That's people like you, and once People like you found out what STO was all about, many left.
That's just the way STO rolls.
This is a good point, and probably describes what is going on. STO has a huge churn rate, people get bored and drop out.
That explains the XFire numbers, as it is reasonable to assume that most Xfire gamers are early adopters of games. They all left, though a some number of new players took their place.
Basing time from X-Fire doesn't mean anything plenty of people that don't use X-Fire including myself why does it matter?
Xfire doesn't make a reliable means of comparing one game to another for just the reasons you cite. The people using xfire and playing STO are the same people today as a month ago. While that group is small, it can give some indication of trends in the general population. The pool of people that played 8,376 hours on February 21st only played 25 hours on March 21st. Unfortunately (for Cryptic) that shows a pretty dramatic drop in interest.
Interesting bit of trivia, Steam also logs gametime played on games, obviously only steam games but still. Looking at that list it looks pretty much like the xfire list, obviously only on those games that are in both lists. Since steam is required to play steam games, and it usually doesnt get used by the same people using xfire, it makes for a second "testgroup", only more limited cause only a fraction of the games show up in it.
Edit: STO had a peak player count of 718 out of 2.4mil online steam users. Counterstrike and COD:MW 2 had around 90k to give an example. Thats playercount, not time played.
Interesting bit of trivia, Steam also logs gametime played on games, obviously only steam games but still. Looking at that list it looks pretty much like the xfire list, obviously only on those games that are in both lists. Since steam is required to play steam games, and it usually doesnt get used by the same people using xfire, it makes for a second "testgroup", only more limited cause only a fraction of the games show up in it.
Edit: STO had a peak player count of 718 out of 2.4mil online steam users. Counterstrike and COD:MW 2 had around 90k to give an example. Thats playercount, not time played.
Where do you find this on steam? I looked but couldn't see it anywhere.
Don't forget that todays jump up to 67 if due to the "BIG" content patch.. lol and the minutes played is nothing more the download time, not actual playing the game time.. I wouldn't be surprised if by tomorrow they are back down in the #200 or lower list..
I played in the open beta and feel quite justified in cancelling my purchase before release for a full refund. I did play CO for about two weeks before it became completely boring, city of heroes was the same although I played that for a bit longer. All of this added together is obviously going to make me shy away from any future offering from Cryptic.
I still hope that someone will one day make a great Star Trek MMO game. But I can't help but think that after Cryptics cock up the name won't be allowed near another MMO for quite some time.
On the upside, if STO hadn't turned out rubbish I wouldn't have tried Lord of the rings online, which is awesome.
I enjoy watching how MMOs are doing on xfire and I have never seen anything like this! Atleast CO had a steady decline down to around #200 not a major dip like this one.
Sadly I think STO sold enough boxes and lifetime subs to clueless Star trek fans so Craptari will keep throwing crap on the wall to see whatever sticks...
After launching two MMOs in six months that both become ghost towns in two months, I'm not sure how long they can get away with that. Who is going to touch another Craptic MMO after CO and STO? Not many people will.
The project they are currently working on needs to be outstanding, their reputation is shot enough as is. If it tanks? I wouldn't like to be Cryptic when Atari visit on that day.
honestly, i'm not at all surprised at the drop... mmorpg'ers, as well as star trek fans, are a very particular bunch of folks. we typically don't like poorly made stuff, and from everything i've read Cryptic's customer service is attrocious. however, Atari is just as much to blame for this mess as Cryptic. they both should be held accountable. i actually think Cryptic/Atari has surpassed the NGE disaster just by their flippant attitude towards anyone who calls them on their crap. if i hadn't been following the progress of this game myself i wouldn't believe it. i can't believe any company would allienate their customer base so blantantly. it totally baffles me.
Originally posted by Xondar123 Well, now that the bug is fixed, we know the XFire numbers are not screwed up anymore. And STO is now down to #158. Anyone know a good funeral dirge?
I checked the numbers yesterday and STO was at 59 with almost a 1000 players. This drop is still far too steep for me to take in without question. I'd understand if today was April 3rd but for the life of me I can't think of a good reason why STO was at 59 Friday then 158 Saturday.
I checked the numbers yesterday and STO was at 59 with almost a 1000 players. This drop is still far too steep for me to take in without question. I'd understand if today was April 3rd but for the life of me I can't think of a good reason why STO was at 59 Friday then 158 Saturday.
It doesn't jive.
I think it's because people realized that the big 45 day patch was a joke when it came to content. People only needed a few days to figure that out.
It could also have something to do with the 45 levels lost bug. People who PvP are probably avoiding the game completely right now so that their characters aren't destroyed.
I checked the numbers yesterday and STO was at 59 with almost a 1000 players. This drop is still far too steep for me to take in without question. I'd understand if today was April 3rd but for the life of me I can't think of a good reason why STO was at 59 Friday then 158 Saturday.
It doesn't jive.
