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Tuesday, August 6, 2013

The Digital Dozen: 2 August 2013

The rankings of the top twelve MMORPGs as determined by the players of the Xfire community from play on Sunday, 2 August 2013.  For more details about the methodology, click here.  Historical data can be found here.

Rank Prev Week Game ScoreHours Played +/- %
11World of Warcraft 41.0 15,181-2.7
22Guild Wars 218.56,866-4.6
33Star Wars: The Old Republic9.73,593-6.3
44EVE Online6.12,269+9.2
55Aion5.41,986+26.5
67Tera3.31,206-14.7
76Neverwinter3.21,179-24.4
8--Planetside 22.81,047+17.8
98RIFT2.81,043-20.6
10--Runescape2.5935+16.3
T1110Metin 22.3862-10.1
T1112Lord of the Rings Online2.3862-7.1
 
Total Digital Dozen Hours: 37,029
The Xfire community went back to its long term trend of disinterest in MMORPGs, with the previous week's gain in time spent playing games from the genre almost completely evaporating on Sunday.  The biggest drops in play time were recorded by two games that fell out of the list, Maple Story (-41.2%) and APB: Reloaded (-29.5%).  Games bucking the 3.7% summertime slide were led in percentage terms by Aion (+26.5%), Planetside 2 (+17.8%) and Runescape (+16.3%).

Beating the Heat - Aion decided to get into the spirit of fun by holding a summer block party over the weekend.  Not only could players receive 30 minute buffs from drinks but also harvest ice and ice picks from mobs.  Combine an ice block and a pick and receive an ice box containing a prize.  These prizes were available in the in-game store as well as through normal game play.  I guess a lot of players didn't want to pay real world money.

Convention Bounce - This past weekend saw Sony Online Entertainment hold its SOE Live player gathering in Las Vegas.  Just as we saw with EVE Online following CCP's Fanfest in April, interest in Planetside 2 received a bump.  After a two-week absence from The Digital Dozen, will the excitement that generated a 17.8% increase in playtime last and keep the game in the list?

People Like To Fight - While the change to Runescape 3 on 22 July wasn't enough to launch the game into the list, the Battle of Lumbridge apparently is a hit.  Sunday's 16.3% gain was the second Sunday of the world event.  Players get to choose elements of the conflict and for this week players on both sides chose to enhance their DPS.  This week players will vote on the NPC reinforcements they will receive.  From the news we've seen recently getting players more involved in these types of decisions is becoming a thing and as it succeeds I expect to see more voting in the future.

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