Lots of good info in NCsoft's 4th Q Reports found Here (http://www.ncsoft.com/eng/nccompany/ir_data_report04.asp)
Some info I see, 2 new unannounced games developed here in NA will be launched/announced.
Tabla Rasa, will be launched 4Q of 06.
To cut to the chase A LOT of new users, be it from Euro or Return users, are on the servers now. I think its time we see a 10th server!
Go to their press releases and look for their quaterly statements from 2004. It states plainly how many subscribers they had from the prelude launch until C1.
Well, the numbers show, for December that on avarage that about 3100 users at its highest peek were logged in at the same time. At that point in time PTS was not up yet with C4, and the servers were not upgraded. Also at that time, most servers were reaching near FULL status at peek times ( 28,000 peek )
With the new servers, C4, and some servers still showing full, it is some what safe to assume that the numbers are still going up.
Its just telling that with a little marketing, the game has grown at a nice pace. A 10th server will be in our future if the trend does continue.
Wow, those are some cool stats. Looks to me like L2 is building a base in NA, here I figured it was falling.
Looking at the numbers from places like Korea is very interesting. Man their player base is HUGE. Its just sad to see how much of a nose dive its doing over there.
The thing that I think is the most unusual, and very cool to see, Lineage 1 is building its base at a rapid rate, even more then L2.
Go to their press releases and look for their quaterly statements from 2004. It states plainly how many subscribers they had from the prelude launch until C1.
Go to their press releases and look for their quaterly statements from 2004. It states plainly how many subscribers they had from the prelude launch until C1.
The original number of Lineage 2 retail units sold is under the press release titled:
NCsoft Announces 2nd Quarter Financial Results that was from 8/5/2004.
There's no way to provide a direct link because its dynamic content and doesn't update the address for the site. I've given you everything you'll need to find it though.
These numbers I find somewhat concerning. In rust's latest post here on the forums, he said they'd banned over 21,000 bots in the last few months (i.e. during the time between the two numbers). There are 76,000 users apparently according to this post.
I think that makes it clear how overwhelming the presence of bots on the NA servers is. Look now at the concurrent users figure. Between those numbers, it definitely appears that bots are likely close to 50% of the players at any given time. Ouch.
I think you all missed the biggest thing:
Lineage III Korea 2006
They are not even waiting the same amount of time for Lineage II as they did in the Lineage I to Lineage II cycle.
They are going ahead with Lineage III there. What does this say for the chronicles getting to 12 and even more, there were unannounced titles coming from NA, namly the MMOG lite and the 2 other titles.
Makes you wonder if they don't see the value of this game dimishing quicker and quicker.
These numbers I find somewhat concerning. In rust's latest post here on the forums, he said they'd banned over 21,000 bots in the last few months (i.e. during the time between the two numbers). There are 76,000 users apparently according to this post.
I think that makes it clear how overwhelming the presence of bots on the NA servers is. Look now at the concurrent users figure. Between those numbers, it definitely appears that bots are likely close to 50% of the players at any given time. Ouch.
Thats a large assumtion, also please don't bring "Bots" into this, as it will get this post a golden padlock.
The Trends are what I like to look at, and there is no real way to say that this % is this type and this % is from this land. The number look positive and are going up, which is good because it might lead to us getting a new server.
These numbers I find somewhat concerning. In rust's latest post here on the forums, he said they'd banned over 21,000 bots in the last few months (i.e. during the time between the two numbers). There are 76,000 users apparently according to this post.
I think that makes it clear how overwhelming the presence of bots on the NA servers is. Look now at the concurrent users figure. Between those numbers, it definitely appears that bots are likely close to 50% of the players at any given time. Ouch.
I agree, with the launch of latest chronicle I would guess its even higher % than that, or at least it is on hindemith. Even in town its hard not to see large trains of offname players with the exact same color blue names and clanless running around. I was hoping to see a delay for these people to get a working program, but they were online faster than I could download the updates :(
And yes, dont talk about bots on lineage, wouldnt want to let people know they exist.
And yes, dont talk about bots on lineage, wouldnt want to let people know they exist.
More that it's a waste of board space in over 90% of the posts that mention it. No new information, no worthwhile suggestions, just wah wah wah.
Personally, I think there should be an "Official NC Conspiracies Thread" where people can talk about them as those as they want, with no interferance, while the rest of us can happily ignore the spam. The "NC wants to cover up the bots", "NC sells adena through a proxy", "GM's help my enemies", and "a GM was on the grassy knoll" people can post as much as they want, and I can pretend they don't exist.
I dont get it, if the bots were banned between those 2 numbers that were published, shouldn't it be a lot less? After all banned = kicked out of game and cant get back on right?
