The only time the game seems to be 'growing' is when the free vet trials are enabled. The ONLY reeason SWG is alive today is because it is Star Wars, and as soon as TOR goes live, it will take the majority of players from SWG. Players will leave primarity due to TOR, but many will leave as the remaining player population takes another nose dive. I think SWG will keep running for a while, but it will be a one server game (which it almost is now) that pads the Station Access Pass.
SWG and TOR are completely different games. Think of TOR as a really dumbed down NGE2 that is designed to appeal to a much broader audience with easily accessible systems and without too much reading in the game, just like Nancy wanted.
It can't replace SWG because SWG offers something completely different.
I know you desperately want SWG to fail due to your negativity campaign against all things SOE, but it wont. You can doomsay all you like but SWG is here for the long haul.
LOL! Negativity campaign? This coming from a fanboi who claims that "SWG has more players than ever." Just priceless. I have never wished for SWG to fail or shut down ($OE seems to be working on that without any help) because I do not wish the few players left to lose their game, but that does not mean that I am in a continual state of denial as your are. I do not have to resort to fabricating factoids to try and sell SWG to others. You making this personal just proves my point.
I am not a TOR fanboi by any means, but I have noticed certain fanbois like you are already nervous about TOR. You consider TOR as dumbed down NGE2 and beneath SWG in some fashion. Granted TOR will be a completely different game in a different time period, but it will be what SWG is not - a polished, well supported Star Wars game by a reputable company (Blizzard). It will have a subscribed playerbase that teh Smedz has only fantasized about for any of his $OE games. You can go on and naysay about TOR all you wish, but it will not lessen the massive impact TOR will have on the remaining SWG playerbase when it releases, possibly as soon as beta testing starts.
Did he really say "SWG has more players than ever?"
Yes, he did. I can't recall in which thread the viral testimonial was made, but it has been a classic Badgerism ever since.
-The game is growing every day (said several times over the last few years)
-New and returning players join every day... he has personally talked to thousands of them.
All badger statements of recent memory.
I'm still trying to figure out the comments he makes about the transfer off servers being 1/3 the population of the largest server and somehow rebuilding communities there.
The only time the game seems to be 'growing' is when the free vet trials are enabled. The ONLY reeason SWG is alive today is because it is Star Wars, and as soon as TOR goes live, it will take the majority of players from SWG. Players will leave primarity due to TOR, but many will leave as the remaining player population takes another nose dive. I think SWG will keep running for a while, but it will be a one server game (which it almost is now) that pads the Station Access Pass.
SWG and TOR are completely different games. Think of TOR as a really dumbed down NGE2 that is designed to appeal to a much broader audience with easily accessible systems and without too much reading in the game, just like Nancy wanted.
It can't replace SWG because SWG offers something completely different.
I know you desperately want SWG to fail due to your negativity campaign against all things SOE, but it wont. You can doomsay all you like but SWG is here for the long haul.
LOL! Negativity campaign? This coming from a fanboi who claims that "SWG has more players than ever." Just priceless. I have never wished for SWG to fail or shut down ($OE seems to be working on that without any help) because I do not wish the few players left to lose their game, but that does not mean that I am in a continual state of denial as your are. I do not have to resort to fabricating factoids to try and sell SWG to others. You making this personal just proves my point.
I am not a TOR fanboi by any means, but I have noticed certain fanbois like you are already nervous about TOR. You consider TOR as dumbed down NGE2 and beneath SWG in some fashion. Granted TOR will be a completely different game in a different time period, but it will be what SWG is not - a polished, well supported Star Wars game by a reputable company (Blizzard). It will have a subscribed playerbase that teh Smedz has only fantasized about for any of his $OE games. You can go on and naysay about TOR all you wish, but it will not lessen the massive impact TOR will have on the remaining SWG playerbase when it releases, possibly as soon as beta testing starts.
Did he really say "SWG has more players than ever?"
