Probably getting the dissatisfied SWTOR crowd trickling back in.
Yep thats me.
TOR was so amazingly boring.
Enjoying RIFT, but i am drawn to the WvWvW of GW2 so i will more than likely depart when thats released.
its quite likely that any games that the TOR players had been playing prior to trying TOR, are seeing their players return. as for the GW2 thing, i think that can be applied equally to a number of upcoming games, from Tera, to TSW etc. the big question will always be, are those games able to hold players, or will they, as has happened with TOR, end up returning yet again.
SWTOR was going to take players from Rift and every other MMO in existance and kill WOW. They did skim a few players from other games and now those that left realize what they played before was better and are returning. I know for a fact people are returning to LOTRO and STO from TOR and Rift will get some back as well. Some hate that fact, others just hate to see a game do well that they personally do not like. Its all conjecture on my part but within the realm of possiblility.
Really? This game sucks and Im not having fun? Im going to unsub right now. Thanks for the tip.
The "Population is rising!" cries are always fanboys or corporate shills trying to paint said game in a positive light.
Trion's biggest mistake with Rift was copying WoW to the extent that they did. That said, I think that Trion sees this and is doing as much as it can to deviate from that path. Rift has evolved and it offers many options for playing now. Yes, it's still a theme park. But as such, it's got a lot to offer in terms of choices.
I was one of the disappointed who left Rift to go back to what I was playing. But I am back now and I am having fun playing Rift. I am not alone either, there are many who had returned. As was mentioned in a prior post in this thread, It was duing a free weekend. I said "Why not" logged in and re-subbed right away. The biggest and best draw IMO is the dynamic open-world content. I have yet to experience in any mmo how much fun it is to have the monotony of solo grinding broken by the spontaneous spawn of a raid group for an un-announced zone event.
The "Population is rising!" cries are always fanboys or corporate shills trying to paint said game in a positive light.
Trion's biggest mistake with Rift was copying WoW to the extent that they did. That said, I think that Trion sees this and is doing as much as it can to deviate from that path. Rift has evolved and it offers many options for playing now. Yes, it's still a theme park. But as such, it's got a lot to offer in terms of choices.
I was one of the disappointed who left Rift to go back to what I was playing. But I am back now and I am having fun playing Rift. I am not alone either, there are many who had returned. As was mentioned in a prior post in this thread, It was duing a free weekend. I said "Why not" logged in and re-subbed right away. The biggest and best draw IMO is the dynamic open-world content. I have yet to experience in any mmo how much fun it is to have the monotony of solo grinding broken by the spontaneous spawn of a raid group for an un-announced zone event.
Yeah, I got to agree with that somewhat. Rift would of been a fantastic game if it was openworld. However, themeparks are what people seem to prefer despite my preference. Never really understood why, maybe it's easier for people to get their head around. If I wanted to play WoW I would play WoW. However, I'm back playing a free trial for the first since I left for EVE. Rift has become a little more distinctive, but I'm surprised by the amount the population dropped. It might not be my cup of tea, but it's a good game and I will probably try it again when and if they release an expansion.
The population has been going up now on Rift Status for about 4-5 weeks. When the server merges happened. The closed serevrs stayed at 1 and all the others serevrs had substantial increases.
My guess is ToR has been doing Rift a lot of favors. Many disatisified ToR players have suddenly found Rift looking a lot prettier.
But this last weeks increase I bet is from Rift Lite. The previous increases since the end of Decemeber were all in addition to the trial servers. But this weeks increase I would bet is mainly from Rift Lite. If you look at the numbers you can see all the trial servers getting crazy bumps. i can;'t believe those are accurate. The rest of the servers are getting mild increases. I would imagine thats a lot of the lite people. I would not be surpised if Rift has actually dropped this last week. After 4-5 straight weeks of increases it would only make sense that a number of the new people will have not stuck and likely hav dwindled a little bit. Not mention 1.7 just came out which likely sparked a quick jump in players which will level out the next few weeks.
My guess is the next few weeks will show a decline as it levels out from the lite players, the returning 1.7 players and some of the ToR people move on. But I think its fair to say the population has stabilized the last few months and seems to be on a slow rise. Rift seems to have the model of EQ2 which is not surpising with Hartsman running the show. EQ2 bottomed out after a bad release and dropped down close to 100k subs then slowly rose back up to over 200k by adding lots of new content and improving the games rep. Rift has the same focus on gaining players by having a good rep. At some point I would expect the population to start to slowly rise like EQ2 did a couple years after release. As new games fail to meet hype Rift will always be an alternative for those that relaize the grass is seldom greener.
