Demonstrating your true troll natureDemonstrating you're really an idiot.

yet another poster who tries to "pre-win" the discussion. Again, how about you have the simple social grace to acknowledge WHAT THE GRAPH SHOWS before you start saying WHY it doesnt matter and doesnt count. In short, if you say there isnt a decline, you are a liar. after you admit the obvious (i.e., that which the graph SHOWS) we can talk about WHY.

Total subscription numbers and online activity are 2 different things, and those numbers can easily be argued bear several different interpretations.

I could argue, for instance, total sub numbers are irrelevant less than a month after the patch, that unsubs and people that will unsub havent had time to let their subs run out yet.But, as you point out, we dont have those numbers.

What we do have, is numbers on current activity, which are clearly shown to be in decline.

You deem this irrelevant.Fact is it's the only hard numbers we have.

I still think is ridiculous to not acknowledge what the data shows simply because you feel it is impossible to use data to interpret anything, which is simply your subjective opinion, and, in my opinion, a ridiculous one at that.

OP may have made a mistake in viewing that graph but his statement about less players being active in-game is still correct.

Too many times I've seen players post saying 'Eve is growing - rise in subscriptions since day 1'.

That statement may be true and correct from the start of 2006 all the way up to the middle of 2009. The best steady growth period was for 1 year straight, middle of 2008 to middle of 2009. The longest steady no-growth period was for 6 months, middle of 2009 to the start of 2010.

After that I highly doubt there's been a large steady influx of new players. Sure there's been some new players subbing but the majority of the 'rise in subscriptions' is better attributed to older players getting alt accounts which rarely ever log into the game.

From 2010 to now there's been short term time periods with large amounts of players active followed with a large drop and long term steady decline of numbers.

Currently there's less players active in game than there was in the middle of 2009. Yeah maybe the war on bots had something to do with it but there's also been a very large increase of suicide ganking within the past couple of years which is definitely contributing to less players active.

Of course some players will say that's due to Incarna in 2011. I say it's due to CCP not fulfilling the promise of WiS. According to the graph, there was a large increase of players active at the start of 2011 due to the promise of WiS. Unfortunately CCP didn't make good on that which resulted in a steady decline of active numbers. The events of the summer also contributed to the decline which makes 2011 a full year of declining numbers.


Bottom line, stating there's been a constant rise in subscription numbers since day 1 doesn't matter when the amount of active players has steadily decreased and is now lower than it was 3 years ago.


DMC



EDIT:
School is still in session in 'the western worlds' right now, summer doesn't start til middle of June and ends in Sept.

Yes, summer for all adults doesn't start until June, and no exams are held in April or May anywhere in the western world either.

See the blog entries above. The summer slump is a myth.

I wonder how many of those missing 18,000 players are bots compared to those players who rage quit because of monoclegate.

Yes, summer for all adults doesn't start until June, and no exams are held in April or May anywhere in the western world either.

EDIT: Also, there are no national holidays anywhere in the western world, nor are there any other games out right now that might attract players elsewhere temporarily.

False unless you are saying all adults have kids, which is false.
In fact summer came early this year for some of us.

And who needs a Holiday when the weather is like it is ?

That's the propaganda.
The huge drop happened when NC got replaced by Moonswarm and they nerfed the Signature anoms tied to Sov index making them all onboards.
It hasn't recovered since.

http://jestertrek.blogspot.com/2011/07/not-all-curves-are-pretty.html
http://jestertrek.blogspot.com/2011/08/some-curves-arent.html
http://jestertrek.blogspot.com/2012/03/snapcount.html
http://jestertrek.blogspot.com/2012/05/status-quo-ante.html

Believe whatever you want.

I predict that by 11:00 UTC the servers will go empty

Thanks for posting that info, always nice to see confirmation.

As funny as these threads are, who the **** makes backwards graphs?

seriously...

I like it when people basically selectively quote blog posts without even quoting anything.

See other coinciding factors in something called "The Real World" and add those in to the equation, as any company anywhere in the world does, and try not to base assumptions purely on one limited data set.

EDIT: If I had the time or the inclination, I could probably Google search any and all other "Real World" factors that take place around the same time every year and prove that the summer slump is indeed a real thing. However I feel that this would simply be a massive waste of time as the doomsayers will simply do as they always do, ignore any and all other mitigating factors and continue to scream that the sky is falling.

I like it when people basically selectively quote blog posts without even quoting anything.

facts

the average age

facts

Had this discussion earlier today, the graph reads from right to left.

As funny as these threads are, who the **** makes backwards graphs?

seriously...