81 replies to this topic

[Lefty Lucy]

You guys who rarely see repeats are likely in the middle of the Elo bell curve, so that your matches are being created from a larger pool of players. I'm either on the very high or very low end because I see the same names all night long. I guess the "ggclose" guys are potentially way worse than I think they are, but I'm pretty sure I know what end I'm on.

[Joseph Mallan]

So there is a perk for being average then. More player verity.

[Randalf Yorgen]

Sandpit, on 10 December 2013 - 08:41 AM, said:

I'm glad somebody finally got the nerve to post about poptarts "killing" the game

you sneaky op you, i see what you did with your title


No, it's a duplicate thread of "Poptarts are killing the game"

It's different and in the immortal words of Roadbeer "new and exciting" lol

you know this will go straight to his head don't you Sand? better stock up on some bacon

[Burke IV]

The removal of the player counter is probably more sign of a problem than who you see in game. Why would they take it away?

[MeiSooHaityu]

Burke IV, on 10 December 2013 - 09:09 AM, said:

The removal of the player counter is probably more sign of a problem than who you see in game. Why would they take it away?

It does seem like an odd thing to do, but the counter has been gone for a long time (probably close to a year). If it was a sign of a problem, it would have come to a head a long time ago.

[stjobe]

Burke IV, on 10 December 2013 - 09:09 AM, said:

The removal of the player counter is probably more sign of a problem than who you see in game. Why would they take it away?

Because, as I stated elsewhere:

People are dead dumb when it comes to interpreting data like that. The counter we had back in closed beta showed currently online users (or concurrent users to use a term that was bandied about three weeks ago when they broke their record for number of users online at the same time).

People took that number as being the total number of players and used it to proclaim (loudly and belligerently) how MWO was a failure, PGI was a fail company, and the game would die before its first birthday.

No matter how many times it was explained that the number they saw was people online right now, that fact didn't sink in (whether because these people really are that stupid or because they just want some reason to complain, I don't know. I lean towards the former).

There's no good reason to show those numbers either, since it can't do much good, but can do a lot of harm (as evidenced above).

Edited by stjobe, 10 December 2013 - 09:13 AM.

[TygerLily]

Blurry, on 10 December 2013 - 08:08 AM, said:

They dont care new sale next week.

Buy the new Hero.

UI 2.0 Sometime and then buy buy buy then maybe they will talk about CW and clans in between buy buy buy.

They dont care other than squeezing as tight as they can.

Yes the drop off is real but so far the pump and dump has worked. Get them in the door, buy a mech or 2 see how bad the game is and dump.

Rinse and Repeat - until there are no more suckers and by the looks of it - getting there.

...yet here you are. With a Guardian tag...

[Gallowglas]

RG Notch, on 10 December 2013 - 06:51 AM, said:

All you have to do to check population is look at the player counter. Well I'm sure games with healthy populations remove player counters all the time.

Yeah, I mean look at World of Warcraft. Taking out the server population counts was a clear signal that that game was dying!

Oh, wait.

Look, I don't know if the game is thriving or dying on the vine, but these sorts of arguments aren't valid. As a developer, player counts are a horrible idea. They offer absolutely nothing positive. All they offer is conspiracy fodder for people who have no understanding of how to interpret statistics, number trending, or pattern analysis.

If the developers really wanted to conceal the death of the game, they'd have left the counters in, but artificially inflated them.

Edited by Gallowglas, 10 December 2013 - 10:26 AM.

[Mudhutwarrior]

I cant see how anybody doesn't see it. I think its most likely willful blindness to be honest. I created a new account to see if the elo screamers were right. Nope. See the same faces at 50 games played as at 8000. Its to the point that there is rarely any variety to the game and most times you can guess the outcome by who you see at start.

New players leave soon after starting for the same reasons everyone I got to join left a year ago. All slaughter all the time with being pitted against premades and synchdrops like the Steiners promote heavily here on the forums. No real learning curve for them stuck with a keyboard against concentrated well practiced fire over voip.

Now they keep playing with the balance to where missiles decide most matches now. All the lamest of premades come overloaded with missile boats and they fly from the outset. Now we all know they can be readily countered but not in any pug teams dropping now.

The resident hear no evil see no evil here on the tread are still using the same tired tactics as back in January. Thing is no one is buying it anymore. Its time PGi does something drastic or this game will never turn back from oblivion.

[Joseph Mallan]

Mudhutwarrior, on 10 December 2013 - 09:55 AM, said:

I cant see how anybody doesn't see it. I think its most likely willful blindness to be honest. I created a new account to see if the elo screamers were right. Nope. See the same faces at 50 games played as at 8000. Its to the point that there is rarely any variety to the game and most times you can guess the outcome by who you see at start.

New players leave soon after starting for the same reasons everyone I got to join left a year ago. All slaughter all the time with being pitted against premades and synchdrops like the Steiners promote heavily here on the forums. No real learning curve for them stuck with a keyboard against concentrated well practiced fire over voip.

Now they keep playing with the balance to where missiles decide most matches now. All the lamest of premades come overloaded with missile boats and they fly from the outset. Now we all know they can be readily countered but not in any pug teams dropping now.

The resident hear no evil see no evil here on the tread are still using the same tired tactics as back in January. Thing is no one is buying it anymore. Its time PGi does something drastic or this game will never turn back from oblivion.

I just created a new Account last night to see how money trickles/ flows in... I recognized one name in an hour, and THAT name usually claims to be Elite High Elo...

[Mystere]

Mudhutwarrior, on 10 December 2013 - 09:55 AM, said:

Now they keep playing with the balance to where missiles decide most matches now. All the lamest of premades come overloaded with missile boats and they fly from the outset. Now we all know they can be readily countered but not in any pug teams dropping now.

