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AOC effect on GCW NGE numbers
JestorRodo
Member UncommonPosts: 2,642
Numbers resourced from - http://swg.activeframe.de/bb-std/tp-en/main.12.html
5/16/08 The week ending before the release of AOC the total numbe of GCW officers is
| sum | 9334 |
as of 6/20/08 this number is
| sum | 8535 |
Now I have to stress that these are active players of the game and does not reflect the those who have been inactive for longer periods of time ( which is most of us here). but its a big drop .
I hope that these formally active SWG-NGE players are enjoying AOC.
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Comments
cant believe that many still play man the game is shite.
----------------------------------------
Talking about SWG much?
A lot of those GCW officers have 2 or more toons on their main server and prolly 1 or 2 other toons on other servers. I had 3 officers on the euro-chimeara server and 1 officer on Bria. They are all busted down to NCO's now.
I think SOE has taken the NGE as far as it can go. Its better than it was back in nov. 2005, but its still only a shadow of what it once was.
Hauken Stormchaser
I want pre-CU back
Station.com : We got your game
Yeah?, Well i want it back!!!
During my last vet trial, which ended around June 9th, the best I saw was about 5 medium servers, a handfull of light servers, and the vast majority of servers remaining as very light.
However since the initilal month had past on AoC I created a trial account to take a look again and I did see one server go as high as heavy, but still it appears as though AoC has had an effect on SWG's population.
I wouldn't say that is a huge drop in numbers like most of you said AoC would have.
The other thing to look at too is AoC has had a drop in numbers over the past few weeks. The first two weeks of the game being out I saw most of the servers on Heavy to Full. Now most are staying around medium, it's kinda a shame as AoC is something "new" with MMO's, however I think groups of players have been turned off by it thanks to the state it's in right now.
Not saying AoC is bad is bad or anything... It still needs some work along with some new content put in and a few other things. Still AoC isn't the end all, be all game most people believed it would be.
I will say I have been playing less SWG in place of AoC myself, it's mostly due to the fact that I am somewhat burned out on SWG and well AoC is new and well I have kinda missed playing a game in a Fantasy setting.
You make a good point , but its a drop that shows a waning in the game nevertheless and if you check the two weeks in the middle , its a drop that has legs - and both of them are crippled.
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I think the important thing to take notice of is that many current subscribers are looking for an alternative to SWG. Of course SWG has it's die-hard players, but there seems to be so many people that are ready to move on to the next MMO when and if something intriguing comes along.
Investing time into an MMO where the community is ready to leave is very disheartening IMO.
Keep in mind that you have to take into account decay. Those lost officers were probably the lower ranking officers. The high level officers will stay officers longer until they decay down to rank 6 or whatever rank it is at which point decay stops.
Until you cancel your subscription, you are only helping to continue the cycle of mediocrity.
It 's really worce than that. When this "new" dev team took over, the GCW was almost 12,000, before the Chapter 6 Combat Downgrade. Then they started CHANGEING everything with new mini NGEs almost monthly.
Looks like about 1/3 are gone since a little over a year ago and more leaving. Our AoC guild is almost made up of "former" SWG subs.
And the GCW stats have something to do with log ins. My sub is canceled but has about 5 months remaining and my GCW General jedi is now gone off the list. Haven't loged in for about a month.
But, I'm almost sure they liked the fact that I'm outta there.
Proud to be 1 of the 50 vocal.
Jester, it is interesting you use those numbers --- I just posted on the swg forums about bh decline in the GCW use the most recent june 20th numbers and may 23rd.
Yanus, when you have time
It is the same info you have -- just a more in depth ---
I was using it to point out that a much larger percentage and number of Bh left the GCW last month.
I think the total GCW decline was about 10% --- however I think GCW can be misleading since they have made it much easier to maintain GCW rank in the past 6 months --- so I would imagine the actual population has dropped even more.
Jester, it is interesting you use those numbers --- I just posted on the swg forums about bh decline in the GCW use the most recent june 20th numbers and may 23rd.
Yanus, when you have time
It is the same info you have -- just a more in depth ---
I was using it to point out that a much larger percentage and number of Bh left the GCW last month.
I think the total GCW decline was about 10% --- however I think GCW can be misleading since they have made it much easier to maintain GCW rank in the past 6 months --- so I would imagine the actual population has dropped even more.
Congradulations on the ability on going more in depth. If a Bounty hunter has nothing to hunt , its time to hunt for a new game.
