I don't see the problem. They could announce they're converting a bunch of servers into trial servers
Bio totally needs to ask Trion's marketing dept for some tips.
Yep, trials servers for the upcoming epic expansion pack, that always works! The truth is that some servers out there are not doing well at all and have been at light load (when not down) for weeks. They should be merging those servers sooner rather than later for the people still wanting to play the game. Of course the news of server mergers could also impact potential buyers still on the fence. But if those buyers don't know about the issues with the game by now they never will.
I think they'll wait until more servers are affected by the continual light syndrome and act then.
Server merging is going to happen, no matter what game you are. Its a cold hard fact when the MMO market is so thin and spread out. Chances are theys hould have some general idea or at the very least a way built in easy enough for them to transfer character with just a little bit of effort applied on their part. I doubt they would make a terrible mistake in embedding characters to deeply in the server, its so far from being either practical and far more time consuming then it would be worth for a company to do on developing a game.
So in terms of merging servers, yes, I'm sure they are able to. As far as doing it soon, its probably unlikely. I doubt they expected numbers to slope down as quickly as it is for one, and second they know full well a merge this early make it look like its failing.
The reason they put such a low cap on servers at launch was because they needed people to space out because if a server stayed with a long queue, they would be unable to let that person transfer.
That's why they added so many servers, they didn't WANT servers to be full because then people would be perma stuck in queues.
They did the same shit with Warhammer online. Jesus Christ Bioware, get your shit together
BioWare didn't make Warhammer, where are people getting this idea from?
They did the same shit with Warhammer online. Jesus Christ Bioware, get your shit together
BioWare didn't make Warhammer, where are people getting this idea from?
I think it's from the fact that Mythic was merged into BIoware and, one would assume, so was it's personal and expertise.
it just amazes a lot of folks that with all of Mythic's experience and history marching under the BW banner that things turned out as shitty as they did PvP wise and that they apparently haven't learned a thing from past mistakes.
Server merges in a game that emphasizes Legacy names is a nightmare. Most people want to keep the legacy name they picked, merges will cause a lot of problems unless they make legacies non unique.
They did the same shit with Warhammer online. Jesus Christ Bioware, get your shit together
BioWare didn't make Warhammer, where are people getting this idea from?
I think it's from the fact that Mythic was merged into BIoware and, one would assume, so was it's personal and expertise.
it just amazes a lot of folks that with all of Mythic's experience and history marching under the BW banner that things turned out as shitty as they did PvP wise and that they apparently haven't learned a thing from past mistakes.
Blame the publisher, not the dev. I'm sure EA told them to make basic PVP functionality for launch and spend the rest of their money and time on quests and PVE instances.
The reason they put such a low cap on servers at launch was because they needed people to space out because if a server stayed with a long queue, they would be unable to let that person transfer.
That's why they added so many servers, they didn't WANT servers to be full because then people would be perma stuck in queues.
They did the same shit with Warhammer online. Jesus Christ Bioware, get your shit together
BioWare didn't make Warhammer, where are people getting this idea from?
EA put Bioware in charge of Mythic/Warhammer as it was falling in its face; many people assume the Mythic devs were then meged into Bioware to help make SWTOR, given SWTOR was well under way and WAR was pretty much on life support by that point (according to my own leaky memory, others are welcome to refute this), I'm not convinced.
They did the same shit with Warhammer online. Jesus Christ Bioware, get your shit together
BioWare didn't make Warhammer, where are people getting this idea from?
I think it's from the fact that Mythic was merged into BIoware and, one would assume, so was it's personal and expertise.
it just amazes a lot of folks that with all of Mythic's experience and history marching under the BW banner that things turned out as shitty as they did PvP wise and that they apparently haven't learned a thing from past mistakes.
Blame the publisher, not the dev. I'm sure EA told them to make basic PVP functionality for launch and spend the rest of their money and time on quests and PVE instances.
No, I will blame them both. EA just don't publish BW, they own BW. They are one and the same.
I know BW fans want to make out BW is this heart of purity that's bullied into dojng bad things by the evil EA, but I hate to tell you... the BW that so many are emotionally invested in no longer exists. The thing thats in it's place is 100% pure EA.
All that remains is just a brand that is hung over the MMO/RPG division of a corperation.
