Is TOR on an upward trend?

[Sarfux]

I believe so. I have seen many new players. Starting zones are packed. Optimizations to the engine are happening mostly every little patch in between the big ones. People have the things they mostly want. People like playing together in this game. LFG is in which people really wanted bad. It doesn't lag as bad as it did back even a month ago. Things are really shaping up animation wise and all that. They keep on making things look better, have a better feel and overall better stability for the game and it's players.

 

I believe what they did with the server transfers is very good to. It has gotten more people playing together since that is what an mmo is. You have hundreds of people on starter planets, hundreds on fleet and the warzones not even giving a hassle. There is ALWAYS a queve for them. I never wait more than 5 min. That is unless its 5:30 am on a monday morning Raising the cap and putting tons of people on the few servers they have was a GREAT thing and I think they aren't even done yet. They are going to make them even bigger I believe and keep on adding more optimization to the engine and servers so LOTS more people can play together.

 

I really think this game is shaping up to be very solid for 6 months out. You look at other games and they don't have as many features as TOR. Companions, Crew, Crew Skills, Quick Travel, Space mini game, voice acting with 8 different stories along with real time decisions that are a lot of fun to do, the group system that picks the random number to let your character speak. This game will continue to gain steam and get very nice updates and additions. It is a very fun, exciting, great game. Overall I think most people like it. Yes there will be those who just WANT to see it fail for some odd reason, but the love of the game goes far beyond what the trolls think. SWTOR will continue to grow, prosper, see light, and see changes come in the form of them listening to us more. This is their first mmorpg and I think they are doing a DARN good job with it!

 

I think more people are starting to recognize the things that are coming into the game and will return. Word of mouth will get out, already has by the forums I see, and people will flock to the game once again.

 

TOR is not on a downward trend. It's on an upward trend.

 

Rome wasn't built in a day

May The Force Be With You!

Edited July 18, 2012 by Sarfux

[Baphomet_x]

just wait until the raise of the lvl cap,the adding of makeb and hk 51,and so on...also the advertising to match...

 

the increase will be phenomenal

[DDSilver]

Think that might be due to people playing for free to level 15?

 

Its too early to tell, but I agree that the game is shaping up nicely.

Indeed I have almost all features I wanted when the game launched (where are my extra characterslots grrrrr) and the only way seems up now.

[LtGeneralGezlin]

I'd say the TOR...Bus(?) is clearing the potholes and bumps in the road and is back on the highway. I'm always happy for more players. And with some of the awesome stuff coming. *Cough HK-51 *Cough* I hope things are going to only get better.

[Crezelle]

if the ammount of noobs ive seen on the group finder indicates anything... its theres still a lot of noobs coming in

[Theology]

Nope.

[Baphomet_x]

Nope.this game isnt bland enough for my tastes,more bland please,better yet,i want world of warcraft blandness

 

then why do you play?

[Slowpokeking]

I hope so, and then they open some of the locked servers once the current available ones are full enough.

 

Right now I spend half of my game time to help newbies.

[KyaniteD]

Yeah the start zones are full with trial players. The other day I was helping a guildie level an alt and I tried to trade/give away all the blues and greens I had collected on Korriban and every single toon I tried to trade with got me the message "trial accounts are not eligible for trade" or something like that.

[Goretzu]

Too early to say.

 

I think the server merges have probably stablised things (although activity levels have dropped since just after the merger, that might just be play time, with subs not dropping).

 

However growth is a different kettle of fish altogether, and to be honest probably not one we'll see without some serious updates to the game (3D Space, RvR, OPvP, etc., etc.).

 

 

 

And the really big question is how many subs were lost between the 1.3m number and server mergers.

Edited July 18, 2012 by Goretzu

[Lyaise]

Well, as a returning player I hope so.

 

There will always be the people who are totally positive about the game, sometimes ignoring the issues that contributed to the decline in player numbers.

