Shae Vizla Launch Updates

[supertimtaf]

30 minutes ago, Jarcen said:

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.

I do agree with everything you said. But I think that you have a bigger issue. You can use marketing to bring people to your game. That is absolutely true and swtor could use more of this. I think however, and this is an issue that you also definitely see right here in this thread when people start saying that SV feels empty.

Swtor was recently visited by 2 somewhat known MMO content creator, if you haven't seen these video series, I strongly recommend watching the ones made by Bellular and Josh Strife Hayes, in which they both attempted to play through the game from a new player's perspective. And while this game has *potential*, the fact is that it's handled so poorly and has so many "small issues" here and there as well as bigger ones means that you will simply fail to do any kind of player retention.

Player retention (or "player engagement") is one of the metrics that you use to determine if a MMO is successfull or not. And atm swtor isn't good at doing that. You could bring all of a sudden 1M players to the game. If 99% leave because it's not great, then you end up with the same problem as before : No one plays your game not because they haven't heard of it but because it's not a great game. And I think that at the moment, swtor falls into that category of being a game with potential but that's about it. Believe me, everyone who played WoW back in the days had heard of the game's release. And a lot of players did swap over at release to play the game. Sadly, there were... Issues, that most probably don't remember but the game didn't go free-to-play for nothing

Once again, marketing is important and costs money. But if your players don't stick to the game after then it's suddenly even worse because you advertised something that failed to keep players engaged. And so it's a battle on two front that swtor has to lead. Making it even harder to do because you have to ask for funds to market the game but also funds to improve the game into a state where it'll be able to keep players engaged. It's a lot of work but not impossible if you manage to secure the funds. But once again, EA doesn't necessarily see it that way. So it means that there will probably not be fundings to do either of these two things in the foreseeable future

Edited January 16 by supertimtaf
edited for clarity

[NoobieWan]

Question... Is it possible to transfer a toon onto this server? If, not, will we ever be able to? If so, then when.  Sorry if this has been asked before or answered elsewhere I didn't have time to scrounge through the entire thread.

[Jarcen]

3 hours ago, supertimtaf said:

I do agree with everything you said. But I think that you have a bigger issue. You can use marketing to bring people to your game. That is absolutely true and swtor could use more of this. I think however, and this is an issue that you also definitely see right here in this thread when people start saying that SV feels empty.

Swtor was recently visited by 2 somewhat known MMO content creator, if you haven't seen these video series, I strongly recommend watching the ones made by Bellular and Josh Strife Hayes, in which they both attempted to play through the game from a new player's perspective. And while this game has *potential*, the fact is that it's handled so poorly and has so many "small issues" here and there as well as bigger ones means that you will simply fail to do any kind of player retention.

Player retention (or "player engagement") is one of the metrics that you use to determine if a MMO is successfull or not. And atm swtor isn't good at doing that. You could bring all of a sudden 1M players to the game. If 99% leave because it's not great, then you end up with the same problem as before : No one plays your game not because they haven't heard of it but because it's not a great game. And I think that at the moment, swtor falls into that category of being a game with potential but that's about it. Believe me, everyone who played WoW back in the days had heard of the game's release. And a lot of players did swap over at release to play the game. Sadly, there were... Issues, that most probably don't remember but the game didn't go free-to-play for nothing

Once again, marketing is important and costs money. But if your players don't stick to the game after then it's suddenly even worse because you advertised something that failed to keep players engaged. And so it's a battle on two front that swtor has to lead. Making it even harder to do because you have to ask for funds to market the game but also funds to improve the game into a state where it'll be able to keep players engaged. It's a lot of work but not impossible if you manage to secure the funds. But once again, EA doesn't necessarily see it that way. So it means that there will probably not be fundings to do either of these two things in the foreseeable future

Well I think you've already answered what SWTOR needs in order to bring people in--it needs marketing. Of course marketing is just one aspect. This is mainly aimed at new players, since what SV needs is new players. Existing players already know about SV. Though promotion is still needed for that segment, the thing with existing players is that they already have characters in other servers. To target that segment you need to have incentives for them; like I posted, existing players' concern goes down to this: what's in it for me to play in SV that I don't already experience in other servers? A different strategy is needed for that, and giving incentives to existing players is one way to make them go to SV.

