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Anyone thinks that this last sunday there was an unprecedented population spike?
clearSam
Member Posts: 304
Anyone of you guys noticed that this last sunday Mar 20th (correction sorry 
) Mar 22nd was an unprecedented population spike?
i was on SET PvE and i never seen that much ppl online at the same time, i was helping out some low lvls and finishing up some "unfinished business" for my lvl45 conq with those Ymirish Elite guys, and what i noticed is that the boses and elites mobs were killed instantanously right after they respawned by waves after waves of groups of players, it was a real war going on out there 
i have been there before several times both alone and in group, and i saw a lot of ppl over there but yesterday was diffrent, it was like a real warzone with concurrent fights everywhere !
i even woried at some point that we will not be able to get some of those bosses, not because we cant kill them but because there is a waiting line for boss killers... lol (just kidding)
anyways, yesterday i noticed that AoC shows better its real warfare face under heavy population conditions, all the zones are designed and meant to be used by hundreds of players battling against hundred of NPCs at the same time. and thats exactly the potential i saw in AoC that other MMOs just dont have, the potential not only to promise but the potential to deliver high quality entertainment even in the simplest open raiding areas.
Comments
On Cimmeria a zone crashed from what im guessing, population overload.
This is stupid there cant be overload from population especially when there are instances are all around.
Nothing new on EU Fury with population.
This is stupid there cant be overload from population especially when there are instances are all around.
Nothing new on EU Fury with population.
You don't realise, the too many people doing stupid things can mess up the server, and crash it. Most likely not population itself though, but someone probably exploited something and it crashed the zone.
If the population is actually increasing, where are the search logs for each server?
Or let me guess, search is still 'broken'.
Cough.
so basically you are nor playing AoC, (cause you clearly were not online sunday cause you would have mentioned so if you were... )
but still you are here, posting on AoC forum, saying that i am just lying and asking me for what? "server logs" !
are you expecting me to provide you with those or what?
and seriously, i dont get your point here...
im telling you that i enjoyed playing AoC sunday, and you are telling me that some search thing is 'broken' somewhere that has to do with some server log thingies... what is that suposed to mean? if it does mean anything at all !
Sir, I am not a troll.
I simply am commenting on this mythical increase in population. I don't think it is true. In fact, if you look on the European forums, it appears the population is shrinking fast. Even on the British forums there appears to be only one server that is still afloat with any solid population.
Not good.
The Polish and Russian releases appear to have been flops given the forum activity there.
Not good.
So how big can a game be when you have 1 busy German server, 1 busy UK server, and 4 busy US servers?
This is an MMO. These games flounder without a solid population to back it up. Those servers in France, Germany, Spain, Poland and Russia, without an adequate population, will inevitably truncate and cease to be viable.
How many subscriptions will that cost AoC? Another 10,000? 20,000?
The game can't afford to shrink anymore.
so basically you are nor playing AoC, (cause you clearly were not online sunday cause you would have mentioned so if you were... )
but still you are here, posting on AoC forum, saying that i am just lying and asking me for what? "server logs" !
are you expecting me to provide you with those or what?
and seriously, i dont get your point here...
im telling you that i enjoyed playing AoC sunday, and you are telling me that some search thing is 'broken' somewhere that has to do with some server log thingies... what is that suposed to mean? if it does mean anything at all !
[Mod Edit]
First of all, instances have capped populations. Unless you were in a singular empty zone before, this spike was the zone being filled to capacity. I remember well how busy "filled to capacity" was in AoC. It wasn't that busy at all. So stop pretending like there were loads of players. I'm skeptical if AoC zones can even have more than 75 people in a single zone at the same time.
You know this would have been so much easier to understand if you had access to the game. It's hard guessing about something you have little first hand experience with.
so basically you are nor playing AoC, (cause you clearly were not online sunday cause you would have mentioned so if you were... )
but still you are here, posting on AoC forum, saying that i am just lying and asking me for what? "server logs" !
are you expecting me to provide you with those or what?
and seriously, i dont get your point here...
im telling you that i enjoyed playing AoC sunday, and you are telling me that some search thing is 'broken' somewhere that has to do with some server log thingies... what is that suposed to mean? if it does mean anything at all !
[Mod Edit]
yes i also saw huge amount of players on Fury this sunday, but i always do
I think that Fury is a bit overpopulated ;P
------------------------------
Bear Grylls : I need to get out of this frozen hellhole!
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Well. Its not the "proof" you are looking for Lit, but its a nice indicator to answer OPs qustion:
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/191/view/forums/thread/229721/AoC-and-Xfire-steady-growth.html
Seems like there was a spike on sunday (which btw was on the 22nd and not the 20th :-) )
[Mod Edit]
Originally posted by BishopB:
Are a lot of the trolls just angry kids with old gaming hardware?
Good thing it's not! It's growing!
For those of us that are ACTUALLY PLAYING we see the growth. Regardless of what your PERCEPTIONS are from forum activity (really? Forum activity? it's usually what? 5-10% of the total pop of any game?) or your ESTIMATES about the retention of the euro market, as someone that logs in almost daily, and in a guild were we are seeing 1-2 players EVERYDAY showing interest in playing again, I agree w/ the OP -
Sunday was extremely active. I had no wait times for PVP mini-games during the day on Wicanna. That was a first in my short time w/ the game.