On the other side of the coin, there will be people who where disappointed with the original game, and now act like a spurned lover full of spite about it.

 

Large increases in players tend to happen at certain times, launches, expansions, or when a game goes ftp. Other times the developers must continually work to maintain and if possible, gradually grow the numbers.

 

swtor burnt a lot of people after launch. Because of this it will need to consistently produce new content to show players that the developers have learnt lessons and are totally committed to putting the resources in for improvements.

Advertising these improvements is good, but carefully. The game was predictably hyped to the roof before launch, and people seeing the same type of promotion may be cynical about this.

 

Let the developers walk the walk first - get the new content out there, get it working well, then do it again. Some discreet advertising won't do any harm then, and word will get around anyway on the mmo grapevines.

[VegaPhone]

It is on am upward trend with new interests, but I believe the end game needs to be addressed for pvp.

 

The gear advatnage is discouraging to someone who would want to make other pvp characters and then no be able to be competitve with them becuase of playing alts instead of playing one character.

 

I think the gear progresion for ops/FP is splendid. The ops are fun as well. People jsut need to play with a well informed guild, players who take the time to know the mechanics, have good gear, and of course the skill to boot.

 

So pvp, and other needed features such as pvp mini games like Pazaak, swoop racing, and 3d space combat would be huge for this game.

 

Swtors future will need these new things, and making more WZs, and Ops will be great... but for example having large BGs would help to make the pvp grind feel as a disadvantage when groups are large enough that it is more of the sum of its parts rather than individuals which can be the case many times in WZs, which is a nice thing of its own to have something about skill rather than zerging, but then the gear is more of a problem/concern.

Edited July 18, 2012 by VegaPhone

[randalthorr]

1.3 was good for the game. Loving it before, after and forever

[Fornix]

There's been a slow upward trend if we look at the xfire data:

http://www.xfire.com/games/swtor/Star_Wars_The_Old_Republic/

 

It peaked 10k hours played again over the weekend and has slowly been increasing. About a month or 2 ago there were still playtimes of just over 5k hours recorded.

 

Of course xfire isn't a great parameter as it's just a very selective group of players who use it, but it's better than nothing .

 

Torstatus.net also indicates a good increase in server population, however due to the server merges and their change of graph displays it's a bit hard to judge whether there's been a pop increase or not.

 

 

We'll see soon with the EA investor's call data I suppose.

[Razot]

Upward only if you are upside down..

*pulls up and smacks right into ground*

[Cordelia]

The trouble is some big names will be coming out soon, we have Guild Wars 2 which I think many people will at least try out. Then despite what many think about Pandas, we have Mists of Pandaria later in the year. A WoW expansion always pulls back massive amounts of former players and this time it has a new continent, race and class.

 

As someone mentioned I think only some big announcements like changes to space, for example, would give TOR a big boost in new players. The reason there are large numbers of people in the starting zones is down to the trial and also the fact a huge number of servers have been condensed into 20. The trial numbers are good as hopefully it will get more people interested in subbing but I think it's too soon to say the game has turned a corner.

Edited July 18, 2012 by Cordelia

[BrunoLogan]

There's been a slow upward trend if we look at the xfire data:

http://www.xfire.com/games/swtor/Star_Wars_The_Old_Republic/

 

It peaked 10k hours played again over the weekend and has slowly been increasing. About a month or 2 ago there were still playtimes of just over 5k hours recorded.

 

Of course xfire isn't a great parameter as it's just a very selective group of players who use it, but it's better than nothing .

 

Torstatus.net also indicates a good increase in server population, however due to the server merges and their change of graph displays it's a bit hard to judge whether there's been a pop increase or not.

 

 

We'll see soon with the EA investor's call data I suppose.

 

Torstatus only gathers the server status. The thing is that due to the transfers, the destination servers have been increased on what cap value is concerned. So a "Heavy" status today could be "Full" a few weeks ago.

