“Are server merges a possible solution? Absolutely. Are character transfers a possible solution? They’re a definite solution and we’re going after that first. But all things are on the table. Our entire goal is to make sure that players are playing in the environment they want to, with the type of community and the size of population they want, and we are driving towards all of that,” says Lead Designer Daniel Erickson to Now Gamer.
BioWare has been working hard to boost the game, bring in new content and bring back old players with game update 1.2, yet players are still complaining that server population is dropping. So now BioWare is looking at ways that they can combat the low server populations in SWTOR.
Being part of a low pop server is no fun at all when you want to do something with other players (and this is an MMO, after all). You can’t get a group for Flashpoints or Operations, you have to wait forever to get into Warzones and frankly, you just grow bored of it. I started playing on a high pop server and now there is next to nobody around in zones when you’re leveling up and fewer and fewer players seen around the Fleet and other communal areas when I log on.
Now, on an average day and time, my server population status says it is low. I can imagine servers that started out low are virtual graveyards. It cannot be fun at all to play on an empty server. Everyone keeps saying that the answer is free server transfers or server merges but until recently, BioWare wasn’t clear about whether or not they were open to this idea. Now it might be looking like they have no choice. If they want to keep the players they have in the game, they will have to make it so that we have people to play with.
So what do you think about this? What is the population like on your server? Is server-merging the right answer?
