I've tried to paly this game a few times, given it a few months, but it loses my attention. I got up to about Level 10, but in questing I end up feeling like a child who is being given busy work, and the fighting seems more like a preset math equation than a fluid battle.
Maybe I'm just not into leveling and RPG'ing, but it doesn't hold my interest in the long term.
I'll still probably give it a few more tries, as time goes on, simply because I love the premise of the game. I just find the experience to be limited and repetitive.
You can always check NCSofts website for the quarterly numbers:
U.S & Europe / Korea As of March. 2006 June. 2004 Sep. 2004 Dec. 2004 March. 2005 ......... Mar. 2006 Servers 11 11 11 15 16 Highest concurrent users 31,085 26,870 15,741 21,283 23,699 Daily access 69,011 68,073 45,318 56,366 45,383 Monthly access 169,925 163,053 124,435 140,481 182,858
If you go back far enough in the earnings release pdfs, you will find the 169K, the report being up to Sept 2004 with U.S. being the only region listed.. Sales of the game may be where the 250K may be coming from as that is reported differently than server population. As you can see the number of monthly access has gone up but that is now spread across three regions as was previously mentioned.
I don't know if it is doom, but it certainly doesn't look good either. the overall numbers have gone up, but spread over 3 regions, one would imagine that the operating costs are higher, especailly if they are tailoring the look and feel of the game to Asian tastes as I have read they had done. Let's hope the paid expansion will add something significant and brings old and new players to the game and lets hope they can get into other markets like China. I am truly surprised the numbers didn't jump with the addition of Korea, considering NCSoft is based there and should be more in touch with the tastes of gamers in that region.
As many people pointed out, we want as many subscribers as possible no matter the region so we here in the U.S. will always get our fix of CoX.
I'm disappointed at CoH's lack of stuff compared to CoV, myself. As for Korea, the whole superhero genre probably isn't nearly as popular as in America.
Anyway, I thought you said the populations were pathetic. Don't flip-flop the subjects. =
And who the hell are you responding too? This board doesn't work the way some boards work so without a quote I don't know who you are talking too. Since your post came directly after mine, I can only assume you are responding to me. So in response, go eff yourself with that stupid dev or fanboy comment. As for being either one, if you had an inkling of intelligence, you would see I was trying to support a previous poster's thoughts on the poor status of the current population.
As for being a fanboy, definitely not as I recently deleted a toon in response to the poor customer service. I have put up with many changes over the past, my enjoyment diminishing starting with I5. Through it all, I've contacted Customer Service on various issues, acquiescing to many of their responses whether I agreed with them or not. Many times I thought fine, they arent' able to help in this situation, post your problem on the forums, the game is working as intended so we can't help in this situation. But finally, after the stupid AV/GM change and getting to the end of the Synapse TF, we couldn't beat Babbage. Petition sent. I get a reply that the devs know the problem and CS provides some links to the forum boards. They said
"It is important to note that the Support Team does not have the ability to assist players in defeating these Arch Villains/Heroes and Giant Monsters, and we can not grant rewards players may have received had they been able to defeat them. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Please contact us if you have any further questions or concerns."
So, all these times when I put up with the 'working as intended" response, now that the game is NOT working as intended they still REFUSE to take any action. Seriously, where do you draw the line between the "sorry for the inconvenience" and actual action. Why are they named "Customer" Support when they do no such thing?
So, you want to lose a customer when just a 10% action to 90% sorry for the inconvenience is all I am asking?
As an older gamer, I approach things differently since I earn my own money and like to be treated a certain way. Yes, its only $15 but for NCSoft, its much more than that as now I will not try for my goal of a 50 on each server or won't buy Tabula Rasa. Its just like any place you are a patron, no matter how cheap the product is or what a wonderful product it is, your whole experience can be soured by how you are treated/viewed as a customer. I am not asking for every little problem I run into to be fixed or addressed by the president of NCSoft but just a litle consideration(actual action, not just words) for someone who has been a good customer for 2 years.
So, again, to be on topic. No this game is definitely not getting the attention it needs because obviously someone let the ball slip with AV/GM changes even though people pointed it out in Test. They didn't have the resources to fix before it went live. The communication between Cryptic and NCSoft can be lacking as I've caught CS using outdated information(even at those times, I let it slide).
UGH! I could keep going, but my point is NO, Serling, I am not a fanboy or dev. Just as I replied to Cust Service, I can no longer recommend NCSoft products when I am treated as a sub-par customer and they will not only lose me as a CoX player but as a Tabula Rasa player too(which I can afford to play both).