Yes, he did. I can't recall in which thread the viral testimonial was made, but it has been a classic Badgerism ever since.
Lol wow. Remember that post I did a while ago on the 2 hallmarks of viral marketters? Number one was that they misrepresent themselves as the "average" customer. Number two was that they misrepresent the product they are endorsing. Looks like Badger has both of these covered. Number one: calling himself the voice of the average player, yet failing to mention in most of his endorsement posts that he gets boxes of free swag from SOE. Number two: saying that the game now has more players than ever.
The dead servers have on average 5-10 hits when I do a /who search. This, of course, does not account for the /anon ones. There is one server with the most pop and thats Starsider. It very busy during off hours and, for me, lagging beyond playable durring peak hours. Cut the population in half and you have the next two lower level servers. Cut that by half and you have the next lower server, and again for the next. Ahazi is about sixth or seventh now down the list. The other servres are supported because they have rare resources that can be moved and used on other servers. Imagine if you will, a Game Capped weapon, armor, lightsaber with those resrouces. Transfers to those servers cost real money which both LA/SOE share. Oh, yah, the true reason they are not cut is the hope that returning players will return. Badger works hard to rally folks on one of the dead servers to show an active community. He is always looking for the odd player that logs in and sends a tell to get them involved and going. Shortly they see they have support but they are still in a very large and empty warehouse and ultimatly make a toon on a heavy server and move on. Badger is a good guy and works for the SWG community but even he has his limits. He may defend the SWG team choices but they really test him with non-canon junk like the Ewok wings. But his statement that there are more players than ever is just not true today. Interest rises and falls and I have seen an equal amount of "cancel" posts as I have seen "trying this game" posts.
The game, much like EQ and most SOE games are geared towards catering to the players they have. They gave up on the dream of winning new players about the time of the NGE unless its a new game. Now they have tasted of closing of a game and that may continue. What game will be next? I feel Vanguard has the lowest support now in the Station Pass followed by PoTBS and maybe SWG. If there is a hit list. Think of it as a cycle as a new game is launched (Free Realms for example) then an old game can be shut down (Matrix). Vanguard has the disadvantage of competing with EQ for attention, if you get my drift.
Server lag in SWG is related to pop and distance but Starsiders pop is not to rival what we had with 250k subs active. I feel the server hardware has been cut back to better support the new SOE games. Heck, SS went down twice one day this week. How did our servers handle us back in the Pre-NGE if we still have the same hardware type? This leads me to believe the game only gets support where its due. All those servers staying open could also be an obligation of the contract. We all just don't know.
SWG will suffer a natural drop in subs and active players as folks return to school. Will SWG suffer from TOR? For a while, but TOR is shaping up to be a polished NGE to me. It looks very console friendly but has non of the marking of a community game. Its early, however, to pass final judgement. There is still time to add more. The one thing that stands out to me is the story and VO element and what that means. Your progression grind is stretched out for a longer experiance. Once you finally end one profession, whats to do but try another? I see TOR to be a limited Star Wars niche game with strong single player aspect that caters to the KOTOR lovers but looses movie fans ultimately. There will be a drop off after launch, IMHO.
Heya Jess. Great update man. For those interested, I consider JY (Jess) to be an actual voice of people playing the game today. He, and his wife, have done more to support SWG and its community than anyone I know. AND they do it without any spin, or b.s....ever. People that want to support their MMO could take some lessons from these folks imo. /tiphat
Besides that, they're just good people ^_^. Happy gaming Jess, and "hi" to the missus.
I love the game and played it countless hours but i must admit SWG's population is decreasing slowly but surely. I just logged back today after several months off and the population/activity on the 2 of the 3 servers I checked was pretty low. I logged on Bloodfin, Chilastra and Starsider. Now all three servers were known to have decent pop and had great population just a few months ago. If it may still be true for Starsider it isn't for the two others. Even Bloodfin the PvP server has seen it's population decrease! For example, I did a search on Bloofin for Imperials between CL22 and CL80 and it gave me 19 players. You'd get a maxed out result just 4 months ago. I didn't check the other servers but if Bloodfin is empty, imagine the 20 or so others.
