Anarchy Online has definitely lost it's fair share of members to the upcoming MMMORPGS (L2 etc.). Last time I played (approx. 3-4 months ago) it had been a veterate ghost town.
Ironically, I seem to be the only person that enjoyed the expansion. SL transformed AO into a solo game, as you do not need a group by any means to advance, and this in turn annihilated the economics and many of the social aspects of the game (missions etc.).
It's such a shame that AO destroyed itself. In my opinion it had been the best MMORPG out on the market until it pumped out it's expansion.
In any case, AO had the right idea with the gameplay&character creation improvements. I hope the upcoming rpgs will follow AO's character development paradigm (continuous leveling and balanced characters, complex skill trees etc.) (WoW seems the most promising in this department)
//\//\00 (oVV
This is a sequence of characters intended to produce some profound mental effect, but it has failed.
Anarchy Online is far from a ghost town, and the number of players (both new ones and veterans returning) have increased - not decreased - since the launch of Shadowlands.
But, players are a bit more spread out now, due to a lot of new huge playfields havingbeen added. The typical gathering places on Rubi-Ka aren't as packed as they used to be. I guess that's what makes some people think there are fewer players online. Ask around a bit, take some time to get to know the community and their gathering places, and you shouldn't have any problem fiding both teams and organizations to join.
Don't mean to debunk your game. I still find it great, but you can't refute the fact that you have lost a load to the expansion as well as your competition.
You are right in the sense that the player density has decreased in most areas, but even if the number of players has increasd since the expansion, the number of players that the game has gained since the expansion is not significant enough to buoy the numbers past the pre-notum wars expansion numbers.
Which seemed much more overwhelming, or perhaps I am just used to lag city (athens, trade district etc.). Maybe a literal integer comparison would be fair to both me and other potential users?
//\//\00 (oVV
This is a sequence of characters intended to produce some profound mental effect, but it has failed.
While it's not my liberty to give out numbers, I can say we have gained customers steadily over a very long time now. The kind of mass exodus people portray has simply never happened. Not at the launch of any of our expansions, and not at the launch of other MMOs. People have been talking about leaving, for sure, and some even took a month or two off AO after Shadowlands. Most people come back though, and a lot of new players arrive all the time.
I'm not really surprised about the impression some seem to have. People tend to talk (or scream) about it in big words on public forums when they're frustrated or burnt out and leave a game, or take a break. They just say hi to friends when they return.
If your estimates of player numbers is based on lag, please note that we've done a lot of performance tweaks. Shadowlands is rather demanding when it comes to hardware resources, but Rubi-Ka is running a lot better now then e.g. just after the launch of Notum Wars.
I realize I can never convince some people that I am telling the truth. Some are very stuck in their opinion about us being only a customer or five from closing down. (Not thinking about you now, but the most extreme AO doomsayers.) Even if I were allowed to post numbers, people could (and probably would) just say I'm lying.
Thus for me to discuss this is rather futile. I'll just state that AO and Funcom are both very healthy, and we intend to keep growing for a long time still.
Originally posted by Czeffyr Thus for me to discuss this is rather futile. I'll just state that AO and Funcom are both very healthy, and we intend to keep growing for a long time still. Thomas 'Cz' Johnsen Community Manager Funcom
Would be pretty bad if you didn't plan to keep growing:)
IMO FC working too hard with getting new customers instead of caring about those you already have.
You get new customers that jump between diffrent games and probably leave for next game pretty soon instead of having many solid customers that staying in one game for several years, easier to please newbies than veterans maybe tho.
Would be interesting to see the numbers of how many 2.5+ year old accounts that have been canceled from SL release and until now.
I'm one of those people that had quit due to shadowlands, stuck it out for over a month but the bottlenecks were too much. I have no ill will towards Funcom by any means it was just frustrating seing my core friends from Legion login to say good bye, you can only take so much.
Cz thanks for posting on this forum, I still have a lot of respect for what you do.
Originally posted by Czeffyr While it's not my liberty to give out numbers, I can say we have gained customers steadily over a very long time now. The kind of mass exodus people portray has simply never happened. Not at the launch of any of our expansions, and not at the launch of other MMOs. People have been talking about leaving, for sure, and some even took a month or two off AO after Shadowlands. Most people come back though, and a lot of new players arrive all the time. I'm not really surprised about the impression some seem to have. People tend to talk (or scream) about it in big words on public forums when they're frustrated or burnt out and leave a game, or take a break. They just say hi to friends when they return. If your estimates of player numbers is based on lag, please note that we've done a lot of performance tweaks. Shadowlands is rather demanding when it comes to hardware resources, but Rubi-Ka is running a lot better now then e.g. just after the launch of Notum Wars. I realize I can never convince some people that I am telling the truth. Some are very stuck in their opinion about us being only a customer or five from closing down. (Not thinking about you now, but the most extreme AO doomsayers.) Even if I were allowed to post numbers, people could (and probably would) just say I'm lying. Thus for me to discuss this is rather futile. I'll just state that AO and Funcom are both very healthy, and we intend to keep growing for a long time still. Thomas 'Cz' Johnsen Community Manager Funcom
My estimates on numbers are based on logging into tir and not seeing 1 single person in the zone but me. My estimates are from sitting in the LFG channel for the high level channel and seeing no one there. My estimates are from doing an ingame /list to try and find people my level and seeing 3 people total.
