Bioware Please Merge Servers

[HuaRya]

Huh. I get frequent pops of everything except GSF when it's not bonus day in under 25 minutes on Shadowlands every day... I must be doing something wrong.

 

Still, Harbinger sounds great but you forgot to mention the hackers, cheaters, racist trolls, elitist and other deplorables.

 

And maybe, just maybe, the fleets are empty (dunno if 100+ people counts as empty but to each their own) because players are... i dunno.... DOING STUFF? PLAYING THE GAME instead of standing around on fleet being trolls. They all must be doing something wrong.

 

But no, Harby sounds great. Can't wait to be forced into that community. MERG SRVRS NAO!!!

 

Oh how wrong you interpret what I say.

 

By all means you should NOT GO to Harbinger nor should the servers be merged. I hope they keep everything the way it is. I bet you only play pubside for gsf. This is just like what the others said when you get a trollish personal attack if you state an opinion on these merge threads. Personal attacks...

 

 

You can remain the king of Zakuulian Steel farming on the level 10 mat planets. It's all yours man baby.

[eriksarcasm]

Oh how wrong you interpret what I say.

 

By all means you should NOT GO to Harbinger nor should the servers be merged. I hope they keep everything the way it is. I bet you only play pubside for gsf. This is just like what the others said when you get a trollish personal attack if you state an opinion on these merge threads. Personal attacks...

 

 

You can remain the king of Zakuulian Steel farming on the level 10 mat planets. It's all yours man baby.

 

LOL. OK.

[giorob]

Oh how wrong you interpret what I say.

 

By all means you should NOT GO to Harbinger nor should the servers be merged. I hope they keep everything the way it is. I bet you only play pubside for gsf. This is just like what the others said when you get a trollish personal attack if you state an opinion on these merge threads. Personal attacks...

 

 

You can remain the king of Zakuulian Steel farming on the level 10 mat planets. It's all yours man baby.

 

Umm Look I play on my Server(BC) for two reasons. One it was the first server I saw(live in central, We don't get a server cuz we aint cool enough ) and two, for the RP there. I'm in a fun RP guild. I like the RP atmoshpere on impside. If we were merged with Harb, it would destroy the RP oppertunities. So how bout no to merging with Harb huh?

[Khaleg]

I'm always amazed by people's "intelligence" and ignorance when I have to read, even repeatedly after it was already explained several times how retarded and ignorant that obviously is, the absolute nonsense to suggest server transfers, in addition discounted server transfers (some "genius" here even named them free maximizing the ignorance especially regarding the situation as a whole which is only on Bioware to fix, obviously insecure about the meaning of free and lacking general basic thinking abilities) as the solution while it is only one, though very bad solution, for guildless people who didn't put any effort into a guild ship, the guild itself, guild and personal strongholds, etc. . Even then in the case of guildless people it should be free in the current situation and even if it was it's still unacceptable because you have to repay the basic cost of all your strongholds and much worse redecorate like 2000+ deco items...

Of course it's a shame and absolutely indescribable pathetic that Bioware after 5 years has no process in place to copy (or better move because THAT is what transfer actually means instead of their retarded definition of it) all of that 1:1.

We are speaking about freaking DATA here and not skyscrapers which have to be moved to another city.

It's the incarnation of incompetence that they are not able to do that, not even after f... 5 years , and of course all of this is also mandatory and has to be available/in place before even thinking about merging servers...

Otherwise people would rightfully freak out. Again, it's DATA and it is no miracle to move that 1:1.

 

But it looks like Bioware regards incompetence and ignorance as their very own corporate identity and as general virtues.

Edited March 5, 2017 by Khaleg

[Baldarhion]

I

 

But at the end of the day 1 mega server in the US realm will happen it's just a matter of when and how this will be done and also the EU servers are a little more tricky due to the language barriers this would be a real pain for bioware to do 1 EU server because of that barrier.

 

Well, in FF14 you can group with people from several counties. You just have to tell (via UI) the languages you are able to speak. And it works peerfectly fine.

