Originally posted by CobraSolidus

Do you realize how many >9/10 critics and reviews of this game you can find out there. Start with gamezone "editors choice" 9.4/10. Hmmm... how can we really expect people to buy AoC?

lol

There are many 9/10 reviews out there that is true. However we need to understand that they were made just after launch by reviewers who hadn't even finished Tortage. Just like this Gamezone review you talk about. Once players reached higher levels, 90% of them, like myself, quit the game.

Personally I like to read user opinions. Here's an interesting read:
apps.metacritic.com//games/usercomments.jsp

It's Metacritic user reviews of Age of Conan. They have 667 of them. It's funny when you look at the bottom of the page (older reviews), you see a lot of 10/10 and 9/10 but once you reach the top of the page (most recent reviews) people bash the game like crazy, giving it 0/10.

This is what happens with AoC every time. It's good at first but horrible once you reach the non-existant endgame. Statistics show only 10-15% of gamers who try AoC actually play more than a couple of months.

Originally posted by Scaredgirl

Originally posted by CobraSolidus

Do you realize how many >9/10 critics and reviews of this game you can find out there. Start with gamezone "editors choice" 9.4/10. Hmmm... how can we really expect people to buy AoC?

lol

 

Statistics show only 10-15% of gamers who try AoC actually play more than a couple of months.

Wow, I'd be really interested to read those statistics. Why don't you post a link?

Originally posted by Scaredgirl

Originally posted by CobraSolidus

Do you realize how many >9/10 critics and reviews of this game you can find out there. Start with gamezone "editors choice" 9.4/10. Hmmm... how can we really expect people to buy AoC?

lol

 

There are many 9/10 reviews out there that is true. However we need to understand that they were made just after launch by reviewers who hadn't even finished Tortage. Just like this Gamezone review you talk about. Once players reached higher levels, 90% of them, like myself, quit the game.

Personally I like to read user opinions. Here's an interesting read:
apps.metacritic.com//games/usercomments.jsp

It's Metacritic user reviews of Age of Conan. They have 667 of them. It's funny when you look at the bottom of the page (older reviews), you see a lot of 10/10 and 9/10 but once you reach the top of the page (most recent reviews) people bash the game like crazy, giving it 0/10.

This is what happens with AoC every time. It's good at first but horrible once you reach the non-existant endgame. Statistics show only 10-15% of gamers who try AoC actually play more than a couple of months.

lol.. you like to read bashing of AoC..lol.. I wonder why. OMG you made me laugh so hard...

Dude look to your posting history.. lolololol.. 75 Ultranegative AoC hate posts in 5 days. Gett the help, ok?

Originally posted by Teran1987

How do they really expect a whole lot more people to just buy a game they can't even try? o.O There's no trials for this, and the only way in on a free no strings account is via buddy key, and that you have to get from subscribers, and evidently there aren't enough loaner subbers for the amount of people who want buddy keys.

Is this another bright idea bought to you by the idiots at Failcom?

 Not exactly sure, maybe they are putting off a free trail till they are more sure of their product? Personally i enjoyed alot of AoC but it didn't really grab me. I hope in time it will improve.

This is what happens with AoC every time. It's good at first but horrible once you reach the non-existant endgame. Statistics show only 10-15% of gamers who try AoC actually play more than a couple of months.

hmm even if thats true i wonder whats so bad about that.

- did i play the last tomb raider more then a month ? : no i finished it within a week
- did i play assassins creed for month ? : no a few weeks

conan delivers more content then many top rated games out there and a lot of games that have an actual story, opposed to kill 20 wolfs for the next 2 years, will eventually meet the end of the content.

i think for quality of gaming to improve the "we are hardcore" community should step a few steps back and analyse if they want to play a game or live in a game.

as i said many times in the past, the fun per hour i had in aoc was the best ive ever witnessed in an mmo.
if i quit paying funcom the monthly fee after 2 month of fun its funcoms loss and my benefit.

would i rather have a game that charges me 15$ a month for some stupid repitive raids or playing the 1 pvp szenario over and over again ? i guess not.

im exited to go back to aoc in a few month, play my 15$ worth of content and try some other games when ive seen it all again.

Originally posted by craynlon

This is what happens with AoC every time. It's good at first but horrible once you reach the non-existant endgame. Statistics show only 10-15% of gamers who try AoC actually play more than a couple of months.

hmm even if thats true i wonder whats so bad about that.

