The Digital Dozen: 30 April 2013

The rankings of the top twelve MMORPGs as determined by the players of the Xfire community from play on Sunday, 28 April 2013.  For more details about the methodology, click here.  Historical data can be found here.

Rank	Prev Week	Game	Score	Hours Played	+/- %
1	1	World of Warcraft	41.5	21,965	-2.4
2	2	Guild Wars 2	18.0	9,545	-6.2
3	3	Star Wars: The Old Republic	11.6	6,158	-13.1
4	4	Tera	5.5	2,929	-9.1
5	6	Eve Online	4.9	2,618	+18.2
6	5	Aion	4.8	2,555	-1.6
7	7	Lord of the Rings Online	3.0	1,585	-9.3
8	8	Planetside 2	2.8	1,475	-2.1
9	9	APB: Reloaded	2.1	1,104	-14.1
10	11	Need For Speed World	2.0	1,046	-2.1
11	--	Age of Wushu	1.9	1,016	+14.9
12	10	Runescape	1.8	973	-22.5

 

Total Digital Dozen Hours: 52,969

The time the Xfire community spends playing the most popular MMORPGs on Sundays declined for a third straight week.  Sunday's 4.9% drop was led by Runescape (-22.5%), APB: Reloaded (-14.1%) and Star Wars: The Old Republic (-13.1%).  In the face of the decline, two games managed strong gains: Eve Online (+18.2%) and Age of Wushu (+14.9%).

A Changing of the Guard?  For the first time in the 65 week history of The Digital Dozen Metin 2 failed to make the list.  The eastern fantasy MMORPG was supplanted by the eastern martial arts MMORPG Age of Wushu.  While Metin 2 looked a lot like Dark Age of Camelot in concept with its 3 faction PvP, Age of Wushu has been favorably described as a fantasy version of Eve Online.  Age of Wushu recently launched and instead of making a big splash and then descending quickly, will the game gradually build in popularity based on word of mouth?  Time will tell.

Jagex' War On Bots - Runescape's developer Jagex has waged a war on bots for quite a while now.  This war has now reached the Old School servers that fueled Runescape's popularity and rise on The Digital Dozen and may explain the game's drop in popularity over the past few weeks.  Over the two weeks leading up to last weekend, Jagex had banned over 21,000 accounts.

Pumping Up The Base - One day after the end of CCP's annual Fanfest celebration in Iceland Eve Online saw an 18.2% increase spent playing internet spaceships.  With some of the news coming out of Reykjavik I think many players decided they needed to take some action as the summer expansion will have far-ranging effects on the economy.

Questions After Fanfest 2013

I got home from Fanfest a few hours ago, tired and with a nasty chest cold, but alive.  Instead of trying to write something insightful or thought-provoking, I'll just note five questions that came to mind as we move toward Uprising (Retribution 1.2 for Eve players) and Odyssey.

Will Odyssey be a boon to bots?  A lot of people are celebrating the move of ice belts to depletable anomalies as the death of ice bots.  I'm not so sure.  That really depends on the new discovery scanner and how it works.  If bot developers can use the discovery scanner to scan down ice anomalies, then they can do the same to access high sec ore sites (the former grav sites).  That could make the feature a buff for bots.

Is wormhole space receiving a net nerf?  I originally didn't think so, but I ran into a wormhole player who said the region was receiving 6 nerfs.  The three that I remember him saying are a reduced payout for blue ribbons, the capital rigs nerf, and the reduction in the supply of ice.  I don't know very much about wormholes so I'll wait to see what the blogs and podcasters say about the subject.

Can I still live in low sec?  After Friday and listening to the changes to mining I wasn't so sure.  After talking with people and asking questions on Saturday I think I still can.  Then again, I live in low sec because I don't like high sec so I'm a little more resistant to economic realities than others.  That sounds like two posts, with the first one hopefully finished for Wednesday.  I would have finished it already but this cold keeps knocking me down.

What happened with the CSM 8 election?  This year's CSM election has the lowest turnout (12.12% of eligible voters) than any election since the term for CSM members was increased from six months to one year with CSM 5.  I have my own issues with the single-transferable vote process and think that was a major factor, but I would like to see what others with more insight have to say about the matter.

Will null sec explode in violence?  Will the changes to moon minerals incite a war between the null sec power blocs?  Or will an increased industrial capacity in null sec lead to increased attacks on Empire?  I'm not referring to events like Burn Jita.  Oh no.  I'm referring to increased efforts to dominate resources in low sec.

Risk vs. Reward No Longer Applies?

I didn't feel well last night so I skipped the pub crawl and read the dev blogs that CCP Fozzie put out last night.  After reading them, my reaction was...