Take it for what you will. At this point, there is no use getting frustrated over a game, which when I do, definitely means it is time to quit and move on to other more productive pursuits.
And Serling, don't be so scared to make it clear who you are responding to when making such inflammatory statements.
Originally posted by tute I don't know if it is doom, but it certainly doesn't look good either. the overall numbers have gone up, but spread over 3 regions, one would imagine that the operating costs are higher, especailly if they are tailoring the look and feel of the game to Asian tastes as I have read they had done. Let's hope the paid expansion will add something significant and brings old and new players to the game and lets hope they can get into other markets like China. I am truly surprised the numbers didn't jump with the addition of Korea, considering NCSoft is based there and should be more in touch with the tastes of gamers in that region. As many people pointed out, we want as many subscribers as possible no matter the region so we here in the U.S. will always get our fix of CoX.
I don't think this game has the kind of theme that travels well. Superheroes is American culture.
If I was to compare the geographically populations of WoW, I would find that the EU has about the same number of subscribers as the U.S., and China has about four times as many, and Korea about a tenth.
With COH the U.S. has almost three times as many servers as the EU. I don't think the whole superhero theme is particularly multi-cultural. If you didn't grow up with american comics, I don't think it will grab your attention in the shop.
Well, as much as I love the superhero genre, I went ahead and added a free trial account I got when I purchased the retail version of Factions. And I set about creating a new energy/energy blaster. And witin 5 minutes couldn't bring myself to play the game anymore. I thought of the mindless grind that lay before me and how I'd be lucky to ding 20 in 2 weeks of free, casual play, and thought that it just wasn't worth sinking my time into anymore.
Haven't logged back in since.
One more thing I'd like to point out:
I was roundly criticized for making a point about Emmert's conflict of interest regarding the Prima Strategy Guide for Issue 7. I took my complaints about that directly to the business offices at NCSoft and Cryptic. I also posted a number of posts regarding that issue here (which were pulled for "trolling") and on the CoH website (where they were left in place). Imagine my surprise when I found out that the Prima Strat. Guide for Issue 7 was being made freely available for download as part of the Issue 7 release!
Now, does anyone think that would have happened if someone (namely yours truly) hadn't raised the conflict of interest issue???
You nerf whiners are just so funny...I am glad you have quit and dont play anymore, so I dont have to listen to your constant moaning on the official boards.
As for the OP, I think you will get your moneys worth out of COX, even if you decide the grind isnt woth it in the end. Remember that most of the folks who post here are people who have quit, and either are just bitter haters or are still agnst ridden that their (insert FOTM build here) AT got nerfed and cant get over it.
You nerf whiners are just so funny...I am glad you have quit and dont play anymore, so I dont have to listen to your constant moaning on the official boards.
Ah...er...perhaps you think that when everyone else is gone (all the "nerf whiners") they'll keep the servers up just for you and a handful of other fanboys???
Subs are falling in a big way. Enjoy what's left of your game while it lasts. (And make sure you copy all your toons to test so you don't lose them when they start consolidating servers).
Originally posted by grinreaper You nerf whiners are just so funny...I am glad you have quit and dont play anymore, so I dont have to listen to your constant moaning on the official boards.
I'm glad I have quit too.
I'm also glad I have found nicer boards than the official boards where everybody hates each other. What an unpleaseant forum that was. People with 5,000 posts all of them insults. Funny how the ingame crowd could be so nice and yet the forum crowd were just a bunch of spoilt children pissing on anything and everyone. Or perhaps how the moderation allowed just 2 or 3 trolls to ruin it for everyone in every thread with their incesssant bile.
There is absolutely no chance in hell that the dev's will ever be able to use that place for constructive feedback. Or a customer with a problem will be able to use it to find a cure. Anyone attempting to critique or expressing a difficulty will just recieve a hail of abuse until they stop or rise to it and initiate the threadlock.
Gameamp have some nice City of Heroes forums with the same kind of friendly minded, good humoured people you would associate with the game.
Subs are falling in a big way. Enjoy what's left of your game while it lasts. (And make sure you copy all your toons to test so you don't lose them when they start consolidating servers).
If I had a nickel for everytime I heard that, Serling.
In 2005, CoH/V had earnings of 34.2 million. Revised earnings for CoH/V are reported at 23.3 million, a decline - as reported in NCSoft's investor's report for 1Q 06 - of -32%.
