Massively

Ever since Tabula Rasa's now-infamous patch 1.5 went live, I've noticed a trend most curious. In the months since the game launched, the server populations did something of a quick spiraling crash. They started out at consistently high, and over the course of the month gradually fell to mostly medium, then only occasionally medium, and since probably December, the only one of the game's servers to rise out of the doldrums of a low server population has been Centaurus, a fact easily ascribed to its position as the sole European server. But after patch 1.5, I've consistently seen the three U.S. servers operating at medium server population. Are we really to believe that the population went up after the release of the game's most disastrous client patch to date?

It's certainly not impossible that the game has seen an infusion of new blood. Several people at Massively HQ couldn't resist the allure of getting the collector's edition when it appeared online for cheap. I think it's more likely however that the Destination Games team, prodded by recent reports of the game's failure, simply changed the criteria for what qualifies as a "medium" or "low" server population. This would have the effect of making players believe that the game has actually much better off than it already was by manipulating data that's available only to them. And as a morale booster for the player population, I have to say it works. Even though I'm wise to the fact that the amount of players probably hasn't changed significantly, it's nice to log into the game and see that my server isn't entirely barren. Is it ethical? That's debatable. Does it work? Most certainly.