Can someone explain the online numbers on the opengames.asp?

Stardock said, a player counts as online if they log in to their Impulse Account via Demigod and respond to a ping every 30 second. However, I think that actually all players are counted that are logged into their Impulse Account via one way or another (possibly even through the forum alone; for example I was shown as online in Ready to Play today, even though Ready to Play was not running and I was only logged in to my Impulse Account via the forum) and have a registered Demigod key in their Account.

The number of players online seem to have absolutely nothing to do with the amount of players actually playing. When I saw the number of players online break 2000, I quickly logged on only to find even less people playing than before.

Quoting Spooky__,

reply 1

Stardock said, a player counts as online if they log in to their Impulse Account via Demigod and respond to a ping every 30 second. However, I think that actually all players are counted that are logged into their Impulse Account via one way or another (possibly even through the forum alone; for example I was shown as online in Ready to Play today, even though Ready to Play was not running and I was only logged in to my Impulse Account via the forum) and have a registered Demigod key in their Account.

This sounds very reasonable. I think it's definitely people logged into impulse, not just via demigod. I mean, 119 players in lobby and in game, there are definitely not 2300 people sitting there with demigod open and afk logged in, or even anywhere remotely close to that many people looking for a lobby. Seems a bit misleading to me... I mean I feel like the real number here when I looked is definitely under 200 people playing Demigod. I think it's safe to say that the game is dead. It's also ranked #296 atm on the xfire games list : (.

The game is not dead. If it were dead, no one would play it. The playerbase isn't even decreasing that much anymore. It's starting to level out (as it is expected for any game).

Oh wow cool, where did you get that graph? I mean, by leveling out at 100-150 players, that's actually very dead to be honest. Compared to a game like HoN, while even in closed free beta, usually seems to have between 20,000 to 30,000 players. You could make the argument that it's just a very unpopular game and in the community it has it isn't dead, but even going from 200-100 average from August to October, that alone is a 50% decrease in numbers. That's huge.

"It's starting to level out (as it is expected for any game)."

lol dude, its not expected to level out at 100 players. Maybe 3-4 years after the game has been released. Just out of interest do you work for GPG or do you just blindly defend this game for no reason?

Were figures prior to July not recorded, or have they been deliberately left out so people don't realise how many people have left?

Quoting Purgespam,

reply 5

Oh wow cool, where did you get that graph? I mean, by leveling out at 100-150 players, that's actually very dead to be honest. Compared to a game like HoN, while even in closed free beta, usually seems to have between 20,000 to 30,000 players. You could make the argument that it's just a very unpopular game and in the community it has it isn't dead, but even going from 200-100 average from August to October, that alone is a 50% decrease in numbers. That's huge.

http://dgstats.insidesupcom.de/

Quoting Purgespam,

reply 5

I mean, by leveling out at 100-150 players, that's actually very dead to be honest.

How? I am still playing this game with other players everytime and as you pointed out yourself, there are always 100 to 200 players in games at all times. So how can you consider this as "dead"?

Quoting Purgespam,

reply 5

Compared to a game like HoN, while even in closed free beta, usually seems to have between 20,000 to 30,000 players. You could make the argument that it's just a very unpopular game and in the community it has it isn't dead, but even going from 200-100 average from August to October, that alone is a 50% decrease in numbers. That's huge.

Indeed, Demigod is just not as popular as HoN or DotA etc. So you can't really compare it. But you are right, the drop still is pretty significant. The general trend is similar to every game's trend, but it's indeed a bit worse. But not "dead".

Sorry I have a different definition of dead, which isn't really valid since dead means that no one is playing it. It leveled out at 100-150 for October, but at those numbers that's not saying much. However, when looking at the numbers when the game was released, I guess it really isn't dead at all. I mean, the game started out with an average of 500, so it's definitely done it's expected drop to get where the numbers want to be. For some reason I thought that the numbers were much higher when it was released, something well over 2,000. But it really only got 500 at any one given time, crazy. Poor game, poor demigod. Such an amazing game hindered by it's bugs : (.

There are no stats prior to July. I would love to see stats for when the game was released. I bet it was much higher than 500.

Oh yea, it's probably much much higher seeing it was released mid april.

I believe the default for Impulse is to startup on bootup - even if you never play an Impulse game. Take Charvel1 for instance. I have him on my friends list and he is always "online" yet he has not played a game since August. I believe he counts towards the total "player" list even though he isn't playing the game. Weird metric for SD to be using.

You are correct. I haven't played a game of Demigod since August. But I have Impulse up anytime my computer is on. Both my work laptop and my home laptop.

Stardock said, a player counts as online if they log in to their Impulse Account via Demigod and respond to a ping every 30 second. However, I think that actually all players are counted that are logged into their Impulse Account via one way or another (possibly even through the forum alone; for example I was shown as online in Ready to Play today, even though Ready to Play was not running and I was only logged in to my Impulse Account via the forum) and have a registered Demigod key in their Account.

