I think I have figured out why mmo's have been doing so badly lately. 

No one plays them. I mean, they pony up the cash and log in, but thats it. They gather just enough information and come to various forums to post on it.

Fanboi or hater. Everyone just wants to critique and debate.

Maybe this is a renaissance. Maybe we'll see text-based gaming take-off again. Make a game where people can log in just to hate on something.

Then again, its 4am where I am.

If people enjoy their game, they play it, not complain on forums Its obvious and is the same in every market. A much bigger percent of unstatisfied customers will voice their opinion, rather than statisfied customers. And it is perfectly fine - if i pay money, i EXPECT to receive an adequate service, why should i be surprised and voice my opinion that i actually got something i expected for my money? Its like being Capitain Obvious.

In MMO this is also, to my opinion, more extreme due to the fact that if you enjoy your MMO, you'd play it night and day, all your free time, and not waste that time on forums. MMOs are very addictive by nature, and offer very reallistic social interaction, so why prefer text forums to it?

Fanboism is of different nature. If you noticed, fanbois are very active before games are released, and not very active after. People say "Where are those SWTOR fanbois now?". Well, its obvious - they are ENJOYIN THEIR GAME! Same goes for GW2 - there are a lot of fanbois now on forums because they have NOTHING TO PLAY! When GW2 goes out, they'll go and play it, and of course, most of them will stop posting. Thats why you can get perception that game was "over hyped" and "didnt deliver up to the high expectations" solely because if before most people were hyped and positive about it, afer release you only hear negative stuff about it and single individuals stand up to defend it and are a minority.

Originally posted by gieger808

I think I have figured out why mmo's have been doing so badly lately. 

No one plays them. I mean, they pony up the cash and log in, but thats it. They gather just enough information and come to various forums to post on it.

forum users are a *minority* among PC gamers - or even computer users

Originally posted by Nadia

Originally posted by gieger808

I think I have figured out why mmo's have been doing so badly lately. 

No one plays them. I mean, they pony up the cash and log in, but thats it. They gather just enough information and come to various forums to post on it.

forum users are a *minority* among PC gamers - or even computer users

It deppends on the PC game you're talking about. Mainstream ones resort to big marketing strategies to make themselves known. However, the small budget ones rely on the word of mouth mainly through social networks and why not, forums.

I do agree that sometimes reading forums is more fun than playing the game. I bet that there may be people out there that subbed to a game just to be able to post in its forum.

Originally posted by Greenzor

Originally posted by Nadia

forum users are a *minority* among PC gamers - or even computer users

It deppends on the PC game you're talking about.

I'll bite. Which MMO has the majority of their players on the forums?

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Originally posted by Greenzor

Originally posted by Nadia

forum users are a *minority* among PC gamers - or even computer users

It deppends on the PC game you're talking about.

I'll bite. Which MMO has the majority of their players on the forums?

I'd guess something like Darkfall where the only people playing it are people that have sought it out, Joe Public in the street won't stumble across it, neither would your average gamers. 

That's more an exception rather than the rule though, I agree for most games the people posting on forums are a tiny percentage.

Over the years I have realised that posting on the games forums just ruins the game for me, you get spoilers, you find easy easy to do things, you read people moaning about things you havent even played yet. Nowadays if I enjoy a game I make a point never to visit the forums unless the game is broken and I need support.

Originally posted by SlickShoes

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Originally posted by Greenzor

Originally posted by Nadia

forum users are a *minority* among PC gamers - or even computer users

It deppends on the PC game you're talking about.

I'll bite. Which MMO has the majority of their players on the forums?

I'd guess something like Darkfall where the only people playing it are people that have sought it out, Joe Public in the street won't stumble across it, neither would your average gamers. 

That's more an exception rather than the rule though, I agree for most games the people posting on forums are a tiny percentage.

Over the years I have realised that posting on the games forums just ruins the game for me, you get spoilers, you find easy easy to do things, you read people moaning about things you havent even played yet. Nowadays if I enjoy a game I make a point never to visit the forums unless the game is broken and I need support.

That's an interesting assumption, however the DF forums don't appear to ever had more than a couple hundred people posting to them at any given time. Are you suggesting only 1,000 people played Darkfall, even at its peak?

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Originally posted by SlickShoes

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Originally posted by Greenzor

Originally posted by Nadia

forum users are a *minority* among PC gamers - or even computer users

It deppends on the PC game you're talking about.

I'll bite. Which MMO has the majority of their players on the forums?

I'd guess something like Darkfall where the only people playing it are people that have sought it out, Joe Public in the street won't stumble across it, neither would your average gamers. 

That's more an exception rather than the rule though, I agree for most games the people posting on forums are a tiny percentage.

Over the years I have realised that posting on the games forums just ruins the game for me, you get spoilers, you find easy easy to do things, you read people moaning about things you havent even played yet. Nowadays if I enjoy a game I make a point never to visit the forums unless the game is broken and I need support.

