Population decline - can anything be done?

[eble@work]

I’m just a little concerned that the population levels appear to be going in free fall at the moment; I’m using http://daoc.darkzone.net/server/eu/excalibur/ for this information.

I was just wondering if anyone might have any suggestions on what me done, I know it’s the main talking point on the forums almost all over the place, with the merge here merge there remarks.

Hopefully we could get some input from the English GM, we know something is planned as it was mentioned, but what? Should they tell us now or wait a bit longer until numbers drop further?

It was also mentioned that January normally has a ‘slight dip’ in numbers, I’m not too concerned about slight dips, more concerned about the population almost halving in the last 12 months.

Feel free to set fire to this thread.

Eble

 

[Raven]

nothing can be done i am afraid, it has gone a long way past the point of no return, people who tried to make a protest against the people that were ruining the server got suspended by goa, says it all really.

 

[Himse]

if all the people who rerolled avalon & US come back, i guess the numbers would change, but then again the game is just better to play over there.

 

[Ogrelin Blodig]

I bet something could be done, but I don't think GoA will do anything

 

[Sharkith]

if you look at the trends on Avalon and a few of the others servers and compare them to Dyvet (Prydwen/Excal) there is a difference. I am not sure how statistically sighnificant it would be but there is enough of a difference to see something is not right.

I guess we will have to wait and see what Requiel syays when he gets back from holidays.

 

[Gamah]

Playing Avalona and loving it, don't see me coming back to cluster.

 

[Valgyr]

Playing Avalona and loving it, don't see me coming back to cluster.

oO what u playing?

 

[old.Whoodoo]

Heres an idea, how about the users of the biggest EU DAoC forum stop being so grumpy about the game and try a more positive approach, then people who google "daoc forum" might get a better view of the game and may consider trying it out.



Yup, about as much chance of that happening as GOA putting a two page spread in the Times.

 

[Bluesky]

Real shame to see the numbers dropping.... and then dropping some more

Imo GOA NEED to cluster (the frontiers at least) with some other cluster a LOT sooner rather than later but how many people have been saying that or will say it before GOA finally wake the hell up and do something positive. It's so sad to see an apparent lack of care and support by a company about their subscribers

 

[Sharkith]

Heres an idea, how about the users of the biggest EU DAoC forum stop being so grumpy about the game and try a more positive approach, then people who google "daoc forum" might get a better view of the game and may consider trying it out.



Yup, about as much chance of that happening as GOA putting a two page spread in the Times.

We could talk about how cute those clockwork cats look perhaps?

 

[Sollers]

We could talk about how cute those clockwork cats look perhaps?

Ohh, someone do screeny cause I rly can't wait I even pre-ordered x2 so mine'll have a lil brother/sis

 

[old.Whoodoo]

We could talk about how cute those clockwork cats look perhaps?

And how useful they are in game too...

 

[Gahn]

Requiel will come and tell ya that's all fine and dandy on Dyvet so what's the point? U are only a clueless whiner for Goa and some blind part of the playerbase -.-

 

[rampant]

part of the problem is the way in which the FH crew try to dictate their playing style on other people, instead of just playing the game the way it is.

GOA have had population problems on excel / pryd cluster (sorry duvet!) since last summer and have done billy all about it!

 

[Bluesky]

If Requiel comes posting how things are "ok" then sadly tbh that shows how some people still have their heads lodged in the sand

Bah i forgot about those uber useful fantasy setting clockwork cats - I really can't wait for mine... oh yes I will so pwn with it

 

[Sollac]

Requiel will come and tell ya that's all fine and dandy on Dyvet so what's the point? U are only a clueless whiner for Goa and some blind part of the playerbase -.-

Nice attack on a fellow player without a real reason.

You my friend are the reason my no one comes to play....

Flame flame and more Flame......

Im looking forward to LoTM and the server has levelled off again......

RVR is boring with mids hiding as they relic less, but we expect that....
as they cant fight without them. That is so lame tbh...its a game and relics dont imbalance too much.....I still die to casters....and well played tanks.uke:

dont get any of this back biting and flaming on VNboards...probably why DAOC is still good in the states.

