174 replies to this topic

[LogicSol]

It was nearly impossible to not get into closed beta if you wanted to. With OB originally slated for launch on the 15th, There is a good chance that the main bulk of people attracted by the PCGamer article registered prior to OB opening.

[Devils Advocate]

I can tell you that while I really want to play this game with my personal friends I haven't even mentioned it to them for fear that the trial mechs will drive them off.

[jerrycan]

How is it possible that being in a weak mech along with 7 other lone wolfes (often also with trial mechs) fighting groups of 8 organized enemies in custom (=superior) mechs is not encouraging to keep playing?

But hey, only idiots get used to a new game alone so they know what to do when they play with friends, instead of failing most the time discouraging friends from playing with them.

To compare it with WoT, every battle has a lasting positive effect (crew exp, free exp), new players don't get dominated by veterans all the time (hardly anyone plays tier 1 non stop) and there is a way to battle with a group of friends against another group of friends (on multiple levels). Last but not least, the maximum group size is 1/5th of the team, where the opposing team still will have a good chance to win.

As long as you can't get fair games when playing alone, along with the lack of lasting stuff to start with this game will fail.
Give the game a solo queue where you never fight groups and enough funds to buy a commander mech and the game might survive (even with the horrible hit detection).

Edited by jerrycan, 06 November 2012 - 02:02 PM.

[Kraven Kor]

I can't say I know enough about anything to say if these numbers are good or bad.

But adding approximately 7,000 new accounts in a week doesn't seem horrible.

That said, yes, the New Player Experience sucks and many of us "golds" said as much, even if we were also saying "so join a group" in response to the complaints about groups

[ferranis]

I thought back in closed beta that ob was a waste because everyone who wanted to play this game was already playing it- and this is realy sad!

[Comguard]

Just wanted to add todays numbers.

397,815

That means just 4,000 new players in 5 days.

Did this check because today I realized that I faced the same players in consecutive games. The player base must be incredibly low, you can see how the interest in this game has decreased by just looking at this forum.

Just 307 members online right now.

[zmeul]

yeah, this 2nd week has toned down in number of new user registrations
the average registrations / day for 2nd week alone has gone down to 860 vs 930 for 1st week

the total number of new registered users, since OBT launched, has reached 11626
that accounts for 2.92% of total users registered

hoped by the time 2nd week was over and I'll present the data, the number of accounts will reach 400k, but doesn't look like it

interestingly, the Kotaku live chat has done nothing to promote the game


in 2-3 days time, at about same hour I'll present the 2nd week data

small preview:

Edited by zmeul, 13 November 2012 - 02:25 AM.

[zmeul]

note: I will also add this to my OP for continuity

by the time I'm done posting this it's already the 15th, for me at least

so .. I'm back with a new batch of data gathered from 6th (completing the day) to 15th of this month
Nr of accounts to date are 399674, out of which 13418 were created since OBT launched - they now account for 3.36% of total registered users



the number of new accounts created / day, starting with day 2 (30th of Nov) are as follows:

• 983
  
• 873
  
• 576
  
• 777
  
• 1285
  
• 1082
  
• 892
  
• 976
  
• 936
  
• 800
  
• 727
  
• 873
  
• 846
  
• 638
  
• 610
  
• 544

the numbers of new accounts created / day is "going down" and despite what Mr. Russ Bullock said in the N.G.N.G. podcast, it doesn't look encouraging at all
maybe this is the real reason for pushing 3rd person view?!

also you can notice that today (well yesterday for me) we hit a new low in nr of registrations

Edited by zmeul, 14 November 2012 - 02:20 PM.

[Dakkath]

This game will REALLY take off once community warfare is in. The Metagame is a very important feature for customer retention IMO, as well as a good word-of-mouth hype machine.

[MrPenguin]

Like stated above, i expect the number of users to sky rocket once proper game modes and the main feature is implemented.

Edited by MrPenguin, 14 November 2012 - 02:31 PM.

