Green=The reinforced hammer of logic breaking through the thick walls of bollocksy skulls.
Hey despute this number. 7 million sold and maybe 100k actually playing. What did Guild Wars do so amazing that other games tried to copy? Where is there amazing impact?
Only reason GW2 is getting such hype is the are using hype words and putting out select things and pushing the date further out. Rift is here and it is backed up by a better dev in my opinion. People want to use "well they are better financed by NCSOft"
So what. They have been better financed for years by NCSoft and have made little to no impact or even attempted to on the mmo world. A B2P done correctly should be dominating this market right now, but it is not. There content is slow and the game itself is not done right.
Green=The reinforced hammer of logic breaking through the thick walls of bollocksy skulls.
Hey despute this number. (That's not a number, 100k playing is speculation on your part) 7 million sold and maybe 100k actually playing. What did Guild Wars do so amazing that other games tried to copy? (It remained a unique game unlike WoW and it's many adoring clones) Where is there amazing impact? (It's basically the only CORPG out there, which genre is it supposed to affect?)
Only reason GW2 is getting such hype is the are using hype words and putting out select things and pushing the date further out. (Unlike Rift, Guild Wars 2 has got pre-beta gameplay footage, from people who played it, that people find attractive. If Trion had allowed people to post gameplay footage and their impressions quite some people would have been scared away. And if Trion had pushed the date further they wouldn't have to be pushing content non-stop and they wouldn't have needed such heavy advertising)
Rift is here and it is backed up by a better dev in my opinion. (ONE dev, a good developing company does not make) People want to use "well they are better financed by NCSOft"(One of Rift's investors was Activision, by the way)
^Please Pure, continue posting nonsense and refrain from personal attacks and senseless insinuations.
That dev (Scott Hartmann) you like to praise actually called GW1 a success.
Well you know some people screaming for "hard numbers" are just begging to compare it with other games instead of playing or not playing it.
Personally I think it has been succesful, otherwise there is no way you would see Trion hanging on to their impressive content pace simple as that. For me they have destroyed the game by listening to the former WoW crowd driving those away who flew from it.
GW 2 doesn't offer raids so Rift raiders won't probably be interested in it, ToR will launch with approximately 9 months short of content, so Bioware will be heavily pressured adding content fast and we all know adding fully voiced content will take a long time, they are only starting with one raid.
Once the hype has come down to a normal level (hard facts instead of PR overhyping) we will be able to give a better answer at least thats my guess.
In my mind Trion needs to stick to non wowplayers instead of adding everything, they are screaming for you know dumb down, hard modes and wellfare epics. I like Trion a lot so I really really hope they are able to get their own loyal crowd soon, cause a loyal crowd in the end means more income than a massive bandwagoners crowd.
Till then I will say YES the game has been succesful
We need a MMORPG Cataclysm asap, finish the dark age of MMORPGS now!
"Everything you're bitching about is wrong. People don't have the time to invest in corpse runs, impossible zones, or long winded quests. Sometimes, they just want to pop on and play." "Then maybe MMORPGs aren't for you."
I wouldn't say that Rift could be considered the first or only to date sucsessful MMO to launch in 2011. Any game that launches and dosn't fully fall on its face due to bugs or lack of content could also be considered a sucsessful MMO. I think Rift has been 2011s first profitable and large scale launch. It has kept a fair ammount of subscribers over the months unlike games like DCU.
I will say that Rift so far is in good times, however with SWTOR and GW2 on the horizon (one aiming for this year) I think Rifts future is going to be a bumpy one. You see Rift is of the EQ2/WoW generation in design. It's groundbreaking because it has dynamic world content and that is a key feature that will keep the game afloat. However when it comes to story and overall concept the game follows the WoW formula rather well.
As I mentioned before SWTOR and GW2 are going to collide in the near future. If they were both two storm systems then we're looking at the perfect storm of MMOs. Two massive titles fighting and feeding off eachother. All other smaller MMOs may very well perish. Shure some will limp out of the storm that is coming but many will never truely be the same again. SWG is the first victim and the games haven't even launched yet.
