Originally posted by maxima29 Well I could post a bunch of numbers with so support to back up those numbers like a few (usually trying to bash) do. I just give my experience from actually playing the game. I know crazy thought post on a game you actually play or played recently. While leveling up another toon there are always multiple instances on every world. People grouping for heroics and low level fps. On my 55s prime time fleet has at least 4 instances FP ques less than 5 min. Multiple ops forming, ops finders pop in about 10-15min. Last Sunday on both factions there were multiple guilds forming events for the fleet +10 datacron. So the game is doing very well contrary to those who don't even play.
I was on Taris imp side just the other day leveling my sniper.
there was flat 8 people with no other instances in prime time on most populated EU server.
You know why imp Taris/rep Blamorra are best planets for measuring how many new players leveling are there?
Well mate I will have to tell you my experience has been a lot different. I'll take a couple screenshots for you after work and post them here.
Originally posted by Methos12 Problem with TOR isn't really population as much as the fact that a lot of people play it as a singleplayer RPG and might as well not be there for MMO intents and purposes. They're basically just window dressing.
This is true of all MMORPGs these days.
Even games like GW2 and Rift. They put you in group situations, but a Rift/Invasion/Dynamic event is just you soloing with a bunch of NPCs around you. People dont want any socialization, they just want to kill, loot, and move on. Its not the games, its the people. And SWTOR is no better or worse than any other game in the last 6 years or so.
I recently came back this summer. I don't know what the population is health wise, but I'm able to complete Heroics when I ask in General. Also the Flashpoints are pretty quick to fill no matter what class role I'm playing. I think the longest I had to wait was 5 minutes.
As long as I can find a group for some Heroics and do Flashpoints the game is perfectly healthy to me. I don't do PVP as I suck at it so I can't comment on that.
I need to find a good guild because the PUGs are sometimes awful. That goes with any game though. Never know what you get with a PUG.
I can only guess but I think, taking server load and X-fire stats into account, that they have around 250k subscribers and maybe 100-200k F2P/Preferred "active" players. Been a downward trend since they went F2P and it's way lower now than even before it went F2P.
What is keeping this game alive is that many people are paying way more than $15 per month in their item shop. To those that love this game it's good since it keeps the game floating for now, but to me and I guess those that want to pay a monthly fee and have access to 100% content, it's horrible and personally I would never play any game that had this payment plan.
I thought this game would actually shutdown this year depending on the license agreement. But after Disney bought Lucas Arts and EA getting exclusive Star Wars deal it's likely this game will be running for a few more years. I'm sure the license cost has gone down alot for EA and they will keep it running with less and less people over time with all focus on Cartel Market.
Such a big shame cause it would have been great if there was a new Star Wars MMO in the works already aimed for new movies around 2015. But EA/Disney has screwed over any chance of that now.
I can only guess but I think, taking server load and X-fire stats into account, that they have around 250k subscribers and maybe 100-200k F2P/Preferred "active" players. Been a downward trend since they went F2P and it's way lower now than even before it went F2P.What is keeping this game alive is that many people are paying way more than $15 per month in their item shop. To those that love this game it's good since it keeps the game floating for now, but to me and I guess those that want to pay a monthly fee and have access to 100% content, it's horrible and personally I would never play any game that had this payment plan.I thought this game would actually shutdown this year depending on the license agreement. But after Disney bought Lucas Arts and EA getting exclusive Star Wars deal it's likely this game will be running for a few more years. I'm sure the license cost has gone down alot for EA and they will keep it running with less and less people over time with all focus on Cartel Market.Such a big shame cause it would have been great if there was a new Star Wars MMO in the works already aimed for new movies around 2015. But EA/Disney has screwed over any chance of that now.
I can only guess you have no clue what your talking about. Post get shutdown when reference your only source of information xfire its been repeated many times that is not a reliable source of a game population. Just a little history ea said they had 500k subs and 1.7 million new f2p accounts at f2p launch so looks like your expert calculation is a bit off nice try though. Do I'll take their word over someone who thinks the game is horrible. And BTW so sorry the game didn't close for you last year.
Originally posted by maxima29 Well I could post a bunch of numbers with so support to back up those numbers like a few (usually trying to bash) do. I just give my experience from actually playing the game. I know crazy thought post on a game you actually play or played recently. While leveling up another toon there are always multiple instances on every world. People grouping for heroics and low level fps. On my 55s prime time fleet has at least 4 instances FP ques less than 5 min. Multiple ops forming, ops finders pop in about 10-15min. Last Sunday on both factions there were multiple guilds forming events for the fleet +10 datacron. So the game is doing very well contrary to those who don't even play.
I was on Taris imp side just the other day leveling my sniper.
there was flat 8 people with no other instances in prime time on most populated EU server.
