Guild Wars 2

HannaDeFreitas.4236:

critickitten.1498:

Colin saying “the population is increasing” isn’t data.

Even if Anet posted server statistics you would say they are made up.
Because you want to believe in what you believe, regardless of all evidence pointing against your claims.
If I was Colin and saw your post I would file you a lawsuit for defamation and send to you to beg in the streets, but he hasn’t done so, so maybe he’s not as bad as you think.

diabluz.2860:

ArenaNet needs to very quickly remedy the fact that this game has little to do at level cap (aside from grinding for cosmetic upgrades). They also should tweak the combat/classes to support the trinity system. Every class should be able to spec as healer, tank or dps simply by switching which weapon they are using.

That’s basically a guaranteed way to lose the majority of the playerbase.
Luckily you don’t work for Anet.

ArenaNet knows that they stand to gain A LOT more players than they would lose. There are probably 14 million plus players that prefer an MMO that has a gear treadmill, trinity and raiding system. There are very few that dislike those things. WoW has around 10 million and when you combine all the other MMO’s populations that have raiding, gear treadmills and the trinity system (which is like every other MMO on the market aside from GW2) you’ve reached at least 14 million.

Upset a percentage of the 1 million or so people currently playing this game to appeal to the larger majority of those other 14 million people? Sounds like a very VERY good gamble to me profitability wise and ArenaNet is thinking about that I’m sure.

I’d also like to add that Guild Wars 2 being “discounted” 30 percent this weekend is a huge sign that the game isn’t doing that well.

Simple fact is you don’t discount things that don’t need to be. If the game was still selling well and the active population was high then ArenaNet would not need to discount the game. The fact that they are shows that they are desperately trying to bring in new players and revitalize the game.

That should be your biggest clue that things aren’t going that well for this game right now.

Saying that the game is on sale and equating that with the game not doing well is just plain silly. Pepsi ran a sale the other day, and I’m pretty sure they’re doing fine. I’ve seen WoW on sale too.

Games always drop in price after release. Anet wants more people playing, because that means more people will be buying stuff through the cash shop. Most of the people interested have already bought the game, so now they discount it to entice new people who might not have tried it previously. It’s a marketing strategy. There’s no way anyone can construe this as indication of the game’s health, unless they can show that other healthy companies don’t run sales…which they can’t.

It’s a smart move on their part, whether the game is doing well or not.

Vayne.8563:

Saying that the game is on sale and equating that with the game not doing well is just plain silly. Pepsi ran a sale the other day, and I’m pretty sure they’re doing fine. I’ve seen WoW on sale too.

Games always drop in price after release. Anet wants more people playing, because that means more people will be buying stuff through the cash shop. Most of the people interested have already bought the game, so now they discount it to entice new people who might not have tried it previously. It’s a marketing strategy. There’s no way anyone can construe this as indication of the game’s health, unless they can show that other healthy companies don’t run sales…which they can’t.

It’s a smart move on their part, whether the game is doing well or not.

As hard as I am on the game and ANet, this man speaks the truth. If the game was on sale every other day or something THEN there might be argument there, but a sale every now and then indicates virtually nothing about the state of the game.

No matter what the White Knights say….you are right.

The population is declining and quite rapidly at that…

Jeeebus. I wouldn’t mind if the rabid posters ready to defend against the “population decline” comment didn’t do so with such a complete DISREGARD for what the posts usually SAY instead of just mindlessly attacking them. Can we please get a mod to stop this rubbish :/ if people cannot take a simple logical observation without going full on rambo, then clearly this topic should go bye bye and wrists need to be slapped.
Kudo’s to those that at least realized that the comments were about the initial dropoff, and shame on those that followed that up, by attacking and getting aggressive afterwards.

On my server (Gandara – EU) you can’t go anywhere on the map without encountering other players. Maybe the OP is on a low population server, I suggest you use the guesting system to go check out some of the highest population servers.

And I see the doom conspiracy crowd is here in force – not talking about the OP – the poster above me is right, a mod should do something, but against those who spread those rumors based on no evidence that the game is not doing well or being doomed. Some people must realize that them not liking the game doesn’t make it neither bad, nor doomed.

This game is doomed probably. I barely see any players around

Korrigan.4837:

On my server (Gandara – EU) you can’t go anywhere on the map without encountering other players. Maybe the OP is on a low population server, I suggest you use the guesting system to go check out some of the highest population servers.

