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XFire - As MMO population estimation tool

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  • TheLizardbonesTheLizardbones Member CommonPosts: 10,910


    Originally posted by erictlewis
    Originally posted by Icewhite
    Originally posted by lizardbones Not exactly. They are allowing the conversation to continue in one thread because all the other threads eventually became the same conversation.
    Like the previous two multi-hundred page threads, from the same op, that they previously allowed to continue?

    I believe we need to reexamine our "spam" definition.


    I am thinking the mods must be off today the last 2 times we had this very discussion the thread was shut down. And yes I think its been more than 2 times, that we had this very thread and they all been locked.




    Then people didn't listen to what the mods asked them to do. The mods said to create a single thread to discuss XFire and game population numbers. Keep it civil and don't do it in specific game forums. They said they would sticky a thread if people used the thread and could carry on a conversation without become total @sshats*.

    * I'm paraphrasing here.

    I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.

  • risenbonesrisenbones Member Posts: 194

    I personnaly don't think you can use x-fire to accuratly get sub numbers for an MMO.  All you can get from it is trends.  There are just to many variables to take into accout.  All games are different in some way and tend to attract people who play in different ways.  For example I would suggest that Eve would attract people who would put more hours a month into a game than WoW just because if your going to stick with playing Eve your going to have to spend more time playing it than most of the playerbase of WoW.

     

    The other thing is at launch or major expansion games are going to log higher average hours played than a month or 2 afterwards as people use holiday time and sick days to take time off work and play the game.  Heck launch days regularly see people logging 20+ hour days in a game or at least attempting to which is why you see so many threads on lauch day about how people feel ripped off about planning a day off work and being unable to log into the game for several hours as the login servers crash and burn due to so much traffic.

     

    Really about all you can say about x-fire numbers is hmmm people are playing this game less/more than they were last month guess a few people left and a bunch of others ran out of holidays or sick days to waste on a game.

    The lesser of two evils is still evil.

    There is nothing more dangerous than a true believer.

  • GdemamiGdemami Member EpicPosts: 12,342


    Originally posted by lizardbones

    Every member of the sample shared the bias towards being willing to install XFire on their computer. This bias has not been examined in a way that tells us what this means and how it affects the results obtained from XFire's data.

    You could just as well claim that type of underwear players are wearing creates a bias that has no been examined.

    Burned of proof is on your shoulders.



    Originally posted by lizardbones

    The problem with saying there's no difference between 360k and 320k players is that both numbers are assumptions.

    There still either official data, other data sources or verified method to tell the divergence. No issue there.


    Originally posted by lizardbones

    I think we can assume that as XFire's numbers go up, the game's population goes up, and as XFire's numbers go down, the game's population goes down, but there's no way to tell by how much.

    As said, the "how much" isn't the important part.


    Originally posted by lizardbones

    Here's an experiment.

    There is already such experiment going for years:

    www.mmodata.com

  • VyethVyeth Member UncommonPosts: 1,461
    Originally posted by Rydeson
    Originally posted by Yamota

    The purpose of this thread is to discuss XFire numbers and from those try to extrapolate MMO playerbase numbers from. The mods of this site said they would support such a thread and sticky it so here is hoping they will.

    So lets start by qouting what is said on the site: http://www.mmodata.net/ about X-Fire:

    "I just got the Q4 quarterly report from EA, and they report 1,3m subs, so I will add this. My latest estimate of 1,41m subs was pretty generous, however I always try to be conservative in my estimates, whether they are downward or upward. 

    What it does show me is that the Xfire numbers are a good indication to base estimates off, purely based on Xfire I would have estimated 1,2m."

    So with that in mind, let us start with some theory-crafting. This is the method I use to get estimated player base numbers. I take a game with a known playerbase and from those games calculate what I would call the X-Fire factor. As an example I will use Eve estimated playerbase of 360k subs (only counting the subs in the West as I believe X-Fire is not used much in the East).

    Then I divide this sub. number with the X-Fire played per day which for Eve is currently at 690. 

    360k/690 = 522 (rounded)

    So 522 is the X-Fire factor which I will use to calculate the playerbase of other games. It would be better if I had another game to calculate the same for but currently I dont know any known sub. numbers of any other game. But this is just an example.