However as I've said, SV needs more new players. New players don't have experience from other servers, and as well don't have characters in them, so they can't make a comparison. This is actually to SV's advantage and if BS or EA or whoever is doing the marketing can do it right, they could actually get and hold new players in. New players don't have any bias that they might have for other servers. in essence that's why a fresh start server is essential for SV, in order to lure new players who don't have any bias for prior servers into the game.

Now of course determining what issues need to be addressed to retain players is another topic altogether. If we'll go over them that might require a new thread, which isn't connected to the thread here. It would derail the thread into other issues that although are important, can't be fully covered in this thread.

[Jarcen]

1 hour ago, NoobieWan said:

Question... Is it possible to transfer a toon onto this server? If, not, will we ever be able to? If so, then when.  Sorry if this has been asked before or answered elsewhere I didn't have time to scrounge through the entire thread.

No, not yet. That's basically what this thread's about--when would transfer be coming, and we're still waiting if and when it would come.

[Nommaz]

1 hour ago, NoobieWan said:

Question... Is it possible to transfer a toon onto this server? If, not, will we ever be able to? If so, then when.  Sorry if this has been asked before or answered elsewhere I didn't have time to scrounge through the entire thread.

Thats the 64k question.

[Max_Alexander]

Before I begin my take on this topic, a little context is in order:

I have played this game since launch; I am a sub; I have legacies on all 4 english speaking servers. I have never felt the need to make a post about anything, as so many posters have voiced what I wanted put out there. This issue is important enough for that to change, but not without noting that most of what has been said on this topic I agree with. I just feel the need to put in my '2 cents'.

 

Now on to the meat of this post:

Server transfers to SV will happen, everyone needs to accept this realization. APAC regional players should not be penalized for moving thier toons from SF or SS, back to SV where they were before the great server mergers.

How and when are truly up to BS, but if they hold true to what is listed under thier own transfer section and what they stated when they brought the server online; then we only need to wait for the server to be up for 90 or more days. After all, as they have stated, it is thier game.

We also must accept the fact that no matter what BS does, they will at the same time piss peeps off and make peeps happy. BS is walking a fine line here and simply want to minimize the piss peeps off catagory. Hense thier lack of responces on this topic; further they also don't want to give everyone a 'heads-up' as to when this will happen. Much like they did when they announced only 2 days prior to SV launching.

The problem is not with transfers to be able to happen, but with the currency that will transfer with it; which has absolutely nothing to do with some calling it "inflation". Where in TOR, inflation isn't the true issue. This is a misconstrued naming; the true problem is the inherant greed of the posted GTN items for sale. This problem is common to all servers, no one likes it but it is there none the less. This is what players of SV want to avoid in an attempt to keep the server to what was true when the game first launched.

Those are all the facts, like it or not, but it doesn't make them any less true.

What truly needs to happen to correct all of this is full communication from BS and most importantly what they will never actually do; is to fully take control of the problem of the out of control GTN pricing. Which would solve this issue and the overall problem.

Like many others, I do have thoughts on how this could be done fairly and would affect all servers in a positive way; but this post is long enough. So for now, we all wait and see what (if anything) BS does and then the real backlash will begin.

[Nommaz]

I guess we will find out on the 15th Feb as they are not going to tell us much now it seems.
Shame, I will finish what I wanted to do on the server this week and then wont be playing until they let us know.

[TrixxieTriss]

37 minutes ago, Nommaz said:

I guess we will find out on the 15th Feb as they are not going to tell us much now it seems.
Shame, I will finish what I wanted to do on the server this week and then wont be playing until they let us know.

Honestly, I’ve stopped playing again until they open up transfers & do something to generate interest in the APAC gaming region to attract new or old players back to the game.

Until they do that, it’s a complete waste of my time logging in now because I can’t PvP, which means I can’t complete PvP seasons & I can’t complete Galactic Seasons either.

The server is dead atm & I’ve no intention of going back to horrendous ping on the US servers. 

I will say one thing though & I really hope Broadsword are reading.

They have made this whole experience less than ideal for APAC players on top of the grief they already caused when they originally shut the APAC servers. This should have been a fantastic experience that made up for closing the original servers. Instead it’s caused more grief & a lot of worry for APAC players because it’s possible they’ll close the server again or just leave it dead with zero marketing or transfers.