You know why imp Taris/rep Blamorra are best planets for measuring how many new players leveling are there?
Well obviously you are new enough to the game to not know about instances. If an instance has only 8 people in it, that means it's deliberately being killed by the server and incoming people are being sent to other ones.
Balmorra during peak time on Red Eclipse (most populated EU server statistically) will always a minimum of 150-200 people. And only these numbers because almost everyone hates that planet. Tatooine is always loaded at peak time from my experience on Red Eclipse.
To define you guys how active the game is, the most active regions are the Imperial and Republic Fleet (where everyone gathers up for Flashpoint spam, trade, etc.). During peak time, each of them will have 3 instances (connected through chat) of approx. 175 people per server, accounting for a total of 1000 people only on the fleets per server. I played GW2 and even during it's most active period, we never had 1000 people in LA even if you take some extras from people going to overflow.
The population is OK. Some servers are better than others, though - you'll have to use torstatus.net to figure out what one works best for you.
On Ebon Hawk (the most populated RP-PvE server for the East timezone), my wait in the 30-54 bracket PvP queue is anywhere from instant to ~5min. Entry to mid-level flashpoints as a healer/tank pop anywhere from instantly to ~5min as well (DPS wait will take longer obviously). I can usually fill heroics on each planet within 10 minutes, and if not, I always have 55s from my guild to call on. In general, when I need other players to do things, I am able to round them up somehow.
That's just a snapshot of my server, of course. Your experience may vary.
As for the monetization, it's a little off-topic, but the game really wants you to subscribe. I could go into great depth, but this is how it works: if you're interested ONLY in the class stories and quest lines like a single-player game, F2P isn't that bad. If you want the PvP and the flashpoints and the raids, you're better off subscribing.
The population is OK. Some servers are better than others, though - you'll have to use torstatus.net to figure out what one works best for you.
On Ebon Hawk (the most populated RP-PvE server for the East timezone), my wait in the 30-54 bracket PvP queue is anywhere from instant to ~5min. Entry to mid-level flashpoints as a healer/tank pop anywhere from instantly to ~5min as well (DPS wait will take longer obviously). I can usually fill heroics on each planet within 10 minutes, and if not, I always have 55s from my guild to call on. In general, when I need other players to do things, I am able to round them up somehow.
That's just a snapshot of my server, of course. Your experience may vary.
As for the monetization, it's a little off-topic, but the game really wants you to subscribe. I could go into great depth, but this is how it works: if you're interested ONLY in the class stories and quest lines like a single-player game, F2P isn't that bad. If you want the PvP and the flashpoints and the raids, you're better off subscribing.
F2P never limits you while leveling, it just delays certain conveniences like Speeder and sprint which can be bought at the same level as subs with just a couple of dollars if you really want it.
It's basic childish jealousy at work here. They see some people with some stuff and they get angry why they don't have it even if the other guy is paying a monthly sub to get it. If you want to play the entire shit without paying even a dime, you better be willing to let go of many conveniences depending on the developer. This isn't any initial Buy-to-play cost involved so you have no right to complain about F2P here.
Originally posted by BlizzardShill I've been playing the game recently.The population is OK. Some servers are better than others, though - you'll have to use torstatus.net to figure out what one works best for you. On Ebon Hawk (the most populated RP-PvE server for the East timezone), my wait in the 30-54 bracket PvP queue is anywhere from instant to ~5min. Entry to mid-level flashpoints as a healer/tank pop anywhere from instantly to ~5min as well (DPS wait will take longer obviously). I can usually fill heroics on each planet within 10 minutes, and if not, I always have 55s from my guild to call on. In general, when I need other players to do things, I am able to round them up somehow.That's just a snapshot of my server, of course. Your experience may vary.As for the monetization, it's a little off-topic, but the game really wants you to subscribe. I could go into great depth, but this is how it works: if you're interested ONLY in the class stories and quest lines like a single-player game, F2P isn't that bad. If you want the PvP and the flashpoints and the raids, you're better off subscribing.
F2P never limits you while leveling, it just delays certain conveniences like Speeder and sprint which can be bought at the same level as subs with just a couple of dollars if you really want it.
It's basic childish jealousy at work here. They see some people with some stuff and they get angry why they don't have it even if the other guy is paying a monthly sub to get it. If you want to play the entire shit without paying even a dime, you better be willing to let go of many conveniences depending on the developer. This isn't any initial Buy-to-play cost involved so you have no right to complain about F2P here.
This is also because more and more people in general have or are going up with this entitlement mentality. Its a destructive mentality in real life and also in MMOs. These people live life thinking they are entitled to stuff without working for it why would that change when they turn on a video game?
