The newly released MMORPG Crowfall has received a new update. This means that player counts can no longer be retrieved. The sense and nonsense of this action is being debated in the community.
What happened in Crowfall? Recently, a small patch came to Crowfall that did not change much other than preventing certain bots from retrieving player counts. Previously, retrieving player counts was possible without any issues, including with a Discord bot named Malekai.
The bot previously delivered cheerful values about each realm of Crowfall, and players could see how well attended each server was. Now it only states that there are zero players in Crowfall, as the data for the bot is missing.
Should MMORPGs even state official player counts?
The timing was unfortunate: The blocking of the bot comes at an unfortunate time because Crowfall is in a crisis. After a long development period, the game had a rather subdued launch and initial player evaluations – through the mentioned bots – suggested that not even 5 percent of the original backers from the crowdfunding campaign were still around at release. However, this was denied by the game’s lead.
But now it is no longer possible for players to read the actual player counts, which, while not possible in almost all MMORPGs, is particularly hotly debated in Crowfall.
How do players view the development? Some users say that in a PvP-focused buy-to-play game like Crowfall, one would like to know beforehand whether there are enough players on the respective realms.
The population count is very important in a PvP game like this. Albion occasionally publishes its player counts. But it is even more important for Crowfall because you can’t even get into the game without paying. Imagine you pay 40 dollars for a PvP game, and when you log in, there is no one to PvP with. Besides, I would say it’s remarkable that the game was apparently released with the feature [readable player counts] and then removed it.
User Jokumul via reddit
Other users argue that specific user counts are not a good idea and that it would be wise to obscure them:
As much as I like to use these numbers as a benchmark, I can only agree [that stating player counts is not a good idea]. It makes business sense not to disclose such numbers because nothing good will come of it. Players will just draw their own conclusions and spread fear, uncertainty, doubt, and hysteria accordingly.
User need-help-guys via reddit
What is Crowfall and how is the game doing? Crowfall is a western MMORPG with a PvP focus. You play in a campaign where you fight your way to the top of the leaderboard. But eventually, it ends and the undead consume everything. Then you can start a new campaign. There are also permanent achievements that you can immortalize in a so-called eternal kingdom.
Due to the long development time after a crowdfunding campaign, interest in the game has since waned a bit and player counts are only slowly rising again. However, how much the game will recover will likely not be easily known anymore due to the lack of support for the player count bot. How the mood after the launch of Crowfall is, you can find out here.