No. If they load up Demigod and logon, that's the only way they count.

If we counted anyone logged into Impulse, it would be over 150k at any given moment.

Quoting Frogboy,

reply 13

No. If they load up Demigod and logon, that's the only way they count.

If we counted anyone logged into Impulse, it would be over 150k at any given moment.

Well, but people do show up as "online" in the ImpulseReactor Overlay even though they are not running Demigod (see Charvel1's case for example). I am showing up as online right now in Demigod and Ready To Play, even though I am only logged in to the Forum and not into Impulse itself or Demigod.

This is an annoying issue btw., because people are trying to send you messages when you are showing up as online via the Impulse Overlay. But those messages will never reach you (until you log in via Demigod), since you aren't online in Demigod, Impulse or Ready To Play. And once you log in to Demigod, it's too late for messages like "want to play?".

However, obviously I do not know if the opengames.asp can further distinguish the online state of an Impulse Account.

Well, but people do show up as "online" in the ImpulseReactor Overlay even though they are not running Demigod (see Charvel1's case for example). I am showing up as online right now in Demigod and Ready To Play, even though I am only logged in to the Forum and not into Impulse itself or Demigod.

What does that have to do with the number of Demigod users online. The Impulse Overlay makes use of the overall friends list system which is totally separate.

I am telling you flat out: When someone logs into Demigod -- specifically Demigod as in in the game, they begin pinging one of the servers every N seconds and that is where the number of online users comes in.

There's typically 20 people lurking for every person who's actually in a game. Nobody knows why but it's not restricted to Demigod as others have made note of every time this discussion comes up.

Quoting Frogboy,

reply 15

What does that have to do with the number of Demigod users online. The Impulse Overlay makes use of the overall friends list system which is totally separate.

Yes, that's why I said I don't know if the opengames.asp actually distinguishes that.

But still, it is very irritating that you can't be sure whether or not one of your friends is actually online in the game or just logged in somehwere else to Impluse. But this should be discussed in another topic, I guess .

Quoting Frogboy,

reply 15

There's typically 20 people lurking for every person who's actually in a game. Nobody knows why but it's not restricted to Demigod as others have made note of every time this discussion comes up.

Well, it's actually 100 people lurking for every person who is in game...

There is absolutely no way, for example, that there are 2300 people lurking in demigod not being in a lobby or in a match, and there are only 200 playing at this given time.

No way... I'm not buying it.

Right now, there are 93 people either in a lobby, or in a game in progress. The players online count says 1473. There's no way, the numbers and your explanation just don't make sense.

And no offense, given your track record on buggy stats, connections, etc... I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that something is bugged with the players online count according to your description as well.

Hmmm, I tend to think frogboy is right on this one.

You have to login to demigod to be counted for those overall (over 1k people) stats. there are tome when demigod stays logged in for over 24hrs on my machine, and im not using it... I just never closed it.

Really is it that hard to belive that in a world of billions( I know most didnt buy DG) a thousand wouldnt leave a program open when its not in use.

Its also quite likely it includes people playing SP. Supposedly, the SP component of this game is actually quite popular, more popular than SD anticipated.

Quoting abuggeredhedgie,

reply 21

Its also quite likely it includes people playing SP. Supposedly, the SP component of this game is actually quite popular, more popular than SD anticipated.

The number of people who play the single player, but have never even logged into the multiplayer is amazingly high. People are still buying the crap out of the game, but most are only connecting to our servers to download updates. And it's not like they try the multiplayer and get turned off by it, it's that they never log into the multiplayer part of the game at all.

to me 1000+ memenbers isnt that high at all for online. yeh ppl may be playing single player in this game but theres only so much you can do in single player, thats y i turned to multiplayer.

rlly, is 1000+ members online something to be proud of? im not trying to be offensive here but i no if i made a game and its main purpose was online play and only 1000+ players are on at any one time, id think of it as a bit of a disappointment.

And no offense, given your track record on buggy stats, connections, etc... I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that something is bugged with the players online count according to your description as well.

Then why did you ask and waste people's time if you had already decided you wouldn't accept the answer?

I'd be disappointed if people didn't buy my game; I don't care if they buy it to play the single or multiplayer, people are playing it and enjoying it. What more can you ask, really? I feel people are often turned off of a multiplayer game if it's not 'the game' of the moment, as if somehow if you're not playing the biggest game of the moment then you're not 'pro'. I remember when everyone was playing Counter-Strike and I was still happy with Unreal Tournament - I was often asked 'Why? Counter-Strike has way more servers!' as if this somehow made it more fun. I play mostly over LAN with a select group of friends, and I suspect many people would do this as well - much in the same way that same group of friends and I play Left 4 Dead exclusively.

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