MASSIVE population drop in last 2 weeks!

Trol1 · June 2012

Originally posted by Kost

Possibly one of the most ridiculous responses I've ever read on these forums.

You've never heard of backdoor recruiting? You must be new to online gaming, sounds like you need a lesson in netiquette.

The game has been going downhill since launch and isn't improving. Stop blindly defending something because of a misplaced sense of loyalty and face the reality of the situation.

I'm sorry Kost but you were saying...?

Just 2 small lessons then from a "online gaming noob" (oh, wait... I forget that decade of MMO gaming... silly me)

1. of course the game has been going downhill numberswise since release. I mean d'oh, but even you should understand that SWTOR is not a game where people will suddenly 5 months after the release say "hey, look, there is a SW MMO, let's give that a shot!"

The game has a very clear cut target audience - the SWMMO fans - and pulled them in straight upon release to the fullest (with just location being a limitation i.e. APAC).

Of course there will be people who don't like the game and in turn leave.

Happens to every game upon release that some stay, some go.

Should that be news to such a MMO expert like you? *eek*

But - to make that simple and clear again - where other games can use a sleeper effect i.e. being re-discovered months after release, for SWTOR this is basically impossible unless they release an update that makes the game, well, another game, in which case there may well be returners flowing back to the game.

Also nothing new.

So, what's your point in saying "The game has been going downhill since launch and isn't improving."? The game's quality has remained overall rather steady - yes, there were glitches, just as there were IMO good changes/additions.

The numbers are still by far stronger than most other MMOs out there.

I'm sorry if you don't like the game, well, no, not really, I'm just faking it, I like it and that's okay with me.

2. "Stop blindly defending something because of a misplaced sense of loyalty and face the reality of the situation."

I just love these holders of the one true faith people!

Of course, all YOU are saying is right, all I'm saying is wrong and I'm dillusional. Or such a GW2 errr sorry SWTOR fanbhoy that I'll never let anything negatve be said about GW2 errr SWTOR...

Yeah... ever considered that not all people are like you? (Praise the great galactic turd for that!)

Some people may like something you don't like... and in turn don't like something you love.

Impossible, I know, as obviously you are keeper of the one true truth...

Or to put it this way: how do you even dare to ask someone to " face the reality of the situation" if your reality is really just that: your take on what you believe to be reality.

erictlewis · June 2012

Originally posted by cutthecrap
Hmm, I dunno. I was curious and checked xfire (yeah, I know, shouldn't do that etc), but it looked to me that a lot of games had a drop the past couple of weeks. Sounds like a D3 effect that helps a lot. And didn't SWTOR have something like 200-250 servers or something like that, instead of 13?

I read somewhere that MMO servers usually have an average population of 10k per. But even if it'd be only 4-5k on average, that's still a lot.

You not been reading then. The average server has 324 playing at a time according to one article released today. http://www.vg247.com/2012/06/01/swtor-mmo-subscriber-numbers-are-funny-things-with-lots-of-variables-to-consider-says-bioware/

However the real truth is those are the 10 servers listed as standard. 2 servers are listed as heavy possibly 2k at one time. the other 200 servers are light with less than 250 playing. So yes you got 13-18 OK servers with some health only. www.torstatus.net

You can read this thread about the real numbers. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4521388#post4521388

All I can say is you got to be kidding about the 10k per, there is no way that has happened, nor will it happen until the do the super server thing if they do.

Dromedarr · June 2012

Originally posted by erictlewis
Originally posted by cutthecrap

Hmm, I dunno. I was curious and checked xfire (yeah, I know, shouldn't do that etc), but it looked to me that a lot of games had a drop the past couple of weeks. Sounds like a D3 effect that helps a lot. And didn't SWTOR have something like 200-250 servers or something like that, instead of 13?

I read somewhere that MMO servers usually have an average population of 10k per. But even if it'd be only 4-5k on average, that's still a lot.

You not been reading then. The average server has 324 playing at a time according to one article released today. http://www.vg247.com/2012/06/01/swtor-mmo-subscriber-numbers-are-funny-things-with-lots-of-variables-to-consider-says-bioware/

However the real truth is those are the 10 servers listed as standard. 2 servers are listed as heavy possibly 2k at one time. the other 200 servers are light with less than 250 playing. So yes you got 13-18 OK servers with some health only. www.torstatus.net

You can read this thread about the real numbers. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4521388#post4521388

All I can say is you got to be kidding about the 10k per, there is no way that has happened, nor will it happen until the do the super server thing if they do.

