The X-Fire Game: Back to Normal

Another week, and this time no Super Bowl or Rift beta to cause concerns.

What will be nice this go-round is that next weekend will be the return of another Rift beta...and this one being an open beta to boot. I expect some pretty big numbers out of Rift. so, this time out, we will have a good read on how the current games are doing and if Rift will affect any numbers next week.

For now, lets see how our games are doing. Since last week was all over the map thanks to the Bowl, I plan to do a two week review...including the previous two weeks of data for comparison. Pre-Bowl numbers will be what I compare this weeks ratings to.

1. Lord of the Rings Online -  2597 (Pre-Bowl 2524 ↑ Super Bowl 1813)
2. Aion -  2458 (Pre-Bowl 2131 ↑  Super Bowl 1874 )
3. EvE Online -  2263 (Pre-Bowl 2415 ↓ Super Bowl 1776)
4. Champions Online -  766 (Pre-Bowl 1458 ↓ Super Bowl 724)
5. Dungeons & Dragons Online -  478 (Pre-Bowl 421 ↑ Super Bowl 338)
6. Star Trek Online -  471 (Pre-Bowl 385 ↑ Super Bowl 371)
7. DC Universe -  370 (INTRO 316)
8. Age of Conan -  281 (Pre-Bowl 290 ↓ Super Bowl 214)
9. Warhammer Online - 220 (Pre-Bowl 240 ↓ Super Bowl 133)
10. Final Fantasy XIV -  129 (Pre-Bowl 130 ↓ Super Bowl 111)

Quite a few movers and shakers here.

Aion truly showed some massive jumps. Thanks to a Valentines event, I think this really helped them jump so high here. I have seen Aion perform like this on a regular basis whenever the devs do something special.

STO and DDO both showed good jumps here as well. STO had their one year anniversary, and a sale on the main client...which most likely helped. Anyone know what happened with DDO? Any special event this weekend?

Now, if we look at Champions, we can see a massive drop here. This WAS to be expected. Still, their rankings look great and from what CO had been seeing (the low teens for number of players), this is a marked improvement. DC Universe though hardly budged here. Still think this may go up a bit as X-Fire recognizes some clients...but, hard to say as it nears the 30 day mark.

As I suspected, WAR is still on a downhill slide. Each week their numbers dwindle. When we compare it to the other two fail MMO's on the list, the drop is double or more than AoC or FFXIV. I hope the bleed out can stop. The fact a special event was going this weekend also says a lot for player retention and popularity as a return MMO for players.

1. EvE Online -  1108 (Pre-Bowl 1151 ↓ Super Bowl 684) players
2. Lord of the Rings Online -  1064 (Pre-Bowl 799 ↑ Super Bowl 661)
3. DC Universe -  750 (Pre-Bowl 1256 ↓ Super Bowl 732)
4. Aion -  659 (Pre-Bowl 554 ↑ Super Bowl 484)
5. Champions Online -  637 (Pre-Bowl 1231 ↓ Super Bowl 500)
6. Dungeons & Dragons Online -  318 (Pre-Bowl 241 ↑ Super Bowl 240)
7. Star Trek Online -  202 (Pre-Bowl 121  ↑  Super Bowl 140)
8. Final Fantasy XIV -  180 (Pre-Bowl 216 ↓ Super Bowl 156)
9. Age of Conan -  122 (Pre-Bowl 119 ↑  Super Bowl 85)
10. Warhammer Online -  101 (Pre-Bowl 94 ↑ Super Bowl 57)

Overall a good week on Raptr for a few games. 

As we saw on X-Fire, Aion up quite a bit here. LOTRO also had a big spike. STO and DDO also up as we had seen on X-Fire.

Even some low games had a small bump...including AoC and WAR.

FFXIV had a small tumble though. DC Universe took a dive (ouch). Champions also felt the cruch as it took some numbers off. Couple more weeks and DCUO and Champions should stabilize.

______________________________

Now, on to the game of the week.

I try to highlight a game I usually do NOT track for this weekly posting.

Todays game is...

City of Heroes

Having been around for quite a few years, I often wonder how games that have been going rate here. Lets take a look.

X-Fire = 148 players
Raptr = 132 players

If we compare this to our main charts, we can see CoH outdoing Age of Conan and Warhammer Online....and rightfully so. The game has had great accolades from it's player base and the current MMORPG rating is at 8.29, so overall a game that, though getting up there in years, still has a loyal following.

Ok, thats it for this weeks charts. Stay tuned for a Rift to open in next weeks stats.