The television adverts have already started here (UK) promoting the game alongside the cinema release, so I expect Bioware will be hoping for an influx of new players, they will probably wait for the advertising campaign to finish before deciding on whether there is a need to merge servers at a later date, though this doesnt help those players who want it sooner for their own needs to be fulfilled. But dont get your hopes up, they may wait considerably longer before making that decision.
So i was browing the SWTOR forums and I came across the Q and A that said Bioware was working on letting people copy characters to the test server...
First of all, it obviously should have been there on release, but this raises a bigger question...
There have been tons of people asking for their server to be merged or transfered because frankly, their servers are dead. So taking the above into account, does Bioware want to merge servers but are simply UNABLE to because they don't have the ability to copy/transfer characters?
When you buy an Engine from someone else this things might happen
But I believe that EA actually do not want to merge the servers yet for marketing reasons.
At the moment they can fiddle with the numbers by increasing/decreasing the server capacity to make them look full, even if it is obvious they are not.
If the merge the servers after 2 months from release people will think that the game is a fail and that might hit further the subscription retention
Obviously I do not agree with this tactic, in the long run people will leave the game because there is no one to play with.
But those companies care to much about customer perception of the product rather than substance.
They will merge the servers 1 month before GW2 release
Today on the U.S servers there was a couple very heavy a few heavy and the major majority was standard.. i would say less than a quarter were on light. They have a huge amount of servers too. On both the servers i play on it is a fact that the population has grown and has not declined.
So to say this game is in trouble as a fact is lies and it will be interesting when the next report comes in. i feel it will show more numbers not less. People tend to say things like this when they want a game to fail, on the WOW forums 5 yrs ago you could read posts about how WOW was failing and X game would kick it's butt.........never has happened. Even now it probably has more population than any other MMorpg. If people are worried about people really liking SWTOR and not liking their favorite game, you probably should be worried. (mind you most seem to hate every game on these forums)
I am Australian and they have said when the servers are released here they will look at a transfer for us to the Australian servers, so it can be done.
The servers will be based in Australia too so that is something that most mmorpg's are fail at!
The games a lot better than a lot of the snide comments from bitter misleading people that tend to post a lot on thse forums.
Apart from the voice acting Star Wars is a 2005 game. Same game play as in TAB now press 123, just like EQ2, WoW and all the others.
Actually, in this game if you tab target it's probably more like TAB, TAB, TAB, (curse because you still don't have your intended target), TAB, then 123.
As for the OP, no idea why they aren't merging yet. I can think of some reasons why they don't want to, but the longer they wait the more damage they do. Never needed this many servers. They went waaay overboard.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
So i was browing the SWTOR forums and I came across the Q and A that said Bioware was working on letting people copy characters to the test server...
First of all, it obviously should have been there on release, but this raises a bigger question...
There have been tons of people asking for their server to be merged or transfered because frankly, their servers are dead. So taking the above into account, does Bioware want to merge servers but are simply UNABLE to because they don't have the ability to copy/transfer characters?
Server mergers are tricky. They are ALWAYS a sign of a dying game. If the game were thriving, you wouldn't need to merge servers. Now it may be a risk you have to take. but the amount of press generated would be MASSIVE, and none of it would be good press. Might be tough to attract newer players when you hear about merging servers.
that is because for the most part, people leave because it is a bad game, not because there aren't enough people to play a bad game with. So you have the mergers. People like it for a few weeks because there are more people. Then all the trouble starts poking its head back again about how it is so broken and flawed. Then more people leave, neccessitating more server mergers.
Now none of this would be neccessary had they not stupidly made 120 servers, and done the mechanics right. It would also scare the living hell out of investors if they did this.
So while the "logic" might be there for merging servers, one has to pay attention to certain realities on the ground.
There's no reason to waste time during pre-launch development on tools to merge servers. You're using all of that time to get the game ready.
After the game launches and if the need becomes apparent is it time to use up resources towards that end.
Contingency planning. Disaster planning. Part-and-parcel of intelligently running a business. Keeps you from running around like a chicken with it's head cut off when there are problems.
Had they sat down and pondered those things, they would end up thinking "okay, here's what we are anticipating subscriptionwise, and here is what server loads are?"
As the number cruncher goes "then why do we have so many servers to begin with?"
But I believe that EA actually do not want to merge the servers yet for marketing reasons.
At the moment they can fiddle with the numbers by increasing/decreasing the server capacity to make them look full, even if it is obvious they are not.
