Age of Conan

Originally posted by DrowNoble

Someone also pointed out that Xfire may be turned off when playing AoC due to the game's high system requirements.  As I said before, I don't use it so my 1 sub isn't being counted.

I did notice that the powergamers that raced to 80 are screaming about how bored they are.  Not just on this site, but on others as well.   I have zero sympathy for these people.  Part of the fun, to me at least, in an MMO is the journey through the game.  I started with a Necro (mage archtype) got him out of Tortage and did a few quests in Stygia.  Then I made a cimmerian Barbarian and did some cimmerian quests.  Went to an aquilonian Dark Templar 3rd time around and explored that area too.  I'll admit I'm an explorer type player, I enjoy seeing the sights more than outleveling everyone around me.

"power gamers" "raced" man you must be slow. An hour or two a day since launch would do it. Glad you are still enjoying the sights but it dosen't take long to see them all really and certainly you don't have to be a power gamer. Personally I was done well under a month, I played long and hard that first holiday weekend (as I suspect many casuals did) then a couple of hours a day. That was ample time and fun while it lasted.

The reason people are bored is because there is no MMOrpg once you have 'seen the sights' pretty much zip nadda zilch. The 'experience' near the start is strong but as a MMO it needs more than polish, it needs a game to be designed and implemented.

If you have Xfire turned off then you won't participate in the sample. What can be said is that the trend amongst Xfire users is down.

When is the second months sub due? Guess thats the next milestone.

Originally posted by Lydon

Plus, even if Xfire isn't a proper representation of the gaming community as some say, the fact of the matter is that the majority of people who were logging into Xfire when AoC was launched are most likely still logging in now. As a result, at least between those (many) users, play hours are decreasing. There's no escaping that fact.

Whilst I agree that the Xfire numbers are decreasing & that it is indeed a fact, it still does not necessarily reflect a proportionate decrease in actual subscriber numbers.

Xfire is a 'niche interest' site that is not representative of the gaming community as a whole, in the same way as home computers running 'Linux' are not representative of the domestic home computer market.

Unless you can prove at least a correlation between Xfire subscribers & general AoC subscribers, these statistics don't mean a thing. There's no escaping that fact.

I am not trying to argue that AoC numbers haven't decreased. just that it is pointless to try to demonstrate it by quoting statistics from an unrepresentative community.

Originally posted by LondonMagus 

Whilst I agree that the Xfire numbers are decreasing & that it is indeed a fact, it still does not necessarily reflect a proportionate decrease in actual subscriber numbers.

Xfire is a 'niche interest' site that is not representative of the gaming community as a whole, in the same way as home computers running 'Linux' are not representative of the domestic home computer market.

Unless you can prove at least a correlation between Xfire subscribers & general AoC subscribers, these statistics don't mean a thing. There's no escaping that fact.

I am not trying to argue that AoC numbers haven't decreased. just that it is pointless to try to demonstrate it by quoting statistics from an unrepresentative community.

Its a sample. You are looking at the trend within that sample. We are looking at Xfire users on launch and Xfire users now. So you are saying that Xfire users as a subset of the AoC community are not representative of the greater community as a whole? bullshit. You could use gingerheaded 25-30 year olds with amd processors. Perfectly acceptable for monitoring the migration out o the game. The 'demographic' of the sample really not that important in this instance unless you are really claiming that Xfire users are actuall more likely to cancel than other users thus squeueing the result.

Any straw poll here or on AoC's Forums directly mirrors the declining numbers on Xfire.  While it is circumstantial evidence, it's still enough evidence to state that at least 2/3 of original purchasers have quit within 2 months of release.

Any game that loses 50% or greater of its subscribers in that short of a time frame must have serious flaws.

Originally posted by Ghist

Any straw poll here or on AoC's Forums directly mirrors the declining numbers on Xfire.  While it is circumstantial evidence, it's still enough evidence to state that at least 2/3 of original purchasers have quit within 2 months of release.

 

Any game that loses 50% or greater of its subscribers in that short of a time frame must have serious flaws.

And we have to note, after Thursdays patch, no one can search the servers for players online anymore beyond a single page of 50.

Before a player could log in, type a minimum and maximum number for level (say 1-80) hit search, count the pages and get a total of players online.

The averages for servers for Funcom to make money (according to their criteria) was a 2500 to 3000+ player range. About 3 weeks ago, they were happily in that range.

Before they locked searching in Thursdays patch, the servers were averaging 2000 or less. Some were even in the 100's.

Wonder why Funcom felt the need to lock player searches (lol)

Listen why even discuss this all.

Everyone knows AoC is not a game you play longer than 1 or 2 months.

Only those who WANT to love Conan will stay (because of the lore and books ?).

All the rest will jump ship after 2 -3 months and within a few months the newest MMORPG will be published so who cares anyway.

The only thing I am interested in is the actual sales of Conan now, because enough innocent people have lost money on this project already.

Time to go to WAR to try, to come back to WotLK or to go back to whatever everyone came from.

Have fun all - even those who will stay

I can think of a dozen people off the top of my head that I know in WoW that were going bonkers for AoC, played it for a week, then quit and came right back to WoW. :(

Originally posted by Gorilla

Originally posted by LondonMagus 

Whilst I agree that the Xfire numbers are decreasing & that it is indeed a fact, it still does not necessarily reflect a proportionate decrease in actual subscriber numbers.

Xfire is a 'niche interest' site that is not representative of the gaming community as a whole, in the same way as home computers running 'Linux' are not representative of the domestic home computer market.

Unless you can prove at least a correlation between Xfire subscribers & general AoC subscribers, these statistics don't mean a thing. There's no escaping that fact.

I am not trying to argue that AoC numbers haven't decreased. just that it is pointless to try to demonstrate it by quoting statistics from an unrepresentative community.

Its a sample. You are looking at the trend within that sample. We are looking at Xfire users on launch and Xfire users now. So you are saying that Xfire users as a subset of the AoC community are not representative of the greater community as a whole? bullshit. You could use gingerheaded 25-30 year olds with amd processors. Perfectly acceptable for monitoring the migration out o the game. The 'demographic' of the sample really not that important in this instance unless you are really claiming that Xfire users are actuall more likely to cancel than other users thus squeueing the result.

I chose the Linux example quite deliberately because I am indeed saying that the Xfire community are unlikely to be representative of the greater community as a whole & in particular the section of the greater community that chose to try AoC.

I am not sure what you have against redheads, being half-irish I always felt cheated not to have red hair, but in any case it simply isn't statisitically valid to claim that any cross section of a community regardless of bias is perfectly acceptable for monitoring trends in the community as a whole.

As other posters have pointed out, AoC particularly appeals to casual players who are far less likely to bother with Xfire. I am a casual player & whilst I at least know what Xfire is, I haven't the slightest inclination of bothering with it. The majority of casual players do not bother with forums like MMORPG & have quite probably never even heard of Xfire. I don't know what proportion have heard of it, that would be the subject of yet another poll. Similarly, people that do register with Xfire are far less likely to be casual players. Maybe Xfire themselves can help you there if they have a handy poll of how many of their subscribers consider themselves to be casual, but personally I am just making an educated guess.

So there you have it, if Xfire users are less likely to be casual players, whereas AoC appeals more to casual players, the statistics derived from Xfire could easily be antagonistic to those of average AoC players. This isn't necessarily the case & the statistics could be very similar, but this was my whole point earlier when I said.

I am not trying to argue that AoC numbers haven't decreased. just that it is pointless to try to demonstrate it by quoting statistics from an unrepresentative community.

Of course this is just my personal opinion & you are entitled to believe what you like.