Here's my prediction. This will not get an official response until they are 'just' about to open up the Aussie transfers and are comfortable with the transfer system in general. The response will most likely be that "transfers" are coming, they won't specific paid or unpaid because they want to see if you'll pay them to make this problem go away. When the community freaks out about paid transfers they'll say something like "We never said we were going to charge you, we just didn't say explicitely that they would be free" They'll offer transfers and the above SWG reference will come to pass. 2-5 servers will become instantly packed and 'full' and the rest will essentially remain ghost towns. They will eventually close those servers. After reading the nearly 2000 pages of posts on this with no official response I finally determined that the chances of us getting a merge are slim to 0. Mostly for political reasons. They don't want the bad PR from the merge, they don't want to deal with "forcing" people to change their names. if you select to transfer then you've made the choice and they can't get yelled at. This is not the optimal fix but unfortunately for them (and me to a certain extent) it's too little too late. My current subscription will most likely end before they offer up a way for me to 'fix' my play experience and I'm probably not going to resub until they launch their first major expansion or some other 'killer feature' appears. Perhaps 1.3 when the rest of the legacy (the stuff I mainly care about) comes out. best of luck to you guys, this is me, signing off.

99 pages in just this thread alone and no official response... that's impressive. and theres multiple threads, I havn't looked at the other one. while I wait on them to respond/rectify this I've been playin on my old WoW server. FOund an interesting new problem while playing. The PVP Q's were popping too fast I had to 'not' Q for a little while just so I could farm up some materials I wanted.

seriously? still no response? For those of you who are saying "you'r ejust complaining, it doesn't match reality" I've logged into two servers in the last 2 days during various points in the day. THe highest number I saw on republic side on either server at any point, total republic, not just people on the fleet, was 349. That was prime time, total players on republic side. That puts the servers 'total population' under 1000 at prime time. At one point during the day, around lunch I believe on Friday it there were 53 people online republic side.

I'm giving em until 1.2 launches to at least say something about this situation. I just logged into my WoW account, friend sent me one of those scroll things. There are more lvl 85 warriors online in Orgrimar than there are total people online in the fleet on my SWTOR server republic side... just lvl 85 warriors. That's not an exhageration. I've also been getting instant BG Q's for the last 4 hours. Not 'short' Q's but I hit 'Enter Q' and it pops before I can close the BG window.

In response to the few people who still think they need 'tech' to merge servers. This isn't creating a hybrid out of two animals. It's copying a database with a condition on identical names in three fields. It's bandwidth and a little bit of code which, on the code side they already have most of what they need, they just have to set the conditions. I've migrated immense code libraries and databases before, and I mean immense, we're talking telemetry modeling databases for advanced aircraft and simulation models for multiple types of aircraft along with the various testing scenarios built into the program we were migrating. All of which was home brew so there were no third party softwares to assist and I was migrating to unlike systems (solaris to linux) similar but not the same. When we were told it was needed, we shrugged and did it the next week. This will be mildly more complicated and I mean that, mildly. Its not something that should take a month to 'figure out'. Transfers and ht eback end for individual character moves/choices is more complicated because of the interaction with the end user. Bulk shouldn't be nearly as complicated code wise.

*** is the point in transfers in relation to the low population servers? Do you think people are going to transfer TO low pop servers and fix them? not likely. Do you think people are going to transfer OFF low pop servers and be happy elsewhere? Yes, that will probably happen which means those servers will be even more barren and anyone who doesn't transfer (lets see if they offer them for free) will be toast even worse than they are. If they ARE free, some servers are going to simply be abandoned, but lets look at other transfers from other MMOs in the past... there will be restricted moves. I imagine any server listed as 'heavy' will not be allowed to be transferred to. So, one situation is that people start moving to a server, it hits heavy and that server becomes unavailable. Hopefully all your friends make it. Free transfers would potentially fix this issue depending on what rules exist for the moves but then what happens to all the old servers that are now empty except for the people who have characters there and havn't read the forums or logged in... if they close em those people are screwed cause they'll either lose their character or be moved to a server they didn't choose, or if BW is smart they get put in 'limbo' somewhere and when they try to log in again they get to pick their server. Either way, merging would be so much simpler, faster, and not have any more problems than the transfer option.

