Dropping playernumbers

[Figment]

12 hours ago, Floofz said:

Im pretty sure camos are still in the game

 

12 hours ago, Floofz said:

Hence why I said the combination of not having camos,

There's no need to use camos anymore, so it's irrelevant to the combination. It's been pointed, you acknowledge it kinda, but then you double down on an invalidated combination. That doesn't make it a better argument, it just means you're bad at handling criticism/corrections and are determined to stick to a view.

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flags

That said, I also fail to see how flags have an impact on in game performance (instead, one might argue it adds calculation time so may impact performance). A pro-gamer would not use any unnecessary clutter that might hinder view or impact graphic performance. I mean, there are games where you can deforest the map, removing even grass and suddenly you can see enemy tanks (and thus their weakpoints better). Are people who play in part for a pretty scenery bad players for not going full-performance/visibility advantages over immersive play? Sorry, I kinda hold the game responsible in such instances for being designed such that you can get a handicap or advantage by simply turning down the vegetation or light effects or whatever. I'm sure removing a lot of the AA prettiness in game would improve my performance as I've experienced stutter at times.

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or signals.

I also don't want to waste signals on every battle for every ship, certainly not in randoms now that they're in shorter supply. I actually ran out of some signals since the removal of rewards for achievements. So someone making a conscious decision to save signals for Ranked or some such is actually a sign of awareness of when it's important to use them.

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Often even stock ships.

I brought stock ships since beta (and topped the game rounds with them, since beta). I justed started the Lion stock with a new 10pt commander, for a rare occassion I actually paid the 12.5K free captain exp to have the captain skills immediately (usualy I let it sort itself out over 2-3 matches). I often bring 3-6pt captains to higher tiers as well and train them up from scratch. This makes you more familiar with the weaknesses of the ship IMO and makes you more aware of its shortcomings. So when you play with better equipment and skills, your performance should increase with you yourself trained for getting the most out of the ship already.

 

What is your argument really? What are you trying to prove? That you're prejudiced and quick to jump to conclusions?

[BoxOfAngryBees]

Looking at the stats [stats.wotapi]:

 

EU: been falling steadily since Q1_2020, not even the closing of the Russian servers that caused the account transfers really bolstered the numbers any ...

RU: been falling steadily at a not so shallow curve since inception, no real surprise that the lesta/wedgie schism happened, their luck that the Russo-Ukraine war kicked off and they could at least sell it as a PR move.

NA: was actually slowly but steadily growing, with a few hickups here and there - until infamous Q1_2020, now falling at a slightly faster rate than the EU numbers...

ASIA: was stable till Q1_2020, after which a massive boost came, for whatever reason - has been quite healthy since then, though a perceptible slight falling trend could be argued

 

Of course, the usual caveats like bots (specifically in ASIA) etc apply - but none the less, I would still hold these stats to be representative enough to the point of being able to use these as indicators.

 

Besides the obvious 'zomg wows is DAAYYIINGNG' meme, I would suggest that OP is quite right in the perception of a game community basically flatlining in the skill department (not in the last few months, but markedly so within the last year) - though I wouldnt necessarily call it a lack/falling-off of skill on its own, although that is a big factor. Other factors are gimmick creep, obfuscation and straight-up ruination of tried-and-true mechanics through aid gimmicks, OP ships, buyable high-tier ships, etc. That really lead to the mass-exodus of alot of skill within the community, I would surmise, hurried along by the quick-buck gravy-train that is the mobile gaming business model that destroys the need to keep a game deep and ... well, coherent

Speaking of that quick-buck gravy-train that is the mobile gaming business model: It really didnt pan out as well as they hoped it would - which would have been obvious to anyone with a brain, seeing as how wows is precisely the wrong kind of game to shoehorn into that business model but ... well, thinking is hard sometimes

 

-----------

 

Now for my wailing ... the story of which I believe is strongly reflected in the majority of the older players and maybe some of the newer, more mentally invested players, which is why I'm vomiting it out here to illustrate

 

for my part, I can barely play more than an hour anymore, sometimes two - and only in coop. Thanks mostly to subs and carriers (subs, like I said, simply broke the camels back) and the sheer stupidity that was the barring of random operations during October, on top of the mounting stinking corpses that are the PR incidents - of which most of them also happened out of sheer stupidity.