EQ2 does not have 200k subscribers. Not even close. If they did, that would mean Rift would have over 1 million. Warcraft 3 has more people playing it than Rift.
Yeah, I got to agree with that somewhat. Rift would of been a fantastic game if it was openworld. However, themeparks are what people seem to prefer despite my preference. Never really understood why, maybe it's easier for people to get their head around. If I wanted to play WoW I would play WoW. However, I'm back playing a free trial for the first since I left for EVE. Rift has become a little more distinctive, but I'm surprised by the amount the population dropped. It might not be my cup of tea, but it's a good game and I will probably try it again when and if they release an expansion.
Rift population dropped because for over a year people sat on this website and every other one and called it a "in between" game and that after TOR released everybody would leave and also when "GW2 released in Dec" it would also kill Rift.
Well both of these things never happened and one hell of a lot of people left a quality game because they believed all the bullshit they read. So everytime I see a TOR patch putting in something Rift launched with I laugh and every GW2 vid I see that is copy and paste from Rift I laugh even harder.
The WoW trolls who are stuck with 4.3 until Pandaland in maybe 8 months is what makes me laugh the hardest because the amount of crap those guys talked trumped anything a TOR or GW2 fan said and they deserve to suffer. I know I am having fun and getting my money's worth for my sub.
EQ2 is actually fantastic now, $0E are not. (Engine ruins it.) Rift is okay, and they try at least. But it's not fun, at all, which means the little "issues" here and there add up fast making it unplayable after awhile. WoW: How to go from success to superfail, a love story. (Hint: Corporate merger.) SWTOR is entirely trash. A pure money grab with no foresight or planning, it's sole claim to success based upon the IP.
None of the other games are worth mentioning.
Yes, Eve, the spreadsheet simulator - that means you.
Hell, even I logged in last night just for the halibut.
I played at launch for the first 2 months. I came back 2 weeks ago and signed on for 3 months sub. I am in a newly formed guild, most are returning players like me. but nice try. also, I hope you have enough sense to know, that a % of the RIFT lite players will come on board as regular active subs.
But keep thinking that people like you who popped on for a random night here or there are causing permanent spikes in player pops -- cant be that people are ACTUALLY returning to game and enjoying it...like me.
Wow. defensively hostile, much?
I'm not arguing that Rift "hasn't truly" had its population increase. LotRO, DDO, DCUO and others have had massive success by making their game more accessible... in both population and revenue. It would be a pretty bad Omen if there WASN'T a significant pop increase when opening a significant portion of your game for free.
"I hope you have enough sense to know" that.
Far as all the anti-TOR talk from others since your reply, it appears that many don't.
Let me try it this way. THE SERVER POPS HAVE LESS TO DO WITH RIFT LITE AND FAR MORE TO DO WITH REGULAR SUB PLAYERS. hope this helps.
You are posting an opinion, not fact. Like Robsolf, I actually logged back into Rift to check it out due mostly with my unhappiness with SWTOR. For that matter I also logged into STO, AoC, EQII, DDO, WoW, GW and LOTRO. Just doing my roaming around while I ponder my near future diversion until GWII releases. Btw all caps for the win? Really? Makes you come off like one my daughters after a few of those damn energy drinks. In the case of my daughters, I take them less serious, are you wanting to be taken less serious when you post? Robsolf made a valid opinion point, get over it. Step away from the energy drink.
The "Population is rising!" cries are always fanboys or corporate shills trying to paint said game in a positive light.
Trion's biggest mistake with Rift was copying WoW to the extent that they did. That said, I think that Trion sees this and is doing as much as it can to deviate from that path. Rift has evolved and it offers many options for playing now. Yes, it's still a theme park. But as such, it's got a lot to offer in terms of choices.
I was one of the disappointed who left Rift to go back to what I was playing. But I am back now and I am having fun playing Rift. I am not alone either, there are many who had returned. As was mentioned in a prior post in this thread, It was duing a free weekend. I said "Why not" logged in and re-subbed right away. The biggest and best draw IMO is the dynamic open-world content. I have yet to experience in any mmo how much fun it is to have the monotony of solo grinding broken by the spontaneous spawn of a raid group for an un-announced zone event.