I understand your here doing damage control but when your own ingame support doesn't know that you have to go to SL to get exp from 200-220 because you have to get ARK's from new players because the old timers are not around this shows.
I know you have gotten alot of new people since the release of SL and thats great but my entire Org left AO and I know other Org's did too so the end players leave and you get new ones in. If thats the goal of your growth grats your doing well. But without high end content that really makes high levels stay and play this will turn out to be a problem.
Now this is just an idea but what if you gave people the option to level to 220 without going to SL? I know this would pretty much kill the SL stuff but hey no one is there anyways and the few that are will stay there.
I however can see AO still making money because lets face it how can you not with a $15 a month fee even shadowbane and SWG are still making money but AO can be so much more I think thats the point here. I want to see AO on top because the original game has that ability. I hope your guys fix this up I really loved playing AO and I would love to be able to play it again.
Originally posted by BiLL6114 Yea I believe that Anarchy Online is getting quite old and I am going to try EVE Online any one think that is a ok game?
Stay away from Eve please it is a very very very boring game with little or no detail to it. Hmmm i still dont know about that ghost town stuff, i was just at tier and saw plenty o ppl ther
Im your Discount FlashBack Warehouse
Playing - -- Played - AO, CoH/CoV, DDO, Eve, Guildwars, LOTRO, WoW. Waiting - For WAR, Fury.
Originally posted by Czeffyr While it's not my liberty to give out numbers, I can say we have gained customers steadily over a very long time now. The kind of mass exodus people portray has simply never happened. Not at the launch of any of our expansions, and not at the launch of other MMOs. People have been talking about leaving, for sure, and some even took a month or two off AO after Shadowlands. Most people come back though, and a lot of new players arrive all the time. I'm not really surprised about the impression some seem to have. People tend to talk (or scream) about it in big words on public forums when they're frustrated or burnt out and leave a game, or take a break. They just say hi to friends when they return. If your estimates of player numbers is based on lag, please note that we've done a lot of performance tweaks. Shadowlands is rather demanding when it comes to hardware resources, but Rubi-Ka is running a lot better now then e.g. just after the launch of Notum Wars. I realize I can never convince some people that I am telling the truth. Some are very stuck in their opinion about us being only a customer or five from closing down. (Not thinking about you now, but the most extreme AO doomsayers.) Even if I were allowed to post numbers, people could (and probably would) just say I'm lying. Thus for me to discuss this is rather futile. I'll just state that AO and Funcom are both very healthy, and we intend to keep growing for a long time still. Thomas 'Cz' Johnsen Community Manager Funcom
My estimates on numbers are based on logging into tir and not seeing 1 single person in the zone but me. My estimates are from sitting in the LFG channel for the high level channel and seeing no one there. My estimates are from doing an ingame /list to try and find people my level and seeing 3 people total.
I understand your here doing damage control but when your own ingame support doesn't know that you have to go to SL to get exp from 200-220 because you have to get ARK's from new players because the old timers are not around this shows.
I know you have gotten alot of new people since the release of SL and thats great but my entire Org left AO and I know other Org's did too so the end players leave and you get new ones in. If thats the goal of your growth grats your doing well. But without high end content that really makes high levels stay and play this will turn out to be a problem.
Now this is just an idea but what if you gave people the option to level to 220 without going to SL? I know this would pretty much kill the SL stuff but hey no one is there anyways and the few that are will stay there.
I however can see AO still making money because lets face it how can you not with a $15 a month fee even shadowbane and SWG are still making money but AO can be so much more I think thats the point here. I want to see AO on top because the original game has that ability. I hope your guys fix this up I really loved playing AO and I would love to be able to play it again.
Tir have been a ghost town since they removed the grid, never people there, go to OA and you will see alot more people.
Since SL everyone are more spread out too, alot of people in Elysium, Adonis and Inferno.
/anon is the first thing most people do, you can be in a big war with 200 people and do /list and you won't even see 5 people on it..
So I wouldn't say those are the best ways to see that population have dropped, but all higher lvls know that people are leaving it's easy to see since they see people from guild and other old friends leaving AO almost daily.
With SL came a need for more guild oriented XPing, grouping to XP with comrades was what most guilds encouraged so that they could become more familiar with the prime spots for lvling together sharing coords, mob info, drops... Elysium, Adonis and Inferno as is for higher lvls, and Pandemonium for a few. The new level cap drove some off, the overwhelming growth in game content drove some off, SWG took away some.. as did L2 recently. There are still quite a few people playing, I wouldnt consider it a ghost town.
