Shae Vizla Launch Updates

[Jarcen]

20 hours ago, DWho said:

What needs to happen, regardless of your feelings on transfers, is that ALL APAC players get on that server and play at least some time. It doesn't need to be your primary server but you need to play as much time on it as you can spare. Broadsword is going to look at how many APAC players are actually playing there and use that to make their decision on how to proceed. If you want that server to be viable you need to be playing on it at least some of the time, preferably in the game play modes that are impacted by high ping.

Thanks. That's what I have said in my previous post. Whether you make SV your main server or you just happen to pass by it, at least take time to play on it. As I've said, and as you also mention, Broadsword will look on how SV performs and will likely base their decision on if and when transfer would be made based on the performance of the server. An active server would mean to them it's one worth further investing time and money on, and that would make them more likely allow transfer happen for it since it is a viable investment. But if people will hang back, would rather wait on whether transfer is happening or not, then SV would feel empty because the people who should be on it aren't, and BS would see that and would likely not add more time and money on it, and consequently might not even decide that there's no need to have transfer available since it's a server not worth investing on. So as I've said earlier, these people who won't go on it are shooting the server on the foot. Ironic since a number of them keep saying they want an APAC server, but wouldn't even want to set foot on it.

[Jarcen]

Of course, I'm also going to reiterate the OTHER side of the equation, and that's what BS should be doing. In one simple word: promote. Promote the server. Promote the game in general. Make the game visible and known especially to a new set of audience. It's been 12 years and there are new kids out there. Promote the game. As well, give incentives to those who play on the server. Give people a reason to go there, to even stay there. There's hardly any incentive for us who are there. One thing people who have not gone there yet is likely asking is--what's in it for me? Why should I invest my time on a new server when I already have done much on my present one. That's the thing people are looking for--what's in it for them. So two things BS could do on their part: promote the game and give incentives to those who are going to SV. Dangle the carrot and show that when they go into SV, there's something there more than just the same base game they already played on other servers.

[Char_Ell]

On 1/13/2024 at 4:38 AM, Jarcen said:

So two things BS could do on their part: promote the game and give incentives to those who are going to SV. Dangle the carrot and show that when they go into SV, there's something there more than just the same base game they already played on other servers.

I've referred to this before in the context of promotion of SWTOR and the game's new APAC server but I'll ask it again.  Which business entity has the primary responsibility for marketing and promotion of SWTOR, its publisher or its developer?  EA or Broadsword?

I believe the answer is EA has primary responsibility and Broadsword has limited ability to promote SWTOR.  In short, I think you and everybody else that is on Broadsword's case to more heavily advertise and promote SWTOR are barking up the wrong tree.

With respect to providing incentives to play on Shae Vizla, I'm sure Broadsword could do something here but what impact would it have on the existing playerbase?  If incentives are strong enough then Shae Vizla population may improve at the expense of the game's other servers, effectively cannibalizing the other servers.  Shae Vizla may already be doing this to some extent.  In short this strategy will likely only serve to redistribute players from other servers to Shae Vizla.  I'm sure that is an acceptable outcome for those who prefer Shae Vizla to SWTOR's other servers.  Overall not an effective strategy I think.

[TrixxieTriss]

5 hours ago, Char_Ell said:

I've referred to this before in the context of promotion of SWTOR and the game's new APAC server but I'll ask it again.  Which business entity has the primary responsibility for marketing and promotion of SWTOR, its publisher or its developer?  EA or Broadsword?

I believe the answer is EA has primary responsibility and Broadsword has limited ability to promote SWTOR.  In short, I think you and everybody else that is on Broadsword's case to more heavily advertise and promote SWTOR are barking up the wrong tree.

With respect to providing incentives to play on Shae Vizla, I'm sure Broadsword could do something here but what impact would it have on the existing playerbase?  If incentives are strong enough then Shae Vizla population may improve at the expense of the game's other servers, effectively cannibalizing the other servers.  Shae Vizla may already be doing this to some extent.  In short this strategy will likely only serve to redistribute players from other servers to Shae Vizla.  I'm sure that is an acceptable outcome for those who prefer Shae Vizla to SWTOR's other servers.  Overall not an effective strategy I think.

There are things Broadsword can or could have done discretionally without EA.

They can make up CM packs as rewards for new or returning players.

They can talk to APAC regional publications & try & get them to print a story. 

They could even offer industry journalists free subscriptions to get them to print stories. 

