Curse

WARPATh · Jul 28, 2007, 02:15 AM // 02:15

I play a lot, but ANET screwed it up, so now it's not my main game.

haggus71 · Jul 28, 2007, 03:18 AM // 03:18

I agree with the opinion that a lot of people are just taking a break before GWEN comes out. Nightfall has been out a while, and I doubt one in ten have done all of the Realm of Torment.

Oh, and for whoever said everyone is in the Superbowl for the money: talk to the players after the game and see if the losers feel compensated by the fact that they made it and got paid. If you are any kind of competitor, in anything you do, you know better.

Aera Lure · Jul 28, 2007, 03:49 AM // 03:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by bwillcox

What makes you say this? Has Anet ever said how they measure the number of active players? I would think that they would have statistics on a number of usage metrics besides just monthly logins. If I was running Anet I'd sure want to know more than just that.

Quite simply because Gaile states numbers are consistently up. I sense otherwise and am trying to rationalize exactly how the numbers might be spun to suggest that. Dont get me wrong - its not a dying population either - its simply not quite as active as it was during its peak.

Phantom Gun · Jul 28, 2007, 03:50 AM // 03:50

Well I can't speak for anybody else, but as for me, any game can get boring after awhile. I've taken several breaks from GuildWars and they usualy last around 2 months give or take. However I'm glad I took those breaks because everytime I come back I have fun with the game again, which is all that matters to me.

roalgumo7 · Jul 28, 2007, 04:26 AM // 04:26

I actually used to think like that, cause lots of my friends don't play it anymore, I myself quit playing it for a while, but there is actually more ppl playing it, new ppl, the problem is that there are so many more outposts now (3 capaings, and an expansion coming out soon)...

free_fall · Jul 28, 2007, 01:58 PM // 13:58

Now that the games can be purchased at substantial discounts, I have seen an influx of new players. Remember that people are now spread across 3 chapters though.

That said, my guild is down from a high of ~90 people at the height of AB frenzy (around a year ago) to just 25 people, only 5 of which still play either daily or, at least, a couple times a week; it's been like this for a very long time.

Of those who left that I knew fairly well, 3 still play daily or weekly, just not in our guild. I'm sure many of those who swelled our ranks during the AB frenzy simply moved to more active guilds as ours started falling apart. Many of the original guildies, however, have moved on to other games, primarily EVE and WoW. Another 2 of my frequent companions, one moved, so that her 10 min daily commute became 50-60 mins (each way), she's on maybe once or twice a month now; the other moved to another free-to-play MMORPG.

Also, the advent of heroes has given those people who dislike playing with PUGs better means to not do so, so while these people may be on-line playing, they're just not playing with *you*. Longer term players may be concentrating on their various titles, again just using H&H.

As far as these statictics showing an increase in monthly log-ins go, I've no doubt that a great portion of these merely reflect the tremendous influx of bots we've all witnessed. For the more conspiracy-theorist-leaning amongst us, that would certainly explain why Anet doesn't make more of a concerted effort to eliminate them.

Crom The Pale · Jul 28, 2007, 02:08 PM // 14:08

I've been playing for 27 months now and I would say the population is very hard to gauge at a glance.

I've personaly kicked almost 100 people from my guild for being offline 1month+(I kept some of them on friends list up to 2 more months with no change in status)

However when DOA was released there were many districts there, and that was restricted to people that beat Nightfall. Any time there is a special event(ie: Dragon festival, Halloween, Christmass) the main cities(participating in the event) for each chapter seem to grow between 100 and 180 districts.

I've also noted that in my guild most of us have all 3 chapters, and after completing Nightfall with most of my guild members we all started new chars or begain moving chars from other chapters into nightfall or nightfall chars intot he other 2 chapters. This led to us splintering into several diffent directions not to mention those that jumped to pvp.

GW:EN's release will likely see a vast number of people coming to gether during the presale event, and a second wave at the full release. However after about a month or maybe 2 months people will have moved off into diffent directions and the population of each town/outpost will drop giving the feeling that people have left the game.

What happens after GW2 is released is the truely BIG question......

Yaga Philipe · Jul 28, 2007, 02:43 PM // 14:43

Quote:

Originally Posted by WinterSnowblind

I think one of the great things about GW is that it's easy to stop playing once you get bored, and just as easy to come back to it. I, and most people I know usually stop playing for a few months, and then eventually come back to it. Where as with other MMO's I've played, I've never bothered getting back into after leaving, because it's just too much hastle.

That's what I do. I play for a few months, then I might get bored, so I stop playing for like a month, then start playing again and so on. With WoW you're just sucked in and like have to play because you're paying for it.

milias · Jul 28, 2007, 07:46 PM // 19:46

I hardly ever play anymore. Recently, some of friends have decided to give it another try, but it's been a while since I've seen them in game. Maybe by the time Eye of the North comes out, people will start playing again. I don't know, personally, GW doesn't do it for me anymore. Besides, I don't really have the time to play video games anymore, anyway.

Mercury Angel · Jul 28, 2007, 08:58 PM // 20:58

I've been accumulating friends on my list since the betas, and have gone through 4 separate guilds. Over 90% of the people on the friends list are not playing anymore, as far as I can tell, and all the guilds have died.

I don't think it's an indicator of the health of Guild Wars, though. There are still new players, and friends I have who moved on from the dead guild are in thriving guilds and alliances.