- did i play the last tomb raider more then a month ? : no i finished it within a week
- did i play assassins creed for month ? : no a few weeks

conan delivers more content then many top rated games out there and a lot of games that have an actual story, opposed to kill 20 wolfs for the next 2 years, will eventually meet the end of the content.

i think for quality of gaming to improve the "we are hardcore" community should step a few steps back and analyse if they want to play a game or live in a game.

as i said many times in the past, the fun per hour i had in aoc was the best ive ever witnessed in an mmo.
if i quit paying funcom the monthly fee after 2 month of fun its funcoms loss and my benefit.

would i rather have a game that charges me 15$ a month for some stupid repitive raids or playing the 1 pvp szenario over and over again ? i guess not.

im exited to go back to aoc in a few month, play my 15$ worth of content and try some other games when ive seen it all again.

Yes, you are right. If a person likes single player RPG then Age of Conan is a pretty good investment. For less than 30 euros you'll get one month of entertainment. But personally I got bored of single player games long time ago. Games are just so much better when there's other people involved.

I guess I'm looking more of this "live in a game" thing you talk about. I'm looking for an MMO with that special "magic" that keeps me coming back for more. I don't want to play 10 hours a day but couple of hours a day would be nice.

Unfortunately AoC does not have this "magic". Once you get to endgame it gets boring really fast and it gets harder and harder to join online. They should add some meaningful endgame pvp. Current pvp is a joke.

Originally posted by CobraSolidus

Originally posted by Teran1987

How do they really expect a whole lot more people to just buy a game they can't even try? o.O There's no trials for this, and the only way in on a free no strings account is via buddy key, and that you have to get from subscribers, and evidently there aren't enough loaner subbers for the amount of people who want buddy keys.

Is this another bright idea bought to you by the idiots at Failcom?

 

Do you realize how many >9/10 critics and reviews of this game you can find out there. Start with gamezone "editors choice" 9.4/10. Hmmm... how can we really expect people to buy AoC?

lol

MMO's are long term products for the consumer. I seriously doubt a reviewer can experience it all (ie., confirm a quality game) by playing it for a few weeks, etc. AoC definitely lures you in, but as some ppl have previously stated, there are some things lacking that aren't observable at first.

Originally posted by craynlon

This is what happens with AoC every time. It's good at first but horrible once you reach the non-existant endgame. Statistics show only 10-15% of gamers who try AoC actually play more than a couple of months.

 

i think for quality of gaming to improve the "we are hardcore" community should step a few steps back and analyse if they want to play a game or live in a game.

as i said many times in the past, the fun per hour i had in aoc was the best ive ever witnessed in an mmo.
if i quit paying funcom the monthly fee after 2 month of fun its funcoms loss and my benefit.

would i rather have a game that charges me 15$ a month for some stupid repitive raids or playing the 1 pvp szenario over and over again ? i guess not.

im exited to go back to aoc in a few month, play my 15$ worth of content and try some other games when ive seen it all again.

I think you hit the nail on the head about many players. They want a complete reality to "live in" whether they admit it or realize it or not. It's good to be able to pull back and reconsider your expectations for a game.

Originally posted by CobraSolidus

Originally posted by Bodeus

Originally posted by CobraSolidus

Originally posted by Teran1987

How do they really expect a whole lot more people to just buy a game they can't even try? o.O There's no trials for this, and the only way in on a free no strings account is via buddy key, and that you have to get from subscribers, and evidently there aren't enough loaner subbers for the amount of people who want buddy keys.

Is this another bright idea bought to you by the idiots at Failcom?

 

Do you realize how many >9/10 critics and reviews of this game you can find out there. Start with gamezone "editors choice" 9.4/10. Hmmm... how can we really expect people to buy AoC?

lol

we all know editor reviews and  reviews from places like gamespot and gamezone arent worth the paper or pixrls they are created with. Sponsorship and Adv ertising $ trumps truth in reviews.

Tabula Rasa got 9s in reviews to and we see whats happening to it.

 

You are slightly off topic here. The question was how can people buy AoC? Well, I am answering the question. With multiple >9/10 reviews on most gamingsites it's hardly a surprise that people keep buying the game.

For you comment on TR I would just say, look over to WAR with user rating 8.51 here in MMORPG. The game has been out for 2 months and are already falling apart harder than anything seen before. Still it is referred to some kind of success. lol, ask a guy on the EU servers if WAR is a success. lol

He is not off topic. He is using another game that was given great reviews to compare to AoC.  I see the direct comparison, your attempting to call it off topic doesnt make his comparison any less valid.

