Guild Wars Still #2 MMO (in Google searches) - Guild Wars Guru archive powered by Guild Wars Legacy

Tullzinski

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Mar 2006

Trying to stay out of Ryuk's Death Note

N/R

11 Feb 2009 at 00:04 - 1

I was reading the latest issue of PC Gamer in which they awarded WOW MMO of the Year (congrats), however there is a chart of GOOGLE Search Results in millions which lists Guild Wars as #2. Here is the breakdown:

WOW - 65.7
Guild Wars - 13.0
Warhammer Online - 12.2
Age of Conan - 9.5
Lord of the Rings Online - 9.5
Lineage II - 8.6
Eve Online - 6.8
City of Heroes - 3.1
Everquest 2 - 2.5

Not bad for a game that has not had a major update since EOTN and is constantly pronounced dead.

Looks like there is still a large amount of interest out there or maybe....

FengShuiDove

Forge Runner

Join Date: Sep 2007

Trinity of the Ascended [ToA]

A/

11 Feb 2009 at 00:11 - 2

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tullzinski

or maybe...

Post should have stopped here. Remember what I told you about finishing your stories one sentence earlier?

Still, this is an interesting find. I think our opinions of the popularity and general approval of GW are tainted by the flood of tears constantly sweeping over Guru.

Gigashadow

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Aug 2005

Bellevue, WA

W/

11 Feb 2009 at 00:29 - 3

If you look at xfire.com, Guild Wars has consistently been in the top 10; it's #8 right now, and all the other games ahead of it are strong contenders. GW is well ahead of Warhammer Online. You can also plot how popular games have been over time (going back years), which is interesting to see.

Bear in mind you are only looking at the results of a random sampling of the subset of people who use xfire. However, this is actually a fair number of people (xfire is getting popular these days), and you can use this sampling to compare the relative fortunes of games of a similar genre, unless you have special reason to believe that one such game is being vastly over- or under- represented on xfire compared with the others. If you look at the top games sorted by popularity, they are pretty much what you would expect, so it doesn't seem particularly out of whack.

Darcy

Never Too Old

Join Date: Jul 2006

Rhode Island where there are no GW contests

Order of First

W/R

11 Feb 2009 at 00:33 - 4

Did you notice that all the successful on-lines are either very old or have a large fan base from older games or movies, EXCEPT for Guild Wars. Which has no history and is only (almost) 4 yrs old.

Great job ArenaNet.

kazi_saki

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Feb 2008

Somewhere between GW and GW2

Shaved Wookies [HoT]

N/

11 Feb 2009 at 00:34 - 5

Guild Wars is really still popular. In my country, they are still in demand at game stores. Hell, I and my 4 other friends just joined early last year and we were able to pull a few more people who are playing now. It really is still a competitive game compared to the other MMO's.

I pwnd U

God of Spammers

Join Date: Oct 2005

in the middle of a burning cornfield...

Scars Meadows [SMS] (Officer)

11 Feb 2009 at 00:35 - 6

But do you think it is for Guild Wars or Guild Wars 2 and they just omitted the 2?

Gigashadow

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Aug 2005

Bellevue, WA

W/

11 Feb 2009 at 00:36 - 7

Here is the Google Trends plot showing queries for:

World of Warcraft
Guild Wars
Warhammer Online
Age of Conan

since 2004:

http://www.google.com/trends?q=guild...e=all &sort=0

FengShuiDove

Forge Runner

Join Date: Sep 2007

Trinity of the Ascended [ToA]

A/

11 Feb 2009 at 00:38 - 8

Quote:

Originally Posted by I pwnd U

But do you think it is for Guild Wars or Guild Wars 2 and they just omitted the 2?

I'd guess a combination, but primary GW1. The reason: with so little information released on GW2, who but the upper-tier fans on sites like Guru are keeping track of GW2 updates?

Regina Buenaobra

ArenaNet

Join Date: Apr 2008

Me/

11 Feb 2009 at 00:47 - 9

I think these Google results, apart from showing how strong the GW IP is, also demonstrates that Guild Wars has a huge player base beyond those posting on the fan site forums or the wiki.