    So lets use this number to estimate another MMOs playerbase, such as SW:TOR which has a players per day number of 1.471. Multiply this with the X-Fire factor to get an estimated playerbase of SW:TOR:

    1.471*522 = 768k (rounded)

    Same method for GW 2 gives a playerbase of 2 million.

    Reasonable? I think so. Keep in mind that the released sub. numbers for SW:TOR was way back in Q1 2012. And GW 2 has sales of 2 million a month or so after release.

    As much as you tried to use Xfire as a reliable method to estimate subscriptions, it's actually a poor idea..  Xfire is a website that attracks a certain type of player..  So naturally the games that are played by that segment of players will be skewed..  Using Xfire as a general population sample is like Detroit to estimate the USA..

    Truth.. No where near a general population tool, but when combines with stats of other social networks can help paint a "trend"..

    Either it increases or it decreases in time played.. Trying to pinpoint subscription numbers or player counts using only xfire is inutile.

  • botrytisbotrytis Member RarePosts: 3,363
    Originally posted by Vyeth
    Originally posted by Rydeson
    Originally posted by Yamota

    The purpose of this thread is to discuss XFire numbers and from those try to extrapolate MMO playerbase numbers from. The mods of this site said they would support such a thread and sticky it so here is hoping they will.

    So lets start by qouting what is said on the site: http://www.mmodata.net/ about X-Fire:

    "I just got the Q4 quarterly report from EA, and they report 1,3m subs, so I will add this. My latest estimate of 1,41m subs was pretty generous, however I always try to be conservative in my estimates, whether they are downward or upward. 

    What it does show me is that the Xfire numbers are a good indication to base estimates off, purely based on Xfire I would have estimated 1,2m."

    So with that in mind, let us start with some theory-crafting. This is the method I use to get estimated player base numbers. I take a game with a known playerbase and from those games calculate what I would call the X-Fire factor. As an example I will use Eve estimated playerbase of 360k subs (only counting the subs in the West as I believe X-Fire is not used much in the East).

    Then I divide this sub. number with the X-Fire played per day which for Eve is currently at 690. 

    360k/690 = 522 (rounded)

    So 522 is the X-Fire factor which I will use to calculate the playerbase of other games. It would be better if I had another game to calculate the same for but currently I dont know any known sub. numbers of any other game. But this is just an example.

    So lets use this number to estimate another MMOs playerbase, such as SW:TOR which has a players per day number of 1.471. Multiply this with the X-Fire factor to get an estimated playerbase of SW:TOR:

    1.471*522 = 768k (rounded)

    Same method for GW 2 gives a playerbase of 2 million.

    Reasonable? I think so. Keep in mind that the released sub. numbers for SW:TOR was way back in Q1 2012. And GW 2 has sales of 2 million a month or so after release.

    As much as you tried to use Xfire as a reliable method to estimate subscriptions, it's actually a poor idea..  Xfire is a website that attracks a certain type of player..  So naturally the games that are played by that segment of players will be skewed..  Using Xfire as a general population sample is like Detroit to estimate the USA..

    Truth.. No where near a general population tool, but when combines with stats of other social networks can help paint a "trend"..

    Either it increases or it decreases in time played.. Trying to pinpoint subscription numbers or player counts using only xfire is inutile.

    XFire is nothing more than a way to get information from 3rd parties to your email. They also collect pertinent data to sell to these 'clients' and that is how they make money.  I used XFire many moons ago, when it first released but no one I knew used it so I uninstalled it and never looked back.


  • TheLizardbonesTheLizardbones Member CommonPosts: 10,910


    Originally posted by Gdemami

    Originally posted by lizardbones

    Every member of the sample shared the bias towards being willing to install XFire on their computer. This bias has not been examined in a way that tells us what this means and how it affects the results obtained from XFire's data.

    You could just as well claim that type of underwear players are wearing creates a bias that has no been examined.

    Burned of proof is on your shoulders.



    Originally posted by lizardbones

    The problem with saying there's no difference between 360k and 320k players is that both numbers are assumptions.


    There still either official data, other data sources or verified method to tell the divergence. No issue there.

    Originally posted by lizardbones

    I think we can assume that as XFire's numbers go up, the game's population goes up, and as XFire's numbers go down, the game's population goes down, but there's no way to tell by how much.


    As said, the "how much" isn't the important part.

    Originally posted by lizardbones

    Here's an experiment.


