Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Here's your primetime population and amount of PvP now that you have to pay
toadkiller
Member Posts: 148
I have the SOE all access pass to play EQ2 and drop in every once in a whle on the original and SWG and VG - so I get to still login to this steaming pile of disappointment and see the reality whether the fanbois admit it or not
And I present to you primtime pops and a nice example of exactly how much PvP is available on a US server at this very moment - zero
Comments
whats it look like on rackham and blackbeard?
<crickets>
Looks like the servers are as lonely as this board.
Well after my last "to much banging my head into walls" post on this game..
I'm sitll playing.. and other than the fact Spain won the map on my server the other day. There hasn't been any time it was difficult to find pvp. Oh well at 4am this morning there were no red circles of doom(tm). But there has been after people woke up.
Of course I'm on Antigua which had two moderates.
The EU-EN server has had the most population from my experience but.. its dropped off on all servers without doubt. For a while only two were all green.. but that was last week or so.
I don't blame the devs... maybe the OP does.. not sure.. didn't really see.
But the people that purposely lit up "newb" areas and sank their little level 5 boats while in full groups of 50's... and then tried to validate it by saying... "he night have had cargo worth something".
The game was supposed to be pvp... I played old UO.. but if the communities idea of challenging pvp is to gank newbs.. of course the game is going to die.
People said it gave them experience for later. What later? Person tries to get started in a fairly intense economy game... and just says.. screw it /cancel.
Good thing that game developers can't take customers into court.. to recover losses that their "play style" created. (oh that's sarcasm).
You'll see no end of "care bears won" or "another pvp game ruined" threads soon enough. No mention of how the players ruined the game for themselves tho.
Oh and yes FLS needs to fix many things.. but they need subscribers for that.
I'm a recent 'non-re-uper' and felt my sentiments for the game pretty much matched toadkiller's so rather than starting a new thread I'll just ad my rant of disappointment here.
50 bones is nada to me but I do feel pretty jipped at the time I wasted on this one. I imagine lost time is actually what gets to most people when an mmo goes bad rather than the cash. (Too many hours to even think about since pre-boarding. )
The game is so broke and now effectively dead it isn't even worth mentioning the details. The thing is I'm disappointed not because I thought this was gonna be the next big thing and the best mmo since sliced breadtm but becuase I had such LOW expectations. I just wanted something to mess around with until you know what/s comes out. I can take bugs, broken mechanics, fanbois, paying for a beta, ect., ect. I've done it all before, but this POS couldn't even last an f'n month. Seriosuly is this like a record or something; I really can't recall any MMO going to crap so fast.
Its interesting to see so many people ride this game off. I didn't purchase it at first due to all the hate threads out there. However after my initial dissapointment with some of the mechanics etc. I am really enjoying the game and I have not had any issues so far. I am now up to level 18 and yet to see a bug and I am still enjoying it a lot. The crafting system is also quite fresh and different with (it seems) hundreds of recipes. I am failing to see why this game has been slated so much?
I can see how the ship combat may be slow for some but for me I love it since it actually requires a lot of tactics and thought. If I feel like blowing critters away I just jump back on TR. Problem solved.
Great , you're the one person period who has "yet to see a bug" , not a single one huh ? One's even the devs admit are there ? Really ? Not one ? Yeah , whatever
Anyway before they remove the whocount command a group of enterprising folks logged in on all servers on all nations and made a chart of the population on a Sunday night - mind you this is TOTAL population of all 4 sides put together on each server -
A game taking hits like this , this early into launch does not recover , it will survive on SOE Access Pass life support
So at 9:30 PST on 4 servers there aren't even enough folks plaing the game to break 400 total people -
Horizons anyone ?
Time for the cold equations:
Well, I make that 3300 +/- people.
So, lets say that is 10% of all subscribers?
That would mean they have 33000 subscribers.
At US$15 per month that is US$495000 or approx US$6,000,000 per year.
This of course assumes FLS gets 100% of the sub - which they don't.
*Google*
http://swz.salary.com/salarywizard/layouthtmls/swzl_compresult_national_IT10000010.html
The median expected salary for a typical Programmer 1 in the United States is $51,163.
so we multiply US$50000 by 2 to account for overheads = US$100000. (note: some business use as much as 3)
US$6,000,000 / US$100,000 = 60. This is the number of staff this sort of revenue can sustain.
And note my estimates were generous.
IIRC FLS said they had 70 staff somewhere?