F2P never limits you while leveling, it just delays certain conveniences like Speeder and sprint which can be bought at the same level as subs with just a couple of dollars if you really want it.
It's basic childish jealousy at work here. They see some people with it and they get angry why they don't have it even if the other guy is paying a monthly sub to get it. If you want to play the entire shit without paying even a dime, you better be willing to let go of many conveniences depending on the developer. This isn't any initial Buy-to-play cost involved so you have no right to complain about F2P here.
F2P gives you a limit on group activities (PvP matches per week, loot from FPs per week, no raid access without weekly pass). Like I said, F2P is fine if you're in it mostly for the questing as the advantages to being a subscriber are minimal in that department, but if you play an MMO to participate in those group activities, subscribing is by far the better deal.
I'm not for or against the game's system here and I don't see how I am 'complaining' about F2P. I was just laying out the idea so that they can make a better decision. General questing/leveling is fine with F2P, but if you want to do PvP/instances/raids without being limited per week, it's best to subscribe. That's not a good or bad thing, that's just a fact on what's a better value for the OP's time/money.
F2P never limits you while leveling, it just delays certain conveniences like Speeder and sprint which can be bought at the same level as subs with just a couple of dollars if you really want it.
It's basic childish jealousy at work here. They see some people with it and they get angry why they don't have it even if the other guy is paying a monthly sub to get it. If you want to play the entire shit without paying even a dime, you better be willing to let go of many conveniences depending on the developer. This isn't any initial Buy-to-play cost involved so you have no right to complain about F2P here.
F2P gives you a limit on group activities (PvP matches per week, loot from FPs per week, no raid access without weekly pass). Like I said, F2P is fine if you're in it mostly for the questing as the advantages to being a subscriber are minimal in that department, but if you play an MMO to participate in those group activities, subscribing is by far the better deal.
I'm not for or against the game's system here and I don't see how I am 'complaining' about F2P. I was just laying out the idea so that they can make a better decision. General questing/leveling is fine with F2P, but if you want to do PvP/instances/raids without being limited per week, it's best to subscribe. That's not a good or bad thing, that's just a fact on what's a better value for the OP's time/money.
I was never having a go at you, what you said was ok to me. But if you go through this thread, you will find the people i was talking about. And they have now removed WZ restrictions for F2P, raids are endgames (i was talking about F2P while leveling), loot from FPs is limited but not completely off. I agree the system is bad when compared to Tera/Rift but when it doesn't cost you even a dime to play, it really depends on the developer what they want to implement.
They have also openly said that the F2P system is only supposed to bring in subs. They are not even trying to implement a system like Rift or Tera.
Originally posted by gamekid2k Anyone knows how many active players are currently playing SWToR? Did f2p caused a big increase?
Going f2p always causes a big increase. Rift, TERA, Aion, etc.; they all had large population increases due to the f2p conversion.
Of course, not all games did as well as others. While I do not know how the population sizes/increases of Rift, TERA, and Aion compare to each other, they are still much higher than games like EQ2 or SWTOR due to Rift, TERA, and Aion making it so that people the amount of content free players have is identical to the amount of content people had when the games had subscriptions (or almost the same with maybe one or two small things unavailable), with current subscribers getting extra bonuses, while EQ2 and SWTOR restricting what you can do unless you subscribe (although EQ2 has lightened up a bit, but not so much SWTOR, or has that changed?)
I am sorry are you trying to say Rift has a higher population than SWTOR?
Originally posted by maxima29 Originally posted by MadDemon64 Originally posted by gamekid2k Anyone knows how many active players are currently playing SWToR? Did f2p caused a big increase?
Going f2p always causes a big increase. Rift, TERA, Aion, etc.; they all had large population increases due to the f2p conversion.
Of course, not all games did as well as others. While I do not know how the population sizes/increases of Rift, TERA, and Aion compare to each other, they are still much higher than games like EQ2 or SWTOR due to Rift, TERA, and Aion making it so that people the amount of content free players have is identical to the amount of content people had when the games had subscriptions (or almost the same with maybe one or two small things unavailable), with current subscribers getting extra bonuses, while EQ2 and SWTOR restricting what you can do unless you subscribe (although EQ2 has lightened up a bit, but not so much SWTOR, or has that changed?)
I am sorry are you trying to say Rift has a higher population than SWTOR?
To my knowledge yes.
Well you knowledge is a little lacking based on facts that are available. Swtor added 2 million players since f2p and Rift added almost 1 million. Unless you have some links to back up your knowledge why post such claims? All you need to do is Google Rift f2p population and you get "roughly 1 mill" same for Swtor you get 2 million.
Originally posted by gamekid2k Anyone knows how many active players are currently playing SWToR? Did f2p caused a big increase?
