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how many people bought this game?
RoseOfAion
Member Posts: 4
in Tabula Rasa
I'm wondering why this game is not in best sellers ranking in spite of great rating.
Hellgate is getting low scores in rating, but I've heard NPD.COM announced it as Top selling Item in games.
What happens in Tabula Rasa? Do people who give this game good ratings really play this game?
I'm from KOREA and it's hard to find out how many people in this game...
I would very appreciate if you could tell me the point, " How many people is in this game?"
Have good weekends 
Comments
I bought it, but sadly alot of people usually wait until a mmorpg like this gets more stable, and they want to make sure it will last before spending their money, which is not a bad thing. Hellgate sells because the advertising was excellent, even thought the game is awful (at least right now).
With all the good reviews for TR, its just a matter of time until it takes off I would think.
Well, I dont have exact numbers but during peak european times the servers are often at "Very high" population.
Sometimes I have even had to wait in que to log on.
The "wilderness" map, which is the first map has about 7-10 instances (cant remember exactly) and the first 2-3 are always on Moderate to HIGH population.
That has dwindled a bit recently as people level up and move onto other maps..
I also notice that the US Servers also seem to have hugly popular numbers of people playing!
I bought this game on a whim really, just needed something new to try.. its awesome! as I expect any NCSOFT game to be really.
The recent patch has made massive improvments to performance as well, incredibly so for me and im really enjoying it.
You wont regret buying this game at all.
Could be true.... I'm considering playing TR but holding out a little longer...see how well people like it after they've played a month or two after release. LotRO was a really fun game for me... but I tired quickly of it around level 30 (two months in) and I don't want to run into the same issue.
edit...had to laugh at the NCSoft comment... my previous experience with Lineage 1/2 in particular makes me expect the worst from them.... (despite their successes with COX and GW's)
"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
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"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
I was under the impression that Lineage games were huge success's, even more successfull than CoX..
But I could be wrong, not played lineage.
I was under the impression that Lineage games were huge success's, even more successfull than CoX..
But I could be wrong, not played lineage.
Oh, they were quite successful, but in Lineage 1 I had issues with them severely nerfing my main just as he hit his prime power and in Lineage 2 the "Grind" really wore me out... couldn't handle it.Its just me.....even GW's and COX were small, fun diversions for a 3 months or so....but none of their games has grabbed me like DAOC, WOW (and now EVE) did.
"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
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"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
QFT!!
I expect Tabula Rasa going to be a great game. Actually I cannot play TR within a dozen of months cause they don't start it in Korea until some monthes later. And I cannot speak English well, so I cannot dare login in US Server...
I posted about this a little while back. I'm still surprised at the lackluster sales. I really do think that people are waiting to see how it turns out. Even though sales weren't big, I think it possible that sales will stay steady.
As for Hellgate, say what you will, but for a casual gamer who wants a few hours of mindless fun hack and slash, it is just perfect. I can understand why it sells well, no matter what the reviews say. People either love or hate the game. It's been 2 weeks since release and it's still the #1 selling PC RPG game on Amazon.
Then NcSoft quarterlies came out with no mention of TR preorders and how they might indicate future sales of TR. Considering Richard's "cult" following, surely his fans would rush to preorder so they would have the honor of entering the beta? At about this time, 400,000 fans clamored to be included in the Warhammer beta. It'll be February before we know about sales.
But if the sales had been spectacular, I am sure we would have heard about it.
It is also mysterious as to how much NcSoft has paid for the Garriotts and the two versions of TR. The Korean Times says as much as $100MDollars, which is disputed here on the boards by the "Lost Boys" of Garriott 's "Neverland." But there is also a company profile from Yahoo that says that the Garriotts owned 6% of NcSoft stock at one time, which would have been an awesome sum. I've yet to hear a dispute about the 6%, even from the most adoring Tinkerbells. Whether they have sold it, or still hold it, I'd like to know. It may be what is being used to buy Richard's ticket into space on the Soyuz.
I think word-of-mouths reviews are going to remain the best. Someone has suggested that a company that buys ads on a review site has been influenced. I don't believe that to be the case.
But Richard Garriott is a sentimental favorite of many reviewers because of his history in the gaming world, and the way he has of charming reviewers and putting on a big, eccentric display. He gives such lavish parties with expensive booze that the Austin American Statesman press are no less than the most pathetic fawning toadies. You'll find a lot of reviewers who badly want to praise Richard just so they'll get invited to his parties or get to meet him and spend time with him because he lives such a cool life and plays all the time. They don't even ask him hard questions like..."Do you ever sit down and actually work on a game?" they just ask questions like "What's your favorite room in the house?"
So, for that reason, I'd say sales figures are a more reliable indication of how popular a game is. I keep an eye on Amazon, and TR has done poorly there. Even though it is a brand new game, it never got close to the top of the list for RPGs. Hellgate has been there for weeks now, just above WoW. You can also look at the other number with a larger category of videogames that includes everying, hardware, consoles, etc. TR's number is usually about a fourth of what Hellgate's number is.