W. T. F. ?!

Why the reaction?  Because pilots no longer have to probe down gravimetric sites.  They can use the ship’s built-in anomaly scanning equipment.  This is important because now the new ore sites are just a little more difficult to find than asteroid belts.  As I do my mining in low sec, this is rather important.

At the same time the ore will contain extra low end minerals.  Here are the new mineral concentrations for the ore found in low sec sites:

• Crokite: 38000 Tritanium (+37669), 331 Nocxium, 663 Zydrine
• Dark Ochre: 25500 Tritanium (+25250), 500 Nocxium, 250 Zydrine
• Gneiss: 3700 Tritanium (+3529), 3700 Mexallon (+3529), 700 Isogen (+357), 171 Zydrine
• Spodumain: 71000 Tritanium (+67810), 9000 Pyerite (+8590), 140 Megacyte

Is that enough extra reward to make up for the increased risk for mining in an ore site?  I don't know, although I'm inclined to say no.  Perhaps that is because of the increased risk in mining in low sec belts with the "Tags4Sec" feature.  Apparently no one mines in low sec belts to CCP decided to just turn them into PvP areas where players can fight over the rats that drop the security status tags.  For miners, that is definitely a rise in risk with no increase in reward.  I guess those of us who mine in low sec belts had it too easy.

I guess I should be thankful that us low sec players will benefit from a feature put in for null sec players.  At least I'll can still mine the low end minerals in low sec and not have to go to high sec.  Of course, the changes don't help when I am mining to get ore to finish up a storyline mission.

I plan on attending the resource rebalance session today so I'll find out more.  I really want to find some way to work the new system because right now I think I may have to head back to high sec.  I really don't want to do that.  High sec sucks.

Fanfest 2013: Day 1

The first day of Fanfest 2013 is in the books and I managed to somehow attend all the sessions I originally planned.  I think I'll have plenty to discuss for weeks to come, but for now I'll just record my day and what I took away from the presentations.

My Fanfest 2013 Schedule

This year I'm a little happier with the Fanfest schedule than I was last year.  A year ago my schedule had holes in what I wanted to see, which worked out because I could just walk back to my hotel and take a nap or blog a bit.  This year I'm staying at the Hilton, which is two miles away from Harpa.  Fortunately for me the schedule makers smiled down on me and left me with a full schedule on all three days.

So what does my schedule look like for the next three days?  Let's see...

The Celtic Cross

Something that is becoming something of a tradition at Fanfest is the Tweetfleet meet up the night before the convention begins.  I went last year and the bar, The Celtic Cross, was packed.  I decided while wandering around Reykjavik on Monday to go ahead and check the bar out before the huge wave of Eve Online fans arrived.

Upstairs at the bar

I got in early and was able to poke around and take some pictures.  Then a pair on Canadians, a pilot from Get Off My Lawn and his brother, came in and started playing a game that apparently is popular in the local bars.  For 1,500 ISK the bartender spun a wheel and where the wheel stopped is what they got to drink.

A winner!

Their first try netted them 1 meter of beer.  One meter of beer turned out to be 13 rather large glasses of draft beer.  Not bad considering the typical beer wound up going for 900 kr. 

Eventually more pilots came and went, with a few surprised that people were talking openly about things like Maelstroms.  That's one of the nice things about Fanfest.  People who usually only get to talk about Eve with people over Mumble or Team Speak get to actually talk to others face-to-face about internet spaceships.

After six beers, including one I won when I split a spin with the brother from Canada, I walked back to the Hilton, my trip a success.  I had successfully remembered how to find the bar, met some Eve players, had a good time, and had enough beer in me to help get my internal clock adjusted to local time.

The Digital Dozen: 23 April 2013

The rankings of the top twelve MMORPGs as determined by the players of the Xfire community from play on Sunday, 21 April 2013.  For more details about the methodology, click here.  Historical data can be found here.

Rank	Prev Week	Game	Score	Hours Played	+/- %
1	1	World of Warcraft	40.4	22,509	-6.1
2	2	Guild Wars 2	18.3	10,175	+6.0
3	3	Star Wars: The Old Republic	12.7	7,088	-0.9
4	4	Tera	5.8	3,222	-0.5
5	6	Aion	4.7	2,596	+8.6
6	5	Eve Online	4.0	2,215	-7.4
7	7	Lord of the Rings Online	3.1	1,752	+11.7
8	9	Planetside 2	2.7	1,507	+18.1
9	11	APB: Reloaded	2.3	1,285	+10.4
10	8	Runescape	2.3	1,255	-4.4
11	10	Need For Speed World	1.9	1,068	-11.0
12	12	Metin 2	1.8	1,015	-8.1

 

Total Digital Dozen Hours: 55,687

The time the Xfire community spent playing the 12 most popular MMORPGs remained fairly stable Sunday, only declining by 1.2% compared to the previous week.  Games experiencing the greatest gains in popularity were Planetside 2 (18.1%), Lord of the Rings Online (11.7%) and APB: Reloaded (10.4%).  The only game experiencing a double-digit percentage decline was Need For Speed World (-11%).