 

[Ogrelin Blodig]

We'll end up on some german cluster like the classics, I'm pretty sure of it...but not until there is about 50 ppl online at primetime.

Pretty stupid way of doing business if u ask me, I won't activate my account again if that happends. If they make an effort to bring back or bring new players to the english cluster however, than I might consider comming back.

 

[Gahn]

Nice attack on a fellow player without a real reason.

You my friend are the reason my no one comes to play....

Flame flame and more Flame......

Im looking forward to LoTM and the server has levelled off again......

RVR is boring with mids hiding as they relic less, but we expect that....
as they cant fight without them. That is so lame tbh...its a game and relics dont imbalance too much.....I still die to casters....and well played tanks.uke:

dont get any of this back biting and flaming on VNboards...probably why DAOC is still good in the states.

I attacked who precisely? Think u did get the wrong stick of my argument tbh so read better ..
Oh and gg making me the god of Dyvet! No1 will come to play because of me LOL get a grip.
Rest assured that's blind ppl like u that drove away peeps from Cluster not the other way round -.-

 

[Sollac]

I attacked who precisely? Think u did get the wrong stick of my argument tbh so read better ..
Oh and gg making me the god of Dyvet! No1 will come to play because of me LOL get a grip.
Rest assured that's blind ppl like u that drove away peeps from Cluster not the other way round -.-

not on a person, but an attack on the game, goa, requiel, need i go on.

puts down all the positive stuff which the game still has.

thats my arguement, but then your not interested anyway,,,,

just flame away while the rest of us enjoy this truly amazing mmorpg with its unique rvr system, and recent expansion

 

[Awarkle]

Most of the problems come about from folks on the forum goign "server dead doom doom doom" while they are still playing daoc but on different servers.

Also the constant whining and complaining about adding on folks, ive heard stories of people getting to 50 then going out to rvr adding on a fight and getting flamed for it .

OR going to thidranki and adding on a fight and same again.

 

[Gahn]

not on a person, but an attack on the game, goa, requiel, need i go on.

puts down all the positive stuff which the game still has.

thats my arguement, but then your not interested anyway,,,,

just flame away while the rest of us enjoy this truly amazing mmorpg with its unique rvr system, and recent expansion

Like i don't enjoy it ahahah. But keep hiding your head in the sand, seems a good overall sport atm on uk cluster.
Also your quote

Nice attack on a fellow player without a real reason.

Clearly it's related to a player not to a whole game or whatever, and whatever u can think of, being critical over things that AREN'T good is only a motivating force to change em, but what u would know, u 1st need to learn to think before posting.

 

[Everz]

why would i return to excal/pryd when i can play on a server hitting 3000 pop most nights..?

 

[old.Whoodoo]

but what u would know, u 1st need to learn to think before posting.

You really need to take a step back and read what you post, your just another bully who rams his tiny minded opinions down everyones necks, and thats the attitude that made Dyvet an unpleasant place to play.

Two personal attacks on one thread, if you cant see your own downfalls, stop pointing out everyone elses. Your playerbase sucks because it will end up with a population of 1, you. Enjoy your own company.

 

[Davejohnson]

i dont see why mythic/goa are in denial about population effects in daoc.

daoc, when played as intended, require a _LARGE_ playerbase, i would say the estimated point-of-happiness is about 2000+ players per server at primetime.

less then that and the server has a chance of getting its rvr style influenced too much by certain factions, which can lead to people getting bored too fast.

i have always thought the excal/pryd cluster came too late, it would be really sweet to see some populationnumbers from pre- and post-cluster, more specific the proportion between players that quit because of the clustering, versus the ones that came back.

 

[old.Whoodoo]

i have always thought the excal/pryd cluster came too late, it would be really sweet to see some populationnumbers from pre- and post-cluster, more specific the proportion between players that quit because of the clustering, versus the ones that came back.

I think thats bad timing, clustering happened about the same time as WoW was launched, and that hurt the playerbase badly.

 

[Sharkith]

what will you call your cat ?

 

[Flimgoblin]

tbh the slope for excalibur's only difference with say Logres or Broceliande is that there wasn't a slight increase at the start of january - the other servers had a bit of a bump there but all servers have a long slow decay curve.

