Yup numbers don't lie, but if Age of Conan was the forth highest selling PC game last year and was once ranked #4 on Xfire. AoC is an MMO which stands for time sink - then why does it have fewer hours logged/ individual players than other MMOs? Does anyone find AoC's position to be a good thing? Is the position itself a good thing, answer to that is no, but the good thing is that the drop of players have stopped, and the trend shown on Xfire is that over the last months there has been a increase in hours played. This increase haven't been a huge increase but it shows that things are going the right way, that is the good thing about aoc on xfire. The place they are on itself is not good, but statsistics shows there are coming more players/more hours is played weekly. AoC hit rock bottom around december sometime if I recall correct, and if they can show they are serious about the game and improve it throughout 2009 they will have a decent increase in playerbase. But they will never reach numbers like WoW have.
Playing: Battlefield - Bad company (Xbox360) Arma2, DFO (PC) On my radar: TSW, MO MMO's played: SWG (pre cu/cu), WoW, AoC, WAR, DFO, Planetside MMO's that I have tested: Lotro, L2, Aion, Ryzom
Yup numbers don't lie, but if Age of Conan was the forth highest selling PC game last year and was once ranked #4 on Xfire. AoC is an MMO which stands for time sink - then why does it have fewer hours logged/ individual players than other MMOs? Does anyone find AoC's position to be a good thing?
When I play MMO's I usually play around 5-6 hours at a time but with Age of Conan I don't think I have ever played for more than 2 hours at one time. It just gets boring after a while because AoC is not immersive like some other MMO's. AoC feels more like a single-player-game.
Yup numbers don't lie, but if Age of Conan was the forth highest selling PC game last year and was once ranked #4 on Xfire. AoC is an MMO which stands for time sink - then why does it have fewer hours logged/ individual players than other MMOs? Does anyone find AoC's position to be a good thing?
When I play MMO's I usually play around 5-6 hours at a time but with Age of Conan I don't think I have ever played for more than 2 hours at one time. It just gets boring after a while because AoC is not immersive like some other MMO's. AoC feels more like a single-player-game.
i played for 5 to 6 on aoc when i was sub'ed. i would gank people on tortage the entire time on my assassin. then whenever i got ganked by a ranger id cry and go into the fetal position in the corner of my room listening to yankee doodle while cutting myself to let the pain out
-------------------------------------- Peace is a lie, there is only passion. Through passion, I gain strength. Through strength, I gain power. Through power, I gain victory. Through victory, my chains are broken. The force shall free me. -the Sith code
Yup numbers don't lie, but if Age of Conan was the forth highest selling PC game last year and was once ranked #4 on Xfire. AoC is an MMO which stands for time sink - then why does it have fewer hours logged/ individual players than other MMOs? Does anyone find AoC's position to be a good thing?
When I play MMO's I usually play around 5-6 hours at a time but with Age of Conan I don't think I have ever played for more than 2 hours at one time. It just gets boring after a while because AoC is not immersive like some other MMO's. AoC feels more like a single-player-game.
You have a life long sub for AoC?
Why would want to play a boring game? Just cancel your sub dude and get rid of the boring single player AoC game from your HDD.
#43 today but up new all time high since last fall. 5820 gamed hours (compared to 5165, last high 2 weeks back) with as much as 1376 gamers logged on Xfire (compared to 1270, last high 2 weeks back). The trend is getting stronger.
FYI Yesterday was a National holiday in the US
Looks like Tuesday (not a holiday) had another 300+ hour rise from two weeks ago (not using last weeks data due to an Xfire outage, so lets not make it looks like the game had a 1k+ hour rise...lol)...guess that holiday did not have THAT big of an effect.
Overall, the upward trend is still going on. Patch 1.04 today will make the rest of the week (after today's downtime of course) really shine..there is going to be some mass playing for sure...
