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why so many servers
Trashcantoy
Member Posts: 827
so i finally tried this game out, lvled to lvl 5 and explored mos eisley a bit at prime time on a european server, but i didnt see many people around.. and the server was set on medium, so why does this game have like 20 servers while all but starsider (who is the only server with a high server load) are pretty dead/low on pop?
i mean... i think this game has more than 10k subs for sure, but everyone is scattered around 
whats the point?
MMOs currently playing: -
About to play: Lord of the Rings Online
Played: Anarchy Online (alltime favorite) and lots of f2p titles (honorable mentions: 9Dragons, Martial Heroes, Dekaron, Atlantica Online)
Comments
It was a popular game with a good population in its day, hence the number of servers.
SOE made some poor decisions to radically change the game, hence the very low population now.
< shrug >
SWG has always had too many servers - WoW is the only other MMO that has more servers.
Which server are you playing on? One of the Euro servers is a "transfer from" server, which allows people on it who've had characters before December 08 to transfer off it and onto a "destination" server. Basically, they're working on consolodating the number of servers, although they're currently not shutting any down - just giving the option to move from the low pop servers to the high pop ones.
you are such a spin doctor. "too many servers" is a matter of opinion unless you qualify that statement by any action soe takes in response to player population... in which case there were not too many servers until soe encouraged players to transfer from the low population servers to the high population servers... which happened recently... not during precu or the CU... but the NGE.
yes, I like run on sentences.
Two words:
It Worked
Okay a few more:
SWG had enough subscriptions back in history that most of the servers enjoyed a healthy population. The game wasn't instanced at all (save one area) and it could get annoying if your server got too populated (fighting for a spawn, housing placement, etc.). Try and explain to someone who has only played WoW how you can do a dungeon or just kill a mob (DWB, Geo Caves, Woolamanders, etc.) and not have it instanced. It's not fathomable to a lot of people. To those people who argue that SWG never had a real population, you just didn't see it because there was more to do than raid and BG/Arena. PvE, PvP, crafting, economy, the community, were actually enjoyable but I'm not going to beat a dead horse.
SWG was suppose to be the game that WoW is today. All critics thought SWG would be the first American MMO to break 1 million subs and then some and all were predicting it. So of course Sony made enough servers to handle all these subs, which I honestly believed they would have eventually reeled in if they would have stuck with fixing the game they had instead of changing it to what THEY wanted.
playing on Europe-Chimaera
MMOs currently playing: -
About to play: Lord of the Rings Online
Played: Anarchy Online (alltime favorite) and lots of f2p titles (honorable mentions: 9Dragons, Martial Heroes, Dekaron, Atlantica Online)
What exactly are you basing this comment on to make the assertion that there are too many servers?
What exactly are you basing this comment on to make the assertion that there are too many servers?
Kauri, Lowca, etc have always had pops that could have been handled by a number of the other more populated servers. They were always known as low-pop servers, even back when SWG was at its peak.
There are MMO's now that have more players then SWG had during its peak and have less servers then SWG has ever had.
What exactly are you basing this comment on to make the assertion that there are too many servers?
Kauri, Lowca, etc have always had pops that could have been handled by a number of the other more populated servers. They were always known as low-pop servers, even back when SWG was at its peak.
There are MMO's now that have more players then SWG had during its peak and have less servers then SWG has ever had.
Thats interesting cause I played on Lowca when it was regularily medium at peak eastern time, and I don't think I ever saw anyone really complain about the level of population.
So again I don't understand what you're basing that assertion on, and would really like to see some clarification other then personal opinion.
What exactly are you basing this comment on to make the assertion that there are too many servers?
There are MMO's now that have more players then SWG had during its peak and have less servers then SWG has ever had.
You're comparing SWG (and I'm talking the type of game it was) to current MMOs. If this were in the Veteran's Refuge this would be flamed to death.
SWG didn't need and most people didn't want the type of populations you find on servers in current games. SWG was much more solo and small-group friendly, you didn't need enough people on each night for 40 or 25 man raids (something most guilds in WoW still can't manage to do). I know I played on Corbantis and Bria (yes bad example) and never saw anyone complain about a lack of people.
If all else fails to convince you, this game was and still is run by one of the worst companies around. You'll find more Darkfall fans (all 10,000 or so of them) then you will current SWG fans.
Considering soe was adding new servers after the games release to handle the volume of players, that pretty much proves your theory of the game having to many servers to be false.
There are plenty of other games that have as many or more servers as swg. For short example: lotro, eq2 and even ultima online have roughly the same or more number of servers.
What exactly are you basing this comment on to make the assertion that there are too many servers?
