Consolidated Post: APAC/Oceanic Server Concerns

[DonkeyPlough]

Why do Bioware / EA and the overseas merger supporters keep insisting that this is what we wanted? I was never asked and other than a vocal minority on the servers, I really don't believe that most of us were given a choice or opportunity to voice our opinions.

 

A simple poll on login could have created a result that shows they are taking what we want into account, but it seems to be purely financial or whatever is easiest for them.

[iheartnyc]

Why do Bioware / EA and the overseas merger supporters keep insisting that this is what we wanted? I was never asked and other than a vocal minority on the servers, I really don't believe that most of us were given a choice or opportunity to voice our opinions.

 

A simple poll on login could have created a result that shows they are taking what we want into account, but it seems to be purely financial or whatever is easiest for them.

 

I think you're missing the fact that EA, being a publicly listed company and all, is probably not going to care about what a tiny minority of the population wants when it is making a financial and business decision. Any argument to the effect that "majority" wanted this or that is moot since the vast "majority" of the APAC community unsubbed a long time ago.

Edited April 1, 2013 by iheartnyc

[Nommaz]

I think you're missing the fact that EA, being a publicly listed company and all, is probably not going to care about what a tiny minority of the population wants when it is making a financial and business decision. Any argument to the effect that "majority" wanted this or that is moot since the vast "majority" of the APAC community unsubbed a long time ago.

 

I think your missing the fact that EA, being a publicly listed company and all, is quoting that this is what the majority wanted, after apparently surveying us, and has never said it was financially motivated.

 

Therefore by your logic the reason(excuse) that EA have used is moot.

[iheartnyc]

I think your missing the fact that EA, being a publicly listed company and all, is quoting that this is what the majority wanted, after apparently surveying us, and has never said it was financially motivated.

 

Therefore by your logic the reason(excuse) that EA have used is moot.

 

I think you're missing the fact that EA, being a publicly listed company and all, is not going to post on a message board the actual business and financial rationale for their business decisions:

 

Boardroom meeting at EA headquarters - a Musical

CEO: Our stock is plummeting. We have no new games in pipeline. We're screwed. **** why did I take this job??

CFO: Kind master, we can surely turn this Tortanic around! May I suggest a two-pronged strategy of raising revenue AND cutting costs?

CEO: Interesting...what's the play?

CFO: Catel coins so we can offer paying players the gear that should have been in the game at launch, and oh yes, close some more servers down.

CEO: Durrp what's a cartel coin and what's an APAC? Is that like cloud-computing?

CFO: All you need to know is that Cartel Coins are shiny and APAC servers costs a BAZILLION dollars a year to maintain!

CEO: HOLY shut them down! Who's the idiot that opened them in the first place? And sell them COINS!

SWTOR manager: OK, what should we tell the APAC players? That we can't afford it?

CEO: How do you feel about food-stamps?

SWTOR manager: "OK, we will say it's what the community wanted."

 

-Shreds meeting notes

-Lawyers draft meeting minutes stating that APAC was closed due to community demand; drafts public filings stating that EA in its grand wisdom managed to save even more costs returning even more capital to its shareholders!

-Stock rises (which it did last week)

-Eric posts on forums

-Eric gets flamed

 

/end

 

There you go.

Edited April 1, 2013 by iheartnyc

[chriscshunter]

Hardly, there are atleast 743 ppl who agree with me and I'm certain there are many more that would atleast prefer this option but are willing to accept it, not to mention those that are still unaware of this change.

 

That petition doesn't mean jack. There are people that do not support a merger.

A few examples:

Point 2 is not entirely correct, there are many who are not in favour of a server merge

/signed

and point 2 is not totally true, change it

Unfortunately cross server content may not ever be an option now that they have mega servers. I'd like the option to move either another AP server or back to the US West servers.

At least for Gav Daragon a marge is not what the majority wants, optional transfers for those who are disgruntled is a good idea, but I'm posting to say not everyone wants this:

With 80 active members on Gav Daragon who are not suppoting the merge,

Uulic from Dawn.

/signed

Provide an option to transfer our characters back to the US servers

/signed

As much as I love pvp server with low ping, without a population it kind of makes it pointless

/support

Give the people an option at APAC servers who want to move back to US servers to free transfer away.

If that happens, I might return to play, now is just wasting my time. (an unsubscripted APAC player)

And thats only the first 4 pages of people. So you see there are plenty of people who do not support the merger idea.