Originally posted by Azzazzimon Tir have been a ghost town since they removed the grid, never people there, go to OA and you will see alot more people. Since SL everyone are more spread out too, alot of people in Elysium, Adonis and Inferno. /anon is the first thing most people do, you can be in a big war with 200 people and do /list and you won't even see 5 people on it.. So I wouldn't say those are the best ways to see that population have dropped, but all higher lvls know that people are leaving it's easy to see since they see people from guild and other old friends leaving AO almost daily.
------------------------- Azzazzimon
Yes but they all went outside tir and no one is there either. Also OA is only filled with people in the 50-100 range thats still low end. Where are all the level 200's?? Thats the point there I am a level 200 wanting to find others 200 to group with where are they all??
Please don't reply about the noobs I don't care how many or where they are. I want to know where all the level 200's are. There use to be 100 people outside Tir or just inside it that were 180 to 200 making groups. They don't exist anymore. If you read my post it was stating level 200's not the noobs.
Originally posted by gimik With SL came a need for more guild oriented XPing, grouping to XP with comrades was what most guilds encouraged so that they could become more familiar with the prime spots for lvling together sharing coords, mob info, drops... Elysium, Adonis and Inferno as is for higher lvls, and Pandemonium for a few. The new level cap drove some off, the overwhelming growth in game content drove some off, SWG took away some.. as did L2 recently. There are still quite a few people playing, I wouldnt consider it a ghost town.
Why is everyone missing the point.. Where all the 100's of people level 200 that use to be playing now? They are not there anymore. SL got alot of noobs to come to AO this is true and there around playing but the level 200's that were there before are gone now. If you compair just the level 180-200 numbers to the numbers before SL came out then it is a ghost town. The noobs in AO don't count towards a lasting game its the people that pay to play for years that makes the game stay. If the game is doing well with just getting noobs on a constant turnover this is great I guess but I can't see that lasting.
Originally posted by gimik With SL came a need for more guild oriented XPing, grouping to XP with comrades was what most guilds encouraged so that they could become more familiar with the prime spots for lvling together sharing coords, mob info, drops... Elysium, Adonis and Inferno as is for higher lvls, and Pandemonium for a few. The new level cap drove some off, the overwhelming growth in game content drove some off, SWG took away some.. as did L2 recently. There are still quite a few people playing, I wouldnt consider it a ghost town.
Why is everyone missing the point.. Where all the 100's of people level 200 that use to be playing now? They are not there anymore. SL got alot of noobs to come to AO this is true and there around playing but the level 200's that were there before are gone now. If you compair just the level 180-200 numbers to the numbers before SL came out then it is a ghost town. The noobs in AO don't count towards a lasting game its the people that pay to play for years that makes the game stay. If the game is doing well with just getting noobs on a constant turnover this is great I guess but I can't see that lasting.
Lvl 160ish-205ish are in Adonis
Higher lvl and also afew lower are in Inferno.
On RK diffrent high lvl guilds are at diffrent places.
My guilds (Apocalypse) are at OA grid platform
Reborn in by2 in OA
SF in WA
Don't know where other guilds hang out if not in SL.
But no reason for high lvls to be on RK so ofcourse it's hard to find them there.
Why is everyone missing the point.. Where all the 100's of people level 200 that use to be playing now? They are not there anymore. SL got alot of noobs to come to AO this is true and there around playing but the level 200's that were there before are gone now. If you compair just the level 180-200 numbers to the numbers before SL came out then it is a ghost town. The noobs in AO don't count towards a lasting game its the people that pay to play for years that makes the game stay. If the game is doing well with just getting noobs on a constant turnover this is great I guess but I can't see that lasting.
Lvl 160ish-205ish are in Adonis
Higher lvl and also afew lower are in Inferno.
On RK diffrent high lvl guilds are at diffrent places.
My guilds (Apocalypse) are at OA grid platform
Reborn in by2 in OA
SF in WA
Don't know where other guilds hang out if not in SL.
But no reason for high lvls to be on RK so ofcourse it's hard to find them there.
------------------------- Azzazzimon
Exactly my point hehe only a few here and there I am on RK2 so there is also a differance. But either server should still be like 500-1000 people level 180-220 around on both servers but there not only a few here and there. Not sure if you were around a year ago but if so you knew that outside Tir there was so many people the lag was deadly. Where is that same croud? I know there are still a few people level 200 around just not many. Nothing like the numbers a year ago.
Why is everyone missing the point.. Where all the 100's of people level 200 that use to be playing now? They are not there anymore. SL got alot of noobs to come to AO this is true and there around playing but the level 200's that were there before are gone now. If you compair just the level 180-200 numbers to the numbers before SL came out then it is a ghost town. The noobs in AO don't count towards a lasting game its the people that pay to play for years that makes the game stay. If the game is doing well with just getting noobs on a constant turnover this is great I guess but I can't see that lasting.
Lvl 160ish-205ish are in Adonis
Higher lvl and also afew lower are in Inferno.
On RK diffrent high lvl guilds are at diffrent places.
