test server population crash

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by tofu stir fry, Jan 9, 2015.

  1. tofu stir fry Augur

    before the player haters come out and start complaining about how test has a silver spoon in its mouth and we shouldn't complain etc etc. i would like to know if SOE can recognize whats happening on the server currently.

    my post is simply asking if they are aware of the HUGE crash in population. yes player haters i agree i assume a lot of people left test for live or simply quit given the fact that TDS is not free. i'm not here asking SOE to make it free. I originally just thought oh hey its the holidays test always has a population crash during this time. and yes it tends to last until shortly after new years.

    ten days later i have not seen more than 100 people in gen chat and i imagine 25 to 50% of those are boxes. my guild population is low enough at the moment we have'nt fielded a good raid in approx a week.

    i don't play on live and haven't played live since kunark. i'm test born and bred. Surely SOE can do something or at least give us an answer.

    thanks for your time
    tofu stir fry
    born june 9, 1999
    test server.
    Lisandra likes this.
  2. Cerris Augur

    I've only been on Test Server for about two years, so I'm probably not the best person to speak for the community, but I wanted to add my own concerns about the current state of the server to Tofu's.

    Up through roughly October of last year, Test was, if a little weird at times, a pretty reasonable place to play. We had a raid guild doing current expansion content, a progression raid guild with its own culture, a fairly active pickup group scene if you didn't mind doing Gribbles until your eyes bled, and enough incoming population to replace retirees, if not actually grow the server.

    In the last couple of months, however, the population has dropped to levels where the server really can't be described as sustainable. It's tempting to blame this on the change to expansion grant policy with TDS, but anecdotally I think I actually saw more people online in the couple of weeks immediately following the TDS launch, and a lot of the more achievement-oriented test players both bought the expansion and paid for All Access accounts in order to get in on the early access.

    Then this early group kind of ran out of things to do after finishing flagging and farming T3, and the group who didn't buy the expansion started to realize that they weren't going to get it. We also got the patch with changes to Heroic Adventure XP around this time, and a good couple of weeks where random zone files were corrupted and making people crash, and the holidays hit... and the overall effect was that people just stopped logging in.

    The common thinking was that things would resolve themselves after Christmas... and then after the New Year... and now we're a good week beyond that and the server is still a ghost town. It's tremendously demoralizing to those of us left on test.

    Obviously SoE isn't responsible for growing the population, and the only way they could feasibly do so would be to merge another server into Test. This raises its own set of issues for the server that gets tapped, but it's arguably a solution.

    Alternately, giving Test Server players a way to /servertransfer again, without copied gear, would at least let the players find servers with viable populations. This would likely sink test for good, of course, except for the Firiona-to-Test copies who wouldn't be going anywhere.

    Finally, offering a new set of incentives for playing on Test might help. Right now, the benefits to playing on Test are that you get free All Access, double XP, and expansions through CoTF, with the best of those probably being the double XP. This doesn't compare well to Firiona Vie, which gives double XP and the most vibrant economy in the game. I don't think Test wants Firiona's rule set, but I really don't know what could be given here to bring people back to test in any volume.

    You could argue that it was becoming a little too close to a live server - and a live server you didn't have to pay to play on, at that - and that this was creating some bad blood with the rest of the EQ community, but I honestly believe that we were generating our share of income through station cash purchases and krono sales. We were also taking the brunt of glitches and bugs, which has always been part of the social contract that playing on test implies. I think that Test's players have been extremely helpful to the health of the game and I hope we can get some help here.
    Lisandra likes this.
  3. Serriah_Test Augur

    Test server generates next to no revenue for SOE.
    That would be apparent by the population decline when they asked for a simple expansion purchase.
  4. Lisandra Augur


    You are mistaken. Test generates a decent amount of revenue for SOE or it would not exist. They would have shut it down years ago if that were the case. Several people on Test buy expansions (5 x TDS myself & will do more when finances permit if necessary when the time comes) & others also have All Access (I have 4 accounts with 120-210 days of All Access at the moment) & then others buy station cash & game cards & purchase things from the Marketplace.

    I understand that you are unhappy with the state of the game & the steady decline the last several years, as am I, but there's no reason to throw an entire server's population under the bus due to that unhappiness.
  5. Serriah_Test Augur


    I'm not throwing anything under anything.
    If Test was generating sufficient levels of revenue, TDS would have been free.

    It's pretty obvious SOE did a query on that server before TDS and their numbers don't match your good intentions.
  6. tofu stir fry Augur

    again revenues aside, I would like an answer from SOE on possible reasons for the decline in population. ultimately this leads to the final question of whats going to happen to our server. i think its only fair; especially for the long term testers (yes there are still quite a few of us out there who didnt transfer off). if test is dying what will SOE do? i think this deserves some attention now instead of draggin it through the mud.
  7. Serriah_Test Augur


    Hopefully they can offer a transfer, but it's highly unlikely.
    They will "drag it through the mud" though, simply because test going down would signal the live servers to begin the pre-sunset mass exodus.

    Test is the canary in the mines ;)
  8. tofu stir fry Augur

    That's what I'm hoping to avoid. for the last while I've been raiding again with LoB. first raiding I've done since primal brood days with Coii and co. its been a blast. i don't wanna see the server implode. if this is the case than i hope they offer the non copied players a way out. Sure i have copied alts, they can stay on test. but if I cant play my necro main that I've put so many years into. than it's time for me to punch my ticket and get out....
  9. Ravengloome Augur

    I would have killed for a transfer of my paladin, I had to start a new one on live, and powergrind my face off for about a month to get back into raiding.

