Avallo Kantor
DUST University
Ivy League
84
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Posted - 2013.06.21 20:37:00 -
[1] - Quote
at least 80% of all statistics are just made up on the spot.
Also, I think it's a bit more important to examine this compared to player count BEFORE the game went into "Release", because for all intents and purposes Open Beta was ... kind of release. Everyone who really wanted to play DUST 514 or was dedicated to it had -already- been playing it, and most of the numbers from when it went to release is a lot of various people trying the game for a short while, deciding it wasn't for them and moving on.
The game is more or less designed from the ground up for a relatively small player base ((CCP designs toward Niche markets, not mass market)) and their game can manage with around the player count we had in Open Beta. The time right after "release" is always the largest boom to most FPS games, and any comparison to that time period of a few weeks is inevitably going to lead to the perception of a heavy drop off in player count and a "dying game".
The game will probably level out in player count with around 5 - 6 k players during prime time, and will more than likely slowly grow with each large expansion. CCP favors a VERY VERY longterm approach to making games, and for them the important metrics aren't release player count, as it is for many games, but the player count a year or even two years after release.
In this respect CCP may be perceived as moving very slowly compared to most FPS games which release, and by now are getting a DLC pack or two.
To say the game is dying when it is going through a similar process ALL games go through is somewhat disingenuous, and the important thing to remember is that player count around release / huge patch is Always higher than the norm, and that number always deflates over the weeks that follows until it stabilizes around the actual playerbase that constantly palys this game. (Often with a few more players sticking with the game.)
Also, to that one person that released a chart showing player count tapering off to nothing by July, please learn Statistics.
Extrapolation is a Crime, and also on the subject, No, you can't "warm up" a slot machine either. |