I have a general question - just how useful is xfire for really determining player count in a game?

I have *zero* experience with xfire, but I see it being used by both sides in some game debates here, so I'm just wondering how it's used -  it only counts players that have an account with the program, or what?

Thanks in advance!

Xfire counts how many xfire subscribers who have logged into xfire while they play a game that is on that subscriber's xfire watch list. The conclusions about how accurate that can be put to a game's player base are your own.

Hmmm...so without knowing the actual percentage of a game's members that had xfire.....it's useless?

It is far from "useless".

Xfire is a sample of  around 200K to 300K of PC game players on line 24/24 Hr 7/7 days from a possible 20 M registred users.

In a sample this huge and constantly monitored ... and the fact that it ONLY limits itself to PC game players who play ... on line games is rather accurate to show .... trends and it is rather very consistent.

How does it work?

You install it once and it traces every client that is being started up in the PC's (no need of installation with each client).

It works ... unless the com ports of Xfire are disabled by a program which in 99.9% of the games isn't the case.

IF you know that for tracking TV programs of a territory of 6 M people (1.5 M families), you only need 900 (!) random samples, it shows just how big the samples are.

Some would argue that the samples aren't random, that some games MAY be more represented than others, but the stats these last 2 years have shown that trends not only from ONE game, but even BETWEEN games are consistent.

------> Ask Cauge (ex Director of FunCom) and Mark Jacobs (ex Director of Mythic) just HOW accurate Xfire was in tracking the ... downfall of the subs in both AOC and WAR.

Just track a certain game with the number of XFire players and look at its evolution around the year.

Xfire is even that accurate that last weekend when Aion Beta weekend was active, you SAW the influence of it in number of Xfire players on WAR (down to a historic low 1.95K Xfire players).

As giving a sample for WAR itself: (approx).

Xfire showed 14K Xfire players 3 weeks after launch (end Sep 2008), (that was the 800K players period).

Xfire showed 5.5 K Xfire players at Xmas. (that was the 300K subs period).

Xfire showed 3.5 K XFire WAr players at the end of March (when EA only cited 300K players NO longer citing sub numbers and NO time frame).

Xfire shows now around 2.2 K Xfire War players (which last weekend was down at 1.95K due to the reasons I gave above).

---------- > So with all recently launched mmorpg's the samples showed the downward trend on Xfire. A downward trend that was only being proven by server cuts and ... firings of the Chiefs.

--- BTW: the graphs only represent playing hours: you need to look at the number of players marked in each game instead.

------

Three problems can arise with Xfire - which is a western used tool - as not being used in China :)).

- If a special action is done on Xfire by a company (like free offered play or in game times). This can distort the trends by 10%, but from the past it shows it is rather very temporarely for a few weeks.

- The samples of ONE particular game can be too small (I would say all games below 1000 Xfire players have far bigger error rates).

- It clearly targets ON line PC games played in the west (not Mac's, not really off line games as the Xfire tool itself is to enhance play ... on line).

Xfire doesn't track race, gender, age, and ... not players from Mars either.

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Xfire is even that accurate that last weekend when Aion Beta weekend was active, you SAW the influence of it in number of Xfire players on WAR (down to a historic low 1.95K Xfire players).

Its so accurate that you need to see aion go up in a beta weekend while 2.6 million koreans are playing it every day all day long

for over a year.

Xfire aint accurate.

Its just for number horny people that let other people decide what game to play.

Originally posted by Leucrotta

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Xfire is even that accurate that last weekend when Aion Beta weekend was active, you SAW the influence of it in number of Xfire players on WAR (down to a historic low 1.95K Xfire players).

Its so accurate that you need to see aion go up in a beta weekend while 2.6 million koreans are playing it

 

Xfire aint accurate.

 

Its just for number horny people that let other people decide what game to play.

Xfire is used by western players and the present day Xfire graphs of Aion is the number of western players logging on ... Korean /Chinese servers.

Except for the trial weekends of course :)))

Simple answer really.

