I'm a fan of Xfire but there is no way these figures are even remotely accurate. A game can just not drop this far in a couple of days.
It seems strange sure, but something very odd happened to the xfire sto community. I looked back and no other game had a large drop over the last few days that would make me think this is something wide spread affect all of the communities. It could be an isolated glitch related to how sto gets monitored I don't know. On the other hand, is there anything that could make roughly 98% of the xfire sto community stop playing? Oh yeah their 45 day miracle patch they've been hyping for the last 2-3 months that they weren't able to produce on time. That was initially slated to go live thursday but was later changed to go live the 18th through the 31st. I think a lot of people decided to not bother waiting anymore. The population in game has been dwindling for the last couple of weeks, just not this dramatically. I guess the next few days will determine if this is something that can be generalized to the larger sto population.
I guess by now it could be a snowball effect. People log in, see hardly anyone is online on a weekend, and then go cancel their sub because nobody likes to be on a sinking ship. Maybe this is even a unique drawback of a single server architecture? Every player can easily see at all times just how the population is doing, with multi server games there is still the hope for servermerges etc making everything magical alright ...
Might also be a problem thats magnified because of how the instancing works in STO. If there are 50 player total in sol base for example, they wont all be put in the same instance(even though the limit is 50), instead the game logic makes 4-5 instances with 10-12 players each. Now assume you need about 50 people inside sol to make the station feel "lively", the people would be there, they are just scattered over several instances. If that would be true for combat instances etc as well(not sure there) the game might feel empty even though its not(well its now, but talking about the process here).
Apparently Xfire is having issues detecting the game with the new patch or something. It seemed way to odd to have such a drop in users over 2 days so I went and did research. The game is probably losing subs left and right still, but I'm pretty sure the mass fall it is having is due to xfire not being able to detect it correctly.
Edit: Scroll down half way to see the current issue.
http://www.xfire.com/forums/182686/topic/1595966/?p=2 Apparently Xfire is having issues detecting the game with the new patch or something. It seemed way to odd to have such a drop in users over 2 days so I went and did research. The game is probably losing subs left and right still, but I'm pretty sure the mass fall it is having is due to xfire not being able to detect it correctly.
Edit: Scroll down half way to see the current issue.
Which DOES explain why there is no panic on the official STO forums ...
Edit: Xfire should take STO out of the ranking until the problems are fixed, even if the problem is on STOs side.
http://www.xfire.com/forums/182686/topic/1595966/?p=2 Apparently Xfire is having issues detecting the game with the new patch or something. It seemed way to odd to have such a drop in users over 2 days so I went and did research. The game is probably losing subs left and right still, but I'm pretty sure the mass fall it is having is due to xfire not being able to detect it correctly.
Edit: Scroll down half way to see the current issue.
I think Sheldon said it best, "Bazinga."
EDIT: I prefer and use Raptr over Xfire. Xfire will never record my STO playtime.
As for previous comments about Cryptic's name being toxic, I'm not so sure; if you look at most of the people talking about their games, the vast majority of it is completely blaming Atari for 'forcing' Cryptic into releasing CO and STO far too early. This is despite the fact that Cryptic was beating the short development cycle drum before Atari came on the scene. I think Cryptic will try to spin things so that it was all Atari's fault, when in truth both are to blame, and they may offer up Bill Roper as an additional sacrificial lamb. If they beat that drum enough, quite a few people will actually believe them.
People keep wanting to think Cryptic has the same relationship with Atari that they used to have with NCsoft. But they don't; they're owned by Atari -- they're the same company. If there's a lousy episode of "Chuck," you don't blame General Electric (or Comcast, or Sheinhardt Wigs or Kabletown). If there's a lousy episode of "Fringe," you don't blame NewsCorp. Executive meddling can cause huge problems, but generally speaking, if something has gone wrong creatively, the people most responsible are the people closest to the creative process.
As for Xfire numbers, I always think they're an interesting but flawed measure of how a game is doing. But STO skews older, has loads of players who are new to online gaming, and isn't very PvP focused. I can't think of a game Xfire numbers are less applicable to. Of course that doesn't mean the game isn't falling apart.
Well, I've always scoffed at Xfire being used as a measure of an MMORPG's popularity....
But even I have to admit that such a dramatic decline can't bode well, Xfire numbers or no. Then again, I pretty much expected STO to crash and burn, so this doesn't exactly come as a surprise to me.
However, in this case there is other evidence that supports the Xfire numbers the MMORPG.com ratings, critic reviews, buzz on various forums (like this one), et cetera.