The servers were pretty borked yesterday so that could and they had the horrible delevelling pvp bug that they havent' fixed. Both of those could explain the drop yesterday. The peak for the weekend was on the same general trend before they had the detection issue.
Of course it wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that MOST players of STO don't use Xfire. Of course not...how could that be. Xfire is not a very good monitoring tool of ANY game.
Of course it wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that MOST players of STO don't use Xfire. Of course not...how could that be. Xfire is not a very good monitoring tool of ANY game.
That's a specious argument. First of all, how do you know most STO players don't use XFire? Second, the XFire numbers seem to jive quite well with Cryptic's own admitted numbers (see: Emmert's recent podcast.) Third, XFire does tend to be a somewhat accurate portrait of how popular current games are. Considering the beating STO took from reviewers and even players, it's pretty much at expected numbers.
I think you disagree with the scores simply because they make the game look bad. What if STO was #5 or #6 on XFire? I bet you'd be singing XFire's praises.
It would be interesting for someone to create a site that compared numbers for MMOs from XFire, MMO Data, Steam, and MetaCritic scores.
Originally posted by Gruug Of course it wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that MOST players of STO don't use Xfire. Of course not...how could that be. Xfire is not a very good monitoring tool of ANY game.
If you can't figure out why xfire is an invaluable tool for tracking gaming trends neither I nor God can help you.
Also, STO numbers are back up to rank #65. Told you guys it was a bug.
I think it's because people realized that the big 45 day patch was a joke when it came to content. People only needed a few days to figure that out.
It could also have something to do with the 45 levels lost bug. People who PvP are probably avoiding the game completely right now so that their characters aren't destroyed.
LOL wait...there's a bug where people get deleveled by PvPing? OMG that's awesome! I'll have to check the official forums to see the CDF reaction to this.
I think it's because people realized that the big 45 day patch was a joke when it came to content. People only needed a few days to figure that out.
It could also have something to do with the 45 levels lost bug. People who PvP are probably avoiding the game completely right now so that their characters aren't destroyed.
LOL wait...there's a bug where people get deleveled by PvPing? OMG that's awesome! I'll have to check the official forums to see the CDF reaction to this.
Little do they realize it's the new death penalty everyone was crying about STO not having.
problem - Last month, Cryptic made a press release announcing that it had over one million registered accounts following the launch of STO.
According to BioWare, its upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic will need at least one million subscribers per month just to break even.
"nothing actually matters, we're just slightly evolved monkeys clinging to a dying piece of rock hurtling through space waiting for our eventual death." - Frankie Boyle, Mock The Week
problem - Last month, Cryptic made a press release announcing that it had over one million registered accounts following the launch of STO.
According to BioWare, its upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic will need at least one million subscribers per month just to break even.
If that 1 million registered accounts thing wasn't blatant marketing spin, then one could say that STO lost almost 90% of its playerbase in a single month.
problem - Last month, Cryptic made a press release announcing that it had over one million registered accounts following the launch of STO.
According to BioWare, its upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic will need at least one million subscribers per month just to break even.
If that 1 million registered accounts thing wasn't blatant marketing spin, then one could say that STO lost almost 90% of its playerbase in a single month.
lol yeah... registering an account is nothing though... but even doing a complex equation involving the marketing spin and the possible real numbers.
It's still not encouraging for Cryptic... although i'm surprised it has 100,000. My estimate was 50,000.
time will tell, time will tell - einstein (red alert), queue some awesome music...
"nothing actually matters, we're just slightly evolved monkeys clinging to a dying piece of rock hurtling through space waiting for our eventual death." - Frankie Boyle, Mock The Week
Comments
You don't have to ask every single voter to get an idea how a canidate will fare in an election ... it is the same principle.
This is a good point, and probably describes what is going on. STO has a huge churn rate, people get bored and drop out.
That explains the XFire numbers, as it is reasonable to assume that most Xfire gamers are early adopters of games. They all left, though a some number of new players took their place.
Xfire doesn't make a reliable means of comparing one game to another for just the reasons you cite. The people using xfire and playing STO are the same people today as a month ago. While that group is small, it can give some indication of trends in the general population. The pool of people that played 8,376 hours on February 21st only played 25 hours on March 21st. Unfortunately (for Cryptic) that shows a pretty dramatic drop in interest.
Interesting bit of trivia, Steam also logs gametime played on games, obviously only steam games but still. Looking at that list it looks pretty much like the xfire list, obviously only on those games that are in both lists. Since steam is required to play steam games, and it usually doesnt get used by the same people using xfire, it makes for a second "testgroup", only more limited cause only a fraction of the games show up in it.
Edit: STO had a peak player count of 718 out of 2.4mil online steam users. Counterstrike and COD:MW 2 had around 90k to give an example. Thats playercount, not time played.
Face it the game is not going to make it to summer
Well looks like Xfire is working again. It's 67 today, so it's quick march to obscurity seem to be on track.
Where do you find this on steam? I looked but couldn't see it anywhere.
