EQ Population QuestionFollow

Perhaps I am way off base, but the way I estimate population is the general chat channel population. I don't think many people turn it off.

On Povar the general chat has a population of around 150. I think that is the average population at around 5:00 pm california time,to be honest.

Low levels finding a group is hard but not impossible.
Lots of low level drakkin around Cresent Reach, and some higher levels as well.
Population varies, I usually have no problem getting buffs on Povar most nights eastern time. I am also one of the folks who keeps general chat on.

I don't use any chat channels except event related (raid stuff mostly). I earlier somewhere quoted 1000 people/per server at normal play times. That's likely high. I'd still guess something more along the line of 500-700.

This question sure is asked a lot though.

Many base the relative populations (in respect to other servers) by number of people in the baz or pok. I checked a couple different servers awhile back. I don't remember what the numbers were and the post was deleted (>.<), but I recall both pok and the baz on 3 different servers to be between 150 and 200. So, if you have 300 people in just those two zones, ya gotta figure at least a couple hundred more out playing the game.

....

There are about 200,000 active EQ players. Spread that accross all the servers and time zones.

I saw somewhere that there were 800,000 WoW players but I don't know where that number comes from.

I can believe 200k in EQ. Actually, I think that might be a little high.

My thinking is this -- Everquest peaked at around 500,000. As new games came out and the population dwindled, they were forced to effectively halve the number of servers. After they did so, things seemed "normal" again population-wise but you're probably looking at ~250,000 people on half as many servers to get the same effect.

Right now, the population is seeming thinner again from where it was after the server merges. Yeah, there's more zones but there's a lot more zones unused now as well. I could easily believe another 50,000 people were lost between the initial server merges and today. That's all off-the-cuff guessing on my part based on pure conjecture but I feel pretty confident about it.

I think a better metric than active players would be the average number of players in game at any given time. Plus, when tallying players for this calculation I would not count bazaar mules since when we log our mules we're generally away or sleeping, and I would subtract a certain percentage to account for the number of 2-boxers in the game currently.

So, I believe the average number of people actually playing the game at any given time to be very low currently. It is not uncommon on Povar at around midnight eastern time to see less than 50 toons in PoK and less than 15 toons LFG.

We could probably break down the numbers into blocks of time with some times more active than others, but I remember before the server mergers when there were easily over 100 people in PoK at midnight and 50 people LFG.

It could also be that many people left Povar/Morden Rasp, but if other servers have had similar experiences then maybe it's time for more mergers. I still have not and will not two-box, and from the perspective of a 1-account player the population is so low that advancement is becoming increasingly difficult.


Edited, Jan 19th 2007 10:01pm by JoltinJoe

As for population on my server ( Fennin ro ), I couldnt tell you. But, it does seem to be down quite alot. I know that at certain times of the night, roughly around midnight to 5 am, it is almost impossible to get a buff of any kind, except for maybe temp.

But to work this, if I am in POK and am on a toon that is doing nothing, when I hear the ooc or shout that someone is casting, I will get on the toon that needs it and get it. The shrouds are nice in the aspect that i can get on my beastlord, summon a pet, get him buffed and then reshroud, to use later. Logically, this is why my toons are always mostly parked in POK, especially if they need buffing before their next use.

I have a 70 something cleric friend who usually asks if I need buffage in any form before she logs. She generally waits for me to log all eight or whatever and buffs.

lol i know, i went of tangent, but I was jsut expressing my solution to the problem.

During the more popular gaming hours, I don't see a big problem getting productive groups and/or raids going, at least on Stromm. Off hours are getting a bit sketchy though. I do think the new games coming out will seriously deplete populations again. Server merges are probably inevitable. That wouldn't be such a bad thing.

Say there are 100,000 active accounts each at 15.00/month = 1.5mil. x 12 = 18mil/year.

100,000 accounts purchasing a new expansion every six months for 30 bucks is another 6mil./year. So, 24 million gross in a year. I can imagine at least half of that as being profit. I realize that 12mil isn't a huge profit for a company like Sony, but the infracstructure is there.

I haven't a clue how many active accounts there really are. But, it can't take many people playing for a profit to be made. I think they'll keep it going for awhile.

I wonder how many people are still paying for EQ and not playing?

In the first 6 months or so of world of warcrafts release EQ went from nearly 500k to under 200k. From my understanding when the january mmorpg population numbers are published eq will be below 100k.

I am curios if they will do another server merger or call it quits. Either way I am sure eq will squeeze another year and another 2 overpriced expansions out of it.

Bottom line starting a new charactr atthis point probably isnt a good idea especialy when you consider that eq has lost most of its casual layer population and what remains is mostly raiding guilds.

Not true you didnt even bother to read the announcement from blizz i linked did you?



Once again they have 8 million ACTIVE subscribers not the total that has ever played. and nothings changed since then blizzard just made the announcement last week not a year ago.

Edited, Jan 20th 2007 8:58pm by notinterested

... a very unique and intelligent idea commander. I like it.




... Actually the opposite is true. SOE obfuscates its numbers by including people with station passes. So SWG players with station passes who may never play eq are counted among its subscriber base.

The reason why it appears no one plays eq, is cause eq has more Land then any game in exsistence. There are something like 500+ zones, so there bound to be a ton with no one in them, on Eci, i find there are a lot of players, but all tend to gather toward hot zones, but its rare that i go to any zone in game and dont see at least 1 player every hour.

i see the same thing basicaly. all the real good players long gone now, replaced by mostly stupid kids who do mm's all day long and think they aer leet with their 1000 mm'd aa's but dont even know what a spell is . the game has been cheapend beyond comprehension. there used to be a sense of respect and comradory now its just jealousy, greediness, and you get the feeling noboduy ever really even wants to be playing but they are there simply to fulfill some stupid sick addiction or they are just that bored with life or maybe life is bored of them. eq cant sustain itself anymore like this, ive noticed a severe dropoff in players lately and this isnt like any dropoff before. something is really happening this time around and i think at the ve4ry least youll see more server mergers cuz its getting real bad and sad to be in eq O&0