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JohnM81

Well, January numbers are in...

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Method: http://steamcharts.com

Results: 

January 2019 26,641.8 -12,673.8 -32.24%

In the month following its launch month of December where the game peaked the game has lost just shy 1/3 of its entire player base.

 

Conclusion:

Hard to say if it is any one thing thing that has caused players to flee from this game. The truth it is more than likely many different reasons. But the results are conclusive thus far the game is not doing well. Now it is true that many will bring up that the game is in EA and losing players is common. This is an overly repeated and flatly wrong statement. Let us compare Ark a game that this was has had a HUGE amount of copy/paste from:

July 2015 46,764.8 +3,893.3

+9.08%

In the month following its launch month of June Ark actually didn't lose players but gained them despite being an EA game just like Atlas. This shows a significantly different outcome in the opinions of players as to their approval of Atlas' current design and future directions.  Thus WC/GS/SnailGames need to take a hard look at what they are doing and where they are going, elicit feedback from its player base and make large overarching design and philosophy changes. Else they might have an outcome similar to another WC game:

https://steamcharts.com/app/529180#All

 

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For me the land claim system is flawed turning into 4 groups that own everything and smaller groups basically are forced to park boats in lawless that will get sunk daily the larger group can just take your base back with one chick for those guys that say you can build on neutral 

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In my opinion its all about the cost of defense vs the cost of offense. If it is more expensive to attack than defend then players tend to be more peaceful as unless they are genuinely mad at another player they don't want to attack them because they do so at a loss. 

Toxicity is created  when the cost of attacking is less than the cost of defense. Because being an Ahole comes at a huge profit.  So the stone mats change was the exact worst thing to do. The claim system was a moronic feature and needs to be redone. What could they have been thinking when a single company can claim so much land. However allowing us to place beds in lawless lands helped with this. 

These are just my 0.02. But what is fact is that atlas population is plummeting and when 1/3 of your players leave in one month huge changes in the game and/or the game development team needs to be made

Edited by JohnM81
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1 hour ago, JohnM81 said:

In my opinion its all about the cost of defense vs the cost of offense. If it is more expensive to attack than defend then players tend to be more peaceful as unless they are genuinely mad at another player they don't want to attack them because they do so at a loss. 

Toxicity is created  when the cost of attacking is less than the cost of defense. Because being an Ahole comes at a huge profit.  So the stone mats change was the exact worst thing to do. The claim system was a moronic feature and needs to be redone. What could they have been thinking when a single company can claim so much land. However allowing us to place beds in lawless lands helped with this. 

These are just my 0.02. But what is fact is that atlas population is plummeting and when 1/3 of your players leave in one month huge changes in the game and/or the game development team needs to be made

The double stone nerf did alot of bad aswell

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I left Ark because of two things: massive aimboting and item dupe. I really expected devs will fix this in Atlas… so naïve. Technically you have a choice either accept reality and play with cheats or leave the game. I’m choosing the second, again.

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1 hour ago, dramba said:

I left Ark because of two things: massive aimboting and item dupe. I really expected devs will fix this in Atlas… so naïve. Technically you have a choice either accept reality and play with cheats or leave the game. I’m choosing the second, again.

You know, while ark official servers are rife with cheating. Ark official conquest servers with active enforcement gms has very very little cheating in it. A huge improvement.

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60% retention on a hyped early access game is pretty damn good. You guys are cherry picking statistics to make this look like something to worry about.

We are the alpha/beta testers. Our feedback shapes the game. Seems some people came into the game not understanding that.

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Just now, Pallist said:

60% retention on a hyped early access game is pretty damn good. You guys are cherry picking statistics to make this look like something to worry about.

We are the alpha/beta testers. Our feedback shapes the game. Seems some people came into the game not understanding that.

I'm not one of those cherry picking anything here, but I do understand where people are coming from.

You yourself state 60% retention is good for an early access game, but it's currently at 55% retention now. There is no doubt the drop is moving fast. It is rather concerning, however, i'm in it for the long run as I am interested to see how things pan out, I don't jump at the first signs of trouble.

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Even 30% retention until it becomes stable is still a workable number.

People still trickle in and trickle out. Does steam count unique logins? People also just play less hours or come on to check out a patch.

 

The should consider putting out a more defined road map though. The stirring talk of they don't know what they're doing and winging it (like ark) is starting to gain momentum. That will certainly hurt pop.

 

I assume the game will eventually get mmo features. Pvp hotspots. Tame reworks. The game mechanics need to encourage activity outside of raiding bases. Move away from ark and more into mmo sandbox with fluff and features. Hopefully dailies add some hotspots for conflict.

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12 hours ago, Pallist said:

Even 30% retention until it becomes stable is still a workable number.

People still trickle in and trickle out. Does steam count unique logins? People also just play less hours or come on to check out a patch.

 

The should consider putting out a more defined road map though. The stirring talk of they don't know what they're doing and winging it (like ark) is starting to gain momentum. That will certainly hurt pop.

 

I assume the game will eventually get mmo features. Pvp hotspots. Tame reworks. The game mechanics need to encourage activity outside of raiding bases. Move away from ark and more into mmo sandbox with fluff and features. Hopefully dailies add some hotspots for conflict.

