Overall Active Player Population Down?

[WanderingAries]

On ‎7‎/‎31‎/‎2019 at 6:20 PM, MechaMarshmallow said:

I don't have hard numbers but I also wouldn't be surprised or alarmed. Summer is out in full force and the game has been back for a couple of months now. It's only natural that players who were chomping at the bit to get back in after 7+ years would be feeling a little less like they needed to be perpetually playing after the game had been available again long enough to get their fill. I doubt we're losing as many players as people are just logging on at a more reasonable and normal schedule for their gaming.

This, summer is in full swing (about to end), so those who Can are enjoying RL or adulting with their tiny ones.

[Healix]

What is this 'adulting' you speak of?

                     

[Sanguinesun]

It isn't necessarily a good thing to use the initial flood of people when the news came out as a benchmark for the population if you're looking to view things  from a long term, sustainable, standpoint.

 

Many games get an explosion of players and then it levels off.  I would say that that is one things that is currently being seen now.  However, I do expect there to be further loss to the player base until something "new" comes along via the homecoming team and then the Shiny-Chasers will invariably return for another explosion and then settle back down weeks or months there after.

 

As others also cite, seasonal changes bring about change to the player base.  Those off for the summer wanting to binge play will turn into weekend only or hiatus players once the Fall season begins and they return to school etc.  Conversely, those off for the summer who have other things at hand may also return to the game when school settles in as well. 

 

I think statistically also, more are to be seen around on the weekends as well, this makes sense due to probably the demographics too that mostly currently play.

 

And then there are the other potential variables that can cause the hourly/daily/weekly activity to change:

 

-Other platforms having sales on games(thus players pop off to other games to play for the short or long term). Steam's summer sale ended a month or so ago if memory serves as an example of this.

 

-New game releases.  This always pulls people away for both short and long term on other games.

 

-Other games having new dlc's, updates, etc that draw them away.

 

-Misc life issues

 

and the list just goes on and on.  

 

As long as the homecoming dev team doesn't give cause for players to leave, powers that be feel inclined to prevent the servers from being up, some other group provides more features/stability than HC's group, etc etc then I think its of little relevance to have too much concern over the fluctuations in the player base.  Lets keep in mind as well that anything that would be of concern if the player base became so small as to make teams etc not viable, that Im sure HC would modify game play to accommodate that as they in some ways already currently have.

 

So while Im quite sure this one be the last of these sorts of threads that will crop up(as invariably almost every game out there gets these sorts of population decline concerns threads), hopefully some can keep things in perspective now and pass that along to those folks that levy those concerns in future situations.

 

Edited August 3, 2019 by Sanguinesun

[Abraxus]

I don't fear the Dev team giving cause for anyone to leave.  The fact that they have this game running, and running pretty well is all they really need to do.  As long as donations fund those efforts, I don't see that changing.  If they manage to make improvements down the line, so much the better.  But, anyone expecting monthly, or even quarterly content additions, or paradigm shifting changes, will be in for a let down.  I don't see that as being realistic, given the volunteer nature of the Dev staff in this iteration of the game.  Besides, it already has TONS of content, lore, and all manner of things to do.  That most choose to ignore it, or intentionally skip over it to get to the end, then complain that the game is vacuous, or devoid of anything fun, really misses the point of the game, and they weren't going to be around for long anyway.

 

I believe what we will end up with after a few months, are folks who love this game for what it was, and what it is once again.  They aren't expecting big time development, and will play for years on end, so long as it is available.  Those looking for the next "shiny" don't fall into that category.  That probably makes the game something of a "legacy" attraction, but graphic issues not withstanding, I still think it is the best game out there, and over the years, none that I tried in the interim ever held my interest in the same way.  My prediction is that, eventually the population will consist mainly of those who feel pretty much the same.  How many of us there are in the end is hard to say.  Every day I see posts from people that, despite the publicity in the gaming circles, were still unaware that the game was back, and now that they know, are overjoyed to be back, and playing like mad.  Those will continue to trickle in over time.  Whether those numbers offset the ones that leave, who can say.

Edited August 3, 2019 by Abraxus

[Yomo Kimyata]

The way I see it, this game, as is, was enough for people to keep playing it in secret with a base of a few thousand people for, what, 7-8 years?  I admit I do still treat it like it could go away tomorrow, but if it does, I’m not sure if it would be due to not enough population.

