The servers are still packed as of peack time yesterday out of 99 servers 80% are medium, i have only seen 5 servers are low, the rest of the remaingin servers are high.
They are fudging the server reported population levels. How do I know? Last Wednesday or early Thursday, between 4AM and 7AM Eastern, the server status levels were just about the same as the levels in your post. One, or maybe two, showed Low. A bunch of Medium and four that still showed high. At the same time my server showed high, Sanctum had maybe three people in it and when I went out adventuring, I saw maybe 6 people in an hour.
This could be fudging to make it look like there are more people playing than there really is, or, they may over-report fuller servers to guide people to the lowest pop servers; maybe even a combination of the two.
I will say that during my last three days, before the free month ran dry, it was getting pretty dead even at that point. I spent a lot of time just out gathering resources. I knew I was at least taking a Haitus, so I didn't feel like leveling; just figured I'd stockpile for future dailies, if I do decide to return. I also wanted to get out and take in the world, to see if that might change my mind. There just were not many people out there.
I'd still be playing, if it weren't for the major shift away from build diversity and towards shoving the four callings back into the narrowly defined, genre established roles.
I also grew very frustrated with Rifting rewards. The Death Rifts, as part of the event, were rewarding their own currency ok, but my last ten days in game, the rewarding of Sourceshards and Sourcestones had almost completely dried up. Even after the patch, which seemed to promise better access to shards and stones, things got worse still. Couldn't find anyone that had received a sourceshard from a rift since the patch. After getting people together to kill a major life invasion, people who participated got a sourceshard (which used to come from individual Rifts), but no one got a Sourcestone, which used to come from full invasions.
Sitting on 13K Planerite and being unable to buy anything, because of lack of Sourceshards and Sourcestones, just became too frustrating.
The added drudgery of the end game grind was just icing on the cake. I stopped two characters mid-40s, because I just couldn't stomach the tought of the inane grind.
Anyway, don't trust the reported server status for judging population. The thresholds have clearly been dramatically lowered.
They are fudging the server reported population levels. How do I know? Last Wednesday or early Thursday, between 4AM and 7AM Eastern, the server status levels were just about the same as the levels in your post. One, or maybe two, showed Low. A bunch of Medium and four that still showed high. At the same time my server showed high, Sanctum had maybe three people in it and when I went out adventuring, I saw maybe 6 people in an hour.
This could be fudging to make it look like there are more people playing than there really is, or, they may over-report fuller servers to guide people to the lowest pop servers; maybe even a combination of the two.
I will say that during my last three days, before the free month ran dry, it was getting pretty dead even at that point. I spent a lot of time just out gathering resources. I knew I was at least taking a Haitus, so I didn't feel like leveling; just figured I'd stockpile for future dailies, if I do decide to return. I also wanted to get out and take in the world, to see if that might change my mind. There just were not many people out there.
I'd still be playing, if it weren't for the major shift away from build diversity and towards shoving the four callings back into the narrowly defined, genre established roles.
I also grew very frustrated with Rifting rewards. The Death Rifts, as part of the event, were rewarding their own currency ok, but my last ten days in game, the rewarding of Sourceshards and Sourcestones had almost completely dried up. Even after the patch, which seemed to promise better access to shards and stones, things got worse still. Couldn't find anyone that had received a sourceshard from a rift since the patch. After getting people together to kill a major life invasion, people who participated got a sourceshard (which used to come from individual Rifts), but no one got a Sourcestone, which used to come from full invasions.
Sitting on 13K Planerite and being unable to buy anything, because of lack of Sourceshards and Sourcestones, just became too frustrating.
The added drudgery of the end game grind was just icing on the cake. I stopped two characters mid-40s, because I just couldn't stomach the tought of the inane grind.
Anyway, don't trust the reported server status for judging population. The thresholds have clearly been dramatically lowered.
Lets get this right your playing an MMO and your complaining about the grind and sad part is you don't even have a lv 50. Yes source shards are n't dropping and hopefully they fix that but you can still buy plenty of stuff with planarite (epics and blues you would need to run T1s for example or planar essence)
They are fudging the server reported population levels. How do I know? Last Wednesday or early Thursday, between 4AM and 7AM Eastern, the server status levels were just about the same as the levels in your post. One, or maybe two, showed Low. A bunch of Medium and four that still showed high. At the same time my server showed high, Sanctum had maybe three people in it and when I went out adventuring, I saw maybe 6 people in an hour.
This could be fudging to make it look like there are more people playing than there really is, or, they may over-report fuller servers to guide people to the lowest pop servers; maybe even a combination of the two.
I will say that during my last three days, before the free month ran dry, it was getting pretty dead even at that point. I spent a lot of time just out gathering resources. I knew I was at least taking a Haitus, so I didn't feel like leveling; just figured I'd stockpile for future dailies, if I do decide to return. I also wanted to get out and take in the world, to see if that might change my mind. There just were not many people out there.
I'd still be playing, if it weren't for the major shift away from build diversity and towards shoving the four callings back into the narrowly defined, genre established roles.
I also grew very frustrated with Rifting rewards. The Death Rifts, as part of the event, were rewarding their own currency ok, but my last ten days in game, the rewarding of Sourceshards and Sourcestones had almost completely dried up. Even after the patch, which seemed to promise better access to shards and stones, things got worse still. Couldn't find anyone that had received a sourceshard from a rift since the patch. After getting people together to kill a major life invasion, people who participated got a sourceshard (which used to come from individual Rifts), but no one got a Sourcestone, which used to come from full invasions.