My guilds (Apocalypse) are at OA grid platform
Reborn in by2 in OA
SF in WA
Don't know where other guilds hang out if not in SL.
But no reason for high lvls to be on RK so ofcourse it's hard to find them there.
------------------------- Azzazzimon
Exactly my point hehe only a few here and there I am on RK2 so there is also a differance. But either server should still be like 500-1000 people level 180-220 around on both servers but there not only a few here and there. Not sure if you were around a year ago but if so you knew that outside Tir there was so many people the lag was deadly. Where is that same croud? I know there are still a few people level 200 around just not many. Nothing like the numbers a year ago.
RK2 have always had less people than RK1, so that can be the case, but most people that were outside Tir earlier are in SL now instead, no reason at all to lvl in RK..
FC should raise xp on RK so that's an option to SL so people can choose, but don't think that will happend.
Originally posted by Crowen Exactly my point hehe only a few here and there I am on RK2 so there is also a differance. But either server should still be like 500-1000 people level 180-220 around on both servers but there not only a few here and there. Not sure if you were around a year ago but if so you knew that outside Tir there was so many people the lag was deadly. Where is that same croud? I know there are still a few people level 200 around just not many. Nothing like the numbers a year ago.
RK2 have always had less people than RK1, so that can be the case, but most people that were outside Tir earlier are in SL now instead, no reason at all to lvl in RK..
Even if they had less people that RK1 they still had 100's of level 200's a year ago but now there all gone. My whole Org left AO and all the friends from other Org's are gone too. There might be a few around but when you go to the high channels and not one person is there logged into any zone I call that a Ghost Town.
Originally posted by Azzazzimon Tir have been a ghost town since they removed the grid, never people there, go to OA and you will see alot more people. Since SL everyone are more spread out too, alot of people in Elysium, Adonis and Inferno. /anon is the first thing most people do, you can be in a big war with 200 people and do /list and you won't even see 5 people on it.. So I wouldn't say those are the best ways to see that population have dropped, but all higher lvls know that people are leaving it's easy to see since they see people from guild and other old friends leaving AO almost daily.
------------------------- Azzazzimon
Yes but they all went outside tir and no one is there either. Also OA is only filled with people in the 50-100 range thats still low end. Where are all the level 200's?? Thats the point there I am a level 200 wanting to find others 200 to group with where are they all??
Please don't reply about the noobs I don't care how many or where they are. I want to know where all the level 200's are. There use to be 100 people outside Tir or just inside it that were 180 to 200 making groups. They don't exist anymore. If you read my post it was stating level 200's not the noobs.
going back here just a little, i have the exact answer to this question. All of the people level 150+, all the way to 220, are all leveling vigilantly in SL, and teaming up is a must out there. An example of why: Each adonis heckler give about 500k exp, and that number rises as you go farther into the shadowlands. Bosses are also a big thing out there, and also, alot of these people can be found PvPing all over the place, just gotta find the right towns. Newland, Old Athen, Omni-1 Trade, the raid spots such as Mercs, Tarasque; these spots are all hot with people when the bosses are spawned, etc. But again, Shadowlands is VERY big when it comes to high level teams. Alot of the 190+ people in my guild spend some of their time in Inferno, Adonis, Pandemonium and Penumbra fighting hecklers or hunting bosses. Take alook out there, even if you don't like SL much, you might find some enjoyment. Or, check Newland, thats a good place for higher end characters. Also, most of the older level 200 players alot of you are talking about are in fact still around, such as Insilico, the first 220 on RK2. I first met him almost a year and a half ago when i first started. Most of these people that are level 200+ have been around for quite a while, and most of them say they plan to stay for the new expansion. Most of the ones that are "gone" are most definatly playing alts and trying out new things.
but as a reply to the topic as a whole, the population of Anarchy Online is FAR from dropping, especially with the announcement of the new expansion in the works. Many many people look forward to the new features being introduced, such as Guild HQs. Expect to see even more people coming to this oldie-but-goodie in the near future.
Originally posted by starklaw going back here just a little, i have the exact answer to this question. All of the people level 150+, all the way to 220, are all leveling vigilantly in SL, and teaming up is a must out there. An example of why: Each adonis heckler give about 500k exp, and that number rises as you go farther into the shadowlands. Bosses are also a big thing out there, and also, alot of these people can be found PvPing all over the place, just gotta find the right towns. Newland, Old Athen, Omni-1 Trade, the raid spots such as Mercs, Tarasque; these spots are all hot with people when the bosses are spawned, etc. But again, Shadowlands is VERY big when it comes to high level teams. Alot of the 190+ people in my guild spend some of their time in Inferno, Adonis, Pandemonium and Penumbra fighting hecklers or hunting bosses. Take alook out there, even if you don't like SL much, you might find some enjoyment. Or, check Newland, thats a good place for higher end characters. Also, most of the older level 200 players alot of you are talking about are in fact still around, such as Insilico, the first 220 on RK2. I first met him almost a year and a half ago when i first started. Most of these people that are level 200+ have been around for quite a while, and most of them say they plan to stay for the new expansion. Most of the ones that are "gone" are most definatly playing alts and trying out new things. but as a reply to the topic as a whole, the population of Anarchy Online is FAR from dropping, especially with the announcement of the new expansion in the works. Many many people look forward to the new features being introduced, such as Guild HQs. Expect to see even more people coming to this oldie-but-goodie in the near future.
