AND i'm back from un-subbing and here is my response to the questionaire about why:

 

I am un-subscribing due to the APAC server issue. I am extremely unhappy about the result that BW has decided upon. It feels like the APAC players have been strung along and then ignored. I am very disappointed and upset as I enjoy the game and was looking forward to the expansion and playing with other APAC players. I still believe that an APAC Super-server is the best idea but at the least an option to choose a destination server is needed to be there. I have 3 50's on 'The Harbinger' and 5 50's on MDN and they will STILL be on separate servers!

I have been patiently been waiting for over 6 months for dialogue about the fate of our servers and for them to be shut down is a bitter pill to swallow. From being in a large and vibrant guild on MDN, which leaked players to the point of loosing 4 raid groups to 1 inconsistent raid group, I moved with a few of the more dedicated players to 'The Harbinger' (as the highest population server) to try and make a go of it. Unfortunately having to start from basically zero again (in regards to legacy, credits, etc.) made it too hard except for a couple of us.

This is now the final straw for me as I have lost most of my SWTOR friends and the chance of the expansion bringing them back will basically be zero due to this APAC shutdown. I will still log in sparingly (being F2P) to see how many people come back, but having to change servers will be a death sentence to friendship as the name changes will destroy any connections we have.

Thank you BW for an enjoyable year of playing SWTOR but I now have little room for nothing but hate and lost respect for you guys. This is NOT the best option for the APAC community, just for your bottom line (server costs). I wish I could take back all the time and money I have wasted (in regards to the Cartel Market and waiting for an answer).

 

Regretfully,

 

John

 

PS. I would love for you to refund me the expansion but I know you wont, I'm really not sure if I'll even try it now.

So having 100+ on coruscant, 150+ on fleet, 3 instances of Ilum for gree event is not considered Population. Each planet while questing had at least 30+ on it and that's just PUB side on Dalborra.

QFT

I never thought Dalborra pop was a huge problem, I thought the other two servers were the issue here, hence the merge idea.

Edited March 25, 2013 by SpannersSF

I have played the game since launch, so I started at Harbinger. The playing experience with 20ms is a lot better than 220ms, and I will not go back. Unless the decision to close down the APAC server is reversed, I will not be playing anymore.

We went and looked at what current server populations looked like across all of APAC and to put it simply, even merging all of APAC together into one server would not solve the population problems.

 

Because it took you over 7 months to do anything about it, and all the while people were quitting. Worthless.

I'm not having issues finding anyone to play with Ailie.

 

That you can't figure out that population issues are separate to being social with the people who do play just shows how out of sync with the community you are.

 

This ^^^^

First time posting and probably my last..

I am unsubbing from this game.. it's absolutely unbelievable how we can be treated like this. All we wanted was a server merge and I'm really not confident in having over 200ms (or 500ms in my case.. my internet isn't THAT great) when being on a North American server.

I haven't even gotten my characters up to level 50 yet, and already I'm disappointed.. and I don't think my characters will ever hit 50 at this rate.

 

I guess it's back to WoW for me.. (despite the ping issues.. but I'm not PvPing or raiding much so it's not an issue for me..)

Good luck EA/BW.. you're going to need it..

I honestly hope that you change your ways and change this decision.. but in the mean time, good luck.. I hope you can survive with the loss of subscribers you'll be receiving.

 

P.S: I wonder what the Americans think of this decision.. I wonder if they're just as annoyed as us =/

Edited March 25, 2013 by LeanderDane

I never posted on this thread because the people who were sustaining the thread for so long were shouting down anyone who said they were actually happy..... Poor Ailie

 

While I was happy with how things currently are, it also seemed pretty clear to me that the overwhelming majority of opinions were asking for the APAC servers to be merged. I'd be interested to know how many people actually asked for a total merge with US servers?

 

I must say that I am very disappointed with this decision. It's pretty difficult to avoid the conclusion that this call was made purely from a profitability perspective, and that it had very little to do with what players actually wanted.

 

Maybe you should have actually gone on the servers and checked out the reality of the so called 'preferred play style' which is apparently so important. I doubt there is much real difference between the pve and rp servers in this regard.

 

This decision is the sad reality of a corporation, where the opinion of an accountant is far more valuable than that of a consumer...

Edited March 25, 2013 by Kirjalax

Hey everyone,

 

To clarify a bit more about this decision. We did previously ask what folks on the forums would like to do as an APAC solution and some, but not all, offered up the solution of merging all APAC into one. The other option on the table was to merge APAC into the NA servers. When we discussed the options internally we looked to address everyone’s primary issues with APAC, low populations were creating a less than optimal game experience.

 

We went and looked at what current server populations looked like across all of APAC and to put it simply, even merging all of APAC together into one server would not solve the population problems. Even with that solution you would still see long queue times for things like Warzones and Group Finder. It was because of this that we decided that moving APAC into the NA servers was the best option.