I really hope they are going to offer FREE transfers for APAC located players to move ALL their characters over after all of this to try & make up for the way they’ve handled this server opening. It’s the least they could do to earn back our loyalty & trust. 

[taxidermis]

14 hours ago, TrixxieTriss said:

Honestly, I’ve stopped playing again until they open up transfers & do something to generate interest in the APAC gaming region to attract new or old players back to the game.

Until they do that, it’s a complete waste of my time logging in now because I can’t PvP, which means I can’t complete PvP seasons & I can’t complete Galactic Seasons either.

The server is dead atm & I’ve no intention of going back to horrendous ping on the US servers. 

I will say one thing though & I really hope Broadsword are reading.

They have made this whole experience less than ideal for APAC players on top of the grief they already caused when they originally shut the APAC servers. This should have been a fantastic experience that made up for closing the original servers. Instead it’s caused more grief & a lot of worry for APAC players because it’s possible they’ll close the server again or just leave it dead with zero marketing or transfers.

I really hope they are going to offer FREE transfers for APAC located players to move ALL their characters over after all of this to try & make up for the way they’ve handled this server opening. It’s the least they could do to earn back our loyalty & trust. 

If you level to 80 the endgame is becoming quite active on the server. I was able to pvp for 3 hours again yesterday and then led 2 raids that filled up very quickly. 

 

It is a shame that lowbie and midbie stuff has slowed.. but endgame activity has actually greatly increased in the weeks since holiday break.

[Jarcen]

16 hours ago, TrixxieTriss said:

Honestly, I’ve stopped playing again until they open up transfers & do something to generate interest in the APAC gaming region to attract new or old players back to the game.

Until they do that, it’s a complete waste of my time logging in now because I can’t PvP, which means I can’t complete PvP seasons & I can’t complete Galactic Seasons either.

The server is dead atm & I’ve no intention of going back to horrendous ping on the US servers. 

I will say one thing though & I really hope Broadsword are reading.

They have made this whole experience less than ideal for APAC players on top of the grief they already caused when they originally shut the APAC servers. This should have been a fantastic experience that made up for closing the original servers. Instead it’s caused more grief & a lot of worry for APAC players because it’s possible they’ll close the server again or just leave it dead with zero marketing or transfers.

I really hope they are going to offer FREE transfers for APAC located players to move ALL their characters over after all of this to try & make up for the way they’ve handled this server opening. It’s the least they could do to earn back our loyalty & trust. 

This is a bad decision. As I've posted earlier, Broadsword is keeping an eye on server activity closely, and likely their decision to have transfer will hinge on how active the server is. As I've said, an active server shows that it's worth keeping and investing on. An inactive server would naturally be seen as a waste of resources, time and money. Overall SWTOR is a business, not just a game. More people are on a server means a better ROI, and naturally less people on it would be a bad investment. A company wouldn't let a bad investment run its course since it is bleeding money--money that the company could channel to more active servers. In effect, as I've mentioned, people holding back from playing in SV are essentially shooting the server in the foot and is not helping its cause at all.

[taxidermis]

1 hour ago, Jarcen said:

This is a bad decision. As I've posted earlier, Broadsword is keeping an eye on server activity closely, and likely their decision to have transfer will hinge on how active the server is. As I've said, an active server shows that it's worth keeping and investing on. An inactive server would naturally be seen as a waste of resources, time and money. Overall SWTOR is a business, not just a game. More people are on a server means a better ROI, and naturally less people on it would be a bad investment. A company wouldn't let a bad investment run its course since it is bleeding money--money that the company could channel to more active servers. In effect, as I've mentioned, people holding back from playing in SV are essentially shooting the server in the foot and is not helping its cause at all.

100% this.  Aside from taking a couple hours to play the new story on my SF mains, since the server opened I've dedicated all my time to it. I have leveled 2 tools to 80 and have them in 330 plus gear so far, and have 3 others partially leveled.  I've recruited and organized a raid team in guild and also run pug raids often.  The server will flourish if we as players put in the effort.  

[taxidermis]

I was also able to complete the PVP season and galactic season without too much effort.  The only thing I can't get is the reputation achievement and unique armor set achievement as those are mathematically impossible to complete in the time the server has been live. 

