How come we have no red servers yet???
By
Accualt,
Posted on: 2005-11-01 20:08 in CoH and CoV General Discussions
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After I5, some people were saying the same thing..."the game is a ghost town"...to which my reply was, "but we're gaining customers..." Naturally, my reply was dismissed.
And yet then good ole' SirBruce posted his MMP numbers - and City of Heroes was shown gaining subscribers. Odd, isn't it?
;-)
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Well, considering the number of undead villains and minions I see running around the Rogue Isles, maybe they are using an alternate definition of "Ghost Town" this time... 
[ QUOTE ]
After I5, some people were saying the same thing..."the game is a ghost town"...to which my reply was, "but we're gaining customers..." Naturally, my reply was dismissed.
And yet then good ole' SirBruce posted his MMP numbers - and City of Heroes was shown gaining subscribers. Odd, isn't it?
;-)
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Then please, I must know this:
1> Why is it when I look on Protector and Justice for teams, I seldom see over 1200 at peak times, where Protector last year was going yellow, with 2-3 clones of the zones? Have the peak hours changed?
2> Why did I hear (just recently) people moving to *gasp* World of Warcraft from CoH, and CoV was just sitting on the shelves, with dust starting to settle? This was at several EB and Gamestop affiliates.
3> Why is CoH $19.99 at the most where WoW & Guild Wars are $49.99, and even Lineage is $29.99? Is it cause the stores are ordering more, or is it cause they aren't selling?
4> Are the concerns voiced even being looked at? What are they?
One of the reasons CoH probably isn't selling well at stores is because most new people come in through free trial key's and in those cases Cryptic offers a download of the game. Ergo those players have no need for going out to a store and buy the game.
"The best thing about being a robot duplicate of Lord Nemesis is, well... Everything."
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[ QUOTE ]
After I5, some people were saying the same thing..."the game is a ghost town"...to which my reply was, "but we're gaining customers..." Naturally, my reply was dismissed.
And yet then good ole' SirBruce posted his MMP numbers - and City of Heroes was shown gaining subscribers. Odd, isn't it?
;-)
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Then please, I must know this:
1> Why is it when I look on Protector and Justice for teams, I seldom see over 1200 at peak times, where Protector last year was going yellow, with 2-3 clones of the zones? Have the peak hours changed?
2> Why did I hear (just recently) people moving to *gasp* World of Warcraft from CoH, and CoV was just sitting on the shelves, with dust starting to settle? This was at several EB and Gamestop affiliates.
3> Why is CoH $19.99 at the most where WoW & Guild Wars are $49.99, and even Lineage is $29.99? Is it cause the stores are ordering more, or is it cause they aren't selling?
4> Are the concerns voiced even being looked at? What are they?
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1) Some possibles I can see here. First, you may be misterming 'peak hours' as peak hours to you, and not the majority of the playerbase on those servers. I don't know whether thats true or not. I can tell you, however, with certainty that Virtue server is busier then its been in a long time.
2) My local gamestop ran out of City of Villians. Again, only my personal experience, but it would seem that at least in some places its not just sitting and gathering dust.
3) World of Warcraft and Guild Wars are both substantionally newer games then City of Heroes. Lineage 2 I don't know, except that it seems oddly popular in some area.
[ QUOTE ]
After I5, some people were saying the same thing..."the game is a ghost town"...to which my reply was, "but we're gaining customers..." Naturally, my reply was dismissed.
And yet then good ole' SirBruce posted his MMP numbers - and City of Heroes was shown gaining subscribers. Odd, isn't it?
;-)
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My goodness, you've got your Taunt three-slotted tonight....
Mr. Lithuania
Jessica to Nathan in bed: "I'm not really bad, Isaac just drew me that way."
[ QUOTE ]
After I5, some people were saying the same thing..."the game is a ghost town"...to which my reply was, "but we're gaining customers..." Naturally, my reply was dismissed.
And yet then good ole' SirBruce posted his MMP numbers - and City of Heroes was shown gaining subscribers. Odd, isn't it?
;-)
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Well, as I recall, the I5 release coincided with a 'free trial' promotion too; and because of that, for a week, I was seeing 1800+ on line right after I5 on Guardian. BUT, even then the numbers soon dropped back to 'normal' meaning (I assume) plenty of people tried the game but not a lot stayed.
I just recall (from the days of EQ and the first day of 'Ruins of Kunak' - EQ's first expansion); their server across the board showed a 500 user increase on average for each server) - and I can tell you, as someone who did global CoH searches because I used to be interested in seeing if then subscriber base was growing/stable/declining; for all the hype CoV received, the server number at the time I play certainly have not jumped.
