Merge the servers to stop the games player population dying

SandandStars

As an xbox na pvp’r, I’ve seen many skilled veteran players leave the game this year.

Lack of new pvp content
Perpetually buggy performance
NEW BUGS introduced faster than old bugs are fixed
Extremely narrow gear set meta
Class imbalance worsening

But the game health may be fine. It seems clear the pvp population isn’t deemed critical.

xSILVER_SHAMANx

Xbox NA is definitely not dead. I am in Australia, so I am not even playing in peak time yet I still see plenty of people around. I was in the Imperial City last night and there were dozens of players. Sure, it's nothing like WoW in 2005 but it is still far from dead. I've yet to log on and find that there is nobody in my guild online.

During the Halloween event the delves and public dungeons were packed to the point of having to wait around for respawn of bosses and Dolmens were pretty much active always.

I actually feel as though the population has grown in the last few months.

Elsonso

XSTRONG wrote: »

Elsonso wrote: »

Dekrypted wrote: »

tbh cross platform gameplay would be great, but it's already been addressed,

Now that Microsoft own ZOS, they can easily reconsider allowing cross-play between PC and XBox. Sure, there are lots of issues, both technical and probably legal, and maybe they don't want to, but nothing in this space is insurmountable. The main barrier to XBox+PC seems to be that they need to want to do it. If that barrier is breached, it will be done.

I hope they do find a way to do crossplay for XBox and PC. Not because of population issues, but for crossplay reasons.

That said... we, the players, will be the last to know when anything happens on this front, and we will probably find out via leaks before any official announcements.

P.S. Playstation is an entirely different can of worms and may be a huge contributor to the "don't want to do it" thinking.

Merging xbox servers with PC servers? Yeah that might upset some playstation players for sure and I think they have the right to be upset if that happend.

Ideally, I would like to see them merge PC+XBox+Playstation, but the last I heard, the console Powers-That-Be were not all that interested in it. More policy and business reasons that technical. I expect that Playstation would be the last to sign up for such a deal. Crossplay on the ESO PC+XBox+Streaming side might work towards Microsoft plans to expand their gaming experience by allowing more of their players to play with each other using existing accounts.

h9dlb wrote: »

PC EU/NA server merge would be good if they can sort out the ping

That would probably make the ping worse. I would expect players will never see cross-geography server merges.

Sakiri

h9dlb wrote: »

PC EU/NA server merge would be good if they can sort out the ping

They won't be able to sort it out because of the distance.

It's just physically impossible to reduce the ping past a certain point. I get about 150 ms to the NA server from Sweden. That's about what I got in WoW as well to Area 51 US.

TX12001rwb17_ESO

I wonder if it occurred to them that there is more then 1 instance of each zone in the game, you were probably placed into an overflow instance.

EnerG

Honestly a server merge is just a bigger red flag that will drive more players away, I don't play console but pc population on all servers is still healthy.

disintegr8

Four_Fingers wrote: »

Starter zones on PS NA are well populated with new players which is what they want.

There are more bots than real players in starter zones, especially PSNA.

Braffin

EnerG wrote: »

Honestly a server merge is just a bigger red flag that will drive more players away, I don't play console but pc population on all servers is still healthy.

Why would a server merge drive players away?

I'm playing on pc too and as long as addons stay untouched (no reason to change anything in this regard, as mods are already completely optional atm) and zos manages to make the necessary changes without breaking the databases (the biggest issue and most probably the reason for not doing it), I'm perfectly fine with crossplay.

katanagirl1

Braffin wrote: »

EnerG wrote: »

Honestly a server merge is just a bigger red flag that will drive more players away, I don't play console but pc population on all servers is still healthy.

Why would a server merge drive players away?

I'm playing on pc too and as long as addons stay untouched (no reason to change anything in this regard, as mods are already completely optional atm) and zos manages to make the necessary changes without breaking the databases (the biggest issue and most probably the reason for not doing it), I'm perfectly fine with crossplay.

Braffin wrote: »

EnerG wrote: »

Honestly a server merge is just a bigger red flag that will drive more players away, I don't play console but pc population on all servers is still healthy.

Why would a server merge drive players away?