You know this would have been so much easier to understand if you had access to the game. It's hard guessing.
Sure is hard to guess. So why don't you be kind and prove that this supposed population increase is actually happening? Instead of relying on XFire lol. Trust me, the servers are not that busy, I'm sure a poll using search would take less than 5 minutes.
And then the next week, do the same. And the next. And let's see where the line of fit is!
Because let's not kid ourselves. On Funcom's own investor's website, they still (as of late March) insist that "retention numbers are improving". Which is a very optimistic way of spinning the real truth: "we are not losing as many players as we once were".
So AoC launches in Korea. And it launches in Russia. Poland too. And despite all the extra resources and the cost to ship to three new countries, the game is still bleeding subscribers.
Sorry...the actual facts contradict these anecdotal attempts to pretend that the game is growing. It clearly is not.
You know this would have been so much easier to understand if you had access to the game. It's hard guessing.
Sure is hard to guess. So why don't you be kind and prove that this supposed population increase is actually happening? Instead of relying on XFire lol. Trust me, the servers are not that busy, I'm sure a poll using search would take less than 5 minutes.
And then the next week, do the same. And the next. And let's see where the line of fit is!
Because let's not kid ourselves. On Funcom's own investor's website, they still (as of late March) insist that "retention numbers are improving". Which is a very optimistic way of spinning the real truth: "we are not losing as many players as we once were".
So AoC launches in Korea. And it launches in Russia. Poland too. And despite all the extra resources and the cost to ship to three new countries, the game is still bleeding subscribers.
Sorry...the actual facts contradict these anecdotal attempts to pretend that the game is growing. It clearly is not.
I am sure all that sounded good in your head before you typed it out, only that you forgot to stay out of fiction.
And just for the record, I don't have to rely on xfire to comment on population, because I play the game.
Sure, the people who have subscriptions are playing more. Funcom likes to mention this over and over. Increased playing time per subscription does not mean more subscriptions.
And I think the Q1/09 numbers will reflect that fact that the game is shrinking. OH WAIT, Funcom already predicted that they would lose anywhere from $500,000 to $2,500,000 in revenue this next quarter.
So you can use any XFire numbers you want from October to December. The fact is the game is bringing in less money, which means there are fewer paying subscriptions, which means the game is shrinking. A balance sheet is far more valuable than XFire...sorry.
Lol.
Set is very health population-wise.
Last night we were farming Onyx for recipes and we were competing with about 4 other small raids. I've had no problems grouping on my alt for low level quest/instances etc but the pvp has definetly slowed down for our server since the merges.
There have been new players starting the game, some I have had the pleasure of speaking with when I caught their questions in global. Others semi-new players are just hitting 80 on their first toons... and some people are leaving the game as well. I see people losing interest in the game and raiding gradually but there always seem to be fresh people to replace them.
Good thing it's not! It's growing!
For those of us that are ACTUALLY PLAYING we see the growth. Regardless of what your PERCEPTIONS are from forum activity (really? Forum activity? it's usually what? 5-10% of the total pop of any game?) or your ESTIMATES about the retention of the euro market, as someone that logs in almost daily, and in a guild were we are seeing 1-2 players EVERYDAY showing interest in playing again, I agree w/ the OP -
Sunday was extremely active. I had no wait times for PVP mini-games during the day on Wicanna. That was a first in my short time w/ the game.
Yes, because your subjective experience in an instanced zone on a single server with a capped population can make any realistic analysis of the game's population.
Forum activity is consistently related to the population of a game (within a game that is, not across all games) because it is an accurate reflection of those 5-10% of gamers who post.
And because Funcom has provided, at least in the past when they had solid subscriptions lol, subscription numbers, we know how the correlation works with this game. And although you may like to think that, through some sort of pixie magic, that the only people who quit are forum posters and those that join up will never post, it is completely untrue.
So Sunday was a big play day by Funcom standards. Wooo. It doesn't mean that the game isn't bleeding subscribers. In fact, we have evidence that the game is still bleeding subscribers.
How? Funcom itself. Pretty simple.
You know this would have been so much easier to understand if you had access to the game. It's hard guessing.
Sure is hard to guess. So why don't you be kind and prove that this supposed population increase is actually happening? Instead of relying on XFire lol. Trust me, the servers are not that busy, I'm sure a poll using search would take less than 5 minutes.
And then the next week, do the same. And the next. And let's see where the line of fit is!
Because let's not kid ourselves. On Funcom's own investor's website, they still (as of late March) insist that "retention numbers are improving". Which is a very optimistic way of spinning the real truth: "we are not losing as many players as we once were".
So AoC launches in Korea. And it launches in Russia. Poland too. And despite all the extra resources and the cost to ship to three new countries, the game is still bleeding subscribers.
Sorry...the actual facts contradict these anecdotal attempts to pretend that the game is growing. It clearly is not.
I am sure all that sounded good in your head before you typed it out, only that you forgot to stay out of fiction.