    There is already such experiment going for years:

    www.mmodata.com



    If we knew that they all made the same choice about their underwear, then it would be a bias. I'm pretty sure if that bias existed (everyone making that same choice), then it would certainly get examined because, come on, that's a little weird. Everyone wearing the same underwear?

    Everyone in XFire made a choice to participate in XFire's program. That is a bias and it hasn't been examined to determine what kind of impact it has on the results. If it had been examined, we would know what kind of impact it has on the results. Someone with a monocle would say something like, "Based on this data, we can show that people who agree to install XFire play {more|less} than people who do not, by XX%". Something like that anyway. We don't know what kind of impact it has, so that bias has not been examined. I'm not sure what point you are trying to make here.

    I'm not sure which MMORPG forums you frequent, but on this one, the "how much" is apparently very important. A 1% population drop is not as noteworthy as a 10% population drop during the same period of time. Just like determining the validity of XFire's numbers, the "how much" is central to the whole idea of using XFire as a population estimation tool. That is why people are so interested in population numbers. They want to know "how much" the population has dropped, and "how much" the population of game A differs from game B.

    Are you talking about MMOData.Net? The .com site is a parked domain. MMOData.net doesn't compare real population numbers to XFire. They may use XFire as a source of information...I'm pretty sure I've seen a post on the site about XFire as a source of information. The experiment I described is not what MMOData.net does. They lay out pretty clearly what they're doing, if not exactly how they are doing it. They even tell you per game if they are getting information from reliable sources or if they are estimating the populations of the game. What they aren't doing is taking Eve's numbers and XFire's numbers, running them through a feedback loop and determining how accurate XFire's number are. That's what I'm proposing. Look at real numbers and see how consistent XFire is or can be with known good data.

    I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.

  • strangiato2112strangiato2112 Member CommonPosts: 1,538

    We know for a fact that different games have different %es of xfire users.  Eq, Eq2, and Rifts xfire users vs EvEs xfire users prove this.    I posted this earlier in this thread.   Go back and read it if you need to.

     

     

    I also see in this thread crap about xfire measuring the games 'hardcore' users, which is ridiculous.  Again, look at EQ.  14 years later with an insurmountable mountain to climb for new players, EQ is mostly hardcore fans. Yet its (likely) the most under represented in terms of % of players using xfire.

     

     

    My guess is its more age related than anything.  If this is true than you would need to know two things to use xfire.

    1.   The game's average age of its players.

    2.   The "xfire factor" for that average age.

     

    There is also likely another factor involved: Im betting PvPers use xfire in greater numbers because they are more inclined to play FPS games (which tend to attract xfire users).

     

    The representation of the games looked at points to that as well.

    EvE: most represented

    Rift: somewhat represented

    EQ2: barely represented

    EQ1: practically zero representation

    Which mirrors the amount their game is based off of PvP.  And Im not talking about number of users as representation, Im talking about number of users vs game population (% of people that use xfire)

     

     

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  • strangiato2112strangiato2112 Member CommonPosts: 1,538
    Originally posted by lizardbones

     

     
    Are you talking about MMOData.Net? The .com site is a parked domain. MMOData.net doesn't compare real population numbers to XFire. They may use XFire as a source of information...I'm pretty sure I've seen a post on the site about XFire as a source of information.

     

    here is how they used xfire to monitor swtor's numbers:

     

    SWTOR gave out numbers.   we know what their xfire was that date

     

    So when the xfire users drop by a %, they estimate the population drop based off of that.  Thats how xfire can be useful, but only if you have a starting point.

  • GdemamiGdemami Member EpicPosts: 12,342


    Originally posted by lizardbones

    If we knew that they all made the same choice about their underwear, then it would be a bias. I'm pretty sure if that bias existed (everyone making that same choice), then it would certainly get examined because, come on, that's a little weird. Everyone wearing the same underwear?

    Might be weird but that does not imply any relation to their gaming habits. You just put 2 random facts together without any logical structure.



    Originally posted by lizardbones

    I'm not sure which MMORPG forums you frequent, but on this one, the "how much" is apparently very important.

    I already said I am not arguing precision thus you are arguing with yourself or I do not know who...



    Originally posted by lizardbones

    MMOData.net doesn't compare real population numbers to XFire.

    Yes, I mean mmodata.net. They do compare their sources to get better estimates.

  • idgaradidgarad Member Posts: 174

    Statistically speaking you are fine but you first have to determine what % of MMO players at large use Xfire. Then you can determine the deviation from that global norm by checking official numbers against the global XFire norm estimate.

