Because the games are supposed to be MMO's. To break it down That is MASSIVELY which indicates more than a few hundred people. MULTIPLAYER, because well, we are not looking to play single player games (Despite the people who cry when everything is not soloable) and ONLINE. Put the three together, people want to be in large scale gaming environments where it is common to be playing with hundreds and thousands of people, regardless of their personal play time in an Online universe. If we do not play a game with a large enough community, we may as well be playing a single player game.
most servers only hold 5000 players. so you will never play with those 100k...
Because some people who "visit" forums like to wave their "massive" epeens around.
Truth is, it only matters if it creates some sort of issue with mechanics that are dependent on grouping which very few newer western games do.
If you are on a well populated server in whatever game the total amount of subscribers is completely irrelevent. Unless you like to engage in nonsense epeen debates about it on forums about games that don't publish sub numbers in the first place....
Originally posted by SgtFrog why does player numbers matter so mush to some people. player number does not mean a game is any good. as long as there is one active server it should be enough for most. your never gonna play or need to play with 500k players....
Two reasons:
One: An MMO has relatively high fixed costs and low incremental costs. In other words, the developer has a large cost that must be paid regardless of how many players he has, but each new player that joins does not increase his costs by that much. That means the more people playing the game, the more profitable it is. When the population figures get too low, the game ceases to be profitable at all and will be either closed or radically revamped, rarely to good effect (see: Star Wars Galaxies).
Two: An good MMO creates an whole player ecology. You have to be able to find other players of the right class and level to build viable parties, there needs to be a certain threshhold of business transactions going on to provide decent liquidity in the economy, there needs to be enough crafters doing different skills so that all the items the player base needs are being created, and so on. As you note, this problem can be partially solved by merging servers, but merging servers is usually disruptive to the player communities on those servers, and it also makes the players believe that the game is dying, prompting more of them to leave.
Edit add: Nevertheless, a game does not require hundreds of thousands of players, and the number of P2P games that have those kinds of subscriber numbers can be counted on your fingers, probably with some left over. A big-budget game does require subscribers in the tens of thousands, however, in order to meet its payroll.
why does player numbers matter so mush to some people. player number does not mean a game is any good. as long as there is one active server it should be enough for most. your never gonna play or need to play with 500k players....
You are correct that a server holds about 3-5K players. You cannot play a game with 10 million people, because of course you could never interact with all of them.
All you need is one good server, with around 3 thousand players.
However, what is the likelyhood that a game is very good, and only 3K people in the world want to play it? If it's any good, then more than likely more than 3-5K people will want to play it.
Also, a game that only supports around 5 thousand players, is more likely to go out of business, and have the server closed, than a game that supports 500 thousand players. And, it's more incentive to write content for 500K players, than 5 thousand, so it's more likely the game will be supported with updates, bug fixes, and expansions if it has more players.
If a movie is number one at the box office, it doesn't necesssarily mean it's a great movie. If a movie does very badly at the box office, it doesn't mean necessarily that it's a really bad movie.
However, if a movie is number one at the box office, there's a better chance it's a good movie, than if it did terrible at the box office.
why does player numbers matter so mush to some people. player number does not mean a game is any good. as long as there is one active server it should be enough for most. your never gonna play or need to play with 500k players....
People play MMORPG's for the long-term; it's about having a persistent character in a good game and making friends for at least a few years.
If a game has a low population, then that might indicate it is not a good game or that in-game comraderie will not last for long, and that your character might be alone or mostly alone while adventuring. In other words, your efforts may not be worth the commitment, and there is no gaming that is as depressing as wandering about the world in a dying MMORPG.
You are correct that a server holds about 3-5K players. You cannot play a game with 10 million people, because of course you could never interact with all of them.
EvE has 29279 players on its one server cluster at this very moment
Thats part of what makes eve special, even if you only interact with a small small portion of these players at any given time, they are all there influencing the game world in some form or other.
Comments
are you serious?
do you really want to waste your precious $$$$ + time?
The best online RPG experience I have ever had was a MUD with about 200 on at anytime. Great roleplay, pvp, gms, everyone knew everyone.
Anyone who thinks the bigger the community the better the experience is just wrong.
most servers only hold 5000 players. so you will never play with those 100k...
Because some people who "visit" forums like to wave their "massive" epeens around.
Truth is, it only matters if it creates some sort of issue with mechanics that are dependent on grouping which very few newer western games do.
If you are on a well populated server in whatever game the total amount of subscribers is completely irrelevent. Unless you like to engage in nonsense epeen debates about it on forums about games that don't publish sub numbers in the first place....
Two reasons:
One: An MMO has relatively high fixed costs and low incremental costs. In other words, the developer has a large cost that must be paid regardless of how many players he has, but each new player that joins does not increase his costs by that much. That means the more people playing the game, the more profitable it is. When the population figures get too low, the game ceases to be profitable at all and will be either closed or radically revamped, rarely to good effect (see: Star Wars Galaxies).
Two: An good MMO creates an whole player ecology. You have to be able to find other players of the right class and level to build viable parties, there needs to be a certain threshhold of business transactions going on to provide decent liquidity in the economy, there needs to be enough crafters doing different skills so that all the items the player base needs are being created, and so on. As you note, this problem can be partially solved by merging servers, but merging servers is usually disruptive to the player communities on those servers, and it also makes the players believe that the game is dying, prompting more of them to leave.
Edit add: Nevertheless, a game does not require hundreds of thousands of players, and the number of P2P games that have those kinds of subscriber numbers can be counted on your fingers, probably with some left over. A big-budget game does require subscribers in the tens of thousands, however, in order to meet its payroll.
You are correct that a server holds about 3-5K players. You cannot play a game with 10 million people, because of course you could never interact with all of them.
All you need is one good server, with around 3 thousand players.
However, what is the likelyhood that a game is very good, and only 3K people in the world want to play it? If it's any good, then more than likely more than 3-5K people will want to play it.
Also, a game that only supports around 5 thousand players, is more likely to go out of business, and have the server closed, than a game that supports 500 thousand players. And, it's more incentive to write content for 500K players, than 5 thousand, so it's more likely the game will be supported with updates, bug fixes, and expansions if it has more players.
If a movie is number one at the box office, it doesn't necesssarily mean it's a great movie. If a movie does very badly at the box office, it doesn't mean necessarily that it's a really bad movie.
However, if a movie is number one at the box office, there's a better chance it's a good movie, than if it did terrible at the box office.
Low pop games make people wonder why they are low pop. Low pop could, but not always equal a pretty crappy game.
I don't mind low population at all. you only really intereact with a small group of people no matter how large the MMO is.
I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.
The threshold is enough players to make the game profitable, so the servers arent' closed. If you like the game, that's all you really need.
Even games considered to have 200k players make it hard to find a group on a level based system.
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Talking about SWG much?
People play MMORPG's for the long-term; it's about having a persistent character in a good game and making friends for at least a few years.
If a game has a low population, then that might indicate it is not a good game or that in-game comraderie will not last for long, and that your character might be alone or mostly alone while adventuring. In other words, your efforts may not be worth the commitment, and there is no gaming that is as depressing as wandering about the world in a dying MMORPG.
EvE has 29279 players on its one server cluster at this very moment
Thats part of what makes eve special, even if you only interact with a small small portion of these players at any given time, they are all there influencing the game world in some form or other.
Because of most people's primitive, deep-seated belief that bigger is better.