Operating profit for NCSoft is -35% from 05 levels despite the fact that Guild Wars is up 60% ($41.3 million in 05 vs $66.2 million). These are year-to-year figures.
This is why NCSoft is laying people off. And the falling revenues of CoH/V indicate that people can't cancel subs fast enough.
Hmmm...Maybe what the game needs is more nerfs, huh???
Checking the quarterly report further, I found this:
Operating Matrix: City of Heroes
In Dec. 2005, monthly access on 15 servers totalled 194,000. Daily access was running at 66,775 (that's worldwide).
By March 06, monthly access across 16 servers had fallen to 182,858, but daily access had dropped to 45,383.
Which, of course, gives credence to the feeling that the servers aren't as active anymore. Fewer people spread over more servers. The load on these servers is green not simply because they've upped the bandwidth (the typical "spin doctor" answer provided by devs and fanboys), but because player activity is - indeed - falling off.
Ironically, the highest number of users on at the same time was noted in the June 04 report (shortly after the game's initial release): 11 servers with a daily access of 69,011 and a monthly access of 169,925. This was before all the heinous nerfs went into place.
What this suggests is that CoV has not been the expected success that the release of pre-nerfed CoH was.
A second whole game had brought in fewer than 30,000 new players worldwide? And now even those numbers are falling again???
As I wrote in another thread, poor decisions have lead to the steady decline of this game. And people like Emmert and Miller are to blame. They're destroying their own product with the constant nerfing.
But don't take my word for it: visit the IR page for NCSoft yourself.
Yeah, about the NC Soft layoffs...if you think that has more to do with COX than, say there being like 5 ppl playing AA...I would like some of what you are smoking...As for server merges, that dosent seem likely, given that the pop is higher than it was before COV came out...also the top servers are 2 dots almost all the time these days, I expect that the next qtr numbers will be up, espically when word gets out much fun the new missions are...but, hey, you just keep yelling DOOOOM all the time, it seems to working for you
all I know is that i just KEEP coming back to this bloody game... I play a couple months.. get pissed off and cancel.. try another mmo then get fed up so I reactivate.. then I cancel again and come back for another round..
I seriously don't know what this game does to me.. I want to hate it but I just.. can't..
Have played: UO, WOW, COH/V, EQ2 Currently playing: Age of Conan (EU)
Fanboys like you need to stop drinking the Cryptic Kool-Aid and read investor reports.
Let me explain it to you again, in simple terms:
The 194,000 number that's often cited is NOT the number of subscriptions: it is the number of "hits" (or accesses) generated on the servers during the course of a month (since this is a quarterly report, this must be an average number, though that's not explained).
Every time someone logs into the server, they count as an access. So one player logging half a dozen toons during the course of a week counts as six "accesses".
The real number to look at is the "Highest concurrent users" - which means the number of accounts on at the same time. And here's the truth, according to the investor report:
Highest concurrent users for quarter ending June 04 (across 11 servers): 31,085. (About 2825 per server). Highest concurrent users for quarter ending March 06 (across 16 servers): 23,699. (About 1481 per server).
Get it now? That's roughly HALF the people that were on each server just after release! And just to reiterate: these are peak numbers (which is what the word "highest" means), not averages, which explains why some servers are practically empty most of the time, as was the case of Champion when I was last on.
Finally, given that earnings are down, how many of those "hits" were purchased? I could be playing on a free account now, but I'm not. It's just a waste of time.
But let's look at another number: the March 05 report, which is when I added my second account (Issue 3 pre-suppression), vs. your number:
Highest concurrent users for quarter ending March 05 (across 15 servers): 21,283. (About 1419 per server). Highest concurrent users for quarter ending March 06 (across 16 servers): 23,699. (About 1481 per server).
Statistically insignificant difference.
Truth is, the game(s) has never been as popular as it was at release and that was before a single nerf was dropped on the players. Two years and dozens of nerfs later and the game is losing money. Unfortunately, the Cryptic devs are too stupid to get it.
Yeah, about the NC Soft layoffs...if you think that has more to do with COX than, say there being like 5 ppl playing AA...I would like some of what you are smoking...As for server merges, that dosent seem likely, given that the pop is higher than it was before COV came out...also the top servers are 2 dots almost all the time these days, I expect that the next qtr numbers will be up, espically when word gets out much fun the new missions are...but, hey, you just keep yelling DOOOOM all the time, it seems to working for you
Moving on. Its already been mentioned that NCSoft layoffs will not affect the individual studios. My concern does not reflect your overly bright outlook though. The increased population you are mentioning is over three regions. The original 163k was U.S. only. Check the NCSoft site. Whether this is enough, remains to be seen. It was mentioned they need at least 125K to stay profitable. Whether this was to be one region or three was never mentioned.