Well I just logged out of AO on RK2 and 2 people were at newland that were 190+ and both were Omni. Did a list of people accross zones 190-220 and didn't get the hundreds listed I use to a year ago. Your post is nice to bad it not true.
You have posted that people that use to play but don't like SL have rerolled and are playing alt's. Where are your getting this from? Do you have access to information no other player does? Do you have access to everyones accounts and can see they there not playing there 200's but are infact playing alts? My entire Org of over 100 people left AO. I know none are in AO because our guild is going to WoW as a whole and are still in contact. Other than specualtion how are you comming up with a statment your making? How do you know for a fact that the numbers have not gone down in a year?
Sorry to jump on this but other than you liking the game you out right making up crap but stating that the population has not dropped.
I too like AO's original game and I would like to see the game turn around but the fact remains that over the last year there high level player base has dropped in numbers. You agree with this just by stating that people that were 200 are now playing alts. But is this a guess or do you have access to Funcom's play account information?
Just got an E-mail from Funcom offering me 4.95 to come back to AO or 14.95 for both expantions and a free 30 days to play. Not sure if its just me but this doesn't look like the act of a company with record numbers that doesn't need people bad. Funny right after the release of City of Heros and Lineage 2 that Funcom would be making this offer to everyone to get them to please come back to AO.
Also nice of Funcom to announce that there monthly subsciption is revenue and not for system upkeeping.
In reply to your post right before the last here, i can tell you where i get this info. The players themselves. It's called being social. If you talk to people, you'll find out that the have high level mains. Making up info isn't something i choose to do on a regular basis, and the only way any of this info would be made up is if they players themselves are providing the names of characters that aren't there, and when you send their guild's IGN bot a tell asking for alts info, and it lists these characters, then these people must be going to great lengths to lie just to make themselves "sound cool and uber". Play the game and talk to people.
Cant understand the problem with Shadowlands being mentioned. Shadowlands could have been released as a totally seperate game and would have been great but added to rubi-ka it is just amazing. The size of the expansion is impressive compared to every other MMORPG.
I played AO at release and tried it again many times after that. When shadowlands was released I finally choose to stay.
The current daddy of all MMO's
I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
If you've noticed the recent trend in what Funcom has been doing lately, population is definitely going up.
With the expansion well into development, things are looking up. The voice pack contest is still going on, as well. They also got a multimillion dollar investment(read past news on MMPORG.COM to find out more) and they are hiring a lot of folks now.
Which, by the way, if you are good in C++ and Python, and are willing to move to Oslo, Funcom is looking to hire people with skills in those areas as coders, world builders, etc.
AO may have been off to an atrocious start, but it has since recovered, and as you can see, is very highly rated on MMORPG.com.
It's rating(Along with DAOC's and FF ONLINE's rating) dropped by about a .5 with the release of City of Heroes, though with AO, you definitely do get a big bang for your buck.
Regards,
Guardian Luinitari
Advisors of Rubi-Ka(ARK)
Bartle's test results
Explorer 73% Achiever 60% Socializer 46% Killer 20%
Comments
Anarchy Online has definitely lost it's fair share of members to the upcoming MMMORPGS (L2 etc.). Last time I played (approx. 3-4 months ago) it had been a veterate ghost town.
Ironically, I seem to be the only person that enjoyed the expansion. SL transformed AO into a solo game, as you do not need a group by any means to advance, and this in turn annihilated the economics and many of the social aspects of the game (missions etc.).
It's such a shame that AO destroyed itself. In my opinion it had been the best MMORPG out on the market until it pumped out it's expansion.
In any case, AO had the right idea with the gameplay&character creation improvements. I hope the upcoming rpgs will follow AO's character development paradigm (continuous leveling and balanced characters, complex skill trees etc.) (WoW seems the most promising in this department)
//\//\00 (oVV
This is a sequence of characters intended to produce some profound mental effect, but it has failed.
Anarchy Online is far from a ghost town, and the number of players (both new ones and veterans returning) have increased - not decreased - since the launch of Shadowlands.
But, players are a bit more spread out now, due to a lot of new huge playfields havingbeen added. The typical gathering places on Rubi-Ka aren't as packed as they used to be. I guess that's what makes some people think there are fewer players online. Ask around a bit, take some time to get to know the community and their gathering places, and you shouldn't have any problem fiding both teams and organizations to join.
Thomas 'Cz' Johnsen
Community Manager
Funcom
Thomas "Cz" Johnsen
Community Manager
Funcom
Don't mean to debunk your game. I still find it great, but you can't refute the fact that you have lost a load to the expansion as well as your competition.
