124 replies to this topic

[KorganNailo]

Yesterday I came across this article, and thought to share it here.

We all feel like there are less and less people playing, but the graph and numbers really surprised me. Maybe that is why Blizzard is putting patches out so quickly?

I don't know. Anyway, I hope they can reverse this, and fix the game to be about fun, not the RMAH.

Original Article:
http://www.cinemable...d-Up-44005.html

Players graphic:



Update:
- As many pointed out, Xfire does cause issues with D3, thus the drop is most likely related to that too.
- Xfire users are a small fraction of the user base
- Please read the "original article" as there are more things that interested me in it than just the graphic.

Edited by KorganNailo, 27 June 2012 - 03:48 PM.

[Findulidas]

Its exactly what I expected. Few games keep most players playing for more than a month. Especially when its not an mmo or a subscribed game. D3 game is neither.

[Doez]

I don't care if I'm one of 10 people left in the world playing D3.  If there is a server online, I'll be playing it.  You kids can keep on moving to games that promote your short attention spans.

[Monstah]

To give you another view on this matter then that the world is ending.

Read this: http://us.battle.net...compatibilities

"Overlay Programs
Some of the below overlay programs can cause Diablo III to crash if they are not fully updated, while others on the list may crash Diablo III even if updated.  If updating the overlay program does not prevent crashing, you will need to shut it down or uninstall it before playing Diablo III.

x Mumble

x XFire

etc. etc."


Basicly, one of the programs that makes Diablo 3 crash is Xfire. So the decline in numbers of people playing Diablo 3 when checking Xfire doesnt mean that they are infact quitting the game itself, It could also mean that they stopped using Xfire becouse of the current bug that makes the game crash.

[Shivaji]

The problem with fan sites and other places is that they rely on estimates and user reports rather than concrete numbers.  No one outside of Blizzard knows the truth about bow players are changing their play time.

That being said, there is naturally going to be a drop off in play time based on the nature of the game.  It is not an mmorpg that has more to do in game than grinding loot and the re-playability is not that strong as of yet.  

Couple that with people that are truly upset and have quit the game and you do have a recipe for a lot fewer people playing the game or not playing it as often.

[lurked]

Findulidas, on 27 June 2012 - 02:56 PM, said:

Its exactly what I expected. Few games keep most players playing for more than a month. Especially when its not an mmo or a subscribed game. D3 game is neither.

Exactly.

Also, xfire is hugely popular within the WoW community, and Blizzard did the famous "Subscribe for WoW for a year, and get Diablo3 for free!" deal. So my guess is that a lot of people came from WoW, played the game a while, then went back to WoW.

I, for one, know at least 3 people who came to Diablo3 from League of Legends, then when they beat Diablo on Inferno, they left and went back to League of Legends.

So yeah, I wouldn't read too much into this decline. It will happen to every highly-marketed non-F2P video games.

[Vuron]

Standard.  A good many of the casual players that I know consider the game over when they beat Diablo on Normal.  For a good many people, this is just another ARPG and not the life-long committment that was D2.  Spend your $60, play through to the end, and never play again.

Soon, the only people still playing will all be registered on the forums.

[Nemsai]

Most people are used to either pure PvP games like League of Legends or MMORPG`s like WoW or GW.  Therefore they where all exited and full on anticipation for diablo 3 without even knowing the game.  Most of them killed Diablo and then though the game was over and lost cried because their is no end game content.  Those people are the people actually leaving, because the real essence of diablo isn`t about killing Diablo on inferno, it`s about playing with the economy, it`s a gear trading / stats game.

We will see more and more people leave and it`s normal. At the end their will probably only be the people that actually liked D2 on D3.  People that played D2 from release to at least patch 1.10 knows how D3 will changed though time.

For all the people scared of dropping population, tell yourself it's normal and their will just be less people to screw up the economy.  I haven't seen big population drop on Hardcore and it`s probably because casual / new Diablo players won`t go on H/C.  On 8 of my friends, we where 4 that played D2 from release and we are on H/C and still having fun, the 4 others game from WoW and LoL and left the game for the reasons I told earlier.  It`s just normal, NO PANIC! =P

[KageKaze]

Honestly this is to be expected, it happens with almost any major game.  Weeks 1 and 2 are usually flooded with new people and then the numbers slow down over time.  It happens a LOT with WoW every new content patch or expansion.  Some people like to soak up all the content at once then wait for the next content release.  Others will stay around and play the whole time.  It's definitely not a doom and gloom scenario, just the nature of new things.

[robotwars2]

Doez, on 27 June 2012 - 02:58 PM, said:

I don't care if I'm one of 10 people left in the world playing D3.  If there is a server online, I'll be playing it.  You kids can keep on moving to games that promote your short attention spans.

I get a kick out of people that get so defensive about this game, that they always feel the need to include a generalized insult to feel better about themselves. There is obviously no other reasonable explanation as to why people have left this game then that they are kids with short attention spans. Boy, you know what's up.

[shamental]

What is xfire? I don't get it. 130k players base out of 6+million isnt a good number to make graphs, plus seriously what is xfire? why do people rely on that like crazy? Like someone else said before, if you like it, play it, if you don't, just move on.

[AudioCG]

Players 130,000

So....... less then 1% of the total user base?

Seriously, if I have to explain to anyone the flaw in these stats........