It's doing extremely well with tons or people and regular updates. Don't mind the haters here and see it for yourself. I even created this thread to get this rid of some of the false presumptions of the game because i simply hate people who hate hard-working devs over lies.
I have a friend who plays in a regular static group and he often talks about the game. It's funny to see what the haters post here and how wrong they are. They want so much for the game to be failing they'll ignore anything anyone says and embellish any negative story they can find.
I often wonder why people want anything to fail, it makes no sense. Example, I don't like Tera but I don't go to the forum and hope it fails. There are people there that love the game and I'm happy they are happy. I guess it is human nature to hate others that are having more fun than you are. /shrug
Anyway, I played SWToR several months after the game first released and then got side tracked. About 2 months ago I played the f2p model and there seemed to be a large amount of players at the lower levels. Sadly I quit playing again, but not from the lack of population, I just found another game to play. This was about 3 weeks ago, so to answer your question OP, the population at lower levels is very good!
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
Originally posted by gamekid2k Anyone knows how many active players are currently playing SWToR? Did f2p caused a big increase?
Going f2p always causes a big increase. Rift, TERA, Aion, etc.; they all had large population increases due to the f2p conversion.
Of course, not all games did as well as others. While I do not know how the population sizes/increases of Rift, TERA, and Aion compare to each other, they are still much higher than games like EQ2 or SWTOR due to Rift, TERA, and Aion making it so that people the amount of content free players have is identical to the amount of content people had when the games had subscriptions (or almost the same with maybe one or two small things unavailable), with current subscribers getting extra bonuses, while EQ2 and SWTOR restricting what you can do unless you subscribe (although EQ2 has lightened up a bit, but not so much SWTOR, or has that changed?)
I am sorry are you trying to say Rift has a higher population than SWTOR?
To my knowledge yes.
Well you knowledge is a little lacking based on facts that are available. Swtor added 2 million players since f2p and Rift added almost 1 million. Unless you have some links to back up your knowledge why post such claims? All you need to do is Google Rift f2p population and you get "roughly 1 mill" same for Swtor you get 2 million.
I think that logic only works if the populations of Rift and SWTOR were equivalent, SWTOR had a higher population, or Rift had a population of less than one million more than SWTOR's population before the f2p conversion. I take it you have proof that that is the case?
Originally posted by OdenBlade Star Wars: The Old Republic should have been Kickstarter project instead.
EA doing a kickstarter, you have to be kidding me?
Well that was before Bioware sold their soul to EA. we have to hope that gaming industry can see the benefits whit kickstarter
As Chris Roberts has done whit Star Citizen that is a living proof how successfully it can be.
Actually, he raised most of his money from his own site. Second, even Chris aknowledges there are differences in scale between his 20 million revenue and games like GTA V (1.2 billion in less than 2 weeks), COD (1.8 billion annually),Diablo 3 (700 million in 6 months pc only), the list goes on and on. Actually, Diablo 3 by itself was more than every single successful kickstarter game combined.
In regards to population of SWToR, patches always bring up population especially this one with unlimited Warzones for pvpers, operations for raiders, and a new quest hub for casuals. PVP queues are really hopping even on the Harbringer (pve server).
Originally posted by maxima29 Originally posted by MadDemon64 Originally posted by maxima29 Originally posted by MadDemon64 Originally posted by gamekid2k Anyone knows how many active players are currently playing SWToR? Did f2p caused a big increase?
Going f2p always causes a big increase. Rift, TERA, Aion, etc.; they all had large population increases due to the f2p conversion.
Of course, not all games did as well as others. While I do not know how the population sizes/increases of Rift, TERA, and Aion compare to each other, they are still much higher than games like EQ2 or SWTOR due to Rift, TERA, and Aion making it so that people the amount of content free players have is identical to the amount of content people had when the games had subscriptions (or almost the same with maybe one or two small things unavailable), with current subscribers getting extra bonuses, while EQ2 and SWTOR restricting what you can do unless you subscribe (although EQ2 has lightened up a bit, but not so much SWTOR, or has that changed?)
I am sorry are you trying to say Rift has a higher population than SWTOR?
To my knowledge yes.
Well you knowledge is a little lacking based on facts that are available. Swtor added 2 million players since f2p and Rift added almost 1 million. Unless you have some links to back up your knowledge why post such claims? All you need to do is Google Rift f2p population and you get "roughly 1 mill" same for Swtor you get 2 million.
I think that logic only works if the populations of Rift and SWTOR were equivalent, SWTOR had a higher population, or Rift had a population of less than one million more than SWTOR's population before the f2p conversion. I take it you have proof that that is the case?
