Originally posted by Thorkune
People show all of these numbers proving a "healthy" population, but you forget that SWTOR went from a ton of servers to just a handful. So, it stands to reason that those few servers would be heavy/full. I don't believe for a second that the remaining servers are "mega" servers. I think that is damage control spin. But this is only my opinion.

Well you are correct in one sense. The game's population is seriously reduced from launch. The Megaservers are really just beefed up launch servers. Pretty much the same thing with the cap increased. (Which explains the constant phasing and occasional severe lag.) The new pop cap seems to be set at around 4,000 based on some uncitable sources.

The rest of this post is just my opinion and may be deemed as controversial by many.

So sure the game's interest has decreased to a large extent. If you want a graph, here's an unscientific one. http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/swtor.com

Still, if you factor out the APAC severs to an extent, round down a bit, and multiply 4,000 x say 15 servers, SWTOR's max concurrent population is still around 60,000 players.

Assume 1 out 4 is a subscriber and that leaves you with 15,000 players. Since the game picks up so much durring peak as compared to other hours, assume that's 20% of the game's active population, that gives you 75,000 subscribers.

Of those 75,000 subscribers, an unknown number are putting in a lot of revenue in the form of purchases of microtransactions from the cartel shop, mostly in gambling boxes.

This is what makes the game so intresting still to me.

Can Bioware Austin pull it off? Can they subsist on such a small population?

The immediate answer is yes.

They have managed to retain a loyal subscriber base. Futhermore, they have found a means to get them to spend even more in the cartel shop.

Bioware has withheld as much content as posible from the original developers. They've released the final bit as the Makeb DLC.

Perhaps I'm the only one, but this is fascinating.

How long can they keep it up?

When you factor in the sometimes bizare machinations of EA throughout SWTOR's extended production and brief life, whether or not SWTOR can find some sort of Phoenix rebirth on fumes is interesting.

I could write on and on, but it would just be ignored as a wall of text.

The very fact that the media is covering this an a non-unique normal situation is odd in itself.

The EA earning calls have been laughable in their vaguness as to subscriber numbers and profitabliity. Instead of me moving on, I observe.

Like it or not, I'm curious to see what shoestrings, an elobate system of pulleys, used gum, and chutzpah can do to salvage this game and avoid another failed MMO situation.

Bioware has managed to retain enough players, or at least revenue, to get to Makeb.

Lets see if it warrants enough for the game to find new life and get actual new content (albeit not the class story thet was the vaunted original fourth pillar) and allow a playerbase much attached to the Star Wars IP play in their chosen mileau.

TO say SWTOR is irrelevant is silly. All the developers are seeing just if and how EA\Bioware can pull it off.

I dunno, tired.

You can say I'm full of shit, and that my made up numbers are just made up numbers. (Which is fine) But ask yourself truthfully if maybe, just maybe I'm right.

I should add that I never played SWG, so don't call me a bitter ex-SWG vetran (get your knife in the back material from somewhere else) but it is interesting to note that pre NGE/Cu SWG had more subscribers then SWTOR does now. That and they manged to figure out a way to do meaningful space combat.

So peace. I'll try and be more quiet in the immediate future. (Populations are a sore spot for most SWTOR enthusiasts.)

P.S. Sorry Seven, I hope you get more content.

Originally posted by Thorkune
People show all of these numbers proving a "healthy" population, but you forget that SWTOR went from a ton of servers to just a handful. So, it stands to reason that those few servers would be heavy/full. I don't believe for a second that the remaining servers are "mega" servers. I think that is damage control spin. But this is only my opinion.

they had a healthy population at launch

but the game is bleeding subs since then, and very few new ones to close the gaps

todays population would be considered healthy for a small game,,like TERA or EVE

but not for a BIG BUDGET title like this one

this is the DeLorean of games,,some good ideas, but badly executed

and how do you think DISNEY fell about it? they own the IP, so if they think they can make more money elsewhere?

perhaps with their own star wars mmo?

remember CoX,,a way more successful title, being shut down because of the suits

this game is showing all the signs of a short termed money grab

lets see what the future brings,,actually "the other" space game is showing progress again

so space mmo are NOT dead

I remember when this game was still in beta, lightsabre clashing and sparkes fight out was an important feature lol.

Like just lightsabre touching each other was a feature.

Originally posted by simplius

Originally posted by Thorkune
People show all of these numbers proving a "healthy" population, but you forget that SWTOR went from a ton of servers to just a handful. So, it stands to reason that those few servers would be heavy/full. I don't believe for a second that the remaining servers are "mega" servers. I think that is damage control spin. But this is only my opinion.

and how do you think DISNEY fell about it? they own the IP, so if they think they can make more money elsewhere?

perhaps with their own star wars mmo?

