Once the content locusts finish feeding on 5.2 and leave, what are people's plans?

[xordevoreaux]

We know how it works. A big update or expansion comes out.

People who haven't logged on in two months swoop down in a big gray cloud on the horizon and feed on the new content. A few days or maybe a week later, having sated their fill, they log out again, not to be seen until there's more content.

 

The content locusts.

 

As a GL, I normally deguild people who have had no log in on any of their alts in their legacy in 50 days.

Hasn't really been a need recently with the number of people walking away from the game, so I let it go, and told my officers not to bother scrubbing the roster of inactives for a while.

 

But when 5.2 hits, we'll get this artificial bump in our qualifying account numbers when these content-only players return for a few days, but then in another 30 days, it'll drop back down to pre-content levels (because the QA count drops when someone hasn't logged on any of their toons in that account for a month).

 

After 5.2 has been out for a week, I'm going to scrub the roster like it's never been scrubbed before, cleaning out all the remaining inactives (who don't have DO NOT REMOVE in officer notes for whatever reason).

 

I'm seriously thinking about doing the scrub now, before tomorrow's update, and save me from watching our QA numbers artificially spike (knowing they'll drop right back down again because these people have no intention of logging in again until the next big update).

We'll see.

 

Does anyone else scrub their roster in relation to the updates, or do they just stay on an even keel all the time for their deguild policy?

[TUXs]

I hope they do return, even if it's just for a month. It would be a financial boon that this game desperately needs.

[Ratajack]

We know how it works. A big update or expansion comes out.

People who haven't logged on in two months swoop down in a big gray cloud on the horizon and feed on the new content. A few days or maybe a week later, having sated their fill, they log out again, not to be seen until there's more content.

 

The content locusts.

 

As a GL, I normally deguild people who have had no log in on any of their alts in their legacy in 50 days.

Hasn't really been a need recently with the number of people walking away from the game, so I let it go, and told my officers not to bother scrubbing the roster of inactives for a while.

 

But when 5.2 hits, we'll get this artificial bump in our qualifying account numbers when these content-only players return for a few days, but then in another 30 days, it'll drop back down to pre-content levels (because the QA count drops when someone hasn't logged on any of their toons in that account for a month).

 

After 5.2 has been out for a week, I'm going to scrub the roster like it's never been scrubbed before, cleaning out all the remaining inactives (who don't have DO NOT REMOVE in officer notes for whatever reason).

 

I'm seriously thinking about doing the scrub now, before tomorrow's update, and save me from watching our QA numbers artificially spike (knowing they'll drop right back down again because these people have no intention of logging in again until the next big update).

We'll see.

 

Does anyone else scrub their roster in relation to the updates, or do they just stay on an even keel all the time for their deguild policy?

 

I'd do the scrub today, but that is just me.

[Andryah]

Does anyone else scrub their roster in relation to the updates, or do they just stay on an even keel all the time for their deguild policy?

 

Our guild is long established and stable, even through the ebb and flow of content releases. Good recruitment practices that endeavor to find a good fit between player and guild has largely been successful, especially since we do not build membership by spam, but rather by explicit referral.

 

We really don't lose many due to content frustrations and other drama. But when we do we wish them well and clear their characters from the guild.

 

Our policy is simple:

1) If you go inactive and leave no message to let the leadership know, you are reviewed at then of each 30 days and if we need space and you went MIA, we drop you and any alts you have. If you were a probationary member (first 30 days in guild) and you go missing for more then two weeks.. you get kicked. Regardless, 90 days MIA and you are removed.

 

2) If you want or need to take time off from the game, and are not currently a probationary member, all you have to do is let us know so we can record the information and preserve your status as a member as long as you return when you say you will, or update us on a new return date. Since our guild is multi-MMO, we expect some players will rotate through the different MMOs where we are organized and present. We just need to know and plan accordingly.

[Quraswren]

We know how it works. A big update or expansion comes out.

People who haven't logged on in two months swoop down in a big gray cloud on the horizon and feed on the new content. A few days or maybe a week later, having sated their fill, they log out again, not to be seen until there's more content.

 

SNIP.....

 

Does anyone else scrub their roster in relation to the updates, or do they just stay on an even keel all the time for their deguild policy?

 

We usually leave ours alone. We seemed to hover around the 500 cap and used to trim the roster but when that got raised it's not been a problem. We rarely scrub people from the guild these days. Not enough actually playing.

 

The other difference this time is we are not expecting anything significant in terms of returning players. The damage is done with how bad the game has became since the expansion launch.

 

5.2 isn't some big update in dang near any other game and while it might be considered big for swtor, it has little interest because a new rep grind area and one OPS boss isn't all that enticing for $15 a month. Combine that with how funny people are about PVP, I highly doubt that was any real hook to get people back. Old gamers saw ilum and newer ones played the Gree event. It wasn't amazing and extremely short lived.

 

We're just not expecting any real change right with this. Word to us is very few plan to return and most said swtor is out of the question till the next expansion and things get the artificial "expansion reset" where everyone in a sense starts the process of leveling and gearing again.

 

We're not expecting much Tuesday.

Edited April 10, 2017 by Quraswren

[Eanelinea]

I'm still here, December will be my 6th anniversary of playing and paying for this game. I do take some time off here and there, but only because I'm in college, work part-time and I'm an Air Force reservist, so there's times I can play and times I can't. But I keep my sub going, mostly because I can't bare to lose any extras Bioware sneaks in.

[masterceil]

Once per month or so I'll scrub my roster, regardless of what's going on patch/content-wise. I just show the Last Played column, sort by Legacy, and kick people inactive for 30-90 days based on their rank in the guild (active/contributing members get more leniency than those that just joined for the exp boost or whatever, who never advance past the first rank).

 

Officer notes are available for known absences ofc. But I'm not going to bother trying to keep people that only play on major updates.

[Sportiva]

Call me a cynic, but I don't think 1 operation boss and a new daily area is going to cause a mad rush to resubscribe to SWTOR.

[mmmbuddah]

Call me a cynic, but I don't think 1 operation boss and a new daily area is going to cause a mad rush to resubscribe to SWTOR.

 

This update is actually what we should hae more often. A little bit for pvp, a little bit for ops players, a daily area , a little story, and i believe also a stronghold? Not sure about the last one. But if they released content like this quarterly it would help numbers a lot. The problem with BW is they neglect 4/5 player bases and tunnel vision the other 1/5 . Which resuklts in people feeling neglected and leaving.