[MUD-Dev] Counting Massive Multi Players

[Koster]

From: David Kennerly

> I apologize for confusing anyone.  I mean playing online at the
> same time.  I think I read that EverQuest has had peaks over
> 100,000 concurrent players.  At this same time they had about
> 400,000 (concurrent) subscribers?  I forget the exact amount.
> Since many MMOGs in Korea employs diverse business models, even
> within the same game, I believe it more reflective to compare
> average concurrent players online than subscribers.

The average amount of hours played per week affects peak concurrent
numbers significantly. A benchmark figure of "20 hours for the
average player" is often tossed around, but it's highly
inaccurate. For one, it's probably "per account" and thus inaccurate
because of the multiple account holders. For another, UO and EQ used
to be there but have since diverged; last I heard, EQ was at around
50% more hours than that, and UO was around 50% lower. Why?  EQ
added the bazaar, which encourages sitting online for hours on end,
and UO put in various anti-macroing measures and guaranteed
advancement systems that reduced hours required online in order to
advance.

The longer the typical play session, the higher concurrency you'll
get with your users, without reflecting your actual
popularity... Perhaps the best measure would be "number of users who
log in at least once a week." Far as I know, nobody makes that
figure public.

-Raph
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