Just to be clear, I am an avid EQ2 player but I have never looked up any characters on EQ2U, so I'm inclined to disregard any statistics it might provide regarding EQ2's player population.
You don't like what it says so you stick your fingers in your ears and shout "LA LA LA LA!". Mind you, the world is educating people to solve problems in this way these days. The numbers won't be spot on, but look at the pattern. The dip in look-ups around autumn and the start of winter. Does this not look familiar? The EQ2 population always dips around this time of the year with content fatigue and burnout, then pops back up just before the new xpac is released. The overall trend shows a decline in numbers and we know the numbers have taken a big dip in the last 3 xpacs because we've all felt it. So I'd say although it can't give us the accurate numbers for total players, the data is not worthless. Like it or not (and you clearly do not), it does show a steady decline in player numbers, and that isn't surprising. Let's be positive though. Some good changes have been made lately, like getting rid of infusing and weapon levelling. And if the class changes and AA balance does happen next xpac, I'm sure a lot of old players will pop their head round the door to see what's changed. If it's done well, we could have one year on the graph with an upward trend, you never know!
but it seemed to me that Wow is rolling down no slower than EqII. it will be interesting to know that dbg is following example of blizzard when planning measures to increase population (if any). hmm.. or is blizzard taking dbg as an example
Game populations are down across the gaming industry after the initial boom in March and April 2020. Part of it may be burnout. People have said gaming is recession-proof. Interestingly, the coronavirus pandemic was so sudden that people did not have time to transition before unemployment and stimulus ran out. For many, paying rent is more important than gaming.
I co-created EQ2U because I felt that EQ2's increasing complexity and overlapping disparate systems needed a third party tool to help untangle the mess and hopefully demystify some of the game. And so far the trends that the EQ2 team has continued since we launched the site has confirmed my feeling that such a website can be useful for many players. Of course there are those who disagree and feel that EQ2 is perfectly approachable without it. I bet they do well in the stock market. I'm not sure what use the site would be to someone who *doesn't* play. This would be roughly equivalent to looking up baseball statistics but not being a baseball fan. EQ2U averages 1,200 active users per day according to Google Analytics, with nearly 15,000 unique users visiting at least once in the last 90 days. There isn't much private/personal information in an EQ2 character unless that character's Biography area has an e-mail address, guild URL, or other identifiable info. I think otherwise it's mostly stats, not personal info. For the first 3 years that Census existed, I had beta access to the Census server and could view a *count* of all characters. The differential between the internal server and the public server was about 8-10% at that time. For all the protestations about how many would opt-out, it was a not unusual number. But maybe the percentage of people who opt-out has grown since then? I have no idea.
[shrugs] for most there is no what use. some, by googling also info about r-bosses in this game, and comparing it with data of Eq2u, they can decide whether they should migrate with their friends. and some just like pictures. well, the use are no less than watching tv series old players nostalgic for this game. players leaving other games curious about this game. there are perhaps not few of them, there are mayhap enough of them to fill most these statistics of yours this way can calm down and breathe out paranoia for walk thanks for nice site Feldon
I don't think I could play this game without EQ2U. It is honestly easier to use the tools there to view info on my character than to be logged in game sometimes (particularly when looking up spell levels, infusion, etc.).
I went from Antonia Bayle to Maj Dul, no noticeable difference yet, most people playing are around endgame.
I saw a few closed down games ranked almost twice as many subscribers to this live game, that was kind of funny and/or an awakening! It is Halloween season tho.
only objective statistics available to players is when toons on any server become less than 100. if any of players tracke it, it would be one who would have reliable info on basis of which it would be possible to speak about population. somebody tracke it, with fixed dates and, moreover, for all servers? i remember that more than year ago saw numbers when there were less than 100 toons on server where i play. it happened while America was sleeping. those, only one, possibly still accessible to players, opportunity to track population is to observe (often by chance) peaks in population decline. charge yourself to report such an event if someone sees it, and this will be solely reliable statistics that we will have, unless of course dbg deprives us of this opportunity to know.. i also tend to imagine (i don't assert, but i either have false or true idea about it, thus freeing myself from need to indicate particular features for general conclusion) that this game is funded not only by players (this model of co-financing tends to persist, changing source in some future)
forgot to mention that some extensions for browsers prevents google analytics from reporting stats to google analytics server. as and many people i use similar extensions. and how many of us are there who have looked Eq2u all this time? if us, those who were not counted as many as those who were сounted? then in this case one might think that there may be more players
it's my case.I stopped the game at the end of the POP extension after 10 years of play, including at least 7 in my guild's top DPS. Top DPS but thinking about it, I don't know if it's me or my credit card that was doing the parse... tired of being what we call a whale, tired of the little reactivity of the developers to correct the obvious imbalance of class I left. I would never come back. and by the way it's daybreack that I banned. all their games. past and future. My only pleasure is to come and visit regularly in the hope of seeing this boat, which cost me so much, sink. petty and puerile but so human. PS: no need to teach me about I didn't have to spend money for... the debate of 1 dps spent in a guild what the 4 others will do? is useless. This game is made that way, no matter the reasons, a lot of whales have already left this boat, the population in 2020 would be quite different if the first priority of the developers is to make a good gamedesign and not a casino. PS2 :and I take the opportunity to say hello to the french who guess who's hiding behind this nickname !
Theres a HUGE difference between the population on majdul compared to antonia bayle. And yes, its end game. If your looking for low level grouping, your not going to find it anywhere but a fresh tle server.
If you're French and you were good, you may have been in the guild I'm now in. If so, a lot of the old timers are still playing, you should pop online and say hello. As for the pay-to-win stuff. It seems to have peaked and is potentially tapering away now. I'm sure an element of it will still exist, but removal of infusion and weapon levelling is going to ease the financial burden dramatically. Unless something big changes, it would seem to me that the only pay-to-win elements would be the premium edition expansions, instant merc/mount/spell/familiar levelling (can be done quite easily by other means now so really no need for this), premium familiars and a small number of unique cobalt crate items (the merc, the mount, the familiar buff), but you can do just fine without those. I'm cautiously optimistic that things will continue to improve in this area.
