All Posts by Lydon

Bots are to MMOs as oxygen is to life unfortunately. We can minimise them, but until people stop buying from them they'll be there.

Originally posted by LondonMagus

Oh no, not another 'Xfire must be accurate because it is based on a sample of 5000' thread.

It's only a few short weeks since the last twin stumbling behemoths finally died a lingering painful death.

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/209183/page/1

http://www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/210263/page/1

Like it or not, Xfire only accurately reflects or predicts the behaviour of it's own community. In terms of basic demographics it is easily shown to be an unrepresentative sample & therefore unreliable. It may or may not reflect trends shown in the main population for any given game, but that adds nothing to it's reliability.

This is about defending valid use of statistics not Warhammer, but the other two threads say it all. 

How is Xfire an unrepresentative sample? There are users from all over the world. If said sample was not representative, how is it that Xfire stats match real-life trends, such as World of Warcraft claiming the top spot among the list of MMOs, Guild Wars being second, as mentioned Age of Conan being at rank 51 etc?

Also, the number of people playing the game rises and falls with each passing day. One day Xfire may state there are 5000 players, the next it may drop down to 3000. This stat is reflective of active plays, so over time this number will fall. It is therefore not fair to say that it's a sample of 5000 people playing the game. It is in fact a sample of all Xfire users. You can't discount the other 195 000 active users simply because they don't play the game. The point is that the game isn't managing to hone in those other 195 000 people quicker than it is losing the current (for arguments' sake) 5000 players.

Originally posted by Pheace

That's certainly becoming a harsh graph, but it still only speaks for the Xfire community that plays/played WAR unfortunately ;)

With regards to Xfire stats being reliable:

Here in South Africa our national television broadcaster, the SABC, monitors the homes of +- 1500 random families in order to observe their viewing trends. From these trends, they determine what the entire country of 45 million + people will have broadcasted to them on TV. The key to this survey of sorts is that it is random and representative.

That is exactly what Xfire stats are. There is over 10 million registered Xfire users (albeit nowhere near this number of people actually use it on a regular basis). At any given time around 200 000 people are logged on. This is a random sample of gamers from all over the world. The trends observed between these gamers will in the majority of cases reflect the trend of gamers world-wide simply due to the keys to surveys I mentioned earlier - randomness and representativeness. 

When Age of Conan was released it jumped right up to the top 5 on Xfire, which reflected exactly what was happening in the world. Hundreds of thousands of people were logging hours in the game. When people started to notice population numbers decreasing, other people started to quote Xfire numbers as proof that the game was dying. There were long arguments between forumers (including myself) as to whether or not those stats were reliable. All I can say is that Age of Conan now sitting at number 51 on the Xfire games list. 

Xfire has continually proven that is it indeed reflective of the world community. World of Warcraft is still sitting at number 1 after all these years (though the other day a random burst of Call of Duty 4 allowed it to claim the top spot for a day). It is indeed a fact that the hardcore gamers will most likely be the gamers with Xfire accounts, but I think most of us will agree that casual gamers playing The Sims 2 won't be the gamers playing World of Warcraft on a regular basis, if at all. 

This is by no means set in stone, but from my opinion Xfire is reliable enough for it to activate warning sirens when large drops in hours between its users occur.

To be honest, I wouldn't want to be playing side-by-side with the fanboys complaining about Acclaim anyway. They would most likely be the bad apples in the community. It honestly isn't hard to do research before giving an informed comment on a game.

EDIT - Does anyone have an idea as to where South Africa will be added in the mix? We're usually placed along with the UK as a result of our English being almost exactly the same and a number of other details. 

Originally posted by Wizardry

The last post is another in the long line of people mis leading others,why? i guess it's the fanbois syndrome,no other reason why people lie about a game.

This game IS EXACTLY like a F2P game,no ifs and or butts about it.Anyone that would pay to play it is nuts.I found it too boring to play even for free,was nothing there to grab my interest for more than 1 hour each day i looged in,until i got to the point that i had no interest to log in anymore.

There is NOT one thing you can't get in a F2P game that Ryzom would offer you.There is nothing done in the game that is above and beyond any F2P game ,be it graphics/content what ever,this is the reason it is EXACTLY like a F2P.

I would not mis lead anyone into saying "Don't play it",but don't come on here and tell others it's a top notch game worthy of paying to play.It IS a VERY average game.

I really am grateful I didn't discover Ryzom and read your posts before playing it. I currently do not play the game, as I am not in the mood for a sandbox, but honestly - some of what you're typing is absolute nonsense. 

If you think that Ryzom is exactly like a F2P game, you really haven't had much experience with F2P games at all. Have you heard of our good ol' friend "polish?" Ryzom may not be utterly perfect in this regard, but it is miles ahead of the multitude of F2P games I have played over the years. Apart from that, it has a unique art direction, graphics that are still beautiful and efficient 4 years after release and not to mention minimal lag. 

Then comes the community aspect. The Ryzom community is probably the most mature gaming community I have ever experienced. Players are friendly and helpful - often going out of their way to help you should you need it. Anyone who disputes this fact has not played the game much or is judging it after experiencing a few new players trying the game. For a long while, Ryzom has been renowned for its excellent sense of community and comradership. Just taking a look at the official forums when the game was shut down earlier this year confirmed that. Players were in a "let's stick together and get through this" mode as they have always been.