Originally posted by WizardBlack

Originally posted by craynlon

This is what happens with AoC every time. It's good at first but horrible once you reach the non-existant endgame. Statistics show only 10-15% of gamers who try AoC actually play more than a couple of months.

 

i think for quality of gaming to improve the "we are hardcore" community should step a few steps back and analyse if they want to play a game or live in a game.

as i said many times in the past, the fun per hour i had in aoc was the best ive ever witnessed in an mmo.
if i quit paying funcom the monthly fee after 2 month of fun its funcoms loss and my benefit.

would i rather have a game that charges me 15$ a month for some stupid repitive raids or playing the 1 pvp szenario over and over again ? i guess not.

im exited to go back to aoc in a few month, play my 15$ worth of content and try some other games when ive seen it all again.

I think you hit the nail on the head about many players. They want a complete reality to "live in" whether they admit it or realize it or not. It's good to be able to pull back and reconsider your expectations for a game.

well i wouldnt mind a game myselve that i could live in or better yet a holodeck simulation

i just felt that ppl judge aoc to harshly knowing that me and a lot of my friends who arent hardcore gamers had fun with it.

i think atm we live at a time where mmos diversify and the devs took a chance to go story over sandbox. a choice many hardcore gamers dont like. 

bevore conan i played 4 years of lineage 2, almost every day for 4h and more at weekend and hollidays and i enjoyed it as sandbox game. looking back it didnt really have much content besides grinding for more power and pvping. that satisfied me all these years (along with having a kick ass community)
then n the end i got bored of bots and ebayers and tried something else.

aoc drew me in because for the first time i saw atmosphere, voiced over, meaningfull quests and a story.
beeing the gamer i was i reached 80 in conan within a bit over a month, payed another month and now im waiting for new content.

what i wanted to say is that all these years playing l2 i longed for a game like aoc that brought me back to strong story driven games (like the single player games like baldurs gate, nw knights..) i enjoyed bevore mmos. aoc and ddo both have a big emphasis on stories. apart from wow that seems to have everything, a lot of games decide to be either sandbox or storytelling where storytelling games have the disadvatage that at some point the story ends and depending on how hardcore you play you get bored.

of course i wait for a future that show me games with both great stories and let me live a virtual sandbox  but till then im thankfull for aoc and ddo fighting the hard fight as content driven games.

<Mod edit>

Here is an opinion - AOC is a bad game run by a dishonest company.  Their earning statements should be investigated, as well as weather or not people like cobra posting that things related to their stock are fact are actually employees, because if they are, it becomes a criminal matter.

Originally posted by CobraSolidus

Originally posted by Bodeus

Originally posted by CobraSolidus

Originally posted by Teran1987

How do they really expect a whole lot more people to just buy a game they can't even try? o.O There's no trials for this, and the only way in on a free no strings account is via buddy key, and that you have to get from subscribers, and evidently there aren't enough loaner subbers for the amount of people who want buddy keys.

Is this another bright idea bought to you by the idiots at Failcom?

 

Do you realize how many >9/10 critics and reviews of this game you can find out there. Start with gamezone "editors choice" 9.4/10. Hmmm... how can we really expect people to buy AoC?

lol

we all know editor reviews and  reviews from places like gamespot and gamezone arent worth the paper or pixrls they are created with. Sponsorship and Adv ertising $ trumps truth in reviews.

Tabula Rasa got 9s in reviews to and we see whats happening to it.

 

You are slightly off topic here. The question was how can people buy AoC? Well, I am answering the question. With multiple >9/10 reviews on most gamingsites it's hardly a surprise that people keep buying the game.

For you comment on TR I would just say, look over to WAR with user rating 8.51 here in MMORPG. The game has been out for 2 months and are already falling apart harder than anything seen before. Still it is referred to some kind of success. lol, ask a guy on the EU servers if WAR is a success. lol

Links to game sites( plural) that currently are giving AOC a 9/10 after only getting to see Tortage before launch ?

And while I do admit to liking WAR there is surely another game you can think of that fell faster and is still falling according to their own numbers. You load your response by saying ask someone on a EU server. How about asking someone on ANY server, in ANY gaming store or on ANY gaming forum about AOC. See what kind of answers and ratings you get.

Originally posted by Silencium

Originally posted by Scaredgirl

Originally posted by CobraSolidus

Do you realize how many >9/10 critics and reviews of this game you can find out there. Start with gamezone "editors choice" 9.4/10. Hmmm... how can we really expect people to buy AoC?

lol

 

There are many 9/10 reviews out there that is true. However we need to understand that they were made just after launch by reviewers who hadn't even finished Tortage. Just like this Gamezone review you talk about. Once players reached higher levels, 90% of them, like myself, quit the game.