 

Anyway, English is the de facto MMO language and for most of european people, it won't be an issue

 

I would gladly write/speak english instead of suffering loneliness on my server (Battle Meditation) Yesterday, at 23h00 we were 12 on the fleet (Empire side). 3 lvl 70. Transfer is not a solution in my case (I have to move all my crafters, and all mys strongholds are completed. Losing the flagship is also an issue.)

[Ratajack]

Well, in FF14 you can group with people from several counties. You just have to tell (via UI) the languages you are able to speak. And it works peerfectly fine.

 

Anyway, English is the de facto MMO language and for most of european people, it won't be an issue

 

I would gladly write/speak english instead of suffering loneliness on my server (Battle Meditation) Yesterday, at 23h00 we were 12 on the fleet (Empire side). 3 lvl 70. Transfer is not a solution in my case (I have to move all my crafters, and all mys strongholds are completed. Losing the flagship is also an issue.)

 

I understand your reasons for not wanting to transfer, but if you CHOOSE not to transfer to a higher population server, then you CHOOSE to play on a lower population server.

 

Would it be nice if BW could transfer characters and/or guilds while keeping all character and/or guild assets intact and unaffected in any way? Yes, but while people may wish that were the case, it simply is not.

 

Server merges will not magically change that fact, either. If BW were to merge your server, you would still likely lose your guildship, have to reactivate and decorate your strongholds, etc.

 

 

Ranting, raving and raging at BW, demanding server merges is not going to change that.

[Ratajack]

I'm always amazed by people's "intelligence" and ignorance when I have to read, even repeatedly after it was already explained several times how retarded and ignorant that obviously is, the absolute nonsense to suggest server transfers, in addition discounted server transfers (some "genius" here even named them free maximizing the ignorance especially regarding the situation as a whole which is only on Bioware to fix, obviously insecure about the meaning of free and lacking general basic thinking abilities) as the solution while it is only one, though very bad solution, for guildless people who didn't put any effort into a guild ship, the guild itself, guild and personal strongholds, etc. . Even then in the case of guildless people it should be free in the current situation and even if it was it's still unacceptable because you have to repay the basic cost of all your strongholds and much worse redecorate like 2000+ deco items...

Of course it's a shame and absolutely indescribable pathetic that Bioware after 5 years has no process in place to copy (or better move because THAT is what transfer actually means instead of their retarded definition of it) all of that 1:1.

We are speaking about freaking DATA here and not skyscrapers which have to be moved to another city.

It's the incarnation of incompetence that they are not able to do that, not even after f... 5 years , and of course all of this is also mandatory and has to be available/in place before even thinking about merging servers...

Otherwise people would rightfully freak out. Again, it's DATA and it is no miracle to move that 1:1.

 

But it looks like Bioware regards incompetence and ignorance as their very own corporate identity and as general virtues.

 

It seems as if some people have completely closed their minds and anything that is not exactly what they want is simply unacceptable and anyone that does not blindly agree with them is "ignorant".

[Savej]

It seems as if some people have completely closed their minds and anything that is not exactly what they want is simply unacceptable and anyone that does not blindly agree with them is "ignorant".

 

In case you haven't been paying attention, your position is the most closed-minded and the most detrimental to the health of this game. BW doesn't even share your opinion they just don't have the resources to merge at the moment. This is one of the only remotely major MMOs that doesn't have either x-server or mega servers.

[Andryah]

I'm always amazed by people's "intelligence" and ignorance when I have to read, even repeatedly after it was already explained several times how retarded and ignorant that obviously is, the absolute nonsense to suggest server transfers, in addition discounted server transfers (some "genius" here even named them free maximizing the ignorance especially regarding the situation as a whole which is only on Bioware to fix, obviously insecure about the meaning of free and lacking general basic thinking abilities) as the solution while it is only one, though very bad solution, for guildless people who didn't put any effort into a guild ship, the guild itself, guild and personal strongholds, etc. . Even then in the case of guildless people it should be free in the current situation and even if it was it's still unacceptable because you have to repay the basic cost of all your strongholds and much worse redecorate like 2000+ deco items...