I'm playing on pc too and as long as addons stay untouched (no reason to change anything in this regard, as mods are already completely optional atm) and zos manages to make the necessary changes without breaking the databases (the biggest issue and most probably the reason for not doing it), I'm perfectly fine with crossplay.

That’s exactly why it won’t happen with consoles - add-ons are an unfair advantage.

Braffin

katanagirl1 wrote: »

Braffin wrote: »

EnerG wrote: »

Honestly a server merge is just a bigger red flag that will drive more players away, I don't play console but pc population on all servers is still healthy.

Why would a server merge drive players away?

I'm playing on pc too and as long as addons stay untouched (no reason to change anything in this regard, as mods are already completely optional atm) and zos manages to make the necessary changes without breaking the databases (the biggest issue and most probably the reason for not doing it), I'm perfectly fine with crossplay.

Braffin wrote: »

EnerG wrote: »

Honestly a server merge is just a bigger red flag that will drive more players away, I don't play console but pc population on all servers is still healthy.

Why would a server merge drive players away?

I'm playing on pc too and as long as addons stay untouched (no reason to change anything in this regard, as mods are already completely optional atm) and zos manages to make the necessary changes without breaking the databases (the biggest issue and most probably the reason for not doing it), I'm perfectly fine with crossplay.

That’s exactly why it won’t happen with consoles - add-ons are an unfair advantage.

They may are an advantage, not an unfair tho.

Especially not with crossplay, as every player is free to decide the system they are playing on.

But yeah, if the sort of prejudice you are demonstrating is representative for console players, it's definitely better to keep servers separated.

I'm fine with that too. Pc eu is a healthy and lively environment. /shrug

SeaGtGruff

SilverBride wrote: »

If they merge the servers how would they handle duplicate names? Which player would get to keep the name and which would have to change theirs?

What about leaderboards? How would this affect those?

Just because one server is typically more populated than the others doesn't mean there aren't adequate players on all of them.

Also characters of players who play on both of the servers being merged. I have 9 characters on PC NA and 8 on PC EU, so I'd presumably be safe as far as not having to give up any characters to avoid exceeding the maximum, but a lot of other players might not be so lucky.

Also CP. My CP on PC NA is higher than my CP on PC EU. Would my PC EU characters suddenly get more CP to allocate if the servers were merged?

A lot of tricky questions.

Maitsukas

I see two major issues related to names:

1. Character names being shared. There are people that don't want a forced name change, no matter how long they've played with those characters. Who would take priority of keeping it?
2. Guild names being shared. These cannot be changed by players without disbanding a guild first.

How would you work around these problems to keep everyone satisfied?

Braffin

Maitsukas wrote: »

I see two major issues related to names:

1. Character names being shared. There are people that don't want a forced name change, no matter how long they've played with those characters. Who would take priority of keeping it?
2. Guild names being shared. These cannot be changed by players without disbanding a guild first.

How would you work around these problems to keep everyone satisfied?

I don't see a problem with shared character names. There are more than one "John Smith" or "Hans Maier" in RL too. There is no need for uniquely named characters.

Guild names are a different topic tho. I can't think of a solution for that atm.

Tyrant_Tim

One solution could be having system logos next to usernames and guild names with one of each allowed per platform.

For example, we have a guild named Harmony on Xbox, if there was a PC one too it and they were next to each other, they would appear like this…

(Xbox Logo) Harmony
(PC Logo) Harmony

Same rule with accounts.

LouisaB75

OsUfi wrote: »

People who think ESO is a dead/near death game, don't seem to know what a dead/near death game is.

The first MMO I played was dead. Was playing over a week before I even saw another player. Even for the daily world event I don't think I ever saw more than a couple of dozen people there. It was so dead I think I had met every single active player on my server by the time I got bored and came to ESO.

I actually like to consider ESO my first proper MMO.

Can't really comment on the console player busyness since I am on PC but if it as quiet as they say then perhaps some sort of merger might work.

MISTFORMBZZZ

Syiccal wrote: »

Castagere wrote: »

OsUfi wrote: »

People who think ESO is a dead/near death game, don't seem to know what a dead/near death game is.

