Subs - Why do you care?

Nythious

 Face it, the game is either good or bad. . . and yet people flee like the plague once they hear a game loses subscription numbers.  The failure of a game becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Who cares if a game has 10,000 players or 10,000,000 players? The only thing that matters about an MMO is if you enjoy playing it.  Warcraft is popular because Warcraft is popular, doesn't mean it's a good game. . . it's popular.  Same thing goes with actors, they might not be the best actors but they draw a crowd because they are popular.  No one can seriously say N'Sync was a good band, but they sold MILLIONS of records. . . Runescape and Warcraft have tons of subscribers - mainly because you can play both of them on a calculator. . . but who really cares?

 

Do you honestly put any thought into playing a game based on how many subscribers it has? The servers are all split up and most MMO's have roughly 1-3,000 players per server, so the amount of players won't ever really alter that much.  Maybe it's because you want to be part of something larger than yourself and you feel the need to play the most popular MMO. . . who knows.

 

All i'm really saying to say is. . . Who freaking cares if a game has 10k subscribers or 10 million subscribers? Stop posting doomsday theories and crap about subscription numbers... it's like talking about the color of fruit.  An MMO's quality doesn't represent the amount of players playing, otherwise you could suggest Runescape is the second best MMO out there.  

 

So.. to make a long post short.  Stop caring about stupid numbers, it makes everyone look like a little fanboi. 

brostyn

I don't think people flee when they hear sub numbers are going done. I think they flee when they try out the game, and find out it sucks. That leads to sub numbers going down. I'd be surprised if someone was enjoying a game, then heard the subs were going down, then quit even though they liked the game. I don't think it happens like that.

Khalathwyr

Some people want to be able to say that they play the "best" and the easiest way to quantify that for them is a number.

I'm not saying that that has any merit. I don't particularly believe its valid. But, people want to argue and brag and "prove they are right", so, there you go. Humans have acted in this manner since the beginning of time and aren't going to change anytime soon.

Play a MMO you enjoy is, to me, all that matters.

HellsMajesty

i understand that playing an MMO that you enjoy is the most important factor but to me a low pop MMO is now different to paying £10 a month (dunno what you yanks are paying :P)  to play a single player rpg. Its the other players that help make an MMO what it is so high subs usually help make a better game (for me anyway)

GreenChaos

 

The fact the MMOs are a popularity contest is something developer have to factor in, I'm sure.

 

And yes once Blizzard could say WoW has more subs than anyone else if was pretty much all over.



CoX is still fun and they have low sub numbers.  Some people don't care.



I also think developers should do server mergers when they are needed.  WAR sort of messed up as far as this goes.

 

Ihmotepp

Originally posted by Nythious


 Face it, the game is either good or bad. . . and yet people flee like the plague once they hear a game loses subscription numbers. 

 

I thought they fled like the plague because the game wasn't fun. What makes you think people leave just because of sub numbers?

The sub numbers that really count are on your server. If you get a really low server pop, then the game can become quite boring if you hardly ever see any other players around. Which is why games begin to merge servers when the sub numbers drop.

ThomasN7

Because subscription numbers and sales numbers over a period of time are a benchmark on how the game is doing,

Theocritus

Originally posted by SaintViktor


Because subscription numbers and sales numbers over a period of time are a benchmark on how the game is doing,

 

     Also players dont want to invest money and time in a game where it may go under like several have the past year.......Usually a healthy population means the game wont go under anytime soon.