All it takes is some will from Broadsword to do it. Honestly, they have the means internally if they can be bothered. It’s not like Jackie isn’t on twitter discussing other games she plays, because I do see her all the time. 

Edited January 14 by TrixxieTriss

[Lord_Malganus]

1 hour ago, TrixxieTriss said:

All it takes is some will from Broadsword to do it. Honestly, they have the means internally if they can be bothered. It’s not like Jackie isn’t on twitter discussing other games she plays, because I do see her all the time. 

I think its obvious they can't be bothered. Its halfway through January and all the issues from over a month ago, before they even went on Holiday Vacation have still gone totally unaddressed. Due to the problem of server inactivity with PvE groups and PvP, the sad thing is many who were playing on SV are just over it and have already moved on.

[TrixxieTriss]

1 hour ago, Lord_Malganus said:

I think its obvious they can't be bothered. Its halfway through January and all the issues from over a month ago, before they even went on Holiday Vacation have still gone totally unaddressed. Due to the problem of server inactivity with PvE groups and PvP, the sad thing is many who were playing on SV are just over it and have already moved on.

Yep. I know I’m over queuing for several hours & getting no pops in PvP. There is absolutely no way I can get the PvP season finished with no pops. So I’m not surprised that people have gone back to the other servers to play. Sadly, even if I wanted to do that (which I don’t). It’s now too late to start PvP seasons & finish on a US server. 

What really pisses me off about all of this is it was 100% predictably. I started pointing all of this out back in November when they still had a month before the holidays to do something about it. I knew if they didn’t, this would happen by January & so did many other players. 

What really blows my mind is the amount of money these guys literally flush down the toilet constantly. The cost to set up a new server & rent it can’t be cheap. And the amount of bad will they’ve generated has actually made some APAC players stop subscribing or playing entirely. Let alone all the potential money they could have made bringing back old & new players in the APAC region if they’d just done it right to start with. They’ve literally thrown away so much potential & current income with what they’ve done. 

I honestly don’t know if they can salvage this unless they spend extra money & actually do some proper advertising to the APAC region. Something they probably wouldn’t have had to do if this had been planned & implemented properly to start with.

My concern is the people who control the budget won’t give anymore money to them because they haven’t met their KPI’s with this launch. And sadly, those in charge of the money probably don’t/won’t understand why they haven’t met them unless they read the commentary we’ve been posting here on the forums since November.

Im not sure why, but I’ve still got a glimmer of hope that those with power have been reading our feedback & they are forming a plan to build up the server population this year.

But if that doesn’t happen or they close the server (please Broadsword, don’t do that), then that will be it for me & this game. Im not going back to 220-350ms ping on the US servers. I’ll just stop playing entirely if that’s what happens. 

Edited January 14 by TrixxieTriss

[Lord_Malganus]

36 minutes ago, TrixxieTriss said:

Yep. I know I’m over queuing for several hours & getting no pops in PvP. There is absolutely no way I can get the PvP season finished with no pops. So I’m not surprised that people have gone back to the other servers to play.  What really pisses me off about all of this is it was 100% predictably. I started pointing all of this out back in November when they still had a month before the holidays to do something about it. I knew if they didn’t, this would happen by January & so did many other players. 

 

Exactly as you predicted indeed!

38 minutes ago, TrixxieTriss said:

 And the amount of bad will they’ve generated has actually made some APAC players stop subscribing or playing entirely. Let alone all the potential money they could have made bringing back old & new players in the APAC region if they’d just done it right to start with.
 

They don't care. If they did, it would have been handled differently and their continued silence speaks volumes.

 

41 minutes ago, TrixxieTriss said:

But if that doesn’t happen or they close the server (please Broadsword, don’t do that), then that will be it for me & this game. Im not going back to 220-350ms ping on the US servers. I’ll just stop playing entirely if that’s what happens. 

You won't be the only one.

[Nommaz]

36 minutes ago, Lord_Malganus said:

You won't be the only one

Nope I won't be going back to US servers either. 

I already unsubscribed due to the way this has been handled, and until there is a resolution. 

I enjoy the game and want to play but not badly enough to put up with the issues from US servers. That's why I was on a endless break when this server was released. 

 

[Jarcen]

12 hours ago, Char_Ell said:

I've referred to this before in the context of promotion of SWTOR and the game's new APAC server but I'll ask it again.  Which business entity has the primary responsibility for marketing and promotion of SWTOR, its publisher or its developer?  EA or Broadsword?

