Time to merge the US servers... again. Primetime window getting smaller and smaller.

[TrixxieTriss]

There is finally an accurate (with a small margin of error) way to find out how many people are active on a server at a specific time and able to see how many people are in the whole game at certain times.

 

It takes about 40 mins to do, which is why there is a small margin of error.

I read how to do it on the swtor reddit page.

 

Here is how :

 

Open up the “who” window

* type the lvl number for levels 1-69. This will tell you how many people are at the lvl, what instance or planet, that are on your faction.

As an example of 1-10. Type into the who window 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (make sure there is a space between each one)

I did them at intervals of 10 levels at a time because it will only show the first 100 people.

If you find it hits 100, then you will need to reduce how many levels you count at once.

 

* at lvl 70 you will need to use a slightly different method because there should be more than 100 people at lvl 70. You will need to count each class seperately.

This is what you do to count each class.

70 sniper

70 gunslinger

70 operative

etc etc

This will tell you the total of that class at that lvl.

 

Then you do it for the opposing faction. Add up all the numbers and it will give you close to how many people are logged in on that server.

 

Here is a test I did to see how it works.

8-8:30pm AEST, 6-6:30am EST, 3-3:30am PST, 11-11:30am GMT (time zones)

 

SS - 743 total

Imp - 372

Rep - 371

 

SF - 1022 total

Imp - 554

Rep - 468

 

DM - 1556 total

Imp - 896

Rep - 660

 

Total for the 3 servers = 3321

(If you did the other 2 EU servers, you could get a count of total in the game)

 

Yes, it was out of primetime. This was just to test the method. It is fairly accurate and anyone can do it.

We no longer need to rely on fleet numbers as a representation of how many people are online.

 

So guys, have at it, do your own study and see what’s, what

 

Please post us your results. But make sure you put down the time / zone you do it at.

Edited August 29, 2018 by TrixxieTriss

[TrixxieTriss]

But people don't need to be jerks about it either. I was doing the black hole last night and some idiot gunslinger decided to be a jerk and come right in and kill the mobs I was working on. I first chalked it off to him not seeing me there, (a little impossible but w/e) so I moved to another area and the idiot did it again and of course I called him out on it. He then got puffy about it. There is one thing of "not seeing" a person one time but quite another when it keeps happening with the same person.

 

Yes the game is an MMO but that doesn't excuse people for acting like jerks nor does it require everyone to group up and do pvp either. I will group up but I am selective on who I play with and if that makes people like you upset so be it. It is my time and I will play with the people I can trust and whom I enjoy playing with.

 

Yep, there are jerks on every server and every part of the game . The only way you can ever get away from that is in a single player game.

 

I know you probably won’t listen, but I’ll say it anyway. Play in the pvp instances.

There is never anyone in them. It’s just like playing a single player game with a 1/1000 chance you may come across another player. Even then, the times I’ve seen someone else, they have mostly been on my side.

18 months since 5.0 and I only do pve content in pvp instances. I don have an exact record, but I would say I’ve seen less than 15 people in that time.

At least try it a few times and see for yourself. What’s the worst that can happen?

[TrixxieTriss]

This game was better off pre-2017 merge. The APAC-West Coast exodus was disastrous for Satale Shan.

 

Agreed

[merovejec]

SS - 743 total

Imp - 372

Rep - 371

 

SF - 1022 total

Imp - 554

Rep - 468

 

DM - 1556 total

Imp - 896

Rep - 660

 

I mean, there are a lot of things which you need to take into account here, but yes, its some numbers and it indeed does tell us something. Overall its not good when the game population is spending their time to investigate such things

 

As for myself I have to say I am fine with the state of the game. On DM you get pops and can do what ever you want in the game, I do not feel a lack of people on the server.

[Foxinator]

Welcome back to active posting

 

Sending some Universal love❤🎶 to all in here

 

Thank you, unfortunately with how expensive server transfers cost are I will likely leave when my subscription ends. I came back to the game to a server I didn't choose and want to move. I made a thread here: http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=953432

[Kiesu]

Here is a test I did to see how it works.

8-8:30pm AEST, 6-6:30am EST, 3-3:30am PST, 11-11:30am GMT (time zones)

 

Total for the 3 servers = 3321

(If you did the other 2 EU servers, you could get a count of total in the game)

Oh wow that's even less than I thought. It really could be abetter idea to merge servers with an mmo this low pop...

