Certified Gameaholic
Population
Doesn’t reflect the fact many people are in DR,Grove, BC or Hoelbrak to escape LA loading times, or using airship passes, or the DR whatever thingy, or are completely selfsufficient on their own (having perma contracts, portable MF and so on and never have to return to cities)
The playerbase is now also spread between event maps and the world. a lot of ppl doing instanced content (RAIDS, FRACTALS, DUNGEONS again).
I think an answer could be found in these.
Oh and GW2 sold 5M copies ore so and HoT 400k. but you can play finer on gw2 vanilla.
23 lvl 80’s, 9 times map, 4ele, 4ncr, 3war, 3grd, 3rgr, 2thf, 2msm, 1eng, 1 rev.
Been There, Done That & Will do it again…except maybe world completion.
Been There, Done That & Will do it again…except maybe world completion.
Yes there are way less people than they used to be.
That’ s why they decided to merge wvw servers.
The first impression is right in this case
Anet recently released a big update which made the HoT maps easier and improved the rewards, and restored the old WvW Borderlands and made other changes to WvW. They also improved dungeon rewards and how Fractals works so those are popular again too.
As a result players are much more spread out than they were 5 months ago.
I seem to see activity wherever I go, but it’s impossible to point to one place where most people are, or where you’re guaranteed to find the majority of people.
Right now (8:45am UK time) on the EU servers I see LFG adds for 2 SW chest farms, karka shell farming, world bosses, Cursed Shore events and champ train, all 4 HoT maps (and when I went to Tangled Depths a few minutes ago I got the ‘minis have been hidden due to player population’ message) and there’s numerous dungeon groups going.
That’s early on a Sunday morning, which is normally a very quiet time. It will get busier later.
Danielle Aurorel, Dear Dragon We Got Your Cookies [Nom], Desolation (EU).
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
“Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
5 months ago the population did increase sharply since it was still a new expansion and people either increased playtime or they returned after an absence. It’s gone back down some of course.
With 4 more maps the population has more area to spread out in. Which means that even if the population holds steady or increases slightly, it will appear to be less with the dilution of map density. With each expansion adding more maps this dilution of population will be more noticeable unless the number of players increases. In addition ANet returned the rewards to playing dungeons and people are disappearing inside them.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
ANet may give it to you.
Yes there are way less people than they used to be.
That’ s why they decided to merge wvw servers.
The first impression is right in this case
They merged WvW servers because less people are playing WvW, in combination with the fact that low ranking servers have had issues for ages because people just transferred off of them.
Trying to use WvW server merges as proof of the overall population is like saying the population of the world is shrinking because less people are living in the center of NYC.
They just moved to the suburbs dude.
I also feel lonely once in a while. To test the population I often just ask in the map chat if there is any Charr that want his fur combed by me. Normally I get responses…^^
Zedexx, sly Asura Thief/Assassin
and politically highly incorrect. (#Asuracist)
“We [Asura] are the concentrated magnificence!”
and politically highly incorrect. (#Asuracist)
“We [Asura] are the concentrated magnificence!”
Yes there are way less people than they used to be.
That’ s why they decided to merge wvw servers.
The first impression is right in this caseThey merged WvW servers because less people are playing WvW, in combination with the fact that low ranking servers have had issues for ages because people just transferred off of them.
Trying to use WvW server merges as proof of the overall population is like saying the population of the world is shrinking because less people are living in the center of NYC.
They just moved to the suburbs dude.
So if less people are playing WvW would that not imply that there are less people in game, I know of several WvW ONLY read that ONLY guilds that have all quit the game due to the lack of WvW support, most wont come back even now, as they don’t believe it will help, come on already get the blinkers off.
I also feel lonely once in a while. To test the population I often just ask in the map chat if there is any Charr that want his fur combed by me. Normally I get responses…^^
LOL!
I asked in map chat the other day if there were any Charr needing a pedi and a purple claw polishing! Worked like a charm!
I have Splinter Barrage- I am a Ritualist.
I have a pet- I am a Ranger.
I have Avatar of Balthazar- I am a Dervish.
I have a pet- I am a Ranger.
I have Avatar of Balthazar- I am a Dervish.
Yes there are way less people than they used to be.