 

I hope this game grows. I for one, have been telling my friends about the game and how they can try for free. I believe some of them might even purchase and subscribe.

[Sarfux]

The trouble is some big names will be coming out soon, we have Guild Wars 2 which I think many people will at least try out. Then despite what many think about Pandas, we have Mists of Pandaria later in the year. A WoW expansion always pulls back massive amounts of former players and this time it has a new continent, race and class.

 

As someone mentioned I think only some big announcements like changes to space, for example, would give TOR a big boost in new players. The reason there are large numbers of people in the starting zones is down to the trial and also the fact a huge number of servers have been condensed into 20. The trial numbers are good as hopefully it will get more people interested in subbing but I think it's too soon to say the game has turned a corner.

 

My friend, as soon as a company releases something I am SURE bioware will release an EPIC video on an expansion featuring more than fully questable planets with open space pvp and warzones in space with more companions in ADDITION to the big content updates. TOR with open space? There goes other mmo's chances

[Alavastre]

The trouble is some big names will be coming out soon, we have Guild Wars 2 which I think many people will at least try out. Then despite what many think about Pandas, we have Mists of Pandaria later in the year. A WoW expansion always pulls back massive amounts of former players and this time it has a new continent, race and class.

 

As someone mentioned I think only some big announcements like changes to space, for example, would give TOR a big boost in new players. The reason there are large numbers of people in the starting zones is down to the trial and also the fact a huge number of servers have been condensed into 20. The trial numbers are good as hopefully it will get more people interested in subbing but I think it's too soon to say the game has turned a corner.

 

I would only be worried about GW2. That is a brand new game, and looks really. It is also F2P, which might not cut into SWTOR too much. As for the Pandas, I think a lot of people got a bad taste in their mouth with that expansion. I don't see WoW pulling in all of their lost subscribers. If it's my guess, it will go up a bit, and then just head back down. There seems to be an appetite for new MMO's. But you never know. It may be fun being a panda, and playing pokemon on WoW.

[Oobob]

I would only be worried about GW2. That is a brand new game, and looks really. It is also F2P, which might not cut into SWTOR too much. As for the Pandas, I think a lot of people got a bad taste in their mouth with that expansion. I don't see WoW pulling in all of their lost subscribers. If it's my guess, it will go up a bit, and then just head back down. There seems to be an appetite for new MMO's. But you never know. It may be fun being a panda, and playing pokemon on WoW.

 

You may be right about ignoring the effect of pandas on SWTOR, but that hides the real reason this game will never hit WoWs reported numbers. Most WoW subscribers play on game cards in Asia, which inflate their numbers. If there is any doubt who WoW's main playerbase is MoP answers the question.

 

I couldn't tell you if the Asian game time playing population makes more money for Blizzard than the sub customers in NA/Europe. But looking at their actions, it is clear that Blizzard is targeting players in Asia, which makes me think that NA is not their prime market, or at least not a market they are looking to expand in.

 

That or they figured MoP would help them in Asia while not having the same negative reaction in NA/Europe that people are reporting, though I'm not sure how well that reaction represents the playerbase as a whole. BTW I played WoW once in BC, this is just an observation that is so consistently overlooked that I feel compelled to point it out.

 

This is also why SWTOR or most other MMOs will never reach those numbers. The game is made for NA/European customers without much of a presence in Asia. It's actually shocking to see a business ignore that demographic in their calculations about profitability with the BRIC crap that's being shoved down everyones' throats.

 

Now I'm assuming bioware looked at WoW's numbers and used this to gauge how much they could invest in development as a result. But I figure they must have done this considering how much they spent on the game.

 

I think this game has a lot to fear from GW2, based on my experiences talking to people. It's a game with more traditional north america content that appeals to PvPers, and with the PvE content so easily cleared at endgame, there's not much else to do here (had HM denova on farm for months now).