Well its safe to say Rift did not have 1 million players before the switch. If they did they would not have made the switch. So with the facts I bring and the lack of facts you bring still puts swtor over rift. Trion also does not release their numbers so its hard to really say how low their numbers have fallen since f2p.
Originally posted by gamekid2k Anyone knows how many active players are currently playing SWToR? Did f2p caused a big increase?
Like other games that go f2p, the big increase is at the beginning. According to torstatus.net it's now down to the standard-light area, how many actual players that translates to is anybocies guess. The last number ea put out was a steady 500k subs, but what they fail to mention was that this was the same time as the expansion and that you got a discount with a sub that made the two roughly the same price so it's probably much more likely that they sold 500k copies of the expansion rather than having 500k actual subscribers. I guess the most telling thing is that ea are very quiet on this number now, so you know it isn't good.
Edit: there's a good chance the numbers will drop again when eqnge, wildstar etc hit too.
Originally posted by gamekid2k Anyone knows how many active players are currently playing SWToR? Did f2p caused a big increase?
Going f2p always causes a big increase. Rift, TERA, Aion, etc.; they all had large population increases due to the f2p conversion.
Of course, not all games did as well as others. While I do not know how the population sizes/increases of Rift, TERA, and Aion compare to each other, they are still much higher than games like EQ2 or SWTOR due to Rift, TERA, and Aion making it so that people the amount of content free players have is identical to the amount of content people had when the games had subscriptions (or almost the same with maybe one or two small things unavailable), with current subscribers getting extra bonuses, while EQ2 and SWTOR restricting what you can do unless you subscribe (although EQ2 has lightened up a bit, but not so much SWTOR, or has that changed?)
I am sorry are you trying to say Rift has a higher population than SWTOR?
To my knowledge yes.
Well you knowledge is a little lacking based on facts that are available. Swtor added 2 million players since f2p and Rift added almost 1 million. Unless you have some links to back up your knowledge why post such claims? All you need to do is Google Rift f2p population and you get "roughly 1 mill" same for Swtor you get 2 million.
I think both those numbers are registered user, which can be wildly different from actual players
Originally posted by gamekid2k Anyone knows how many active players are currently playing SWToR? Did f2p caused a big increase?
Like other games that go f2p, the big increase is at the beginning. According to torstatus.net it's now down to the standard-light area, how many actual players that translates to is anybocies guess. The last number ea put out was a steady 500k subs, but what they fail to mention was that this was the same time as the expansion and that you got a discount with a sub that made the two roughly the same price so it's probably much more likely that they sold 500k copies of the expansion rather than having 500k actual subscribers. I guess the most telling thing is that ea are very quiet on this number now, so you know it isn't good.
Edit: there's a good chance the numbers will drop again when eqnge, wildstar etc hit too.
You forgot to mention the 1.7 million f2p accounts going f2p created. These players should also be included into the population and your assumption of its current population.
Originally posted by maxima29 Originally posted by MadDemon64 Originally posted by maxima29 Originally posted by MadDemon64 Originally posted by gamekid2k Anyone knows how many active players are currently playing SWToR? Did f2p caused a big increase?
Going f2p always causes a big increase. Rift, TERA, Aion, etc.; they all had large population increases due to the f2p conversion.
Of course, not all games did as well as others. While I do not know how the population sizes/increases of Rift, TERA, and Aion compare to each other, they are still much higher than games like EQ2 or SWTOR due to Rift, TERA, and Aion making it so that people the amount of content free players have is identical to the amount of content people had when the games had subscriptions (or almost the same with maybe one or two small things unavailable), with current subscribers getting extra bonuses, while EQ2 and SWTOR restricting what you can do unless you subscribe (although EQ2 has lightened up a bit, but not so much SWTOR, or has that changed?)
I am sorry are you trying to say Rift has a higher population than SWTOR?
To my knowledge yes.
Well you knowledge is a little lacking based on facts that are available. Swtor added 2 million players since f2p and Rift added almost 1 million. Unless you have some links to back up your knowledge why post such claims? All you need to do is Google Rift f2p population and you get "roughly 1 mill" same for Swtor you get 2 million.
I think both those numbers are registered user, which can be wildly different from actual players
I agree but he made the claim I provided the facts that are available that would lean toward swtor > rift in population.
This thread shows that there was a 10% growth when compared to the same period last year (around July)
Considering that period last year it was P2P, and the player base was nose diving, hence why it had to go F2P, 10% more today over last year = not good. If it was 10% more than the previous month or at launch of F2P then 10% more today would be pretty awesome.
Obviously if the overall population is awesome, then people are not spending enough. Loads of people playing and not paying is not going to keep the game around. Those who like the game need to pay more!