That’ s why they decided to merge wvw servers.
The first impression is right in this caseThey merged WvW servers because less people are playing WvW, in combination with the fact that low ranking servers have had issues for ages because people just transferred off of them.
Trying to use WvW server merges as proof of the overall population is like saying the population of the world is shrinking because less people are living in the center of NYC.
They just moved to the suburbs dude.
So if less people are playing WvW would that not imply that there are less people in game, I know of several WvW ONLY read that ONLY guilds that have all quit the game due to the lack of WvW support, most wont come back even now, as they don’t believe it will help, come on already get the blinkers off.
Actually, no it doesn’t imply that. It might mean that, or it might mean…
1) there may be more PvE players that have started since the expansion that meet or exceed the number of WvW players that left
2) there may be less WvW players in WvW, but they might be in PvE or sPvP instead and not gone.
Unless you know the total population and its distribution you can’t say that fewer players in one area means fewer players overall.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
ANet may give it to you.
(edited by Just a flesh wound.3589)
Yes there are way less people than they used to be.
That’ s why they decided to merge wvw servers.
The first impression is right in this caseThey merged WvW servers because less people are playing WvW, in combination with the fact that low ranking servers have had issues for ages because people just transferred off of them.
Trying to use WvW server merges as proof of the overall population is like saying the population of the world is shrinking because less people are living in the center of NYC.
They just moved to the suburbs dude.
So if less people are playing WvW would that not imply that there are less people in game, I know of several WvW ONLY read that ONLY guilds that have all quit the game due to the lack of WvW support, most wont come back even now, as they don’t believe it will help, come on already get the blinkers off.
Well the game went free to play so there would be more PvE players even if there were less WvW players. That is people who loved only WvW may have left, but then they never represented 50% of the population.
The thing is the game went free to play and the open world population of Tyria went up. The WvW popluation went down. Some people came back for the expansion. If you only play WvW it may look like the population has gone down. But the SPvP population may have gone up too, because of the new tournaments and the seasons. So there’s a lot more to the equation. I used this example in another thread but it applies.
People have moved out of the center of NYC and started settling in the suburbs. If you live in the center of the city the popuation is down, but that doesn’t mean the population of NY is down. It’s people shifting about.
And when Anet comes out with Living Story Season 3 they’ll be a surge in population again as there always is.
And let me add something about population that I’ve said in other threads.
I do key runs on a regular basis and I’ve done them for years. For a long time I was usually the only person in the instance. Some time back they megaservered the starting instance and I started to see one or two people in there the same time as me. Then f2p was added to the game and the starter instance suddenly went from a couple of people (maybe) to 4 or 5 at the spawn point and 4 or 5 at the boss. Since I run straight to the boss it’s usually not the same people. Many times now the boss is dead before I can even get there. This has been going on for months now. No matter what day and no matter what time I do a key run, there are people in there with me. Some of course are old accounts. Sometimes I can tell by guild tags or PvP icons or even non starter appearing gear, but others look new.
For that reason I think the population has a steady influx of new people. Now no one here can say if these people are staying, but at the very least I would say it’s holding steady.
Be careful what you ask for
ANet may give it to you.
ANet may give it to you.
Yes there are way less people than they used to be.
That’ s why they decided to merge wvw servers.
The first impression is right in this case
WvW server stacking is nothing new. There were servers will multi hour queues while other servers had tumbleweeds. It just took ANet a long time to do anything about it. Those are also not server merges. They are functionally similar but the ability to unmerge and change links makes a big difference.
Yes there are way less people than they used to be.
That’ s why they decided to merge wvw servers.
The first impression is right in this caseThey merged WvW servers because less people are playing WvW, in combination with the fact that low ranking servers have had issues for ages because people just transferred off of them.
Trying to use WvW server merges as proof of the overall population is like saying the population of the world is shrinking because less people are living in the center of NYC.
They just moved to the suburbs dude.
So if less people are playing WvW would that not imply that there are less people in game, I know of several WvW ONLY read that ONLY guilds that have all quit the game due to the lack of WvW support, most wont come back even now, as they don’t believe it will help, come on already get the blinkers off.
Not sure which server you are on, but since Alpine borderlands returned and the server linking for wvw, our queues on BG/ET have been 20ish on all 4 during prime time NA and EB usually has a 5-20 queue during the day NA.