Until you spread your wings, you have no idea how far you can walk.
Euro servers for most western games have a multitude of languages being spoken,and no doubt the US servers have different communities too.
Back to the originall question ; I bought Tabula Rasa and I completely love this game. It is action packed and gets *really* intense at times, its nothing like the boring mmos that we all play/ed. I would very highly recommend this for anyone who is tired of the grind & lack of deph. Tabula Rasa is great for RP. Super solid servers and game, beautiful graphics, people who played alot of mmos in the past especially will appreciate this game. I started a Tabula Rasa page where I have alot of screenshots and stuff, if you are still not sure check them out at mmorpgslave.com
Sinister Savant MMORPG Community
Hellgate: London is selling well, regardless of reviews, due in large part to the popularity of the Diablo Franchise. Diablo players are a major target market for the game
Tabula Rasa tried to capitalize on Richard Garriott's name. The problem is Richard is most famous for the Ultima franchise, which has nothing to do with Tabula Rasa. I respect his work and legacy, but think adding his name to the title was a mistake.
As for marketing, both Bill Roper and Richard Garriott are hype machines. Both hyped the hell out of their games, but--in the end--Bill's hype, marketing and legacy beat out Richard's hype, marketing and legacy, regardless of overall game quality or even the smoothness and/or success of each game's respective launch.
~Ripper
Why is it that every game has to deal with threads and discussions on sales/population count? If you are not a share holder or directly employed by the company it really shouldn't matter. People always worry of these games shutting down as if it will permanently scar them for life if they play and enjoy the service for 8 months(just a random number) Of course higher sales/player count can be a determining factor to a games popularity, but that should have no real impact on your own opinion of the game.
Not all game companies rush out and publish subscription numbers, good or bad. Then again what's the point? If TR, LOTRO Eve or any other game came out tomorrow and stated they had 5 million subscribers people would still make an argument that it was still shit cause WoW is double that. Numbers do funny things to people who put too much emphasis on them. Sadly games lately are striving on marketing gimmicks more than substance. I'm not trying to say that WoW is a bad game or that a lot of people aren't having fun playing it, but I really think alot of people play it based on the My friend/brother 9 million people playing it line.
Blizzard could sell train tycoon: Wow edition or Horde themed tampons by the millions just off of their name alone and the publics desire to fit in with the crowd.
I think it's just human nature. These games are huge investments of time for players, and nobody wants to invest that time if the ship's already sinking before they even get on it. Everyone who ultimately subscribes to the game wants it to be successful, so they argue that it is. People who dislike the game enough to cancel their subscriptions (and come to the forums to complain about it) tend to want it to change or fail, so they use mock numbers as a weapon against it. It's all a bunch of imaginary statistics used to support whatever position people happen to have.
There should have been a big tide of sales at the preorder phase if the marketing plans of NcSoft were correct--that the glamourous association with Richard Garriott would be the prime mover of sales. Those most bewitched by him would have bought the preporder so they could honor themselves with having played the beta with their hero.
I'm guessing major miscalculation of the power of celebrity,
I've also looked on several categories of Amazon games. I skimmed through all 100 PC game category and I didn't see TR on the list at all. Also--the list of online games. None of the top 100 were TR. I thought it must be come mistake--surely it is not doing THAT badly? only on the category of RPG does it get a mention in the lower twenty.
There's some discussion here of why TR won't provide an official forum. If you surf through the unofficial ones, you'll see that there's not much activity. Maybe there wouldn't be any to speak of on an official forum, and the world would see just how few subscribers there really are?
Until you spread your wings, you have no idea how far you can walk.
While I agree with you that Blizzard could sell any game right now and make a ton of money due to their name, it's also got lots to do with their reputation as a company.
Blizzard's the only company I can purchase a game for knowing full-well I'm going to enjoy it because they take time to make sure their games are top of the line.
They're the Mercedes/Lexus/Porsche of the game development world and have produced nothing but quality. Even those who bash WoW have to admit that the game itself is terrific. Sure you have a lot of hate towards how it plays, but guess what? That hate will carry into every other MMORPG.
The business of games is as interesting as the games themselves, maybe more. And if you live in a community that includes a game industry, it's not pleasant when the executives miscalculate and there is a major bloodletting (lost jobs, a blow to local industry, etc). When the executives make grandiose promises, do a lot of public showing-off-- and come up with failure, hurt investors and employees, it is not a bad thing to hold them accountable, even if they still get their money--they ought to have to face the crticism for their empty promises.
Until you spread your wings, you have no idea how far you can walk.
I am one of the people that purchased TR straight from the source, with both pre-order and order. These people of course aren't going to show up on your specific lists. Only true numbers you will get will be straight from the source, not just from one single retail game provider.
That's a very interesting point. I know I'm one who doesn't like to purchase games through Amazon or other sites that'll ship them to me directly simply because why wait a few days when I can drive to the store and get them now?
