BioWare warns users away from filling 'Old Republic' servers

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Of all the problems a newly launched massively multiplayer online game can have, "our servers are too full" is probably one of the better ones. That said, BioWare is facing just such a problem with its newly launched, Star-Wars-themed MMO "The Old Republic," and it's trying to fix it by guiding players to other, less populated servers.

In a forum post yesterday, BioWare Senior Online Community Manager Stephen Reid noted that many of the game's servers are already nearing their population caps — the absolute limit on how many players can be assigned to play on the server at any time. This has led to long queues for players trying to join these servers even during off-peak hours, Reid said, and led to frustration with the experience among many players.

Reid says BioWare doesn't want to raise those population caps too quickly, to avoid floods of new players that would "perpetuate the problem," but it also doesn't want to lock the servers entirely and thereby block new players from joining servers with their friends. Instead, Reid said he "strongly advise[s]" players to create new characters on a list of a dozen U.S.- and European-based servers in order to avoid long wait times.

But what about the early adopters who are stuck on servers that are now overpopulated? Reid says BioWare is working on a character transfer ability that will allow these players to escape to less crowded environs, but that "there is no ETA on when it will be available."

"At this time we can only ask for your patience," Reid told frustrated players in the forum post.

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Kyle Orland has written hundreds of thousands of words about gaming since he started a Mario fan site at the age of 14. You can follow him on Twitter or at his personal website, KyleOrland.com.