Cheers

Rift: Not Enough Chatter

It did not take long. I truly tried my best to avoid all discussion of Rift. Blogs could not sway me. Forums could not irk me.

Then the magic happened.

"Just before Beta 6, we made an anti griefing change that prevented enemy wardstones at hubs and towns from being destroyed by the opposing faction, and significantly boosted guard strength around PvE hubs. We’re pretty happy with how that worked out on the PvE servers...


In time for Open Beta, we’ve developed the ability to repeal those changes on the PvP servers only, to see if they can remain playable without it. Ideally, it’s our hope that there’s gameplay value in having people being able to band together to attack and defend those areas on PvP servers.  "

Scott Hartsman - Post Beta 6 - On Rifts, Raids, PvP, and Damage…

So, with a single move, Trion does something most developers do not want to do. Cater to more than one type of player.

We have seen the promises before of Developers who say they "want" to listen to the player.  They constantly look for feedback, yet how often does that feedback become an implementation. Why is it so many devs make changes that make you shake your head and wonder why?

It was a concern last beta, when these anti-grief changes were done, and then were carried over to PvP servers. The yells of "PvE players are killing our PvP" were shouted on the forums...and at the same time the PvE bunch were all "You got PvP in my PvE" and were crying over this issue, which caused this change to take place.

What is a dev to do? Usually the easy way out. Change the major core and cater to that "casual" crowd as so often happens as of late.

Not this time.

So, for those who continue to worry about Rift, because it is the same? Or is it becoming too easy? Is it catering to that one audience all game devs want...

For once, we may have a company who puts their customer first.

Cheers to Trion...

Oh, and ,my comment ban is removed. Trion and Rift deserve the discussion.

Rift: Too much chatter

And it has happened....again.

A beta is being discussed like it is a release. the hype-o-meter has gone through the roof. The hate blogs of my "Communist Bloc" days of blogging are tenfold.

And I am convinced it needs to go away.

As of today, besides my usual "X-Fire" commentary, the discussion of Rift as a game like it is released disappears from my blog and my twitter. Really, do we know what is going to happen? Do we think the way Rift is, as of TODAY, the Rift that will be launched?

Some do, and I say "Nay". >>>>>>>>>> NAY I SAY....

The audience will be huge...the number of players will be through the roof. Servers will die. Queues will melt your monitors and the usual blather of balance, playability and what not will make the blogs scream with rage.

I will be there. But, as of today, I think Rift discussions need to go.

No more commenting on blogs about Rift (my final comments are out, and I refuse to say anymore). No more discussion on gameplay, mechanics, the company....etc. Trion has done a fab job, but I REALLY want to see if they can handle a huge launch.

So, until February 24th...Rift shall be the game that remains un-discussed.

The X-Fire Game: Rifted at the Super Bowl

This weeks post is brought to you by the letters R. I. F. T. and those little things called "Touchdowns".

Thats right, this past weekend was a large Rift beta weekend. Massive numbers of keys were sent out, pre-order keys galore, and the added bonus of some key sets allowing 100 invites per code. Thats not all, as the Super Bowl cranked up the heat on game playing; a male dominated gaming world was diluted by that male dominated television event.

So, how can two such events like these affect various games on the charts, and then how does Rift itself rank? Lets find out.

X-FIRE

1. Rift - 2755 (INTRO) players
2. Aion - 1874 (2131 ↓ )
3. Lord of the Rings Online - 1813 (2524 ↓ )
4. EvE Online - 1776 (2415 ↓ )
5. Champions Online - 724 (1458)
6. Dungeons & Dragons Online - 338 (421 ↓ )
7. Star Trek Online - 371 ( 385 ↓  )
8. DC Universe - 316 (INTRO)
9. Age of Conan - 214 (290 ↓ )
10. Warhammer Online - 133 (240 ↓ )
11. Final Fantasy XIV - 111 (130 ↓ )

What an interesting chart. ALL games were way down. Thank you Super Bowl.

Check out Rift though. What a great entrance into the charts on X-Fire. Number one with a bullet. Seems football could not keep a majority of gamers out of at least trying it. I think this will be a telling sign, and I expect the launch of Rift to be one of the largest in recent MMO history (previous launches have had Warhammer Online at #4 and Age of Conan and Aion at #5 on X-Fire, yet falling immensely in the following month).

What a bizarre twist though. Thanks to this past weekends football extravaganza, Aion was able to move ahead of EvE and LOTRO. Odd, but not unprecedented (as we had seen previously thanks to the FFXIV polls... Europe loves Aion more than North America... you know, who happen to love Football probably MUCH more than Europeans). Seeing that most Euros were probably NOT watching the Super Bowl, I think we know who to thank for Aion's success here.

