Swtor at its highest subscriber level in 3 years

[LordArtemis]

MMOs have changed dramatically since the launch of Ultima Online and The Realm Online in the late 90s.

 

At every stage of metamorphosis for these games players resisted the changes. I was among those players in the early days.

 

I hated the idea that games would "protect" me from harm by removing the danger of being killed, losing everything you had on you, permadeath. I felt something precious was lost, and I still lament that loss today.

 

But I adapted to the changing times.

 

I think we are seeing another metamorphosis coming about in MMOs. Naturally folks will resist that change, but I think folks have to embrace the idea that change is coming, and it will likely take the shape of something we do not recognize.

 

We can either choose to accept those changes, or move on to bigger and better things.

[LordArtemis]

Which is why they reported their revenue as a whole being down 10%. High sub numbers but potentially little engagement in their cash shop. Meaning people are subbed purely because they are being forced to to receive the new chapters and they are being enticed to get crappy tchotchkes disguised as 'subscriber rewards' when they are really 'Future-Sub Inducements'.

 

This would explain all the tinkering with the Cartel market as they keep making decisions (which piss off a lot of players it seems) in an effort to try to spark cartel market participation with minimal real effort/expense on their part.

 

Losing 10% of your revenue over three months is not a good thing.

 

Actually they attribute the loss due to the natural decline in the recognition of Battlefield 4 Premium revenue., not loss specifically in sub revenue or digital sales through online game markets. The report is quite clear on that point.

[DayneDrak]

Which is why they reported their revenue as a whole being down 10%. High sub numbers but potentially little engagement in their cash shop. Meaning people are subbed purely because they are being forced to to receive the new chapters and they are being enticed to get crappy tchotchkes disguised as 'subscriber rewards' when they are really 'Future-Sub Inducements'.

 

This would explain all the tinkering with the Cartel market as they keep making decisions (which piss off a lot of players it seems) in an effort to try to spark cartel market participation with minimal real effort/expense on their part.

 

Losing 10% of your revenue over three months is not a good thing.

 

That 10% revenue loss was across EA as a whole, not SWTOR only, read it again

[Joesixxpack]

The point of an MMO is to make money. Period.

 

Oh the unassailable logic!

 

The point of cars is to make money. Period. That's why 4-passenger cars are sold with only a seat for the driver, bicycle tires, and no gas tank. None of those things matter since it's strictly to make money eh?

[CrazyCT]

Where are these subscribers?

 

Playing the game? Turns out most people have other reasons for paying money than to piss and moan on the forums, and to try to deny the proof that game is doing surprisingly well. :tinfoil hat:

[Unperson]

Playing the game?

 

According to TORSTATUS, they really aren't. Try again.

[EzioMessi]

Playing the game? Turns out most people have other reasons for paying money than to piss and moan on the forums, and to try to deny the proof that game is doing surprisingly well. :tinfoil hat:

 

Pretty sure they meant "where are these subscribers" as in "why does my sever have 35 people on fleet during peak hours?"

[CrazyCT]

According to TORSTATUS, they really aren't. Try again.

 

Sorry, might be my inability to read a graph or something, but where on TORSTATUS does it give you any figures? All I see is a graph that tells me if the server is Heavy or Light.

[wolfyde]

Just out of curiosity I did pay attention to the number of mapinstances with the release of the movie.

 

Only speaking for the Progenitor, I did notice that in December the number of instances for Kaas and Shaddaa rose to 4-5 during peak hours. How much of that can be attributed to the movie release, KotFE, or it simply being the holidays, is of course impossible to tell.

 

In any case, by now the numbers have returned to the 2-3 instances per map that it was before.

[wolfyde]

According to TORSTATUS, they really aren't. Try again.

 

That site claims population numbers, not subscriber numbers.

[Devlyne]

According to TORSTATUS, they really aren't. Try again.

 

You do understand that TorStatus is not accurate, yes? That it only reports Heavy/Standard/Light and not actual population, which can be manipulated by the servers being tuned to hold more or less players. So where a server MIGHT have been showing heavy at launch of KOTFE and then was 'adjusted' to allow more players on it, thus sending it back down to 'Standard' or 'Light'...and that equally, a server that was Standard pre-KOTFE that received a bump in number of players allowed, would now show Light despite having the same amount of players.