If the merge the servers after 2 months from release people will think that the game is a fail and that might hit further the subscription retention
Obviously I do not agree with this tactic, in the long run people will leave the game because there is no one to play with.
But those companies care to much about customer perception of the product rather than substance.
They will merge the servers 1 month before GW2 release
I think that has a lot to do with it. Not to mention merging servers is not the simplest of things I would imagine.
Still, I think for the overall long term health of the game it is necessary.
...and why not be honest about it? Instead of simply announcing it and letting people jump to their own conclusions get in front of it. Just be honest. A simple: "Hey, we really fucked up and went server crazy so we're going to merge some of the less populated ones for the overall health of the game plus offer free transfers for a limited time. Sorry for the inconvenience but we misjudged some things so we're going to do everything in our power to rectify this so every player has the best experience gameplay and community wise we can offer." Well, obviously in their lingo and not mine of course.
Or they could play it like other companies have done and say that the extra servers were added for launch and now that is over with so they're going to do some consolidating. I mean it is a nice spin move but whatever long as they don't wait months longer than they should like others have done.
Would it solve everything? No.
Would some still use it as proof that SWTOR is on the demise? Yes.
But you have those factors anyways and at least if they get in front of it then they're doing the best for the players still in the game and for potential new players. Not to mention you couldn't fault them if they were straight forward about it. Frankly, I think there have been a few games that if they would have been more proactive about managing their player populations would not have dropped off as badly as they did. Seems more often than not these companies really drag their feet on this and I get why they do. Just not sure that in the long run it is the wisest of moves for the health of the game as a whole.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
I assume that they have the technology since they have announced that Oceanic players will be able to transfer to the new Oceanic servers that are coming up in March.
So i was browing the SWTOR forums and I came across the Q and A that said Bioware was working on letting people copy characters to the test server...
First of all, it obviously should have been there on release, but this raises a bigger question...
There have been tons of people asking for their server to be merged or transfered because frankly, their servers are dead. So taking the above into account, does Bioware want to merge servers but are simply UNABLE to because they don't have the ability to copy/transfer characters?
Server mergers are tricky. They are ALWAYS a sign of a dying game. If the game were thriving, you wouldn't need to merge servers. Now it may be a risk you have to take. but the amount of press generated would be MASSIVE, and none of it would be good press. Might be tough to attract newer players when you hear about merging servers.
that is because for the most part, people leave because it is a bad game, not because there aren't enough people to play a bad game with. So you have the mergers. People like it for a few weeks because there are more people. Then all the trouble starts poking its head back again about how it is so broken and flawed. Then more people leave, neccessitating more server mergers.
Now none of this would be neccessary had they not stupidly made 120 servers, and done the mechanics right. It would also scare the living hell out of investors if they did this.
So while the "logic" might be there for merging servers, one has to pay attention to certain realities on the ground.
I have to say Iceman, your logic completely espcapes me. Mostly because almost every MMO ever to be released has merged servers at some point. Normally it has nothing to do with the actual "health" of the game, and certainly is not a designator of a dying game. It's done because while most MMOs have a huge population at start, that population thins out fast (6 to 9 months). That is because many people like to get in at the beginning of a game, but many also never stay around long for any game, MMO or otherwise.
Servers are merged because rather than having people complain about not being able to get on the game, it is easier to set up too many servers and then shut some down at a later date. It doesn't look good, at least for the doomsayers, but it not actually a measure of game health. As a matter of fact, for many games, it actually leads to a healthier game that grows again faster thanks to better word of mouth, and thereby means more servers open again down the road.
As for the OP. BioWare already announced that people wishing to move characters over to the Oceanic Servers in March when they opened would be allowed to do so. That tells me that BioWare has the ability to merge servers if they want as well as copy characters over to the test server. They just have not chosen too and considering how young this game is, that is really not surprising at all.
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
I have to say Iceman, your logic completely espcapes me. Mostly because almost every MMO ever to be released has merged servers at some point. Normally it has nothing to do with the actual "health" of the game, and certainly is not a designator of a dying game. It's done because while most MMOs have a huge population at start, that population thins out fast (6 to 9 months). That is because many people like to get in at the beginning of a game, but many also never stay around long for any game, MMO or otherwise.