Of course it's a shame and absolutely indescribable pathetic that Bioware after 5 years has no process in place to copy (or better move because THAT is what transfer actually means instead of their retarded definition of it) all of that 1:1.

We are speaking about freaking DATA here and not skyscrapers which have to be moved to another city.

It's the incarnation of incompetence that they are not able to do that, not even after f... 5 years , and of course all of this is also mandatory and has to be available/in place before even thinking about merging servers...

Otherwise people would rightfully freak out. Again, it's DATA and it is no miracle to move that 1:1.

 

But it looks like Bioware regards incompetence and ignorance as their very own corporate identity and as general virtues.

 

Is it really as terrible as you portray it that other people disagree with your assessment?

 

Can't be as bad as you are portraying it with all that vitriol though. If it was.... I would imagine you would not still be here, subbed, giving money to a company you appear to revile so greatly, and playing the game while broadly painting any disagreement with your opinions with pejorative attacks. I mean, your not a victim here, right? You have free will to play or not play a game that either disappoints you, or does not, right? Nobody forces you to play a game you feel is so disgusting as to warrant this ongoing nasty attack approach you have been using recently.

 

Could it be you are just doing this for the drama, and don't really believe what you are saying, or at least don't care.

 

None of us know for sure which way it is, but regardless..... your opinions are yours. Other peoples opinions are theirs, and since we do not reside in an authoritarian and suppressive community here...... everyone gets an opinion and gets to share it and explain it. You cannot suppress it with your inflammatory language.

Edited March 5, 2017 by Andryah

[Icykill_]

In case you haven't been paying attention, your position is the most closed-minded and the most detrimental to the health of this game. BW doesn't even share your opinion they just don't have the resources to merge at the moment. This is one of the only remotely major MMOs that doesn't have either x-server or mega servers.

 

The whole of WoW seems to be one big server now. They still have all of their individual servers, but everything is basically cross server. Even running around the environment you will be playing with people on other servers. It has its benefits, but also negatives.

I've been told the reason Blizzard did this was so they didn't have to merge servers because that may give the game negative publicity. I don't know how true that is, but their argument was that closing or merging servers indicated there were less people playing and that gave a bad perception of the game.

We all know they can't do that here, the engine just can't do it. But if they could, would it make everyone happy to basically be playing on one big server even though they were actually on many individual ones? It would certainly take the wind out the sails of some in this thread 😉

[FerkWork]

Well, in FF14 you can group with people from several counties. You just have to tell (via UI) the languages you are able to speak. And it works peerfectly fine.

 

Anyway, English is the de facto MMO language and for most of european people, it won't be an issue

 

I would gladly write/speak english instead of suffering loneliness on my server (Battle Meditation) Yesterday, at 23h00 we were 12 on the fleet (Empire side). 3 lvl 70. Transfer is not a solution in my case (I have to move all my crafters, and all mys strongholds are completed. Losing the flagship is also an issue.)

 

And now we have Cross Data Center Party Finder to complement Cross Server Duty Finder in FFXIV. It's funny when you can have Raid Teams made up of people on different servers with ease of a button. Meanwhile Swtor is still stuck in the Stone Age when it comes to this. Then again lack of content is the main culprit along with disastrous decisions like Singleplayer for 2 years and asinine gearing in driving population away and leading to said situations. It's the difference between a successful game and a not so successful game I guess.

Edited March 5, 2017 by FerkWork

[fushnchips]

And now we have Cross Data Center Party Finder to complement Cross Server Duty Finder in FFXIV. It's funny when you can have Raid Teams made up of people on different servers with ease of a button. Meanwhile Swtor is still stuck in the Stone Age when it comes to this. Then again lack of content is the main culprit along with disastrous decisions like Singleplayer for 2 years and asinine gearing in driving population away and leading to said situations. It's the difference between a successful game and a not so successful game I guess.

 

I liked that in FFXIV when you did ques for extreme stuff you could end up with anyone within the same data center but have they made it so it's also cross data center now ? And WoW is interesting because i'm leveling a toon on a very low pop server and it's RP just to farm stuff because nobody else is around to do it lol and when I que for a dungeon it's cross server so I can still get my dungeons and raids done.