And I see the doom conspiracy crowd is here in force – not talking about the OP – the poster above me is right, a mod should do something, but against those who spread those rumors based on no evidence that the game is not doing well or being doomed. Some people must realize that them not liking the game doesn’t make it neither bad, nor doomed.

The irony, is that you kinda just did exactly what I was talking about, and went for the whole “appeal to ridicule” fallacy :/

If someone is complaining that their server is dead as a dodo and any time they go to play the game they’ve BOUGHT and WANT TO PLAY but cannot do so or find themselves wondering if the game has other players in it at all and thus log back out. Then the last thing they need to be told is “it’s all in your head” as that’s not only rude but ignorant.

it could be a server population problem, not an overall problem but to these people it’s still a VALID and REAL concern, insulting them and calling them “doom mongers” because of this and due to a general ill tone on the forums about the game, and an overly zealous loyalty to Anet, won’t get any issues addressed and will just in fact cause the thread to be locked, and at that point I sincerely hope people are reprimanded not for defending the game, but scuttling a potentially VALID discussion on an issue SOME are experiencing.

This game is doomed probably. I barely see any players around

And “this” is the flip side of the coin. Ridiculous statement is ridiculous.

Flamenco.3894:

This game is doomed probably. I barely see any players around

Not on my server, Northern Shiverpeaks. Even in the wee hours of the morning, I still see plenty of folks on.

I also think those that speak on the dwindling numbers are often times the same folks who are speaking on the doom of the game, just my $0.02, but the two oft go hand-in-hand on the boards here.Everything seems fine on my server tho ^__^

It’s 1:40 am here in Europe, and on Gandara, Lion’s Arch still has an overflow, on a Sunday night when people work the next day, mind you.

But yeah, the game is devoid of players and doomed ;-)

On Ehmry Bay it’s hit and miss. Sometimes I can’t swing a cat without hitting people, sometimes I barely find anyone around. The funny part is that it isn’t even dependent on time or area…it’s just that random.

This game is doing better then any other MMO i’ve ever played. I can get a group for any dungeon, any path, at any time of day within 5 minutes.

If someone can name one other MMO anywhere that can even do HALF as well as that then I will eat my hat. But I think my hat is safe, even the biggest MMO out there, WoW, has a 20+ minute wait for most people.

Chris.7653:

No matter what the White Knights say….you are right.

The population is declining and quite rapidly at that…

any proof of that? Anet states otherwise with them saying that more and more people have been logging in each day for the last 6 weeks. And yes, I am inclinded to believe the developers who actually see the real information, then someone who just makes assumptions based on their own experience.

achensherd.2735:

On one side you have those claiming GW2 is dying because there’s no one on, and on the other side you have those claiming GW2 is doing swell because there a lot of people on, both sides telling the other that their claims are anecdotal and so don’t have much/any credibility. You also have those that stand by ANet’s claim that the playerbase is steadily increasing, versus those that suggest ANet’s lying and that external sources like Xfire paint a wholly different picture, both telling the other that their sources are biased, fallible, or inconclusive.

We all can see how this isn’t going to go anywhere, right? :P

I know how to fix this.

Everyone log out of the forums and go play.

There, problem solved, we just increased the server populations.

In all seriousness, I still say it’s likely there are lots of other factors. That there’s no subscription fee means people can come and go if life interrupts (school, family, work) and not have to push time in. There’s also people who just log in to blow through new content as it’s put out because they don’t have time to do it slowly

diabluz.2860:

ArenaNet needs to very quickly remedy the fact

If the demise is true, there is nothing for me to believe Anet is not going to do anything quickly. I think they’ve shown that.

I love how people think that a discount means a company isn’t doing well. That’s like saying black Friday is when prices go up.. Did anyone think that perhaps there is a discount to help bring in more people who shy away from the price tag? Not everyone can afford the $60, but they have discounts to give you a good deal and add more people who may have been waiting for a price drop. This does not mean they are doing poorly. Walmart has discounts everyday, and yet they are the largest store in the world. But clearly they aren’t doing well because they sell at the lowest price.. Discounts on gem items make it so people without cash can use cash to gems to get stuff. Discounts on site allows people with cash to get discounts directly with cash. I really don’t see how people bypass this obvious business tactic to simply continue an ongoing game.

People come on here to complain and tell everyone that they don’t play anymore. That’s neither constructive or helpful. If you don’t play then find another game. For those of us who understand how discounts and economies work we will be here enjoying the game and ignoring the anti-gw2 people just spouting nonsense on these forums. Truly I think far too many people spend more hours on forums than game, maybe that’s the real problem.

