What an interesting week this has been. Watching our brethren moving off of low population servers to well-populated servers and enjoying the game once again has been exciting.
However the current handling of the server mergers that started today was a bit off the mark. A simple and basic explanation of what is needed and how it will affect the remaining low-population servers would have been the gold standard. Players on the remaining servers are (And let’s call it what it is) "mightily angry", not because they didn't transfer today, but because the press releases do not address their number one overriding need: What will be done about their absolute lack-luster game play caused by a low-population server?
That is the real question and one that has been answered for so many (money paying) players this week, but not the remaining ones. In this case, the only type of answer that would have been acceptable, in light of the numerous transfers that have occurred this week, would be a frank, clear, and straight forward answer.
Here is an example: "We need to see the destination servers under a weekend player load before we continue to merge servers. Rest assured, the needs of the remaining servers will be addressed as soon as possible. We have not forgotten you and we will not stop until we have helped you! We will have our game plan ready to continue after this weekend."
The second element would be some type of bonus to the remaining players to serve as a peace offering and a promise that the problem is still being worked. ("Rakghoul attack on the fleet stations at midnight", "Chase the escaped Hutt" race and cocktail hour........ anything....anyone.....echo?......)
Many players from The Jekk Jekk Tarr server have been pretty vocal about the low population issues here, especially after Bioware granted free transfers for the new Pacific Servers which gutted the population base of The Jekk Jekk Tarr server. Those same players have sat patiently and with excitement as the server mergers (And lets call them what they are) progressed throughout the week. They have been elated to know that "Soon" they too would be able to play with many people on a high population server as they once did. To see that we are on "hold" with no promise of help only helped to fan the flames of the player’s anger and disgust. To put it another way, all the other kids got gifts for the holiday, but these others got nothing. Why wouldn’t they be infuriated?
Currently, I am in fervent discussions with my fellow guildies. (Many who have posted here.) I hope to keep hope alive and my people subbed and interested in the game. Today, Bioware made that job exponentially harder. (I am absolutely not forgiving of THAT little twist on my day.) I have already had a member “Vote with their feet” and un-sub the game. The general gist of the chatter is why should we care about Bioware if they don’t care about us? I hope that Bioware will be addressing the fundamental issue of the low population on the remaining servers very quickly and openly.
In a situation where one party holds “all the cards” as Bioware does, that party needs to go above and beyond with communications and customer service or they will lose the interest and investment of the other party.
I hope to say, in the future, that Bioware handled these mergers well, with a slight miss or two. The outcome is yet to be seen.