 

There was another thread that spoke about this, I can't remember the title, and a particular anomaly that popped up around November where the stats on TorStatus suddenly normalized, showing that BW/EA had probably tweaked the servers.

 

As to why there might not be as many people on fleet, maybe because they're on planets playing or on Odessen. I'm on Shadowlands and there are usually, even during week nights, 3-4 Odessen instances, in addition to 2-3 fleet, and 2-3 Star Fortress. I don't profess to know how many people are per instance, but that at least says there's a little population out there.

Edited January 29, 2016 by Devlyne

[Callaron]

You do understand that TorStatus is not accurate, yes? That it only reports Heavy/Standard/Light and not actual population, which can be manipulated by the servers being tuned to hold more or less players. So where a server MIGHT have been showing heavy at launch of KOTFE and then was 'adjusted' to allow more players on it, thus sending it back down to 'Standard' or 'Light'...and that equally, a server that was Standard pre-KOTFE that received a bump in number of players allowed, would now show Light despite having the same amount of players.

 

There was another thread that spoke about this, I can't remember the title, and a particular anomaly that popped up around November where the stats on TorStatus suddenly normalized, showing that BW/EA had probably tweaked the servers.

 

As to why there might not be as many people on fleet, maybe because they're on planets playing or on Odessen. I'm on Shadowlands and there are usually, even during week nights, 3-4 Odessen instances, in addition to 2-3 fleet, and 2-3 Star Fortress. I don't profess to know how many people are per instance, but that at least says there's a little population out there.

 

It also doesn't distinguishes how much of the population are subscribers, and how many are F2P accounts.

Gotta love it when people try to push something unreliable like that as a fact to support their doom and gloom arguments.

[EzioMessi]

To everyone saying that they're seeing several instances of planets and fleets, is there any chance you could point out to me which servers are healthy and which aren't? Because I had my main legacy on Jung Ma where we were down to 20-40 players on fleet, 2 players on Oddessen, and non-existent queue pops during peak hours, then I transferred my main to Harby and see several instances of most planets and fleet, and regular queue pops all around even as a DPS. Is Harby the exception here and Jung Ma the rule, or did Jung Ma die early for whatever reason, and mpst servers are like Harby?

 

Or am I literally just living the two extremes and most servers are actually in between?

[Callaron]

To everyone saying that they're seeing several instances of planets and fleets, is there any chance you could point out to me which servers are healthy and which aren't? Because I had my main legacy on Jung Ma where we were down to 20-40 players on fleet, 2 players on Oddessen, and non-existent queue pops during peak hours, then I transferred my main to Harby and see several instances of most planets and fleet, and regular queue pops all around even as a DPS. Is Harby the exception here and Jung Ma the rule, or did Jung Ma die early for whatever reason, and mpst servers are like Harby?

 

Or am I literally just living the two extremes and most servers are actually in between?

 

The Progenitor usually has multiple instances of most zones, and so does the Red Eclipse.

[Pagy]

the "expansion" (if you want to call it that) required that people subscribe. for at least one month.

 

of course subs were very high?

[Devlyne]

To everyone saying that they're seeing several instances of planets and fleets, is there any chance you could point out to me which servers are healthy and which aren't? Because I had my main legacy on Jung Ma where we were down to 20-40 players on fleet, 2 players on Oddessen, and non-existent queue pops during peak hours, then I transferred my main to Harby and see several instances of most planets and fleet, and regular queue pops all around even as a DPS. Is Harby the exception here and Jung Ma the rule, or did Jung Ma die early for whatever reason, and mpst servers are like Harby?

 

Or am I literally just living the two extremes and most servers are actually in between?

 

I only play on Shadowlands, so that's where I'm seeing it.

[Surbatu]

our favorite game Star Wars: The Old Republic

 

[Erasimus]

I imagine many are like me. I came back after a long break and subbed to check out the expansion. I was very disappointed with the changes and will be letting my sub lapse. I think I have a couple of weeks left but I haven't really played for over a month now.

 

I hope there are enough people that remain to keep the game going for those that are enjoying the current state of the game, but I wouldn't be surprised if there is a very large exodus of people, like myself, that came back but were not impressed.

[BelenUmeria]

"has grown TO the highest subscriber level in nearly three years"

 

Note, the above statement means that the level they were at December 31st was the highest in nearly 3 years. Not launch month in October. If it had peaked in October and already declined below the "nearly 3 year" threshold, the phrasing would be different.