Sitting on 13K Planerite and being unable to buy anything, because of lack of Sourceshards and Sourcestones, just became too frustrating.
The added drudgery of the end game grind was just icing on the cake. I stopped two characters mid-40s, because I just couldn't stomach the tought of the inane grind.
Anyway, don't trust the reported server status for judging population. The thresholds have clearly been dramatically lowered.
Lets get this right your playing an MMO and your complaining about the grind and sad part is you don't even have a lv 50. Yes source shards are n't dropping and hopefully they fix that but you can still buy plenty of stuff with planarite (epics and blues you would need to run T1s for example or planar essence)
Oh, really? Planerite alone doesn't buy you gear, it needs to be combined with Sourceshards and Sourcestones to buy armor or weapons. The Shards and Stones were probably a bad design decision to begin with. Either the game awards more of them than you need, which makes them pointless. Or, they gate gear purchases, which makes grinding Rifts pointless if you aren't lucky enough to get the shards and stones you need.
Anyway, although I aknowledge my bad for the tangent touching upon why I left the game, the main point of the thread was population after the free month ended. The reported population values are inflated, which anyone can confirm by looking at server status during off, off peak hours. I also experienced far fewer people in game during my last three days in a noticeable "die off". Heck, the guild I was in only showed 6 of 80ish people had even signed in during the previous week.
Since you didn't bother countering observations on population decline, but rather thought it would be better to take a shot at the messanger, I have to assume you have noticed the same exact thing.
They are fudging the server reported population levels. How do I know? Last Wednesday or early Thursday, between 4AM and 7AM Eastern, the server status levels were just about the same as the levels in your post. One, or maybe two, showed Low. A bunch of Medium and four that still showed high. At the same time my server showed high, Sanctum had maybe three people in it and when I went out adventuring, I saw maybe 6 people in an hour.
This could be fudging to make it look like there are more people playing than there really is, or, they may over-report fuller servers to guide people to the lowest pop servers; maybe even a combination of the two.
I will say that during my last three days, before the free month ran dry, it was getting pretty dead even at that point. I spent a lot of time just out gathering resources. I knew I was at least taking a Haitus, so I didn't feel like leveling; just figured I'd stockpile for future dailies, if I do decide to return. I also wanted to get out and take in the world, to see if that might change my mind. There just were not many people out there.
I'd still be playing, if it weren't for the major shift away from build diversity and towards shoving the four callings back into the narrowly defined, genre established roles.
I also grew very frustrated with Rifting rewards. The Death Rifts, as part of the event, were rewarding their own currency ok, but my last ten days in game, the rewarding of Sourceshards and Sourcestones had almost completely dried up. Even after the patch, which seemed to promise better access to shards and stones, things got worse still. Couldn't find anyone that had received a sourceshard from a rift since the patch. After getting people together to kill a major life invasion, people who participated got a sourceshard (which used to come from individual Rifts), but no one got a Sourcestone, which used to come from full invasions.
Sitting on 13K Planerite and being unable to buy anything, because of lack of Sourceshards and Sourcestones, just became too frustrating.
The added drudgery of the end game grind was just icing on the cake. I stopped two characters mid-40s, because I just couldn't stomach the tought of the inane grind.
Anyway, don't trust the reported server status for judging population. The thresholds have clearly been dramatically lowered.
Lets get this right your playing an MMO and your complaining about the grind and sad part is you don't even have a lv 50. Yes source shards are n't dropping and hopefully they fix that but you can still buy plenty of stuff with planarite (epics and blues you would need to run T1s for example or planar essence)
Oh, really? Planerite alone doesn't buy you gear, it needs to be combined with Sourceshards and Sourcestones to buy armor or weapons. The Shards and Stones were probably a bad design decision to begin with. Either the game awards more of them than you need, which makes them pointless. Or, they gate gear purchases, which makes grinding Rifts pointless if you aren't lucky enough to get the shards and stones you need.
Anyway, although I aknowledge my bad for the tangent touching upon why I left the game, the main point of the thread was population after the free month ended. The reported population values are inflated, which anyone can confirm by looking at server status during off, off peak hours. I also experienced far fewer people in game during my last three days in a noticeable "die off". Heck, the guild I was in only showed 6 of 80ish people had even signed in during the previous week.
Since you didn't bother countering observations on population decline, but rather thought it would be better to try to shoot at the messanger, I have to assume you have noticed the same exact thing.
Hmm most of my guild is still active Fyi, anyway well if you don't follow rift server status.
Xfire have shown rift population to be about the same as it was it last week.
The servers jumped to medium almost instantly after a downtime in the middle of the day. Low is a paltry number of players, probably like 500 or lower.
I watched the EU servers and fewer than half of them ever reached high today during prime time when a week ago there were still some hitting full and only a couple didn't reach high. There was a significant change in population already. It is pretty much expected of any new MMO that it happens though so no reason to freak out about it.
90% of my guild stayed with the free month over. They aren't fudging the populations, at 50 I still noticed quite a few people on at 3 am pacific time on my server. I'm glad it didn't have a huge dropoff like people were expecting. With all the doomsayers for every game they pushed 3 times as hard with rift.
