Player count back over 70 and over 50 on average now

[LigH]

When I left the game, we'd had 200 on at a time pretty consistently. What happened?

Some players had issues with raising hardware requirements (Pixel Shader 2.0 graphic cards).

Some players had issues with raising differences of opinions about the meaning of teamwork in the staff.

Some players had issues with raising numbers of leaving friends due to the first reasons...

[Rigwyn]

That's quite a sugar coating.

The portion of the decline that I experienced since feb 08 was due to bugs that prevented people from being able to play and an erosion in rp.

I recal an outage that lasted for weeks back in 08 that erased a good chung of the population.
After that the game stabalized for a while however many good players had left.
Over time there were fewer and fewer role players in game.
We as players did what we could to stimulate rp. The outlaws ran many rp events trying to invite players as we played.
The 0.5 update came out along with its bugs and new system requirements. This erased a significant portion of the player population.
With many good players missing rp was very difficult if not impossible.
More players left as a result of the loss of players.

For the sake of ps, hopefully the players who stayed and the new ones who joined since will figure things out and prosper

There were many arguments over in game issues but I think the above is what caused most of the decline.

[Vakachehk]

Honestly the only thing to make the tutorial easier or better, is to add in a voice chat to the NPCs the player may never speak a word but to choose it in the talk box. I honestly think that is the best way possible.

[weltall]

it's already there. mostly.

[LigH]

Almost forgot:

... and Lolitra went to hospital.

[Camazotz]

I think it's that summer is too hot. And fries your brains into forgetting that you ever stopped playing PS.

[Vakachehk]

it's already there. mostly.

Not as good as it could be though

[Roled]

I don't have a totally accurate count but I think the combined attendance at the engagement parties and subsequent search parties, in the long form rp Tues, was at least 45 to 50...
Can anyone confirm?

Also screenshots anyone?
Search parties are still looking for the kidnapped bride... lots of stuff still happening in game... join in!

RR

[LigH]

You can review the numbers in the graphs on the server stats page.

[Azlon]

I know I only come back ever so often after major updates and dabble around a bit to see what is new. Summer is the reason why it peaks, not because mommy lost her job playing farmville at work.

[Perlam]

in fact that's not true. Mostly in the summer players play less cuz they go out there and enjoy the sun, swim, catch a drink, go on vacation  etc.

It has an other reason

[Azlon]

I can believe the hardware reqs knocked people out, but I mostly believe the peak is seasonal to the summer.

[novacadian]

It is impossible for me to speak of definite reasons; as my experience is new here. However my experience of battling with hardware requirements should indicate what is keeping many new players from joining at this stage. Granted my tech was old so this is not meant as a complaint; yet it took buying a couple year old previously enjoyed desktop to get to a comfortable gaming experience. That stage cost $200+. This allows me a reasonable gaming experience in cities and towns. The wilderness is still a dark brown mud until the next step of upgrading my graphics card with a previously enjoyed geforce 9600 or so. Probably put me back about $50. Bottom line is about $275 to get into the game. Such persistence cannot be expected from everyone that happens along to Planeshift. They will try it; if it doesn't work then move along. The potential of a true RP experience is what kept my eyes on the prize.

On the positive side, if development will now focus more on fleshing what is now there and keeping hardware demands somewhat static, then we should expect most users to have at least my present tech in the very near future.

That time line would work well with the time line which fleshing out could take.

It is my firm belief that once the present upgrade settles down that the user base will continue to rise. 

- Nova

[blade21]

No it's because people are losing their jobs faster than ever before. Bad for the economy and children, but good for PS. Yay, the children are suffering! 





 

i lol'd

idk if it was me, but i thought i saw higher numbers when looking at the number of players

[RlyDontKnow]

However my experience of battling with hardware requirements should indicate what is keeping many new players from joining at this stage. Granted my tech was old so this is not meant as a complaint; yet it took buying a couple year old previously enjoyed desktop to get to a comfortable gaming experience. That stage cost $200+. This allows me a reasonable gaming experience in cities and towns. The wilderness is still a dark brown mud until the next step of upgrading my graphics card with a previously enjoyed geforce 9600 or so. Probably put me back about $50. Bottom line is about $275 to get into the game. Such persistence cannot be expected from everyone that happens along to Planeshift. They will try it; if it doesn't work then move along. The potential of a true RP experience is what kept my eyes on the prize.

On the positive side, if development will now focus more on fleshing what is now there and keeping hardware demands somewhat static, then we should expect most users to have at least my present tech in the very near future.

it's all a matter of choice as well, however building up a system that works with PS isn't that hard if you ask someone who somewhat knows what to get or not to get.
e.g. I helped a mate some months ago to build a budget system - it was about 200$ and was quite decent (quad-core @2.6GHz, decent mainboard with an ATI HD 4200 onboard (which is sufficient for PS) and some RAM which was definetely enough for PS as well - all new parts)
building a budget system isn't exactly easy, but surerly possible

anyway, I *do* think higher hardware reqs knocked out some players, but imo they're still low enough (hardware already being a few years old is still sufficient) and it's a move in the right direction, as higher requirements allow us to do a lot more interesting stuff engine wise - especially on the graphic side