zzeii wrote:Wasn't directed towards you sir/ma'am, just a post towards a number in the forums in general, and a sarcastic post at that. And like the person said, this was just in newblands/capital regions...Ya know, the lvl 1-50 places. I'd hope this long after release, there'd be a number of people higher than those levels. So there were 201 low level people logged into the game, hrmm...
Not bad...
This is like doing a census in EQ, but only checking the starting cities. Not very accurate. Not to mention, doing it on a weekday. Nor counting people at dinner/doing homework/working late/late shift/sick/etc/etc.
It's just NOT accurate. Plain and simple.
If you ask me, the damage that Patch 1 brought to the game has been pretty much taken care of. They are still improving the game based heavily on player feedback, so the game's mechanics can only increase in quality (I doubt they'll have the guts to throw us another Patch 1 fiasco).
So now all the people that have been turned away from this game could conceivably have no problem returning and enjoying themselves. Why the hell are you posting about bad numbers? Why aren't you recruiting likely future players, like I have been? I've already got 1 friend playing the free trial and loving it, and a possible 3 more on the way.
Don't be so damn counter-productive.
EDIT: This was, of course, directed at the "This game is not exactly what I want, yet I refuse to offer nothing but pessimism(sp)" people.
andrecyr wrote:Umm, the numbers -were- accurate for the regions surveyed.
Whatever you read into them is your business.
Yeah, but people got to hate the numbers especially. The fanbois especially must find any way possible to knock down what the numbers point at (which doesn't even need saying what it is).
There is no anonymous setting in Ryzom, and while Fyros has cities outside of the main region that large numbers of players reside in, the other continents do not. One does not need to record every single person logged in at every moment in order to get an accurate statistic.
Spin, spin, spin how you want. Truth is the numbers speak for themselves. You can deny it and act like children sticking your fingers in your ears, or we can do something about it.
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Svayvti
Former Pilgrim of Atys
Follower of the Kami
These numbers ARE... Well lets forget about these numbers. If the game gets better after the patch the numbers will increase. If not then, its been fun.
The point Im trying to make here is that if a product or service is good its good and people will be drawn to it. Thats the plain and simple truth. And no amount of advertizing or recruiting will change it.
Personaly I beleive that Ryzom has a great potencial. If im correct and the game becomes what it could be then we won't have to worry about numbers.
And your biggest problem with the game will be that the places' are over populated.
I am going to get ready for the patch. No Matis will ever survive a battle with A Mighty Fryos Warrior!!!! >)
Its my party and I'll explode my harvest if I want to.. cha cha cha
AVG day on other games, ppft so what, really, I never enjoyed logging into EQ on a SLOW day and have over 250 people in the POK zone, let alone 300+ in other lower content areas.
I rather see 1000 kitins after me than 1000 newbs running around asking for freebee's
One thing I like about ryzom is the intelligence of the players, it seems to have a higher intelligent, more playful group of people and no arguing over creatures.
It was totally pethetic to have to log in, and see that dragon A was KS by group B just because they could, not to mention that dragon B didn't respawn for 7 freaking days, that is only 48 times a year you could kill dragon B, oh yea thats fun.
The RAID engine in RYZOM is unsrupassed, well only if they would use it more often, like 1 guaranteed raid a week, that in and of itself would ROCK.
Make it a weekly friday night rumble that lasts 3 hours, kick some buttox.
I like this game, no matter how bad they throw a wrench in it, well until they either kill it or make it totally unplayable.
As far as census, if it really matters to how many people are online, you got to much time on your hands caring about what other people are doing rather than you playing the game.
The numbers will grow, they will deplete, they will do what ever.
In the mean time, you will find me caravaning, playing, and otherwise having fun.
zumwalt wrote:Its my party and I'll explode my harvest if I want to.. cha cha cha
AVG day on other games, ppft so what, really, I never enjoyed logging into EQ on a SLOW day and have over 250 people in the POK zone, let alone 300+ in other lower content areas.
I rather see 1000 kitins after me than 1000 newbs running around asking for freebee's
One thing I like about ryzom is the intelligence of the players, it seems to have a higher intelligent, more playful group of people and no arguing over creatures.
