Post by Dan @ 06:36pm 26/03/11 | 37 Comments
As both titles are still so significant in the PC online-multiplayer scene, we decided to try and look at things a little closer. Click here to check out our analysis and see if you can draw any of your own conclusions.
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Posted 06:54pm 26/3/11
Posted 07:03pm 26/3/11
Posted 08:05pm 26/3/11
Also I attribute Black Ops' decline to s***** bugs on release. Also they could have done a much better job with the dedi servers, still better than matchmaking.
Posted 08:04pm 26/3/11
I did not realize that CS and CSS where still THAT popular. That is friggn crazy. I knew people still played it, but that is insane. Also thought TF2 would be higher than that.
Posted 08:06pm 26/3/11
Posted 11:04pm 26/3/11
my boy has an xbox360 with mwf2. he has 'access ;}' to the pc versions of both mwf2 and black ops.
he doesnt play either mw2 or black ops on pc. he plays mw2 often on xbox multiplayer. saying that there are about a bazillion of his mates still playing mw2 on xbox and ps3.
in a rash summary i think a sequel/hybrid of a game is never going to get the wow factor a new game in a series if released in short intervals.
afaik. the average age of gaming is declining so i saw on a qgl stat recently. im sure it used to be around 30 odd. not its round 27.
just wish the quake stat was a little higher. ctf and tdm was one thing but jeez i loved rocket arena.
to me its one of those 'pacman' games now :(
last edited by sleepy at 23:04:54 26/Mar/11
Posted 11:28pm 26/3/11
Posted 01:10am 27/3/11
I would barely call what they are offering dedicated servers
I reckon if they had a black_ops_dedicated_server.exe out in the wild more people would play black ops
like the good old days of running CS servers from your s***** cable connection, except these days most residential grade plans offer significant enough bandwidth to make it feasible :]
Posted 01:40am 27/3/11
Posted 02:32am 27/3/11
Oh well. I've gone back to my RTS roots, thanks SC2 :)
Posted 04:21am 27/3/11
However I prefer the feel and maps in MW2 and I also think it's slightly less spammy. Blops is a little bit overdone for my liking, there's only so much Ice T in my ear I can tolerate.
I'm pleased to read this, because I actually downloaded MW2 the other day with the intention of playing it but wondered if there'd be any games still running for it.
Perhaps I'll fire it up again after all
Posted 04:34am 27/3/11
Posted 05:08am 27/3/11
I've noticed getting an aussie host is pretty hard unless you're playing it at certain times of the day. Also as of late the whole invite to game/join game thing on steam/PC seems to be broken as all hell. A bunch of us get nothing but "unable to connect to host" error messages when we try to join each others games. Yet if you go find a random game sometimes we'll all end up on the same host so clearly we are able to connect to the host so why we're getting that error message I don't know.
That said, I've still been able to get a good few hours in most nights on a reasonable host.
Also out of curiosity, does anyone know how the lobby system works? I've noticed sometimes if one particular person leaves everyone gets booted out of the lobby. I always thought the lobby thing was run by IWNet and it just picked a random player as the host, but everyone being booted seems to suggest that it picks players to run the lobby and be the host. But why then, if the host leaves it can pick another host, can't it pick another player to be the lobby host instead of kicking everyone out?
Posted 05:51am 27/3/11
Posted 08:22pm 27/3/11
for this game.
Posted 08:25pm 27/3/11
i always thought the average age of online gamers was about my age. 30-35.
i read somewhere it was now about 27.
dont have any source for this claim. thought i read it on here somewhere.
i have certainly noticed in recent times all my sons mates play mw2 or similar since it came out. as well as all the boys coach at cricket. black ops was a regular point of discussion during the last cricket season amoung the lads.
it seems strange for an increase of people at my age to start playing but it seems quite probable more and more younger people will take it up.
i think my demographic is the start point for real numbers to be playing games as it was around the 'cable era' it became more prevalent. we all used to play it on dial-up i know. since it became increasingly important and accessable to have a stable connection i think the numbers will/have increase as would the age average decline.
all hear-say and speculation i know. i havent searched the real figures etc cause quite frankly i CBF.
now anyone can get a good connection at a 'reasonable' price the accessabitlity seems greater for the reserve graders coming through.
