Is it me or are the forums slow.

SWTOR feels like a shell of what it once was, especially on the forums.

I'm not looking forward to getting online again after being overseas a couple of months...

They are. And it is. I don't think anyone can really deny that the population has been dwindling a bit, and I won't believe for even a moment that it's just because "people are going back to school" or whatever seasonal excuse is the most convenient.

I'm not trying to be gloomy, but the reality is that SWTOR has always had a hard time competing in the MMO market, (it offers very little that is truly unique or exemplary in the genre, though I doubt that's as much of a problem as the obvious underfunding and general EA greed gumming the works) and has recently had such a long drought of any significant content that people are just getting tired of waiting, packing up their bags and moving on to other, possibly newer and more frequently updated things.

The situation can still turn around, of course, but right now, the direction the game is going is definitely looking a little bleak. I hope whatever expansion or update the developers are working on now is going to be worth it, or I'm not sure how the next few years will play out. It might not be the game's total downfall, but it definitely won't help if they just keep releasing incomplete, piecemeal and sub-par content.

Either they need to be honest about the amount of time it will take to complete an actual expansion and stop treating patches as if they were expansions, or EA needs to stop understaffing/underfunding the project so that it can have the propensity to grow.. Or at least maintain itself properly.

Is it me or are the forums slow.

 

SWTOR feels like a shell of what it once was, especially on the forums.I'm not looking forward to getting online again after being overseas a couple of months...

The forums are nearly dead.

Um these boards are dead. I agree with the other poster that you can't write this off as seasonal corrections for kids coming or going to school. I look at the boards everyday. When I didn't check them for a weekend it took me 3 days to get caught up. Now I can check them once a week and get caught up in an hour.

I think the developers are honestly happy with their handy work. They are probably thinking what took these people so long to finally give up and quit playing? They have treated us poorly as a consumer and yet because i suspect we all just love Star Wars and want this game to succeed we've tolerated a lot of bs. I can't pinpoint it to Bioware or EA exclusively but it's probably a 50/50 split.

Well i'm on to another chapter in my life unless I see some major update with 6.0. It would have to be 3 to 5 new planets tons of new quests and all sorts of new stuff to get me back.

I wish everybody the best of luck. It's been an enjoyable 6.5 years for the most part.

They are. And it is. I don't think anyone can really deny that the population has been dwindling a bit, and I won't believe for even a moment that it's just because "people are going back to school" or whatever seasonal excuse is the most convenient.

 

I'm not trying to be gloomy, but the reality is that SWTOR has always had a hard time competing in the MMO market, (it offers very little that is truly unique or exemplary in the genre, though I doubt that's as much of a problem as the obvious underfunding and general EA greed gumming the works) and has recently had such a long drought of any significant content that people are just getting tired of waiting, packing up their bags and moving on to other, possibly newer and more frequently updated things.

 

The situation can still turn around, of course, but right now, the direction the game is going is definitely looking a little bleak. I hope whatever expansion or update the developers are working on now is going to be worth it, or I'm not sure how the next few years will play out. It might not be the game's total downfall, but it definitely won't help if they just keep releasing incomplete, piecemeal and sub-par content.

Either they need to be honest about the amount of time it will take to complete an actual expansion and stop treating patches as if they were expansions, or EA needs to stop understaffing/underfunding the project so that it can have the propensity to grow.. Or at least maintain itself properly.

It's not just TOR.

WoW is losing players big time due to the mess that's BfA. STO are losing people by putting in more Discovery stuff that no one asked for/wants. ESO is running that Summerset scam right now trying to get subs. Supporting the players is the only way forward that's why GW2 and FFXIV are pulling ahead of everyone. GW2 fired staff members who insulted the community and FFXIV just supports the community big time.

Gamers are angry we are tired of being milked to death with microtransactions, bad designed games, and games we never wanted. More so it's not just Bioware and EA, Disney has had a hand in this too. TLJ has a lot of people now not wanting anything to do with Star Wars until it's fixed.

It's not just TOR.

 

WoW is losing players big time due to the mess that's BfA.

So far BFA has been very uncoordinated and fractured, yes, but I want you to look at the timestamps on the first few pages of this forum. Compare to SWTOR.

There's no way to put these two situations side by side and say the same thing is happening to both.

I check forums everyday since I have time for it at work and yes, its true that there are not many threads being added. On the other hand, people sometimes complain that people dont react to threads in specific areas Like "Class" for example.

