Transfers to "Big" 3 - TBA?

[Adalas]

There are charts with logins per week.
Look here:
http://lux-hdro.de/hdro-live-us.php
Even if the site is in German you should be able to understand the pie chart at the lower part of the page.

These are the logins of the last weeks:

All new servers seem to be well visited, among the old ones Arkenstone, Brandywine, Firefoot and Gladden seem to be big. But pictures are changing every week.

I guess that early next year Turbine will revisit the list and make adjustments.

[fnostro]

There are charts with logins per week.
Look here:
http://lux-hdro.de/hdro-live-us.php
Even if the site is in German you should be able to understand the pie chart at the lower part of the page.

These are the logins of the last weeks:

...snipped the chart...

All new servers seem to be well visited, among the old ones Arkenstone, Brandywine, Firefoot and Gladden seem to be big. But pictures are changing every week.

I guess that early next year Turbine will revisit the list and make adjustments.

Well looking at the chart, the numbers are completely understandable. With the help of Google-translate I went to that German site and tried to make heads or tales of the information. They don't really offer much of an explanation of what they mean by "logins"

For the data to mean anything we need a count of unique/distinct logins to get a meaningful number. As near as I can tell these numbers are just a count of the number of times a login is registered.

So when when you compare these numbers, and you can easily see when F2P went live, which servers are likely to have a higher login count? Older servers with an established player-base where a very good portion of the population is level-capped? Or a brand new, shiny, clean server with a rapidly rising new population with players constantly creating new characters and swapping between them (hence high login counts) to level them up?

Combine that with the entire population of old and new players rushing to claim names and just make new toons on brand new servers you can see why the numbers would spike.

I believe the graph, while accurately depicting the number of logins, tells nothing of the server population.

[Morbir]

I'm going to have to add my voice to the people who think the German bar graph probably doesn't accurately reflect server populations. I've got characters on Landroval, Elendilmir, Nimrodel, and Imladris and Landroval is far and away the most busy of those. Just sayin ...

[myskaal]

65 in 2 weeks???? It took me over a year and a half to get my first 60 (Mirkwood wasn't out yet) and now after over 3 years of playing I have 1 65, 1 58, and 3 characters in their 40's. And I know that I'm far from alone in that time frame. Here's something that might be foreign to you- a great many of us have a heck of a lot more going on in our lives than just lotro. Between jobs, spouses who want time with us and don't play, kids, other family, other groups we may be involved with, other friends, outdoor activities, other indoor activities, and a host of other things, lotro is only a very small part of our lives. In a good lotro week I might get about 5 or 6 hours. There are a heck of a lot of people who get even less than that. For someone with a time schedule like that building a second character isn't a quick option, it's months of work.

This isn't really meant as a slam, but I just don't know how to say it otherwise- for a vast portion of gamers and players there is a whole heck of a lot more going on in our lives, and lotro is- and will be- a very small portion of our lives. One we really like and enjoy, but that's where it will remain. And honestly, if that's such a strange concept for you, then I really think you need to get out and experience life and the world around you more.

Two weeks for a 65... I'm still just stunned at the thought that you think that's normal.

I do have a life outside of LOTRO. Job, family, side work. I guess the main difference would be is my downtime isn't usually spent going to the movies or watching tv or hanging out at the club, but rather chillign out and playing my game.

And yea it would have easily been 2 weeks simply following the quest lines if I hadn't stopped. I gladly admit during this time I had extra free time. I wasn't slamming anyone myself, I was genuinely trying to relate that I don't see the difficulty leveling. Not simply because I could have hit 65 in 2 weeks if I hadn't made myself stop questing but because with all the bonus rest xp, quiet calm, and huge xp gain from quests would usually equal (after 20) easily still a level or more in only a few hours of playtime.
Reaching the level cap as fast as possible is not one of my wants. I'm one of those people asking for a way to turn xp off =p

I totally get that some people only have maybe 2-6 hours a week to play. Obviously capping as fast as possible isn't a goal for them either so...wouldn't that make starting fresh together on a spankin' new world with out the worry of being spread out all the more fun?

[Paith]

I have rolled, deleted and rerolled. I have become extremely casual losing focus of grinding levels. However, It's easy. Especially to level 30 with a bit of effort (not much) Example:

You can become level 7 at least out of the new player instance and into the burnt Archet.
Likely add in another 5 levels or so running the Combe/Staddle quests.
Couple quests in Bree at that level brings you to Adso's quests and the Old Forest. Thorney's work site, Andrath, etc.
Eventually bringing you to the Barrow Downs. The quest HUB there will bring you to 20.

If your focused to grind levels, You can do this in a couple play sessions. But it doesn't stop there by any means. Lonelands grinds you quickly through the 20's running the quests. I'm 27 and haven't done them all.

Anyways, The time it takes to sit and post on these forums, to read and respond well. You could have had a level in game.

[sirwillow]

There are charts with logins per week.
Look here:
http://lux-hdro.de/hdro-live-us.php
Even if the site is in German you should be able to understand the pie chart at the lower part of the page.

These are the logins of the last weeks:

All new servers seem to be well visited, among the old ones Arkenstone, Brandywine, Firefoot and Gladden seem to be big. But pictures are changing every week.

I guess that early next year Turbine will revisit the list and make adjustments.

I'd still like to know how they are getting those logins, how they are calculating them and what their sources are.

After this conversation I did a bit more bouncing around and playing with who's on Firefoot and Landroval at various times and the populations still didn't compare. Firefoot was closer in the newbie zone, but even there Landroval was far above Firefoot's pops. And in higher level and end game it's not even close.

So I still question and regard with great skepticism those numbers that say Firefoot has more people playing on it than Landroval, because they sure don't seem to be lining up with what's actually experienced on live.

[Laire]

I also would like to know their source...

One of these days, when I'm feeling bored, maybe I'll create a toon on all servers and do a population count during primetime (which you can do, excluding anonymous players).

[Yula_the_Mighty]

I'd still like to know how they are getting those logins, how they are calculating them and what their sources are.

This information is in the messages between the server and client during the authentication and login process.

When a world server is brought up there is a server count that is set to zero. Each time an account completes the authentication and login process for a world. This count is incremented on the world. Sent your client.

It is a simple matter to get this number. Some people like me that have two accounts. Screw the count up. I continually changing accounts. I may increment this count 5-10 times a night on Meneldor.

Some of this information is web enabled. You do not even have to log in to get it. You can ask the server directly.

That what this guy is doing. Running a script on his own machine. Asking our servers. What is it now?