I think Rift will weather that coming storm even ride some waves with grace, but I think in the end its population will fall, its servers merged and it will become known as one of the most groundbreaking WoW-era MMOs ever made.
I think Rift will weather that coming storm even ride some waves with grace, but I think in the end its population will fall, its servers merged and it will become known as one of the most groundbreaking WoW-era MMOs ever made.
How is Rift groundbreaking? Every element is taken from others with no real innovative/groundbreaking features, a polished launch is the only thing I can see that Rift has accomplished. Then again that doesn't really say much considering how far advanced technology has advanced that make it trivial to lauch a good polished game.
Ok, listen people. That loud bang and crash you just heard COULD possibly have been an iceburg hitting the hull...but really, it could just as easily have been something else.
It could have been...um, I don't know...possibly it was the sound of the engines kicking over or else it could have been the start of another of those great fireworks displays. You liked the fireworks, right? Right?
What? Listing hard to port? Well, maybe we're just in a sharp turn. I mean really, there are prefectly casual explanations for all of this!
Come on, people. The food is delicious, isn't it? Be honest, have you ever heard a band that was this good? Wait, stop running for a second and listen to reason!
Fozzik, that was a very nice read and quite entertaining. While not necessary to my enjoyment, I do wonder what the sinking ship represents in this analogy you crafted. Sorry for being too dense, but we have been discussing a few topics here.
Fozzik, that was a very nice read and quite entertaining. While not necessary to my enjoyment, I do wonder what the sinking ship represents in this analogy you crafted. Sorry for being too dense, but we have been discussing a few topics here.
Been playing a couple of months, 2 level 50's in T2. Bored now.
I just wish they hadn't gone down the damn instanced pvp route - it is so tedious, repetitve and pointless - I hated it about WoW and I hate it here. PVE is good but PVP is not.
I've been enjoying it and now the servers have balanced out it much better, that said I'm pretty casual in the time I put into the game and havent even hit 50 though been playing since launch (the wife has hit 50) and cant see myself staying here much more than a year or so.
I WONT be leaving for GW2 (found the first so unappealing and boring that I havent even followed the hype for 2) or SW:tor (just over the whole SW concept, an MMO based on a film series that managed a total of 1 1/2 decent films out of 6 tries isnt that appealing) but will probably jump off for Dark Millenium or if something grabs my attention in the interim
Some truly inane comments here...good to see the place hasnt changed lol
The SW prequels made a ton of money and were commercially successful. But were they good movies? Alot of people would say no.
Also was Avatar really that good to be the most commercially successful movie ever? Again I would say no, there are alot of movies better than Avatar.
So my point is, the question to ask is not if it was a commercial success. I am sure that is interesting for Trion and other stakeholders but for us customers, was the game really that good? Again I would say no.
It is the same themepark MMORPGs we have been seeing released over and over ever since the success of WoW. What had it going for it was the polish, nothing else really.
Trion has not stated sub numbers yet as they are still in the process of releasing in the eastern market,china etc
Can you honestly think that'll affect it much?
In the Eastern Market Aion does better than WoW, and with ArcheAge and Terra both of which are Eastern Companies can you honestly think Rift will have much success over there?
Anyways saying "oh their waiting of Eastern Market rekease" sounds more of corperate BS than anything.
Trion has not stated sub numbers yet as they are still in the process of releasing in the eastern market,china etc
Can you honestly think that'll affect it much?
In the Eastern Market Aion does better than WoW, and with ArcheAge and Terra both of which are Eastern Companies can you honestly think Rift will have much success over there?
Anyways saying "oh their waiting of Eastern Market rekease" sounds more of corperate BS than anything.
Give them time, are you just trying to find anyay to nitpick and destroy this game? Seriously, Trion hasn't stated anything about "these are our subscribtion numbers". Everyone making up assumptions, and pointing fingers at each other is really, really unecessary.
Give the company a break, they've developed something that a few people like to play and enjoy, without them - everyone would still be playing World of Warcraft, and Guild Wars. Isn't it nice to have a little variation?