Comments
SWG and TOR are completely different games. Think of TOR as a really dumbed down NGE2 that is designed to appeal to a much broader audience with easily accessible systems and without too much reading in the game, just like Nancy wanted.
It can't replace SWG because SWG offers something completely different.
I know you desperately want SWG to fail due to your negativity campaign against all things SOE, but it wont. You can doomsay all you like but SWG is here for the long haul.
LOL! Negativity campaign? This coming from a fanboi who claims that "SWG has more players than ever." Just priceless. I have never wished for SWG to fail or shut down ($OE seems to be working on that without any help) because I do not wish the few players left to lose their game, but that does not mean that I am in a continual state of denial as your are. I do not have to resort to fabricating factoids to try and sell SWG to others. You making this personal just proves my point.
I am not a TOR fanboi by any means, but I have noticed certain fanbois like you are already nervous about TOR. You consider TOR as dumbed down NGE2 and beneath SWG in some fashion. Granted TOR will be a completely different game in a different time period, but it will be what SWG is not - a polished, well supported Star Wars game by a reputable company (Blizzard). It will have a subscribed playerbase that teh Smedz has only fantasized about for any of his $OE games. You can go on and naysay about TOR all you wish, but it will not lessen the massive impact TOR will have on the remaining SWG playerbase when it releases, possibly as soon as beta testing starts.
Did he really say "SWG has more players than ever?"
Yes, he did. I can't recall in which thread the viral testimonial was made, but it has been a classic Badgerism ever since.
-SWG has more players than ever
-The game is growing every day (said several times over the last few years)
-New and returning players join every day... he has personally talked to thousands of them.
All badger statements of recent memory.
I'm still trying to figure out the comments he makes about the transfer off servers being 1/3 the population of the largest server and somehow rebuilding communities there.
SWG and TOR are completely different games. Think of TOR as a really dumbed down NGE2 that is designed to appeal to a much broader audience with easily accessible systems and without too much reading in the game, just like Nancy wanted.
It can't replace SWG because SWG offers something completely different.
I know you desperately want SWG to fail due to your negativity campaign against all things SOE, but it wont. You can doomsay all you like but SWG is here for the long haul.
LOL! Negativity campaign? This coming from a fanboi who claims that "SWG has more players than ever." Just priceless. I have never wished for SWG to fail or shut down ($OE seems to be working on that without any help) because I do not wish the few players left to lose their game, but that does not mean that I am in a continual state of denial as your are. I do not have to resort to fabricating factoids to try and sell SWG to others. You making this personal just proves my point.
I am not a TOR fanboi by any means, but I have noticed certain fanbois like you are already nervous about TOR. You consider TOR as dumbed down NGE2 and beneath SWG in some fashion. Granted TOR will be a completely different game in a different time period, but it will be what SWG is not - a polished, well supported Star Wars game by a reputable company (Blizzard). It will have a subscribed playerbase that teh Smedz has only fantasized about for any of his $OE games. You can go on and naysay about TOR all you wish, but it will not lessen the massive impact TOR will have on the remaining SWG playerbase when it releases, possibly as soon as beta testing starts.
Did he really say "SWG has more players than ever?"
Yes, he did. I can't recall in which thread the viral testimonial was made, but it has been a classic Badgerism ever since.
Lol wow. Remember that post I did a while ago on the 2 hallmarks of viral marketters? Number one was that they misrepresent themselves as the "average" customer. Number two was that they misrepresent the product they are endorsing. Looks like Badger has both of these covered. Number one: calling himself the voice of the average player, yet failing to mention in most of his endorsement posts that he gets boxes of free swag from SOE. Number two: saying that the game now has more players than ever.