[Andryah]

In case you haven't been paying attention, your position is the most closed-minded and the most detrimental to the health of this game. BW doesn't even share your opinion they just don't have the resources to merge at the moment. This is one of the only remotely major MMOs that doesn't have either x-server or mega servers.

 

Much opinion... presented as fact.. though it remains opinion sans any objective validation with facts.

 

The core issue here is there are multiple narratives being pressed in every server merge thread, and it has gotten so over played with all these threads now....players are mostly just talking past each other, and not listening.

 

One narrative is that all servers need to be merged so that guildless, friendless, random queuing players on Harbinger and TRE have a forced migration to their server from other servers in the vain belief that forcing people to their server will magically also mean those same players will also immediately and persistently queue to random PuG with said players.

 

A second narrative is that "servers are dead", most often absent any actual objective proof largely because each player who pursues this narrative defines "dead" based on their own personal bias and wants/needs. The reality of this narrative, and what gets so much rope wrapped around the axle, is that there is just enough truth to this narrative in the context of PoT5, Basion, and Jung Ma (in NA) to give sandy foundation to extending the narrative to include ALL servers.

 

There is a third narrative that server merges, in the absence of an actual process by the studio to transfer guilds intact and whole, will do more harm then good. This actually has historical basis in fact on this one given how badly things went for some guilds back in the large mergers made late in the first year of this game. And it is a fact that today, 2017, guilds would lose a lot more and be disrupted a lot more by force merges then back in the first year of the game.

 

There is a forth narrative that with perpetually low cost server transfers now... every player can move to any server they want for essentially no cost (unless they piss their monthly CCs away on fluff and chance packs). This narrative follows the "free choice" model that the studio has adopted over the last year in supporting the ability of players to play where they actually want to play.

 

There are different players that ascribe to one or more of the narratives in ongoing server merge discussions. But what is clear in all these threads is that they are created and prosecuted by those players that ascribe to narrative number one, and responses that disagree generally ascribe to narratives 2, 3, and 4.

 

From my perspective:

 

Narrative one is a completely selfish prosecution of demands from players that have no friends or guild to play with (for whatever reason), and rely strictly on random PuG via queues, and hence need large volumes of players active on their server AND complying with the need for said players to constantly random queue.

 

Narrative two is partially true.. in that it correctly identifies the state of three now largely abandoned servers that used to host PvP rules sets and hence were mostly populated by PvPers.

 

Narrative 3 is in my view the single biggest barrier to the studio doing server merges, and we have no visibility as to if the studio intends to address the concerns of narrative 3 in the future or not.

 

Narrative 4 currently reflects the official stance of the studio, and many players understand that and have made good use of the ability to move to a different server for literally no incremental cost to the player (unless the player is impatient, spent down all their free CCs, and claims to need to move many many alts). In fact.. it is narrative 4 that embodies why PoT5, Jung Ma, and Bastion are largely deserted today..... PvPers moved to Harbinger. And it is these PvPers that moved to Harbinger that appear to be those now insisting that narrative one is the only valid narrative.

 

What I find most troubling is that we as a community seem unable to see each narrative for it's pros/cons, and accept that different players feel differently and follow different narratives. Instead, those who favor narrative one are more likely to lash out at those that follow a different narrative, and those that disagree are refusing to just concede and let the narrative one crowd have their way unchallenged. It's literally a form of internet insanity going on here in these threads being pushed by those in favor of narrative one.

Edited March 5, 2017 by Andryah

[Ralei]

The whole of WoW seems to be one big server now. They still have all of their individual servers, but everything is basically cross server. Even running around the environment you will be playing with people on other servers. It has its benefits, but also negatives.

I've been told the reason Blizzard did this was so they didn't have to merge servers because that may give the game negative publicity. I don't know how true that is, but their argument was that closing or merging servers indicated there were less people playing and that gave a bad perception of the game.