There are MMO's now that have more players then SWG had during its peak and have less servers then SWG has ever had.
You're comparing SWG (and I'm talking the type of game it was) to current MMOs. If this were in the Veteran's Refuge this would be flamed to death.
SWG didn't need and most people didn't want the type of populations you find on servers in current games. SWG was much more solo and small-group friendly, you didn't need enough people on each night for 40 or 25 man raids (something most guilds in WoW still can't manage to do). I know I played on Corbantis and Bria (yes bad example) and never saw anyone complain about a lack of people.
If all else fails to convince you, this game was and still is run by one of the worst companies around. You'll find more Darkfall fans (all 10,000 or so of them) then you will current SWG fans.
I'm sorry, did you play pre-cu? You couldn't do a whole lot without relying on other people. You might not have needed them for combat, but you needed them for everything else.
SWG had a centralised population setup back then due to the above fact. Everyone at some point had to meet in a player-decided hotspot (usually Coronet) to take care of something (buffs, wound cures, etc). I'm quite prepared to say that this more then likely gave the illusion that many of those low-pop servers back then were busier then they actually were. I quite clearly remember seeing a good number of those servers sitting on "Very Light" every time I ever looked at the server selection page - that to me was a good indication that they'd added too many servers.
Yes, I know they added some after the Launch, but they added too many at once.
What exactly are you basing this comment on to make the assertion that there are too many servers?
There are MMO's now that have more players then SWG had during its peak and have less servers then SWG has ever had.
You're comparing SWG (and I'm talking the type of game it was) to current MMOs. If this were in the Veteran's Refuge this would be flamed to death.
SWG didn't need and most people didn't want the type of populations you find on servers in current games. SWG was much more solo and small-group friendly, you didn't need enough people on each night for 40 or 25 man raids (something most guilds in WoW still can't manage to do). I know I played on Corbantis and Bria (yes bad example) and never saw anyone complain about a lack of people.
If all else fails to convince you, this game was and still is run by one of the worst companies around. You'll find more Darkfall fans (all 10,000 or so of them) then you will current SWG fans.
I'm sorry, did you play pre-cu? You couldn't do a whole lot without relying on other people. You might not have needed them for combat, but you needed them for everything else.
SWG had a centralised population setup back then due to the above fact. Everyone at some point had to meet in a player-decided hotspot (usually Coronet) to take care of something (buffs, wound cures, etc). I'm quite prepared to say that this more then likely gave the illusion that many of those low-pop servers back then were busier then they actually were. I quite clearly remember seeing a good number of those servers sitting on "Very Light" every time I ever looked at the server selection page - that to me was a good indication that they'd added too many servers.
Yes, I know they added some after the Launch, but they added too many at once.
god forbid having player interdependency in a sandbox game. Do you want to play a MMORPG or a FPS? It certainly sounds like you would prefer the FPS by your descriptions.
we all know SOE played with the login threshold formula for how busy a server was.
Like I stated earlier...Kauri was busy 24/7 unlike it is now. The number of servers were fine before they made their poor decisions. Every noticable drop in population can be attributed to poor decisions/actions by SOE other than the startup of WoW.
Right now...yes...they have too many servers...pre-CU that was not the case. Even Kett had a healthy population and it was the unofficial RP server.
--------
Ten Golden Rules Of Videogame Fanboyism
"SOE has probably united more gamers in hatred than Blizzard has subs"...daelnor
didn't they start doing server transfers? Which in turn caused a whole bunch of other crap for the game? I thought I read that somehwere...might be wrong.
What exactly are you basing this comment on to make the assertion that there are too many servers?
There are MMO's now that have more players then SWG had during its peak and have less servers then SWG has ever had.
You're comparing SWG (and I'm talking the type of game it was) to current MMOs. If this were in the Veteran's Refuge this would be flamed to death.
SWG didn't need and most people didn't want the type of populations you find on servers in current games. SWG was much more solo and small-group friendly, you didn't need enough people on each night for 40 or 25 man raids (something most guilds in WoW still can't manage to do). I know I played on Corbantis and Bria (yes bad example) and never saw anyone complain about a lack of people.
If all else fails to convince you, this game was and still is run by one of the worst companies around. You'll find more Darkfall fans (all 10,000 or so of them) then you will current SWG fans.
I'm sorry, did you play pre-cu? You couldn't do a whole lot without relying on other people. You might not have needed them for combat, but you needed them for everything else.
SWG had a centralised population setup back then due to the above fact. Everyone at some point had to meet in a player-decided hotspot (usually Coronet) to take care of something (buffs, wound cures, etc). I'm quite prepared to say that this more then likely gave the illusion that many of those low-pop servers back then were busier then they actually were. I quite clearly remember seeing a good number of those servers sitting on "Very Light" every time I ever looked at the server selection page - that to me was a good indication that they'd added too many servers.