So, what will FLS do?
My bet is that they will start work on a new project. They will cut the PotBS team down to a sustainable level and start on something new. That way, if the subscriptions of PotBS pick up they can "borrow" some people back again for continued development.
Whereas if subscriptions drop - they can transfer staff out to the new project.
Then again, it depends on how much cash reserve FLS has?
If they start laying off staff (or we see people "leaving to persue new opportunities") then we know they have very little left.
In this case, if subscriptions continue to fall, they will be looking to sell.
Who would buy it though? ;-)
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
FLS has actually said themselves that average server pop is 20-25% of total subs, so yeah...you're numbers are VERY generous.
p.s. I'm betting sub numbers are actually below 20k at this point.
I cancelled my subscribtion before it was time to pay, I usually dont regret game I buy, this however I regret.
cant belevie how bad it turned out, reach lvl 50 in a week or 2, and then what ???????
Sorry for my english
Assuming 20% subscribers on line gives total subs at 16,500 and with an SOE cut at 20% (not sure on this one? Anyone know?) that would make revenue US$2,400,000 per annum which will only support about 20-25 staff.
Nothing says irony like spelling ideot wrong.
Don't get me wrong, this game blows... but I find it very hard to believe that it has less subs than that steaming pile o' shit known as Tabula Rasa... Anyways, I expected this after trying open beta and seeing how terrible this game is.
Out of interest are most people posting from the states? Because the EU server for PotBS and TR seem to be populated pretty well. I have some time off work and even today in the middle of working hours I saw several players in the areas I was playing in and the general chat channel in TR was very active. I am not saying PotBS is amazing or anything but its definitely playable and for the most part I enjoy it. Will I be playing in 6 months? I don't know and probably not considering what is being released in the coming months but the game is imo is enjoyable and fun for the most part.
I have given up on finding the one and only mmo to make my life complete. If I get 6 enjoyable months out of it I will be more than happy. Besides there is always EVE.
Ditto.
Of course it's got a decent population - if they crammed all the US players onto ONE server there would seem the same here also - there's ONE EU English Speaking server -
Watch for upcoming spin by PotBS devs about they still have new players coming in (but will never admit losing more than gaining) and that they are doing fine -
They pride themselves on being cheap (which is part of the problem - they dont even have enough staff to take care of problems currently) so it wont be a flop on VG level - it will be a minor flop financial wise in the scheme of things -
They shot for a very small audience apparently - they didnt provide enough PvP for heavy PvP players and too much at all for the extreme PVE crowd - so a pirate game for e"pvp-lite" players is what they made -
I predict server merges within 6 months - they will limp along a few months before doing it just because they dont want the egg on their face that they need it now - server transfers will simply kill of f the low pop ones even more
The OP has skewed statistics.
Heck, I can log on to the lowest pop server out there at 5 in the morning and claim it to be an accurate read of the entire game too. Taking the lowest possible number and using it as the mean is wrong.
http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/166044
Look at that! Those ones are different! wow!
Heck I'm on a pretty low pop server and we had 6 red circles last night.
-------------------------
One thing I would like to point out is that the game mechanics encourage players to have more than one account.
For example, if you play Pirate on Rackham you may not start any other nationality character on Rackham. So, Rackham players start another account to play/spy on the opposition.
Now for a true story:
Several Pirates on Rackham started another account and chose French. They leveled their "French" characters up a bit, and took them out and used an exploit to "insta flip" a Pirate port. The other Pirate players covered for them, and they were not engaged in PvP, or other wise interrupted. Then a "French" player took a screenshot of the "French" using the exploit, and posted it on his website, along with a link at the official POTBS server site. The Pirates then pointed out to the other nations that the French were caught cheating again, and using the exploit. The Spanish, who used the exploit first against the French, and then were the victims of two French exploits, got all outraged against the French (again).
Of course, the Pirates were looking to escalate a war between the French and the Spanish, while at the same time placing the Spanish capital, which was next to the "insta flipped" port, into PvP contention. Then the Pirates intented to PvP the Spanish players going into and out of the Spanish capital, with the French getting the blame. After all, nobody would ever suspect the Pirates of "insta flipping" their own port, now would they?
Anyway, the online count on Sunday evening does not necessarily reflect paying subscriptions. The UK server player count is high, and the time zone difference does make a difference too.