Though, at expansion launches we always get more traffic. We've been waiting so long now it might not be the best idea to merge now, but rather after the next expansion.

[CaptRogue]

Oh wow that's even less than I thought. It really could be abetter idea to merge servers with an mmo this low pop...

Though, at expansion launches we always get more traffic. We've been waiting so long now it might not be the best idea to merge now, but rather after the next expansion.

 

You need to go back one page & read why that will NEVER happen per Eric's words.

Their tech can't handle it.

 

(Not to mention as has been stated, the RPers don't want that.)

[Kiesu]

You need to go back one page & read why that will NEVER happen per Eric's words.

Their tech can't handle it.

 

(Not to mention as has been stated, the RPers don't want that.)

It only speaks of "server population" being the problem, and having this amount of people on one server or just US combined would not be "heavy population". Unless they literally downgraded their server capacities at some point, since single server registered pops 7 years ago were closer to the combined amount or current active pops across all 3.

 

No doubt, if all the few million people who initially registered would suddenly decided to log on we'd certainly have big issues

But since the pops are currently minuscule fraction of that and only going down, I'm having hard time believing combining server pops would lag the server any more than any high traffic period during expansion launches.

Edited August 29, 2018 by Kiesu

[TrixxieTriss]

I mean, there are a lot of things which you need to take into account here, but yes, its some numbers and it indeed does tell us something. Overall its not good when the game population is spending their time to investigate such things

 

As for myself I have to say I am fine with the state of the game. On DM you get pops and can do what ever you want in the game, I do not feel a lack of people on the server.

 

When you are sitting waiting for pops as long as I do, missing 2 games for me to do this, isn’t much. Others will need to make their own decisions.

I just wanted to give everyone a better way to judge server populations instead of measuring it against fleets.

[TrixxieTriss]

Oh wow that's even less than I thought. It really could be abetter idea to merge servers with an mmo this low pop...

Though, at expansion launches we always get more traffic. We've been waiting so long now it might not be the best idea to merge now, but rather after the next expansion.

 

I would love to see the figures for each primetime and then add the seperate primetimes together to get an idea of activity.

 

Weekends will also be different, so it should probably be done for 3-4 days of the whole week.

[TrixxieTriss]

You need to go back one page & read why that will NEVER happen per Eric's words.

Their tech can't handle it.

 

(Not to mention as has been stated, the RPers don't want that.)

 

You are basing that on the same population they had 9 months ago. It’s a false assumption saying the tech can’t handle it.

[IoNonSoEVero]

Those 'stats' were taken during the workday in the EU, early morning in the east coast USA and 3am west coast.

 

Come on now. A lot of people aren't playing at 3am on a Tuesday night. Quelle surprise.

 

As for 'the people now aren't the same as 9 months ago,' the vast majority of people in this thread and others do not want mergers. The only ones pushing for it seem to be PvPers who think the rest of ua should be uprooted and lose money and our QoL for them. Plus the servers were quite busy with lags nd queues for Nathema.

[TrixxieTriss]

Those 'stats' were taken during the workday in the EU, early morning in the east coast USA and 3am west coast.

 

Come on now. A lot of people aren't playing at 3am on a Tuesday night. Quelle surprise.

 

Which is why I put this disclaimer in my post to tell people that.

 

Yes, it was out of primetime. This was just to test the method. It is fairly accurate and anyone can do it.

We no longer need to rely on fleet numbers as a representation of how many people are online.

 

Those numbers do not and should not be used as a reference except to say it’s dead as a door nail at those times.

 

The best time to gauge real active population is during primetimes spread over the days of the week

 

It’s 6:30 pm GMT at the moment. Now would be a good time for someone to check on DM and see what the start of primetime is like.

 

Then check again at 8pm and then at 9:30pm. That would give a well rounded indication of beginning, middle and end of primetime on DM.

 

Sorry I can’t do it as it’s 3:30am here and I’m in bed 😴

Edited August 29, 2018 by TrixxieTriss

[Jdast]

As for myself I have to say I am fine with the state of the game. On DM you get pops and can do what ever you want in the game, I do not feel a lack of people on the server.

