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MMOG Subscription Chart Updated
Thanks to the folks at GameGirlAdvance for pointing to Bruce Sterling Woodcock's newest update of his MMOG subscription chart. This update has newer subscription numbers for many of the MMOG leaders, and has added games such as EverQuest: OA, Shadowbane, EVE Online, and Star Wars Galaxies to the chart, commenting that the recent market shows "...the market competition is fierce and the cannibalization of subscribers is now clearly evident... [but] there is still possibility for large success, as the more recent launches of Ragnarok Online in Japan and Star Wars Galaxies have shown."
I only have a Dreamcast, you insensitive clods!
no BZFlag entry? :)
(yes, yes, I know, but it's a joke - laugh!)
If you actually take the time to look at the charts, you won't see any "cannibilization." No game takes its subscribers from another game. Instead you'll find that a game grows logarithmically; fast at first but then towards a plateau. If you look at the total subscribership, you'll notice that its growing, not stabilizing. And the market itself is growing, as each new game takes off faster and faster. Its still too early to tell, but SWG may or may not beat Ragnorok in growth speed.
Both have grown very very rapidly, perhaps because of extensive betas. Once you have an investment in the game it can be hard to leave it. You know the game, and you know the people around it. In fact, as a beta tester you've probably got some reputation in line when the full release comes out. This investment in bits on a remote computer mentality is what keeps subscribers around even after new people show up en masse, even after new games have shown up en masse.
I Browse at +4 Flamebait
Open Source Sysadmin
"PlanetSide (Confidence Rating: D)
Launched in April 2003, Sony has yet to release any subscription figures for PlanetSide, and I lack any data to make a good estimate. http://planetside.station.sony.com"
Yeah, well PlanetSide's stability and technical support is a joke - not to mention that they're still working out the gameplay itself.
No one is allowed to release any more MMORPGs until a few of the old ones have died off, we're running out of colors to chart them with.
This Space Intentionally Left Blank
Everquest, on the other hand, has (for the most part) been stable for years now. Despite how many bitch about EQ's terrible service, after playing for two years I can sincerely say it's a pretty solid game.
sigh. no Neocron. (www.neocron.com)
We that play Neocron wonder why others flock to crappier MMORPG's in such large numbers. sigh.
Plans call for massivly upgrading the game and starting to advertise it. Something that hasn't been done in almost 5 years. Expect free trial accounts to come out in the next month or two. Check in if you want to experience some good old classic MMORPG.
The Realm Online
Calmiche,
Well, the first month's figures are in at 50,000. I'd love to see it hit 500,000 eventually.
It's firmed up nicely from the retail release, *most* of the issues in some of the reviews have been fixed.
Veteran, Bermuda Triangle Expeditionary Force, 1992-1951
Planetside has grown faster than SWG and Ragnarok (all be it only slightly more than RO). PS is a GREAT game. If you haven't downloaded the trial from Fileplanet do so. It's pure PVP. Right now, overall tactics leave something to be desired, but it still has more than any other shooter in spades.
SWG has grown slower due to 1 character per server I believe.
is Hello Kitty online. *sigh* I guess I'll have to settle for The Sims Online.
"I just can't sit while people are saying nonsense in a meeting without saying it's nonsense" J Watson, Sci Am 288:(4)51
DAoC has a Relatively light leveling treadmill.
Funnest end-game around. (RvR warfare)
The most balanced team based combat system.
You don't have to whack bunnies all day to "have fun"
There is no resource mining, you don't really have to "work" to play the game.
That being said, the Economy is stupidly hard in DAoC.
Having played EQ, UO, AO, E&B, SWG, and SB... I have to say that DAoC is still the best MMORPG out there.
What it lacks in content, it more than makes up for in Realm vs. Realm war fun!
Oh I made the mistake of paying for the game. And it isn't growing fast, people generally get the free trial and then leave. There have been recent calls from players to consolidate servers due to low population.
But I'm biased - I was banned from the game for trying to heckle tech support into actually helping me with the game. It might be great squad tactics, but it sucks when you crash 5 times in an hour trying to play. When I couldn't find my crash log to report the problems (PlanetSide "forgot" to generate one it seems), SOE Tech Support deleted my post for being in the wrong "format". When I continued posting, they banned me. Yup - I was banned from PlanetSide for being a disgruntled user.
It does have some very fun squad tactics - and for those who don't have technical problems and can play the game without being respawned as a -wall-, I think it could be a lot of fun. But these problems exist, they're quite persistent (just wander around SOE's forums to find out), and their Tech Support staff is useless. There's no way a significant number of people are going to pay $13/mo with that kind of service/quality.
You can subtract 1 from Star wars galaxies. I canceled my membership after the first month. I refuse to play a beta with showstoping bugs.
Maybe I'll check them out in 6 months if they improve things.
