where did everyone go?

[Carnefice]

People will be done with Diablo within a week maybe two. I really do not see what the attraction is at all. It looks to me like a bad game from the late 80's aka Dungeon Siege.

I guess people are always looking for what is " Shiny and New" !

The more accurate reason is the people who played D2 back in the day and have been waiting for D3 for a very long time, are now logging on to raid in Rift and playing D3 when they're not raiding.

It's not "OMG it's shiny and new!" It's "OMG it's not an MMO and I want to play something different." The Diablo games are not MMO's, they are Action RPGs and in this case a dungeon crawler.

A lot of people like the game simply because it's relatively simple and you can play at your leisure. If you are a person who plays casually, then this is a great game. Unlike MMO's you can log on once a week and play by yourself, or play with friends. There's a maximum of 4 people per "room" and the more people you have the harder the monsters become. As you progress there are harder and harder modes. You start off in Normal Difficulty, then Nightmare, then Hell, then Inferno. So in essence you can play through the game a total 4 times getting progressively more difficult each time.

If you want to take it to the next level then you can play in hardcore mode. This hardcore mode is not the carebear hardcore mode, when you're character dies, it's gone, you can't open a ticket and have a GM reload it. Also, no amount of crying on the forums will help you either, so most of the Rift forum community should stay away from D3 hardcore mode.

[Mauzeer]

The same (even worse) was at the end of the 2011. when Skyrim and SWTOR were launched. Rift survived and will once again.

[Hawkmoon0028]

Another factor to consider here is the time of year. Colleges are in finals all across the U.S., and in summer, people tend to be more active away from the keyboard.

The vast majority of people I play with are over the age of 25- in many cases, this means not only a full-time job of some sort, but kids, who have baseball and karate and girl scouts, etc.

I think MMOs have always been a 'seasonal' community. Things just tend to slow down in the summer.

[Ancem]

Am I really the only one noticing an increase in returning players and new players rolling in to the shards? Argent at least has a lot of new people these days.

*scratches head*

I read an article which stated that there really are people who are paid to post negative comments about competitors' products in order to to influence customers to use a different game or somesuch instead. It linked to a research paper that mentioned Asian MMOs but it's possible that the same thing happens in Europe and the USA. Several recent threads about how dead/disappointing the game has become coincide with the release of several new games... might be legit observations, might be stealth PR from other companies...

[Talila]

I read an article which stated that there really are people who are paid to post negative comments about competitors' products in order to to influence customers to use a different game or somesuch instead. It linked to a research paper that mentioned Asian MMOs but it's possible that the same thing happens in Europe and the USA. Several recent threads about how dead/disappointing the game has become coincide with the release of several new games... might be legit observations, might be stealth PR from other companies...

Really now?

That.. Sort of makes sense. Gosh, Rift must be doing great if they bother doing that kind of stuff

[Alex113]

Id actually be more surprised if companies didnt do that actually

[Palingenesis]

If I didn't know Blizzard as well as I do...
If Diablo 3 did not have forced online single player...
If Diablo 3 did not have a Real Money Auction House, for pay to win items...
I would be playing Diablo 3 right now; but I'm not.

[thoroar]

Cancel sub -> play D3 -> get bored -> Wait for 1.9 -> resub -> Wow all the people are back :P

I....hope...so...so...much...

[wizkhazeeka]

Cancel sub -> play D3 -> get bored -> Wait for 1.9 -> resub -> Wow all the people are back :P

Yeah, this pretty much sums up the mmo community as a whole I've realized. It seems like when something new and shiny is on the horizon people break their necks to go play it and unsub from Rift until the other game gets old/disappoints and then they come back. I'd say when 1.9 comes out more will come back. It's an endless cycle, people used to do the same with wow. That's why half of us are here now, right?

[BlackZodiac]

I read an article which stated that there really are people who are paid to post negative comments about competitors' products in order to to influence customers to use a different game or somesuch instead. It linked to a research paper that mentioned Asian MMOs but it's possible that the same thing happens in Europe and the USA. Several recent threads about how dead/disappointing the game has become coincide with the release of several new games... might be legit observations, might be stealth PR from other companies...

Funny I've always had that in mind as well. Seen some down right rediculous, meaningless threads and responses and the legit players fighting back in defense.

[Carnefice]

If I didn't know Blizzard as well as I do...

Oh, so you're one of those people.

If Diablo 3 did not have forced online single player...

Why does that matter?

If Diablo 3 did not have a Real Money Auction House, for pay to win items...

How does this effect you in any way?

[Ashina]

Funny I've always had that in mind as well. Seen some down right rediculous, meaningless threads and responses and the legit players fighting back in defense.

While there may be some of it, there clearly is a portion of the Rift community that is unhappy. A lot of long time players are leaving. Server activity is obviously down and 1.8 did little to invigorate the game. It isnt happy times for Rift as a whole right now. Its not like Rift is in dreadful shape or anything, but a lot of people like to stick their head in the sand and pretend that everything is perfectly fine.

[SanguineDeath]

Well, there are always NPC's to play with Oh I don't know, I play so many different games, WoW (both retail and private), EQ2, the tragedy known as SWTOR and was thinking about trying out Tera. People come and go - this is the natural way of things. As long as you're having fun, I don't care if there are 100 or 10 people - I make my own fun

[Ajhal]

yeah world of warcraft charakter animation and detail is really outstanding!

Thing is Blizzard have never crapped on my character without my consent. Blizzard have never ruined the way my character works and feels without some purpose or reason. Blizzard have never ignored the comments of the player base about such fundamental issues of character creation. Blizzard have never withdrawn a mechanism of my character animation without announcing this with reason. Blizzard have never insulted me by bidding me farewell in response to my concerns. Blizzard still have a great and plentiful number on the RPG server I play on and its always awash with other players. I don't see tumbleweed blowing across my screen playing World of Warcraft.... And finally my efforts, my creation, my dedication to my character is something that BLIZZARD celebrate particularly in the way your avatar and your armory link just what you are and what you do in game. To me my character was the consequence of my efforts. And this bunch of clowns didn't even see fit to respond to the criticism to explain.... Well other than bugga off and goodbye.

And its ' CHARACTER ' by the way. Not that that is important..... obviously.

[batou079]

People have waited a very very long time for Diablo so there is some people who left and most people who didn't are just on for raids and out to play it afterwards. Once it loses it's new game flare you will see more people around.

happened with Swtor already, people quit that game in droves to come back to Rift.

I was a super fan of D2, D3 is insanely disappointing to me, so im playing D3 only when i have time outside of Rift. Sadly i only bought D3 at this point out of a weird sense of obligation to D2. *sigh* I guarantee people will get super bored of D3 real fast. I played Beta and was already bored!!