 

Agreed, which is why this debate along with all the population proxy debates (Fleet Numbers, Twitch Viewers) make for nice forum fodder, but are quite esoteric.

 

Even if we as players do establish a concrete, verifiable metric to determine population numbers -- then what? It's not like we are going to be able to use that as ammunition in any argument to Bioware because they already know precisely what the numbers are.

 

I think it is fair to say that they know the inside out / backwards and forwards the pros and cons of a grand NA server merge (for the record, I'm agonostic on the subject).

 

I'm one of those -- hope for the best, but prepare for the worst kind of guys. I already know the population is declining and will continue to decline until there is new content. Combine slow pace of content with some stiff competition (WoW, Monster Hunter, ESO) and it makes sense.

 

All I can do is decide for myself if it makes sense to continue subscribing. Like many, my sub runs out soon and I will take a couple months break until new content is released. BW all but said they expect this to happen.

 

I have no particular desire to hammer BW Austin over the head with population numbers they already know more accurately. All it does is allow a segment of the forum population to say, "I told you so", when it is already painfully obvious.

 

Dasty

Edited August 29, 2018 by Jdast

[Joonbeams]

There is finally an accurate (with a small margin of error) way to find out how many people are active on a server at a specific time and able to see how many people are in the whole game at certain times.

 

It takes about 40 mins to do, which is why there is a small margin of error.

I read how to do it on the swtor reddit page.

 

Here is how :

 

Open up the “who” window

* type the lvl number for levels 1-69. This will tell you how many people are at the lvl, what instance or planet, that are on your faction.

As an example of 1-10. Type into the who window 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 (make sure there is a space between each one)

I did them at intervals of 10 levels at a time because it will only show the first 100 people.

If you find it hits 100, then you will need to reduce how many levels you count at once.

 

* at lvl 70 you will need to use a slightly different method because there should be more than 100 people at lvl 70. You will need to count each class seperately.

This is what you do to count each class.

70 sniper

70 gunslinger

70 operative

etc etc

This will tell you the total of that class at that lvl.

 

Then you do it for the opposing faction. Add up all the numbers and it will give you close to how many people are logged in on that server.

 

Here is a test I did to see how it works.

8-8:30pm AEST, 6-6:30am EST, 3-3:30am PST, 11-11:30am GMT (time zones)

 

SS - 743 total

Imp - 372

Rep - 371

 

SF - 1022 total

Imp - 554

Rep - 468

 

DM - 1556 total

Imp - 896

Rep - 660

 

Total for the 3 servers = 3321

(If you did the other 2 EU servers, you could get a count of total in the game)

 

Yes, it was out of primetime. This was just to test the method. It is fairly accurate and anyone can do it.

We no longer need to rely on fleet numbers as a representation of how many people are online.

 

So guys, have at it, do your own study and see what’s, what

 

Please post us your results. But make sure you put down the time / zone you do it at.

 

This is really excellent - well done. I'm afraid that there will still be a fair number of denialists who will dispute the time of day, or something about summer ending, or some obscure holiday or what have you -- anything to avoid dealing with the facts.

 

Shockingly, these numbers correlate quite nicely with people's observations about fleet numbers, queue times, Twitch data, forum activity, and the number of other surrogate that serve as proxies for the raw, actual numbers. Imagine that?

 

What's also interesting (again, we need many more data points to be sure) is that this snapshot may explain why ppl who play on SS (like me) may feel worse about the numbers than those on DM or SF. At numbers this paltry, a 1/3 difference makes a big difference when it comes to group activities. This most certainly has an impact on people's perceptions and, thus, their comments here and elsewhere.

 

Even if we doubled or tripled these numbers to account for primetime, these numbers are too low in the abstract to warrant their own servers - with distributed server architecture these days being able to handle several millions of accounts. That said, scaling down servers beyond the number we have now is most certainly not viable given what we've gotten from the devs on the subject. Plus, it would create a big headache with names and such (I would be very upset to lose certain character names). I think at this point, we need to just live with what we have and hope that we get a boost in players if we get new content...

[Joonbeams]

...

 

All I can do is decide for myself if it makes sense to continue subscribing. Like many, my sub runs out soon and I will take a couple month break until new content is released. BW all but said they expect this to happen.