So your saying all bots that were banned re-bought the game and came back since they were banned last? I highly doubt this. I think its because of the hype of c4 and the new marketting strategy that NCSOFT is taking to get their word out. I believe its a DIRECT result of THAT.
The original number of Lineage 2 retail units sold is under the press release titled:
NCsoft Announces 2nd Quarter Financial Results that was from 8/5/2004.
There's no way to provide a direct link because its dynamic content and doesn't update the address for the site. I've given you everything you'll need to find it though.
You do know that the numbers shown by the OP reflects MONTHLY ACCESS? Thats 76,000+ monthly access, not Total subscription #s like your alluding to here. Thats 76,000 ACTIVE PLAYERS not 86,000 people who bought the game and maybe played or quit.
I dont get it, if the bots were banned between those 2 numbers that were published, shouldn't it be a lot less? After all banned = kicked out of game and cant get back on right?
Perhaps they all bought 3 month or 1 year subscriptions. :)
The original number of Lineage 2 retail units sold is under the press release titled:
NCsoft Announces 2nd Quarter Financial Results that was from 8/5/2004.
There's no way to provide a direct link because its dynamic content and doesn't update the address for the site. I've given you everything you'll need to find it though.
You do know that the numbers shown by the OP reflects MONTHLY ACCESS? Thats 76,000+ monthly access, not Total subscription #s like your alluding to here. Thats 76,000 ACTIVE PLAYERS not 86,000 people who bought the game and maybe played or quit.
Your numbers and assumptions dont make any sense.
So you're willing to assume that a not insignificant portion of the 86,000 that originally purchased the game in Prelude at the $40 didn't enjoy it and quit after their initial month.
I'm willing to agree with your assumption that the game didn't meet expectations to the degree that they couldn't retain people past their initial investment.
More that it's a waste of board space in over 90% of the posts that mention it. No new information, no worthwhile suggestions, just wah wah wah.
Personally, I think there should be an "Official NC Conspiracies Thread" where people can talk about them as those as they want, with no interferance, while the rest of us can happily ignore the spam. The "NC wants to cover up the bots", "NC sells adena through a proxy", "GM's help my enemies", and "a GM was on the grassy knoll" people can post as much as they want, and I can pretend they don't exist.
Or how about a thread of people complaining about people that complain about bots? This could go all day... point is why not let open discussion about problems? Perhaps there are more and more bot disgust threads because there are more bots? *shock and awe*
Or how about a thread of people complaining about people that complain about bots? This could go all day... point is why not let open discussion about problems? Perhaps there are more and more bot disgust threads because there are more bots? *shock and awe*
If there weren't trolls who go looking through legitimate threads looking for any excuse to whine about bots, that first question might have legitimacy. However, this is not true. For some people, everything is about the bots, from fishing to the noblesse. The rest of us don't want to hear that crap.
Open discussion is fine. Of course, for there to be discussion, you have to have something worth saying. If you discover something new about bots, NC won't censor it, they actually want you to post about it (http://boards.lineage2.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=gentech&Number=444817). If all you want to do is say "bots are bad", you're wasting board space with useless posts.
And there aren't more bot threads, so your final "talking point' is a complete lie. There are fewer threads and basically the same number of bots (fewer after a truly massive ban, back to normal a week or two later).
Go "shock and awe" somewhere that has more gullible readers. It won't fly here.
I dont get it, if the bots were banned between those 2 numbers that were published, shouldn't it be a lot less? After all banned = kicked out of game and cant get back on right?
So your saying all bots that were banned re-bought the game and came back since they were banned last? I highly doubt this. I think its because of the hype of c4 and the new marketting strategy that NCSOFT is taking to get their word out. I believe its a DIRECT result of THAT.
These numbers are from December.
Marketing push started near the release of C4 in February.
You're attributing growth to a marketing effort that occurs after the growth?
That's one heck of a marketing team to drive behavior before they even put out ads.
If there weren't trolls who go looking through legitimate threads looking for any excuse to whine about bots, that first question might have legitimacy. However, this is not true. For some people, everything is about the bots, from fishing to the noblesse. The rest of us don't want to hear that crap.
But this is new information about changes in number of accounts online, which does include amount of bots and legit players. Now unless this information only includes legit players, then I will correct myself, and then we could easily fix bot problems.
Open discussion is fine. Of course, for there to be discussion, you have to have something worth saying. If you discover something new about bots, NC won't censor it, they actually want you to post about it (http://boards.lineage2.com/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=gentech&Number=444817). If all you want to do is say "bots are bad", you're wasting board space with useless posts.
And there aren't more bot threads, so your final "talking point' is a complete lie. There are fewer threads and basically the same number of bots (fewer after a truly massive ban, back to normal a week or two later).
