13 replies to this topic

[YFCBanana]

Hello guys.

I dont make this post to try to flame guild wars 2 is just i was out of guild wars for some time so today i decide to play agaian but my serve (Ring Of FIre) seems empty.. I mean there was no one around! So I decide to go check at Lions Arch and still I was almost alone! I mena i just saw a guy or two. even at the crafting spots. Empty! So after that a said ok lets go check at a high population server with guest system and still the things werent much better...

My question is where is every one?

[Amelia]

What hour ? Not long before your post? Because there was a maintanance 1,5h before your post, also bear in mind that it's a middle of a day in a middle of a week. People have school and work, at least most of them. That's something to be rather expected.

[Lunacy Polish]

I cannot speak for EU servers but I know from an American perspective that there is a large contingent of players who play every new MMO that comes out for 2 months and then quits regardless of the quality of the game.

This problem is worse with GW2 because the game is designed for long haul casual players.  That is people who do not play it like a day job but who will play it for a long time.

The hardcore and nolifers have mostly quit because this is not a system which allows you to dominate simply by grinding.   It does not matter if you have T3 cultural armor and all the legendary weapons and an army of max level characters.  Better players still win despite the power gap.

Those who remain are people who fit the profile ANet was aiming for or the competitive.

This happens in every game ever.  I too am seeing some familiar names vanish.   But the game is in that crucial stage where the initial population has dipped and to survive it needs to retain and cultivate its base.  These are growing pains plain and simple.

It is unfortunate for players publishers and developers that this slump happens so early in the game's life.  All games have this population problem right at the point in time there are the most problems to solve and the most resources are needed.  A lot of people forget many of their favorite games were real stinkers before some crucial stage where key refinements made their way that usually takes a year to two years.

But if the thing can get going under its own momentum it will appreciate in population faster than it loses players to attrition.   We are just very early in during an awkward time where the appeal of being new has vanished and the game is about as bad as it is ever going to be.

I am not sure how it will go.  ANet is a mixed bag, they do some really smart things but they do some stupid ones too.  Reminds me of Troika, another game developer that was skilled but extremely inconsistent in terms of quality.

[Coren]

Also, check the population in the world selection. It will tell you more

[Darkobra]

You'll have more success at a weekend or a weeknight. Also certain areas like Orr or outside Ascalon Catacombs can see more population hikes at that time.

[Astral Projections]

Hellspawn2323, on 13 February 2013 - 08:51 PM, said:

But the fact is GW2 is bleeding players faster then Age of Crap I mean Conan...

Just to comment on this statement.

http://www.pcgamesn....and-cat-potions
Quote:

The game’s reached three million sales: a major and important milestone. As importantly, players are still playing and enjoying the game. Player concurrency numbers, the amount of people playing the game at any one time, have been consistently rising for the past five weeks.

First, a brief lesson in MMO-economics. Every MMO developer lives and breathes their concurrency curve. In the lifecycle of an MMO, you tend to see an early spike, where fresh faced players log in for the first time. That spike inevitably drops following launch: to a concurrency base. What happens next determines the future of the game. “For games that aren’t doing well, that core base over time slowly drops. A lot of them respond by going free-to-play, which causes them to spike back up and hit a new concurrency base.”

There are a few games that have managed to grow their concurrency base in the period following launch. World of Warcraft. Eve Online. And now Guild Wars 2.

“We hit our flat concurrency numbers back in November, and we’ve consistently grown every single week for the past five weeks,” says Colin. “Our core concurrency base that we hit back in November was really exciting - but to see that number going up is really, really exciting. especially because a lot of the pieces that will make the game more exciting are coming in January, February and March.”

[Rainbird]

Whenever I look at the EU server list in the evening, around one forth to one third of them is listed as full, several others as highly populated. My server is mostly listed as full and I see people everywhere, even in low level areas. In Lion's Arch there is almost always an overflow server.

What I noticed, however, is that the distance at which other players are shown was greatly reduced in one of the latest patches. If you are at the vendors in the heart of the mists you cannot see the people standing beside the PvP browser guy anymore.

[Soki]

Lunacy Polish, on 13 February 2013 - 01:42 PM, said:

I cannot speak for EU servers but I know from an American perspective that there is a large contingent of players who play every new MMO that comes out for 2 months and then quits regardless of the quality of the game.