We all know they can't do that here, the engine just can't do it. But if they could, would it make everyone happy to basically be playing on one big server even though they were actually on many individual ones? It would certainly take the wind out the sails of some in this thread 😉

 

I know I hated the cross-server leveling. Trying to group with random people from other servers in order to finish a basic resource quest that should take 5 mins was so frustrating. I'm sure they did it with end-game areas in mind, but for a returning player who just wanted to kill 10 wolves to get to level 30 without negotiating a treaty with players I'd never see again, it killed my will to log in and I let my sub lapse somewhere around level 60. The benefit of cross server queueing isn't lost on me, I enjoyed it during WoTLK when I played like a fiend. But the cross server areas felt really horrible.

 

I know how many people like to reroll here for the stories and I think if a cross server deal like that were done here it would destroy their whole lives NO EXAGGERATION. lol. I mean, how many people lose their minds because they have to group to kill the Possessed Hunter?

[Icykill_]

Much opinion... presented as fact.. though it remains opinion sans any objective validation with facts.

 

The core issue here is there are multiple narratives being pressed in every server merge thread, and it has gotten so over played with all these threads now....players are mostly just talking past each other, and not listening.

 

One narrative is that all servers need to be merged so that guildless, friendless, random queuing players on Harbinger and TRE have a forced migration to their server from other servers in the vain belief that forcing people to their server will magically also mean those same players will also immediately and persistently queue to random PuG with said players.

 

A second narrative is that "servers are dead", most often absent any actual objective proof largely because each player who pursues this narrative defines "dead" based on their own personal bias and wants/needs. The reality of this narrative, and what gets so much rope wrapped around the axle, is that there is just enough truth to this narrative in the context of PoT5, Basion, and Jung Ma (in NA) to give sandy foundation to extending the narrative to include ALL servers.

 

There is a third narrative that server merges, in the absence of an actual process by the studio to transfer guilds intact and whole, will do more harm then good. This actually has historical basis in fact on this one given how badly things went for some guilds back in the large mergers made late in the first year of this game. And it is a fact that today, 2017, guilds would lose a lot more and be disrupted a lot more by force merges then back in the first year of the game.

 

There is a forth narrative that with perpetually low cost server transfers now... every player can move to any server they want for essentially no cost (unless they piss their monthly CCs away on fluff and chance packs). This narrative follows the "free choice" model that the studio has adopted over the last year in supporting the ability of players to play where they actually want to play.

 

There are different players that ascribe to one or more of the narratives in ongoing server merge discussions. But what is clear in all these threads is that they are created and prosecuted by those players that ascribe to narrative number one, and responses that disagree generally ascribe to narratives 2, 3, and 4.

 

From my perspective:

 

Narrative one is a completely selfish prosecution of demands from players that have no friends or guild to play with (for whatever reason), and rely strictly on random PuG via queues, and hence need large volumes of players active on their server AND complying with the need for said players to constantly random queue.

 

Narrative two is partially true.. in that it correctly identifies the state of three now largely abandoned servers that used to host PvP rules sets and hence were mostly populated by PvPers.

 

Narrative 3 is in my view the single biggest barrier to the studio doing server merges, and we have no visibility as to if the studio intends to address the concerns of narrative 3 in the future or not.

 

Narrative 4 currently reflects the official stance of the studio, and many players understand that and have made good use of the ability to move to a different server for literally no incremental cost to the player (unless the player is impatient, spent down all their free CCs, and claims to need to move many many alts). In fact.. it is narrative 4 that embodies why PoT5, Jung Ma, and Bastion are largely deserted today..... PvPers moved to Harbinger.

 

What I find most troubling is that we as a community seem unable to see each narrative for it's pros/cons, and accept that different players feel differently and follow different narratives. Instead, those who favor narrative one are more likely to lash out at those that follow a different narrative. It's literally a form of internet insanity going on here in these threads being pushed by those in favor of narrative one.

 

You missed all the narratives against mergers. I think if you are going to make a massive point about the narratives people are making for mergers, it's only fair that you list all the narratives against mergers, considering, and I quote... "The core issue here is there are multiple narratives being pressed in every server merge thread, and it has gotten so over played with all these threads now....players are mostly just talking past each other, and not listening."