No one accounts for school, work, vacations, holidays, the amount of misinformation is astonishing. Wikipedia is probably more accurate than 99% of the posts on these forums.

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

I know how to fix this.

Everyone log out of the forums and go play.

There, problem solved, we just increased the server populations.

In all seriousness, I still say it’s likely there are lots of other factors. That there’s no subscription fee means people can come and go if life interrupts (school, family, work) and not have to push time in. There’s also people who just log in to blow through new content as it’s put out because they don’t have time to do it slowly

Some of my guildies actually have very real time constraints on their computers. One for instance plays at an internet cafe in Asia, one’s computer is time-controlled by his/her dad, and one often goes “gtg, mom” before immediately logging off. I myself get on usually around after 9 or 10 PM (PST), and unless I’m running dungeons or Fractals with my guild, or am otherwise occupied by something (like a new event), I get off around 12 AM. What? I can’t stay up the way I used to be able to. =_=

As for getting off the forums to play, one interesting thing I’ve noticed (anecdotal, I know) is that of the people I’ve met and talked to in-game, not that many visit the forums (or know/care about them).

:|

Shrug

achensherd.2735:

Tobias Trueflight.8350:

I know how to fix this.

Everyone log out of the forums and go play.

There, problem solved, we just increased the server populations.

In all seriousness, I still say it’s likely there are lots of other factors. That there’s no subscription fee means people can come and go if life interrupts (school, family, work) and not have to push time in. There’s also people who just log in to blow through new content as it’s put out because they don’t have time to do it slowly

Some of my guildies actually have very real time constraints on their computers. One for instance plays at an internet cafe in Asia, one’s computer is time-controlled by his/her dad, and one often goes “gtg, mom” before immediately logging off. I myself get on usually around after 9 or 10 PM (PST), and unless I’m running dungeons or Fractals with my guild, or am otherwise occupied by something (like a new event), I get off around 12 AM. What? I can’t stay up the way I used to be able to. =_=

As for getting off the forums to play, one interesting thing I’ve noticed (anecdotal, I know) is that of the people I’ve met and talked to in-game, not that many visit the forums (or know/care about them).

:|

Shrug

I think you’re doing it right ^^

DOOM & GLOOM!!

EVERYONE PANIC!!!!

Still queues in WvW all weekend and constant overflows in LA. If the player base is declining (I’m not saying it is or isn’t), I ain’t noticing.

Was playing just a while ago, nobody in at least 5 areas

The game is going to end, servers will collapse. Because you wouldn’t pay your part in the RMT store.

But in all seriousness – I play across many levels/accounts/servers, gone is the rush of day one, but I believe that GW2 is back on the incline, completely from my own perception and experience so definately the most correct data. ;-)

Surely this stuff is all server population related. I’m on Sea Of Sorrows and the last month every area I’ve been in has had other players. Actually it’s good fun starting an event knowing that more than likely there will be other folks to come along and help.

Just went over 10 areas, only spotted one necromancer that was afk and dead……..

HannaDeFreitas.4236:

Even if Anet posted server statistics you would say they are made up.
Because you want to believe in what you believe, regardless of all evidence pointing against your claims.

No, because I believe numbers, and I believe there is a reason we’re not getting to see them.

If I was Colin and saw your post I would file you a lawsuit for defamation and send to you to beg in the streets, but he hasn’t done so, so maybe he’s not as bad as you think.

….and you would lose that lawsuit horribly because you would have no legal standing under the legal definition of “defamation”, and then I’d counter-sue to cover the court costs, so perhaps it’s a good thing you’re not Colin because you’d be an awful lot poorer by the end of the whole affair, and you’d have been wasting taxpayer money on a frivolous lawsuit.

Don’t threaten lawsuits when you clearly don’t know what they’re for. >_>

Heijincks.9267:

Too bad you didn’t read my post, because surprise, it didn’t have any disagreement with yours. A tl;dr of my response simply states that you made a moot point.

No, your post was attacking a point you thought was a weakness in my post, except that I never made such a claim.

Yes, a game’s sales always decline in the months after its release. No, that doesn’t mean the statistic is meaningless, as many other triple-A MMOs were still selling better than GW2 in the months following their initial release, even after the locusts had left. Combined with the fact that GW2 has needed to have multiple major sales in the less-than-half-a-year after its initial release means that it’s clearly not selling well.