Don't forget that todays jump up to 67 if due to the "BIG" content patch.. lol and the minutes played is nothing more the download time, not actual playing the game time.. I wouldn't be surprised if by tomorrow they are back down in the #200 or lower list..
I played in the open beta and feel quite justified in cancelling my purchase before release for a full refund. I did play CO for about two weeks before it became completely boring, city of heroes was the same although I played that for a bit longer. All of this added together is obviously going to make me shy away from any future offering from Cryptic.
I still hope that someone will one day make a great Star Trek MMO game. But I can't help but think that after Cryptics cock up the name won't be allowed near another MMO for quite some time.
On the upside, if STO hadn't turned out rubbish I wouldn't have tried Lord of the rings online, which is awesome.
honestly, i'm not at all surprised at the drop... mmorpg'ers, as well as star trek fans, are a very particular bunch of folks. we typically don't like poorly made stuff, and from everything i've read Cryptic's customer service is attrocious. however, Atari is just as much to blame for this mess as Cryptic. they both should be held accountable. i actually think Cryptic/Atari has surpassed the NGE disaster just by their flippant attitude towards anyone who calls them on their crap. if i hadn't been following the progress of this game myself i wouldn't believe it. i can't believe any company would allienate their customer base so blantantly. it totally baffles me.
Egg is my business.... And business is good!
I'm so broke. I can't even pay attention.
"You have the right not to be killed"
Well, now that the bug is fixed, we know the XFire numbers are not screwed up anymore.
And STO is now down to #158.
Anyone know a good funeral dirge?
I checked the numbers yesterday and STO was at 59 with almost a 1000 players. This drop is still far too steep for me to take in without question. I'd understand if today was April 3rd but for the life of me I can't think of a good reason why STO was at 59 Friday then 158 Saturday.
It doesn't jive.
Alltern8 Blog | Star Wars Space Combat and The Old Republic | Cryptic Studios - A Pre Post-Mortem | Klingon Preview, STO's Monster Play
I think it's because people realized that the big 45 day patch was a joke when it came to content. People only needed a few days to figure that out.
It could also have something to do with the 45 levels lost bug. People who PvP are probably avoiding the game completely right now so that their characters aren't destroyed.
The servers were pretty borked yesterday so that could and they had the horrible delevelling pvp bug that they havent' fixed. Both of those could explain the drop yesterday. The peak for the weekend was on the same general trend before they had the detection issue.
Of course it wouldn't have anything to do with the fact that MOST players of STO don't use Xfire. Of course not...how could that be. Xfire is not a very good monitoring tool of ANY game.
Let's party like it is 1863!
That's a specious argument. First of all, how do you know most STO players don't use XFire? Second, the XFire numbers seem to jive quite well with Cryptic's own admitted numbers (see: Emmert's recent podcast.) Third, XFire does tend to be a somewhat accurate portrait of how popular current games are. Considering the beating STO took from reviewers and even players, it's pretty much at expected numbers.
I think you disagree with the scores simply because they make the game look bad. What if STO was #5 or #6 on XFire? I bet you'd be singing XFire's praises.
It would be interesting for someone to create a site that compared numbers for MMOs from XFire, MMO Data, Steam, and MetaCritic scores.
If you can't figure out why xfire is an invaluable tool for tracking gaming trends neither I nor God can help you.
Also, STO numbers are back up to rank #65. Told you guys it was a bug.
Alltern8 Blog | Star Wars Space Combat and The Old Republic | Cryptic Studios - A Pre Post-Mortem | Klingon Preview, STO's Monster Play
LOL wait...there's a bug where people get deleveled by PvPing? OMG that's awesome! I'll have to check the official forums to see the CDF reaction to this.
Little do they realize it's the new death penalty everyone was crying about STO not having.
xfire...........lulz
lulz.........lawls
Alltern8 Blog | Star Wars Space Combat and The Old Republic | Cryptic Studios - A Pre Post-Mortem | Klingon Preview, STO's Monster Play
http://www.incgamers.com/News/21628/star-trek-online-has-over-100000-subscribers
problem - Last month, Cryptic made a press release announcing that it had over one million registered accounts following the launch of STO.
According to BioWare, its upcoming MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic will need at least one million subscribers per month just to break even.
"nothing actually matters, we're just slightly evolved monkeys clinging to a dying piece of rock hurtling through space waiting for our eventual death." - Frankie Boyle, Mock The Week
If that 1 million registered accounts thing wasn't blatant marketing spin, then one could say that STO lost almost 90% of its playerbase in a single month.
lol yeah... registering an account is nothing though... but even doing a complex equation involving the marketing spin and the possible real numbers.
It's still not encouraging for Cryptic... although i'm surprised it has 100,000. My estimate was 50,000.
time will tell, time will tell - einstein (red alert), queue some awesome music...
"nothing actually matters, we're just slightly evolved monkeys clinging to a dying piece of rock hurtling through space waiting for our eventual death." - Frankie Boyle, Mock The Week