Think of it like this - you go to a gas station to fill up, there's one next door that is $0.10 cheaper, so you decide to go over there instead because you can get more bang for your buck when you fill up your tank. However- just because they are $0.10 less doesn't mean the other company isn't making money still, because; believe it or not; they are.
Now; please guys - this is about Rift, not about Guild Wars, not about World of Warcraft. Rift is doing well, I play it, my friends play it, we have fun. We are alsoing playing Guild Wars for the PvP aspects while we wait for Guild Wars 2.
I'm amazed at how much hatred there is for something so unecessary, subscription numbers, are just a number, who cares how well the company is doing if they're pumping out content monthly, and patching things every 2-3 days.
"patching things every 2-3 days." - Don't believe me? Look at the launcher - they're patching junk as people report and find it. They're quick on the ball - give em' that at least. They're hard working, just like you and me. They're earning a living, I don't think we really need people sitting here saying things like, "Oh, that's PR bull crap.." or, "Yeah, Trion has hardly any subs, that game is as good as dead." Login, join ques, the average que is between 10-30 seconds for me when I login and play.
People are beating a dead horse over this subscriber number - and the die hard fans of Rift are making it worse by making up stupid statistics when they have no clue what's going on behind the scenes - hell, NOBODY knows what is going on behind the scenes except Trion and whoever their Private Investors / Private Company is.
So, why doesn't it surprise me to see this pro-Rift article here on this page?
Your NA shard picture wouldn't look as well if you'd taken a shot of the EU server-list which displays low shards allover the place. Rift -as many other mmorpgs- isn't US only, a fact you guys at mmorpg.com often miss. There's another place over the big pond.
Then, about ever point you made in the paragraph "New content vs missing content" can be refuted, except for the plain fact that Trion delivered X patches since release. I'm not going into everything, but i.e. the point that leveling is ridiculously easy still remains. And as to "no endgame content at lvl50", this is also very well true for non-raiders or people who refuse to grind pvp. Balance is still a joke as well as the live events.
There is no reason to not release actual subs numbers, be it 1mio or 250k. It was THEM starting the big talk in first place, taunting WoW and such....now it's about time to show if they also walked the walked. Trion should now stand by their product as it is instead of hiding behind PR spin about "accounts", "customers", "registrations" and such.
1. They dropped 50million bucks on Rift out of a 100million dollar budget from mystery people
2. The game started with 29 server of which could hold maybe 1-2k at a time online at the same time. This quickly shot up to 99 servers and even then the queues were still 2,000-3,000 on some servers.
3. After they raised the concurrent server levels and the initial wave left they allowed free servers x-fers and consolidated to 60 servers. Those 60 servers look pretty stable and some peak at high pop more then they used too.
Now take what we know from a game like SWToR. We can assume they spent more then 50million dollars obviously. The producer has come out and said they needed to maintain 500k for 6 months to be profittable. So assuming this Rift probably became proffittable after month number 3.
This is without a cash shop or money from transfers. I can guarantee Trion is handing out some Christmas bonuses this year because when you maybe expected 100k sold and are around 1.5 million sold you did something right.
I completely agree with your assessment here. I think this has been an outstanding year for Trion. How the next 1-2 years play out will have a lot to do with how well they continue to maintain and grow their playerbase.
All I need to know is that Rift has had a free trial going for a long time now.. They obviously didnt do as well as they thought they would. It also inflates the accounts created number which the article pointed out.My problem with Rift? The character classes are boring to play and the multi class system works against it IMO.
WoW had millions of subs and gave out free trials left and right. They were obviously doing just fine so the free trial thing isn't an indicator of anything except the company wants to give out free trials.
WoW did not have free trials early in its life like Rift has had.. With Rift it has been pretty much since release.
Well, I hit 50 at about 2 months, stuck around for another month, dropped when my 3 month sub ended. I dropped because no one was ever on, and the LFG tool sucked. Any improvements there? I'd consider coming back till SWTOR comes out anyway...
So, why doesn't it surprise me to see this pro-Rift article here on this page?