Yes, I know they added some after the Launch, but they added too many at once.
god forbid having player interdependency in a sandbox game. Do you want to play a MMORPG or a FPS? It certainly sounds like you would prefer the FPS by your descriptions.
we all know SOE played with the login threshold formula for how busy a server was.
Like I stated earlier...Kauri was busy 24/7 unlike it is now. The number of servers were fine before they made their poor decisions. Every noticable drop in population can be attributed to poor decisions/actions by SOE other than the startup of WoW.
Right now...yes...they have too many servers...pre-CU that was not the case. Even Kett had a healthy population and it was the unofficial RP server.
I don't remember saying that interdependancy was a bad thing? Maybe you'd like to point that out for me?
Your reply hasn't convinced me that your view that Kauri was busy wasn't simply an illusion due to the way the Pre-cu game worked.
What exactly are you basing this comment on to make the assertion that there are too many servers?
There are MMO's now that have more players then SWG had during its peak and have less servers then SWG has ever had.
You're comparing SWG (and I'm talking the type of game it was) to current MMOs. If this were in the Veteran's Refuge this would be flamed to death.
SWG didn't need and most people didn't want the type of populations you find on servers in current games. SWG was much more solo and small-group friendly, you didn't need enough people on each night for 40 or 25 man raids (something most guilds in WoW still can't manage to do). I know I played on Corbantis and Bria (yes bad example) and never saw anyone complain about a lack of people.
If all else fails to convince you, this game was and still is run by one of the worst companies around. You'll find more Darkfall fans (all 10,000 or so of them) then you will current SWG fans.
I'm sorry, did you play pre-cu? You couldn't do a whole lot without relying on other people. You might not have needed them for combat, but you needed them for everything else.
SWG had a centralised population setup back then due to the above fact. Everyone at some point had to meet in a player-decided hotspot (usually Coronet) to take care of something (buffs, wound cures, etc). I'm quite prepared to say that this more then likely gave the illusion that many of those low-pop servers back then were busier then they actually were. I quite clearly remember seeing a good number of those servers sitting on "Very Light" every time I ever looked at the server selection page - that to me was a good indication that they'd added too many servers.
Yes, I know they added some after the Launch, but they added too many at once.
god forbid having player interdependency in a sandbox game. Do you want to play a MMORPG or a FPS? It certainly sounds like you would prefer the FPS by your descriptions.
we all know SOE played with the login threshold formula for how busy a server was.
Like I stated earlier...Kauri was busy 24/7 unlike it is now. The number of servers were fine before they made their poor decisions. Every noticable drop in population can be attributed to poor decisions/actions by SOE other than the startup of WoW.
Right now...yes...they have too many servers...pre-CU that was not the case. Even Kett had a healthy population and it was the unofficial RP server.
I don't remember saying that interdependancy was a bad thing? Maybe you'd like to point that out for me?
Your reply hasn't convinced me that your view that Kauri was busy wasn't simply an illusion due to the way the Pre-cu game worked.
Sorry Mr. Obraik,
I played on 2 different smaller servers (Valcyn and Lowca) in the beginning are there were plenty of people. 200 vs 200 battles between Bestine/Anchorhead, 6 or more 20 man hunting groups when good creature resources came into spawn, all of that and other stuff.
Since those were two of the" smallest" servers out there, and there were plenty of people, anytime of the day, the other larger servers must have been doing as well or better. The number of servers was fine, before SOE flushed the game down the toilet.
Nice try though...
What exactly are you basing this comment on to make the assertion that there are too many servers?
There are MMO's now that have more players then SWG had during its peak and have less servers then SWG has ever had.
You're comparing SWG (and I'm talking the type of game it was) to current MMOs. If this were in the Veteran's Refuge this would be flamed to death.
SWG didn't need and most people didn't want the type of populations you find on servers in current games. SWG was much more solo and small-group friendly, you didn't need enough people on each night for 40 or 25 man raids (something most guilds in WoW still can't manage to do). I know I played on Corbantis and Bria (yes bad example) and never saw anyone complain about a lack of people.
If all else fails to convince you, this game was and still is run by one of the worst companies around. You'll find more Darkfall fans (all 10,000 or so of them) then you will current SWG fans.
I'm sorry, did you play pre-cu? You couldn't do a whole lot without relying on other people. You might not have needed them for combat, but you needed them for everything else.