This doesn't mean that nothing should be done, however measures like changing the server language to German or French shouldn't be done lightly when there are still 700+ people playing on the server at peak.

Sure, more people will improve RvR for those that play it - but at what cost?

Questing in a foreign language, all your dialogues, spells, in a foreign language.

You might encourage some people to come back to play cluster but I'd fully expect changing the server language to drive off far more than it would make happy. Personally I'd not mind too much as I know a small amount of German and am happy to try and learn some more ... but how many people moved to the US over the numbers being low - I imagine far more would move if they had to play in a language they couldn't understand. Not to mention you've basically killed off any chance of any new english speaking european players (and there are new players starting and playing, just you won't see them if you're in an established guild or purely focus on RvR since a lot will give up before they get there. It's not droves but there are some.).

Now if Mythic can make it so you can have an english client without any of the bugs (climb wall, reply, house rent) that currently affect wrong language clients, plus all the server messages being in english while playing on a German server then it wouldn't be such a problem. Sure there'd be loads of people around talking in a foreign language but I think that's a lot easier to cope with than the _game_ being in a foreign language.

However I don't see that happening any time soon - it's probably a huge time investment - maybe it could be done but I don't see it being done soon.

This leaves us with getting more people on the daoc servers in other ways:

Advertising:

More advertising might get a wave of new players into the game - thoug I think a glossy mag advert on its own would do virtually nothing.

A big concerted marketing campaign to get people to play would be good. Notice the daoc and the UO press coming off of the back of the mythic press event, they've pulled the journo's in with WAR info and sent them out with some daoc/UO stuff as well. I can't imagine it's easy to get someone to write about a 5 year old game otherwise (especially not when they're already a WoW addict ).

The question there is how much would such a thing cost and whether it would bring in enough players to be worthwhile. I think it could, along with some good press from the US (the long slow decline in numbers isn't unique to europe - mythic have to do things to get more players in their game).

WAR's launch might prove to be helpful too - free daoc subscription with every WAR one? or a cut price package deal....

The other target audience is people who used to play daoc but have moved on to other games (WoW anyone?) which the press event articles seem to be aimed at - "If you come back you might find a lot of things have changed, for the better"....

 

[Gahn]

You really need to take a step back and read what you post, your just another bully who rams his tiny minded opinions down everyones necks, and thats the attitude that made Dyvet an unpleasant place to play.

Two personal attacks on one thread, if you cant see your own downfalls, stop pointing out everyone elses. Your playerbase sucks because it will end up with a population of 1, you. Enjoy your own company.

U learn to read what people posts, i didn't attacked any1 bar Sollac who attacked me 1st.
And "my" playerbase is healthy with almost 3000 peeps prime time, this alone shows that we did the right choice.

 

[Valgyr]

I think thats bad timing, clustering happened about the same time as WoW was launched, and that hurt the playerbase badly.

Nope classic servers colided with cluster and the rvr betwen clustering and classic were realy superb, then alot jumped the classic train for a while and many grps vanished

 

[Esselinithia]

Sollac: GOA is right about one thing, it isn't a new game, and it is hard to advertise it. People look forward for new games, but advertising expansions of mostly unknown games would be much harder and would have only very limited effect. The best way of advrtisement is when the player base tried to recruit.

Both by inviting fellow players, by fan posting fan art, fan fiction, etc. at many pages, on gaming related pages, fan pages, etc. And besides this you need to make sure the population stays.

You play DAOC on GOA servers, I play, and played many different games (both on EU and USA servers), and had a chance to compare the service. Also had a chance to compare what GOA does with other kinds of services (not gaming related) in same price range. The later perspective makes it clear why people are unhappy, and leaving the game instead of inviting friends and promoting them.

Some said these servers are beyound point of no return. And I think it is probably true, since fixing the original problems have limited effects, and won't make people happy instantly (due to population problem) and asking people to come back is hard, since it costs money for them, and they invested in some other games (including US version of DAoC) and they would "lose" some of that investment. To make such people buy the new expansion, reactivate subs, trust GOA with their money again, GOA would need much more than fixing the problem, and it would be a risky investment for them.