MAG didn't have a very good ad campaign, and they averaged what dust does total per faction (3 factions with 2k~4k players). Many people have tried and passed on dust. If the game was in a stable place as far as mechanics, word of mouth would be more than enough to get numbers up.

this is rarely true.

rael sucess have advertising, word of mouth more often then not results in a negtive growth, i've seen lots of games fail because they tried to rely on word of mouth.

You don't understand... THAT is the problem, you can't push or force people to join a Corp, they have to Enjoy the game first, then they have to WANT to join a Corp. If people don't enjoy the game for at least one solid week, they will NEVER join a Corp. In fact most people won't even think about anything like Corps, to they feel familiar with the game.

Bartimaeus, to your point, I disagree that now is the time to step up advertising. Here's why...

To get the 45K number IWS quoted the game must be having a 2 hour rolling average of about 4000 players. That means each player is playing for about an hour before moving on. That's pretty casual play. From the forums and listening to chat in-game I get the impression a large proportion of those players are experienced players keeping their hand in while the game matures.

The new player experience is generally considered to be terrible, suggesting the conversion of new players to on-going players at this time would not be very productive.

While the once-a-month updates that have started to roll out are promising, the game is still a cut below the competition in some critical areas -- namely: variety of weapons and dropsuits, SP compensation for in-game activities, vehicle diversity - balance - and operation, and the previously named new player experience.

The next few months will bring the heaviest influx of new games and equipment of the year. That comes with the biggest marketing push by the companies involved.

I believe it is in CCP's best interest to work hard to make the game better for the next four months, do what needs to be done to hold the players they have, and -- after the blush of new games wears off after the first of the year, position itself as the alternative to the flavor-of-the-month competition.

Ramping up advertising now would be counter productive.

That being said -- I also believe CCP's marketing effort for DUST 514 needs serious review during the same time period so it is competitive when the time comes to ramp it up. That's a steep hill to climb when you consider things like Battlefield's Battle Log or even the outreach efforts of emerging games like Star Citizen.

How is respec even a problem ? You know as well as i do, that the real problem have always been Equipment, to be specific; Prototype Gear. Give people a respec, and you will have more Protobears and more Pubstomps. Why no one in CCP or in the CPM wants to accept this FACT? I know is complications with AUR and all that crap, but maybe it is time to start thinking about the unpopular FULL game RESET.

I have seen what the numbers are though another thread. We should all know that the average amount of players in one of the populated servers is 45k people though this by what I know about fps is not enough to keep a fps alive. lets think about cod black ops one I remember that in its hight it had a average of about 500k people on at once.

I am just wondering what you are doing. thank you for taking the time to read this.

CCP's masterplan seems to work. That's the only reason they merged the numbers anyway, to scam people thinking the game would actually be alive. Yea yea we get it, one universe, one server, one total player count, lalala. You're trying, but don't really believe it either.

EvE online player base right now that are online 24,989...

Dust 514 online player base right now that are online 28,616...


Do the math...


How many of the Dust 514 players do you think are EvE players...

... makes you wonder about planetside 2 doesn't it? I mean why would unlocking an extended magazine on one AA gun arm for the max suit not unlock the extended magazine on the other AA gun on the other arm?

And now I am at 1k cert points again I am too afraid to spend it on anything the way SOE been swinging the nerf bat against 'necessary' tools to basically do the bare minimum job.

Also to more directly address your point.

Call of Duty has absolutely no respecs.

Neither does Halo.

Meanwhile the only game I ever recall in the rpg leveling history of shooters that did offer respecs is no longer online.

Check Mate.

your pointing out the obvious but with no question comment or viable solution to the purpose of the thread. why?

I like how people assume the same ~3000 people play all day.

iron wolf saber

Although your input is greatly appreciative, informative, and generally wonderful...this does not help my ranting purposes. So I will continue using same old "what about the new players" and "Dust numbers" are falling just to be uh, ya know, negative

To the OP, if you really want to get an idea of how people flow in an out of new Eden, check this out:


http://www.eve-offline.net/?server=dust

As you can see during weekdays it's usually below 4000 but on weekends it gets more like 4200 on average

I have seen what the numbers are though another thread. We should all know that the average amount of players in one of the populated servers is 45k people though this by what I know about fps is not enough to keep a fps alive. lets think about cod black ops one I remember that in its hight it had a average of about 500k people on at once.

I am just wondering what you are doing. thank you for taking the time to read this.

ccp doesn't try to actively gain new players. their games make headlines.

eve does not dust.

yet. so far the only headlines we have been hitting are laughing stock or left wanting.

Good Concept, Bad Execution = DUST 514

eve has an even better system unlike dust in just 2 months you can fly multiple roles easily.

Dust has too much sp for such a small pool of content, something's got to give... ever since we woke up release day and all training times were increased three fold with no new content added and no explanation why this was good for the game...

seriously guys it's allready ver 24 years with all racial basic content plus fight jets and more dust will have upwards 60 years skilling system in a few years... that's compared to eve onlines 14 year system... which is a game with 10 years of expansion...

anyone ever think the problem with dust is the training speed should increased x4 fold... I'm not joking it should mimic eve online training speed time with boosters. have 32 years of skills in 4 years not at release when the game doesn't even have the basic content in... why would you balance the training times on that without player feedback after a year of beta testing a different system no one complained about?

Why can't the shield skill once again boost both drop suits and vhecials?