Game has died, Nowhere to go

[Joesixxpack]

Shhh, logic must not be brought into a hyperbolic conversation.

 

Chop logic. Yeah wooo that was impressive.

[CrazyCT]

I will leave when the que pops slow down to a point I don't like.

 

If the queues aren't at a point you don't like, what was the point of this thread?

 

But if it dies off to the point where I have to.......

 

If it hasn't already died off enough, why did you call this thread "Game has died...."?

Edited March 24, 2016 by CrazyCT

[Gokkus]

I do not play that much but I have honestly not seen any decline in server pop or increase of queue time. Not since a lot of people left a month or so after Kotfe was released.

 

Is this maybe different for American and European servers?

 

 

EDIT: also, good post from the person above me. Overdramalamatizing server no one imo.

Edited March 24, 2016 by Gokkus

[MadCuzBad]

If the queues aren't at a point you don't like, what was the point of this thread?

 

 

 

If it hasn't already died off enough, why did you call this thread "Game has died...."?

 

Read it and find out. No wonder your all messed up in your responses. you didn't even read the thread. Go read and stop trolling.

[DarthDymond]

Just throwing this out there re: the TORStatus trends:

 

In Q2:FY16 (June - Aug) EA reported a more than 30% spike in subscriptions, and then in Q3:FY16 (Sept - Dec) they reported that it went even higher, to the highest it had been in 3 years. These TORStatus trends cover Feb and March.

 

I'm not saying a declining population trend is good news, but if it's a decline on the backend of a huge spike, then it's not necessarily terrible news either.

 

A decline like this is how it would look if the population was leveling off back to where it had been - I don't know what the overall numbers looked like pre-June 2015, but they'd been keeping the lights on during that time even with a third fewer subscribers than they shot up to during those quarters.

 

I think it's a bit premature to say that this trend shows SWTOR is circling the drain.

Edited March 24, 2016 by DarthDymond

[CrazyCT]

Read it and find out. No wonder your all messed up in your responses. you didn't even read the thread. Go read and stop trolling.

 

Sorry, went back and read it again, and it says that you think the game isn't dead, even if you think it IS dying, but you called the thread "Game has died".

 

Which is it?

[TUXs]

I think it's a bit premature to say that this trend shows SWTOR is circling the drain.

I never claimed it did. It does signify a trend though.

 

Last year, Harb was nearly twice as busy as it is today. That concerns me far more than anything else.

[TUXs]

This guy is funny. He keeps bouncing between generalities, assumptions, and I-wanna-use-maths when I grow up language to accuse others of doing the same, instead of making points with any sort of supporting evidence.

Gotta love it don't ya? Typical of trolls.

[DarthDymond]

I never claimed it did. It does signify a trend though.

 

Last year, Harb was nearly twice as busy as it is today. That concerns me far more than anything else.

I'm not trying to wade into that specific back-and-forth tangent you guys had going, but this whole thread it's titled "Game has died" - so if these trends are being brought into a discussion of that topic, I just think the larger context has some relevance worth considering.

Edited March 24, 2016 by DarthDymond

[Andryah]

Guys, you can water the stump all day long, but it changes nothing.

 

The thread title here has been hyperbole since the OP launched the thread. Clearly the game has not died. If it had, the servers would all be empty.

 

Now, keep in mind, the OP is primarily focused on PvP... so perhaps to him the game is dead, but it's a narrow and subjective measure of "deadness".

 

As for server activity, you do know you can do a server farm view on torstatus ( http://www.torstatus.net/shards/us for the US servers for example) and if you look under the large graph you will see a smaller long trend graph (with a red window that you can actually expand and place anywhere in the timeline for the last 12-18 months. If you do so, and look objectively, you will note that all that is happening here is the typical post expac doldrums we have seen about 4-6 months after EVERY expac release for this game ever.

