Why are certain servers so inactive in the first place?

[squirrelballz]

Up by 33% http://massivelyop.com/2015/10/30/swtor-subscriptions-rose-by-a-third-after-kotfes-reveal/

 

Yeah that's not due to KOTFE it's due to the hype of STAR WARS you also seem to forget the timing of the article is just after 12xp boost which brought in several players. How many players do you want to bet were not subscribed from November till January, I'd say it's a fair amount. However, do feel free to repeat this unsubstantiated rhetoric.

 

Followed by http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=867937

 

 

Highest subscriber numbers in 3 years.

 

For fiscal year 2016, service and other revenue was $1,899 million, primarily driven by FIFA Ultimate Team and Star Wars: The Old Republic. Service and other revenue for fiscal year 2016 decreased $48 million, or 2 percent, as compared to fiscal year 2015. This decrease was driven by a $421 million decrease primarily from Titanfall and Battlefield 4 Premium. This decrease was partially offset by a $373 million increase primarily from the Madden NFL franchise, Need for Speed 2015 and SimCity BuildIt.

 

The game is doing well enough to appear as the second named attribution for the category’s revenue for the fiscal year. This indicated a continued strong position within the category which has value in terms of the game remaining a large contributor for EA and remaining a development priority moving forward. However, despite being hailed as the most successful expansion that Star Wars: The Old Republic has ever released, it did not significantly change the revenue for the game compared to the prior year and more traditional content cycle of the Shadow of Revan expansion.

 

~SWTOR ECONOMICS

 

Please don't post hogwash without substantiating it with FACTS. I'm tired of Solo players thinking they are the second of coming of christ that saved this game. Please take your pompous attitude and shove it where the sun don't shine. The game is doing great no doubt about that and BW will continue to steer that course but lets see how long this model can retain subs over the course of the next 2 years. Not to mention that I'd be willing to bet that the Cartel Market outshines solo player revenue by milestones. If this is the most profitable avenue though then BW should continue the status quo, if not it's best to start making changes before season 2.

Edited June 19, 2016 by squirrelballz

[Caelrie]

Please don't post hogwash without substantiating it with FACTS. I'm tired of Solo players thinking they are the second of coming of christ that saved this game. Please take your pompous attitude and shove it where the sun don't shine. The game is doing great no doubt about that and BW will continue to steer that course but lets see how long this model can retain subs over the course of the next 2 years. Not to mention that I'd be willing to bet that the Cartel Market outshines solo player revenue by milestones. If this is the most profitable avenue though then BW should continue the status quo, if not it's best to start making changes before season 2.

 

Not a single thing you quoted (and certainly not your smuggy attitude either) contradicts the subscriber numbers claim. And I especially love how you cut the part of his analysis that admits that a cheaper expansion resulted in higher profits, despite actual revenue staying the same. That's what we call 'intellectual dishonesty'.

 

You're playing semantic games here to try to make your point, and that's not gonna work.

Edited June 19, 2016 by Caelrie

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Up by 33% http://massivelyop.com/2015/10/30/swtor-subscriptions-rose-by-a-third-after-kotfes-reveal/

 

"Those numbers would refer to the fiscal quarter that ended September 30th" - from your own source so we can discount that because it's from July-September 2015 thus nothing to do with right now.

 

 

Followed by http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=867937

 

Highest subscriber numbers in 3 years.

 

That is from October - December so again in the past, also it's taken from the time where you subscribed to get KoTFE so numbers were up for everyone getting their 9 chapters for the price of a months sub ( plus the rest of the expansion ).

 

The question on whether or not neglecting end game MMO content and focusing on solo story has increased the player base would be around January onwards where it's pay $15 for 1 chapter a month ( if your motivation to pay was for new content ). Most evidence points towards a declining population ( observed decreasing population in instances in game and torstatus.net stats show a major decline in population since February on all servers ).

[Alssaran]

Highest subscriber numbers in 3 years.

 

I know I will regret saying this, but a higher subscriber number does not equal a higher number of active players. An increase in subscriber numbers can mean an increase in overall revenue for Bioware, but those subscribers don't necessarily contribute to the online environment.