I believe the answer is EA has primary responsibility and Broadsword has limited ability to promote SWTOR.  In short, I think you and everybody else that is on Broadsword's case to more heavily advertise and promote SWTOR are barking up the wrong tree.

With respect to providing incentives to play on Shae Vizla, I'm sure Broadsword could do something here but what impact would it have on the existing playerbase?  If incentives are strong enough then Shae Vizla population may improve at the expense of the game's other servers, effectively cannibalizing the other servers.  Shae Vizla may already be doing this to some extent.  In short this strategy will likely only serve to redistribute players from other servers to Shae Vizla.  I'm sure that is an acceptable outcome for those who prefer Shae Vizla to SWTOR's other servers.  Overall not an effective strategy I think.

Broadsword should take up the initiative to promote the game. If EA isn't doing enough, then BS should. After all they also have a stake to this game, so if they want it to go on further then they should invest on marketing and promoting it. Passing the blame on this or that won't help things--as I always say, it is more productive to take action than to find excuses. Of course if a company isn't that interested in it then naturally they'll find an excuse. Hopefully BS has much interest to find time to market and promote the game.

Well there is a possibility that providing incentives would take some players away from the other servers; then again the other servers are much established at this point than SV, so I don't think the impact would be that great. Servers like SF which has a large population won't be affected as much, and certainly this would help SV much as it is still a new server. 

But the two should work together: promotions and incentives. Incentives will appeal more to an already present playerbase; promotions would target more new players as well as returning players.

[AFadedMemory]

3 hours ago, Jarcen said:

Broadsword should take up the initiative to promote the game. If EA isn't doing enough, then BS should

Who is BS accountable to? EA. unless EA green lights something it probably won’t happen. Can BS act independently from EA sure but I would imagine marketing would require pre approval. You also have to remember that Disney/Lucus Films own the rights to SWTOR characters and stories. EA probably has to/wants to collaborate with them in order to avoid negatively impacting other projects. (I imagine the effort involved is the biggest deterrent)

Edited January 15 by AFadedMemory

[Jarcen]

2 minutes ago, AFadedMemory said:

Who is BS accountable to? EA. unless EA green lights something it probably won’t happen. Can BS act independently from EA sure but I would imagine marketing would require pre approval. You also have to remember that Disney/Lucus Films own the rights to SWTOR characters and stories. EA probably has to/wants to collaborate with them in order to avoid negatively impacting other projects.

Disney has so far have a hands-off policy with SWTOR. If Disney wanted to get involved in it, they would've done so years ago. As of now Disney has its hands full with the movies and streaming. I don't think they're in any position right now to tackle SWTOR given the state of Disney SW.

Regardless on the relationship between EA and Broadsword, there is still a need to promote this game extensively. I would even say desperately, since promotion for it is nearly zero, as in it exists mainly because there are still people logging into it, and that's just about it. They really need to step up on marketing here since each year there are new games coming out, and that means less focus on SWTOR by players in general and more on the newer games. SWTOR has still much potential in it, but it will remain just a potential unless it's effectively used.

[Whykara]

12 hours ago, TrixxieTriss said:

It’s not like Jackie isn’t on twitter discussing other games she plays, because I do see her all the time. 

I think it's a good thing that Jackie is playing Baldurs Gate 3. I hope the writers are playing too!

[AFadedMemory]

8 minutes ago, Jarcen said:

Disney has so far have a hands-off policy with SWTOR. If Disney wanted to get involved in it, they would've done so years ago. As of now Disney has its hands full with the movies and streaming. I don't think they're in any position right now to tackle SWTOR given the state of Disney SW.

Regardless on the relationship between EA and Broadsword, there is still a need to promote this game extensively. I would even say desperately, since promotion for it is nearly zero, as in it exists mainly because there are still people logging into it, and that's just about it. They really need to step up on marketing here since each year there are new games coming out, and that means less focus on SWTOR by players in general and more on the newer games. SWTOR has still much potential in it, but it will remain just a potential unless it's effectively used.

I’m not saying Disney wants or should be actively involved(I will say I think they shouldn’t based on recent track records) I’m saying if Disney does not want EA to market SWTOR because it would conflict with another Disney owned project EA might be contractually bond and legal not allowed to. Thus a policy of check before doing is probably being implemented.

