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How is SWG doing
Tetters
Member Posts: 221
Before you haters leap all over this, please try and refrain from responding if you DONT play the game currently. I left way before NGE etc, just after JTL came out.
I did love the game, I know its changed beyond recognition, but I would like to know from current players how things are. Are things going ok? Is there a decent population? Is there a reasonlabe future?
I am still fond of the old dog SWG
Comments
there's always a free trial going on.
i suggest you sign up for it and see for yourself.
apparently sunrider is about the only server with a decent population.
There is no such server as Sunrider. Thats a Force Crystal you put in a LS.
You are probably thinking of Starsider.
I havent played in awhile since the server consolidations, but last I did pops were pretty low (hence the server consolidations).
Bria, Starsider, Chilastra were the most heavily populated.
Tried: EQ2 - AC - EU - HZ - TR - MxO - TTO - WURM - SL - VG:SoH - PotBS - PS - AoC - WAR - DDO - SWTOR
Played: UO - EQ1 - AO - DAoC - NC - CoH/CoV - SWG - WoW - EVE - AA - LotRO - DFO - STO - FE - MO - RIFT
Playing: Skyrim
Following: The Repopulation
I want a Virtual World, not just a Game.
ITS TOO HARD! - Matt Firor (ZeniMax)
Starsider is the only server that has a population near pre-CU levels. Most of the rest have low populations. 12 servers were shut down about 1-2 years ago. People are again asking for free server transfers so that they can get off of dead servers.
Lag is a big issue for many players. IMHO the biggest contributor is the game code.
There are 9 professions plus Beast Master.
Housing has had 2 nice addons: 1) The ability to manipulate objects in any axis. 2) Storage addons that are aquired through the Collection system.
The card game was added.
As far as SWGs future... the dev team is small (possibly down to 3). When SW:TOR is released SWG will most likely take a big hit. If the game is any good, that hit may be permanent.
Well I used to live on Intrepid server. That has long since merged with Starsider. I play a lot of eq2 nowadays its been 2 years since I have played SWG. However I did have friends who played swg.
I can set up friends lists in eq2 that allows to to see friends logged in on any soe server/game at any time. There were about 65 friends that were playing when the server merge happened. For about 2 months I could see them logged in a lot. Now I only see 3 on a daily basis logging in. Most have not logged in in moths.
So while I really don't know how the game is running now days I can tell you the number of folks that I new that were playing it have dropped off.
The only way to see whats really up is re-up for 1 month and check it out. I keep checking my station pass to see if there going to give me a free 30 days, no luck yet and that is the only way I am going to log back into that game.
i beg your pardon. i was just reading on nomi sunrider and the name stuck.
See, thats why I hate posting in forums. I always come off sounding rude or condecending when Im not.
Sorry for sounding that way.
Best bet, as others have said, is try the Free 14 day Trial.
If you want RP go to Starsider, PvP probably Chilastra or Bloodfin, and Bria for a mix of everything (lots of jerks on Bria though)
Tried: EQ2 - AC - EU - HZ - TR - MxO - TTO - WURM - SL - VG:SoH - PotBS - PS - AoC - WAR - DDO - SWTOR
Played: UO - EQ1 - AO - DAoC - NC - CoH/CoV - SWG - WoW - EVE - AA - LotRO - DFO - STO - FE - MO - RIFT
Playing: Skyrim
Following: The Repopulation
I want a Virtual World, not just a Game.
ITS TOO HARD! - Matt Firor (ZeniMax)
As Troneas said, best thing to do is try the trial. If you really want to get people's opinions first, I suggest comparing views from this forum versus the official forums because I think the majority of people here don't play it anymore.
I mentioned in another thread how it's funny how different the views are between the two. One thing that I like seeing is how the people that are currently playing it and posting in the official forums seem to be happy and very positive about it's current state, and optimistic about the upcoming patches. Even if they are just loyal fans wearing rose-colored glasses, the important thing is somebody is enjoying it. An open mind goes a long way towards enjoying anything, so I wouldn't read too much in to other people's opinions.
Thanks for all the feedback guys, one day I might just try the free trial and see whats going on for myself. The quoted comment did sadden me though. As an ex denizen of Lowca, the one thing you could bet your corvette on was that SWG players were helpful and nice. The game may have been broken and buggy from the start, but it really didnt matter in the scheme of things, because the people around you were great and made the game great
So true. I never remember having a run in with any idiots or asshats pre-NGE. Now that the gameplay has been simplified, it seems to bring in the less mature element from complaints I have read. I'm not saying everyone still playing the game is that way, but the community reputation has noticeably gone downhill for whatever reason.
Things are very well, thanks. There have indeed been a lot of positive changes in the last four and a half years that have made SWG into a very unique and enjoyable MMORPG.
To get an idea of relative server populations, take a look at these statistics.
As for the future of SWG, it is assured. Take a look at this article where Lucas Arts Producer, Jake Neri states: "...we'll support Galaxies while the fans support Galaxies".
you might want to check the dates on your 3 month chart, you got them listed by days not months.