However, I will say that as long as they are coming out with new content that they must be making enough money to justify doing it. Since they just came out with a new patch, I guess they are not going bankrupt just yet.
That is if the content was written after the game launched. A lot of stuff that has been put in was written and already paid for before the game launched, including Makeb, and the not yet released Super Secret Space Project. All content is just being held back to prolong things and make it seem new content in still coming.
Comments
I was on Taris imp side just the other day leveling my sniper.
there was flat 8 people with no other instances in prime time on most populated EU server.
You know why imp Taris/rep Blamorra are best planets for measuring how many new players leveling are there?
Well mate I will have to tell you my experience has been a lot different. I'll take a couple screenshots for you after work and post them here.As mentioned, a common misconception by a hater.
This is true of all MMORPGs these days.
Even games like GW2 and Rift. They put you in group situations, but a Rift/Invasion/Dynamic event is just you soloing with a bunch of NPCs around you. People dont want any socialization, they just want to kill, loot, and move on. Its not the games, its the people. And SWTOR is no better or worse than any other game in the last 6 years or so.
I recently came back this summer. I don't know what the population is health wise, but I'm able to complete Heroics when I ask in General. Also the Flashpoints are pretty quick to fill no matter what class role I'm playing. I think the longest I had to wait was 5 minutes.
As long as I can find a group for some Heroics and do Flashpoints the game is perfectly healthy to me. I don't do PVP as I suck at it so I can't comment on that.
I need to find a good guild because the PUGs are sometimes awful. That goes with any game though. Never know what you get with a PUG.
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Promote what you love instead of bashing what you hate.
I can only guess but I think, taking server load and X-fire stats into account, that they have around 250k subscribers and maybe 100-200k F2P/Preferred "active" players. Been a downward trend since they went F2P and it's way lower now than even before it went F2P.
What is keeping this game alive is that many people are paying way more than $15 per month in their item shop. To those that love this game it's good since it keeps the game floating for now, but to me and I guess those that want to pay a monthly fee and have access to 100% content, it's horrible and personally I would never play any game that had this payment plan.
I thought this game would actually shutdown this year depending on the license agreement. But after Disney bought Lucas Arts and EA getting exclusive Star Wars deal it's likely this game will be running for a few more years. I'm sure the license cost has gone down alot for EA and they will keep it running with less and less people over time with all focus on Cartel Market.
Such a big shame cause it would have been great if there was a new Star Wars MMO in the works already aimed for new movies around 2015. But EA/Disney has screwed over any chance of that now.
I can only guess you have no clue what your talking about. Post get shutdown when reference your only source of information xfire its been repeated many times that is not a reliable source of a game population. Just a little history ea said they had 500k subs and 1.7 million new f2p accounts at f2p launch so looks like your expert calculation is a bit off nice try though. Do I'll take their word over someone who thinks the game is horrible. And BTW so sorry the game didn't close for you last year.Well obviously you are new enough to the game to not know about instances. If an instance has only 8 people in it, that means it's deliberately being killed by the server and incoming people are being sent to other ones.
Here's a tip to you:
Open Map "M" > on the right bottom side, you will see Balmorra [1/2/3/4] depending on the load and the instance you are in > click on it and switch, that's how you change instances.
Balmorra during peak time on Red Eclipse (most populated EU server statistically) will always a minimum of 150-200 people. And only these numbers because almost everyone hates that planet. Tatooine is always loaded at peak time from my experience on Red Eclipse.
To define you guys how active the game is, the most active regions are the Imperial and Republic Fleet (where everyone gathers up for Flashpoint spam, trade, etc.). During peak time, each of them will have 3 instances (connected through chat) of approx. 175 people per server, accounting for a total of 1000 people only on the fleets per server. I played GW2 and even during it's most active period, we never had 1000 people in LA even if you take some extras from people going to overflow.
I've been playing the game recently.
The population is OK. Some servers are better than others, though - you'll have to use torstatus.net to figure out what one works best for you.
On Ebon Hawk (the most populated RP-PvE server for the East timezone), my wait in the 30-54 bracket PvP queue is anywhere from instant to ~5min. Entry to mid-level flashpoints as a healer/tank pop anywhere from instantly to ~5min as well (DPS wait will take longer obviously). I can usually fill heroics on each planet within 10 minutes, and if not, I always have 55s from my guild to call on. In general, when I need other players to do things, I am able to round them up somehow.
That's just a snapshot of my server, of course. Your experience may vary.
As for the monetization, it's a little off-topic, but the game really wants you to subscribe. I could go into great depth, but this is how it works: if you're interested ONLY in the class stories and quest lines like a single-player game, F2P isn't that bad. If you want the PvP and the flashpoints and the raids, you're better off subscribing.
