One year ago today, the SWTOR devs surprised us all with the sudden and previously unannounced launch of the Shae Vizla APAC server. As someone who lives in Europe but nevertheless jumped right in just to see what it was all about, I had a lot of fun with the fresh server experience. This lasted for about two months, but once Galactic Season 5 and PvP Season 4 were over, activity on the server kind of dropped off a cliff.
Unlike many, I didn't stop playing there myself, but I did dial down my investment a bit, simply treating the server as equal to my other "secondary" servers where I'm mainly active for Galactic Seasons. I'm still in the same guild, my legacy level is up to 43, and while I've still only completed one class story, two other characters are very close to finishing theirs too, which is still more progress than I've made on that front on any other server bar my home on Darth Malgus. However, I've stopped trying to attend guild events that start at 1 a.m. my time (I don't know why all the raids seem to happen at what's lunch time in Sydney) and I no longer attempt to queue for PvP. Group content just isn't happening for me on Shae Vizla.
I wrote about the state of the server six months ago, and as far as I can tell, the situation hasn't changed much since then. You can still get things done if you can find a guild or community that organises events in your time zone, but looking at the Conquest board this week, the numbers actually look even smaller than on Leviathan at this point, indicating a further drop in activity.
I really wish I had something more uplifting to say to celebrate the server's birthday! I guess in another six months it will have outlived the original APAC servers, which were only online from March 2012 to August 2013?
Feel free to share your own Shae Vizla experiences in the comments.
I'm not from the APAC region, but I'm always happy when people outside of the ‘mainstream’ are given the opportunity to play a game comfortably - so I'm happy for the users from the region who can play SWTOR with reasonable ping.
ReplyDeleteBy the same token, I'm happy that SWTOR will soon be natively playable (well, just the launcher, but still) for Mac users like myself.
As someone who last played SWTOR over 10 years ago, I would also be happy to see Broadsword release vanilla SWTOR servers - I personally would prefer that version of the game to the current one, although I'm probably pretty much alone in that opinion.
You're not alone in your yearning for vanilla SWTOR - some people are in fact very vocal about it - but I do think you're part of a small minority. While we can point out a lot of little things that have changed over the years, the actual world and content that were available in 2011 are still there today, and I don't think many people would be enthused to go back just for old-school talent trees and slower combat. Even with WoW Classic's massive success, that game saw a massive drop-off in interest once they moved to the Cataclysm era, where the world is essentially the same as in the live game. I don't think it would be a worthwhile investment for Broadsword (assuming it was possible at all).
DeleteYeah, I get that.
DeleteWell, I actually don't, but I guess that's how things simply are these days.
Personally, I liked the old-school talent trees and the slower combat.
I have fond memories of soloing some boss with my tank companion (I was heal specced) - the fight was long and hard as nails, but also so, so satisfying, when he was finally defeated.
I can only assume such encounters aren't even possible today - the guy would probably die within seconds.
But yeah - it's unlikely Broadsword will release vanilla servers, not only because there's low demand as you wrote, but also because I doubt they have the (wo)manpower to make it happen.
I was always under the impression that releasing vanilla servers would be easy, but seems like MMORPG studios often don't even keep backups of older builds of their game - which is insane to me.
I was super surprised when I learned that about vanilla WoW and how much effort it took to re-release it.
Honestly, I'd have more faith in some fans setting up a private server (like they did with Warhammer Online or DAOC).
The solo story content is indeed very easy nowadays, and there are definitely a few boss fights where it can feel very underwhelming when someone who's been built up by the story to be this big baddie goes down in three hits. However, there is still challenging content out there for those who want it - certain champion mobs in the world, heroics, master mode chapters etc.
DeleteThe other day I did the Section X heroic on a character that was still levelling and I died sooo many times. I actually got quite annoyed with myself but was determined to finish it no matter what, and I eventually did.
And yep, it's all about resources. In a world of endless time and possibilities, I'd find a SWTOR Classic fun to check out too. But as it is, I think the devs are better off focusing on pleasing the most players they can in the current game.
Yeah, you're probably right.
DeleteAnd congrats on your determination and beating that heroic. ;-)
Btw. is there a way to check the latest comments on your blog?
I don't have a Google account, so I can only post anonymously (which is very generous by the way - I'm surprised there aren't even captchas required to do so).
I see there's some comments sub on the sidebar, but I honestly don't know how that works - looks like it requires additional 3rd party programs (which I'm kinda reluctant to use).
It would be convenient to have a section of the sidebar reserved for latest comments - would make it easier for people like myself to keep track of your answers to user posts.
Just a suggestion.
I allow anonymous comments because I understand not everyone wants to be beholden to Google and I do want to be as open as possible. I've closed anonymous commenting temporarily in the past when it was causing an issues but most of the time I just get about 1-2 spam comments per day, which are easy enough to get rid of. I do wish there were more comment options with different logins, but Blogger isn't exactly Google's favourite product. I've got to be grateful they're continuing to support it at all!
DeleteAs for the recent comments widget, I was able to sort something out using the site's own RSS feed. Hope you find it useful!
Perfect - thank you so much!
DeleteI'm still having fun on SV, thanks to our guild, which is fairly active. That makes a huge difference for me. In conrast, my toons on SS are in a very quiet guild, although the server is active, and I find myself losing interest in them.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous commenter: you can actually enter a pseudonym for yourself (though you will have to do it each time you post) by using the 'comment as Name/URL' option. This option wasn't always working, but it is now, and this is the method that I use to post here. (You can just leave the URL field blank.) It's true that someone could then 'impersonate' you by using the same method, but frankly, I can't see why anyone would bother ... hope this helps. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads-up, DB.
DeleteLuckily I already figured it out by myself.
Now I try to come up with different creative names every time I post. ;-)
And I'm not afraid of impersonators - I highly doubt anyone but me would be crazy enough to write such lengthy posts. *chuckle*
Shintar: thanks for continuing to cover SWTOR, and (unsurprisingly) a year has now passed and I'm still yet to create a character on the Shae Vizla server, despite being in Australia. I say 'unsurprisingly' because work continues to be demanding, and I think I got to the 'burn out' stage with SWTOR. My goal of playing through all base storylines twice (once with male voice and once with female voice) is still not quite there ... currently on female Jedi Consul and male Sith Sorcerer, and still have female Smuggler and male Imperial Agent to go. I will get there one day!
ReplyDeleteThat's fair! One of the nice things with a goal like "play through all the class stories" is that it's not terribly time-sensitive, and sometimes other things simply take priority.
Delete