Atlantic Roleplay Community Boards

Halister Marner · **Site Programmer** Joined: 05 Oct 2006 Posts: 2232

Running through the archive pages of UO.com, the TWP site, and of course, the current roster of RP guilds, I've managed to put together some interesting statistics, and while obviously not truly indicative of the overall environments and activity during the time periods listed, they are interesting none the less. All numbers are obtained by adding member count and guilds from the my.uo.com guild list.

2001

Total RP Guilds: 65
Total Members: 1000

2008

Total RP Guilds: 50
Total Members: 750

So from those numbers, we see around a 30-35% decrease in the total number of RP guilds and members.

Going by the subscription numbers listed by MMOchart.com here, the overall UO subscriptions from 2001 to 2007 have declined from about 225,000 to 115,000, making roughly a 50% decrease in overall subscribers over the past 7 years.

From these trends, we can draw some assumptions...

The RP community declined 30% while the overall UO community declined approximately 50%, making the amount of RP'ers on Atlantic per UO player much larger than before, and, that the rate of RP'ers on Atlantic leaving the game is far lower than the average player drop.

So while the community was 30-35% larger during 2001, the overall UO decline outnumbered the loss of roleplayers considerably, making the number of RP'ers versus non RP'ers per UO player seemingly larger.

A final note, I tried to compare similar time periods (the TWP versus the current RP environment) due to the relative surplus of alternate characters and high event turnouts during both of these eras, and while there's no possible way to measure the percentage of alternate or inactive characters, the time periods are close to being similar in structure.

I know these can be totally inaccurate, though I thought it was an interesting project to compare guilds and see the evolution of the numbers involved.

Cear Dallben ZOG · Posted: Wed Mar 19, 2008 2:08 am Post subject:

So what you are saying is....the most important aspect to the online Ultima world is its roleplayers, and we need to cater toward them the most because everyone else is a passer by...

its true. i realized this when everyone who was at town hall was a bad ass roleplayer. EVERYONE, cept this 60yr old twink chick who was learning to RP
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Kaelthir · Certifiable Joined: 28 Aug 2004 Posts: 1932

Your summary is pretty good. The only people who stick around are the RPers because we make the game fun for ourselves. UO is one of the few games out there that really lets you interact with the players and world to some extent, it's one of the better RP mediums out there. And think about how there's new people coming into the community as well, replacing those who quit. It makes me think perhaps people start RPing because that is one of UO's strengths, it's easy to attract people to it. When I came back there were quite a few new faces.

To be honest, I don't know if it's a curse or a blessing that the devs don't give two rubbish about us. The devs make so many retarded decisions about what THEY think is right for the game that they might just screw up anything they'd give us. I have no faith in them. But then, I don't think they even realize the strengths of their own game. If they understood that the only thing UO has going for it is how it's still unique and not an EQ clone, and that RPers are a consistant part of the playerbase, they might be able to see positive changes they could make.

UO, as a game, sucks terribly. But the stuff that makes it unique hasn't been gutted (yet), which makes it a wonderous outlet for my imagination that I just can't seem to let go of. The OES lore and RP has left a serious mark on my imagination, and I love RPing it.

Sorry if my post is redundant, I'm fairly tired ><

Ceinwyn ab'Arawn · Transcendent Spammer Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 5017

What Halister is really saying is that he wishes to roleplay more. He needs to join Umbra.

Lord Fong · Sage Joined: 19 May 2006 Posts: 706 Location: Moonglow

Pfft...come to MTC..you know you dig the blue.
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Thomas Hunter · Sage Joined: 07 Nov 2007 Posts: 572

what he is really saying, is that he has entirely too much time on his hands. We need to make more drama on the boards to keep him busy so he won't have time to sit there and crunch numbers Smile

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Ceinwyn ab'Arawn · Transcendent Spammer Joined: 13 Dec 2004 Posts: 5017

That's what I was inferring.. *grabs thomas and walks away with him tucked under her arm*

Teh Glouris Lrod Kujabis · Transcendent Spammer Joined: 29 Dec 2003 Posts: 5740

50 guilds and 750 members? What kind of crack...

Sir Robert · Honored Member Joined: 29 Dec 2003 Posts: 1139

Halister Marner · **Site Programmer** Joined: 05 Oct 2006 Posts: 2232

Aha, indeed. Make that 50%, I'm surprised no one else caught that. Razz

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Halister Marner · **Site Programmer** Joined: 05 Oct 2006 Posts: 2232

Thomas Hunter · Sage Joined: 07 Nov 2007 Posts: 572

I had caught the 100% thing. As a database programmer, I tend to pay attention to numbers. Math has never been my favorite subject, but I love sifting through data and finding facts or trends. People would be surprised at what you can find out simply by paying attention.
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"Always speak the Truth even if it leads to your death." - Lord Godfrey

Jonathan Strathmore · Posted: Thu Mar 20, 2008 5:12 pm Post subject:

Statistics generally are false, you can manipulate them in anyway you want to whatever desired effect you want to achieve.

Interesting nonetheless, Halister.

Kaelthir · Certifiable Joined: 28 Aug 2004 Posts: 1932

The latest MMO subscription chart you linked me to made me realize something. DAoC has way fewer subscriptions than UO does (although the UO info isn't up to date, it's probably dropped too). Doesn't Azalin work for DAoC?

Actually, I'm looking at a bunch of these games and thinking about the people I know who work in them, I can't help but wonder what it's like working for a company where the growth is only going down.

Halister Marner · **Site Programmer** Joined: 05 Oct 2006 Posts: 2232

Some DAoC employees have moved over to Warhammer, and I believe Azalin may have moved to that project.

At least we know UO won't be trashed if it comes down to choosing one of Mythics 3 online games. Razz

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"There are those who dream to escape reality, and there are those who dream to change it."