Lots of 'game is dead'...

[Mayhem]

Trying to decide between coming back to play AO or TSW. I'd rather come back to AO I think, but I keep seeing "the game is dead" etc in threads around the forums.

Is it really low pop now? Is it going to be a lonely/boring experience to level up a new char? Should I not even bother coming back?

[Notevenmad]

Game is quite dead mate, battlestations dont run anymore cause fc nerfed them and leveling never happens unless u do pocket teams etc and even that only happens on prime time. Economy is wrecked thanks to several cred sploits that were never fixed properly and there isnt much normal pvp either

all in all, i wouldnt say the game is worth paying for at this state

[Cratertina]

Game is as populated as it has been for last few years. Atleast on Omni side. Clans tend to have left it seems.

This Morning i have seen full tara raid, about 10 hours from primetime, evenings get upwards of 50-60 peps.

For omnis numbers are better then ever.

Leveling is so easy people usually just solo or pay for them.

However if you are a lowbie claner without resources. God help you.

Would you wanna play that?:-D Its as good as it ever was.

[ByLogic]

It is just peoples ability to play games that is dead.

[Oliveerz]

I just resubbed, im satisfied.

[vitriolic-v]

Keep in mind that perspectives on this issue will differ for a number of reasons, and the population being good or bad is largely a matter of perspective. The only case in which the population can be considered objectively to be not enough by all parties involved is if it were to sink so low that Funcom were forced to pull the plug, and that isn't happening yet.

Some people play almost exclusively during prime hours, by happy coincidence, and conversely, some people end up stuck exclusively with off-prime hours.

Another factor is optimism and/or wishful thinking versus pessimistic desperation. Some people might be dishonest, either with you or with themselves, by reporting that population is A-OK. I'm not saying it's not, just that some people who say it is at an OK level with them might not be reporting honestly, possibly because they think that reporting that it is just fine might become a self-fulfilling thought when you hear that population is okay and don't question it and subscribe and hey, there's one more person playing, and if that happens a lot, then the population *is* pretty good suddenly, isn't it?

Yet another factor is self-sufficiency. Long time veteran players may have froob buffing accounts, a 220 for every profession across several accounts, and well-equipped dungeon characters at every level-lock, and therefore be able to both progress, or even power-level, engage in PVP, and play endgame without any obstacles, without sitting on shopping channels spamming trying to sell to make credits to get equipment, without spamming OOC waiting for someone to please dear god buff them with Essence of Behemoth, without waiting around to form a team to make up for their gimpy gear and inability to afford current nanocrystals. Some people don't have that self-sufficiency (and it doesn't mean they're not smart enough or are bad players and so we shouldn't care), and if you couple the negative scenario in all aforementioned factors with this, the game would seem dead and unplayable and no fun to people facing these issues.

So I'll say this. There are still people subscribing month to month, and I'm one of them. I got my roommate to subscribe month to month as well. We're doing alright. Got into a decent org, help is generally there when I need it, though because of my ridiculous and inconsistent sleeping schedule, I have encountered dead times before.

To the original post: Come play with us. You obviously want to, and are only hesitant because you think there's a chance you might be wasting your money. You know it's a good game at its heart, though. The playerbase, though... well, that's up to you!

[Cronosingh]

The population is fine for a very old mmo. Join an active org, will help a lot. I myself have multiple accounts so I can do stuff when friends aren't online, but most of the time I'm doing something with an org mate or friend.

[vitriolic-v]

The other thing is, if you want to get more out of this population, you kinda have to "be the change you want to see." Offer help to people when you can't find help toward your own progression. Help to create that positive feedback loop of helpfulness.

[Traderjill]

I found things to be extremely dead when I returned about 6 weeks ago. In addition to working on an old 220 project and tl5 twink I decided to start leveling a new toon. I've ended up primarily leveling solo out of no other choice. LFT is always empty, requests for teammates via neutnet and dnet haven't panned out. Most of the people I know, including orgmates, prefer to just level their toons quickly on kite hill rather than do the old-style (what I call normal) teams. In fact, there were a couple times where I spammed to organize a team and a friend messaged asking if I wanted a spot in an afk-leveling team instead.

For the past month Clan OOC has been filled with people first complaining about the DM bug and then swapped over to complaining about the horribly implemented 'fix' for said bug. Still a lot of whining about multi-boxing as well. I'm pretty sure I sat in a bot last night, as a guest, and watched someone carry on for the better part of 2 hours complaining about the broken nature of their NT. The 'I hate Funcom but I love the game' attitude seems to be common and if you allow yourself to be around it too much it'll put a damper on the game (It can be hard to avoid.. I've had to put 5 friends on ignore in game because I felt they were just toxic to my playtime with their ranting.. that's a lot considering most of my friends have stopped playing.)

