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VG subs 100k+
Arclan
Member UncommonPosts: 1,550
Visiting the VG characters site, it's easy to see there are well over 300,000 characters. I "guess" the average # of characters is 3 each. That makes 100,000 subscribers. And yes, I mean subscribers; the free 10-day trial is LONG gone. Nevermind the number of "buddy key beggars" here. For a game that some libel, I"ve never seen so many people begging to play it.
Every day in VG, I see areas get busier and busier. Now when I visit the crafting halls I see more than a dozen players in just one building! On the server select screen, several servers report "high" population. Form your own opinion on what constitutes "high populatoin" on a VG game server. Consider how huge the game world is. It is rare when I find myself alone in the wilderness. Even in remote areas, I pass by other players frequently.
Yes I predict VG will well surpass the 500k mark. Nice work Sigil!
Luckily, i don't need you to like me to enjoy video games. -nariusseldon.
In F2P I think it's more a case of the game's trying to play the player's. -laserit
Comments
Sigil should be paying people to play this not the other way around.
M
I'm not sure how correct you are about sub numbers, but I will say that my server, the varking team pvp server gets busier every day. In the crafting area in Hathor Zhi at about 7 pm pacific last night which would be considered prime time, there were over 30 people. Over 30 people crammed into this little crafting area, it was sooo laggy lol I love being a dark elf I must say.
I have seen lots of 20+ PVP battles popping up between Hathor and Khal.
Loads of fun. The more time I spend, the more fun I have.
Thalos Vipav
Star Wars Galaxies: R.I.P.
Luckily, i don't need you to like me to enjoy video games. -nariusseldon.
In F2P I think it's more a case of the game's trying to play the player's. -laserit
ROFLMAO
"A Dozen Players in One Building" ? ? ?
Do you have any IDEA how many players are in Ironforge or Stormwind (WoW) at any one time?
Do you have any idea how little lag there is in WoW now, even when a 60 player PvP event is happening?
I had hopes for V:SoH, but no more. This laggy mess of a game was released at least a year to early. It is going to go down just like all the similarly released-to-early games have gone down. Sure, it will hang around for months, years, on the SoE All Access network. But it will never be the Great Game it was envisioned to be. Just another failed attempt; torpedoed by over-anxious bean counters.
To bad.
I'm not sure how correct you are about sub numbers, but I will say that my server, the varking team pvp server gets busier every day. In the crafting area in Hathor Zhi at about 7 pm pacific last night which would be considered prime time, there were over 30 people. Over 30 people crammed into this little crafting area, it was sooo laggy lol I love being a dark elf I must say.
Die Shadow scum.
I believe your estimates to be way off by a huge factor...probably fewer than 50K paying customers (free beta keys don't count)
I currently have 7 characters, one main at level 16, one level 5 that isn't working out to be that much fun, and 5 level 1placeholder characters that are holding names for me.
In speaking with my guildmates, most of them have 2 or more alts that they actually play.
One point of order though, when on Varking (team pvp) many crafters keep their level at 6 to avoid ganking... probably true over on FFA PVP servers as well....
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Dis_ordur, I'm speaking from experience. I'm paying for the game and so are two of my friends. If you aren't, that's great for you. If you bought the game at retail then you very much are a subscriber...purchase includes a one month subscription.
Shoai, why are you comparing VG to WoW? WoW and VG are completely different games, despite two facts:
1. WoW came into creation thanks to inspiration from EQ. Yep, the WoW devs played EQ and loved it and saw an opportunity to expand their Warcraft franchise.
2. VG borrows some elements from WoW. Meaning, VG is easier, more soloable, and faster-paced than EQ.
No one argues that WoW captured a big market segment. Congrats Blizzard; they deserve it. But just because millions of asians and teenagers like a care-bear game with cartoony graphics doesn't mean I would.
Luckily, i don't need you to like me to enjoy video games. -nariusseldon.
