Why are much more people playing Arma 2?

[Xalteva 10]

Arma is a so beautiful idea that you should make a perfect game of it ... but sadly,it's not the case ! the "large scale battles" is not a valid argument anymore ! (RTS games do that very well) ... when it comes to tactics,i think that PR is far better than Arma ! what arma needs is some oriented gameplay ... there is too much freedom that people do everything and nothing ! unless you play within some closed community ,which is not good for the arma community !

[Mirek 166]

I dont play ARMA 3 because:

1) no ACE in A3

2) I get much better FPS with higher settings in Arma 2

3) I dislike the aiming in A3

4) I dislike the movement animation in A3

5) I love Chernarus map.

6) I dislike the Wannabe futuristic settings. I love SCI-FI, but if SF then full SF settings with robots aliens spaceships and so if not, then realistic Modern or historical settings. I dislike half_way kind of things.

7) The campaign. In A2 campaign i had way more freedom.

8) Multiplayer. I can find lots of servers on wich i can play with good FPS and no lag in Arma 2. Not so much in A3.

[Nicholas 5]

Because there's no DayZ and its derivations for Arma 3? If I take a look at the Arma 2 server list almost all servers are DayzEpoch/Wasteland or this "life thingy".

This right here is the main reason, I believe. Many people still play the DayZ mod on ArmA 2.

[yxman 90]

I dont play ARMA 3 because:

1) no ACE in A3

2) I get much better FPS with higher settings in Arma 2

3) I dislike the aiming in A3

4) I dislike the movement animation in A3

5) I love Chernarus map.

6) I dislike the Wannabe futuristic settings. I love SCI-FI, but if SF then full SF settings with robots aliens spaceships and so if not, then realistic Modern or historical settings. I dislike half_way kind of things.

7) The campaign. In A2 campaign i had way more freedom.

8) Multiplayer. I can find lots of servers on wich i can play with good FPS and no lag in Arma 2. Not so much in A3.

full agree

[Green- 10]

ArmA2 still have the charm of the series, ArmA3 dont feel the same and is to futuristic and focuse to much on super delta mustache special forces..

[teilx 4]

A2 is even better for my taste :D And there is no Zeus xD

[wipman 1]

On Saturday evening I took a look at some statistics and I was quite shocked to see the following:

People playing Arma 2 -> Over 22000

People playig Arma 3 -> a little over 12500 (almost everything on Altis Life Servers)

On a Saturday Evening...

Situation right now:

People playing Arma 2: 8570

People playing Arma 3: 4970

Why?

http://arma2.swec.se/server/list

Hi, if i had to guess... i'll guess that the ArmA3 uparmoured NMEs had something to do wiz this, and... that the ArmA2 public servers are much more player side mod (read: cosmetic) friendly than the F ArmA3 servers; i'll add too that the ArmA2 have much more player side workin' addons/full F mods than the F ArmA3. "Correct me if im wrong...!!", but the ArmA3 is a F dissapointment because the silly upFarmoured NMEs, along with the other bugs/mistakes/errors/ MF BS that comes wiz us since the ArmA, that they keep doin' the thingsa wiz the MF a+s+s; IMFHFO, man... . Let's F C ya.

[roshnak 41]

3) I dislike the aiming in A3

What? Is Arma 3's aiming not frustrating enough for you?

[Bee8190 10]

I don't mind the future settings all that much but I do kind of miss old trusty AK's and humvees. My problem is performance in MP, lack of ACE 3 and I can't get over the utterly pathetic sounds. I'm also unable to ignore the horrible, horrible vehicle physx ( I like hunter even though it's not fully there either ) and that's not to mention vehicle crosshairs are so off of where one is trying to shoot it's simply disgrace. So far sitting on some 80 hours played in A3 :P yup

[Greenfist 1863]

Can someone explain this: http://steamcharts.com/app/107410#6m

What happened around christmas that started the huge increase in player numbers? Was it the Dayz release? Arma kept coming up in discussions surrounding Dayz so people bought Arma or just started playing it again?

[Beagle 684]

To keep it simple...ArmA II and I really mean the original ArmA II is simply the better game even online since the arcade features that got introduced in OA screwed the tactical realism centered gamelay up a lot.

I finally find myself playing 1.11 more often then 1.62 and I never had any sympathy to ArmA III, thze whole future setting and even more arcade game style in the CoD fashion simply repelled me too much.

To me the original ArmA II is currently the pinacle of the series that started with Operation Flashpoint OA is only second and A3 is still far from a complete game to me right now.

[TSAndrey 1]

More mods, released earlier, less demanding requirements, cheaper.... I'm not saying A2 is better than A3, just some of the reasons why more people would play A2.

[fasterthanlight 10]

I know personally, I don't play A3 because of the lack of ACE, and current era vehicles.