#43 today but up new all time high since last fall. 5820 gamed hours (compared to 5165, last high 2 weeks back) with as much as 1376 gamers logged on Xfire (compared to 1270, last high 2 weeks back). The trend is getting stronger.
FYI Yesterday was a National holiday in the US
Looks like Tuesday (not a holiday) had another 300+ hour rise from two weeks ago (not using last weeks data due to an Xfire outage, so lets not make it looks like the game had a 1k+ hour rise...lol)...guess that holiday did not have THAT big of an effect.
Overall, the upward trend is still going on. Patch 1.04 today will make the rest of the week (after today's downtime of course) really shine..there is going to be some mass playing for sure...
Cheers
Xfire numbers are 5573 hours and 1297 Xfire players. That is a significant rise as you say from 2 weeks back. www.xfire.com/games/aoc/Age_of_Conan_Hyborian_Adventures/. AoC has never been 1300 Xfire players midweek since October. This is a big deal. AoC is picking up speed quickly.
Xfire numbers are 5573 hours and 1297 Xfire players. That is a significant rise as you say from 2 weeks back. www.xfire.com/games/aoc/Age_of_Conan_Hyborian_Adventures/. AoC has never been 1300 Xfire players midweek since October. This is a big deal. AoC is picking up speed quickly.
Here in MMORPG has ben posted the thread on AOC forums will people asking other people to install XFire to artificially raise these numbers. I don't know If this is the cause of that raise, maybe not enteryly, but is *sure* a shadow of doubt. Please pick a different metric for that, one that is not "gamed" by the players.
Here in MMORPG has ben posted the thread on AOC forums will people asking other people to install XFire to artificially raise these numbers. I don't know If this is the cause of that raise, maybe not enteryly, but is *sure* a shadow of doubt. Please pick a different metric for that, one that is not "gamed" by the players.
No, it's not a shadow of doubt, it's absurd.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
Xfire numbers are 5573 hours and 1297 Xfire players. That is a significant rise as you say from 2 weeks back. www.xfire.com/games/aoc/Age_of_Conan_Hyborian_Adventures/. AoC has never been 1300 Xfire players midweek since October. This is a big deal. AoC is picking up speed quickly.
Here in MMORPG has ben posted the thread on AOC forums will people asking other people to install XFire to artificially raise these numbers. I don't know If this is the cause of that raise, maybe not enteryly, but is *sure* a shadow of doubt. Please pick a different metric for that, one that is not "gamed" by the players.
It's one post actually posted in this thread and if you go and have a look the guy was never able to dig up a thread about it. He found a shoddy post but that was it. A post made over one month ago can't make changes like this. In that case the mere fact that we post about xfire here now is also a problem. And if so it is a problem for all other games too. Which clearly people does not seem to think, so lean back and enjoy the good news. The MMO industry have at least one game now that seems to be growing. In fact something like 60-80% over the last 6-7 weeks.
