Umm sorry to burst your bubble, but hld on to that champagne some more. :P

This isn't "record" numbers, these numbers can have been affected by different things. In norway now we have winther vacation for majority of schools, next week will be vacation for the northern part of Norway. This increase can be that studenst are playing the game more as they have vacation. The trend lately have been a increase for AoC, looking over time that is very clear that either more people use Xfire while playing or that more players are coming to the game. Or quite possibly a combination of both. The trend is a good thing, lets hope it sticks :)

But I think it is a bit early started to celebrating it as revulationary numbers in need of champagne :P

For my personal opinion it does seems to be new players coming back each week, seeing new names in keshetta all the time, this could be transfers or people coming back. Haven't asked them. :P But activity seems to bb very nice so it's all good :)

---

Originally posted by Conza
OK guys, time to crack open the champaigne. AoC has record high numbers in Xfire today (as of over like 4 months according to posters above). #42, 7159 gaming hours and 1467 players using Xfire. This is going the right way for FC and the team. I think this should prove that retention is pretty much under control.
www.xfire.com/games/aoc/Age_of_Conan_Hyborian_Adventures/
I knew it, my server was virtually flooding with new people yesterday. I have started a new alt on the freshstart servers and that noob area was for an freshstart server very bussy. Things you need to know. 

---

Wow....celebrating a rank of 42 on xfire. I sense a bit of desperation.

Originally posted by Conza

OK guys, time to crack open the champaigne. AoC has record high numbers in Xfire today (as of over like 4 months according to posters above). #42, 7159 gaming hours and 1467 players using Xfire. This is going the right way for FC and the team. I think this should prove that retention is pretty much under control.

www.xfire.com/games/aoc/Age_of_Conan_Hyborian_Adventures/

I knew it, my server was virtually flooding with new people yesterday. I have started a new alt on the freshstart servers and that noob area was for an freshstart server very bussy. Things you need to know. 

So very pleased to know that Orionman's saga lives on!

It is overy easy to manipulate XFire and even web statistics with some creative botting.  The only thing that will prove anything is the public financial statement which is due out next Monday. Even with that I would not be surprised if they just happen to "find" 6 million the way they did last year LOL. problem is FC relies too much on marketing and not enough on game quality.

Originally posted by Crashloop

Umm sorry to burst your bubble, but hld on to that champagne some more. :P

This isn't "record" numbers, these numbers can have been affected by different things. In norway now we have winther vacation for majority of schools, next week will be vacation for the northern part of Norway. This increase can be that studenst are playing the game more as they have vacation. The trend lately have been a increase for AoC, looking over time that is very clear that either more people use Xfire while playing or that more players are coming to the game. Or quite possibly a combination of both. The trend is a good thing, lets hope it sticks :)

But I think it is a bit early started to celebrating it as revulationary numbers in need of champagne :P

For my personal opinion it does seems to be new players coming back each week, seeing new names in keshetta all the time, this could be transfers or people coming back. Haven't asked them. :P But activity seems to bb very nice so it's all good :)

Agreed...this does look great, as it does show the upward trend. Whether just Norway can control these numbers seems far fetched (no other country is having a holiday...lol...unless you count Valentines Day).

All I know is it does show that more players are putting in more time, and the full servers have been quite fun (I had quite a few good groups this weekend of lower and mid levels...great stuff)

Cheers

Norway alone might not be big enough to affect the numbers that is very true, but Norway was mentioned as I think without being 100% sure that there is more countries that have vacations like this, exactly whern it is I don't know, but both Sweden and Denmark I think have the same thing. Quite possibly other countries too so a sudden jump can be somewhat explained there.

Also looking at the numbers and dates on the chart did reveal somethign esle too. each of the tops in AoC on the charts happens during weekends. I guess we will see the usual fall in numbers and another increase when we get closer to next weekend this week too :)

 age of conan has turned out to be a pretty solid game. I put it way ahead of warhammer by the end of the year. AOC is a much better product than WAR

Originally posted by Jackdog

It is overy easy to manipulate XFire and even web statistics with some creative botting.  The only thing that will prove anything is the public financial statement which is due out next Monday. Even with that I would not be surprised if they just happen to "find" 6 million the way they did last year LOL. problem is FC relies too much on marketing and not enough on game quality.