Edited January 15 by AFadedMemory

[Char_Ell]

10 hours ago, Jarcen said:

Broadsword should take up the initiative to promote the game. If EA isn't doing enough, then BS should. After all they also have a stake to this game, so if they want it to go on further then they should invest on marketing and promoting it. Passing the blame on this or that won't help things--as I always say, it is more productive to take action than to find excuses. Of course if a company isn't that interested in it then naturally they'll find an excuse. Hopefully BS has much interest to find time to market and promote the game.

I'm surprised you think that Broadsword can and should market and promote SWTOR without EA's approval nor funding.  Sounds like a good way for Broadsword to put its business relationship with EA in jeopardy.

[Jarcen]

4 hours ago, Char_Ell said:

I'm surprised you think that Broadsword can and should market and promote SWTOR without EA's approval nor funding.  Sounds like a good way for Broadsword to put its business relationship with EA in jeopardy.

Sometimes you really have to take risks to keep things moving, and it should pay off. Generally it should be a win for the company when it comes to marketing as it would promote its product, unless the company isn't interested in moving that product which would then be unfortunate for everyone.

[supertimtaf]

11 hours ago, Jarcen said:

Regardless on the relationship between EA and Broadsword, there is still a need to promote this game extensively. I would even say desperately, since promotion for it is nearly zero, as in it exists mainly because there are still people logging into it, and that's just about it. They really need to step up on marketing here since each year there are new games coming out, and that means less focus on SWTOR by players in general and more on the newer games. SWTOR has still much potential in it, but it will remain just a potential unless it's effectively used.

Marketing is probably one of the most expensive thing to pay for with a game. And sometimes, when it's handled poorly it can be a disaster. They did *massively* promote the game when 4.0 was about to release. With a huge trailer that probably did cost more than the actual dev costs of making the expansion. It backfired immensely as it simply drove the hype so high that when the expansion released and most of the existing game got gutted with it, well everyone purely and simply *left*.

Promoting a game, especially on a large scale, comes with a cost. Cost that BS definitely can't afford, and that EA isn't willing to spend. I think that we kinda knew that for a while, that they are unwilling to spend any more money on the game. Be it for hiring new staff or even promoting it. Swtor right now, from a financial standpoint, is barely above a mobile game. Meaning minimum investment and maximum cash shop gains. This isn't going to change anytime soon unless we see things changing and broadsword starts to actively hire new development staff for this game.

So while the game has immense potential since its release, it's been managed poorly over time, and the amount of work required to fix the huge amount of bugs (some of which are still a thing from release), correct the most glaring issues like economy/gearing and balance the game to an enjoyable level is so high that for EA it's definitely not worth investing money into it. A shame though, it's pretty well known in the mmo market that the more money you invest in development, the more players (and money) it'll bring. Yet EA seems contempt to let this wasted potential of a game slowly wither and die. As long as there will be whales willing to pay the exhorbitant amount of money required for a *single use dye*, they will not see a need for change.

[MuskyBoy]

All I know is right now 2 things are undoubtedly true.

1) The server needs an injection of players or it will die

2) It costs too many credits to play this game on SV.

1) Is pretty self explanatory low population means low activity. 

2) Is the amount of credits required to craft, gear, repair etc is too high. I've prevously said it costs too much to get your crafters up to 50 and your crafting skill to 700, but I haven't talked about gearing. I'm still gearing my first toon currently I have spent, by my estimation over 11 million to gear my marauder given 3 tacticals is 3 million, to gear using Hyde and Zeek is about 3.2 million, then you have augments, it costs around 700 K to augment your character using purple 286 augs given the price is about 500 K the cost of mk-11 is 100K and implementing them is another 100k (I can craft augs on other servers but refer to my cost of crafting issues as to why I haven't got my aug crafters up), I still have several augment slots I need to fill but the augments have cost me over 5 mill themselves (8 slots). I'm just wondering how many heroics am I supposed to farm just to pay for all this? Or should I seek out a gold farmer? This is for one toon remember that.

[Darev]

2 hours ago, MuskyBoy said:

All I know is right now 2 things are undoubtedly true.

1) The server needs an injection of players or it will die

2) It costs too many credits to play this game on SV.

1) Is pretty self explanatory low population means low activity. 