I ended up just not being drawn in by the lore sadly. I like Trion and Scott Hartsman, they care about the players and don't do the BS that Bioware/EA does. They commnicate much better then Blizzard does as well. As far as Rift goes, I also didn't like the soul system as much as I had hoped I would. Also the ability to set macros/scripts with no limits never warms the cockles of my heart. One button pushing macros are bit much. They needed to set a limit on the macro commands you could have in one string.
JOKE!!!! Half-baked MMO at best. And the stories weren't even good. If the stories were I'd at least have played them all out. But they weren't. They were second-rate. Sure, full voice acting... But wooden, second-rate dialog is wooden, second-rate dialog.
So, I'm trying Rift. Not that Trion's making it easy. I have questions, but you're not allowed to post on the forum unless you buy the game. And after the massive fail of SWTOR... I'm really hesitent...
Rift has some of the worst quest writing in any MMO I've played. Absolutely horrid. And the story feels like "been there, done that" to me. So, if that's what you are looking for in an MMO, you may want to stay clear of Rift.
JOKE!!!! Half-baked MMO at best. And the stories weren't even good. If the stories were I'd at least have played them all out. But they weren't. They were second-rate. Sure, full voice acting... But wooden, second-rate dialog is wooden, second-rate dialog.
So, I'm trying Rift. Not that Trion's making it easy. I have questions, but you're not allowed to post on the forum unless you buy the game. And after the massive fail of SWTOR... I'm really hesitent...
Rift has some of the worst quest writing in any MMO I've played. Absolutely horrid. And the story feels like "been there, done that" to me. So, if that's what you are looking for in an MMO, you may want to stay clear of Rift.
I don't want to spend all day reading quests or watching cutscenes, I want to actually play the game - and by the exodus from SWTOR this seems to be the feeling for the larer majority too.. For story, a Good book or film is where it is, for gameplay RIFT is pretty much the top of the MMORPG pile at the moment.
Core i5 13600KF, BeQuiet Pure Loop FX 360, 32gb DDR5-6000 XPG, WD SN850 NVMe ,PNY 3090 XLR8, Asus Prime Z790-A, Lian-Li O11 PCMR case (limited ed 1045/2000), 32" LG Ultragear 4k Monitor, Logitech G560 LightSync Sound, Razer Deathadder V2 and Razer Blackwidow V3 Keyboard
JOKE!!!! Half-baked MMO at best. And the stories weren't even good. If the stories were I'd at least have played them all out. But they weren't. They were second-rate. Sure, full voice acting... But wooden, second-rate dialog is wooden, second-rate dialog.
So, I'm trying Rift. Not that Trion's making it easy. I have questions, but you're not allowed to post on the forum unless you buy the game. And after the massive fail of SWTOR... I'm really hesitent...
Rift has some of the worst quest writing in any MMO I've played. Absolutely horrid. And the story feels like "been there, done that" to me. So, if that's what you are looking for in an MMO, you may want to stay clear of Rift.
I don't want to spend all day reading quests or watching cutscenes, I want to actually play the game - and by the exodus from SWTOR this seems to be the feeling for the larer majority too.. For story, a Good book or film is where it is, for gameplay RIFT is pretty much the top of the MMORPG pile at the moment.
I actually read the quests and enjoy the story of the game I'm playing. It gives me a reason to go out and kill the 10 pigs/wolves/whatever. LotRO has some of the best quest writing, and Rift has the worst, imo. It kills the immersion for me and I'm a sap for immersion.
I actually read the quests and enjoy the story of the game I'm playing. It gives me a reason to go out and kill the 10 pigs/wolves/whatever. LotRO has some of the best quest writing, and Rift has the worst, imo. It kills the immersion for me and I'm a sap for immersion.
I agree. If the story is good I dont need cut scenes and VO to become emersed in the game. I too think LOTRO has some of the best story telling in the genre. EQ2 also has some great lore.
Really? This game sucks and Im not having fun? Im going to unsub right now. Thanks for the tip.
I don't want to spend all day reading quests or watching cutscenes, I want to actually play the game - and by the exodus from SWTOR this seems to be the feeling for the larer majority too.. For story, a Good book or film is where it is, for gameplay RIFT is pretty much the top of the MMORPG pile at the moment.