SWG had a centralised population setup back then due to the above fact. Everyone at some point had to meet in a player-decided hotspot (usually Coronet) to take care of something (buffs, wound cures, etc). I'm quite prepared to say that this more then likely gave the illusion that many of those low-pop servers back then were busier then they actually were. I quite clearly remember seeing a good number of those servers sitting on "Very Light" every time I ever looked at the server selection page - that to me was a good indication that they'd added too many servers.
Yes, I know they added some after the Launch, but they added too many at once.
god forbid having player interdependency in a sandbox game. Do you want to play a MMORPG or a FPS? It certainly sounds like you would prefer the FPS by your descriptions.
we all know SOE played with the login threshold formula for how busy a server was.
Like I stated earlier...Kauri was busy 24/7 unlike it is now. The number of servers were fine before they made their poor decisions. Every noticable drop in population can be attributed to poor decisions/actions by SOE other than the startup of WoW.
Right now...yes...they have too many servers...pre-CU that was not the case. Even Kett had a healthy population and it was the unofficial RP server.
I don't remember saying that interdependancy was a bad thing? Maybe you'd like to point that out for me?
Your reply hasn't convinced me that your view that Kauri was busy wasn't simply an illusion due to the way the Pre-cu game worked.
You certainly implied that it was bad with your opening statement.
Did you play on Kauri? If not you are NOT qualified to judge anything and I am not trying to convince you of anything.
Your illusion statement is interesting but false and inline with the spin that SOE put out about people now being more spreadout discounting eyewitness accounts of fewer people playing/logging and outright quitting. Barren friendslist being reported etc.
New players? nada very few. They only market to former players.
Server merger request on the oboards didn't start until AFTER the CU and most certainly when the NGE hit.
Are you going to pull a Badger now and say the game is more populated than ever?
--------
Ten Golden Rules Of Videogame Fanboyism
"SOE has probably united more gamers in hatred than Blizzard has subs"...daelnor
What exactly are you basing this comment on to make the assertion that there are too many servers?
There are MMO's now that have more players then SWG had during its peak and have less servers then SWG has ever had.
You're comparing SWG (and I'm talking the type of game it was) to current MMOs. If this were in the Veteran's Refuge this would be flamed to death.
SWG didn't need and most people didn't want the type of populations you find on servers in current games. SWG was much more solo and small-group friendly, you didn't need enough people on each night for 40 or 25 man raids (something most guilds in WoW still can't manage to do). I know I played on Corbantis and Bria (yes bad example) and never saw anyone complain about a lack of people.
If all else fails to convince you, this game was and still is run by one of the worst companies around. You'll find more Darkfall fans (all 10,000 or so of them) then you will current SWG fans.
I'm sorry, did you play pre-cu? You couldn't do a whole lot without relying on other people. You might not have needed them for combat, but you needed them for everything else.
SWG had a centralised population setup back then due to the above fact. Everyone at some point had to meet in a player-decided hotspot (usually Coronet) to take care of something (buffs, wound cures, etc). I'm quite prepared to say that this more then likely gave the illusion that many of those low-pop servers back then were busier then they actually were. I quite clearly remember seeing a good number of those servers sitting on "Very Light" every time I ever looked at the server selection page - that to me was a good indication that they'd added too many servers.
Yes, I know they added some after the Launch, but they added too many at once.
god forbid having player interdependency in a sandbox game. Do you want to play a MMORPG or a FPS? It certainly sounds like you would prefer the FPS by your descriptions.
we all know SOE played with the login threshold formula for how busy a server was.
Like I stated earlier...Kauri was busy 24/7 unlike it is now. The number of servers were fine before they made their poor decisions. Every noticable drop in population can be attributed to poor decisions/actions by SOE other than the startup of WoW.
Right now...yes...they have too many servers...pre-CU that was not the case. Even Kett had a healthy population and it was the unofficial RP server.
I don't remember saying that interdependancy was a bad thing? Maybe you'd like to point that out for me?
Your reply hasn't convinced me that your view that Kauri was busy wasn't simply an illusion due to the way the Pre-cu game worked.
You certainly implied that it was bad with your opening statement.
Did you play on Kauri? If not you are NOT qualified to judge anything and I am not trying to convince you of anything.
Your illusion statement is interesting but false and inline with the spin that SOE put out about people now being more spreadout discounting eyewitness accounts of fewer people playing/logging and outright quitting. Barren friendslist being reported etc.
New players? nada very few. They only market to former players.
Server merger request on the oboards didn't start until AFTER the CU and most certainly when the NGE hit.
Are you going to pull a Badger now and say the game is more populated than ever?
No, I didn't imply it at all. I was correcting the post I quoted who was implying that the game didn't have interdependancy back then.