Arch knows me, so he can atest to my honesty,
The dead servers have on average 5-10 hits when I do a /who search. This, of course, does not account for the /anon ones. There is one server with the most pop and thats Starsider. It very busy during off hours and, for me, lagging beyond playable durring peak hours. Cut the population in half and you have the next two lower level servers. Cut that by half and you have the next lower server, and again for the next. Ahazi is about sixth or seventh now down the list. The other servres are supported because they have rare resources that can be moved and used on other servers. Imagine if you will, a Game Capped weapon, armor, lightsaber with those resrouces. Transfers to those servers cost real money which both LA/SOE share. Oh, yah, the true reason they are not cut is the hope that returning players will return. Badger works hard to rally folks on one of the dead servers to show an active community. He is always looking for the odd player that logs in and sends a tell to get them involved and going. Shortly they see they have support but they are still in a very large and empty warehouse and ultimatly make a toon on a heavy server and move on. Badger is a good guy and works for the SWG community but even he has his limits. He may defend the SWG team choices but they really test him with non-canon junk like the Ewok wings. But his statement that there are more players than ever is just not true today. Interest rises and falls and I have seen an equal amount of "cancel" posts as I have seen "trying this game" posts.
The game, much like EQ and most SOE games are geared towards catering to the players they have. They gave up on the dream of winning new players about the time of the NGE unless its a new game. Now they have tasted of closing of a game and that may continue. What game will be next? I feel Vanguard has the lowest support now in the Station Pass followed by PoTBS and maybe SWG. If there is a hit list. Think of it as a cycle as a new game is launched (Free Realms for example) then an old game can be shut down (Matrix). Vanguard has the disadvantage of competing with EQ for attention, if you get my drift.
Server lag in SWG is related to pop and distance but Starsiders pop is not to rival what we had with 250k subs active. I feel the server hardware has been cut back to better support the new SOE games. Heck, SS went down twice one day this week. How did our servers handle us back in the Pre-NGE if we still have the same hardware type? This leads me to believe the game only gets support where its due. All those servers staying open could also be an obligation of the contract. We all just don't know.
SWG will suffer a natural drop in subs and active players as folks return to school. Will SWG suffer from TOR? For a while, but TOR is shaping up to be a polished NGE to me. It looks very console friendly but has non of the marking of a community game. Its early, however, to pass final judgement. There is still time to add more. The one thing that stands out to me is the story and VO element and what that means. Your progression grind is stretched out for a longer experiance. Once you finally end one profession, whats to do but try another? I see TOR to be a limited Star Wars niche game with strong single player aspect that caters to the KOTOR lovers but looses movie fans ultimately. There will be a drop off after launch, IMHO.
Heya Jess. Great update man. For those interested, I consider JY (Jess) to be an actual voice of people playing the game today. He, and his wife, have done more to support SWG and its community than anyone I know. AND they do it without any spin, or b.s....ever. People that want to support their MMO could take some lessons from these folks imo. /tiphat
Besides that, they're just good people ^_^. Happy gaming Jess, and "hi" to the missus.
Wow, you're all posting about me in here too? It's not healthy, you know.
I agree, not healthy at all BS. What does that tell you about the way you're perceived around here?
I love the game and played it countless hours but i must admit SWG's population is decreasing slowly but surely. I just logged back today after several months off and the population/activity on the 2 of the 3 servers I checked was pretty low. I logged on Bloodfin, Chilastra and Starsider. Now all three servers were known to have decent pop and had great population just a few months ago. If it may still be true for Starsider it isn't for the two others. Even Bloodfin the PvP server has seen it's population decrease! For example, I did a search on Bloofin for Imperials between CL22 and CL80 and it gave me 19 players. You'd get a maxed out result just 4 months ago. I didn't check the other servers but if Bloodfin is empty, imagine the 20 or so others.