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why must a game have hundreds of thousands of players for people to consider playing it.
SgtFrog
Member Posts: 5,001
why does player numbers matter so mush to some people. player number does not mean a game is any good. as long as there is one active server it should be enough for most. your never gonna play or need to play with 500k players....
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
Comments
Because the games are supposed to be MMO's. To break it down That is MASSIVELY which indicates more than a few hundred people. MULTIPLAYER, because well, we are not looking to play single player games (Despite the people who cry when everything is not soloable) and ONLINE. Put the three together, people want to be in large scale gaming environments where it is common to be playing with hundreds and thousands of people, regardless of their personal play time in an Online universe. If we do not play a game with a large enough community, we may as well be playing a single player game.
most servers only hold 5000 players. so you will never play with those 100k...
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
Have to be alittle more specific.... But there are many reasons... They dont know about the game, Less people playing a game means... less people talking about the game, which also means most likely there friend isnt going to bring them along, For what ever reason the game just doesnt appeal to a player. There already playing other mmo's big and small. There are people out there that play mmos and have never played Wow... and never will. I wouldnt have myself if it wasnt for certain reviews and friends which got me to start looking into it and see what its about, then finally trying it. Which are things smaller games tend not to get , attention and press.
Also forgot, bigger game... more servers.... which equal more people playing in your timezone at the same time you are. Or in some cases playing on a server outside your timezone because the peak hours of when you can be on.
I think Sunder summed it up pretty well.
In an MMO, people want to have the experience of playing with a lot of different people. Plus...these MMO's usually have fairly large worlds, so if there is not a lot of people to populate that world, the world will seem completely empty, taking away the vast majority of the MMO gaming experience. So...you don't need a ton of different people, but u need a fair amount for the size of the world in a single server.
most servers only hold 5000 players. so you will never play with those 100k...
Most servers donot have more than 5k people, but that number is growing as technoglogy permits more people in close proximity. That aside, while each server only has a certain amount of people on at one time, unless there ARE those 100k players TOTAL to support having 5k CONSTANT, you will never see many people at all. An MMO is supposed to be about community and interaction. Not playing a solo game. If you do not have enough people AVAILABLE, you end up playing Solo. If I want to be in a game with only a few people, I can host a lan party.
Doesn't really answer his question. Like people post all the time "Are people still playing this game?" when its obvious they are because the servers are still up. His point is WoW has tons of servers but you're only playing with a tiny fraction. Lots of people won't play games that don't have a lot of servers and people because they think it will ruin their experience and his point is (I think...) that is shouldn't change the experience because you're playing with 5000 people, not 10 million.
I have thought about the exact same thing lately and I think that it's more like a safety blanket.
More subs equals more/better devs equals better content and better polish. After that it's a snowball effect leading back to the subs, even more great content yadda yadda.
So, if I jump into a game with several hundred thousands players total I expect polish and better content than elsewhere.
The reason people play mmoprgs instead of single player rpgs is that they want the unpredictability of real player involvement. If I want to talk to npc's I will play a single player game if I want to interact with real players I play mmorpgs. First off if a game only has a few hundred players you have to think of what the community consists of. Often those are the developers themselves, their friends and family for the most part and not so many other gamers. People have different personalities, tastes and common interests. Even in a game that has hundreds of thousands of players it is still hard to find players you want to talk to that have enough in common with you to carry on decent conversations. I for one cannot stand a community that is made up of those trying to sell a game like a vaccum cleaner salesman and are over defensive to constructive criticism, or a community that is made up of kids of the developers playing, or a community that consists of spamming kids. I like to talk to people in the 18- 30 range that have common interests, and that in itself is hard enough to find in larger games and impossible to find in smaller ones.
better chance of finding othe people in the game that share you views (as in like lvling and such)?
Like in wow you try to impress 10million people with ur high ass rating and being the first guild to down a boss.
If there's just one large server with the entire player base, a couple dozen k people is pretty good.. EvE's got what, 20-35k people on at any given time? That's a lot of variety.
The ability to go off adventuring on one's own does not negate the fact that one is still a part of a massive persistent world. Using the markets makes one take part, for instance. The view that soloing is anti-mmorpg means that almost all crafters should not be playing an mmo, and thats a silly view.
The reason i play Online games is for the Crafting, If i could find a Game that had it i would be playing that instead.
"A tale in the desert" is 100% crafting only, and is pretty deep at doing it (example: want to make a blade for your woodcarving device? then pickup your mallet and manually pound the blade into shape, literally. The closer you get to the optimum design the better your blade performs)
Doesn't really answer his question. Like people post all the time "Are people still playing this game?" when its obvious they are because the servers are still up. His point is WoW has tons of servers but you're only playing with a tiny fraction. Lots of people won't play games that don't have a lot of servers and people because they think it will ruin their experience and his point is (I think...) that is shouldn't change the experience because you're playing with 5000 people, not 10 million.