 

I really don't like heelzvsbabyface and his WoW channel, but he raised a valid comment about Blizzard's attempt to try and cash in on the "Five minute casual gamer" community - those people don't contribute to the World of Warcraft or its community. All they contribute is a subscription fee to Blizzard Entertainment.

 

Thus, I think those numbers can't really be equated to dismiss any claim about the game not having a good or active community. Let me preface this by saying that I don't agree with MeNaCe at all. I actually put him on ignore after a very long thread about unfactual statements made by him. What I do know is that many of the servers feel empty, and that many guilds are currently struggling to recruit long-term members. Subjective experiences may vary for a few guilds, but this is an issue I've discussed with a lot of second-in-commands and GMs across my server (The Progenitor).

 

Thus, I would like to disconnect the discussion about whether the community and the community interaction is in a healthy place from the conversation about the financial success of the game. It doesn't matter whether the game has 600,000 subscribers compared to 250,000 in the past. If 500,000 of those subscribers have started to adapt their activity around the story chapters, which means log in during the release and play through them and abandon the game during the remaining 29 days, then the game will feel empty.

 

Now I want to address the OP's point.

 

I think a lot of details contribute to the current situation about servers being empty - or rather feeling empty. There are strongholds. Strongholds are always a means to take out players from the open world. There is no need for someone to bother with being on the fleet for most simple GTN transactions. There is a wall kiosk, a cargo bay, a legacy cargo bay, a mailbox, and even a modification station in my SH - each of them neatly placed in a single room. I can just teleport to my SH from everywhere, do my interactions/transactions, and then dash of anywhere else. This means that a lot of he active players spent their time in their SH rather than on the Fleet, and that causes us to perceive the fleet as less active.

 

Another problem might be the games new focus on single player content. I want to distance myself from saying that, subjectively, this kind of content is badly done or harmful. As I've pointed out above, I want to disconnect financial success from making a great game that people love to sink hours into. The two are not always one and the same, but they can both be used to describe an individual title at the same time.

 

Now, the game has switched focus to providing bits of content every month. Those bits of content, while possibly entertaining, usually happen in a very closed off space. Each new story chapter is a closed off area. Most of the planets can't be visited outside the story, and some important areas are downright instanced to the brim - like the Jorgan chapter. You might perceive that the number in the upper left corner (my interface setting) is high, but that doesn't mean that the server will feel full or active.

 

This kind of focus might also be more entertaining for players who have little time each month, and they want entertainment at their own pace whenever they choose. Those people log in once a month, complete the story chapter and the corresponding alerts, and then they go away until the next chapter hits. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it doesn't help to promote a server community.

 

All things considered, I think the game has improved in terms of gameplay and finances, but our overall perception of community interaction and server community has been impacted by a lot of major and minor decisions. The servers aren't necessarily emptier than pre-4.0, nor are they filled to the brim. But heavy instancing, the lack of new MMORPG features that can bind a player long-term, and the relative functionality of SHs has made the open world somewhat less...important.

 

Then there's the self-fullfilling prophecy. One server receives a reputation for being full and active. People transfer there for cheap, and their respective communities (guilds, friends, enemies) follow them. This leaves the few active players on their server in a bind. Without a healthy stream of new long-term players to catch that fallout, some servers might end up less populated. New people notice that and reroll or transfer away. A vicious cycle.

 

I really can't tell you what single decision made the servers feel as they feel today, and what kind of server identity was lost on each server. I can tell you that, subjectively, I have seen this kind of evolution across MMORPGs though. The introduction of functional housing is always kind of a server killer. People have found that having a SH for your daily needs is easier and more comfortable than the fleet, and most people seem to meassure population based on the highly flawed fleet population counter.

 

And I especially love how you cut the part of his analysis that admits that a cheaper expansion resulted in higher profits, despite actual revenue staying the same.

 

This is coming from an artist and a designer - this is nothing to be proud of. It only shows that people will pay more readily for anything these days. There is a breaking even point for this, and Bioware could reduce spending on anything but the bare minimum, but people still support this with revenue. People should hold Bioware to a high standard and enable/push them to produce content for a wide variety of players - espescially when profit is increasing.