 

The point here is there is always going to be people who complain no matter what. If they had said they were going to merge servers there would be people complaining about it not being a PVP or RP server, and there would be a petition for that. It's a lose lose no matter what. Cry about it all you want but your wasting your time. There is no point to be made and no battle to be won here. Face the lesser of 2 evils and move on or move away, cuz it is what it is...

 

I only see two options:

 

1) Consolidate all of the APAC servers into a single server.

Pros: Good latency

Cons: Which server type (PvE, RP, PVP, RP-PVP) for the single server? Bound to piss off some customers who are forced into something they do not want.

 

2) Merge APAC servers back to US West

Pros: Everyone keeps their server type

Cons: Back to bad latency.

 

This is a difficult choice which will inevitably lead to one group of people being happy and another being pissed off. I can see why Bioware hasn't done anything about it yet because they can't win no matter what they do.

This guy was/is on the money, and this post was from September...

Edited April 1, 2013 by chriscshunter

[Nommaz]

This guy was/is on the money, and this post was form September...

No he wasn't he forgot an option:

 

Option 3: merge all APAC servers and give the option for those that want to come from NA servers that missed it last time the option, also the option for those that particularly want to go to NA PvP/RP that option.

 

Trial for 6 months.

Option 3 keep's everyone happy.

[gurneyslabb]

The ping is the real killer for those who like to pvp and want to do rated warzones

best you can hope for is 200 but most of the time will be above and beyond, people can try and play it off as nothing but in reality it really is when vs with people with less then 50

if theres enough call for one apac server Bioware should at least consider it, especially considering how close the elder scrolls are close to release and current mmos with not near as much latency issues serverside

Edited April 1, 2013 by gurneyslabb

[soneil]

1. Will we be able to keep our legacy name and level?

2. Will we be able to keep our guild name and vault?

3. Will there be a way to transfer an entire guild at once during the 'select your server' phase?

4. Will you make some form of exception for names having to change? such as longer played time gets preference, or subscriber names get preference over F2P names?

5. If we have additional character slots unlocked on our APAC servers, will that unlock carry across during the merge? some of us have 16-20 characters.

6. Will the transfer cause downtime in character or account availability? If so, how long could we expect?

7. Why do kids love the taste of Cinnamon Toast Crunch?

 

We can kinda assume based on how things went for the US server merges. Based on that:

1. Legacy name you pick when you start on the new server just like when you first get your legacy name in game. If the name's already taken I don't think it's a problem since I don't think legacy names have to be unique any more like character names do. Not sure if legacy experience carries across. I'm max legacy level.

2. as long as the guild name isn't already taken. Guild vaults aren't transferred but on the new server you can have them restored if you request it from customer service.

3. I think guilds need to be re-formed on the new server.

4. Not sure.

5. Not sure.

6. When people from my old server were merged with another server, the change for most people look less than half an hour from the time they started the process.

[soneil]

No he wasn't he forgot an option:

 

Option 3: merge all APAC servers and give the option for those that want to come from NA servers that missed it last time the option, also the option for those that particularly want to go to NA PvP/RP that option.

 

Trial for 6 months.

Option 3 keep's everyone happy.

 

And option 3 isn't really an option. We managed to get 3 servers supported for a year. If that's not turning out to be cost effective then I don't know how all that expense in maintaining a single server is going to be cost effective. It just isn't going to happen. Bioware have no doubt done the math and realised that even if a combined server had enough population now, how long would that still be viable for?

 

It's about cost, and we're not worth the cost to them. They say it's about player experience which is largely bull but it's about cost. People will unsubscribe because they won't like the increased ping but I'm sure they've planned for that also.

 

Personally, I'd rather play on a server with a bit of increased ping and have to more be careful about timing interupts on nightmare pilgrim etc - than to play on a server where I can no longer get enough people for that sort of content in the first place.

Edited April 1, 2013 by soneil

[frose]

When are transfers opening?

[SalviusAurelius]

did you also consider how many of us will be unsubbing? ping>population

 

You maybe. But I'm staying. More population = GOOD!

[RandomState]

Option 3: merge all APAC servers and give the option for those that want to come from NA servers that missed it last time the option, also the option for those that particularly want to go to NA PvP/RP that option.

