Sunday, October 9, 2011

MMOData Charts version 3.5 is Live !

Hey all,

This is only a small update, and way later than it should have been, nonetheless, here it is.

Most interesting is that EVE is holding on to it's subs, at least up to July 2011, altho the PCU is dropping. We will have to wait and see if the PCU drop is only due to the summer holidays or if there is a more structural problem with subscriptions.

Meanwhile CCP is working hard to get the veterans back on board :
a letter to the followers of eve
eve updating - winter expansion 2011

Moving on to World of Warcraft, Blizzard can not curb the downard trend it started in May and hits a new low at 11,1m subs, however if this trend continues, WoW will live on for a good while.

Actually, I think both EVE and WoW are still one of the more alive MMORPG's on the market, and with the right adjustments they can have a bright future.


Version 3.5 notes :

General Changes :

- Added subscription datapoints for :
Eve Online, World of Warcraft
- Added following MMORPG's to the PCU 0-500k chart :
Tera Korea, ZT Online II
- Added PCU datapoints for :
Eve online, Second Life, Westward Journey Online II, World of Warcraft
- Expanded charts, sheets and formulas to December 2011

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Will CCP save EVE? Emergency CSM meeting ( edit : results are in )

After the EVE meltdown, CCP called for an emergency CSM meeting.

MadOverlord aka Trebor from the CSM gives us some hope.

Lets pray EVE gets saved.

edit :

And this is what CCP and the CSM has come up with :
CCP - CSM meeting Devblog

It is not perfect, far from it, but it is a step in the right direction.
I am still puzzled as to why they just can't simply return the old hangar view with a "disembark to captain quarters" button, but we will have to wait and see what they come up with.

Sunday, June 26, 2011

MMOData Charts version 3.4 is Live !

Hey all,

With me having more time to spare, I pulled MMOData from maintenance mode and went back to full throttle.

Most important change for the future is the addition of Active Accounts, which will allow me to list more MMORPG's overall. From now on, all MMORPG's will be marked as AA ( Active Acounts ) or SS ( Subscriptions ), so it is easy to see the difference. Clearly Subscriptions are more important but it is interesting to see Active Accounts as well I believe.

Most interesting additions right now are of course the newly released Rift and the decline of WoW. I received a usable datapoint for Rift right before the deadline so there you go.

WoW going from 12 million to 11,4 million is to me a result of making the game to easy to max level. You can't even experience all the content because you level out of the areas way before you have seen it all. Same goes for instance queueing, and god forbid you want to do instances AND quests ... it is a shame really, because the game has improved content wise imho.

Second Life makes a serious entrance in the Active Accounts department, I also got back on track with the PCU datapoints for Second Life, thanks to Dwell On It.


Version 3.4 notes :

General Changes :

- Migrated the Subscription charts to Subscriptions and Active Accounts charts. Each MMORPG received a tag ( AA = Active Accounts or SS = Subscriptions ).
- Added Rift to the charts.
- Added Subscription and/or Active Account datapoints for Wow, Aion, LOTRO, Second life, EVE Online and Rift.
- Added a Subscription datapoint for WoW East and West for January 2009 using the previous ratio, this was needed because otherwise it made it look incorrect on the charts, East and West seemed to increase while Global went down. In reality there was nothing wrong, it just seemed that way because Global had more datapoints.
- Removed the Chinese downtime datapoint for WoW on the 1m to 12m chart. The WoW specific chart still shows the Chinese downtime datapoint for reference.
- Added PCU datapoints for Second life.
- Made some revisions to following Subscription and/or Active Account datapoints : AoC, Aion, LOTRO, WAR, DDO
- Removed the Second Life subscription datapoints as they were quite old and no new data was available. This has been replaced with MUURL numbers ( Monthly Unique User Repeat Logins ) and therefore Second Life datapoints are now marked as Active Accounts.
- Moved Second Life from the 50k - 150k chart to NR 1 in the 150k - 1m chart.
- Moved Lord of the Rings Online up to NR 4 in the 150k - 1m chart.
- Removed a Perpetuum datapoint for better visibility.
- Changed the Accuracy Rating system : removed the D rating and adjusted the C rating. Revised the MMORPG ratings accordingly.
- Made some adjustments to the "Requirements for MMO's to be allowed on the site and charts" section under the "Accuracy Rating and Requirements".
- Made some cosmetic changes to the site.
- Added Dwell on it to contributers.

