SWTOR gets a nice mention in Forbes Magazine

[Samborino]

I have also seen those observations, and many more similar ones. My personal experience from a Standard level server is also that most levelling planets have around 10-15 people online. Let's take that 11 to start with.

So.. there are 17 planet zones, all used for questing which could have, on average, that amount of people.

Then there are, at any time, on average, around 100 people on fleet.

Then there are, at any time, on average, about 10 people on their ship

Then there are, at any time, on average about 2 or 3 warzones going on, 8 players each.

Then there are, at any time, on average let's say 10 flashpoint groups going on (a low guess, but hey.. i dont want to be too biased).

And then there are two sides.

 

So that means, my standard, average server will have about:

 

( (11 x 17) + 100 + 10 + (3x8) + (10x4) ) x2 = 722 players online on my average server. The population feels low but is very much spread out.

 

Then there are (quick count) around 220 servers that could have the same averages.. leading to a number of (on average from my own observations) 158.840 people online on average at any one time.

 

Seeing how active players play on average 4 hours a day as said by BW themselves. That means I need to multiply that by 6 to get amount of active players. This leads me to around 950.000 active players playing that game.

 

So.. I guess.. running around one of the 17 levelling areas with 11 other people on your own faction around you means there are almost a million people playing this game.

 

I realise my numbers aren't definite.. and I realise the game feels empty. But bringing it up to actual scale shows that 11 per Hoth per server per side means a healthy population in general.

 

Most servers have an imbalance though. For instance i play on a standard server, and for the most part i play late at night. If i compare numbers for planets, on republic side nar shadaa will have 5-6 people at 12pm, if i go to imperial side nar shadaa will have 30 people at that same time. Same goes with most planets i compare. More than likely if your playing republic the server feels like more of a ghost town then it really is, because the imperial population is most likely more than double that of its republic counterpart.

[iRouven]

Haha. I know you're just trolling, but I can't help it since I'm sitting at my desk for another 20 minutes.

 

Warcraft I

Warcraft II

Warcraft III (is this jarring your memory?)

Warcraft Frozen Throne

Starcraft

Starcraft II

 

Sorry, when I said "online game experience" I mean "experience in developing and managing online games".

 

Go ahead and do some research on BWs development portfolio. I'll be here, but only for another 20 minutes.

 

Mhh, with this comparison, does Baldur's Gate or Neverwinter Nights not count then?

[OddballEasyEight]

Haha. I know you're just trolling, but I can't help it since I'm sitting at my desk for another 20 minutes.

 

Warcraft I

Warcraft II

Warcraft III (is this jarring your memory?)

Warcraft Frozen Throne

Starcraft

Starcraft II

 

Sorry, when I said "online game experience" I mean "experience in developing and managing online games".

 

Go ahead and do some research on BWs development portfolio. I'll be here, but only for another 20 minutes.

 

Oh im sorry i assumed you meant actual MMO's and not just any sort of internet games...

 

bioware did make Never Winter Nights with a very good multiplayer portion. I played it for a year or two myself.

 

But MMO's?

 

neither had any experience in that... sure blizzard had made a couple of multiplayer capable strategy games, but thats hardly the same as an MMO

[Pekish]

back then (2003/2004) an MMO that come out didnt need to have much more then EQII (actually WOW come out WITHOUT PVP ZERO NIET NADA and how many raids? there was 1? was it working? AHAAHHA)

 

so you are saying that from no experience to do what was WOW when started

it's the same like to compare from no experience to have something that can compete with 8yo WOW

 

because this is what you expect form a company with no experience a maturity equal to the one of a game expanded through 8 years

 

it's normal you will say... this is the standard so the standard went WAAAAY UP but the no experience is still no experience

 

so WOW went from 0 experience to a 100 experiece at release now is 1000exp after 8 years

 

but u obviously expect BW to go from 0 expeirence to 1000 because nowday is nowday and you think is the same

 

Amazing.

Edited March 20, 2012 by Pekish

[OddballEasyEight]

back then (2003/2004) an MMO that come out didnt need to have much more then EQII (actually WOW come out WITHOUT PVP ZERO NIET NADA and how many raids? there was 1? was it working? AHAAHHA)

 

so you are saying that from no experience to do what was WOW when started

it's the same like to compare from no experience to have something that can compete with 8yo WOW

 

because this is what you expect form a company with no experience a maturity equal to the one of a game expanded through 8 years

 

it's normal you will say... this is the standard so the standard went WAAAAY UP but the no experience is still no experience

 

so WOW went from 0 experience to a 100 experiece at release now is 1000exp after 8 years

 

but u obviously expect BW to go from 0 expeirence to 1000 because nowday is nowday and you think is the same

 

Amazing.