 

The numbers were driven by 60 day time cards. Subs peaked and then there has been a massive decline. They have even cut cartel market staff now.

[CrazyCT]

The numbers were driven by 60 day time cards. Subs peaked and then there has been a massive decline.

 

Any evidence to back that up?

[Pagy]

Sorry, might be my inability to read a graph or something, but where on TORSTATUS does it give you any figures? All I see is a graph that tells me if the server is Heavy or Light.

why someone consistently needs to swoop in and white knight totally ignoring the facts from torstatus i will never understand.

[ivanhedgehog]

It also doesn't distinguishes how much of the population are subscribers, and how many are F2P accounts.

Gotta love it when people try to push something unreliable like that as a fact to support their doom and gloom arguments.

 

your post actually argues for the doom and gloom rather than against it. if torstatus doesnt distinguish between subs and ftp, and it is showing lower, then the population of subs is even lower than we thought. I am not arguing that, just pointing out what you said. you champion of doom and gloom

[Sarfux]

But according to the people around here, the game is on it's way out the door. Dying and done. I hope those people just start to leave or shutup. It's getting old with constant negativity and doom and gloom. Very annoying. This is great news and the game just keeps getting better and bigger. Regardless of what the negative posters say. It's only a handful of them any way. This is great news. I can't wait for the stuff to keep coming.

 

Negative people will always find something bad about something. Even great news. But that's the nature of their minds. Can't change it. This is great news and no, game is not going anywhere, it's not dying, it's not going to die, people aren't leaving in masses despite what you think in your heads and it will continue to get bigger and better as the years go on.

 

Listen, I know it's not what YOU WANT, but regardless of how you think the game is doing, negative posters and people wishing secretly it will die or go away, it's not going anywhere.

Edited January 29, 2016 by Sarfux

[Sarfux]

Yeah there's so much denial about the game's success and given how the responses to this thread are so few I think a lot of delusional people got gut-punched by that wonderful thing called the truth.

 

The delusional people are the ones who secretly want this game to die. The delusional people are the ones who keep going around in threads and saying the game is on it's last leg. The delusional people are the ones that say BioWare has moved on and doesn't care about TOR anymore and it won't last another year. How many times do these people have to be proven wrong before they see past their delusions in their own minds?

 

It's not going anywhere, it's a success, it's bringing lots of joy, happiness and money and it will be around for a very long time. Deal with it. Go play your little SWG emulator, get out of these forums if you can't stand the game THAT much to where you constantly bicker about how "bad" it is and constantly critique it. Then get out. I don't care what other people think how I post. you don't like the game and feel it is not for you. Get the hell out. Because there's not a damn thing BioWare or THIS game can do to you that makes you feel somewhat content in your head. You will always be upset at something because you feel as though the game let you down. Then leave. But staying on the forums and just spreading false things around because it's what YOU feel is not healthy for anybody.

[Neglience]

You do understand that TorStatus is not accurate, yes? That it only reports Heavy/Standard/Light and not actual population, which can be manipulated by the servers being tuned to hold more or less players. So where a server MIGHT have been showing heavy at launch of KOTFE and then was 'adjusted' to allow more players on it, thus sending it back down to 'Standard' or 'Light'...and that equally, a server that was Standard pre-KOTFE that received a bump in number of players allowed, would now show Light despite having the same amount of players.

 

There was another thread that spoke about this, I can't remember the title, and a particular anomaly that popped up around November where the stats on TorStatus suddenly normalized, showing that BW/EA had probably tweaked the servers.

 

As to why there might not be as many people on fleet, maybe because they're on planets playing or on Odessen. I'm on Shadowlands and there are usually, even during week nights, 3-4 Odessen instances, in addition to 2-3 fleet, and 2-3 Star Fortress. I don't profess to know how many people are per instance, but that at least says there's a little population out there.

 

As far as i remember they changed two servers after KOTFE release, so the impact on torstatus should not be that big. But it does not really matter how BW "tunes" the servers as they rarely do it, if at all. That impact on torstatus will occur on a specific day. If you look at torstatus how the sever loads are changing over time, you will get a clear pattern. And that is a growth in october and december followed by decline shortly after.

Edited January 29, 2016 by Neglience