Internal Changes :

- Added a lot of source data.
- Removed unusable source data.
- Removed unusable Second Life data.
- Fixed several internal errors.
- Removed market share chart.
- Added EVE Online Active Accounts in addition to Subscriptions. Active Accounts include the Trial Accounts.

Friday, June 24, 2011

Riots in EVE against Microtransactions and forced Incarna expansion

Hey everyone,

For the first time in EVE there are massive protests in all the major trade hubs.

The reason is the introduction of microtransactions into the game, the crazy prices charged for them, a leaked document from CCP where several high profile employees support the introduction of gameplay impacting microtransactions ( on top of the newly added vanity items ) and the forcing of the Incarna expansion on the EVE players by removing the old station hangar and loading directly into the captains quarters.

CCP has broken the trust from the players, by first promissing gameplay altering microtransactions would not be introduced ( meanwhile making plans to do just this ) and secondly by telling that Incarna would be optional ( with a "leave ship" button when inside the station hangar ), and now breaking also that promise.

Not to mention it is a very bad idea to introduce microtransactions to an established mmorpg in the first place, especially when said mmorpg has 360k+ subs and growing!

CCP are changing the foundations of EVE for no good reason but wanting to get fucking filthy rich instead of just filthy rich. And furthermore it is higly unlikely that they will earn more money this way, because history has shown, that for EVE, the pure subscription model works very well. Expand and improve the game and get rewarded by custumers staying and more customers joining.

EVE is as much a creation by the players as it is by CCP, by destroying the trust, EVE will failcascade hard, just like Star Wars Galaxies did, that other well known Sci-Fi sandbox, which will close down this december. SWG closing down
Which of course is the result of the CU and the NGE, where the SWG foundation was completely changed by changing many sandbox aspects into themepark systems, as Sony Online Entertainment and Lucas Arts aimed for replacing their current playerbase by more and better players. This completely backfired and the game dropped from 300k to less than 50k subscriptions over time.

The trade hubs Jita and Amarr are already capped and the statues burning, Rens and Dodixie are going next, altho at Rens and Dodixie the protest is more peacefull because there is no statue to shoot at those locations, and the protest is limited to shouting slogans as "Hell no, we won't micro" and "No forced Incarna!".

A condensed version of the issues, recommended reading.

Some background info

Jita live feed

Post on Jita protest

CCP bulletin on microtransactions confirmed

EVE NEWS 24 story coverage

Eve burns
Eve burns part II

Here a screenshot of Jita 4-4 burning :

And protest in Rens :


Update :
CCP clearly capped Jitta at 1500 players, normally Jita can support over 2000.
Amarr is at 1200+ and going up.
Rens is at 500+ and increasing.

Update :
Dodixie at 700 and rising.

Update Friday 22:00h GMT :
The protest still going strong.
Here another screenshot of Jita :

Update Saturday 10:00h GMT :
The protest and riots coninue on Saturday, Jita still burning.

Update Saturday 20:00h GMT :
Riots still going on, Jita is locked down, I can't enter, heavy protest continues in Amarr.

Stay tuned for updates.

Sunday, June 19, 2011

New version 3.4 will be released soon!

Version 3.4 is pretty much ready.

I am waiting on a few numbers for confirmation and will revise the whole thing during this week.

It has become a more beefy upgrade, now that I have some more time to spare. So you guessed it, MMOData is now officially off "Maintenance mode" and back in full throttle.