They are fudging the server reported population levels. How do I know? Last Wednesday or early Thursday, between 4AM and 7AM Eastern, the server status levels were just about the same as the levels in your post. One, or maybe two, showed Low. A bunch of Medium and four that still showed high. At the same time my server showed high, Sanctum had maybe three people in it and when I went out adventuring, I saw maybe 6 people in an hour.
This could be fudging to make it look like there are more people playing than there really is, or, they may over-report fuller servers to guide people to the lowest pop servers; maybe even a combination of the two.
I will say that during my last three days, before the free month ran dry, it was getting pretty dead even at that point. I spent a lot of time just out gathering resources. I knew I was at least taking a Haitus, so I didn't feel like leveling; just figured I'd stockpile for future dailies, if I do decide to return. I also wanted to get out and take in the world, to see if that might change my mind. There just were not many people out there.
I'd still be playing, if it weren't for the major shift away from build diversity and towards shoving the four callings back into the narrowly defined, genre established roles.
I also grew very frustrated with Rifting rewards. The Death Rifts, as part of the event, were rewarding their own currency ok, but my last ten days in game, the rewarding of Sourceshards and Sourcestones had almost completely dried up. Even after the patch, which seemed to promise better access to shards and stones, things got worse still. Couldn't find anyone that had received a sourceshard from a rift since the patch. After getting people together to kill a major life invasion, people who participated got a sourceshard (which used to come from individual Rifts), but no one got a Sourcestone, which used to come from full invasions.
Sitting on 13K Planerite and being unable to buy anything, because of lack of Sourceshards and Sourcestones, just became too frustrating.
The added drudgery of the end game grind was just icing on the cake. I stopped two characters mid-40s, because I just couldn't stomach the tought of the inane grind.
Anyway, don't trust the reported server status for judging population. The thresholds have clearly been dramatically lowered.
Lets get this right your playing an MMO and your complaining about the grind and sad part is you don't even have a lv 50. Yes source shards are n't dropping and hopefully they fix that but you can still buy plenty of stuff with planarite (epics and blues you would need to run T1s for example or planar essence)
Oh, really? Planerite alone doesn't buy you gear, it needs to be combined with Sourceshards and Sourcestones to buy armor or weapons. The Shards and Stones were probably a bad design decision to begin with. Either the game awards more of them than you need, which makes them pointless. Or, they gate gear purchases, which makes grinding Rifts pointless if you aren't lucky enough to get the shards and stones you need.
Anyway, although I aknowledge my bad for the tangent touching upon why I left the game, the main point of the thread was population after the free month ended. The reported population values are inflated, which anyone can confirm by looking at server status during off, off peak hours. I also experienced far fewer people in game during my last three days in a noticeable "die off". Heck, the guild I was in only showed 6 of 80ish people had even signed in during the previous week.
Since you didn't bother countering observations on population decline, but rather thought it would be better to try to shoot at the messanger, I have to assume you have noticed the same exact thing.
Hmm most of my guild is still active Fyi, anyway well if you don't follow rift server status.
Xfire have shown rift population to be about the same as it was it last week.
You do realize that xfire numbers have been debunked as providing any real value in these matters? Or that just bringing it up as a defense undermines your own point?
They are fudging the server reported population levels. How do I know? Last Wednesday or early Thursday, between 4AM and 7AM Eastern, the server status levels were just about the same as the levels in your post. One, or maybe two, showed Low. A bunch of Medium and four that still showed high. At the same time my server showed high, Sanctum had maybe three people in it and when I went out adventuring, I saw maybe 6 people in an hour.
This could be fudging to make it look like there are more people playing than there really is, or, they may over-report fuller servers to guide people to the lowest pop servers; maybe even a combination of the two.
I will say that during my last three days, before the free month ran dry, it was getting pretty dead even at that point. I spent a lot of time just out gathering resources. I knew I was at least taking a Haitus, so I didn't feel like leveling; just figured I'd stockpile for future dailies, if I do decide to return. I also wanted to get out and take in the world, to see if that might change my mind. There just were not many people out there.
I'd still be playing, if it weren't for the major shift away from build diversity and towards shoving the four callings back into the narrowly defined, genre established roles.
I also grew very frustrated with Rifting rewards. The Death Rifts, as part of the event, were rewarding their own currency ok, but my last ten days in game, the rewarding of Sourceshards and Sourcestones had almost completely dried up. Even after the patch, which seemed to promise better access to shards and stones, things got worse still. Couldn't find anyone that had received a sourceshard from a rift since the patch. After getting people together to kill a major life invasion, people who participated got a sourceshard (which used to come from individual Rifts), but no one got a Sourcestone, which used to come from full invasions.
Sitting on 13K Planerite and being unable to buy anything, because of lack of Sourceshards and Sourcestones, just became too frustrating.
The added drudgery of the end game grind was just icing on the cake. I stopped two characters mid-40s, because I just couldn't stomach the tought of the inane grind.
Anyway, don't trust the reported server status for judging population. The thresholds have clearly been dramatically lowered.
Lets get this right your playing an MMO and your complaining about the grind and sad part is you don't even have a lv 50. Yes source shards are n't dropping and hopefully they fix that but you can still buy plenty of stuff with planarite (epics and blues you would need to run T1s for example or planar essence)
Oh, really? Planerite alone doesn't buy you gear, it needs to be combined with Sourceshards and Sourcestones to buy armor or weapons. The Shards and Stones were probably a bad design decision to begin with. Either the game awards more of them than you need, which makes them pointless. Or, they gate gear purchases, which makes grinding Rifts pointless if you aren't lucky enough to get the shards and stones you need.
