When will there be a "SERVER MERGE?"

This is indeed an interesting blip on the radar. But even this writer that you've linked to seems to believe that server merges are usually seen as a sign of doom.

Will investors and stock analysts be able to be convinced otherwise? That remains to be seen, but it certainly would be nice if companies who wish to consolidate servers and group active players together in higher numbers could do so without the threat of an investor/analyst backlash.

This also seems to be a unique case, in that the new technology they are bringing forward to allow dynamic expansion/contraction of game populations may make it easier to consolidate the servers, since once that is done, they might need to expand them again.

I'm not sure how it would work in SWTOR's case, as a set of server merges combined with some release or expansion that brings floods of players back into the game or into the game for the first time might then necessitate expansion servers once more.

But this is definitely an interesting event and thanks much for posting it.

For the record, I'm really not against server merges. If that's the solution they come up with in the end, then I really have no problem with it. But I do think that merging servers would come with more headaches than allowing players to freely transfer characters as they wish.

Anyway, thanks again!

I guess I do not understand this and I never really have. When this game launched it had one of the most massive launches in MMO history. There was much preliminary hype about this game, it appeals to a large pre-existing fan base that already loves everything related to the Star Wars franchise, and it offered an alternative to many of the completely sword and sorcery fantasy-style MMOs on the market. At the time of launch, many of these now perma-light servers were heavy or filled.

EA, Bioware, and their investors have been doing this for years - they must have realized that every person who bought a copy of the game was not going to stick around. They must have forseen that with the ever-changing MMO market, they were going to have some players who pay to stay and wait out their grievances and others who would yo-yo back and forth. So why does everyone seem to equate (and I don't mean you personally, just a response to your post) server merges with a dying game?

The fact is that SWTOR launch went above and beyond expectations and the game probably more closely models what developers and analysts should have been expecting the game's populace to be at this early stage. There are just too many servers for this player base.

And to Dolcia, my newest friend on the forums, I do appreciate your thoughtful reply once more. In the midst of "Merge NOW, by tomorrow!" and "/cancelled" posts, I enjoy yours quite a bit.

In my case, when I have referred to "several solutions", I was mainly referring to the cross-server queuing they announced for warzones and the character transfers. I suppose I could have just said "two solutions", but honestly I still see the ability to freely roll new characters on any server you choose as being a solution in itself. Obviously, as we've already discussed, this won't be for everyone.

I do hope, ultimately, that the solutions they provide and the tools they create will help resolve these problems as much as possible. To be sure, the largest number of happy players would be the best situation for all involved.

And I appreciate your plea to the community. I myself have been far too snarky in a few of these posts of mine, perhaps more than a few, and I definitely need to get rid of that. Much of that is my own frustration, and may just be a generation gap, which makes me wonder how I can be so old at 39, hah, but as a 34 year veteran of video games, it frustrates me to see people who seem trapped in a situation that has such easy remedies, even if they aren't permanent and may come with one or two drawbacks.

Anyway, thanks again for your thoughtful posts.

I would probably chalk this up to their inexperience in the genre. Looking back, it might have been much better for all involved if they had just kept the original number of servers and forced people to wait in the queues.

But there was indeed a huge outcry on the forums, and in their quest to keep as smooth a launch as possible, they listened, and reacted, and created the situation we are in currently. Then again, perhaps they saw a huge jump in immediate cancellations with reasons of "Tired of waiting in the queue..." and felt they had to do something.

And as such, since they listened the first time, and their reaction had unforseen consequences that have now thrown another monkey in the wrench, it is perhaps making them even more hesitant to react with haste to this now the 8th or 9th thread nearing 1,000 posts demanding server merges.

I am also guilty of the snark. I think, like you, it is a rolling frustration that I feel when I read some of the more bratty or self-entitled posts on these forums. It bleeds into my responses (whether to those individuals or to others, such as yourself) which is, of course, not very good. The frustration is probably the biggest inspiration for my impassioned plea to the community.


Yes, I can see that. I definitely feel much more restraint, in many regards, coming from Bioware now than immediately post-launch. I suppose this is smart. But, again, as someone who wants to see this game succeed I am fearful of the notion that investors or analysts might reflect poorly on server merges and view it as a death warrant. Hopefully they will be able to be convinced or will be understanding of the various dynamics at work here.

They really need to do something. Being on a server that is now "light" most of the time (25 people on fleet max prime time and that's if you're lucky). Makes it near impossible to get most dailies done most nights.

However, for me transfers would be sweet but really what needs to be done is the legacy system needs to be account based and not server based. If I could take my legacy level with me to a different server I would leave in a heartbeat for better queues and pve options leveling and end game. Being able to do a heroic once in a blue moon would be a novel concept.

Sure transfers or merges would be welcome but they are making the situation even worse by including this legacy system be server specific.

it takes me an hour or two at night to que on my server. not fun.

Here are my feelings on server mergers. To start off with I have characters on Grand Master Zym, Sith Worm and Hanharr. I originally made a couple characters on Grand Master Zym because a friend of mine said he had a couple chars over there. The server is good. Lots of people so a very healthy server. Unfortunately he stopped playing due to RL. I then made characters on Sith Worm because some people I play WoW with had characters there. This server is also a healthy population. In my opinion though it is at the low end of healthy. By that I mean there are enough people to find groups for heroic 4s and HM flashpoints, but just barely. A small drop in population could easily cause it to cascade into a dead server. Now my final server I play with some other WoW friends is Hanharr. That server is straight up all but dead. The fleet has 10-15 people on during peek hours and any given planet has 1-5 people making finding groups for heroic quests frustrating and impossible.

I think if Bioware would look at combining near dead servers like Hanharr into barely healthy servers like Sith Worm they would in effect stabilize a healthy server and give more to do for the players of a dead server. I think this would be better than combining a whole bunch of dead servers together. I think the goal should be to have around 40-50 people on fleet and 15ish on any given leveling planet (with 25ish for Belsavis and Ilum due to dailies).

I hope Bioware realizes that by now their subscription levels have stabilized enough to know what each server is going to have for active players. After all by now all the initial surge of people that came, tried, and left has taken place. It should happen soon too, because most people don't want to reroll and start over on a busier server. They probably will just up and quit instead which makes the situation worse.

There is nothing wrong with merging servers if it is for the health of the game. It probably makes maintenance much quicker as well.

Hope to merge soon (well on Hanharr at least).

The bottom line is that old players are easier to to lure back and new customers are harder to attract once you start merging servers. Which is why you won't see server merges any time soon.

How about instead of free server transfers let us hyper level for a week to replace the ones on other servers with no populations? that would be a easy fix for the short term until they can figure out how to get the server transfers working.