Land Of The Dead really hurt the game. WAR's niche has always been PVP - Land of the dead is mostly a PVE grind. Lots of players didnt take too kindly to this and there was a pretty substantial exodus of players (Aion BETA didn't help much either).

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Ouch, this just isn't even funny anymore. I would have thought LotD would have helped them populate those existing servers. At this rate, it will likely be just Phoenix Throne remaining come the 1 year anniversary.

I'm sure Abriael will be along shortly to inform us that they are merging servers because the population has increased to much.

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So, this should put it on about equal footing with the AoC servers. Sounds about right...except Funcom seem to actually be -improving- their game.

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More server transfers, harsh. Of course they're needed but seeing it with only 9 servers is pretty nuts.

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great more server transfers but they wont let us transfer to orvr servers!! Thouse are the only ones with action.

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There is plenty of action on Dark Crag, Phoenix Throne, and Iron Rock. I am a returning player from beta and am now loving Mythic's work on the game more than ever. I A lot of new players are showing up and I've been showing them the ropes. Mythic was simply too overzealous with their servers at launch.

I don't think people realize how much they hurt Mythic posting on sites like this pointing towards Mythic failing. I feel like the game is more popular than ever, you just have to pick the right server.

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It has been clear for a long time that WAR is going to continue shrinking into nothing.

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Gino Z, you say, "You just have to pick the right server" is not the same as saying that "the game is more popular that ever." Just like any MMO, if you pick the right server, you'll have people to play with, but that still doesn't mean people aren't leaving in hordes.

I think the game is losing population. Hearing about so many different guilds in WAR moving to Aion, which will probably be a huge hit on WAR, considering it's focus on PvP, so WAR as strong as ever? I don't think so, and I'm not sure if the game will succeed if the expansions are going to be as negative as LotD.

Fallen Earth is just around the corner, Aion and CO are months away and Global Agenda is due at the end of this year or early next year. I think WAR might hold a small population, but the 300k mark? I doubt it.

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Well that's just sad. I'd agree that WAR has dropped players since the last report.

I think it's due to a confluence of a TERRIBLE balance patch being put on the test server and then reverted, at the same time as testing what turned out to be a primarily PvE expansion.

I personally lost most remaining faith I had with what they tried in that balance patch, and decided to take a break until I see the final results of the balancing. I can only guess that others may have felt similarly.

Land of the Dead may be fun in it's own right (I can't comment), but because of the terrible balance patch it wasn't properly tested and its effect on RvR wasn't well thought out, or again, tested.

I think many of the 300k subs had decided to stick it out because they enjoyed the game despite it's flaws. Introducing even more problems and screwing up an attempt at sorely needed balance changes may have just been too much. Not to mention any reduction in confidence with MJs departure.

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That reminds me of Tabula Rasa. It was supposed to be a pve shooter, but then they wanted to add pvp and had to nerf several classes. We all know where this ended.
Making a game for everyone doesnt work.

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I play on Phoenix Throne where Destro routinely is dominant, went on vacation for 2 weeks, and now Destro not only has low population, but is getting steamrolled. Two reasons I have heard: Land of the Dead really pissed a lot of hardcore RVR players off, and the lack of unity amongst Destro players, causing the leadership to disband and leave.

I enjoy WAR, but the drama and grind of the game really is getting to me. At this point I'm just waiting for Diablo 3 or SWTOR, whichever comes out first.

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WAR is near death.

LotD was a resounding fail since when a faction grabs it, that faction is now playing PvE on that land while the other faction is grinding to get control of that land. LotD managed to kill scenarios and world RvR in one fell swoop.

Also, Order kept getting the short end of the stick. Lot's of players were hoping that Slayers would help balance the advantage that Destro were enjoying. But it turned out Choppas were downright better and Slayers were nothing more than cannon fodder.

There were no incentives in capturing Keeps and holding on to them. After a guild acquires it, you're left twiddling thumbs and staring at nothing. Guilds upgrading a keep was a novel idea but half-baked.

The token reward system was an atrocious grind fest. We had a heathy 30+ man guild, and now we are lucky to get 3 players online at the same time. We used to have problems managing people's availability to do dungeons since they're locked out... now people can't get any for dungeon runs.

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I'm destro on PT too, and after taking some time off, I went back last week and was surprised to see us getting steamrolled. I noticed a lot of faces/guilds missing from T4 as well, and not many of my guild or alliance members logged in. :( Some of my guildies are moving on to Aion, and some rerolled order on DC.

On the plus side, I actually went through an entire IC defense pq without any of the lag or bugginess that had been in city sieges when I left, so there have been some improvements made!

I'm hoping that these mergers aren't a sign that WAR is in trouble, but just mean that the devs are finally take population issues seriously. People have been begging for mergers on some of those servers for a long time.

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I would think that puts them in the same range as Lord of the Rings.

The terribly over-estimated the amount of servers they needed at launch and that created a "population issue" monster.

Also, as a Warhammer player, I can see where this game has longevity issues as well. It's a really fun game to play but wears thin way to fast. IMHO, it has to do with the world design. It feels more like a persistant shooter then an MMO.

If you all care to remember, DAoC died a horrible population death also.

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Snaffy,
WAR looks set to die, and I mean in a matter of months.
I cannot believe how dispirted the WAR forum is right now. Masses of people are walking away.
I really believe that bloggers like yourself are underestimating how quickly this product is tanking. It's a terrible shame. What a waste.

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