Its not like Rift didnt have a similar exodus. Rift did have the advantage of a more staggered acquisition though, snce SWTOR had years of hype it was known to everyone and very anticipated, so the huge majority of its sales were the first month, and there isnt anyone who didnt know about it.
Rift was a lesser known commodity and got a lot of attention in the few months before release, but there certainly were a lot more people jumping on board as the game went on (coupled with heavy marketing towards MMO gamers and lots of deals)
Hell, even I logged in last night just for the halibut.
I played at launch for the first 2 months. I came back 2 weeks ago and signed on for 3 months sub. I am in a newly formed guild, most are returning players like me. but nice try. also, I hope you have enough sense to know, that a % of the RIFT lite players will come on board as regular active subs.
But keep thinking that people like you who popped on for a random night here or there are causing permanent spikes in player pops -- cant be that people are ACTUALLY returning to game and enjoying it...like me.
Wow. defensively hostile, much?
I'm not arguing that Rift "hasn't truly" had its population increase. LotRO, DDO, DCUO and others have had massive success by making their game more accessible... in both population and revenue. It would be a pretty bad Omen if there WASN'T a significant pop increase when opening a significant portion of your game for free.
"I hope you have enough sense to know" that.
Far as all the anti-TOR talk from others since your reply, it appears that many don't.
Let me try it this way. THE SERVER POPS HAVE LESS TO DO WITH RIFT LITE AND FAR MORE TO DO WITH REGULAR SUB PLAYERS. hope this helps.
You are posting an opinion, not fact. Like Robsolf, I actually logged back into Rift to check it out due mostly with my unhappiness with SWTOR. For that matter I also logged into STO, AoC, EQII, DDO, WoW, GW and LOTRO. Just doing my roaming around while I ponder my near future diversion until GWII releases. Btw all caps for the win? Really? Makes you come off like one my daughters after a few of those damn energy drinks. In the case of my daughters, I take them less serious, are you wanting to be taken less serious when you post? Robsolf made a valid opinion point, get over it. Step away from the energy drink.
If I play a game for an extended period of time I think it would go without saying I can notice trends in the player pop of said game. For example, not only have I been noticing a sizeable increase in activity in the capital city (just as one example of player activity in regards to a location), but also that there are LOTS of high level players. In addition through grouping and chatting and thru my new guild I talked to many, SEVERAL people who said they just re-subbed around time of post SWTOR 1st month and the free weekend promo RIFT ran recently.
I started playing MMOs in '99 and in each was able to notice trends in the health of playerbase. Call it Situational Awareness I guess...its like you notice things around you and you are able to come to various conclusions about little things, like if there are MORE OR LESS PLAYERS in the game world. Open your eyes and your mind and you may notice little things too, like if there are more players then when you played prior.
Oh and just a few other things there kid, my post you referenced WAS NOT ALL CAPS. just some of it...kinda like your post had some words in caps, but not all of them...or did you maybe not consider that you did the same thing in your post ? do us a favor and re-read your post and see if you can notice that some words in your rant are in CAPS....just like mine...POT MEET KETTLE, FTW !!
Also, no one cares about your daughter and if you want to be taken seriously I suggest try not talking to people like you are the big bad parent and everyone else is some random kid. I started playing EQ in '99, hopefully that tells you a little something ABOUT MY AGE. now do us a favor, and go back to WOW.
Hmm. I'm kinda sceptic about any actual population persistent population rise: the figures in Xfire didn't show that much of an increase compared to past months, there was a peak after Rift went F2P for its early levels, but that faded away quickly after a few weeks. I'd have to dig deep to be completely sure, but I think the same applies for Rift figures on Steam and Raptr - yeah, I know, all those monitor tools only have limited validity, but all of them together would make me put question marks on any noticeable increase. Maybe it's the influence of players coming from the newly designated trial servers that had to find new homes on other servers?
edit: never mind, I see the OP was in early February, iirc that was not that long after the F2P move.
If you look at Rift Status one week population change one can see that every new day that Rift has been growing. This has been going on for over 2 months now. Occassionaly there is a non trial server that goes down but the majority of servers are gaining every day and gaining at a fair rate.
If you look at Rift Status one week population change one can see that every new day that Rift has been growing. This has been going on for over 2 months now. Occassionaly there is a non trial server that goes down but the majority of servers are gaining every day and gaining at a fair rate.