 

I have no particular desire to hammer BW Austin over the head with the numbers they already know more accurately.

 

Dasty

 

I agree with most of what you said here, and the above is generally my attitude. Until the day that I stop getting value out of my sub price, a day that probably won't happen until the last server shuts down, I'll stay subbed and make my tiny contribution to giving this game a chance (of course, I would contribute more if devs didn't make certain decisions that actively discourage me from spending:rolleyes:...digression kinda).

 

But here's where I think my frustration comes in, and maybe we part ways a bit. I do believe it's important to call the devs out on the numbers. Yes, there are going to be declines regardless, no one doubts that. But there is a lot of self-inflicted, gratuitous, tone-deaf decision-making that pointlessly drove these numbers down faster than they would have - again, conquest nerfs being the most recent example.

 

We have ample anecdotes, and even some gathered data that shows that these conquest nerfs actively discouraged people from playing, re-rolling, etc. And for what objective (assuming the objective isn't to shudder the game)? I will continue to call this out, because those (easily-reversible) nerfs served no purpose other than to drive down activity and participation overall...

[TrixxieTriss]

We have ample anecdotes, and even some gathered data that shows that these conquest nerfs actively discouraged people from playing, re-rolling, etc. And for what objective (assuming the objective isn't to shudder the game)? I will continue to call this out, because those (easily-reversible) nerfs served no purpose other than to drive down activity and participation overall...

 

That is how I see it too. Bioware have self inflicted much of the decline because of poor decisions. Some or a lot of those decisions could easily be fixed or relaxed to draw people back. But they just won’t do it or make some relatively easy changes to things to make the game more fun.

 

Sometimes I think they draw a line in the sand and would rather the game shut down than actually reversing course or changing something they disagree with (even if the data is showing people leaving). It’s like an ostrich sticking it’s head in the sand.

 

Bioware from the launch of 5.0, have systematically gone about making the game less fun to play at every turn. It’s become Alt unfriendly and 5.0 destroyed lower lvl pvp participation. This had a flow on affect with the quality of pvp. It has drastically degraded it to the point that many good pvpers have just packed up and left.

 

You also have the conquest fiasco and a slew of other self inflicted wounds that Bioware just refuse to fix. At every turn, they take three steps backwards and people complain. Then they take two steps forward, but they never take three steps forward to actually fix the reason people are complaining. So the game is becoming incrementally less fun over time and Bioware just don’t seem to get it.

 

In a lot of these cases, populations would not have continued to drop so fast or drastically if Bioware actually left the game as it was. Sometimes I think they just change stuff so they can say they did something. And then when its a bad something, they won’t revert it because it shows they are wasting time and money.

 

There are so many small things Bioware can do to make the game less tedious and fun again by tweaking things and adding some fun.

In so many different threads, on so many different topics and aspects of the game, there are always some really good ideas to make the game more enjoyable for everyone. Lots of those ideas aren’t about new content or even major changes to things. They are tweaks to the current activities or incentives. All of them should be easier to do than making new content and could be done to keep people happy inbetween this content drought.

 

Bioware are fully to blame for this current predicament and only they can fix it. The problem is they won’t. It would require them admitting they’d made mistakes.

 

Even in the last Badfeeling podcast, they said they don’t rely on continuous subscribers, apparently we aren’t their target audience. They only care about the rotating player base that come and go when they release new stuff and also the pvp player base apparently because our numbers are always static (Maybe participants, but not quality).

The continuous and loyal subscriber base is the bottom of their consideration list. We mean nothing to them, it’s why they don’t listen.

 

Bioware do not consider the forums or any social media as a good source of feed back and we are the vocal minority. They only sometimes listen to their dozen or so influencers.

 

“Hey, Bio guys, hows that working out for you”

 

Edit:

We actually need a new thread that lists all the ideas people have had in the last 18 months to make the game more fun and less tedious.

NOT FOR NEW CONTENT ideas. Actual ideas on how things could be tweaked to current content. ie make RNG drops better at tier 4. Make all conquest achievements per character and not limit some to legacy. Add unassembled components as incentives to play lowbie pvp. Make grinding to CXP 300 faster. Etc etc etc.

There are so many ideas and I’m too tired to go and find them all to make a new thread (5am here). Hopefully someone else will start one off.

