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Steam Peak Players Down

leadme2kirkleadme2kirk Member Posts: 1,273 Arc User
By almost 1000 and Cryptic was just boasting about a rise in peak players. Now, how are they gonna spin this?

Sure, we all know the variables but, come on. There was no ARC Promo last week and I seriously doubt 1000 Steam users had a whim to use the regular launcher instead.
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  • js26568js26568 Member Posts: 0 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    Don't use Steam charts to back up your arguments. The last time the servers were down for maintenance I checked the steam charts and it said there were 1000 players logged in.

    Incidentally, I do think player numbers are down.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
    Free Tibet!
  • smokeybacon90smokeybacon90 Member Posts: 2,252 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    reyan01 wrote: »
    They don't care what Steam statistics show. To quote (though likely not word-for-word) "steam statisics only show players who log into STO using steam". And they believe such players to be in a minority.

    I don't see why the activity of steam logins (which is a large sample) cannot be extrapolated to cover all logins. If steam logins are down over a 6 month basis, then it is completely reasonable to conclude that Arc and CD logins are also down.
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  • coolheadalcoolheadal Member Posts: 1,253 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    Too bad they can't use their NeverWinter format into Star Trek Online for our Fleet Admirals to have boost to their body armor. Of course it would be a total revamp to STO. Players will play what they want to play. Can't change their mind as no one can ever change your mind anyway. I play both games now I do enjoy NeverWinter but I still play Star Trek Online.

    In all if they want players they need to give into giving away T6 ships without any attachments. Do it once or every 3 months. Just give stuff away for free. Making Elite so tough to play even best ships can't make it. Players need to have a challenge but don't make so they can't even win. I can hold my own but if there was 5 to start and only 2 left playing the PVP Elite will fold in.

    Really a problem. STO really needs to think about this. Need more content, bring back First Contact for us who are now at that level 3. Shoot I can't even start that mission it's gone. I know it's been gone but they should have made the changes to add a replacement mission.
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]

    Time will only tell!
  • scrooge69scrooge69 Member Posts: 1,108 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    devs said that too few % of the users come from steam to get valid data from it



    2000 out of 6million is valid data

    so according to STO devs we have more than 6 million players WOW

    yeah and as I said bercause of that DONT use steamcharts ;)
    [SIGPIC][/SIGPIC]
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  • adamkafeiadamkafei Member Posts: 6,539 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    js26568 wrote: »
    Don't use Steam charts to back up your arguments. The last time the servers were down for maintenance I checked the steam charts and it said there were 1000 players logged in.

    That's perfectly legit actually because to Steam the launcher is the game so these 1000 players could have been updating in the down time and/or waiting for the server to come back up.
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  • nyxadrillnyxadrill Member Posts: 1,242 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    I don't see why the activity of steam logins (which is a large sample) cannot be extrapolated to cover all logins. If steam logins are down over a 6 month basis, then it is completely reasonable to conclude that Arc and CD logins are also down.

    That has always been my take on it. OK I will conceded that Steam is not the only launcher but it still a sample dataset of the user base and shows a declining trend.
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  • starkaosstarkaos Member Posts: 11,556 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    Steamcharts doesn't give the most important information. How many players logged in for a particular day and how long they were on. There are lots of players that log in for just 15 minutes to do Doffing and R&D. Steamcharts just shows the maximum amount of players that were on at the same time for that day and how many players are on at a particular time depending on which scale you use. Therefore, 20,000 players could have logged in through Steam for a particular day, but it could show only 1,000.
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  • thecosmic1thecosmic1 Member Posts: 9,365 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    The Peak number is not that important. The Average number is the important one. 3,000 people logging in for 5 minutes to Doff is not as beneficial to Cryptic as 1,500 people playing 2-3 hours a day - which is the whole reason the grinds were added: to keep people in the game longer. Steam's Average number has stayed fairly consistent at around 1,700 players per month for a couple of years now. When you realize that Steam players have a hundred other games to choose from every time they load Steam it is amazing even 1,500 are willing to spend time on any one game. When I log into Steam it is to try 20 other games. Not play STO. :)
    STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
  • zathri83zathri83 Member Posts: 514 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    Steam charts are 17x too high. Will be quarantined shortly.
  • mirrorchaosmirrorchaos Member Posts: 9,844 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    By almost 1000 and Cryptic was just boasting about a rise in peak players. Now, how are they gonna spin this?