Your NA shard picture wouldn't look as well if you'd taken a shot of the EU server-list which displays low shards allover the place. Rift -as many other mmorpgs- isn't US only, a fact you guys at mmorpg.com often miss. There's another place over the big pond.
Then, about ever point you made in the paragraph "New content vs missing content" can be refuted, except for the plain fact that Trion delivered X patches since release. I'm not going into everything, but i.e. the point that leveling is ridiculously easy still remains. And as to "no endgame content at lvl50", this is also very well true for non-raiders or people who refuse to grind pvp. Balance is still a joke as well as the live events.
There is no reason to not release actual subs numbers, be it 1mio or 250k. It was THEM starting the big talk in first place, taunting WoW and such....now it's about time to show if they also walked the walked. Trion should now stand by their product as it is instead of hiding behind PR spin about "accounts", "customers", "registrations" and such.
This has to be one of the most uneducated comments Ive seen.... When it is primetime in America it is really early in the morning in Europe before most people are awake so obviously they are going to have low pop shards.... Check their status' when it is morning here and you will see that their server popualtions are similar to ours.
To address you're no content statement, just because you don't like the content does not imply that there is none. its simple if you dont like it, dont play it. Besides the point but starting the next patch they are adding different content to tend to the people who aren't happy with the content they already have, and to give the current players something else to do...
Finally why do they have any reason to release any subs numbers at all? They aren't held by the balls by another company so the only reason they have to announce the sub numbers would be to shut up people like you who obviously have no idea what the hell they are talking about.
So, why doesn't it surprise me to see this pro-Rift article here on this page?
Your NA shard picture wouldn't look as well if you'd taken a shot of the EU server-list which displays low shards allover the place. Rift -as many other mmorpgs- isn't US only, a fact you guys at mmorpg.com often miss. There's another place over the big pond.
Then, about ever point you made in the paragraph "New content vs missing content" can be refuted, except for the plain fact that Trion delivered X patches since release. I'm not going into everything, but i.e. the point that leveling is ridiculously easy still remains. And as to "no endgame content at lvl50", this is also very well true for non-raiders or people who refuse to grind pvp. Balance is still a joke as well as the live events.
There is no reason to not release actual subs numbers, be it 1mio or 250k. It was THEM starting the big talk in first place, taunting WoW and such....now it's about time to show if they also walked the walked. Trion should now stand by their product as it is instead of hiding behind PR spin about "accounts", "customers", "registrations" and such.
You obviously didn't even read my entire post, seeing as you totally missed the concept of what I was talking about.
It was also laughable that you talk about no end-game for Rift; I find plenty to do, you must just refuse to do what an MMORPG is all about - crafting, dungeons, raiding, rifting, and PvP. What else do you want? Oh - let me guess "Open world PvP and sieges!!!" just like all the other people on this message board.
Seriously, grow up, the game is good, so is WoW. They aren't "hiding" behind anything, they just don't want to reveal statistical data - that doesn't mean it's bad, it doesn't mean it's good either by any means; there are a lot of different explanations for not releasing that sort of information - I've worked in a corporate office before; it's not all about boasting how many of this or that you have, and keeping some things confidential is the best bet to keep things under control.
Even if Rift doesn't have "X" amount of subscribers, they're still doing well - or at least from the looks of it; so I don't think there is any reason for them to spout lies (which they aren't..); but they don't have to reveal something if they don't want to.
Perhaps, I can add something more than guess work to this story. I'm a guild leader within Rift, with a guild that has 97 names on its book as of today. It was at about 120, but about a month ago I deleted those people who had not logged in for 50 days. I have not done that since, but there are many more who are now in the same category. I'm actually down to about 20 active players (logged in within 7 days). None of those people haven't left my guild to join another guild or to transfer server, they've just stopped playing.
It would be my best guess that Rift has no more than about one sixth the number of active players as players who have played at one time or another. If Trion is quoting 2 million accounts, then its my guess the number currently playing is somewhere around 300K. I'd also guess that a lot of the people who are inactive are still paying subs, so Rift will no doubt be very profitable.