F2P never limits you while leveling, it just delays certain conveniences like Speeder and sprint which can be bought at the same level as subs with just a couple of dollars if you really want it.
It's basic childish jealousy at work here. They see some people with some stuff and they get angry why they don't have it even if the other guy is paying a monthly sub to get it. If you want to play the entire shit without paying even a dime, you better be willing to let go of many conveniences depending on the developer. This isn't any initial Buy-to-play cost involved so you have no right to complain about F2P here.
F2P never limits you while leveling, it just delays certain conveniences like Speeder and sprint which can be bought at the same level as subs with just a couple of dollars if you really want it.
It's basic childish jealousy at work here. They see some people with some stuff and they get angry why they don't have it even if the other guy is paying a monthly sub to get it. If you want to play the entire shit without paying even a dime, you better be willing to let go of many conveniences depending on the developer. This isn't any initial Buy-to-play cost involved so you have no right to complain about F2P here.
This is also because more and more people in general have or are going up with this entitlement mentality. Its a destructive mentality in real life and also in MMOs. These people live life thinking they are entitled to stuff without working for it why would that change when they turn on a video game?F2P gives you a limit on group activities (PvP matches per week, loot from FPs per week, no raid access without weekly pass). Like I said, F2P is fine if you're in it mostly for the questing as the advantages to being a subscriber are minimal in that department, but if you play an MMO to participate in those group activities, subscribing is by far the better deal.
I'm not for or against the game's system here and I don't see how I am 'complaining' about F2P. I was just laying out the idea so that they can make a better decision. General questing/leveling is fine with F2P, but if you want to do PvP/instances/raids without being limited per week, it's best to subscribe. That's not a good or bad thing, that's just a fact on what's a better value for the OP's time/money.
I was never having a go at you, what you said was ok to me. But if you go through this thread, you will find the people i was talking about. And they have now removed WZ restrictions for F2P, raids are endgames (i was talking about F2P while leveling), loot from FPs is limited but not completely off. I agree the system is bad when compared to Tera/Rift but when it doesn't cost you even a dime to play, it really depends on the developer what they want to implement.
They have also openly said that the F2P system is only supposed to bring in subs. They are not even trying to implement a system like Rift or Tera.
To my knowledge yes.
Since when is Tuesday a direction?
Going f2p always causes a big increase. Rift, TERA, Aion, etc.; they all had large population increases due to the f2p conversion.
Of course, not all games did as well as others. While I do not know how the population sizes/increases of Rift, TERA, and Aion compare to each other, they are still much higher than games like EQ2 or SWTOR due to Rift, TERA, and Aion making it so that people the amount of content free players have is identical to the amount of content people had when the games had subscriptions (or almost the same with maybe one or two small things unavailable), with current subscribers getting extra bonuses, while EQ2 and SWTOR restricting what you can do unless you subscribe (although EQ2 has lightened up a bit, but not so much SWTOR, or has that changed?)
I am sorry are you trying to say Rift has a higher population than SWTOR?To my knowledge yes.
Well you knowledge is a little lacking based on facts that are available. Swtor added 2 million players since f2p and Rift added almost 1 million. Unless you have some links to back up your knowledge why post such claims? All you need to do is Google Rift f2p population and you get "roughly 1 mill" same for Swtor you get 2 million.I often wonder why people want anything to fail, it makes no sense. Example, I don't like Tera but I don't go to the forum and hope it fails. There are people there that love the game and I'm happy they are happy. I guess it is human nature to hate others that are having more fun than you are. /shrug
Anyway, I played SWToR several months after the game first released and then got side tracked. About 2 months ago I played the f2p model and there seemed to be a large amount of players at the lower levels. Sadly I quit playing again, but not from the lack of population, I just found another game to play. This was about 3 weeks ago, so to answer your question OP, the population at lower levels is very good!
Death is nothing to us, since when we are, Death has not come, and when death has come, we are not.
Well that was before Bioware sold their soul to EA. we have to hope that gaming industry can see the benefits whit kickstarter
As Chris Roberts has done whit Star Citizen that is a living proof how successfully it can be.
I think that logic only works if the populations of Rift and SWTOR were equivalent, SWTOR had a higher population, or Rift had a population of less than one million more than SWTOR's population before the f2p conversion. I take it you have proof that that is the case?
Since when is Tuesday a direction?
Actually, he raised most of his money from his own site. Second, even Chris aknowledges there are differences in scale between his 20 million revenue and games like GTA V (1.2 billion in less than 2 weeks), COD (1.8 billion annually),Diablo 3 (700 million in 6 months pc only), the list goes on and on. Actually, Diablo 3 by itself was more than every single successful kickstarter game combined.