And just for the record, I don't have to rely on xfire to comment on population, because I play the game.
You realize playing the game, by itself, gives you no objective basis to comment on the population of the game right?
I mean, you are smart enough to realize how there is no way you can measure the subscribing population of a game by wandering around OT...right?
Because you do realize that out of the fixed number of accounts out there, if people spend more time on the account, it will seem busier, despite the game not having a single new subscription...right?
Sheesh.
You know this would have been so much easier to understand if you had access to the game. It's hard guessing.
Sure is hard to guess. So why don't you be kind and prove that this supposed population increase is actually happening? Instead of relying on XFire lol. Trust me, the servers are not that busy, I'm sure a poll using search would take less than 5 minutes.
And then the next week, do the same. And the next. And let's see where the line of fit is!
Because let's not kid ourselves. On Funcom's own investor's website, they still (as of late March) insist that "retention numbers are improving". Which is a very optimistic way of spinning the real truth: "we are not losing as many players as we once were".
So AoC launches in Korea. And it launches in Russia. Poland too. And despite all the extra resources and the cost to ship to three new countries, the game is still bleeding subscribers.
Sorry...the actual facts contradict these anecdotal attempts to pretend that the game is growing. It clearly is not.
[Mod Edit]
There is no need for extraordinary public statements unless the news is not big enough to bring revenue out of the guiding interval.
You know this would have been so much easier to understand if you had access to the game. It's hard guessing.
Sure is hard to guess. So why don't you be kind and prove that this supposed population increase is actually happening? Instead of relying on XFire lol. Trust me, the servers are not that busy, I'm sure a poll using search would take less than 5 minutes.
And then the next week, do the same. And the next. And let's see where the line of fit is!
Because let's not kid ourselves. On Funcom's own investor's website, they still (as of late March) insist that "retention numbers are improving". Which is a very optimistic way of spinning the real truth: "we are not losing as many players as we once were".
So AoC launches in Korea. And it launches in Russia. Poland too. And despite all the extra resources and the cost to ship to three new countries, the game is still bleeding subscribers.
Sorry...the actual facts contradict these anecdotal attempts to pretend that the game is growing. It clearly is not.
It hasn't yet? They announced it half a year ago. I guess they are slow. That doesn't change the fact that two new countries launched with no increase in population.
As for the game bleeding subscribers, I learned it from Funcom's own website. Do you understand what "improved retention" means? It means "people aren't quitting as fast as they were".
The investor relations portion of Funcom's website is not "thin air". I know you wish it was...because it continuously highlights the plight of AoC. You see, unlike other games where the company has so many other sources of revenue you can't possibly figure out which portion is attached to which game, with Funcom it is very easy.
They have AO and AoC. Anarchy Online is pretty empty and only brings in nominal revenue. The rest is AoC. And that number is shrinking every quarter. Spin it all you want, but the game is not doing well.
I will note that recently I posted on my blog about the state of AoC and how the game is making progress.
The real interesting part is a comment was made by another blogger for that post discussing how he is trying the game. This same person left during the first 30 days due to the same issues a lot of us saw. He also had qualms about giving them a chance.
But, he did, and so far he is trying to make an effort to get further in the game and see if the original issues were just that. As another side note, he is not a fan of the instancing, but according to his comment, he seems to be enjoying the classes...and that is pretty cool.
So, I do know about 6 new people so far.including a new guild that is in between the 30's to 50's who have recently started.
Guess we just have to base it off of "visual" cues then just like the OP did.
There could be any number of reasons why server crashes or the fact you see more lower lvl players(hell could be alot of alts).
It is the same with the "x-fire numbers rising"threads,I mean has anyone stopped to think that players in AoC have been told about x-fire from guild mates and d/l it and that could be why the numbers are rising?
To me it is anyway the poster wants to turn it,if you enjoy the game then play it and enjoy,why feel the need to force it down others throats?
Dont get me wrong I think AoC has come on alot but I dont feel the need to back that up with blind facts.
If someone had came up to me in 1980 when I was on my Atari 2600 and said we will be playing games with thousands of people at the same time.I guess my response would have been,"but I only have 2 joysticks"
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/235780/page/8
Who cares if Xfire show one Sunday of AOC in 44th place when it was 49th on the day before. My instrest tho is why the fanboys are so intrested
. Maybe that says something?
But if it was a planned try to get a spike in Xfire - then I would have been very dissapointed.
But again - who cares really ? Its not like Xfire will make or break the game anway. If that was the case the Xfie numbers whould have broken it long time ago in the first 5 months. They are surely not gonna save it now
To take the thread back on topic.. I'd just like to say that WAR F2P period now has ended for a lot of the guys that dived in for some F2P gameing earlier in March. Anything that is free is consumed so it's nothing but expected that there is a population/activity increase back in the homes of the the F2P players once the crumbles are eaten. That's what I think you might be seeing.
It is pretty silly that AoC didn't move up on that day, so maybe all the casuals were logged on to all video games. It is still 44th so all 43 games above it had as many or more players that day.
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
and... who cares?
how is that any relevant to this thread?