     

    e.g.

     

    Lets assume 10% of MMO players on average use crossfire by sampling 5000 of them.

    Game A releases it's number and they say they have 100,000 players.

    You check XFire's numbers and it shows 15,342 users.

    We can see that XFire is closer to 15% rather then 10%.

    We can with reason say that Game A if off by about +5% from the expected norm.

     

    Game B releases it's number and they say they have 100,000 players.

    You check XFire's number and it shows 9,422 players.

    We can see that XFire is closer to 9% rather then 10%.

    We can with reason say that Game B is off by about -1% from the expected norm.

     

    6 months go by and the XFire numbers for Game A have gone up 15% and Game B has gone up by 22%.

     

    Can we safely estimate the MMO's population? Answer: No. Despite the correlation we can 'obviously' see, all that we can speak to is: XFire usage is up by MMO players for game A and B, but this doesn't imply our population of players playing Game A or B increased, only that XFire use for those games increased.

    We would have to re-sample the MMO community at large to see if XFire usage is also up in other games that DIDN'T have population growths so we can de-trend the samples.

    If we found that XFire use rose by 10% in all other MMOs but they didn't have population growth then we could eliminate 10% from both of the second samples leaving us with 5% and 12% growth unexplained. (Residuals) (Simplified)

    Perhaps Game A's population rose by 5% and Game B's population rose by 12%. But we'd have to still go back and see what % of the growth is represented by XFire users and what % of Growth is non-crossfire users.

    5% growth in Game A in XFire users may be 5000 users but we don't have any data to explain NON-Xsfire users growth rates in comparison. If 10% of users use XFire would could try and day that another 50,000 non-xfire users may have added to the growth... but there is nothing in the model that explains or correlates the growth patterns in the non-xfire users. Yes we may know by sample that 10% of MMO players use XFire but we have nothing, zip, zilch that tells us how the non-Xfire users relate to Game A or Game B. It is an indirect relationship. It may give us a clue to MMO populations at large, but nothing in the mechanic explains Game A or Game B's non-xfire growth patterns and trends.

    XFire is useful for seeing 'Changes' in MMO populations as a whole, but again is limited. For example if we sample 10 different MMOs and see there is an average growth of 5% across all titles, but Game A grew by 10% and Game B shrank by 7% we get some usable data in that sense, we can say then "Among XFire users, Game A grew by 5% more then expected and game B fell by 7%." always careful to state "Among XFire users".

    Eve Online is also a special monster since it doesn't kick AFK players, 100% of the players I know in my Alliance (Apx. 5700 members) that are on my watch list, 100% of them log in around 6-7 AM CST and are on until downtime. So despite the game showing 29,000 players online the actual number of active players is substantially lower at a given time. And of course their subs have lagged behind inflation 7 years running.... but hey lets borrow another $20 mil for a pair of games that aren't finished, after laying off 60% of the staff. But Hey! They made it into a museaum. I swear to God CCP never ceases to amaze me on their ability to stay afloat.

  • YamotaYamota Member UncommonPosts: 6,593
    Originally posted by strangiato2112
    Originally posted by Yamota

    The purpose of this thread is to discuss XFire numbers and from those try to extrapolate MMO playerbase numbers from. The mods of this site said they would support such a thread and sticky it so here is hoping they will.

    So lets start by qouting what is said on the site: http://www.mmodata.net/ about X-Fire:

    "I just got the Q4 quarterly report from EA, and they report 1,3m subs, so I will add this. My latest estimate of 1,41m subs was pretty generous, however I always try to be conservative in my estimates, whether they are downward or upward. 

    What it does show me is that the Xfire numbers are a good indication to base estimates off, purely based on Xfire I would have estimated 1,2m."

    So with that in mind, let us start with some theory-crafting. This is the method I use to get estimated player base numbers. I take a game with a known playerbase and from those games calculate what I would call the X-Fire factor. As an example I will use Eve estimated playerbase of 360k subs (only counting the subs in the West as I believe X-Fire is not used much in the East).

    Then I divide this sub. number with the X-Fire played per day which for Eve is currently at 690. 

    360k/690 = 522 (rounded)

    So 522 is the X-Fire factor which I will use to calculate the playerbase of other games. It would be better if I had another game to calculate the same for but currently I dont know any known sub. numbers of any other game. But this is just an example.