Unaware of the Jestor?
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Loved the last report btw!
I have plenty of people to hunt, even on a "light" server. The FOTM peeps always respec when a different profession gets the new shiny in a game update, so it's not suprising to see less Bounty Hunters.
And AoC looks to have no effect, since players appear to be leaving in droves. Just looking at AoC forum here it's all "Failcom", leaving for EQII, "game is boring", has less content than SWG at launch, which had none".
Wouldn't that be the "vocal minority"?
Few things to point out here as I've been playing MMO's for a damn long time. I'm talking I was playing Neverwinter Nights back when SSI made it and it was on AOL.
The first thing first, new games tend to have this trend (unless they have the name World and Warcraft somewhere in the title, we'll get to that in a few). Most Gamers will claim the new MMO is going to be the greatest game ever made and talk about how great it will be untill it comes out. Then the following tends to happen...
The first is you get a good amount of people who had their sights set a tad too high on the new MMO. When it turns out it's not the greatest MMO ever made, they get upset and go off on how "bad" it is and then leave the game sometime in the first two weeks or so.
Then you get people who play it for the first month or two, sometimes they stay as they do enjoy the game or like something about it, other times they leave. Most of the time it's due to friends from another MMO not enjoying it, and going back to whatever game they came from.
Lastly you have people that come in six months to a year after the game came out. I feel this happens due to a few things. Sometimes it's waiting to see how the game does after it's been out for sometime. Other times it's waiting for the big bugs to be stamped out. Other times it's just getting a new system or doing upgrades to run the game.
Note that from what I've seen this tends to be the trend unless you are dealing with WoW.
See in the case of WoW I believe it's due to this mindset that Gamers have about Blizzard. Namely this whole "Blizzard can never do any wrong!" idea that most tend to have. From what I've seen over the years you have a new MMO come out, and sometime into the first week all you see and hear on any forum is about how "bad" the game is and how whomever is running it sucks thanks to really anything... Take your pick from the long list of things that can (and will) go wrong with an MMO.
In the case of WoW however those who did point out that the game had faults of it's own be it bugs, lack of content, lag, whatever really... Those who did point those things out got blasted by the fanbase and flamed to high hell. I mean I'll come out and say it, WoW has some good things in it. But for the most part it's a better Everquest in my eyes.
Now this has gone on for years! The whole "(new MMO here) is going to kill (old MMO here)!" It doesn't, I mean if I had a dime for every time I heard someone say that about how a new MMO was going to kill Ultima Online, I'd be rolling in the money right now.
And chances are people will be saying the same things again in the next few months when Warhammer comes out. Maybe they will be saying it again when Stargate Worlds comes out. Hell I remember tons of people on the SOE SWG Forums claiming Dark and Light was going to kill SWG.
Point is, don't jump on the gun and scream "OMG (game here) is killing SWG cuz SWG sucks so much!" wait about six months THEN start screaming that.
Oh and to also point this out as well, most games when they have been out for a good number of years (unless it's WoW) tend to see a drop in players. More so now when we have 30+ MMO's out and in the works then years ago when we had 8.
Soemthing else to consider Gutboy is that people left SWG to try AoC for a reason. Even if some are coming back it does show that people are actively searching for a replacement to Galaxies.
My apologies for double posting. I wrote this as a tangent in another thread before discovering this one. I think it would be better suited in this discussion.
In a recent thread discussing AoC, a chart was posted to show just how "horrible" the sub numbers and sales for AoC were. I believe this was to suggest AoC was no danger to SWG (which is certainly debatable either way; personally, I think it might cause a short-term dip because it's new, but I think the core remaining SWG players are sci-fi/Star Wars fans and won't be turned on by fantasy games).
Post no. 136:
www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/182400/page/14
The chart came from this post:
wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/Epidemic-Obesity/Age-of-Conan-Desperate-for-Subscribers
A few days later, the same author recanted and completely changed his tune:
wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/Epidemic-Obesity/Age-of-Conan-Poised-to-Dominate-WoW/
The author's final conclusion:
"Following this research, I must apologize to my readers. I realize my last article was somewhat lacking when it comes to references, and I jumped to conclusions based on the information given to me by my inside operative. I can only thank you guys for pointing me in the right direction, as this new information has really opened my eyes."
"I just called my local Gamestop and placed a pre-order for my own copy of Age of Conan today. They were out of stock (of course!) but they promised me I could get a copy before the end of the month -- I can't wait!"