How is my illusion statement false? Are you denying that it was almost required for people to meet up in a central location to take care of business? Are you going to deny that having a good majority of the population in a central location won't give the illusion of a busy server? Do note that I'm not saying that having a central focus point is a bad thing, I'm just stating how it was. Also note that my original statement that started all this
Yes, calls for merges and what not didn't start until after the CU, and yes, that had something to do with lower numbers. Those numbers were lowering before the CU (or NGE), the loss just wasn't so obvious due to the already mentioned reasons.
I'm sure you'll probably just gloss over this as "SOE spin", as if I work for SOE, but I guess that's the easy thing to do...
What exactly are you basing this comment on to make the assertion that there are too many servers?
There are MMO's now that have more players then SWG had during its peak and have less servers then SWG has ever had.
You're comparing SWG (and I'm talking the type of game it was) to current MMOs. If this were in the Veteran's Refuge this would be flamed to death.
SWG didn't need and most people didn't want the type of populations you find on servers in current games. SWG was much more solo and small-group friendly, you didn't need enough people on each night for 40 or 25 man raids (something most guilds in WoW still can't manage to do). I know I played on Corbantis and Bria (yes bad example) and never saw anyone complain about a lack of people.
If all else fails to convince you, this game was and still is run by one of the worst companies around. You'll find more Darkfall fans (all 10,000 or so of them) then you will current SWG fans.
I'm sorry, did you play pre-cu? You couldn't do a whole lot without relying on other people. You might not have needed them for combat, but you needed them for everything else.
SWG had a centralised population setup back then due to the above fact. Everyone at some point had to meet in a player-decided hotspot (usually Coronet) to take care of something (buffs, wound cures, etc). I'm quite prepared to say that this more then likely gave the illusion that many of those low-pop servers back then were busier then they actually were. I quite clearly remember seeing a good number of those servers sitting on "Very Light" every time I ever looked at the server selection page - that to me was a good indication that they'd added too many servers.
Yes, I know they added some after the Launch, but they added too many at once.
god forbid having player interdependency in a sandbox game. Do you want to play a MMORPG or a FPS? It certainly sounds like you would prefer the FPS by your descriptions.
we all know SOE played with the login threshold formula for how busy a server was.
Like I stated earlier...Kauri was busy 24/7 unlike it is now. The number of servers were fine before they made their poor decisions. Every noticable drop in population can be attributed to poor decisions/actions by SOE other than the startup of WoW.
Right now...yes...they have too many servers...pre-CU that was not the case. Even Kett had a healthy population and it was the unofficial RP server.
I don't remember saying that interdependancy was a bad thing? Maybe you'd like to point that out for me?
Your reply hasn't convinced me that your view that Kauri was busy wasn't simply an illusion due to the way the Pre-cu game worked.
You certainly implied that it was bad with your opening statement.
Did you play on Kauri? If not you are NOT qualified to judge anything and I am not trying to convince you of anything.
Your illusion statement is interesting but false and inline with the spin that SOE put out about people now being more spreadout discounting eyewitness accounts of fewer people playing/logging and outright quitting. Barren friendslist being reported etc.
New players? nada very few. They only market to former players.
Server merger request on the oboards didn't start until AFTER the CU and most certainly when the NGE hit.
Are you going to pull a Badger now and say the game is more populated than ever?
No, I didn't imply it at all. I was correcting the post I quoted who was implying that the game didn't have interdependancy back then.
How is my illusion statement false? Are you denying that it was almost required for people to meet up in a central location to take care of business? Are you going to deny that having a good majority of the population in a central location won't give the illusion of a busy server? Do note that I'm not saying that having a central focus point is a bad thing, I'm just stating how it was. Also note that my original statement that started all this
Yes, calls for merges and what not didn't start until after the CU, and yes, that had something to do with lower numbers. Those numbers were lowering before the CU (or NGE), the loss just wasn't so obvious due to the already mentioned reasons.
I'm sure you'll probably just gloss over this as "SOE spin", as if I work for SOE, but I guess that's the easy thing to do...
Except that it wasn't a single central location. There were at least 3 major hubs IMO - Theed, Coronet, and the Dant Mining Outpost. And that's not even taking into account all the player cities that had their own areas for their citizens to get buffed.
BTW I don't think it was simply an illusion because people were not going to these hubs just to get buffed then hang around. They got buffed then left to go do what they set out to, yet the hub was still consistently busy. It was a dynamic environment.
What exactly are you basing this comment on to make the assertion that there are too many servers?
There are MMO's now that have more players then SWG had during its peak and have less servers then SWG has ever had.
You're comparing SWG (and I'm talking the type of game it was) to current MMOs. If this were in the Veteran's Refuge this would be flamed to death.