Oh, and with a global search (whjether by design of not) you do see all the villain zones. While in Talos on Armsman, the Global search windows showed greyed out names next to the zone name 'Mercy Island'; and last I checked, that wasn't a PvP zone.
If anything, it just shows the game turning over one user base for another, but not growing or declining appriciably at this time (of course after the free month, I guess we'll know for sure); but I have to say, their (even now does seem to be much if any overall increase in the Playerbase; which right after the release of a new expansion is sad, and perhaps somewhat telling.
But spin it anyway you like States the numbers NCSoft publishes for the 4th quarter 2005 will tell the ultimate tale.
As for all my posts stating numbers, I don't know if it's 'peak' or not, but I've always included when I play, and what I've personally seen via the global settings in the 'Find Teammember' search that gives you the total number on non-'hidden' players on the server whether they are in a mission instance or not. Again, it's easy to use, and given the resuts and zone names goes across the entire server pop; not just CoH and CoV seperately depending on which 'side' of the game you're palying at that moment.
[ QUOTE ]
After I5, some people were saying the same thing..."the game is a ghost town"...to which my reply was, "but we're gaining customers..." Naturally, my reply was dismissed.
And yet then good ole' SirBruce posted his MMP numbers - and City of Heroes was shown gaining subscribers. Odd, isn't it?
;-)
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Of course, "gaining customers" is a relative term. Technically, if one new person joined, youre gaining customers.
Just saying...
[ QUOTE ]
After I5, some people were saying the same thing..."the game is a ghost town"...to which my reply was, "but we're gaining customers..." Naturally, my reply was dismissed.
And yet then good ole' SirBruce posted his MMP numbers - and City of Heroes was shown gaining subscribers. Odd, isn't it?
;-)
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People are stupid. I honestly don't know how you can deal with rude, disrespectful, stupid people on the boards all day long and still give positive responses to everyone. I know you said recently you just think of them as costumers that care, but still.
If I was a redname, I'd be like, "Ok, look you little <censored>..." Yeah, I don't think I'll be hired by Cryptic any times soon.
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Then please, I must know this:
1> Why is it when I look on Protector and Justice for teams, I seldom see over 1200 at peak times, where Protector last year was going yellow, with 2-3 clones of the zones? Have the peak hours changed?
2> Why did I hear (just recently) people moving to *gasp* World of Warcraft from CoH, and CoV was just sitting on the shelves, with dust starting to settle? This was at several EB and Gamestop affiliates.
3> Why is CoH $19.99 at the most where WoW & Guild Wars are $49.99, and even Lineage is $29.99? Is it cause the stores are ordering more, or is it cause they aren't selling?
4> Are the concerns voiced even being looked at? What are they?
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Gee, I just dont know whom to believe here. The guy making weird assumptions based on personal experiences and rumors, or the guy who probably has all the exact numbers sitting on his desk and a custom app to see this information in realtime?
/e sarcasm
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After I5, some people were saying the same thing..."the game is a ghost town"...to which my reply was, "but we're gaining customers..." Naturally, my reply was dismissed.
And yet then good ole' SirBruce posted his MMP numbers - and City of Heroes was shown gaining subscribers. Odd, isn't it?
;-)
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People are stupid. I honestly don't know how you can deal with rude, disrespectful, stupid people on the boards all day long and still give positive responses to everyone.
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Are people who talk about people who are rude, disrespectful and stupid by being rude, disrespectful and stupid in fact rude, disrespectful and stupid?
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Well, as I recall, the I5 release coincided with a 'free trial' promotion too; and because of that, for a week, I was seeing 1800+ on line right after I5 on Guardian. BUT, even then the numbers soon dropped back to 'normal' meaning (I assume) plenty of people tried the game but not a lot stayed.
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I guess I'm feeling masochistic today.
SirBruce's numbers are PAYING customers. NOT FREE TRIALS. You can e-mail him about how he gets his numbers and what not, but as far as I know, his source records ONLY paying accounts.
So, sorry, the free trial routine doesn't really hold water (not the first time I've read that either).
Also - another comment on discounted games - currently, City of Heroes is $29.99. Certain stores can run sales - like Lineage 2 is free with a Guild Wars purchase at a local chain.
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Virtue, Freedom and Victory are yellow almost every night.
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Virtue is a surprise. Must be with CoV, people want to roleplay now. Usually Freedom and Justice are the ones in the yellow each night. What's wrong Justice?? 