 

One thing to note is that there is no catchall solution here. If we move APAC to NA some folks will see increased latency, but they will have healthy server populations and can remain on their chosen server types. If we merge everyone into one APAC server, latency will remain in place but the current population issues will exist and players will lose their preferred server type. Leaving things as they are leaves all of the current issues in place without a solution at all. This is one of the reasons getting the plan out to you folks took so long, we had to think long and hard about all of the implications of our decision.

 

-eric

 

Strange. No one in my guild had any complaints about Warzone queue times on Dalborra.

 

You do realise that a lot of us will lose character names. My sister is on Harbringer right now trying all her toon names and most of them are taken.

Edited March 25, 2013 by KippleMaster

Hey everyone,

 

To clarify a bit more about this decision. We did previously ask what folks on the forums would like to do as an APAC solution and some, but not all, offered up the solution of merging all APAC into one. The other option on the table was to merge APAC into the NA servers. When we discussed the options internally we looked to address everyone’s primary issues with APAC, low populations were creating a less than optimal game experience.

 

We went and looked at what current server populations looked like across all of APAC and to put it simply, even merging all of APAC together into one server would not solve the population problems. Even with that solution you would still see long queue times for things like Warzones and Group Finder. It was because of this that we decided that moving APAC into the NA servers was the best option.

 

One thing to note is that there is no catchall solution here. If we move APAC to NA some folks will see increased latency, but they will have healthy server populations and can remain on their chosen server types. If we merge everyone into one APAC server, latency will remain in place but the current population issues will exist and players will lose their preferred server type. Leaving things as they are leaves all of the current issues in place without a solution at all. This is one of the reasons getting the plan out to you folks took so long, we had to think long and hard about all of the implications of our decision.

 

-eric

 

Frankly I am absolutely disgusted by this.You seem to not even comprehend in the slightest how much low latency matters to us. And then you seem to invent some rubbish about the population not being high enough even if you merge the APAC servers together? Err, what?

 

Then of course with this, a lot of people will lose character names because you're merging us with a long existing server - cause it's not like any of us are attached to our names, right?

 

I really wish I hadn't read the forums first thing in the morning so I wouldn't start off in a really ****** mood.

 

Thanks for totally screwing us over Bioware.

Hey everyone,

 

To clarify a bit more about this decision. We did previously ask what folks on the forums would like to do as an APAC solution and some, but not all, offered up the solution of merging all APAC into one.

 

-eric

 

SOME??!! Try around 90% of responses were in favour of a merge. Are you totally clueless??

 

I won't be resubscribing! I will also be advising others to do the same.

unsub = unsub +1

going back to 200 pings is not acceptable

You seem to not even comprehend in the slightest how much low latency matters to us.

 

Sincere question..... what do you do on all the other MMOs that also do not have localized servers for APAC? Or do you not and never will play those either? You played SWTOR before there were APAC servers... yeah?

 

Yeah, lower latency is always better, but then again.... the total APAC population never warranted more then three of the old style servers (a year go). So while I think localized servers is a good thing... there really is not sufficient populations to warrant commercially sustaining servers in Aus. At the end of the day, they made a business decision that they felt was the best long term solution. But I do understand the agnst. I do.

Strange. No one in my guild had any complaints about Warzone queue times on Dalborra.

 

You do realise that a lot of us will lose character names. My sister is on Harbringer right now trying all her toon names and most of them are taken.

 

As will be mine, plus the Harbinger is not the most stable of servers. Random server outages anyone?

 

They string us along for 7 months only to implement the easiest solution available to Bioware.

Just curious, why not merge the servers, but allow the *option* for people to transfer to those realms? People who value having a uniquely APAC community with low latency will stay, people that value higher population and a specific server type will leave.

 

Of course this will also create a whole new batch of people angry about having to change their names, again.

Edited March 25, 2013 by chuixupu

Whats happening to legacy?

Sincere question..... what do you do on all the other MMOs that also do not have localized servers for APAC? Or do you not and never will play those either?

 

Actually in answer to your question.. The servers I played on, with games like WoW.. would be on the Oceanic servers.. where the time frame was the same for mostly all of us (as mainly Australian's were on those servers), and even though the ping would be the same for the majority of us, we would all have the same experience playing.

 

I rarely saw many American's on the Oceanic servers in WoW =)

 

Anyways, just wanted to add in my two cents =P

At the risk of raising ire with a question, if I have legacy on MND and Bastion and the 2 servers merge, which do I keep? MND is where I have been playing most since APAC servers started and I would want to keep my legacy from there, but since I came from a server that got merged into the Bastion previously and since I have been playing a little on there since then I have legacy there too. This will be an important question for many since quite a number or perks are attached to legacy and I wouldn't want to loose them.