Currently Playing: EVE Online Retired From: UO, FFXI, AO, SWG, Ryzom, GW, WoW, WAR
http://www.xfire.com/forums/182686/topic/1595966/?p=2 Apparently Xfire is having issues detecting the game with the new patch or something. It seemed way to odd to have such a drop in users over 2 days so I went and did research. The game is probably losing subs left and right still, but I'm pretty sure the mass fall it is having is due to xfire not being able to detect it correctly.
Edit: Scroll down half way to see the current issue.
Yes, there does seem to be a problem and that would correlate to the dramatic fall (should of done some research), though the troll In me is disappointed, sad I know but well see how this turns out over the next few weeks.
Cal..
This doom and gloom thread was brought to you by Chin Up the new ultra high caffeine soft drink for gamers who just need that boost of happiness after a long forum session.
After being disappointed twice by cryptic with CO and STO, the chances of me buying another cryptic product are between zero and none. I just don't have any faith that cryptic wouldn't produce something that felt like CO with a very thin covering of NWN or whatever genre they decide to produce next.
According to statements made in Atari's recent financial reports, they were working on a "D&D and AD&D inspired MMO." While it doesn't necessarily state that it was NWN, that was the most logical choice. However, with Hasbro's lawsuit to revoke that license away from Atari, whatever the D&D MMO was going to be is now hold pending the final outcome. I wouldn't want to be in Atari's shoes right now, as their own financial report statements give ammunition to both Turbine and Atari's lawsuits; while anything can still happen, it's a close to a sure thing as you can get in a lawsuit.
As for previous comments about Cryptic's name being toxic, I'm not so sure; if you look at most of the people talking about their games, the vast majority of it is completely blaming Atari for 'forcing' Cryptic into releasing CO and STO far too early. This is despite the fact that Cryptic was beating the short development cycle drum before Atari came on the scene. I think Cryptic will try to spin things so that it was all Atari's fault, when in truth both are to blame, and they may offer up Bill Roper as an additional sacrificial lamb. If they beat that drum enough, quite a few people will actually believe them.
As well as the reasons you listed, Atari can't force Cryptic to do anything because Cryptic is wholly owned by Atari. Saying "Atari forced Cryptic to do this" is like me saying "I forced my hands to type this message. They didn't want to, but, by golly, I made them do it!
Amazing... its down to rank 395 now. There must be somethng wrong here, never seen anything remotely like this before. It has dropped more than 200 ranks since YESTERDAY!
Yeah, I was wondering what the numbers would be when I checked this morning, I figured it'd be at somewhere around #148-#156.
Wow... #395... I knew this game was a turd the entire time, and I knew it wouldn't be anything huge, but to drop this far in such a short time... Is there some sort of virus or worm circulating the net that blocks STO players from submitting XFire numbers? Is there some sort of external source of these troubles?
Originally posted by Xondar123 Wow... #395... I knew this game was a turd the entire time, and I knew it wouldn't be anything huge, but to drop this far in such a short time... Is there some sort of virus or worm circulating the net that blocks STO players from submitting XFire numbers? Is there some sort of external source of these troubles?
See post #58. It has already been explained in the link. Even the Xfire staff confirmed and looking into it.
http://www.xfire.com/forums/182686/topic/1595966/?p=2 Apparently Xfire is having issues detecting the game with the new patch or something. It seemed way to odd to have such a drop in users over 2 days so I went and did research. The game is probably losing subs left and right still, but I'm pretty sure the mass fall it is having is due to xfire not being able to detect it correctly.
Edit: Scroll down half way to see the current issue.
Yes, there does seem to be a problem and that would correlate to the dramatic fall (should of done some research), though the troll In me is disappointed, sad I know but well see how this turns out over the next few weeks.
Cal..
Wonder if it has anything to do with the prepatch they're doing for the 45 day update? I think they started that on weds.
Originally posted by Xondar123 Wow... #395... I knew this game was a turd the entire time, and I knew it wouldn't be anything huge, but to drop this far in such a short time... Is there some sort of virus or worm circulating the net that blocks STO players from submitting XFire numbers? Is there some sort of external source of these troubles?
See post #58. It has already been explained in the link. Even the Xfire staff confirmed and looking into it.
After being disappointed twice by cryptic with CO and STO, the chances of me buying another cryptic product are between zero and none. I just don't have any faith that cryptic wouldn't produce something that felt like CO with a very thin covering of NWN or whatever genre they decide to produce next.