2) Is the amount of credits required to craft, gear, repair etc is too high. I've prevously said it costs too much to get your crafters up to 50 and your crafting skill to 700, but I haven't talked about gearing. I'm still gearing my first toon currently I have spent, by my estimation over 11 million to gear my marauder given 3 tacticals is 3 million, to gear using Hyde and Zeek is about 3.2 million, then you have augments, it costs around 700 K to augment your character using purple 286 augs given the price is about 500 K the cost of mk-11 is 100K and implementing them is another 100k (I can craft augs on other servers but refer to my cost of crafting issues as to why I haven't got my aug crafters up), I still have several augment slots I need to fill but the augments have cost me over 5 mill themselves (8 slots). I'm just wondering how many heroics am I supposed to farm just to pay for all this? Or should I seek out a gold farmer? This is for one toon remember that.

I've been on SV since it launched.  For the first couple weeks everything was great, population seemed great, FP queues popped almost instantly.
I know I'm re-hashing what people have already said...
7.4 dropped and people went back to their "main" server to play out the story.  I started it, but haven't finished it yet, choosing to stay on SV to complete, as much as possible, GS5.

I've got legacy level 50 on both of my subcribed accounts as of yesterday.

I certainly wasn't the first to hit that mark, but I did all the same.

This past week, however, the drop in population has been very evident.  I don't know where they went, but I haven't seen them online.  Maybe there's a bunch of people just finishing up class stories and not queueing for FPs or PVP....I don't know.

 

Your  #1 is absolutely correct.  The newness "shine" of SV has worn off and in a week when GS5 ends, I think the population will drop off again (until GS6 starts...hopefully soon).   I just don't know where this "injection of players" is going to come from.

As for point number 2, your numbers look correct.   I haven't had to spend QUITE as much as I'm crafting everything myself.  Even been saving credits as people are selling iokath recombinators on the GTN for far cheaper than the vendor on Odessen sells them.  I wound up buying 7 from the GTN for the price I was expecting to pay from the vendor.

Deals are out there, you just have to look.

[TziganeNZ]

19 hours ago, Whykara said:

I think it's a good thing that Jackie is playing Baldurs Gate 3. I hope the writers are playing too!

I am! Due to being told to stay away from Fleet over the silly event period if I didn't want to participate, I took the advice and tried a new game - BG3. It's SO good, fantastic story, fantastic writing - I'd forgotten what a joy it is to have developers and writers who actually give a rat's behind (it shows in their product). I'm having so much fun, trying out different builds and different storylines with different companions, that I've cancelled my SWTOR sub.

[AFadedMemory]

46 minutes ago, TziganeNZ said:

I am! Due to being told to stay away from Fleet over the silly event period if I didn't want to participate, I took the advice and tried a new game - BG3. It's SO good, fantastic story, fantastic writing - I'd forgotten what a joy it is to have developers and writers who actually give a rat's behind (it shows in their product). I'm having so much fun, trying out different builds and different storylines with different companions, that I've cancelled my SWTOR sub.

I bet you felt similar when SWTOR was the new game...

[TziganeNZ]

5 minutes ago, AFadedMemory said:

I bet you felt similar when SWTOR was the new game...

Yes, and no - I was in beta, and there were major issues right at the start, some of which have never been fully resolved. The vanilla game, with all different storylines and companion choices etc, certainly had a similar feeling. But there was always a certain 'clunkiness' somehow - technology has moved ahead and BG3 looks and feels vastly different to how SWTOR did in the beginning.

 

"...and if we meet again, well - we will have....met again..." cracks me up every time.

Edited January 16 by TziganeNZ

[Nee-Elder]

8 minutes ago, TziganeNZ said:

- technology has moved ahead and BG3 looks and feels vastly different to how SWTOR did in the beginning.

Maybe cuz  BG3 is a  'turn-based'  type game?  ( turn-based combat & movement i think ? )

[TziganeNZ]

14 minutes ago, Nee-Elder said:

Maybe cuz  BG3 is a  'turn-based'  type game?  ( turn-based combat & movement i think ? )

Yes, it is - based on D&D 5ed. Took some getting used to, but you can swap perspectives to your companions and play as them, allowing you to be VERY strategic in fights, including ungrouping to give precise control over your party.  If I know a fight is coming up, I can ungroup then move each member of the group into position to give me the best coverage (rather than having them follow my character around)....you do have to think quite a bit about how you play and composition of your party, which makes it challenging.

 

The only thing I really don't like is the movement mechanics. Still getting used to that.