 

From a business point of view, and speaking from a revenue standpoint, it is certainly impressive how someone can have a better ROI just by cutting areas off entirely. From an artist point of view, this disgusts me. I wouldn't make games for the sheer profit. I design stuff because I want to push myself.

Edited June 19, 2016 by Alssaran

[squirrelballz]

Not a single thing you quoted (and certainly not your smuggy attitude either) contradicts the subscriber numbers claim.

 

Oh my smuggy attitude that's rich coming from you and your anti MMO mantra that you are spewing here. Go back and read my post yes those numbers were there but not because of the merits of KOTFE. It was due to the fact that there was so much Star Wars hype around that time. I don't disagree with that statement by EA, subs did in fact go up but what are the numbers as of now? DO YOU HAVE THOSE NUMBERS? What I did do though was show you in term of PROFITABILITY HOW INHERENTLY WRONG YOU ARE about KOTFE. Which was my intent when you compare it to past expansions. KOTFE is no more profitable then SOR was so please keep telling us how KOTFE is the greatest gift to mankind.

 

However, despite being hailed as the most successful expansion that Star Wars: The Old Republic has ever released, it did not significantly change the revenue for the game compared to the prior year and more traditional content cycle of the Shadow of Revan expansion.

Edited June 19, 2016 by squirrelballz

[MeNaCe-NZ]

That was quarter 3, yes.

 

And quarter 4:

 

Since this is the latest info to be released, and it shows further growth, I'm calling my side of the argument good. Now you guys have to show your evidence that the game is dying.

 

That comment is out of context, as with your above link to quarter 3 where you should have read the whole thread that already discussed this you should read that whole link too where the comment is around "extra content" which could only really mean CM sales ( which makes sense in light of the popularity of the newer packs with chance cubes and the arbiter saber etc. ) - if it were subscrptions they would say subscriptions just as they did in the Q3 report.

 

Anyone else trying to turn "Extra content" into anything else is completely grasping at straws.

[peter_plankskull]

Not a single thing you quoted (and certainly not your smuggy attitude either) contradicts the subscriber numbers claim. And I especially love how you cut the part of his analysis that admits that a cheaper expansion resulted in higher profits, despite actual revenue staying the same. That's what we call 'intellectual dishonesty'.

 

You're playing semantic games here to try to make your point, and that's not gonna work.

 

While I didn't fully agree with Squirrels PVP meta (Save it for the return of the faithful JMCA) you have also neglected certain parts of posts. You still have yet to prove where this "3%" of the population only does operations without dem biased metrics.

 

Oh my smuggy attitude that's rich coming from you and your anti MMO mantra that you are spewing here. Go back and read my post yes those numbers were there but not because of the merits of KOTFE. It was due to the fact that there was so much Star Wars hype around that time. I don't disagree with that statement by EA, subs did in fact go up but what are the numbers as of now? DO YOU HAVE THOSE NUMBERS? What I did do though was show you in term of PROFITABILITY HOW INHERENTLY WRONG YOU ARE about KOTFE. Which was my intent when you compare it to past expansions. KOTFE is no more profitable then SOR was so please keep telling us how KOTFE is the greatest gift to mankind.

 

Bad squirrel... an eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.

 

I also agree with the assessment, it wasn't the amazing spectacular KOTFE that drew in those numbers, it was the hype of the new movie, the holidays, and the hype alone of a new expac.

 

Not to mention... THE NUMBERS MASON! WHAT DO THEY MEAN!

Edited June 19, 2016 by peter_plankskull

[Caelrie]

The question on whether or not neglecting end game MMO content and focusing on solo story has increased the player base would be around January onwards where it's pay $15 for 1 chapter a month ( if your motivation to pay was for new content ).

 

Yep, we'll see.

 

Most evidence points towards a declining population ( observed decreasing population in instances in game and torstatus.net stats show a major decline in population since February on all servers ).

I play on multiple servers, and while I see some have turned into ghost towns, others have expanded. Rather than straight evidence of a population decline, I see a population shift towards several central servers.