 

Also keep in mind they expanded the server capacities in October and as far as I can tell, they never tuned them back down. So, given that current server activity looks to be about what it was in June of 2015... and given they expanded server capacity in October, it looks as though the game activity levels on the servers is probably a bit higher then June of 2015.

 

Of course anyone who wants to make the pejorative declarations that the game is dying (again.. for the umpteenth time in more then 4 years) is free to do so. Just understand that your head is planted firmly in your own biased personal sand box.

 

The one category of server where clearly things have been persistently dead for more then a year now is the PvP servers. No argument. And most of us know that the core reason behind this is that PvPers like a crowd, and with the 90cc server transfers... it's easy to go find the crowd over on a PvE server. So in reality, the PvP servers are pretty much dead by most objective measures, and it was the players themselves that abandoned those servers in favor of more populous and diverse PvE servers, where they can tap a larger population of players engaging in instanced PvP. The core issue with PvP servers since day one is that most PvE centric players avoid them, and the avid PvPers who inhabit them are notoriously demanding and fickle. They have been server hopping in this MMO since spring of 2012 when they all collectively declared The Fatman to be where the PvP is happening. Of course that server too died and declined to the point where it was folded in the last great server consolidation.

 

TL;DR nothing unusual at all about the current population trends in game at expac+6 months. Like many MMOs theses days, many players don't stick around for the long run, they subscribe after an expac, consume, then declare the game dead and unsub.... rinse and repeat... industry wide. Now, one could make a case that Bioware tired to eliminate some of this nomadic behavior by going a new route with story chapters releasing every month or so. Things is.. players are not even patient enough these days to pace and diversify their activities in between chapter releases... so in the end, this effort is probably a waste of time by Bioware (time will tell if they keep the model going, or discard it and move on to try something else).

Edited March 24, 2016 by Andryah

[TUXs]

I'm not trying to wade into that specific back-and-forth tangent you guys had going, but this whole thread it's titled "Game has died" - so if these trends are being brought into a discussion of that topic, I just think the larger context has some relevance worth considering.

 

Titles are like headlines - they're meant to get you to read the contents.

[MadCuzBad]

TL;DR nothing unusual at all about the current population trends in game at expac+6 months. Like many MMOs theses days, many players don't stick around for the long run, they subscribe after an expac, consume, then declare the game dead and unsub.... rinse and repeat... industry wide. Now, one could make a case that Bioware tired to eliminate some of this nomadic behavior by going a new route with story chapters releasing every month or so. Things is.. players are not even patient enough these days to pace and diversify their activities in between chapter releases... so in the end, this effort is probably a waste of time by Bioware (time will tell if they keep the model going, or discard it and move on to try something else).

 

So your ok with the fact that this game is dying off? Or are you saying there is no way because of the industry today that it is destined to be doomed? Because I think WoW would beg to differ I would think.

 

I can tell you one thing for sure, if this game would have instituted server to server que system, I know personally about 50 people that would have never ragequit this game. I would go as far to say that if just that one thing would have been built into this game, the population on most servers right now would be pretty healthy. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think I am.

 

This game did not and does not have to be in the terrible condition it is in right now. Its not the "industrys" fault. WoW would tell you otherwise. I can only speak from pure experience that the reasons a lot of people left this game could have been prevenmted for other reasons than boredom.

[Andryah]

So your ok with the fact that this game is dying off? Or are you saying there is no way because of the industry today that it is destined to be doomed? Because I think WoW would beg to differ I would think.

 

I can tell you one thing for sure, if this game would have instituted server to server que system, I know personally about 50 people that would have never ragequit this game. I would go as far to say that if just that one thing would have been built into this game, the population on most servers right now would be pretty healthy. Maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think I am.

 

This game did not and does not have to be in the terrible condition it is in right now. Its not the "industrys" fault. WoW would tell you otherwise. I can only speak from pure experience that the reasons a lot of people left this game could have been prevenmted for other reasons than boredom.