Champions Online's fall, though large, was to be expected, and until next week, we will not know how Free to Play is helping overall. Should see some stabilizing numbers soon. The drop, though large, should see better results next week.

DC Universe finally intros this week to X-Fire...but, to some rather shocking numbers. I am not sure how the X-Fire software works, and if it will re-recognize games or not when updates take place, unless you force it. DCUO just seems rather low, almost like it may not notice a majority of players. Hopefully this will rectify itself next week.

Warhammer Online is still seeing a disturbing trend. Now, even though we cannot tell much from this weeks chart, it seems to have lost a good share of players compared to it's companion game, Age of Conan. I am expecting a MASSIVE drop come Rift launch, but, the fact that this past week Mythic announced free transfer off servers and an eventual "retirement" (their wording) of several servers...this is still not boding well for this flailing MMO.

.....

Raptr, as we saw last week, was not as affected by the mid week Rift event as X-Fire seemed to be this weekend beta. Even though the first day had good numbers (about 700+ players started), the following days fell down. It was a weekday beta though.

Now, how will this NEW event, which was weekend based, help Rifts chances on Raptr?

RAPTR

1. DC Universe - 732 (1256 ↓ ) players
2. EvE Online - 684 (1151 ↓ )
3. Lord of the Rings Online - 661 (799 ↓ )
4. Champions Online - 500 (1231 ↓ )
5. Aion - 484 (554 ↓ )
6. Rift - 243 (INTRO)
7. Dungeons & Dragons Online - 240 (241 ↓ )
8. Final Fantasy XIV - 156 (216 ↓  )
9. Star Trek Online - 140 (121  ↑  )
10. Age of Conan - 85 (119 ↓  )
11. Warhammer Online - 57 (94 ↓ )

Raptr shows certain games falling massively (EvE losing roughly 40%) and Champions taking a dive. Still weird how there seems to be some major discrepancies between Raptr and X-Fire. but, it does allow us to see some nice variations, so lets take a look.

I did expect loss in Champions and DC Universe. As they continue to find their sweet spot on the charts due to their relative changes (going F2P and being new, respectively). Hopefully in another week or two we should see how successful these games are.

The only game up? Star Trek Online. Just like in high school, all the sci-fi nerds never really liked football anyways (me being one of those...lol). Yet, when I say that, we MUST look at EvE's strange drop. I really did not expect such a huge loss. So, unless there was an outage I am not aware of, EvE's numbers seemed to have the oddest loss here.

Rift enters the chart respectively, but could have been better. My money though is on a lot of players, like myself, that are avoiding the game and wanting it to be fresh for launch. I do expect launch to be huge for this title as well on the Raptr rankings.

Just like on X-Fire, WAR took a noticeable dive. AoC, the companion game to WAR did not seem to get hurt too much. As I mentioned last week, WAR needs to be watched. I expect a lot of pain for this game, and no matter how you cut it...the ongoing discussion of profitability that people throw up, that Mythic announced last year, may need to be questioned now. Guess closing servers is one way to help in that respect...good thing they are shutting down quite a few.
 .....

Wow. Talk about some massive drops thanks to the Super Bowl. Not unexpected. But, I have to say, the big winner here was Rift on X-Fire and STO on Raptr. They really pulled through, even with such a big event like the Bowl.

Next week: Back to normalcy...and hopefully some better views of DC Universe and Champions Online.

(PS: I will skip the Game of the Week that I do for games I do not track, due to the massive losses due to the Super Bowl. Watch for that next week.)

You got your PvP in my PvE - Redux

Previously I have written about how the interaction of PvP and PvE can be a success if done correctly. But, the question remains; what does the MMO audience REALLY want in their MMO's. Can PvP and PvE really mix? And, what is the current crop of MMO's teaching us about what the MMO audience wants to see.

This became even more of a subject to broach thanks to the recent changes in Rift for Beta 6. You can read about these changes here in depth (SOURCE). What it boils down to is making quest hubs more powerful against opposition invasions from the other factions. As well, objective based PvP is being moved into their own areas, so those who do not wish to engage in PvP, may avoid it almost completely (on PvE servers).

So, what does this tell us?

If we look at previous year offerings when it comes to PvP based games, the consensus seems clear. If your game does not have a well laid out PvE component and instead focuses on PvP, you will alienate a large audience (WAR, AoC Launch). And to top it off, if you force PvE audiences to PvP, prepare to fall down (Aion, which has been rectified as of late).