And it still has nothing to do with the concurrency rate or the number of players currently playing the game.

Bloodstealer.5978:

GW2 is eseentially a F2P package so any account created has to be considered active

No. That’s not how “activity” is measured in any MMO, whether F2P or otherwise.

Its status as a buy-once-pay-forever game doesn’t mean it magically denies the normal rules. An “active” account is one that has been playing the game recently and continues to do so. And you’re welcome to argue what “recently” means (though I’d maintain you’re no longer technically active after a full month of no logins myself), but there is no way that you can rationalize “active” to mean “any account ever made”.

The dev team specified that they saw a growth in the player count after the holidays, so I wager that they started at ~1-2 million active at the game’s release, took a nosedive early and then another in November, and then climbed slightly in December. That doesn’t mean they have 3 million active players, it means they more than likely have a healthy player base closer to a half million players.

Total speculation on my part, absolutely, but until ANet goes public with their numbers, that’s all we have to go on. We know for a fact it’s not three million active players (that would imply that no one has left the game since release, which we all know isn’t true), so it’s somewhere between 0 and 3 million. Were I to guess, I’d say probably between 500k and 1 million. That seems about right, given the way other games have played out over time. Rift lost about half its players, SWTOR dropped to around 30% of its original numbers, etc. I think with the negative public backlash, GW2 is likely closer to SWTOR’s numbers than they would like to admit.

But hey, I’d be happy to be proven wrong. It’d be nice to know the game is more successful than it seems to be. The thing I want people to note is that the devs could easily make this discussion, and could’ve made all previous discussions of this nature, go away if they start releasing concurrency and active player counts for the game. But they never did. The last time we got any concurrency figures was at the game’s release, and then never again after that. Now you may not be a suspicious sort of person, but as for me, I find it hard to believe that they just decided to stop bragging about how good they’re doing. Companies only start to hide things when they’re not doing as well as they want it to appear.

i think most areas are ‘dead’ because no one wants to go there.

people still congregate (in massive numbers) in certain areas. even when leveling, it’s not uncommon to see only a few, if not no players at all until you step foot in harathi hinterlands, for example, and then there is a suddenly explosion of players just THERE killing centaurs.

and then there’s trusty cursed shore where everyone and his grandma is there doing DE chains and gathering to get their dailies/monthlies.

i haven’t been in my server’s LA in almost 2 months because the place has so many players i’m like, permanently in overflow.

the population isn’t dying.

just that it’s not evenly spread out. many many areas are ignored, while a few particular ones are just crowded beyond belief.

critickitten.1498:

No, your post was attacking a point you thought was a weakness in my post, except that I never made such a claim.

What claim didn’t you make? That you said the player population was dropping? What I attacked was your point that GW2’s player population was dropping as reflected in sales by saying that it is far too ambiguous.

critickitten.1498:

Yes, a game’s sales always decline in the months after its release. No, that doesn’t mean the statistic is meaningless, as many other triple-A MMOs were still selling better than GW2 in the months following their initial release, even after the locusts had left. Combined with the fact that GW2 has needed to have multiple major sales in the less-than-half-a-year after its initial release means that it’s clearly not selling well.

There is no official data on sales other than “3 million+ sales at launch”. Any claim you make now would be assumptive. You said you liked numbers right? To make the claim that GW2 isn’t selling well “after the locusts left” is based on what?

That GW2 had “major” sales? Tell me, how many sales has GW2 held? As far as I know, there were only two (or three if I forgot any). Both times the sales were limited (and only lasted a week), and having that many sales over that many months isn’t really anything surprising. If GW2 really wasn’t selling well at all, what stopped Anet from doing a price cut instead, or even repeat what TERA did?

Let’s face it. Something going on sale is not necessarily indicative of sales performance. Things that are selling very well even has frequent sales (like many Steam games for instance). Even if they just launched.

critickitten.1498:

And it still has nothing to do with the concurrency rate or the number of players currently playing the game.

Here’s your initial statement:

critickitten.1498:

Is the player base declining? That’s a fairly easy to answer question: yes.

Unless you’re going to say that the rest of your post was not about your initial statement, then I think it has a lot to do with “concurrency rate or the number of players currently playing the game”.

I’m not going to deny the possibility that the player population could be dropping. I am not arguing in defense of “increasing player population”. With that said, with whatever information we have right now, it is far more likely that it is not the case. Saying Anet is being deceptive requires a lot of assumptions.