I've seen screenshots from servers where people are ALONE on the fleets! You can't go any lower than that.

Clawzon · June 2012

M.O.P and Gw2 this game is DOOMED!

Trol1 · June 2012

Originally posted by p_c_sousa
Originally posted by Trol1

Originally posted by Greyhooff

Originally posted by Trol1

Well, isn't that precious?!

Okay, if you are such a big hero character, ever considered to try helping those people who feel alone on their server and have only 1 lvl50 (if at all)?

All it takes is less than 10 secs to roll a random toon on another low pop server, then go to Fleet and fire off a bit of spam telling people who'd like to start a new character on a different server (read: yours) that you'd support them.

Who knows, maybe you can even get a guild behind that movement?

But no, you'd rather sit on your arse and whine and tell BW to fix it.

You know, I'd perfectly well understand if BW doesn't care about their "target audience" if the target audience is like you.
...

So you blame "lazy players" for playing on empty servers, saying they should "just reroll all their toons" on a more populated server? What blame would you assign to Bioware-EA who destroyed their own game through sheer incompetence, dishonesty and laziness?

For a while I thought no one could be that dumb.

Then I checked and found that since joining these forums last month you have done nothing but make long posts criticising GW2 and praising (or deflecting blame away from the developers of) SWTOR.

I guess it's obvious what you are.

A person who tasted the hype that is GW2 and found it yuck? A person who actually has fun playing SWTOR?

Oh my, I must be some sort of alien, a mutation, a pod person out to get you... oh, wait, those are the GW2 fanbhoys... nevermind...

Yes, I do blame "lazy players" for not being able to change things - things that they could change themselves! - but rather start whine and cry for BW to fix things.

Which is even funnier considering that you are saying that BW destroyed the game?

For a moment I was tempted to return the "dumb" compliment, but rather I'll leave you to the dreams that the moronic handyman who just broke all the water pipes in your kitchen is the right person to turn to when it comes to the gas leaking from the oven...

looool. seem that the company excuse for the game have an incredible drop of server population is fine for some players, even is defend. just LOL.

"lets blame players for the low population server, much better than complain us and with some luck some troll will believe this and defend us". by EA xDD

is because players like you that MMORPG are on the current state.

EA/Bioware complete destroyed the game ALONE

Always good to see the words of no clear sense of reason by p_c_sousa

I'm sorry, but whom does one blame for a gamer no longer playing?

The company? Maybe they should deliver a SS man with each box who will watch over the player making sure that he plays 24/7. (If that were the case, and if one could pick the person delivered with the box, I may actually pre-purchase a game: "No, I don't want your standard little SS man, I want a bigboobed latex wearing hellkitten fraeulein instead!")

Unless you are now claiming that we live in not just one but dozens of EA/BW police states across the world, I think every gamer has still the right to go and play a game or not.

Obviously players have chosen over the last couple of weeks not to do so. Result: low server pop.

Yes, players may be unsatisfied with the game... the joke is just that it took a fair share of them 5 months to show it... or maybe they just liked the pain too much?

But there may be any number of other reasons why they haven't been logging in.

Because, see, what people like you fail to do is actually look AND understand the data!

People like to use Xfire as a point of reference, so let's go with that: have a look there how the online population has been for the last 4 weeks for every older MMO.

You may notice that this drop is not a SWTOR unique reaction.

And ha, p_c, you really made me laugh with that line: "is because players like you that MMORPG are on the current state."

I think most people will agree that the shift from the classic MMORPG to the modern MMORPG happened with/because of WoW. Newsflash: never played that one. Just because from the get go I knew it wasn't my thing.

So, in what way I'm responsible for the state MMORPGs are in, that is something you'd need to explain.

erictlewis · June 2012

Originally posted by Dromedarr
Originally posted by erictlewis

Originally posted by cutthecrap

Hmm, I dunno. I was curious and checked xfire (yeah, I know, shouldn't do that etc), but it looked to me that a lot of games had a drop the past couple of weeks. Sounds like a D3 effect that helps a lot. And didn't SWTOR have something like 200-250 servers or something like that, instead of 13?