[TrixxieTriss]

7 hours ago, Jarcen said:

This is a bad decision. As I've posted earlier, Broadsword is keeping an eye on server activity closely, and likely their decision to have transfer will hinge on how active the server is. As I've said, an active server shows that it's worth keeping and investing on. An inactive server would naturally be seen as a waste of resources, time and money. Overall SWTOR is a business, not just a game. More people are on a server means a better ROI, and naturally less people on it would be a bad investment. A company wouldn't let a bad investment run its course since it is bleeding money--money that the company could channel to more active servers. In effect, as I've mentioned, people holding back from playing in SV are essentially shooting the server in the foot and is not helping its cause at all.

While I agree in principle. Am I expected to waste hours of every day of my time for the next 6-8 weeks just to give the devs the impression the server is working? Im not playing because Im literally sitting there doing nothing. Im a pvper first & foremost, if it’s not popping I’m wasting my time. I’ve got not credits so I can’t even do crafting or play space barbies. Sure I could grind pve I’ve already done 100-1000’s of times or collect crafting mats, but there is only so much of that I can take. I usually do that stuff as a filler between PvP matches. But I’m over it. Im bored & frustrated as I’m sure the other veterans were who’ve either gone back to the old servers. The difference is I refuse to play with that lag again. So Im just waiting for them to announce the transfers. At least then I can play the new 7.4 content & have some credits to play space barbies. 

Edited January 18 by TrixxieTriss

[TrixxieTriss]

5 hours ago, taxidermis said:

I was also able to complete the PVP season and galactic season without too much effort.  The only thing I can't get is the reputation achievement and unique armor set achievement as those are mathematically impossible to complete in the time the server has been live. 

That’s great & all. But I had a family tragedy happen over the Xmas period. A family member died. So I was unable to take advantage of double XP to get to lvl 80. Therefore I’m unable to finish PvP seasons because it seems only lvl 80 PvP is popping on SV now. If we had transfers, I could transfer over some lvl 80’s and play. But because we don’t, I can’t. It’s as simple as that. 

[Nommaz]

15 minutes ago, TrixxieTriss said:

While I agree in principle. Am I expected to waste hours of every day of my time for the next 6-8 weeks just to give the devs the impression the server is working?

This, if the devs want to see if its actually working they need to open transfers and then see, because as mentioned in this thread several time people are waiting.
Not everyone wants to make new characters and what have you, if the devs are counting metrics based on the current population they are doing it wrong.
IF they had transfers open from the start I 100% believe this would e a totally different population.
I mean its not rocket science 

[AFadedMemory]

3 hours ago, TrixxieTriss said:

While I agree in principle. Am I expected to waste hours of every day of my time for the next 6-8 weeks just to give the devs the impression the server is working?

Is shaping the identify of the community, which can determine what type of transfer is implemented if any, a waste of APAC players time? what if "Fresh Starters" put up the numbers and no transfers are implemented. I suggest doing at least the weekly starter planet heroics for one toon.

Edited January 18 by AFadedMemory

[Nommaz]

44 minutes ago, AFadedMemory said:

what if "Fresh Starters" put up the numbers and no transfers are implemented

Then I image the server will continue to decline as it is right now because the APAC players that are waiting on transfers wont be playing on it lol that's what the whole argument is over and over again.
I have one more character to play for another 215 levels then I am don't on all servers until transfers, if they are not open for this regional server I'll go back to other games.

I really enjoy playing SWTOR, but not enough that I want to re-do everything and loose things that are not in the account wide system ie old gear sets, old titles etc, and yes they really do mean that much to me.
And not enough to go back to 300 plus ping and constant disconnects, that why I left the last time.
But at least the forums will be quieter hey hahahaha
 

[TrixxieTriss]

1 hour ago, AFadedMemory said:

what if "Fresh Starters" put up the numbers and no transfers are implemented

Then I expect they’ll end up closing the server before the end of the year 😞. Because those “Fresh Starters” as you put them will have done everything they can by then & gone back to their own regional servers. Leaving the server a ghost town. The rest of the APAC players will either leave the game at that point or continue playing on the US servers. And once again the people running this game will have missed out on another massive opportunity to bring in new PAYING customers & driven a portion of the current players away again. 
 