[Grraarrgghh]

My question is how many of the 380k already registered were actually in CB and how many suddenly had access to the game they had registered to but couldn't play.

[zmeul]

Grraarrgghh, on 14 November 2012 - 02:34 PM, said:

My question is how many of the 380k already registered were actually in CB and how many suddenly had access to the game they had registered to but couldn't play.

I have no knowledge of this and only PGI can tell
the "problem" is not the past and the current player base, the real issue is where does it go from here

from a stand point of a Free2Play business model adopted by PGI, having a small player base is not gonna be OK, they need a constant influx of players, paying players
it's a vicious circle I don't see MWO jump out of until PGI does something drastic(!?!?)
releases new content, fixes the MM - there are plenty of issues that needs adressing

also, they had a live-chat on Kotaku on the 7th, last week - it did absolutely nothing in regard of inviting ppl in and trying out the game

[Rokuzachi]

Thanks for keeping us updated with this info. I always enjoy knowing this stuff, for better or worse.

I personally don't think the game was ready for the scrutiny of the public eye, but I'd wager that it wasn't entirely up to them as to when they made the transition.

Edited by Rokuzachi, 14 November 2012 - 02:46 PM.

[zmeul]

Rokuzachi, on 14 November 2012 - 02:44 PM, said:

Thanks for keeping us updated with this info. I always enjoy knowing this stuff, for better or worse.

thank you too for the interest
I will keep it updated once in while and when major events occur

[Clay Pigeon]

This game went open beta too early. Probably someone wanted to get a return on their investment. Unfortunately some people don't learn in business school that if you start selling your product before it's ready, it won't sell well.

[Grraarrgghh]

zmeul, on 14 November 2012 - 02:41 PM, said:

I have no knowledge of this and only PGI can tell
the "problem" is not the past and the current player base, the real issue is where does it go from here

from a stand point of a Free2Play business model adopted by PGI, having a small player base is not gonna be OK, they need a constant influx of players, paying players
it's a vicious circle I don't see MWO jump out of until PGI does something drastic(!?!?)
releases new content, fixes the MM - there are plenty of issues that needs adressing

also, they had a live-chat on Kotaku on the 7th, last week - it did absolutely nothing in regard of inviting ppl in and trying out the game

Well for a more broadview, compare this to this, and I'd say they're not doing half bad.

[Comguard]

Yeah, thanks Zmeul for the work.

MrPenguin, on 14 November 2012 - 02:31 PM, said:

Like stated above, i expect the number of users to sky rocket once proper game modes and the main feature is implemented.

When are these game modes to come? Taking a look at PGIs recent track record shows that it takes them ages to implement even basic stuff, and if they implement it it is often broken or a placeholder, so I wouldn't get hyped to much by the promise of community warfare where we have not even seen a screenshot yet.

12 vs 12 matches are not even talked about anymore, well, netcode is not even working with 8 vs 8.

[zmeul]

Grraarrgghh, on 14 November 2012 - 02:51 PM, said:

Well for a more broadview, compare this to this, and I'd say they're not doing half bad.

HAWKEN is still in CBT while MWO is OBT and quite launched
"not half bad" is not good enouh

[flackee]

Well IIRC, Russ's numbers in the podcast were people currently playing (sadly no way for us to track that), and registrations as compared to closed beta, which your data does not reflect.

Theres a lot of ways you could take the data, but I don't think it gives us enough to make any accurate assessment about the game.

Keep it up though, around actual launch all that historical data will be very nice to see

I just wish we could get some numbers that matter (players online, sales)

[zmeul]

flackee, on 14 November 2012 - 02:55 PM, said:

and registrations as compared to closed beta, which your data does not reflect.

Theres a lot of ways you could take the data, but I don't think it gives us enough to make any accurate assessment about the game.

as I stated before that data is unknown to me
I could employ a crawler and fetch it, but I have no idea on how PGI would react to the increase in bandwidth usage