I'm pretty pleased no one has used the term "slap in the face" in thsi thread so far. Anyway, to the fellow who mentioned 1m subs vs 10m subs. Will it survive on 1m? Yup, will it 'thrive' on 1m? No. Heres the thing, theres a base level of money it takes to run an MMO of any size, I'm not talking about developement costs yet, I'm talking about just to keep stuff 'going' base infrastructure, support, etc. As the population goes up the costs of that infrastructure also go up but not by much. A game with 1m subs costs X but a game that suddenly has 2m subs does not cost X*2 because the majority of the costs are based around the initial infrastructure and scaling that upwards is relatively cheap (i used the term relatively on purpose). So, a game with 10m subs will have a much higher level of flexible income to spend on... developement, support, etc. This is why a game like WoW can crank out rediculous amounts of content at the rate that it does and it's why you have smaller games getting less frequent upgrades and those ugprades are generally smaller in total content. SWTOR has got A LOT going for it, some mistakes have been made but they are fully fixable and while I don't believe they are 'losing subscriptions' I know for a fact there are a lot of people who may be paying but aren't playing and it's only a matter of time before those people stop paying as well. My guild is PVE focused (I'm the black sheep, pvp guy) and on non raid days 4-5 people online, on raid days that jumps up to the teens usually otherwise they simply aren't playing. They have no reason to. I ask people from my friends list (almost exclusively people I've met in WZs) mostly they just sorta stopped showing up so when I see some one I havn't seen in a whlie I ask em if they're on an alt or something the answer is almost always the same. "Nope, got tired of waiting on Q's all the time, I've been doign X" and X is always something other than playing SWTOR. Log into my server, if som eone from my guild is on, ask them how much I'm into this game. I played almost every day for a couple of months, multiple hours a day with the occaisional 8-10 hour bender. I've been working on crewskills and leveling a couple of characters, pvping when I can. But as I get my other guy up to 50 I'm getting to the "multiplayer" heavy part of the game. I'm wanting to try an Ops, run a few flashpoints, and obviously pvp more and I can't with the population the way it is. A number of people stopped playing for whatever reason, whether they were bored, didn't like the game, went back to another game, etc, but now people are leaving the dead and dying servers that actually really like this game and 'want' to play but simply can't do any of the stuff they want to do. I'm going to use the term 'fanboy' here but I'm using it in the way it was intended, a non negative context so don't get your undies bunched please. This game 'can' survive on the fanboys. The hardcore starwars fans who are here cause theres a lightsaber and that's all that matters. The people who stuck it out with SWG even though that game was a freaking trainwreck by all sensible standards. Yes, they will keep the game 'going' because the subs will sustain the company enough to run the game but it will not 'thrive' it will not progress and evolve at any decent clip compared to an MMO with a more vibrant and full community. No MMO launches with 'enough' content for anyone so I won't judge SWTOR on that, I give them mad props for letting PVP be a semi viable leveling method and the companion system, the single player experience, and a number of other factors. But the community management and the stuff that you 'need' to do right to have a succesful MMO.. they're not getting top scores on those things. They need to fix the population issues. They need to communicate with the community better. When the community lights up over an issue you have to respond to it. Is there gonna be drama... yes, thats part of it, deal. They need to remember the M's in MMO, right now the multiplayer aspect of the game is suffering hard and many MMO players are here for that reason. I want hte game to succeed, thats why I post in the threads I do, thats why I come ont he forums in the first place. To offer actual feedback and share information that I feel is needed to help the game succeed. I'm not threatening to quit because I think a tantrum will work, I'm expressing that without being able to play the parts of the game I'm interested in, it's no longer worth my money and I'm far from alone in that sentiment.

It's something they jus thave to deal with. There is no graceful way of dealing with this. I'm an IT architect. When I build a system at work I ask myself if it's scalable in both directions and what concerns come up with motion in either direction. That's something any project should look at, growth and decline. They answered the growth with more servers at launch instead of upping hte caps on existing servers... they had to do that because their engine simply couldn't support 'more' people in one spot, it can barely support what it's got and what it has isn't that much. I think that might be one of the primary causes they aren't jumping on the merge train. If they make all the servers higher population they'll have to deal with more than just name backlash, they'll have to deal with all the people who suddnly took a performance hit because they have more than 8 people walking around them.