Heijincks.9267:

Saying Anet is being deceptive requires a lot of assumptions.

Just one; that they’re as unscrupulous as every other major game developer.

Anyway, in all fairness to Anet, the only thing which changed within the genre are the number of players who buy and try a given game. Most games end up falling to the same population levels that MMOs traditionally drew, generally in the 100-250k range. In this environment, the haters are always right that a given game is “dying.”

Ansultares.1567:

Heijincks.9267:

Saying Anet is being deceptive requires a lot of assumptions.

Just one; that they’re as unscrupulous as every other major game developer.

The depends on motive. If it’s anything regarding future tiers higher than ascended, level caps, or anything else that players may find disagreeable, then would I find Anet using doublespeak to “sugarcoat” their words plausible.

But what does Anet hope to gain by saying that the “game is growing”? Especially in such short mention? That’s where the assumptions pour in.

I don’t know, walking through 15 areas and not spotting one player is a little concerning.

Flamenco.3894:

I don’t know, walking through 15 areas and not spotting one player is a little concerning.

Likewise, I walk through every area and bump into people.

Heijincks.9267:

But what does Anet hope to gain by saying that the “game is growing”? That’s where the assumptions pour in.

An active game is an attractive game.

His options are to say, “the game is growing,” “the game is stagnant,” or “the game is tanking.” He’ll obviously never say the latter, and there’s little reason to say the second one unless there was serious and credible reason to believe the game was tanking, but he’s happy to say “the game is growing,” even if he’s referring to 0.01% growth in the playerbase or in player activity.

Did any of the fanboys stop to think that all these new players are people who bought the game (or received it as a gift) during the holidays? Or that these new players are just as likely to follow the same general population trends that all the release day purchasers exhibited?

Or even that the entire increase in “concurrent hours” is purely a statistical fudge of the increased activity during the holidays?

Is Colin’s full quote offered anywhere in this thread? I mean fully in context, including with the question he was responding to?

Ansultares.1567:

Heijincks.9267:

But what does Anet hope to gain by saying that the “game is growing”? That’s where the assumptions pour in.

An active game is an attractive game.

His options are to say, “the game is growing,” “the game is stagnant,” or “the game is tanking.” He’ll obviously never say the latter, and there’s little reason to say the second one unless there was serious and credible reason to believe the game was tanking, but he’s happy to say “the game is growing,” even if he’s referring to 0.01% growth in the playerbase or in player activity.

Did any of the fanboys stop to think that all these new players are people who bought the game (or received it as a gift) during the holidays? Or that these new players are just as likely to follow the same general population trends that all the release day purchasers exhibited?

Or even that the entire increase in “concurrent hours” is purely a statistical fudge of the increased activity during the holidays?

Is Colin’s full quote offered anywhere in this thread? I mean fully in context, including with the question he was responding to?

The answer to those questions are the assumptions. That said, when Colin said “the game is growing”, it wasn’t even a significant part of the entire interview. As a matter of fact, it’s only one sentence.

Maybe if the entire interview’s point was regarding player population, then would the meaning change.

This thread should be closed. Anet has told playerbase is increasing. Nothing else they can say will change your opinions. All that is coming out of this thread is pointless argument. We should all just leave this thread and never come back.

Ansultares.1567:

Heijincks.9267:

But what does Anet hope to gain by saying that the “game is growing”? That’s where the assumptions pour in.

An active game is an attractive game.

His options are to say, “the game is growing,” “the game is stagnant,” or “the game is tanking.” He’ll obviously never say the latter, and there’s little reason to say the second one unless there was serious and credible reason to believe the game was tanking, but he’s happy to say “the game is growing,” even if he’s referring to 0.01% growth in the playerbase or in player activity.

Did any of the fanboys stop to think that all these new players are people who bought the game (or received it as a gift) during the holidays? Or that these new players are just as likely to follow the same general population trends that all the release day purchasers exhibited?

Or even that the entire increase in “concurrent hours” is purely a statistical fudge of the increased activity during the holidays?

Is Colin’s full quote offered anywhere in this thread? I mean fully in context, including with the question he was responding to?

Alternately, there are less bugs now than at launch and more content. Those starting now aren’t likely to be buying the game because there’s no vertical progression, those people are gone, already.

So if new people came in over Christmas, those who didn’t know what to expect, there might be a higher retention rate anyway, not that I’m convinced that the retention rate is as bad as some people think. Very few people who started in my guild have left. Well under 30%, probably under 20%.

