Oceanic server announcement - Have your say Dalborra

Why do I have the feeling that you won't be around after the merger?

Shouldn't listen to your feelings, because they are wrong.

So you're telling me that after all the posts you've made in regards to transfers and ping, and after the amount of effort you've put into displaying your overall opinion of the matter, you'll still stay subbed and actively play?

You know what they say about the dog that barks a lot, yeah?

Of course he will after all bioware is dumbing down PvP for casual bads why wouldn't he stay.

Oh no I can't stunorz ppl anymore, which hardcore bads like yourself would enjoy more i thought.

Well I am hoping I get a choice of which Server mine go to. I already have the same toons/names on one US server already and I would rather them go to another server I have been playing on.

Well what can I say about the powers that be forcing us to server merge, so many things make this wrong but my main concern is, "you get what you pay for" an American terminology use a lot, well with this server merge I don't believe I'm getting what I pay for, also pvp lol what pvp it'll be hard to fight someone with 20-50ms when your now going to have a variable speed between 263ms-468ms ping. WoW and other mmo's that are US server based always screw us Aussies over and I would have thought that with a Asia-Pacific Server it was more beneficial to do pvp, now that the server merge is going to happen pvp will die for us here in AUS/NZ, which still is NOT WHAT I PAY FOR!!! Further more saying that the cost is not making them profit, well with the decline in the Aussie dollar now at .95 USD, well you can no longer use that crap excuse anymore, what is annoying about that is SW franchise has an estimated value of 9.8 billion dollars, with the sale of it to Disney for 4.6 billion, so its not like they need the money, but yeah its all about MONEY to them and what they can get out of every single account and stopped being about the gaming mmo community, it discuss me that it doesn't cost that much to run servers here in Australia but because the bottom line is its not making them profit, it has to go mentality is just utter garbage, games are ment to be played and enjoyed and be fair to every customer that supports it, and cause the Asia-Pacific based community is 1% of the overall subscription base, then yeah screwed over by greedy billion dollar earning company yet again. Also after arguing with guildies about advertising, you want a profit off your game then how about bloody advertising for it, not once have I seen (late at night or even during primetime) has there been 1 commercial about the game here in Australia, as I see it don't advertise don't get your product out there = no-one knowing or new subscriptions happening to boost numbers and make a profit, Bioware and Lucas arts only has itself to blame for that, so lets recap this server merge - massive ping rates, paying more for subscriptions cause of the Aussie dollar decline, can't use "not making a profit" excuse and the fact that you never advertise here in Australia to boost up sales and closing down Asia-Pacific servers is going to do what exactly??????? beside piss us Aussies (whom now pay more for subscriptions) so ya making a profit off the conversion rate for the dollar anyway and now cost outlay is less then say another server opening up in the US, lol so where is this excuse to close down the Asia-pacific servers because I no longer see it and to me THATS NOT WHAT I'M PAYING FOR!!!! so your ripping me off and everyone else on the Asia-Pacific Servers

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Unsurprisingly enough, it is not that difficult to face players with a variable latency of 20-50ms when one sits on a variable latency of 263-468ms. Sure, they are going to have an innate advantage, and if this game were a first-person shooter, you would most likely be absolutely screwed unless there were a reasonably large skill gap between yourself and your opponent, skewed in your favour.

However, one of the greatest things about PvP in *this style of MMO* (where combat isn't heavily positional or directional) is that latency is a lesser factor. Significantly. This will not kill PvP for the Asia-Pacific region. Nor will it, more specifically, kill PvP for the Australian or New Zealand region. The greater part of the Asia-Pacific region will probably see similar or better latency coming out of the merge.

Right now, you are getting exactly what you paid for. When the server transfers are done and through, with the forced merges complete and all of the Asia-Pacific server's population displaced across the three North American-west servers... should you continue to pay money for this game, you will continue to get *exactly* what you pay for. It's just what you pay for then and what you pay for now will have changed.

EA is a business. At the end of the day, they are most likely going to fall under the category of "wanting to make a better profit". Now, I don't know the inner-dealings between then and Telstra to run servers hosted locally, but I can't imagine it's terribly cheap, otherwise I would've assumed a company such as say... Blizzard would have jumped on the opportunity to do a full-on expansion into the APAC region with local servers. It would have boosted subscriptions... most likely.

Just because they have money doesn't mean they want to piss it down the drain, so-to-speak. If they feel (for valid or invalid reasons) that the investment into Asia-Pacific servers is not one that is bearing enough monetary fruit, they are well within their right sto cut their losses and cease their continued investment. Hell, I highly doubt the majority of the Asia-Pacific population plans to quit over this merge (maybe they will and prove me wrong), so the monetary loss of closure is probably not going to be as great as the monetary loss of continued operations.

More so, there is some logic behind the merge from a "best interests in the player" point of view. Some. The opportunity cost of losing our beloved double-digit ping to the server does come at the gain of such things as a larger playerbase and a larger (and probably cheaper) economy (although some are going to... not like that). Whilst it may not be a cost all of us would willingly pay, it is still something to consider.

In all honesty, so much of the Asia-Pacific community has been acting so entitled over the server merges. The thing with subscription-based services is that at each given point in time you know what you pay for. For the now, we have been paying for access to this game with the assumption that these servers will be here whilst we play. Next month, the same thing happens. We pay for access to this game with the same assumption. Now we know they play to close these servers in the foreseeable future. Until then, continue to play the game under the same assumptions. When you are finally forcibly removed from this server and plopped onto one of the North American-west servers, either you can pay the same amount as before for a somewhat-inferior service, or stop playing and stop paying.

Thus I must restate for clarity's sake - right now you are getting. Exactly. What you pay for. If this is an investment in future gaming enjoyment months and months from now and that investment hinges on having a latency in the low double-digits, then cut your losses now.

The most despicable thing to come from the announcement of the Asia-Pacific server closure has been some of the Asia-Pacific community's reaction. A decision has been made that adversely impacts you (although not to the degree that you seem to believe). It happens. Be less entitled about it.

+1,000,000