Civilization is hitting the bottom!

[Fistalis]

Nor is Steam required to play Civ. Those who do are choosing to play it that way.

One thing the stats can never show is how many people are playing 'offline' rather than not playing at all.

The numbers may be disturbing to some, but since Steam is not required to play, the numbers are also completely meaningless.

Steam is required to play Civ V.By putting it into offline mode Yes you can choose to NOT be counted but again I stated that. Where as with football manager you can simply not use steam at all. As i stated one must actively CHOOSE to not be counted by steam when playing CIv V. When Civ V is installed it defaults to online mode meaning you have to CHOOSE offline mode to not be counted. where as with football manager one must actively CHOOSE to use steam. It gives you the option of steam or non steam versions when installing. What part of this do you not understand?

 

[John-SJ]

I understand perfectly. What you seem to misunderstand is that I am saying that since any player can opt out from being counted, no conclusion can be drawn from declining numbers.

Unless the decline can only come from one cause, or multiple causes that are quantifiable, there is no way to say that the declining numbers are due to declining players. You simply can't know that.

 

[Fistalis]

I understand perfectly. What you seem to misunderstand is that I am saying that since any player can opt out from being counted, no conclusion can be drawn from declining numbers.

Unless the decline can only come from one cause, or multiple causes that are quantifiable, there is no way to say that the declining numbers are due to declining players. You simply can't know that.

None of which i stated at all in my post. Why would you respond to my post with a counter post that is completely outside of my posts subject?

yes any player can opt out of being counted.. however one must remember that the default option and the method of active choice will affect the overall numbers.

Finally my post didn't even touch the declining numbers argument. It simply cleared up a posters misconception of why a particular game was often selected for comparison.

EDIT*
As for the whole declining player numbers. I doubt firaxis or 2k care at all. Sales is what they want. They wouldn't care if no one was playing the game.. as long as they bought it. So i personally don't get the point of the conversation. If you wanted to protest against civ V or didn't like the implementations in some way the way to do so was at the check out counter/webpage. It's not like they make or lose money depending on how many people still actively play the game.

 

[Artophwar]

Those numbers are not meaningless. They do give a general sample of how many people are playing games. I would say that 95% of users are online when they play.

But the OP is just silly. Every game is going to decline after time, especially one that is mainly single player. Im sure they have sold a few million copies already and Im sure Civ5 will stay in the top 20 most played games on Steam for some time.

 

[John-SJ]

Hey, whatever you say, man. I'm sure that your gut feelings, even your certainties are perfectly valid bases for statistical analysis.

Now, if you could convince your college professor of that.

 

[Wezqu]

Yep I haven't played it for a while but that doesn't mean I won't get back to it in few months. I usually play a game until I get bored and then start to play another game, but this will rotate so that eventually I will come back and play Civ V as its a good game. Now for example I am playing Europa Universalis III that I had played last time like an year ago.

Those numbers don't really mean anything just that there is other games to play. People don't play just one game all the time.

 

[Martin Alvito]

By the OP's logic, every PC game released since 2000 is a failure, since Counter Strike has more players.

 

[tnick777]

I think it's 2 1/2 star rating on Amazon is worse...

http://www.amazon.com/Sid-Meiers-Ci...T8QM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1291360048&sr=8-1

 

[Humakty]

My reall dread is that civ 5 might have found such a great audience that the whole strategy game industry will change... Not the way I want.

 

[JLoZeppeli]

You are missing some points:

1) Civilization can be played only by Steam, the other games, like EVE (someone uses this example) don't use Steam. And even if they are only the online players and are there are others playing offline, it is still indicative for a trend.

2) It is constantly dropping, but it has a big difference with games like New Vegas, Civilization has a replayable value that some other games like New Vegas lack, so it's worrying that it has dropped so much in players. And i speak of a game dropping players so much only after two months from release...

3) I'm italian (so the statements about the OP being american are laughable), i know very well the fanbase around Football Manager, playing it from the first iteration when it was called Championship Manager and Sport Int. was part of Eidos, and it is very different from games like Pro Evolution Soccer or Fifa, denying that is like telling me that a Hockey management game could sell well in Italy... And Football Manager doesn't need Steam....

So that's the point. You need to understand that Civiliation use Steam as a base to play, when other games not. It's a crucial evidence...

 

[EmpireOfCats]

Won't be long before Civ V bashing rates up there with America bashing, then it will be third in line from Bush bashing, which is, of course, losing steam since Obama turned out to be such a massive fail.

Wait. Obama is going to cancel Steam? Does Valve know about this?

 

[swordspider]

Tool.

Moderator Action: Flaming/Trolling
Please read the forum rules: http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=422889

 

[vandyr]

Wait. Obama is going to cancel Steam? Does Valve know about this?

No silly, he's losing steam, just like he has lost popular support

 

[The_J]

Moderator Action: Back to topic.

 

[Artophwar]

Hey, whatever you say, man. I'm sure that your gut feelings, even your certainties are perfectly valid bases for statistical analysis.

Now, if you could convince your college professor of that.

Its not gut feelings, those numbers are actual stats that Valve uses. Just as its opt-in Hardware survey stats are. Not everyone sends in their info but is gives a general sample. You can bring in all the "what if" scenarios you want, but to say that those numbers have no statistical value is just untrue. Maybe you should head back to college yourself.

 

[Warspite2]

Oh, the horror. It's only the 5th most popular game on Steam.

Count again, its #4

 

[Warspite2]

I would rather play Civ V anyday then any of the other 3 games that are above it, those are a joke. Give me Arma II anyday over those CoD Hollywood style shooters and all their hype. As far as CS:Source and TF2, they can have those I won't touch them.

 

[Sonereal]

I would rather play Civ V anyday then any of the other 3 games that are above it, those are a joke. Give me Arma II anyday over those CoD Hollywood style shooters and all their hype. As far as CS:Source and TF2, they can have those I won't touch them.

TF2 is surprisingly very good. TF2 is hardly a "Hollywood-style" shooter unless you haven't played it.

In any case, you're telling me a relatively obscure game is only the fourth most played game on Steam or whatever? You don't say.

 

[scratchthepitch]

"Civilization is hitting the bottom!"

They did that with Civ4, years ago.

 

[SidMeierGroupy]

According to steam 931 played EVE Online

http://games.chruker.dk/eve_online/server_status.php
Status: Online
Players: 42,432

Not all stats are accurate or to be belived

Ha ha ha! That's awsome.