Wait a minute! I thought it was poptarts? Or was it artillery and air strikes? No, it's probably ballistics. No, it's VOIP! Heck, I am so confused right now!

...

I think I finally got it! It's teamwork. Please nerf teamwork NAO!!!

...

Uh! No?

Mudhutwarrior, on 10 December 2013 - 09:55 AM, said:

The resident hear no evil see no evil here on the tread are still using the same tired tactics as back in January. Thing is no one is buying it anymore. Its time PGi does something drastic or this game will never turn back from oblivion.

Now that was a good game. It's no Skyrim, but still.

Edited by Mystere, 10 December 2013 - 10:06 AM.

[divinedisclaimer]

Death Drow, on 10 December 2013 - 05:24 AM, said:

So three months ago now I started saying that the jump snipers were going to kill the game. Back then I'd log on to one of the team speak servers and see 25 out of 30 jump ships full of players nearly 24/7.

PGI in their infinite wisdom responded to the whining of the jump snipers by nerfing artemis to line of sight only. Admittedly LRM's are strong, and were stronger without that nerf, especially against the jump snipers. In fact they are practically the only solid response to the jump sniping meta.

The last week and a half, or so, I've logged on and seen the lack of players exponentially drop on the team speak. Down to literally myself being the only one on at times, other than the other channels on the server which only had the bots. When I've seen other players I hear them talking about other games, and even starting to play for the first time some older games.

I wonder if PGI is feeling that loss of players yet, or even paying attention to it.

HINT: Community Warfare, Clans, etc. will not save this game if there are no players around to even know that you have finally fullfilled those promises. Regardless of how amazing you may actually pull them off.

People get bored of shooters. They'll cycle in and out. Alot of the newbies haven't gotten into TS channels yet because they aren't aware they exist.

The #1 thing PGI can do to increase interest in the game is implement in-game voip; for this reason. Even if it's only lance-wide.

[Mike Oakenwall - the khadoran]

I log in much less, was awhile ago now actually, used to play allmost every day in the week.

I want to see some progress, like a scoreboard. solo and team que..

Whos the most feared mechwarrior in the galaxy and whos a wimp?! where am I at... those kind of things..

[Burke IV]

I played against those steiner drops one weekend, some of the most enjoyable matches i have played. Felt like the whole nme team was focusing on me, some ended with my hands shaking from the effort of playing. Then i dropped against a random pug and i realised that actually my team wasnt getting me killed deliberatly they really were all that bad. I know how that sounds, dont be too harsh on me im not really that big headed

This game needs in game voip so badly.

[RG Notch]

stjobe, on 10 December 2013 - 09:13 AM, said:

Because, as I stated elsewhere:

People are dead dumb when it comes to interpreting data like that. The counter we had back in closed beta showed currently online users (or concurrent users to use a term that was bandied about three weeks ago when they broke their record for number of users online at the same time).

People took that number as being the total number of players and used it to proclaim (loudly and belligerently) how MWO was a failure, PGI was a fail company, and the game would die before its first birthday.

No matter how many times it was explained that the number they saw was people online right now, that fact didn't sink in (whether because these people really are that stupid or because they just want some reason to complain, I don't know. I lean towards the former).

There's no good reason to show those numbers either, since it can't do much good, but can do a lot of harm (as evidenced above).

Wow so those other games that have a player counter must be screwed. Actually there is no good reason to show them if they are bad. Good numbers are actually a good thing to show off. Some people actually believe the excuses that PGI has spouted. They must be gullible or stupid. No matter how many times it's explained that other games have player counters, as well as General Discussion forums it never seems to sink in.
Anyways, some how some way other F2P games manage these things, they must be doing something wrong.

[Mudhutwarrior]

Joseph Mallan, on 10 December 2013 - 10:02 AM, said:

I just created a new Account last night to see how money trickles/ flows in... I recognized one name in an hour, and THAT name usually claims to be Elite High Elo...

Thats pretty funny because I see you as much with either account I use. Your Just special I guess.

PS, seen Roadbeer and Henry Morgan too.

Edited by Mudhutwarrior, 10 December 2013 - 10:18 AM.

[Burke IV]

I think the game needs a players online counter aswell as a weekly population graph. Numbers are numbers, if the game is dieing its dieing, hiding the counter neither proves nor disproves anything. Maybe a "population counter ideas" forum would contain things

[Joseph Mallan]

Mudhutwarrior, on 10 December 2013 - 10:17 AM, said:

Thats pretty funny because I see you as much with either account I use. Your Just special I guess.

The one time I saw you I was in my rarely played Jenner (Sara) My Leased used Mech and I will assume Lowest Elo.

On the other hand, I will know there is a four man of Lawmen on at the same time I am and I never drop against them, or any other of my listed friends! Makes me realize just how well Elo works

[Jman5]

Only PGI knows the state of their player population and only PGI can do anything about it. Whether the game's population is healthy or not is irrelevant in my eyes because there is nothing I can do about it. So I continue playing and hope that the powers that be manage things properly.

At the very minimum, PGI is still holding an ace under their sleeve. Whenever they release on Steam it will bring a massive influx of new players. If the game is in a great state by then with good retention mechanisms in place, we'll be good to go. If it's not we'll be back to old numbers in a couple months.

[Gallowglas]

RG Notch, on 10 December 2013 - 10:10 AM, said:

Wow so those other games that have a player counter must be screwed. Actually there is no good reason to show them if they are bad. Good numbers are actually a good thing to show off.

There are plenty of thriving games that don't have them and plenty of dying ones that do. The numbers themselves tell you nothing. If all PGI cared about was to convince everyone that the game was thriving when it really isn't, they could have kept the counter, but added 10k to it.