Before Alpine and server linking, wvw was dead. Now it’s busy. ET was a small server so they certainly are not the only reason we are queued. I mean BG is in Tier 1 after all.
I’m a Moose, a ginger moose even.
Yes there are way less people than they used to be.
That’ s why they decided to merge wvw servers.
The first impression is right in this caseThey merged WvW servers because less people are playing WvW, in combination with the fact that low ranking servers have had issues for ages because people just transferred off of them.
Trying to use WvW server merges as proof of the overall population is like saying the population of the world is shrinking because less people are living in the center of NYC.
They just moved to the suburbs dude.
So if less people are playing WvW would that not imply that there are less people in game, I know of several WvW ONLY read that ONLY guilds that have all quit the game due to the lack of WvW support, most wont come back even now, as they don’t believe it will help, come on already get the blinkers off.
Not sure which server you are on, but since Alpine borderlands returned and the server linking for wvw, our queues on BG/ET have been 20ish on all 4 during prime time NA and EB usually has a 5-20 queue during the day NA.
Before Alpine and server linking, wvw was dead. Now it’s busy. ET was a small server so they certainly are not the only reason we are queued. I mean BG is in Tier 1 after all.
Eh, it’s hard to separate the impact on queuing of several recent changes: alpine BLs returning, WvW reward tracks, walletization of ‘Proofs of Heroics’, and linking low-participation worlds to high-WvW ones. I believe that the pops have increased (since I see so many people who returned to WvW after avoiding it for ages), but that’s nothing close to actual evidence.
I’ll say the same thing I always say in threads about population: we have no idea. We have clues and each of us tends to focus on those clues that support our preconceived idea of what should be happening. There are data points that suggest pop declines and others that suggest pop increases.
But none the ‘facts’ we have are very good proxies for actual numbers. We can’t tell peak load (the greatest number of people playing at any given time), unique logons per month (whether filtered for unique IPs or not), average hours played per account per month, or average concurrency (best measure of how many players in game on a regular basis).
Without access to those numbers, we simply have no idea about relative changes in population let alone absolute changes. And even if we did, we don’t know how important those numbers are in the grand scheme of things: we know that population for MMOs always declines in between major launches and updates; we don’t know how GW2’s changes might compare.
In the end, the only important data point to which we have access is: does ANet still have a (relatively) free hand from NCSOFT to run the game’s development? So far, the answer appears to be: yes.
John Smith: “you should kill monsters, because killing monsters is awesome.”
Doesn’t reflect the fact many people are in DR,Grove, BC or Hoelbrak to escape LA loading times, or using airship passes, or the DR whatever thingy, or are completely selfsufficient on their own (having perma contracts, portable MF and so on and never have to return to cities)
The playerbase is now also spread between event maps and the world. a lot of ppl doing instanced content (RAIDS, FRACTALS, DUNGEONS again).
I think an answer could be found in these.
Oh and GW2 sold 5M copies ore so and HoT 400k. but you can play finer on gw2 vanilla.
I fit all of those categories, XD.
I have portable mf, perma merchant, perma trading post and tp to DR for all things at once when I want to do my selling stuff/about to get off (royal terrace pass), so I never go to the main cities unless I’m entering fractals of the mist, and even then I’ll only be at the mist gate for a moment since I probably already joined a party before going there.
the playerbase is a lot bigger than it used to be before megaserver still which is all I care about, no matter where you are in the world you’ll run into someone… before megaserver so many maps were empty, but now every map is atleast half full at all times from my experience.
Since we got to know Anet had sold 5 million copies a few years ago, they have had another 2 million accounts created up to heart of thorns expansion. http://massivelyop.com/2015/10/23/guild-wars-2-launches-heart-of-thorns-and-an-infographic/.
PS: Notice the word “7 million accounts”, it doesnt count in people who bought core and later upgraded to hot. So an account who upgraded from core to hot isnt count two times.
Every game lose players over time, and since Guild wars 2 is such an easy game to come back to, people take breaks when not much is happening. Right now theres no living world or season 3 pvp. When pvp season starts again this week i bet more people will pick up guild wars 2 and start play again.
(edited by sanctuary.1068)