Now see thats more specific.... What I'm trying to say is if you havent played the game... you don't know what the experience is. Then all you have to go by is press and others... posting pictures... videos... etc... whose going to give you more info.. the game thats got 10 million.... or the one with thousands.... While that shouldnt change your ideal of a game while playing... It can affect if you choose to even try (download or play) If the game is great (in the way the player wants!)... I doubt many are going to walk way cause it doesnt have millons.... Its more about giving it a try.. I'd say....
The ability to go off adventuring on one's own does not negate the fact that one is still a part of a massive persistent world. Using the markets makes one take part, for instance. The view that soloing is anti-mmorpg means that almost all crafters should not be playing an mmo, and thats a silly view.
There is a distinct difference in people wanting to adventure alone, and the people who crythey are being "Forced" to group because content in the game is not 100% solo friendly. As for crafters, they are at least crafting to supply goods for the community. You mistook the view that was presented. There are times when I adventure alone, and enjoy solo content. There are aspects to a game that should in NO way be able to be overcome by solo players, or even small groups. Some things SHOULD take larger scale interaction. (And I am not a major raider, and am fine with not experiencing some content of a game because I choose not to raid) Dumbing down a games challenge and content because people think theyshould be able to solo everything does more harm to the game than good.
There are dozens of games that don't have hundreds of thousands of players, so the premise of your question is faulty.
But if you really mean, "why do people PREFER to play games with hundreds of thousands of players?" then the most logical answer is that
1. they must be doing something right if so many people play it;
2. the more players a game has, the more revenue it will generate, the more likely it is that the developers will continue to add content and provide good support, and the longer it will likely be around.
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im to lazy too use grammar or punctuation good
Well majority of people are sheep and tend to flock to the biggest herd. Although there are also other reasons I'd imagine, but games with fewer subs don't mean it has low population per server. So long as they maintain the appropriate amount of servers for their current populations the game should be fine.
"A tale in the desert" is 100% crafting only, and is pretty deep at doing it (example: want to make a blade for your woodcarving device? then pickup your mallet and manually pound the blade into shape, literally. The closer you get to the optimum design the better your blade performs)
I did the Beta a long time ago. then again with 2 or 3, Sorry i cannot remember.
Sometime i can remember every game i have played in a flash, sometimes i cannot remember leaving the stove on, which can get to be a REAL pain on Pots N Pans..... HEHEHEH. I will check it out again to RE fresh my silly memory. Old age and strokes don't help the memory.
Have fun....
Easier to get a group with lots of people
Makes the world feel more "alive"
No ghost towns
Larger economy
People to interact with
and several other reasons imo.
Ahh, the Frog is back
Anyway, IMHO, it doesn't matter entirely on how many subs the game has. The thing that scares me is empty worlds, that is what I HATE. I hate when the world around me is not crowded. I don't enjoy having a tough time grouping, that is what usually comes with an empty world.
So, I don't care if a game has low subs, as long as I see people when I play....you get my point?
P.S. I'm PMing you...have some questions on L2.
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In memory of Laura "Taera" Genender. Passed away on Aug/13/08 - Rest In Peace; you will not be forgotten
Most aspects of a MMORPG require a decent player base to function. A large part of current games is the economy and that requires a set player base to function properly. If the servers are empty then there is no one farming those commons that everyone needs to craft or eat or whatever. Games are geared towards a set number player base. So when the population starts to drop that's why they start combining servers.
And ultimately we're looking at a major time investment. No one wants to join a sinking ship.
What I still wonder is why does anyone join a MMORPG before it has time to settle?
My belief is that those people are the ones that want to get in there first, be the first to kill any of the mobs, visit the farthest reaches of the world, hit the level cap and all that junk. They derive pleasure from being "the first" even though in the long run it might not get them anything.
No required quests! And if I decide I want to be an assassin-cartographer-dancer-pastry chef who lives only to stalk and kill interior decorators, then that's who I want to be, even if it takes me four years to max all the skills and everyone else thinks I'm freaking nuts. -Madimorga-
"Because the games are supposed to be MMO's. To break it down That is MASSIVELY which indicates more than a few hundred people. "
I don't think I know 100 people. To me that is massive enough. I don't need a million people typing leet speak into the chat areas and hurting my eyes...
That Guild Wars 2 login screen knocked up my wife. Must be the second coming!
I see so many people who complain about low numbers but also whine about not enough solo content.
Hold on Snow Leopard, imma let you finish, but Windows had one of the best operating systems of all time.
If the Powerball lottery was like Lotro, nobody would win for 2 years, and then everyone in Nebraska would win on the same day.
And then Nebraska would get nerfed.-pinkwood lotro fourms
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