From the CoX boards, there doesn't seem to be any worry among the devs since they are already spreading the gossip about Issue 8 and 9, not to mention the paid expansion.
But anyways, I still play, month to month since I quit now and then in response to things I don't like. Suppression caused me to quit for 2 months and I still don't like it(I'd rather have the -acc back). I'm mostly for balance, but when you say you are doing this for future expansions or to add content to the game, then how about nerf THEN lets see some of that content within a timely manner not a 6-18 months down the line(I'm talking about the leeway Posi and States say they now have to let the 50s grow in power and better enhancements). THAT'S what I have a problem with.
I don't really see where you guys come off saying the population has increased. I play on all servers and CoH is a ghostown except for Freedom and sometimes Virtue(today Infinity was actually busy too). They are playing CoV, which looks like the launch-time population of CoH, but if the numbers have increased as you say, then wouldn't we see that many people in both games. Or if there was the increase as you say, then wouldn't Freedom and Virtue on CoV be hitting the red or more people on Justice or Triumph(usually green)? I just don't see the population you are seeing and yes I would like too(I play mon-fri 3-5:30 PST and Sat/Sun around 11am-6pm PST
Well, it will be a while but we can once again read the TRUE story on the NCSoft site once they release the next quarterly numbers.
Originally posted by lex-icon82all I know is that i just KEEP coming back to this bloody game... I play a couple months.. get pissed off and cancel.. try another mmo then get fed up so I reactivate.. then I cancel again and come back for another round..I seriously don't know what this game does to me.. I want to hate it but I just.. can't..
Same here Lex. The only reason I keep playing is 1. I was a BIG comic collector and 2. There is no other superhero MMO in town 3. DDO was a letdown 4. My 50 Fire tank enjoys being the ONLY one in the Rikti Crash Site(Pinnacle).
Same thing was happening to CoH's population just before the CoV release. Well the novelty of being a superhero MMO has worn off and people stayed interested with CoV about as long as they did with CoH. This time there just isn't anything to keep subscribers around. With the Christmas game release flurry expect server merges to happen after the holidays...unless they release some amazing content patch during the flurry, but I kinda doubt that at this point.
Originally posted by Serling But let's look at another number: the March 05 report, which is when I added my second account (Issue 3 pre-suppression), vs. your number: Highest concurrent users for quarter ending March 05 (across 15 servers): 21,283. (About 1419 per server). Highest concurrent users for quarter ending March 06 (across 16 servers): 23,699. (About 1481 per server). Statistically insignificant difference.
...Am I missing something? If they're statistically insignificant, why are you saying that the games losing subscriptions in a big way, when the March 06 report came after big, big nerfs in I5 and I6?
I guess it says something when this is after CoV came out, but if the nerfs were so bad, apparently they aren't affecting enough people to make a significant drop in the numbers.
As far as I see it, the largest dip was after CoH released, and I can understand that--the "newness" wears off and people leave. Happens in every MMO. Things have pretty much been up and down, and you're making mountains out of dirt mounds because you don't find the game to be fun anymore. This is even supported by the fact that you quit your new blaster after about 5 minutes because you just thought about the grind, when you should've just enjoyed yourself, because it's a GAME.
It's entertainment. If you don't like it, you don't *have* to play it. It's like you're telling everyone how sucky the movie Anchorman is, years after it comes out on DVD, in an Anchorman forum, and taking every chance you can to convince others of this through DVD sale reports and whatever bits and trinkets of negative info you can come up with. I really do wonder what kind of motives drive you with this, and why we can't just leave each other be and quit bitching to each other about whether we like *A GAME* or not.
Because the number of concurrent users or daily or monthly accesses is NOT the same as subscriptions, and the 06 report indicates earnings are down 32% from 05.
Grinreaper's point was that there are more players now than there were prior to CoV's release. Actually, there are about the same number appearing on the servers at any given time from March 05 to March 06. And the question is, given the 32% drop in earnings (even after CoV's release), how many of those are subscribers versus free accounts?
I could log in on a free account right now and pad the daily, monthly, and concurrent stats. But that doesn't make me a subscriber now, does it?