It's only 'up' a few hundred people.  Easily explained by the propganda on the main forums urging people to use xfire.  AOC still is a third of what real MMORPGs are showing ( LotRO, War, EVE).

Congratulations.. " up to #42, same place it was last month"... and 38 spots lower then it was in June... competing against the games that nobody has ever heard of.

Originally posted by Alandora

Originally posted by Jackdog

It's only 'up' a few hundred people.  Easily explained by the propganda on the main forums urging people to use xfire.  AOC still is a third of what real MMORPGs are showing ( LotRO, War, EVE).

Yet, this "propaganda" is over a month old, and was a simple "Hey players, load up"...you think that really had total control of manipulating the numbers..? I do not think so...and the fact the upward trend started in December, and no "Xfire" post was posted until almost the end of January means you are looking for a reason, when none exists...except new players joining, and playing more.

Do you even understand what propaganda is? Are the main forums inundated with posts telling people to load up? Show me at least 4+ OP's telling people to load up Xfire, then I will shut up.

...competing against the games that nobody has ever heard of.

Like City of Heroes, Everquest 2, Vanguard, Lineage 2, Second Life, SWG...never heard of those darn games...I guess you are right...

Every week you guys come in here, and try to spin this as negative, and it just does not work. There has been a "constant" upswing for 2 months now...no special"Load up Xfire" advertised in big letters (EvE, LOTRO) on forums and multiple websites, just a community that is forming...old players, new players, playing more...getting ready for the next big patch within the next two weeks..

So sad for the haters actually.

See you all next week with the negative spin!

Originally posted by openedge1

Originally posted by Alandora

Originally posted by Jackdog

It's only 'up' a few hundred people.  Easily explained by the propganda on the main forums urging people to use xfire.  AOC still is a third of what real MMORPGs are showing ( LotRO, War, EVE).

Yet, this "propaganda" is over a month old, and was a simple "Hey players, load up"...you think that really had total control of manipulating the numbers..? I do not think so...and the fact the upward trend started in December, and no "Xfire" post was posted until almost the end of January means you are looking for a reason, when none exists...except new players joining, and playing more.

Do you even understand what propaganda is? Are the main forums inundated with posts telling people to load up? Show me at least 4+ OP's telling people to load up Xfire, then I will shut up.

...competing against the games that nobody has ever heard of.

Like City of Heroes, Everquest 2, Vanguard, Lineage 2, Second Life, SWG...never heard of those darn games...I guess you are right...

Every week you guys come in here, and try to spin this as negative, and it just does not work. There has been a "constant" upswing for 2 months now...no special"Load up Xfire" advertised in big letters (EvE, LOTRO) on forums and multiple websites, just a community that is forming...old players, new players, playing more...getting ready for the next big patch within the next two weeks..

So sad for the haters actually.

See you all next week with the negative spin!

Where is this 'upswing'.

In december, the game was bouncing between #52 and #48.   Now it has jumped all the way up to #44, and a few days ago it was down to #48.

You guys talk like this is some miracle move?  It's a few hundred players!!!!

A few hundred players...

1.  The box has been reduced to 'free with shipping'.  it's very easy to get the game for almost nothing and have a free month.  When I wanted to 'retry' AOC last month, it was cheaper for me to buy a box and get the free month then it was for me to reactivate my account.  The boxes are being given away along with a free month.

2.  Server mergers - made people log in more frequently just to see what happened with it.  Same thing that happened with the pvp patch months ago.  Xfire numbers doubled for a week.

3.  Multiple threads on the official forums -  Why did you say 'late january'.  The original thread, and the one Famine posted in (and therefore brought attention to) was started back in early December and remained on the front page for almost 3 weeks, right up til Christmas.

And again, we are talking about a change of a few hundered xfire users.  This isn't WOW which has 97,000 people using xfire.. this is a game with 1000 xfire users...  adding 200 makes  a huge percentage change.

All that said, the game is still ranked at #44.  That is pathetic for a game that sold almost a million copies.  Warhammer has major problems, but even it is able to hold 4x's the number of xfire users as AOC has.  AOC is 1/4th as good as a very bad game.