I have sent several e-mails to Disney concerning the creation of a new Star Wars MMO. I have gotten a response everytime. It is the generic "We will forward this to our game development department" response, but it is a response nonetheless. And. I got the response in 1 day vs. the 21+ days that I have been waiting on SWTOR support to answer a ticket. If enough folks request a Star Wars game from Disney, they may give us what we want.

And for the record...I don't want a SWG2. I just want a GOOD Star Wars game to play. I was excited for SWTOR, but was let down greatly by the restricted worlds, horrible space system and poor crafting system.

Originally posted by Sevenstar61

Snapshot of servers from 11 PM EST. PvP servers are usually lighter then other.

Is that the best it got last night?

No way as good as what it was on 13th Jan, as you took here

Then it had 5 FULL servers, now dropping 1 level and reading Veru Heavy, Prphecy of the Five dropping 2 levels and reading Standard instead of Very Heavy and the other 2 PVP servers saying the same. PVP servers may be light now, but they will be the higher ones later as that keeps people playing longterm whereas story / PVE does not.

I guess people got their 3rd characters and realised that the content was pretty much the same

That is a massive drop in only 3 weeks, I would have thought there would have been at least 1 or 2 FULL servers, after such short time, so 3 more weeks they will be Heavy, 6 weeks Standard, 9 weeks Light, 12 weeks dead?

8 US servers.

How many make it "heavy"?

Even if it was 50,000 per server that is only 400,000 players...and there are not 50,000 people on each server during that pic. So, how many is it? 10,000? Thats a little more like it....80,000 players...

So, how about that little tid bit of perspective? 80,000...and you have NO idea how many of those players are playing for FREE, and THAT my fanboys is why EA lumped SWTORs latest numbers with 2 other games in their last conference call to share holders...because the game is doing so badly they are not willing to give details about the game on its own, it required heavy spin...heavier than the last time.

Originally posted by superniceguy

It all depends on what server you are on. A server may not be dying, but all servers overall are.

If you were on Starsider in SWG from the start you would not have noticed any difference either (unless you looked at the stats of all of them), but if you were on servers like Kauri you would notice that populations were dying.

i think the same, the red eclipse is everyday most of the time very heavy and full from the last merge till and today

Originally posted by superniceguy

Originally posted by Sevenstar61

Snapshot of servers from 11 PM EST. PvP servers are usually lighter then other.

Is that the best it got last night?

No way as good as what it was on 13th Jan, as you took here

Then it had 5 FULL servers, now dropping 1 level and reading Veru Heavy, Prphecy of the Five dropping 2 levels and reading Standard instead of Very Heavy and the other 2 PVP servers saying the same. PVP servers may be light now, but they will be the higher ones later as that keeps people playing longterm whereas story / PVE does not.

I guess people got their 3rd characters and realised that the content was pretty much the same

That is a massive drop in only 3 weeks, I would have thought there would have been at least 1 or 2 FULL servers, after such short time, so 3 more weeks they will be Heavy, 6 weeks Standard, 9 weeks Light, 12 weeks dead?

I read your post in which you demanded screenshot so I made it. I did not wait for the best time, I did it after I logged off game and checked this forum.

Believe me I have better things to do then look at SWTOR numbers all day long. I actually play a game.

From now on I will not post any numbers from SWTOR, because no matter what I post it's twisted in all possible ways. No matter what I post is not going to  change attitude of some posters here, so why even to bother.

Everybody here knows that MMos have peaks and deeps. Look at Rift and complete loss of interest from players  in just a month after huge expansion. Look at other games which follow the same pattern. Everybody admits that it's normal, but not in the case of SWTOR. SWTOR has to have maximum number of players all the time, otherwise is doomed, dying, disaster etc.

Originally posted by Sevenstar61

Originally posted by superniceguy

Originally posted by Sevenstar61

Snapshot of servers from 11 PM EST. PvP servers are usually lighter then other.

 

Is that the best it got last night?

No way as good as what it was on 13th Jan, as you took here

Then it had 5 FULL servers, now dropping 1 level and reading Veru Heavy, Prphecy of the Five dropping 2 levels and reading Standard instead of Very Heavy and the other 2 PVP servers saying the same. PVP servers may be light now, but they will be the higher ones later as that keeps people playing longterm whereas story / PVE does not.

I guess people got their 3rd characters and realised that the content was pretty much the same

That is a massive drop in only 3 weeks, I would have thought there would have been at least 1 or 2 FULL servers, after such short time, so 3 more weeks they will be Heavy, 6 weeks Standard, 9 weeks Light, 12 weeks dead?

I read your post in which you demanded screenshot so I made it. I did not wait for the best time, I did it after I logged off game and checked this forum.

