How many players does GW2 have right now?

[Deleted]

You know I have to laugh each time I see this coming from any new MMORPG with a single server capacity.

The famous "they upped the server capacity".

Now hear this boys: the overall SERVER CAPACITY is almost set in STONE before launch, like the engine, the graph modes, etc...

You can NOT up those numbers without disturbing a LOT of variables in your game.

Lag, server response times, graphics limitations, data transfer , these LIMITS are even set WAYYYYY before launch.

So stop please with these things that show up every time again and again and again.

-------------------------------------------------

--- Another confirmed number showed up btw.

400K concurrent. That's an interesting number...

As the concurent figure is around 1/3- 1/4 active players for any NEW game (older games have way less like 1/5 or even 1/6, in EVE you can watch that number every night btw and it is around 1/6 for that older game), it again shows the number would be around 1.5 million at the moment.

Actually given a fixed structure depending on how they limit player by server will drastically change performance:

Let's say you use all your structure to create a single server, everyone see each other, the network load is huge because the server has to transmit every player position to every other player. It won't work.

Now let's look at the opposite case, you create a single server for each player, the server also has to manage NPC, and their behavior, pathfinding reaction ect. The server is not able to able to handle THAT many world at once either because of the insane number of NPCs and world related data.

Finally between the two there is a middle ground when handling world data (fixed amount), and the player data (which scale exponentially with the number of player) which yield the best result. That equation is obviously even more complex given player density, max player view distance ect.

Given the overflow system, that threshold, between number of overflow servers, and number of player on overflow can be adjusted on the fly. (Which has never been the case with previous MMO).

Finding that threshold, can be actually very difficult and even with numerous stress test, could only be estimated before release.

[Deleted]

Their is no subscription, so the ammount of players is irrelevant but their are alot.

In what business is the number of customer irrelevant

[romara]

According to my information they added 3 more servers or about 10% more capacity.

So my guess of around 1.5 million would be spot on.

As long as you look at their total possible capacity, you know most of it.

They also raised the cap on existing servers to allow more players per server.

[Deleted]

I didn't see ArenaNet as particularly braggy

Hmm, they do seem braggy to me when they basically said on the official GW2 website that trinity is outdated and that they knew better than the rest of the world.
Even going as far as making a cartoon mocking other MMO (http://www.guildwars2.com/global/inc...th-comic01.jpg).
They could have said it's another take on MMO which would have been fine, but no they had to say they knew better then everybody else.

[Korgoth]

Id say 500k online at peak, 1.2-1.5 million sales.

[Deleted]

1 less seeing as they refused to sell me a digital copy last night, now i've had time to think about it and read some more forums posts from people playing i have changed my mind from buying this overrated game.

[BenBos]

They also raised the cap on existing servers to allow more players per server.

Perhaps rereading some other posts above would be interesting ...to you.

The server capacity is a very delicate exercice and you don't up server capacity without risking a LOT of crucial variables in the gaming system.

So no, like ALL the other MMO's, they can't up those stats much (if at all).


------ On topic of player numbers in GW2 ------


Also I am not interested in the GW2 "game" at all. Because going back to loading screens everywhere, complete lack of an open seamless background loading world and deleting mounts is going back to the year 2002 (and even before that).


But the marketing of GW2 as such interests me because I want to see its impact on the MMO scene since it is the first AAA MMORPG without a subscription fee at the start. (I don't consider the previous launched freebees as AAA).

So I am not even interested in down playing the number or boosting its numbers. I want them to be as accurate as possible by viewing this market and looking at its directions.

In this market GW2 is a very interesting game (as any other new hyped MMORPG) but with the extra angle of B2P.

Will it be the total end of subscription based games ? Will it have a better retention rate in active players as sub based ones ? Will it make a faster transition to RMAH mechanics in WoW ?

To view all this is fascinating in the following months and I think the answer to all these questions will only show after 6 months in March next year.

----

But to have a good analysis we need accurate figures and frankly NCSoft is known for not giving them as such. They mostly let the forums invent figures and spit some fog into the air like Aion and its now infamous 4.5 million that simply weren't there (server capacity wise AND revenue wise).



I think the subscription based market was first DAMAGED by Ad&d and followed by Lotro a few years back. My guess is that GW2 will be the definitive end of NEW subscription based games and let's see how that will work out ... with cash shops to buy gear/content? or with a RMAH with fees ?... or with publicity adds in game?

As such the success or lack of success could influence the MMO market for the next few years.

[MarizzaDraenor]

Anywhere between 2-3 millions is my guess.

In any case game is really nice imo try it and you wont be disappointed. Its sheer beauty is that you can play and enjoy it while playing wow on same time and raiding with your guilds and friends.

You do not have to quit one for the other as GW has no organised raiding that requires you to be online on certain times etc and it also doesnt have a subscription. Having a blast here so far simply instead of playing 7 chars on wow i play my main only and i stopped afking in orgrimmar half the day.

[Deleted]

I think there are like 5 million people, and lot's waiting to buy the game
On French servers, WvW is always full for example, so that's kind of good news for the game ^^.

[ScottsdaleHokie]

1 less seeing as they refused to sell me a digital copy last night, now i've had time to think about it and read some more forums posts from people playing i have changed my mind from buying this overrated game.

Your loss.

See you in a week... LOL, just had to do it!!

[BenBos]

I think there are like 5 million people, and lot's waiting to buy the game
On French servers, WvW is always full for example, so that's kind of good news for the game ^^.

See the discussions above: they don't have the servers in place for that number of players.

Adding 3 Eu servers was just 10% added capacity since the pre launch.

And that was 1 Million top.

Putting a wet finger in the air and yelling numbers doesn't help much. Also NCsoft would be yelling it from the roofs AND they would have doubled their server park by now.

