DAoC vs WoW

[Flimgoblin]

hrm thought we'd had ~40k in europe before - shortly after SI maybe? can't really remember but we had all of the bigger german and french servers at 3500 (before they added dartmoor/carnac though) and excal was hitting 3k, prydwen over 2k

 

[semanon]

And remeber of all those people playing DAOC at the moment, I would guess that up to 1/4 of them are buffbots.

 

[Flimgoblin]

And remeber of all those people playing DAOC at the moment, I would guess that up to 1/4 of them are buffbots.

nah - it is a significant figure but I doubt it's that high.

back when the servers were full though buffbots weren't nearly so prevalent - they were there but it was "omg XXX has a buffbot what a lamer" rather than "omg Y _doesn't_ have a buffbot poor sap"

 

[Helme]

Another thing to take into consideration. MMORPG's wasnt as big when DAoC was first released, it was still the new "thing" and not fully as many tried it as it is now with WoW.

 

[Fana]

nah - it is a significant figure but I doubt it's that high.

back when the servers were full though buffbots weren't nearly so prevalent - they were there but it was "omg XXX has a buffbot what a lamer" rather than "omg Y _doesn't_ have a buffbot poor sap"

I dont have any hard numbers ofc but i actually do think that 1/4 of all accounts beeing second (i.e. buffbot) accounts is pretty close to the mark. They are very very common today - i think that in our guild about 1/4th of the members have bb's and that should be pretty representative as we are a guild that does most different activities available etc.

 

[Gesta]

Already moved.

And the best thing about WoW?...

...my girlfriend loves it too!

Same here, will stop some of the moaning about how much time I spend on meh PC, only problem is now is who gets the comfy deluxe leather chair or who gets the crappy plastic back buster

 

[Flimgoblin]

I dont have any hard numbers ofc but i actually do think that 1/4 of all accounts beeing second (i.e. buffbot) accounts is pretty close to the mark. They are very very common today - i think that in our guild about 1/4th of the members have bb's and that should be pretty representative as we are a guild that does most different activities available etc.

You might well be right with 1/4 of all accounts being a second account - I'd not say 1/4 being buffbots though (difference between account for more chars and an account just for a buffbot imo )

 

[Flimgoblin]

Another thing to take into consideration. MMORPG's wasnt as big when DAoC was first released, it was still the new "thing" and not fully as many tried it as it is now with WoW.

hopefully wow are tapping into new markets as well - DAoC got a lot of its players from the EQ market (not all of course) however Blizzard are a big name so will appeal to a wider audience - a lot of people have played warcraft and diablo so it might bring them into the mmorpg craze.

 

[Afran`]

DAoC till rr11

 

[Jobil]

DAoC till WoW is here

 

[Dommelsch]

WoW, to escape afran. ;x

 

[Danya]

hopefully wow are tapping into new markets as well - DAoC got a lot of its players from the EQ market (not all of course) however Blizzard are a big name so will appeal to a wider audience - a lot of people have played warcraft and diablo so it might bring them into the mmorpg craze.

EQ showed very little change in subs when DAoC came out. It seemed to just suck up new players for the most part. Also IIRC DAoC subs have never topped 300K total, so wow is already getting pretty close.

Sorry can't link the graph of MMOG sub numbers, it's exceeded it's traffic quota.

 

[Flimgoblin]

EQ showed very little change in subs when DAoC came out. It seemed to just suck up new players for the most part. Also IIRC DAoC subs have never topped 300K total, so wow is already getting pretty close.

Sorry can't link the graph of MMOG sub numbers, it's exceeded it's traffic quota.

Yeah that's the one I was thinking of

EQ plateaued when daoc was released - there was a flattening, might have been around the time of the beta though.

It didn't drop but it's growth stopped - guess that means the newer players were going to daoc, or the newer players joining EQ was the same as the ones going to daoc.

compared to UO vs EQ - when EQ started UO kept growing - suggesting EQ was appealing to a different market.