Funcom has published it's numbers before, do you require an update "officially" every month or something? Small things like this show established interaction and feedback to (ex)players, however in Funcom's case it's logical to not want to show what a game that sold upwards of a million units in the first month, has dropped to. I bet there are more mmo companies that don't publish than do. How come no one ever bitches on other game forums? like say Turbines? Or is it limited only to new members to mmorpg who either have to over rapturously praise the game or over zealous moaning? Turbine seems to give numbers periodically (at milestones anyways. Blizzard does it usually, due to their insanely huge subscription amount. CCP's subscription amount is fairly well known for EVE Online. Mythic recently released Warhammer's numbers, even though it was 'only' 300k which shows a pretty hefty drop compared to boxes sold. The only other pay to play of any note, would be Final Fantasy. F2P subscription numbers are pointless to release, as that's not what brings in the money (obviously). So no, you are wrong, other MMO companies do release numbers. Whether AoC gives that info or not won't stop people from being able to get a rough outline of AoC's subs via quarterly reports and other information. All things considered here is some correct info for you, every person that has posted their "Guess" to subscriber numbers pre Quarter documentation release has always ended up wrong. Way out. That's using their own methods too. What proof do you have of this? You would have to know AoC's actual subscription numbers to know if guesses are wrong (be it due to bad math or poor guesses in general). May we ask why sub numbers mean so much? do you get to meet every single one of them? The game is self sustaining itself and there is enough cash in the bank to support the game for a long time to come. It is ticking over just fine. If there are 50k people playing and the game can survive on that and a server holds so many people, you are not going to meet everyone on all servers are you? Fact is, right now, people can log in to the majority of servers and find a decent population for gameplay. There is money in the bank, the quality of the patches keeps improving, what else matters? Subs show how a game is doing, and the history of the game's subs gives good information to others who are looking over numerous games to help them narrow down a choice. If you saw a game drop from 1mil to 100k, would you be more inclined to try it than a game that has grown over the years to 200k, or went from 1mil down to 300k...etc? This is also one of the reasons Funcom doesn't release numbers, it will make them look bad. Unless you misunderstood in another thread. A suspected decrease in income for Funcom (as a whole) does not correlate into a decrease in Age of Conan sub numbers - which can never, ever, be proven as fact either way. All other income coming in will not be consistent, deals from selling off assets of the company, in terms of amount to get back, plus expected income from Box sales which has only appeared once since release in the paper work (belated), Digital sales of the game, whether income via buddy key downloads, $19.95 reactivation and client download, Steam, or other digital sourcing and so on. A decrease in income can show a decrease in AoC numbers. When you look and see what was sold off, for how much...etc, you are able to remove other varibles. If Funcom went down 35% for income, factoring out asset sales, do you honestly think none of that would be tied in to AoC? Keep in mind this is a game they expected to provide income to fun other games. Simple fact is since last quarter the only thing consistant and actually up but bad to use is Xfire (amount of people playing, not time put into the game) That line there is telling that more people with Xfire are playing, in correlation to more people taking part in official surveys are consistant too. People should be set on fire for using xfire in arguements as fact, however it still provides some basic information to work with in comparison to other games when going with averages. Xfire's numbers have nothing to do with me laughing at people who claim AoC has anywhere near 200k active, paying subs that aren't 6 or 12 month subs that were set to cancel long ago. Hell even including them I doubt it's 200k. However I don't think any sane person can or will actually use a small increase in xfire activty with some big increase in AoC subscriptions of a worthwhile degree (Funcom doesn't get very much income from boxes selling for under 10 usd/euro).
Makes sense...of course, this could be attributed to the very real possibility that it matches your opinion. However, as all of this "data" is completely subjective, it is not an actual fact. Just more speculation on both yours and their part.
What is really the truth? We do not know. Different viewpoints both here and on the AoC forums indicates growth, stagnation and loss. We cannot have all three.
Luckily for my part, I never have had so much fun with so many old and new faces, And with play times increasing and player counts totaling higher (both in my guild, from what I see on my server and on Xfire)...the game looks iike it is finally getting to where it needs to be.
Playtime is probably peaked this week because of the patch. It happens every time there is a major patch (players play longer). I think it's very hard to 'notice' a growth in subscribers when you have server mergers and a big patch both happening recently. Players posting that guildmates have come back is a positive sign though as well as people talking to players who have never played before. Xfire and /who are probably not as reliable because of the mergers and patch though.
The really interesting thing is that Funcom has already said they expect the 1st quarter ( Jan- Mar) to have lower revenues than (Oct - Dec). I honestly would expect growth over all.
