I noticed the population did drop after the first month. However lately I noticed that the population seems to be increasing. Patch 1.1 has done wonders for game. Open Rvr is alot more fun.

Has anyone else noticed that more people are playing now?

I agree. 1.1 seems to have lured some people back,  and oRvR is greatly improved. Only time will tell if people will stay or it's a temporary increase.

My server has had login queues several days since the patch, though not constantly. Pops were always high on my server before the patch but hadnt had a queue since the first two weeks of release. I do see tons more people in open rvr for sure though. Will see even more once the KoTBS and BG level up to tier 4.

I also noticed a strange amount of fresh new players coming to the server, because when im screwing around with my tier 1 alts I have noticed several people in the past week asking in the general chat 'if this was a good server to start a character on'.

 I'm not seeing this... and frankly, as someone who likes WAR, it scares the bejeezes out of me. Waralytics.com is showing 900k guilded people on all servers now as of about two weeks ago. The previous update (before Thanksgiving) showed 933k, and before that it was over a million. Unless people have rampantly left guilds or deleted alts, this represents a serious stagnancy problem to me. 1.1 may have people playing more often--which is good--but I don't think it's actually increased subscription numbers. Granted the numbers aren't current since 1.1 went live, but I'm skeptical.

Honestly, if they really want a boost, they need to announce an expansion. If I was working on WAR, I'd suggest getting the Choppa and Berserker live by Christmas, and announcing the races for the first expansion by Christmas as well (regardless of how long the expansion takes to develop). Admittedly, WAR is certainly not going to topple WOW, as many of us had hoped, but I think it still stands a chance of sitting comfortably at 1.5mm accounts if Mythic can get its act together.

Here's hoping.

Personally, my post wasn't commenting on people subscribing, just more people playing. I just want them to keep the current players happy and prevent more attrition. Worry about getting more subscribers once they shore up the numbers they have.

 I couldn't agree more with that. More people around makes a more attractive environment.

I logged on at 1700 thinking I might do a bit of solo PQing only to find 30+ oRvR battle, people asking for help in PQs, and scenario were popping. So I would say that people are certainly out playing more since the patch.

I think it is very safe to say that people are playing more and there has been at the very least a small sub increase.  The new patch has been great so far.  Everytime I log in, there is alot of action for RVR, scenarios and PQs.   Hope it all continues and I am sure Mythic will not let up on all the hard work they have been doing to make the game better and better.

The X-fire statistic is stable now, it have been the same for 3 weeks so if your servers are gaining players someone else is probably losing about the same number (Last drop was Nov 23). My guess is that it is WAR Europe that are losing while WAR US are gaining. It can also be that people are leaving certain servers to focus on the larger ones.

Still this is good news, the game seems to finally stopped losing players now so if Mythic/GOA doesn't do anything stupid now all is well

Funny that the game seems to be doing so much better in US than EU though, I wonder why? I don't think it just can be GOA, or can it?

Originally posted by Xhieron

 I'm not seeing this... and frankly, as someone who likes WAR, it scares the bejeezes out of me. Waralytics.com is showing 900k guilded people on all servers now as of about two weeks ago. The previous update (before Thanksgiving) showed 933k, and before that it was over a million. Unless people have rampantly left guilds or deleted alts, this represents a serious stagnancy problem to me. 1.1 may have people playing more often--which is good--but I don't think it's actually increased subscription numbers. Granted the numbers aren't current since 1.1 went live, but I'm skeptical.

Honestly, if they really want a boost, they need to announce an expansion. If I was working on WAR, I'd suggest getting the Choppa and Berserker live by Christmas, and announcing the races for the first expansion by Christmas as well (regardless of how long the expansion takes to develop). Admittedly, WAR is certainly not going to topple WOW, as many of us had hoped, but I think it still stands a chance of sitting comfortably at 1.5mm accounts if Mythic can get its act together.

Here's hoping.

Warhammer never had a chance to get 1.5 million accounts and never will. The MMORPG market just isn't big enough to have another western styled mmorpg at 1.5 million. I never really understood why people ever expected WAR to reach 1 million subscribers. WoW is the ONLY western mmorpg to ever reach 1 million subscribers. Even the legendary everquest never made it past 400k subscribers.

WoW is the exception, not the rule. So far, reaching 1 million subscribers is still taboo.

i would say it is just because of goa that war has had problems in EU, at least they made me and my friends quit because they never merged the servers and made us continue to play by ourselves without any rvr on some dead server

Originally posted by lordkroak

i would say it is just because of goa that war has had problems in EU, at least they made me and my friends quit because they never merged the servers and made us continue to play by ourselves without any rvr on some dead server

What he said.

Pop maybe increasing in the States under the direct care of Mythic.

But in the EU it is systematically being killed off by GOA's poor service, without a hint of concern from Mythic themselves.

Pops are good on dark crag. order out every day.

A lot of it has to do with them closing so many servers.  They did the right thing by effectively moving the worst 60% of servers onto the best 40%.

The box has also been on deep discount the last few weeks.  It was down to $10 a few times and can pretty easily be had for under $25.   The good thing is that the people who are buying the box now are being directed to the high population servers and are not allowed to create characters on the lowest 60% of servers.

It looks like AOC has stabilized at 50-75k players and Warhammer at about 200-300k players.   There are no major launches in the near future to threaten either one.    Aion will mostly be asia, and Darkfall just will probably get 10-30k players, but mostly all from Europe (where Warhammer is mostly dead).