Believe me I have better things to do then look at SWTOR numbers all day long. I actually play a game.

From now on I will not post any numbers from SWTOR, because no matter what I post it's twisted in all possible ways. No matter what I post is not going to  change attitude of some posters here, so why even to bother.

Everybody here knows that MMos have peaks and deeps. Look at Rift and complete loss of interest from players  in just a month after huge expansion. Look at other games which follow the same pattern. Everybody admits that it's normal, but not in the case of SWTOR. SWTOR has to have maximum number of players all the time, otherwise is doomed, dying, disaster etc.

 

 

 

Actually I did not just ask for a screenshot, I was looking for a screenshot showing 5 FULL US servers or more or one being FULL. It did not have to be last night, it could be tonight or tomorrow. How can I twst one showing loads of full servers? I did not when you posted that previous screenshot, which you even posted 2 screenshots without being asked, and without hassle, because they were AWESOME stats and you wanted to show the game doing well.

Nothing there is twisted at all, 5 servers on 13th Jan were FULL, 5 servers on 2nd Feb were Very Heavy - all down.

No screenshots / no posting of numbers will also indicate servers are dying as you do not want to show the truth. If numberes keep being the same or better, how can they be argued? If you want to show game is not dying keep posting healthy numbers.

It isn't just the fact that SWTOR went from a "tom of servers" to a "handful - to ensure that subscribers had a good gaming experience" but that this was followed by a move to F2P which should have boosted player numbers significantly.

Based on what the CFO said last quarter - indicating that the game wasn't making a profit - coupled with JR's recent remarks that suggest it still isn't then the best one can probably hope for is that EA do enough to ensure that the folks who currently subscribed continue to enjoy the game - at the very least for another year.

When a company is in full cost control mode and looking to get every cent it can flagged as profit things that are not turning a profit can have a hard time.

Originally posted by jtcgs

Ive said it before, ill say it again. Every single P2P game that goes F2P will see a big jump in players...for a while.

Even Age of Conan had a massive increase in players after going F2P, 3 months after doing so Funcom announced that 600,000 new accounts were created since going F2P...yet going into the 4th month the servers were very light, why? because, they game isnt all that good.

 

What? Not all that good? Age of Conan eats SWTOR for breakfast. And the servers I am on are super busy, Fury (standard PvP) and Rage (Blood &Glory hardcore PvP server). You eventually know how extremely massive the gameworld of AoC is, yet I run into players to goup and fight pretty much everwhere. Guild gets new members every day. How is that?

AoC looks better, has better PvP, better combat system, bigger more dynamic world with weather and day/night change, better crafting, stellar endgame, riding training, horses and combat mounts, guild cities, sieges, combat companions and pets, alternative leveling zones.. SWTOR needs another 5 years of development to come even close

Originally posted by FromHell

What? Not all that good? Age of Conan eats SWO...snip

 the AoC dead horse has been beaten more than SWTORs...how good the game is also has nothing to do with how well it is or is not doing. The game can be a perfect one and still not appeal to players.

Originally posted by Sevenstar61

I read your post in which you demanded screenshot so I made it. I did not wait for the best time, I did it after I logged off game and checked this forum.

Believe me I have better things to do then look at SWTOR numbers all day long. I actually play a game. 

*GASP!* People actually do that?!

I thought we were supposed to gnash teeth all weekend, posting about our hatred for some game while slowly tearing up paper or such and pretending it is said game! :P

More on topic; as said above by someone, the Red Eclipse definitely seems to be doing well, I was playing on Nar Shaddaa (4) during the weekend.

To be fair, a thread of that title (encouraging doom speculation) will create a mega-thread on any title out there, any time.

Many people misses the point.

Its not how many people play swtor, indtead is HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE PAYING FOR IT (subs+cash shop)

Its better to have less subscribers but using cash shop than a ton of free players that dont spend a dime.

I see plenty of players with the new speedter (cartel coins) and cosmetic wear.

I guess subscribers are more or less the same than ftp conversion.

So if they hade around 300-350k , now they have the same plus cartel market sales.

I agree with most of your points tiefighter, but assuming the game has 80k subs is naive.

Take the example of warhammer, until 2 motnhs i played a lot and you always see the same people around, one has the impression that the server (karak-norn)  has no more than 1000 players around but that cannot be cos the game will be closed by then.

Do they lost some people in the last month? Sure but again those people doesnt matter if they dont use cash shop.

To resume, you cant judge a ftp game with the same criteria than a p2p.

Originally posted by Mesfenlir

I see plenty of players with the new speeder (cartel coins) and cosmetic wear.

Yeah, I've seen the speeder around quite often myself, of course some of them probably bought it for in game currency - but that still means -someone- spent points on it to get it on the GTN.