This problem is worse with GW2 because the game is designed for long haul casual players.  That is people who do not play it like a day job but who will play it for a long time.

The hardcore and nolifers have mostly quit because this is not a system which allows you to dominate simply by grinding.   It does not matter if you have T3 cultural armor and all the legendary weapons and an army of max level characters.  Better players still win despite the power gap.

Those who remain are people who fit the profile ANet was aiming for or the competitive.

This happens in every game ever.  I too am seeing some familiar names vanish.   But the game is in that crucial stage where the initial population has dipped and to survive it needs to retain and cultivate its base.  These are growing pains plain and simple.

It is unfortunate for players publishers and developers that this slump happens so early in the game's life.  All games have this population problem right at the point in time there are the most problems to solve and the most resources are needed.  A lot of people forget many of their favorite games were real stinkers before some crucial stage where key refinements made their way that usually takes a year to two years.

But if the thing can get going under its own momentum it will appreciate in population faster than it loses players to attrition.   We are just very early in during an awkward time where the appeal of being new has vanished and the game is about as bad as it is ever going to be.

I am not sure how it will go.  ANet is a mixed bag, they do some really smart things but they do some stupid ones too.  Reminds me of Troika, another game developer that was skilled but extremely inconsistent in terms of quality.

Actually, I'd say nobody of the hardcore demographic touches the game anymore because there's no long-term system that isn't implemented in an awful, unimaginative way - rather than the lack of a power-creep.

Citing that hardcore players only play to outgear people is pretty misguided; and a sweeping overgeneralization.
GW2 has nothing to keep players who want challenge outside of PvP - and they launched the game with barely even half-done PvP systems. They didn't even have a ranking system, duelling, or support for large-scale match-based PvP.

GW2 population is dwindling due to its own devices. Not because hardcore players are bad.

[Hrefna]

I happen to be on Ring of fire server and yesterday afternoon  there were enough people to kill Claw of Jormag smoothly.
And yes, it is no surprise that some players quit for various reasons, but new ones are also joining.
As i said in another thread, if I had a gold coin for every time someone declared the game dead I could go buy a bucketload of  legendaries now.
But that does not make the game any more dead. I still feel it is alive. Maybe not exactly booming, but very far from dead.

Edited by Hrefna, 14 February 2013 - 03:12 PM.

[Cube]

I play on RoF too, and it's nowhere from empty. It's just that mostly people aren't on, on certain times of the day. Also, some maps are less populated for obvious reasons, as there's no reason to be there when the zone doesn't offer anything interesting.

I see people around all the time, but I find it to be just as 'dead' in lvling zones as any other server really. People don't talk as much because there's no reason to really group up in this game. Everything can be done solo.

[Skiper]

Aurora Glade EU - 8:00 am CET - Lion's Arch --- and I'm automatically in Overflow. Also I've been working on my 100% map achiev past month and no way that any zone is dead. I bumped on other players everywhere at any hour.

So I got only to say to all you players who must still complain about GW2. I'm sorry for you that you can't find any reason why to play this cool game. Really.

[salluks]

Rainbird, on 14 February 2013 - 11:46 AM, said:

Whenever I look at the EU server list in the evening, around one forth to one third of them is listed as full, several others as highly populated. My server is mostly listed as full and I see people everywhere, even in low level areas. In Lion's Arch there is almost always an overflow server.

What I noticed, however, is that the distance at which other players are shown was greatly reduced in one of the latest patches. If you are at the vendors in the heart of the mists you cannot see the people standing beside the PvP browser guy anymore.

Servers are empty on EU, maybe u check it on EU primetime which lasts for about 3 hours, the rest 21 hours is what is below. only about 5 servers are listed "very high" and 0 in "Full"

Edited by salluks, 14 February 2013 - 04:47 PM.

[I'm Squirrel]

if all else fails, guest on maguuma

[Rainbird]

salluks, on 14 February 2013 - 04:46 PM, said:

Servers are empty on EU, maybe u check it on EU primetime which lasts for about 3 hours, the rest 21 hours is what is below. only about 5 servers are listed "very high" and 0 in "Full"

1. I was talking about the evening, not the whole day.
2. One third medium, one third high, one third very high (current situation at 9 pm CET) is far from empty in my books.