Personally I like to read user opinions. Here's an interesting read:
apps.metacritic.com//games/usercomments.jsp

It's Metacritic user reviews of Age of Conan. They have 667 of them. It's funny when you look at the bottom of the page (older reviews), you see a lot of 10/10 and 9/10 but once you reach the top of the page (most recent reviews) people bash the game like crazy, giving it 0/10.

This is what happens with AoC every time. It's good at first but horrible once you reach the non-existant endgame. Statistics show only 10-15% of gamers who try AoC actually play more than a couple of months.

 

lol.. you like to read bashing of AoC..lol.. I wonder why. OMG you made me laugh so hard...

Dude look to your posting history.. lolololol.. 75 Ultranegative AoC hate posts in 5 days. Gett the help, ok?

LOL indeed. Take alook at your posting history.

The game has top reviews and many saw great potential in AoC but there's no denial,Funcom fucked up big time,Erlingsen and Gaute lied to the player base and they are paying high price for their actions.

Players always complain about the fact that MMOs are released way too early because of investors putting the pressure.Just take look and you`ll see that players are watching stockmarkets to decide if they will play a game or not.

1.Now take the time and think about it,if you are eager to watch stockmarkets because you`re investing 15$ monthly in a game what would it have been if you were investing millions?

2.Do you think Funcom is happy the way things has turned?

3.Why they bring a new Game director in.

It seems that in today's world people must scrutinize everything to have fun and this apply to anything from dating to listening to music or watch a movie,some have already started to scrutinize the DNAs sequence of their future baby.

/rant over

Originally posted by Teran1987

How do they really expect a whole lot more people to just buy a game they can't even try? o.O There's no trials for this, and the only way in on a free no strings account is via buddy key, and that you have to get from subscribers, and evidently there aren't enough loaner subbers for the amount of people who want buddy keys.

Is this another bright idea bought to you by the idiots at Failcom?

You know, I'm not a huge fan of how this game launced etc.  But really, why do you even post when you've already decided that they're idiots and should rename themselves "Failcom".  Are you that anxious for a freebie?    If so, there really are plenty of crappy f2ps out there...pick one.

 They release trials when they need to boost dwindling subscriber numbers. Now I know they didn't have the greatest of releases but they still have decent subs right? I ask , because I dotn't play. The beta was enough to make me cancel and I haven't really followed it since.

Originally posted by Bama1267

 They release trials when they need to boost dwindling subscriber numbers. Now I know they didn't have the greatest of releases but they still have decent subs right? I ask , because I dotn't play. The beta was enough to make me cancel and I haven't really followed it since.

Some people estimate AoC has about 75k-90k active subs at the moment. It's not bad for a "mature" niche MMO like AoC but it's nothing like what FC management and investors expected (see funcom stock price).

Btw have they lifted nda on beta yet?

I understand and agree with your points, I really do. I'm only here because I was searching for honest updates as well.  We all pick and choose who to "listen" to and who to "ignore".

I didn't do beta or pre-order because I smelled the BS just in time.  I don't play now either.  I watched the outrage, read the posts, and tracked this thing like a bloodhound.  I shared and still do share the feelings of outrage at Funcom's attempted duping of my person. 

End result is that I still don't see anything that would entice me to buy this game as Funcom has not changed and I'm fed up with being blatantly ripped off by the mmo market.

Originally posted by Scaredgirl

Originally posted by Bama1267

 They release trials when they need to boost dwindling subscriber numbers. Now I know they didn't have the greatest of releases but they still have decent subs right? I ask , because I dotn't play. The beta was enough to make me cancel and I haven't really followed it since.

 

Some people estimate AoC has about 75k-90k active subs at the moment. It's not bad for a "mature" niche MMO like AoC but it's nothing like what FC management and investors expected (see funcom stock price).

Btw have they lifted nda on beta yet?

The correct answer is that noone but Funcom know the exact number of subscribers as they wont release this data. The only fact we have to go by is the Q3 report which suggests much higher number, but then again that were for the period a couple of months ago.

And no, the NDA will not be lifted for the beta.

Originally posted by Tjommis

The correct answer is that noone but Funcom know the exact number of subscribers as they wont release this data. The only fact we have to go by is the Q3 report which suggests much higher number, but then again that were for the period a couple of months ago.

