....I was susprised they ranked this higher than working on PVP....
....Server consolidation - we need to fasttrack this - it's a very hard problem, and the team has had other priorities....
I am going to go on the premise that you do not have much knowledge on the workings and systems of the game; the fact that you had no idea that the Guild Management system is a horrible mess certainly suggests this. Please take time to understand exactly what you're getting into if you try and "fasttrack" server consolidations.
Server merges/consolidations will most likely kill off the subscriptions of most people currently playing on servers that would be removed in a merge.
It has been my experience--reading many, many threads begging for server merges--that those who see no problem with server mergers are primarily PvP players. Their goals and reasons for playing could succeed on any server with any group of like-minded people. While there are definitely communities among these players, there is generally little that ties them to the larger server community. For them it would be no huge deal to move to another server if the PvP situation was "better" there. They play more for the game mechanics than the community mechanics.
It is the players who do not see PvP as their end-game content that have major issues with the concept of a server merge. These are the players who have built successful guilds and/or cities, who engage in role-playing, who run businesses--basically those who utilize the world-building aspects of the game. In this area, each server is unique. It's not about templates or PvP rankings--it's about community. The staying power of the game is not about the systems, but instead it is about the world they "live" in.
I've made a "second home" in SWG, with my guild mates, in the city of Kor Spera. For me and many who live there now, it's more than "just a game". It's a lasting accomplishment that I'm very proud of personally, both in-game and out. The journey my characters have taken to get where they are now is much more than boxes on a skill wheel.
Stripping them of those accomplishments, of those testaments to the journey, would destroy them. For me, those characters are more than just bits of pixelated information stored in a database. You can't just strip away the world attached to them, copy and paste over skills and numbers, and expect them to be the same as they were before. Take that away, and you have literally thrown out over three years worth of dedication and effort.
In my own experience, most players fall into the latter category. Take away their homes and their character's lives and the worlds they have created--they wouldn't have anything left to play for. For myself, take away my city and you may as well shut the game down completely for all I'd care because I'd be done.
PLEASE.... do not pull the team off anything to work on a server consolidation system. Not only will this be working against the desires of most of your long-term players, it's an effort in futility when it comes to trying to solve the problem of lower server populations. A merge will not solve the population problem, it will only eliminate the number of servers you are maintaining; most will not bother starting over and you will still have low populations.
The easiest, simplest and most logical way to start dealing with the problem is to offer low- or no-cost server transfers from low population servers to higher population servers. That technology is already in place. I would also recommend doing the long-needed structure purge to clean up inactive buildings and cities so that newer players can actually play the game without being held back by those no longer playing.
At that point, the focus should be on making the game live up to its potential. Fix the Guild Management, improve Player Cities, add (PvE) content that can be repeated, make leveling less of a chore and something more enjoyable, give back the sandbox-feel to the game so that players can find personal ownership in the game again. Listen hard to your community and the community leaders on what can be done to improve the game and do everything you can to use those ideas. Make the game what it can be--as opposed to trying to be like everyone else--and I think your population issues will go away.
Well put, Khris. That reflects my thoughts very well.
Rasal's Ye Ol' Droid Shoppe
00000000000 000000000000 0000000000000 00000_0000000 Purveyor of fine and sophisticated droids and other Artisan needs. 0000/0\000000 Come see my shop in beautiful South Coronet! 000000000000 Shop Location: -140, -5500 00000000000 000000000
_1ranger wrote: Please, listen to the players and not your focus groups. You have an existing base of players that are more than willing to tell you what direction they want the game to take.
I would have to agree with this. Last time you guys listened to focus groups you lost 50% of your subscribers. You may not admit this but I know this to be true on my server at least.
Anyways there are a few things that need to be done and this is how I would prioritize it:
PVP
1. Added content for both PvP and PvE. There are two separate types of players that play this game, PvE lovers and PvP lovers. Try to keep them both happy because in reality they feed on each other or at least they used to. I am a PvP lover so I will throw out some PvP ideas.
A. The best type of PvP in my opinion is player base PvP followed by Static Base PvP and then Restuss PvP bringing up the rear. There needs to be something done to make player base pvp viable again, I think you can do this through your GCW system by not only rewarding those who destroy bases but also rewarding those that defend them. Also they should make player bases once again help determine planetary control and they should make the fact that a planet controlled by the opposite faction is a detriment to ones safety if you choose to travel overt.
B. Remove Combatant player bases from the game. They are stupid and useless. Instead of having combatant bases simply allow only SF bases to be placed and allow those SF bases to have defensive installations such as turrets and mines. All PvE bases have become are a way for people to base club in the safety of being combatant.
C. Some professions such as Commando, Medics, Jedi and Officers seem to be the biggest factors in PvP battles. I am a commando and I know that basically the team with the most Commandos and Medics wins, mostly because a lot of the times I am fighting next to a bunch of BH's. Certain profs need to be looked at again so their viability in pvp can be increased. The first one that comes to my mind is Smuggler. If you pvp a lot you will notice there aren't many of them around and there is a reason, they are pretty terrible in pvp. I think another pass on some of the expertise systems by ADDING to them and not NERFING would help balance some of the game systems.