I read somewhere that MMO servers usually have an average population of 10k per. But even if it'd be only 4-5k on average, that's still a lot.

You not been reading then. The average server has 324 playing at a time according to one article released today. http://www.vg247.com/2012/06/01/swtor-mmo-subscriber-numbers-are-funny-things-with-lots-of-variables-to-consider-says-bioware/

However the real truth is those are the 10 servers listed as standard. 2 servers are listed as heavy possibly 2k at one time. the other 200 servers are light with less than 250 playing. So yes you got 13-18 OK servers with some health only. www.torstatus.net

You can read this thread about the real numbers. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4521388#post4521388

All I can say is you got to be kidding about the 10k per, there is no way that has happened, nor will it happen until the do the super server thing if they do.

I've seen screenshots from servers where people are ALONE on the fleets! You can't go any lower than that.

I had a few times I logged in and only 10 folks on the fleet on tarro blood. I have seen one screenshot with 1 on the fleet, I saw one screen shot with 4 on the entire empire side of the server, but those were taken during the am. All I can say is bw would be lucky if the total playing at one time was more than 60k spread all across the servers. Now that the free 30 days has worn off I would expect to see more drops in population, but most servers are so empty it is impossible for totstatus to keep up with those due to the baseline that is being used. EQ2 has more folks playing on my one server of guk than all the swtor servers added up at one time.

Dromedarr · June 2012

Originally posted by erictlewis
Originally posted by Dromedarr

Originally posted by erictlewis

Originally posted by cutthecrap

Hmm, I dunno. I was curious and checked xfire (yeah, I know, shouldn't do that etc), but it looked to me that a lot of games had a drop the past couple of weeks. Sounds like a D3 effect that helps a lot. And didn't SWTOR have something like 200-250 servers or something like that, instead of 13?

I read somewhere that MMO servers usually have an average population of 10k per. But even if it'd be only 4-5k on average, that's still a lot.

You not been reading then. The average server has 324 playing at a time according to one article released today. http://www.vg247.com/2012/06/01/swtor-mmo-subscriber-numbers-are-funny-things-with-lots-of-variables-to-consider-says-bioware/

However the real truth is those are the 10 servers listed as standard. 2 servers are listed as heavy possibly 2k at one time. the other 200 servers are light with less than 250 playing. So yes you got 13-18 OK servers with some health only. www.torstatus.net

You can read this thread about the real numbers. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4521388#post4521388

All I can say is you got to be kidding about the 10k per, there is no way that has happened, nor will it happen until the do the super server thing if they do.

I've seen screenshots from servers where people are ALONE on the fleets! You can't go any lower than that.

I had a few times I logged in and only 10 folks on the fleet on tarro blood. I have seen one screenshot with 1 on the fleet, I saw one screen shot with 4 on the entire empire side of the server, but those were taken during the am. All I can say is bw would be lucky if the total playing at one time was more than 60k spread all across the servers. Now that the free 30 days has worn off I would expect to see more drops in population, but most servers are so empty it is impossible for totstatus to keep up with those due to the baseline that is being used. EQ2 has more folks playing on my one server of guk than all the swtor servers added up at one time.

there's a guy who's done pretty extensive research about current population and currently is just above 60k online. and declining each day

Trol1 · June 2012

Originally posted by erictlewis
Originally posted by cutthecrap

Hmm, I dunno. I was curious and checked xfire (yeah, I know, shouldn't do that etc), but it looked to me that a lot of games had a drop the past couple of weeks. Sounds like a D3 effect that helps a lot. And didn't SWTOR have something like 200-250 servers or something like that, instead of 13?

I read somewhere that MMO servers usually have an average population of 10k per. But even if it'd be only 4-5k on average, that's still a lot.

You not been reading then. The average server has 324 playing at a time according to one article released today. http://www.vg247.com/2012/06/01/swtor-mmo-subscriber-numbers-are-funny-things-with-lots-of-variables-to-consider-says-bioware/

However the real truth is those are the 10 servers listed as standard. 2 servers are listed as heavy possibly 2k at one time. the other 200 servers are light with less than 250 playing. So yes you got 13-18 OK servers with some health only. www.torstatus.net

You can read this thread about the real numbers. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4521388#post4521388

All I can say is you got to be kidding about the 10k per, there is no way that has happened, nor will it happen until the do the super server thing if they do.