Yeah, this post is just too strange. I run into players all over the place in every zone. The OP needs to tell us where he is getting this from [snip]

I'm guessing xboz eu, I play that server and it's definitely a really low pop, I barley see anyone in main cities other than the usual duelers, things take a while to sale in traders if at all, Group finders take time, pvp barley gets 2 bars even in 'prime time', IC is dead, battle ground ques are 10-20 min wait..
It's definitely not what it was a few years ago

it is the same on ps eu. I play every day almost and at different times and these who say the state of the population is fine are unfortinatily not aware of how bad it is.

Just compare PS NA Hotspots and PS EU hotspots.

NA is full of people. EU is not.

The group finder is a joke and so are the queue times.

And people rather quit then making new accounts on another server.

Just enable cross play betwen platforms or betwen consoles.

[edited to remove quote]

XSTRONG

MISTFORMBZZZ wrote: »

Syiccal wrote: »

Castagere wrote: »

OsUfi wrote: »

People who think ESO is a dead/near death game, don't seem to know what a dead/near death game is.

Yeah, this post is just too strange. I run into players all over the place in every zone. The OP needs to tell us where he is getting this from [snip]

I'm guessing xboz eu, I play that server and it's definitely a really low pop, I barley see anyone in main cities other than the usual duelers, things take a while to sale in traders if at all, Group finders take time, pvp barley gets 2 bars even in 'prime time', IC is dead, battle ground ques are 10-20 min wait..
It's definitely not what it was a few years ago

it is the same on ps eu. I play every day almost and at different times and these who say the state of the population is fine are unfortinatily not aware of how bad it is.

Just compare PS NA Hotspots and PS EU hotspots.

NA is full of people. EU is not.

The group finder is a joke and so are the queue times.

And people rather quit then making new accounts on another server.

Just enable cross play betwen platforms or betwen consoles.

Strange how diffrent views we have and only one who knows are Zos.

I play Eso every day, for me as a daily player I dont feel like PSeu is dying i cant answer for pvp tho.

Problem with group finder is that barley anyone are using it since it launched on Pseu.

When I go into Dungeon finder as
a DD it most of the times takes me max 5 min of wait.

I visited Craglorn yesterday and the whole screen was full of players same in the big trading cities.

But I wouldnt mind a merge anyway but I defintly dont think Pseu are dying.

[edited to remove quote]

Elsonso

XSTRONG wrote: »

Strange how diffrent views we have and only one who knows are Zos.

This has been a frequent "doom and gloom" topic here. The only constant across the years is that it is clear that the players have no idea how populated, or unpopulated, any individual megaserver is. The bottom line is that all of this is just as few players talking about the game, which is what the forums are for.

As you say, ZOS actually knows what is going on. They are obviously not concerned enough to take drastic action. When they do that, then it is time to check on the nearest life preservers and boats.

MISTFORMBZZZ

XSTRONG wrote: »

MISTFORMBZZZ wrote: »

Syiccal wrote: »

Castagere wrote: »

OsUfi wrote: »

People who think ESO is a dead/near death game, don't seem to know what a dead/near death game is.

Yeah, this post is just too strange. I run into players all over the place in every zone. The OP needs to tell us where he is getting this from [snip]

I'm guessing xboz eu, I play that server and it's definitely a really low pop, I barley see anyone in main cities other than the usual duelers, things take a while to sale in traders if at all, Group finders take time, pvp barley gets 2 bars even in 'prime time', IC is dead, battle ground ques are 10-20 min wait..
It's definitely not what it was a few years ago

it is the same on ps eu. I play every day almost and at different times and these who say the state of the population is fine are unfortinatily not aware of how bad it is.

Just compare PS NA Hotspots and PS EU hotspots.

NA is full of people. EU is not.

The group finder is a joke and so are the queue times.

And people rather quit then making new accounts on another server.

Just enable cross play betwen platforms or betwen consoles.

Strange how diffrent views we have and only one who knows are Zos.

I play Eso every day, for me as a daily player I dont feel like PSeu is dying i cant answer for pvp tho.

Problem with group finder is that barley anyone are using it since it launched on Pseu.