    So lets use this number to estimate another MMOs playerbase, such as SW:TOR which has a players per day number of 1.471. Multiply this with the X-Fire factor to get an estimated playerbase of SW:TOR:

    1.471*522 = 768k (rounded)

    Same method for GW 2 gives a playerbase of 2 million.

    Reasonable? I think so. Keep in mind that the released sub. numbers for SW:TOR was way back in Q1 2012. And GW 2 has sales of 2 million a month or so after release.

    except we know this is complete crap.

     

    EQ obvioulsy has a LOT more than 8874 people

    EQ2 has a lot more than 17226

    EQ2 is certainly over 100k and EQ1 is likely not thar far from 100k.

    Rift likely has at least 3x the 62,000 your estimation would suggest.

     

    Note that EQ1 has an extremely older player base, EQ2 far older than average. and Rift somewhat older than average.  Your method woould be off on both EQ and EQ2 by a factor of more than 10, and Rift by a factor of probably around 4.

     

    These three games are proof enough that one figure wont estimate all games populations.

     

     

    This thread title is "Xfire - As MMO population estimation tool" so you can expect its inability to perform that function to be a the topic of dicussion.

    If i went on to a heavy metal music forum and started a thread "The Beatles as a Heavy Metal band" how do you think those replies would go?

    Well if you dont believe it is a good population estimation tool then why dont you just move on? I find it funny that so many people seem to have this unsufferable needs to show that XFire is innaccurate.

    Why?

    As for the games you mentioned, I have seen nothing to suggest that those games have the sub. numbers you suggest they do. You got a source for that? If you are referring to MMOData.net, they havent tracked EQ 1 or 2 for over two years.

    And your example with beatles is in no way comparable. Classification of music to population estimation by using a tool which shows how many people of said tool plays a particular game? That is the worst example I have ever read.

  • TheLizardbonesTheLizardbones Member CommonPosts: 10,910


    Originally posted by Yamota
    Well if you dont believe it is a good population estimation tool then why dont you just move on? I find it funny that so many people seem to have this unsufferable needs to show that XFire is innaccurate.Why?As for the games you mentioned, I have seen nothing to suggest that those games have the sub. numbers you suggest they do. You got a source for that? If you are referring to MMOData.net, they havent tracked EQ 1 or 2 for over two years.And your example with beatles is in no way comparable. Classification of music to population estimation by using a tool which shows how many people of said tool plays a particular game? That is the worst example I have ever read.

    They probably find the idea of using an inaccurate measuring tool to try and yield accurate numbers insufferable.

    I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.

  • Loke666Loke666 Member EpicPosts: 21,441

    Actually estimating sub numbers on X-fire is kinda like estimating who will win an election by asking your friends... And by how much based on it.

    It is useful for measuring large trends in a game, if a certain game drops 75% in a few months that is bad (not counting the first 2 weeks after launch, we MMO players take time of for some games and always play more then).

    Certain games players and certain countries use more Xfire than others. You need more teamspeak in some game than others and the Xfire users are often a rather small part of the actual players so you dont have enough data for sub numbers and should be careful with trends less than 25% or so.

    I would say it have some use but only for large dips and ups in population.

  • TheLizardbonesTheLizardbones Member CommonPosts: 10,910


    Originally posted by Gdemami
    Originally posted by lizardbonesIf we knew that they all made the same choice about their underwear, then it would be a bias. I'm pretty sure if that bias existed (everyone making that same choice), then it would certainly get examined because, come on, that's a little weird. Everyone wearing the same underwear?
    Might be weird but that does not imply any relation to their gaming habits. You just put 2 random facts together without any logical structure.
    Originally posted by lizardbones

    I'm not sure which MMORPG forums you frequent, but on this one, the "how much" is apparently very important.

    I already said I am not arguing precision thus you are arguing with yourself or I do not know who...


    Originally posted by lizardbones

    MMOData.net doesn't compare real population numbers to XFire.


    Yes, I mean mmodata.net. They do compare their sources to get better estimates.




    I didn't imply that it had anything to do with their gaming habits. I said it's a bias (it is) and that it hasn't been examined to determined if it does have an impact on the results obtained from XFire (it hasn't). It is one of the differences between obtaining good statistical data and getting random noise.

