Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Population growing...
Almost a month ago I created a thread that contained the server populations at the time. Yesterday I noticed that a lot of servers are picking up... what could be happening? People coming back from trying "other" games? Or just new people in general? Only time will tell, but lets take a look at how much things have changed in almost a month...
Previous Populations
PvE:
Alsbeth
Atrophinius
Belmont
Byriel
Crucia
Deepwood
Galena
Gnarlwood
Greenscale
Greybriar
Keenblade
Laethys
Millrush
Shatterbone
Silkweb
Threesprings
Wolfsbane
PvP:
Briarcliff
Dayblind
Deepstrike
Faemist
Freeholme
Seastone
PvP-RP:
Sunrest
PvE-RP:
Estrael
Faeblight
Shadefallen
Current Populations
PvE:
Alsbeth
Atrophinius
Belmont
Byriel
Crucia
Deepwood
Galena
Gnarlwood
Greenscale
Greybriar
Keenblade
Laethys
Millrush
Shatterbone
Silkweb
Threesprings
Wolfsbane
PvP:
Briarcliff
Dayblind
Deepstrike
Faemist
Freeholme
Seastone
PvP-RP:
Sunrest
PvE-RP:
Estrael
Faeblight
Shadefallen
Results
Before: 15/11/1/0
After: 13/10/3/1
Discuss...
One could make the argument that this is the result of the resent consolidation, but can you explain why there aren't MORE low population servers?... lets take a deeper look. This is a supposed list:
PVE
Belmont & Galena –> Millrush (Still Low)
Atrophinius & Crucia –> Greenscale (Still Low)
Alsbeth –> Shatterbone (Now Medium)
PVE-RP
Estrael & Shadefallen –> Faeblight (Now High)
PVP
Sunrest(PVP-RP), Freeholm, & Dayblind –> Deepstrike (Still Medium)
Faemist –> Briarcliff (Still Medium)
Out of that list the only shards that have went up are Shatterbone and Faeblight... the others remained the same. The move has been put into place, and confirmed by Trion, to prepare for for a future large-scale trial promotion. This doesn't explain why there are even less low population servers when there should be more due to consolidation.
Comments
If that was really their reason, isn't this too sudden? It was just recently that some shards recommened people transfer. I think there's a bigger reason for the population rising. I wouldn't say it's from a game I choose not to mention, but it's hard to ignore the other threads about said game that there's a lot of people leaving.
It could be because holding 1.7 up next to 1.1 in TOR it is starting to come up short. I mean what WoW is maybe another 5 months from 4.4 so they are not even a factor right now. It is between TOR and Rift right now and do TOR fans feel they are getting a good deal.
I am watching the 1.7 notes and they are just sexy.
Rather I see a consistent and continuously ongoing decrease in all those three for Rift, and a rather significant one as well. It's not for nothing that they announced another 11 servers to be merged into their trial server pool.
But, I hope that you're right and that Rift might finally see some stabilisation instead of the constantly going bleeding out that has been the case over the months.It is beyond me while people even look at statistics from Xfire, Steam, ect... They're not even close to accurate. you can choose to use those to base your opinion as much as you like, but the FACTS remain that, along with what I've noted here, several people have reported seeing old players come back along with new players. Add that to the fact that others are reporting that players are leaving their game and you'd be foolish not to connect the dots and see that the population is in fact growing.
Thats because most of us Rift players dont use Xfire, Steam or Raptr. In fact most of us dont need to use such programs! Well, perhaps Magelo, but thats about it.
Im here right now because im in que at 230 for my server. 15 minute wait. LOLOL
What was the date and time of the orginal list vs the new list? was it also a friday night? same time? If its not a friday night at the same time give or take 15 minutes then the comarison is flawed.
Regardless, we know Trion is closing 11 servers. And the residents of those 11 servers know it too. Its very logical to think they have already jumped ship, and not necessarily to the server recomended to them.
Seastone has grown over the last month,mostly at the expense of Dayblind.
Wolfsbane has grown at the expense of pretty much every server.
Faeblights growth to high is obviously a direct result of the other 3 RP servers going away.
You wonder why there arent more low pop servers....why should there be? There should logically be less because the people on htose 11 servers have to go somewhere. Going from 27 servers to 16 servers should show the remaining 16 increasing. That may give the illusion of an overall increase, but the 11 servers closing cant go lower. They show low the same as they did a month ago, only now most of the eople on those servers inhabit other servers.