Social research shows that in any community, whether it is online or offline, people can be grouped into two participation styles. You have a small group of dedicated folks who are active, influential, and super passionate that drive community activity, and you have a much, much larger group of people who may be as passionate as the smaller group, but maybe they don't have time or inclination to participate as much as the smaller, core group. For better or worse, the small group tends to drive community discussion and draw attention to their needs, simply because they are more vocal, more passionate, and more involved.

Over the past few months, a significant part of my work has involved research into social media (and I include games in the category of social media) and community. This research is going to help us with making decisions on the kinds of community tools and the activities we can get integrated into our GW2 activities. I don't just mean specifically game activities -- we're looking at this holistically and broadly.

snaek

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2006

N/

11 Feb 2009 at 00:52 - 10

@op wut suprises me the most really is aoc being ranked #4
i dun think google numbers have an accurate indication on the # of players playing online
aoc is/was pretty much jus all hype

gw at #2 doesnt surprise me at all
considering it will get hits for 4 seperate games

@gigashadow
first time lookin at xfire rankings
lol @ gw being ~310,000 hrs behind wow
and only ~1000 hrs above silkroad
hell its only ~13,000 hrs ahead of flyff and maplestory lol

tbh i dun think those numbers dun really mean much
especially since the popular online steam games (cs, tf2, l4d, etc) have built-in steam messaging already

blue.rellik

Forge Runner

Join Date: Feb 2007

Melbourne, Australia

None

W/

11 Feb 2009 at 03:52 - 11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gigashadow

Here is the Google Trends plot showing queries for:

World of Warcraft
Guild Wars
Warhammer Online
Age of Conan

since 2004:

http://www.google.com/trends?q=guild...e=all &sort=0

That's hilarious. Both AoC and Warhammer had a huge spike but died almost immediately

shoyon456

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Jul 2006

D/

11 Feb 2009 at 04:21 - 12

Quote:

Originally Posted by Darcy

Did you notice that all the successful on-lines are either very old or have a large fan base from older games or movies, EXCEPT for Guild Wars. Which has no history and is only (almost) 4 yrs old.

Great job ArenaNet.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but its also the only game on that list with no monthly. Not to mention that list cannot be accurate, because as stated earlier AoC and Warhammer are already dying.

If there were other high-quality free 2 play games at bestbuy I'm sure they would do well also.

This really supports my belief that anet is just making gw2 like WoW, to get a piece of that action.

Tullzinski

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Mar 2006

Trying to stay out of Ryuk's Death Note

N/R

11 Feb 2009 at 04:24 - 13

Quote:

Originally Posted by Regina Buenaobra

I think these Google results, apart from showing how strong the GW IP is, also demonstrates that Guild Wars has a huge player base beyond those posting on the fan site forums or the wiki.

Social research shows that in any community, whether it is online or offline, people can be grouped into two participation styles. You have a small group of dedicated folks who are active, influential, and super passionate that drive community activity, and you have a much, much larger group of people who may be as passionate as the smaller group, but maybe they don't have time or inclination to participate as much as the smaller, core group. For better or worse, the small group tends to drive community discussion and draw attention to their needs, simply because they are more vocal, more passionate, and more involved.
Over the past few months, a significant part of my work has involved research into social media (and I include games in the category of social media) and community. This research is going to help us with making decisions on the kinds of community tools and the activities we can get integrated into our GW2 activities. I don't just mean specifically game activities -- we're looking at this holistically and broadly.

Squeaky Wheel gets the grease

Avarre

Bubblegum Patrol

Join Date: Dec 2005

Singapore Armed Forces

11 Feb 2009 at 04:33 - 14

Quote:

Originally Posted by Regina Buenaobra

Social research shows that in any community, whether it is online or offline, people can be grouped into two participation styles. You have a small group of dedicated folks who are active, influential, and super passionate that drive community activity, and you have a much, much larger group of people who may be as passionate as the smaller group, but maybe they don't have time or inclination to participate as much as the smaller, core group. For better or worse, the small group tends to drive community discussion and draw attention to their needs, simply because they are more vocal, more passionate, and more involved.

What, in my view, you should be doing is deciding which group you intend to cater towards primarily, and devote attention to them. There's no way the game can be run by listening to anyone who makes enough noise - a problem with GW in that the focus of the game was very wavering.