Anyway, yes, ever since the communication of the Devs has seized the forums were going only down. However, people still do read them and they are mostly active when something is going on like a patch coming, event, some bug issue, exploit etc. So in general, they are not dead, but not a lot alive either

Is it me or are the forums slow.

 

SWTOR feels like a shell of what it once was, especially on the forums.

I'm not looking forward to getting online again after being overseas a couple of months...

Not you. Things are slow and not likely to pick up for quite some time.

i haven't really noticed any great change in forum activity over the last 7 years, even when there were millions of players looking to get in on the action when beta passed into release. all the way to RotHC, SoR and upto today.

the same core group of people frequent this forum over all that time, i wouldn't call that a dead forum. there is still activity, but just not as much as some were hoping for.

if you really want to do something about, then do so, add thread about things that matter, contribute to the conversation and so on. no one is stopping you from doing such a thing.. as long as it remains within rules of course.

• We complained but were ignored
  
• We asked nicely but were ignored
  
• We made suggestions in the appropriate places but were ignored.
  
• We complained about changes but were ignored.
  
• We praised some changes but were never acknowledged.
  
• We resorted to sarcasm and humour, but were ignored.
  
• We were promised more interaction and consultation, but it never happened.
  
• We argued with one another, but there's nothing left to say.
  
• There's been so little that's new and so little on the horizon, that there's no appetite for discussing it.
  

- So yeah, forums are quiet, business as usual. Keep paying your sub and ( gush) loving the state of the game.

"Only now -at the end- ....Do you understand."

i haven't really noticed any great change in forum activity over the last 7 years, even when there were millions of players looking to get in on the action when beta passed into release. all the way to RotHC, SoR and upto today.

Look at e.g. the Crew Skills subforum. It's not that long since there were new posts every day, even if they were just responses on existing threads. As I write this, the newest post is more than a week old.

Look at e.g. the Crew Skills subforum. It's not that long since there were new posts every day, even if they were just responses on existing threads. As I write this, the newest post is more than a week old.

Not just Crew Skills either.. Pretty much all of them except general, . - You can go away for a holiday and come back to the same discussions 2-3 weeks later on several other forums too.

When you filter out the referral link spammers, the wrong-forum posts, the flame-bait, the repeat questions or duplicate discussions, petty arguments and the argumentum ad hominem, the speculation on announcements; the critique of bugs; the-non announcements; the new content demands;the sky-falling-on-head wailing.... There's so little churn, it's only worth a quick scan once a day.

TBH there's only about 2 dozen peoples' posts that are worth reading most days.

Yep. Not a great sign.

Indeed. The forums have never been this slow. It shows a complete lack of interest.

They are. And it is. I don't think anyone can really deny that the population has been dwindling a bit, and I won't believe for even a moment that it's just because "people are going back to school" or whatever seasonal excuse is the most convenient.

 

I'm not trying to be gloomy, but the reality is that SWTOR has always had a hard time competing in the MMO market, (it offers very little that is truly unique or exemplary in the genre, though I doubt that's as much of a problem as the obvious underfunding and general EA greed gumming the works) and has recently had such a long drought of any significant content that people are just getting tired of waiting, packing up their bags and moving on to other, possibly newer and more frequently updated things.

 

The situation can still turn around, of course, but right now, the direction the game is going is definitely looking a little bleak. I hope whatever expansion or update the developers are working on now is going to be worth it, or I'm not sure how the next few years will play out. It might not be the game's total downfall, but it definitely won't help if they just keep releasing incomplete, piecemeal and sub-par content.

Either they need to be honest about the amount of time it will take to complete an actual expansion and stop treating patches as if they were expansions, or EA needs to stop understaffing/underfunding the project so that it can have the propensity to grow.. Or at least maintain itself properly.

Since merge Darth Malgus has lost around 20-30% of it;s population. I was in denial for a long time, but now it's clear that this game is heading towards server ghost towns very slowly.

As for the forums ? there is nothing to talk about and it reflect's what's happening in game. There is nothing happening in game obviously and the lack of content is making people quit the game.

SWTOR would be long gone in 2018 if it wasn't Star Wars as there are other MMO's that are a lot better in terms of development and content release.

I think a lot depends on Anthem and how successful it will be.

I check forums everyday since I have time for it at work and yes, its true that there are not many threads being added. On the other hand, people sometimes complain that people dont react to threads in specific areas Like "Class" for example.

