stendarrs Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 I was surprised to hear about the second round of server merges. I was on Corellian Run and was happy with the population. WZ queues were popping fast in prime time and even relative fast off prime time. There were lots of people on both factions and I really had no complaint about anything population-wise. Were other servers experiencing light populations and long queue times? I honestly haven't even had a chance to log in today so I don't want this to be seen as a "complaint" thread. I don't care that much about names, legacy names or even guild names. I'm just happy playing the game. I'm just genuinely curious as to what brought about this latest merge. I read through several pages of forum posts and the developer announcement. I just haven't seen anything that answers the "why?" yet. Anyone? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wodaz Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 I was surprised to hear about the second round of server merges. I was on Corellian Run and was happy with the population. WZ queues were popping fast in prime time and even relative fast off prime time. There were lots of people on both factions and I really had no complaint about anything population-wise. Were other servers experiencing light populations and long queue times? I honestly haven't even had a chance to log in today so I don't want this to be seen as a "complaint" thread. I don't care that much about names, legacy names or even guild names. I'm just happy playing the game. I'm just genuinely curious as to what brought about this latest merge. I read through several pages of forum posts and the developer announcement. I just haven't seen anything that answers the "why?" yet. Anyone? I'm no expert by far, but I believe this was necessary for F2P launch. 8 super servers will ensure larger pops even if this game doesn't succeed?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeSaberRattler Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 If you have the tech to combine everyone onto 1 server why would you keep paying to have 50 others running with 30 people on them. That wouldn't make much sense business wise and having more people on one server increases community play and is a big boost to the in-game economy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SyphonSith Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 I think it was a combination of a few things. I was transferred from Darth Bandon to CR now to Shadowlands. CR's population was not to bad, but I have seen a decline sense I've been there. Especially for off prime time hours. Also servers like Darth Bandon still had people that refused to move and were pretty much dead. PvP que's were not bad on CR for regulars, but Ranked were almost non existent anymore. Many times I've sat in a full group que'd and not get a single pop. The only inconvenience from this move is name changes, which seem like a worthy trade off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stendarrs Posted September 18, 2012 Author Share Posted September 18, 2012 If you have the tech to combine everyone onto 1 server why would you keep paying to have 50 others running with 30 people on them. That wouldn't make much sense business wise and having more people on one server increases community play and is a big boost to the in-game economy. No argument here, but I thought the first merge handled that issue. I guess my point was that I was surprised to see a further reduction in servers. Perhaps I have misunderstood and the purpose of this was to force the remaining holdouts from the dead servers on to new servers so they could officially shut them down. Did the amount of "destination" servers (or active servers I guess) actually remain the same ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wodaz Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 No argument here, but I thought the first merge handled that issue. I guess my point was that I was surprised to see a further reduction in servers. Perhaps I have misunderstood and the purpose of this was to force the remaining holdouts from the dead servers on to new servers so they could officially shut them down. Did the amount of "destination" servers (or active servers I guess) actually remain the same ? No they merged some of the "Destination" servers too..like Canderous Ordo and The Fatman...they are now merged with other "Final" destination servers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stendarrs Posted September 18, 2012 Author Share Posted September 18, 2012 No they merged some of the "Destination" servers too..like Canderous Ordo and The Fatman...they are now merged with other "Final" destination servers. The Fatman got merged ?!? I remember at one point reading that the Fatman was the last chance for success because everyone was rerolling on to that server. Perhaps they did not want to mess with the higher population servers while preparing the MEGA population servers. Strange days... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitewalkers Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 I was surprised to hear about the second round of server merges. I was on Corellian Run and was happy with the population. WZ queues were popping fast in prime time and even relative fast off prime time. There were lots of people on both factions and I really had no complaint about anything population-wise. Were other servers experiencing light populations and long queue times? I honestly haven't even had a chance to log in today so I don't want this to be seen as a "complaint" thread. I don't care that much about names, legacy names or even guild names. I'm just happy playing the game. I'm just genuinely curious as to what brought about this latest merge. I read through several pages of forum posts and the developer announcement. I just haven't seen anything that answers the "why?" yet. Anyone? YES......because its fool people into thinking that this game is not dying.....its pretty sad that people will actually believe it.......