Hmm. You may make that claim, but tbh, it isn't really reflected in Xfire, Raptr nor Steam during that time period as far as I can tell. But true, those aren't really accurate that much either, so there's that ofc.
Comments
The "Population is rising!" cries are always fanboys or corporate shills trying to paint said game in a positive light.
its quite likely that any games that the TOR players had been playing prior to trying TOR, are seeing their players return. as for the GW2 thing, i think that can be applied equally to a number of upcoming games, from Tera, to TSW etc. the big question will always be, are those games able to hold players, or will they, as has happened with TOR, end up returning yet again.
While they might be the first to point it out, http://www.riftstatus.net/shards/na/trends the actual numbers can be used to verify it is true.
Being in the game allows you a unique perspective to see what's going on 1st hand.
SWTOR was going to take players from Rift and every other MMO in existance and kill WOW. They did skim a few players from other games and now those that left realize what they played before was better and are returning. I know for a fact people are returning to LOTRO and STO from TOR and Rift will get some back as well. Some hate that fact, others just hate to see a game do well that they personally do not like. Its all conjecture on my part but within the realm of possiblility.
Really? This game sucks and Im not having fun? Im going to unsub right now. Thanks for the tip.
Trion's biggest mistake with Rift was copying WoW to the extent that they did. That said, I think that Trion sees this and is doing as much as it can to deviate from that path. Rift has evolved and it offers many options for playing now. Yes, it's still a theme park. But as such, it's got a lot to offer in terms of choices.
I was one of the disappointed who left Rift to go back to what I was playing. But I am back now and I am having fun playing Rift. I am not alone either, there are many who had returned. As was mentioned in a prior post in this thread, It was duing a free weekend. I said "Why not" logged in and re-subbed right away. The biggest and best draw IMO is the dynamic open-world content. I have yet to experience in any mmo how much fun it is to have the monotony of solo grinding broken by the spontaneous spawn of a raid group for an un-announced zone event.
Yeah, I got to agree with that somewhat. Rift would of been a fantastic game if it was openworld. However, themeparks are what people seem to prefer despite my preference. Never really understood why, maybe it's easier for people to get their head around. If I wanted to play WoW I would play WoW. However, I'm back playing a free trial for the first since I left for EVE. Rift has become a little more distinctive, but I'm surprised by the amount the population dropped. It might not be my cup of tea, but it's a good game and I will probably try it again when and if they release an expansion.
EQ2 does not have 200k subscribers. Not even close. If they did, that would mean Rift would have over 1 million. Warcraft 3 has more people playing it than Rift.
My youtube MMO gaming channel
Rift population dropped because for over a year people sat on this website and every other one and called it a "in between" game and that after TOR released everybody would leave and also when "GW2 released in Dec" it would also kill Rift.
Well both of these things never happened and one hell of a lot of people left a quality game because they believed all the bullshit they read. So everytime I see a TOR patch putting in something Rift launched with I laugh and every GW2 vid I see that is copy and paste from Rift I laugh even harder.
The WoW trolls who are stuck with 4.3 until Pandaland in maybe 8 months is what makes me laugh the hardest because the amount of crap those guys talked trumped anything a TOR or GW2 fan said and they deserve to suffer. I know I am having fun and getting my money's worth for my sub.
EQ2 is actually fantastic now, $0E are not. (Engine ruins it.)
Rift is okay, and they try at least. But it's not fun, at all, which means the little "issues" here and there add up fast making it unplayable after awhile.
WoW: How to go from success to superfail, a love story. (Hint: Corporate merger.)
SWTOR is entirely trash. A pure money grab with no foresight or planning, it's sole claim to success based upon the IP.
None of the other games are worth mentioning.
Yes, Eve, the spreadsheet simulator - that means you.
You are posting an opinion, not fact. Like Robsolf, I actually logged back into Rift to check it out due mostly with my unhappiness with SWTOR. For that matter I also logged into STO, AoC, EQII, DDO, WoW, GW and LOTRO. Just doing my roaming around while I ponder my near future diversion until GWII releases. Btw all caps for the win? Really? Makes you come off like one my daughters after a few of those damn energy drinks. In the case of my daughters, I take them less serious, are you wanting to be taken less serious when you post? Robsolf made a valid opinion point, get over it. Step away from the energy drink.