It was totally pethetic to have to log in, and see that dragon A was KS by group B just because they could, not to mention that dragon B didn't respawn for 7 freaking days, that is only 48 times a year you could kill dragon B, oh yea thats fun.
The RAID engine in RYZOM is unsrupassed, well only if they would use it more often, like 1 guaranteed raid a week, that in and of itself would ROCK.
Make it a weekly friday night rumble that lasts 3 hours, kick some buttox.
I like this game, no matter how bad they throw a wrench in it, well until they either kill it or make it totally unplayable.
As far as census, if it really matters to how many people are online, you got to much time on your hands caring about what other people are doing rather than you playing the game.
The numbers will grow, they will deplete, they will do what ever.
In the mean time, you will find me caravaning, playing, and otherwise having fun.
Let me address the issue a different way, since we're talking about Nevvie's PnL (Profit and Loss = Income Statement) here, and given I've torn through a few of these in my career just a few things to keep in mind a few issues that non-financial types wouldn't normally deal with.
Everyone focuses on revenue, which is ultimately what matters for long-term success. Based on the graphs on MMORPG subscriptions, it looks like you get a base, and then grow it at, hmm, 15-20% a year. Hard to tell given the scale of the graphs. (Most real businesses would love 15-20% topline growth, but that's another issue.)
So...you need to get a good base initially (boxes pay for the pre-launch costs and hopefully give you a cash cushion) and then increase it. It appears Nevvie hasn't done that given the awful launch and disastrous patch. Strike 1. But...stranger things have happened than games getting a second wind a few months after launch, so don't count the revenue side out. Is the census accurate? I don't know that either but I could easily believe that we're anywhere between 3k-10k subscribers worldwide.
What we don't know are three very important things. First, what are they paying Themis et al for outsourcing support and the terms of those deals, second, overhead expenses of just running a software shop, and third and most importantly, what the financing looks like.
For #1, most firms would look at customer service as a great way to cut costs if they run into revenue problems. We don't know if Nevvie has that option. I suspect Themis probably lowballed the bids to get the business rolling - your first couple of contracts as an outsourcer usually are at losses - but the real issue is if its a percentage or a fixed cost deal. If Nevvie is paying a percentage of topline to the CSRs, they're fine and Themis and the European outsourcer types hurt. If they're paying a fee, like $10k a month, this could be a problem. If they can't renegotiate this fee (e.g., its a 1 year deal at 5 or 10K a month), it's a real, real problem. I hope for their sake its the first.
For #2, I'm not sure what game programmers earn in France, or if there are biz development subsidies that may be paying them (the French are infamous for trying to goose employment by offering subsidies and workweeks that make them uncompetitive worldwide, but that's another issue.) The good news is that game programmers are typically the worst paid in the industry; the bad is that even lousy programmers make $50-60k a year in the West. (Of course, maybe they outsourced to Banaglore - with this firm, I wouldn't be surprised - but who knows.) The issue is how many folks they have working on pure dev, and if they hoodwinked a bunch of kids by promising them revenue sharing as the real impetus to program at minimum wage. Given the pace of changes, I don't think there a lot of people.
For #3, this is the real issue, more important than the revenue one for now. If they have a ton of capital in the bank, all of this speculation is probably worthless. Most VC boards (I've been on one for a private placement I own) don't pull the plug until at least 6 months to a year into product launch. If they are surviving on ramen noodles and depended on the launch to pay bills, well, different story. However, the ability of other MMORPGs to sustain lower bases on launch has more to do with the fact they're a cog in an otherwise profitable organization than any other aspect. Nevvie to me doesn't sound particularly well run given the way the whole launch and patch went, which means they probably aren't well capitalized, but I could be entirely wrong.
So anyway, other things to think about before you start arguing on the subscriber base. Only thing I know is that I've never played a game where the devs don't discuss issues with the player base at all - even if its 'This is the way its going to be, like it or leave it' - and that really doesn't bode well.
For now, I'm keeping on paying my $14.95 a month for a whlie longer. And hoping for the best, but experience tells me to expect the worst. Cheers.
Checking the main regions is agood way to do things in ryzom considering its ridiculously hard to get far away from the cities...this is true except in fyros where the cities are in three different regions, however I just went ot tryker and roamed around and was the only person in all regions except for the liberty lakes.