Servers are merged because rather than having people complain about not being able to get on the game, it is easier to set up too many servers and then shut some down at a later date. It doesn't look good, at least for the doomsayers, but it not actually a measure of game health. As a matter of fact, for many games, it actually leads to a healthier game that grows again faster thanks to better word of mouth, and thereby means more servers open again down the road.
As for the OP. BioWare already announced that people wishing to move characters over to the Oceanic Servers in March when they opened would be allowed to do so. That tells me that BioWare has the ability to merge servers if they want as well as copy characters over to the test server. They just have not chosen too and considering how young this game is, that is really not surprising at all.
You're missing the point
EA doesn't want SWTOR to be "every MMO"
They want to be the WoW killer. And they will buy reviews, PR talk, and market how ever much is nessicary in order to do it.
Of course they will fail, but the fact is that EA WILL NEVER, I repeat, NEEEEVVVEEERRRR merge SWTORs servers any time soon.
Even if there are 2 people left on 80% of the servers.
MMOs played: WoW, Star Wars Galaxies, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Guild Wars, Planetside, Global Agenda, Star Trek Online, RIFT, Everquest 2, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, EvE online, APB Best MMO Companies: Trion Worlds, ArenaNet, CCP Worst MMO Companies: Electronic Arts
I have to say Iceman, your logic completely espcapes me. Mostly because almost every MMO ever to be released has merged servers at some point. Normally it has nothing to do with the actual "health" of the game, and certainly is not a designator of a dying game. It's done because while most MMOs have a huge population at start, that population thins out fast (6 to 9 months). That is because many people like to get in at the beginning of a game, but many also never stay around long for any game, MMO or otherwise.
Servers are merged because rather than having people complain about not being able to get on the game, it is easier to set up too many servers and then shut some down at a later date. It doesn't look good, at least for the doomsayers, but it not actually a measure of game health. As a matter of fact, for many games, it actually leads to a healthier game that grows again faster thanks to better word of mouth, and thereby means more servers open again down the road.
As for the OP. BioWare already announced that people wishing to move characters over to the Oceanic Servers in March when they opened would be allowed to do so. That tells me that BioWare has the ability to merge servers if they want as well as copy characters over to the test server. They just have not chosen too and considering how young this game is, that is really not surprising at all.
You're missing the point
EA doesn't want SWTOR to be "every MMO"
They want to be the WoW killer. And they will buy reviews, PR talk, and market how ever much is nessicary in order to do it.
Of course they will fail, but the fact is that EA WILL NEVER, I repeat, NEEEEVVVEEERRRR merge SWTORs servers any time soon.
Even if there are 2 people left on 80% of the servers.
It took Warhammer 6 months even after losing a quarter of their pop in the first month
MMOs played: WoW, Star Wars Galaxies, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Guild Wars, Planetside, Global Agenda, Star Trek Online, RIFT, Everquest 2, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, EvE online, APB Best MMO Companies: Trion Worlds, ArenaNet, CCP Worst MMO Companies: Electronic Arts
Comments
Yep, trials servers for the upcoming epic expansion pack, that always works! The truth is that some servers out there are not doing well at all and have been at light load (when not down) for weeks. They should be merging those servers sooner rather than later for the people still wanting to play the game. Of course the news of server mergers could also impact potential buyers still on the fence. But if those buyers don't know about the issues with the game by now they never will.
I think they'll wait until more servers are affected by the continual light syndrome and act then.
Server merging is going to happen, no matter what game you are. Its a cold hard fact when the MMO market is so thin and spread out. Chances are theys hould have some general idea or at the very least a way built in easy enough for them to transfer character with just a little bit of effort applied on their part. I doubt they would make a terrible mistake in embedding characters to deeply in the server, its so far from being either practical and far more time consuming then it would be worth for a company to do on developing a game.
So in terms of merging servers, yes, I'm sure they are able to. As far as doing it soon, its probably unlikely. I doubt they expected numbers to slope down as quickly as it is for one, and second they know full well a merge this early make it look like its failing.
BioWare didn't make Warhammer, where are people getting this idea from?
I think it's from the fact that Mythic was merged into BIoware and, one would assume, so was it's personal and expertise.
it just amazes a lot of folks that with all of Mythic's experience and history marching under the BW banner that things turned out as shitty as they did PvP wise and that they apparently haven't learned a thing from past mistakes.
Server merges in a game that emphasizes Legacy names is a nightmare. Most people want to keep the legacy name they picked, merges will cause a lot of problems unless they make legacies non unique.
