All Posts by Dracus

Nay.  I would like to, but giving SOE money for profit is what prevents me from doing so.

Now if I could pay directly to FLS, then I would.

Originally posted by ThaneB

The true purpose of this thread is to tell every fellow SWG veteran to finally shut their huge mouths, and find a new fun game to play.

Here is a paraphrased story of Saint Augustine that I think fits best with those who tell others to move on with SWG. And I think I'll just do copy and pasting for every future one for now on:

While walking one day through the food court,  trying to figure out how to solve the problem of having former SWG veterans to “shut up and move on,” there is a child performing some kind of task on his Wi-Fi computer.  The child would type out a full three page message and send it out to both SOE and LA.  Receiving no messages in return, the kid would repeat the process.

Finding this odd and curious, “Son what are you doing?”

The boy responds, “Why I'm sending emails to SOE and LA to have them implement a “We want you back campaign” for their former customers. And I'm not going to stop until it happens.”

Responding with a chuckle of disbelief, “Son, that is clearly impossible, they won't read your messages or listen to you.”

The boy replies, “Far easier for me to finish my task than for you to find an answer to your problem.”

Originally posted by lomiller

Yet SOE games have some of the best communities around. Coincidence? I think not…   

 

For SOE involvement, it has been minimal, actually as stated above, for distribution, marketing and billing.  SOE has had its hands off from development and supposedly has not done any influencing (that is a debatable topic).

However, SOE does turn a profit from every copy sold and every month subscribed.

So that is the brief three sentences summary of SOE with PotBS.

Originally posted by Daffid011

 

SOE purposefully chose to SACRIFICE a portion of the current subscriber base in an attempt to attract a potential subscriber base.  It isn't just that they didn't want your opinion, they didn't want you to know what they were up to, because they knew it was going to cost them your subscription money.  They simply thought your dollars could be replaced by someone who hadn't played the game yet. 

Least we never forget.

Sometimes it is better to apply a tourniquet and loose a limb rather than to keep reapplying bandages and hope the bleeding will stop.

Sure server merges are an inconvenience to everyone, but the method to do so, should be of providing incentives to player accounts that make the move.  Prevent new accounts from going into the designated closing servers.  For those accounts in the closing servers, provide an initiative to make players want to move to another server, and be happy to do so, not told to do so.  Example, providing x number of credits, some nefty items, and some XP, etc. 

Or oh my, use game content as well.  Imperial crackdowns are occurring on the closing servers.  The Empire is introducing a Relocation Program due to rebel activities...  A new Death Star is going around blasted planets of those closing galaxies...  Oh the drama!

But no.

Providing incentives to players?  Unheard of. Against corporate policies.

Using game content to enforce policies? Unheard of and beyond the skills of the development and management staffs.

/tell Sorry, but this is going to be bad either way bud.  Do you want to bleed out or have the tourniquet?

Took a while to learn one of the same lessons that Fury suffered; new players being introduced into matches with veteran players.

That would be good to see what the answers will be.  I hope it will be a straight answer (as best possible, without giving secrets away of course) and not as spins.

And let us not forget about the Trial Accounts either.  That is another factor of reducing the number of actively paying subscribers (and do not under-estimate their numbers either).

Generally though, the rule of thumb is to multiple by 5 (basically a 20%) of the concurrent users to know the ballpark of active subscribers.  Soooo, with say 14k users of one week (however calculated) would mean about 70k active subscribers at best case.

However, the initial numbers are from a week and not a daily snapshot, along with dilution of Station Pass holders and Trial Accounts.  The number of paying subscribers is going to be low from the looks of things.

I have a question, is there anyone who believes that SWG has more than 100,000 active subscribers? (Interesting isn't it, that we're now discussing numbers in the 50k average range?)

Further signs towards a decline, but can the new patch turn things around?  Stay tune.

Todays snapshot of the holiday in the US during prime time hours:

Zero Moderates

All Light with 21 Nones (Not including Test Server).

Note: Three servers are empty, with two others having just one light.

Originally posted by Aragoni

 

Please stop writing in green. I want to tear my eyes out when someone is wrriting fully in a colour other then white. Your e-peen and fame won't get bigger.

 

Let me guess, you never used a monochrome monitor before.

Well that is a good point.  Free accounts would inject more users into the environment, thus providing higher population numbers.

Well tell you what, I'll wager a bet that the next newsletter will contain no information about when the Beta will be released.  The wager will be an honored self-banned for two weeks here (no postings at this site for two-weeks).

I'm surprised that Masthead would make the effort to show up for E3.  E3 is no longer what it used to be, it is more focused with console and arcade games, not PC's.

Raises some doubts doesn't it?

Further looking into Beta, I noticed that the original time-line was for Summer to Autumn.  That would have been right around the corner.  Then the Beta was mentioned to be by year's end.  Seeing that there has been no announcement or status up date with Beta, and no action oriented screen-shots, it is going to be delayed further.

What I'm trying to point out is this.  Sure delays happen, hardly, if any MMO has been released on time.  Masthead should keep the community informed of the status to help sustain confidence and trust.  Otherwise doubts grow and the Darkfall belief becomes accepted.  And then Masthead can be viewed as being deceptive, and if being deceptive with this, what else could they be deceptive about?  Then there comes the spins.