Anyway, although I aknowledge my bad for the tangent touching upon why I left the game, the main point of the thread was population after the free month ended. The reported population values are inflated, which anyone can confirm by looking at server status during off, off peak hours. I also experienced far fewer people in game during my last three days in a noticeable "die off". Heck, the guild I was in only showed 6 of 80ish people had even signed in during the previous week.
Since you didn't bother countering observations on population decline, but rather thought it would be better to try to shoot at the messanger, I have to assume you have noticed the same exact thing.
Hmm most of my guild is still active Fyi, anyway well if you don't follow rift server status.
Xfire have shown rift population to be about the same as it was it last week.
You do realize that xfire numbers have been debunked as providing any real value in these matters? Or that just bringing it up as a defense undermines your own point?
Xfire is valuable tool for trending and accurately showed decline in both AoC and WAR populations.
lol our guild is still constantly recruiting members each day.. Sanctum today looks more packed then it did the day before.. Then again i play Braircliff, it's a very populated server thats always on "high".. I'am glad i picked this server as the population is perfect, even though sometimes i do have to wait for mobs to respawn due to a lot of people competeing for the same quests (especially the dailies.)
Currently Playing: Rift + Starcraft II + Gears Of War 3 Beta
Both sides on my server are packed with people, the towns are so full that it's hard to see the banker and auctioneer npcs. Rift is doing quite allright.
"Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world." Hans Margolius
They are fudging the server reported population levels. How do I know? Last Wednesday or early Thursday, between 4AM and 7AM Eastern, the server status levels were just about the same as the levels in your post. One, or maybe two, showed Low. A bunch of Medium and four that still showed high. At the same time my server showed high, Sanctum had maybe three people in it and when I went out adventuring, I saw maybe 6 people in an hour.
You're not even gonna use /who? Cmon now if you're gonna do it, try just a little bit harder
I dunno-my guild had just about everyone I regularly see still on. Server was listed as "high", Sanctum was packed, expert dungeon runs were being formed, pvp instances were firing, AH was bustling. I am sure there was some fall off-would be impossible for there not to be. But all in all i think the first month crash has not happened. Despite the obvious bunch of haters wishing/almost begging for it to happen.
Not sure why people cheer for games to fail. I never really enjoyed WoW-thought it was a good game with an absolutely horrible community-that said-i never wished for it to fail. Its success helped build the entire industry-made MMO's mainstream. Games that I love today (Rift) are pulling heavily from a population of players that WoW brought to the genre-how this is a bad thing ill never know.
You can love Gladiator without HATING Braveheart-there is no mutual exclusivity to preference. One games success does not mean that another MUST fail-its a big gaming world-success breeds success. As a genre we'd all be better off if WoW perks along at 10 million plus AND Rift builds into the 2-3 million + category. Nobody loses-the entire genre wins!
If Rift isnt your thing-so what-go back to whatever game is. You had a million oppurtunities not to 'waste' money on it-if you chose to spend your money-you did so knowing what you were buying. If it hasnt worked out-sorry-but move on. Dont wish failure on it-who benefits from that?
I happen to think we are all worse off with failures such as Tabula Rasa, DCUO, AOC/WAR etc. WoW isnt a better game because Tabula Rasa failed. Take a deep breath-cheer for what you like-ignore what you do not!
I dunno-my guild had just about everyone I regularly see still on. Server was listed as "high", Sanctum was packed, expert dungeon runs were being formed, pvp instances were firing, AH was bustling. I am sure there was some fall off-would be impossible for there not to be. But all in all i think the first month crash has not happened. Despite the obvious bunch of haters wishing/almost begging for it to happen.
Not sure why people cheer for games to fail. I never really enjoyed WoW-thought it was a good game with an absolutely horrible community-that said-i never wished for it to fail. Its success helped build the entire industry-made MMO's mainstream. Games that I love today (Rift) are pulling heavily from a population of players that WoW brought to the genre-how this is a bad thing ill never know.
You can love Gladiator without HATING Braveheart-there is no mutual exclusivity to preference. One games success does not mean that another MUST fail-its a big gaming world-success breeds success. As a genre we'd all be better off if WoW perks along at 10 million plus AND Rift builds into the 2-3 million + category. Nobody loses-the entire genre wins!
If Rift isnt your thing-so what-go back to whatever game is. You had a million oppurtunities not to 'waste' money on it-if you chose to spend your money-you did so knowing what you were buying. If it hasnt worked out-sorry-but move on. Dont wish failure on it-who benefits from that?
I happen to think we are all worse off with failures such as Tabula Rasa, DCUO, AOC/WAR etc. WoW isnt a better game because Tabula Rasa failed. Take a deep breath-cheer for what you like-ignore what you do not!
Funny thing is most of hate is not coming from WoW players but from fans of SWTOR or GW2 who want to see failures so that it will justify their wait for their MMO. I know we saw a similar thing from WAR fans when AoC came out. I guess its human nature.
They are fudging the server reported population levels. How do I know? Last Wednesday or early Thursday, between 4AM and 7AM Eastern, the server status levels were just about the same as the levels in your post. One, or maybe two, showed Low. A bunch of Medium and four that still showed high. At the same time my server showed high, Sanctum had maybe three people in it and when I went out adventuring, I saw maybe 6 people in an hour.