In F2P I think it's more a case of the game's trying to play the player's. -laserit
Fairly sure you would get pretty awesome odds on that at any bookie.
For any game to quintouple the release month players would be an astonishing feat, not even sure EQ or UO did that and they were the first on the market and without much competition.
If there are 100k players now I think Sigil should be VERY pleased if they ever achieved 200k during the games lifespan, how ever long that may be.
100k people now will mean about 50k when the first month is up, so very many people buy these things just to check it out and given the state of the game I would be amazed if half of them decided to stay.
Not to mention the attention span of most people, many have a hard time "getting in to it" for most games, one as "hardcore" and unfinnished as this one even more so.
500k is just fairy numbers, why not just say 500 million?
It is equally unlikely given how these things usually go down.
Then again, I would not mind seeing that it actually happened, kudos for Sigil to try to go against the mold and create something different.
But taking human nature into account and all passed experiences regarding the MMO market, or any market really my prediction is that they will struggle.
Better they aim for 200k and keep their vision then to aim for an impossible 500k and do a NGE.
That number would still keep the game alive.
Time will tell of course and I hope I am wrong, I very very much doubt it though.
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Originally posted by Jerek_
I wonder if you honestly even believe what you type, or if you live in a made up world of facts.
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Umbrood, hmm, I'm not sure I agree. Everquest did not have a massive launch. When I started EQ (July 1999) it was months after lanch and the game only had maybe 3 to 6 servers. EQ grew to perhaps 30 servers. That is a growth of 500% to 1000% from launch. I do think Sigil would be happy with 1000% growth. That would mean 1 mil subscribers. Now my numbers are rough so if anyone has hard evidence (with links) about EQ subscriptions from launch to maturity, please point me in the right direction.
Luckily, i don't need you to like me to enjoy video games. -nariusseldon.
In F2P I think it's more a case of the game's trying to play the player's. -laserit
Yikes.
My youtube MMO gaming channel
Why are the 10 day passes long gone ? Lets see, we are only 14 days into launch. If it took the original
buyer a couple of days to download the patches, upgrade his machine, and tweak the game, and then
enjoy it a day or two then give a buddy key to a friend, who must also download the patches and tweak the
game - well you can do the math. I'd say we were right in the middle of the 10 day buddy key window.
If the numbers were coming from anyone other than Sony, I might have confidence that the numbers were
legit. Sony is notorious for counting active and inactive accounts and reporting them as all active. Sony
simply does not have credibility when it comes to subscription or any kind of numbers.
Finding more players in common areas does not signify anything more than people are reaching a level
where it is easier to travel. As opportunities to solo lessen, it should be obvious that if you want a group,
you go where the people are.
Lets talk about subscriptions after the 30 day free period is up - say around March 15 when both the buddy
keys and free rides are over.
And now even more so that big publishers that would never touch a MMO with a ten foot pole are now jumping on the band wagon, we can thank WoW for the heavy MMO flavor of PC games in the coming future. This might be a good thing if the games dont end up sucking and end up spreading the subsciption base around more evenly, but in order for that to happen, there has to be a much better effort then the current POS mmo's we are getting.
I will give Vanguard credit, despite a lot of serious flaws and bugs, the game is not horrible, its not even bad. It could have gotten to dark and light proportions, but its not as horrible as people make it out to be.
If the reviews end up being bad or luke warm at best, i think that effects population more then anything, a lot of people wait for word of mouth and critics reviews before they try and decide if its worth the money. Hype means something, look what it did to WoW, but no disrespect to WoW they deserve the numbers because they made a solid product, its just not my type of game, but because i dont like it doesint mean its a not any good.
I just figure with so much emphasis on having a polished product and fans being fickle, im surprised they didint extend Beta for a few more months. Say Vanguard has 100k players right now, it will be a lot harder to keep them beyond the free month if performance doesint improve drasticly.
Yes, EQ or UO migth have gotten something like 500% growth since launch to a point in the past, but these are unique games.
They were pretty alone within the genre and it was an almost new type of game at that.