I dont' completely disagree with you but I do partially and I'll explain. 1. WoW has spent a lot of time tweaking their game, yes they've added a lot of new things like the farmville clone and the pet combat system, etc, but they've also simply adjusted a lot. There are systems that have been around since launch that are vastly different but still the same systems. SWTOR has put in systems that were dated at launch and at hte time of developement would have been considered dated. 2. THey DO need to act quickly adn they do need to 'compete' with WoW. Not dethrone it, that's not gonna happen. The only people who can knock WoW off the top is WoW, they'll have to jump the shark eventually. 3. THey did some innovative things but the issue they have now is dealing with waht they've got. 3 months in and they're issueing a lot of blanket nerfs and half introducing content. the legacy system is going in partially... a system that should have been there at launch and they're adding it post launch and leaving out some features for 'a later content update' trying to sell it as 'continuous improvement' People make alts, the legacy system is the biggest example of something that will make me lose faith in the developers. It's an awesome system BUT.. look at the parts left out? It takes very little time to ge tto 50 in this game, by the itme they add those 'later' legacy options like giving low level characters a speeder early or tailoring your experience gain for pvp, quests, whatever, people are gonna have full character slots and not really be interested in playing another alt up. At launch WoW had multiple 'paths' to 50. Depending on race you wen tto different areas so you could level 2-4 characters and see an almost completely different set of content from 1-50. SWTOR has 1 path per faction. YOur class quest is the only thing that changes, everyone else goes through the exact same quest chains otherwise... that alone puts them behind the majority of MMOs that have launched in the last decade, let a lone the last year.

we have what, three threads in the 60+ page range now and not even a nod from something golden in here? There are 150 people on republic sid eon my server right now and it's not even close to one of hte "Lowest" population servers. 15 minutes minimum for a PVP Q and it ends early because there aren't enough people in it... what a tease. Using the "ignore the problem and it'll go away" method works in MMOs, just ask one of hte developers from one of the 20 or so failed MMOs over the last 4 years. Ignore your subscribers and they do, in fact, go away.

and if all brands cost approximately the same which one would you buy? Last time I checked subscriptions for most MMOs were pretty comparable except for the obvious exceptions like f2p games and the off 9 dollar or less subs that are usually attached to horrible games anyway. It's not so much about the 'feature' not being there and that makes the game worse so much as it is that this game, becuse of it's generally lower server populations when compared to the bigger MMOs out there 'needs' these type sof features and its missing them. The graphics are on par or below most of the big MMOs out there. The engine is horrible as far as performance goes. I can play games that look as good or better on higher settings with less lag and more people. They did amazing things with some features like voiceover and the companion system. Very innovative and those are great features, also the REing concept for crafting is pretty neat. The PVP system with the 'boost' buff you get so lvls 10-49 can fight on relatively equal ground is great. they have too many servers and aren't willing to recognize that and fix it. They have low populations and no way to easily find groups or get matched with people, forcing you to /1 lfg in fleet which keeps you away from the rest of the game so you can't even work on dailies or other tasks off fleet without effecting your chances to get groups. THey have low populations which causes extremely long PVP Q times which would go away if they ahd cross server Qing... No option to transfer characters which means if you're on a bad server, suck it up or reroll... which isn't an option because of things like legacy which isn't just a character investment, it's an investment on THAT server. Makes it a harder pill to swallow. They are just now letting us modify the UI, I was shocked that there weren't any options for UI modification at launch. Everquest 1 had a modifiable UI in the year 2000. Besides Twileks w ehave humans, green humans, red humans with herpes, blue humans, humans with horns and humans with exotic peircings on their face. This is freaking starwars... it's an entire universe of interesting races and we got every human clone possible. Even twileks are just humans with funny hats for the most part. The game has absolutely no 'large' open spaces, it is very segmented. Even the planets feel small and they're supposed to be entire planets. 1 continent in WoW can take you litterally an hour to traverse on a ground mount. the only reason travel from one place to another takes a long time in SWTOR is beause you have to load twice to get to your ship at least, sometimes three times, then 2-3 times more to get to the next planet. It takes me longer to get from inside one space port on a planet to another space port on another planet because of loading times than it does to take a speeder from one side of the planet to it's farthest reaches because of loading times. I love so much about this game but the less time I get to play it (read my comments about long Qs) the more time I get to think about the lack luster parts. I will have written all my responses here while waiting for a pvp Q and I'm not worried than when I alt tab back in I'll have missed it... I won't. And if I did I can just hit the Q again and I'll pop in instantly because it'll be undermanned and I'll have a spot no matter what, assuming it hasn't timed out already from being undermanned.