When I go into Dungeon finder as
a DD it most of the times takes me max 5 min of wait.

I visited Craglorn yesterday and the whole screen was full of players same in the big trading cities.

But I wouldnt mind a merge anyway but I defintly dont think Pseu are dying.

My friend yesterday was sunday. I agree weekends are busy in all sections.

But during the week its different. And aside from prime time in the evening its also different.

Its 100% by far not as busy as a few years ago in all sections.

Im glad there are voices in here who are still happy with the population and havent whitnessed issues themself.

But there are also a lot who agree with me and also not everyone is using the forum. The average player just goes and plays something else , if there is no action in the game.

All im saying is, bring crossplay before these who are happy now, are not happy with the population anymore.

[edited to remove quote]

LunaFlora

MISTFORMBZZZ wrote: »

XSTRONG wrote: »

MISTFORMBZZZ wrote: »

Syiccal wrote: »

Castagere wrote: »

OsUfi wrote: »

People who think ESO is a dead/near death game, don't seem to know what a dead/near death game is.

Yeah, this post is just too strange. I run into players all over the place in every zone. The OP needs to tell us where he is getting this from [snip]

I'm guessing xboz eu, I play that server and it's definitely a really low pop, I barley see anyone in main cities other than the usual duelers, things take a while to sale in traders if at all, Group finders take time, pvp barley gets 2 bars even in 'prime time', IC is dead, battle ground ques are 10-20 min wait..
It's definitely not what it was a few years ago

it is the same on ps eu. I play every day almost and at different times and these who say the state of the population is fine are unfortinatily not aware of how bad it is.

Just compare PS NA Hotspots and PS EU hotspots.

NA is full of people. EU is not.

The group finder is a joke and so are the queue times.

And people rather quit then making new accounts on another server.

Just enable cross play betwen platforms or betwen consoles.

Strange how diffrent views we have and only one who knows are Zos.

I play Eso every day, for me as a daily player I dont feel like PSeu is dying i cant answer for pvp tho.

Problem with group finder is that barley anyone are using it since it launched on Pseu.

When I go into Dungeon finder as
a DD it most of the times takes me max 5 min of wait.

I visited Craglorn yesterday and the whole screen was full of players same in the big trading cities.

But I wouldnt mind a merge anyway but I defintly dont think Pseu are dying.

My friend yesterday was sunday. I agree weekends are busy in all sections.

But during the week its different. And aside from prime time in the evening its also different.

Its 100% by far not as busy as a few years ago in all sections.

Im glad there are voices in here who are still happy with the population and havent whitnessed issues themself.

But there are also a lot who agree with me and also not everyone is using the forum. The average player just goes and plays something else , if there is no action in the game.

All im saying is, bring crossplay before these who are happy now, are not happy with the population anymore.

i usually play on ps eu and most often play in the middle of european night or early in the morning.
and even then i see lots of people. any day of the week.

we'll have New Life Festival in a few weeks and guaranteed there will be a lag inducing amount of people on all servers.

none of the servers are dying.

[edited to remove quote]

Tandor

Elsonso wrote: »

XSTRONG wrote: »

Strange how diffrent views we have and only one who knows are Zos.

This has been a frequent "doom and gloom" topic here. The only constant across the years is that it is clear that the players have no idea how populated, or unpopulated, any individual megaserver is. The bottom line is that all of this is just as few players talking about the game, which is what the forums are for.

As you say, ZOS actually knows what is going on. They are obviously not concerned enough to take drastic action. When they do that, then it is time to check on the nearest life preservers and boats.

We also never get told what time zone those reporting empty servers are playing in, or where in the world they're playing from. At the moment the likelihood is that people are still testing/enjoying the Endless Archives honeymoon period, especially on console as that started later.

Four_Fingers

disintegr8 wrote: »

Four_Fingers wrote: »

Starter zones on PS NA are well populated with new players which is what they want.

There are more bots than real players in starter zones, especially PSNA.

I meant the starter main cities not the islands, but yes there are a ton of bots on the starter islands but there are plenty of players as well.
Too many sometimes. lol

Warhawke_80

Twohothardware wrote: »

Warhawke_80 wrote: »

The same handful of folks keep this whole "The game is dying drumbeat" lately....my guild keep's growing, the towns are full and the delves are never barren...