Blame the publisher, not the dev. I'm sure EA told them to make basic PVP functionality for launch and spend the rest of their money and time on quests and PVE instances.
EA put Bioware in charge of Mythic/Warhammer as it was falling in its face; many people assume the Mythic devs were then meged into Bioware to help make SWTOR, given SWTOR was well under way and WAR was pretty much on life support by that point (according to my own leaky memory, others are welcome to refute this), I'm not convinced.
No, I will blame them both. EA just don't publish BW, they own BW. They are one and the same.
I know BW fans want to make out BW is this heart of purity that's bullied into dojng bad things by the evil EA, but I hate to tell you... the BW that so many are emotionally invested in no longer exists. The thing thats in it's place is 100% pure EA.
All that remains is just a brand that is hung over the MMO/RPG division of a corperation.
Apart from the voice acting Star Wars is a 2005 game. Same game play as in TAB now press 123, just like EQ2, WoW and all the others.
Now its released and the hype has gone it will start to loose subs as people look for the next think that may be different, Tera, GW2 ect ect.
I bet so many people are like wtf this cost 300mill to make, its just like any other mmo!!!!
If it was just like any mmo i would be happy truth is it's far worse than any other mmo i have played before .
The television adverts have already started here (UK) promoting the game alongside the cinema release, so I expect Bioware will be hoping for an influx of new players, they will probably wait for the advertising campaign to finish before deciding on whether there is a need to merge servers at a later date, though this doesnt help those players who want it sooner for their own needs to be fulfilled. But dont get your hopes up, they may wait considerably longer before making that decision.
When you buy an Engine from someone else this things might happen
But I believe that EA actually do not want to merge the servers yet for marketing reasons.
At the moment they can fiddle with the numbers by increasing/decreasing the server capacity to make them look full, even if it is obvious they are not.
If the merge the servers after 2 months from release people will think that the game is a fail and that might hit further the subscription retention
Obviously I do not agree with this tactic, in the long run people will leave the game because there is no one to play with.
But those companies care to much about customer perception of the product rather than substance.
They will merge the servers 1 month before GW2 release
Today on the U.S servers there was a couple very heavy a few heavy and the major majority was standard.. i would say less than a quarter were on light. They have a huge amount of servers too. On both the servers i play on it is a fact that the population has grown and has not declined.
So to say this game is in trouble as a fact is lies and it will be interesting when the next report comes in. i feel it will show more numbers not less. People tend to say things like this when they want a game to fail, on the WOW forums 5 yrs ago you could read posts about how WOW was failing and X game would kick it's butt.........never has happened. Even now it probably has more population than any other MMorpg. If people are worried about people really liking SWTOR and not liking their favorite game, you probably should be worried. (mind you most seem to hate every game on these forums)
I am Australian and they have said when the servers are released here they will look at a transfer for us to the Australian servers, so it can be done.
The servers will be based in Australia too so that is something that most mmorpg's are fail at!
The games a lot better than a lot of the snide comments from bitter misleading people that tend to post a lot on thse forums.
Actually, in this game if you tab target it's probably more like TAB, TAB, TAB, (curse because you still don't have your intended target), TAB, then 123.
As for the OP, no idea why they aren't merging yet. I can think of some reasons why they don't want to, but the longer they wait the more damage they do. Never needed this many servers. They went waaay overboard.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
"Originally posted by Mad+Dog
Apart from the voice acting Star Wars is a 2005 game. Same game play as in TAB now press 123, just like EQ2, WoW and all the others.
the combat system seemed kinda different then wow though,i mean.i know besides the no auto attack thing isnt the gcd different in sw tor then in wow
Oh wow lol *applauds* well done sir, well done.
Healing the world since 2005
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
Server mergers are tricky. They are ALWAYS a sign of a dying game. If the game were thriving, you wouldn't need to merge servers. Now it may be a risk you have to take. but the amount of press generated would be MASSIVE, and none of it would be good press. Might be tough to attract newer players when you hear about merging servers.
that is because for the most part, people leave because it is a bad game, not because there aren't enough people to play a bad game with. So you have the mergers. People like it for a few weeks because there are more people. Then all the trouble starts poking its head back again about how it is so broken and flawed. Then more people leave, neccessitating more server mergers.
Now none of this would be neccessary had they not stupidly made 120 servers, and done the mechanics right. It would also scare the living hell out of investors if they did this.