Originally posted by Alandora

All that said, the game is still ranked at #44.  That is pathetic for a game that sold almost a million copies.  Warhammer has major problems, but even it is able to hold 4x's the number of xfire users as AOC has.  AOC is 1/4th as good as a very bad game.

Now that was cold dude LOL, pretty much sums up the whole thread though

Originally posted by Jackdog

Originally posted by Alandora

All that said, the game is still ranked at #44.  That is pathetic for a game that sold almost a million copies.  Warhammer has major problems, but even it is able to hold 4x's the number of xfire users as AOC has.  AOC is 1/4th as good as a very bad game.

Now that was cold dude LOL, pretty much sums up the whole thread though

You know future professors of the mmorpg forum, most people will read #42 on Xfires pages as 42. 44 is that number 2 units higher than 42.lol

Originally posted by Alandora

All that said, the game is still ranked at #44.  That is pathetic for a game that sold almost a million copies.  Warhammer has major problems, but even it is able to hold 4x's the number of xfire users as AOC has.  AOC is 1/4th as good as a very bad game.

Except that you're reducing the discussion to how good or bad the game is, when a lot of people chalk it's failure up to its catastrophic launch state, which has since improved dramatically - not whether the game is any good or not. Growing numbers of players, as opposed to continuing losses, suggesting that now that it's in working order, new and current subscribers are happier with it.

Not sure anyone would argue the point that they dug themselves a very deep hole to crawl out of. The question is just whether they're crawling out at all, or only sinking deeper.

Originally posted by Vhaln

Originally posted by Alandora

All that said, the game is still ranked at #44.  That is pathetic for a game that sold almost a million copies.  Warhammer has major problems, but even it is able to hold 4x's the number of xfire users as AOC has.  AOC is 1/4th as good as a very bad game.

 

 

Except that you're reducing the discussion to how good or bad the game is, when a lot of people chalk it's failure up to its catastrophic launch state, which has since improved dramatically - not whether the game is any good or not. Growing numbers of players, as opposed to continuing losses, suggesting that now that it's in working order, new and current subscribers are happier with it.

 

Not sure anyone would argue the point that they dug themselves a very deep hole to crawl out of. The question is just whether they're crawling out at all, or only sinking deeper.

 

  My sub expired last week and it seemed to me as if the population on Wiccana might have taken a slight upward turning after the mergers or that could have just been a illusion due to 4 or 5 servers being merged into one. Instancing of game areas is no longer a issue for low and mid lvl players since there are rarely enough player on a server to generate one. The game does run smoother now than at release, I had no crashes at all or any other issues on the "live" servers. FPS was much better than at release.

On the negative side there was little or no evidence of new players. I started 3 new classes and ran them through Tortage and can count on one hand the number of players I saw in Tortage in the daytime, in the Underhalls, or on White Sands. Gameplay was still the same and I felt way too constrained both in Tortage and in the main world. Too many walls to satisfy the explorer in me, I felt more like I was playing a FPS. Crafting also still sucks hind tit and I saw no improvement is the loot tables at all.

The only real "proof" of player increases will be in the financial reports and at the days end that is all that counts anyway in a business. XFire and even web page numbers are easily fudged with bots, so right the only thing that can be trusted is the quarterly reports even those could be suspect.

I thought FC didn't publish subscriber numbers in financial reports. If they did though, that would be a relief considdering all the trolling we see on subnumbers over here.

Meanwhile on Xfire I am pretty sure that the trend only will continue and I think anyone that have not seen the trend by now, perhaps is a bit in denial (it's beyond me why some people are falling over eachother trying to explain why AoC is not growing). Lets see what the numbers show tomorrow. Record numbers for AoC playtime till now since October is 5165 (1245 xfire players).

Originally posted by Conza

I thought FC didn't publish subscriber numbers in financial reports. If they did though, that would be a relief considdering all the trolling we see on subnumbers over here.

