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Another FLS spin?
Illyrian
Member Posts: 300
According to http://www.mmogchart.com/ "Pirates of the Burning Sea (Accuracy Rating: A)
Launched on January 7, 2008, PotBS has been doing quite well. As of April 2008 sources indicate the game has approximately 65,000 subscribers. http://www.burningsea.com/"
Dang it, too bad those phantom paying hordes don't log in to play the game. But it is only logical, majority of the people are unhappy, they leave the game but keep paying for it. I do that all the time, when I stop playing I keep paying, just for the kicks. (Yes, this was sarcasm and yes, it is the lowest form of wit.)
In the meantime http://potbs.armeagle.nl/ shows population to be low to nil and POTBS devs themselvs announced that the next week (starting Apr 13) they will announce measures to deal with population issues.
Now, the closing lines of mmogchart.com states:
"I’m very pleased that so many people have found my research useful, particularly those in the MMOG industry. However, it is only as useful as YOU make it. So please, if you are a MMOG developer or involved with one, and you have subscription data for your game, PLEASE email me."
Woo - hoo, I am betting on yet another FLS spin as the input seems to be made by devs alone. Of course, I am also waiting for cheerleader squad to appear in numbers citing how game is doing amazing, no mergers are needed and they saw tons of new people online.
I think I will bet on http://potbs.armeagle.nl/ but each to its own:P
Comments
subscribers does not equaly players. I'm still a subscriber because I put this thing on my station pass and there is no way to remove it, but it doenst mean I have the game installed or am actively using it. When it comes to this I wish sony would provide a way to remove games from the station pass, but there is no harm to having it there and it doesn't not change any prices so its left on.
Well, for starters it was "launched" January 21, unless you want to make a point that the beginning of pre-boarding was the real launch. I would have joined in pre-boarding, too, had it not been for the necessity to download 5 GB of files to do it...
Which I think indicates another problem. Many of the leadership/diplomatic decisions all seemed to have been reached sometime in beta or preboarding at the latest and just carried on to the game when it went live. You get in on the very first day, and the impression you get is not of a new game, but one that has been running for quite a few months (except for all the deficient game mechanics and the like). Having that unfortunate business of established guilds (dating back to beta in this game or as a chapter of a cross-gaming guild) just compounded matters.
As for having 65,000 subscribers.... If that's the case, people are not playing. I'm far more willing to trust Armeagle's site when it comes to actual numbers.
EDIT: Yes, forgot all about Station Pass. Another game kept on life support that way.
I am sure a vast majoirty of those are Sony Station Pass Accounts.
As I say in most MMO matters I want a SS of those 65000 or they lying.
Well since he thinks Star Wars Galaxies has 75,000 players I would take all his estimates with a huge grain of salt.
They should change the name "Station Pass" to "MMO Life Support".
All SOE games get counted multiple times because of station pass as far as subscriptions. Sometimes Bruce can narrow it down based on periodic public information, box sales, or inside information, but basically all SOE game subscriber numbers are inflated and SOE likes it that way and is secretive about how few the actual active players are for each game since it would be more evidence proving their games suck.
All you have to do is download the free trial for SWG and log on and look around to see that there are far, far less than 75k people still playing.
Fixed.
The server page website at armeagle is a hoax, this has already been discussed on the FLS website and they are currently trying to shut down that site. I own the game and the server screen only updates once a week (Saturday Nights)and for the last month or so it has always been blackbeard with medium populations and Roberts with Heavy/Medium populations. The rest of the servers fluctuate between light and medium.
The server page website at armeagle is a hoax, this has already been discussed on the FLS website and they are currently trying to shut down that site. I own the game and the server screen only updates once a week (Saturday Nights)and for the last month or so it has always been blackbeard with medium populations and Roberts with Heavy/Medium populations. The rest of the servers fluctuate between light and medium.
Sorry but your wrong man. Only servers that still have moderate now are Roberts and Blackbeard, all the other servers have light across the board. We know that they never get to moderate thx to the fact that it displays weekly peak.
http://potbs.armeagle.nl/ shows the current numbers, FLS log in screen is a hoax showing the weeks high water mark. To simplify, FLS will show medium any faction that reached medium once in given week although before and after population might be zero (hypothetically speaking).
Basically http://potbs.armeagle.nl/ shows what FLS log in screen showed before they fixed it to cover miniscule numbers. It also uses scripts and data provied by FLS, to my knowledge, although I suspect devs had no idea it will be used in this way.
In essence it is really irrelevant, I choked on the assessment that POTBS is "doing well". I would hate to see the games that do medicore or poorly.