In conclusion, I don't think you understand the core dynamics of a sandbox MMO. I have yet to play a sandbox F2P MMO worth mentioning, so comparing Ryzom to F2P MMOs is rather silly. You can't compare apples and pears and judge the quality of the apple as a result of the taste of the pear. From my experience, Ryzom is indeed a top-notch game that unfortunately too many people overlook. Thankfully I have freedom of speech, meaning I can and will "come on here and tell others it's a top notch game."

Much has been nerfed within the past year. ANet have been on a balancing mission - sometimes succeeding and sometimes not. On the whole, builds that were viable back then in most cases would be near obsolete by now (possibly unfortunately).

Thanks! That about explains it. 

As for the Harvest Day festival, well I started playing just a few days ago so I'm still trying to figure out how various things work, as well as exactly where certain places are.

Originally posted by brostyn

How will people be playing TCoS or Darkfall in December?

Pyscho fanbois.

Well considering TCoS is being released within around 10 days - easily. Honestly, try doing some research before going on a rant.

Can anyone else log in? I'm on Seradon. When I launch the game I get a "Waiting for response from world server" message and nothing happens. When I try to log in to the game I just get a waiting message too. The patcher says all servers are up. 

Originally posted by tastethegold

dont ALL SOE games have population problems?

dont/didnt they kind of bring that upon themselves?

getting people to try a SOE game is an uphill battle:

1:"its made by who?"

2:"SOE"

1:"SONY !?! no thanks"

2:"its really not a bad game!"

1:"whatever fanboy"

much less keeping them playing them as they watch the pop's dwindle and the game mechanics be destroyed and rebuilt infront of them.

maybe if everyone just jumps ship NOW they will finally admit failure and some more deserving titles can get the player numbers they deserve (asin next year).

Please go troll somewhere else. Have you even played the game? SOE are actually doing things right with Vanguard now and as a result the population is on the rise.

I despise SOE, but I must admit their support has been excellent from my experience (it took Blizzard over 4 weeks to reply to my billing query two months ago, SOE it took 2 hours for a reply last week), they're constantly releasing fixes and new content and on the whole seem to be getting their act together. 

Originally posted by Vyrolakos

 We have an already saturated market of MMO's

I disagree. I think that there is still plenty of room to grow. The untapped market of developing countries exists, broadband is/has become the norm, newer generations are interested in technology more than the older generations etc. 

Originally posted by Serling

"It would defy the point of the story books if you didn't have to work to fill them."

 

It's a game.  None of it should be "work."  None of it.  But since it is, I have another name for it: "grind."

If what you're saying is correct, then why can you do EoTN missions once and pay to get your book filled if you forgot to get it???

My gawd, man, it ain't rocket science!  The books should be treated in every campaign the way they are in EoTN (since that's what they're modelled after): people who have done the missions should get credit for doing them.  People who haven't can fill their books by doing them.  It's not freaking hard to grasp!

You're right...I used the term "work" lightly. One needs to mission for them then. Same concept, different connotations. 

As I have said before, you're failing to see the point of this update. It's meant to get people playing missions again as most mission towns are barren - especially in Prophecies. Releasing books for Prophecies 3 years after the game was released only to allow people to fill them if they've already done the missions would be quite pointless. Why spend the time developing it in the first place if the large majority of the community has already completed many/most of the missions? It would be like dishing out free rewards and a waste of development time. 

I would expect that a guild wars player would be very happy that it's gotten people playing together again, because as you just said - it's not meant to be work. You're meant to enjoy doing the missions over again. But alas, the incessant whining of the community will probably see them allow us to fill the storybooks if we've already done the missions soon.

It's the NPCs for the guild hall you're going to fork the cash over for 

I think that one of the reasons one notices population issues in Vanguard is because the world is so huge. The chances of running into someone random in the wildness are far, far less than running into someone in the wildness in a game such as WoW (sorry to use this example) for example. 

I can't have a good gaming session with a dirty play area. I can't even concentrate properly with an untidy desktop or hard drive. Everything is perfectly organised lol.

And me, being a self-proclaimed beta tester says:

"I was truly shocked at the level of intelligence present in the mobs! One kept on hitting me and hitting me with his staff despite me asking him nicely to stop. He knew that I was just trying to trick him and acted accordingly. Well done!"

On a serious note...I too will believe it when I see it. They could have made all of that up. But I hope it's real.

^

Unfortunately things simply can't always be handed to you on a plate. The point of the story books are to get people playing the missions again. 

Let's put it this way...you're annoyed because you have to work for the story book rewards now. If story books weren't included in the game, what would have you been doing instead? Now do whatever you would have been doing or replay the missions. They're not forcing you to do anything. It would defy the point of the story books if you didn't have to work to fill them.

^ Gota love conspiracy theorists

Anyway, one would think that it's logical that well-known games or games based on well-known franchises would be on "the list." The latter applying to this game.

I can recognise them Guild Wars boxes from a mile away  Nice setup OP.

Originally posted by Thestache

I'm not a Closed Beta tester and I am excited about it too.

You should be