According to statements made in Atari's recent financial reports, they were working on a "D&D and AD&D inspired MMO." While it doesn't necessarily state that it was NWN, that was the most logical choice. However, with Hasbro's lawsuit to revoke that license away from Atari, whatever the D&D MMO was going to be is now hold pending the final outcome. I wouldn't want to be in Atari's shoes right now, as their own financial report statements give ammunition to both Turbine and Atari's lawsuits; while anything can still happen, it's a close to a sure thing as you can get in a lawsuit. As for previous comments about Cryptic's name being toxic, I'm not so sure; if you look at most of the people talking about their games, the vast majority of it is completely blaming Atari for 'forcing' Cryptic into releasing CO and STO far too early. This is despite the fact that Cryptic was beating the short development cycle drum before Atari came on the scene. I think Cryptic will try to spin things so that it was all Atari's fault, when in truth both are to blame, and they may offer up Bill Roper as an additional sacrificial lamb. If they beat that drum enough, quite a few people will actually believe them.
As well as the reasons you listed, Atari can't force Cryptic to do anything because Cryptic is wholly owned by Atari. Saying "Atari forced Cryptic to do this" is like me saying "I forced my hands to type this message. They didn't want to, but, by golly, I made them do it!
My understanding was that CBS (holders of the STO licence) and not Atari were the ones who forced Cryptic to launch so early.
Not sure how much stock I put into that though.
As for the new sub 300 rank, this is definitely a bug. There's no way any game can fall this far so fast. And frankly I logged in and while the game isn't crawling with players it's not a ghost town either.
Xfire has things like this happen all the time, it's the fact that the patch probably messed with the bin file or the exe and xfire isn't able to detect it because of that. The rankings are based on daily usage not overall usage so there is no point in taking it down, won't effect it in the long run.
My understanding was that CBS (holders of the STO licence) and not Atari were the ones who forced Cryptic to launch so early. Not sure how much stock I put into that though.
Put no stock into it. That sounds like something that was made up by some fanboy whose feelings get hurt whenever someone criticizes Cryptic/Atari. CBS is busy being a successful broadcasting company and studio (and co-owning a failing one) to concern itself so directly with something it's only getting a paltry licensing fee for. CBS will make more off a single episode of "The Big Bang Theory" than it will make off six months of Star Trek Online.
Still intresting to see that some ppl are not affected by this patch ??? If patch is causing it then shouldn't everyone been cut off from it ?
The prepatch starts to load after you cancel the game and it's not mandatory yet. Maybe the few that are left are the ones who didn't download it yet? Would it matter that much if it was a digital dl vs boxed copy? Shouldn't the code basically be pretty much identical?
My understanding was that CBS (holders of the STO licence) and not Atari were the ones who forced Cryptic to launch so early. Not sure how much stock I put into that though.
Put no stock into it. That sounds like something that was made up by some fanboy whose feelings get hurt whenever someone criticizes Cryptic/Atari. CBS is busy being a successful broadcasting company and studio (and co-owning a failing one) to concern itself so directly with something it's only getting a paltry licensing fee for. CBS will make more off a single episode of "The Big Bang Theory" than it will make off six months of Star Trek Online.
Not to mention Cryptic and Atari have been boasting that they can make MMOs in 2 1/2 years.
Not to mention Cryptic and Atari have been boasting that they can make MMOs in 2 1/2 years.
It doesn't get any more clear-cut than that, does it? Self-incrimination at its finest.
Anyway, every game developed by Cryptic Studios to date has been feature-lite and nearly devoid of content, not only on release day but also a year or two down the road. City of Heroes succeeded largely because it was the world's first supers MMORPG, and comic fans were willing to overlook grave shortcomings for the chance to play a superhero online. The costume design system was also revolutionary for the time, and that helped, too.
It still might have failed, but apparently it's been greatly enhanced over the years through the various expansions. That couldn't have happened if it had tanked out of the gate, though.
So I knew from the get-go that Star Trek Online would bomb. Science fiction fans will be far less tolerant of shallow, content-lite games, especially in 2010 when the genre is much larger and offers gamers far more options than when CoH released in 2004.
----------------------
But, I'm probably preaching to the choir here. Carry on.
Currently Playing: EVE Online Retired From: UO, FFXI, AO, SWG, Ryzom, GW, WoW, WAR
Originally posted by TheAesthete Originally posted by Vagrant_Zero
My understanding was that CBS (holders of the STO licence) and not Atari were the ones who forced Cryptic to launch so early. Not sure how much stock I put into that though.
