FREE Character Transfers are Coming!

One other consequence I haven't see addressed yet is what happens to the people who don't transfer their characters during the free transfer window.

Let's assume that the intent here is to help players move from low population servers to high population servers. (albeit, nothing is ever that straight forward). Free transfers aren't going to offered forever.

Maybe the choice of "from server" and "to server" that Bioware are offering are viable. Individuals transfer. Whole guilds transfer. Friends transfer.

But not everyone transfers. Because it's a player instigated request. So people get missed.

Ignoring those people who maybe are on some huge round the world holiday, the remainder are likely to be the people who took a break from the game. Perhaps they decided to take a break until the game sorted itself out in their eyes. Maybe they were unhappy about population levels. Maybe they just wanted to kill [insert boss name here] in [insert game name here] before returning to swtor.

If they aren't actively playing right now, chances are they aren't going to hear about the transfer window.

So they return to the game after "early summer" to find their guild migrated and their server's NPC having competitive solitaire competitions, while the tumble weeds blow around the upper deck of the fleet.

There are going to be those people who go "**** 'em. If they aren't paying, they aren't customers". Nope and while you think so little of them, they never will be.

Short sighted.

Its very simple ...

No population means no one farming the mats I can't get on my own.
No population means no one is buying the stuff I can make.
No population means 20m, 30m, sometimes hours between Warzone pops.
No population means no one to run Flashpoints with.
No population means no one putting up loot to buy on the AH that hasn't dropped for me.
No population means your guildies with less patience than you quit the game.
No population in an MMO MEANS ITS NO LONGER ANY FLIPPING FUN!

This is an avalanche .... people quit because no one is playing = more people quitting because no one is playing = servers become ghost towns and more people quitting BECAUSE ITS A FRICKING MMO AND THERE'S NO ONE TO PLAY WITH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Start merging the damned servers so that quilds aren't torn apart and friendships aren't lost in the shuffle!!!!!!!!!!!!! Did you *&^%$#$ at Mythic not learn anything from when you FAILED at this population/merger issue with Warhammer Online?

I was there, you did the same exact damned thing, with the same exact result ... EPIC FAILURE!

Summer is too late. My server this morning is dead. No 50 wz pops the entire morning. Use to wait less than 10 minutes

Good to see it's happening. Agree that it may be too late though. My server, Rwookrrorro, has died in the last two weeks. I can no longer get ANY PvP queues or find groups for HMs. There is literally nothing for me to do. After my free 30 days expire I will probably be gone. It's sad because I really like the game but I can't just sit in the fleet and do dailies for a few months waiting for transfers.

And no, I'm not going to reroll on another server and restart legacy and a valor 75+ character. Have finals coming up and starting an internship in the summer - don't have time to re-do all that stuff. We'll see what I'm feeling when this is implemented though.

Based on what exactly???

You could say it's not soon enough for some people. That would be accurate to say.

But to say it's too late is silly IMO.

The impatient will unsub and run off and play some other eye candy for a few months, which they will quickly get bored of and deride in it's forums ad nausem. Then when transfers are live, many will come back and resub and move around the servers LIKE IN EVERY OTHER MMO IN RECENT HISTORY. Rift is a real world reference example of this.

These same people will be spamming the forums for info on what's new....complaining that their AC plays differently now after pathes....etc....etc.. too.

not time till summer! servers are dead now! merge already

Given your dismay and heavy negativity, perhaps it would be best to just unsub and go play the other games everyone says will be the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Really?

The fact is that about 20% of the servers have serious population issues that need the server transfer process to move away from. And about half of that 20% ALWAYS had population problems since launch. The other 80% are for the most part healthy enough that moving improvements and content adds in 1.2 was more important. Those 80% of servers represent more then 90% or the population and for the most part it was the population screaming for more content, customizable UI, bug fixes, crafting changes, etc, etc, etc.

Bioware's priorities were correct here, and your resentment is misplaced IMO.

Mergers do not work and are passe.

No modern MMO does mergers.

They do sever transfer process, letting the player choose, and eventually just close empty servers.

I'm sure emails will go out as usual, if you miss the free window, who's fault is it really? the free transfers are also likely going to be working to distribute server populations, not to kill off servers and leave a few people who didn't know about them, in that case the server transfers would likely be capped anyways, and not just going to a specific date.

Maybe use some common sense, rather then rely on catastrophic fear mongering.

Logically, they will open free transfers to STANDARD servers, (you know.... to help fill them up).

Logically, they will issue vacate notices on the really struggling servers, giving the players on those servers X days to transfer to another server before they close the server for good and pull it from the farm (you know.... to reduce total server count to match populations needs and whatever Biowares ideal server profile is).

Logically, they will either outright prohibit transfers to HEAVY/FULL servers OR allow transfer to HEAVY servers for a fee.

Bioware has the actual metrics on evey servers population and playtime behaviors. NOBODY here does. So with that information, they can make informed and logical choices as to which servers to open for free transfer, which ones to put on pending closeure, which ones to prevent transfer to (cough Fatman cough), and which servers to allow transfer for a fee (ie: HEAVY servers). AND the landscape will change over time (like it does in all MMO).