Carriers I was able to soldier through with gritted teeth and the simple acceptance that "it was my turn" when the carrier yolostomps my nuts, irrelevant of AA etc. Despite carriers being a god-class of guaranteed good games as long as you can tell the tail end of a plane from its propeller, you could still sense that a modicum of skill was still needed to really ruin your day, creating at least the illusion of more influence in the interaction than you actually had

But subs .... that really broke my resolve. I dont know if its simply the fact that you can kind of see if and when the carrier is coming, the fact that you have AA that at least offers lip-service to the idea of defense or that in some ships, you really can use maneuverability to thwart the planes, but subs do away with that illusion completely .... you get pinged by an invisible eldritch being, after which you dread the invisible eldritch torpedoes that are basically supersonic in some cases and can turn on a dime compared to most ship maneuverability stats. Or it simply surfaces 10 feet from your side, lets its torps loose and dives (turning invisible again) while the torps delete 50 to 70% of your hull - and that within the span of no more than 5 seconds, only to so it again within a minute. All you can do then is twiddle your thumbs and hope your depth charges do at least some damage before the icy depths claim your valiant crew.

That is what killed WOWS PVP for me ...

 

Then the operations got overhauled finally after years of empty promises - good, I thought, something at least. Then came the Halloween event, barring random operations... yeah, needless to say, after 3 games I stopped playing and waited for the event to pass - and now that normal operations are back ... I just cant be bothered anymore, really lost my will to play this game.

[Verblonde]

6 hours ago, Karasu_Hidesuke said:

Personally, I'm playing drastically less now and it's down to the subs.

This. I've finally had time to give Fallout 4 a bit of a poke (I've had it for years, but never explored it properly)...

[SurfaceFish]

I'm dropping solo random all together, hooking up with clan div one in a while is the only times I'm touching this toxic and time wasting mess. 

 

Played 20 random games a month since September down from around 80. Looks like I'll play less than 10 randoms this month. I'm a co op main now with operations now and then. 

 

I'm not good enough to solo carry and frustratingly watching games lossing from 3 to 5 mins in is not worth my time. I was hoping to continue improve my solo WR at start this year, but random is just no fun anymore with steamroll most of the time. 

 

Got myself a Ragnar, thought about going to random, then the memories of crap random games all came back and I'd rather watch Windows update itself 😅 

 

[Yosha_AtaIante]

damn that's really tragic that all you guys can't play randoms anymore. I can't find you there then :(

[Verblonde]

34 minutes ago, SurfaceFish said:

I'm a co op main now with operations now and then.

Throw in some Clans and Ranked, and this is me now...

[Yosha_AtaIante]

2 minutes ago, Verblonde said:

Throw in some Clans and Ranked, and this is me now...

its fine since you are still playing the game it has your full support :)

[Seraphice]

To be fair people have said that the game is dying since the game came out. If I got a dime for every time I heard that...

Fair seas captain!
~Sera

[MarChil]

Hey, you used the wrong account to repeat that, this is your staff account, not one of the others. 

[Ocrooch]

21 hours ago, ColonelPete said:

Not official, but as close as it gets:

https://stats.wotapi.ru/stats/wows/eu/EU

Player activity dropped by 0.8% since 2019.

 

Steamcharts are not reprensative of the game. Many players from there came during Covid. Now they have less time.

Comparing previous year (11.2020 to 11.2021: 13,2k players on average) to this year (11.2021 to 11.2022: 12,3k players on average) shows drop by almost 7%. But this figure does not show real exodus of players. It seems we had in recent weeks some influx of players from CIS server. I could not find any figures, but cyrylic in chat recently became much more frequent. So I guess real drop of EU players is (much?) higher than 7%, but some of these drops been replaced by CIS players. Yeah, it only a guess, no data for that.

[ColonelPete]

3 minutes ago, Ocrooch said:

Comparing previous year (11.2020 to 11.2021: 13,2k players on average) to this year (11.2021 to 11.2022: 12,3k players on average) shows drop by almost 7%. But this figure does not show real exodus od players. It seems we had in recent weeks some influx of players from CIS server. I could not find any figures, but cyrylic in chat recently became much more frequent. So I guess real drop of EU players is (much?) higher than 7%, but some of these drops been replaced by CIS players. Yeah, it only a guess, no data for that.

COVID numbers were obviously temporary as people have less time now.

[Ocrooch]

3 minutes ago, ColonelPete said:

COVID numbers were obviously temporary as people have less time now.