You're not even gonna use /who? Cmon now if you're gonna do it, try just a little bit harder
Actually, I did a little searching via the social interface. Didn't see more than 8 people at any level I checked. I didn't do a broad survey, but checked a few levels just to see if I was missing something. Also did two zone wide searches and had very low numbers. I'm no longer a subscriber and didn't take notes with the intent of trying to "prove" anything, so I didn't mention it in my post.
You are welcome to do a survey during off, off peak hours, caomparing the officially reported population tier vs. how many players you find in game.
They are fudging the server reported population levels. How do I know? Last Wednesday or early Thursday, between 4AM and 7AM Eastern, the server status levels were just about the same as the levels in your post. One, or maybe two, showed Low. A bunch of Medium and four that still showed high. At the same time my server showed high, Sanctum had maybe three people in it and when I went out adventuring, I saw maybe 6 people in an hour.
You're not even gonna use /who? Cmon now if you're gonna do it, try just a little bit harder
Actually, I did a little searching via the social interface. Didn't see more than 8 people at any level I checked. I didn't do a broad servey, but checked a few levels just to see if I was missing something. Also did two zone wide searches and had very low numbers. I'm no longer a subscriber and didn't take notes with the intent of trying to "prove" anything, so I didn't mention it in my post.
You are welcome to do a survey during off, off peak hours, caomparing the officially reported population tier vs. how many players you find in game.
Yeah the /who system is weird. For example yesterday people were searching level 50's and were like, "Trolololol theres only 12 online!" etc. When none of my 20 level 50 guild members were even seen on the list. This to me makes no sense and i fail to understand how they workout the system.
Anyways PVE in Rift is great however the PVP is severly lacking and needs content ASAP before the PVP servers become empty. 3 Major guilds have already left with more to follow.
BTW, I was pretty positive on the game from beta through week two or so. Fought off a lot of obviously bogus arguements from people trashing the game because it was somehow a challange to what ever they were playing at the time.
I didn't use fanboy hype to support the game and I'm not going to make things up to detract from it. My opinion has changed and has been noted. Also, if the game was a hopeless piece of ofal, I wouldn't even bother. The game still has potential, but IMO the devs are taking some really wrong turns with the game.
The game has a lot of solid elements, but also has a lot of weak spots. In the end, the more fun people are having playing, the less likely they are to focus on the flaws. Far too often, MMORPG developers over-react to things they didn't anticipate and while attempting to head off some issue that might potentially cost them some leading edge customers in a couple months, they actually lose a lot more customers across the entire playerbase, because they do things that make game play a lot less fun and a lot more frustrating.
As to the subject of the thread, I stick by the observation that it seems very dubious that the servers are really at medium to high load levels during the pre-dawn hours. I also can re-affirm that in game observations didn't support the "High" status for the server I was on. I wasn't the one who started a thread trying to use the status levels as evidence that few people left at the end of the first month. In fact, I think that the status levels are almost worthless in judging population levels one way or the other.
It's not hard to speculate that the levels are being fudged to obfuscate population trends, but I even aknowledged that it could be more about steering people towards emptier servers than to manage public perceptions of the state of the game. (Although, looking at the servers now, with all listed as medium, that theory loses some steam). http://www.riftstatus.com/index.php?region=NA
I dunno-my guild had just about everyone I regularly see still on. Server was listed as "high", Sanctum was packed, expert dungeon runs were being formed, pvp instances were firing, AH was bustling. I am sure there was some fall off-would be impossible for there not to be. But all in all i think the first month crash has not happened. Despite the obvious bunch of haters wishing/almost begging for it to happen.
Not sure why people cheer for games to fail. I never really enjoyed WoW-thought it was a good game with an absolutely horrible community-that said-i never wished for it to fail. Its success helped build the entire industry-made MMO's mainstream. Games that I love today (Rift) are pulling heavily from a population of players that WoW brought to the genre-how this is a bad thing ill never know.
You can love Gladiator without HATING Braveheart-there is no mutual exclusivity to preference. One games success does not mean that another MUST fail-its a big gaming world-success breeds success. As a genre we'd all be better off if WoW perks along at 10 million plus AND Rift builds into the 2-3 million + category. Nobody loses-the entire genre wins!
If Rift isnt your thing-so what-go back to whatever game is. You had a million oppurtunities not to 'waste' money on it-if you chose to spend your money-you did so knowing what you were buying. If it hasnt worked out-sorry-but move on. Dont wish failure on it-who benefits from that?
I happen to think we are all worse off with failures such as Tabula Rasa, DCUO, AOC/WAR etc. WoW isnt a better game because Tabula Rasa failed. Take a deep breath-cheer for what you like-ignore what you do not!
I'm torn because on one hand success breeds success, but on the other hand if the worn out design methods of World of Warcraft are applied to say Rift and it succeeds that further encourages more games to stay on the tried and true path as opposed to breaking new ground. It makes investors push heavily toward games that follow the same model. Not everything WoW did was bad and not everything Rift did was poor either, but there needs to be a shake-up in the genre to avoid the stale feeling many of us veterans get when we log in these games that lack any depth, character options, solid interactive storylines, or solid PvP with a point beyond farming Honor/Favor in a meaningless battleground. There are other models that can and will succeed but it's going to take developers and investors with balls and a very clear vision of the changes that need to be made.