The population of MMORPG's will always have a constant stream of players both quitting and joining, which makes quitting players a useless indicator of the health of the community. Since the numbers of active players, and the definitions of 'active' are not being released, to the best of my knowledge, it's probably futile to make such an assessment.

Guild Wars is still selling fairly well, so I'd imagine the new player influx is well enough.

Age · Jul 28, 2007, 09:38 PM // 21:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aera Lure

I believe Anet counts the numbers of active people being up by looking monthly. That being the case, the number of people logging in at least once and a while would bee quite high. The reality I sense is numbers online often for decent hours is down, especially compared to GW peak which I'd estimate right around Factions release.

That shouldnt be surprising though: its summer, there are outdoors things to do, its been a long time since any new content, many PvP players are unhappy with skill balances not addressed yet and are on hiatus, a good number of PvE players are unhappy with economic concerns. Population will come back up with GWEN's release, though probably not as high as during the first month or two of Factions.

That is right but many PvP players are just waiting for The Fury to be released any time now.Then there is the PvEers who moved on because of the areas and mob are so nerfed the game got boring and I am not talking skills here.I had to remove several people off my friends list because they haven't logged in over a year now.I am not saying the game is dyeing it is just that a lot of good players have left and back in the days of Prophecies only you got into better groups unlike today.

Malice Black · Jul 29, 2007, 12:39 AM // 00:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Age

That is right but many PvP players are just waiting for The Fury to be released any time now.Then there is the PvEers who moved on because of the areas and mob are so nerfed the game got boring and I am not talking skills here.I had to remove several people off my friends list because they haven't logged in over a year now.I am not saying the game is dyeing it is just that a lot of good players have left and back in the days of Prophecies only you got into better groups unlike today.

The number is going up, but the quality of player is on the down (big style). A lot of the people I know that have been playing 2+ years agree with me on this. Maybe we are stuck in the golden days though..who knows.

EternalTempest · Jul 29, 2007, 02:11 AM // 02:11

Unless you are the #1 in the world, no company releases these figures.
If your #1 you do it as "bragging" rights.

GW sales is designed around meeting X new accounts per time frame, they want to keep people (there more likely to buy the next one) but the focus of revenue is on new account.

Malice Black · Jul 29, 2007, 02:44 AM // 02:44

Yeah but you're speculating...at best.

As a businessman myself I wouldn't release such info to the general populace unless it was beneficial to myself and the company. There is no need for us to know the sales figures, projected income, gross outgoings, tax fiddling etc

At the end of the day we are on a 'need to know basis'. If they want us to know something then they will either come out and say it or get Gaile to feed us info over an alloted time period.

Avarre · Jul 29, 2007, 03:32 AM // 03:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by Malice Black

The number is going up, but the quality of player is on the down (big style). A lot of the people I know that have been playing 2+ years agree with me on this. Maybe we are stuck in the golden days though..who knows.

The quality of players really has vastly increased, tbh. If you look at all the things we consider 'basic' now, these were really new things back in older days (effective build design, aggro, target following, etc) - when THK and the desert were actually considered hard. It's similar in PvP - even lowranked guilds now have decent builds and are capable of general tactics that previously would only be seen in higher teams.

FireFox · Jul 29, 2007, 03:52 AM // 03:52

http://www.xfire.com/
-> TODAY'S TOP GAMES

EternalTempest · Jul 29, 2007, 03:59 AM // 03:59

Quote:

Originally Posted by FireFox

http://www.xfire.com/
-> TODAY'S TOP GAMES

That only takes a *sample* from the user population, and can't be used as a final figure.

DreamCatcher · Jul 29, 2007, 12:30 PM // 12:30

I'm not noticing any wall having been hit in GW. I've also noticed many new players starting, Likely because of the price of the older chapters having gone down lately. It's the reason why recently 3 of my RL friends bought a few of the chapters recently. 2 of those played a lil while till they moved on again and also becasue they have very busy jobs. They'll be back to the game sooner or later though. The 3rd has become a very busy player and is doing it all by himself (with some help/tips from me

)

I often get the chance to see him play and have noticed many tricks that worked for me 18 months ago still work for him (like waiting for a tip run through the desert and selling the 55 focus for some extra cash). It's not like Augury rock has become deserted. The jungle has been almost completely empty for ages but many of the major mission areas still have more then enough people around to PUG around with.

Most people on my fl aren't active anymore and from time to time I browse through my fl kicking a few peeps's for some extra room. I have no issues finding new nice and mature people to fill up my fl agtain.

Also pre searing is thriving atm with both new and old players, the old players having come back for the charr kits/bags, the LDoA title or just to visit the Regent Valley vacation resort

Theres many new players in pre aswell, recently met a lvl 7 Ranger who recently moved from WoW, didn't even know what post was and had used his black dye on his 7-10 quest reward bow!

True the population has spread out over the 3 continents but for me this game is all about player interaction and right now theres still plenty people around for that.

Hole Sale Traps · Jul 29, 2007, 12:47 PM // 12:47

Quote:

Originally Posted by EternalTempest

That only takes a *sample* from the user population, and can't be used as a final figure.

Also WoW has Been #1 on that list For EVER so you cant really Use Xfire as a figure like you said.

Molock · Jul 29, 2007, 05:01 PM // 17:01

Lots of my friends that had quit are coming back! I think that GW:EN is going to attract some of the older players who had quit.