Here are some of the highlights you can expect in v3.4 :

- A new WoW datapoint : 11,4m, showing a substantial decline( comming from 12m ). I do not expect WoW to recover this time, unless some drastic but well thought out changes are made.

- For the first time, I am introducing Active Accounts to the charts. Each MMORPG will receive a tag ( AA = Active Accounts or SS = Subscriptions ). So it is clear what the datapoints represent.
Because of this, I was able to add new Active Account datapoints for LOTRO and Second Life.

- I made some adjustments to the "Requirements for MMO's to be allowed on the site and charts" section under the "Accuracy Rating and Requirements", mostly to accomodate the introduction of Active Accounts.

- I changed the Accuracy Rating system : removed the D rating and adjusted the C rating and revised the MMORPG ratings accordingly. This will make it a bit easier for me to choose which rating an MMORPG will get and it will be more accurate because of this. It will also be more clear for you, the readers.

- Added alot of internal information and datapoints, that will most likely result in more numbers for next version (3.5).

The Active Accounts introduction as wel as catching up with the latest in MMORPG land was a bit of work, but I am back up to speed now.

I do have to dissapoint the many people who requested Rift to be added, I really want too, but I just don't have enough information. So if anyone has more information regarding Rift that might help put it on the charts, that would be very welcome.

The Syndicate - Beyond The Legend

Sean Stalzer made a book called "The Syndicate - Beyond The Legend".

He describes Online Gaming and MMORPG's as seen thru the eyes of The Syndicate.

The Syndicate is a well established online gaming guild.

MMOData.net is used on several occasions as a reference.

You can check out the book here :
Book : The Syndicate - Beyond The Legend

Saturday, May 28, 2011

MMOData Charts version 3.3 is Live !

MMOData.net is still running in maintenance mode.

Most important updates are,

The addition of Perpetuum to the charts. A relative new and small MMORPG. After the initial hype their subs dropped substantially, however it seems that they are slowly curving up now. I wish them all the best with their sandbox Sci-Fi mmorpg as there are only few of them.

EVE Online, that other sandbox Sci-Fi game is doing great again. After it's biggest growth month over month in Juli 2010, it had a little dip during September - November 2010, but now they are growing again. And it looks like a small but sustainable growth, it had 358k in Januari 2011 and 364k in May ( which is higher than the 361k in Juli and thus it's highest number yet ).

Version 3.3 notes :

General Changes :

- Added the MMORPG Perpetuum.
- Added Perpetuum datapoints.
- Added Eve Online datapoints.
- Revised the MMORPG definition, changed server into shard.
- Revised the "About" section.
- Added "Become a contributor" section.
- Revised chart titels : changed MMOG into MMORPG.
- Added Avatar Creations ( Perpetuum ) to contributors.
- Expanded charts to June 2011.
- Made some cosmetic changes.

Internal Changes :

- Re-added the Market share chart, internal only.
- Expanded the Market share chart.
- Added disclaimer on market share chart.
- Added various information.

Monday, May 9, 2011

EVE Online reaches a new high !

With 364875 active paying subscriptions in March 2011, CCP curbed the downward trend into a new high. The previous high was in Juli 2010 with 361389 subs, so now CCP has an increase of almost 3000 subs.

They had a dip in between the two records, which was to be expected as their previous high was the biggest growth they ever achieved month over month. Their current high looks alot more stable as they had 357918 subs in Februari 2011.

So it seems they are back, growing slowly but steadily, as they have the past 8 years ( Oh yeah, happy birthday EVE Online :p ).

Their latest expansion, Incursion, is also generally better received by the playerbase than the previous, Tyrannis and it seems CCP is listening more to the players now than ever.

Thanks to CCP for providing me with numbers ( even if they are not good at times ).

New version in the works

Hello everyone,

I finally found some spare time to work on the charts again. So stay tuned :p


See you soon.