[Andryah]

You missed all the narratives against mergers. I think if you are going to make a massive point about the narratives people are making for mergers, it's only fair that you list all the narratives against mergers, considering, and I quote... "The core issue here is there are multiple narratives being pressed in every server merge thread, and it has gotten so over played with all these threads now....players are mostly just talking past each other, and not listening."

 

^^ As a known narrative one pursuer.. it is of course no surprise that you disregard what I shared and throw it back at me, making accusations to try to discredit any attempt to rationally pursue the nature of the conflict over this topic.

 

Narrative 3 and 4 ARE the narratives that speak against server merges pal. But since you refuse to listen to any narrative but your own.. I am not surprised that you either ignored them or choose to "not understand".

Edited March 5, 2017 by Andryah

[CrazyCT]

You missed all the narratives against mergers. I think if you are going to make a massive point about the narratives people are making for mergers, it's only fair that you list all the narratives against mergers, considering, and I quote... "The core issue here is there are multiple narratives being pressed in every server merge thread, and it has gotten so over played with all these threads now....players are mostly just talking past each other, and not listening."

 

Let's open it up for discussion. I'm concerned that if there are merges, I'll end up losing my character names and guildships, have to reactivate and redecorate my strongholds, have to watch as all the trolls, gold spammers and guild adverts destroy any chance of an open world conversation, have to fight with mercs who refuse to group up for open world heroics, lose the comfort and camaraderie of a server where you can get to know people, lose any chance to do any RP events, and lose any chance of ever getting Planetary Conquests done.

 

With all of this in mind, I have strong doubts that my subscription will continue if there are server merges. From what I can see, there will be no benefit, because I won't add to the queues for PvP, GF, or GSF. All it will do is add strain on the server, which, if it is Harbinger, already has a history of problems such as the irregular rollbacks and the problems last week with people being put in a queue to log in.

 

So, I open it up to you - what benefits do you think we will have with server merges?

[Icykill_]

As a known narrative one pursuer.. no surprise that you disregard and throw it back at me, and try to discredit any attempt to rationally pursue the nature of the conflict over this topic.

 

Narrative 3 and 4 ARE the narratives that speak against server merges there pal.

 

Not throwing it back, I'm staying out of what should or shouldn't happen from now on. I'm just here to follow the story and hope you can give the same amount of effort and objectivity to both sides of the discussion. I don't feel you really did that with Narrative 3 or 4. Maybe you could elaborate a bit more on what the antimerge narrative is about in a positive way to try and get us on your side. Explain all the benefits and positives of it so we can see a balanced position and not use the merge narrative to make your point. Sell us on all the positives and awesomeness of not merging.

 

Also, im not a pal, I'm a miss 😉

[Andryah]

Not throwing it back, I'm staying out of what should or shouldn't happen from now on. I'm just here to follow the story and hope you can give the same amount of effort and objectivity to both sides of the discussion. I don't feel you really did that with Narrative 3 or 4. Maybe you could elaborate a bit more on what the antimerge narrative is about in a positive way to try and get us on your side. Explain all the benefits and positives of it so we can see a balanced position and not use the merge narrative to make your point. Sell us on all the positives and awesomeness of not merging.

 

Also, im not a pal, I'm a miss 😉

 

I'm not about trying to pick a side or get you to come over to some side, or "win". Clearly by your comments though, our approach to life is different.

 

The reason I outlined the different narratives as I observe them is to in fact move away from this constant US vs THEM mindset that some seem so fixated on. Many in these discussions about server merges, I think if we are honest... ascribe to more then one of these narratives presented. I personally ascribe to 2 (partially), along with 3, and 4... for the clear reasons in how I articulated the narratives here.

 

As for the perceived benefits of narrative 3 and 4... those are clear in my statements about them, and are reinforced by all the many dozens of prior comments from people who understand and see the sense of these two narratives. I don't need to defend them, they are observations in the context of two other narrative observations. In my view they are also clear, and are distinct from narratives one and two. The exact purpose of taking time to map these 4 narratives out is to help all of us see that there are multiple narratives around this topic, and what they are, rather then this constant talking past one another which gets us, as a community, nowhere. Mabye... maybe we can discuss a topic without the need for an US vs THEM conflict. /shrug

 

And by the way "Pal" is gender neutral.