After all, there will be vocal members of the community from all groups (competitive, casual, etc). This isn't to say you can't make a game for everyone, but that there should be direction - ie: a competitive game can accommodate casual players in lower tiers, while comments from the upper tiers are what is listened to. This was somewhat lacking in the current game, and has been brought up for years.

Lishy

Forge Runner

Join Date: Jan 2008

11 Feb 2009 at 04:35 - 15

Quote:

Originally Posted by Regina Buenaobra

I think these Google results, apart from showing how strong the GW IP is, also demonstrates that Guild Wars has a huge player base beyond those posting on the fan site forums or the wiki.

What I still wonder is why nobody I know in real life actually knows what Guild Wars is

I hope that GW2 can gain the attention of more people in the future

MagmaRed

Furnace Stoker

Join Date: Mar 2007

Our Crabs Know True [LOVE]

R/

11 Feb 2009 at 04:36 - 16

Don't forget to look at the age of some of the titles. Guild Wars has been around for almost 4 years, so will have hits for a longer time than new games like Conan. And as mentioned, Guild Wars encompasses multiple titles, while some of the other games don't. Someone searching for Factions will still look under Guild Wars, as would Nightfall, Eye of the North, Bonus Mission Pack, etc.

Interesting, but hardly indicative of player numbers. Only Anet could give info on the number of players, and I doubt they would do that. Closest they have come is announcing the number of copies sold. And if you add in the large numbers of bots they claim to ban (100s per week, 1000s per week?) how many of those accounts ever actually played? And how many accounts are counted more than once? I have 2 accounts, but have purchased 6 copies of the game, so am I counted 2 times or 6 times?

Interesting info, but nothing more can be done that speculate and postulate.

HawkofStorms

Hall Hero

Join Date: Aug 2005

E/

11 Feb 2009 at 05:02 - 17

People need to stop treating games like some big economic contest and just play the games they enjoy. So long as the servers aren't completely dead (and by that I mean, like less then 100 people online at a given time) an online game can work.

Don't fret about sales figures or number of people playing. That's for A.net's marketing people to do (and they get paid to worry about that stuff).

And very good to hear from Regina that A.net isn't just looking into the small minority of players that is guru, but trying to figure out what casual fan x wants (his $50 is worth the same as my $50).

Avarre

Bubblegum Patrol

Join Date: Dec 2005

Singapore Armed Forces

11 Feb 2009 at 05:07 - 18

Quote:

Originally Posted by HawkofStorms

People need to stop treating games like some big economic contest and just play the games they enjoy. So long as the servers aren't completely dead (and by that I mean, like less then 100 people online at a given time) an online game can work.

Don't fret about sales figures or number of people playing. That's for A.net's marketing people to do (and they get paid to worry about that stuff).

And very good to hear from Regina that A.net isn't just looking into the small minority of players that is guru, but trying to figure out what casual fan x wants (his $50 is worth the same as my $50).

You've got a potential contradiction in there. Listening to the casual fan is often exactly what an economic contest is, because casual fans have no specific direction or goal. ANet has a history of trying to please everyone rather than listening to a specific playerbase, and as a result milk their game for profit instead of focusing purely on gameplay quality.

Javeron

Ascalonian Squire

Join Date: Apr 2007

California

[OAK]

E/Mo

11 Feb 2009 at 05:09 - 19

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gigashadow

If you look at xfire.com, Guild Wars has consistently been in the top 10; it's #8 right now, and all the other games ahead of it are strong contenders. GW is well ahead of Warhammer Online. You can also plot how popular games have been over time (going back years), which is interesting to see.

Either that or GW players are considerably more in touch and in communication with fellow players. Either way, this and the Google searches mean we're still an active community, even if we don't have the "zomg population".

Apollo Smile

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jan 2008

[LORE]

E/Mo

11 Feb 2009 at 05:14 - 20

Intresting find. I prefer Yahoo! over Google though. Makes me wonder if Yahoo's results are the same.

*Also a lil off topic but I noticed that guildwars.com is now offering free trials. Nice way to spark more intrests.

Aeon221

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Jan 2006

[TEW]

N/

11 Feb 2009 at 05:16 - 21

Quote:

Originally Posted by Apollo Smile

Intresting find. I prefer Yahoo! over Google though. Makes me wonder if Yahoo's results are the same.