Proud member of the LEGION, and Sisterhood
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I guess I'm feeling masochistic today.
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There's a few other threads that you might like...
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I guess I'm feeling masochistic today.
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There's a few other threads that you might like...
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My Boxers or Breifs one? 
Anyway, way to go sticking your head out like that States. Now, I wonder what the number of people who joined after the trail expired is.
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I guess I'm feeling masochistic today.
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Since you're talking about it, I was just wondering how much current subscriptions affect design decisions. If subscriptions are rising dramatically, do you take it as a sign that you're doing something right, and try to do more of the same? If subscriptions start nosediving, does that affect the process in any way?
Just curious.
Still,
"the servers are ghost towns" and "subscriptions are always UP, UP, UP" are not mutually exclusive.
OP could be playing at odd hours, or on a less-populated server, or folks are playing COV, or just HIDING from him because he's a jerk/idiot/noob/jackamuffin.
Things can feel "deserted" when they're actually quite busy. Its a skill in interior design, why not game design?
CoH, the first game that feels empty despite ever increasing population 
Hehe.
States... and everyone else....
what strikes me is....
How is not seeing any RED servers a BAD THING?
So what if it's a ghost town?
You have all the PvE spawns to yourself. No KS'ing.
No griefers.
No lag.
No waiting in line at the trams.
No "R U HEAL0R?" or potty-humor spam in broadcast.
I LOVE having semi-vacant servers! It's like an empty playground with fresh-cut grass!!
"City of Heroes. April 27, 2004 - August 31, 2012. Obliterated not with a weapon of mass destruction, not by an all-powerful supervillain... but by a cold-hearted and cowardly corporate suck-up."
[ QUOTE ]
After I5, some people were saying the same thing..."the game is a ghost town"...to which my reply was, "but we're gaining customers..." Naturally, my reply was dismissed.
And yet then good ole' SirBruce posted his MMP numbers - and City of Heroes was shown gaining subscribers. Odd, isn't it?
;-)
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That doesn't mean people are playing. (Not saying they aren't, just sayin')
My personal opinion is they overestimated the amount of people who want to be villians.
Just like they overestimated that amount of people who wanted to pvp.
Sorry Jack, but what you are saying simply doesn't match what I see when I log in. Back around I2/I3 you couldn't turn a corner without running into a group of heroes, you could throw together a TF in minutes. Now? I can spend an entire evening streetsweeping in Bricks or IP and never see more than a handful of other heroes. Trying to start a Respec or other TF is all but impossible without a dedicated group. I've seen two formerly full and active SG's become totally disbanded.
Are all these players you speak of coming into the game on that Magical Internal Server you guys use, too? You should know by now that thing is borked.
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I LOVE having semi-vacant servers! It's like an empty playground with fresh-cut grass!!
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Me too, but I see plenty of other players around, so I think it's a moot point.
It looks like they cleared up my lag issues with the last patch, so I'm having a good time now.
Just a fun little fact: the last three months, UO has more players than CoH. That right! A game that been "dying" in numbers has more players than a year and half old game. Something to think about.
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Sorry Jack, but what you are saying simply doesn't match what I see when I log in. Back around I2/I3 you couldn't turn a corner without running into a group of heroes, you could throw together a TF in minutes. Now? I can spend an entire evening streetsweeping in Bricks or IP and never see more than a handful of other heroes. Trying to start a Respec or other TF is all but impossible without a dedicated group. I've seen two formerly full and active SG's become totally disbanded.
Are all these players you speak of coming into the game on that Magical Internal Server you guys use, too? You should know by now that thing is borked.
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In I2 and I3 the level spread was alot ... tighter than now, except perhaps in CoV.
Let's Dance!
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CoV seems to be awfully buggy and laggy right now. There was a lot of speculation in CoV beta whether it was ready for launch. I suppose they didn't quite get the stability and login issues worked out yet.
Apparently numerous bugs with contacts still exist too. A new one has cropped up, requiring us to log out after doing a newspaper mission in order to get into the next mission.
I'm getting tired of constantly jerking as I'm running around, just after two days of playing. Perhaps people are waiting for issues to be patched up a bit.
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I have yet to experience one lag, crash, freeze or bug in this retail. WoW by 1 week in.. I might have played 3 hours without lag.
After I5, some people were saying the same thing..."the game is a ghost town"...to which my reply was, "but we're gaining customers..." Naturally, my reply was dismissed.
And yet then good ole' SirBruce posted his MMP numbers - and City of Heroes was shown gaining subscribers. Odd, isn't it?
;-)