In other words, subs are down as reflected by the earnings, but given all the freebie accounts you can get now given the promos going on, the population stats look fairly constant from year-to-year. But that's misleading, at best. Not all accounts are paid accounts. And some stats simply reflect the number of times one person logs in with one or more accounts for a given period of time.
BTW, the 3/06 stats include CoV. The 3/05 stats do not. So tell me, was CoV really worth it? Cryptic would've been better off leaving CoH alone. The June 04 report was the best Cryptic had, and they screwed themselves with nerfs and sinking resources into a game (CoV) that - in reality - is a financial loser.
Another point of note, is that, I believe, if the financial reports were so bad, someone over at NCSoft would have to consult with Cryptic about it to get some changes in and get subs back up, right? What's interesting about this is that over at SOE, when they instituted the NGE (I think it's called) in SWG, they didn't do a thing, even after how much people disliked it. It's leading to bad word of mouth about the game, and less subs. The NGE is still in, if I recall correctly, so logically, either SWG is still making a return on investment, so SOE doesn't care, or they found that the positives outweighed the negatives on the whole issue.
Comments
Maybe I'm just not into leveling and RPG'ing, but it doesn't hold my interest in the long term.
I'll still probably give it a few more tries, as time goes on, simply because I love the premise of the game. I just find the experience to be limited and repetitive.
You can always check NCSofts website for the quarterly numbers:
U.S & Europe / Korea As of March. 2006
June. 2004 Sep. 2004 Dec. 2004 March. 2005 ......... Mar. 2006
Servers 11 11 11 15 16
Highest concurrent users 31,085 26,870 15,741 21,283 23,699
Daily access 69,011 68,073 45,318 56,366 45,383
Monthly access 169,925 163,053 124,435 140,481 182,858
If you go back far enough in the earnings release pdfs, you will find the 169K, the report being up to Sept 2004 with U.S. being the only region listed.. Sales of the game may be where the 250K may be coming from as that is reported differently than server population. As you can see the number of monthly access has gone up but that is now spread across three regions as was previously mentioned.
I don't know if it is doom, but it certainly doesn't look good either. the overall numbers have gone up, but spread over 3 regions, one would imagine that the operating costs are higher, especailly if they are tailoring the look and feel of the game to Asian tastes as I have read they had done. Let's hope the paid expansion will add something significant and brings old and new players to the game and lets hope they can get into other markets like China. I am truly surprised the numbers didn't jump with the addition of Korea, considering NCSoft is based there and should be more in touch with the tastes of gamers in that region.
As many people pointed out, we want as many subscribers as possible no matter the region so we here in the U.S. will always get our fix of CoX.
Written like a dev or a true fanboy. Which one are you?
I'm disappointed at CoH's lack of stuff compared to CoV, myself. As for Korea, the whole superhero genre probably isn't nearly as popular as in America.
Anyway, I thought you said the populations were pathetic. Don't flip-flop the subjects. =
Originally posted by Serling
Written like a dev or a true fanboy. Which one are you?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And who the hell are you responding too? This board doesn't work the way some boards work so without a quote I don't know who you are talking too. Since your post came directly after mine, I can only assume you are responding to me. So in response, go eff yourself with that stupid dev or fanboy comment. As for being either one, if you had an inkling of intelligence, you would see I was trying to support a previous poster's thoughts on the poor status of the current population.
As for being a fanboy, definitely not as I recently deleted a toon in response to the poor customer service. I have put up with many changes over the past, my enjoyment diminishing starting with I5. Through it all, I've contacted Customer Service on various issues, acquiescing to many of their responses whether I agreed with them or not. Many times I thought fine, they arent' able to help in this situation, post your problem on the forums, the game is working as intended so we can't help in this situation. But finally, after the stupid AV/GM change and getting to the end of the Synapse TF, we couldn't beat Babbage. Petition sent. I get a reply that the devs know the problem and CS provides some links to the forum boards. They said
"It is important to note that the Support Team does not have the ability to assist players in defeating these Arch Villains/Heroes and Giant Monsters, and we can not grant rewards players may have received had they been able to defeat them. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. Please contact us if you have any further questions or concerns."
So, all these times when I put up with the 'working as intended" response, now that the game is NOT working as intended they still REFUSE to take any action. Seriously, where do you draw the line between the "sorry for the inconvenience" and actual action. Why are they named "Customer" Support when they do no such thing?
So, you want to lose a customer when just a 10% action to 90% sorry for the inconvenience is all I am asking?