The numbers seem to have settled down, and I am now getting as many newcomers as those leaving. A number of us are levelling atls and questing with the newcomers. It's not the hectic rush that it was in March and April, but its still a lot of fun, and I seem to have time to follow through the quest chains to discover the stories embedded within Rift.
I will just say that there is much confusion about Rift and this thing called end game. While everyone calls Rift a WoW clone, Rift is very much about the end game and leveling about understanding the world, the lore and game mechanics that get you to where Trion aparently wanted everyone to be quite quickly. Rift will never raise the level cap, as many games do, because its content is not tied to quests and leveling, its content is tied to more dynamic events.
Perhaps I am spoilt being on a PvP server, but the open world PvP is active and intense and a big part of any evening for myself and my guild. Having PvPed in many games, including Asheron's Call, Shadowbane, Age of Conan and Darkfall, the open world PvP is as good as, if not better, than any other game, although I still have a soft spot for Shadowbane and my Nephilim Mage.
Does anybody on this site even like MMOs? All people do is bash them, claim them to be failures, label them as clone-this, clone-that, degrade their developers, and whine that multplayer games aren't made to suit their personal needs.
Rift is doing fine, deal with it. Log in to any server and see for yourself before you come here and spout ridiculous speculation on their numbers.
Someone above said it ake 1 millions subs to be successful... I seriously had an LOL moment. That means no game besides WoW is a success. Some of the most successful and fun games of all time never even broke 300k (SWG, Ultima Online, EQ, to name a few). This proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that lower sub numbers can create great communities and great games.
100k subs + box sales puts it at 6.5 million in one month + 1. 5m each month after. 250k is 16.25 million + 3.75m a month (20 million in the first two months). And thats if ONLY the people subbing bought a box. Those numbers are undoubtedly lowball but you get the idea. And guess what... 50million in debt isn't paid all at once. A revenue stream of a few million a month is more than enough to repay a 50m debt and still be highly profitable. I bought a house for 250k. Doesn't that mean on my 100k salary I'm going to lose my house?!?!?! No.. because that's not how debt/cost works. If they sold anywhere near 1m in boxes they are waaaayy in the black with more than enough money to repay their investors. Long term, who knows... but right now they are fine.
Comments
Hey despute this number. 7 million sold and maybe 100k actually playing. What did Guild Wars do so amazing that other games tried to copy? Where is there amazing impact?
Only reason GW2 is getting such hype is the are using hype words and putting out select things and pushing the date further out. Rift is here and it is backed up by a better dev in my opinion. People want to use "well they are better financed by NCSOft"
So what. They have been better financed for years by NCSoft and have made little to no impact or even attempted to on the mmo world. A B2P done correctly should be dominating this market right now, but it is not. There content is slow and the game itself is not done right.
^Please Pure, continue posting nonsense and refrain from personal attacks and senseless insinuations.
That dev (Scott Hartmann) you like to praise actually called GW1 a success.
Well you know some people screaming for "hard numbers" are just begging to compare it with other games instead of playing or not playing it.
Personally I think it has been succesful, otherwise there is no way you would see Trion hanging on to their impressive content pace simple as that. For me they have destroyed the game by listening to the former WoW crowd driving those away who flew from it.
GW 2 doesn't offer raids so Rift raiders won't probably be interested in it, ToR will launch with approximately 9 months short of content, so Bioware will be heavily pressured adding content fast and we all know adding fully voiced content will take a long time, they are only starting with one raid.
Once the hype has come down to a normal level (hard facts instead of PR overhyping) we will be able to give a better answer at least thats my guess.
In my mind Trion needs to stick to non wowplayers instead of adding everything, they are screaming for you know dumb down, hard modes and wellfare epics. I like Trion a lot so I really really hope they are able to get their own loyal crowd soon, cause a loyal crowd in the end means more income than a massive bandwagoners crowd.
Till then I will say YES the game has been succesful
We need a MMORPG Cataclysm asap, finish the dark age of MMORPGS now!
"Everything you're bitching about is wrong. People don't have the time to invest in corpse runs, impossible zones, or long winded quests. Sometimes, they just want to pop on and play."
"Then maybe MMORPGs aren't for you."