 

Anyway, yes, ever since the communication of the Devs has seized the forums were going only down. However, people still do read them and they are mostly active when something is going on like a patch coming, event, some bug issue, exploit etc. So in general, they are not dead, but not a lot alive either

^ I generally agree with this assessment, with the following additional observations:

1) Overall, in MMO forums, most threads and posts are negative, provocative, and designed to press one players personal feelings and agenda (with of course some like minded players piling on). This alone creates enough chaos in a forum that it drowns out everything else. But it must have fuel to set fire to.

2) As with many MMO forums.. after the umpteenth thread ranting (yes.. ranting, not actually providing constructive criticism and recommendations) about the same thing..... even the ranters get tired and stop because nobody is listening anymore. Even broken records finally realize they are broken.

3) In context to current reveals by the studio.. there really is not much fuel for the hate based thread posting at this time. That may change in the lead up to 6.0.. but we are not there yet. This sort of flash fire cycle in the forums tends to revolve around studio reveals.. so it ebbs and flows with time.

4) In the early days of the forum, it was very popular to set fire to the studio and the game and for many others to them pour gasoline over the fire. This has slowly tempered over time as there are less fire starters as well as more forum members willing to callout the fire starting for what it is. As such.. over time the forum has generally had a tempering effect for all the drama.. and lacking drama a lot of the drama prone get bored and stop creating drama. Dulfys site appears to be homebase for much of the rhetorical drama these days... likely because of how she presents updates about the game which is a format that encourages sound bite drive by hate based comments to every topic she posts... with little signs of any effective moderation other then by comment posters flaming each other back and forth largely unchecked.

5) For the most part, even though there are less new threads per day, and less posts per thread per day... the general quality of the discussions has actually improved in my observation ... largely because of less drama and hyperbole being peddled which leaves space for actual real discussion. So we in essence have about the same amount of productive discussion overall, it's just that a lot of the really over the top nonsense threads and discussions have subsided notably over the last two years.

6) Most importantly..... we cannot see how many are reading.. only how many are posting. It's been known for years that we have many more readers then posters.. and that is fine. How do we know this? ---> simply by observing post-count VS read-count for any given thread.

5) For the most part, even though there are less new threads per day, and less posts per thread per day... the general quality of the discussions has actually improved in my observation ... largely because of less drama and hyperbole being peddled which leaves space for actual real discussion. So we in essence have about the same amount of productive discussion overall, it's just that a lot of the really over the top nonsense threads and discussions have subsided notably over the last two years.

Mind if I add something to this observation, it's something I've noted on other games that get to a certain point in their life-cycle.

At some stage the more "transient" players tend to move on. This leaves the core "community" of the game who tend to be more dedicated, to have more reasoned discussions, with much less posting about calling the developers names etc. for making certain decisions.

Definitely there is normally an uptick in activity on major expansions, but does SWTOR even have those now? (serious question).

They are. And it is. I don't think anyone can really deny that the population has been dwindling a bit, and I won't believe for even a moment that it's just because "people are going back to school" or whatever seasonal excuse is the most convenient.

Columbus Day is upon us! There will be a 14.92% decline in activity every week until then.

Then Halloween!

How can you think about video games leading up to these holidays?

Columbus Day is upon us! There will be a 14.92% decline in activity every week until then.

 

Then Halloween!

 

How can you think about video games leading up to these holidays?

And we all know that after the month of Halloween comes the month of Thanksgiving, where people take weeks off of work to spend it with their families...then comes the month of Christmas where they do it again...and then the month of New Years...then we get a month before the weather starts turning good again and people are outside playing in the sun again...this is just the beginning of very dark times.

So far BFA has been very uncoordinated and fractured, yes, but I want you to look at the timestamps on the first few pages of this forum. Compare to SWTOR.

 

There's no way to put these two situations side by side and say the same thing is happening to both.

I played BFA for a month. Ran one character through and didn't even make it to the next land area when I got bored. There were some unique storylines. I found the one about the Wicker Man to be funny. WoW always had me with their pop culture! And of course Jaina's story was nice. But in the end it all dragged out for me. I guess I level to fast....

I like SWTOR and willing to give it another chance with the new story they are producing. I hope they can come up with a compelling villian that I can hate in the same way I hate Sylvannas Windrunner.

in the meantime, I can catch up on my Twin Peaks reruns and just wait it out.