But we need to merge servers because the game is dying...really we do...

Veteran player retention is higher on PC than it is on console. Saying you see a bunch of people on one platform/region doesn't speak to the game as a whole.

lol...that's sorta like saying don't believe my lying eyes bro...The game is fine plenty of people play and will continue to do so, as far as consoles go I don't think Crossplay on Consoles would be a bad thing or that complicated....but we will never see a full server merge.

Also when you say Veteran if you mean Raiders and PVP players...well that has always been a niche community in ESO...ZOS does their best to provide for them in game but your biggest demographic is casual overland players ( and everyone knows Housing and fashion is the true end game lol) and that's not a bad thing...I mean it's one casual game in a sea of ultra raid or die mmo's.

Elsonso

MISTFORMBZZZ wrote: »

My friend yesterday was sunday. I agree weekends are busy in all sections.

But during the week its different. And aside from prime time in the evening its also different.

Its 100% by far not as busy as a few years ago in all sections.

I am not coming down on an opinion about population, but I do want to caution about trying to establish population estimates from looking around.

What we see around us when we are in-game is an illusion. It may show everyone that is there, or it may only show a small number out of a much larger number of people. We cannot easily tell and we have very poor control how the game separates us from other players.

A busy zone does not mean high population any more than a lightly populated zone means low population. One simply cannot tell by just what is seen, or not seen, even across days and times of days, because we do not know what the server is up to behind the scenes.

The only way to tell is by daily scientific and quantified observations spanning years, and no one here in this thread is doing that.

MISTFORMBZZZ

LunaFlora wrote: »

MISTFORMBZZZ wrote: »

XSTRONG wrote: »

MISTFORMBZZZ wrote: »

Syiccal wrote: »

Castagere wrote: »

OsUfi wrote: »

People who think ESO is a dead/near death game, don't seem to know what a dead/near death game is.

Yeah, this post is just too strange. I run into players all over the place in every zone. The OP needs to tell us where he is getting this from [snip]

I'm guessing xboz eu, I play that server and it's definitely a really low pop, I barley see anyone in main cities other than the usual duelers, things take a while to sale in traders if at all, Group finders take time, pvp barley gets 2 bars even in 'prime time', IC is dead, battle ground ques are 10-20 min wait..
It's definitely not what it was a few years ago

it is the same on ps eu. I play every day almost and at different times and these who say the state of the population is fine are unfortinatily not aware of how bad it is.

Just compare PS NA Hotspots and PS EU hotspots.

NA is full of people. EU is not.

The group finder is a joke and so are the queue times.

And people rather quit then making new accounts on another server.

Just enable cross play betwen platforms or betwen consoles.

Strange how diffrent views we have and only one who knows are Zos.

I play Eso every day, for me as a daily player I dont feel like PSeu is dying i cant answer for pvp tho.

Problem with group finder is that barley anyone are using it since it launched on Pseu.

When I go into Dungeon finder as
a DD it most of the times takes me max 5 min of wait.

I visited Craglorn yesterday and the whole screen was full of players same in the big trading cities.

But I wouldnt mind a merge anyway but I defintly dont think Pseu are dying.

My friend yesterday was sunday. I agree weekends are busy in all sections.

But during the week its different. And aside from prime time in the evening its also different.

Its 100% by far not as busy as a few years ago in all sections.

Im glad there are voices in here who are still happy with the population and havent whitnessed issues themself.

But there are also a lot who agree with me and also not everyone is using the forum. The average player just goes and plays something else , if there is no action in the game.

All im saying is, bring crossplay before these who are happy now, are not happy with the population anymore.

i usually play on ps eu and most often play in the middle of european night or early in the morning.
and even then i see lots of people. any day of the week.

we'll have New Life Festival in a few weeks and guaranteed there will be a lag inducing amount of people on all servers.

none of the servers are dying.

okay then go craglorn at 11 pm and try to join a group activity, or go to cyrodiil and try to find action with 1 bar each or go to some random zone and good luck wirh finding people helping you with world bosses or whatever.