    If you review MMOData.Net's site, they classify their data sources per game into three categories. Most of the games are category "C", which means "estimating". They are also very non-specific about how they are doing what they are doing. Again, I'm not sure what point you're trying to make here. They are not doing an analysis of XFire. I said, "Let's look at XFire's numbers, compare them to a known good number such as Eve's and see how consistent XFire is." Your response was, "This website that doesn't tell us anything about Eve already does that." What is the point you're trying to make with this?

    Also, I'm sure it would be helpful to anyone reading this if you didn't chop up posts and pick out sentences, leaving people to assume the context in which the statements were made. I don't really expect that many people are following this particular conversation thread, but if they are, they'd have to go back through the posts to get a complete conversation.

    I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.

  • TheLizardbonesTheLizardbones Member CommonPosts: 10,910


    Originally posted by strangiato2112
    Originally posted by lizardbones    
    Are you talking about MMOData.Net? The .com site is a parked domain. MMOData.net doesn't compare real population numbers to XFire. They may use XFire as a source of information...I'm pretty sure I've seen a post on the site about XFire as a source of information.  
    here is how they used xfire to monitor swtor's numbers:

     

    SWTOR gave out numbers.   we know what their xfire was that date

     

    So when the xfire users drop by a %, they estimate the population drop based off of that.  Thats how xfire can be useful, but only if you have a starting point.




    I went back and found the quote.

    I just got the Q4 quarterly report from EA, and they report 1,3m subs, so I will add this. My latest estimate of 1,41m subs was pretty generous, however I always try to be conservative in my estimates, whether they are downward or upward.

    What it does show me is that the Xfire numbers are a good indication to base estimates off, purely based on Xfire I would have estimated 1,2m.

    He's using XFire as a source of data.

    I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.

  • YamotaYamota Member UncommonPosts: 6,593
    Originally posted by Loke666

    Actually estimating sub numbers on X-fire is kinda like estimating who will win an election by asking your friends... And by how much based on it.

    It is useful for measuring large trends in a game, if a certain game drops 75% in a few months that is bad (not counting the first 2 weeks after launch, we MMO players take time of for some games and always play more then).

    Certain games players and certain countries use more Xfire than others. You need more teamspeak in some game than others and the Xfire users are often a rather small part of the actual players so you dont have enough data for sub numbers and should be careful with trends less than 25% or so.

    I would say it have some use but only for large dips and ups in population.

    No, it is not. I dont know anyone on XFire so the selection is not biased based on who is my friend and not.

    Is XFire perfectly representetive? Certainly not. But, based on what I have seen, it is good enough to get a rough estimate. Maybe +/- 10%.

  • GdemamiGdemami Member EpicPosts: 12,342


    Originally posted by lizardbones

    I didn't imply that it had anything to do with their gaming habits.

    Then it is irrelevant...

    We went through this couple of times already and you only keep repeating yourself, ignoring any points raised or just talk something unrelated.

    Not much more I can say until you actually address what one writes...

  • TheLizardbonesTheLizardbones Member CommonPosts: 10,910


    Originally posted by lizardbones

    Here's an experiment. With Eve's population numbers known, and XFire's player counts for Eve known, we should be able to tell if XFire is at least consistent. Each day, or each week, take the XFire number of players and the Eve number of players (how ever often Eve publishes their population numbers) and then see what the relation is between XFire's numbers and Eve's numbers. How stable is that relation?

    ** edit **
    For instance, right now there are 49,375 people playing Eve. XFire shows 690 people. The relation for Eve Online/XFire is currently 71.557971. So if we multiply XFire's number by that ratio, we should get something similar to Eve's current number of players.

    Eve's current players: http://eve-offline.net/
    XFire's Stats for Eve: http://beta.xfire.com/games/eve


    Point 1-
    Date: 12/26/2012 3:00 PM ish
    Eve Pop: 49,375
    XFire Players: 690
    Eve Pop/XFire Players: 71.5580

    Point 2-
    Date: 12/27/2012 7:00 AM
    Eve Pop: 41,887
    XFire Players: 772
    Eve Pop/XFire Players: 54.2578

    I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.

  • TheLizardbonesTheLizardbones Member CommonPosts: 10,910


    Originally posted by Gdemami
    Originally posted by lizardbones

    I didn't imply that it had anything to do with their gaming habits.

    Then it is irrelevant...

    We went through this couple of times already and you only keep repeating yourself, ignoring any points raised or just talk something unrelated.