In short yes in a way I root for copy cat non-innovative games to fail because no there is not an infinite player-base to draw from. Eventually you must draw from other games.
Thirty years of gaming experience...not sure if I should be proud of that www.mmoexaminer.blogspot.com
Skuldoon i agree that the "wow effect" has had a huge impact on the type of games that have followed. But rather then cheering failure I cheer for the "indy" games to succede. I am a huge fan of EVE, was a big booster for Perpeteeum when it first hit and always try to support games like Fallen Earth if they are at least half decent.
Id rather cheer a Fallen Earth then jeer a WoW. But i hear you - some creativity would help. I happen to think RIFT offers a fair bit of that. Not a dramatic shift but w/ the soul system and rifts-i think theyve made a considerable contribution to innovation. Quest-coaster, meaningless pvp, soul-less crafting-they still have a long way to go-but at least they did innovate and they did release clean.
Skuldoon i agree that the "wow effect" has had a huge impact on the type of games that have followed. But rather then cheering failure I cheer for the "indy" games to succede. I am a huge fan of EVE, was a big booster for Perpeteeum when it first hit and always try to support games like Fallen Earth if they are at least half decent.
Id rather cheer a Fallen Earth then jeer a WoW. But i hear you - some creativity would help. I happen to think RIFT offers a fair bit of that. Not a dramatic shift but w/ the soul system and rifts-i think theyve made a considerable contribution to innovation. Quest-coaster, meaningless pvp, soul-less crafting-they still have a long way to go-but at least they did innovate and they did release clean.
Fallen Earth is pretty WoW-esque too.. I mean, A LOT less WoW-ish then Rift but it is a still a themepark that uses a lot of the same things WoW does.. Then again, we've all became so jaded with WoW it's easy call any themepark MMO WoW...
Currently Playing: Rift + Starcraft II + Gears Of War 3 Beta
Rifts are nothing new, they are just PQs from warhammer, with a lot less variety. Oh they come in different pretty colors, but they are all exactly the same. Kill some mobs in a certain period of time to push it to higher stages, fun for about 10 levels, and then you realize its the exact same thing over, and over, and over, and over, and, well you get the idea.
At least warhammer the pqs didnt all feel exactly the same.
Anyway, although I aknowledge my bad for the tangent touching upon why I left the game, the main point of the thread was population after the free month ended. The reported population values are inflated, which anyone can confirm by looking at server status during off, off peak hours. I also experienced far fewer people in game during my last three days in a noticeable "die off". Heck, the guild I was in only showed 6 of 80ish people had even signed in during the previous week.
Since you didn't bother countering observations on population decline, but rather thought it would be better to take a shot at the messanger, I have to assume you have noticed the same exact thing.
Out of curiosity I've been following extensively the Xfire, raptr and steam figures for the past couple of weeks up till yesterday, next to the server status, and in none of those I saw a dramatic decrease in numbers or activity that would support your claim.
Admittedly, the week and 2nd month is still young, but so far Rift seems to be doing ok.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Because we all know that it is all about ze numbers! Why do you guys care about whether X MMO has number 1, X MMO has number 2 etc. Especially when you are speculating I am pretty sure Trion will release numbers. As long as population is not a problem who cares
But yeah if you look at xfire it's doing fine. Of course, that is for Xfire users only of course I never used xfire and most of my friends don't use it, so we don't count it. Btw, why are people using Xfire? I find it useless and a waste of the ram and hd space it takes.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
I've no idea why people use Xfire, I wouldn't, but as a tool to notice trends it's been one of the most detailed I've encountered so far, and I include Raptr and Steam in that list.
Sure WoW has WoW census, but that's just one tool specifically for one MMO, and therefore can't be used for other MMO's to see what's going on in overall activity.
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums: Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Comments
That's good to see! I knowed I didn't cancel yet but came awfully close. Am hoping it grows on me but I'm kind of torn at the moment.
I just got my copy today, game looks very clean and runs well. Bound to have people stay with such a stable game and a clean release.
Pvp is very enjoyable with unique class combos.
They are fudging the server reported population levels. How do I know? Last Wednesday or early Thursday, between 4AM and 7AM Eastern, the server status levels were just about the same as the levels in your post. One, or maybe two, showed Low. A bunch of Medium and four that still showed high. At the same time my server showed high, Sanctum had maybe three people in it and when I went out adventuring, I saw maybe 6 people in an hour.
This could be fudging to make it look like there are more people playing than there really is, or, they may over-report fuller servers to guide people to the lowest pop servers; maybe even a combination of the two.
I will say that during my last three days, before the free month ran dry, it was getting pretty dead even at that point. I spent a lot of time just out gathering resources. I knew I was at least taking a Haitus, so I didn't feel like leveling; just figured I'd stockpile for future dailies, if I do decide to return. I also wanted to get out and take in the world, to see if that might change my mind. There just were not many people out there.
I'd still be playing, if it weren't for the major shift away from build diversity and towards shoving the four callings back into the narrowly defined, genre established roles.
I also grew very frustrated with Rifting rewards. The Death Rifts, as part of the event, were rewarding their own currency ok, but my last ten days in game, the rewarding of Sourceshards and Sourcestones had almost completely dried up. Even after the patch, which seemed to promise better access to shards and stones, things got worse still. Couldn't find anyone that had received a sourceshard from a rift since the patch. After getting people together to kill a major life invasion, people who participated got a sourceshard (which used to come from individual Rifts), but no one got a Sourcestone, which used to come from full invasions.