Edited August 29, 2018 by TrixxieTriss

[LD_Little_Dragon]

More numbers, because numbers are fun

 

Stats taken at 2:00 to 2:30 eastern (7:00 to 7:30 GMT), so mid-afternoon for NA, and early evening for Europe

 

numbers for 70s are inaccurate for DM since some of them hit 100 plus

 

DM:

Pub 70s 608+ [Guardian 100+, Sentinel 89, Shadow 100+, Sage 94, Gunslinger 50, Scoundrel 53, Vanguard 37, Commando 85]

Pub <70s 698

 

Imp 70s 700+ [Juggernaut 100+, Marauder 100+, Assassin 100+, Sorcerer 100+, Sniper 100+, Operative 59, Powertech 41, Mercenary 100+]

Imp <70s 905

 

Total: 70s 1308+, <70s 1603 (all 2911+)

 

SF:

Pub 70s 409 [Guardian 59, Sentinel 45, Shadow 75, Sage 41, Gunslinger 36, Scoundrel 70, Vanguard 28, Commando 55]

Pub <70s 571

 

Imp 70s 558 [Juggernaut 81, Marauder 68, Assassin 78, Sorcerer 90. Sniper 47, Operative 72, Powertech 34, Mercenary 88

Imp <70s 747

 

Total 70s 967, <70s 1318 (all 2285)

 

SS:

Pub 70s 250 [Guardian 30, Seninel 29, Shadow 45, Sage 30, Gunslinger 19, Scoundrel 48, Vanguard 6, Commando 43]

Pub <70s 350

 

Imp 70s 326 [Juggernaut 40, Marauder 32, Assassin 48, Sorcerer 45, Sniper 44, Operative 42, Powertech 23, Mercenary 52]

Imp <70s 312

 

Total 70s 576, <70s 662 (all 1238)

 

3 server totals 6434+ players

 

with the 100 limit to the searches, there's no point in checking primetimes on SS and SF, not unless our player base crashes and burns.

 

 

** I"m not sure how useful the numbers are, except that looking at what people are playing for level 70's it seems to be fairly balanced across the classes, except for vanguard/powertech who need to get some love in the next updates, a lot of love.

[aerockyul]

This is really excellent - well done. I'm afraid that there will still be a fair number of denialists who will dispute the time of day, or something about summer ending, or some obscure holiday or what have you -- anything to avoid dealing with the facts.

 

Shockingly, these numbers correlate quite nicely with people's observations about fleet numbers, queue times, Twitch data, forum activity, and the number of other surrogate that serve as proxies for the raw, actual numbers. Imagine that?

 

There aren't that many "denialists" who would dispute the actual state of the game's population, but, at least for me, I don't get what the actual goal is to constantly be so negative and try to "sway" so many people to thinking the game is failing. New or prospective players I'm POSITIVE love seeing that stuff, and they ALL stick around the more of it that they see. Prophesying the doom constantly is a great motivator to get people to stay and keep the population stable or increasing.

 

What's that? The goal is to show Bioware the state of their own game? You mean they don't have that actual, raw, empirical data in front of them AT ALL TIMES, not just cherry-picked times? They need you to tell them the population levels like they don't know it?

 

This must be the dream scenario for everyone who thinks they're fighting a good fight with all their negativity and population sleuthing (insert favorite pet population cause you've chosen to use as your unimpeachable example in place of my hyperbolic example):

 

Random blip of a forum post: Twitch numbers are low! Here's some numbers!

Bioware employee A with his thumb up his *** twiddling away at his keyboard looking at YouTube kitty videos when he's not browsing the forums: Hey... Hey!! Come look at this!!

Bioware employee B: Wha...oh...Oh...Oh MY GAWD!! GUYS! COME QUICK, LOOK AT THE TWITCH NUMBERS!! Stop everything else you're doing!!! Jesus Christ, we're doooooooomed if we don't do something NOW, QUICKLY!!!

Two weeks later: Brand new expansion is dropped and suddenly everything every whiner in the forums has ever asked for has been granted.

 

It's ironic the optimism thoroughly negative people seem to think their population doomsaying is going to make Bioware act faster/different.

 

I don't want anyone to find a new game, but a little dose of realism might lower the stress levels of a few people and they might actually enjoy again rather than find reasons to hate what they purport to love.