Just wanted to use this as an example of how fickle some players/reviewers can be. Sure, there's plenty of angst over on the AoC boards because there were some serious problems (apparently very little content past lvl 50 right now, for example). And there are plenty of people who enjoy the game and defend it staunchly. Eventually some haters will change their minds and grow to enjoy the game, and some who enjoy it will eventually say, "Bah, humbug."
Personally, I think those posts represent the two extremes, and there is probably an even bigger number of people who fall somewhere in the middle. In my opinion, I don't think we can look at the "Rome is burning" posts or the "greatest thing since sliced bread" posts and conclude that they represent the opinions of a large majority. As I said before, I think most of those posts represent each extreme.
In the immortal words of Dennis Miller, "Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong."
My apologies for double posting. I wrote this as a tangent in another thread before discovering this one. I think it would be better suited in this discussion.
In a recent thread discussing AoC, a chart was posted to show just how "horrible" the sub numbers and sales for AoC were. I believe this was to suggest AoC was no danger to SWG (which is certainly debatable either way; personally, I think it might cause a short-term dip because it's new, but I think the core remaining SWG players are sci-fi/Star Wars fans and won't be turned on by fantasy games).
Post no. 136:
www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/182400/page/14
The chart came from this post:
wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/Epidemic-Obesity/Age-of-Conan-Desperate-for-Subscribers
A few days later, the same author recanted and completely changed his tune:
wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/Epidemic-Obesity/Age-of-Conan-Poised-to-Dominate-WoW/
The author's final conclusion:
"Following this research, I must apologize to my readers. I realize my last article was somewhat lacking when it comes to references, and I jumped to conclusions based on the information given to me by my inside operative. I can only thank you guys for pointing me in the right direction, as this new information has really opened my eyes."
"I just called my local Gamestop and placed a pre-order for my own copy of Age of Conan today. They were out of stock (of course!) but they promised me I could get a copy before the end of the month -- I can't wait!"
Just wanted to use this as an example of how fickle some players/reviewers can be. Sure, there's plenty of angst over on the AoC boards because there were some serious problems (apparently very little content past lvl 50 right now, for example). And there are plenty of people who enjoy the game and defend it staunchly. Eventually some haters will change their minds and grow to enjoy the game, and some who enjoy it will eventually say, "Bah, humbug."
Personally, I think those posts represent the two extremes, and there is probably an even bigger number of people who fall somewhere in the middle. In my opinion, I don't think we can look at the "Rome is burning" posts or the "greatest thing since sliced bread" posts and conclude that they represent the opinions of a large majority. As I said before, I think most of those posts represent each extreme.
In the immortal words of Dennis Miller, "Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong."
No church is perfect but at least you do not have Rev Smedley at the Pulpit.
Unaware of the Jestor?
http://about.me/JestorRodo/
Friends enjoy his classic Vblog - https://www.facebook.com/GoodOldReliableNathan
My apologies for double posting. I wrote this as a tangent in another thread before discovering this one. I think it would be better suited in this discussion.
In a recent thread discussing AoC, a chart was posted to show just how "horrible" the sub numbers and sales for AoC were. I believe this was to suggest AoC was no danger to SWG (which is certainly debatable either way; personally, I think it might cause a short-term dip because it's new, but I think the core remaining SWG players are sci-fi/Star Wars fans and won't be turned on by fantasy games).
Post no. 136:
www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/182400/page/14
The chart came from this post:
wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/Epidemic-Obesity/Age-of-Conan-Desperate-for-Subscribers
A few days later, the same author recanted and completely changed his tune:
wowriot.gameriot.com/blogs/Epidemic-Obesity/Age-of-Conan-Poised-to-Dominate-WoW/
The author's final conclusion:
"Following this research, I must apologize to my readers. I realize my last article was somewhat lacking when it comes to references, and I jumped to conclusions based on the information given to me by my inside operative. I can only thank you guys for pointing me in the right direction, as this new information has really opened my eyes."
"I just called my local Gamestop and placed a pre-order for my own copy of Age of Conan today. They were out of stock (of course!) but they promised me I could get a copy before the end of the month -- I can't wait!"
Just wanted to use this as an example of how fickle some players/reviewers can be. Sure, there's plenty of angst over on the AoC boards because there were some serious problems (apparently very little content past lvl 50 right now, for example). And there are plenty of people who enjoy the game and defend it staunchly. Eventually some haters will change their minds and grow to enjoy the game, and some who enjoy it will eventually say, "Bah, humbug."