I love how people are clinging to Scorpienne's calculations...

The important thing to understand is that this is an AVERAGE number taken from averaging out the data over hours and over days.

If you believe that all servers will at every hour of the day on any given day have the same population, well, I think somehow you haven't understood the concept of different regions, servers for different regions and peaktimes.

You can probably expect something like 6 hrs of "peaking" every weekday, and maybe something like an extended 8-10 hrs of "peakanizing" on a weekend day.

Which leaves quite a lot of hours in each day to counter these peaks with absolute lows.

Frankly, I don't care if a server has just 2 players on at 4am EDT, but obviously those 2 would make even 10K playing a 9pm EDT look bad in the overall statistic.

Corehaven · June 2012

Originally posted by Trol1

I love how people are clinging to Scorpienne's calculations...

The important thing to understand is that this is an AVERAGE number taken from averaging out the data over hours and over days.

If you believe that all servers will at every hour of the day on any given day have the same population, well, I think somehow you haven't understood the concept of different regions, servers for different regions and peaktimes.

You can probably expect something like 6 hrs of "peaking" every weekday, and maybe something like an extended 8-10 hrs of "peakanizing" on a weekend day.

Which leaves quite a lot of hours in each day to counter these peaks with absolute lows.

Frankly, I don't care if a server has just 2 players on at 4am EDT, but obviously those 2 would make even 10K playing a 9pm EDT look bad in the overall statistic.

So you are suggesting at times, there's hardly anyone playing and at others, there's tons of people playing throwing off the average? Im not sure thats how it works either. That doesnt make sense.

Its not that extreme. So the averages should work fine. Im fully aware there are times or days when fewer people might play and on others more of them do. But 2 players playing one day and 10,000 another? No it doesnt work like that. Im sure you were exaggerating there but still. Averages work pretty good for this type of thing.

cutthecrap · June 2012

Originally posted by erictlewis
Originally posted by cutthecrap

Hmm, I dunno. I was curious and checked xfire (yeah, I know, shouldn't do that etc), but it looked to me that a lot of games had a drop the past couple of weeks. Sounds like a D3 effect that helps a lot. And didn't SWTOR have something like 200-250 servers or something like that, instead of 13?

I read somewhere that MMO servers usually have an average population of 10k per. But even if it'd be only 4-5k on average, that's still a lot.

You not been reading then. The average server has 324 playing at a time according to one article released today. http://www.vg247.com/2012/06/01/swtor-mmo-subscriber-numbers-are-funny-things-with-lots-of-variables-to-consider-says-bioware/

However the real truth is those are the 10 servers listed as standard. 2 servers are listed as heavy possibly 2k at one time. the other 200 servers are light with less than 250 playing. So yes you got 13-18 OK servers with some health only. www.torstatus.net

You can read this thread about the real numbers. http://www.swtor.com/community/showthread.php?p=4521388#post4521388

All I can say is you got to be kidding about the 10k per, there is no way that has happened, nor will it happen until the do the super server thing if they do.

Average MMO servers, yeah. I'm not talking about SWTOR, but normal population MMO servers en average in general. I got to look it up, but there's some data about it out there. As for the 'real numbers', ok, let's do that math: the highest PCU that EVE ever had was I think 60-65k. Now the average max PCU has been around the 40-50k. That's for 360k (or over 400k as some keep saying) subs/players. I checked the link of that guy who did some extensive measuring - don't agree with his methods, but alright, at least he put some effort and less-than-complete-wild-guessing figures to it - he talks about 65k. That should point towards around a 500-600k SWTOR players, keeping the Eve factor in mind. More if he didn't measure on the exact peak times where PCU is highest.

Then again, it's all a bunch of vague speculations, incl mine.

Fuck, why did I even spend the time to reply, must've been bored. I was just saying what I thought, that was that I saw a D3 effect on a number of games. As for the rest, believe whatever you want to and feel comfortable with, I don't really care.