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Reader Comments (21)

Posted: Jan 15th 2011 4:28PM Beau Hindman said

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Just a side note: I've covered Alganon quite a bit, and we've now had the figure "near 100k active accounts" being pushed by the developer. Small? Compared to the larger free-to-play games out there, yes -- but definitely dwarfing many other games.

Beau

Posted: Jan 15th 2011 5:19PM Dril said

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@Beau Hindman

100k players? On 2 servers? ONE topic in general discussion having a topic posted in today (22:18 GMT)?

No. I don't believe the 100k one bit.
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Posted: Jan 15th 2011 8:09PM Beau Hindman said

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@Dril Well I'm not sure it matters if any of us believe it or not. There are many indie MMOs that simply close down -- heck there are many "AAA" MMOs that simply close down. Alganon has not only continued to stay open, but has continued to expand.

So, believe it or not, you will only miss out on a potentially fun game for you if you let that stand in your way. For myself, if the dev says it I believe it. Why should I not? The population has nothing to do with the game being any good -- if it were that tiny it would just disappear. If I don't like it I just play something else. Heck, WoW is massive but I don't play that -- so there ya go! lol

Beau
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Posted: Jan 15th 2011 8:11PM Beau Hindman said

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@Dril OH, as far as where I got that information -- it was this site, here. Not sure where you meant that you got yours. The developers told me, in my very column.

Beau
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Posted: Jan 16th 2011 3:06AM cic said

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@Beau Hindman
"near 100k active accounts"

As p2p is measured in 'active acounts/concurrent? What is this stat?
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Posted: Jan 16th 2011 9:15AM Beau Hindman said

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@cic The figure was 100k active accounts -- as in "active" not registered users:

"Obviously just because we are approaching the 100K active accounts mark, doesn't mean that they are all online at the same time. You either believe it or not, but yeah we're going to be hitting the number pretty soon.
And these are not numbers of created accounts. We have detailed metrics which track created accounts, activated accounts, accounts that have entered and played the game, accounts that have bought something, when, how etc."

That's the quote. Pretty interesting, but it does make sense if you ask me. He is not claiming that the game is filled to the brim with players -- after all, many players can make an account and play rarely *compared* to a raider or end-gamer - but still often.

This is why metrics are wacky. Even if the game had 50k, or 400k doesn't matter. The proof will still not stop us from making up our own mind. Also, there are games with more and less than Alganon and have shut down -- again, so many factors are at play.

Beau
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Posted: Jan 16th 2011 11:51AM Lenn said

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@Beau Hindman To be fair, the second a train leaves station A to go to station B, it starts approaching station B, even if A and B are 1,000 miles apart.
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Posted: Jan 17th 2011 9:40PM Jergis said

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@Beau Hindman

-On the active user thing, he actually described this metric in another forum post in greater detail. The definition provided was that a player registered, logged in, created a character and played that character in the game world. Which could include folks that tried it and quit, never got past the first day playing, etc.

I think the definition bothered folks more than it should, but the definition provided isn't necessarily that of 'currently active and playing accounts' which is what most would interpret that stat to be. Difference in perspective of the meaning of that word, i guess.

Jergis
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Posted: Jan 15th 2011 4:52PM HHsilver said

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Something as simple as a screen shot like this one can make me want to check out a game. I will have to go back and read Beau's coverage!

Posted: Jan 15th 2011 5:11PM BigAndShiny said

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I don't know. I could never get over the fact that it's exactly the same as WoW

Posted: Jan 15th 2011 6:13PM Grendel said

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The official website is such an ugly early-90s-looking thing, this alone just drives me far far away from trying out this game.

Posted: Jan 16th 2011 12:41AM Thasri said

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I going to try it out, nothing else to do atm. Waiting to beta test Rift again is a bit of a hard wait, lol. I've been playing RoM, yea I know, I was playing Allods for a bit to but I can't play it any more for some reason, it annoys me, not that RoM is much different.

Posted: Jan 16th 2011 4:40AM Dread said

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100k active accounts...

Because Derek Smart said so??

ROFLMAO!!

Posted: Jan 16th 2011 6:52AM Grendel said

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@Dread That's what I thought. ^^
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Posted: Jan 16th 2011 6:15AM Gaugamela said

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Tried to play it but couldn't get hooked by the game. Too generic for me.

Posted: Jan 16th 2011 12:43PM ChaosInc said

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If I want to visit Tristfall Glades, I'll just do so in WoW. Glad to see Smart is still failing to fulfill his "promise" of making it less like WoW.

Posted: Jan 17th 2011 12:37AM Justpotatoes said

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Okay, here's a secret. I actually liked Alganon during the one brief time I tried it. (*ducks*) The game was prettier and more fun than I expected based on the reviews I'd read, and the cash shop prices seemed reasonable. But the forums scared me. I saw Derek Smart flame a couple of active posters, and decided it wasn't the game for me. Apparently, the forums scare a lot of other people too, because they're completely dead now.

I don't like Funcom, but at least I know they won't flame me if I have issues with the game or my AoC account.

Posted: Jan 17th 2011 10:21AM dsmart said

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@justpotatoes

This sort of fabrication is the root cause of things that get propagated for no apparent reason.

Fact. Nobody gets flamed. Ever. Go ahead, our forums are free and open, so please post a single thread that shows someone getting flamed. Sure, one man's "firm" post is another man's flame; but I'm not responsible for someone's feelings or lack of reading comprehension skills.

There is a reason that most game forums are lawless, get their threads, posts etc deleted, banned etc. It is NO different from ours - other than we have an absolute ZERO TOLERANCE policy for that sort of thing. Anyone wanting to vent their angst or demonstrate their [false] right to Free Speech is welcome to do it somewhere else. That's why there are rules.

Being civil goes a long way. One can still be upset about something and be able to articulate it in words without being rude and condescending towards others.

The anonymity and inconsequential nature of the net makes it easy for people to do that sort of thing and get away with it. But when an industry figure goes off the reservation, everyone gets to cry foul because then we're in the realms of accountability - and just because everyone knows who we are.

Screw that.

The Alganon forums are civil and we value quality over quantity. So just because someone (like you) posts something (false) like this on a forum, doesn't make it so.

I've been doing this a VERY LONG time and we can spot troublemakers a mile away. We have no desire to tolerate rude behavior by catering to one person while losing ten others. Alganon is a niche game and as most know - and have openly said - has one of the friendliest forums and game community on the Net. We like it that way and it is never - EVER - going to change.

Posted: Jan 17th 2011 9:33PM Jergis said

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@dsmart :

But it's not 'friendly' to take this tone in *every* single post in which you have a disagreement. Go check your own forums, right now. How many active posters are there now? In the last week?

3, 4 maybe?

Half of those new posts are technical questions and problems with the game client.

Now look at the way it was before you came on board with your style.

Chart it out, if you wish. Compare the activity over the life of the game. The catalyst for the marked decrease in active posters and community members should be evident.

We (myself and the other community members that left) don't think you're evil, we just think you don't have any idea how to manage a community in an MMO. That's not a bad thing. It's the same reason you hire programmers, music composers, etc. Let the people that are good at what they do do their job.

You seem to be good at managing a business, dealing with investors and employees, etc. So go do that, and get someone that has more Sanya Weathers to them than Drill Sergeant Steve.

Jergis
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