Well I came back to Dalborra/SWTOR from WOW because I missed the community I had grown to love.

Sure there are some heated arguments/debates but in the end you all ended up in a WZ or OP's together and tolerated each other.

I am going to miss the Dalborrah community.

 

Frostmorne here I come.

Hey everyone,

 

To clarify a bit more about this decision. We did previously ask what folks on the forums would like to do as an APAC solution and some, but not all, offered up the solution of merging all APAC into one. The other option on the table was to merge APAC into the NA servers. When we discussed the options internally we looked to address everyone’s primary issues with APAC, low populations were creating a less than optimal game experience.

 

We went and looked at what current server populations looked like across all of APAC and to put it simply, even merging all of APAC together into one server would not solve the population problems. Even with that solution you would still see long queue times for things like Warzones and Group Finder. It was because of this that we decided that moving APAC into the NA servers was the best option.

 

One thing to note is that there is no catchall solution here. If we move APAC to NA some folks will see increased latency, but they will have healthy server populations and can remain on their chosen server types. If we merge everyone into one APAC server, latency will remain in place but the current population issues will exist and players will lose their preferred server type. Leaving things as they are leaves all of the current issues in place without a solution at all. This is one of the reasons getting the plan out to you folks took so long, we had to think long and hard about all of the implications of our decision.

 

-eric

I am sorry Eric, but i believe this to be spin... the contract for the servers were ending, you simply counted the paying subs + cartel spending and compared it to the cost of keeping any server in APAC and decided it wasn't worth it.

The rest of the 'hard and long decision' was just to keep us hanging until the contract ended.

Actually in answer to your question.. The servers I played on, with games like WoW.. would be on the Oceanic servers.. where the time frame was the same for mostly all of us (as mainly Australian's were on those servers), and even though the ping would be the same for the majority of us, we would all have the same experience playing.

 

I rarely saw many American's on the Oceanic servers in WoW =)

 

Anyways, just wanted to add in my two cents =P

 

WoW "Oceanic" servers are in North America, that is what they are asking all the people quitting over ping since not many MMOs have APAC servers if they just not play any MMOs ever if that is the primary concern.

This is such a terrible decision. I struggle to believe that the people at Bioware decided this was what we actually wanted and rather that they'd rather get rid of the APAC servers and save some cash. After all this time this is the decision you come up with??

 

I'm on the lowest populated Oceanic server and WZ queues are not great, but we still get 1-3 wz's going for both 50s and lowbies. If this tripled (or quadrupled from MDN perspective) with a consolidated APAC server we would be very very happy. There is a huge lag difference. 75-90% of the responses were for an APAC merge, not this.

 

I thought this was in the bag. (almost) everyone wanted an APAC super server.

 

I'm totally going to be unsubbing now.

At the risk of raising ire with a question, if I have legacy on MND and Bastion and the 2 servers merge, which do I keep? MND is where I have been playing most since APAC servers started and I would want to keep my legacy from there, but since I came from a server that got merged into the Bastion previously and since I have been playing a little on there since then I have legacy there too. This will be an important question for many since quite a number or perks are attached to legacy and I wouldn't want to loose them.

 

If you merge legacies you get the highest level one, plus any perks combined that you earned on either one.

Are you guys for real ?. What dumb twit came up with this game buster and you get paid for these decisions . O and no one asked me anything. Don't think I will be playing not with a PING of 250 back to BF3.

WoW "Oceanic" servers are in North America, that is what they are asking all the people quitting over ping since not many MMOs have APAC servers if they just not play any MMOs ever if that is the primary concern.

 

WOW APAC servers are a majority of APAC people playing so the timezone is the same. Moving to a higher ping US will not fix the timezone issues. We will still get on in our peak times and the population will not increase.

 

They are basically cutting of our leg to fix a broken toe.

H We will then offer Free Character Transfers to anyone currently playing on an APAC server to a North American server of the same gameplay type, specifically:

• Mastar Dar’Nala (PvP) will transfer to The Bastion (PvP)
  
• Gav Daragon (RP-PvE) will transfer to Begeren Colony (RP-PvE)
  
• Dalborra (PvE) will transfer to The Harbinger (PvE)
  

We will also need to update our server merge technology at which point we will ultimately merge each of the APAC servers into the corresponding North American servers as indicated above. We are moving as quickly as we can to make this happen, but we want to make sure this is a smooth transition, so it will take some time.

-eric

 

My question is why do all our toons have to go to a server of the same game play? I'd personally prefer it if I could split my toons between harbs and Bastion.

 

Heck I might even want to go to Harbs instead of the Bastion. Just curious, thanks for the response even if not having a time frame is a killer.