I wouldn't say that Rift could be considered the first or only to date sucsessful MMO to launch in 2011. Any game that launches and dosn't fully fall on its face due to bugs or lack of content could also be considered a sucsessful MMO. I think Rift has been 2011s first profitable and large scale launch. It has kept a fair ammount of subscribers over the months unlike games like DCU.
I will say that Rift so far is in good times, however with SWTOR and GW2 on the horizon (one aiming for this year) I think Rifts future is going to be a bumpy one. You see Rift is of the EQ2/WoW generation in design. It's groundbreaking because it has dynamic world content and that is a key feature that will keep the game afloat. However when it comes to story and overall concept the game follows the WoW formula rather well.
As I mentioned before SWTOR and GW2 are going to collide in the near future. If they were both two storm systems then we're looking at the perfect storm of MMOs. Two massive titles fighting and feeding off eachother. All other smaller MMOs may very well perish. Shure some will limp out of the storm that is coming but many will never truely be the same again. SWG is the first victim and the games haven't even launched yet.
I think Rift will weather that coming storm even ride some waves with grace, but I think in the end its population will fall, its servers merged and it will become known as one of the most groundbreaking WoW-era MMOs ever made.
How is Rift groundbreaking? Every element is taken from others with no real innovative/groundbreaking features, a polished launch is the only thing I can see that Rift has accomplished. Then again that doesn't really say much considering how far advanced technology has advanced that make it trivial to lauch a good polished game.
I like Rift.
I like World of Warcraft.
I like Guild Wars 2.
I like Star Wars: The Old Republic.
Is this illegal in 2011? Why can't people appreciate other's beliefs in video games and enjoy them for what they're supposed to be; fun.
Ok, listen people. That loud bang and crash you just heard COULD possibly have been an iceburg hitting the hull...but really, it could just as easily have been something else.
It could have been...um, I don't know...possibly it was the sound of the engines kicking over or else it could have been the start of another of those great fireworks displays. You liked the fireworks, right? Right?
What? Listing hard to port? Well, maybe we're just in a sharp turn. I mean really, there are prefectly casual explanations for all of this!
Come on, people. The food is delicious, isn't it? Be honest, have you ever heard a band that was this good? Wait, stop running for a second and listen to reason!
Fozzik, that was a very nice read and quite entertaining. While not necessary to my enjoyment, I do wonder what the sinking ship represents in this analogy you crafted. Sorry for being too dense, but we have been discussing a few topics here.
I was paraphrasing the article.
Hey guys let's refrain from baiting and namecalling. Thanks!
EDIT : Stay on topic please. This is not a "GW2 vs Rift" Thread.
Been playing a couple of months, 2 level 50's in T2. Bored now.
I just wish they hadn't gone down the damn instanced pvp route - it is so tedious, repetitve and pointless - I hated it about WoW and I hate it here. PVE is good but PVP is not.
I've been enjoying it and now the servers have balanced out it much better, that said I'm pretty casual in the time I put into the game and havent even hit 50 though been playing since launch (the wife has hit 50) and cant see myself staying here much more than a year or so.
I WONT be leaving for GW2 (found the first so unappealing and boring that I havent even followed the hype for 2) or SW:tor (just over the whole SW concept, an MMO based on a film series that managed a total of 1 1/2 decent films out of 6 tries isnt that appealing) but will probably jump off for Dark Millenium or if something grabs my attention in the interim
Some truly inane comments here...good to see the place hasnt changed lol
Trion has not stated sub numbers yet as they are still in the process of releasing in the eastern market,china etc
The SW prequels made a ton of money and were commercially successful. But were they good movies? Alot of people would say no.
Also was Avatar really that good to be the most commercially successful movie ever? Again I would say no, there are alot of movies better than Avatar.
So my point is, the question to ask is not if it was a commercial success. I am sure that is interesting for Trion and other stakeholders but for us customers, was the game really that good? Again I would say no.
It is the same themepark MMORPGs we have been seeing released over and over ever since the success of WoW. What had it going for it was the polish, nothing else really.