Sitting on 13K Planerite and being unable to buy anything, because of lack of Sourceshards and Sourcestones, just became too frustrating.
The added drudgery of the end game grind was just icing on the cake. I stopped two characters mid-40s, because I just couldn't stomach the tought of the inane grind.
Anyway, don't trust the reported server status for judging population. The thresholds have clearly been dramatically lowered.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
Lets get this right your playing an MMO and your complaining about the grind and sad part is you don't even have a lv 50. Yes source shards are n't dropping and hopefully they fix that but you can still buy plenty of stuff with planarite (epics and blues you would need to run T1s for example or planar essence)
Oh, really? Planerite alone doesn't buy you gear, it needs to be combined with Sourceshards and Sourcestones to buy armor or weapons. The Shards and Stones were probably a bad design decision to begin with. Either the game awards more of them than you need, which makes them pointless. Or, they gate gear purchases, which makes grinding Rifts pointless if you aren't lucky enough to get the shards and stones you need.
Anyway, although I aknowledge my bad for the tangent touching upon why I left the game, the main point of the thread was population after the free month ended. The reported population values are inflated, which anyone can confirm by looking at server status during off, off peak hours. I also experienced far fewer people in game during my last three days in a noticeable "die off". Heck, the guild I was in only showed 6 of 80ish people had even signed in during the previous week.
Since you didn't bother countering observations on population decline, but rather thought it would be better to take a shot at the messanger, I have to assume you have noticed the same exact thing.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
Hmm most of my guild is still active Fyi, anyway well if you don't follow rift server status.
Xfire have shown rift population to be about the same as it was it last week.
http://www.xfire.com/games/
The servers jumped to medium almost instantly after a downtime in the middle of the day. Low is a paltry number of players, probably like 500 or lower.
I watched the EU servers and fewer than half of them ever reached high today during prime time when a week ago there were still some hitting full and only a couple didn't reach high. There was a significant change in population already. It is pretty much expected of any new MMO that it happens though so no reason to freak out about it.
90% of my guild stayed with the free month over. They aren't fudging the populations, at 50 I still noticed quite a few people on at 3 am pacific time on my server. I'm glad it didn't have a huge dropoff like people were expecting. With all the doomsayers for every game they pushed 3 times as hard with rift.
You do realize that xfire numbers have been debunked as providing any real value in these matters? Or that just bringing it up as a defense undermines your own point?
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
Xfire is valuable tool for trending and accurately showed decline in both AoC and WAR populations.
lol our guild is still constantly recruiting members each day.. Sanctum today looks more packed then it did the day before.. Then again i play Braircliff, it's a very populated server thats always on "high".. I'am glad i picked this server as the population is perfect, even though sometimes i do have to wait for mobs to respawn due to a lot of people competeing for the same quests (especially the dailies.)
Currently Playing:
Rift + Starcraft II + Gears Of War 3 Beta
Both sides on my server are packed with people, the towns are so full that it's hard to see the banker and auctioneer npcs. Rift is doing quite allright.
"Only in quiet waters do things mirror themselves undistorted.
Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world."
Hans Margolius
You're not even gonna use /who? Cmon now if you're gonna do it, try just a little bit harder
I dunno-my guild had just about everyone I regularly see still on. Server was listed as "high", Sanctum was packed, expert dungeon runs were being formed, pvp instances were firing, AH was bustling. I am sure there was some fall off-would be impossible for there not to be. But all in all i think the first month crash has not happened. Despite the obvious bunch of haters wishing/almost begging for it to happen.
Not sure why people cheer for games to fail. I never really enjoyed WoW-thought it was a good game with an absolutely horrible community-that said-i never wished for it to fail. Its success helped build the entire industry-made MMO's mainstream. Games that I love today (Rift) are pulling heavily from a population of players that WoW brought to the genre-how this is a bad thing ill never know.
You can love Gladiator without HATING Braveheart-there is no mutual exclusivity to preference. One games success does not mean that another MUST fail-its a big gaming world-success breeds success. As a genre we'd all be better off if WoW perks along at 10 million plus AND Rift builds into the 2-3 million + category. Nobody loses-the entire genre wins!
If Rift isnt your thing-so what-go back to whatever game is. You had a million oppurtunities not to 'waste' money on it-if you chose to spend your money-you did so knowing what you were buying. If it hasnt worked out-sorry-but move on. Dont wish failure on it-who benefits from that?
I happen to think we are all worse off with failures such as Tabula Rasa, DCUO, AOC/WAR etc. WoW isnt a better game because Tabula Rasa failed. Take a deep breath-cheer for what you like-ignore what you do not!
Funny thing is most of hate is not coming from WoW players but from fans of SWTOR or GW2 who want to see failures so that it will justify their wait for their MMO. I know we saw a similar thing from WAR fans when AoC came out. I guess its human nature.
Actually, I did a little searching via the social interface. Didn't see more than 8 people at any level I checked. I didn't do a broad survey, but checked a few levels just to see if I was missing something. Also did two zone wide searches and had very low numbers. I'm no longer a subscriber and didn't take notes with the intent of trying to "prove" anything, so I didn't mention it in my post.