Edited March 5, 2017 by Andryah

[Andryah]

Let's open it up for discussion. I'm concerned that if there are merges, I'll end up losing my character names and guildships, have to reactivate and redecorate my strongholds, have to watch as all the trolls, gold spammers and guild adverts destroy any chance of an open world conversation, have to fight with mercs who refuse to group up for open world heroics, lose the comfort and camaraderie of a server where you can get to know people, lose any chance to do any RP events, and lose any chance of ever getting Planetary Conquests done.

 

With all of this in mind, I have strong doubts that my subscription will continue if there are server merges. From what I can see, there will be no benefit, because I won't add to the queues for PvP, GF, or GSF. All it will do is add strain on the server, which, if it is Harbinger, already has a history of problems such as the irregular rollbacks and the problems last week with people being put in a queue to log in.

 

So, I open it up to you - what benefits do you think we will have with server merges?

 

Yeah.. if they forced mergers to Harbinger, and it affected the server where our guild resides... we as a guild have discussed and concluded we would pull the plug and move on. We as a guild made the sacrifice last year and moved deliberately off of Harbinger, because after months of migrations to Harbinger from various servers by players ...we did not like the shift it caused in the community. Harbinger has always had some issues with community behavior, but the diaspora migration from other servers has not been the best for the servers community, though it does benefit those who really don't care about community and simply need numbers to server their PuGing needs. If that is what the studio decides is best for the game, that's fine, but we will move on.

 

Right now.. narrative 4 IS the studio position, and most players not only see the sense in it given the issues currently with how to deal with a guild move (the essence of narrative 3 by many players in these discussions), these same players have in fact embraced it and taken advantage of it.

Edited March 5, 2017 by Andryah

[Ratajack]

In case you haven't been paying attention, your position is the most closed-minded and the most detrimental to the health of this game. BW doesn't even share your opinion they just don't have the resources to merge at the moment. This is one of the only remotely major MMOs that doesn't have either x-server or mega servers.

 

You may think that forcing everyone to suffer the headaches and nightmares that a server merge would cause is healthy for the game, but I, and many others, do not.

 

 

I have seen nothing from any official BW source to back up your repeated claims.

 

The best you have is the equivalent of "My cousin told me that his friend's dad was talking to a random stranger on the street who said that his friend was talking to someone who told him that BW really wants to merge servers but doesn't have the resources." Even that "source" only said that BW does not want to merge servers if it cannot be done in a manner that will not negatively affect anyone--guilds and guild assets will remain intact, strongholds will not have to be redecorated, items in legacy storage would not be lost, etc. I do not recall that "source" saying that BW wants to merge servers, though. Is it possible that some are reading more into a vague second hand "statement" from a third party "source" more than was actually in that "statement"?

 

Is it possible that BW has no intentions to merge servers at this time, but knows that the "Merge servers NOW!!!!!!! I NEED more LFG fodder!!!!!" crowd will continue to pester them like petulant children whose Mommies tell them they cannot have that cookie they want so desperately? Is it possible that the statement that your "source" references is BW's answer and BW is really saying that they will not be merging servers?

[Ratajack]

The whole of WoW seems to be one big server now. They still have all of their individual servers, but everything is basically cross server. Even running around the environment you will be playing with people on other servers. It has its benefits, but also negatives.

I've been told the reason Blizzard did this was so they didn't have to merge servers because that may give the game negative publicity. I don't know how true that is, but their argument was that closing or merging servers indicated there were less people playing and that gave a bad perception of the game.

We all know they can't do that here, the engine just can't do it. But if they could, would it make everyone happy to basically be playing on one big server even though they were actually on many individual ones? It would certainly take the wind out the sails of some in this thread 😉

 

That might mollify the "Merge servers NOW!!!! I NEED more LFG fodder!!!" crowd, but I doubt that forcing everyone to suffer the cesspool community that is Harbinger (even if they were technically not merged into Harbinger and they remained on their current server) would be accepted by those that actively have chosen not to transfer to Harbinger or even transferred off Harbinger.