Put no stock into it. That sounds like something that was made up by some fanboy whose feelings get hurt whenever someone criticizes Cryptic/Atari. CBS is busy being a successful broadcasting company and studio (and co-owning a failing one) to concern itself so directly with something it's only getting a paltry licensing fee for. CBS will make more off a single episode of "The Big Bang Theory" than it will make off six months of Star Trek Online.
I personally don't believe it. However it is worth mentioning that it wasn't a random fanboy that stated the CBS thing, it was Craig something-or-other (he's got a really jewish last name that's impossible to remember). He's one of the lead devs on STO.
With that said Cryptic was bought by Atari to push out MMOs once every 1.5-2 years so I figure STO launched exactly when it was intended too.
http://www.xfire.com/forums/182686/topic/1595966/?p=2 Apparently Xfire is having issues detecting the game with the new patch or something. It seemed way to odd to have such a drop in users over 2 days so I went and did research. The game is probably losing subs left and right still, but I'm pretty sure the mass fall it is having is due to xfire not being able to detect it correctly.
Edit: Scroll down half way to see the current issue.
Which DOES explain why there is no panic on the official STO forums ...
Edit: Xfire should take STO out of the ranking until the problems are fixed, even if the problem is on STOs side.
Xfire rankings are worthless. Not only are games being sold through their services these days but it is easy to climb on that list.
Just an example: there is no possibiltiy in the world that a game like "Heroes of Newerth" (sic) is being played as much as Counterstrike etc...
It is easy enough these days to duplicate IP adresses running with the game's client and add a few dozen playing sessions from just one machine. With a few of these machines you could climb up the ladder in no time to reach 2K or 3K player sessions.
Look at games like HoN and Aion and see how wildly they change in the graphs on an even monthly basis (not talking about the weekend play). http://www.xfire.com/games/aion/Aion/
Having on/off 30% difference between different weekends demonstrates the sampling is surely not consistent.
As for ST: it is simple: the Xfire client is not working in the case of ST.
Want a real mmorpg? Play WOW with experience turned off mode and be Pve_Pvp King at any level without a rat race.
Comments
I'm a fan of Xfire but there is no way these figures are even remotely accurate. A game can just not drop this far in a couple of days.
I don't need to see xFire #'s to know how bad the game is; I played it at launch.
It seems strange sure, but something very odd happened to the xfire sto community. I looked back and no other game had a large drop over the last few days that would make me think this is something wide spread affect all of the communities. It could be an isolated glitch related to how sto gets monitored I don't know. On the other hand, is there anything that could make roughly 98% of the xfire sto community stop playing? Oh yeah their 45 day miracle patch they've been hyping for the last 2-3 months that they weren't able to produce on time. That was initially slated to go live thursday but was later changed to go live the 18th through the 31st. I think a lot of people decided to not bother waiting anymore. The population in game has been dwindling for the last couple of weeks, just not this dramatically. I guess the next few days will determine if this is something that can be generalized to the larger sto population.
I guess by now it could be a snowball effect. People log in, see hardly anyone is online on a weekend, and then go cancel their sub because nobody likes to be on a sinking ship. Maybe this is even a unique drawback of a single server architecture? Every player can easily see at all times just how the population is doing, with multi server games there is still the hope for servermerges etc making everything magical alright ...
Might also be a problem thats magnified because of how the instancing works in STO. If there are 50 player total in sol base for example, they wont all be put in the same instance(even though the limit is 50), instead the game logic makes 4-5 instances with 10-12 players each. Now assume you need about 50 people inside sol to make the station feel "lively", the people would be there, they are just scattered over several instances. If that would be true for combat instances etc as well(not sure there) the game might feel empty even though its not(well its now, but talking about the process here).
http://www.xfire.com/forums/182686/topic/1595966/?p=2
Apparently Xfire is having issues detecting the game with the new patch or something. It seemed way to odd to have such a drop in users over 2 days so I went and did research. The game is probably losing subs left and right still, but I'm pretty sure the mass fall it is having is due to xfire not being able to detect it correctly.
Edit: Scroll down half way to see the current issue.
Which DOES explain why there is no panic on the official STO forums ...
Edit: Xfire should take STO out of the ranking until the problems are fixed, even if the problem is on STOs side.
I think Sheldon said it best, "Bazinga."
EDIT: I prefer and use Raptr over Xfire. Xfire will never record my STO playtime.
.. .... .- - . - .-. --- .-.. .-.. ... .-- .... --- .-. . .--. --- .-. - .-.-.-
--------------------------------------------------------
Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate.
