So, we are free to play now

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by Earl Atogrim von Draken, Nov 8, 2018.

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  1. Earl Atogrim von Draken

    Earl Atogrim von Draken Avatar

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    Is it just me or did it really help?
    Much more going on in game imo.
     
  2. Sean Silverfoot

    Sean Silverfoot Avatar

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  3. Steevodeevo

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    It did for a short while, although universal chat seems to have helped generate more discussion, players helping players and grouping and will remain useful.

    In terms of Steam usage data, which I appreciate is a small proportion of the overall user base (but I imagine a not insignificant portion of the new users since free to play), it peaked rapidly and is now falling /has fallen rapidly close to where it started.

    For me this is frustrating and disappointing as many new users, now left, cited reasons for leaving as confusing and buggy new player tutorial scenes, broken starter quests, hitching, general poor performance, befudlement with the combat system and character development.

    All things that could and should have been given time and investment to fix and polish before going FTP.
     
  4. Cordelayne

    Cordelayne Bug Hunter

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    [​IMG]
     
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  5. Earl Atogrim von Draken

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    Hard to verify for me. Didn't do the starting area for ages. Should take a look and report some bugs maybe.

    Edit:
    Just took a look at the steam reviews and they are terrible at the moment.
    After taking another look i realized there are a couple of accounts in there that have no games beside sota...with names like "sheepwillprevail". Wow, somebody really has an axe to grind there as it seems.
    That doesn't help the justifyed complains also Oo
     
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  6. Brass Knuckles

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    I’m baffled at the recent trend, I expected the numbers on steam would sky rocket with ftp. It’s the only measure we have and not an accurate player count but that single performance is not even close to what I thought the result would be.

    I’m guessing other than the press release there has been no advertising yet?
     
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  7. Gorthyn

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    I think we and Port would do well not to underestimate the poor reputation the game has built up (for reasons both deserved and undeserved) it's going to take ALOT of in game improvements and concerted advertising to turn that trend around.
     
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  8. Black FjP

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    I'm still seeing a lot of new players amd returning players. I know this is anecdotal, but we can't imagine a scenario where the terrible steam reviews causes the ratio of steam to nonsteam usera to diverge? Anyway, I'm not sure why we don't have any other metric to guage amount of players.
     
  9. Kain Darkmoor

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    Going free to play gives you basically a one time boost. If the game isn't ready to handle people coming in with no previous knowledge of the games development, that temporary boost is going to not only be wasted, but even be a bad thing. Just look at the recent steam reviews to see how ftp hasn't helped and possibly even hurt the perception of the game.
     
  10. Gorthyn

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    Yes but polishing and sorting such things out would have taken valuable Dev time away from far more important tasks like spending a huge amount of time on fishing and player designed dungeons... /Endsarcasm

    Port really need to sort their priorities out still. It's getting very frustrating.
     
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  11. Steevodeevo

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    For my sins I'm an avid Steam user. When a game gets a launch or re-launch on steam I usually seen a big banner on Steam, I get a poke on my user account based on my Steam preferred game types demographic and an email from Steam or the game if a registered Steam user.

    I've had none of these during the several weeks it's been ftp, but I did see today in yesterday's Port tasks log a brief note to update Steam for free to play.
     
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  12. Tiina Onir

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    How much of that is F2P, and how much is because everyone is forced into open for overworld and towns?
     
  13. Earl Atogrim von Draken

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    Good question. No idea.
     
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  14. Gorthyn

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    Was thinking the same..
     
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  15. Dulayne

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    Well the day following their press release the numbers started to increase, just as much as much as more people are seeing the game through steam.
     
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  16. Steevodeevo

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    there was a very significant surge in Steam new accounts. It shows a rolling 18% gain over last 30 days. This is quite dramatic as the trend was long term downwards, except one recent 30 day period where it was 4% up.

    The overall numbers of players indicated to play SOTA via Steam is small, and whilst we are not privy to direct account player numbers, the commonly held belief is that Steam users are a very small percentage. I only refer to Steam as a trend indicator, but this is supposition.

    However for New player growth Steam will be hugely significant as its a massive gamer portal and the legacy UO player base with a very specific interest in SOTA seems to have been pretty much mined out.
     
    Last edited: Nov 8, 2018
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  17. Tiina Onir

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    Just to clarify, I'm not complaining about that change. I think the Novia looked far more dead then was accurate.
     
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  18. Sean Silverfoot

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  19. Mishikal

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    In the end it doesn't matter how many new players join. What matters is how much players (new or old) spend on the store to keep SOTA afloat and allow for new development. I.e., if we have 5000 new players, but none of them buy anything, the net improvement to the game is zero.
     
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  20. evillego6

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    I believe Chris stated Steam users were about 30%. That was some time ago so who knows how much that's changed.
     
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