Lets look at some of the game forums as of the time of this posting to get a feel for how many people are interested in discussing gameplay etc. General- 9 threads bumped servers- PvE- Set 2 threads bumped, Gwahler - 1 thread bumped, Wiccana 5 threads bumped, Ironspine 0 threads bumped. Do they only need 2 PvE servers now? PvP - Tyranny 8 threads bumped, Bloodspire 0 threads bumped, Agony 0 threads bumped, Cimmeria had13 threads bumped. Looks like time to merge a couple more of the PvP servers Now lets compare that to a few other games forums LoTRO forums in general have had 25 threads bumped EQII general forums 11 threads bumped Vanguard general forums - 13 threads bumped Eve a whopping 47 threads bumped as of now in the general forums alone Does not look to me as if many people care to discuss AoC, or at least that is the picture I see. Actually, this tells me the AoC audience is saying..."I would rather play than discuss stuff in a forum..."
Wow there's so much bullshit in that thread that it's amazing you linked it.
Claims of AoC having no competition now, drastic subscription increases, WoW peaked, other games losing subs (I see EVE and lotro are both growing), WAr as a failure (300k subs, more than AoC has even by fanboy guesses)), upcoming games being a Vanguard in the making. It's a giant AoC fanboy circlejerk in the thread.
AoC has activity that is far behind WAR, EVE, LotRO, and others. The combat system which is very lag unfriendly (for melee), and overall was hyping its graphics and 'mature content' more than anything else, which I pity them for as AoC's graphics will only be 'the best' for so long, and going for such a high range only hurt them in the end.
Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG, client install with 3D graphics
Revenue sources: Subscription, retail sales
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million
if they only did $50 - $150 mil total revenue in 2008 with the revenue from 1 mil boxes give or take, and the high initial populations I wonder what 2009 will be like if the subs do not pick up
If you want to see if ppl are returning and so on, i found a post on AoC forums called "who resubbed to aoc" that are from begining of feb untill today, and maby that would give you a ide if they are increasing or not.
Funcom says the population is stabalized and looking at Q1 09 projections it seems as if 125,000 people play Age of Conan, though those players now play longer.
AmazingAveryAge of Conan AdvocateMemberUncommonPosts: 7,188
Originally posted by finaticd
Funcom says the population is stabalized and looking at Q1 09 projections it seems as if 125,000 people play Age of Conan, though those players now play longer.
Wish I could pull numbers out of thin air too.
People playing longer during this quarter as it encompassed a large chunk of holiday time
I've started playing for the first time and have just made level 7. It's a pretty polished and attractive looking game. The interface took a bit of getting used to but I quite like it so far.
I have 3 months of game time paid for so I guess I will be around for a while. It's surprisingly good, game performance is very smooth.
Hopefully this is my new addiction (second only to Vanguard).
I've started playing for the first time and have just made level 7. It's a pretty polished and attractive looking game. The interface took a bit of getting used to but I quite like it so far. I have 3 months of game time paid for so I guess I will be around for a while. It's surprisingly good, game performance is very smooth. Hopefully this is my new addiction (second only to Vanguard).
Everyone, with few exceptions, loved Tortage....it's level 19 and beyond where the game fizzled....but GL.
Though I probably would have enjoyed Vanguard...the director Brad Quaid created EQ's Velious which was the best MMO experiance I have to date.
Comments
Playing: Battlefield - Bad company (Xbox360) Arma2, DFO (PC)
On my radar: TSW, MO
MMO's played: SWG (pre cu/cu), WoW, AoC, WAR, DFO, Planetside
MMO's that I have tested: Lotro, L2, Aion, Ryzom
When I play MMO's I usually play around 5-6 hours at a time but with Age of Conan I don't think I have ever played for more than 2 hours at one time. It just gets boring after a while because AoC is not immersive like some other MMO's. AoC feels more like a single-player-game.
When I play MMO's I usually play around 5-6 hours at a time but with Age of Conan I don't think I have ever played for more than 2 hours at one time. It just gets boring after a while because AoC is not immersive like some other MMO's. AoC feels more like a single-player-game.
i played for 5 to 6 on aoc when i was sub'ed. i would gank people on tortage the entire time on my assassin. then whenever i got ganked by a ranger id cry and go into the fetal position in the corner of my room listening to yankee doodle while cutting myself to let the pain out
--------------------------------------
Peace is a lie, there is only passion.
