My friends playing list is down from 15 - 1 hmmm

[gabigool]

So as simply put as possible, yes the games population is diminishing and in my opinion at a pretty astonishing rate.

.....

And unless bioware steps in quickly this snow ball effect goes from bad to worse very rapidly.

 

People can say what they want about this guy but there is no doubt in my mind this is 100% accurate.

 

I do not agree w/ him that server merges/transfers etc are the solution. It leaves the underlying problem untouched.

 

But this statement is spot on.

[CKNORTH]

Let me explain this as simply as I can. Harbringer has completely sucked the life out of all the remaining PVP servers and also hurt the other remaining PVE servers a bit. And after sucking all those PVP servers dry and taking some very large guilds from shadow, EH, and BC it still remains on the decline population wise. Its population from last year at this time has tumbled a lot. Shadowlands on any given day is usually about 1/2 the population as harbringer so the others are not fending any better. And that is in spite of sucking all those players from all those others servers.

 

So as simply put as possible, yes the games population is diminishing and in my opinion at a pretty astonishing rate. We have more ghost town servers than we do active ones. And unless bioware steps in quickly this snow ball effect goes from bad to worse very rapidly. That is why I have been sounding the ALARM for months now. I see that storm coming and I am trying to prevent as much damage as I can. I just hope that alarm is being heard and heard in time.

 

well I can tell you the person still subbed was a new player... but if it is beyond saving, perhaps they are squeezing as much as possible with the people left in order to get a different contract. but I am assuming a lot. in all how is EA handling the Entire franchise with their games? how is battlefield doing these days? among all the others?

 

perhaps it isn't just this game in EA star wars tittles suffering but rather all of them? The big question is Disney paying attention, and if so how long before ALL EA star wars tittles will be pulled? I am not trying to create panic or be a doomsday mongrel. but if all the SW titles are suffering I think it would be Disney that has the final say in whether the plug be pulled. in order to regroup and find a place for the franchise? Dunno its a lot of speculation on my part, other then the fact that I have one subscriber in my RaF out of well over 15+ that cant be good....

[MadCuzBad]

People can say what they want about this guy but there is no doubt in my mind this is 100% accurate.

 

I do not agree w/ him that server merges/transfers etc are the solution. It leaves the underlying problem untouched.

 

But this statement is spot on.

 

I agree that the server mergers/transfers are not a solution. I 100% agree. I have stated several time in many of my posts I believe it is a bandage on a gushing wound. And how to stitch that wound shut I really do not know. I am really not sure if it is even possible at this point. But I can tell you 2 things right now for sure. #1 if they built this game with a server to server queue system at the very launch of this game, it would have eliminated a huge amount of hemorrhaging early on with the server population issues. #2 if this games population continues to nose dive and I do not have a server to transfer to that gives me quick queue times I am 100% quitting this game. And I have played it from day 1. Outside of those 2 things much of what I say is only putting band aids on wounds. Wounds that I 100% confess to have no real solution for. Its beyond my pay scale. I really don't know what the answers are to make this game thrive.

[JennyFlynn]

I wonder what is people's obsession with the whole "game is dying" TORtanic mentality, anyway.

Love that, TORtanic.

 

A couple days ago I read an article that called SWTOR 'the game where players are more concerned with the game's economic value than the game itself' (paraphrasing). I play a game, I pay for it while I enjoy it, if it dies, it dies, I had my fun. I give hints what would make me have fun with it a while longer, pay for it a while longer, if that doesn't get picked up, my choice is to take it or leave it, like with every other product or service.

Article sounds interesting, link? And I'm with you. While the game exists, I'll have fun and keep paying and playing. It'll never be dead to me until you know, all servers are down and BW's like "Hasta la pasta baby we won't be back!".

 

ETA: Unless they kill Satele and bomb Tatooine to smithereens. That combination would be insta-unsub, no-look-back. xD

So I can totes kill Satele as long as Tatooine remains in tact, right?

 

 

That is why I have been sounding the ALARM for months now. I see that storm coming and I am trying to prevent as much damage as I can. I just hope that alarm is being heard and heard in time.

Well I guess if you keep on sounding the alarm long enough, one day it'll ring true.

 

Keep at it and don't forget to switch arms in between so you don't wear yourself out too much.

[TX_Angel]

Ha, that's actually a pretty good analogy. Although it would have been pretty hard for the people on the Titanic to be in denial about their ship sinking...

 

Actually, until the bow went under water, a lot of them WERE in denial...

 

The crew went around telling everyone "get in the lifeboats, the ship is sinking", and a large number of passengers simply did not believe them.

 

It wasn't until it became obvious that people took it seriously... The Titanic movie is NOT a good source for any of this, or of the ship sinking itself, since it isn't in real time. It took just under 3 hours to sink, but it wasn't until the last 40 minutes that it became obvious. The first 90 minutes you could hardly tell.

