Users are falling down badly?

[WalkerDown 1]

We know: lack of contents, bad performance, cheaters ... in general: alpha, but as of today, in the moment i'm typing this there's: 610 users online (to give you a comparison, 3 weeks ago they were around 5000 at the same day/hours). I guess BIS doesn't need many testers, but aren't we risk to have ppl abandoning the game too early? I mean for the time the game will be out many of those may be interested into something else if we let the hype dying like this. What about more contents, anti-cheat and better peformance "asap"?

[Harzach 2517]

There are currently 1,113 people in-game. Not sure what you're on about.

[byrgesen 1]

I see your concern, but if people are only here for the hype i cant care tbh :)

The dedicated people will play and test, the rest will come back when its more stabile and has more content.

I for one can wait a year for BI to get it right, im in no hurry to get "rush releases".

[WalkerDown 1]

There are currently 1,113 people in-game. Not sure what you're on about.

Not sure what you're on about, there's 649 users in-game right now (April 18th 11:40 CET), they vary of course, in example in the evening (EU times) they are a little more (yesterday night they were around 1,100), but the point is that they are around the 10% of what we had few weeks ago, and they still falling (because of the above reason), at this rate we will have a very little number of users remaining, risking to loose all the hype around the game.

More stats:

Server with more than 40 ppl aboard: 1

Servers 20 ppl aboard: 20-39: 10

Servers with more than 10-19 ppl aboard: 11

The other servers with ppl playing in, have less than 10 ppl aboard, and 38 of them have only 1 user! I don't even count the number of servers with 0 ppl on em (they are a huge number.. there's more empty servers than users playing the game!). This is honestly depressing considering all the hype we had months ago while waiting for this game.. it looks like that even the arma hardcore players are loosing interest into this.

[rotkeps 10]

I don't think there is much to be concerned about at this stage; it's alpha with very limited content. I know I have no plans to sink the hundreds of hours I put into the previous titles until the main island and more rounded collection vehicles is present, which will most likely be closer to release. But from what I've seen so far in the few hours I have played, It's amazing and I can't wait to get going on those hundreds of hours of playing ;)

[Harzach 2517]

Not sure what you're on about, there's 649 users in-game right now (April 18th 11:40 CET)

0600 EST:

(click to embiggen)

At any rate, the sky is not falling. Anyone who abandons A3 was not worth having.

Edited April 18, 2013 by Harzach

[roberthammer 582]

This is alpha version for god sake - not a full game , if you want BE and more content then wait for it - geez

[dmarkwick 261]

I think the pattern may be: people who are intending to purchase the game anyway are taking advantage of the current offer, played for a while to see the state of things, and have now gone off to do other things until more content/finished gameplay is apparent.

[.kju 3245]

http://steamgraph.net/index.php?action=graph&appid=107410&from=0

http://steamgraph.net/index.php?action=graph&appid=107410&from=1363651120

http://store.steampowered.com/stats/?l=english

http://steamstatshistory.appspot.com/list

[KevsNoTrev 44]

just remember if a player is in game but their friends list is in offline mode, it won't show in these stats........

[WalkerDown 1]

0600 EST:

I believe you're confusing the number of ppl that have pressed "play" on steam (they are neither calculated in real time), with the number of ppl playing the game online right now. You can see the number of ppl online by reading em on the gamespy announcement servers.

At any rate, the sky is not falling. Anyone who abandons A3 was not worth having.

When someone abandon a game, it's because of the game lacks. I don't want another niche arma to be honest.

---------- Post added at 10:43 ---------- Previous post was at 10:39 ----------

I think the pattern may be: people who are intending to purchase the game anyway are taking advantage of the current offer, played for a while to see the state of things, and have now gone off to do other things until more content/finished gameplay is apparent.

Yep.. but customers are strange animals, it will be like this: "hey did you see? Arma3 is out, with blablabal contents..."; the other guy: "isn't that game already on sale months ago? Naaa.. im gonna buy this new fresh thing". That's why it is important to maintain the hype high if you want to have success (sales success; coz whenever the current sale is ok, you can't expect to have all the potential customers buying the game right now).

[byrgesen 1]

Well, its not really your choice if its gonna be niche or not mate.

BI is making the game and if it doesnt fit you, you are free to go away tbh.

It will be succesfull, for the people who love theese series.

BI has never catered to the casual player in Arma, and i really dont wanna see that change.

The people who love it pour theyre soul and heart into the game, but its not a game for everyone and nor should it be.

I will bet my life BI doesnt concern themselves with "making a ton of money" or "mainstreaming" arma in any way.

Its a niche game, its practically the same as A2 tbh.

[dmarkwick 261]

When someone abandon a game, it's because of the game lacks. I don't want another niche arma to be honest.

I'd be happy with a niche game :) if by "niche" we mean "unique".

Yep.. but customers are strange animals, it will be like this: "hey did you see? Arma3 is out, with blablabal contents..."; the other guy: "isn't that game already on sale months ago? Naaa.. im gonna buy this new fresh thing". That's why it is important to maintain the hype high if you want to have success (sales success; coz whenever the current sale is ok, you can't expect to have all the potential customers buying the game right now).

That's a strange behavior you've decided to attribute to people :) I doubt we would attract that sort of short-attention span customer anyway. Even those guys watch Youtube footage I might guess, and that will be the thing that sells ArmA3.

[white 1]

havent seen many ppl on the ping range i was playing once in a while. then i enter a low populated server and a script kiddie is blowing things up. i might just be very unlucky.

[Sneakson 1]

It's an alpha... and most people who play it already paid for the full thing so we know everyone will be back by beta and retail. There isn't really much to see in the alpha so no wonder people don't play it for weeks on end lol.

[metalcraze 290]

in the moment i'm typing this there's: 610 users online

610 people not enough for you to play MP? I usually play with 10-20. None of people I play with has stopped playing ArmA3. They just don't do it 24/7.

[Larrow 2822]

They are all in the editor :) i know i haven't played online for the last fortnight but been experimenting in the editor.

[mrcash2009 0]

You have to take into consideration many initial influx of casual Steam users that grabbed it for convenience to try it like a demo and then some stay and others have seen what they wanted for now. Then you have those who liked to stick with it and those that thought it was some kind of release and left with themselves disappointed :)

[purepassion 22]

Yup! And since its release, the Arma 3 Alpha has NEVER left the Steam Topseller top 10.

Feedback from all kinds of gamers has been and is still very positive and many gaming magazines have started to even cover single patches of the game.

[St. Jimmy 272]

There isn't Anti-Cheat yet so it's better for casual players stick with Arma 2 when they play popular game modes like wasteland and domination. Alpha is still more for private communities and SP gaming. When people can play better PvP game modes then I believe we can see more players playing constantly.

[Harzach 2517]

When someone abandon a game, it's because of the game lacks.

When someone abandons a game in alpha, it's because the person lacks. No loss.

Pandering to the masses is the best way to ensure your product is unremarkable. I hope for Arma's sake that it remains a "niche" product.

[MulleDK19 21]

1,843 in-game right now. And that's not counting the Alpha Lite players.

[mr.g-c 6]

I don't believe the amount of online players are a reference in an alpha.

I for myself played also only the first 2,3 days online and now sticking to the editor only, trying to find bugs and long known flaws, etc.

[dm 9]

Is it just me, or when I read the thread title I was expecting to see some hilarious ragdoll antics?

[da12thMonkey 1943]

Is it just me, or when I read the thread title I was expecting to see some hilarious ragdoll antics?

It's not just you.

I was kinda disappointed. :/