1,098 players online as of 11:22 CST.

[dajinn]

Things are looking good.

[Brutal]

Their going to get better after December :p

[jedimaniac]

That doesn't really fill me full of confidence. I mean how many copies have been sold if only 1098 players are online. Granted there are different timezones and all but surely that figure should be a lot more healthy.

Then again for a lot of people the game doesn't even work. Myself included. Hopefully if the game is fixed in the future it will start to multiply.

[seaman]

well over 250,000 people played the demo as far as I know.. maybe more

[DefJam101]

That doesn't really fill me full of confidence. I mean how many copies have been sold if only 1098 players are online. Granted there are different timezones and all but surely that figure should be a lot more healthy.

Then again for a lot of people the game doesn't even work. Myself included. Hopefully if the game is fixed in the future it will start to multiply.

You have to realize:

1. Just because it shipped doesn't mean every single game-store has received it. I'd say 50% of stores still don't have it in stock as of now.

2. A massively large amount of people ordered it online, and are still waiting for it to arrive.

3. Many people are probably planning on receiving it for Xmas (for free..), rather than buying a month earlier for 50 bucks.

4. The general trend is to play Single-Player THEN hit multi-player. I don't do this myself, I've been alternating between the two. It will probably take 2 weeks or so until people stop hitting the Instant Action/Campaign buttons and wonder what that shiny "MultiPlayer" button does.


Don't worry about it.

[Nacher]

The peak player numbers were around 600 on thursday. Now they are around 1200. European release (which was almost a fiasko as most shops didn't get the game in time) is already increasing playercounts.

[-Vicious-]

Personally i think its rather a small number of people considering how many copies were sold already and how many people were playing the demo, probably because the game doesnt work for ALOT of people, myself included.

But i have my fingers crossed in hopes that the epic team will fix the number of isssues with the game

[dethmanrulz]

UT2004 had at least 3 times that number within the first 2 days...

I wonder if UT3 will ever have that/

[martinblank]

UT2004 had at least 3 times that number within the first 2 days...

I wonder if UT3 will ever have that/

UT3 has a lot more heavy competition that UT99 or even UT2004 ever had, you have to keep that in mind.

[dethmanrulz]

UT3 has a lot more heavy competition that UT99 or even UT2004 ever had, you have to keep that in mind.



yes, that's a good point... I just wonder if all that competition will effect the longevity of the game... hopefully not.

[Arrowhead]

I think I was one of those 1,098. :)

Been playing all morning and I am really enjoying it.

[Moloko]

A spectator mode would help(huge oversight), then people won't feel like they're jumping into the fire , whilst finding their feet in the new gametypes.

[[YS]Alienz]

I have it and tried it online but still wanna finish the campaign first...which is taking me a while since I seem to get stuck on some maps multiple times...
Its on hard...

I beleive a lotta ppl are playing campaign still since I see em on xfire on UT3 but with no server, meaning they're on the single player.

[UT3sysop]

well over 250,000 people played the demo as far as I know.. maybe more

and ya.... how many people have bought the release version and are playing? something to think a bought? hope to see more users playing thats for sure :D

[TPSFan]

Funny how the Mods closed a thread that was civil and no one was flaming each other that was about the exact same thing (lack of players; smaller play number).

I will say what I said on that thread here... And if Epic doesn't like it, tough.

The reality is UT3's game play seems very outdated because it is not very team-oriented at its core. It's old school DM and TDM. Sure, CTF and War are team-based, but they basically become roving DM/TDM with vehicles more or less.

Team play (cooperative) is why the military shooters like COD4 and others are so popular and why FPS gamers have been slowly moving toward slower paced, realism games with objectives (realism being a relative term since COD, BF2 and others are still arcade).

In UT/Quake-style games you can die on your own, but you never really have to work as a team if you don't want to. You can just rack up a body count and still (by default) help your team win even if you aren't trying.

Also, a lot of mature (older than 25) players are being turned off by the pre-teen crowd who seem to populate a lot of the public servers. As someone who is in this age group (33) I completely understand why: No one wants to come home from an eight-to-ten hour shift to relax and just be yelled at by some whiny 13-year old who just learned how to curse and takes video games way too seriously. I and others just do not want to deal with that when we go online. And that is a reality I don't think gamers want to admit exist... Even if it is not the majority it is a significant amount in public servers and it drives older, more mature gamers who have the hardware and disposable income to buy UT3 away.