 

Im not sure what youre trying to say... but people need to stop looking at BioWare as a person...

 

Its a company, and they hired alot of people with alot of experience in MMO's when they started making their own MMO...

 

its not like they just took the team that made baldurs gate and said "here, go make an MMO"

[Pekish]

oh yeah my company too we hire people and the experience we have building hospital reset everytime we hire new people

 

so everytime we build a new hospital it's like our first one

 

you understand very little of how company works.

[OddballEasyEight]

oh yeah my company too we hire people and the experience we have building hospital reset everytime we hire new people

 

so everytime we build a new hospital it's like our first one

 

you understand very little of how company works.

 

Really? because every time i get hired by a company to work on cars, i dont magically forget how to fix cars...

 

EDIT: unless of course you hire new workers that have never worked on hospitals every time, but then your point is invalid...

Edited March 20, 2012 by OddballEasyEight

[nightwise]

Everyone on my server seems very happy and we still get queues sometimes on the weekends; my friend who lives in the UK tells me the same thing. It amazes me how some people who are bound and determined to hate the game yet still fork over $15.00 a month refuses to accept that yeah the vast majority of people are happy.

 

I agree im very happy with this game been playing since erly release and still love it, so does the ppl im playing with

 

Yes ther eare things that needs fixing and so on but its still really awesome

 

1 thing though, that god damn hood toogle NEED !

[harpuax]

So some people left WOW for SWTOR. Some also left for hello kitty online too at one point, others left wow to go feed children in Africa too I bet. Africa is killing WOW! OMG!

[Pekish]

Really? because every time i get hired by a company to work on cars, i dont magically forget how to fix cars...

 

EDIT: unless of course you hire new workers that have never worked on hospitals every time, but then your point is invalid...

 

you totally have no clue right...

 

I do hosptial and then i get hired to make airport i need to relearn a lot

but why i waste time with you

 

your example make no sense they use different graphic enjone probably different internet protocols... the company is the one that hold the knowledge and gain experience and his quantity of experience is huge in comparision your own is puny

 

so you are comparing your puny personal experience with a company experience and putting them on the same level why should i waste time to prove you wrong.

 

unless obviously you think very highly of yourself and think that 50 people working on 1 thing for 1 year is equal to the experience u get you in 1 year, go bro!

Edited March 20, 2012 by Pekish

[Rouge]

These kind of article titles are manna from heaven for SWTOR's public image:

 

WoW considered for iPhone while creators play Star Wars

 

http://www.slashgear.com/wow-considered-for-iphone-while-creators-play-star-wars-20219276/

 

It's not about whether it's very correct or not at the moment (only some WoW devs play SWTOR according to that Eurogamer interview), but it puts the momentum on SWTOR in the minds of people who read that title...

Edited March 21, 2012 by Rouge

[TheLonelyTusken]

How about who cares about what other people think about the game and just play it(or not play it).

[Gokkus]

I do really wonder what BW's estimates were on how big SWTOR would be after a few months. Is it doing better than expected or is this how they imagined it?

[Rouge]

I do really wonder what BW's estimates were on how big SWTOR would be after a few months. Is it doing better than expected or is this how they imagined it?

 

They were pretty vague in their public expectations, but the idea I got from their vague word was that they expected SWTOR to be in the 500 000 - 1 000 000 range in subscribers. Big compared to other subscriber MMOs but small compared to WoW. 1 700 000 subscribers, I hazard to guess is well above Blizzard's projections.

[Krazed]

OP = posting flamebait.

[Rouge]

Positive news are not "flamebaiting".

[Emperor_Troll]

swtor sold over 2 million digital/box units and stabilized at 1.7 million players. on average we are losing 100k players per month, so where are these players going if not back to wow?

[Rouge]

swtor sold over 2 million digital/box units and stabilized at 1.7 million players. on average we are losing 100k players per month, so where are these players going if not back to wow?

 

SWTOR is not losing 100 000 players per month. The game has sold over 2.2 million copies; about 85 % of people who bought the game subscribed for at least one month afterwards. At the end of February the game was selling about 25 000 copies per week globally and had "almost 1.7 million" subscribers. The game's on a slight downward trajectory probably, but 1.2 might change that and hopefully does.