 

Option 3 should be "Provide a character transfer service that is controlled by the account holder to move from any server to any server." For free or for Cartel Coins, I don't give a ****. But then people who want to move to US because of low PvP pop can, people who want to move toons from US to APAC for better pings can, people who don't want to move from APAC because they are happy with the situation or want to keep their names can, people who want to move from RP, PvP to PVE or vice versa can, WIN, WIN, WIN, WIN, WIN.

[keitzy]

To run a server box in Australia does not cost much at all. http://www.serversaustralia.com.au/dedicatedservers.php

There is no specific APAC customer service and the APAC servers have less downtime than the US servers so it is clearly not an issue of cost as they are making a profit not losing money.

[xxpcwizardxx]

If Not about money then they just don't want to deal with the Apac server in terms of maintenance.

 

But Eric can you please give us an update on what's going on with the apac merger Because realm like The Harbinger on the west coast server is crashing with the population that it has already?

 

Thanks

[MrRuck]

Can we please get a reply on how names are being handled? Edited April 1, 2013 by MrRuck

[aSpitefullRetort]

I don't care about compensation; the guilds we have worked so hard on over the past year and months being disassembled purely for population is not acceptable when our guilds have healthy population. Guilds better transfer with us, or we don't transfer at all.

 

Screenshots are also a great idea. I'll be right on that.

 

Yup compensation I was referring too was enough credits for a registered GM to reform a guild, and pay for ALL the bank tabs held prior, the gear is fine we can remove that prior, but after spending millions on tabs, people tend to get a bit edgy, especially if no one in official capacity is saying anything, and in-game tickets are regurgitated cut and paste notes.....by the way we're shutting APAC servers and moving you...happy Easter, see you after the holidays.....

[XXFEZXX]

This is so much BS

 

People who say that ping don't matter are internet retarded. I've been playing on bastion since the announcement

and the ping is sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.ooooooooooooooooooooo **** it's not funny...

I've lost all intrest in the game it's killed every thing i like about the game...

 

I feel Smashed.....

Force Leap.. Force Sweep..... wait now.....................

 

I HATE YOU...... I HATE U....... I HATE U...... I HATE U

 

BAD FORM BIO

[chriscshunter]

I will level with you that EA has never cared about their customers so long as they are pocketing their money. In this instance the higher ups said, they aren't making enough from you guys over there so they canned any chance of a server being over there and are squeezing as many people as possible into other servers.

 

Granted they will say its for the players best overall experience, when its really about the complete interest in their share holders and investors. That's just the nature of this beast called EA, it eats up smaller good companies and squeezes the money out of their loyal fan base.

 

That's why I am a big fan of private gaming companies that don't have to listen to people trying to turn gaming into profit, but into an amazing experience for people like Valve Software, because Valve assumes a good game and happy customers are an automatic sign of profit. It's a refreshing feeling being exciting buying a game and knowing its going directly to the company and the people that worked on the games rather than the money bottle-necking at the CEO's and the rest trickling down to the real workers and programmers and then when they don't have enough to go around at the bottom they lay them off. That's exactly how EA is...

 

Also the reason for slow and almost uncommunicative customer support for the questions people have is the fact that they honestly can't answer them without going to the top and asking them how they want to do it first. To which the reply, "How the **** should I know? Release another cartel pack to distract them and help pay for my private flight to Thailand and I'll let you know when I get there while I'm stoned"

 

If you have ever been in the military you would understand this structure.

 

In conclusion, the people holding up the structure genuinely care about the game or at the very least their jobs, but they don't get to make the decisions. The people that have million dollar lifestyles make the decisions, and you can safely assume every single one of their decisions is going to be directly related to making money and nothing to do with whats best for the customer, because whats best for the customer costs too much for them to care. They only see price tags and then pay customer support to make up for lack thereof. The people at the top are not required to be programmers or gamers, they are required to be businessmen and operate a company, so they will run a gaming company much in the same as if they were running a toilet paper factory... marketing and selling as many units as possible.

Edited April 1, 2013 by chriscshunter

[soneil]

I've often felt it's a shame that such an awesome game that I enjoy so much, is owned by a company that I'm despising more and more all the time. Most of the things that I don't like about this game are directly due to the corporate who gives a *** about customers attitude of EA.

[ZakStormborn]

No he wasn't he forgot an option:

 

Option 3: merge all APAC servers and give the option for those that want to come from NA servers that missed it last time the option, also the option for those that particularly want to go to NA PvP/RP that option.

