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Is this forum dying?
vikingclub
Member Posts: 40
I made a post last night before I went to sleep. This morning I came back and was expecting a lot of discussion only to find 2 new posts! What's going on? Even official forums are pretty much dead right now (that's why I came here). Where is everybody?
Comments
Outside enjoying the weather? :P
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
As far as this site goes, the activity comes in bursts rather than a steady stream of conversation.
The activity shoots up when some really notable news comes in or a hot topic is posted. The latter has an almost cthulu-esque quality to it as it awakens some of the older heavy hitters from their slumber to post their views once again before sinking back into lurker mode again.
You bring up an interesting observation however. There were a LOT of trial accounts downloaded, with the 7 day and 14 day accounts reaching their subscription end in the last week or so. Despite that endeavor, the amount of chatter on the official forums should in theory at least; have seen a nice boost as people converted from trial accounts to full fledged accounts.
As a comparison, LOTRO is reputed to have a pretty close baseline compared to AoC when it comes to the number of subscribers and if we consider all things equal, such as a base % of MMO users visit and post to the forums for ANY mmo; on ANY given day...the LOTRO general forums still had a lot of activity today. The AoC general forums however, did not as you observed and I find that concerning on several levels.
There are good reports from reputable people on this board who have noted increases in activity and even in guild recruitment efforts during the trial; which is good. The only downside to those reports at present is we're not seeing retention rates or conversion rates from trial to full subs at present; only population increase and just in the lower tiers for the most part for those on trial accounts. Also, an increase in 50, 100, 200 new players for a guild is fantastic; but a drop in the bucket when we're looking for a baseline in sever populations. This is especially true if the number of people leaving is exceeding the number of new accounts or the rate of attrition is unable to compete with conversions.
Others will surely disagree with my observations and views; but by all my standards and measurements, I feel that this title is still in decline. It's no longer bleeding off subscribers at the rate it was doing a few months ago; but it's definitely tapered off. After nearly a year, most of the people I know and the people we took on earlier last year and this; have seen all we'd like to see in terms of content and at present we just log in for the occassional raid/event and then log off and play something else.
A large majority of the people I know are waiting on the results of the next big patch. If the release doesn't go well, we're familiar with the turn around time for issues to be corrected (several months in many cases, even for small issues to be addressed); then we're officially saying goodbye to this title for the forseeable future.
These particular forums according to the hit measurer on the front page of mmorpg.com have averaged arounf 10k more hits in April since the trials. It is also well up at tentonhammer on their pulse for quite a while now, yet not many ppl post on their forums. But I know ppl check their guides out.
(I agree with what you say Sin. on the whole)
I don't think most non-posters don't come to check guides out. They just come here for the drama, and there seems to be plenty of that on these forums. It's almost like a large scale PvP match. Maybe this is that epic hundreds vs. hundreds Funcom was talking about before launch?
I am not really able to take your input as serious as you have no history with this game (ref: date on your mmorpg mebership) . AoC is now a year old and followers have their facts in order (eventhoug some are outdated due to all the improvements lately)
The fact is that on the rankings on mmorpg's frontpage (number of hits, not ratings) AoC has gone from completely dissapearing of the list to be amongst the top 5 on a weekly and monthly basis. This has happend after the free trials and is ofcourse to be excpected. I dont think there are that many forum posters, and i guess people are lurking, reading reviews, guids and screenshots.
Originally posted by BishopB:
Are a lot of the trolls just angry kids with old gaming hardware?
I am not really able to take your input as serious as you have no history with this game (ref: date on your mmorpg mebership) . AoC is now a year old and followers have their facts in order (eventhoug some are outdated due to all the improvements lately)
The fact is that on the rankings on mmorpg's frontpage (number of hits, not ratings) AoC has gone from completely dissapearing of the list to be amongst the top 5 on a weekly and monthly basis. This has happend after the free trials and is ofcourse to be excpected. I dont think there are that many forum posters, and i guess people are lurking, reading reviews, guids and screenshots.
I'm sorry but you are wrong. I have a long history with AoC. Probably longer than you since you are not even playing anymore. Or at least that's what is says on your signature. I'm a new member because I recently moved here from official forums because traffic there slowed down too much.
By the way.. why you keep posting here if you haven't even played AoC in a long time? You are accusing me of giving outdated information, when it's you who's doing it. How ironic.
Those hits on mmorpg.com frontpage mean nothing. Lol, are you serious about that one? Because if you are, then we probably shouldn't continue this conversation because you are most likely insane
Well, it wouldn't surprise me if these forums were dying. I can only speak from my own experience which is that this forum is overrun by trolls that are hellbent on making AoC seem like a POS. As a result, the forum is massively imbalanced and it is near impossible to have a decent conversation about any of the game's good or bad points. I think AoC is a great game, but I do have some issues with it. However I wouldn't want to discuss them here because the forum is so imbalanced that any thread discussing a negative point would just be hijacked by trolls. It seems the only people that can be bothered to post here anymore are trolls or those that have the energy/time to try and counter every troll post of outdated information/lies. I guess a lot of people like me have realised that it is impossible to find objective information about the game here so have gone elsewhere.
Then of course, the countering is usually considered flaming by the very ban happy mods here, then these people do not get to post.
Then there are those, like myself who will be gone shortly due to Funcom not making an effort to really put this game on the map.
Cruising through development in hopes people will play and discuss the game is not good for business.
^^^ this
you can't discuss gameplay or problems with the game here. There are two extremes that will dominate the conversation. You mentioned the trolls, but the fanboys are just as bad. If I post here about something I don't like about the game (for instance, the upcoming itemization changes that will make the game more gear dependant).. a couple of the fanboys will slam my post in the same way that the trolls slam any positive posts. After awhile, you get tired of even trying to have a rational discussion.. and it just all turns into hype vs hate. There are people who will love every change funcom makes no matter what it is.
Its basically the same mentality the mods have on the official forums. If you say anything negative about the game, your post gets delete and you will be banned soon. Funcom is awesome and everything will be great 'someday' is all they want to hear. I was banned from their forums for posting a reply regarding itemization. My point was that funcom needs to fix itemization by making the progression more intelligent, but not necessarily make the endgame items more powerful.