Yes 30% is still definitely a workable number.

But with it already at 52% since yesterday it will not be long before it's reaching that 30% number. Doesn't mean the game is going to die, but for many new players it will be very off putting. At least the negative reviews have slowed right down, which was initially due to the poor server launch right at the start.

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On 2/5/2019 at 1:47 PM, Pallist said:

60% retention on a hyped early access game is pretty damn good. You guys are cherry picking statistics to make this look like something to worry about.

We are the alpha/beta testers. Our feedback shapes the game. Seems some people came into the game not understanding that.

60% retention is good?!? No offense but are you daft? ARK in its first month had a net GAIN. Keep telling yourself that its normal to lose players in the first month but it is not true. Keep telling yourself that its okay to lose 1/3 of your player base because its EA. But its not true. Ark was EA. Ark had a net GAIN. You sir are the one cherry picking. We are looking at numbers that speak for themselves. And you are holding on to tired old phrases that others have made up but keep repeating over and over in a vain hope it becomes truth.

On 2/5/2019 at 1:50 PM, [GP] Guybrush Threepwood said:

I'm not one of those cherry picking anything here, but I do understand where people are coming from.

You yourself state 60% retention is good for an early access game, but it's currently at 55% retention now. There is no doubt the drop is moving fast. It is rather concerning, however, i'm in it for the long run as I am interested to see how things pan out, I don't jump at the first signs of trouble.

I don't think 'jump ship' because they think the game is going down hill. I think they leave because they aren't having fun and have legit complaints. Am I wrong here?

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On 2/5/2019 at 2:13 PM, Pallist said:

Even 30% retention until it becomes stable is still a workable number.

People still trickle in and trickle out. Does steam count unique logins? People also just play less hours or come on to check out a patch.

 

The should consider putting out a more defined road map though. The stirring talk of they don't know what they're doing and winging it (like ark) is starting to gain momentum. That will certainly hurt pop.

 

I assume the game will eventually get mmo features. Pvp hotspots. Tame reworks. The game mechanics need to encourage activity outside of raiding bases. Move away from ark and more into mmo sandbox with fluff and features. Hopefully dailies add some hotspots for conflict.

What is the benchmark that you can make such a claim?  Because even a little bit a thought reveals that its clear you really have no idea if that is true unless you have access to Grape Shot's financial information. Do you? How many players retained from EA to full release that creates a workable cash flow depends on pricing of the product (that we know), monitization model (DLCs or cash shop) and company expenses (that we don't know). So please explain how you know 30% is enough to not only pay the bills for GS but also generate enough marketing via word of mouth to counter act the terrible review metrics on steam? 

Again, with all that said. Ark has and still continues to have its own issues. Sometimes its numbers dip and sometimes rise. And all of this is with it starting out MUCH stronger than Atlas IE growing and not having population drops.

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Don't all games have a big drop after the 1st month or two?  I always see ppl checking it out then moving on... especially with a $25 game, not a $60 one.,

Z

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On 2/2/2019 at 9:02 PM, PeglegTheAngry said:

Could have something to do with the devs treating players like shit. 🤔

Well grapeshot poached devs from Dark and Light... so they have form for that.

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At the beginning I also played 5-6h Atlas every day. Now I still play 2-3 hours a week on a private server to test all features. But that was it. We had a big company of ~200 people and were raided several times. Most of the time it was so laggy that you didn't have a chance to get even one meaningful hit, especially with a ping of 255+. But at least at that time it was still expensive to raid someone and you could defend yourself. Now at the end our mainbase was raided within 3h in one morning. That's legitimate with such a game but it's just not worth it to play this game because of the lags and the fact that defending your base is too expensive. If I'm into 24/7 PVP then I play Guild Wars 2 world against world (Server vs Server mode).

 

Edited by denhope

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Is this why they already had a big sale on steam? They see the numbers dropping and need to get new people in possibly?

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My whole corp quit due to off-line raiding. We've been playing a month and never lost a single ship when any of us were on to see it.

 

What's the point of playing when you are going to lose everything when you are asleep or at work?

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Dude, this really sucks. But it's a 24/7 PvP game and that's why offline raiding should be possible. This is also available in other games (Guild Wars 2), but it's easy for developers to filter out prime time. Off primetime you can make life difficult for attackers, that's the order of the day. However, nothing is done in this direction and attacks are currently far too cheap. Defense is far too ineffective and therefore all people quit bit by bit. I understand you, of course, because I/we have had the same experience.

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On 2/6/2019 at 5:58 PM, Znick said:

Don't all games have a big drop after the 1st month or two?  I always see ppl checking it out then moving on... especially with a $25 game, not a $60 one.,

Z

Nope. Ark had a net GAIN after its first month.

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The numbers are always going to drop especially in a very hyped game that has had so many launch issues and recurrent problems. That said there is currently very little content in the game to keep players playing. I play PVP so there is at least PVP to keep things interesting but even then there is a lot of limitations and lack of variety in strategies and designs.

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I left official because of the aimbotting, chinese companies. Also the constant grind never to see a day on the sea. Then they increase the sap, metal to stone.. i am so glad i went to unofficial so i can actually play the game away from toxic cheaters.

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