*******'s Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeSaberRattler Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 YES......because its fool people into thinking that this game is not dying.....its pretty sad that people will actually believe it.......*******'s What's really sad is people thinking the game has to have 1mil+ subs to be successful. I am sure EA would like that many subs as it means $$$ but if it makes a profit and they can find ways to increase $$$ like going F2P it is successful and is not dying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wodaz Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 The Fatman got merged ?!? I remember at one point reading that the Fatman was the last chance for success because everyone was rerolling on to that server. Perhaps they did not want to mess with the higher population servers while preparing the MEGA population servers. Strange days... Yes a sad day indeed for "The Fatman"....it was merged with Po5. Although it was my first server during early access I heard after the first mergers it lost a large amount of pop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Whitewalkers Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 What's really sad is people thinking the game has to have 1mil+ subs to be successful. I am sure EA would like that many subs as it means $$$ but if it makes a profit and they can find ways to increase $$$ like going F2P it is successful and is not dying. Keep telling your self that if it make you feel better. F2P will not work. Just ask your self why did so many people left after 10 months. F2p players in come in and play and leave just as fast the subs did. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeSaberRattler Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 Keep telling your self that if it make you feel better. F2P will not work. Just ask your self why did so many people left after 10 months. F2p players in come in and play and leave just as fast the subs did. Only people that left were the strict PvP players which are usually the worst players anyway. But pulling this back to the OP this all comes down to making a better environment to play in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andryah Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 (edited) I thought the first merge handled that issue. It was not a merge, it was a voluntary transfer. Not everyone took the offer of free transfer, making the locked servers small little first person ghost towns. This round is a merge, as it was forced and we ALL were moved to new super servers so in fact everyone was exposed to name changes. Edited September 18, 2012 by Andryah Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DeeckTator Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 (edited) Less servers = lower running costs It's not just a population thing. Edited September 18, 2012 by DeeckTator Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andryah Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 Keep telling your self that if it make you feel better. F2P will not work. Just ask your self why did so many people left after 10 months. F2p players in come in and play and leave just as fast the subs did. Freemium now dominates the MMO market place, and all research data shows it will continue to do so and subscription only MMOs will fade into the dark. Bioware could hold out longer, but in fact they made the right decision adopting it sooner rather then later. But of course we both know your complaints are not about freemium dual access, it's that you do not like the game and insist on complaining accordingly in every post you make. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarthOvertone Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 Keep telling your self that if it make you feel better. F2P will not work. Just ask your self why did so many people left after 10 months. F2p players in come in and play and leave just as fast the subs did. F2P certainly will work. In fact, I haven't played an MMO yet where F2P didn't work. According to BW's own customer retention surveys and studies, 60% of the people claimed they would play SWTOR again if it went F2P. So that 60% prefers a more flexible paradigm than a sub to play the game. F2Pers may come and go, however, there will certainly be a boatload more peeps playing this game on a consistent basis after it goes F2P. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistols Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 (edited) I just haven't seen anything that answers the "why?" yet. Anyone? Because the game has been hemorrhaging subs for months now. (Nearly 2 million) ^Short answer. Edited September 18, 2012 by Pistols Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistols Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 Keep telling your self that if it make you feel better. F2P will not work. Just ask your self why did so many people left after 10 months. F2p players in come in and play and leave just as fast the subs did. Agreed 100%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Roxxors Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 Only people that left were the strict PvP players which are usually the worst players anyway. But pulling this back to the OP this all comes down to making a better environment to play in. I sure hope they plan on upping the spawn rates 3x or 4x because right now trying to do BH dailies with 70 people doing them is not a better environment at all. That or pop off a new instance at 25-30 in zone... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scritchy Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 Only people that left were the strict PvP players which are usually the worst players anyway. But pulling this back to the OP this all comes down to making a better environment to play in. Are you really going to say that from the between 700k and 1.2M people that left (at the last investor call) they were ALL PVP players? And on top of that you insult PVP players? There is drinking the kool aid and then there is being so out of touch with reality that you are a danger to yourself and everybody around you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pistols Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 Are you really going to say that from the between 700k and 1.2M people that left (at the last investor call) they were ALL PVP players? And on top of that you insult PVP players? There is drinking the kool aid and then there is being so out of touch with reality that you are a danger to yourself and everybody around you. Lol yeah was humerous to read that as well; silly angry roleplayers make me giggle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LukeSaberRattler Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 I sure hope they plan on upping the spawn rates 3x or 4x because right now trying to do BH dailies with 70 people doing them is not a better environment at all. That or pop off a new instance at 25-30 in zone... You could always group up to get through it as well which is what this should help with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darvus Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 F2P certainly will work. In fact, I haven't played an MMO yet where F2P didn't work. According to BW's own customer retention surveys and studies, 60% of the people claimed they would play SWTOR again if it went F2P. So that 60% prefers a more flexible paradigm than a sub to play the game. F2Pers may come and go, however, there will certainly be a boatload more peeps playing this game on a consistent basis after it goes F2P. LOL. Retention Surveys?? You ask certain questions, and you get the answer that you want. The reality is F2P will have the same issue as subscription. Not enough varied high-end content, and very little re-playability, due to repetitive quests. The hogwash that they tried to give about people not being willing to pay, was clearly slanted. Other games still do well with subs. People telling you that they are not willing to pay a subscription for your game, does not automatically mean the issue is the price. I could list quite a few things that can keep players from staying long-term, that have nothing to do with subs. Not enough class diversity, not enough classes, same quests except for class quest, and I could go on. Burying our heads in the sand to the problems with this game, is what led us to this point, to begin with. In response to the OP, my opinion and suspicion is that subscriptions have dropped below that magical 500K mark, that they needed to sustain. Near the end of August, the first of the 6-month subscriptions started running out. It is likely that numbers warranted this sudden additional merge. BW is a business, and fewer servers means less operating costs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scritchy Posted September 18, 2012 Share Posted September 18, 2012 (edited) LOL. Retention Surveys?? You ask certain questions, and you get the answer that you want. The reality is F2P will have the same issue as subscription. Not enough varied high-end content, and very little re-playability, due to repetitive quests. The hogwash that they tried to give about people not being willing to pay, was clearly slanted. It wasn't just that, he quoted the exit survey wrong. It was 40% said the subscription fee is why they are leaving. Bioware misinterpreted the metrics, slanted it to say that people want F2P and that will bring the masses back when in reality it was people waiting to give them $15 a month to play this awesome game they were hyping the hell out of, only to find out it was an exact WoW copy with linear leveling and nothing to do once you hit 50, except go through the same linear experience (holy cow that is a hell of a sentence). Until that is addressed, F2P is going to do nothing for this game except show people how poorly it was designed. It is just like the server merges, they did nothing to address the reason people are quitting, and even after healthy populations, they fell off again. The fact that people are expecting these "megaservers" to have a different result without any other changes is just insane. Edit: But apparently it was only the PVPers who left. Edited September 19, 2012 by Scritchy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yogol Posted September 19, 2012 Share Posted September 19, 2012 No argument here, but I thought the first merge handled that issue. I guess my point was that I was surprised to see a further reduction in servers. Perhaps I have misunderstood and the purpose of this was to force the remaining holdouts from the dead servers on to new servers so they could officially shut them down. Did the amount of "destination" servers (or active servers I guess) actually remain the same ? No, some of the old destination servers are tranferred too. The game is loosing players FAST (there are now 20% less logins then there were 3 weeks ago, acording to the estimates made), they need to make sure there are enough players left per server. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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