Profile: Karahandras
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• • Tabula Rasa: TR to Close Doors

  • Originally posted by teddyboy420
    

    Originally posted by Raltar
    

    Originally posted by Starbear

    NCsoft games killed: Auto Assault, Tabula Rasa

    SOE games killed: None (well no major ones... even planetside still runs)

    With that said I have more faith in SOE as a company than NCsoft... I know lots of people hate SOE but at least you can be assured your game will keep running unlike with NCsoft. Afterall everyone hates SWG and yet that game is still running.

    
    

    The reason SoE never shuts a game down, no matter how unpopular or screwed up it may have become, is to pad the value of their all access pass. I mean, if SoE shut games down for the same level of unpopularity that causes NCsoft to shut a game down, they would have pretty much nothing but Everquest going! SWG and Planetside would surely be shut down and I doubt Vanguard or EQ2 would last much longer past that. But if all those games got shut down, what would your all access pass be worth? It would be a subscription to Everquest that costs an extra five dollars is what it would be worth.

    On the other hand, NCsoft doesn't have an all access pass. And an all access pass wouldn't really work for them because their most popular games are either free (in the case of Guild Wars) or aimed mostly at the Asain Market (in the case of Lineage). so if they don't have an all access pass, then they are pretty much just flushing money down the toilet by running servers for games that nobody plays. I actually am proud of NCSoft for having the guts to admit when a game is doing poorly and being willing to take action by shutting it down (while also working to keep customers happy by refunding their subscription time and buying them extra games to boot). SoE on the other hand is too stubborn to do this, doesn't care about keeping customers happy and refuses to admit their mistakes. To this day they still tell people what a good idea the NGE was.

    That is absolutely not true at all.

    While it's true that SWG doesn't have even 1/2 the number it did before the NGE, but it does seem to have a community of somewhat decent size. I'm even willing to bet that EQ and SWG probably have similar numbers, with neither doing as bad as TR was, or other NCSoft MMO's for that matter...

    Where you are REALLY off though is concerning EQ2, and even Vanguard. EQ2 especially has a very healthy sized, and stable community, and is probably SOE's real money-maker atm. I have been playing WAR lately, but played EQ2 for the last year or so before that, and I have to say that it's actually a really enjoyable game. I played beta tested EQ2, and when it and WoW released so close to each other I ended up going with WoW b/c EQ2 wasn't all that great...But SOE really listened to it's players and improved the game ten-fold. I really dug it for what it was...and that's a very solid, PvE MMORPG. Vanguard is even making a comeback under SOE, and that says alot I think. Is it the end-all, be-all MMO that McQuaid hyped it as? No. But just like w/ EQ2, it has become a very solid game, and has improved immensely since release.

     

    Now that I think about it though, none of NCSoft's MMOs have really done all that well. It's top performer has to be, at least here in NA, CoX, and I'm guessing that at it's peak it only ever had maybe 250k players. Then what is there? Lineage 2 (which admitedly has a much larger pop in Asia), but here never exceeded 150. Auto Assault shut down maybe just as fast as TR did, although I think if that game had more time in the over it could have sustained a community.

    It is always sad to see a game shut-down though, and there are always people out there that are very passionate about thier game of choice, and to those of you for whom TR was yours...my condolences.

     

    I know i'm going to be called a troll but that bit made me lol

    from what i know 350k subs down to 10k or under for SWG is NOT half and it only has a decent size on 3 servers now

    but i do hear the love/hate for EQ2 in equal measure so i'm guessing it's slowly going the same way

  • Posted: 11/22/08 11:49 AM
    General Discussion
• • Star Wars Galaxies: Tips for Returning Vets

  • Originally posted by JYCowboy
    

    Originally posted by Suvroc
    

    Originally posted by Inat_mivea
    

    Originally posted by Suvroc
    

    Originally posted by Inat_mivea
    

     

    yah those indicators have always been a very loose representation of the server population AT THAT EXACT MOMENT

    chilastra, starsider, bloodfin, bria, euro-farstar, euro-chimaera, ahazi, and flurry are all considered decently populated servers

    
     

    But if you look at the exact same moment over time, say over a year, does that not make it a much clearer indicator?