In regards to population of SWToR, patches always bring up population especially this one with unlimited Warzones for pvpers, operations for raiders, and a new quest hub for casuals. PVP queues are really hopping even on the Harbringer (pve server).
Going f2p always causes a big increase. Rift, TERA, Aion, etc.; they all had large population increases due to the f2p conversion.
Of course, not all games did as well as others. While I do not know how the population sizes/increases of Rift, TERA, and Aion compare to each other, they are still much higher than games like EQ2 or SWTOR due to Rift, TERA, and Aion making it so that people the amount of content free players have is identical to the amount of content people had when the games had subscriptions (or almost the same with maybe one or two small things unavailable), with current subscribers getting extra bonuses, while EQ2 and SWTOR restricting what you can do unless you subscribe (although EQ2 has lightened up a bit, but not so much SWTOR, or has that changed?)
I am sorry are you trying to say Rift has a higher population than SWTOR?To my knowledge yes.
Well you knowledge is a little lacking based on facts that are available. Swtor added 2 million players since f2p and Rift added almost 1 million. Unless you have some links to back up your knowledge why post such claims? All you need to do is Google Rift f2p population and you get "roughly 1 mill" same for Swtor you get 2 million.I think that logic only works if the populations of Rift and SWTOR were equivalent, SWTOR had a higher population, or Rift had a population of less than one million more than SWTOR's population before the f2p conversion. I take it you have proof that that is the case?
Well its safe to say Rift did not have 1 million players before the switch. If they did they would not have made the switch. So with the facts I bring and the lack of facts you bring still puts swtor over rift. Trion also does not release their numbers so its hard to really say how low their numbers have fallen since f2p.Like other games that go f2p, the big increase is at the beginning. According to torstatus.net it's now down to the standard-light area, how many actual players that translates to is anybocies guess. The last number ea put out was a steady 500k subs, but what they fail to mention was that this was the same time as the expansion and that you got a discount with a sub that made the two roughly the same price so it's probably much more likely that they sold 500k copies of the expansion rather than having 500k actual subscribers. I guess the most telling thing is that ea are very quiet on this number now, so you know it isn't good.
Edit: there's a good chance the numbers will drop again when eqnge, wildstar etc hit too.
I think both those numbers are registered user, which can be wildly different from actual players
Like other games that go f2p, the big increase is at the beginning. According to torstatus.net it's now down to the standard-light area, how many actual players that translates to is anybocies guess. The last number ea put out was a steady 500k subs, but what they fail to mention was that this was the same time as the expansion and that you got a discount with a sub that made the two roughly the same price so it's probably much more likely that they sold 500k copies of the expansion rather than having 500k actual subscribers. I guess the most telling thing is that ea are very quiet on this number now, so you know it isn't good.
Edit: there's a good chance the numbers will drop again when eqnge, wildstar etc hit too.
You forgot to mention the 1.7 million f2p accounts going f2p created. These players should also be included into the population and your assumption of its current population.Going f2p always causes a big increase. Rift, TERA, Aion, etc.; they all had large population increases due to the f2p conversion.
Of course, not all games did as well as others. While I do not know how the population sizes/increases of Rift, TERA, and Aion compare to each other, they are still much higher than games like EQ2 or SWTOR due to Rift, TERA, and Aion making it so that people the amount of content free players have is identical to the amount of content people had when the games had subscriptions (or almost the same with maybe one or two small things unavailable), with current subscribers getting extra bonuses, while EQ2 and SWTOR restricting what you can do unless you subscribe (although EQ2 has lightened up a bit, but not so much SWTOR, or has that changed?)
I am sorry are you trying to say Rift has a higher population than SWTOR?To my knowledge yes.
Well you knowledge is a little lacking based on facts that are available. Swtor added 2 million players since f2p and Rift added almost 1 million. Unless you have some links to back up your knowledge why post such claims? All you need to do is Google Rift f2p population and you get "roughly 1 mill" same for Swtor you get 2 million.I think both those numbers are registered user, which can be wildly different from actual players
I agree but he made the claim I provided the facts that are available that would lean toward swtor > rift in population.This thread shows that there was a 10% growth when compared to the same period last year (around July)
Considering that period last year it was P2P, and the player base was nose diving, hence why it had to go F2P, 10% more today over last year = not good. If it was 10% more than the previous month or at launch of F2P then 10% more today would be pretty awesome.
Obviously if the overall population is awesome, then people are not spending enough. Loads of people playing and not paying is not going to keep the game around. Those who like the game need to pay more!
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That is if the content was written after the game launched. A lot of stuff that has been put in was written and already paid for before the game launched, including Makeb, and the not yet released Super Secret Space Project. All content is just being held back to prolong things and make it seem new content in still coming.
Star Trek Online - Best Free MMORPG of 2012