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Originally posted by Leucrotta

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Xfire is even that accurate that last weekend when Aion Beta weekend was active, you SAW the influence of it in number of Xfire players on WAR (down to a historic low 1.95K Xfire players).

Its so accurate that you need to see aion go up in a beta weekend while 2.6 million koreans are playing it

 

Xfire aint accurate.

 

Its just for number horny people that let other people decide what game to play.

 

Xfire is used by western players and the present day Xfire graphs of Aion is the number of western players logging on ... Korean /Chinese servers.

Except for the trial weekends of course :)))

Simple answer really.

it is simple, it dusnt count the 2.6 million koreans that play Aion thus makes xfire an unreliable tool to figure out subs

Originally posted by Leucrotta

Originally posted by Zorndorf

 

Xfire is used by western players and the present day Xfire graphs of Aion is the number of western players logging on ... Korean /Chinese servers.

Except for the trial weekends of course :)))

Simple answer really.

 

it is simple, it dusnt count the 2.6 million koreans that play Aion thus makes xfire an unreliable tool to figure out subs

No it is a western tool and it will show just how succesful your precious Aion will become in the west in next 6 months.

Xfire stats shows trends in our western played MMORPG's.

Sorry the overinflated eastern "café"s haven't got such tools :))))

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Originally posted by Leucrotta

Originally posted by Zorndorf

 

Xfire is used by western players and the present day Xfire graphs of Aion is the number of western players logging on ... Korean /Chinese servers.

Except for the trial weekends of course :)))

Simple answer really.

 

it is simple, it dusnt count the 2.6 million koreans that play Aion thus makes xfire an unreliable tool to figure out subs

 

No it is a western tool and it will show just how succesful your precious Aion will become in the west in next 6 months.

Xfire stats show trends in our western played MMORPG's.

Sorry the overinflated eastern "café"s haven't got such tools :))))

 

Dont care what you post with all your bland figueres about WoW and everything, all i say is that 2.6 million people play Aion at this point are unaccounted for, and no way you can post some redicilous theory conspiricy posts to get out of this.

without even counting western marked Aion is already one of the biggest played mmo's at this point. but you cant get that out of your precious Xfire stats.

and unlike you i dont give a shit how many  people will play the games i play and enjoy

Also it has nothing to do with how i like Aion i just used it like you as example.

Originally posted by Leucrotta

Originally posted by Zorndorf

 

No it is a western tool and it will show just how succesful your precious Aion will become in the west in next 6 months.

Xfire stats show trends in our western played MMORPG's.

Sorry the overinflated eastern "café"s haven't got such tools :))))

 

 

Dont care what you post with all your bland figueres about WoW and everything, all i say is that 2.6 million people play Aion at this point are unaccounted for, and no way you can post some redicilous theory conspiricy posts to get out of this.

without even counting western marked Aion is already one of the biggest played mmo's at this point. but you cant get that out of your precious Xfire stats.

and unlike you i dont give a shit how many  people will play the games i play and enjoy

Also it has nothing to do with how i like Aion i just used it like you as example.

In fact Xfire is quite a helping hand when it comes to the spread out of false hyping in sub numbers of any company.

Both AoC and WAR had an initial position of 4th place in PC games being played at launch.

In fact  the Wow - War ratio was a 6 to 1 copies played after around 2 weeks of the War launch (14K X fire players). That 6 to 1 ratio was indeed "worth" the 800 K accounts that Mark Jacobs and EA were talking about (as Wow has around 5 M western subs). That ratio is now around 40 to 1. It shows a trend.

I don't know why you would be so defensive in tracking the western launch of Aion, and .... why Asian subs would mean anything for a ... western launch of an MMORPG.

You DO live here, so it would be good if your servers will be filled, not the Korean ones or the Chinese ones.

Have fun in Aion, I know you will.

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Originally posted by Leucrotta

Originally posted by Zorndorf

 

No it is a western tool and it will show just how succesful your precious Aion will become in the west in next 6 months.

Xfire stats show trends in our western played MMORPG's.