And no, the NDA will not be lifted for the beta.

Why won't they release subscription numbers? I mean if it's going so well as some people here claim and AoC has 200k+ subscriptions, why won't FC release that data? Wouldn't it be god marketing for them to show rising sub numbers?

I believe sub numbers are still declining. The worst exodus has ended but people are still quiting the game every day.

I know people here don't believe in Xfire numbers but I think they give pretty good picture about what games people play. Right now AoC is number 55 in Xfire with less than 900 daily users. WAR has five times as many users and WoW of course has over HUNDRED times as many. If you would assume that WoW players in general use as much Xfire as AoC players, then we can estimate that AoC has about 90k-100k subscriptions. Could be more, could be less.

55th place is pretty bad for an MMO that was supposed to be "Number 2 MMO in western world".

Originally posted by Scaredgirl

Originally posted by Tjommis

The correct answer is that noone but Funcom know the exact number of subscribers as they wont release this data. The only fact we have to go by is the Q3 report which suggests much higher number, but then again that were for the period a couple of months ago.

And no, the NDA will not be lifted for the beta.

Why won't they release subscription numbers? I mean if it's going so well as some people here claim and AoC has 200k+ subscriptions, why won't FC release that data? Wouldn't it be god marketing for them to show rising sub numbers?

I believe sub numbers are still declining. The worst exodus has ended but people are still quiting the game every day.

I know people here don't believe in Xfire numbers but I think they give pretty good picture about what games people play. Right now AoC is number 55 in Xfire with less than 900 daily users. WAR has five times as many users and WoW of course has over HUNDRED times as many. If you would assume that WoW players in general use as much Xfire as AoC players, then we can estimate that AoC has about 90k-100k subscriptions. Could be more, could be less.

55th place is pretty bad for an MMO that was supposed to be "Number 2 MMO in western world".

They wont release these numbers since it is company policy of not doing so. The reason I know is that I have been playing Anarchy Online for a number of years and they never disclosed these numbers for that game either. They even did not publish them after the huge influx of players when  the basic AO game went F2P..

Noone knows if sub numbers are declining or increasing, allthough what I know is that I have seen a steady increase of players the last few weeks on two of the three servers I have characters on.

X-fire numbers might or might not say anything about how many plays the game. What is a fact is that they fell short on projecting the Q3 financial result for Funcom. The discussions are here and the report is at FC's home page. And why are X-fire numbers not such a good projection you might ask? My guess is the main reason is because the AoC cmmunity is older in age than the general MMO community. And they sure don't use a program such as X-fire.

My 2 copper

Originally posted by Tjommis

Originally posted by Scaredgirl

Originally posted by Tjommis

The correct answer is that noone but Funcom know the exact number of subscribers as they wont release this data. The only fact we have to go by is the Q3 report which suggests much higher number, but then again that were for the period a couple of months ago.

And no, the NDA will not be lifted for the beta.

Why won't they release subscription numbers? I mean if it's going so well as some people here claim and AoC has 200k+ subscriptions, why won't FC release that data? Wouldn't it be god marketing for them to show rising sub numbers?

I believe sub numbers are still declining. The worst exodus has ended but people are still quiting the game every day.

I know people here don't believe in Xfire numbers but I think they give pretty good picture about what games people play. Right now AoC is number 55 in Xfire with less than 900 daily users. WAR has five times as many users and WoW of course has over HUNDRED times as many. If you would assume that WoW players in general use as much Xfire as AoC players, then we can estimate that AoC has about 90k-100k subscriptions. Could be more, could be less.

55th place is pretty bad for an MMO that was supposed to be "Number 2 MMO in western world".

They wont release these numbers since it is company policy of not doing so. The reason I know is that I have been playing Anarchy Online for a number of years and they never disclosed these numbers for that game either. They even did not publish them after the huge influx of players when  the basic AO game went F2P..

Noone knows if sub numbers are declining or increasing, allthough what I know is that I have seen a steady increase of players the last few weeks on two of the three servers I have characters on.

X-fire numbers might or might not say anything about how many plays the game. What is a fact is that they fell short on projecting the Q3 financial result for Funcom. The discussions are here and the report is at FC's home page. And why are X-fire numbers not such a good projection you might ask? My guess is the main reason is because the AoC cmmunity is older in age than the general MMO community. And they sure don't use a program such as X-fire.

