Originally posted by openedge1

Originally posted by jarish

I would love to see more people play this game, but saying that I think the population is very healthy. I even have seen it increase since I started playing in Feb. I do a census on the US Brandywine server and have seen the avg player number go up dramatically and stay pretty steady. If you want to check it out it is here:

http://forums.lotro.com/showthread.php?t=142234

 

Those are the average numbers that were reported for Age of Conan also...

AoC populations

Well, LOTRO is a little lower than some of the busy AoC servers.

I guess the comparison has some merit... however, those are EU AoC servers just FYI. I wouldn't be surprised if AoC's US servers were even lower >.>

 Population numbers from a "who all" can't really be compared across games very well.  Even among players that happen to be on when you do it, many factors cause the ration of players that show up to those that don't to vary among games.   That should be obvious to everyone here.

Who all commands, when used sequentially  in the the same game can give you a good idea of variance in daily and weekly  usage patterns.  If done at the same sample time over weeks or months they can also give you a good idea whether a server is growing or shrinking. 

They tell you little about how many players really are in a server (i.e., the absolute number rather than the relative number at different times), even at the time when you  sample. The problem  is that the real number of players is:

[who all players] * X

where X varies wildly across games and no-one but the devs knows what X is for a given game (save in the case of games where you are told how many players really are on at login, such as EQ and DAoC). 

Add to that that the total number of players in a given server is:

[max concurrent players] * Y

where Y is another number that varies from one game to another (as well as across servers in a given game) and that no-one knows but the devs, and it's almost an utterly pointless comparison across games.

Not trying to bag on Jarish's census.  I'm just pointing out that what you can infer from those numbers with any accuracy is limited. 

Originally posted by Yeebo

 Population numbers from a "who all" can't really be compared across games very well.  Even among players that happen to be on when you do it, many factors cause the ration of players that show up to those that don't to vary among games.   That should be obvious to everyone here.

Who all commands, when used sequentially  in the the same game can give you a good idea of variance in daily and weekly  usage patterns.  If done at the same sample time over weeks or months they can also give you a good idea whether a server is growing or shrinking. 

They tell you little about how many players really are in a server (i.e., the absolute number rather than the relative number at different times), even at the time when you  sample. The problem  is that the real number of players is:

[who all players] * X

where X varies wildly across games and no-one but the devs knows what X is for a given game (save in the case of games where you are told how many players really are on at login, such as EQ and DAoC). 

Add to that that the total number of players in a given server is:

[max concurrent players] * Y

where Y is another number that varies from one game to another (as well as across servers in a given game) and that no-one knows but the devs, and it's almost an utterly pointless comparison across games.

Not trying to bag on Jarish's census.  I'm just pointing out that what you can infer from those numbers with any accuracy is limited. 

 

Oh I know it isn't accurate. A /who in LOTRO doesn't include anon people and people doing PVMP (freeps or creeps). But from what people have said on the forums i have added a percentage to the /who numbers I get to account for those people. I just started the census to get an idea for my server if the number of people are growing or not. Just a fun thing I do every once in a while that takes five minutes. I think it is interesting to see the ebs and falls over different days and even how the pop is spread through out the level ranges.

Originally posted by jarish

Originally posted by Yeebo

 Population numbers from a "who all" can't really be compared across games very well.  Even among players that happen to be on when you do it, many factors cause the ration of players that show up to those that don't to vary among games.   That should be obvious to everyone here.

Who all commands, when used sequentially  in the the same game can give you a good idea of variance in daily and weekly  usage patterns.  If done at the same sample time over weeks or months they can also give you a good idea whether a server is growing or shrinking. 

They tell you little about how many players really are in a server (i.e., the absolute number rather than the relative number at different times), even at the time when you  sample. The problem  is that the real number of players is:

[who all players] * X

where X varies wildly across games and no-one but the devs knows what X is for a given game (save in the case of games where you are told how many players really are on at login, such as EQ and DAoC). 

Add to that that the total number of players in a given server is:

[max concurrent players] * Y

where Y is another number that varies from one game to another (as well as across servers in a given game) and that no-one knows but the devs, and it's almost an utterly pointless comparison across games.

Not trying to bag on Jarish's census.  I'm just pointing out that what you can infer from those numbers with any accuracy is limited. 