SWG didn't need and most people didn't want the type of populations you find on servers in current games. SWG was much more solo and small-group friendly, you didn't need enough people on each night for 40 or 25 man raids (something most guilds in WoW still can't manage to do). I know I played on Corbantis and Bria (yes bad example) and never saw anyone complain about a lack of people.
If all else fails to convince you, this game was and still is run by one of the worst companies around. You'll find more Darkfall fans (all 10,000 or so of them) then you will current SWG fans.
I'm sorry, did you play pre-cu? You couldn't do a whole lot without relying on other people. You might not have needed them for combat, but you needed them for everything else.
SWG had a centralised population setup back then due to the above fact. Everyone at some point had to meet in a player-decided hotspot (usually Coronet) to take care of something (buffs, wound cures, etc). I'm quite prepared to say that this more then likely gave the illusion that many of those low-pop servers back then were busier then they actually were. I quite clearly remember seeing a good number of those servers sitting on "Very Light" every time I ever looked at the server selection page - that to me was a good indication that they'd added too many servers.
Yes, I know they added some after the Launch, but they added too many at once.
god forbid having player interdependency in a sandbox game. Do you want to play a MMORPG or a FPS? It certainly sounds like you would prefer the FPS by your descriptions.
we all know SOE played with the login threshold formula for how busy a server was.
Like I stated earlier...Kauri was busy 24/7 unlike it is now. The number of servers were fine before they made their poor decisions. Every noticable drop in population can be attributed to poor decisions/actions by SOE other than the startup of WoW.
Right now...yes...they have too many servers...pre-CU that was not the case. Even Kett had a healthy population and it was the unofficial RP server.
I don't remember saying that interdependancy was a bad thing? Maybe you'd like to point that out for me?
Your reply hasn't convinced me that your view that Kauri was busy wasn't simply an illusion due to the way the Pre-cu game worked.
You certainly implied that it was bad with your opening statement.
Did you play on Kauri? If not you are NOT qualified to judge anything and I am not trying to convince you of anything.
Your illusion statement is interesting but false and inline with the spin that SOE put out about people now being more spreadout discounting eyewitness accounts of fewer people playing/logging and outright quitting. Barren friendslist being reported etc.
New players? nada very few. They only market to former players.
Server merger request on the oboards didn't start until AFTER the CU and most certainly when the NGE hit.
Are you going to pull a Badger now and say the game is more populated than ever?
No, I didn't imply it at all. I was correcting the post I quoted who was implying that the game didn't have interdependancy back then.
How is my illusion statement false? Are you denying that it was almost required for people to meet up in a central location to take care of business? Are you going to deny that having a good majority of the population in a central location won't give the illusion of a busy server? Do note that I'm not saying that having a central focus point is a bad thing, I'm just stating how it was. Also note that my original statement that started all this
Yes, calls for merges and what not didn't start until after the CU, and yes, that had something to do with lower numbers. Those numbers were lowering before the CU (or NGE), the loss just wasn't so obvious due to the already mentioned reasons.
I'm sure you'll probably just gloss over this as "SOE spin", as if I work for SOE, but I guess that's the easy thing to do...
Except that it wasn't a single central location. There were at least 3 major hubs IMO - Theed, Coronet, and the Dant Mining Outpost. And that's not even taking into account all the player cities that had their own areas for their citizens to get buffed.
BTW I don't think it was simply an illusion because people were not going to these hubs just to get buffed then hang around. They got buffed then left to go do what they set out to, yet the hub was still consistently busy. It was a dynamic environment.
Exactly...thanks you put it the way I was thinking.
--------
Ten Golden Rules Of Videogame Fanboyism
"SOE has probably united more gamers in hatred than Blizzard has subs"...daelnor
I played on kettemoor way back when and the population was fine. There were several active hotspots where people gathered to do many types of things. Even the more "remote" areas always had people. Large pvp battles ever day. It was difficult finding a location for structures, because there were so many people placing lots.
There was no illusion that the game was full, because it was. There is a very noticable difference between now and then. Even with the mergers. I bet I could find "lakefront" property around Mos Eisley right now.
What exactly are you basing this comment on to make the assertion that there are too many servers?
There are MMO's now that have more players then SWG had during its peak and have less servers then SWG has ever had.
You're comparing SWG (and I'm talking the type of game it was) to current MMOs. If this were in the Veteran's Refuge this would be flamed to death.
SWG didn't need and most people didn't want the type of populations you find on servers in current games. SWG was much more solo and small-group friendly, you didn't need enough people on each night for 40 or 25 man raids (something most guilds in WoW still can't manage to do). I know I played on Corbantis and Bria (yes bad example) and never saw anyone complain about a lack of people.