As an older gamer, I approach things differently since I earn my own money and like to be treated a certain way. Yes, its only $15 but for NCSoft, its much more than that as now I will not try for my goal of a 50 on each server or won't buy Tabula Rasa. Its just like any place you are a patron, no matter how cheap the product is or what a wonderful product it is, your whole experience can be soured by how you are treated/viewed as a customer. I am not asking for every little problem I run into to be fixed or addressed by the president of NCSoft but just a litle consideration(actual action, not just words) for someone who has been a good customer for 2 years.
So, again, to be on topic. No this game is definitely not getting the attention it needs because obviously someone let the ball slip with AV/GM changes even though people pointed it out in Test. They didn't have the resources to fix before it went live. The communication between Cryptic and NCSoft can be lacking as I've caught CS using outdated information(even at those times, I let it slide).
UGH! I could keep going, but my point is NO, Serling, I am not a fanboy or dev. Just as I replied to Cust Service, I can no longer recommend NCSoft products when I am treated as a sub-par customer and they will not only lose me as a CoX player but as a Tabula Rasa player too(which I can afford to play both).
Take it for what you will. At this point, there is no use getting frustrated over a game, which when I do, definitely means it is time to quit and move on to other more productive pursuits.
And Serling, don't be so scared to make it clear who you are responding to when making such inflammatory statements.
Bladin
Registered: 9/01/03
Posts: 239
Better?
Originally posted by Serling
Bladin
Registered: 9/01/03
Posts: 239
listen people, things get nerfed because they are unbalanced. GET THE HECK OVER IT.
Better?
_____________________________________
Much, thank you.
And for Bladin, do you mean get the heck over it as in stop playing/paying?
I don't think this game has the kind of theme that travels well. Superheroes is American culture.
If I was to compare the geographically populations of WoW, I would find that the EU has about the same number of subscribers as the U.S., and China has about four times as many, and Korea about a tenth.
With COH the U.S. has almost three times as many servers as the EU. I don't think the whole superhero theme is particularly multi-cultural. If you didn't grow up with american comics, I don't think it will grab your attention in the shop.
Well, as much as I love the superhero genre, I went ahead and added a free trial account I got when I purchased the retail version of Factions. And I set about creating a new energy/energy blaster. And witin 5 minutes couldn't bring myself to play the game anymore. I thought of the mindless grind that lay before me and how I'd be lucky to ding 20 in 2 weeks of free, casual play, and thought that it just wasn't worth sinking my time into anymore.
Haven't logged back in since.
One more thing I'd like to point out:
I was roundly criticized for making a point about Emmert's conflict of interest regarding the Prima Strategy Guide for Issue 7. I took my complaints about that directly to the business offices at NCSoft and Cryptic. I also posted a number of posts regarding that issue here (which were pulled for "trolling") and on the CoH website (where they were left in place). Imagine my surprise when I found out that the Prima Strat. Guide for Issue 7 was being made freely available for download as part of the Issue 7 release!
Now, does anyone think that would have happened if someone (namely yours truly) hadn't raised the conflict of interest issue???
(No thanks needed. Just wanted to bring that up).
Edit: MT.
You nerf whiners are just so funny...I am glad you have quit and dont play anymore, so I dont have to listen to your constant moaning on the official boards.
As for the OP, I think you will get your moneys worth out of COX, even if you decide the grind isnt woth it in the end. Remember that most of the folks who post here are people who have quit, and either are just bitter haters or are still agnst ridden that their (insert FOTM build here) AT got nerfed and cant get over it.
Ah...er...perhaps you think that when everyone else is gone (all the "nerf whiners") they'll keep the servers up just for you and a handful of other fanboys???
Subs are falling in a big way. Enjoy what's left of your game while it lasts. (And make sure you copy all your toons to test so you don't lose them when they start consolidating servers).
I'm glad I have quit too.
I'm also glad I have found nicer boards than the official boards where everybody hates each other. What an unpleaseant forum that was. People with 5,000 posts all of them insults. Funny how the ingame crowd could be so nice and yet the forum crowd were just a bunch of spoilt children pissing on anything and everyone. Or perhaps how the moderation allowed just 2 or 3 trolls to ruin it for everyone in every thread with their incesssant bile.
There is absolutely no chance in hell that the dev's will ever be able to use that place for constructive feedback. Or a customer with a problem will be able to use it to find a cure. Anyone attempting to critique or expressing a difficulty will just recieve a hail of abuse until they stop or rise to it and initiate the threadlock.
Gameamp have some nice City of Heroes forums with the same kind of friendly minded, good humoured people you would associate with the game.