Meanwhile on Xfire I am pretty sure that the trend only will continue and I think anyone that have not seen the trend by now, perhaps is a bit in denial (it's beyond me why some people are falling over eachother trying to explain why AoC is not growing). Lets see what the numbers show tomorrow. Record numbers for AoC playtime till now since October is 5165 (1245 xfire players).

they wil not publish any subscription numbers unless it is something worth bragging over, but they have to publish financial info which is a much more reliable indicator than XFire or even web traffic which can be manipulated.

All that really matters is the bottom line, ie is Funcom making a profit or losing money. If they are making money then obviously population is good enough, if they are losing money.......... Also some of the smarter financial types here can pretty much make a ball park guess  based on the profit, assuming they made a profit last quarter.

Originally posted by Conza

I thought FC didn't publish subscriber numbers in financial reports. If they did though, that would be a relief considdering all the trolling we see on subnumbers over here.

Meanwhile on Xfire I am pretty sure that the trend only will continue and I think anyone that have not seen the trend by now, perhaps is a bit in denial (it's beyond me why some people are falling over eachother trying to explain why AoC is not growing). Lets see what the numbers show tomorrow. Record numbers for AoC playtime till now since October is 5165 (1245 xfire players).

Last week,  Warhammer announced it's numbers  (300k per Dec 31st).   I'm not sure Funcom is as brave.

Today they announced that they will not meet their 4th quarter guidance, which was 50% of 3rd quarter.   Seeing as AO and all other income should be consistent this quarter compared to last quarter, that means there was a drastic decrease in AOC players.

So EVE shows it's numbers at login..  WOW and Warhammer publish their numbers.  What's up with Funcom?

Originally posted by George41

Originally posted by Conza

I thought FC didn't publish subscriber numbers in financial reports. If they did though, that would be a relief considdering all the trolling we see on subnumbers over here.

Meanwhile on Xfire I am pretty sure that the trend only will continue and I think anyone that have not seen the trend by now, perhaps is a bit in denial (it's beyond me why some people are falling over eachother trying to explain why AoC is not growing). Lets see what the numbers show tomorrow. Record numbers for AoC playtime till now since October is 5165 (1245 xfire players).

 

Last week,  Warhammer announced it's numbers  (300k per Dec 31st).   I'm not sure Funcom is as brave.

Today they announced that they will not meet their 4th quarter guidance, which was 50% of 3rd quarter.   Seeing as AO and all other income should be consistent this quarter compared to last quarter, that means there was a drastic decrease in AOC players.

So EVE shows it's numbers at login..  WOW and Warhammer publish their numbers.  What's up with Funcom?

Do you see this attachment  www.newsweb.no/newsweb/search.do

This is the only public message to the stock exchange market from FC since early Jan. Don't you think that information like what you present above would be posted as part of a financial report to the market? lol.

{ Mod Edit }

Originally posted by George41

Originally posted by Conza

I thought FC didn't publish subscriber numbers in financial reports. If they did though, that would be a relief considdering all the trolling we see on subnumbers over here.

Meanwhile on Xfire I am pretty sure that the trend only will continue and I think anyone that have not seen the trend by now, perhaps is a bit in denial (it's beyond me why some people are falling over eachother trying to explain why AoC is not growing). Lets see what the numbers show tomorrow. Record numbers for AoC playtime till now since October is 5165 (1245 xfire players).

 

Last week,  Warhammer announced it's numbers  (300k per Dec 31st).   I'm not sure Funcom is as brave.

Today they announced that they will not meet their 4th quarter guidance, which was 50% of 3rd quarter.   Seeing as AO and all other income should be consistent this quarter compared to last quarter, that means there was a drastic decrease in AOC players.

So EVE shows it's numbers at login..  WOW and Warhammer publish their numbers.  What's up with Funcom?

Funcom has published it's numbers before, do you require an update "officially" every month or something?

I bet there are more mmo companies that don't publish than do. How come no one ever bitches on other game forums? like say Turbines? Or is it limited only to new members to mmorpg who either have to over rapturously praise the game or over zealous moaning?

All things considered here is some correct info for you, every person that has posted their "Guess" to subscriber numbers pre Quarter documentation release has always ended up wrong. Way out. That's using their own methods too.

