The people that left for good. Will they come back?

[baelrusk]

It really depends on if the key points they bought it for ever get fixed.
Think of it like this.......the PVP part was a major selling point and there are many people who bought it mostly (if not just) for that. But the PVP mechanics and options in this game are broken.
And there are plenty of other games (many free) that have good PVP remarks. While they won't be better than what was supposed to be in defiance........they would be better than what is currently in defiance. They'll get adjusted to whatever game they go to......and then there would have to be very significant reason to come back (drastic improvement).

Personally from what I've seen so far........if they just stick around things will never get fixed.

[MacDeath]

How that announcement couldn't scare people more than a tad, I've not a clue.

First, 1 million box sales, if that was what we were talking about here (we're not, but more on that in a moment) in a month really wouldn't be that impressive for a heavily advertised multi-platform AAA game. It wouldn't be terrible, of course, but hardly impressive in a world were GW2 (also b2P, not multi-platform, and not nearly as advertised) claimed 2 million box sales in two weeks (granted, given pre-sales and wording they gamed that more than a tad, but still...).

Second, if they had sold 1 million boxes, they would have said so. They didn't, they said 'registrations'. One does not have to have bought the game to register. One doesn't have to have played the game to register. Hell, one doesn't even have to have had much interest in the game to register. People, likely a whole lot of people, registered to enter the codes and then, for various reasons, never bought the game. Others registered to ask pre-sale questions (there's been numerous such threads) or just troll the boards.

The relationship between "registrations" and actual sales is tenuous at best. Trion clearly wants people to assume that registrations = boxes sold -- and it's telling that they pulled this exact same stunt with Rift -- but that's clearly not the case.

If they'd made 1 million sales, they would have bragged about that instead of "registrations". That fact that they can't even brag about having sold a million boxes, something that wouldn't even be particularly impressive under the circumstances, should be very worrisome to anyone concerned about the long term health of this game.

Counting "boxes sold" would, IMO, be dumb. I have an active Trion account. I play every day but I never bought a 'box'. I used Digital download just as most PC players would. I bought the game, but not a box.

[Blackwolfe]

The people who left for good will never come back. If people do come back, they never left for good

[Rasczak]

We got refunds from Amazon (which shocked the hell out of me) for the game this past week. Now, keep in mind, I thought Defiance was fun. However, part of a commitment to an MMO, for me, is having confidence in the Dev team. I lost all that confidence during the first month: another first for me in an MMO. Due to that, I didn't feel the $60 MSRP was well spent.

However, the wife and I continue to play Rift, and brought the four other members of our little Defiance circle over to there. So, Trion continues to make money off of us, just not through this team.

All that said, I have no doubt I will be back. I was only EGO 611 or so, so there's no loss in starting over. However, it will only be when (a) the Defiance team gets on the ball and proves they can handle this game properly, and (b) after that point is reached, then when the game inevitably, at least for PC, drops to $30 or so.

In the meantime, I will most definitely be keeping my eye on the game.

[Miserere]

The people who left for good will never come back. If people do come back, they never left for good

Words of wisdom right here. ;D

[Kreegan]

Going all the way back to UO, once I leave a game, I uninstall it. I don't go back.

I've played UO, EQ, EQ2, WoW, AC2, L2, DAoC, LotRO, DDO, AoC, Fallen Earth, CoV, GW, GW2, TSW, WH, Vanguard, Star Trek On-Line, Rift and others whose names (and initials) I don't even remember. I usually played them until their shortcomings and bugs became intolerable, or - in the case of LotRO and a couple others - until the changes that were made to the original game destroyed every reason to continue playing it.

In a few cases (like WoW and Rift), I reached end-game and had nothing left to do; I don't raid (I detest raiding), so end-game is end-of-game for me. In several cases, I would have been happy to stay with the game for the long term, but developer stupidity drove me away.

That's not to say I haven't gone back and looked at the games, considering going back. My son is also a gamer and he goes back to a lot of them, so I can check them out as they evolve. Invariably, I'm found that the games don't get better; they get worse. Too often, changes that are made (LotRO is the perfect example) are not intended to fix bugs and problems with game mechanics or to correct game shortcomings; changes are made to bring in new customers. That's understandable in that the game companies are businesses and they need to make a profit, but if it chases away paying customers, it's also stupid... (for instance, LotRO could have had "legacy" servers to go along with their F2P servers).

In my experience, the games get worse because they lose focus on their original design focus. They end up as half-assed kluges of the original design and the new "market-oriented-design" (again see LotRO).

So, expecting the games to get worse, not better, I don't go back.

That's just me, of course, but I suspect a lot of people give up on a game for similar reasons and never go back after they leave. Those of us who have been gaming for a long time have learned to lower our expectations to avoid disappointment, so we don't expect games to improve. So, why go back?

You've got one chance to impress a customer. Granted, many MMO-players are youngsters and lemmings, but they are always the ones who don't even consider sticking with a game at all. I can see companies targeting them for initial box sales. But, a lot of us nowadays are older gamers; we're the ones who should be targeted for retention... but we aren't.

[Jeff Kaos]

Counting "boxes sold" would, IMO, be dumb. I have an active Trion account. I play every day but I never bought a 'box'. I used Digital download just as most PC players would. I bought the game, but not a box.

Really? Look, you can argue semantics all day long but if this game sold a million copies, whether boxed, digital or even on a floppy disc, Trion would say "1 million sales" instead of "1 million registered users".

[Elric1]

It's heading towards summer I hope people taking time away for others reason then bordom of a game like.. having a life in the real world? other than that I am sure a surge of folks will come back with the first DLC but with the current issues that might take awhile yet...

[Rasczak]

Counting "boxes sold" would, IMO, be dumb. I have an active Trion account. I play every day but I never bought a 'box'. I used Digital download just as most PC players would. I bought the game, but not a box.

Okay, that's splitting hairs. They would not have announced box sales anyway, but sales, units sold, game copies sold, et cetera.

For example: https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/c...-months-ahead/

Now, let's go back in time to 2010 to another company that, instead, boasted 1 million registered accounts: http://massively.joystiq.com/2010/02...lion-accounts/

And the same type of press release from Trion two years go: http://massively.joystiq.com/2011/02...ered-accounts/

Yet (and I love Rift, I truly do), Rift consolidated servers, and the game dropped from its original $50 box price to a much lower MSRP within the first quarter. I was seeing it at Gamestop, Amazon, and WalMart for $10, and remember cringing. With the free month included, they were practically giving it away barely 3 months after launch.

I really do hope Defiance makes it for Trion. I'd hate to consider a financial failure rippling over to Rift. But there is a difference between 1 million sales and 1 million registered accounts.

[HellOnOrion]

Do you think the people that left game will come back? Are you someone who left? If so what would it take for you to come back, what would you have to hear? I'm starting to feel a little lonely, its not nearly as busy out there as when the game first came out. The funny thing is game stop says they hardly returns on it. Maybe people are still giving it a shot.

Normally I would of blown through a game like this in a week. I'm really happy I paced it. Mainly because I still have all side missions, half the story and all the races and hotshot stuff to do. I'm taking it slow. I usually just do contracts. Even with what little I've done I'm sitting at 800+ego. Another thing is I run everywhere. My runner is level 4 and the other vehicles I haven't even touched. The thing is I've had a blast.

wait till after 1k ego when you stop getting perk slots until every 1k ego, and stop getting anything of any use... im sure you will not feel the same in another week or 2