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Do you use XFire?
stragen001
Member UncommonPosts: 1,720
Whenever a game launches, or whenever people try to claim that a game has X amount of subscribers, or that a game is dying etc, they always start quoting Xfire figures.
Personally, I dont use Xfire, and I think Xfire figures are complete rubbish as XFire stats != total number of people playing a game, as some people seem to think. All Xfire stats represent are the amount of Xfire users who play a game, and that is a very specific subset of gamers as a whole.
To try to quantify exactly how relevant / not relevant Xfire stats are to MMOs.... Lets have a Poll:
Cluck Cluck, Gibber Gibber, My Old Mans A Mushroom
Comments
Fuck no!
This ain't 2005
"I will not play it nor any other MMO until they make it possible to obtain the best gear without forcing people to group up to do so." SwampRob
XFire is a reasonable way of determining trends (increases/decreases, and playerbases relative to other games), but it is a terrible way of determining total number of players - and I honestly dont think ive ever seen anyone attempt to use it in such a way. The way XFire is used, generally speaking, isnt that bad. It shouldnt be used as a be-all end-all statistic though.
Ive really honestly never seen anyone assert that at all, I may have missed it though.
I sorta do. I use Raptr, which has Xfire built into it.
Raptr is where it is at for me, however.
I use Xfire to talk to my friends in game and see what they're playing. I see a lot of people post about Xfire stats on these forums too and in my opinion, the stats don't come close to representing the amount of people who Sub to/play a game. It's clear not many people use it.
If Xfire numbers are rubbish because they do not cover the entirety of people who play said game, you could also say the same about your poll as it only covers MMORPG.com users, and not the entirety of MMO players.
But polls don't exist to poll the entire population, but only to take a sample of the population and attempt to come at some conclusion based on the results within the margin of errors. Xfire numbers are one of the many samples that exist. It tells you the popularity of a specific game within the xFire community. The data is still relevant, in the sense that it covers a very large industry and has over 21 millions registered users. The current xFire data shows that Leagues of Legends is the most played game amongst the xFire community. By combining the data of xFire with other samples/polls, you could assert that LoL is one of the most played game in the industry (which it currently is). That's all there is to it.
Next time make a "show me results"-entry as well.
Why? Either you do, or you dont use XFire. If you are willing to click on something to view the results, then click on yes or no.
Cluck Cluck, Gibber Gibber, My Old Mans A Mushroom
This discussion has been here bofore many times, and will pop up many times over again I think
basically, if 'only' 1% of the PC-gamers world-wide use xFire, you can see trends in their gaming habbits, and as such can project them to a larger scale. But to tell if a game is dieing because xFire numbers drop is just plain BS. Recently I've started playing Ryzom. xFire tells me 4 players are playing it the last week, where I the in-game /universe-chat shows a pretty active server.
Then Vamguard. We all know that this game is close to dead... xFire tells 6 players for last week, while actual numbers are around 100-150 at 'peak hours'. I played VG as well, and honestly? The Ryzom community (with 4 according to xFire) feels more alive than VG.
None the less, both games have a low player-base for sure, and that's what xFire DOES show...
But by the same logic, all the stats given by your poll represent are the amount of MMORPG.com -users who bother to answer your poll, and that is a very specific subset of gamers as a whole.
Thus you must also think that figures given by your own poll are complete rubbish?
Well, it's true that both Xfire player numbers and MMORPG.com members clicking on poll options are both self-selecting subsets. As you say, both are equally valid or invalid depending on your perspective.
People use xfire for all kinds of reasons, I used it for a while when I played Fallen Earth just because the game had no /played function and I was curious to see how much of my time was being spent in-game (I was unemployed at the time, and the answer was "a LOT"). Others like it for streaming.
Never installed it on my new rig.
You've missed it. It will happen somewhere in this thread. Someone will take Eve's numbers, create a ratio between Eve's population and another game, then 'calculate' another game's population. Or they'll take a known point in time for a game's population, and then calculate the current population based on XFire's % increase or decrease in number of players.
I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.
I ran this same poll a couple of years ago and it ended up around 30% used it........Its not all that relevant and I'd probably guess that those who do use it are probably in the 30 and under group.......You really cant use it to determine much of anything.
Yeah WTF! Who uses that bloatware anymore?
Idiots! It's 2012 FFS!
Losers!
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I've been using xfire since 2005 :P but lately I switched to raptr
xfire statistics can be good to show whats going on in a sample of gamers population
~but if Xfire itself is a *trend*, how valid can it really be to determine other ones?
The kinds of people that use it likely lean towards certain genres over others, and simply based on whether they can brag about how good they are at it, or how long they have been playing it.
Writer / Musician / Game Designer
Now Playing: Skyrim, Wurm Online, Tropico 4
Waiting On: GW2, TSW, Archeage, The Rapture
I don't think Xfire is that great for showing population, but it is great for showing the amount of interest players have for a game over time. You can see spikes in the amount of people that play an MMO when updates come out and you can see when nothing special is going on. When a game just launches and there is a sudden disinterest it isn't exactly the best sign.