It would be incredible to a point of suspected divine intervention to have a 500% growth on an online game today, not impossible of course as nothing is, but I would say fairly close.
EVE migth have done it though come to think of it, they released with something like 30k boxes sold I think and they are now around 130k, but again this was some time ago and CCP was an Indie company that started with 4 people and had almost no marketing, they have a had very slow but consistent growth since then.
I am sure both Sigil and Soe would be very happy for 200k at this point for any duration, that would put them well in the "green" so to speak, and it migth even be possible, they would have to work hard for that but it actually seems as if they do.
I could wish for it to hit any amount of players but this is just not the reality of how people behave and markets work.
They had to release early and they will pay dearly for that, and I am pretty sure that at some point they changed the goal from "cash cow" to "profitable", or were forced to rather.
These are all my opinions of course but I have played many of these games for many years and watched them evolve, age and die in some cases.
Anything can happen and if your into quantum mechanics it quite often does, but those are not the laws that governs these things.
In the end I really wish Sigil and Vanguard the best, I really should not because we should not encourage them to release games in such a state.
None the less, if this game ever hits 500k subs I will not only eat the proverbial hat, I will consume the entire store, and I will do it with a smile, glad I was wrong.
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Originally posted by Jerek_
I wonder if you honestly even believe what you type, or if you live in a made up world of facts.
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100,000 subscribers [and I doubt it's that high] doesn't seem like a lot to me.
The question is, do YOU know what a subscription is? I have subscribed to play just like alot of others. I may not have been charged anything yet but I am still a subscriber to the game.
sub·scrip·tion
1. a sum of money given or pledged as a contribution, payment, investment, etc.
2. assent, agreement, or approval expressed verbally or by signing one's name.
. So lighten up
The question is, do YOU know what a subscription is? I have subscribed to play just like alot of others. I may not have been charged anything yet but I am still a subscriber to the game.
sub·scrip·tion
1. a sum of money given or pledged as a contribution, payment, investment, etc.
2. assent, agreement, or approval expressed verbally or by signing one's name.
. So lighten up
If you have ever taken accounting, you know businesses don't look at it this way... Box sales are not counted as assets for future contributions... This isn NOT and example of accrued revenue (service provided, payment delayed)... After the 30 days is up, and provided they do not cancel, then it is a subscription... As of right now all you have is a box with a free trial, nothing more, nothing less...
But in your "gamer world" call it whatever you want... Sigil will be paying close attention to retained players once the sub fees hit...
You dont need millions for a game to survive, Ultima online is still going with an estimated 30k pop. There was still 100k subscribers for DAOC last year, and they are doing fine.
True vanguard is probably more expensive to run, but they dont exactly have 50 servers either, anywhere near 100k is profitable enough to keep a game funded.
All the WoW fanbois hate VG because it scares the hell out of them. Not to worry though, most of the EQ people went to WoW because their computers couldn't run EQ2. Now a game comes out that even surpasses EQ2 in graphics and even more people can't run it, so the game is pure crap because WoW runs just fine on my system. Get a Life and a new computer or play WoW forever and STFU.
And a lot of Vanguard problems come from issues on sigil's end, not ours.
And most of us here are gamers, so we arent playing on a 7 year old system. I just dont feel its neccesary to upgrade a comp for one game, if someone does need to.
And if you did upgrade just for this game, then ide rather side with those whos computers suck, because they have an ounce of common sense in them it seems. Unlike the rabid defenders of a game with massive potential but loads of glitches and graphical problems.
Defend all you like, but dont be blind, and dont get personal, makes you look like an idiot, opps too late.
graphics do make a game better. Why do you think they don't create games for the ps1 anymore? Why are you here? There are older games that you can play with you computer. The only reason you're complaining is because you can't have something you want. In the real world If you want something ... you have to work for it.
I can't buy the 32" widescreen lcd tv i want. Do i go up to the shops and moan about it been to expensive? No... because i understand the simple facts of life.