 

Trial for 6 months.

Option 3 keep's everyone happy.

 

This, OMG. This is the option that BW should have tried, before forcing us to merge with the US servers.This was suggested to BW a multitude of times in this very thread, before and after they asked for options.

 

By not offering this as the first attempt at a solution they make people beleive all the bad press, and shows that they are looking at the easy fix over Customer satisfaction first.

[ChuangTzu]

That petition doesn't mean jack. There are people that do not support a merger.

A few examples:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And thats only the first 4 pages of people. So you see there are plenty of people who do not support the merger idea.

 

The point here is there is always going to be people who complain no matter what. If they had said they were going to merge servers there would be people complaining about it not being a PVP or RP server, and there would be a petition for that. It's a lose lose no matter what. Cry about it all you want but your wasting your time. There is no point to be made and no battle to be won here. Face the lesser of 2 evils and move on or move away, cuz it is what it is...

 

 

This guy was/is on the money, and this post was from September...

 

Nice try! Get another 740 of those then you might have a case.

 

Edit: try another 750 now.

Edited April 1, 2013 by ChuangTzu

[ChuangTzu]

No he wasn't he forgot an option:

 

Option 3: merge all APAC servers and give the option for those that want to come from NA servers that missed it last time the option, also the option for those that particularly want to go to NA PvP/RP that option.

 

Trial for 6 months.

Option 3 keep's everyone happy.

 

This.

[Macropodmum]

I will level with you that EA has never cared about their customers so long as they are pocketing their money. In this instance the higher ups said, they aren't making enough from you guys over there so they canned any chance of a server being over there and are squeezing as many people as possible into other servers.

 

Granted they will say its for the players best overall experience, when its really about the complete interest in their share holders and investors. That's just the nature of this beast called EA, it eats up smaller good companies and squeezes the money out of their loyal fan base.

 

That's why I am a big fan of private gaming companies that don't have to listen to people trying to turn gaming into profit, but into an amazing experience for people like Valve Software, because Valve assumes a good game and happy customers are an automatic sign of profit. It's a refreshing feeling being exciting buying a game and knowing its going directly to the company and the people that worked on the games rather than the money bottle-necking at the CEO's and the rest trickling down to the real workers and programmers and then when they don't have enough to go around at the bottom they lay them off. That's exactly how EA is...

 

Also the reason for slow and almost uncommunicative customer support for the questions people have is the fact that they honestly can't answer them without going to the top and asking them how they want to do it first. To which the reply, "How the **** should I know? Release another cartel pack to distract them and help pay for my private flight to Thailand and I'll let you know when I get there while I'm stoned"

 

If you have ever been in the military you would understand this structure.

 

In conclusion, the people holding up the structure genuinely care about the game or at the very least their jobs, but they don't get to make the decisions. The people that have million dollar lifestyles make the decisions, and you can safely assume every single one of their decisions is going to be directly related to making money and nothing to do with whats best for the customer, because whats best for the customer costs too much for them to care. They only see price tags and then pay customer support to make up for lack thereof. The people at the top are not required to be programmers or gamers, they are required to be businessmen and operate a company, so they will run a gaming company much in the same as if they were running a toilet paper factory... marketing and selling as many units as possible.

 

Well said, unfortunate but true. Lets hope all the cancelling subs speak $$$ to them

[jackdaley]

Hi Everyone!

 

How was everyone's easter holiday? Mine was good I spent the weekend with family, eating chocolate and playing on dalborra enjoying the X2 xp weekend and low ping during pvp matches

 

It really does make me upset as our servers are going to get the shaft and dismantled because at the end of the day EAWARE have made their decision and it's final, and there's not anything we can do about it i.e signing a peition with unrealistic expectations or organising server events just for the sake of proving to EAWARE one server can be populated and healthy! (little do we know once said event is over the server pop will fade back into obscurity)

 

R.I.P APAC SERVERS!

Edited April 1, 2013 by jackdaley

[Shamitt]

Just returned to the game did not keep up with the forums at all,Then what a surprise EA strikes again.

Had stopped play on a US server because of the high lag rate.Re rolled on an Oceanic one and started to enjoy the game with little lag and not having my toon dead before I could fire a shot in anger it was great not looking forward at all to the change.Once more thinking hard about leaving .