[Ratajack]

You missed all the narratives against mergers. I think if you are going to make a massive point about the narratives people are making for mergers, it's only fair that you list all the narratives against mergers, considering, and I quote... "The core issue here is there are multiple narratives being pressed in every server merge thread, and it has gotten so over played with all these threads now....players are mostly just talking past each other, and not listening."

 

IMO, she did address narratives from both sides.

 

Narrative number one seems to be the "pro" server merger crowd.

 

Narrative number two could apply to both sides, as there are three servers in the US that have extremely low populations, although Jedi Covenant, Shadowlands and Ebon Hawk do not fall into that category, even if the narrative number one crowd wants to lump those three servers into the "dead" category. There are many on those three servers that have indicated they are not "dead".

 

Narratives number three and four seem to apply to the anit-merge crowd.

 

That is only my interpretation. Others may interpret it differently.

[fushnchips]

Let's open it up for discussion. I'm concerned that if there are merges, I'll end up losing my character names and guildships, have to reactivate and redecorate my strongholds, have to watch as all the trolls, gold spammers and guild adverts destroy any chance of an open world conversation, have to fight with mercs who refuse to group up for open world heroics, lose the comfort and camaraderie of a server where you can get to know people, lose any chance to do any RP events, and lose any chance of ever getting Planetary Conquests done.

 

With all of this in mind, I have strong doubts that my subscription will continue if there are server merges. From what I can see, there will be no benefit, because I won't add to the queues for PvP, GF, or GSF. All it will do is add strain on the server, which, if it is Harbinger, already has a history of problems such as the irregular rollbacks and the problems last week with people being put in a queue to log in.

 

So, I open it up to you - what benefits do you think we will have with server merges?

 

Why do people keep saying things will be merging into the harbinger it might be a complete new mega server that all are merged to if this goes ahead.

 

They need in game mods to get rid of the poison from within chat it's been a problem for a long time and they need to do some work sometimes the good old report system and ignore just doesn't work and this is proving it because the same people every day are still doing it.

 

Would I care if I lost my toon names not really because the people I play with will soon learn the new names If i let them .

 

RP servers can get an RP Instance just like the PvP instance for pvprs that they don't use and they should enforce rules of conduct for the RP instances so people are not getting picked on or being constantly trolled.

 

I think it really comes down to how they do it with not just in game but the server hardware it's a real shame this game can be so much better and a prime example is how FFXIV is with how serious they treat in game poison.

[CrazyCT]

Why do people keep saying things will be merging into the harbinger it might be a complete new mega server that all are merged to if this goes ahead.

 

They need in game mods to get rid of the poison from within chat it's been a problem for a long time and they need to do some work sometimes the good old report system and ignore just doesn't work and this is proving it because the same people every day are still doing it.

 

Would I care if I lost my toon names not really because the people I play with will soon learn the new names If i let them .

 

RP servers can get an RP Instance just like the PvP instance for pvprs that they don't use and they should enforce rules of conduct for the RP instances so people are not getting picked on or being constantly trolled.

 

I think it really comes down to how they do it with not just in game but the server hardware it's a real shame this game can be so much better and a prime example is how FFXIV is with how serious they treat in game poison.

 

Deleting Harbinger and creating a new mega server will cause a lot more people to be losing names, and I know you say you don't mind, and I'm sure you're not alone, but there are plenty of people out there who would be pretty pissed off if they lost theirs. Not saying they would quit over it, but it'd be an extra point against Bioware that could eventually lead to them leaving.

 

As for the RP community, most of the ones I know and play with are pretty tied in with the names they have. And it's all very well saying there could be a separate RP instance, but it would be a lot more open to trolling than having a completely separate server. It'd be nice to hope that people wouldn't do that, but this is the internet.

 

But as you say, if it were done properly I'd actually have no problem with it. If they could implement it with separate, properly moderated instances, a new naming system that allowed people to keep their names, a way of transferring the guildships/strongholds, an expanded ignore list, and finally get round to fixing the custom chat channels, I'd have no excuses left.

 

I just don't see them pumping that much money into fixing all of that. And if not, I'd rather they keep it as it is.