 

[Siftwind]

I'll probably do what I have done before, which is to try WoW (or <insert latest game here>) and then make my mind up, whilst making sure that there is plenty of money on my CM, just in case. I don't agree with the comment regarding 3 years is enough for anyone in one game. I want something in which to continually immerse (escape to?) myself that will provide regular, well designed, tested and thought out content.
Like most people posting here, ToA didn't do much for my enthusiasm towards DAoaC and, had you asked this question a month after ToA arrived, I would have selected the "I'm off" option. I was mortified that the character I worked on was severely handicapped because I didn't have the real life time, big enough guild or accounts to be able to camp an arti spawn 24x7, let alone complete the encounter. I can only imagine how mortified people, who have spent even longer building their characters, could have been when the effects of ToA became apparent.
I haven't played much RvR in NF. My class isn't really effective in a keep/tower take scenario, which seems to be the majority of play. I'll give it a chance but I do wonder how the issues regarding range, or the lack of it for some classes, will ever be resolved satisfactorily.
I've spent too much time in this game to say "I'm off to WoW", as if it didn't matter to me but I'm glad that a different option and some competition has appeared. Hopefully this will mean that Mythic/GOA can't rely on a 'captive audience' anymore and that this will serve to improve game design and service.

Regards,
Sift.

 

[Svartmetall]

I'm not moving to WoW because (in no particular order):

A lot of the txt-speaking l337 kiddies are f**king off to WoW, and I think DAOC will be much better off without them.

WoW looks like a Hanna-Barbera cartoon. I don't want to spend hours a day playing in something out of Wile E. Coyote's backyard.

I have too much time invested in DAOC to quit it for anything that I'm not 100% sure would be a lot better.

I have too many friends in-game and have a really nice fun guild full of people I would miss too much.


...having said that, I am going to check out EQ2.

...

 

[Smurflord]

Same here, will stop some of the moaning about how much time I spend on meh PC, only problem is now is who gets the comfy deluxe leather chair or who gets the crappy plastic back buster

Yeah we have the same argument when she comes over to my place, but as she normally lives 200 miles away MMOs are our main activity together during the working week. Needless to say it's not the main activity at the weekend :wub:

And another reason why WoW rocks. It has the /fart command!

 

[semanon]

nah - it is a significant figure but I doubt it's that high.

back when the servers were full though buffbots weren't nearly so prevalent - they were there but it was "omg XXX has a buffbot what a lamer" rather than "omg Y _doesn't_ have a buffbot poor sap"

every memeber in our guild has a buffbot...hence the guess at 1/4 of accounts are bb

 

[Revz]

EQ plateaued when daoc was released - there was a flattening, might have been around the time of the beta though.

It didn't plateau (as in stop growing) it just grew more slowly. As you said this occured around the time of DAoC beta not release. The DAoC release made exactly no difference whatsoever to subscriber figures as far as I can tell.

Svartmetall: You shouldn't be quite so harsh about WoW. It is a massive improvement on DAoC in a lot of areas. Given that I can't actually run EQ2 on my PC because the requirements are so high I'm more than happy with a "stylised" but simpler look than a more realistic one. After all I didn't play DAoC for looks. I'm quite impressed with a lot that EQ2 are doing currently (eq2players.com for example) so if I could run it I'd be playing that until WoW comes out.

 

[Oldfaravid]

ToA truly killed daoc for the casual gamer.. I even played daoc alot but as I never could plan my playing, because of other commitments, work/training/instructing, I didnt even get to ml1... Arti exping(scroll farming) is probably the sadest I have seen in a game. they should have made the items gain exp from RvR (or that each scroll unlocked 1/3 of the items capability) instead as a "bonus" when you where using em.. Tried WoW and loved it.. even if the PvP didnt have any rewards it was quite fun and balanced... sure there are some classes in WoW that need some tweaks but its not even close to the unbalances in daoc.. The king is dead, long live the king..

 

[DavidH]

Moving to either WoW or EQ2. Not sure yet. If EQ2 turns of to be a worthy '2' of EQ1, then I'm going in that direction. Cba to play a shite game with no content. EQ1 still seems to have the biggest population of serious players, not just a bunch of "WTFLOL I rly gonnah steelz0r ur itams when you diez0r meight" type of players.