Since you and all of three other people use Yahoo, I sincerely doubt it.

What Now

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2007

11 Feb 2009 at 05:28 - 22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Avarre

What, in my view, you should be doing is deciding which group you intend to cater towards primarily, and devote attention to them. There's no way the game can be run by listening to anyone who makes enough noise - a problem with GW in that the focus of the game was very wavering.

After all, there will be vocal members of the community from all groups (competitive, casual, etc). This isn't to say you can't make a game for everyone, but that there should be direction - ie: a competitive game can accommodate casual players in lower tiers, while comments from the upper tiers are what is listened to. This was somewhat lacking in the current game, and has been brought up for years.

o.o amen *points* what they said, hope she gets around to reading this. I also understand wanting to make everyone happy but some people have a completely different idea for and of the game than anyone else and even the basic concepts and designs. If you continue to take the lead of some or just the majority even what you'll be left with is not GW at all really and definitely not an ideal game for anyone. I hope that doesnt get misunderstood like most the stuff I say x.x whys everything come out wrong for me.

snaek

Forge Runner

Join Date: Mar 2006

N/

11 Feb 2009 at 05:30 - 23

thinkin bout xfire's maple story ranking...
afaik maple story's playerbase is much bigger international than it is in north america

so i did a quick google check of maple story
9.5 mil
not bad
rite there wit aoc and lotr...

also...doom only gets 49mil hits lol
u'd think it'd get extra since its also a (fairly) common word...but nope lol

mario gets 193mil...
but super mario only gets 29mil o__o

not even final fantasy beats wow (57 mil)
not even all the fanfiction, fanart, and cosplay can save this game 0__o

free ecto to the first person who finds a game that beats wow!!!!

mrvrod

Guest01

Join Date: Jul 2006

11 Feb 2009 at 06:45 - 24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aeon221

Since you and all of three other people use Yahoo, I sincerely doubt it.

I know it's been five years now, but don't forget yahoo search was google until early 2004.

Lord Sojar

The Fallen One

Join Date: Dec 2005

Oblivion

Irrelevant

Mo/Me

11 Feb 2009 at 06:59 - 25

Interesting.... still, my friends list is full, and only 5-6 people are on at max excluding events. So... meh

dr love

...is in denial

Join Date: Sep 2006

Hyperion

starcraft 2

P/Me

11 Feb 2009 at 10:37 - 26

Quote:

my work has involved research into social media... we're looking at this holistically and broadly

YES! guild wars 2 will also be used as a dating service! i knew it

trialist

Core Guru

Join Date: Feb 2005

11 Feb 2009 at 11:28 - 27

Google trends is hardly accurate. Try the following Google trends search using guild and guild wars as search terms.

http://www.google.com/trends?q=guild...e=a ll&sort=0

Notice the similiarity of the graphs, it suggests the word guild is being included in searches for guild wars as well. Lol. Definitely not accurate.

Tullzinski

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Mar 2006

Trying to stay out of Ryuk's Death Note

N/R

11 Feb 2009 at 12:32 - 28

Quote:

Originally Posted by MagmaRed

And if you add in the large numbers of bots they claim to ban (100s per week, 1000s per week?) how many of those accounts ever actually played?

On the same page as the google chart it mentioned that WOW had just banned 56,000 bots(will double check exact number later) pretty sure it was 56K. Grrrr bots

Have to agree with you that it does not reflect actual player numbers, but it sure does show alot of interest in the game.

fireflyry

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Jan 2007

New Zealand

A/D

11 Feb 2009 at 12:44 - 29

Imagine the results of the top ten music artists.....exactly.

Still, thumbs up for marketing Anet.

Faer

La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo

Join Date: Feb 2006

11 Feb 2009 at 13:01 - 30

A list comparing Guild Wars to a bunch of bad / basically dead games and topped off with World of Warcraft.

Gee willakers. I wonder why the search results are they way they are?

Kattar

EXCESSIVE FLUTTERCUSSING

Join Date: Mar 2007

SMS (lolgw2placeholder)

Me/

11 Feb 2009 at 13:14 - 31

My fault. I've been google bombing as of late.