I will direct2drive some from time to time, but I go with the traditional approach when purchasing games. Clearly both these games targeted two completely different audiences, so it'd be interesting to see a poll on each to determine what type of gamers buy from online sources and what type buy the other ways.
I think a true test is whether or not these games will echo through time or not, and truthfully I believe both are going to die out due to the much larger voices from WoW and other big-name games of our time.
Of course, not everyone buys from Amazon. But Amazon provides a real-time, easily accessed, hourly updated sales model that no other retailer offers, like a moving average. It provides a window into selling trends. I'm very willing to be shown other windows. Today an org called NPD Group put out a list of top ten that had Hellgate at the top and TR nowhere to be seen. I've only read about it here, no links were provided. Gamespot and gamestop also offer best-seller lists with little hard data to go with them--but if you visit their forums on TR, you'll see very little excitement. Xfire would be a better source if they get beyond the same old top ten.
NcSoft released sales numbers just last week that were discouraging, but I was told by Tr advocates here that the quarter ended in September and true sales figures could not be ascertained until Q4 in Feb. Fair enough--but I still think that high numbers of preorders, if such high numbers existed, would have been mentioned in that report. I do notice that NcSoft stock has plummeted in the past 6 weeks--and is finding new 52-week lows. I saw similar stock behavior during Auto Assault.
I never take it to be a good sign when a company doesn't want to discuss sales numbers.
Until you spread your wings, you have no idea how far you can walk.
I think something that hurt the initial sales a bit was a bad beta. I seriously was not going to buy it because of the beta,which I found pretty crappy. Problem is alot of people think the beta is there for a chance to play the game early and for free, instead of reporting bugs/problems or w/e.
I'm glad I came back to check out the release reviews and was very suprised how much better it was than the beta.
While WoW sales were much higher then TR sales are, they still weren't anywhere near what they are now. There's no way the release WoW would have gotten as much fame as it has now. Patches and new content later, it's the new big boy in town.
I don't know... history's just taught me that MMOs at release never do as great as anyone thinks, but if the game's solid enough it can successfully grow with the proper development.
If that doesn't create a Wow-buster, what will?
If TR falters, it won't be because of a lack of corporate support. There was no better sponsor than NcSoft.
Until you spread your wings, you have no idea how far you can walk.
I would like to contest that part as i have to admit the forum that i frequent seems to be a lot more active than these ones (and also the gamespot TR forum as well).
But if then again i have to admit that some other forums either have a lot of passing traffic (ie stratics/ign vault/mmorpg) so you dont even have to play the game to post in those forums, which can potentially result in issues concerning trolling/baiting from game haters/defenders. You cant deny it, it happens.
Also forum users ARE a minority of the game players.
The 'no official forum' stance from NCsoft is indeed an interesting one i have to admit though. And for the majority of it i do stand by it, as i do see Critters, CuppaJo and Avatea reading/visiting some of the forums. They might not always post on those boards directly (unless its answering a specific question), BUT if it is indeed a wide ranging question then they will feed it back via the website (which you dont need a game account to read).
Now also concerning official forums, i know people who wont use the large ones, as they will feel that they will 'get lost in the crowd'. Although in the smaller forums, they are more likely to speak up.
People are using the argument that the lack of official forums will stop the players from getting good builds/dev feedback etc... well what is there to stop people from grabbing it off a seperate site and using it? What is there to say that the guides that were posted on official forums were not lifted from a 3rd party site (apart from professional integrity) Also the ratio of 'noise' to good can be suprsingly high in the official forums (i rest my case on the TR beta forums, although some of it was worthwhile, other parts were not(especially me and my caffine addiction getting spread like wildfire)).
Also and this is quite a good one, is that it is easier to put up forums if they are needed, but a lot harder to take them down in the end, so if this 'no official forums' doesnt work out for them, they can set them up... of course once they are up, they are up for good, and you if you dont like the crowd, you cant really expect to move to different set of forums to get dev feedback can you?
Also why does a community have to have an official place to meet up? Or is it so that the players know where to go when something is wrong (there is the feedback form on the official site for this as well
)
*edit* Damn, i had to use IE to edit this post as the forum doesnt like Opera >.<
Regardless, it still isn't a true identifier of accurate numbers. Although it may have a very useful tracking system, It still is just one source out of many retailers. I wouldn't put all of my eggs in one basket and call out TR's success on how many boxes just one retailer moves.
Time will be the determining factor, as the word gets out, and more and more pick up boxes over the next few months, it will be a whole different story. We could take a look at how well Vanguard did on release, it sold a lot of boxes out of the gate... but where does it stand right now? TR at least has two good legs to stand on.
I just don't think pre-order sales will be the determining factor of TR's success. I don't even think one months numbers are good enough to even be factor in its success. As one poster mentioned, should we have based WoW's success on it's initial release numbers? If we did, I think alot of those betting would have lost their shirts.