Still The 800 Pound Gorilla - While World of Warcraft's days of topping the Xfire charts with 6-figure are over, the game still dominates the genre.  Take for example Sunday.  The other 11 games on The Digital Dozen saw a 2.4% increase in hours played but WoW's 6.1% decline turned a possible positive gain into a 1.2% decline.

Burn Eve? - Eve Online's 7.4% Xfire decline corresponded with the lowest peak concurrent user number for a Sunday since the launch of the Retribution expansion.   While the mass movement of players to Reykjavik for Fanfest 2013 that began this weekend might explain some of the numbers, a more plausible explanation was the Burn Jita 2 event.  We'll see if the numbers rebound next weekend if Goonswarm and friends stop their attacks on shipping in Eve Online's main trade hub.

I am there!

Back In Iceland

I arrived in Iceland a few hours ago.  When I think about it, attending Fanfest is a little strange.  I'm a rather casual player yet this is the second time I've traveled to this volcanic island floating in the north Atlantic.  The existing theory is that going to Fanfest is an indication that a player is hard core because Iceland if views as so remote.  Following the antics of the players and the devs, I guess I'm hard core.  Actually playing the game, I'm casual.

I'll get more into Fanfest later in the week.  Right now I'm luxuriating in my room at the Hilton.  Booking my trip three months in advance didn't get me into a hotel that is close to Harpa, so I am two miles away.  In exchange, the shower is much better, with water that isn't scalding and actually comes out fast.  Also, I actually have more than one outlet that I can use, which is coming in handy for both using my laptop and recharging my iPhone and iPad and other electrical equipment at the same time.

One thing that shocked me a bit was that I'm charged for using an internet connection in my room.  1,500 ISK is not a lot in Eve, but is a bit for real life.  This isn't the first time I've been charged for internet in a hotel, though, so once I got over the surprise I looked at the bright side.  The internet connection better be good if I'm getting charged for it.  So far, so good.  I'm currently listening to Eve Radio and I couldn't listen at all at the hotel I stayed at last year.

Enough about the hotel, what about the weather?  People following the Tweetfleet on Twitter will know about the constantly changing weather.  This morning was cold and snowing.  Now it is 43F/6C and sunny.  My plan of wearing layers is looking like the right choice.  Once I finish this post I'll be roaming around the city since I never explored this section of town.  I hear the mall and even the zoo is in this area.  I hope people don't mind pictures because I think I'll wind up posting some.

Of course I'll have a few thoughts on Fanfest 2013 as the week goes on but for now I'm just acclimatizing to Iceland.  The weather is really not an issue since we've been going through some cold weather in Chicago before I left, so all I have to do is get my internal clock adjusted.  That shouldn't be too much of a problem, especially if I go drinking tonight.  I have a tendency to wake up early when I've been drinking.  So until then, farewell from sunny/rainy/snowy Reykjavik.

CCP's War On Bots: Darwin Award Nominees

"In the spirit of Charles Darwin, the Darwin Awards commemorate individuals who protect our gene pool by making the ultimate sacrifice of their own lives. Darwin Award winners eliminate themselves in an extraordinarily idiotic manner, thereby improving our species' chances of long-term survival."

- www.darwinawards.com

In the midst of yesterday's uproar over the declaration that cache-scraping violates the EULA, a funny thing happened.  Well, I laughed, but the holders of 2350 accounts didn't find the situation so funny.  CCP Stillman made the following announcement:

Eve Online Senior Producer CCP Seagull On The CSM

As of the scheduled time this post will appear, 12 hours will remain in the voting for CSM 8 (to vote, click here).  I haven't covered the election itself but instead have written a couple of posts concerning the Council of Stellar Management based on the CSM White Paper.  Yesterday CCP Dolan published a dev blog with a lot of quotes from CCP employees explaining why the CSM is important.

On Tuesday CCP held a live chat with important people like outgoing Executive Producer CCP Unifex, Creative Director CCP Torfifrans, Development Director CCP Ripley and Senior Producer CCP Seagull.  Current CSM 7 member Hans Jagerblitzen managed to sneak in a question about the CSM:

"In what way have you found the CSM useful in the past year and how do you see the role expanding during the next term?"

The reply came from CCP Seagull...