 

[Vasconcelos]

hrm thought we'd had ~40k in europe before - shortly after SI maybe? can't really remember but we had all of the bigger german and french servers at 3500 (before they added dartmoor/carnac though) and excal was hitting 3k, prydwen over 2k

Its really rare to see excal hitting the 2k edge players at peak times nowdays. Considering 1/5 of that population are buffbots we have a server who has 1600 players at the most crowded time of the day.
Dunno if GoA takes into consideration these figures, but if i was them i would be kinda worried.

 

[Healer McHeal]

WoW doesn't require you to have 2+ accounts tho

nor does daoc, but most people seem to have fallen behind the bandwagon that says you do,

Svartmetall: You shouldn't be quite so harsh about WoW. It is a massive improvement on DAoC in a lot of areas.

he wasnt being harsh, he was voicing his veiw, i almost have same veiw as him, apart from, graphics didnt bother me, its just, i was in open beta, and i was bored (SHOCK/HORROR) after the first 3 days, i have more fun in the SWG expansion then i did in WoW.....

 

[Joxer]

nor does daoc, but most people seem to have fallen behind the bandwagon that says you do,



he wasnt being harsh, he was voicing his veiw, i almost have same veiw as him, apart from, graphics didnt bother me, its just, i was in open beta, and i was bored (SHOCK/HORROR) after the first 3 days, i have more fun in the SWG expansion then i did in WoW.....

Shame..so you arent joining us in WoW, Craig?
Anyways..I felt totally 180° on WoW. I played the first time during the first stresstest a couple of months ago. I was totally amazed by what I saw - great gfx which even would fit into a singleplayer game. Also the fact that you gain the most xp in that game by completing quests and not farming mobs. (yes, I know that most of the quests consists of kill an x amount of mobs and come back to me but there also are different ones). For me that has been a huge improvement compared to DAoC or SWG.

I did play SWG a lot and just like DAoC I enjoyed it but after a while it really gets boring. I betatested the new "Jump to Lightspeed"-Expansion and quite frankly: I couldnt stand the boredom. When I left DAoC a while ago (for the third time I think) I turned back to SWG (was shortly after they brought in the Jedi-Revamp): After one week I was bored to death again.

No, I am not saying that SWG is dull - well, actually I am saying exactly that but thats not really what I mean: SWG has its nice sides and "Aaah"-moments but after a short while you have seen it all. Lucas (or SOE whoever actually programmed it) just took a big leveleditor and designed it. After some time you have seen all that game has to offer - and frankly: It isnt much compared to WoW.

 

[Healer McHeal]

well i was solo 99% of the time, you know me, not one for solitude, apart from that tho, the game was ok, i did enjoy playing, its just, they should of made it so you didnt have to quest so much, it should of been like, you can take the quest or the random mob raping route, seemed a little too quest orientated, but hey, never was one for quests either .

and jox, ive always been one for space stuff, thats why i enjoy the expansion, so much fun to me to blow stuff up in my X-Wing , i may join you all in WoW when i get some money after xmas time, but before that, not really a chance unless its in the beta.

PS. jox, cheers for the giving cail the 2 beta accs, at least i got to try it, i would of enjoyed the game alot more if it wasn't for the no company of people i knew :< since them 2 couldnt play, there pc's crashed after 2 secs of playing, where as mine didnt, i never crashed once.

 

[Joxer]

just responded to your pm

 

[Windwalker]

sticking with daoc, im not leaving daoc after all the time ive spent on the artis and such, also seen WoW and i dont like its cartoonish feel.

 

[Oro]

Some related and random rambling

Splitting time between both. They are very different experiences and I don't like having just one online game to play religiously. When I started playing Alb, it marked a change in DAoC for me, as I made a concious effort to be less involved in things (not becoming involved in running a guild, only doing raids/hunts on an occasional basis etc... ok thats just my excuse for being a lazy bastard bah rumbled nerf you lot seeing straight through me).