    Sure, we all know the variables but, come on. There was no ARC Promo last week and I seriously doubt 1000 Steam users had a whim to use the regular launcher instead.

    irs been stated before so i will state it again for those who dont pay attention or refuse to acknowledge it; steam charts prove nothing so quoting from them has no justification to it at all.
    T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW.
    Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
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  • leemwatsonleemwatson Member Posts: 5,503 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    By almost 1000 and Cryptic was just boasting about a rise in peak players. Now, how are they gonna spin this?

    Sure, we all know the variables but, come on. There was no ARC Promo last week and I seriously doubt 1000 Steam users had a whim to use the regular launcher instead.

    If you are going to use Steam stats for your argument (FOR SHAME!!) please provide ARC stats and the stats of those logging in via the original Launcher. This is the umpteenth time someone has posted on the forum about Steam stats, and they are extremely limited in exacting information.

    And on a personal note, I'd never recommend Steam or ARC for launching STO and would only recommend the actual Launcher to play, as I do to all my mates.
    "You don't want to patrol!? You don't want to escort!? You don't want to defend the Federation's Starbases!? Then why are you flying my Starships!? If you were a Klingon you'd be killed on the spot, but lucky for you.....you WERE in Starfleet. Let's see how New Zealand Penal Colony suits you." Adm A. Necheyev.
  • thecosmic1thecosmic1 Member Posts: 9,365 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    The peak number is still there for a reason and Cryptic was just gloating about having the highest peak numbers ever.
    I do not remember Cryptic gloating about their Peak numbers. Can you provide a link to that gloating?
    You're implying Steam counts every single game you have as being logged in and playing..at the same time? If that was the case there's be higher numbers, not lower.
    No. I am saying that based on the provided data Steam's Average number of players on STO per month is around 1,700, and has been for years. There are some bumps when new Expansions come out but then it falls back to the Average a couple of months later.
    Some of you guys can say what you want about how the Steam numbers don't matter but, they are there and mean something.
    If you are only quantifying everyone into a 1 or 0 category then I guess I can only say here that some of you guys will do likewise. :)
    STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
  • starswordcstarswordc Member Posts: 10,965 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    irs been stated before so i will state it again for those who dont pay attention or refuse to acknowledge it; steam charts prove nothing so quoting from them has no justification to it at all.

    Entry-level statistics courses are quite cheap at your local community college. I strongly encourage you to take one so you can understand why parroting that is factually wrong.

    Tell me, how is 5,000-some-odd votes in the poll that got us VOY content in the first place valid data for playerbase opinion, and yet a similar number on the Steam charts somehow invalid?
    "Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
    — Sabaton, "Great War"
    VZ9ASdg.png

    Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
  • jonsillsjonsills Member Posts: 10,469 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    I don't see why the activity of steam logins (which is a large sample) cannot be extrapolated to cover all logins. If steam logins are down over a 6 month basis, then it is completely reasonable to conclude that Arc and CD logins are also down.
    That's kind of like saying that because McDonald's sales are down for the quarter, therefore everyone in America is starving, because you extrapolate those figures across all food sales.

    Folks have already explained why the Steam charts can be inaccurate in and of themselves; all I can add is that Steam is only one of three ways to launch the game, and so far as I can tell it's the least popular of the three. (Or have you already forgotten all those clamoring about being "forced" to install Arc on the day, apparently still long distant, when the standalone launcher no longer works?)
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  • thecosmic1thecosmic1 Member Posts: 9,365 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    starswordc wrote: »
    Tell me, how is 5,000-some-odd votes in the poll that got us VOY content in the first place valid data for playerbase opinion, and yet a similar number on the Steam charts somehow invalid?
    You are mistaken here. It is not valid data. It was simply the only data given to them. Everyone had the opportunity to vote. Most did not. But that vote was not based on statistics. The majority of the fan-base might not have wanted Voyager. They were just too lazy to vote.
    STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
  • kristaswiftkristaswift Member Posts: 306 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    irs been stated before so i will state it again for those who dont pay attention or refuse to acknowledge it; steam charts prove nothing so quoting from them has no justification to it at all.

    This is so lame...so if we dont believe steam data...then are we supposed to believe in the bunch of words you say?
    By the same token...where is your data and who has the authority to say...it's been acknowledged...by whom....you? dude this does not represent the playerbase community and certainly does not speak for me...nor have I acknowledged it :P.

