daoc dying ?

[Obe]

daoc is too hard for new players,, its very few ppl exping normal way and very few players below level 20. so new players to this game have hard time find grps to exp and make friends ingame. when they done they need make even more pve (toa / ml's) but this might not be such big problem as PvE was okey first char u exped.. and new players are happily unknown of whats waiting them when reaching level 50

give more lowbies :E w/o them daoc gonna loose more & more players quite fast ich is afraid

cluster rox ~ but still dont make more ppl come to game which is needed as lots ppl quits all time :x

 

[Gamah]

I remember reading a daoc is dead post about the time swg came out. Sure Daoc is past its peak but there are still many people who enjoy playing.

Moral is: It's dying but it will takes 3 more years+ to finally die.

 

[old.Whoodoo]

Crap title to this thread, it should be "its hard to exp group these days", as the game is far from dead, and the last few weeks have seen increases in server populations.

Yes its hard for a new player to get a group, however xp has never been better, coupled with up to 50% camp bonus' in Catacombes, the free level system and with any new member joining a half decent guild, the opportunity for PL or at least help with items and cash to get them going. The ROG and Cata aurulite drops also mean items are easier to come by.

So what you think isnt really true at all, Ive seen lots of new players ding 50 on their first toon in half the time it took my first pre-SIand TOA.

Next time ask the right question pls, and dont be so melodramatic with thread titles.

 

[Gamah]

Crap title to this thread, it should be "its hard to exp group these days", as the game is far from dead, and the last few weeks have seen increases in server populations.

Yes its hard for a new player to get a group, however xp has never been better, coupled with up to 50% camp bonus' in Catacombes, the free level system and with any new member joining a half decent guild, the opportunity for PL or at least help with items and cash to get them going. The ROG and Cata aurulite drops also mean items are easier to come by.

So what you think isnt really true at all, Ive seen lots of new players ding 50 on their first toon in half the time it took my first pre-SIand TOA.

Next time ask the right question pls, and dont be so melodramatic with thread titles.

Server population has been increasing due to the promise of clustering. (imo)

 

[Zebolt]

Server population has been increasing due to the promise of clustering. (imo)

And it will increase even more when they do cluster.

 

[Gamah]

And it will increase even more when they do cluster.

yea 3000+ people on the server..first few days are gonna be fucking hell

 

[Gribz0r]

And then it will decrease again. Or do you REALLY think people that quit because they we bored and it was time to move on will stick around long?

The quitters will quit again after a few months.

 

[Rothzak]

yea 3000+ people on the server..first few days are gonna be fucking hell

can't wait for albs to zerg us

 

[Deepflame]

Can't wait to zerg you!

 

[Mas]

can't wait for albs to zerg us

Heh, it happens already

 

[gervaise]

Well one can only hope its the Daleks....

I see things as fragile at the moment, I don't see increasing server populations. Yes they went up after Catacombs but have subsequently been drifting down again. Happened in the US, trends tend to be the same both sides of the Atlantic and the 3 month subscription point is coming up for re-subscribers. Current Excal population - low 900s, Pryd - languishing in the 600s, Europe wide - 12k. Maybe the Daleks have landed early in the UK ...

I wonder what impact the new US servers will have on the European playerbase.

 

[Rookiescot]

Crap title to this thread, it should be "its hard to exp group these days", as the game is far from dead, and the last few weeks have seen increases in server populations.

Yes its hard for a new player to get a group, however xp has never been better, coupled with up to 50% camp bonus' in Catacombes, the free level system and with any new member joining a half decent guild, the opportunity for PL or at least help with items and cash to get them going. The ROG and Cata aurulite drops also mean items are easier to come by.

So what you think isnt really true at all, Ive seen lots of new players ding 50 on their first toon in half the time it took my first pre-SIand TOA.

Next time ask the right question pls, and dont be so melodramatic with thread titles.

Think the more relevant question would have been ..... why did WoW get so many subscribers where DAOC as an established game STILL has so few ?

 

[Rothzak]

blizzard spent tons of money to advertising & marketing in general..and we, stupid humans(imo), tend to think "ooh blizzard made diablo/warcraft/starcraft series, this game has to be good too!"

 

[Crookshanks]

Think the more relevant question would have been ..... why did WoW get so many subscribers where DAOC as an established game STILL has so few ?