My 2 copper

They released numbers in the Q2 report. Its company policy when it serves their purposes.  Aside from the fact that they might be held responsible if they lied since subs are direct indicator of the companies profitability.  There are rules about publicly traded companies.  Aside from these reasons - ITS COMPANY POLICY doesnt wash with me... Esp since Q2 report contained sub numbers.

Originally posted by Tjommis

They wont release these numbers since it is company policy of not doing so. The reason I know is that I have been playing Anarchy Online for a number of years and they never disclosed these numbers for that game either. They even did not publish them after the huge influx of players when  the basic AO game went F2P..

Noone knows if sub numbers are declining or increasing, allthough what I know is that I have seen a steady increase of players the last few weeks on two of the three servers I have characters on.

X-fire numbers might or might not say anything about how many plays the game. What is a fact is that they fell short on projecting the Q3 financial result for Funcom. The discussions are here and the report is at FC's home page. And why are X-fire numbers not such a good projection you might ask? My guess is the main reason is because the AoC cmmunity is older in age than the general MMO community. And they sure don't use a program such as X-fire.

My 2 copper

Lol, "company policy"..

If AoC suddenly had 1 million subscriptions, you think we wouldn't see EE doing videos and interview every day boasting with their numbers? Give me a break. You are being very naive my friend.

Were you here at launch when EE and others were telling us how AoC sold over 750k boxes? They talked about their sub numbers then, ignoring their holy "company policy", what has changed? I'll tell you what has changed - 90% of those players quit.

The only reason why any MMO developer would be quiet about their numbers is because those numbers SUCK. Look at Blizzard. They are not quiet. Why should they be, they have 11 million subs. If AoC had 11 million subs, EE would be running around naked on the streets of Oslo shouting this news to everyone.

You talk about AoC players not using Xfire because they are older bla bla.. How do you know this? How do you know AoC players don't use as much Xfire as for example WoW players? You don't know. You are only speculating.

What we do know is that at the same time AoC started to lose players, Xfire numbers went down even faster than FC stock. Xfire numbers went down 90%+ You think this is coincidence? You think it was only those Xfire players that didn't like AoC?

Last but not least.. this "steady increase of players" you have been seeing is probably just people switching servers. Why don't you go to a less populated server and make a new character? You can play this fun minigame where you see how many levels you can get before you see another human player. I think you could easily go for level 40+.

I like it when people make sense.  Keep up the good work !  Anyway its ture that no respectable MMO has relased a free trial in the first 6th months.  That clearly means that if people are asking for one, they hold Conan with no esteem.   They probably just dont offer a free trial so you dont grow to hate the game more.

Originally posted by Tjommis

Originally posted by Scaredgirl

Originally posted by Tjommis

The correct answer is that noone but Funcom know the exact number of subscribers as they wont release this data. The only fact we have to go by is the Q3 report which suggests much higher number, but then again that were for the period a couple of months ago.

And no, the NDA will not be lifted for the beta.

Why won't they release subscription numbers? I mean if it's going so well as some people here claim and AoC has 200k+ subscriptions, why won't FC release that data? Wouldn't it be god marketing for them to show rising sub numbers?

I believe sub numbers are still declining. The worst exodus has ended but people are still quiting the game every day.

I know people here don't believe in Xfire numbers but I think they give pretty good picture about what games people play. Right now AoC is number 55 in Xfire with less than 900 daily users. WAR has five times as many users and WoW of course has over HUNDRED times as many. If you would assume that WoW players in general use as much Xfire as AoC players, then we can estimate that AoC has about 90k-100k subscriptions. Could be more, could be less.

55th place is pretty bad for an MMO that was supposed to be "Number 2 MMO in western world".

They wont release these numbers since it is company policy of not doing so. The reason I know is that I have been playing Anarchy Online for a number of years and they never disclosed these numbers for that game either. They even did not publish them after the huge influx of players when  the basic AO game went F2P..

Noone knows if sub numbers are declining or increasing, allthough what I know is that I have seen a steady increase of players the last few weeks on two of the three servers I have characters on.

X-fire numbers might or might not say anything about how many plays the game. What is a fact is that they fell short on projecting the Q3 financial result for Funcom. The discussions are here and the report is at FC's home page. And why are X-fire numbers not such a good projection you might ask? My guess is the main reason is because the AoC cmmunity is older in age than the general MMO community. And they sure don't use a program such as X-fire.

My 2 copper

http://www.abnnewswire.net/press/en/52437/Funcom_News.html

Here is FUNCOM releasing SUBS again for AOC. Seems when they had 400k + sub they wanted everyone to know about it, now NOT SO MUCH.