Why is Planetside 2 losing so many players?

Discussion in 'PlanetSide 2 Gameplay Discussion' started by jdono67894, Jan 2, 2013.

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  1. jdono67894

    So after playing this game for a week or so and trying to defend bases and having a lot of tanks and aircraft blow me up repeatedly, I thought about putting in some money to buy the lock on rocket launcher.

    I used http://steamgraph.net/index.php to check the active player activity so I knew I wouldn't be wasting ten dollars on a game that only lasts a few months but it seems to be losing players very fast.

    I compared it to Chivalry which launched a month earlier and is basically a deathmatch melee game with no depth or longevity past ten minute matches, Planetside 2 should be able to gain players much faster then a game like this.

    Why are the players leaving?
    Are the makers of the game fixing whatever is causing this? I don't know whether to put my money into the game to make it more fun for me or just leave it.

    EDIT: if I put this in the wrong forum spot then I am sorry I checked around and this seemed right

    [IMG]
    • Up x 36
  2. foam

    Finally a thread with some evidence.
    • Up x 8
  3. 13lackCats

    Its not uncommon for people to run from one flashing light to another.

    I have no degree in gaming marketing, but I bet that's fairly typical for a F2P.
    • Up x 8
  4. Jestunhi

    1. not everyone plays via Steam.
    2. we are just now coming out of the Christmas / New Year period where many people are busy with family & social gatherings.
    3. All free to play mmos will have many people who try the game but choose not to stay, no matter how good it is it cannot appeal to everyone.
    • Up x 12
  5. Tenzin

    Don't forget the finals excuse.


    @OP People are leaving because Infantry serve no other purpose other than to be fodder for vehicles.
    • Up x 28
  6. MrHenderson

    [IMG]

    Move along people, nothing to see here. Everything is fine, PS2 has been nothing but a great success.
    • Up x 49
  7. Tobax

    My understanding was that while you can download it from Steam it was only the launcher client, which then patches and runs through SOE servers. Which then means that the next time you open PS2 it cuts out Steam altogether and so the figures only show the number of people downloading the game has gone now.
    • Up x 7
  8. Tasogie

    that is part of it, some is also COD players wanting to try something an see if its any good. When they realize it isnt given to them on a plate, they leave.
    • Up x 3
  9. foam

    Planetside 2 has achieved mediocrity at best. Every single thing in the game has "been there, done that" feel from battlefield and other games for years. The only thing PS2 has is scale, but there are even numerous problems with that.
    • Up x 6
  10. MrHenderson

    Amazing how many people don't seem to get what is being communicated with the steam numbers- this game is losing players at a ridiculous rate. And the excuses, they never get old. "It's Thanksgiving, wait until next week." "Everyone is studying for finals, wait until next week." "Everyone just left for winter break, wait until next week." "Its Christmas week, wait until next week." "It's New Years, wait until next week."

    What's next, everyone taking a week off to celebrate the fiscal cliff being postponed?
    • Up x 26
  11. MrK

    Chivalry is kinda fun, though, and perfectly fit for infantry fighting ;)

    Compare its numbers versus War of the Roses which features noobish OP cavalry fighting (pun intended) :p
  12. Jestunhi

    It all depends how Steam handles the launcher. If it stops acting as if you are ingame when the launcher closes and the game client opens then it's useless, if it continues to register as ingame when the game client is running then it's accurate for the people who play via Steam (but not people who got the client direct).

    :edit:

    I feel I need to point out here that at no point have I claimed everything is fine. What I have done is pointed out some other factors which will effect the provided figures.

    I shouldn't need to point this out but people seem to be guessing what I mean instead of reading what I post. ;)
  13. dough

    New games ALWAYS go through this.. keep in mind that what you read/heard about a game prior to playing it is not the experience, just hype to get you to try it. At the end of the day its whether folks enjoy what it has to offer that determines how many folks stay on for the duration. Shooters, which tend to be flavor of the month type experiences, are even more prone to this, since there are always new shooter experiences being offered. Give this game 3-6 months before worrying. What you are seeing above is folks deciding its not for them after the first big bang of release.. and its for a variety of reasons... You'll also note that there are strong upticks of folks playing.. that isn't just time availability of current players.. its also new players coming in and trying it.. once the initial drop off is complete I'd expect reasonable growth as more folks try it and some stay. This is the benefit of the f2p model.. lots of folks can try. The bigger question remains, can SOE stay in front of the user-desire curve and make it even more appealing to everyone? If they do that you'll see better growth later in its life. This is how WoW became a 11 million sub giant.. it was over time by listening to their customers.
    • Up x 2
  14. Tricky

    I think this is a better comparison

    [IMG]

    Notice the same downward trend, happens to all new games.
    • Up x 24
  15. Fox234

    Pretty sure if you dl the game with Steam and use Steam, steam tracks it. Steam is like a creepy uncle like that.
    • Up x 3
  16. dough

    If you look at your friends list while in the actual game (not the launcher), you'll see that Steam knows you are playing PS2. I'm thinking the graph is accurate. Its still too early to tell what is really going to happen to the game.
    • Up x 1
  17. {joer

    Chivalry went on sale at the spike for like 75% off so thats that.
  18. Valkar

    Render would be a huge part of it and performance stability, after that I would say, bad base design, incomplete product (huge warpgates that actually dont warp you anywhere?) an in game leaderboard that displays AAAAAAA which any decent DBA could fix in a single days work, the list goes on.

    Basically they did a relatively successful launch, got a lot of hype for the game and initially a good influx of players, they then went on Christmas break leaving the game in a hell of a state and come back to entpy servers and disgruntled remaining players. Lazy SOE who said they learnt from their mistakes with SWG and PS1.... yep they did its just the only thing they learnt was how to rip off people with the F2P model to get a large intake of cash at the start wich plenty of awards from PC Game Critics ect then got over excited about their achievement and then buggered off expecting us all to be happy with a half baked Beta..... the pops will drop and drop until its just us 6 monthers lingering around on a handful of servers.
    • Up x 2
  19. Jestunhi

    Accurate for people who play on Steam (which I do not, which is why I cannot check).
  20. Nariquo

    my whole team me and two alied teams. all together 60 poeple stopped playing because of the crash hack. where the enemy force crashes the clients of the defenders and bring them back to desktop...
    and this hack is going around since a month so....
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