Dont get upset. Its you just wont find anything in this time cuz its dead at this time. Outside of peak times it is not populated

And for me aswell a really good indicator of all what im saying are the ESO Steam charts.

Our all opinions are subjective but numbers dont lie.

https://steamcharts.com/app/306130


The population is decreasing and its happening on all platforms even if the loud voices of you think different.


Aswell PC has the biggest population of all.
On consoles its less and if the player noumbers have already shrunk on pc like this, what do you think how its gonna be on consoles? Even if YOU and couple other loud voices here dont notice.

There have plenty of other games released, corona is ,,over" , no lockdowns etc.

OFC are the player numbers going down.

And you can not force people to play the game, only motivate them with content.

But what you can do is merging the player numhers to keep the game alive for these who are active

[edited to remove quote]

Tandor

Given the present size of the game world and the amount of instanced content I'm not at all surprised to find Craglorn's population to be pretty small. It's never been an overly popular zone beyond the small niche content undertaken there. Also, 11pm in whose time zone?

As for Cyrodiil, we all know that PvP is poorly supported by both developers and players alike. People like to compare it's population to its heyday while forgetting that we didn't have Battlegrounds back then.

Elsonso

Tandor wrote: »

As for Cyrodiil, we all know that PvP is poorly supported by both developers and players alike. People like to compare it's population to its heyday while forgetting that we didn't have Battlegrounds back then.

Given that ZOS is planning to play with increasing the population caps this week, it suggests to me that they expect the number of people who want to play in Cyrodiil to increase and want to see what happens if they bump the cap.

kojou

The only way they could do this is to have a server transfer process where for example, if PC NA was going to be the surviving server, then all other NA servers would get the "option" to transfer their accounts to it, and they would have to do name resolution at that time. I think a full merge of the servers would be an invitation for disaster and wasting time, as they would have to do name resolution and such for accounts that may never be used again.

I'm sure if ZOS sees population levels drop below what they would like to see, then they will try a few things to boost population, but if that doesn't have the intended impact then they will offer account transfers before closing the servers.

I don't get the feeling that ZOS is desperately trying to boost population right now though...

Amottica

Braffin wrote: »

EnerG wrote: »

Honestly a server merge is just a bigger red flag that will drive more players away, I don't play console but pc population on all servers is still healthy.

Why would a server merge drive players away?

I'm playing on pc too and as long as addons stay untouched (no reason to change anything in this regard, as mods are already completely optional atm) and zos manages to make the necessary changes without breaking the databases (the biggest issue and most probably the reason for not doing it), I'm perfectly fine with crossplay.

Server performance is the reason. Considering the population, at least on PC, is healthy then there is not a sound or logical reason to merge the servers.

If consoles lack a healthy population of players then it may make sense to merge them. However, players do not get the information necessary to see if the population is healthy or in serious decline. We only see a small microcosm of the server.

Braffin

Amottica wrote: »

Braffin wrote: »

EnerG wrote: »

Honestly a server merge is just a bigger red flag that will drive more players away, I don't play console but pc population on all servers is still healthy.

Why would a server merge drive players away?

I'm playing on pc too and as long as addons stay untouched (no reason to change anything in this regard, as mods are already completely optional atm) and zos manages to make the necessary changes without breaking the databases (the biggest issue and most probably the reason for not doing it), I'm perfectly fine with crossplay.

Server performance is the reason. Considering the population, at least on PC, is healthy then there is not a sound or logical reason to merge the servers.

If consoles lack a healthy population of players then it may make sense to merge them. However, players do not get the information necessary to see if the population is healthy or in serious decline. We only see a small microcosm of the server.

I don't think so. If server performance would drive away a significant amount of players, the game would long be dead, especially on pc, as performance is already, and has been most of the time, horrible. Nonetheless population is fine.

Don't get me wrong, I see very well why zos is hesitating to merge servers:
1) Technical limitations.
2) A rework of the database is fatal, if not done flawlessly.

But I don't understand how merging servers could be a "red flag" for players, as the person I quoted claimed. That's background work and optimally the playerbase wouldn't witness any changes except for more buddies to play with.