Edited January 18 by TrixxieTriss

[Jarcen]

5 hours ago, TrixxieTriss said:

While I agree in principle. Am I expected to waste hours of every day of my time for the next 6-8 weeks just to give the devs the impression the server is working? Im not playing because Im literally sitting there doing nothing. Im a pvper first & foremost, if it’s not popping I’m wasting my time. I’ve got not credits so I can’t even do crafting or play space barbies. Sure I could grind pve I’ve already done 100-1000’s of times or collect crafting mats, but there is only so much of that I can take. I usually do that stuff as a filler between PvP matches. But I’m over it. Im bored & frustrated as I’m sure the other veterans were who’ve either gone back to the old servers. The difference is I refuse to play with that lag again. So Im just waiting for them to announce the transfers. At least then I can play the new 7.4 content & have some credits to play space barbies. 

Think of it this way--you want an APAC server, then you have to prove to the devs it's a server worth investing on. If there are no players on it, they're not going to waste money and time on it. It's as simple as that. SWTOR is a business. It's more than just a game. Devs sink hours and money into the servers and most often players don't realize that side of the industry. When people decide to leave a game or server, activity declines especially when a number of people do so. A company will not pour more time and effort on something that's not giving them back a return in investment. Again, it's simple business sense. A customer wants a product, then he should buy it and support it by buying it often. If you want an APAC server, then you should be there. Doesn't make sense that you want that server but isn't on it. 

Now if you want more people on the server, aside from playing on it you invite more people to go on it. But again you should be playing on it first in order to invite others, since it wouldn't make sense inviting people on something you never use yourself. Simple logic there. Bottomline is we want this server, then we should make it succeed and being there shows EA/Broadsword that SV is worth keeping.

[Jarcen]

1 hour ago, SoontirMorillo said:

 

Let me get this straight....

10 years of "i want apac servers back" and finally... "sry, i afk".

wow

Wow, you edited your previous post. It would've created more drama here. And I was just getting ready to get the popcorn out and watch the flames burn...

[AFadedMemory]

11 hours ago, Nommaz said:

Then I image the server will continue to decline as it is right now because the APAC players that are waiting on transfers wont be playing on it lol that's what the whole argument is over and over again.
I have one more character to play for another 215 levels then I am don't on all servers until transfers, if they are not open for this regional server I'll go back to other games.

I really enjoy playing SWTOR, but not enough that I want to re-do everything and loose things that are not in the account wide system ie old gear sets, old titles etc, and yes they really do mean that much to me.
And not enough to go back to 300 plus ping and constant disconnects, that why I left the last time.
But at least the forums will be quieter hey hahahaha
 

I can understand that. I definitely would not have been playing on sv if I could not use my Anarchy and Mischief Blasters along with some armor, Snowflake flair, and a couple of toys.

Edited January 18 by AFadedMemory

[TrixxieTriss]

3 hours ago, SoontirMorillo said:

Let me get this straight....

10 years of "i want apac servers back" and finally... "sry, i afk".

wow

I guess you didn’t read my post about losing a family member.

[TrixxieTriss]

2 hours ago, SoontirMorillo said:

i assume, others can see how i got the "wrong" impression.

Thanks for your sympathetic response to losing a family member. So glad you’re so understanding of the situation that you feel the need to try & pick a fight with me.

/sarcasm

 

Edited January 18 by TrixxieTriss

[AFadedMemory]

7 hours ago, Jarcen said:

Wow, you edited your previous post. It would've created more drama here. And I was just getting ready to get the popcorn out and watch the flames burn...

You mean people scroll through the forums without popcorn? (I actually wish I had popcorn now)

[Eneriango]

13 hours ago, Daviee said:

As a returning player, now heavily invested in SV, I have to say I am thoroughly enjoying myself, particularly endgame content (from SM right up to NIM).  SV also has an active pvp community.   I do wonder if the number of people actually wanting to bring toons is relatively small.  Despite this, the impact of decked out toons and their credits/materials will have a disproportionate impact on SV which will be irreversible.

The health of the server should be top priority and the reality is the vast majority of people reintroduced to the game or new players are (respectfully) not on forums and therefore not fairly represented.  There is in my mind a risk of a disenfranchising new and returning players by allowing unimpeached xfer (due to hyperinflation - but more importantly the fresh server experience without decked out toons and legacies).

Just a thought.

Yeah you make some good points although lowbie pvp is dead compare to max level pvp. It's kinda funny seeing Courts and Heroes being the biggest guilds in SV.

Regardless I do hope SV doesn't depopulate even more after galactic season is over 😔