PvP wise.. well I'm not a leader in that area. When I was playing last year this time I decided that I'd try to start pvping again (hadn't really been seriously involved since Pre-LE). I created 3 toons for PvP that sat dormant because Clan doesn't seem to have an active pvp system. Tnet and bangbot were actually still technically 'up' last year this time but no one was using them. Now they're both gone and there's not been a replacement. I tried signing up for battlestatons.. in the entire 6 weeks that I've been back, I got invited once on my tl5 and then kicked out about 3 min in due to not enough Omni accepting. I did manage to have a fun round of Borealis street PvP on my tl5 trader, but standing in Bor listening to people that can't form complete sentences or are entertained by berating each other isn't my idea of entertainment.

Anyway, just my perspective as someone that doesn't sit around 'waiting' for teams, takes an aggressive approach to organizing and is pretty well known in the game. I've had a tough time with teams.

That being said, I've also had a lot of fun. Though I've heard nightmare stories, I joined a few iraid raids and they went pretty smoothly. I had 3 accounts active so I could still solo quite a few things without other players. I met a couple cool groups (Most Wanted- new PvP org and Unholy Destruction- new PvM org) and have done some raiding with my org, of course.. they never seem to die down.

TLDR: There are some negative aspects regarding population but they can be overcome.. it just depends on what org(s) you affiliate yourself with and how much effort you choose to put into being active.

[semisentient]

I personally love all things post apocalyptic. And AO has that feel right now. You don't run into people often and you can't count on help and teams but it is more fun than ever. And if you can dual or multibox a pair or a few chars, theres really no need to rely on others. The world is as vast and complex as ever and there is always too many things to do.

Everything takes on a new challenge just like in most post apocalyptic scenarios. If you keep thinking about how it was before the apocalypse and things were populated you are not going to have a good time. Instead relish in the experience and enjoy all the challenges in a new light.

[Oliveerz]

People are seriously exaggerating, nothing wrong with AO.

[ultion]

People are seriously exaggerating, nothing wrong with AO.

Can't find a team? Exaggerating. Can't get a into a functional BS? Exaggeration. Can't find a buff? New player and can't afford much of anything? Stop exaggerating people.


You don't speak for everyone. I am glad that you are happy, but others have valid concerns and complaints and you don't have the right to be so dismissive of them.

[Xootch]

if you come back, hit me up on my fix or agent. ah. wth, come back ig!

and what char do you want to level? an mp finally? i leveled another engi yesterday, nasc was full of noobs, you'll be fine.

[Metafizis]

And if you can dual or multibox a pair or a few chars, theres really no need to rely on others. The world is as vast and complex as ever and there is always too many things to do.

Maybe they should lable it a MMBO.

[Xootch]

Maybe they should lable it a MMBO.

welcome back from summer camp.

[Caloss2]

welcome back from summer camp.

As you say that, honestly most games are quieter during summer months I think we just notice it more in AO due to a smaller population.

[plasmologist]

I just resubbed yesterday. Been gone for a few years. The games fun. There seems to be plenty of people to do whatever. Once I track down an active Org I think I'll be set. I'm just trying to catch up on the changes.

Point being, if you enjoy AO then you will have fun. The games far from being "dead".

[Caloss2]

I just resubbed yesterday. Been gone for a few years. The games fun. There seems to be plenty of people to do whatever. Once I track down an active Org I think I'll be set. I'm just trying to catch up on the changes.

Point being, if you enjoy AO then you will have fun. The games far from being "dead".

Yeah have to agree with you there, I came back in sept last year and of course numbers where growing leading into xmas period it felt like a very busy game again, it has dwindled a little but over the last 13 years we've seem that every year anyway.

[Xootch]

As you say that, honestly most games are quieter during summer months I think we just notice it more in AO due to a smaller population.

i'd have to lie if i was to say i missed metafiss

[juggaloklown]

I just resubbed, im satisfied.

I bet a lot of us resub every few months or so and the first 2-4 weeks we are "satisfied".

For me, the realization sinks in that, to get stuff done I can't play the game at my own schedule...I have to try to be online at a certain time, then hope I don't have too hard of a time getting a team. Prime time doesn't feel much better to me and it kind of feels like the prime time window has even shrunk.

So often finding a good team feels like random luck for me, so much time spent trying to form a team...I used to be the person who just waited for invites, up until about 2008 that worked out fine for me...but then I had to actually put in work to get teams...but that gets more stressful for me every time I come back and I hate having to sub my pocket account to get certain things done.

Eventually I get multiple alts stuck at a point where it's hard to find teams as often as I need to keep me satisfied,so I'm going from alt to alt trying to make or get a team, I have to compromise and play an alt that I'm not as interested in focusing on that day.

The BS daily being changed to once a day was kind of the last straw for me, because when I got frustrated with the low population and other things I would take a few days away from AO and only login to do the dailies.

Some people believe the population has stayed the same the past year or two....I personally feel that it's been a noticeable decline every year...at this rate I expect to go to Borealis in a year or two and feel like I'm on test server again.