Get a clue -
1-It wasn't even one of the bottom two lowest pop servers
2-The shots were taken during US prime time
Next fanboi excuse please
Get a clue -
1-It wasn't even one of the bottom two lowest pop servers
2-The shots were taken during US prime time
Next fanboi excuse please
I'm not a fanboi as I'm not even trying to defend the game. Your statistics show nothing plausible.
Just because you dislike a game doesn't mean you should spend all this effort trying to aimlessly bash it with distorted numbers and unlabeled screenshots. I'm not sure what your grudge is about, but many people like the game, so don't post illogical evidence just to scare away people.
I took this last night.
img505.imageshack.us/img505/59/034im0.png
-------------------------
Get a clue -
1-It wasn't even one of the bottom two lowest pop servers
2-The shots were taken during US prime time
Next fanboi excuse please
I'm not a fanboi as I'm not even trying to defend the game. Your statistics show nothing plausible.
Just because you dislike a game doesn't mean you should spend all this effort trying to aimlessly bash it with distorted numbers and unlabeled screenshots. I'm not sure what your grudge is about, but many people like the game, so don't post illogical evidence just to scare away people.
I took this last night.
img505.imageshack.us/img505/59/034im0.png
Nothing plausible ?
Clueless fanboi - a simple screenshot of the server pops and the fact there was zero PvP on a server during prime time whether you believe it or not is quite plausible -
I get even more enjoyment out of the fact it bothers you and you actually try and lie to cover up the failings of your beloved - many people also think its a terrible game and terrible disappointment and like it or not its getting known out there just how quickly the population is dropping - its not illogical evidence - you dont even know how to use the words
Keep defending fanboi - it makes you look even more desperate
Attacking the person and not the argument with name calling jades your credibility even more. It's just sad that you think that one screenshot proves anything. I'm not saying the game is super-populated, I'm just saying that posting one screenshot of light server levels and an empty map is laughable. If I take a picture of a Wal-Mart parking lot with only a few cars in it does that mean that nobody goes to Wal-Mart and it should shut down?
As for red circles... this was taken last night on Morgan, another lower pop server like Bonny.
-------------------------
Yeah, I'm not really sure where the hate comes from, I'm guessing that the OP is probably a Disney Pirates fanboi. Why people go to the lengths to try and discredit something is pretty laughable. If you don't like a game, that's fine, but to come up with stuff like that is pretty silly.
Single screens can come at any time, with no proof as to when they were taken. I'd believe that screen shot about the same time I'd believe that a female avatar is being played by a girl... while plausible, it's not likely to be probable.
Most prime times have a decent smattering of Moderates and a couple heavies. There are some lighter pop servers, but for the most part the pops seem pretty stable from day to day. It's no WoW, but it's not a ghost town either.
You should probably tell the devs that, since Rusty has continually agreed to and addressed the population problems on the main forums.
The problem is that the game's too complicated for most players, so they piss and moan and whine then leave. Meanwhile the devs see it and start basterdizing their game in order to make it less complicated or more obvious. Right now its simple things, like stupid icon overlays on cargo or tutorials for joe idiot who can't bother to read the tooltips. And some pretty dumb nerfs got slapped in. Next, they are starting a revamp of the basic skills, and I smell NGE.
I completely disagree, I don't think the game is remotely complicated. Certainly not in character building, for example. I think the game is just really boring at early levels...and so people leave.
I hate to burst your bubble, but this is not the problem. If i got it right it's this:
The problem is that game is... nowhere actually. It's too complicated for vanilla players, and it's too boring for PvP players. PvP players like strategy, lots of options, creativity, organization etc. In this game you have to be Naval Officer to PvP (means, 1 class), you're restricted to 1 ship type to PvP (SOL), skill sets (something that Guild Wars puts lots of emphasize on) are OK but really don't leave that many options. Overall, the only aspect of creativity is economy. If there was no economy everyone would use same ships etc etc. Since PvPing and creating PvP zones requires grinding (and lots of it), true PvPers dont stay long. I for one don't want to PvE so much to have PvP. A bit of PvE is OK, but risk vs rewards definitely isnt right. BTW, for how much PvPers like to PvE, you can tell by the amount of biatching from PvP community in Guild Wars in the beginning when they were forced to PvE first in order to PvP. Let's just say that it ended up so that you did not have to PvE at all; skill unlocks became much much faster and they even started selling PvP-only packs. I know PotBS needs economy, that's all fine with me, but saying that people while because game is too complicated is simply not true.