 

Biggest MMO after WoW at this time when it comes to player numbers is supposedly F2P World of Tanks. I assume people who have left SWTOR have scattered wide and far in different MMOs, except those that don't play MMOs at this time, but spent their time worshipping at their GW2 shrines and spreading the gospel of ArenaNet to us pagans here on SWTOR forums.

 

Mass Effect 3 probably has taken it's share of SWTOR players, although it's apparently not selling that superbly on PC, only on the consoles.

Edited March 21, 2012 by Rouge

[Quintan]

All the ads in the world can't change the reality on the ground.

 

Less and less people are playing the game every day.

 

Are they waiting for 1.2? I'm sure some are but most the guilds I know have lost around half their members and others don't log on. I'm not happy this is happening but what can I say the truth is the truth no matter how Bioware spins it.

[Rouge]

All the ads in the world can't change the reality on the ground.

 

Less and less people are playing the game every day.

 

My feeling is that the loss has pretty much ended and the game could be gaining a little when it comes to numbers of players. But it's just a hunch, like yours.

[Emperor_Troll]

SWTOR is not losing 100 000 players per month. The game has sold over 2.2 million copies; about 85 % of people who bought the game subscribed for at least one month afterwards. At the end of February the game was selling about 25 000 copies per week globally and had "almost 1.7 million" subscribers. The game's on a slight downward trajectory probably, but 1.2 might change that and hopefully does.

 

Biggest MMO after WoW at this time when it comes to player numbers is supposedly F2P World of Tanks. I assume people who have left SWTOR have scattered wide and far in different MMOs, except those that don't play MMOs at this time, but spent their time worshipping at their GW2 shrines and spreading the gospel of ArenaNet to us pagans here on SWTOR forums.

 

Mass Effect 3 probably has taken it's share of SWTOR players, although it's apparently not selling that superbly on PC, only on the consoles.

 

so 2.2m copies sold.

 

stabilized at 1.7m three months later.

 

the three month average loss is roughly 166k per month.

 

those are pretty big losses per month.

Edited March 21, 2012 by Emperor_Troll

[Quintan]

My feeling is that the loss has pretty much ended and the game could be gaining a little when it comes to numbers of players. But it's just a hunch, like yours.

 

I hope you're right but what my eyes see every day is no hunch.

[Rouge]

so 2.2m copies sold.

 

stabilized at 1.7m three months later.

 

the 3 month average loss is roughly 166k per month.

 

It's not spread over months in that quantity. Most copies of the game were sold in 2011, over 1.7 million. Most of the "losses" would then come already during January, when those 15 % of the people who bought the game didn't subscribe for more time with the game...

[Emperor_Troll]

It's not spread over months in that quantity. Most copies of the game were sold in 2011, over 1.7 million. Most of the "losses" would then come already during January, when those 15 % of the people who bought the game didn't subscribe for more time with the game...

 

so what you're saying is that swtor was not able to retain a total of 500k players over a three month period?

 

 

time for the jawa inquisitor and gungan jedi legacy class patch!

[OddballEasyEight]

you totally have no clue right...

 

I do hosptial and then i get hired to make airport i need to relearn a lot

but why i waste time with you

 

your example make no sense they use different graphic enjone probably different internet protocols... the company is the one that hold the knowledge and gain experience and his quantity of experience is huge in comparision your own is puny

 

so you are comparing your puny personal experience with a company experience and putting them on the same level why should i waste time to prove you wrong.

 

unless obviously you think very highly of yourself and think that 50 people working on 1 thing for 1 year is equal to the experience u get you in 1 year, go bro!

 

I really shouldnt even answer you since you clearly have no clue what youre talking about but here goes:

 

Youre trying to invalidate the fact that bioware has hired people with MMO experience by saying that "every time you do make a new game you start from scratch and nobodys experience counts since its a new game engine and they use different internet protocols" which is idiotic.

Especially since the argument from the start was about how blizzard had way more experience in making MMO's (well, it later turned out that it meant "online games in general") than BioWare, and your very argument invalidates this point.

 

If youre saying that it doesnt matter how many people BioWare hires that have extensive experience in designing and maintaining MMO's, because they will "forget everything" and have to start over, then Blizzards experience in online gaming before they started WoW counts for nothing as well.

 

Argument invalid.