 

if populations DID drop drastically from the current level, and I was not able to occasionally team or get pleasure from the AH, I might drop my playing time.

[DR_Mechano]

I've noticed that during non-prime time hours on the US servers, it is a tad more difficult to form a DFB, whereas about 2 months ago you could form a DFB literally any time, day or night. However there is still tons to do and still so many alts for me to build I'm going to be engaged in a while. I still haven't finished off my ill/rad build with IOs, let alone even made a start on the Incarnate content. I plan to get her build finished first before making headway into that.

[Abraxus]

On 8/3/2019 at 11:54 AM, DR_Mechano said:

I've noticed that during non-prime time hours on the US servers, it is a tad more difficult to form a DFB, whereas about 2 months ago you could form a DFB literally any time, day or night. However there is still tons to do and still so many alts for me to build I'm going to be engaged in a while. I still haven't finished off my ill/rad build with IOs, let alone even made a start on the Incarnate content. I plan to get her build finished first before making headway into that.

You kind of hit on something that underlies the concern I had when when I first started this thread.  Sure, there was the perhaps irrational fear that the game would just fade away as folks got over their fascination with, and ability to reconnect with their love of the past game.  But, underlying that was the concern for a consistent population level to make it possible to play any aspect of the game.  To have a robust market, to have Incarnate Trials that don't require hours to fill, and to be able to do a simple Posi 1 TF anytime the mood strikes. 

The SCORE server that existed for years after the original game went dark operated with a relatively low population, but changes were made to the game to accommodate for that.  Markets were seeded, and there was a lot of coordination to make events happen, as I understand it.  I am looking for the comfort level of knowing not only that the game is there to play, but that there are no limitations on what parts of it I can play, and how those can be played, which only a relatively large, consistent overall population can provide.  Things have gone fairly well so far, but as some have noted, there are times when filling out a DFB can be a challenge, when it used to take literally seconds.  I'd hate to see that start happening to the game overall. 

I know.  First I wanted the game to just be here forever.  Now, I want it to be robust enough to sustain whatever I want to do in it.  What can I say?  I have experienced exactly this over the past couple of months, and now I want it always. 😎

[Eva Destruction]

The DFB is a terrible gauge of population because people used to run it over and over, into the 30s or even to 50, and now that the rewards have been reduced past a certain level, and people are getting sick of it, people aren't running it as much.  They're running other stuff instead. 

[Sanguinesun]

11 hours ago, Abraxus said:

You kind of hit on something that underlies the concern I had when when I first started this thread.  Sure, there was the perhaps irrational fear that the game would just fade away as folks got over their fascination with, and ability to reconnect with their love of the past game.  But, underlying that was the concern for a consistent population level to make it possible to play any aspect of the game.  To have a robust market, to have Incarnate Trials that don't require hours to fill, and to be able to do a simple Posi 1 TF anytime the mood strikes. 

The SCORE server that existed for years after the original game went dark operated with a relatively low population, but changes were made to the game to accommodate for that.  Markets were seeded, and there was a lot of coordination to make events happen, as I understand it.  I am looking for the comfort level of knowing not only that the game is there to play, but that there are no limitations on what parts of it I can play, and how those can be played, which only a relatively large, consistent overall population can provide.  Things have gone fairly well so far, but as some have noted, there are times when filling out a DFB can be a challenge, when it used to take literally seconds.  I'd hate to see that start happening to the game overall. 
 

 

You do know that even the current markets are seeded and have settings to accommodate the scaling player base, right?

 

DFB's are still a commonly seen thing as well but not necessarily to actually level fast(there are AE missions at 100% exp boost anyone can solo with just p2w powers and brawl and get from 5-17 in 1 run as an arbitrary example.

Edited August 5, 2019 by Sanguinesun

[Sanguinesun]

On ‎8‎/‎4‎/‎2019 at 3:54 AM, DR_Mechano said:

I've noticed that during non-prime time hours on the US servers, it is a tad more difficult to form a DFB, whereas about 2 months ago you could form a DFB literally any time, day or night. However there is still tons to do and still so many alts for me to build I'm going to be engaged in a while. I still haven't finished off my ill/rad build with IOs, let alone even made a start on the Incarnate content. I plan to get her build finished first before making headway into that.