 

As for torstatus, how are you seeing anything more than 60 days? The 60 days graphs are stable on population, but you can't see further back than that.

[squirrelballz]

While I didn't fully agree with Squirrels PVP meta (Save it for the return of the faithful JMCA) you have also neglected certain parts of posts. You still have yet to prove where this "3%" of the population only does operations without dem biased metrics.

 

Apologies I'm a little grump today and haven't gotten much sleep. That said they were the one who said I had a smug attitude when it's they who are clearly biased beyond measure. Nonetheless I'll tone it down and watch myself and you are right it could be worse and I could be arguing with JMCA err... I mean DMCA right now.

Edited June 19, 2016 by squirrelballz

[Caelrie]

Oh my smuggy attitude that's rich coming from you and your anti MMO mantra that you are spewing here..

 

What? anti MMO mantra? What are you on about?

Edited June 19, 2016 by Caelrie

[peter_plankskull]

Apologies I'm a little grump today and haven't gotten much sleep. That said they were the one who said I had a smug attitude when it's they who are clearly biased beyond measure. Nonetheless I'll tone it down and watch myself and you are right it could be worse and I could be arguing with JMCA err... I mean DMCA right now.

 

Just open up some Hans Zimmerman music if your feeling in that forum PVP mode... or at least swap to a alternate account .

 

[squirrelballz]

What? anti MMO mantra? What are you on about?

 

This:

Catering to that 3% was part of what caused the downslide in the first place. Since they stopped, population is climbing.

 

Bioware flat-out stated that operations are not cost-effective. They cost the most of any content to make by orders of magnitude, and they're only played by a single-digit percentage of the players.

 

Feel free to go through as many mental gymnastics as you like, I guess. The simple facts are that the revenue is up so much that SWTOR is the #3 paid MMORPG in the world, and that's happening at a time when they're focusing on solo content and ignoring raiders.

 

Nonetheless I apologize if I offended you. However, your bias towards KOTFE is just despicable. It's ok if you love something I personally don't mind KOTFE story wise but please don't present it as it's the greatest gift mankind has received. My point was simply how KOTFE and SOR produced the same amount of income and yet KOTFE only succeeded because of cutting back on costs not on the merit of how good of an expansion it is.

 

The chasm between the financial success of the game and the state of the once vibrant MMO player base of the game has never been wider. By all discernible metrics, the amount of players and the total amount of play time in the game appears to have decreased significantly in the past 6-12 months. The game has been altered to its core and now resembles a TV series nearly as much as an MMO in many ways. As a player, as a GM, and as an active community member, the state of the game is discouraging and heartbreaking. It is never easy to admit an error in prior analysis, but while the December analysis correctly predicted the negative impacts on the player community, the analysis of the financial impact of that deterioration has so far been woefully inaccurate.

 

~SWTOR ECONOMICS

Edited June 19, 2016 by squirrelballz

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Yep, we'll see.

 

 

I play on multiple servers, and while I see some have turned into ghost towns, others have expanded. Rather than straight evidence of a population decline, I see a population shift towards several central servers.

 

As for torstatus, how are you seeing anything more than 60 days? The 60 days graphs are stable on population, but you can't see further back than that.

 

I play on arguably the largest server where there was a supposed population shift form the declining servers and whilst this was true it's done nothing to come close to bringing the population in line to where it was late last year at the start of this year ... anything MMO related is much harder to get a group for now then it was back then in my experience. Now of course that could be offset by tons more solo players doing KoTFE thus not showing in fleet instances etc. but I have nothing to measure this with which is why I then go for the trend analysis from torstatus.net

 

Now we can't compare year on year accurately as there was a known increase in server capacity but we can compare month on month for this year.

 

To get over 60 days you click north america or europe up top, click population trends below the table that pops, on the graph that pops up there is a slider function below it to allow you to select any period in time from upto around a year ago.

 

If you run it from Oct to now you see a clear decline in heavy status ( never happens again ) from Feb onwards which ties in with my own personal in game observations around population declining.

This is useful in that it shows all servers as a whole as opposed to one server where you are left wondering if one trend could be offset by another server receiving population.