If all else fails to convince you, this game was and still is run by one of the worst companies around. You'll find more Darkfall fans (all 10,000 or so of them) then you will current SWG fans.
I'm sorry, did you play pre-cu? You couldn't do a whole lot without relying on other people. You might not have needed them for combat, but you needed them for everything else.
SWG had a centralised population setup back then due to the above fact. Everyone at some point had to meet in a player-decided hotspot (usually Coronet) to take care of something (buffs, wound cures, etc). I'm quite prepared to say that this more then likely gave the illusion that many of those low-pop servers back then were busier then they actually were. I quite clearly remember seeing a good number of those servers sitting on "Very Light" every time I ever looked at the server selection page - that to me was a good indication that they'd added too many servers.
Yes, I know they added some after the Launch, but they added too many at once.
god forbid having player interdependency in a sandbox game. Do you want to play a MMORPG or a FPS? It certainly sounds like you would prefer the FPS by your descriptions.
we all know SOE played with the login threshold formula for how busy a server was.
Like I stated earlier...Kauri was busy 24/7 unlike it is now. The number of servers were fine before they made their poor decisions. Every noticable drop in population can be attributed to poor decisions/actions by SOE other than the startup of WoW.
Right now...yes...they have too many servers...pre-CU that was not the case. Even Kett had a healthy population and it was the unofficial RP server.
I don't remember saying that interdependancy was a bad thing? Maybe you'd like to point that out for me?
Your reply hasn't convinced me that your view that Kauri was busy wasn't simply an illusion due to the way the Pre-cu game worked.
You certainly implied that it was bad with your opening statement.
Did you play on Kauri? If not you are NOT qualified to judge anything and I am not trying to convince you of anything.
Your illusion statement is interesting but false and inline with the spin that SOE put out about people now being more spreadout discounting eyewitness accounts of fewer people playing/logging and outright quitting. Barren friendslist being reported etc.
New players? nada very few. They only market to former players.
Server merger request on the oboards didn't start until AFTER the CU and most certainly when the NGE hit.
Are you going to pull a Badger now and say the game is more populated than ever?
No, I didn't imply it at all. I was correcting the post I quoted who was implying that the game didn't have interdependancy back then.
How is my illusion statement false? Are you denying that it was almost required for people to meet up in a central location to take care of business? Are you going to deny that having a good majority of the population in a central location won't give the illusion of a busy server? Do note that I'm not saying that having a central focus point is a bad thing, I'm just stating how it was. Also note that my original statement that started all this
Yes, calls for merges and what not didn't start until after the CU, and yes, that had something to do with lower numbers. Those numbers were lowering before the CU (or NGE), the loss just wasn't so obvious due to the already mentioned reasons.
I'm sure you'll probably just gloss over this as "SOE spin", as if I work for SOE, but I guess that's the easy thing to do...
Except that it wasn't a single central location. There were at least 3 major hubs IMO - Theed, Coronet, and the Dant Mining Outpost. And that's not even taking into account all the player cities that had their own areas for their citizens to get buffed.
BTW I don't think it was simply an illusion because people were not going to these hubs just to get buffed then hang around. They got buffed then left to go do what they set out to, yet the hub was still consistently busy. It was a dynamic environment.
1 or 3, the point is that there was a reason for people to gather in a location en masse - this doesn't really exist in the game now since the CU. While the low pop servers more then likely had more on them compared to now, the original point I was trying to make which seems to have been lost in the thread was that population could have easily fitted on some of the Medium servers back then. There was no need for 26 servers, 15 - 20 (maybe less) would have probably coped just as well.
Going to a hub usually consumed quite a bit of a persons play period. By the time they got through a doctor queue to get their wounds cured, then another for buffs, then another for an Ent buff, then finding someone selling/advertising stims/supplies for their trip to replace what decayed last time, etc, a person could find they'd been in the hub for 30-60mins.
What exactly are you basing this comment on to make the assertion that there are too many servers?
There are MMO's now that have more players then SWG had during its peak and have less servers then SWG has ever had.
You're comparing SWG (and I'm talking the type of game it was) to current MMOs. If this were in the Veteran's Refuge this would be flamed to death.
SWG didn't need and most people didn't want the type of populations you find on servers in current games. SWG was much more solo and small-group friendly, you didn't need enough people on each night for 40 or 25 man raids (something most guilds in WoW still can't manage to do). I know I played on Corbantis and Bria (yes bad example) and never saw anyone complain about a lack of people.
If all else fails to convince you, this game was and still is run by one of the worst companies around. You'll find more Darkfall fans (all 10,000 or so of them) then you will current SWG fans.