 

2 months ago 90% of the game pop was brand new and were needing dfbs, ae's or just about anything.

2 months ago dfbs weren't nerfed to scale with diminishing returns post level 10.

2 months ago AE werent nerfed -50% base exp and the 100% exp boost powers in p2w available either.

 

Those 3 things alone(and they're not btw) skew the anecdotal nature of using DFB's to judge the health of the player base.

 

In other words as Eva said, don't judge player population by "DFB LFM". 

[Primantis]

12 minutes ago, Sanguinesun said:

 

2 months ago 90% of the game pop was brand new and were needing dfbs, ae's or just about anything.

2 months ago dfbs weren't nerfed to scale with diminishing returns post level 10.

2 months ago AE werent nerfed -50% base exp and the 100% exp boost powers in p2w available either.

 

Those 3 things alone(and they're not btw) skew the anecdotal nature of using DFB's to judge the health of the player base.

 

In other words as Eva said, don't judge player population by "DFB LFM". 

 

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/status/

 

That's all you need to judge the player population xD

 

I check it routinely, and I can tell you that during the day there's a nice healthy pop. But around 10 PM PST it starts to nose dive from 1k~ to 200~ pretty rapidly. Picking back up again around early morning.

 

Now this 100% to be expected.

 

(Numbers are Blueside btw)

Edited August 5, 2019 by Primantis

[Sanguinesun]

3 minutes ago, Primantis said:

 

https://forums.homecomingservers.com/status/

 

That's all you need to judge the player population xD

 

 

 

Which was discussed/linked on page to already :P

[MagicDrop]

Personally not something I would worry about, I myself ran to play the game when I first found out but summer has been crazy with running around and I didn’t play for a few months. This week calmed down for me and I’ve played 3 days in a row. I plan on playing more. But many people who played in the games original run were teens and young adults without family who now have more demands on their time then they did back then.

[Primantis]

31 minutes ago, Sanguinesun said:

 

Which was discussed/linked on page to already 😛

 

And that's what I get for Foruming at 4 AM.  xD

[Abraxus]

So, the gist of all this empirical evidence to the contrary of my fears of a bleak future, is that everything is fine, just play, and be happy?  I get that.  That was the basic idea behind the thread, which was to start a conversation about all the possible factors, interpretations, and permutations of what we see out there with regards to our precious game.  I believe we have done that, and I thank you all for your input.

 

However, I would add that it is quite likely that I am older than most of you, and seen many surprising turns of events that defied conventional thinking, across many fields of endeavor.  So, please don't quickly write me off as some bothersome worry wart who has no idea from whence he speaks.  I haven't made it this far without having underestimated what the future might hold, regardless of what the present might suggest, and paid the price for my lack of vision, as everyone does at various times in their lives.  Hindsight being the clearest picture of the past, and the older one becomes, the longer that vision extends.  At some point, we all learn not to put blind faith in to anything, and to be cautious about any indicators of trouble on the horizon.  Not consumed with fear about them, but never totally disregarding them either.

Edited August 5, 2019 by Abraxus

[Myrmidon]

11 minutes ago, Abraxus said:

So, the gist of all this empirical evidence to the contrary of my fears of a bleak future, is that everything is fine, just play, and be happy?  I get that.  That was the basic idea behind the thread, which was to start a conversation about all the possible factors, interpretations, and permutations of what we see out there with regards to our precious game.  I believe we have done that, and I thank you all for your input.

 

However, I would add that it is quite likely that I am older than most of you, and seen many surprising turns of events that defied conventional thinking, across many fields of endeavor.  So, please don't quickly write me off as some bothersome worry wart who has no idea from whence he speaks.  I haven't made it this far without having underestimated what the future might hold, regardless of what the present might suggest, and paid the price for my lack of vision, as everyone does at various times in their lives.  Hindsight being the clearest picture of the past, and the older one becomes, the longer that vision extends.  At some point, we all learn not to put blind faith in to anything, and to be cautious about any indicators of trouble on the horizon.  Not consumed with fear about them, but never totally disregarding them either.

If the population dropped drastically, my guess is that we would all be consolidated onto one or two servers. Also, given the way that donations fill so quickly, it’s likely that we could survive indefinitely at 10-20% of our starting playerbase. The only concern that any of us should really have is the time it takes for a new server to resurface if an NCSoft C&D comes down the pike.

