I was on during the day and happen to notice that i havnt seen one player at all.I figured ok,maybe because this is a new player,everyone else is higher level.Even if this were so,there should be a decent influx of new players to keep the game moving along.

Well i did a search of all players and i was amazed to see only 40 players on the whole server of flamehammer.There was only one player marked looking for gtroup.Does the search limit you to 40 players?because even if it does i used different criteria and still came up with the same 40 players.I know its not limited to just your zone because i saw a few  players that are in a totally different zone i knew from my other player.So i pretty much summed it up as only having 40 players on the whole server.There wasn't even any responses in shout.I logged off knowing full well,there is no way you can think about getting a group together for any good quest.

I think there is some serious players,the ones that are crafting alot,but i think it is showing the majority of players are GAME HOPPERS.LOTR coming out they will all hop over there next,and eventually when the timing is right,there will be a game with a large population and it seems this is where peeps tend to stay.I for one have to agree you need a decent player base to making anything worthwhile,but all this game hopping is really sending out a wrong message about wich games are good and wich are just peeps jumping on the bandwagon.

The game hopping will stop when the hoppers find an innovative game that is well made and released when it is ready. Until then, people will check out the new and shiny replicas of past games, such as Vanguard and LOTRO, but most will just move on to the next shiny game when it comes out. Sure there will be the Vanguard fans that stay, but it will be for one or two features that no other game that has a decent population has to date. Some of the older games that were the mold for the other cookie cutter MMORPGs didn't lose their players because people didn't like the gameplay, they lost their players because newer reincarnations were created of their old games and people settled with whichever reincarnation had the decent population. You have the population for the Fantasy Class/level cookie cutter spread out mainly over WoW and EQ2. Vanguard would have stole a healthy population from these two if they released a finished and less graphic instensive game, but they didn't.

I have to agree with op. I have found it very quiet even at peak times to what i thought it would be.

Tobe honest i think they hardware required to run it well hasnt done it too many favours and put alot of players off. In my case this is true and even though i liked it when i played wioth a buddy key not enough to buy a new rig to play it well. Maybe one day.

Originally posted by Wizardry

I think there is some serious players,the ones that are crafting alot,but i think it is showing the majority of players are GAME HOPPERS.LOTR coming out they will all hop over there next,and eventually when the timing is right,there will be a game with a large population and it seems this is where peeps tend to stay.I for one have to agree you need a decent player base to making anything worthwhile,but all this game hopping is really sending out a wrong message about wich games are good and wich are just peeps jumping on the bandwagon.

 

It is not that they are 'game hoppers', yes i am sure some are, but the majority no. The people who bought the pre-release, the free month has/is due to expire. These Players that rated the mmo high early and filled the servers, as it was new and exiting. Alot of the Initial player base has now had time to play, test and give a more accurate assement of the game.

Alot of people are now at the stage of deciding weather or not the wish to continue to play this game or look for something else. These will base this on game fun, gameplay, society, graphics, sys specs/req, game content, etc, and also their belief of what the game is or will become. They then have to decide weather it is worth paying to play.

I myself as a pre-release player have diecided that this game was not for me at this current stage. Dont get me wrong, I enjoyed playing, but as the game stands, i will not pay to play for an unfinished, buggy game with almost a non-existant dev support network. I was under the impression I was buying a game, not for a half-game. I was also under the impression that beta was closed as most of the major bugs were fixed,controlled or atleast on the way to being so. I was also disappointed in GM/Dev assistance and feedback, and the general feel of the social environment that went with the game.

So for these reasons I, like probably many others have refused to subscibe to the game and its sevice until things have been resolved. Dont get me wrong Vangaurd has HUGE potential, but in a few months once the comunity has grown and matures, also the game having more guts to it, and the GM's and Dev's learning the simple fact an online gaming community can not survive with out the means to interact with the online game community. FFS add a community forum atleast you stuborn bastrds. Also the GM's and Dev's need to think out of the box and open their concrete-set little minds and alow to sway one way or the other depending on what the player base wants, but they cant do this as they dont know what the player base wants coz they don't comunicate with them as there is no official forums to do so.

Long story short people left coz they wern't happy, and will 'game hop' games till they find one that makes them happy.

Hilsbury at Medium Pop is pretty busy.

I think the people who expect to see masses of people standing around are used to much smaller MMO's, and are not prepared to deal with the fact that Vanguard is huge. Over the past few days I've ran into multiple groups while I was in Trengal Keep and Hilsbury Manor. I see people at outposts, and the smaller burgs, where quests are handed out.

If I saw people standing around in the big cities, I'd think they were doing so because they had nothing to do. I'd expect most people to be out in the wilderness, at quest hubs, and doing things. I'd also expect that some of the "non-popular" type races would have less people in their cities than the more popular classes.

I like being out in the wild, and occasionally not seeing someone for 10-15 minutes, because then the world FEELS as big as it truly is. I dont think the game is near empty as you are suggesting. Quest hubs, dungeons, everytime I go, multiple people. No, they dont need to make things smaller, things are pretty darn good just as they are, populationwise.

Give that junk a rest, and see how things are when people are paying $15 a month, and not during the free period where people are all over.