Through passion, I gain strength.
Through strength, I gain power.
Through power, I gain victory.
Through victory, my chains are broken.
The force shall free me.
-the Sith code
When I play MMO's I usually play around 5-6 hours at a time but with Age of Conan I don't think I have ever played for more than 2 hours at one time. It just gets boring after a while because AoC is not immersive like some other MMO's. AoC feels more like a single-player-game.
You have a life long sub for AoC?
Why would want to play a boring game? Just cancel your sub dude and get rid of the boring single player AoC game from your HDD.
You have a life long sub for AoC?
Why would want to play a boring game? Just cancel your sub dude and get rid of the boring single player AoC game from your HDD.
Not a bad idea actually.
FYI Yesterday was a National holiday in the US
Looks like Tuesday (not a holiday) had another 300+ hour rise from two weeks ago (not using last weeks data due to an Xfire outage, so lets not make it looks like the game had a 1k+ hour rise...lol)...guess that holiday did not have THAT big of an effect.
Overall, the upward trend is still going on. Patch 1.04 today will make the rest of the week (after today's downtime of course) really shine..there is going to be some mass playing for sure...
Cheers
FYI Yesterday was a National holiday in the US
Looks like Tuesday (not a holiday) had another 300+ hour rise from two weeks ago (not using last weeks data due to an Xfire outage, so lets not make it looks like the game had a 1k+ hour rise...lol)...guess that holiday did not have THAT big of an effect.
Overall, the upward trend is still going on. Patch 1.04 today will make the rest of the week (after today's downtime of course) really shine..there is going to be some mass playing for sure...
Cheers
Xfire numbers are 5573 hours and 1297 Xfire players. That is a significant rise as you say from 2 weeks back. www.xfire.com/games/aoc/Age_of_Conan_Hyborian_Adventures/. AoC has never been 1300 Xfire players midweek since October. This is a big deal. AoC is picking up speed quickly.
Here in MMORPG has ben posted the thread on AOC forums will people asking other people to install XFire to artificially raise these numbers. I don't know If this is the cause of that raise, maybe not enteryly, but is *sure* a shadow of doubt. Please pick a different metric for that, one that is not "gamed" by the players.
No, it's not a shadow of doubt, it's absurd.
When I want a single-player story, I'll play a single-player game. When I play an MMO, I want a massively multiplayer world.
I bought the game yesterday and am considering installing it in the next few days. Hopefully it's a good time to join up and play.
Here in MMORPG has ben posted the thread on AOC forums will people asking other people to install XFire to artificially raise these numbers. I don't know If this is the cause of that raise, maybe not enteryly, but is *sure* a shadow of doubt. Please pick a different metric for that, one that is not "gamed" by the players.
It's one post actually posted in this thread and if you go and have a look the guy was never able to dig up a thread about it. He found a shoddy post but that was it. A post made over one month ago can't make changes like this. In that case the mere fact that we post about xfire here now is also a problem. And if so it is a problem for all other games too. Which clearly people does not seem to think, so lean back and enjoy the good news. The MMO industry have at least one game now that seems to be growing. In fact something like 60-80% over the last 6-7 weeks.
Most of the replies in this thread from real customers currently playing lead me to believe it is not
forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php
I miss DAoC
Makes sense...of course, this could be attributed to the very real possibility that it matches your opinion. However, as all of this "data" is completely subjective, it is not an actual fact. Just more speculation on both yours and their part.
What is really the truth? We do not know. Different viewpoints both here and on the AoC forums indicates growth, stagnation and loss. We cannot have all three.
Luckily for my part, I never have had so much fun with so many old and new faces, And with play times increasing and player counts totaling higher (both in my guild, from what I see on my server and on Xfire)...the game looks iike it is finally getting to where it needs to be.