May we ask why sub numbers mean so much? do you get to meet every single one of them? The game is self sustaining itself and there is enough cash in the bank to support the game for a long time to come. It is ticking over just fine. If there are 50k people playing and the game can survive on that and a server holds so many people, you are not going to meet everyone on all servers are you? Fact is, right now, people can log in to the majority of servers and find a decent population for gameplay. There is money in the bank, the quality of the patches keeps improving, what else matters?

Unless you misunderstood in another thread. A suspected decrease in income for Funcom (as a whole) does not correlate into a decrease in Age of Conan sub numbers - which can never, ever, be proven as fact either way. All other income coming in will not be consistent, deals from selling off assets of the company, in terms of amount to get back, plus expected income from Box sales which has only appeared once since release in the paper work (belated), Digital sales of the game, whether income via buddy key downloads, $19.95 reactivation and client download, Steam, or other digital sourcing and so on.

Simple fact is since last quarter the only thing consistant and actually up but bad to use is Xfire (amount of people playing, not time put into the game) That line there is telling that more people with Xfire are playing, in correlation to more people taking part in official surveys are consistant too.

Originally posted by AmazingAvery

Originally posted by George41

Originally posted by Conza

I thought FC didn't publish subscriber numbers in financial reports. If they did though, that would be a relief considdering all the trolling we see on subnumbers over here.

Meanwhile on Xfire I am pretty sure that the trend only will continue and I think anyone that have not seen the trend by now, perhaps is a bit in denial (it's beyond me why some people are falling over eachother trying to explain why AoC is not growing). Lets see what the numbers show tomorrow. Record numbers for AoC playtime till now since October is 5165 (1245 xfire players).

 

Last week,  Warhammer announced it's numbers  (300k per Dec 31st).   I'm not sure Funcom is as brave.

Today they announced that they will not meet their 4th quarter guidance, which was 50% of 3rd quarter.   Seeing as AO and all other income should be consistent this quarter compared to last quarter, that means there was a drastic decrease in AOC players.

So EVE shows it's numbers at login..  WOW and Warhammer publish their numbers.  What's up with Funcom?

 

Funcom has published it's numbers before, do you require an update "officially" every month or something?

I bet there are more mmo companies that don't publish than do. How come no one ever bitches on other game forums? like say Turbines? Or is it limited only to new members to mmorpg who either have to over rapturously praise the game or over zealous moaning?

All things considered here is some correct info for you, every person that has posted their "Guess" to subscriber numbers pre Quarter documentation release has always ended up wrong. Way out. That's using their own methods too.

May we ask why sub numbers mean so much? do you get to meet every single one of them? The game is self sustaining itself and there is enough cash in the bank to support the game for a long time to come. It is ticking over just fine. If there are 50k people playing and the game can survive on that and a server holds so many people, you are not going to meet everyone on all servers are you? Fact is, right now, people can log in to the majority of servers and find a decent population for gameplay. There is money in the bank, the quality of the patches keeps improving, what else matters?

Unless you misunderstood in another thread. A suspected decrease in income for Funcom (as a whole) does not correlate into a decrease in Age of Conan sub numbers - which can never, ever, be proven as fact either way. All other income coming in will not be consistent, deals from selling off assets of the company, in terms of amount to get back, plus expected income from Box sales which has only appeared once since release in the paper work (belated), Digital sales of the game, whether income via buddy key downloads, $19.95 reactivation and client download, Steam, or other digital sourcing and so on.

Simple fact is since last quarter the only thing consistant and actually up but bad to use is Xfire (amount of people playing, not time put into the game) That line there is telling that more people with Xfire are playing, in correlation to more people taking part in official surveys are consistant too.

You took the bait Avery. A CFO of a publically traded company can never ever send a special mail to someone revealing inside information on revenue before the Quarterly report has been presented. The poster above you got this information from here www.mmorpg.com/discussion2.cfm/thread/223622/1Q-09-update-from-Olev-Sandnes-Funcom-CFO-And-yes-the-results-are-not-good.html and OP never give us the reference. And I guess we will never see it either as it is a criminal act to fabricate evidence with the intention to manipulate the stock exchange market. I reported the post to MMORPG but it seems like they have not got around to it yet.