WoW marks the first return to GM'ing for me since Mid/Pryd and in typical stupid style we're making a roleplay guild for a PvP server in WoW. Not seen any other roleplay guilds going PvP but when they take time to sit down and think about it they might reconsider
A lot of people are going to go for the PvE servers in WoW thinking they get something like the RvR experience of DAoC without realising they are dead wrong. There are rumours of a RP-PvP server on the way but we feel its better to roleplay in a target-rich environment

I've now played the closed Euro beta a reasonable amount (warlock lvl33) with the limited gaming time I've had the last couple of months. There are many things about WoW which are better than DAoC but conversely still things in DAoC that WoW will struggle to compete with. I believe the defficencies won't become apparent to most until they hit the end game.
WoW currently lacks a lot of high end content but thats not really a big deal - if you think about it things like epic zones (Malmohus, etc) and Darkness Falls weren't even in DAoC at release but came along later. The raid interface alone looks like its going to make life for raid leaders a *lot* easier than before.

Blizzard haven't done much that is new with WoW. However, it has a rich, varied and well realised world which has a very definate flavour to it. The interface is a sheer joy to use and a lot of the grind has been taken out. PvE-wise, DAoC licks the sweat from the armpit of WoW. PvP-wise... DAoC is still the front runner but Blizzard aren't sitting back and letting it stay that way. Mythic now have to really work at it to keep the RvR/PvP crown because Bliz are definately gunning for it.

Given that most MMORPGs roll out of the stable unfinished, think about just what Bliz have rolled out in the USA compared to what other companies have done over the last 3 years.

One thing that Bliz have done is to basically outlaw buffbots. If anyone is caught botting, they'll be warned and may face having account(s) banned. I thoroughly approve of this and in its own way its a *major* smack in the mouth to Mythic's lazy and greedy policy on this.

BUT...

WoW is bright and shiny and new and fresh. Its not matured yet. Seriously, it will be next Spring before we see what effect it has had and if Blizzard will follow through. Wait and see what happens when the hype and clamour have died down. Its a good game but it is not really a threat to DAoC as it stands.

 

[GReaper]

nor does daoc, but most people seem to have fallen behind the bandwagon that says you do,

A bit offtopic from the original post, but isn't it up to Mythic to fix the problem with everyone jumping on the bandwagon and requiring a buffbot? They add totally useless patches to try and discourage it (buff shearing), however they're not seriously trying to stop the problem with buffbots. I'd like to see them take serious action against it to make the gameplay more fair and even.

Back on topic anyway!

I'll give WoW a go. I still enjoy good RvR in DAoC, however if I'm unable to have fun then theres little point in playing. Camping a keep when the enemy doesn't move is very boring, although it can be quite fun if theres plenty of action. PvE now seems a lot more awkward with the FoP nerf too. With both PvE and RvR being more difficult, it isn't very motivating to play.

 

[Afran`]

WoW, to escape afran. ;x

Hi, I love you to. Let's make out.

 

[Elenos]

Personally i joined DAOC by my cousins recomendation about 2 years ago. i had never heard of DAOC, or GOA, or Mythic at this point. I am the sort of person to spend the extra £30 on a TV just to see it say goodmans or JVC as opposed to aluvara etc.. The point is i have played blizzard games all my life. Warcraft and Starcraft and the associated addons re-works were greeat fun .. Diablo and the re-work were also great though i never played them online. Blizzard's games have never let me down and where they have the best advice has pointed me to the addon or patch to fix my whinging complaint.

Yes DAOC was fun.. yes i made loads of friends.. no i didn't really see my cousin in game.. Yes i have pinched his account from him to use as a BB... even with a BB ( yes i am a cleric with a BB, but many other chars besides ) i couldn't see the attraction to the old game. I cannot say that ToA has ruined it for me. I left and vowed to come back to play NF .. i have broken my vow.

I have no pre-conceptions of WOW. Having never played the beta or seen any screenshots, I can't comment of the graphics.. Hopefully I'll find a spare £30 sometime around the release date and buy the game and trial it for a bit and then make my mind up. But i sure won't be re-newing my DAOC subs. EVE was another classic that i bought and played and ditched.

Anyway thanks for reading.
The crux is, I was just paid for the 15 minutes it took to write this ...