    Let others make their point and try not to speak for the playerbase. Certainly I'm not either.
  • thecosmic1thecosmic1 Member Posts: 9,365 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    Why do u want me to provide proof if it doesn't matter to you? Makes no sense.
    You are the one stating something as fact. If you are going to do so you need to be able to back up your facts. We are not going to take a stranger's word for it. :)
    STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
  • starswordcstarswordc Member Posts: 10,965 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    thecosmic1 wrote: »
    You are mistaken here. It is not valid data. It was simply the only data given to them. Everyone had the opportunity to vote. Most did not. But that vote was not based on statistics. The majority of the fan-base might not have wanted Voyager. They were just too lazy to vote.

    Sorry, you need to go take Statistics 101 as well. Survey samples never poll 100% or even 50% of the target demographic; they take a cross-sectional sample. Just because it's not half a million votes doesn't make it irrelevant.

    The Steam charts are perfectly valid statistical samples unless you're claiming that STO has significantly more players than WOW. The game's nowhere near that good.
    "Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
    — Sabaton, "Great War"
    VZ9ASdg.png

    Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
  • thecosmic1thecosmic1 Member Posts: 9,365 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    starswordc wrote: »
    Sorry, you need to go take Statistics 101 as well. Survey samples never poll 100% or even 50% of the target demographic; they take a cross-sectional sample. Just because it's not half a million votes doesn't make it irrelevant.
    I took Statistics when I got my MBA 28 years ago, but thanks, anyway. :)

    I do not consider that poll to be a true survey sample. Nor do I feel that the 1-2% of the people on the forum are an accurate example of the entire player-base.

    And I will point out, again, that the Steam charts show the Average number of players per month as being consistent for several years now.
    STO is about my Liberated Borg Federation Captain with his Breen 1st Officer, Jem'Hadar Tactical Officer, Liberated Borg Engineering Officer, Android Ops Officer, Photonic Science Officer, Gorn Science Officer, and Reman Medical Officer jumping into their Jem'Hadar Carrier and flying off to do missions for the new Romulan Empire. But for some players allowing a T5 Connie to be used breaks the canon in the game.
  • schnirselschnirsel Member Posts: 98 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    js26568 wrote: »
    Don't use Steam charts to back up your arguments. The last time the servers were down for maintenance I checked the steam charts and it said there were 1000 players logged in.

    Incidentally, I do think player numbers are down.

    This is not a strange thing. Steam doesn't distinguish between players logged into the game and players just having the launcher open, simply because they can't.
    If I start Skyrim or New Vegas for example a Launcher also appears, but technically I'm not yet in the game. Steam will still count this as having "logged" into the game.
    I often kept the launcher open while waiting for maintenance to be over (European here, maintenance is mostly in progress when I get home).

    And to the person who said this game has around 6 million players. I doubt it. It may be that there are 6 million accounts, but 6 million active players? No. It would be hard for me to believe that more than 20.000 people are still playing this game.
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  • starswordcstarswordc Member Posts: 10,965 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    Because Steam charts aren't reliable. As has been previously noted you can check Steam Charts every time the server is down and it shows people are online when no one is online.

    That shows the number of people who have the STO launcher booted, not the number of people actually logged in. It's entirely possible to log the launcher in to pull the patch off the server while maintenance is going on; you just can't get any further than that.
    "Great War! / And I cannot take more! / Great tour! / I keep on marching on / I play the great score / There will be no encore / Great War! / The War to End All Wars"
    — Sabaton, "Great War"
    VZ9ASdg.png

    Check out https://unitedfederationofpla.net/s/
  • mustrumridcully0mustrumridcully0 Member Posts: 12,963 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    By almost 1000 and Cryptic was just boasting about a rise in peak players. Now, how are they gonna spin this?

    Sure, we all know the variables but, come on. There was no ARC Promo last week and I seriously doubt 1000 Steam users had a whim to use the regular launcher instead.

    We discussed Steam numer sup and down and sideways and upside down already. The "spin", if you need it, was already made here:
    http://sto-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?p=21676911#post21676911
    Ok, let's say a few things here...

    First, only a very small portion of STO's playerbase comes from Steam...this has always been the case. So, using the steam charts that many seem to be quoting and using every couple weeks really is not giving you a good picture.

