Grim reading?

[Guy De Alsace]

<p><a href="http://www.mmogdata.com/?q=node/14" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.mmogdata.com/?q=node/14</a></p><p>Dont know which forum this should be in but anyway. I dont know about anyone else but those EQ2 figures dont feel right to me. If they are then SOE need to get their finger out and put more than three quid into the marketing budget.</p>

[bensilvi]

what kind of creditable source is that? Only ones that know they actual numbers is SOE and if they are not marketing then they are happy with the smaller numbers. ITs not always about being the largetst player on the block, its nice to have quality product with a nice manageable player base that you can keep for a long long time. IM happy with the pop on the servers i play, think about how it would be if there were so many millions of people playing they would be camps on the needed named and much more. Sure it would be nice to never have to LFG longer than 15 minutes but i dont think we will ever see the numbers Wow has and that is ok with me. A little more yeah but not 8 million.

[Ithilmar]

Seems about right. I've always heard the population was ~150K-200K It wouldn't be hard to get a general idea of accounts for EQ2 at all, thanks to eq2players.com. Comparing EQ2 to FFXI per se(which give out rough numbers of populations and subscribers at the same point every year), FFXI servers always seem 'busy' compared to EQ2s, at almost any time you can do a server search and find 3000+ population *in game*, where as try the same thing in EQ2 and you will find that during the late night hours, populations are easily ~500, of course neither counting /anon people. Comparing oneself to WoW is impossible, WoW is a work of flawed genius, Blizzard made a super great cash cow, but in the end, just being able to have 150K+ subscribers tends to be more then enough to keep games going with active Dev cycles for a while. Is it any real shock that Warcraft and Final Fantasy have some of the most impressive numbers? How many people know the names of those as soon as you mention them(doesn't even have to be pertaining to the MMOs), versus how many people know about Asheron's Call, Mu Online, ect(left out everquest, because while people 'know' about EQ, most people tend to still associate EQ with the EverCRACK due to the stories)? That's why if you look at MMORPG.com upcoming releases, Warhammer, Age of Conan, Lord of the Rings, Stargate, ect. Everyone is trying to get their big name out the to dominate a sector of the MMO boom we are currently in.

[VizP]

Not sure whats new here - its around 200k-250k and has been around that much for what, last two years? If anything the graph shows that the population in EQ2 is static except for a very slight decline this year which in truth isnt hugely visible (and in truth I am sceptical about - EoF didnt result in population decreases, it resulted in increases. Vanguard sure as heck didnt make a big impact because it was rubbish and I cant imagine much loss to LoTR). However EQ2 seems to be gaining momentum - its recieving finally the recognition it deserves in the MMO community for one of the best experiences around (so many people are coming and stating they can't believe they hadnt heard of eq2 before or hadnt tried it but had come here because of recommendations). With that and launch of RoK for high lvl gamers (but still it means EQ2 advertising, and it will include all the expansions in the box), I can imagine a slow population rise in the future. Nothing dramatic but hey perhaps 300k to 400k over the next year or two? EQ2 is in no trouble of losing players I think - even when Warhammer is released - it caters for a different type of MMO gamer for sure and by then I am sure EQ2 will have released something equivelent or announced perhaps RvR for the expansion after Kunark.