Edited January 16 by TziganeNZ

[Jarcen]

9 hours ago, supertimtaf said:

Marketing is probably one of the most expensive thing to pay for with a game. And sometimes, when it's handled poorly it can be a disaster. They did *massively* promote the game when 4.0 was about to release. With a huge trailer that probably did cost more than the actual dev costs of making the expansion. It backfired immensely as it simply drove the hype so high that when the expansion released and most of the existing game got gutted with it, well everyone purely and simply *left*.

Promoting a game, especially on a large scale, comes with a cost. Cost that BS definitely can't afford, and that EA isn't willing to spend. I think that we kinda knew that for a while, that they are unwilling to spend any more money on the game. Be it for hiring new staff or even promoting it. Swtor right now, from a financial standpoint, is barely above a mobile game. Meaning minimum investment and maximum cash shop gains. This isn't going to change anytime soon unless we see things changing and broadsword starts to actively hire new development staff for this game.

So while the game has immense potential since its release, it's been managed poorly over time, and the amount of work required to fix the huge amount of bugs (some of which are still a thing from release), correct the most glaring issues like economy/gearing and balance the game to an enjoyable level is so high that for EA it's definitely not worth investing money into it. A shame though, it's pretty well known in the mmo market that the more money you invest in development, the more players (and money) it'll bring. Yet EA seems contempt to let this wasted potential of a game slowly wither and die. As long as there will be whales willing to pay the exhorbitant amount of money required for a *single use dye*, they will not see a need for change.

Many people don't understand much about Marketing, which unfortunately most companies don't as well. Usually when downsizing Marketing is the first to go, not realizing that much revenue comes because of Marketing (ad promotions, sales, PR are all forms of Marketing). So when Marketing is downsized, the result is that product placement and awareness also suffers, resulting to further decline. It's quite amusing when companies do this as it's practically shooting themselves on the foot, and would only realize it too late that they actually need a Marketing campaign to get their products going. We in Marketing could've told them so.

But anyway...marketing must be constant. Just because a company did a marketing campaign so many years ago doesn't mean they shouldn't do another campaign. There is constant competition out in the market. Even for a known brand like Star Wars needs marketing. I would say probably more so now what with Disney doing a good job in knocking the IP down. SWTOR needs a big marketing campaign to show and differentiate itself from the Disney SW. Possibly one of the big factors why people aren't looking into SWTOR is because of the perceived Disney association, which is almost like a death sentence at this point. So there is a need for much promotion to make the public aware of the game and how it's not exactly tied to the Disney brand.

Yes Marketing comes with a cost but as mentioned, the ROI is just as big. This is what is misunderstood even by most companies themselves. When you cut back in Marketing, you're hurting your product since awareness for it is diminished. Over the years you can see its effect on SWTOR--many people aren't aware it exists or it's still online. I post about the game in MMORPG Philippines--a Facebook group for MMOs--and many people don't even know about it. And that's among MMO players. The game's been out 12 years but the lack of promotion has hurt it so much that people don't even know it's out there. I always compare the amount of promotion SWTOR has to what Wargaming is doing. Now the games of Wargaming are a different genre, but that's not the point--the point is how much Marketing is done, and Wargaming does so much you practically see something about World or Warships or World of Tanks daily. In the time Shae Vizla launched until today, how many ads can you remember SWTOR had? Yeah that's right--zero. As in nothing. One would think with a new server, they would put much fanfare for it, but none. Guess what's happening through all that time.

The game has much potential but that potential will remain just that if not tapped fully, and that would mean much Marketing. Promote the game. Promote the server. Put out ads, and see an ROI. The amount you put into Marketing would be the same amount, and more, that would return.

[TrixxieTriss]

2 hours ago, Darev said:

This past week, however, the drop in population has been very evident.  I don't know where they went, but I haven't seen them online.  Maybe there's a bunch of people just finishing up class stories and not queueing for FPs or PVP....I don't know.

When it’s not popping PvP at all, what’s the point of queuing. Its snowballing now. The more of us who don’t queue, the less it pops & the more of us stop queuing. 

Plus as of the beginning of this week, most Aussie’s have gone back to work after Xmas holidays. Those of us Aussie’s who can still play during the APAC day time are either students, retired or unemployed. The rest are just getting back into the work groove & not playing at night. 

As you said in your post, the real issue is they didn’t open transfers before 7.4 released. Now they’ve missed out on generating interest over the holiday period.