[NotAgOat]

If you look at steam statistics you will see that the peak player count is at 5:30-6:00PM PT. I would check then. Also, at 12:00AM PT there are currently 12,000 people playing TF2. UT3 has a ways to go yet.

[Ultron]

I respectfully disagree about the teamgames in UT3. I do think that we have a big focus on pure DM in our DM gametypes (DM/TDM/Duel) that many games don't really focus on. But we have classic CTF and vehicle CTF and those aren't just DM with flags. WAR is more sophisticated and requires even more teamwork.

I remember one clanmatch my clan (the Legion of Doom) had with another clan, and we were, quite frankly, whipping their butts. We must have fragged them twice for every one of their kills.

The problem was, they kept getting more flag caps than us. To put it mildly, they stomped us where it counted. And they won both matches. I can't find the screenshots, but it was a great ladder match. :)

[U-Turn]

I can confident that the game will slowly pick up to a large, dedicated community. Just a lot of other games atm and the holidays.

[CameO73]

A spectator mode would help(huge oversight), then people won't feel like they're jumping into the fire , whilst finding their feet in the new gametypes.
Well, then I've got some good news for you: it's in the beta patch (at least, I have that option after installing the beta patch)!

[Nacher]

1246 players! We're soon past the magic number of 1250 :).

[johnnykong]

Let's not forget also that there are a lot of people (thieves) trying to download the game as a torrent and hoping to crack it instead of buying it.

The torrent scene has exploded since UT2004 and a lot of people are trying to get something for free. So either they will give up and buy the game OR some group will crack it, eventually the community will grow either way.

[damnu2]

when it crashes less often, there will be more too...

[Sharpfish]

The thing with comparing it to TF2 or even counterstrike and most other games, is that they all come packaged with some proper singleplayer game. In TF2 (while it doesn't have to) it can come via the orange box which a LOT of people bought for the singleplayer stuff. When they package a good MP game/mode with a very well received singleplayer game then people will naturally turn to that MP stuff once the singplayer is finished. that's on top of the people who mainly bought it for the multiplayer/bot modes.

In UT3's case, while there is certainly a lot of people who buy it to play offline it doesn't really pull in 'new' users via a stunning single player 'story' FPS like HL2 or what have you.

I'm suggesting that back in UT99 days, there was way less competition from big name games (especially online inc consoles now) and now a lot more people expect/want a good/full singleplayer game with multiplayer too whereas UT is really about the core multiplayer gameplay (even with bots/offline).

To pull masses of people back into the DM/CTF way of playing, people simply have to buy the game, new players won't buy unless they already like that sort of thing in other games so a very strong single player game could ensnare them and the numbers of online players would rise.

I'm sure counterstrike would never have been as popular without Half Life being so highly rated and as essential a single player game to buy as it was, basically everyone who bought HL or HL2 are 'free' to try the multiplayer sides without paying just for the multiplayer (A risk if you don't know the series)... UT only has it's multiplayer to lure people in and as such it sells to people who already know they like it rather than expand to new people. I'm not saying it doesn't sell by the bucket load but I for one would never have even known how cool Unreal online play could be if it wasn't for the original SINGLE PLAYER Unreal (98) with it's tacked on (and yes, sub par compared to UT) multiplayer. Also playing through the chapters in the single player game in co-op mode = :) :) and a proper single player game could do that again. Unreal 2 wasn't really that game because it wasn't Epic's baby nor main focus. I would like to see them put as much effort into a NEW unreal (not tournament) as they do into Gears Of War currently, I really loved gears of war (360 version) but the 'universe' of Unreal is infintely more fascinating and colourful.

imo. :)

Anyway, my post is a thinly veiled plea for a new UNREAL (with multiplayer/co-op) like Unreal 1 but with revolutionary tech (Future Unreal Engine 4) and good gameplay (not unreal 2).

As for the actual low numbers atm, of course all the posts in the thread so far are correct, many reasons and a lot of people will pick it up after the first patch and for Christmas so the numbers should rise after DEC 25th. There is a certain 'cap' on the upper limit of players though as they are buying mainly into a franchise they already know (already UT players from one of the games) with only a small number coming in fresh (Certainly compared to the big numbers who buy something like HL2 based on it's single player and then find multiplayer that way). Combining both would be good for overall player numbers so though unreal 2 was somewhat poorly received I think a sequel that did the original game justice, ten years after it was released (next year) would be the best shot at reinvigorating the unreal universe.