It amazes me at work the number of people who are getting into mmorpgs (admittedly I work in the computer industry, so possibly not a fair representation of a cross section of the general population). I occasionally notice people looking at forum websites for WoW, EQ2, CoH, GW and go over and say "Hi - do you play then?". Age or job seniority seems to make no difference, I know of two managers who play, several well-respected developers, and plenty of office "grunts" (like myself ).

So why didn't they choose to play DAOC is the next obvious question which springs to mind? I used to believe it was merely publicity (or lack of) - however I'm not so sure now given that they all heard of DAOC. Whenever I've asked people why they chose WoW, I usually get the response "because my friend plays" (this is typically from people who havn't played any other mmos). The response from people who have tried other mmos is more varied, and usually includes the line "because all the Warcraft games are great".

What would be interesting is what will GoA do if the population of DAOC suddenly increases beyond the 3000 point in the cluster. At what point will the servers start to feel the strain - and how will they resolve the problem of preventing playing in the same zones. I believe its been said clustering is a one way proceedure (I don't know how true this statement is) - it won't be possible to uncluster in the future. Therefore the only solution will be to create a new unclustered server?

 

[Zebolt]

And then it will decrease again. Or do you REALLY think people that quit because they we bored and it was time to move on will stick around long?

If they are anything like me they will stay, but ofc everyone won't stay, that will never happen in any game ever.

 

[Zebolt]

Think the more relevant question would have been ..... why did WoW get so many subscribers where DAOC as an established game STILL has so few ?

Cuz' blizzard is one of the most famus game developers in the world and has done best sellers after best seller.

 

[gervaise]

<<blizzard spent tons of money to advertising & marketing in general..and we, stupid humans(imo), tend to think "ooh blizzard made diablo/warcraft/starcraft series, this game has to be good too!">>

Maybe I missed the continual bombardment of television/ radio / magazine advertising. Missed the mind control that makes people to play month after month. There was also this very large open beta with NO disclosure agreement and people said what they didn't like. Ultimately the beta - and the sheer length of the beta - generated the publicity. I found a set of posts from July 2002. One was about Imperator (I found it hilarious) the others wanted to know when Blizzard would start the beta.

Whether you like WoW or not Blizzard made a serious effort to release a game without bugs, that was balance. could cope with server stress etc. QA was much in evidence. On ToA ...? Now Blizzard have the money to roll out extra content etc

 

[Ctuchik]

And it will increase even more when they do cluster.

that depends how many ppl will leave BECAUSE of the clustering. we might aswell look at a +-0 result in a worst case scenario.

i for one hate the idea of clustering mainly coz i know i cant delete and reroll on another realm on my excal side of my account after that. i mean, GOA are TELLING us where to bloody play if we dont like the idea of buying yet ANOTHER account or delete the chars we spent 3+ years develop.

 

[Gamah]

Current Excal population - low 900s, Pryd - languishing in the 600s, Europe wide - 12k. Maybe the Daleks have landed early in the UK ...

I wonder what impact the new US servers will have on the European playerbase.

Nice 4 month old numbers Prydwen is hovering around 900-1000 Primetime.

 

[Ctuchik]

Whether you like WoW or not Blizzard made a serious effort to release a game without bugs, that was balance. could cope with server stress etc. QA was much in evidence. On ToA ...? Now Blizzard have the money to roll out extra content etc

that could be debatable

i bet theres just as many bugs in WoW as there have ever been in DAoC. just look at the client crashes with odd error reports that they cant seem to find the bugs for. atleast DAoC never had those problems. WoW is pretty damn unstable as it is now. i can never be sure i wont get a "error #132" or any of the other errors they found out about. when i go to a instance. i usually get them a couple of times a day.

 

[Sarumancer]

Also realise the 2 mil subs counts WORLDWIDE, and its also counts copys given away, and given that blizzard is IMMENSE in korea so webcafes have a copy for every single pc... It counts those who bought the game and played for a bit, but not specifically still playing

well that 2 mil figure is a LITTLE disingenuous and misleading

Im sure if you counted all the copies of DAOC sold....

 

[old.Tohtori]

Actually this, "bliz made diablo, starcraft etc...this MUST be good!" is true in games. When you make hit after hit, the next game will be a hit and as far as i see, neither blizzard or rockstar have let peopel down on this department.

Good games don't just "pop up", if they make good games it means there are good people making them and that means...more good games.

