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A simple poll... Going by the number of players who are leaving the game, how long do you think DAoC will continue on the European servers?

It will go for a long while. Most likely when the commercial version is downed we will see a couple of freeshard servers that take over for the hardcore players.

My guess is about another 3 years of official support
& then maybe another couple of years semi-modded on some backwater server before the official servers get turned off
As long as the subs keep the hamsters fed I guess

Then as Kes said there'll still be some freeshards around somewhere for years to come, but I enterpreted the question more in the sence of "how long will there be officially GoA-supported DAoC servers"

i think warhammer will be the deathnoll of daoc

So do you think that a time might come when there are not enough players for a particular realm, that that realm will cease to exist? E.g. if one realm became so underpopulated that it could no longer defend keeps, towers and relics etc? Would Mythic have to lock relics and keeps from being captured because the underpopulated realm was unable to respond?

Its at the stage now where there simply isnt sufficient active gulids to claim all towers/keeps in hib and mid - where as albs can claim all theirs plus keeps/towers in enemies realm aswell. - This puts us on the back foot before you even look at the active population of numbers.

Albs took our relic - Do we have enough peeps to back up anyone who looks to try and launch a raid ? I doubt it. Time will tell.

Gandelf wrote:A simple poll... Going by the number of players who are leaving the game, how long do you think DAoC will continue on the European servers?

All European servers? dont know & dont care tbh, Pryd / Excal 12 more months tops if that.

I think your poll options should have been
1 year
2 years
3 years
4-5 years
more than 5 years

I don't think they'll lock relics/keeps, just the strongest will take them.

My prediction for new year 2007 is:-
Albs have 4-5 relics
Mids have 1-2 relics
Hibs have 0-1 relics
Albs have perma-iRvR in both Hib & Mid
Mids also have perma-iRvR in Hib (where they go to try & escape the RR10+ Alb caster-zerg in Mid)
Hibs struggle to keep 2-3 keeps green
GoA have no clue what to do to remedy the situation.

<huddles under tinfoil hat>

Well the downward spiral seems to be gaining momentum from what Ive seen in the last month or so, at least from a pryd/hib perspective

Some of the biggest (members wise) guilds are dwindling to almost nothing, and I certainly include the MH from that perspective.

The last bastion of a big guild as far as I can tell is NFD, and rumours abound on FH today with regards their continued participation on cluster

Virtually all casual players ( I also include casual rvr-ers in this description) have pretty much left the game on Hib Pryd. There are still a few left dotted around, but I would guess that the hib population is now at about 85% Excal 15% pryd, but that is a rough guess.

The numbers are now at that critical stage where there are just not enough people to be able to find a friendly face to group with, interact with or whatever on even a semi regular basis, tho I imagine there are a few set GGs who dont necessarily see this. Beyond NFD GG1, GG2 and GGG I would struggle to name even one other regular guild group/fixed group of hib pryd players.

As I dont generally see the game ruled by a pure desire for fg 8v8 though, I see the decline in other areas as more prominent, and it seems everyday another pillar of our former community or two disappear as they too see the decline having got to the stage where there is no more fun left.

The last remnants who will be here to switch off the lights will almost certainly be some hardcore competitive guild group bragging to no one in particular about how they OWNed everyone else

Xmas could be a very depressing period for the last bastion of Hib Pryd players and it would be hard for even the most optimistic of people to gainsay this situation.

Whilst many are looking ahead to WAR, it seems an awful long way away with the current state of decline.

I have no intentions of going anywhere just yet, rerolling to another server doesnt hold the appeal for me that I can see for the fg brigade, so when it stops being fun I will just have to break the addiction

<with a heavy heart>

Wyst

As a side question...

Has anyone ever seen any advertising for DAoC in the past or now?

I have never seen any and only heard about the game through word of mouth.

I have no intentions to stop playing yet, but with less people around its getting harder and harder to play.

Perhaps it is too late to advertise the game now, even with the new expansion turning up. Since new people would have such a hard time getting started now.

It is nice to see a few old faces returning, but with more stopping than starting, even for them it is not the experience they once had.

However, it would be nice to see a few new players around.