 

When it finally pulled the bow down and the water started spilling over, it actually went pretty fast.

 

 

That starts about an hour after the ship hit the ice berg and 30 minutes after the crew started telling passengers to get into life boats...

 

If you were standing on that ship, in the middle of a very dark North Atlantic, you may well not think it was sinking either.

 

 

1 hour, 40 minutes in, the bow still isn't under water, but by this point it is clear to almost everyone "hey, maybe there is a problem!"

 

Even then all the lifeboats aren't full and some have already left partly empty. The fact that many boats were launched less than full is a crime.

 

 

10 minutes later and the bow finally goes under... by this point no one should be in further doubt, but the ship has less than an hour left to live...

 

 

Less than 20 minutes to live, she went down so gracefully...

 

 

The part with the "tail in the air" that everyone knows from the movie... Yea, that was more than 2 and a half hours into it... Only a few minutes to live... or a very long time to die...

 

From that point, to the ship slipping beneath the surface... was just 3 minutes and 18 seconds.

 

----

 

The point is... by the time the average person "notices" a problem, it is far, far too late...

[TX_Angel]

Yeah, last month I had 6 subscribers now at 1 on my referral page. But it is concerning, because yes they might be still playing.. But the point is they aren't subscribing! Which to me means... Less subscribers for the game. So I was Currious if anyone else noticed this. I was hoping it was just myself, but I see from this post that I am not alone. And if more people with RaF's see a decline as well, wouldn't that mean that the ship hit the iceberg? I hope that it makes its way to port. Cause the water looks dang Cold and those people in the dingy's look like they are half frozen....

 

I had 26 paying subs on my referral page... I'm down to 3 left that are paying...

[MadCuzBad]

Actually, until the bow went under water, a lot of them WERE in denial...

 

The crew went around telling everyone "get in the lifeboats, the ship is sinking", and a large number of passengers simply did not believe them.

 

It wasn't until it became obvious that people took it seriously... The Titanic movie is NOT a good source for any of this, or of the ship sinking itself, since it isn't in real time. It took just under 3 hours to sink, but it wasn't until the last 40 minutes that it became obvious. The first 90 minutes you could hardly tell.

 

When it finally pulled the bow down and the water started spilling over, it actually went pretty fast.

 

 

That starts about an hour after the ship hit the ice berg and 30 minutes after the crew started telling passengers to get into life boats...

 

If you were standing on that ship, in the middle of a very dark North Atlantic, you may well not think it was sinking either.

 

 

1 hour, 40 minutes in, the bow still isn't under water, but by this point it is clear to almost everyone "hey, maybe there is a problem!"

 

Even then all the lifeboats aren't full and some have already left partly empty. The fact that many boats were launched less than full is a crime.

 

 

10 minutes later and the bow finally goes under... by this point no one should be in further doubt, but the ship has less than an hour left to live...

 

 

Less than 20 minutes to live, she went down so gracefully...

 

 

The part with the "tail in the air" that everyone knows from the movie... Yea, that was more than 2 and a half hours into it... Only a few minutes to live... or a very long time to die...

 

From that point, to the ship slipping beneath the surface... was just 3 minutes and 18 seconds.

 

----

 

The point is... by the time the average person "notices" a problem, it is far, far too late...

 

Lol, wow!!! I am impressed :csw_yoda:

[TX_Angel]

Except it's not Mr. Doom & Gloom.

It's at a low point, but the game is not dying. If the game was dying like you said, BW/EA would have already said nope we done

 

Actually, no they wouldn't... Not until they announce servers are closing for good will they EVER say that...

 

SWG had its last expansion in 2005 and it didn't close until 2011, but at no point was there ever an announcement that it was going into MX mode.

[TX_Angel]

In fact from EA's perspective the game is far from dying since the last 3 quarters worth of shareholders information have stated increases and that its still holding up well but of course forget about 'official' information.

 

That was from the launch of 4.0 and the release of SW:TFA...

 

If you actually play the game, you'll see very empty servers...

 

Another point to consider is that the supplies of CM items on the GTN is very low combined with the price of credits down to 50 cents per million...

[KyaniteD]

Love that, TORtanic.

 

Not my idea. Try searching the forums for that keyword. And google. People put a lot of energy into that meme.

 

Article sounds interesting, link? And I'm with you. While the game exists, I'll have fun and keep paying and playing. It'll never be dead to me until you know, all servers are down and BW's like "Hasta la pasta baby we won't be back!".

 

Ah, been searching for it since I posted that. Found it, and have to apologize, because I remembered it wrong. It was in the comments on reddit. (In my defense, I was searching for the in-game economics stats, not the EA reports.) Struck me as spot-on, though, and is why it kinda stuck.

