Active users per day

[Fostik]

Main page shows online bar, which is smaller every month of the world.
I do believe that it is caused by processes optimizations of player bases, so people dont need to spend so mutch time online.
But most players thinks that low online means that it is "daed gaem"
Place "active users per day" counter on main page.

[Archiplex]

Some part of me is afraid it'll only confirm the dying populace.

[pppp]

Is that supposed to be a joke ? Is there a new super-bot client that overshadows Ard client capabilities so players can drastically reduce their bot online time ?
Have a look at stat pages:

• http://www.havenandhearth.com/portal/ - (Of course)
• http://www.havenandhearth.com/portal/track/ - (Number of unique users during the past: day, week, month)
• http://www.havenandhearth.com/portal/track/dayhist - (image!)
• http://www.havenandhearth.com/portal/track/hourhist - (image!)
• http://www.havenandhearth.com/portal/track/minhist - (image!)

(source)
Especially look at hourhist and dayhist.
At http://www.havenandhearth.com/portal/track/ you will find numbers you wanted to see.
Swapping numbers to hide reality will not help anyone.
The picture looks bleak and there are varied reasons to that, one notable being client change that broke old clients while client maintainers went on strike sick leave, which was already discussed ad nauseam. Some problems cannot be helped with, e.g. obviously there is a group of players who wants to play only after a reset which will not be granted on a whim.

If you want to help, maybe focus on new player retention.

[rhzk]

Det gum tho

[Granger]

e.g. obviously there is a group of players who wants to play only after a reset which will not be granted on a whim.

Quite some argued in the 'wipe now' topic that it's the conditions shortly after a reset (mainly the somewhat level playing field before the current progression mechanics enforce an ever widening gap, which makes grind just for the sake of raising numbers pointless for most as they've lost that race to the math involved) that are making the game fun to play - as it seems for quite some that tend to reduce their online time from about the 3-4 month mark of a world (or the first time they're stomped to dirt for the lulz).

[MagicManICT]

Active users per day doesn't mask information, it's just a different way to show the information.

There was some research done some years ago that effectively showed that the "active number of players" in a day was somewhere between 4-8x of the "players currently online," and averaging right around 6x. It varied some per game depending on mechanics and play style. This was done for more popular games, such as EVE, WoW, EQ, GW, DAoC, etc, but found to effectively apply to the smaller indie games that have player counts and subs of less than 5000, too.

Maybe Haven's numbers are skewed because of the number of players running bots. Maybe the whole bot thing is an Internet Legend. (Because it's possible, clearly everyone is botting.) The truth is probably in the middle.

This is the same story every world. Big start, drops off within 30 days, tapers off to around the same number after about 4-6 months.

[pppp]

[...]

That does not change the fact 'Active users per <x>' numbers simply look better, being several times higher which puts the whole thing into 'big number marketing' bin. That corresponds to Salem changing numbers displayed on the first page from <players online> to <active numbers per day> a couple years ago when players online number has fallen into 100+ range. It did not help with anything.

This is the same story every world. Big start, drops off within 30 days, tapers off to around the same number after about 4-6 months.

Mostly agreed. IMHO the daily population chart for the first 6 months can be convincingly approximated with falling exponential curve, which makes sense.
But if you look closer at last two weeks of this world, on dayhist rather than on hourhist, there is clearly a problem.

[shubla]

What would be more interesting is statistics of hats and tokens bought daily or something.

[MagicManICT]

But if you look closer at last two weeks of this world, on dayhist rather than on hourhist, there is clearly a problem.

Which have been "not summer," so you have to account for a changes in trends with the new seasons... blah blah blah.... Summary: is it really a "problem," the lack of stuff to do during autumn and winter, just need a better balance, or what? Clearly better "end game" is needed, and if PvP should be a part of that goal.

It did not help with anything.

That's my point. It's not going to help, it's probably not going to hurt, so what's the point of changing anything? it's just statistical noise.

[DDDsDD999]

http://www.havenandhearth.com/portal/track/ - (Number of unique users during the past: day, week, month)

Wow, I always wondered what this stat was since Salem did what was in OP to mask their dying population, and I sorta thought haven wasn't that far off, but even during the recent dip in population it's still way higher than Salem.