I ended up just not being drawn in by the lore sadly. I like Trion and Scott Hartsman, they care about the players and don't do the BS that Bioware/EA does. They commnicate much better then Blizzard does as well. As far as Rift goes, I also didn't like the soul system as much as I had hoped I would. Also the ability to set macros/scripts with no limits never warms the cockles of my heart. One button pushing macros are bit much. They needed to set a limit on the macro commands you could have in one string.
Rift has some of the worst quest writing in any MMO I've played. Absolutely horrid. And the story feels like "been there, done that" to me. So, if that's what you are looking for in an MMO, you may want to stay clear of Rift.
I don't want to spend all day reading quests or watching cutscenes, I want to actually play the game - and by the exodus from SWTOR this seems to be the feeling for the larer majority too.. For story, a Good book or film is where it is, for gameplay RIFT is pretty much the top of the MMORPG pile at the moment.
Core i5 13600KF, BeQuiet Pure Loop FX 360, 32gb DDR5-6000 XPG, WD SN850 NVMe ,PNY 3090 XLR8, Asus Prime Z790-A, Lian-Li O11 PCMR case (limited ed 1045/2000), 32" LG Ultragear 4k Monitor, Logitech G560 LightSync Sound, Razer Deathadder V2 and Razer Blackwidow V3 Keyboard
I actually read the quests and enjoy the story of the game I'm playing. It gives me a reason to go out and kill the 10 pigs/wolves/whatever. LotRO has some of the best quest writing, and Rift has the worst, imo. It kills the immersion for me and I'm a sap for immersion.
I agree. If the story is good I dont need cut scenes and VO to become emersed in the game. I too think LOTRO has some of the best story telling in the genre. EQ2 also has some great lore.
Really? This game sucks and Im not having fun? Im going to unsub right now. Thanks for the tip.
Its not like Rift didnt have a similar exodus. Rift did have the advantage of a more staggered acquisition though, snce SWTOR had years of hype it was known to everyone and very anticipated, so the huge majority of its sales were the first month, and there isnt anyone who didnt know about it.
Rift was a lesser known commodity and got a lot of attention in the few months before release, but there certainly were a lot more people jumping on board as the game went on (coupled with heavy marketing towards MMO gamers and lots of deals)
If I play a game for an extended period of time I think it would go without saying I can notice trends in the player pop of said game. For example, not only have I been noticing a sizeable increase in activity in the capital city (just as one example of player activity in regards to a location), but also that there are LOTS of high level players. In addition through grouping and chatting and thru my new guild I talked to many, SEVERAL people who said they just re-subbed around time of post SWTOR 1st month and the free weekend promo RIFT ran recently.
I started playing MMOs in '99 and in each was able to notice trends in the health of playerbase. Call it Situational Awareness I guess...its like you notice things around you and you are able to come to various conclusions about little things, like if there are MORE OR LESS PLAYERS in the game world. Open your eyes and your mind and you may notice little things too, like if there are more players then when you played prior.
Oh and just a few other things there kid, my post you referenced WAS NOT ALL CAPS. just some of it...kinda like your post had some words in caps, but not all of them...or did you maybe not consider that you did the same thing in your post ? do us a favor and re-read your post and see if you can notice that some words in your rant are in CAPS....just like mine...POT MEET KETTLE, FTW !!
Also, no one cares about your daughter and if you want to be taken seriously I suggest try not talking to people like you are the big bad parent and everyone else is some random kid. I started playing EQ in '99, hopefully that tells you a little something ABOUT MY AGE. now do us a favor, and go back to WOW.
-- enjoy
I noticed that my server Deepstrike has been more busy than it was after the server mergers. It could also be due to the event
Juegos de Lucha-Free online games
RPG Titles
Juego De Guerra
Rift Universe
its true i was talking in general chat the other day most of them who were chatting in there all said they came back from SWTOR
the pops rising on my server, it's hard to find a balloon to pop on my server without twenty 50s killing it before i get there.
edit: never mind, I see the OP was in early February, iirc that was not that long after the F2P move.Sunday night
2 servers low
9 medium
6 high
1 of the 2 servers with low population is a trial server.
Rift
If you look at Rift Status one week population change one can see that every new day that Rift has been growing. This has been going on for over 2 months now. Occassionaly there is a non trial server that goes down but the majority of servers are gaining every day and gaining at a fair rate.
Hmm. You may make that claim, but tbh, it isn't really reflected in Xfire, Raptr nor Steam during that time period as far as I can tell. But true, those aren't really accurate that much either, so there's that ofc.