People keep wanting to think Cryptic has the same relationship with Atari that they used to have with NCsoft. But they don't; they're owned by Atari -- they're the same company. If there's a lousy episode of "Chuck," you don't blame General Electric (or Comcast, or Sheinhardt Wigs or Kabletown). If there's a lousy episode of "Fringe," you don't blame NewsCorp. Executive meddling can cause huge problems, but generally speaking, if something has gone wrong creatively, the people most responsible are the people closest to the creative process.
As for Xfire numbers, I always think they're an interesting but flawed measure of how a game is doing. But STO skews older, has loads of players who are new to online gaming, and isn't very PvP focused. I can't think of a game Xfire numbers are less applicable to. Of course that doesn't mean the game isn't falling apart.
Well, I've always scoffed at Xfire being used as a measure of an MMORPG's popularity....
But even I have to admit that such a dramatic decline can't bode well, Xfire numbers or no. Then again, I pretty much expected STO to crash and burn, so this doesn't exactly come as a surprise to me.
However, in this case there is other evidence that supports the Xfire numbers the MMORPG.com ratings, critic reviews, buzz on various forums (like this one), et cetera.
Currently Playing: EVE Online
Retired From: UO, FFXI, AO, SWG, Ryzom, GW, WoW, WAR
Yes, there does seem to be a problem and that would correlate to the dramatic fall (should of done some research), though the troll In me is disappointed, sad I know but well see how this turns out over the next few weeks.
Cal..
This doom and gloom thread was brought to you by Chin Up the new ultra high caffeine soft drink for gamers who just need that boost of happiness after a long forum session.
According to statements made in Atari's recent financial reports, they were working on a "D&D and AD&D inspired MMO." While it doesn't necessarily state that it was NWN, that was the most logical choice. However, with Hasbro's lawsuit to revoke that license away from Atari, whatever the D&D MMO was going to be is now hold pending the final outcome. I wouldn't want to be in Atari's shoes right now, as their own financial report statements give ammunition to both Turbine and Atari's lawsuits; while anything can still happen, it's a close to a sure thing as you can get in a lawsuit.
As for previous comments about Cryptic's name being toxic, I'm not so sure; if you look at most of the people talking about their games, the vast majority of it is completely blaming Atari for 'forcing' Cryptic into releasing CO and STO far too early. This is despite the fact that Cryptic was beating the short development cycle drum before Atari came on the scene. I think Cryptic will try to spin things so that it was all Atari's fault, when in truth both are to blame, and they may offer up Bill Roper as an additional sacrificial lamb. If they beat that drum enough, quite a few people will actually believe them.
As well as the reasons you listed, Atari can't force Cryptic to do anything because Cryptic is wholly owned by Atari. Saying "Atari forced Cryptic to do this" is like me saying "I forced my hands to type this message. They didn't want to, but, by golly, I made them do it!
Yeah, I was wondering what the numbers would be when I checked this morning, I figured it'd be at somewhere around #148-#156.
Wow... #395... I knew this game was a turd the entire time, and I knew it wouldn't be anything huge, but to drop this far in such a short time... Is there some sort of virus or worm circulating the net that blocks STO players from submitting XFire numbers? Is there some sort of external source of these troubles?
This fast and far of a drop is just incredible...
See post #58. It has already been explained in the link. Even the Xfire staff confirmed and looking into it.
No drama, just a bug.
.. .... .- - . - .-. --- .-.. .-.. ... .-- .... --- .-. . .--. --- .-. - .-.-.-
--------------------------------------------------------
Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate.
Yes, there does seem to be a problem and that would correlate to the dramatic fall (should of done some research), though the troll In me is disappointed, sad I know but well see how this turns out over the next few weeks.
Cal..
Wonder if it has anything to do with the prepatch they're doing for the 45 day update? I think they started that on weds.
See post #58. It has already been explained in the link. Even the Xfire staff confirmed and looking into it.
No drama, just a bug.
Yeah, saw that way after I wrote my post.
Still intresting to see that some ppl are not affected by this patch ??? If patch is causing it then shouldn't everyone been cut off from it ?
They trying to figure out if difference between boxed version and digital download copy.
.. .... .- - . - .-. --- .-.. .-.. ... .-- .... --- .-. . .--. --- .-. - .-.-.-
--------------------------------------------------------
Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate.
My understanding was that CBS (holders of the STO licence) and not Atari were the ones who forced Cryptic to launch so early.