 

Oh I know it isn't accurate. A /who in LOTRO doesn't include anon people and people doing PVMP (freeps or creeps). But from what people have said on the forums i have added a percentage to the /who numbers I get to account for those people. I just started the census to get an idea for my server if the number of people are growing or not. Just a fun thing I do every once in a while that takes five minutes. I think it is interesting to see the ebs and falls over different days and even how the pop is spread through out the level ranges.

I agree, that's the sort of thing that keeping track of "/who"  is useful for (thus my 2nd paragraph).   I didn't mean to imply that you were over interpreting the results.

I play a various times on a couple of different servers. Most of the characters I play are at or nearing the current level cap. In all cases, I find the areas I play in are either largely poplulated or even OVER populated. I have recently gone back a created a new character on one of those servers and population seems pretty good as well. Not sure why someone would come in here and say populations are "low". That seems to me to be the farthest thing from the truth. I suppose it could be that LOTRO is considered the "enemy" and they would go to great lengths to cause damage to that percieved threat.

I like this game a lot, but the light and medium armor, at least for level 20 and under  does look really awful. Either like pyjamas or clown suits.  And while it's true I don't have the hi-res textures installed (since my ISP has me on a speed cap and it would take forever to download it), I've played games with smaller clients that had much better armor texture.

Originally posted by trancejeremy

I like this game a lot, but the light and medium armor, at least for level 20 and under  does look really awful. Either like pyjamas or clown suits.  And while it's true I don't have the hi-res textures installed (since my ISP has me on a speed cap and it would take forever to download it), I've played games with smaller clients that had much better armor texture.

But were you playing those games at half the intended texture resolution, or the resolutions they were designed for?  The textures in LoTRO were not designed with low rez in mind, it's just an option they added for folks with really low end PCs or slow connections.  You're missing out on a lot without the high rez client. 

Also, from level 16 on a wide variety of crafted appearance variants become available.  Try the AH, and also look into getting some dye.  Tan, green, or brown dye is very cheap, and improves the looks of a lot of the low level leather armor immensly (imo).

Wow only has the population it has cause prob 80% of the playerbase is annoying snot nosed 12 yr old juvenile delinquents. I play LoTRO and I love the mature community! I wasted 4 years of my life on WoW. If I had known a game like LoTRO existed free from little kids I would have been playing this long ago. LoTRO has got to have the best community in MMO existance right now. So I can do without 10 million little annoying 12 yr olds thank you! The population on Brandywine is pretty healthy. There's also a lot more to LoTRO's gameplay than at first meets the eye. It takes a bit to get used to things but once you do it is awesome! I can't wait for MoM! (Mines of Moria) (WoW turned upside down) Sweet!

True... Group play could have better defined roles. You can get in a group with a couple of morons and still complete the instance.....usually. Helping people in a group "catch up" on thier quests chains involves a bit of strategy in manipulating your quest log a bit (something that most people don't fig out till later lvls and several fellowships) And chac customization options/armor/weapons appearances could be a lot more/better Oh and the helmets Uugh don't get me started on the headgear appearance..............Still I like the game it has a way of sucking you in if you will let it!

I had the same opinion as you Justbe at first. But I spose that is mainly a wow thing. Have you actually checked out Monster Play?  They could very easily expand it to include world good vs evil factions. There fixin to add Session Play which will be another spin on playing as an evil char. After I got involved in the story instances and met familiar faces from the books I began to appreciate what the developers had in mind. The game plays much like a book. You can continue on with the story or you can re-read chapters you have already completed with ease (reflecting pools?)

The reason I don't play is because they ad so litle content in the start. And also the fact that you cant play evil, just good. But I don't see myself coming back to LOTRO if they don't revamp the game a bit. I wanna be evil.

And the players who started AoC and then quited either went back to wow or are waiting for WAR or Aion. Right now AoCs playerbase is getting stable, it don't quit more than join.

So as far as I see it, Turbine have 2 choices:

Get new players who never played an MMO before... Should be easiest since the world have many fans. Needs good advertising though.

Or get players from other games. That is harder, most of the MMO players play wow right now. LOTRO is a lot like WOW with nicer graphic and a bit better world but they have invested years in their characters and some of them have to lousy computers. The likeness with wow makes the sale harder.

Another problem is that many are waiting for upcomming games like WAR, AION, GW2, Spellborn, World of darkness online and so on. they are not intresting in starting a new game just a few months or so before what they are waiting for will release.

But if the trend don't turn soon, Turbine should consider merging servers. A lot of half empty servers sucks in any game. rather 5 full than 20 almost empty.