Are there actually a bunch of Dead servers?

It's a no win situation that I've seen repeated over and over in many an MMO.

Game launches and the initial influx of players, many of whom take time off of work/school, are all trying to get on at the same time which causes queues. Players then proceed to whine and cry about said queues, threaten to quit as they are "not paying to wait in a queue!!!" and demand more servers be opened.

More servers are opened to accommodate the masses, and in the case of SW:TOR, servers had their capacities increased as stability allowed. While there are still queues on most servers at this time, the wait in most cases is much shorter.

After the initial rush wears off and people return to their normal lives, queues are gone on most servers and then the same playerbase that whined and cried about lack of servers proceeds to whine and cry about there being too many servers, and cites a lack of queues as an indication that the game is "dying" and begins to demand server merges, which right or wrong, still carries the stigma of being perceived as the "death knell" of an MMO. It's a no win situation for any game dev.

While the claims of "most servers are dead" are greatly exaggerated, there are of course servers that are indeed "dead" and in need of help. Server transfers are in the works, which should help a great deal for these servers. I suspect that we will see cross server tools for group activities (already in the works for PvP I believe) long before server merges are even on the table. The game is 5 months old, and according to the last investor call (and recent articles) still holding at ~1.7 million subs, it's far too early to start merging servers. If you can't handle waiting for transfers/cross server tools, then rerolling is an option at this point. Hell, in the time some spend complaining and demanding merges on these forums, they could easily have leveled at least one character to 50 on a more heavily populated server.

I do find it curious though, that this keeps happening game after game. All it would take is a dev team to stick to their initial servers and explain why there are queues, and that they will diminish as time goes by and people return to their lives, and not give in to the crying.

Why not roll a character on Zez-Kai Ell or any of the dozens of other light population servers and find out for yourself?

I wouldn't mind this, a chance to elevate my game or tactics, SEE what a GOOD team is "supposed" to be like,

BUT

I HAVE NOT QUEUED FOR A WARZONE, WHILE I AM "IN QUEUE FOR WARZONE" For the last 3+ weeks.

All the warzones I have played SINCE I hit 50, were played on the sunday 2-3 days after I hit 50(3 weeks ago). Recruit gear was not available either, so I of course got stomped.


I have recruit gear and have spent all my comms on BM gear, I would like to see if I still get stomped.

Noone is denying that there are some servers with light populations. The issue is the scope of the problem. Don't confuse anecdotal evidence with statistically representative data.

My server, Dreshdae Cantina, is probably better than most, but I would be thrilled if we could triple our peak time population. This game is much more fun with more people online. Bioware isn't doing itself any favors by delaying a solution for the population problem.

Or maybe infinity gate, hasn't been on normal since 1.1.5 I already gave up queueing or logging in, and no I'm not going to re-roll my 2 50s, other alts and 30+ legacy levels through all those painstakingly annoying side-quests again.

This is when it's a good idea for players to research which servers are popular in their region and choose wisely. Not just choose a server that has an appealing name.

And to choose a good guild of committed, like-minded players.

Sorry, but this is ridiculous. Where do you expect to get statistically representative data, exactly? Do you expect Bioware to come out and show us a bunch of bar graphs or some crap like that?

No. Roll a character on a low pop server like the one suggested, or on mine, Kinrath Spider if you want to know what "Some servers with light populations" truly means. It's bad. Take our word for it or go see for yourself, I don't care which. Pull your head out of the sand with that "Some servers with light population" nonsense.

So why do people make preposterous statements like "the majority of servers are dead"? They have no way of backing this up.

How does this disagree with my statement that there are some server with light populations? BioWare agrees and is rolling out character transfers. But this does not mean this is a problem on majority of servers or that the game is dying or that the game is going to go f2play, which are all arguments we have heard from the "Servers are Dying" camp.