But if 2/3rds of the population that bought the game aren’t playing, it still leaves a million players, which isn’t bad for an MMO that hasn’t done a ton of advertising. When compared to SWToR, which advertised like mad, it’s actually quite a success story.

Every game ebs and flows with patches etc., though you tend to find the RP 1s always do well.
When they start closing servers swtor style, then worry.

I just logged in to the game and left. Didn’t feel like playing I guess. So I logged in here for the first time since the beginning of the month. Seems like the same old here too.

I played 1000+ hours and that’s enough for me I guess. To each his own…

I ran out of content other than wvw rankings which isn’t as interesting to me as it was a few months ago. I was expecting more at the end of January but the teaser of “things to come” was barely even that.

I guess I’ll log in for the next big patch and see what’s changed but I think my time in GW2 is pretty much over.

I like my guild but overall the community and/or lack of things to do as a community or guild (outside wvw) aren’t keeping me playing like other MMOs I’ve played in the past have.

Heijincks.9267:

What claim didn’t you make? That you said the player population was dropping? What I attacked was your point that GW2’s player population was dropping as reflected in sales by saying that it is far too ambiguous.

And if you’d read this post before replying to it, you’d know that I said that the statistic is not entirely meaningless as you want it to be, since GW2’s sales have dropped off faster than those of other major triple-A games in recent memory. It took them 4 months to sell as many copies as they sold in the first two weeks of the game’s release. Like it or not, that’s a statistic that has some meaning to it.

There is no official data on sales other than “3 million+ sales at launch”. Any claim you make now would be assumptive. You said you liked numbers right? To make the claim that GW2 isn’t selling well “after the locusts left” is based on what?

That GW2 had “major” sales? Tell me, how many sales has GW2 held? As far as I know, there were only two (or three if I forgot any). Both times the sales were limited (and only lasted a week), and having that many sales over that many months isn’t really anything surprising. If GW2 really wasn’t selling well at all, what stopped Anet from doing a price cut instead, or even repeat what TERA did?

Well let’s see….working backwards, there’s the sale now, the long sale during December, and the Black Friday sale.

Having three sales over the first six months of your game’s launch isn’t a big deal?

How many sales did Rift, TERA, or even SWTOR have in that same period? Lemme answer that for you: none. They saw no reason to devalue their product when it was still selling just fine at its original market price.

Let’s face it. Something going on sale is not necessarily indicative of sales performance. Things that are selling very well even has frequent sales (like many Steam games for instance). Even if they just launched.

Except that MMOs are not Steam.

This is a buy-to-play game. The game’s initial sales are its primary source of money in the initial months of the game’s release. The Gem Store is its long-term source of revenue, certainly, but the game sales are the big deal in this first several months, and if they were doing as well as they’d hoped, they wouldn’t feel pressured to have sales. You can argue that the sale during the holidays was normal, and I’d be okay with that….but now they’re having a sale in February. Do they expect a lot of people to be buying their family members a late Valentine’s Day gift? It’s relatively clear that they’re not doing all that well if they have to throw another sale.

If you can still sell your triple-A at $60, you don’t typically drop its price. Using your “Steam” example, many new releases into Steam don’t typically go on sale if they happen to release shortly before a major Steam sale. Skyrim didn’t go on sale until a sale months later, after the initial saturation levels had been tapped out.

critickitten.1498:

And it still has nothing to do with the concurrency rate or the number of players currently playing the game.

Unless you’re going to say that the rest of your post was not about your initial statement, then I think it has a lot to do with “concurrency rate or the number of players currently playing the game”.

Not reading, again.

I’m saying that the sales figures have nothing to do with concurrency or the number of active players. That’s rather obvious in context if you invest the proper amount of time into reading the posts you reply to.

I’m not going to deny the possibility that the player population could be dropping. I am not arguing in defense of “increasing player population”. With that said, with whatever information we have right now, it is far more likely that it is not the case. Saying Anet is being deceptive requires a lot of assumptions.

I’m not arguing that the player base is in decline right now. Again, you’re clearly not reading what I write if you think that I’m saying that.

I’m saying that the scale of this increase they’re claiming is questionable since the sales figures don’t seem to reflect a high level of growth, and that the player base is most definitely a lot lower now than it was at the start of the game.