Hopefully Epic are already thinking much the same.

[massakre]

I would also like to say that some of my local stores don't even have the game in stores yet....

[Hickeroar]

I've been to 5 or 6 stores that had 5+ copies on the shelf.

The player count as of this posting was less than what was online friday afternoon. I looked at one point on friday and there were 1151 people.

Honestly I'm kinda disappointed. The numbers are taking a very long time to go up. It's been hovering between 500 and 1000 since it launched.

[TPSFan]

Just for the record... My previous post wasn't slamming UT3, or the community. I am a long time Unreal fan (from the original) and have been with the series up until now.

Like Sharpfish said, I think there are a number of reasons why the game isn't just teeming with players right now. It's getting there... And I am glad... But we're discussing why in relation to a lot of different factors that have changed and come into play since the original UT and even three years ago with UT2K4.

It's interesting how MP has become the new defacto standard for PC games and video games (on all platforms) in general. It is the new "standard" a lot of people arbitrarily judge how good, or not a game is. I think this is unfair because there are some really good SP-only games still being made (RPGs; FPS; RTS; etc).

Don't get me wrong. I understand the attraction of MP. The unpredictability of playing against live opponents. That's why we all play it. But again, to me, this has unfairly become the key factor a lot of gamers judge a game by when either they shouldn't, or the sole reason they give a game a bad score when it doesn't deserve it a lot of times.

This relates back to what Sharpfish said because the majority of gamers... And especially, chronologically older games like myself... By games mostly for the SP. I think he(?) is dead on in saying a strong SP component to attract new and old players to the series is one of the key factors in building the MP community attached to the SP game.

[Cas3y]

According to game-monitor, a total of 10,126 unique players have played online. Currently, there are 574 players online.
http://www.game-monitor.com/search.php?game=ut3

At the moment, there are 1089 people playing UT04, with a total of 22,851 unique players recorded.
http://www.game-monitor.com/search.php?game=ut2004

Call of duty 4: 14,822 / 160,854

[prank`]

if stores in my area would get the game i would join you guys

"sorry havent received it yet"

alright

[Sharpfish]

This relates back to what Sharpfish said because the majority of gamers... And especially, chronologically older games like myself... By games mostly for the SP. I think he(?) is dead on in saying a strong SP component to attract new and old players to the series is one of the key factors in building the MP community attached to the SP game.

Yes i'm 33 year old male nerdy type. :)

Yeah, if people are currently outside the UT loop and in a year or two they read of a really good single player game getting 95% ratings and a 'must play' they are more likely to sample it than if it's multiplayer only and they previously have had no experience with the series, it feels more daunting and less of an impulsive/exciting purchase. Resorting back to the Unreal ethic (a proper single player game with the multiplayer added) would be a clearer, more obvious and rewarding step to take next than just trying to rejig what is already basically 'perfect' (whichever flavour you like UT99,2k4 or UT3) it needs more than that next time and adding modes and vehicles isn't really it (2k4), stripping down to basics (which I prefer, still isn't really it to be widly popular). No it needs that jaw dropping, word of mouth single player experience to bring in a vast market of newbs who come for the single player and stay for the multiplayer. Epic already have the multiplayer down (the level of meta detail we all get into about different pros and cons of the UT series shows that there's not much left to do here, it's all minor details) so they could take their 'almost perfect' multiplayer and add it as an extra to the singleplayer. Games sold in total goes through the roof (if the singleplayer is good) and overall there are just many more people hanging around servers trying the multiplayer out instead of going off and buying a highly rated WW2 shooter and giving that game all their online time.

[Kronos]

UT2004 had at least 3 times that number within the first 2 days...

I wonder if UT3 will ever have that/

UT2k4 had UT2k3 over its shoulders.

[falldarkraven]

would have alot more players if epic fix there ****ty connection failed bug

[Mar'ith]

Well, I've bought UT3 (Collectors Edition) and I haven't been online yet. Still playing round with the maps offline (with bots), playing the campaign, watching the editor tutorial videos, and experimenting with the new UnrealEd.

And I love UT3 :)

I would say it's early days yet to make any conclusions about it's success. So just chill and enjoy the game :cool:.

[Sourpuss]

That doesn't really fill me full of confidence. I mean how many copies have been sold if only 1098 players are online. Granted there are different timezones and all but surely that figure should be a lot more healthy.