[casirabit]

There aren't that many "denialists" who would dispute the actual state of the game's population, but, at least for me, I don't get what the actual goal is to constantly be so negative and try to "sway" so many people to thinking the game is failing. New or prospective players I'm POSITIVE love seeing that stuff, and they ALL stick around the more of it that they see. Prophesying the doom constantly is a great motivator to get people to stay and keep the population stable or increasing.

 

What's that? The goal is to show Bioware the state of their own game? You mean they don't have that actual, raw, empirical data in front of them AT ALL TIMES, not just cherry-picked times? They need you to tell them the population levels like they don't know it?

 

This must be the dream scenario for everyone who thinks they're fighting a good fight with all their negativity and population sleuthing (insert favorite pet population cause you've chosen to use as your unimpeachable example in place of my hyperbolic example):

 

Random blip of a forum post: Twitch numbers are low! Here's some numbers!

Bioware employee A with his thumb up his *** twiddling away at his keyboard looking at YouTube kitty videos when he's not browsing the forums: Hey... Hey!! Come look at this!!

Bioware employee B: Wha...oh...Oh...Oh MY GAWD!! GUYS! COME QUICK, LOOK AT THE TWITCH NUMBERS!! Stop everything else you're doing!!! Jesus Christ, we're doooooooomed if we don't do something NOW, QUICKLY!!!

Two weeks later: Brand new expansion is dropped and suddenly everything every whiner in the forums has ever asked for has been granted.

 

It's ironic the optimism thoroughly negative people seem to think their population doomsaying is going to make Bioware act faster/different.

 

I don't want anyone to find a new game, but a little dose of realism might lower the stress levels of a few people and they might actually enjoy again rather than find reasons to hate what they purport to love.

 

This. As long as you are having fun, then I don't understand all the negatively except that on some things (like pvp) the ques might not be popping. There could be a number of reason (1) Yes maybe the population is popping or (2) Not everyone plays pvp so they are not queing or (3) (Minus pvp--Not sure if you can create a complete group and then que or not. I do know you can que with 2-3 people in a group pvp) People are creating their own groups and doing things that way.

 

I also do know that I see more than 1-2 people in the daily areas so not sure how that is low population. When I see a fairly good group in an area such as the black hole or CZ (which is a small area) then I am not sure how people think we need a merger when those areas the last few weeks have been busy. Sure it might have to do with conquest but yet there are people there.

Edited August 29, 2018 by casirabit

[IoNonSoEVero]

There aren't that many "denialists" who would dispute the actual state of the game's population, but, at least for me, I don't get what the actual goal is to constantly be so negative and try to "sway" so many people to thinking the game is failing. New or prospective players I'm POSITIVE love seeing that stuff, and they ALL stick around the more of it that they see. Prophesying the doom constantly is a great motivator to get people to stay and keep the population stable or increasing.

 

What's that? The goal is to show Bioware the state of their own game? You mean they don't have that actual, raw, empirical data in front of them AT ALL TIMES, not just cherry-picked times? They need you to tell them the population levels like they don't know it?

 

This must be the dream scenario for everyone who thinks they're fighting a good fight with all their negativity and population sleuthing (insert favorite pet population cause you've chosen to use as your unimpeachable example in place of my hyperbolic example):

 

Random blip of a forum post: Twitch numbers are low! Here's some numbers!

Bioware employee A with his thumb up his *** twiddling away at his keyboard looking at YouTube kitty videos when he's not browsing the forums: Hey... Hey!! Come look at this!!

Bioware employee B: Wha...oh...Oh...Oh MY GAWD!! GUYS! COME QUICK, LOOK AT THE TWITCH NUMBERS!! Stop everything else you're doing!!! Jesus Christ, we're doooooooomed if we don't do something NOW, QUICKLY!!!

Two weeks later: Brand new expansion is dropped and suddenly everything every whiner in the forums has ever asked for has been granted.

 

It's ironic the optimism thoroughly negative people seem to think their population doomsaying is going to make Bioware act faster/different.

 

I don't want anyone to find a new game, but a little dose of realism might lower the stress levels of a few people and they might actually enjoy again rather than find reasons to hate what they purport to love.

