I seen this statement come from many members from this site alone.

But really is there much truth to this statement in this genre (MMO).

I seen much hatred on the talk

regarding, the idea of the genre feeling more like a single player game.

But wouldnt a smaller populated player base itself, make the game feel more like a singleplayer game?

With a Massive World, + Small player base,
the games would feel more empty, eventually leading to a more solo focused environment.

Would a Larger overall player base

resolve this issue
better
than a smaller overall game world?

You know you only need around 20 000 players to fill one server completely don't you? That's not too much asked.

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Originally posted by Hyanmen
You know you only need around 20 000 players to fill one server completely don't you? That's not too much asked.

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Yeah. Eve is the only AAA MMO with only one server that I am aware of. A game needs enough players to be profitable but you don't really need that many playing to actually fill the world. Also it greatly depends on the game whether a lot of players is necessary to make the world feel full.

Large player base + Open world = MMO success

Everything else is just cheap whiskey!

Right only need so many to fill a server, though it also depends on how large the world is as well. Take Ryzom where even the starter area is decently sized. With only 6-12 people running around the area it feels barren. Solo/Group oriented can affect it as well.

Plus a few people can make the place seem a bit more 'active' if they are talkers and like to group and whatnot. Otherwise its just another empty MMO with chat. I am not too crazy bout numbers = how awesome something is. Doesnt hold true for everyone.

Nope. A smaller world filled is a more intimate experience that allows you to actually know a significant portion of the people you play with. A large world filled is merely more strangers. Think small town versus major city. Cities are impersonal.

Originally posted by zymurgeist

Nope. A smaller world filled is a more intimate experience that allows you to actually know a significant portion of the people you play with. A large world filled is merely more strangers. Think small town versus major city. Cities are impersonal.

And that will get real old in about 20 minutes. You can't build the greatness of the imagination on a small scale, only pretty it up long enough to steal a little money.

Originally posted by qazyman

Originally posted by zymurgeist

Nope. A smaller world filled is a more intimate experience that allows you to actually know a significant portion of the people you play with. A large world filled is merely more strangers. Think small town versus major city. Cities are impersonal.

And that will get real old in about 20 minutes. You can't build the greatness of the imagination on a small scale, only pretty it up long enough to steal a little money.

 For you. Not for me.

Originally posted by qazyman

And that will get real old in about 20 minutes. You can't build the greatness of the imagination on a small scale, only pretty it up long enough to steal a little money.

Apparently you've never played a PnP RPG before. You just have to make the game more linear and less open. 'Small scale' doesn't mean 'limited'.

It depends on the game world size.

A game like ryzom with 5k-10k subs feels empty (to some) because the game spreads its playerbase over three servers in a truly massive game world.

imo you need around 2-3k active players on a server with a game world of a medium size (wow, lotro, war) If its something like Ryzom or Vanguard it needs to be over 5k active.

Numbers matter but not on the scale that some people think. You dont need WoW numbers to have a full server with active players. Games like Lotro, EQ2 and AoC have a few full servers.

I'm completely happy with an MMO as long as it has one full server.

Numbers only matter to a point. The formula for a successful MMO is actually quite simple really:

[Amount of money from Box Sales/Subs/RMT over time] > [Development costs] + [Operating Costs] = SUCCESS!

As you can see a MMO doesn't need WoW sub numbers to be a success. They just need enough to turn a profit within a reasonable amount of time. A game can be successful with less than 50k subscribers/RMT customers if the Development/operating costs are low.

As for the Genre progressing to feeling like single player games that has more to do with game mechanics than anything else. The trend the industry has toward totally soloable content is what gives this feeling, not the size or population of the game world. You could have the most populated server ever but if you don't need any of those other players for anything it's going to feel like a single player game.

Bren

I didn't really play Eve but my guess is the persistent world idea work well in Eve because their environment is basically a black screen with visual effect in the back ground.  And the space idea makes it easy to expend their world. 

So to expand the world all they need to do is make another area with black screen and visual effect in the back ground.

That's just my guess, I didn't really play Eve.