 

So I can totes kill Satele as long as Tatooine remains in tact, right?

Haha, I'll hate you forever, but yes, I'll go cry a river in the desert; but if you take away the desert, too, I'm left with nothing. Tat is home and Satele is mom. (When people were afraid KotFE would pull a Cataclysm on the old worlds, my only concern was Tatooine. )

Edited May 20, 2016 by KyaniteD

[CKNORTH]

Well I always think the best indication would be starting planets, at Peak a few months ago they were 175ish on the planet with a second or third map both red, now it barely hits what 65-70 ish the last time I was on which was a few weeks ago. another good place is either Coruscant or Fleet, how are numbers at prime time? if their isn't a second map on fleet during this time on Harbringer.... That says a lot right there.

 

although fleet can be inflated, but after what 4 years? this game has been active. fleet has always held a steady amount of people all the time. when I went to one of the old roleplaying servers, sorry cant remember which, about a month ago. I think it had a total of maybe 12 people on it during prime time PST... might of been the one of the East Coast servers.. uh that's not a good sign in my opinion that people are playing or even subscribing.

 

a third indication is all the rewards. I mean they are handing them out monthly with bonus perks if logged in. this month we got a droid and 2 customizations for companions. uh next is a speeder.... I have not seen so much stuff thrown at subscribers like this any other year of playing this game. yikes!

[commanderwar]

Well I always think the best indication would be starting planets, at Peak a few months ago they were 175ish on the planet with a second or third map both red, now it barely hits what 65-70 ish the last time I was on which was a few weeks ago. another good place is either Coruscant or Fleet, how are numbers at prime time? if their isn't a second map on fleet during this time on Harbringer.... That says a lot right there.

 

although fleet can be inflated, but after what 4 years? this game has been active. fleet has always held a steady amount of people all the time. when I went to one of the old roleplaying servers, sorry cant remember which, about a month ago. I think it had a total of maybe 12 people on it during prime time PST... might of been the one of the East Coast servers.. uh that's not a good sign in my opinion that people are playing or even subscribing.

 

a third indication is all the rewards. I mean they are handing them out monthly with bonus perks if logged in. this month we got a droid and 2 customizations for companions. uh next is a speeder.... I have not seen so much stuff thrown at subscribers like this any other year of playing this game. yikes!

Lots of games give a series of rewards that no indications of the games health. The rewards were planned months ahead and this is the second. time they did this. And Tython And korriban people can get through those planets very fast less in 20 min since 4.0. No need to do side quest or to stick around on those planets

[YlliyaXor]

That was from the launch of 4.0 and the release of SW:TFA...

 

If you actually play the game, you'll see very empty servers...

 

Another point to consider is that the supplies of CM items on the GTN is very low combined with the price of credits down to 50 cents per million...

 

If only there was a new expansion and a SW movie every year...

 

Somehow pve instances in pvp servers killed all pvp servers, clearly a problem with the game not pvpers

 

Chance cubes can't possibly be the cause, after all who wouldn't want to get old undesirable items from new packs? Plus we now get less items for the same price, win/win.

 

Credits seller prices aren't exactly regulated, unless you are actually buying, there's no telling if the prices announced are real, plus if the real objective is phishing for credit card info they might as well give away credits for free and just ask for a credit card number to make sure you're an adult or whatever.

[MadCuzBad]

Lots of games give a series of rewards that no indications of the games health. The rewards were planned months ahead and this is the second. time they did this. And Tython And korriban people can get through those planets very fast less in 20 min since 4.0. No need to do side quest or to stick around on those planets

 

SWG had one of its biggest updates just before they told us that all remaining servers were going to go offline in Nov 2011. At least they gave us a nice update and 8 months to prepare for the end and dumped tons of items and special events on us the last 8 months before closing. The last EA MMO I played they sent out that email 40 days before they turned all servers off without any signs or warning they were planning it either. EA is ruthless when it comes to MMOs. Hands down the worst of the worst when it comes to MMORPGs.

[peter_plankskull]

SWG had one of its biggest updates just before they told us that all remaining servers were going to go offline in Nov 2011. At least they gave us a nice update and 8 months to prepare for the end and dumped tons of items and special events on us the last 8 months before closing. The last EA MMO I played they sent out that email 40 days before they turned all servers off without any signs or warning they were planning it either. EA is ruthless when it comes to MMOs. Hands down the worst of the worst when it comes to MMORPGs.

 

No my friend, EA ruins video games periods, not just MMO games. They have a history for messing up plenty of genres, such as third person shooters, first person shooters, and real time strategy games.

[CrazyCT]

No my friend, EA ruins video games periods, not just MMO games. They have a history for messing up plenty of genres, such as third person shooters, first person shooters, and real time strategy games.

 

And yet, they are still doing remarkably well, financially. You'd think they would have collapsed if all their games were so bad.