 

This. I don't doubt that the population is dwindling. I disagree that the panacea is merging servers or that everything should be uprooted to cater to PvP pops, or that giving population numbers has any goal.

Edited August 29, 2018 by IoNonSoEVero

[Kiesu]

What's that? The goal is to show Bioware the state of their own game? You mean they don't have that actual, raw, empirical data in front of them AT ALL TIMES, not just cherry-picked times? They need you to tell them the population levels like they don't know it?

 

This must be the dream scenario for everyone who thinks they're fighting a good fight with all their negativity and population sleuthing

Lol, no. I'm pretty sure they were dug up exactly because of nay-sayer users on these very forums keep having the same argument of "not having accurate enough data" for anything people are trying to tell them. BW/EA has always done their darnest to hide their sales and user counts, that is no news to anyone. And now the individuals who like having statistics are suddenly some paladins fighting against an evil corp and messing everyone's fun? riiight

 

The "doomsayers" are actually the only ones on these forums I've seen suggesting valid improvement ideas, while people who don't care where the money or customers come from are not, and keep pretending like the game is doing great and nothing needs to change.

 

I also do know that I see more than 1-2 people in the daily areas so not sure how that is low population. When I see a fairly good group in an area such as the black hole or CZ (which is a small area) then I am not sure how people think we need a merger when those areas the last few weeks have been busy. Sure it might have to do with conquest but yet there are people there.

...Because only a few years ago, the usual people count you came across in daily-areas in that 30minutes you spent there, was 5-10. That's a ~80% drop right there just for one area. While having more servers.

Edited August 29, 2018 by Kiesu

[DWho]

...Because only a few years ago, the usual people count you came across in daily-areas in that 30minutes you spent there, was 5-10. That's a ~80% drop right there just for one area. While having more servers.

 

Today you see 30 or so because it is conquest. Normal population in those areas since the merge is a dozen or more. It hasn't been 1-2 since before the mergers and then only on servers like POT5. JC regularly ran 6-8.

[Joonbeams]

There aren't that many "denialists" who would dispute the actual state of the game's population, but, at least for me, I don't get what the actual goal is to constantly be so negative and try to "sway" so many people to thinking the game is failing. New or prospective players I'm POSITIVE love seeing that stuff, and they ALL stick around the more of it that they see. Prophesying the doom constantly is a great motivator to get people to stay and keep the population stable or increasing.

 

What's that? The goal is to show Bioware the state of their own game? You mean they don't have that actual, raw, empirical data in front of them AT ALL TIMES, not just cherry-picked times? They need you to tell them the population levels like they don't know it?

 

This must be the dream scenario for everyone who thinks they're fighting a good fight with all their negativity and population sleuthing (insert favorite pet population cause you've chosen to use as your unimpeachable example in place of my hyperbolic example):

 

Random blip of a forum post: Twitch numbers are low! Here's some numbers!

Bioware employee A with his thumb up his *** twiddling away at his keyboard looking at YouTube kitty videos when he's not browsing the forums: Hey... Hey!! Come look at this!!

Bioware employee B: Wha...oh...Oh...Oh MY GAWD!! GUYS! COME QUICK, LOOK AT THE TWITCH NUMBERS!! Stop everything else you're doing!!! Jesus Christ, we're doooooooomed if we don't do something NOW, QUICKLY!!!

Two weeks later: Brand new expansion is dropped and suddenly everything every whiner in the forums has ever asked for has been granted.

 

It's ironic the optimism thoroughly negative people seem to think their population doomsaying is going to make Bioware act faster/different.

 

I don't want anyone to find a new game, but a little dose of realism might lower the stress levels of a few people and they might actually enjoy again rather than find reasons to hate what they purport to love.

 

I think people get overly defensive about seeing real data -- IMO (again, my personal opinion) that's the exact wrong approach for people who claim to care about the game. The reason why this matters to me here especially is because there were changes made (namely conquest nerfs) - pointless changes that are still relatively new - that have led to a far more precipitous decline in activity than should be happening. If BW would simply listen or care about this, there would be a chance to stem or maybe reverse some of the recent declines until there is new content...

[Andryah]

This. I don't doubt that the population is dwindling. I disagree that the panacea is merging servers or that everything should be uprooted to cater to PvP pops, or that giving population numbers has any goal.

 

^^ Yep yep.