I moved from Sorrows Furnace which was totally dead…never saw anyone out in the world roaming around. To Yaks Bend which has an awesome community and plentiful players.

critickitten.1498:

How many sales did Rift, TERA, or even SWTOR have in that same period? Lemme answer that for you: none. They saw no reason to devalue their product when it was still selling just fine at its original market price.

.

6 months after Rift released, they dropped their price for Standard Edition to $4.99 on the Rift Website, and stayed like they till Expansion released. SWTOR dropped to $15 ~ 6 Months after release, and never went back up then went free to play less then a year after release. Tera Online dropped its price to $24.99 (half the price) in just after 1 month after release, and kept on getting cheaper and went free to play less then a year after release. Plus Rift has been doing sales on Subscriptions very very frequently since shortly after they released, I still get emails from them and I see these sales coming up all the time.

So you are right, they didn’t have sales, they just dropped the price instead of dropping the price temporarily for 4 days like Guild Wars 2 this month.

Well, no one stated that there were more sales of the game, just that the game is growing which could just mean more people are logging in than 2 weeks ago which technically does mean the game is growing. Just not in a sales respect. And since this is a B2P game, people will come and go and come back again since it’s free. SO yes you will see “increased growth” right after a big patch or new content or a holiday since people will log back in to check out the stuff. Then based on what they think, they will either go back to what they were playing before or stay here. ANet would never say “Our game is declining” or “Our game is hemoraging players”. That is just bad business so of course they would say “The game is growing” even if it’s a half truth like i stated above. Rregardless of what the fanbois and nofanbois want to say or believe, the people that play this game everyday see and know what is happening with population just from playing.

eisberg.2379:

critickitten.1498:

How many sales did Rift, TERA, or even SWTOR have in that same period? Lemme answer that for you: none. They saw no reason to devalue their product when it was still selling just fine at its original market price.

.

6 months after Rift released, they dropped their price for Standard Edition to $4.99 on the Rift Website. SWTOR dropped to $15 ~ 6 Months after release then went free to play less then a year after release. Tera Online dropped its price to $24.99 (half the price) in just after 1 month after release, and went free to play less then a year after release. Plus Rift has been doing sales on Subscriptions very very frequently since shortly after they released, I still get emails from them and I see these sales coming up all the time.

And all 3 of those game pretty well tanked. Not sure about Rift but SWTOR went F2P and so did Tera so if you are comparing this game to those, it is not a good sign for this game….

But as a person that played Tera since beta, that games biggest problem was enchanting(which was RNG based and unforgiving like the MF) and a pretty crappy community with people who thought they were elitists in a game that didn’t even have large scale raid content. So i think those 2 things really drove alot of people away along with bad word of mouth about those 2 things. GW2 has 1 thing on Tera tho, they do got a pretty good community.

Sauzo.6821:

eisberg.2379:

critickitten.1498:

How many sales did Rift, TERA, or even SWTOR have in that same period? Lemme answer that for you: none. They saw no reason to devalue their product when it was still selling just fine at its original market price.

.

6 months after Rift released, they dropped their price for Standard Edition to $4.99 on the Rift Website. SWTOR dropped to $15 ~ 6 Months after release then went free to play less then a year after release. Tera Online dropped its price to $24.99 (half the price) in just after 1 month after release, and went free to play less then a year after release. Plus Rift has been doing sales on Subscriptions very very frequently since shortly after they released, I still get emails from them and I see these sales coming up all the time.

And all 3 of those game pretty well tanked. Not sure about Rift but SWTOR went F2P and so did Tera so if you are comparing this game to those, it is not a good sign for this game….

But as a person that played Tera since beta, that games biggest problem was enchanting(which was RNG based and unforgiving like the MF) and a pretty crappy community with people who thought they were elitists in a game that didn’t even have large scale raid content. So i think those 2 things really drove alot of people away along with bad word of mouth about those 2 things. GW2 has 1 thing on Tera tho, they do got a pretty good community.

It wasn’t me that was comparing them. I was making a statement based on the quote I had in my post. he stated that SWTOR, Rift, and Tera never had any sales in the same time frame since their release, so I guess he was technically right, because a sale is a temporary price drop with SWTOR, Rift, and Tera never did, instead they just dropped their prices in 1-6 months after release that never went back up.

critickitten.1498:

How many sales did Rift, TERA, or even SWTOR have in that same period? Lemme answer that for you: none. They saw no reason to devalue their product when it was still selling just fine at its original market price.