You are right in the sense that the player density has decreased in most areas, but even if the number of players has increasd since the expansion, the number of players that the game has gained since the expansion is not significant enough to buoy the numbers past the pre-notum wars expansion numbers.
Which seemed much more overwhelming, or perhaps I am just used to lag city (athens, trade district etc.). Maybe a literal integer comparison would be fair to both me and other potential users?
//\//\00 (oVV
This is a sequence of characters intended to produce some profound mental effect, but it has failed.
While it's not my liberty to give out numbers, I can say we have gained customers steadily over a very long time now. The kind of mass exodus people portray has simply never happened. Not at the launch of any of our expansions, and not at the launch of other MMOs. People have been talking about leaving, for sure, and some even took a month or two off AO after Shadowlands. Most people come back though, and a lot of new players arrive all the time.
I'm not really surprised about the impression some seem to have. People tend to talk (or scream) about it in big words on public forums when they're frustrated or burnt out and leave a game, or take a break. They just say hi to friends when they return.
If your estimates of player numbers is based on lag, please note that we've done a lot of performance tweaks. Shadowlands is rather demanding when it comes to hardware resources, but Rubi-Ka is running a lot better now then e.g. just after the launch of Notum Wars.
I realize I can never convince some people that I am telling the truth. Some are very stuck in their opinion about us being only a customer or five from closing down. (Not thinking about you now, but the most extreme AO doomsayers.) Even if I were allowed to post numbers, people could (and probably would) just say I'm lying.
Thus for me to discuss this is rather futile. I'll just state that AO and Funcom are both very healthy, and we intend to keep growing for a long time still.
Thomas 'Cz' Johnsen
Community Manager
Funcom
Thomas "Cz" Johnsen
Community Manager
Funcom
Would be pretty bad if you didn't plan to keep growing:)
IMO FC working too hard with getting new customers instead of caring about those you already have.
You get new customers that jump between diffrent games and probably leave for next game pretty soon instead of having many solid customers that staying in one game for several years, easier to please newbies than veterans maybe tho.
Would be interesting to see the numbers of how many 2.5+ year old accounts that have been canceled from SL release and until now.
-------------------------
Azzazzimon
-------------------------
Azzazzimon
Thank you for your input Cz.
--------------------
Alex "Maximane" De Line
- MMORPG.COM Staff -
I'm one of those people that had quit due to shadowlands, stuck it out for over a month but the bottlenecks were too much. I have no ill will towards Funcom by any means it was just frustrating seing my core friends from Legion login to say good bye, you can only take so much.
Cz thanks for posting on this forum, I still have a lot of respect for what you do.
AO alumni
My estimates on numbers are based on logging into tir and not seeing 1 single person in the zone but me. My estimates are from sitting in the LFG channel for the high level channel and seeing no one there. My estimates are from doing an ingame /list to try and find people my level and seeing 3 people total.
I understand your here doing damage control but when your own ingame support doesn't know that you have to go to SL to get exp from 200-220 because you have to get ARK's from new players because the old timers are not around this shows.
I know you have gotten alot of new people since the release of SL and thats great but my entire Org left AO and I know other Org's did too so the end players leave and you get new ones in. If thats the goal of your growth grats your doing well. But without high end content that really makes high levels stay and play this will turn out to be a problem.
Now this is just an idea but what if you gave people the option to level to 220 without going to SL? I know this would pretty much kill the SL stuff but hey no one is there anyways and the few that are will stay there.
I however can see AO still making money because lets face it how can you not with a $15 a month fee even shadowbane and SWG are still making money but AO can be so much more I think thats the point here. I want to see AO on top because the original game has that ability. I hope your guys fix this up I really loved playing AO and I would love to be able to play it again.
Im your Discount FlashBack Warehouse
Playing - --
Played - AO, CoH/CoV, DDO, Eve, Guildwars, LOTRO, WoW.
Waiting - For WAR, Fury.
My estimates on numbers are based on logging into tir and not seeing 1 single person in the zone but me. My estimates are from sitting in the LFG channel for the high level channel and seeing no one there. My estimates are from doing an ingame /list to try and find people my level and seeing 3 people total.
I understand your here doing damage control but when your own ingame support doesn't know that you have to go to SL to get exp from 200-220 because you have to get ARK's from new players because the old timers are not around this shows.
I know you have gotten alot of new people since the release of SL and thats great but my entire Org left AO and I know other Org's did too so the end players leave and you get new ones in. If thats the goal of your growth grats your doing well. But without high end content that really makes high levels stay and play this will turn out to be a problem.
Now this is just an idea but what if you gave people the option to level to 220 without going to SL? I know this would pretty much kill the SL stuff but hey no one is there anyways and the few that are will stay there.
I however can see AO still making money because lets face it how can you not with a $15 a month fee even shadowbane and SWG are still making money but AO can be so much more I think thats the point here. I want to see AO on top because the original game has that ability. I hope your guys fix this up I really loved playing AO and I would love to be able to play it again.