You are welcome to do a survey during off, off peak hours, caomparing the officially reported population tier vs. how many players you find in game.
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
Yeah the /who system is weird. For example yesterday people were searching level 50's and were like, "Trolololol theres only 12 online!" etc. When none of my 20 level 50 guild members were even seen on the list. This to me makes no sense and i fail to understand how they workout the system.
Anyways PVE in Rift is great however the PVP is severly lacking and needs content ASAP before the PVP servers become empty. 3 Major guilds have already left with more to follow.
BTW, I was pretty positive on the game from beta through week two or so. Fought off a lot of obviously bogus arguements from people trashing the game because it was somehow a challange to what ever they were playing at the time.
I didn't use fanboy hype to support the game and I'm not going to make things up to detract from it. My opinion has changed and has been noted. Also, if the game was a hopeless piece of ofal, I wouldn't even bother. The game still has potential, but IMO the devs are taking some really wrong turns with the game.
The game has a lot of solid elements, but also has a lot of weak spots. In the end, the more fun people are having playing, the less likely they are to focus on the flaws. Far too often, MMORPG developers over-react to things they didn't anticipate and while attempting to head off some issue that might potentially cost them some leading edge customers in a couple months, they actually lose a lot more customers across the entire playerbase, because they do things that make game play a lot less fun and a lot more frustrating.
As to the subject of the thread, I stick by the observation that it seems very dubious that the servers are really at medium to high load levels during the pre-dawn hours. I also can re-affirm that in game observations didn't support the "High" status for the server I was on. I wasn't the one who started a thread trying to use the status levels as evidence that few people left at the end of the first month. In fact, I think that the status levels are almost worthless in judging population levels one way or the other.
It's not hard to speculate that the levels are being fudged to obfuscate population trends, but I even aknowledged that it could be more about steering people towards emptier servers than to manage public perceptions of the state of the game. (Although, looking at the servers now, with all listed as medium, that theory loses some steam). http://www.riftstatus.com/index.php?region=NA
Want to know more about GW2 and why there is so much buzz? Start here: Guild Wars 2 Mass Info for the Uninitiated
I'm torn because on one hand success breeds success, but on the other hand if the worn out design methods of World of Warcraft are applied to say Rift and it succeeds that further encourages more games to stay on the tried and true path as opposed to breaking new ground. It makes investors push heavily toward games that follow the same model. Not everything WoW did was bad and not everything Rift did was poor either, but there needs to be a shake-up in the genre to avoid the stale feeling many of us veterans get when we log in these games that lack any depth, character options, solid interactive storylines, or solid PvP with a point beyond farming Honor/Favor in a meaningless battleground. There are other models that can and will succeed but it's going to take developers and investors with balls and a very clear vision of the changes that need to be made.
In short yes in a way I root for copy cat non-innovative games to fail because no there is not an infinite player-base to draw from. Eventually you must draw from other games.
Thirty years of gaming experience...not sure if I should be proud of that
www.mmoexaminer.blogspot.com
Skuldoon i agree that the "wow effect" has had a huge impact on the type of games that have followed. But rather then cheering failure I cheer for the "indy" games to succede. I am a huge fan of EVE, was a big booster for Perpeteeum when it first hit and always try to support games like Fallen Earth if they are at least half decent.
Id rather cheer a Fallen Earth then jeer a WoW. But i hear you - some creativity would help. I happen to think RIFT offers a fair bit of that. Not a dramatic shift but w/ the soul system and rifts-i think theyve made a considerable contribution to innovation. Quest-coaster, meaningless pvp, soul-less crafting-they still have a long way to go-but at least they did innovate and they did release clean.
Fallen Earth is pretty WoW-esque too.. I mean, A LOT less WoW-ish then Rift but it is a still a themepark that uses a lot of the same things WoW does.. Then again, we've all became so jaded with WoW it's easy call any themepark MMO WoW...
Currently Playing:
Rift + Starcraft II + Gears Of War 3 Beta
Rifts are nothing new, they are just PQs from warhammer, with a lot less variety. Oh they come in different pretty colors, but they are all exactly the same. Kill some mobs in a certain period of time to push it to higher stages, fun for about 10 levels, and then you realize its the exact same thing over, and over, and over, and over, and, well you get the idea.
At least warhammer the pqs didnt all feel exactly the same.
Out of curiosity I've been following extensively the Xfire, raptr and steam figures for the past couple of weeks up till yesterday, next to the server status, and in none of those I saw a dramatic decrease in numbers or activity that would support your claim.
Admittedly, the week and 2nd month is still young, but so far Rift seems to be doing ok.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Because we all know that it is all about ze numbers! Why do you guys care about whether X MMO has number 1, X MMO has number 2 etc. Especially when you are speculating
I am pretty sure Trion will release numbers. As long as population is not a problem who cares 
But yeah if you look at xfire it's doing fine. Of course, that is for Xfire users only of course
I never used xfire and most of my friends don't use it, so we don't count it. Btw, why are people using Xfire? I find it useless and a waste of the ram and hd space it takes.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
I've no idea why people use Xfire, I wouldn't, but as a tool to notice trends it's been one of the most detailed I've encountered so far, and I include Raptr and Steam in that list.
Sure WoW has WoW census, but that's just one tool specifically for one MMO, and therefore can't be used for other MMO's to see what's going on in overall activity.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."