TERA had a sale 20 days after release (May 19th), had another one on May 26th, both at half price and another one in September (at a price of 9.99$!) only 4 months after release. Rift had massive sales when the expansion was released and another one in September, I don’t know what sales it had in the first 6 months after release, but in 2012 they got lots of sales. If I search a bit I might find more, I wasn’t following those games, I just did a quick search on the internet.

I didn’t check how many sales SWTOR had yet, will check and get back later. TERA and Rift had loads of sales though. And massive half-price sales at that.

So to answer the question quoted above: many sales. They saw every reason to devalue their product when it was still selling just fine at its original market price.

For anyone actually playing the game, it is very easy to see population has increased since the holidays, it is not at launch levels but the trend is in the positive direction.

Also for those who haven’t played in two months and still are posting here, log in, check it out.

Lets see if I can quickly summarize this thread:

Doom Bringer: THIS GAME IS DYING, LEAVE NOW!!!!
Normal Player: What makes you say that? I think it’s actually increasing in population.
Doom Bringer: I stood facing a rock in the least populated zone for 30 seconds and didn’t see a single player! DOOM!!!!!
Normal Player: But that’s just your personal experience, have anything to back up your claim?
Doom Bringer: YES, the servers are all dying, anyone with eyes can see that!
Normal Player: Well actually if you look at them right now they are almost all full or very heavy.
Doom Bringer: Well duh that’s cause Anet lowered all the populations and removed servers.
Normal player: Well actually they have increased populations of servers and added servers since launch.
Doom Bringer: Doesn’t matter, just look at the Xfire data it shows this game is DOOMED!!!
Normal Player: Well actually the Xfire data shows that the game is at a stable healthy population with even a possible growth.
Doom Bringer: Doesn’t matter, Xfire isn’t an accurate source, plus Anet hasn’t said the game is doing well so that means it’s failing!
Normal Player: Actually the devs said that the game has been growing for the last 6 weeks in a row.
Doom Bringer: Doesn’t matter, Anet lies, they lie about everything, it means that the opposite is true! DOOOMMMM!!!!
Normal Player: I think it is illegal for them to lie about something like that.
Doom Bringer: Doesn’t matter, they are lying anyway. Plus the game is on sale, that means it is failing.
Normal Player? Umm how does that follow exactly?
Doom Bringer: See, TERA, Rift and SWTOR never went on sale so that means if GW2 did then it is failing.
Normal Player: Well actually all 3 of those examples did go on sale for much cheaper then GW2 did…
Doom Bringer: HA! Those 3 games are all failures, the fact that you used them to compare to GW2 means the game is FAILING!!!!
Normal Player: But… YOU brought up those 3 games, not me???
Doom Bringer: DOOOOMMMM!!!! FAIIIILLLL!!!! DOOOM!!!!!

ZudetGambeous.9573:

This game is doing better then any other MMO i’ve ever played. I can get a group for any dungeon, any path, at any time of day within 5 minutes.

If someone can name one other MMO anywhere that can even do HALF as well as that then I will eat my hat. But I think my hat is safe, even the biggest MMO out there, WoW, has a 20+ minute wait for most people.

The Secret World

cherrie.8907:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

This game is doing better then any other MMO i’ve ever played. I can get a group for any dungeon, any path, at any time of day within 5 minutes.

If someone can name one other MMO anywhere that can even do HALF as well as that then I will eat my hat. But I think my hat is safe, even the biggest MMO out there, WoW, has a 20+ minute wait for most people.

The Secret World

Didn’t they lay off like half their staff and go free to play in almost record time?

Babychoochoo.5690:

achensherd.2735:

We all can see how this isn’t going to go anywhere, right? :P

lol does it ever?

It does go into some flaming…

Rift had sales within the first six months. In fact, Rift had a sale either two or three months after release. It went down to a ridiculously cheap price. Pretty sure it was 5 bucks for a weekend.

I don’t know why anyone would say these other games didn’t have sales within six months of launch, unless they were simply trying to stir the pot.

Vayne.8563:

cherrie.8907:

ZudetGambeous.9573:

This game is doing better then any other MMO i’ve ever played. I can get a group for any dungeon, any path, at any time of day within 5 minutes.

If someone can name one other MMO anywhere that can even do HALF as well as that then I will eat my hat. But I think my hat is safe, even the biggest MMO out there, WoW, has a 20+ minute wait for most people.

The Secret World

Didn’t they lay off like half their staff and go free to play in almost record time?

They didn’t go Free to play, they went Buy to Play, but I do not know anything about the staff stuff.