue issue was resolved in less than a month after dialing in the pop caps. But by then impatient rerollers had spread the populations too thin. Then they ultimately bailed, making it even worse.

 

This put the verstoppen on the game's post-release evolution objectives you quite accurately described. But it all started with this.

 

Yeah, TUXs is forcing me to rethink my stance on that, because I can't, for the life of me, find where I read that BW had server transfer software ready before 1.2. That's what I get for stopping my habit of saving quotes to Notepad...

[GalacticKegger]

Yeah, TUXs is forcing me to rethink my stance on that, because I can't, for the life of me, find where I read that BW had server transfer software ready before 1.2. That's what I get for stopping my habit of saving quotes to Notepad...

Actually, they DID have character transfers in closed beta, and it tested out great. But you were very close with Legacy being an issue because that too was in the works at the time. It simply hadn't reached the alpha stage yet so it wasn't included in the transfer tests. Edited May 24, 2012 by GalacticKegger

[JeramieCrowe]

Actually, they DID have character transfers in closed beta, and it tested out great. But you were very close with Legacy being an issue because that too was in the works at the time. It simply hadn't reached the alpha stage at the time so it wasn't included in the transfer tests.

 

I know, that's what I thought, too, but I can NOT seem to find confirmation on that.

[westrunzil]

So what you guys think.

 

Personally I think the game hasn't delivered original content but is more a rehash of wow like material.

 

 

For me, game content is good and with great potential, SWTOR has population issues beacause of incompetent Bioware staff. They opened 100 servers and there was a real need for about 5-6 in Eu and 10 in NA. Game has many bugs and they didnt do their homework on time. Still much to learn they have. But look at the bright side, soon we will have free to play Star Wars online game

[Ngamok]

So what you guys think.

 

Personally I think the game hasn't delivered original content but is more a rehash of wow like material.

 

Because WoW is an original game, dur hur.