If BI created official DLC for USMC, US ARMY, UK, German, Australian forces, it would be a whole different story for me.

[BL1P 35]

Because of ACE + ACRE

So BIS time to take note and create a DLC that's got AIA, ACE and ACRE fully implemented and supported.

And while your at it give us a filter drop down section for server difficulty settings, so people who want to play a certain way don't need to spend hours testing what settings each server has on, by joining every Fking server to test it !

[Imperator[TFD] 444]

And while your at it give us a filter drop down section for server difficulty settings, so people who want to play a certain way don't need to spend hours testing what settings each server has on, by joining every Fking server to test it !

It tells you the server difficulty in the server browser genius.

[BL1P 35]

It tells you the server difficulty in the server browser genius.

O dear you really didn't think before you posted that did you :)

It shows the servers difficulty but not the servers difficulty settings.

Hmm an example... You can run a server with Regular difficulty mode showing but it will be running with Elite settings (3rd off, extended Armour off etc etc etc).

Doesn't take a genius to figure that out :)

So to find a server with 3rd off isn't as easy as looking for only Elite difficulty servers as 99% of the 3rd off servers are altered Regular, Veteran or Recruit difficulty settings.

[djotacon 190]

Saturday 22 feb 22:00h

Arma 3 19.810 players.

Source: Steamcharts

http://www.steamcharts.com/app/107410#1m

Arma 2:

354

Source:

http://www.steamcharts.com/app/33910#1m

Edited March 3, 2014 by djotacon

[Greenfist 1863]

Saturday 22 feb 22:00h

Arma 3 19.810 players.

Source: Steamcharts

http://www.steamcharts.com/app/107410#1m

Arma 2:

354

Source:

http://www.steamcharts.com/app/33910#1m

Why would steam know if you're playing Arma 2 when it's not even a steam game? ;)

^{(i know you were joking)}

[jeza 5416]

You just can't get immersed with these guns and uniforms on a paradise island. Game looks great imo, but doesn't have charisma.

Yeah I am along this lines to an extent, that said time permitting atm. I am putting a good 50 hours in the past two weeks into Arma 3 do not really have anything against and enjoy it aside from the gripe above. Further down the development line when new and big name mods get released I would expect to see a lot of people switch over as was the case a bit with ofp to arma1, if you remember the state a1 was in first release year. Fortunately they are both enjoyable games and fortunately I have both :)

[Sniperwolf572 758]

Can someone explain this: http://steamcharts.com/app/107410#6m

What happened around christmas that started the huge increase in player numbers? Was it the Dayz release? Arma kept coming up in discussions surrounding Dayz so people bought Arma or just started playing it again?

Annual Steam winter sale on Christmas. Then February 15th saw the release of Zeus on the dev branch.

[weparo 10]

Annual Steam winter sale on Christmas. Then February 15th saw the release of Zeus on the dev branch.

Or maybe just a lot of people confusing arma 2 and dayz... :D I heard that there were quite a few people confused about what you actually need to play dayZ

[Greenfist 1863]

But one might think the winter sale would show as a sudden peak and then would've already declined back to more stable numbers by now, but instead, there's a constant climb. Whatever the reason is, it's nice to see those numbers.

Go BI! :cheers:

[Sniperwolf572 758]

But one might think the winter sale would show as a sudden peak and then would've already declined back to more stable numbers by now, but instead, there's a constant climb. Whatever the reason is, it's nice to see those numbers.

More people owning the game moved the weekend peak by at least 5k active users. I doubt they ONLY sold 5k copies during that time. During that time, the number of people who own the game probably rose dramatically. I wouldn't expect this baseline to shift down.

Then Zeus hits the dev branch and it almost doubles the January average for two weekends. Now I'd rather expect this two week jump to go down towards the January average. As with most games, new patches/features/expansions usually increase the amount of players playing the game to see what's new.

[novemberist 2]

More people owning the game moved the weekend peak by at least 5k active users. I doubt they ONLY sold 5k copies during that time. During that time, the number of people who own the game probably rose dramatically. I wouldn't expect this baseline to shift down.

Then Zeus hits the dev branch and it almost doubles the January average for two weekends. Now I'd rather expect this two week jump to go down towards the January average. As with most games, new patches/features/expansions usually increase the amount of players playing the game to see what's new.

Can you also see those steam sale statistics by country? My guess for the high Arma 3 sales in february would be for a large part due to a massive increase in people buying Arma 3 because of Altis Life. Germany's most popular "Let's play" channels by Gronkh/Sarazar have recently started playing and praising Altis Life. They are massively popular among casual gamers...to maybe that's part of the explanation.

[Atkins.A 10]

when it comes to tactics,i think that PR is far better than Arma ! what arma needs is some oriented gameplay ..!

Have you tried the Arma3 version of the "PR", called Tactical Battlefield?