Posted 10:01pm 27/3/11
It should be noted MW2 was wayyyyyyy more popular than Black Ops. At its peak it was more than CS! So it has come down quite a lot. The longevity in this new generation of games just isn't there - they're now made to be almost disposable as the focus is on creating a brand/franchise so they can sell you the sequel.
Posted 10:40pm 27/3/11
the short turnaround until the next game be it, sequel or rival game releasing a new version.
black ops came around very bloody quickly if im not imagining it.
take into consideration the next one coming whenever it is.
not to mention the awesome looking battlefield.
too soon turn around i reckon..
another aspect is the middle skill level group never has much of a chance to 'catch-up' to the naturally gifted gamers (or those with disposable income to splash out on a new pc every 6 months.) with the format of the reward system with mw2 and black ops the system of having to go back to square one can be a bit daunting to some.
for me it is still a challenge getting through the prestige stages as something i actually enjoy. problem is it leaves me with a sense of what's next once you get there.
there doesnt seem to be a 'familiar' face anymore with the games now either. i remember with quake there was always a few guys (no matter what server you jumped on) you knew if not personally at least digitally.
Posted 11:24pm 27/3/11
last report i read had it at 30 and increasing.
Posted 11:59pm 27/3/11
I believe the average age, as I said above, is increasing due to the people who grew up on said gaming, ala MUD's/Quake/Doom etc. I'm turning 20 this year, and I know for sure that I'm not the larger demographic of gaming. I know there is a lot of us, but definitely not the average.
Posted 09:45am 28/3/11
Posted 09:52am 28/3/11
that's exactly what they're doing, you buy it play it for a year buy another one
it's the FPS games answer to MMO monthly subscriptions almost
unfortunately they're going to run it into the ground very soon, i'm off the bandwagon when bf3 comes out
Posted 12:33pm 28/3/11
Servers, mods, maps, e-sports - none of these new games have that.
Servers are gone because they're just borrowing the console model of p2p, so instead of getting bigger games we're getting smaller and smaller ones.
Maps are gone because they want you to pay for DLC.
Mods are gone because they don't want you playing the same game for years and years, they want you constantly 'upgrading' to the next game.
E-sports are gone partly because none of the games are designed from the ground up to really support them (SC2 being an obvious exception, and I hope to write more about this soon based on an awesome Blizzard lecture at GDC I went to on this subject), and without mods there's no real chance to extend them. But the main reason e-sports are out of the picture for these games is the longevity isn't there - big chunks of the population of the game 'peel off' when the new version is released and the core group won't be large enough to attract the sort of numbers you need.
Posted 12:37pm 28/3/11
they need a new bf1942, that was probably the most fun ive had in an online fps apart from the early CS (before 1.3 when you could bunnyhop etc)
Posted 12:59pm 28/3/11
Posted 01:11pm 28/3/11
Posted 07:49pm 28/3/11
Posted 08:38pm 28/3/11
Posted 10:19pm 28/3/11
Yes...seeing some of the posts in this thread has dragged me out of lurkerville but, I digress.
I think TROG pretty much nailed it. I agree 100%. It's all about franchises nowadays. Build a brand, charge for DLC. Give less and charge more...often. I mean we can't really blame developers for making money can we? That's business.
After all, it's good AND bad. We get new toys more often..no?
I still can't decide which outweighs the other, good vs bad wise. All I do know is, that I miss the old days. Maybe I'm just nostalgic..I dunno...sue me.
Back on topic though...has anyone considered the difference in the stats might be due to the HACKABILITY of the titles. There are still a ton of 10th lobbies being banged out everywhere and also infections are as popular as ever in MW2 .Whereas I know cheaters in Black Ops are short lived due to the rigid rules of treyarc with their updating and monitoring of the game. Could this factor into it. Is the longevity of MW2 being aided by it's hackability?
Posted 11:34am 29/3/11
+1
Posted 12:48pm 29/3/11
Posted 01:45pm 29/3/11
Posted 01:50pm 29/3/11
Posted 01:52pm 29/3/11
Posted 09:42pm 29/3/11
Posted 12:52am 30/3/11
I think the next quarter will be more interesting since it's a 'normal' quarter rather than a Christmas summer holiday period.