Tir have been a ghost town since they removed the grid, never people there, go to OA and you will see alot more people.
Since SL everyone are more spread out too, alot of people in Elysium, Adonis and Inferno.
/anon is the first thing most people do, you can be in a big war with 200 people and do /list and you won't even see 5 people on it..
So I wouldn't say those are the best ways to see that population have dropped, but all higher lvls know that people are leaving it's easy to see since they see people from guild and other old friends leaving AO almost daily.
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Azzazzimon
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Azzazzimon
Yes but they all went outside tir and no one is there either. Also OA is only filled with people in the 50-100 range thats still low end. Where are all the level 200's?? Thats the point there I am a level 200 wanting to find others 200 to group with where are they all??
Please don't reply about the noobs I don't care how many or where they are. I want to know where all the level 200's are. There use to be 100 people outside Tir or just inside it that were 180 to 200 making groups. They don't exist anymore. If you read my post it was stating level 200's not the noobs.
Why is everyone missing the point.. Where all the 100's of people level 200 that use to be playing now? They are not there anymore. SL got alot of noobs to come to AO this is true and there around playing but the level 200's that were there before are gone now. If you compair just the level 180-200 numbers to the numbers before SL came out then it is a ghost town. The noobs in AO don't count towards a lasting game its the people that pay to play for years that makes the game stay. If the game is doing well with just getting noobs on a constant turnover this is great I guess but I can't see that lasting.
Why is everyone missing the point.. Where all the 100's of people level 200 that use to be playing now? They are not there anymore. SL got alot of noobs to come to AO this is true and there around playing but the level 200's that were there before are gone now. If you compair just the level 180-200 numbers to the numbers before SL came out then it is a ghost town. The noobs in AO don't count towards a lasting game its the people that pay to play for years that makes the game stay. If the game is doing well with just getting noobs on a constant turnover this is great I guess but I can't see that lasting.
Lvl 160ish-205ish are in Adonis
Higher lvl and also afew lower are in Inferno.
On RK diffrent high lvl guilds are at diffrent places.
My guilds (Apocalypse) are at OA grid platform
Reborn in by2 in OA
SF in WA
Don't know where other guilds hang out if not in SL.
But no reason for high lvls to be on RK so ofcourse it's hard to find them there.
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Azzazzimon
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Azzazzimon
Why is everyone missing the point.. Where all the 100's of people level 200 that use to be playing now? They are not there anymore. SL got alot of noobs to come to AO this is true and there around playing but the level 200's that were there before are gone now. If you compair just the level 180-200 numbers to the numbers before SL came out then it is a ghost town. The noobs in AO don't count towards a lasting game its the people that pay to play for years that makes the game stay. If the game is doing well with just getting noobs on a constant turnover this is great I guess but I can't see that lasting.
Lvl 160ish-205ish are in Adonis
Higher lvl and also afew lower are in Inferno.
On RK diffrent high lvl guilds are at diffrent places.
My guilds (Apocalypse) are at OA grid platform
Reborn in by2 in OA
SF in WA
Don't know where other guilds hang out if not in SL.
But no reason for high lvls to be on RK so ofcourse it's hard to find them there.
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Azzazzimon
Exactly my point hehe only a few here and there I am on RK2 so there is also a differance. But either server should still be like 500-1000 people level 180-220 around on both servers but there not only a few here and there. Not sure if you were around a year ago but if so you knew that outside Tir there was so many people the lag was deadly. Where is that same croud? I know there are still a few people level 200 around just not many. Nothing like the numbers a year ago.
Why is everyone missing the point.. Where all the 100's of people level 200 that use to be playing now? They are not there anymore. SL got alot of noobs to come to AO this is true and there around playing but the level 200's that were there before are gone now. If you compair just the level 180-200 numbers to the numbers before SL came out then it is a ghost town. The noobs in AO don't count towards a lasting game its the people that pay to play for years that makes the game stay. If the game is doing well with just getting noobs on a constant turnover this is great I guess but I can't see that lasting.
Lvl 160ish-205ish are in Adonis
Higher lvl and also afew lower are in Inferno.
On RK diffrent high lvl guilds are at diffrent places.
My guilds (Apocalypse) are at OA grid platform
Reborn in by2 in OA
SF in WA
Don't know where other guilds hang out if not in SL.
But no reason for high lvls to be on RK so ofcourse it's hard to find them there.
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Azzazzimon
Exactly my point hehe only a few here and there I am on RK2 so there is also a differance. But either server should still be like 500-1000 people level 180-220 around on both servers but there not only a few here and there. Not sure if you were around a year ago but if so you knew that outside Tir there was so many people the lag was deadly. Where is that same croud? I know there are still a few people level 200 around just not many. Nothing like the numbers a year ago.
RK2 have always had less people than RK1, so that can be the case, but most people that were outside Tir earlier are in SL now instead, no reason at all to lvl in RK..