 

I guess you choose not to read what I wrote and do not want to look at torstatus trend data objectively (within the limits of what is presents). No surprise I guess.

 

It's not dying off (and torstatus data shows this pretty clearly). It is simply moving into it's normal pre-expac lul in player activity that it has done every year for 4 years.

 

Let me ask you this.... Was the game dead in June of 2015? Was it? Because the server activity levels right now are right about where they were in June 2015.

 

I get it.. you want cross server queues. That would be the salvation for the game. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

Edited March 24, 2016 by Andryah

[DarthDymond]

Titles are like headlines - they're meant to get you to read the contents.

And yet OP and others are repeatedly talking about how the game is "dying off" - so yeah, my point that we're not necessarily circling the drain just because the population is dropping off from where it was at just after hitting a three-year subscription high is still pretty apt for the overall thread.

 

You may just be making the reasonable point that "hey, a declining population is never a good sign", but this thread as a whole has plenty of posts saying "DOOOOOOM!!!" - and that's what I was responding to.

Edited March 24, 2016 by DarthDymond

[Max_Killjoy]

I guess you cannot read and do not want to look at torstatus trend data objectively (within the limits of what is presents). No surprise I guess.

 

It's not dying off (and torstatus data shows this pretty clearly). It is simply moving into it's normal pre-expac lul in player activity that it has done every year for 4 years.

 

Let me ask you this.... Was the game dead in June of 2015? Was it? Because the server activity levels right now are right about where they were in June 2015.

 

I get it.. you want cross server queues. That would be the salvation for the game. :rolleyes::rolleyes:

 

He's been saying the game is dead since 2012 -- someone linked to his past posts showing him raging the same way back then, on one of his many spamthreads.

[Thoronmir]

I guess you cannot read and do not want to look at torstatus trend data objectively. No surprise I guess.

 

It's not dying off (and torstatus data shows this pretty clearly). It is simply moving into it's normal pre-expac lul in player activity that it has done every year for 4 years.

 

Let me ask you this.... Was the game dead in June of 2015? Was it? Because the server activity levels right now are right about where they were in June 2015.

As I've said ... too many times, it seems ... threads such as this are best interpreted to include a giant "TO ME" in the proclamations of a game's demise. I have no doubt that SWTOR is dead ... to the OP. An alternative interpretation is to infer that OP uses the word "dead" to mean "not enough people doing stuff I want to do." Which may be true. I neither know nor care what the OP wants to do in SWTOR.

 

"Dead" is entirely subjective in this context. I play every night. I do all the same stuff I've done for years. I see my Guildmates around each day. I don't raid, but I see they are. From my perspective, SWTOR's "health" hasn't declined from what I observed two or even three years ago. If the OP can base his assertion on his personal experience, so can I. SWTOR IS ALIVE AND KICKING!

[MayhemofChaonus]

I have played on Harbringer for 2 years now. I was forced to server transfer off of POT5 (PVP) server because it became a ghost town. 30 minute que times during peak time. After peak time (mornings and late evenings) no que pops at all.

At the time I had a choice. Goto a populated server with que pops and leave my current server. At the time and still is the most populated server TheHarbringer was really the best choice.

The past 3 to 4 weeks on Harbringer has been the longest que waits in the 2 years I have been playing here. And in the past month has been getting slower each week. I play everyday at the same times so I have my finger on the pulse of Harbringer and know it well.

 

TLDR: Harbringer is heading down the same road as POT5 and has an eroding population. Only difference is this time for me is that when Harbringer dies off (and it is rapidly heading that way) there is no "GO TO" server like there was in the past. Harbinger dies, where do people run to? As I see it, there is nowhere to run anymore. We have reached the end of the rope.

 

I think BW should just do a server merge again, only this time make it 3 servers per continent, 1 PVE, 1 PVP, 1 RP for NA then mirror servers for EU

Edited March 24, 2016 by MayhemofChaonus

[robertthebard]

This guy is funny. He keeps bouncing between generalities, assumptions, and I-wanna-use-maths when I grow up language to accuse others of doing the same, instead of making points with any sort of supporting evidence.