Cheers
Playtime is probably peaked this week because of the patch. It happens every time there is a major patch (players play longer). I think it's very hard to 'notice' a growth in subscribers when you have server mergers and a big patch both happening recently. Players posting that guildmates have come back is a positive sign though as well as people talking to players who have never played before. Xfire and /who are probably not as reliable because of the mergers and patch though.
The really interesting thing is that Funcom has already said they expect the 1st quarter ( Jan- Mar) to have lower revenues than (Oct - Dec). I honestly would expect growth over all.
I have noticed a slow but steady increase... but I have no actualy figures to back it up. So, nevermind
Well i see many people in this thread that seem to really like Xfire, so check this --->
http://www.xfire.com/games/aoc/Age_of_Conan_Hyborian_Adventures/
Xfire users playing per day 1,522
Xfire Rank
#41
------------------------------
Bear Grylls : I need to get out of this frozen hellhole!
Bear Grylls : (Holds a beetle in his hand) 4 times more protein then Beef
oh the irony
Wow there's so much bullshit in that thread that it's amazing you linked it.
Claims of AoC having no competition now, drastic subscription increases, WoW peaked, other games losing subs (I see EVE and lotro are both growing), WAr as a failure (300k subs, more than AoC has even by fanboy guesses)), upcoming games being a Vanguard in the making. It's a giant AoC fanboy circlejerk in the thread.
AoC has activity that is far behind WAR, EVE, LotRO, and others. The combat system which is very lag unfriendly (for melee), and overall was hyping its graphics and 'mature content' more than anything else, which I pity them for as AoC's graphics will only be 'the best' for so long, and going for such a high range only hurt them in the end.
I reread that thread and saw found something interesting
paymentguy.blogspot.com/2009/02/top-money-making-mmo-games-of-2008.html
10. Age of Conan
Genre/Platform: Western MMORPG, client install with 3D graphics
Revenue sources: Subscription, retail sales
DFC estimated 2008 revenue: $50-$150 million
if they only did $50 - $150 mil total revenue in 2008 with the revenue from 1 mil boxes give or take, and the high initial populations I wonder what 2009 will be like if the subs do not pick up
I miss DAoC
If you want to see if ppl are returning and so on, i found a post on AoC forums called "who resubbed to aoc" that are from begining of feb untill today, and maby that would give you a ide if they are increasing or not.
Link here ; http://forums.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=183489
Funcom says the population is stabalized and looking at Q1 09 projections it seems as if 125,000 people play Age of Conan, though those players now play longer.
Funcom has reviewed all of its assets relevant for
impairment testing. This process has led to
recognition of an impairment loss of around
3,1 MUSD for Age of Conan due to a decrease in
numbers of subscribers for the game. Funcom Q4 10 report.
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?p=2926123&postcount=7 500 mains/alts on Tyranny in past 30 days - instead of merge servers let's open a new PvP server, again! http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=106427
Wish I could pull numbers out of thin air too.
People playing longer during this quarter as it encompassed a large chunk of holiday time
I've started playing for the first time and have just made level 7. It's a pretty polished and attractive looking game. The interface took a bit of getting used to but I quite like it so far.
I have 3 months of game time paid for so I guess I will be around for a while. It's surprisingly good, game performance is very smooth.
Hopefully this is my new addiction (second only to Vanguard).
Everyone, with few exceptions, loved Tortage....it's level 19 and beyond where the game fizzled....but GL.
Though I probably would have enjoyed Vanguard...the director Brad Quaid created EQ's Velious which was the best MMO experiance I have to date.
Funcom has reviewed all of its assets relevant for
impairment testing. This process has led to
recognition of an impairment loss of around
3,1 MUSD for Age of Conan due to a decrease in
numbers of subscribers for the game. Funcom Q4 10 report.
http://forums.ageofconan.com/showpost.php?p=2926123&postcount=7 500 mains/alts on Tyranny in past 30 days - instead of merge servers let's open a new PvP server, again! http://forums-eu.ageofconan.com/showthread.php?t=106427