No one wants to compare it to blizzard or WoW but WoW is it's main competition. Heres the reason WoW is the 'top' dog... it's nto ebcause of how old they are, EQ is older, why isn't it winning? It's because they constantly grow and adjust to the current community needs and wants while at the same time maintaining the games core integrity. Now, you get all the people complaining about WoW and how it sucks... of course you're not goign to get a lot of positive reviews of another game HERE... if they're here its cause they didn't wanna play WoW anymore or never did in the first place so the opinions are gonna be biased. Pace aside, the only thing that matters to SWTOR right now is gameplay, keep people playing... they aren't though and the glaring issue that is slapping them around they are completely ignoring. Half of the servers (perhaps more than that) have low enough populations that people are simply unable to actually 'play' the game as a multiplayer game. No one to do Ops with no one to do flashpoints with, insane Q's for PVP. On most of WoW's servers, today, you can log in and get a pvp Q at any level bracket within 10-15 minutes at the longest, under 5 on some of hte med-high pop servers. And they have MANY more PVP brackets than SWTOR.. SWTOR has 2... 10-49 and 50. You can't even get a Q on my server in under 30 minutes anytime except prime time i nthe 10-49 bracket and that's pooling from every player from lvl 10 to level freaking 49. Off peak times on my server, under 200 players total on the republic side. I'm missing the first M in MMO here. It really sucks too because I love the game itself but without the population to support my gameplay the game doesn't matter.

just logged into giradda the hutt. 145 people online total. That includes all levels in all zones. It's only 3pm server time, sure, but 145? I'm sure people on lower population servers are gonna say they wish they had that much at prime time, last night at prime time we had up to 367. Assuming the empire has twice that, that's still barely 1000 people online on a server in a MMO. That's rediculous and my server isn't even one of the worst ones. I got in 2 WZs, first one was instant when I logged in cause I got lucky but I joined one that started with 4 people and others trickled in so it was an auto loss fo rhte most part. The second WZ Q took 15 minutes to pop and it started with the count down timer cause there weren't enough people. I hate it, I've spent the last month grinding my tail off to get money for legacy unlocks for 1.2 leveling up my second 50, grinding my crewskills to 400 so I could support my 1.2 alts and collecting materials for them to do their crewskills as soon as they get their ships and now I'm thinkin all that stuff is gonna sit on a cancelled account before the legacy patch even happens. I'm not every player, my leaving hte game wont tank it. I'm a pvper and a crafter, that's what I 'want' to do and I can't pvp regularly becuse of how long Q times are due to low population. Nothing is being done to rectify my issue adn I'm not starting over on another server and leaving 4mil credits, 400 armormech, 400 cybertech, 400 artifice, a lvl 50 and a lvl 45 and legacy lvl 13 behind because the company running this game doesn't want to take a potential PR hit and just merge their servers. They brag about their metrics and statistics they pull from the servers, they know what's going on. The forums are swarming with these very same complaints and we don't even get a nod. There are too many other options out there to be dealing with this the way they are. lightsabers are only gonna keep you afloat for so long.

Please don't make me to back to WoW right when they're releasing the stupid pandas... I just want to pvp without having to wait an hour for a Q. Theres no world pvp and both servers I have characters on have immense Q's, at prime time some nights, its not terrible... I've gotten a Q in 10-15 minutes occaisionally but only certain days and only at prime time. ANy other day, any other time I'm waiting an hour or more. It's become so rare that I get startled by the Q thing when it pops up cause I forgot I was even in the Q. This isn't an exhageration... I leveled from 43 to 44, the entire level, while waiting on a Q one day. I'ma pvper, that's just not acceptable, I'm doing other stuff 'between' pvp, not because i want to, its jus tmore productive to go quest rather than run laps around the fleet.

wanna take bets on whether they'll even acknowledge this? Three threads going with 50+ pages of posts.