 

A increasing population would increase this heavy status thus you cannot say the population is increasing at all.

You can say a) the population has declined and is now fairly static b) torstatus is wrong and should be ignored c) they have increased server capacity so much that heavy status never occurs anymore.

Edited June 19, 2016 by MeNaCe-NZ

[Caelrie]

Nonetheless I apologize if I offended you. However, your bias towards KOTFE is just despicable.

It's not "despicable". It's a playstyle preference. This idea you have that anyone who doesn't think raiders are the core of the game is why I'm arguing with you in the first place.

 

I don't find your desire to do raids despicable. Why do you find my desire to do everything but raids despicable? That makes no sense to me. I PvP. I do flashpoints. I do solo content. I do heroics and star fortresses solo and in groups. I do guild functions, and I farm solo. And for all this, I'm somehow "anti-MMO" simply because I don't care for operations. That's STUPID.

 

I entered this thread because the claim was made that ghost servers are BECAUSE Bioware wasn't catering to raiders. I easily proved that wrong, since both revenue and subscription numbers increased DESPITE there being no new raids for years. Game, set match.

 

But then you had to go and make it personal for reasons I just don't get.

 

It's ok if you love something I personally don't mind KOTFE story wise but please don't present it as it's the greatest gift mankind has received.

 

Really? Greatest gift mankind has ever received? I'm thinking you're not an honest debater, given it should be fairly obvious to everyone I never said anything remotely resembling that. In fact, I never even said I was a solo player. You just assumed all of it, pinned it to me and started going off on me like I insulted your mom or something.

 

My point was simply how KOTFE and SOR produced the same amount of income and yet KOTFE only succeeded because of cutting back on costs no on the merit of how good of an expansion it is.

 

That was actually not your point at all. I had to correct you and bring that up myself.

Edited June 19, 2016 by Caelrie

[Caelrie]

To get over 60 days you click north america or europe up top, click population trends below the table that pops, on the graph that pops up there is a slider function below it to allow you to select any period in time from upto around a year ago.

 

Thanks! That makes that site much more useful.

 

If you run it from Oct to now you see a clear decline in heavy status ( never happens again ) from Feb onwards which ties in with my own personal in game observations around population declining.

This is useful in that it shows all servers as a whole as opposed to one server where you are left wondering if one trend could be offset by another server receiving population.

 

A increasing population would increase this heavy status thus you cannot say the population is increasing at all.

You can say a) the population has declined and is now fairly static b) torstatus is wrong and should be ignored c) they have increased server capacity so much that heavy status never occurs anymore.

But you just admitted above that Bioware upgraded the servers, so standard now may be above heavy a year ago. Without knowing exact percentages of capacity increase, the usefulness of this graph to show what you're asking it to show is insufficient.

 

I would agree that there are lighter numbers now than when KOTFE launched, but that's how MMO populations ALWAYS go. They'll spike again at the release of the next expansion.

Edited June 19, 2016 by Caelrie

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Thanks! That makes that site much more useful.

 

 

But you just admitted above that Bioware upgraded the servers, so standard now may be above heavy a year ago. Without knowing exact percentages of capacity increase, the usefulness of this graph to show what you're asking it to show is insufficient.

 

I would agree that there are lighter numbers now than when KOTFE launched, but that's how MMO populations ALWAYS go. They'll spike again at the release of the next expansion.

 

The increase was late October last year, when i said year on year I more meant comparing a similar period year on year so July last year to now - pointless.

However November through now had this server capacity increase applied and as you can see the trend in heavy declines over time ... imo they wouldn't then increase capacity again ( without saying anything this time ) when there are less players to cater to.

 

Personally in their shoes I would have decreased it again to get more heavy servers showing to give players the more artificial sense of busier servers.

 

I've also ( probably on the topic on the 3rd quarter results you linked amongst other places ) stated that the down trend we are in now is fairly usual for this game and indeed with another round of good announcements for upcoming content we could see it spike back up again as it tends to do ... however all I know is they chose to focus solely on solo story, they added no new end game MMO content ( i.e. group content ), they chose to allow people to pay $15 to get all that solo content in one hit in August and game population seems to be down.