Sorry the overinflated eastern "café"s haven't got such tools :))))

 

 

Dont care what you post with all your bland figueres about WoW and everything, all i say is that 2.6 million people play Aion at this point are unaccounted for, and no way you can post some redicilous theory conspiricy posts to get out of this.

without even counting western marked Aion is already one of the biggest played mmo's at this point. but you cant get that out of your precious Xfire stats.

and unlike you i dont give a shit how many  people will play the games i play and enjoy

Also it has nothing to do with how i like Aion i just used it like you as example.

In fact Xfire is quite a helping hand when it comes to the spread out of false hyping in sub numbers of any company.

Both AoC and WAR had an initial position of 4th place in PC games being played at launch.

In fact  the Wow - War ratio was a 6 to 1 copies played after around 2 weeks of the War launch (14K X fire players). That 6 to 1 ratio was indeed "worth" the 800 K accounts that Mark Jacobs and EA were talking about (as Wow has around 5 M western subs). That ratio is now around 40 to 1. It shows a trend.

I don't know why you would be so defensive in tracking the western launch of Aion, and .... why Asian subs would mean anything for a ... western launch of an MMORPG.

You DO live here, so it would be good if your servers will be filled, not the Korean ones or the Chinese ones.

Have fun in Aion, I know you will.

 

 

You dont get the point do you?

i post here about xfire not about Aion or any other game.

If half the world dont use Xfire how the hell can you call it accurate?

Coca Cola is big in west, but in  Asia they mostly drink Pepsi so unless Xfire is used there it will never be accurate

handy tool sure but not accurate. Every continent have its own tase.

You like to use 11 mill subs on WoW that inclused everything including the east

But if i say something bout Korea its all bout the west  and Korea dusnt count.

So next time when you talk about WoW just talk about 5 mill subs and not 11.6 (according to you)

Also when people played a beta weekend didnt mean they unsubscribed their current mmo.

It only mean WAR is at that point less played but it dusnt show subloss.

Originally posted by Leucrotta

Originally posted by Zorndorf

In fact Xfire is quite a helping hand when it comes to the spread out of false hyping in sub numbers of any company.

Both AoC and WAR had an initial position of 4th place in PC games being played at launch.

In fact  the Wow - War ratio was a 6 to 1 copies played after around 2 weeks of the War launch (14K X fire players). That 6 to 1 ratio was indeed "worth" the 800 K accounts that Mark Jacobs and EA were talking about (as Wow has around 5 M western subs). That ratio is now around 40 to 1. It shows a trend.

I don't know why you would be so defensive in tracking the western launch of Aion, and .... why Asian subs would mean anything for a ... western launch of an MMORPG.

You DO live here, so it would be good if your servers will be filled, not the Korean ones or the Chinese ones.

Have fun in Aion, I know you will.

 

 

You dont get the point do you?

 

i post here about xfire not about Aion or any other game.

If half the world dont use Xfire how the hell can you call it accurate?

 

Coca Cola is big in west, but in  Asia they mostly drink Pepsi so unless Xfire is used there it will never be accurate

handy tool sure but not accurate. Every continent have its own tase.

 

You like to use 11 mill subs on WoW that inclused everything including the east

But if i say something bout Korea its all bout the west  and Korea dusnt count.

 

So next time when you talk about WoW just talk about 5 mill subs and not 11.6 (according to you)

Luckily we will have Xfire in the west to track approx. the figures BEFORE the official reports come in 3 months later (with the usual firing of reps) ... like we did with l2, war, aoc, lotro, tr, hellgate london,

No problem. btw the simple server evolution counts will help too how your game will be doing.

I can't get xfire to log my game time with AION... I saw a post to a fix but now I can't find it anymore can someone help?

---

Originally posted by Zorndorf
It is far from "useless".
Xfire is a sample of  around 200K to 300K of PC game players on line 24/24 Hr 7/7 days from a possible 20 M registred users.
In a sample this huge and constantly monitored ...

---

But not randomly selected. The sample consists of those who take upon themselves to download XFire and run it. That makes it statistically pretty much useless.