Not really. After the horrible first few months of Anarchy Online I think the general public lost all faith in the game. While it may be great now, nobody really trusts Funcom anymore.
The same thing may be happening to Star Wars Galaxies as we speak.
The developers have practically ceased posting to the forums in the past couple weeks, and all hell is breaking loose with massive nerfing and other minor comparatively insignificant changes while major systems remain unaddressed and horribly broken.
The game is in a state much worse than it was in beta 3.
At least in Beta 3, we had good communication with what the hell was going on in development. Now, we get a patch every few days with minimal explanation. They post about a dozen bullets about what was updated in the patch, but meanwhile sneak in more nerfs and several dozen new bugs and other "tweaks" which go unreported until we find them for ourselves.
I can easily forgive a lot of the problems so long as communication is kept open, but lately they seem to have abandoned the forums altogether.
I agree. Here's just one example of how screwed up things are right now...
Resource harvesters are player-built structures like houses which can be placed down on the land, and will extract resources from the ground 24/7 so long as they have power and energy.
Players can also "manually" extract resources by a process called "sampling", but it requires that the character stay in one spot while they gather the resources.
As of now, harvesters do not gather nearly as many resources as a player who is sampling in the same spot.
Also, resources in SWG shift around with time, so a "sweet spot" you have placed your harvester on may disappear all of the sudden, with no warning.
Now this would not be so bad, except that you cannot "re-deed" (pick up) your harvester and use it again without losing all of the energy and maintenance fees which you have fed into the harvester. You lose them all. Money and energy go *poof* when re-deeding.
So it is easy to see why many players like to sample instead of use harvesters to gether resources.
The problem is, many people are sampling since they can get over five times more resources in the same time period compared to harvesters.
The problem with sampling is that it is horrendously boring. To sample, you select a resource, then click the 'sample' button. After a few minutes and about 20-50 sample events/attempts, your character will run out of action and/or mind pools.
In the meantime, typically 5-10 minutes, you have absoultely nothing to do in the game but sit there and stare at your character. Sampling requires the player to do nothing after the process starts.
Suffice it to say, most players have begun to use macros to sample for them while they get up from the computer and go watch TV or nap or whatever.
To combat the macro samplers, the developers report that they are going to make the process a lot more "fun" by adding "critical events". According to players on the test server, these critical events only occur once every 15 minutes or so, but they pop up a dialog box, which we assume is there to stop the macro samplers.
So this "fix" does nothing to solve the problem, and even at that is a very weak solution to macro sampling.
Instead of fixing the problem (harvesters), the developers are implementing a system to make macroing more difficult.
So now, while sitting back in my chair staring in a zombie-like trance at the screen, I might occasionally get a dialog box which may improve my sample attempts. This is more "fun" how?
So they put all of this effort into slowing down the macroing, but they have so far given no indication of putting any effort into stopping the problem which causes the macroing (the harvesters).
In summary, they like to fix the symptoms, not the problems.
I could be wrong about all of this, but I tend to be pessimistic when there is no communication. I seriously hope that I am wrong, because I want to enjoy this game. My in-game profession relies a lot on resource gathering, and as it is now it's just more work than fun, and it looks like the next update will only tip the scales even worse in the same direction.
Please consider making an automatic monthly recurring donation to the EFF
i am now surprised at the initial growth of the games but the staying power of everquest is mind boggling. thankfully, i haven't been sucked into the world.
DARE TO FIGHT ME?
In the meantime, typically 5-10 minutes, you have absoultely nothing to do in the game but sit there and stare at your character. Sampling requires the player to do nothing after the process starts.
Is this anything like being forced to sit around and watch an entertainer to heal the psychic wounds from battle?
Sounds fucking boring...maybe it appeals to wookie hairdressers or something.
Thank you, Sony, for turning something cool into crap. At least the "Star Wars" title is being pissed on equally. The new movies sucked, why shouldn't the game?
While the games numbers may have hit a plateau, I have found those who are playing are fanatical about it and keep the game very active. I am trying out the new Everwars game if any are interested. The guys running it seem to be very good about taking and implementing suggestions. (Just don't complain about the attack timer) EVERWARS HERE
Planetside is fun. Support can be ropey but most major bugs are now nailed down. Crashing to Desktop is occuring mainly due to sound card bugs which can be solved with new drivers etc.
The game for a FPS has no equal in what it does. Big HUGE fights. It's main problem is how to encourage those fights. At the moment the main fighting force is the "Zerg", which is 100+ players of one empire sticking together and steam rollering the other sides. However when two Zergs meet that is when the fun happens...
There are balancing issues in some of the weapons/vehicles but they do not detract in that you can join the game and within minutes be in a huge firefight.
It's a lot of Fun (something that SWG looks like it needs)
Balders
I have a cunning plan...
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