And if you think that Trion is closing these servers to prepare an *additional* 11 trial servers on top of the 30+ they already have, I have a bridge I can sell you in brooklyn.
Or you could look at the whole picture (check the stats at shardwatch and similar sites) and realize that its not growing, unless today (and only today) is the start of some miraculous comeback.
It wouldnt shock me if Rift gained some numbers over the next few months, and I hope it does, but it hasnt started yet for the NA servers.
However, Europe has picked up quite nicely.
The original figures WERE taken on a Friday... 12-30-2011 in fact... and time doesn't matter as these are the populations of the servers at peak hours which are consistent through the whole week so the day really doesn't matter. Thread is here if you don't believe me: http://forums.riftgame.com/rift-general-discussions/general-discussion/289139-community-effort-fix-shard-battlegroup-populations.html
They're not "closing" servers... they're making room for a big trial promotion. You can choose not to believe it if you like, but don't say I told you so. I think their plan goes into effect around the 18th, which is what a dev has said.
Your excuse hardly explains the fact that there still are less low population servers than before. The ONLY servers that have seen a decrease was Byriel and Dayblind... both once medium populated servers. Even if everyone on those 2 server moved elsewhere it still would not be enough to gain 2 high population servers and 1 server in queue. And again, this does not excuse the fact that others have reported seeing many people come back as well as many new players.
I take it you don't realize how shardwatch works... I suggest you look at it closely and then get back to me. And how could you even accept that fact the fact that EU servers are growing, but you can't believe the US ones are? What could possibly cause EU to go up and not US?
Players coming back from SWTOR... I can say for my self that i will go back to rift after free month in swtor....
www.mmoslo.si
Lets take a closer look and give a value to the different server sizes.
Low = 1
Medium = 2
High = 3
and Queue = 4
With this is place you can assume that 2 low = 1 medium and ect. Given that values that we have from the past and present let's see the totals:
Before: 15/11/1/0 = 15+22+3+0 = 40
After: 13/10/3/1 = 13+20+9+4 = 46
See the difference now?
Lets look even closer and see why Trion chose the servers they did. There are 5 different battlegroups. I will label each shard with a battlegroup number.
PVE
(2) Belmont & (2) Galena –> (4) Millrush
(5) Atrophinius & (5) Crucia –> (5) Greenscale
(1) Alsbeth –> (4) Shatterbone
PVE-RP
(1) Estrael & (1) Shadefallen –> (2) Faeblight
PVP
(2) Sunrest, (5) Freeholm, & (4) Dayblind –> (4) Deepstrike
(1) Faemist –> (3) Briarcliff
In a past thread, the same one mentioned earlier, I compared battlegroup sizes and got this (this is based off the previous populations):
1: 113 - 8
2: 032 - 8
3: 023 - 7
4: 043 - 11
5: 014 - 6
Obviously it looks as if they didn't take into account battlegroup populations because they are suggesting some rather strange moves such as suggesting a lot of shards in group 2 move to group 4 which was already the biggest. They should have chose to move some shards from group 4 to group 3 and 5.
EDIT: Battlegroups were shuffled today... seems as though Trion is on the ball as usual.
Here is why your argument is flawed, and no conclusions can be made from these numbers.
Amongst thse 15/13 green servers are 11 servers that are closing (or 'turning trial' for the naive). A month ago, those 11 servers had up to 400 people playing on them. Lets assume though that since these servers never hit medium they had 300 people on them during prime time.
Now this week, thse players are told their server wil be no more. Sure, not everyone moves right away, but lets esitmate low and say 50% of people moved. Thats 1,650 people to distribute amongst the other servers. That number is probablly higher.
What you are seeing is *exactly* what you should expect when almost half of the servers are closing, and a big reason why Trion is doing it.
I am *very* curious as to what big offer could use 40+ servers.
I assume this will sooner or later turn out into some "play to level 20 for free -on trial servers" move.
IF SO, they may run into another problem: people reach lvl 20 in like two evenings and the replay-value is unfortunately very low, as people see the tutorial zone and the same area after allover. "Free to 20" could not be the big hit it seem to be at first glimpse. But all this is speculation at this point in time, let's see what will happen.
I'm also very curious what unheard of trail stunt requires 40+ dedicated trial servers.
What would be a ool thng to do (though 3 or 4 servers would liely be needed as opposed to 40) is to make fresh servers and advertise a 're-launch' of sorts for people that missed out on the first one, and flag the servers as new or inactive accounts only for the first 60 days. People like fresh servers.