FC should raise xp on RK so that's an option to SL so people can choose, but don't think that will happend.
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Azzazzimon
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Azzazzimon
RK2 have always had less people than RK1, so that can be the case, but most people that were outside Tir earlier are in SL now instead, no reason at all to lvl in RK..
Even if they had less people that RK1 they still had 100's of level 200's a year ago but now there all gone. My whole Org left AO and all the friends from other Org's are gone too. There might be a few around but when you go to the high channels and not one person is there logged into any zone I call that a Ghost Town.
Yes but they all went outside tir and no one is there either. Also OA is only filled with people in the 50-100 range thats still low end. Where are all the level 200's?? Thats the point there I am a level 200 wanting to find others 200 to group with where are they all??
Please don't reply about the noobs I don't care how many or where they are. I want to know where all the level 200's are. There use to be 100 people outside Tir or just inside it that were 180 to 200 making groups. They don't exist anymore. If you read my post it was stating level 200's not the noobs.
going back here just a little, i have the exact answer to this question. All of the people level 150+, all the way to 220, are all leveling vigilantly in SL, and teaming up is a must out there. An example of why: Each adonis heckler give about 500k exp, and that number rises as you go farther into the shadowlands. Bosses are also a big thing out there, and also, alot of these people can be found PvPing all over the place, just gotta find the right towns. Newland, Old Athen, Omni-1 Trade, the raid spots such as Mercs, Tarasque; these spots are all hot with people when the bosses are spawned, etc. But again, Shadowlands is VERY big when it comes to high level teams. Alot of the 190+ people in my guild spend some of their time in Inferno, Adonis, Pandemonium and Penumbra fighting hecklers or hunting bosses. Take alook out there, even if you don't like SL much, you might find some enjoyment. Or, check Newland, thats a good place for higher end characters. Also, most of the older level 200 players alot of you are talking about are in fact still around, such as Insilico, the first 220 on RK2. I first met him almost a year and a half ago when i first started. Most of these people that are level 200+ have been around for quite a while, and most of them say they plan to stay for the new expansion. Most of the ones that are "gone" are most definatly playing alts and trying out new things.
but as a reply to the topic as a whole, the population of Anarchy Online is FAR from dropping, especially with the announcement of the new expansion in the works. Many many people look forward to the new features being introduced, such as Guild HQs. Expect to see even more people coming to this oldie-but-goodie in the near future.
Well I just logged out of AO on RK2 and 2 people were at newland that were 190+ and both were Omni. Did a list of people accross zones 190-220 and didn't get the hundreds listed I use to a year ago. Your post is nice to bad it not true.
You have posted that people that use to play but don't like SL have rerolled and are playing alt's. Where are your getting this from? Do you have access to information no other player does? Do you have access to everyones accounts and can see they there not playing there 200's but are infact playing alts? My entire Org of over 100 people left AO. I know none are in AO because our guild is going to WoW as a whole and are still in contact. Other than specualtion how are you comming up with a statment your making? How do you know for a fact that the numbers have not gone down in a year?
Sorry to jump on this but other than you liking the game you out right making up crap but stating that the population has not dropped.
I too like AO's original game and I would like to see the game turn around but the fact remains that over the last year there high level player base has dropped in numbers. You agree with this just by stating that people that were 200 are now playing alts. But is this a guess or do you have access to Funcom's play account information?
Just got an E-mail from Funcom offering me 4.95 to come back to AO or 14.95 for both expantions and a free 30 days to play. Not sure if its just me but this doesn't look like the act of a company with record numbers that doesn't need people bad. Funny right after the release of City of Heros and Lineage 2 that Funcom would be making this offer to everyone to get them to please come back to AO.
Also nice of Funcom to announce that there monthly subsciption is revenue and not for system upkeeping.
link to both news releases:
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/showArticle/1563
http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/loadNews/1565
Cant understand the problem with Shadowlands being mentioned. Shadowlands could have been released as a totally seperate game and would have been great but added to rubi-ka it is just amazing. The size of the expansion is impressive compared to every other MMORPG.
I played AO at release and tried it again many times after that. When shadowlands was released I finally choose to stay.
If you've noticed the recent trend in what Funcom has been doing lately, population is definitely going up.
With the expansion well into development, things are looking up. The voice pack contest is still going on, as well. They also got a multimillion dollar investment(read past news on MMPORG.COM to find out more) and they are hiring a lot of folks now.
Which, by the way, if you are good in C++ and Python, and are willing to move to Oslo, Funcom is looking to hire people with skills in those areas as coders, world builders, etc.
AO may have been off to an atrocious start, but it has since recovered, and as you can see, is very highly rated on MMORPG.com.
It's rating(Along with DAOC's and FF ONLINE's rating) dropped by about a .5 with the release of City of Heroes, though
with AO, you definitely do get a big bang for your buck.
Regards,
Guardian Luinitari
Advisors of Rubi-Ka(ARK)
Bartle's test results
Explorer 73%
Achiever 60%
Socializer 46%
Killer 20%