Maybe I’m just showing my age but the idea that the amount of youtube spam can be considered an accurate way to gauge the popularity of the game seems laughable to me.
It wouldn’t surprise me if player numbers are down at the moment, since there’s not a lot of new stuff going on, but as other people have said GW2 was designed around the idea that players would come and go from the game. Because it’s not subscription based they’re not as reliant on keeping large numbers of people logging in on a regular basis. As long as people come back when something new does happen (and I think we’re due for another big update sometime soon, in the next month or so maybe?) it’s not a problem.
Considering one consistent topic on the forums lately has been complaints about spikes in the gem price I assume either there’s enough active players to keep sales up or a small number of players are spending a hell of a lot more money than they usually do for some reason. Since most of the items released recently aren’t actually new, and they’re all things each person would only need to buy once it seems unlikely to me it’s a few people spending all that gold, but I could be wrong.
From my experience, all MMOs have ebbs and flows when it comes to active players. Typically these ebbs and flows coincide with the cycle of new content, i.e. new content = more active players, while old content = fewer active players. As others have said, we’re currently in a lull when it comes to new content, which means there are going to be fewer active players as people who have gotten bored with the existing content are off to the next big thing. As soon as new content is introduced, players will return.
The thing is…once summer hits, this should be the prime time to be releasing content. Its not only Anet that does this, but other video game publisher’s as well. Most kids arent in school, so now they should be playing more. Yet…no new games come out, and mmos seem to just go on hiatus. Its like there’s some threat coming they want to get out of the way for…
What’s that over the horizon? Its getting closer….OH GOD STEAM SUMMER SALE! HIDE YOUR MONEY AND YOUR CREDIT CARDS BEFORE ITS TOO LATE!
My experience has been that video game sales and promotions generally die down over the summer because most people (both kids and adults) have many more options for how to spend their time. They’re more likely to be outside spending time on other hobbies than inside playing games.
When I worked in a video game shop the only systems doing big promotions around now where the Nintendo DS and the PSP, and that’s because they were counting on parents buying a new game (or even a new console) to give kids something to do while in the car/on the plane to their holiday. Other than that it was usually clearance sales to make room for new stock that would come in after the summer lull.
But I don’t know how that would apply to MMOs since they were a very small part of what we did, unless a new expansion was coming out for a big game.
It would actually be interesting to see the number of active logged on users in an MMO charted monthly over time, so that we could see if there is a standard dip around summertime. I’ve always assumed the same as you, that MMO game developers don’t target the summer months because people are more inclined to do outdoor activities. But it could also be that publishers are so stuck in the mantra of “release games around the holidays” that it forces a particular development schedule.
