tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post3909858391393130520..comments2024-03-18T19:38:53.390-04:00Comments on Parallel Context: And the Gods Laughed Redbeardhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05306063084983025771noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-68771402228155798972018-10-23T16:03:01.737-04:002018-10-23T16:03:01.737-04:00I would argue that with WoW there are two distinct...I would argue that with WoW there are two distinct entities: those who login and those who subscribe. While (almost) everybody who logs into WoW has a subscription (they do have that L1-15 free account available), a subset of those subs actually login regularly. Sure, Blizz gets all that subscription money, but active users certainly appear to not be as numerous as they used to be. I remember making it to Firelands in Cataclysm about 3-4 weeks after it dropped, looked around, and said "WTF? Where is everybody? I'm actually on current content and there's nobody here!" And that was repeated in Mists, although by the last 8-10 months of my subscription I'd simply given up and decided to hang around areas that I enjoyed being in, people or no. <br /><br />And yes, you're absolutely correct about bodies playing not being an indicator of profitability, but in F2P people who actively play are the ones more likely to either take up the sub option (like what I have in SWTOR) or will spend money to purchase items in the cash shop (like some of the zones/expacs I've added in LOTRO). WoW is uniquely positioned in the market to be profitable by inertia alone, but my point was that in-game activity in MMOs hasn't been at Wrath or early Cataclysm levels since 2011 --product or expac launches excepted-- and you become used to the lack of people being visible in-game.Redbeardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05306063084983025771noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-30079600801691001132018-10-23T15:03:45.082-04:002018-10-23T15:03:45.082-04:00I don't think that comparing activity levels i...I don't think that comparing activity levels in levelling zones in most MMOs to WoW is really useful, firstly because WoW is so top-heavy and leans heavily on instancing, but also because most of these other games don't have a mandatory subscriptions - so even if you see fewer players running around in WoW, they are all people who have paid to be there (or someone else has paid for them), while most other games are F2P or at least offer extensive free trials, so bodies alone aren't really an indicator of profitability.Shintarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-69589479471569643152018-10-23T12:33:56.375-04:002018-10-23T12:33:56.375-04:00Well, I think it surprised me because Rift Prime w...Well, I think it surprised me because Rift Prime was one of those servers that if there were financial issues it would be the first to go, given that it was designed to be a temporary server. I found roughly the same number of people on the Rift servers I played on than on, say, the classic zones in SWTOR or the original zones in LOTRO. In fact, I'd frequently find more people playing GW2 than any MMO not named WoW, and even in the last months of my WoW experience in Mists I'd find more people playing on GW2 than WoW as well. <br /><br />I guess I just grew accustomed to not seeing that many players out in the wild.<br /><br />As for Rift, however, I don't see it staying operational --or in the Gamigo stable of games-- for very long. It kind of sticks out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the Gamigo lineup.Redbeardhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05306063084983025771noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3287859335174901821.post-7845634049696054772018-10-23T11:59:53.443-04:002018-10-23T11:59:53.443-04:00I'm not that surprised by this news - I'm ...I'm not that surprised by this news - I'm more surprised by the number of people who seem to be utterly surprised by it, lol. I guess it's because many people still remembered Rift fondly as "that game they used to like (some time ago)", so if they liked it, it must still be good and doing well, right?<br /><br />As some noted in the Massively OP comments though, there had been plenty of signs already, even if you disregard the way players moan about every game dying at all times. The factual reporting of cash shop shenanigans had shown them trying to find ways to make more money out of fewer players in half a dozen different ways in recent months, clearly with limited success. And even when the Prime server launched with some success, their biggest brag about it was that it had "thousands" of players. For a game that originally launched with a million subscribers that's really not that impressive.<br /><br />My guess is that they just couldn't find a way to keep things profitable and players happy, so decided to cut their losses and sell what they had left. I would also think that the lay-offs were initiated on Gamigo's end, because they seem to be in the business of running things in maintenance mode, and you don't need 200 people for that.<br /><br />So I guess on the plus side for Rift players, the game is unlikely to be shut down any time soon, because why else would a company like Gamigo have bought it? On the negative side though, there likely won't be any updates or much support at least for a while, simply because you can't cut that much staff and expect things to keep running as usual.Shintarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16758343475446510635noreply@blogger.com