D. Bring back larger player groups. 20 man groups were awesome, 8 man groups are just too small and make things harder to coordinate.
E. Bring back the TEF. If some guy that is Combatant decides to attack my Stormtrooper friends infront of me I should be able to kill him. That would be more Star Warsy and iconic if you ask me.
PVE
2. I am not much into PvE but I can tell that this part of the game is lacking in content. There needs to be a new expansion for sure.
A. The game needs to be made more difficult. Everything in game right now is pretty easy to complete. Bring back some of the challenge. The DWB should not be able to be done by 2 Jedi and a Commando.
B. Add better loot to the game, loot that can be used in both pve and pvp.
C. Create a more socially immersive story line and have more server events.
These are just some ideas that I will probably add to as time goes on.
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Last weekend we had our first ever Influencers Summit. It was a lot of fun, and I have to say I learned quite a bit. We deliberately brought people in that were some of our biggest criitics. We wanted to hear directly from them and understand the issues they had.
At one point I spent an hour or so talking with a group of the Star Wars Galaxies players that had come. It was a very interesting and enlightening discussion, and I wanted to thank all of them for their candor.
I wanted to make sure I close the loop on that discussion because I walked away with some new priorities.
Here are my thoughts:
1) Content is the single biggest thing people playing SWG want. - this surprised me. From our perspective we had thought revising the systems in the game (i.e. expertise revamps) was a bigger deal. While they did say this was important, I was susprised they ranked this higher than working on PVP.
2) This lead to a discussion about involving the community in the decision making process. They pointed out that we do a lousy job at this, and they're right. As such, you can expect a poll in the near future to help us prioritize things for the next 6-12 months.
3) Guild Management tools in SWG aren't up to snuff - I went ballistic when I heard you can only manage your guild through the terminal. We need to fix this.
4) Server consolidation - we need to fasttrack this - it's a very hard problem, and the team has had other priorities.
5) We need to explain ourselves and the thinking behind changes a lot better
6) Once we got past the "please bring back the pre-NGE servers" (no, we're never going to do that) the discussion really got down to brass tacks. Many people ask me why I don't post a lot here, and the simple answer is that it's hard to follow a thread when many of the posts end up being "bring back pre-NGE servers" and other issues we've moved past. Please don't misunderstand me on this - I get why some people want this. It's just that it isn't possible and at some point if we're going to move the game forward new ideas are at the top of the list of things we should be discussing. That's my view anyways.
Smed
Take a month grind a toon to level 90. Join a guild, help them. Make a trader alt and play it too.
Please, play the game for one month before you change anything too much. Please.
So what your saying is the npcs are nothing more than hostages taken by SOE? - Katore
I like the flair of abcmole more - ELAzalin, my best friend ever.
there are not enough players on any of the servers to make them fun! and a bunch of old structures and what not are cluttering everything, i wouldnt mind it so much if they where current players structures.
It doesnt but since LA made a statement about an addition to SWG this year I would like to know what is planned.
When we asked him about this, he said that more content was to be added but not in an expansion. It will be added at no additional cost.
Well thats good to hear, now if they would start to discuss what we the players would like to see, and what their plans are things would be great.
On his response to not knowing that we need content, I have a lot of guild mates that left because of this and would be interested in coming back if more was added.
Deex Master Doctor since Oct 2003 (retired 15 Nov 2005)
Kogi Master Weaponsmith (Holding out hope) /Merchant
there are not enough players on any of the servers to make them fun! and a bunch of old structures and what not are cluttering everything, i wouldnt mind it so much if they where current players structures.
there are plenty or players on Radiant. What they just need to do is allow a one time free server transfer to your choice of the top 5 most populated servers.
oooTEXASooo Vendors -3388 6350 on Lok DrTexasMrTexas XetMsTexas Excessum
Please consider your community as your first method for communication as to what WE want. Some of us are willing to give honest feed back and willing to contribute
please listen to your senators
QFE
More like please listen to your players in general, and stop playing on other games and using there success as a template to change our game. Our game was fine as it was. just needed tweeking and content.
JENNER NIGHT~ELDER JEDI KNIGHT PROUD MEMBER OF (TAA) FOUNDER OF KOE JUSTIN'~COMMANDO PPL~OFFICER DONT RUN, YOU WILL ONLY D!E TIRED
You people at SOE messed up in so many ways and turned a once great franchise in the wreck it is today, I really don't know where to start. You had that conspiracy theory thread, what about this one: Soe was infiltrated by their business competitors 6 months before the NGE.
Whatever you currently consider a great idea for the future, just do the total opposite. Can't get much worse now.
I felt a great disturbance in the Force, as if millions of whiners cried out in terror and never stopped again. I fear something terrible has happened.
there are not enough players on any of the servers to make them fun! and a bunch of old structures and what not are cluttering everything, i wouldnt mind it so much if they where current players structures.
Forced server consolidation would do more harm than good, if they fix the game and add lots of new content we might get the numbers back.