Speculation ;)

[Ocrooch]

16 minutes ago, Seraphice said:

To be fair people have said that the game is dying since the game came out. If I got a dime for every time I heard that...

Fair seas captain!
~Sera

To be fair you did kill the game. To me and many many others.

[ColonelPete]

6 minutes ago, Ocrooch said:

Speculation ;)

How is that speculation? Did you think the numbers went up because of WG game design?

[MarChil]

4 minutes ago, ColonelPete said:

Did you think the numbers went up because of WG game design?

I bet WG is convinced of that.

 

We will never know, because WG cowardly keeps those numbers out of public. The reason they refuse to update the API is undoubtly to make sure no numbers about their new bull are comming out.

[Yosha_AtaIante]

1 minute ago, MarChil said:

I bet WG is convinced of that.

 

We will never know, because WG cowardly keeps those numbers out of public. The reason they refuse to update the API is undoubtly to make sure no numbers about their new bull are comming out.

you can actually check the numbers yourself but whatever

[WildWind84]

7 hours ago, Karasu_Hidesuke said:

Personally, I'm playing drastically less now and it's down to the subs.

Same. 

[OldSchoolFrankie]

22 hours ago, Bearwall said:

I'm wondering wether we have any official data on the development of playernumbers across all the servers? I've been seeing the numbers drop in my prime time on the EU servers but since my observations is purely anecdotal I was wondering if it was a general trend.

I think the sample size is big enough to draw conclusions and you can see the game gained players from 2017 to early 2020 and has lost continuously since then. And from my personal environment I can say that it reflects the numbers, people are tired of wargaming and play significantly less.

 

Just go to 10 Warships streamers and ask about their communities and what the mood is like  or question 10 leaders of big clans. I think the feedback will be clear, feedback that Wargaming ignores.

[Ocrooch]

21 minutes ago, ColonelPete said:

How is that speculation? Did you think the numbers went up because of WG game design?

Correlation does not imply causation. We just do not know. No way to check this.

The fact is, people are still playing games COVID or not. But bit less WoWs.

[ColonelPete]

1 minute ago, Ocrooch said:

Correlation does not imply causation. We just do not know. No way to check this.

The fact is, people are still playing games COVID or not. But bit less WoWs.

You might not know this, but I do.

Only gaming numbers skyrocketed during Covid. The industry made a lot of money during that time. Just read.

[Karasu_Browarszky]

1 hour ago, Verblonde said:

This. I've finally had time to give Fallout 4 a bit of a poke (I've had it for years, but never explored it properly)...

 

Somewhat similar for me. Bit like Fallout, bit like WoWP (WoFH).

 

Spoiler

 

[MarChil]

27 minutes ago, AtaIante said:

you can actually check the numbers yourself but whatever

Do enlighten me, where can I find the official numbers concerning new vs recurring players, sub battles, superships etc.  

[Yosha_AtaIante]

3 minutes ago, MarChil said:

Do enlighten me, where can I find the official numbers concerning new vs recurring players, sub battles, superships etc.  

we are talking about player numbers aren't we? Don't move the goalposts pls

[MarChil]

Just now, AtaIante said:

we are talking about player numbers aren't we? Don't move the goalposts pls

I might be wrong, but as far as I was reading it, we are talking about new players, COVID-only players, 'migration' players from Russia. I'm sorry if I did not make you catch my take on the whole thing. Starting to instant accuse me of fallacies is a not a sign of good intention. 

[Yosha_AtaIante]

2 minutes ago, MarChil said:

I might be wrong, but as far as I was reading it, we are talking about new players, COVID-only players, 'migration' players from Russia. I'm sorry if I did not make you catch my take on the whole thing. Starting to instant accuse me of fallacies is a not a sign of good intention. 

If you want such a detailed look then only WG has the numbers. But you can clearly see effects of covid in the overall playernumbers which cant be denied therefore you dont need to see it in absolute detail as such a spike as covid hits provides the proof in itself that it was the cause. To deny this would be a little weird as we can also easily spot spikes during anniversary, Christmas,  holidays and falls after all those events. Its very consistent. 

 

So you asking for very detailed numbers is at this point just trying to dig out that one thing you can actually attempt to attack. Covid ending of course leads to numbers falling as did a certain political event. You can see that in the overall numbers very clearly happening on the appropriate dates. Look it up yourself. Statistics can be manipulated after all and i dont want you to accuse me of doing it