 

 

 

I am out of game for almost a month, however, that’s only because of my near month-long vacation in Europe. I will right back to Paragon as soon as I make it back home.

[jubakumbi]

7 minutes ago, Abraxus said:

So, the gist of all this empirical evidence to the contrary of my fears of a bleak future, is that everything is fine, just play, and be happy?  I get that.  That was the basic idea behind the thread, which was to start a conversation about all the possible factors, interpretations, and permutations of what we see out there with regards to our precious game.  I believe we have done that, and I thank you all for your input.

 

However, I would add that it is quite likely that I am older than most of you, and seen many surprising turns of events that defied conventional thinking, across many fields of endeavor.  So, please don't quickly write me off as some bothersome worry wart who has no idea from whence he speaks.  I haven't made it this far without having underestimated what the future might hold, regardless of what the present might suggest, and paid the price for my lack of vision, as everyone does at various times in their lives.  Hindsight being the clearest picture of the past, and the older one becomes, the longer that vision extends.  At some point, we all learn not to put blind faith in to anything, and to be cautious about any indicators of trouble on the horizon.  Not consumed with fear about them, but never totally disregarding them either.

Please don't pull the Age card like this, IMO, even though I doubt you mean anything truly bad by using it, it is not needed.

Emotional maturity has little to do with age.

Emotional maturity is needed to deal with the uncertainty of life.

 

Some players realize that the game, like everything in life, is a fleeting ephemeral experience to be enjoyed while it exists.

Some players allow thier lives to revolve around it.

Others literally build thier lives around it, with little regard for the consequences of when computers no longer work.

The snowflakes are endless.

 

No one can predict the future and IMO grousing about what will or will not happen, idle speculation based on patterns with sufficient data, might be a nice time waster, but is not going to provide any tangible solutions.

 

This is a niche game.

The people that really like it will never un-install it and will fight to make sure it remains online.

That's all we can do.

 

 

[Abraxus]

2 minutes ago, jubakumbi said:

Please don't pull the Age card like this, IMO, even though I doubt you mean anything truly bad by using it, it is not needed.

Emotional maturity has little to do with age.

Emotional maturity is needed to deal with the uncertainty of life.

 

Some players realize that the game, like everything in life, is a fleeting ephemeral experience to be enjoyed while it exists.

Some players allow thier lives to revolve around it.

Others literally build thier lives around it, with little regard for the consequences of when computers no longer work.

The snowflakes are endless.

 

No one can predict the future and IMO grousing about what will or will not happen, idle speculation based on patterns with sufficient data, might be a nice time waster, but is not going to provide any tangible solutions.

 

This is a niche game.

The people that really like it will never un-install it and will fight to make sure it remains online.

That's all we can do.

 

 

I don't believe I said, or even implied anything about emotional maturity.  Sorry that you interpreted it that way.  My comments regarding age referred to the fact that I have the advantage of more years of observing trends, and turns of events that defied prediction based on macro analysis of present indicators.  From that perspective, most here would lack a common frame of reference.  That's all.  So, please don't make more out of it than it is.

[AkuTenshiiZero]

20 minutes ago, Myrmidon said:

If the population dropped drastically, my guess is that we would all be consolidated onto one or two servers. Also, given the way that donations fill so quickly, it’s likely that we could survive indefinitely at 10-20% of our starting playerbase. The only concern that any of us should really have is the time it takes for a new server to resurface if an NCSoft C&D comes down the pike.

 

 

 

I am out of game for almost a month, however, that’s only because of my near month-long vacation in Europe. I will right back to Paragon as soon as I make it back home.

I honestly wish they would consolidate servers.  It would cause some major problems with duplicate names, but I dunno, I think people would adapt.  Either way, we could really use a bigger population per server (especially over in the Rogue Isles).

[jubakumbi]

4 minutes ago, Abraxus said:

I don't believe I said, or even implied anything about emotional maturity.  Sorry that you interpreted it that way.  My comments regarding age referred to the fact that I have the advantage of more years of observing trends, and turns of events that defied prediction based on macro analysis of present indicators.  From that perspective, most here would lack a common frame of reference.  That's all.  So, please don't make more out of it than it is.

What you describe is emotional maturity - wisdom - whatever word you want to use.

