[updated title & post with accurate info]

I barely have words for this. I've never EVER seen a game launch with such large numbers only to go as far as reducing their total server count to a small fraction of its original count. 10 or 20 servers sure, but 100s?! 

Simply, wow...... O_o;

hmm?... I read about their F2P plans... but where is the source of the server decrease?

Just goes to show the importance of having a quality, compelling endgame.

Very high expectations & goals that were far to lofty prior to launch.   I'm not surprised.

Originally posted by sgel

hmm?... I read about their F2P plans... but where is the source of the server decrease?

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=479470

^~~~One of MANY server mergers. There's like 114 in that list or so, and they're doing more soon.

Originally posted by Fadedbomb

Originally posted by sgel

hmm?... I read about their F2P plans... but where is the source of the server decrease?

http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?t=479470

 

^~~~One of MANY server mergers. There's like 114 in that list or so, and they're doing more soon.

Thanks for the link dude.

That's quite...astonishing really... not even WAR had such a dramatic decrease.

Originally posted by NBlitz
Are the numbers final? I would wait until the dust has cleared before yelling murder.

Yea, I counted like 114 servers merged into 21 servers just in that thread alone. So if they do another 100 it'll probably end up being around 30 or so, unless they continue merging into the same 21. We don't really know, but the overall theme of the thread still fits. 

I keep getting more and more new info as I respond in this thread so i'm trying to keep it updated :P!

Originally posted by NBlitz
Are the numbers final? I would wait until the dust has cleared before yelling murder.

Well it is murder... we just don't know how much blood there will be yet

Originally posted by sgel

Originally posted by NBlitz
Are the numbers final? I would wait until the dust has cleared before yelling murder.

Well it is murder... we just don't know how much blood there will be yet

I'll guestimate to about 30 servers down from 214. That's still insane, so I might update the title thread to reflect it :P!

Originally posted by pierth

Just goes to show the importance of having a quality, compelling endgame.

Not really. TOR is just putting all the focus on soloing so people enjoy the game for 1-3 months and then feel done with it like a singleplayer game.

If you want people to play a long time you need to focus on multiplayer instead or at least have 50/50.

Originally posted by Loke666

Originally posted by pierth

Just goes to show the importance of having a quality, compelling endgame.

Not really. TOR is just putting all the focus on soloing so people enjoy the game for 1-3 months and then feel done with it like a singleplayer game.

If you want people to play a long time you need to focus on multiplayer instead or at least have 50/50.

I also feel that the quality was piss poor. The Animations & sound were great, don't get me wrong, but the combat, graphics, gameplay, emphasis on solo gameplay, massive linearization, and massive instancing simply cut me off from the game before it began.

You only touched on a small portion of the issue I believe Loke :)!

The linked numbers have nothing to do with mergers, no mergers have occured.

They are only showing the destinations for the free transfers. Very misleading thread title and content, seems intentionally misleading to be honest.

@OP: I don't think you can count correctly

Man, this site is starting to get boring, topics are predictable, even haters (or 'critics') become repetitive and boringly lame, I guess they're bored out of their mind too.

Time to find other MMO and gaming sites with some more spark to it, only where? Hmm.

Originally posted by Kost

The linked numbers have nothing to do with mergers, no mergers have occured.

They are only showing the destinations for the free transfers. Very misleading thread title and content, seems intentionally misleading to be honest.

They ARE going to do merges, and the destination for the free transfers from the servers are listed. What i posted was correct.

Originally posted by Kost

The linked numbers have nothing to do with mergers, no mergers have occured.

They are only showing the destinations for the free transfers. Very misleading thread title and content, seems intentionally misleading to be honest.

Because, ya know, they'll keep the dead servers around. For sh*ts and giggles. Are you kidding or something?

Originally posted by cutthecrap

Originally posted by Fadedbomb

Originally posted by Kost

The linked numbers have nothing to do with mergers, no mergers have occured.

They are only showing the destinations for the free transfers. Very misleading thread title and content, seems intentionally misleading to be honest.

They ARE doing mergers, and the destination for the free transfers from the closed servers are listed. What i posted was correct.

[mod edit]

http://massively.joystiq.com/2012/06/13/star-wars-the-old-republic-unleashes-second-wave-of-server-tran/

Quote:

"Star Wars: The Old Republic's server merges are continuing at a steady pace, and today Bioware has sent another round of servers up to bat. If you've been waiting patiently for your chance to hop to a more populated server, now's your opportunity."

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Originally posted by Fadedbomb

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Originally posted by Loke666

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Originally posted by pierth Just goes to show the importance of having a quality, compelling endgame.

---

Not really. TOR is just putting all the focus on soloing so people enjoy the game for 1-3 months and then feel done with it like a singleplayer game. If you want people to play a long time you need to focus on multiplayer instead or at least have 50/50.

---

I also feel that the quality was piss poor. The Animations & sound were great, don't get me wrong, but the combat, graphics, gameplay, emphasis on solo gameplay, massive linearization, and massive instancing simply cut me off from the game before it began.

 

You only touched on a small portion of the issue I believe Loke :)!

---

Surely we all knew that the majority of this game would be solo-centric and SWTOR did not disappoint in that- but for any real longevity you have to have an endgame that entices players to keep playing. There's simply no way for EA/Bioware to churn out solo content at the rate players devour it, and naturally once they've completed that content they move on- it's a recipe for disaster for a MMORPG.

This is precisely what happens when a Massively Solo Online Role-Playing Game (with optional multiplayer) is created. Those players that insist MMORPGs cater to solo playstyles are actively telling Pubs/Devs to shoot themselves in the foot. Proof that solo content-locust playstyles kill MMOs.

Ah, you changed your thread title. [mod edit]

Originally posted by pierth

This is precisely what happens when a Massively Solo Online Role-Playing Game (with optional multiplayer) is created. Those players that insist MMORPGs cater to solo playstyles are actively telling Pubs/Devs to shoot themselves in the foot. Proof that solo content-locust playstyles kill MMOs.

Not really. Try to implement enforced grouping for leveling, and you'll have people leaving in droves. It wasn't for nothing that after EQ, Blizzard introduced solo-capable leveling in their MMO. And they were hugely successful with it, far more people prefer to be able to level solo when wanted than having to look for group all the time in order to progress in a game. In the end, it's all about fun.

It's only such that you need to have a lot of other features too that is regarded as fun, besides the quest based leveling.

Lol, if a game has 700K players, what diffirence does it make whether they are spread over 214 servers or 20 servers ? As long as the servers can handle the player numbers.

It sounds like the doomsayers are going to use the character transfer numbers to try to "prove" that the game is finally "dead". Is the subtext here something like: "Wow, if they needed 214 servers for 1 million players, reducing that to 20 servers must mean the game only has 100K players left !!1!!!"

SWTOR had the smoothest launch in MMO history, but it came at quite a steep price in the end. Having so many servers at launch (and aggresively managing server loadings) made for very smooth gameplay during the initial rush, but it has left a large number of servers empty now that the population has stabilised.

So, what's really important ? The drop in player numbers is important, and we can clearly see that the numbers have dropped substantially (even by the official announcements), so nothing new there. The re-arrangement of remaining players on fewer (but bigger) servers is expected, not headline news...