Originally posted by Azrile

A lot of it has to do with them closing so many servers.  They did the right thing by effectively moving the worst 60% of servers onto the best 40%.

The box has also been on deep discount the last few weeks.  It was down to $10 a few times and can pretty easily be had for under $25.   The good thing is that the people who are buying the box now are being directed to the high population servers and are not allowed to create characters on the lowest 60% of servers.

It looks like AOC has stabilized at 50-75k players and Warhammer at about 200-300k players.   There are no major launches in the near future to threaten either one.    Aion will mostly be asia, and Darkfall just will probably get 10-30k players, but mostly all from Europe (where Warhammer is mostly dead).

I don't think it reached its stabalising point yet.  The last 3 weeks a lot of "20 dollars" let's try it out boxes were sold. Just as long as the overstock was eliminated some new players poured in. The subscription cards were at position 230(!) in PC games sales on amazon.com before they began to sell it at 20 dollars instead of 30.

Amazon had (tx to their "hot" bar) far too much stock of War, like some other big chains. EA realised this at the last minute, dropping its scheduled 1.5 million War run down to 1.2 million. But still too many copies went out. See Q1 report of EA. They even took losses on "released MMO's in the first fiscal Q (which runs from July to September).

But to me (and I always said it as early as Beta) War doesn't have RvR staying power and is a dull PVE baby.

It has nothing to do with GOA these days or server populations. The game has no long term interest as an MMORPG goes. Good for 1 month free play and another 2 months for the sub card to expire. But that's it.

The fact that prices were NOT reduced in EU (or far less) resulted in less new players over here.

Warhammer TT players hate it and don't support it. And the question now is how many play it that jump from MMO to MMO? That % will decide by how many players it will be played at the end.

In another thread I spoke of 3 vagues. The first open beta wave saw many players leaving after the beta trial, the biggest wave was the first two weeks (56 EU later even 63 servers with 75% full/full), what you see now is the third wave, the guys buying it at 20 dollars. Only ... stores will not restock at 49 dollars retail, so this effect is very short.

Look at Spore, that game is not reduced at 60% retail. Just to compare. We will see what happens in Feb, but I guess it will level out at LotRO levels or slightly less. It is in fact the lesser game.

GOA did a stupid thing today. On one of the highest European servers, Karak Eight Peaks, a message comes up telling you that you are on a low population server! The idea is to transfer Spanish speakers from it to a Spanish server. But it doesn't say that. It just says they recommend you change servers due to the low population. Lets hope people read the forums or figure it out.

Originally posted by veritasall

GOA did a stupid thing today. On one of the highest European servers, Karak Eight Peaks, a message comes up telling you that you are on a low population server! The idea is to transfer Spanish speakers from it to a Spanish server. But it doesn't say that. It just says they recommend you change servers due to the low population. Lets hope people read the forums or figure it out.

That is my old server. Runepriest level 22. I remember at the end of September you had to wait 30 minutes to enter Karak Eight Peeks.

Originally posted by bodypass

Originally posted by veritasall

GOA did a stupid thing today. On one of the highest European servers, Karak Eight Peaks, a message comes up telling you that you are on a low population server! The idea is to transfer Spanish speakers from it to a Spanish server. But it doesn't say that. It just says they recommend you change servers due to the low population. Lets hope people read the forums or figure it out.

 

That is my old server. Runepriest level 22. I remember at the end of September you had to wait 30 minutes to enter Karak Eight Peeks.

yea they are stupid im playing on it i was on yesterday like med med and the SECOND most populated but i think it has the best o rvr cause i mean i can see it everywhere now its so freaking amazing :D

Originally posted by Gameloading

Originally posted by Xhieron

 I'm not seeing this... and frankly, as someone who likes WAR, it scares the bejeezes out of me. Waralytics.com is showing 900k guilded people on all servers now as of about two weeks ago. The previous update (before Thanksgiving) showed 933k, and before that it was over a million. Unless people have rampantly left guilds or deleted alts, this represents a serious stagnancy problem to me. 1.1 may have people playing more often--which is good--but I don't think it's actually increased subscription numbers. Granted the numbers aren't current since 1.1 went live, but I'm skeptical.

Honestly, if they really want a boost, they need to announce an expansion. If I was working on WAR, I'd suggest getting the Choppa and Berserker live by Christmas, and announcing the races for the first expansion by Christmas as well (regardless of how long the expansion takes to develop). Admittedly, WAR is certainly not going to topple WOW, as many of us had hoped, but I think it still stands a chance of sitting comfortably at 1.5mm accounts if Mythic can get its act together.

Here's hoping.

Warhammer never had a chance to get 1.5 million accounts and never will. The MMORPG market just isn't big enough to have another western styled mmorpg at 1.5 million. I never really understood why people ever expected WAR to reach 1 million subscribers. WoW is the ONLY western mmorpg to ever reach 1 million subscribers. Even the legendary everquest never made it past 400k subscribers.

WoW is the exception, not the rule. So far, reaching 1 million subscribers is still taboo.

I'm pretty certain EQ hit 550k users at its peak. 

Both Conan and Warhammer sold over a million copies in a very short period of time.  If either game had been good enough to hold that momentum they could easily have reached 1.5 million users.  That might have come at the expense of WoW subscription base, former WoW players and some new blood to the genre, but it is possible. 

Unfortunately both of these potential giants were reduced to the little engine that could by the actions of their developers. 

The x-fire peak population (at the weekends) seems to be stable for the last 3 weeks now, although the during the week it still seems to be decreasing very slightly.