Hollygen

Core Guru

Join Date: Feb 2007

UK

Blinkie Ponie Armie [bpa]

R/

11 Feb 2009 at 14:15 - 32

Quote:

Originally Posted by trialist

Google trends is hardly accurate. Try the following Google trends search using guild and guild wars as search terms.

http://www.google.com/trends?q=guild...e=a ll&sort=0

Notice the similiarity of the graphs, it suggests the word guild is being included in searches for guild wars as well. Lol. Definitely not accurate.

Any search for "guild wars" will also be a search for "guild", so of course the latter's figures will include those of the former. The similarity clearly indicates that "guild wars" is the single most commonly searched phrase that includes the word "guild"; for much of that graph it makes up more than half of the searches, and even as the count drops off toward the present day the figure is still signifgicant.
All other searches not including the word "wars" as well are indicated by the separation between the two lines

The line for "guild wars" is not being distorted by other searches for "guild" but rather, the line for "guild" is being significantly affected by searches for "guild wars".

Tullzinski

Jungle Guide

Join Date: Mar 2006

Trying to stay out of Ryuk's Death Note

N/R

11 Feb 2009 at 15:22 - 33

Quote:

Originally Posted by snaek

free ecto to the first person who finds a game that beats wow!!!!

SIMS!!!!

I will take my free ecto please

http://www.google.com/trends?q=sims%...ate=all&sort=0

Revelations

Krytan Explorer

Join Date: Feb 2009

Not Dead

W/

11 Feb 2009 at 15:34 - 34

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hollygen

The line for "guild wars" is not being distorted by other searches for "guild" but rather, the line for "guild" is being significantly affected by searches for "guild wars".

This. Add Guild Wars in quotation marks to search for phrase matches, as opposed to single word matches and you get the following
http://www.google.com/trends?q=guild%2C+guild+wars%2C+%22guild+wars%22&c tab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

Quote:

Originally Posted by trialist

Google trends is hardly accurate. Try the following Google trends search using guild and guild wars as search terms.

Try resubmitting the original with phrase matches instead. You get a strikingly similar chart.
http://www.google.com/trends?q=%22guild+wars%22%2C+%22world+of+warcraft% 22%2C+%22warhammer+online%22%2C+%22age+of+conan%22 &ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

Abedeus

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Jan 2007

Niflheim

R/

11 Feb 2009 at 15:53 - 35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Faer

A list comparing Guild Wars to a bunch of bad / basically dead games and topped off with World of Warcraft.

Gee willakers. I wonder why the search results are they way they are?

Yes, because those 300k people Warhammer Online has after WotLK's release is such a low number.

I don't think there are so many people playing Guild Wars right now. And I know a lot of games that would want those 300k. Cough AoC cough.

street peddler

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Apr 2007

11 Feb 2009 at 16:30 - 36

lol, age of conan.

Ctb

Desert Nomad

Join Date: Apr 2006

W/

11 Feb 2009 at 17:36 - 37

Quote:

I think these Google results, apart from showing how strong the GW IP is, also demonstrates that Guild Wars has a huge player base beyond those posting on the fan site forums or the wiki.

That's quite an assertion to make based on a single statistic with no context and an obscured methodology.

Quote:

Social research shows...

{citation needed}

CE Devilman

Wilds Pathfinder

Join Date: Jul 2006

hell

Do U Trust Anet

N/Mo

11 Feb 2009 at 17:50 - 38

lets see....

1 stack of zkeys
2 stack of zkeys
3 stack of zkeys

and a lot of acc....

how many players do U see..!

Abedeus

Grotto Attendant

Join Date: Jan 2007

Niflheim

R/

11 Feb 2009 at 18:10 - 39

Funny fact - according to Google Trends, Ragnarok Online, a 5 year old game that is popular mostly in Asia is as often looked for on Google as WAR and AoC combined together. It has a 0.4 rating, while those two games have 0.2 each.

ragnagard

Lion's Arch Merchant

Join Date: Jul 2007

In Spain, of course

Gamer Espa??ol[GE]

N/Mo

11 Feb 2009 at 18:27 - 40

Dont get dissapointed but I'm sure that a lot of them are just my "guild wars XXXX wiki" just looking for something i dunno how to type correctly (wiki doesnt has "you wanted to say:" feature), as Jokanur, Tannakai temple, and that kind of things, you know xDDD.

Ok ok just kidding :P. Bit happy of that kind of results