Deex Master Doctor since Oct 2003 (retired 15 Nov 2005)
Kogi Master Weaponsmith (Holding out hope) /Merchant
Honestly Smed...I have quite a few freinds in guild (and alot not in guild) that are bored to tears....yea alot of them PVP but what do you do when that fizzles out? Run HK for the 349871239870198570938570 billionth time? All we want is something more to do in this game, because there is so much you can add to this game content wise.
I just hope it happens before too many more lose interest.
Bingo! This is pretty much the state of 90% of the playerbase atm. imho.
_1ranger wrote: Please, listen to the players and not your focus groups. You have an existing base of players that are more than willing to tell you what direction they want the game to take.
I would have to agree with this. Last time you guys listened to focus groups you lost 50% of your subscribers. You may not admit this but I know this to be true on my server at least.
Anyways there are a few things that need to be done and this is how I would prioritize it:
PVP
1. Added content for both PvP and PvE. There are two separate types of players that play this game, PvE lovers and PvP lovers. Try to keep them both happy because in reality they feed on each other or at least they used to. I am a PvP lover so I will throw out some PvP ideas.
A. The best type of PvP in my opinion is player base PvP followed by Static Base PvP and then Restuss PvP bringing up the rear. There needs to be something done to make player base pvp viable again, I think you can do this through your GCW system by not only rewarding those who destroy bases but also rewarding those that defend them. Also they should make player bases once again help determine planetary control and they should make the fact that a planet controlled by the opposite faction is a detriment to ones safety if you choose to travel overt.
B. Remove Combatant player bases from the game. They are stupid and useless. Instead of having combatant bases simply allow only SF bases to be placed and allow those SF bases to have defensive installations such as turrets and mines. All PvE bases have become are a way for people to base club in the safety of being combatant.
C. Some professions such as Commando, Medics, Jedi and Officers seem to be the biggest factors in PvP battles. I am a commando and I know that basically the team with the most Commandos and Medics wins, mostly because a lot of the times I am fighting next to a bunch of BH's. Certain profs need to be looked at again so their viability in pvp can be increased. The first one that comes to my mind is Smuggler. If you pvp a lot you will notice there aren't many of them around and there is a reason, they are pretty terrible in pvp. I think another pass on some of the expertise systems by ADDING to them and not NERFING would help balance some of the game systems.
D. Bring back larger player groups. 20 man groups were awesome, 8 man groups are just too small and make things harder to coordinate.
E. Bring back the TEF. If some guy that is Combatant decides to attack my Stormtrooper friends infront of me I should be able to kill him. That would be more Star Warsy and iconic if you ask me.
PVE
2. I am not much into PvE but I can tell that this part of the game is lacking in content. There needs to be a new expansion for sure.
A. The game needs to be made more difficult. Everything in game right now is pretty easy to complete. Bring back some of the challenge. The DWB should not be able to be done by 2 Jedi and a Commando.
B. Add better loot to the game, loot that can be used in both pve and pvp.
C. Create a more socially immersive story line and have more server events.
These are just some ideas that I will probably add to as time goes on.
Last weekend we had our first ever Influencers Summit. It was a lot of fun, and I have to say I learned quite a bit. We deliberately brought people in that were some of our biggest criitics. We wanted to hear directly from them and understand the issues they had.
At one point I spent an hour or so talking with a group of the Star Wars Galaxies players that had come. It was a very interesting and enlightening discussion, and I wanted to thank all of them for their candor.
I wanted to make sure I close the loop on that discussion because I walked away with some new priorities.
Here are my thoughts:
1) Content is the single biggest thing people playing SWG want. - this surprised me. From our perspective we had thought revising the systems in the game (i.e. expertise revamps) was a bigger deal. While they did say this was important, I was susprised they ranked this higher than working on PVP.
2) This lead to a discussion about involving the community in the decision making process. They pointed out that we do a lousy job at this, and they're right. As such, you can expect a poll in the near future to help us prioritize things for the next 6-12 months.
3) Guild Management tools in SWG aren't up to snuff - I went ballistic when I heard you can only manage your guild through the terminal. We need to fix this.
4) Server consolidation - we need to fasttrack this - it's a very hard problem, and the team has had other priorities.
5) We need to explain ourselves and the thinking behind changes a lot better
6) Once we got past the "please bring back the pre-NGE servers" (no, we're never going to do that) the discussion really got down to brass tacks. Many people ask me why I don't post a lot here, and the simple answer is that it's hard to follow a thread when many of the posts end up being "bring back pre-NGE servers" and other issues we've moved past. Please don't misunderstand me on this - I get why some people want this. It's just that it isn't possible and at some point if we're going to move the game forward new ideas are at the top of the list of things we should be discussing. That's my view anyways.
Smed
Mr. Smedley
As someone with a business degree and running my own company, I have to be honest here - I'll keep it
very simple. Your management of this game is horrid. You seem to have no idea
what your customers want, or maybe your just not willing to give it to them.
This sort of problem in management only has one outcome, fewer customers.