1.5 million tops is the only logical number possible (server wise, market wise, compared with SW TOR (1.7 M in first month) and the overall known figures of concurrent players).

[Deleted]

You know I have to laugh each time I see this coming from any new MMORPG with a single server capacity.

The famous "they upped the server capacity".

Now hear this boys: the overall SERVER CAPACITY is almost set in STONE before launch, like the engine, the graph modes, etc...

You can NOT up those numbers without disturbing a LOT of variables in your game.

Lag, server response times, graphics limitations, data transfer , these LIMITS are even set WAYYYYY before launch.

So stop please with these things that show up every time again and again and again.

-------------------------------------------------

--- Another confirmed number showed up btw.

400K concurrent. That's an interesting number...

As the concurent figure is around 1/3- 1/4 active players for any NEW game (older games have way less like 1/5 or even 1/6, in EVE you can watch that number every night btw and it is around 1/6 for that older game), it again shows the number would be around 1.5 million at the moment.

Actually no, they can up server capacity, other games have done it too. You may not believe it but quite frankly no one cares.

And 400k was pre launch concurrent users.

[Winterstrife]

Eh, must every MMO brag about their success?
I'd like to think that the GW2 developers learn from the lesson those idiots at Bioware made (taunting, bragging, etc) & be more mature.

If you ask me, probably more then a million but less then 5 million? I'm just throwing a random number out.

[SirRobin]

Right now its all guessing and the game hasn't even been out for two weeks yet. Arena Net came out with their "cool" statement and went back to playing catch up with just how flooded their servers are. I've been on Crystal Desert since the 24th and I'm still seeing big crowds even though I was still in the starter zones working on my 100%'s. With one million just in prepurchases I'm betting their sales are fast approaching the two million mark. If they have not passed it already. If NCsoft does earnings calls like EA does then we'll probably get a clearer picture whenever they have their next one.

[Edge-]

Even going as far as making a cartoon mocking other MMO (http://www.guildwars2.com/global/inc...th-comic01.jpg).

They didn't make that comic IIRC, pretty sure I recognize the webcomic but don't remember the name -_-

[BenBos]

They also raised the cap on existing servers to allow more players per server.

Perhaps rereading some other posts above would be interesting ...to you.

The server capacity is a very delicate exercice and you don't up server capacity without risking a LOT of crucial variables in the gaming system.

So no, like ALL the other MMO's, they can't up those stats much (if at all).


------ On topic of player numbers in GW2 ------


Also I am not interested in the GW2 "game" at all. Because going back to loading screens everywhere, complete lack of an open seamless background world and deleting mounts is going back to the year 2002 (and even before that).


But the marketing of GW2 as such interests me because I want to see its impact on the MMO scene since it is the first AAA MMORPG without a subscription fee at the start. (I don't consider the previous launched freebees as AAA).

So I am not even interested in down playing the number or boosting its numbers. I want them to be as accurate as possible by viewing this market and looking at its directions.

In this market GW2 is a very interesting game (as any other new hyped MMORPG) but with the extra angle of B2P.

Will it be the total end of subscription based games ? Will it have a better retention rate in active players as sub based ones ? Will it make a faster transition to RMAH mechanics in WoW ?

To view all this is fascinating in the following months and I think the answer to all these questions will only show after 6 months in March next year.

----

But to have a good analysis we need accurate figures and frankly NCSoft is known for not giving them as such. They mostly let the forums invent figures and spit some fog into the air like Aion and its now infamous 4.5 million that simply weren't there (server capacity wise AND revenue wise).



I think the subscription based market was first DAMAGED by Ad&d and followed by Lotro a few years back. My guess is that GW2 will be the definitive end of NEW subscription based games and let's see how that will work out ... with cash shops to buy gear/content? or with a RMAH with fees ?... or with publicity adds in game?

As such the success or lack of success could influence the MMO market for the next few years.

[DrakeWurrum]

They didn't make that comic IIRC, pretty sure I recognize the webcomic but don't remember the name -_-

pvponline?

Honestly can't remember either.

[Gray_Matter]

Well it is quite simple: they lie.... or ...

I think you don't know as much as you think you know. Most modern day hosting makes use of Virtual Machines and capacity (RAM, Disk and processors) on these can easily be increased. IBM actually offers a solution where this can be done while the machine is running. You also know nothing about their system architecture. Does one realm exist on a single server or across a group of servers? If the latter, a new blade could easily be configured to increase capacity.

---------- Post added 2012-09-04 at 05:39 PM ----------

1.5 million tops is the only logical number possible (server wise, market wise, compared with SW TOR (1.7 M in first month) and the overall known figures of concurrent players).

How do you figure that? They had 1 million pre-sales and 250k pre-orders in the US alone. You don't think that the rest of the world put together bought as many pre orders as the US? And that's excluding the retail sales.

[SirRobin]

pvponline?

Honestly can't remember either.

Yep, that's one of his.

---------- Post added 2012-09-04 at 12:46 PM ----------

I think you don't know as much as you think you know. Most modern day hosting makes use of Virtual Machines and capacity (RAM, Disk and processors) on these can easily be increased. IBM actually offers a solution where this can be done while the machine is running. You also know nothing about their system architecture. Does one realm exist on a single server or across a group of servers? If the latter, a new blade could easily be configured to increase capacity.

The fact that guilds and the trading post are "global" implies, to me at least, that they are using a more unified structure than what we saw in games like WoW and TOR.

[Gray_Matter]

The fact that guilds and the trading post are "global" implies, to me at least, that they are using a more unified structure than what we saw in games like WoW and TOR.

That's why I think they are having problems with it. Designing a system that handles a huge number of simultaneous connections from all of the servers is a major undertaking.