Not sure how much stock I put into that though.
As for the new sub 300 rank, this is definitely a bug. There's no way any game can fall this far so fast. And frankly I logged in and while the game isn't crawling with players it's not a ghost town either.
Alltern8 Blog | Star Wars Space Combat and The Old Republic | Cryptic Studios - A Pre Post-Mortem | Klingon Preview, STO's Monster Play
Xfire has things like this happen all the time, it's the fact that the patch probably messed with the bin file or the exe and xfire isn't able to detect it because of that. The rankings are based on daily usage not overall usage so there is no point in taking it down, won't effect it in the long run.
Put no stock into it. That sounds like something that was made up by some fanboy whose feelings get hurt whenever someone criticizes Cryptic/Atari. CBS is busy being a successful broadcasting company and studio (and co-owning a failing one) to concern itself so directly with something it's only getting a paltry licensing fee for. CBS will make more off a single episode of "The Big Bang Theory" than it will make off six months of Star Trek Online.
The prepatch starts to load after you cancel the game and it's not mandatory yet. Maybe the few that are left are the ones who didn't download it yet? Would it matter that much if it was a digital dl vs boxed copy? Shouldn't the code basically be pretty much identical?
Put no stock into it. That sounds like something that was made up by some fanboy whose feelings get hurt whenever someone criticizes Cryptic/Atari. CBS is busy being a successful broadcasting company and studio (and co-owning a failing one) to concern itself so directly with something it's only getting a paltry licensing fee for. CBS will make more off a single episode of "The Big Bang Theory" than it will make off six months of Star Trek Online.
Not to mention Cryptic and Atari have been boasting that they can make MMOs in 2 1/2 years.
It doesn't get any more clear-cut than that, does it? Self-incrimination at its finest.
Anyway, every game developed by Cryptic Studios to date has been feature-lite and nearly devoid of content, not only on release day but also a year or two down the road. City of Heroes succeeded largely because it was the world's first supers MMORPG, and comic fans were willing to overlook grave shortcomings for the chance to play a superhero online. The costume design system was also revolutionary for the time, and that helped, too.
It still might have failed, but apparently it's been greatly enhanced over the years through the various expansions. That couldn't have happened if it had tanked out of the gate, though.
So I knew from the get-go that Star Trek Online would bomb. Science fiction fans will be far less tolerant of shallow, content-lite games, especially in 2010 when the genre is much larger and offers gamers far more options than when CoH released in 2004.
----------------------
But, I'm probably preaching to the choir here. Carry on.
Currently Playing: EVE Online
Retired From: UO, FFXI, AO, SWG, Ryzom, GW, WoW, WAR
Put no stock into it. That sounds like something that was made up by some fanboy whose feelings get hurt whenever someone criticizes Cryptic/Atari. CBS is busy being a successful broadcasting company and studio (and co-owning a failing one) to concern itself so directly with something it's only getting a paltry licensing fee for. CBS will make more off a single episode of "The Big Bang Theory" than it will make off six months of Star Trek Online.
I personally don't believe it. However it is worth mentioning that it wasn't a random fanboy that stated the CBS thing, it was Craig something-or-other (he's got a really jewish last name that's impossible to remember). He's one of the lead devs on STO.
With that said Cryptic was bought by Atari to push out MMOs once every 1.5-2 years so I figure STO launched exactly when it was intended too.
Alltern8 Blog | Star Wars Space Combat and The Old Republic | Cryptic Studios - A Pre Post-Mortem | Klingon Preview, STO's Monster Play
Which DOES explain why there is no panic on the official STO forums ...
Edit: Xfire should take STO out of the ranking until the problems are fixed, even if the problem is on STOs side.
Xfire rankings are worthless. Not only are games being sold through their services these days but it is easy to climb on that list.
Just an example: there is no possibiltiy in the world that a game like "Heroes of Newerth" (sic) is being played as much as Counterstrike etc...
It is easy enough these days to duplicate IP adresses running with the game's client and add a few dozen playing sessions from just one machine. With a few of these machines you could climb up the ladder in no time to reach 2K or 3K player sessions.
Look at games like HoN and Aion and see how wildly they change in the graphs on an even monthly basis (not talking about the weekend play). http://www.xfire.com/games/aion/Aion/
Having on/off 30% difference between different weekends demonstrates the sampling is surely not consistent.
As for ST: it is simple: the Xfire client is not working in the case of ST.
Want a real mmorpg? Play WOW with experience turned off mode and be Pve_Pvp King at any level without a rat race.