My gaming blog
I tried really hard to enjoy this game, but I just couldn't
It was so by the numbers and soulless.
it was definitely a game not designed by MMO enthusiasts, but by a corporation that looked at trends and studied the market
Can you honestly think that'll affect it much?
In the Eastern Market Aion does better than WoW, and with ArcheAge and Terra both of which are Eastern Companies can you honestly think Rift will have much success over there?
Anyways saying "oh their waiting of Eastern Market rekease" sounds more of corperate BS than anything.
Give them time, are you just trying to find anyay to nitpick and destroy this game? Seriously, Trion hasn't stated anything about "these are our subscribtion numbers". Everyone making up assumptions, and pointing fingers at each other is really, really unecessary.
Give the company a break, they've developed something that a few people like to play and enjoy, without them - everyone would still be playing World of Warcraft, and Guild Wars. Isn't it nice to have a little variation?
Think of it like this - you go to a gas station to fill up, there's one next door that is $0.10 cheaper, so you decide to go over there instead because you can get more bang for your buck when you fill up your tank. However- just because they are $0.10 less doesn't mean the other company isn't making money still, because; believe it or not; they are.
Now; please guys - this is about Rift, not about Guild Wars, not about World of Warcraft. Rift is doing well, I play it, my friends play it, we have fun. We are alsoing playing Guild Wars for the PvP aspects while we wait for Guild Wars 2.
I'm amazed at how much hatred there is for something so unecessary, subscription numbers, are just a number, who cares how well the company is doing if they're pumping out content monthly, and patching things every 2-3 days.
"patching things every 2-3 days." - Don't believe me? Look at the launcher - they're patching junk as people report and find it. They're quick on the ball - give em' that at least. They're hard working, just like you and me. They're earning a living, I don't think we really need people sitting here saying things like, "Oh, that's PR bull crap.." or, "Yeah, Trion has hardly any subs, that game is as good as dead." Login, join ques, the average que is between 10-30 seconds for me when I login and play.
People are beating a dead horse over this subscriber number - and the die hard fans of Rift are making it worse by making up stupid statistics when they have no clue what's going on behind the scenes - hell, NOBODY knows what is going on behind the scenes except Trion and whoever their Private Investors / Private Company is.
Thank you,
Cody
So, why doesn't it surprise me to see this pro-Rift article here on this page?
Your NA shard picture wouldn't look as well if you'd taken a shot of the EU server-list which displays low shards allover the place. Rift -as many other mmorpgs- isn't US only, a fact you guys at mmorpg.com often miss. There's another place over the big pond.
Then, about ever point you made in the paragraph "New content vs missing content" can be refuted, except for the plain fact that Trion delivered X patches since release. I'm not going into everything, but i.e. the point that leveling is ridiculously easy still remains. And as to "no endgame content at lvl50", this is also very well true for non-raiders or people who refuse to grind pvp. Balance is still a joke as well as the live events.
There is no reason to not release actual subs numbers, be it 1mio or 250k. It was THEM starting the big talk in first place, taunting WoW and such....now it's about time to show if they also walked the walked. Trion should now stand by their product as it is instead of hiding behind PR spin about "accounts", "customers", "registrations" and such.
I completely agree with your assessment here. I think this has been an outstanding year for Trion. How the next 1-2 years play out will have a lot to do with how well they continue to maintain and grow their playerbase.
WoW did not have free trials early in its life like Rift has had.. With Rift it has been pretty much since release.
Well, I hit 50 at about 2 months, stuck around for another month, dropped when my 3 month sub ended. I dropped because no one was ever on, and the LFG tool sucked. Any improvements there? I'd consider coming back till SWTOR comes out anyway...
This has to be one of the most uneducated comments Ive seen.... When it is primetime in America it is really early in the morning in Europe before most people are awake so obviously they are going to have low pop shards.... Check their status' when it is morning here and you will see that their server popualtions are similar to ours.
To address you're no content statement, just because you don't like the content does not imply that there is none. its simple if you dont like it, dont play it. Besides the point but starting the next patch they are adding different content to tend to the people who aren't happy with the content they already have, and to give the current players something else to do...