Check this thread lately?
http://mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/82958
Don't count those nickels just yet.
BTW, just spent a few minutes scanning investor reports (PDF format) at NCSoft. Here's one you probably won't see on the CoH website:
Earnings Guidance Revision (revised earnings report)
In 2005, CoH/V had earnings of 34.2 million. Revised earnings for CoH/V are reported at 23.3 million, a decline - as reported in NCSoft's investor's report for 1Q 06 - of -32%.
Operating profit for NCSoft is -35% from 05 levels despite the fact that Guild Wars is up 60% ($41.3 million in 05 vs $66.2 million). These are year-to-year figures.
This is why NCSoft is laying people off. And the falling revenues of CoH/V indicate that people can't cancel subs fast enough.
Hmmm...Maybe what the game needs is more nerfs, huh???
Link here:
http://ncsoft.com/eng/nccompany/ir_data_report04.asp
Enjoy!
Checking the quarterly report further, I found this:
Operating Matrix: City of Heroes
In Dec. 2005, monthly access on 15 servers totalled 194,000. Daily access was running at 66,775 (that's worldwide).
By March 06, monthly access across 16 servers had fallen to 182,858, but daily access had dropped to 45,383.
Which, of course, gives credence to the feeling that the servers aren't as active anymore. Fewer people spread over more servers. The load on these servers is green not simply because they've upped the bandwidth (the typical "spin doctor" answer provided by devs and fanboys), but because player activity is - indeed - falling off.
Ironically, the highest number of users on at the same time was noted in the June 04 report (shortly after the game's initial release): 11 servers with a daily access of 69,011 and a monthly access of 169,925. This was before all the heinous nerfs went into place.
What this suggests is that CoV has not been the expected success that the release of pre-nerfed CoH was.
A second whole game had brought in fewer than 30,000 new players worldwide? And now even those numbers are falling again???
As I wrote in another thread, poor decisions have lead to the steady decline of this game. And people like Emmert and Miller are to blame. They're destroying their own product with the constant nerfing.
But don't take my word for it: visit the IR page for NCSoft yourself.
all I know is that i just KEEP coming back to this bloody game... I play a couple months.. get pissed off and cancel.. try another mmo then get fed up so I reactivate.. then I cancel again and come back for another round..
I seriously don't know what this game does to me.. I want to hate it but I just.. can't..
Have played:
UO, WOW, COH/V, EQ2
Currently playing:
Age of Conan (EU)
Fanboys like you need to stop drinking the Cryptic Kool-Aid and read investor reports.
Let me explain it to you again, in simple terms:
The 194,000 number that's often cited is NOT the number of subscriptions: it is the number of "hits" (or accesses) generated on the servers during the course of a month (since this is a quarterly report, this must be an average number, though that's not explained).
Every time someone logs into the server, they count as an access. So one player logging half a dozen toons during the course of a week counts as six "accesses".
The real number to look at is the "Highest concurrent users" - which means the number of accounts on at the same time. And here's the truth, according to the investor report:
Highest concurrent users for quarter ending June 04 (across 11 servers): 31,085. (About 2825 per server).
Highest concurrent users for quarter ending March 06 (across 16 servers): 23,699. (About 1481 per server).
Get it now? That's roughly HALF the people that were on each server just after release! And just to reiterate: these are peak numbers (which is what the word "highest" means), not averages, which explains why some servers are practically empty most of the time, as was the case of Champion when I was last on.
Finally, given that earnings are down, how many of those "hits" were purchased? I could be playing on a free account now, but I'm not. It's just a waste of time.
But let's look at another number: the March 05 report, which is when I added my second account (Issue 3 pre-suppression), vs. your number:
Highest concurrent users for quarter ending March 05 (across 15 servers): 21,283. (About 1419 per server).
Highest concurrent users for quarter ending March 06 (across 16 servers): 23,699. (About 1481 per server).
Statistically insignificant difference.
Truth is, the game(s) has never been as popular as it was at release and that was before a single nerf was dropped on the players. Two years and dozens of nerfs later and the game is losing money. Unfortunately, the Cryptic devs are too stupid to get it.
But keep dreaming.
More nerfs, anyone???
Originally posted by grinreaper
Yeah, about the NC Soft layoffs...if you think that has more to do with COX than, say there being like 5 ppl playing AA...I would like some of what you are smoking...As for server merges, that dosent seem likely, given that the pop is higher than it was before COV came out...also the top servers are 2 dots almost all the time these days, I expect that the next qtr numbers will be up, espically when word gets out much fun the new missions are...but, hey, you just keep yelling DOOOOM all the time, it seems to working for you
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DOOM: a great game but not so great movie!