Edited by AudioCG, 27 June 2012 - 03:21 PM.

[ZeroEdgeir]

Flaws to that graph:

1: xFire is known to cause Diablo 3 to crash. I wonder why there is fewer people using xFire now.... HMMMMMMM. That is a real head-scratcher.

2: The sample source is so small it isn't even worth mentioning. 130,000 / 7,000,000... that is literally 1.85% of the playerbase. OMG. THE GAME IS GONNA END!

3: Too many people expected Diablo 3 to be, out of the box, a superior product, on a totally new game engine, using a totally different graphic system (3D Modelling vs Sprites), to the 12 year old Diablo 2: LoD, plus all of it's patches, and time spent doing balance and tweaks.

I see the issue with people bashing games is because they just all jump on whatever big-title band-wagon is coming next, and the moment it doesn't meet THEIR expectations (which are beyond painfully high), it is time to start bashing the game dev's for whatever reason they can come up with.

Plus, I wouldn't be surprised to see usage stats come down a little the next two months. It IS summer, and people DO go outside in the nice weather.

I'm still playing. I'm still enjoying it. And I will be for years to come. Hell, I'm glad the population is dropping off. The AH will stabilize far better, and we will stop seeing items you want posted for 500,000,000 gold, just cause some 14yr old wants to troll everyone on the AH with "Haha! Look what I got and you can't have it!"

Edited by ZeroEdgeir, 27 June 2012 - 03:39 PM.

[Tural]

ZeroEdgeir, on 27 June 2012 - 03:32 PM, said:

130,000 / 7,000,000... that is literally 0.0185% of the playerbase.

You're right on your points. But the pedantic in me wants to point out that it's actually 1.85%.

[ZeroEdgeir]

Tural, on 27 June 2012 - 03:36 PM, said:

ZeroEdgeir, on 27 June 2012 - 03:32 PM, said:

130,000 / 7,000,000... that is literally 0.0185% of the playerbase.

You're right on your points. But the pedantic in me wants to point out that it's actually 1.85%.

Crap... yer right... early morning math fails. Will edit to reflect.

[KorganNailo]

Thanks guys, I didn't know all that about Xfire.

The original article talks about a series of things, not only Xfire. I read it, posted the link, but apparently, the graph got all the attention. If you have 2 mins, read it.

Thanks =)

[Westingham]

Xfire stopped being relevant in 2006.

[AudioCG]

KorganNailo, on 27 June 2012 - 03:50 PM, said:

Thanks guys, I didn't know all that about Xfire.

The original article talks about a series of things, not only Xfire. I read it, posted the link, but apparently, the graph got all the attention. If you have 2 mins, read it.

Thanks =)

Seriously, dont use Cinema Blend, all those bloggers do is look at the D3 forums and post "news" about what ever is popular there.

They also claimed that session spoofing was actually happening, and that Blizzards servers were hacked. (Both have NEVER been proven, or even had one ounce of evidence to support)

There are other sites to reference for better, more accurate information. (even to the same kind of tune against D3)

[Nigelism]

ZeroEdgeir, on 27 June 2012 - 03:32 PM, said:

Flaws to that graph:

1: xFire is known to cause Diablo 3 to crash. I wonder why there is fewer people using xFire now.... HMMMMMMM. That is a real head-scratcher.

2: The sample source is so small it isn't even worth mentioning. 130,000 / 7,000,000... that is literally 1.85% of the playerbase. OMG. THE GAME IS GONNA END!

3: Too many people expected Diablo 3 to be, out of the box, a superior product, on a totally new game engine, using a totally different graphic system (3D Modelling vs Sprites), to the 12 year old Diablo 2: LoD, plus all of it's patches, and time spent doing balance and tweaks.

I see the issue with people bashing games is because they just all jump on whatever big-title band-wagon is coming next, and the moment it doesn't meet THEIR expectations (which are beyond painfully high), it is time to start bashing the game dev's for whatever reason they can come up with.

Plus, I wouldn't be surprised to see usage stats come down a little the next two months. It IS summer, and people DO go outside in the nice weather.

I'm still playing. I'm still enjoying it. And I will be for years to come. Hell, I'm glad the population is dropping off. The AH will stabilize far better, and we will stop seeing items you want posted for 500,000,000 gold, just cause some 14yr old wants to troll everyone on the AH with "Haha! Look what I got and you can't have it!"

I'm not agreeing with these graphs either, but a 2% sample size is more than enough if done right.

[Doez]

robotwars2, on 27 June 2012 - 03:16 PM, said:

I get a kick out of people that get so defensive about this game, that they always feel the need to include a generalized insult to feel better about themselves. There is obviously no other reasonable explanation as to why people have left this game then that they are kids with short attention spans. Boy, you know what's up.

Yep, you got me figured out.  I'm so defensive that these forums are full of people who do nothing but whine and troll.  I'm so defensive about really enjoying a game while numbers falsely dwindle from an inaccurate report from XFire.  There is obviously no other explanation than that the game is bad, Blizzard is evil, RMAH is the only thing that matters, and kids don't have short attention spans.  Glad you know what's up too, and I'm glad your attention span is here long enough to feel compelled to chime in.  Wow, I sure feel better about myself now that I don't care that you cry babies are quitting, you gd genius.

Edited by Doez, 27 June 2012 - 04:12 PM.