That's an interesting assumption, however the DF forums don't appear to ever had more than a couple hundred people posting to them at any given time. Are you suggesting only 1,000 people played Darkfall, even at its peak?

There is a middle ground between "Only the minority use the forum" and "the mayority use the forum". Also, don't confuse posting and reading.

Originally posted by Greenzor

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Originally posted by SlickShoes

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Originally posted by Greenzor

Originally posted by Nadia

forum users are a *minority* among PC gamers - or even computer users

It deppends on the PC game you're talking about.

I'll bite. Which MMO has the majority of their players on the forums?

I'd guess something like Darkfall where the only people playing it are people that have sought it out, Joe Public in the street won't stumble across it, neither would your average gamers. 

That's more an exception rather than the rule though, I agree for most games the people posting on forums are a tiny percentage.

Over the years I have realised that posting on the games forums just ruins the game for me, you get spoilers, you find easy easy to do things, you read people moaning about things you havent even played yet. Nowadays if I enjoy a game I make a point never to visit the forums unless the game is broken and I need support.

That's an interesting assumption, however the DF forums don't appear to ever had more than a couple hundred people posting to them at any given time. Are you suggesting only 1,000 people played Darkfall, even at its peak?

There is a middle ground between "Only the minority use the forum" and "the mayority use the forum". Also, don't confuse posting and reading.

It's still an assumption on his part. I was hoping the DF forums would have a 'most visitors' counter to try to get an actual number, but unfortunately it doesn't.

And the middle ground is a difference of 1. ;)

Everyone

If your argument includes this word, you should probably stop and reconsider it.

What's happening is this: MMO gamers (a select group of gamers) buy new MMO's but usually move on to the next game, leaving their old account in the dust.  My fear is that developers will only really plan for the short term, planning on going into maintenence mode after the first 6 months or so with no true content plans requiring big investments since the cash cow is dead already.

BBSes were my first exposure to computer based interaction.  I ran one for a few years in the early to mid-90s.

In BBSing there were 4 major activities: files, forums, games and chat.  Fairly often users tended to use one area more than the others.  Some were drawn to the forums, others avoided them like the plague.

Other than not having file sharing :-/   MMORPG communities are similar in structure, so I'm guessing the same thing happens with players.

As for MMORPG.com, the numbers here are going to be heavily skewed toward forum oriented players.  It's like going into a bar looking for people who drink, it's a place for drinking so the percentage of drinkers in a bar is going to be much higher than a random cross-section of people.

To a casual observer, the forum could indicate that players hate games.  I think it's more like forum goers prefer talking about games rather than playing them, or can't find anything they want to play and end up back on the forums as a way to kill time and stay connected with other "players"  errr...  I mean forum goers.

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Originally posted by SlickShoes

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Originally posted by Greenzor

Originally posted by Nadia

forum users are a *minority* among PC gamers - or even computer users

It deppends on the PC game you're talking about.

I'll bite. Which MMO has the majority of their players on the forums?

I'd guess something like Darkfall where the only people playing it are people that have sought it out, Joe Public in the street won't stumble across it, neither would your average gamers. 

That's more an exception rather than the rule though, I agree for most games the people posting on forums are a tiny percentage.

Over the years I have realised that posting on the games forums just ruins the game for me, you get spoilers, you find easy easy to do things, you read people moaning about things you havent even played yet. Nowadays if I enjoy a game I make a point never to visit the forums unless the game is broken and I need support.

That's an interesting assumption, however the DF forums don't appear to ever had more than a couple hundred people posting to them at any given time. Are you suggesting only 1,000 people played Darkfall, even at its peak?

It was more an example of the type of game that would have more users than normal using the forums, obscure games that have a dedicated fanbase.

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Originally posted by Greenzor

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Originally posted by SlickShoes

Originally posted by Loktofeit

Originally posted by Greenzor

Originally posted by Nadia

forum users are a *minority* among PC gamers - or even computer users

It deppends on the PC game you're talking about.

I'll bite. Which MMO has the majority of their players on the forums?

I'd guess something like Darkfall where the only people playing it are people that have sought it out, Joe Public in the street won't stumble across it, neither would your average gamers. 

That's more an exception rather than the rule though, I agree for most games the people posting on forums are a tiny percentage.

Over the years I have realised that posting on the games forums just ruins the game for me, you get spoilers, you find easy easy to do things, you read people moaning about things you havent even played yet. Nowadays if I enjoy a game I make a point never to visit the forums unless the game is broken and I need support.

That's an interesting assumption, however the DF forums don't appear to ever had more than a couple hundred people posting to them at any given time. Are you suggesting only 1,000 people played Darkfall, even at its peak?

There is a middle ground between "Only the minority use the forum" and "the mayority use the forum". Also, don't confuse posting and reading.

And the middle ground is a difference of 1. ;)

Now let me assume that you're just plain trolling.