 

Thus knowing that it's fair to say if they progress with this model we may not see the spike we see every other year again ... time will tell I guess though I suspect more MMO content this year which makes it all rather moot.

 

I'm still waiting for the poster who said Eric mentioned something about new ops coming to link to where that was said as that's of interest.

Edited June 19, 2016 by MeNaCe-NZ

[Caelrie]

The increase was late October last year, when i said year on year I more meant comparing a similar period year on year so July last year to now - pointless.

However November through now had this server capacity increase applied and as you can see the trend in heavy declines over time ... imo they wouldn't then increase capacity again ( without saying anything this time ) when there are less players to cater to.

 

Ahh ok, I get what you mean.

 

Personally in their shoes I would have decreased it again to get more heavy servers showing to give players the more artificial sense of busier servers.

 

Honestly, I think Bioware doesn't care as much about concurrent population as some players do. I'm not saying I like this attitude, but from a business standpoint, the best customer there is is the subscriber who logs in, buys stuff off the CM, plays dressup with his character for a half hour, and logs back out.

[squirrelballz]

But then you had to go and make it personal for reasons I just don't get.

 

For the record I play everything in this game as well except GSF and I sometimes do more PVP then OPS. Yes I assumed because like countless other posts on these forums bashing raiders that was all I could assume from your posts. I stand corrected and that was my mistake assuming you are only a solo player. I've already apologized and if that wasn't clear the first time then I do so again. However if you feel the need to continue this by all means do so. I've said my peace here and wish you well.

 

EDIT: GSF needs some love for those who do play it.

 

Honestly, I think Bioware doesn't care as much about concurrent population as some players do. I'm not saying I like this attitude, but from a business standpoint, the best customer there is is the subscriber who logs in, buys stuff off the CM, plays dressup with his character for a half hour, and logs back out.

 

I agree with this assessment.

Edited June 19, 2016 by squirrelballz

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Ahh ok, I get what you mean.

 

 

 

Honestly, I think Bioware doesn't care as much about concurrent population as some players do. I'm not saying I like this attitude, but from a business standpoint, the best customer there is is the subscriber who logs in, buys stuff off the CM, plays dressup with his character for a half hour, and logs back out.

 

No doubt the main thing they care about is the bottom line ... profit. If that means spending less on content to run a smaller population base but for similar profit then that's what will happen. I still like to think they have 1-2 people working on new operations and due to a reduced team it just means they take longer to come out.

 

As I've said to others if we were to get 2 new ops this year it would make this year one of the largest on record for new content ... it's that "if" that I'm concerned about.

 

As to population they must care something for image of it as they removed it from being able to be seen in the launcher which I found strange and we can only guess as to their reasoning.

[squirrelballz]

As I've said to others if we were to get 2 new ops this year it would make this year one of the largest on record for new content ... it's that "if" that I'm concerned about.

 

Very true it would mean we got 16 chapters (17 if you count HK), 2 new warzones, eternal championship, Revamp of all OPS and FP's, Level Sync, Consolidation of Heroics, Alliance Grind/ Star Fortress, and then lastly OPS(if we get them hopefully). That amount of content for that time frame would be a great expansion in my opinion.

[Caelrie]

No doubt the main thing they care about is the bottom line ... profit. If that means spending less on content to run a smaller population base but for similar profit then that's what will happen. I still like to think they have 1-2 people working on new operations and due to a reduced team it just means they take longer to come out.

 

We'll see, I guess. I'm not opposed to new Ops, even though I'll probably never run them.

 

As I've said to others if we were to get 2 new ops this year it would make this year one of the largest on record for new content ... it's that "if" that I'm concerned about.

 

As much as I'm loving the solo content, the really short monthly installments isn't doing it for me. You wait in anticipation for a month, and then it's over in an hour or two.

 

I much prefer expansions like SoV, or dare I say... the really difficult PvE when RotHC launched. There was sooooo much whining on the forums, people in level 30 greens getting massacred after setting foot on Makeb. I really enjoyed the combat in that expansion, even if I thought the story wasn't the greatest.

