A picture paints a thousand words

[sherbz]

http://steamcharts.com/app/65980#All

About says it all really for BE. Unbridled enthusiasm and expectation, replaced by despondency and disappointment.

Especially when you compare it to civ 5, which has actually increased over time:

http://steamcharts.com/app/8930#All

 

[vahouth]

I wonder what happened on 18/1 to justify the spike.

 

[Gorbles]

I'm amazed, I didn't realise Steam stats showed player despondency and disappointment.

Unless you're just making that up in order to force a point, I guess?

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Well, the graph certainly doesn't show enthusiasm and growing confidence.
(And the current player numbers are actually far lower than I expected, I would have guessed at least 10k playing at this point.)

Would be interesting if one could plot two of these together and see how they influence each other (e.g. did CIV5 see spikes at BE release?).

 

[stormtrooper412]

yeah, what DID cause that spike

 

[sherbz]

Well, the graph certainly doesn't show enthusiasm and growing confidence.
(And the current player numbers are actually far lower than I expected, I would have guessed at least 10k playing at this point.)

Would be interesting if one could plot two of these together and see how they influence each other (e.g. did CIV5 see spikes at BE release?).

I think you should look at them as separate games. And lets be fair, they are just that. And in terms of raw numbers, BE is a failure.

 

[Ryika]

I wonder what happened on 18/1 to justify the spike.

Play-for-Free Weekend.

 

[sherbz]

yeah, what DID cause that spike

I thought it was the patch but i might be wrong.

 

[Ryika]

No, first patch was on Dec 8 and didn't really do anything in terms of numbers - not even a small spike.

 

[sherbz]

Well, the graph certainly doesn't show enthusiasm and growing confidence.
(And the current player numbers are actually far lower than I expected, I would have guessed at least 10k playing at this point.)

Would be interesting if one could plot two of these together and see how they influence each other (e.g. did CIV5 see spikes at BE release?).

http://steamcharts.com/cmp/8930,65980

Here you go. As i said before - about says it all.

 

[sherbz]

Actually this is a better one:

http://steamcharts.com/cmp/8930,65980#All

 

[Ryika]

Here you go. As i said before - about says it all.

Here's another horrible picture: http://steamcharts.com/cmp/8930,570#1y

8)

 

[sherbz]

It is interesting that BE actually had about as many players as civ 5 at its peak. However, the shelf life is seriously limited. I wonder whether devs take notice of these figures. Because IMO that tells me that the game has bombed.

As an aside note, these sorts of stats tell a far more telling tale on multiplyer. I came across these looking at "EVOLVE", and whether or not it was worth purchasing it. And it certainly makes for some interesting material.

RULE NUMBER ONE - NEVER EVER BUY A MULTI PLAYER GAME AS A PRE ORDER!

 

[sherbz]

Here's another horrible picture: http://steamcharts.com/cmp/8930,570#1y

8)

DOTA rules on steam. Its the most popular game. I have never played it. I am not much of a sheep, but the crowd is clearly talking. Maybe i should take a look .

 

[Victus75]

I'm not sure you can say that the amount of people currently playing is necessarily indicative of a game that has bombed. Someone could have bought the game, played the crap out of it over a couple months, and then just moved on to another game, thinking "wow, I really enjoyed BE".

Not that having these numbers are useless, I am sure it's important for Firaxis.

 

[4N4C0ND4]

DOTA rules on steam. Its the most popular game. I have never played it. I am not much of a sheep, but the crowd is clearly talking. Maybe i should take a look .

Don't, it's like cocaine on crack

I literally can't know how much hours I've pour in this game, probably between 10 or 20k hours over 5 6 years

 

[Bandobras Took]

So what I should take away from this is that there are people on this board who honestly believe that the only reason a person doesn't play a game is because of despondency and disappointment?

That is rather disturbing.

Never mind that the figures for Civ 5 don't actually seem to include post-release data; if I'm reading the charts right, we're missing approximately two years' worth of Civ 5 data. Including, you know, all of Vanilla's lifespan.

Edit: Out of curiosity, can Steam track people playing offline?

 

[sherbz]

Don't, it's like cocaine on crack

I literally can't know how much hours I've pour in this game, probably between 10 or 20k hours over 5 6 years

I have poured about 65 hours in. And i think it is fair to say that our contribution is meaningless. They wont improve it because they know it is dead.

As for civ 5? Did they fix everything you ever wanted?

 

[sherbz]

I'm not sure you can say that the amount of people currently playing is necessarily indicative of a game that has bombed. Someone could have bought the game, played the crap out of it over a couple months, and then just moved on to another game, thinking "wow, I really enjoyed BE".

Not that having these numbers are useless, I am sure it's important for Firaxis.

Keep telling yourself that!

They don't care!

 

[sherbz]

So what I should take away from this is that there are people on this board who honestly believe that the only reason a person doesn't play a game is because of despondency and disappointment?

That is rather disturbing.

Never mind that the figures for Civ 5 don't actually seem to include post-release data; if I'm reading the charts right, we're missing approximately two years' worth of Civ 5 data. Including, you know, all of Vanilla's lifespan.

Edit: Out of curiosity, can Steam track people playing offline?

As a long time civ fan i was very disappointed with civ 5. I only truly appreciated it after 3 expansions. That about says it. Why would you expand a game that has an average if 1,500 players? BE fals into this category.