How much longer???

[Demono]

Hello,
I have been watching a steady decline in players on AC1. What are the plans for this great game? I have spent hundreds of hours building and creating but am curious if AC1 is at the end of it's life. More and more of my friends are going over to Worl Of Warcraft. I am resisting but some nights it's hard to put a party together.

[Erica]

Well schools out for Christmas break, so the player base will pick back up a bit for the next couple of weeks.

[Evins Wardlaw]

Yea, its low. The hope was that D&D Online and LoTR:Online would be cash cows and help keep AC1 around... but those are looking more and more like cash holes instead of revenue generators...

I ran a site that tracked populations.. and Darktide was the most populated with 450+ at peak times... but the average was around 370... the white servers were a bit slower.. Frostfell which is one of the more populated white servers would have about 350 at peak and about 230-250 on average.

Across all servers, Vogue identified 15,000 unique characters... considering that many of those could be alts on the same account, thats a very low number.

The only hope at this point would be for someone to create an more up to date version of AC... with the same gameplay... but the chances of that are nil.

[Sledge]

Players have been predicting the demise of AC for years.

Just like the Eveready Battery, it keeps going and and going.

With the free trials and some advertising, it is actually growing.

Players may leave and try WOW, but they come back once they get to 60 and find out there is little to do outside of 4-16 hour raids.

So many of the new games coming to the market have been disappointing.

I am expecting to be here for the 10th anniversary and the 15th.

[Evins Wardlaw]

Yea, I've tried about 9 of the 38 major MMOs on the market.. and I always come back to Asheron's Call.

I am interested to see what happens with the Marvel MMO for Windows Vista and 360. That may have some potential... since its going to be on console as well, maybe it will have some physics similar to AC Combat. Oh, and Huxley for the 360 is an MMOFPS.. with RPG elements, so it may end up similar to AC in speed and action.

[Demono]

I always come back to AC as well and I want AC to be around but like I said it's getting sparser and sparser. Also noticed a drop off of campers when tank died but it seems all those tank macroers stopped playing as well.
How do we help the userbase get big again? I think if Turbine really wanted it to grow they would give people 2 free months and drop the price to around $8 a month. It would give them the opportunity to get more users and make more money so they could redo the graphics engine. DOes anyone know of any Turbine plans to have another major update to AC?

[Demono]

I didn't play either D&D or Lord of the Rings. Are either any good? Is AC2 any fun?

Yea, its low. The hope was that D&D Online and LoTR:Online would be cash cows and help keep AC1 around... but those are looking more and more like cash holes instead of revenue generators...

I ran a site that tracked populations.. and Darktide was the most populated with 450+ at peak times... but the average was around 370... the white servers were a bit slower.. Frostfell which is one of the more populated white servers would have about 350 at peak and about 230-250 on average.

Across all servers, Vogue identified 15,000 unique characters... considering that many of those could be alts on the same account, thats a very low number.

The only hope at this point would be for someone to create an more up to date version of AC... with the same gameplay... but the chances of that are nil.

[Demono]

So in your opinion how long do you think AC1 will be around?

Yea, its low. The hope was that D&D Online and LoTR:Online would be cash cows and help keep AC1 around... but those are looking more and more like cash holes instead of revenue generators...

I ran a site that tracked populations.. and Darktide was the most populated with 450+ at peak times... but the average was around 370... the white servers were a bit slower.. Frostfell which is one of the more populated white servers would have about 350 at peak and about 230-250 on average.

Across all servers, Vogue identified 15,000 unique characters... considering that many of those could be alts on the same account, thats a very low number.

The only hope at this point would be for someone to create an more up to date version of AC... with the same gameplay... but the chances of that are nil.

[Holt Politician]

So in your opinion how long do you think AC1 will be around?

Until Turbine does something totally off the wall with the game and a good chunk of AC's longtime fans leave.

[Evins Wardlaw]

Turbine greatest marketing asset are its players. They should allow the players to sign up as "promoters" and in return, they are given a code to use as a referral id... and then offer IG items, free 1 month, or something to encourage the "promoters" to sell the game to their friends. DAoC has a "Bring-a-Friend" bonus that for each person you refer to the game... you get a free month of gameplay.
WoW is also doing an invite a friend promotion, but strictly through marketing... not a bounty system.

In addition, Turbine needs to fix the starter dungeons... and when the people emerge from the starter dungeon, they need to be dumped somewhere that people can be waiting to greet them. I rerolled a player a few months back, and at the end of the starter dungeon were like 5 or 6 portals to different towns. I think this servers to seperate new players from experienced patrons... and that is bad because creating a social bond with your patron is a lock-in feature that has kept many players in-game to this day... so efforts should be made to encourage social interaction and thus increasing lock-in.