 

Really? So you have some facts to support what I'm replying to? What was the trend three years ago? Was it in decline as it's showing now, with an actual lower, likely, number of people? Ask yourself this question: Why only use the last 30 days? Did going back 60 days show a different trend? How about 90 days? What about the same 90 day period last year, or the year before? No data available? It wouldn't support "the sky is falling"?

[Savej]

PvP queues in the mid bracket during prime time on Harbinger were very slow the last couple nights. Long waits followed by 2v3 arenas happened a couple times. I had thought it was just TEH that was bad because that server has a couple premade guilds camping the non-65 brackets, and TEH is still worse, but I've never seen anything like this on Harbinger before. Edited March 24, 2016 by Savej

[lightSaberAddiCt]

JC is about as packed as Harb? ROFLMAO!!!!!! Are you serious or trolling? No I mean really? FYI I have several fully geared toon on JC and it is not even close. Wow man. Just wow.

 

And yes JC is decent at peak times. I wouldn't say it was good, it is decent at best. Off peak times that server is a toilet bowl. It is horrible off peak times. And JC is nowhere even close to how it was last year at this time. JC has dropped significantly from where it was this time last year.

 

If you want to try to hoax someone about JC, you have to do it to someone who doesn't know about that server. Because off peak times it is horrible. And during peak times it is barely getting by. And its getting worse as the weeks go by just like Harbringer is.

 

Yeah now I know your full of it. Because honestly, there is a packed fleet at all hours, with multiple instances, and people calling for OPs, GSF and PVP. Take your trolling somewhere else, because these waters are fished out.

 

And the only one that seems to hoax people is you, with your unsupported claims and wild accusations which for some reason you can't figure out that no one is buying.

[Andryah]

As I've said ... too many times, it seems ... threads such as this are best interpreted to include a giant "TO ME" in the proclamations of a game's demise. I have no doubt that SWTOR is dead ... to the OP. An alternative interpretation is to infer that OP uses the word "dead" to mean "not enough people doing stuff I want to do." Which may be true. I neither know nor care what the OP wants to do in SWTOR.

 

"Dead" is entirely subjective in this context. I play every night. I do all the same stuff I've done for years. I see my Guildmates around each day. I don't raid, but I see they are. From my perspective, SWTOR's "health" hasn't declined from what I observed two or even three years ago. If the OP can base his assertion on his personal experience, so can I. SWTOR IS ALIVE AND KICKING!

 

Indeed.

[Max_Killjoy]

So what exactly does that have to do with going from 3-4 republic instances of fleet down to 1 instance of fleet?

 

Who said it did? That link was a reference to the increase in server capacity, not the increase in instance capacity -- and such was clearly stated, repeatedly.

 

There's actually a bigger conversation going on here that's not centered around your inchoate rage.

[lightSaberAddiCt]

While your laughing, find me anywhere on any post on any thread where I said HARBRINGER was dead, not the game. You should read Bill Oreillys book the no spin zone. You would probly be a huge star in it, lol.

 

Yup, that just told me everything I need to know....Now I really do know you live in a fact free zone.

[Max_Killjoy]

Titles are like headlines - they're meant to get you to read the contents.

 

And newspapers and websites can be judged in quality and reliability in part by where their headlines sit on the accuracy vs spectacle spectrum. Certain websites, for example, can be dismissed as "clickbait" and ignored.

[Max_Killjoy]

Thank you to both of you for backing up your claims.

 

Despite that change, the CURRENT trend is still a decline. I'm comparing the trend of the last 30 days, not 30 months.

 

30 days would be comparing apples to apples, then. We do have other people around who've tried to compare right now to a year ago or whatever, before the change.

 

I'm just not sure if 30 days is enough apples to imply a major trend.