 

The bigger point, though, is that I miss the days when expansions took a couple weeks to finish, and then you still had new flashpoints to look forward to.

Edited June 19, 2016 by Caelrie

[Andryah]

I know I will regret saying this, but a higher subscriber number does not equal a higher number of active players. An increase in subscriber numbers can mean an increase in overall revenue for Bioware, but those subscribers don't necessarily contribute to the online environment.

 

I keep saying this and it get's ignored.. so two thumbs up on this.

 

In some ways.... 4.X is giving players more freedom to play on their schedule rather then on some groups schedule for end game activity. So I completely expect that the incentive model for KoTFE is such that players will stay subbed, but may in fact play less often each week. Which.. is not a bad thing IMO, except for those dependent on queues and want instant pops in group content.

 

I get that players wanting instant queues and people to play with 7/24 don't like this approach. But honestly that is not the priority for every player and said players should have already moved to the local high pop server. Besides.... it is what it is.. and if subs are up.. then clearly people are paying for subs even if not playing as much. Not to mention what appears to be record level frenzies over the more recent Cartel Packs... from players obsessing over faux-Kylo_Ren cosmetic items. IF the revenue returns for effort meet or exceed expectations AND they continue to see good total subscriber numbers... then the players are in fact validating the studios direction for the game.

 

All this back and forth constantly about server populations is pointless. What matters is what is coming next.... after 4.x finishes. It will tell us boat loads about what represents their sweet spot for content in terms of sub revenues. If they "stay the course" then they are on business target. If they go in a different direction, or return to some more classic line of content, then we know their attempt at monthly chapter based content did not meet objectives.

Edited June 19, 2016 by Andryah

[squirrelballz]

Not to mention what appears to be record level frenzies over the more recent Cartel Packs... from players obsessing over faux-Kylo_Ren cosmetic items. IF the revenue returns for effort meet or exceed expectations AND they continue to see good total subscriber numbers... then the players are in fact validating the studios direction for the game.

 

All this back and forth constantly about server populations is pointless. What matters is what is coming next.... after 4.x finishes. It will tell us boat loads about what represents their sweet spot for content in terms of sub revenues. If they "stay the course" then they are on business target. If they go in a different direction, or return to some more classic line of content, then we know their attempt at monthly chapter based content did not meet objectives.

 

Agreed.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

Very true it would mean we got 16 chapters (17 if you count HK), 2 new warzones, eternal championship, Revamp of all OPS and FP's, Level Sync, Consolidation of Heroics, Alliance Grind/ Star Fortress, and then lastly OPS(if we get them hopefully). That amount of content for that time frame would be a great expansion in my opinion.

 

To be fair those last items were last year.

[MeNaCe-NZ]

We'll see, I guess. I'm not opposed to new Ops, even though I'll probably never run them.

 

Which is key imo - cater to everyone as much as possible. If they proceed to completely neglect the MMO content from here on in I just don't see this game surviving long term ... well at least not with the amount of content KoTFE gave in terms of solo play.

 

By this model I also mean the "all chapters for $15 after they drop" if people so choose.

 

 

 

As much as I'm loving the solo content, the really short monthly installments isn't doing it for me. You wait in anticipation for a month, and then it's over in an hour or two.

 

I much prefer expansions like SoV, or dare I say... the really difficult PvE when RotHC launched. There was sooooo much whining on the forums, people in level 30 greens getting massacred after setting foot on Makeb. I really enjoyed the combat in that expansion, even if I thought the story wasn't the greatest.

 

The bigger point, though, is that I miss the days when expansions took a couple weeks to finish, and then you still had new flashpoints to look forward to.

 

The 2.0 cycle was the best this game has ever put out imo, loved it all thoroughly. Still do in fact - running DF and playing "slam the exploding droids into each other" is still as much fun as it was when it dropped. Pity it's so hard to find groups these days though. ;(

 

I ask though ... why are you paying your $15? I assume it's not just for the new content and you still enjoy a lot of older content you may not have done? What happens when that all becomes stale though? Do you decide $15 a month is too much and instead decide to get it all for $15 every 6 months or whatever? This is my concern for this model - more and more people will find it stale over time and opt for that option.