The future is uncertain.

Dealing with that incertainty is not restricted by Age.

 

Your words imply that Age is the factor needed here, rather than experience, knowledge, and wisdom.

Most of the cultures we have do this very thing all the time everyday, it is 'the way of things'.

 

I realize exactly what I am typing here - I am not attacking you, at all, I am pointing out that while your viewpoint is valid, to attribute ability based on Age, rather than Experience and Wisdom, which are not resticted by Age.

 

Dealing with the uncertainty of the indicators and what they convey takes emotional maturity, wisdom, and experience, but Age is a small factor in these things.

 

Implying a greater understanding of the universe just from time-on-planet is not something I agree with, even if I agree with your other points.

The moment I read 'well I am probably older than the rest of you so...' it starts to invalidate everything that comes after that statement.

[Myrmidon]

1 minute ago, AkuTenshiiZero said:

I honestly wish they would consolidate servers.  It would cause some major problems with duplicate names, but I dunno, I think people would adapt.  Either way, we could really use a bigger population per server (especially over in the Rogue Isles).

So long as they allow us to retain the same name as our global as standard. 

[jubakumbi]

5 minutes ago, AkuTenshiiZero said:

I honestly wish they would consolidate servers.  It would cause some major problems with duplicate names, but I dunno, I think people would adapt.  Either way, we could really use a bigger population per server (especially over in the Rogue Isles).

Server population seems awesome to me.

Perhaps a server could be designated as the Red server, like PvP and RP?

This has not changed from Retail - a small portion of the playerbase actually likes being villians. 

Edited August 5, 2019 by jubakumbi

[Myrmidon]

3 minutes ago, jubakumbi said:

Server population seems awesome to me.

Perhaps a server could be designated as the Red server, like PvP and RP?

This has not changed from Retail - a small portion of the playerbase actually likes being villians. 

Having spent a year almost exclusively in the Rogue Isles when Villains first landed, I have to agree.

 

Honestly, what would be great is if people changed their perceptions a tad, since we can go back and forth at any time now. 

[Abraxus]

5 minutes ago, jubakumbi said:

What you describe is emotional maturity - wisdom - whatever word you want to use.

The future is uncertain.

Dealing with that incertainty is not restricted by Age.

 

Your words imply that Age is the factor needed here, rather than experience, knowledge, and wisdom.

Most of the cultures we have do this very thing all the time everyday, it is 'the way of things'.

 

I realize exactly what I am typing here - I am not attacking you, at all, I am pointing out that while your viewpoint is valid, to attribute ability based on Age, rather than Experience and Wisdom, which are not resticted by Age.

 

Dealing with the uncertainty of the indicators and what they convey takes emotional maturity, wisdom, and experience, but Age is a small factor in these things.

 

Implying a greater understanding of the universe just from time-on-planet is not something I agree with, even if I agree with your other points.

The moment I read 'well I am probably older than the rest of you so...' it starts to invalidate everything that comes after that statement.

I respect that is how you feel now.  However, as I said, we lack a common frame of reference on the subject, making it impossible for us to fairly debate the point, and I don't intend to.  Be well!

[justicebeliever]

What Homecoming did really well was prepare for the eventual scaling down of servers...

 

When the news burst in April, they scrambled to ensure they could take the capacity that came their way and then wisely moved to OVH.  It's almost a certainty that they will have to eventually start consolidating some of the servers in the future...Player activity will drop, and given the age of the game, and that the game can't really be marketed, the need for 5 full servers will diminish...All people will eventually get bored of the "same" and given the slow pace of development, it's likely that boredom will eventually outpace excitement...4 servers will become 3 and so on...

 

There will likely always be a dedicated fan-base (there were 3K of them when the game was played in secret, I can only imagine that number will be at least 5-10K as long as they can keep the server as public as they have been).

 

The only thing that would really move the needle and maintain or even increase player activity (player counts and how long they play for) would be if HC can reach some kind of deal with NCSoft to allow them to develop the game and move to some kind of a true subscription model so they can have full time development...Then "excitement" might start to outpace boredom again...

 

It's obviously does not have a financial issue...their costs can scale down very quick, and it takes very little of the player base to support the current model...

 

As with all things...you never really know what's going to happen next, so regardless of the future outcome, if you are truly enjoying the game, play it while we have it...