Finally why do they have any reason to release any subs numbers at all? They aren't held by the balls by another company so the only reason they have to announce the sub numbers would be to shut up people like you who obviously have no idea what the hell they are talking about.
You obviously didn't even read my entire post, seeing as you totally missed the concept of what I was talking about.
It was also laughable that you talk about no end-game for Rift; I find plenty to do, you must just refuse to do what an MMORPG is all about - crafting, dungeons, raiding, rifting, and PvP. What else do you want? Oh - let me guess "Open world PvP and sieges!!!" just like all the other people on this message board.
Seriously, grow up, the game is good, so is WoW. They aren't "hiding" behind anything, they just don't want to reveal statistical data - that doesn't mean it's bad, it doesn't mean it's good either by any means; there are a lot of different explanations for not releasing that sort of information - I've worked in a corporate office before; it's not all about boasting how many of this or that you have, and keeping some things confidential is the best bet to keep things under control.
Even if Rift doesn't have "X" amount of subscribers, they're still doing well - or at least from the looks of it; so I don't think there is any reason for them to spout lies (which they aren't..); but they don't have to reveal something if they don't want to.
Thanks,
Cody
Perhaps, I can add something more than guess work to this story. I'm a guild leader within Rift, with a guild that has 97 names on its book as of today. It was at about 120, but about a month ago I deleted those people who had not logged in for 50 days. I have not done that since, but there are many more who are now in the same category. I'm actually down to about 20 active players (logged in within 7 days). None of those people haven't left my guild to join another guild or to transfer server, they've just stopped playing.
It would be my best guess that Rift has no more than about one sixth the number of active players as players who have played at one time or another. If Trion is quoting 2 million accounts, then its my guess the number currently playing is somewhere around 300K. I'd also guess that a lot of the people who are inactive are still paying subs, so Rift will no doubt be very profitable.
The numbers seem to have settled down, and I am now getting as many newcomers as those leaving. A number of us are levelling atls and questing with the newcomers. It's not the hectic rush that it was in March and April, but its still a lot of fun, and I seem to have time to follow through the quest chains to discover the stories embedded within Rift.
I will just say that there is much confusion about Rift and this thing called end game. While everyone calls Rift a WoW clone, Rift is very much about the end game and leveling about understanding the world, the lore and game mechanics that get you to where Trion aparently wanted everyone to be quite quickly. Rift will never raise the level cap, as many games do, because its content is not tied to quests and leveling, its content is tied to more dynamic events.
Perhaps I am spoilt being on a PvP server, but the open world PvP is active and intense and a big part of any evening for myself and my guild. Having PvPed in many games, including Asheron's Call, Shadowbane, Age of Conan and Darkfall, the open world PvP is as good as, if not better, than any other game, although I still have a soft spot for Shadowbane and my Nephilim Mage.
Does anybody on this site even like MMOs? All people do is bash them, claim them to be failures, label them as clone-this, clone-that, degrade their developers, and whine that multplayer games aren't made to suit their personal needs.
Rift is doing fine, deal with it. Log in to any server and see for yourself before you come here and spout ridiculous speculation on their numbers.
Someone above said it ake 1 millions subs to be successful... I seriously had an LOL moment. That means no game besides WoW is a success. Some of the most successful and fun games of all time never even broke 300k (SWG, Ultima Online, EQ, to name a few). This proves beyond the shadow of a doubt that lower sub numbers can create great communities and great games.
100k subs + box sales puts it at 6.5 million in one month + 1. 5m each month after. 250k is 16.25 million + 3.75m a month (20 million in the first two months). And thats if ONLY the people subbing bought a box. Those numbers are undoubtedly lowball but you get the idea. And guess what... 50million in debt isn't paid all at once. A revenue stream of a few million a month is more than enough to repay a 50m debt and still be highly profitable. I bought a house for 250k. Doesn't that mean on my 100k salary I'm going to lose my house?!?!?! No.. because that's not how debt/cost works. If they sold anywhere near 1m in boxes they are waaaayy in the black with more than enough money to repay their investors. Long term, who knows... but right now they are fine.