Go "shock and awe" somewhere that has more gullible readers. It won't fly here.
If you take a look at the number of posts that I have, you might notice Im not sitting at my computer twitching away waiting for someone to reply to my post so I can try to outwit them. If you want to save space on the forums, try looking through all of your posts and see which ones are new and worthwhile information to post. You expect people to post about how ncsoft should change a line of code in the game to prevent bots, no they do not know that information and should not know that information. YOU do not determine what is worthwhile posting and what is not, so do not advise me of what I can post. Good day sir.
f you take a look at the number of posts that I have, you might notice Im not sitting at my computer twitching away waiting for someone to reply to my post so I can try to outwit them.
Very wise. It would be a terribly long wait.
YOU do not determine what is worthwhile posting and what is not, so do not advise me of what I can post.
Due to the inevitably circular nature of these topics and the comments we have made in the past, we have decided that posts of this type are not sufficiently constructive and many repetitive posts on these issues are crowding out legitimate discussion topics.
...which is a more professional way of saying "waste of board space" :)
The numbers support my original assertion that the game hasn't really grown. It is finally getting enough subscribers to match its previous high point (right after it opened). The numbers are trending upward so perhaps it will continue to grow or it could just be that they are all the replacement accounts and extra accounts required to make up for the banned accounts. Its a big unknown.
As far as a new server? Why would they do this?
They were handling the same size population back when the game opened with only 8 servers. They already opened the extra server... its called Teon.
This does support what I've suggested in other posts as well that the game promotes 24/7 usage and thus suffers from it. Why people are connected 24/7 has a number of reasons which I won't go into but it seems like more accounts are being used for a greater percentage of the time due to the increase in concurrent users.
And yes, dont talk about bots on lineage, wouldnt want to let people know they exist.
More that it's a waste of board space in over 90% of the posts that mention it. No new information, no worthwhile suggestions, just wah wah wah.
Personally, I think there should be an "Official NC Conspiracies Thread" where people can talk about them as those as they want, with no interferance, while the rest of us can happily ignore the spam. The "NC wants to cover up the bots", "NC sells adena through a proxy", "GM's help my enemies", and "a GM was on the grassy knoll" people can post as much as they want, and I can pretend they don't exist.
i hate it when i miss such great topics as "WOW YOU CAN MOVE THE CHAT BOX" or "LETS VOTE FOR FORUM PRINCESS"
It really helps the community when everyone who spends the majority of their time posting here because they are stuck at work/school instead of "in game" making the majority of the posts. After all, it's the people who don't play the game that should be representing the rest of us to nc soft and the rest of the world.
While your sarcasm is unjustified and frankly a little childish, you do have one thing right with this:
It really helps the community when everyone who spends the majority of their time posting here because they are stuck at work/school instead of "in game" making the majority of the posts.
...the message boards do not represent everyone, since not everyone is on them. However...
After all, it's the people who don't play the game that should be representing the rest of us to nc soft and the rest of the world.
...that was just stupid. What on Earth gives you the idea that the forum regulars don't play the game?
I don't think you're dense enough to be saying that someone who posts from school/work can't play the game when he gets home, so what are you basing this little snide remark on?
Nothing but your own animosity?
I don't think you're dense enough to be saying that someone who posts from school/work can't play the game when he gets home, so what are you basing this little snide remark on?
Nothing but your own animosity?
My post was in referance to the overwhelming number of posters with lvl 2x in their signature or some thing equally... as low?
I don't consider someone who's "played" the game for 6 months but barely managed 1 class change to be a real "player". That may be a more extreme example but you get my point.
When it comes to important issues and debates, they shouldn't be commenting so matter of factly like they tend to do as they HAVE NO TRUE EXPERIANCE with the issue 99% of the time.
Someone posting from school or work, who only plays on the off hours on their level 31 mage shouldn't be debating with a hardcore player on the over crowding of the server and it's raid farmer problems, for example, as they couldn't possibly understand the situation. Them playing 'devils advocate' because they are bored and getting a pat on the back from the community coordinator does little good for the rest of us.
Most of these are most likely just reactivations of older accounts; people that left/took a break coming back for C4.
With all the *beep* *censored* going on at the moment, though, they will most likely not stay long.
Leaving the legitimate long time players back on servers with a drastically increased bo- uh farm- err... 'workforce' that has increased because they saw 'more people - more profit'.
Reality's a witch, isn't it? :p
Maybe the marketing team should go over to the head office and start some 'constructive' talks.
They finally seem to have gotten some money to market the game and put out some ads... Then the nonexistent developers ruin that market timeframe with horrible bugs. Way to go?