Edited July 18, 2012 by Oobob

[Taurusaud]

This game has lost over half it's subscribers and the new competition (GW2, SW, etc) isn't even out yet. Imagine what's gonna happen 2 months from now. The population has been trending downwards since release, they keep announcing that their numbers are falling, so how in the world can you say it's on an upward trend? Wishful thinking I think but look at the big picture man! Constant layoffs, bugs that have existed since launch, no new real news besides a companion who was supposed to be in release anyway...

 

Instead of deluding ourselves with threads like these and placating whoever's left in charge over there (if there's actually anybody left who hasn't been laid off yet) we should be demanding more information about what's going on, when the real transfers are coming, what's happening with all these lay offs, etc...

Edited July 18, 2012 by Taurusaud

[Emeda]

Torstatus only gathers the server status. The thing is that due to the transfers, the destination servers have been increased on what cap value is concerned. So a "Heavy" status today could be "Full" a few weeks ago.

 

I hope this game grows. I for one, have been telling my friends about the game and how they can try for free. I believe some of them might even purchase and subscribe.

 

Have to love everyone who thinks they are raising the caps every day little by little.

 

As for torstatus it does only track server status but it still gives everyone a fairly accurate reading of the population trend.

 

Just look at all the servers and they have only gone downhill. Except when they pushed everyone onto a few servers, thats the only time it has increased but then after that it had decreased again.

 

Yes some servers are still hitting full status but not for as long and not as many. Remember right after the server merges. Opps I mean transfers all the servers but some of the RP servers were full. Now maybe 1/2 hit full.

 

Give it another month and most likely you wont have any servers hitting full and many (just like the asia servers) only hitting standard. Remember the asia servers that there were only 3 of then and they were all full for the first month. Now they are barely hitting standard.

[dalekjs]

Hopefully it is on an upward trend. However, that won't mean much in a month or so, when GW2 lands. I think BW should release 1.4, or anything really, in late August to minimize the effects.

[Terkov]

Actually, server cap has been increased a lot. When I resubbed like 3 weeks ago there were 1k+ queues for my server, and after one of maitainces it totally disappeared - server didn't even hit full.

 

As of pandas... it's funny how ppl connect them with children. From what I've noticed most unhappy posts on WoW forums are posted by kids, who think everything should be cool-dark-evil-whatelse. Nearly all of my guildies (most 30+ yo) like idea of pandas. Maybe sentiment from WC?

 

GW2... tbh I don't care. If SWTOR will survive it, it will mean it's good enough, if it won't, then it shouldn't be alive

 

 

 

Personally I really like SWTOR AND WoW and I'm going to try GW2. As long as I can find group I don't care how much players is there. I remember my first MMOs when I played on server with like 300 players and I was happy. As long as you don't try to compare, there's really no need for millions of players.

 

And don't worry about BW shutting servers. If they want to do it, they will do it, and you can't do anything about it, so play and have fun, instead of wasting mood to worry about things that are above you

[Valkirus]

Actually, server cap has been increased a lot. When I resubbed like 3 weeks ago there were 1k+ queues for my server, and after one of maitainces it totally disappeared - server didn't even hit full.

 

As of pandas... it's funny how ppl connect them with children. From what I've noticed most unhappy posts on WoW forums are posted by kids, who think everything should be cool-dark-evil-whatelse. Nearly all of my guildies (most 30+ yo) like idea of pandas. Maybe sentiment from WC?

 

GW2... tbh I don't care. If SWTOR will survive it, it will mean it's good enough, if it won't, then it shouldn't be alive

 

 

 

Personally I really like SWTOR AND WoW and I'm going to try GW2. As long as I can find group I don't care how much players is there. I remember my first MMOs when I played on server with like 300 players and I was happy. As long as you don't try to compare, there's really no need for millions of players.

 

And don't worry about BW shutting servers. If they want to do it, they will do it, and you can't do anything about it, so play and have fun, instead of wasting mood to worry about things that are above you

 

This is one excellent post.