Game Population so far

[TopherW]

Hi all,
I was wondering if everyone thought this is about what the population of the game would be so far or if they thought it would be much higher. I really enjoy the game (even with a few hiccups but I understand this is a new experience so that is bound to happen) but the population seems pretty low to me. I don't know how iOS games work though so maybe it is still very early in the cycle and I shouldn't be worried. I am just wondering if in two months if the population will be even lower as the people who got the free month don't renew again. My feeling is a game like this needs a large audience to thrive. It is still extremely early and maybe I am panicing for nothing (although this does speak to how much I want the game to succeed) but any people have any other thoughts on this?
Just as reference my thinking was there would be at least 20,000 people playing and over time that would probably get reduced to around 5,000. It looks like right now (based on if everyone joins the tutorial) there are around 800 total people so my thought would be at any one time there will only be 200 people playing across multiple games. I am sure my math is way off but wanted to get my general point of view across and why I am a little nervous now.

Please tell me I an way wrong and things are looking much better!

Chris

[Wrath]

I agree, I thought it would be much higher at this point - it seems like with most iOS games the usage drops over time, so I'd be surprised if the reverse was true for this one. Perhaps once the bugs are worked out and some new features/designs are implemented and the experience is consistent then more people will leave positive reviews and it will thrive. Sure hoping so, I really want this game to take off! Although admittedly, kinda starting to feel like a ghost town at the moment, since by the nature of the game people probably only check in for a few minutes at a time so the in-game chat is virtually non-existent so it feels like you're the only one online at the time.

[Millertime]

It's sad really. The game's description says "Play online with thousands of people!" when in fact the most populated server (tutorial) only just recently passed 700, and the main servers have less than 200 each.

[JetJaguar2000]

I'm not concerned. First off, the game has been out for a week. Second, after playing for a week it's perfectly obvious that in a 2 month game you cannot have meaningful interactions with 1000 other players. I think 100 - 200 is about right.

[Cazargar]

Yeah, I'm not too worried about it. As was mentioned it's only been out for a short time, and on a flooded app market its hard to get noticed. I think this game has a nice community of people that know it's awesome and want it to succeed, and the devs have a great presence here. I think the only thing I could think to help the player base grow would be a solid beginners guide. This game does take some effort to get into and figure out, and if you're just kinda "passing through" I'd see how it could be easy to say it's not your kind of game. I think a little tutorial that shows good opening moves/strategies for each of the specializations could really help break down that initial barrier and allow people to really see whats going on. I'd love to write them myself, but I'm definitely still figuring it all out myself lol.

[Strongbad]

Without a free component you are not likely to drag the masses, also this is not a neverending scenario game, so that crowd is excluded, not that I will miss em..but thats the breaks.

[Space_Doogie]

I'm fine with lower numbers, just as long as it's enough to keep the devs payed. This game has given me so much to learn, and I'm still scratching my head half the time. Imagine what that would be like with a filled server with most people just randomly joining a server without any previous knowledge or any drive to learn such a deep game, just giving it a whirl because it's free!

[ChickenHawk07]

I agree with Doogie. We've all given our suggestions about some form of Free content and what that would entail. I just don't like the idea of Trial Members being allowed in Competitive servers.

If they -the Devs - can sustain themselves, then by all means, let them keep the current model. This game will slowly gather a Cult following and with those people talking about it and posting on Social Networks, I think the game will gather more followers through word of mouth.

[Tsagoth]

Infrastructure cost is not an issue. We were paying for the server rackspace at the colo facility for nearly two years when nobody was paying to play. No need to worry about that.