Basically, my feelings are that PvE has the larger audience, and PvP is too niche.

Rift at least looks to offer an alternate path though for a PvE/PvP based style of gameplay.

Thanks to the way that you can set yourself up to be auto-flagged for PvP on PvE servers, it allows a player to be near danger, but to avoid it if they wish. But, on the PvP servers, the always on flag allows the PvP player to engage whenever they wish...mostly.

Here is where the contention arises for the PvP servers. Seems they are disgruntled over the changes, and believe that PvE is already ruining their PvP experience. Why should they not be allowed to attack the quest hubs of alternate factions, and cause havoc against those players?

So, who exactly is right here? And, can Trion see to it that PvP can have separate server rules from PvE?

My hope is that for 2011 we will see what the MMO audience really wants. Rift's success as a PvE game with PvP may just answer that. Especially when we can see which servers hold the largest populations...and of course, how those numbers on X-Fire and Raptr look.

Spectator Sports: Aion

Due to the nature of watching the rankings on MMO's, I have what I like to call "speed dial" for the various forums and blogs of the MMO's I track. It is interesting to see the views of different players as I rank their games on the tracking services. Whether they be a standard supporter, forum troll, or fanboi blog, the discussion is ripe for commentary.

I like to call it "Spectating"

This round I am stalking: AION

Aion fascinates me, due to the fact that there is an underlying group who continue to call the game an utter failure. Yet, contrary to this, I see an MMO that is thriving, at least in this genre. MMO's, as we all know, is one tough business to hold onto. So many games have their detractors, but we can only go so far in knowing what is fact or what is fiction when discussing said games.

As I continue to track Aion on the services, such as X-Fire and Raptr, the picture is of a game doing quite well (at least in this business). According to NCSoft, their financials list the game as "flat"...thus not losing money, nor gaining. But, it IS a revenue stream.

Work continues to be done to the game in North America and Europe at a steady pace to alleviate initial issues such as perceived grind and a more Asian feel to the game. A recent patch put out last week approached crafting and issues with materials, costs and adding new recipes.

So, based on this data, why would anyone call Aion a "failure".

Gamerdrone did a post at launch called "10 Reasons why Aion will fail" stating these as concerns.

• PvP-oriented Gameplay 
• Flight is a Gimmick 
• Visual Style 

And more..

Why would someone immediately be calling the failure of a game considered to be doing well? And explain to me how items looked upon as strengths or considered "good" to a certain group would lead to Aion's failure?

If I head to the forums, I can look at Aionsource (a fan site) and see a relative good set of posts, with maybe one or two "fails" within. Compare this to last weeks forum list of Warhammer Online, where the majority of the forums were full of disgruntled players, locked threads and what not; this is tame in comparison.

If we head to MMORPG.com and their ratings system, the picture starts to become a little clearer. With a lowly 7.8 by player standards, we see one aspect stands out: Service.
With a 6.8, this is bringing their overall rank lower than expected. It seems NCSoft is the core of the failure calls. No matter how good the game may be, the service seems to be the number one concern. Looking at the forums, you can see the discussions all leading to NCSoft not knowing what they are doing (according to their opinions).

So, though there may be a consensus on the game doing well, an underlying hate of the company itself continues to bring Aion down lower than it needs to be in the eyes of the spectator.

The best bet for anyone who questions whether Aion may be any good is to ignore the vocal minority as they are often referred to, and load up and see for themselves. Too bad the "company" makes this difficult by not even offering a trial. 

Luckily the main game can be gotten for a lower price, and if you have held out due to what you may have "read", just decide on your own for this one. You may have to accept that you may not be treated well by the company taking your money. Luckily, based on all indicators...you will be entering a healthy, populated game.

Just know that numbers sometimes speak louder than words when it comes to Aion.

The X-Fire Game: Champions Online Edition

This past week marks the launch of Champions Online's Free To Play model. We will look at marks across both X-Fire and Raptr to see what kind of numbers we are talking about when a game switches to this format.

As I noted before, with the new F2P option for CO, be prepared to see some huge spikes. I did a preliminary post last week showing just that. Jumps of 4 to 5 times the number of players was delivered just from one day at F2P. Todays numbers should give us a better indicator of how CO is doing once players settled in.

Lets get started.