[peter_plankskull]

And yet, they are still doing remarkably well, financially. You'd think they would have collapsed if all their games were so bad.

 

Just because their financially successful doesn't mean they make good games... lets look at COD... average game, most sales, however that doesn't mean its the best.

 

Besides, their goal isn't to make good games, but to get the most profit with the least effort, hence them using battlefront. They corner the market with the second most popular IP in the world everyone loves, star wars, and then uses one of its most famous titles to simply cash in on the name brand alone releasing a average multiplayer game with a severe lack of content.

 

They killed great franchises such as the Commander and Conquer series, Medal of Honor, and the original battlefront 3 release was stopped by them. Awfully hard to stop doing so bad financially when you got a wealth of money and exploit the lowest common denominator in gaming.

 

They also have a history of releasing unfinished games such as battlefront 3, battlefront 4, mess effect.... etc. etc. Bad company is bad, and EA should feel bad.

[CKNORTH]

Just because their financially successful doesn't mean they make good games... lets look at COD... average game, most sales, however that doesn't mean its the best.

 

Besides, their goal isn't to make good games, but to get the most profit with the least effort, hence them using battlefront. They corner the market with the second most popular IP in the world everyone loves, star wars, and then uses one of its most famous titles to simply cash in on the name brand alone releasing a average multiplayer game with a severe lack of content.

 

They killed great franchises such as the Commander and Conquer series, Medal of Honor, and the original battlefront 3 release was stopped by them. Awfully hard to stop doing so bad financially when you got a wealth of money and exploit the lowest common denominator in gaming.

 

They also have a history of releasing unfinished games such as battlefront 3, battlefront 4, mess effect.... etc. etc. Bad company is bad, and EA should feel bad.

 

Well, Corporations in their essence are like a virus, combined with a sociopath ideology on how they are operated. Sociopaths don't feel anything or rather don't have a conscience. So in a world of sharks it's eat or be eaten.

[MadCuzBad]

Well, Corporations in their essence are like a virus, combined with a sociopath ideology on how they are operated. Sociopaths don't feel anything or rather don't have a conscience. So in a world of sharks it's eat or be eaten.

 

From my experience, I would say that explains EA. IMO they are the worse of the worse. How anyone can defend them is beyond me.

[Jedi_riches]

a third indication is all the rewards. I mean they are handing them out monthly with bonus perks if logged in. this month we got a droid and 2 customizations for companions. uh next is a speeder.... I have not seen so much stuff thrown at subscribers like this any other year of playing this game. yikes!

 

Thing is when additional content is subscription based, there would be a tendency to just sub once at the end to get all the chapters, they still want to tempt you into subbing in the meantime rather than doing this so hence the additional rewards including the bonus HK-55 chapter, yes you can argue that the rewards are largely worthless but their intent remains they want players to pay $120 for their content as opposed to just $15.

 

It's good business sense to do this and not a desperate attempt to save the game, yes you can say they have not done it on this level before, but likewise they also have not done monthly chapter content before either.

Edited May 20, 2016 by Jedi_riches

[IanArgent]

Counting up your personal referral list to judge the health of a game gets a hearty "Cool story, bro!" from me. All it means is that some people who once clicked on your referral link aren't subbing any more. Given that someone has to go to the forums, decide your link is the one that's going to be clicked, and stay subbed, there's no reason to assume that a burst of new subs is going to show up in your own, personal, referral list.

 

I was subbed for years before I started participating in these forums. And another year before I clicked on someone's referral link.

[rklontz]

I was subbed for years before I started participating in these forums. And another year before I clicked on someone's referral link.

 

I have been subbed for years, for the most part not very active on the forums and have never clicked on a referral link.

I also only play maybe 1 hour a month from the 3hrs a night since they started releasing monthly updates that take 30 min to run through.

Edited May 20, 2016 by rklontz

[WaSiLinLaoBei]

We need more players in the game. And yes this game is good and should not die like this.

[TX_Angel]

We need more players in the game. And yes this game is good and should not die like this.

 

It *was* good... it hasn't been good for awhile now...

 

My sub runs out in about 4 weeks... been here since early 2012... I'll probably resub for a month when all the chapters are finished, just to see the story, but beyond that, I don't see a future here.

 

If you're "new" to the game, sure, there is tons to do, nothing wrong with that... but for those of us who have been here awhile, it is all old and stale...

[MadCuzBad]

We need more players in the game. And yes this game is good and should not die like this.

 

I agree. I do enjoy this game a lot. But I don't know what they need to do to get this game thriving again. I am not even sure if it is possible at this point. I know dead servers is a no no. But outside of that, I have no clue what is needed to stop this massive gushing wound from bleeding. I wish it would stop because if it doesn't, this game I enjoy so much will be a memory sooner than later I am afraid.