    Not much more I can say until you actually address what one writes...




    You are not making very good points. When you make a good point, maybe I won't have to repeat myself. You are also picking out specific sentences in the conversation, so the posts lack any sort of context for anyone else reading it. I expect the next post will have specific words pasted together from other posts.

    Every person who contributes results to XFire statistics has made a choice to install XFire. That's a bias. The general population of gamers do not exhibit the same bias, otherwise most or all gamers would have XFire installed and would be using it. It's an indicator that the people who install XFire may not be representative of the general population of gamers. This is relevant if the idea is to use XFire as a population estimation tool. If the bias is acknowledged, and then if necessary adjusted for, it means the difference between getting good information and getting noise.

    I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.

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  • TheLizardbonesTheLizardbones Member CommonPosts: 10,910


    Originally posted by zymurgeist
    Originally posted by Yamota Originally posted by Loke666 Actually estimating sub numbers on X-fire is kinda like estimating who will win an election by asking your friends... And by how much based on it. It is useful for measuring large trends in a game, if a certain game drops 75% in a few months that is bad (not counting the first 2 weeks after launch, we MMO players take time of for some games and always play more then). Certain games players and certain countries use more Xfire than others. You need more teamspeak in some game than others and the Xfire users are often a rather small part of the actual players so you dont have enough data for sub numbers and should be careful with trends less than 25% or so. I would say it have some use but only for large dips and ups in population.
    No, it is not. I dont know anyone on XFire so the selection is not biased based on who is my friend and not. Is XFire perfectly representetive? Certainly not. But, based on what I have seen, it is good enough to get a rough estimate. Maybe +/- 10%.
     And that's the crux of it. It's all based on opinions of  Xfires validity. There is no reliable verifying data for your assertions. Maybe it's +/- 10% but then again it could be +/- 50% or +/- 150% . It likely isn't the same over a broad spectrum of games.  Yet time and again we're expected to swallow this as proof of one crackpot theory or another. It's unpalatable to say the least.


    I don't know how long I'm going to keep it up, but the post just above yours is an initial attempt at seeing how accurate or consistent XFire is for a known population.

    I can not remember winning or losing a single debate on the internet.

  • Pretty bad for judging populations, but good for looking at trends. Ie. all new MMOs coming out get played less and less, and this is reflected well by xfire.
  • YamotaYamota Member UncommonPosts: 6,593
    Originally posted by zymurgeist
    Originally posted by Yamota
    Originally posted by Loke666

    Actually estimating sub numbers on X-fire is kinda like estimating who will win an election by asking your friends... And by how much based on it.

    It is useful for measuring large trends in a game, if a certain game drops 75% in a few months that is bad (not counting the first 2 weeks after launch, we MMO players take time of for some games and always play more then).

    Certain games players and certain countries use more Xfire than others. You need more teamspeak in some game than others and the Xfire users are often a rather small part of the actual players so you dont have enough data for sub numbers and should be careful with trends less than 25% or so.

    I would say it have some use but only for large dips and ups in population.

    No, it is not. I dont know anyone on XFire so the selection is not biased based on who is my friend and not.

    Is XFire perfectly representetive? Certainly not. But, based on what I have seen, it is good enough to get a rough estimate. Maybe +/- 10%.

     And that's the crux of it. It's all based on opinions of  Xfires validity. There is no reliable verifying data for your assertions. Maybe it's +/- 10% but then again it could be +/- 50% or +/- 150% . It likely isn't the same over a broad spectrum of games.  Yet time and again we're expected to swallow this as proof of one crackpot theory or another. It's unpalatable to say the least.

    No, this is all in your heads. Atleast I have not said that we should swallow anything as proof. It seems like there are some people who cannot talk about a subject unless it is 100% verifiable and scientific and those people better stay well away from XFire discussions.

    What XFire is, is the best tool we currently got. Is it good enough? Does it matter if its the only tool we got?

    But I digress, why do you people have the need to come to these threads with people who are trying to use any tools available to get an estimate just to bash them? Don't think XFire is valid, then why post over and over again saying it is not.

    Ok we got it the 10th time or the 100th time. Now move on already!

  • YamotaYamota Member UncommonPosts: 6,593
    So to try and get this thread back on track. Are there any MMOs beside Eve which has published their sub. data or which can be extrapolated by any other accurate means to calculate the XFire factor?
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