X-FIRE

1. Lord of the Rings Online - 2524 (2901 ↓ ) players
2. EvE Online - 2415 (2420 ↓ )
3. Aion - 2131 (1959  ↑ )
4. Champions Online - 1458 (New this week)
5. Dungeons & Dragons Online - 421 (492 ↓ )
6. Star Trek Online - 385 ( 385 )
7. Age of Conan - 290 (321 ↓ )
8. Warhammer Online - 240 (248 ↓ )
9. Final Fantasy XIV - 130 (134 ↓ )
10. DC Universe - NOT RANKING (but has been added)

Aion is up this week. A new patch hit with changes to crafting which seems to have brought back a few players. We will see if Raptr corroborates this.

STO is steady this week. Not many games I see do that. 

CO is new this week (previous weeks had no tracking due to the client changes). It jumps in to take 4th place with some great numbers. This still continues to prove that if a game is falling over, almost dead, the F2P option is like a resurrection. I know a few other games that need that kind of help.

DC Universe is now ready to track, but is buggy. According to XFire forums, it is not tracking any hours or screenshots. Hopefully we will see them next week.

Otherwise, ass we continue to see, WAR, AoC and FFXIV continue their slow bleed of players, and hold the bottom rungs of the charts.

Now, this week we will have previous week comparisons for Raptr. Lets see how games are holding up from week to week.

RAPTR

1. DC Universe - 1256 (1396 ↓ ) players
2. Champions Online - 1231 (161  ↑  )
3. Lord of the Rings Online - 799 (1059 ↓ )
4. EvE Online - 1151 (1028  ↑  ) 
5. Aion - 554 (486  ↑  )
6. Dungeons & Dragons Online - 241 (390 ↓ )
7. Final Fantasy XIV - 216 (215  ↑  )
8. Star Trek Online - 121 (111  ↑  )
9. Age of Conan - 119 (117   ↑ )
10. Warhammer Online - 94 (101 ↓ )

Not a lot of titles fell this week. So, lets look at those first.

DC Universe, as to be expected, will fluctuate for now, mostly downward until it finds it's niche spot on the charts. 30 days until we know for sure where DCUO will end up.

Turbine titles take a hit on both charts. But, the biggest hit was felt by LOTRO. Seems some server issues caused a few outages in LOTRO this weekend, making time tracking take its toll. We will see if they come back next week or if the 6th Rift beta has a little fun with the player counts. And, as predicted earlier last week, WAR is getting it's butt whooped. As my earlier "spectator" post indicated, disgruntled players and Rift are both taking their hits on WAR.

Up indicators though show some great news for a few games. As noted on X-Fire, Aion saw an increase in players in Raptr. Champions Online, of course, shows the MASSIVE jump I spoke of. EvE Online also has its regular upswing on Raptr.

Overall, some interesting changes to the charts this week. Champions Online of course was the winner of this weeks post. Pulling in a hefty number of players (spectators) who want to see how much fun they can have in a free to play game. I expect fluctuations there for a while until the dust settles.

When your game gets patched, and it is a popular game, like Aion, expect upswings in players. Of course, when your game is down due to server issues (LOTRO), people may actually enter the place where the Orange Ball of Cancerous Death reigns (i.: Outside)...then you just have to hope you can appease the players gods of choice: i.e: get those servers back FAST.

What about WAR? As noted in a previous post I did, they are feeling the pinch. Thanks to this past weeks newsletter with the ominous words...

"Carrie is still working on WAR, but is looking at a different aspect of the game. "
I smell a free to play coming their way (especially if they wish to survive) with numbers like these. Imagine what will happen to WAR after Rift launch (unless they pull a rabbit out and get a F2P model in there by March 1).

Ok, this weeks no-charted game is brought to you AGAIN by SOE: Everquest II.


EQ2 is hard to look at on both services. First, X-Fire has been know to have issues with the EQ2 client, and may not track fully. Raptr has ...for some reason...all of the expansions listed as separate games, thus I am not sure if THEIR basic EQ2 numbers are right.

But, lets go ahead and show what we got.

Xfire ranks EQ2 at #135 with 133 players. Not too bad actually.

Switching to Raptr, EQ2 has 118 players. Very close.

Just for the fun of it, Raptr also has EQ2X (extended Free to Play) listed as a separate title. When I look there we see 127 players.

So, my question is...why does it track these separately. May one clients numbers be included in another? And even if we combine those numbers, EQ2 certainly did NOT get a lot of players switching to Free to Play. Guess, it just goes to show that when your F2P model is too greedy, it displays this in the playerbase as well.

Alright, that is this weeks numbers. Now, next week, it is my understanding that Rift will have a FULL beta weekend, so Raptr should be fun to do for Sunday numbers.

Stay tuned...