Well, just another type of evidence, if you need it:
On Amazon.com right now, there is a grand total of 16 customer reviews, giving mixed ratings, and none of them was published after February...
thats why it says that it's a screenshot from the server menu......... And it stated Apirl 13th which is a false population picture and doesn't reflect the one in the game.
There is one point we probably agree on: We have no idea what the definitive numerical value of "Light" is supposed to be. However, even if you're just willing to dispute figures, you must realize that outside of Roberts and Blackbeard, the official FLS weekly figures on the login screen also give "Light" everywhere...
Why are you so intent on pretending the game is doing well?
it says at the bottom of that site the following
"Note that the numbers here are of the current population, as opposed to the 30 day max. that you see ingame"
seems pretty clear to me
FLS previously stated that light was 1-100 or was is 102 anyhow it was pretty low and they also previously stated that a healthy population by their own measuring stick was 200'ish per side at prime time. 200'ish puts it into the medium setting. So basically light means that there is not a "healthy population on". So the server minimum to be simplistic about it for a good game is 800 when we are seeing numbers that are likely below 400 at prime time.
Most people are just poking and dabbling in the game from what I can see. They get on for 2 hours a week or so and that's it and it seems to be on a friday night otherwise the servers are very devoid of any real action. When I left the numbers went to 0 at points just before the removed the whocount and that was awhile ago. From what I understand the population on the server I"m on is declining further on all sides. Soon it will be like 2 dozen guys playing the entire game on that server I swear. It must be very lonely to say the least.
yet these numbers are now impossible to find because /whocount is disabled. There is no possible way that he can confirm or speculate how many players are on the server at a given time. Also this would mean that he is actually photoshopping in the words Lights Moderate and Heavy which would be to much of a hassle, therfore his "picture" is clearly false.
Honestly its not even worth arguing about because the devs at FLS have already confirmed that the website is false and they were trying to shut it down earlier this month or so.
yet these numbers are now impossible to find because /whocount is disabled. There is no possible way that he can confirm or speculate how many players are on the server at a given time. Also this would mean that he is actually photoshopping in the words Lights Moderate and Heavy which would be to much of a hassle, therfore his "picture" is clearly false.
Honestly its not even worth arguing about because the devs at FLS have already confirmed that the website is false and they were trying to shut it down earlier this month or so.
You keep saying that but you yet to have post a single link to back that statement up. I did a nice little search on the forums which basically gives you step by step guide on how to make it and even one of the admins helped code it, so please go troll somewhere else now.
http://www.burningsea.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22831
As of today (April 14th, 2008) there is no official post made in that thread by a dev or admin claiming the site is bogus, false etc. It would be a bit hard since the fellow used data supplied by FLS but probably not in a way FLS wanted it to be used.
So I am calling BS on claiming the site is bogus. I am certain though it will not discourage fanbois although it is in essence a moot discussion having in mind how empty the game is.
Not to mention, regardless of the actual figures, that the game *feels* empty.
I would even go as far as saying that turning off unrest decay only gave the impression the game was far more active than it really was.
And FLS wouldn't have a reason to try and keep people from seeing the data on that site? It's the same reason they disabled the /whocount command. They don't want people to know how bad the population is.
I believe the 65,000 mark to be a fair assessment. The reason is mostly that PotBS is still new, so the number I believe is reflective that the initial sales are still exceeding the churn rate. Though true, the Station Pass does mask things.
For the issue with http://potbs.armeagle.nl/ I also find no posting of Dev's stating it is false. Actually I found a thread in which the FLS team was helping with this. As well as a Dev Blog about it:
Forum Thread of the API
New Devlog: Sharing Game Data
And that is why...
Conservatives' pessimism is conducive to their happiness in three ways. First, they are rarely surprised -- they are right more often than not about the course of events. Second, when they are wrong they are happy to be so. Third, because pessimistic conservatives put not their faith in princes -- government -- they accept that happiness is a function of fending for oneself. They believe that happiness is an activity -- it is inseparable from the pursuit of happiness.
So in review
FLS removed /whocount and still tried to say pops were going up
FLS change the "light/mod/heavy" count but said pops were still going up
Now they are scrapping over half their servers ?
Are they still spinning or finally admit that their pops are , gasp , going down -
A game is dead when no one posts in the forums, when no one cares enough even to rant. I watched the PotBS forums here daily, and given the relatively few postings here the game is only on artificial coma now, closer to death than life. I say, SOE really has a good hand to ally with winners, havent they now?
*hand wave* Nothing to see here, this isnt the MMO you were looking for. Move along.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Exactly. Any game that uses SOE for publishing is in trouble before it launches.