 

[Kami]

If they are anything like me they will stay, but ofc everyone won't stay, that will never happen in any game ever.

you'd be surprised how many will hang around if the same sort of thing happens to daoc as has with Ultima online. People still playing it and the company still making a good profit years after it was passed it's best.

DAOC to be honest has a similar hold on me as UO did, so reckon I'll be playing it for a hell of a long time

 

[Deepflame]

Also, don't forget that when DAoC was released MMO-gaming wasn't nearly as popular as it was when WoW released. And it's still increasing in popularity, I'm pretty sure the next big MMO will draw even more copies.

 

[Cadiva]

Whether you like WoW or not Blizzard made a serious effort to release a game without bugs, that was balance. could cope with server stress etc. QA was much in evidence. On ToA ...? Now Blizzard have the money to roll out extra content etc

This is a joke right? WoW's launch was absolutely brim full of bugs, server stress errors, LDs and lack of QA support and it's only improved a bit since then even with the extra servers.

I played WoW from day one of Euro closed beta and it has always had problems with Mob bugs (the evading mob bug in particular where something has got stuck), there are horrendous queues to get onto the popular servers, there are horrendous queues to get into the new battlegrounds, there are LDs and server stress issues.
No game is perfect. Blizzard may very well have put a lot of effort into trying to ensure a bug free release but that never happens in any game and WoW is no different.

People like different types of games. WoW is a very light version of a MMORPG which appeals to the very casual player and in my opinion anyways, doesn't have a great deal of depth or longevity of interest. It always strikes me as being like a starter game to introduce people to the concept of online multiplayers. It's very easy to play, you can solo pretty much all the time and only really need to group for some of the elite and instanced dungeons and the lvl 60 content.
If you read the WoW forums, there's plenty of people moaning there's nothing to do once you hit 60.

DAoC is a lot 'darker' in its outlook, has far more depth and, I suppose, realism to it even tho it is in a fantasy setting. Hitting 50 is just the start of plenty of extra things to do in DAoC with the prime aim being to go RvR in the frontiers.
For those people who don't like PvP, there are all the high level raids, the MLs and ML dungeons, the new high level dungeons in Catacombs, the Dragon, Summoners Hall etc.

At the end of the day, it's personal taste but I really do wish people would stop this whole WoW is the Holy Grail of MMORPGs and Blizzard are gods.
Both games have their good and their bad and at the end of the day it's down to personal choice over which style of game suits each individual's gaming better.
Personally, I prefer DAoC and I doubt very much it's dying given that the grandfather of MMORPG games Ultima Online is still very much alive and that's had competition from everything going.

 

[Abel]

This is a joke right? WoW's launch was absolutely brim full of bugs, server stress errors, LDs and lack of QA support and it's only improved a bit since then even with the extra servers.

DAoCs release wasn't any better frankly. And WoW had TONS more content at release.

If there is any MMO I would advise to people new to the genre it's WoW. It appeals to the biggest number of people, it's easy to get into, the PvE is really polished and nicely done, it's very popular and is generally stable and works as it is supposed to.

DAoC on the other hand might offer a more involving PvP experience, but is hurting on several other points. In the end simply fewer people will be really enjoying it.

 

[Zebolt]

you'd be surprised how many will hang around if the same sort of thing happens to daoc as has with Ultima online. People still playing it and the company still making a good profit years after it was passed it's best.

That's kinda exactly what I said..

So no I'll not be surprised xD

 

[Gamah]

That's kinda exactly what I said..

So no I'll not be surprised xD

I think you'll be shocked and amazed..btw ZEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEBOLT you back for cluster?

 

[cemi0]

Actually this, "bliz made diablo, starcraft etc...this MUST be good!" is true in games. When you make hit after hit, the next game will be a hit and as far as i see, neither blizzard or rockstar have let peopel down on this department.

Good games don't just "pop up", if they make good games it means there are good people making them and that means...more good games.

Except the fact that the key developers behind Warcraft, StarCraft and Diablo series quitted their job at Blizzard in early WoW stages to make Guild Wars?

 

[Svartmetall]

blizzard spent tons of money to advertising & marketing

GOA appear to have spent nothing, certainly in the UK.

"ooh blizzard made diablo/warcraft/starcraft series, this game has to be good too!"

Yep, I think having a previous series of games to their name gave an established fanbase that really helped WoW's initial sign-up rates.