So from what I am seing 5000 on starsider not bad thats about what brindywine in lotro averages. Starsider being the bigest server looks like now days.
I want say dying, however they sure are not growing.
I will paint at that artice and say Smedley said the same thing about 2 years back something like as longs as there are enough folks paying to pay for the servers we don't have any plans of shutting down the game.
Until SWTOR comes out then all bets are off.
I keep hearing how the game has been made better, but honestly you woul dhave to go pre nge and bring back all the profesions and trees before i would be interested again.
Not trying to nock you or anything. I am happy for those who are playing the game and still love it. I guess I did not like it anymore and followed folks advise and moved on.
Dates are in DD/MM/YY format as I don't live in the US.
You wacky Brits
God lol, every time you post your chart, someone does this.
Badger, THANK YOU for maintaining these!!! A lotta thankless work goes into this by you, but it is, without doubt, the best record we have of player activity levels. It's not perfect, but that's no fault of yours. From the data you're given, this is an amazing record.
PS...wtf happened to Bloodfin?!
And why they dont use ISO standard uniform date is beyond me.
But it looks like the bloodfin losses went to starsider for the most part i fyou look at the graph there was an slight uptake. I dont understand that bloodfin ued to be one of the lagest servers.
Still it shows me one thing the game is solid running over the past year with really not that much flux. Looks to be 10k players on starsider the other servers are around 4-6k except bloodfin.
So one has to wonder what happened to cause the migration off that server.
Entire guild transfers/rerolls to Starsider, mostly PvP guilds who found that after GU15 there wasn't enough action for them to play the new GCW content.
Once they were gone, the players left behind started to feel the effects and transferred/rerolled as well, leaving bloodfin on low population. Bloodfin players seemed to be largely PvP oriented so maybe thats why that particular server suffered.
The PvP kills chart shows PvP activity on Bria and Chimaera has declined in line with Bloodfin but I think the usual activities by the players on those servers are far more varied so the GCW and City stats haven't declined there.
I had some time to update the stats this morning but haven't published them, there was a freakish spike increasing the number of GCW ranked players after GU17 that I can't figure out where it came from, was GU17 that big of a draw?
Edit: Just a thought from a friend of mine, he thinks the GU17 spike can be attributed to people on Master Sergeant 99.99% gaining GCW from running the Empire Day propaganda missions to get the rewards and appearing on the stats, then promptly decaying back down again the next week. I think he may well be right, which shows that there are a ton of people that never bother to gain GCW points on a weekly basis.
Good catch! I was wondering about the jump myself while looking at the activeframe numbers. That makes perfect sense though.
But come on...you gotta be fair Badger...it was only a 10% jump, not a "ton" - If anything, I would say that completely dispels the notion that "most players don't care about GCW" when it appears that the majority are already listed in the salute.
if this were the case you would expect the starsider line to go up wouldn't you?
@badger
... or it could just represent a handful of characters that never pvp and were used that week to get points.
Edit: for clarity.
i'm looking at the declaring residence chart mate.
Sorry, I was addressing badger who looked at some mysterious increase of pvp and deduced that it must be unaccounted for players.
ya but its not just a "handful of characters" though.
its 52% of the server's pvp population - or 2000 characters.
Just to be fair...those are the MINIMUM number of players needed. Assuming Starsider is capped (which I believe it is), I don't think those numbers will change even if 30,000 players joined the server.
Same theory applies.
The information seems to be useful only when showing health and prosperity.
For example that increase is immediately assumed to be PLAYERS who never pvp as if it couldn't possibly people playing their non-pvp alts for those same rewards. One assumes a larger population while another doesn't.
Gotta say those charts are pretty cool...
As for the support Sony has pledged I'm pretty sure Smed is on record saying once SWTOR comes out it's all going to depend on Subs whether or not they stay up...Thing is, by that time there will be even more competition for SWG Vets if y'all know what I mean...So unfortunately, or fortunately (however you want to look at it), SWG as a P2P game is in serious jeopardy...
I like to re-sub every few Months just to check some stuff out...See who is playing, etc...The last time I re-upped was around the Free Month (Feb 2010)...All the SWG Folks I still Guild with re-upped for that Month...I have to say what we saw was really discouraging...I know Flurry is the 2nd most populated Server now, but in comparison to Starsider...Well there really is no comparison...Flurry felt dead to Me...Maybe I was just on at slower times but...Truth is looking at that Friends list that is a mile long and seeing no one, I mean not a single person online outside of the Guys you're in Vent with...well...It's depressing...
I hate that the Game is an afterthought now....I wish SOE would do something with a F2P model to give it a chance...But as far as I can tell, as things are now, there is clearly an expiration date on SWG...It's kinda sad but oh well...
I just subed for the month. So far I have played about three hours. When I am away for a while I forget about why I stoped playing this game. To me it feels dated, awkward and unloved.