Personally, I think those posts represent the two extremes, and there is probably an even bigger number of people who fall somewhere in the middle. In my opinion, I don't think we can look at the "Rome is burning" posts or the "greatest thing since sliced bread" posts and conclude that they represent the opinions of a large majority. As I said before, I think most of those posts represent each extreme.
In the immortal words of Dennis Miller, "Of course that's just my opinion, I could be wrong."
No church is perfect but at least you do not have Rev Smedley at the Pulpit.
AMEN
Have to quote myself to show the effect of the free trial now being offered by SOE for SWG until 7/31.
Unaware of the Jestor?
http://about.me/JestorRodo/
Friends enjoy his classic Vblog - https://www.facebook.com/GoodOldReliableNathan
ok I'll bite because Jestor's thread are always a bit around humour.
You know that lots of those vets that returned have never been officers...and those that reached officer status in the past lost it in the period they have been unsubscribed (there is gcw status decay).
I'm not talking if the number of officers is high or low, I don't really know what % of a server population reach that status, probably it depends on each server.
Oh and AoC seem to be another fuckup by Funcom, heavyly advertised game not delivering.
well from what i see of AoC player numbers being a player and all, early morning the servers are all at med load thats 9 am till i go to work..
Eat your heart out $OE
Game plays very well its not at benny hill speed but its got a great combat system..
missions run smooth yet to see one not working unlike some other gameing companys.
that is all..
Game plays very well its not at benny hill speed but its got a great combat system..
missions run smooth yet to see one not working unlike some other gameing companys.
that is all..
You know, I would like to try AOC but have a few general questions. I am a huge fan of the Conan novels, but my computer is several years old and I heard my PC would struggle to run the game. Even playing SWG I have to set my stuff pretty low...
In your opinion, how much of a system hog is it?
Please tell me which missions don't work for you. Really.
I have not had any mission not be able to be completed in a VERY long time.
Game plays very well its not at benny hill speed but its got a great combat system..
missions run smooth yet to see one not working unlike some other gameing companys.
that is all..
You know, I would like to try AOC but have a few general questions. I am a huge fan of the Conan novels, but my computer is several years old and I heard my PC would struggle to run the game. Even playing SWG I have to set my stuff pretty low...
In your opinion, how much of a system hog is it?
It's a system hog if you are running it on High, and I do. Also the game looks to be buggy with ALOT of things as well. Many people running ATI Cards (myself being one of them) have had alot of things happen in game. A few weeks ago I was getting Blue Screen's of Death thanks to this, I did get the game to work right after turning the shaders down from 3.0 to 2.0 and well we don't know yet if it's due to the ATI Cards or multi core CPU's.
Right now AoC's support system does suck big time. I don't think they saw the big numbers coming into the game I have heard they are planning on hiring more Support people and the Dev's have been trying to get things fixed. I mean remember AoC is a very new game, and really the last good MMO launch I remember was Final Fantasy 11... More due to it being out in Japan for a year before coming State side.
As for Game Play.... Well it needs some balance work for PvP, however the game does work in PvE.
In PvP Mage Classes rule the game, it's mostly due to those classes being able to pull off higher damaging hits and what not. Melee Classes are good, it's just you have to be very quick about timing and what not. Still get used to getting killed by some mage player running and jumping around casting spell after spell. Oh and NPC Mages also tend to tear you to shreds, I'm not crying nerf but they really need to do something to lessen the damage from spells.
Crafting could be alot better, infact the whole item system can use an overhaul. Right now in game I'm useing a pair of light armor boots that you can get at level 40, I'm 68 and I have yet to find anything better then those. Crafted items work a little like Diablo, where you get an item and need to put a Gem into it, not a bad idea but the Gems feel very random.
Still for all of that the Melee Combat System is very good and alot of fun. It feels much more 'real' then other MMO's. The low fantasy setting is nice, and it's nice to see an MMO going with this rather then the normal AD&D/Lord of the Rings clones you get. And for me the game is getting a good amount of Role Players running around.
Still the game isn't some mind blowing new title, it's a fun new title that has some good ideas. However the game needs some more polish. Still AoC suffers much like SWG, you have tons of people that just had their hopes set WAY too high and now are upset that AoC isn't this mind blowing "It's going to change everything!" game.
Give the game a few months that is really all I have to say.