     

    not really b/c you dont know the range for each. I think the only good way to do is to do a census on each server. Determing its 'prime time' and log in every day for 30-60 days and use the group finder to get a count of players on line at that time. Of course it will be slightly skewed b.c a lot of players choose to be anonymous

    I do get your point though and admit that there are some dead servers. Even SOE knows that now and will be offering free servertransfers
     

    
     

    Damn, I think I hit cancel rather then submit when I finished writing a resonse. Let me try this again.

    It's actually much more simple then that. First make an assumption of what the max server capacity is then divide by 6 for the different server rankings (i.e. very light, light, medium, heavy, very heavey, extremely heavey and full). That should be a very rudimentory (but accurate IMO) of the ranges for a server. Funny thing is some people have done exactly what you described and came out with the approximate number I specified in corespondance to the server status.

    But then again it's not about ""some dead servers". Its about the 15 plus servers out of 25 that are showing up as "very light". And the handful appearing at medium, with 1 (sometimes possibly 2) servers showing up as heavy.  This is not a good indication of health IMO.

    
     

    I totally don't trust those screens.  It's a better measure to load into Mos Eisley and see how many newbs are running around Sorry but that only indicates the number on free trials .  Inat is correct on the servers he indicates, however.  They do seem the most active.  The new search features are helpful but are limited to 25-30 in a given search at random.  Landing at popular spots like U need to look at the num of 90's in Restuus and Mos Eisley and talking with those you find is a better indication.  Another good note is to see how much active drama is happening on that servers forum board.  You can know then if someone is there.

    I played on EU-Farstar (med server)and could regularly see the heady number of maybe 50 actual subs online at peak times when i left and this just doesn't leave enough ppl around to do the heroic grind properly

    and would honestly put the pop of the med server i was on at under  500  from personal experience(it's hard to give an actual figure because of all those on free trial, free vet and with more than 1 account)

    and before gutboy says it NO there wasn't anybody hidden in instances

  • Posted: 11/20/08 5:57 PM
    General Discussion
• • dont play

  • maybe someone should point out that since this game is 100% free the devs etc have rl jobs and so this is more a part time venture and will take longer to update/fix but still worth a look

  • Posted: 11/20/08 1:18 PM
    Planeshift
• • Star Wars Galaxies: Tips for Returning Vets

  • Originally posted by Suvroc
    

    Originally posted by Inat_mivea
    

     

     The server listing has never been a good measure of population so its tough to pass judegement based on that 'metric'. The only way to know for sure is to check it out for yourself.

    
     

    Can you explain how it is not a good measure?

    And BTW I've had 1/4 of both last year and this year to play for free. I have checked it out myself.

     

    It may be because SOE keeps lowering the number the indicators represent

    and fyi there aren't 5-10 core servers there are the 3 rp servers left that are the ones worth playing on

  • Posted: 11/20/08 1:10 PM
    General Discussion
• • Suggest a game for me

  • Originally posted by Karlinator
    

    Originally posted by Roflan
    

    If Runescape was your first and only MMO that you've been playing for years, then I suggest you take a survey of all MMOs that you can get your hands on. Meaning all that have free trials.

    Off the top of my head those with free trials include:

    All SOE games: I recommend EQ2 and Vanguard(all my recommendations are for perspective, not necessarily based on what's good).

    All PlayNC games: I recommend Lineage 2 and TR.

    All Turbine games: I recommend DDO.

    EVE. Which you'll either instantly like or hate-- you should know very quickly.

    Sword of the New World: Again for perspective. I think everyone who plays MMOs should know what an asian grinder is. So if you don't try L2, try this as it's free.

    And a bevy of free games. Just to see what's out there.

    And of course, WoW.

     

    Those are the only games for which I'm sure, off the top of my head, that have free trials. I recommend trying as many as possible but don't try WoW until last...

     

    I've already tried wow and I absolutely hated it. In which case you are unlikely to like EQ, LOTRO, WAR etc (I'm the same btw)
    

     

     

  • Posted: 11/20/08 11:31 AM
    General Discussion