    I know a couple others who did the same thing I did, when LOB started to implode. Bit brutal to start over (especially on a brand new server with no network), but whatever.

    Transfers would be $$$$$ though still.
  10. Xall New Member

    As one of the people who haven't played on test in the last 2 months or so, I would like to give my opinion. When I first found out test wasn't getting the expansions for free, I didn't mind at all (I still don't) I generally tend to spend about $15 per account/month in the SoE store to balance out the gold access, and since I didn't have any toons close to being capped, I would just save up to buy the expansion.

    However the thing that really bugged me was the fact that all we ever got was a note saying it wasn't coming to test and that there would be a post explaining the current plans for the test server coming soon. However as the days passed with no I found myself just getting annoyed playing because it reminded me that the there was still no idea what the plans were for test, so why should I bother leveling up my toons. Soon I stopped logging on, but check the forums everyday to see if there was any post. I logged in a few hours today to play. However the fact that months later there is still no insight into what the current plans with test are just made playing feel frustrating.
  11. Ratbo Peep Augur

    Plans?
    Have you seen the current fiscal status of the parent company - Sony?
    At this point they're mostly writhing to and fro, trying to devise a scheme to stay relevant (and afloat) at all.
    Everything we are seeing is the result of "trying to get more blood from a stone" desperation mentality. (clue - we're the stone)
    With that in mind - all this insanity make perfect sense.
    -R
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  12. Benzarden Augur

    I played on Test from 2000 to 2006ish in Primal Brood. Was sad to see the server completely wrecked by test copies when I came back to EQ a few years ago. I started over on live, and it was the best decision I could've made. I know you're a Test lifer Tofu, but there are some great people on live servers if you ever choose to leave.
  13. Aghinem Augur

    What is a player hater? Aren't we all players of the same game? You are basically dictating to people on how to respond because you already know how absurd this is going to be.

    Again with player haters. Why are you calling us haters, I really don't get you. Why wouldn't they be aware if there is a drop or a surge in population? They have monitors for all the servers to see how the population is.

    Sounds like you are. I mean essentially, everything on test is free and the one time something isn't free is when the complaints fly.

    Realistically, its a test server. That means, its suppose to be a server where people are testing out the general function of the game, not used as a personal play pen free of charge. Am I wrong on this? I'm actually astounded that there would be more than a 100 people online at a time. I really just don't understand the complaint. You are expecting EQ to put a gun to people's head to jump on test or something? Would there be any complaints at all if TDS were free on test? I mean, the answer SOE could give you is - "hey, thanks for bringing this to our attention - we'll just shut the server down now." Again, when something is essentially free - there really is no room to complain about anything.
  14. lagkills Slain by Fippy while guards stood and watched.

    No free transfers or we tell casuals on normal servers you've been enjoying double experience non stop for years now.
  15. Ravengloome Augur

    I don't think anyone said the transfer had to be free.

    Hell id pay well to transfer my non copied Paladin off Test. And who gives a crap about Double XP? I made a Heroic Paladin when TDS released. She now is 105 and 12k AA, and i didn't have anyone to PL me.

    If people can't get XP without double XP, they won't do much better with it.
    Lisandra likes this.
  16. lagkills Slain by Fippy while guards stood and watched.

    I agree, no more double experience weekends! Finally, some consensus on these forums.
    Also, you are right, I got carried away there with that free. Let's ask casuals what "pay well" amounts to that covers continuous double experience benefits for mains and alts over the past decade(s?).
  17. Ravengloome Augur

    Personally i could care less if theres another double XP weekend.

    Your throwing around the word casual quite a bit here, So i am not sure if your trying to say everyone that has played or ever played on Test is a casual. I think your assessment is a bit off the mark.

    As far as my comment "pay well", whatever price I think is fair, does not really matter anyway, because its not going to happen.
    Lisandra likes this.
  18. tofu stir fry Augur

    read it how you want, its not a complaint its a question. simply asking what's happening to test. I have no problems whatsoever with SOE's choice. get rid of all the double exp and free everything. that doesn't matter to me. i simply want to know if SOE will address this issue. however they choose to address it is fine by me. i have no problem paying for anything. i chose years ago to play on test before it was free. yes you are right it is a "testing server" this does not mean that people haven't put time in there, just like everyone on live with their characters. Ravengloome shares the same opinion as many of us still on the server. id gladly pay to be able to movee my non-copied necro to a live server if it would mean me being able to continue her legacy. i could go on about times i have helped devs and such but that is not pertaining to my question. again what does SOE plan to do with the server if anything? surely chandrok or someone can chime in on this?
    Lisandra likes this.
  19. lagkills Slain by Fippy while guards stood and watched.

    You are incorrect sir. I consider test people even worse than casuals as they don't contribute $15 toward the game, and without a doubt most are just freeloaders rather than testers. Perhaps a youtube episode is in order where we go test undercover and inquire within. Wait, pass on that, it's hard championing CotF and TDS.
  20. Fogbust Journeyman

    Double XP and BIG Bags always make me laugh inside, if you cannot come up with something better for a 15 years old game that really tells something.
    Anyway, how many freeloaders do you think are on test, because they don't want to pay pocket money?
    That again tells something about how far away from reality this whole...thing drifted.
    Really, some people will have a tough time wakening up from this Eq story once it ends..terrible.