    Second, Steam users have had to deal with some Zen purchasing errors over the past couple of months as Steam is switching from using a universal currency to the currencies of individual countries/regions. I.E. Steam enables new currencies without a heads up to developers, users start to have purchasing errors in games/companies that have their own currency, and then the developers have to figure out what happened and make adjustments to their billing systems and coding in the game so the new currencies are supported. This has driven some users to abandon STO on Steam and go through Arc or directly through the launcher.

    Third, as we do have the Arc platform, it is easier to run contests, post news, etc. on Arc so more users are using Arc since you get the most up to date news and contests by using it. And Arc is not spyware or bloatware for those making that accusation. There are even other players who have checked out the Arc coding themselves and there is no spyware or bloatware associated with Arc.

    Basically, what I'm saying, is that all you get for STO from looking at the steam charts site is that less people are using STO through Steam. That doesn't reflect on any other statistic. While I can't release our total numbers, I can say that the Steam charts do not follow the pattern of the total numbers and the steam charts cause us no worries at all.

    Believe it, believe it not, it matters not. If the Steam numbers are representative of the player population of STO - 4 month after Legacy Romulus, the numbers were even lower than the current ones, and few usually suggest that LOR was bad for the game or a failure.
    And if they aren't representative - well, we can't take any useful out of it at all...

    scrooge69 wrote: »
    devs said that too few % of the users come from steam to get valid data from it

    2000 out of 6million is valid data

    so according to STO devs we have more than 6 million players WOW

    yeah and as I said bercause of that DONT use steamcharts ;)
    IT takes more than numbers to make a representative sample. If you ask 20,000 people what they will vote on the next election, that is still not representative of the general population if you only ask white males that have played 3D shooters in the past 3 years.
    starswordc wrote: »
    Entry-level statistics courses are quite cheap at your local community college. I strongly encourage you to take one so you can understand why parroting that is factually wrong.

    Tell me, how is 5,000-some-odd votes in the poll that got us VOY content in the first place valid data for playerbase opinion, and yet a similar number on the Steam charts somehow invalid?

    I wasn't around for that vote, but unless it was made inside the game, you still would have a strong selection bias and thus would not get an actual representative example. But since Cryptic's "metrics" will not tell them in any way whether people were interested in fiuture VOY content or not, it doesn't really matter.
    But I figure their all-powerful metrics can accurately measure whether people buy Zen or how long people are logged in and provide information that Steam Charts doesn't tell us.
    Star Trek Online Advancement: You start with lowbie gear, you end with Lobi gear.
  • johnthomas02johnthomas02 Member Posts: 16 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    starswordc wrote: »
    Sorry, you need to go take Statistics 101 as well. Survey samples never poll 100% or even 50% of the target demographic; they take a cross-sectional sample. Just because it's not half a million votes doesn't make it irrelevant.

    The Steam charts are perfectly valid statistical samples unless you're claiming that STO has significantly more players than WOW. The game's nowhere near that good.

    Hi,

    I'm new here, but I need to correct something here and I often see people making these kinds of mistakes when talking about statistics.

    Actually the steam charts are not valid statistical samples. In order to be a valid statistical sample, every member of the population would have to have an equal chance to be selected. In this case, steam users have a 100% chance to be selected and non-steam users have a 0% chance of being selected.

    Secondly, judging overall population trends by looking at the trends of a non-statistical subset is not possible due to the issue of collinearity.
  • kozar2kozar2 Member Posts: 602 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    By almost 1000 and Cryptic was just boasting about a rise in peak players. Now, how are they gonna spin this?


    Well it is funny that Cryptic keeps dismissing Steam numbers, saying they only represent a small portion of the player base. But that portion is still substantial. There is a reason why an election can often be called after about 20% of the votes are in.

    So are Steam numbers representative of the entire player base? No. Do they give a clear indication of the game's trend? Yes.
  • mirrorchaosmirrorchaos Member Posts: 9,844 Arc User
    edited January 2015
    Obviously, it does matter to some of us or we would not discuss it. Please politely go to the next thread if you don't want to discuss.

    There's no point in being dismissive.

    im dismissive because the case doesnt exist. why you think it does is puzzling.
    T6 Miranda Hero Ship FTW.
    Been around since Dec 2010 on STO and bought LTS in Apr 2013 for STO.
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