Moving on. Its already been mentioned that NCSoft layoffs will not affect the individual studios. My concern does not reflect your overly bright outlook though. The increased population you are mentioning is over three regions. The original 163k was U.S. only. Check the NCSoft site. Whether this is enough, remains to be seen. It was mentioned they need at least 125K to stay profitable. Whether this was to be one region or three was never mentioned.
From the CoX boards, there doesn't seem to be any worry among the devs since they are already spreading the gossip about Issue 8 and 9, not to mention the paid expansion.
But anyways, I still play, month to month since I quit now and then in response to things I don't like. Suppression caused me to quit for 2 months and I still don't like it(I'd rather have the -acc back). I'm mostly for balance, but when you say you are doing this for future expansions or to add content to the game, then how about nerf THEN lets see some of that content within a timely manner not a 6-18 months down the line(I'm talking about the leeway Posi and States say they now have to let the 50s grow in power and better enhancements). THAT'S what I have a problem with.
I don't really see where you guys come off saying the population has increased. I play on all servers and CoH is a ghostown except for Freedom and sometimes Virtue(today Infinity was actually busy too). They are playing CoV, which looks like the launch-time population of CoH, but if the numbers have increased as you say, then wouldn't we see that many people in both games. Or if there was the increase as you say, then wouldn't Freedom and Virtue on CoV be hitting the red or more people on Justice or Triumph(usually green)? I just don't see the population you are seeing and yes I would like too(I play mon-fri 3-5:30 PST and Sat/Sun around 11am-6pm PST
Well, it will be a while but we can once again read the TRUE story on the NCSoft site once they release the next quarterly numbers.
Originally posted by lex-icon82all I know is that i just KEEP coming back to this bloody game... I play a couple months.. get pissed off and cancel.. try another mmo then get fed up so I reactivate.. then I cancel again and come back for another round..I seriously don't know what this game does to me.. I want to hate it but I just.. can't..
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Same here Lex. The only reason I keep playing is 1. I was a BIG comic collector and 2. There is no other superhero MMO in town 3. DDO was a letdown 4. My 50 Fire tank enjoys being the ONLY one in the Rikti Crash Site(Pinnacle).
I wish Gods and Heroes would hurry up.
I guess it says something when this is after CoV came out, but if the nerfs were so bad, apparently they aren't affecting enough people to make a significant drop in the numbers.
As far as I see it, the largest dip was after CoH released, and I can understand that--the "newness" wears off and people leave. Happens in every MMO. Things have pretty much been up and down, and you're making mountains out of dirt mounds because you don't find the game to be fun anymore. This is even supported by the fact that you quit your new blaster after about 5 minutes because you just thought about the grind, when you should've just enjoyed yourself, because it's a GAME.
It's entertainment. If you don't like it, you don't *have* to play it. It's like you're telling everyone how sucky the movie Anchorman is, years after it comes out on DVD, in an Anchorman forum, and taking every chance you can to convince others of this through DVD sale reports and whatever bits and trinkets of negative info you can come up with. I really do wonder what kind of motives drive you with this, and why we can't just leave each other be and quit bitching to each other about whether we like *A GAME* or not.
Because the number of concurrent users or daily or monthly accesses is NOT the same as subscriptions, and the 06 report indicates earnings are down 32% from 05.
Grinreaper's point was that there are more players now than there were prior to CoV's release. Actually, there are about the same number appearing on the servers at any given time from March 05 to March 06. And the question is, given the 32% drop in earnings (even after CoV's release), how many of those are subscribers versus free accounts?
I could log in on a free account right now and pad the daily, monthly, and concurrent stats. But that doesn't make me a subscriber now, does it?
In other words, subs are down as reflected by the earnings, but given all the freebie accounts you can get now given the promos going on, the population stats look fairly constant from year-to-year. But that's misleading, at best. Not all accounts are paid accounts. And some stats simply reflect the number of times one person logs in with one or more accounts for a given period of time.
BTW, the 3/06 stats include CoV. The 3/05 stats do not. So tell me, was CoV really worth it? Cryptic would've been better off leaving CoH alone. The June 04 report was the best Cryptic had, and they screwed themselves with nerfs and sinking resources into a game (CoV) that - in reality - is a financial loser.
Understand now?