So while the "logic" might be there for merging servers, one has to pay attention to certain realities on the ground.
Had they sat down and pondered those things, they would end up thinking "okay, here's what we are anticipating subscriptionwise, and here is what server loads are?"
As the number cruncher goes "then why do we have so many servers to begin with?"
I think that has a lot to do with it. Not to mention merging servers is not the simplest of things I would imagine.
Still, I think for the overall long term health of the game it is necessary.
...and why not be honest about it? Instead of simply announcing it and letting people jump to their own conclusions get in front of it. Just be honest. A simple: "Hey, we really fucked up and went server crazy so we're going to merge some of the less populated ones for the overall health of the game plus offer free transfers for a limited time. Sorry for the inconvenience but we misjudged some things so we're going to do everything in our power to rectify this so every player has the best experience gameplay and community wise we can offer." Well, obviously in their lingo and not mine of course.
Or they could play it like other companies have done and say that the extra servers were added for launch and now that is over with so they're going to do some consolidating. I mean it is a nice spin move but whatever long as they don't wait months longer than they should like others have done.
Would it solve everything? No.
Would some still use it as proof that SWTOR is on the demise? Yes.
But you have those factors anyways and at least if they get in front of it then they're doing the best for the players still in the game and for potential new players. Not to mention you couldn't fault them if they were straight forward about it. Frankly, I think there have been a few games that if they would have been more proactive about managing their player populations would not have dropped off as badly as they did. Seems more often than not these companies really drag their feet on this and I get why they do. Just not sure that in the long run it is the wisest of moves for the health of the game as a whole.
1. For god's sake mmo gamers, enough with the analogies. They're unnecessary and your comparisons are terrible, dissimilar, and illogical.
2. To posters feeling the need to state how f2p really isn't f2p: Players understand the concept. You aren't privy to some secret the rest are missing. You're embarrassing yourself.
3. Yes, Cpt. Obvious, we're not industry experts. Now run along and let the big people use the forums for their purpose.
I assume that they have the technology since they have announced that Oceanic players will be able to transfer to the new Oceanic servers that are coming up in March.
I have to say Iceman, your logic completely espcapes me. Mostly because almost every MMO ever to be released has merged servers at some point. Normally it has nothing to do with the actual "health" of the game, and certainly is not a designator of a dying game. It's done because while most MMOs have a huge population at start, that population thins out fast (6 to 9 months). That is because many people like to get in at the beginning of a game, but many also never stay around long for any game, MMO or otherwise.
Servers are merged because rather than having people complain about not being able to get on the game, it is easier to set up too many servers and then shut some down at a later date. It doesn't look good, at least for the doomsayers, but it not actually a measure of game health. As a matter of fact, for many games, it actually leads to a healthier game that grows again faster thanks to better word of mouth, and thereby means more servers open again down the road.
As for the OP. BioWare already announced that people wishing to move characters over to the Oceanic Servers in March when they opened would be allowed to do so. That tells me that BioWare has the ability to merge servers if they want as well as copy characters over to the test server. They just have not chosen too and considering how young this game is, that is really not surprising at all.
"If half of what you tell me is a lie, how can I believe any of it?"
You're missing the point
EA doesn't want SWTOR to be "every MMO"
They want to be the WoW killer. And they will buy reviews, PR talk, and market how ever much is nessicary in order to do it.
Of course they will fail, but the fact is that EA WILL NEVER, I repeat, NEEEEVVVEEERRRR merge SWTORs servers any time soon.
Even if there are 2 people left on 80% of the servers.
MMOs played: WoW, Star Wars Galaxies, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Guild Wars, Planetside, Global Agenda, Star Trek Online, RIFT, Everquest 2, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, EvE online, APB
Best MMO Companies: Trion Worlds, ArenaNet, CCP
Worst MMO Companies: Electronic Arts
Define 'any time soon'.
enough with the blue/red goodies/baddies factions nonsense; this is another WAR all over again, saw it coming
It took Warhammer 6 months even after losing a quarter of their pop in the first month
MMOs played: WoW, Star Wars Galaxies, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Guild Wars, Planetside, Global Agenda, Star Trek Online, RIFT, Everquest 2, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, EvE online, APB
Best MMO Companies: Trion Worlds, ArenaNet, CCP
Worst MMO Companies: Electronic Arts