I'm sorry, did you play pre-cu? You couldn't do a whole lot without relying on other people. You might not have needed them for combat, but you needed them for everything else.
SWG had a centralised population setup back then due to the above fact. Everyone at some point had to meet in a player-decided hotspot (usually Coronet) to take care of something (buffs, wound cures, etc). I'm quite prepared to say that this more then likely gave the illusion that many of those low-pop servers back then were busier then they actually were. I quite clearly remember seeing a good number of those servers sitting on "Very Light" every time I ever looked at the server selection page - that to me was a good indication that they'd added too many servers.
Yes, I know they added some after the Launch, but they added too many at once.
god forbid having player interdependency in a sandbox game. Do you want to play a MMORPG or a FPS? It certainly sounds like you would prefer the FPS by your descriptions.
we all know SOE played with the login threshold formula for how busy a server was.
Like I stated earlier...Kauri was busy 24/7 unlike it is now. The number of servers were fine before they made their poor decisions. Every noticable drop in population can be attributed to poor decisions/actions by SOE other than the startup of WoW.
Right now...yes...they have too many servers...pre-CU that was not the case. Even Kett had a healthy population and it was the unofficial RP server.
I don't remember saying that interdependancy was a bad thing? Maybe you'd like to point that out for me?
Your reply hasn't convinced me that your view that Kauri was busy wasn't simply an illusion due to the way the Pre-cu game worked.
You certainly implied that it was bad with your opening statement.
Did you play on Kauri? If not you are NOT qualified to judge anything and I am not trying to convince you of anything.
Your illusion statement is interesting but false and inline with the spin that SOE put out about people now being more spreadout discounting eyewitness accounts of fewer people playing/logging and outright quitting. Barren friendslist being reported etc.
New players? nada very few. They only market to former players.
Server merger request on the oboards didn't start until AFTER the CU and most certainly when the NGE hit.
Are you going to pull a Badger now and say the game is more populated than ever?
No, I didn't imply it at all. I was correcting the post I quoted who was implying that the game didn't have interdependancy back then.
How is my illusion statement false? Are you denying that it was almost required for people to meet up in a central location to take care of business? Are you going to deny that having a good majority of the population in a central location won't give the illusion of a busy server? Do note that I'm not saying that having a central focus point is a bad thing, I'm just stating how it was. Also note that my original statement that started all this
Yes, calls for merges and what not didn't start until after the CU, and yes, that had something to do with lower numbers. Those numbers were lowering before the CU (or NGE), the loss just wasn't so obvious due to the already mentioned reasons.
I'm sure you'll probably just gloss over this as "SOE spin", as if I work for SOE, but I guess that's the easy thing to do...
Except that it wasn't a single central location. There were at least 3 major hubs IMO - Theed, Coronet, and the Dant Mining Outpost. And that's not even taking into account all the player cities that had their own areas for their citizens to get buffed.
BTW I don't think it was simply an illusion because people were not going to these hubs just to get buffed then hang around. They got buffed then left to go do what they set out to, yet the hub was still consistently busy. It was a dynamic environment.
1 or 3, the point is that there was a reason for people to gather in a location en masse - this doesn't really exist in the game now since the CU. While the low pop servers more then likely had more on them compared to now, the original point I was trying to make which seems to have been lost in the thread was that population could have easily fitted on some of the Medium servers back then. There was no need for 26 servers, 15 - 20 (maybe less) would have probably coped just as well.
Going to a hub usually consumed quite a bit of a persons play period. By the time they got through a doctor queue to get their wounds cured, then another for buffs, then another for an Ent buff, then finding someone selling/advertising stims/supplies for their trip to replace what decayed last time, etc, a person could find they'd been in the hub for 30-60mins.
Honestly, I've never spent that much time at a hub unless I wanted to.
Since 2003 I played on Lowca, Tarquinas and Radiant, Lowca being my main home, they were all regularly "light" throughout the years and even after the NGE they remained "light" but noticably much fewer people than previously. Before 2005, Wanderhome and Kauri were known to be quiet places and Kauri remained quiet after the plunge and even moreso after the free CTS, and the free CTS is responsable for the last 21 servers to suffer, very few people are willing to stay behind and rebuild which takes a TON of effort to do- from the 3 servers I transferred from (to Flurry), Tarquinas got hit the hardest and there's like 4 people there now?
Between 2005-2007 Tarquinas' community was declining very rapidly and there was hardly any pvp and hardly any events (or even roleplaying events), however WSQ and another Rebel based guild kept trying to put up events (the backpack raffles, the flea market) and were of moderate success.