Then again for a lot of people the game doesn't even work. Myself included. Hopefully if the game is fixed in the future it will start to multiply.

For a lot of people, the game isn't even on the shelves of most stores and people can't play the game if they can't buy it. I bought my copy at Best Buy, but I didn't see any at my local Super Walmart or Meijer (Midwest area superstore).

[Trabdood]

A lot of people are waiting for the holidays to get this game, or the stores near them havent recieved it yet, OR they're upgrading their PC's first.
Theres millions of reasons just calm down and wait we should see alot soon.

[coldplasmid]

Usually when I buy a new game, I would see 10-20 servers with players on. I am currently only seeing a few with decent ping with any players on at all. I have yet to see a full server (no, I haven't filtered them out).

I don't care how many players haven't bought the game yet, there should be A LOT more than 1000 online. CoD4 already has 20k +.

[chu::LOB::]

The thing with comparing it to TF2 or even counterstrike and most other games, is that they all come packaged with some proper singleplayer game. In TF2 (while it doesn't have to) it can come via the orange box which a LOT of people bought for the singleplayer stuff. When they package a good MP game/mode with a very well received singleplayer game then people will naturally turn to that MP stuff once the singplayer is finished. that's on top of the people who mainly bought it for the multiplayer/bot modes.

In UT3's case, while there is certainly a lot of people who buy it to play offline it doesn't really pull in 'new' users via a stunning single player 'story' FPS like HL2 or what have you.

I'm suggesting that back in UT99 days, there was way less competition from big name games (especially online inc consoles now) and now a lot more people expect/want a good/full singleplayer game with multiplayer too whereas UT is really about the core multiplayer gameplay (even with bots/offline).

To pull masses of people back into the DM/CTF way of playing, people simply have to buy the game, new players won't buy unless they already like that sort of thing in other games so a very strong single player game could ensnare them and the numbers of online players would rise.

I'm sure counterstrike would never have been as popular without Half Life being so highly rated and as essential a single player game to buy as it was, basically everyone who bought HL or HL2 are 'free' to try the multiplayer sides without paying just for the multiplayer (A risk if you don't know the series)... UT only has it's multiplayer to lure people in and as such it sells to people who already know they like it rather than expand to new people. I'm not saying it doesn't sell by the bucket load but I for one would never have even known how cool Unreal online play could be if it wasn't for the original SINGLE PLAYER Unreal (98) with it's tacked on (and yes, sub par compared to UT) multiplayer. Also playing through the chapters in the single player game in co-op mode = :) :) and a proper single player game could do that again. Unreal 2 wasn't really that game because it wasn't Epic's baby nor main focus. I would like to see them put as much effort into a NEW unreal (not tournament) as they do into Gears Of War currently, I really loved gears of war (360 version) but the 'universe' of Unreal is infintely more fascinating and colourful.

imo. :)

Anyway, my post is a thinly veiled plea for a new UNREAL (with multiplayer/co-op) like Unreal 1 but with revolutionary tech (Future Unreal Engine 4) and good gameplay (not unreal 2).

As for the actual low numbers atm, of course all the posts in the thread so far are correct, many reasons and a lot of people will pick it up after the first patch and for Christmas so the numbers should rise after DEC 25th. There is a certain 'cap' on the upper limit of players though as they are buying mainly into a franchise they already know (already UT players from one of the games) with only a small number coming in fresh (Certainly compared to the big numbers who buy something like HL2 based on it's single player and then find multiplayer that way). Combining both would be good for overall player numbers so though unreal 2 was somewhat poorly received I think a sequel that did the original game justice, ten years after it was released (next year) would be the best shot at reinvigorating the unreal universe.

Hopefully Epic are already thinking much the same.

Post wins thread. Really good insight.

[cel4145]

For a lot of people, the game isn't even on the shelves of most stores and people can't play the game if they can't buy it. I bought my copy at Best Buy, but I didn't see any at my local Super Walmart or Meijer (Midwest area superstore).

I was at Target yesterday, and they had already sold out. Given that there wasn't much marketing for this game, stores probably didn't order too many copies. Other chains, such as Walmart and Meijer, may not even have ordered it. Now that some of them are selling out, probably see more copies in stock in the ones that are selling it and some other stores picking it up.

[msny]

Things are looking good.

I think they are also. The news about the beta patch was a good "leak". Epic is sending us a message that they are working on things. They have a very good reputation for fixes. Back in the initial release of UT99 the netcode was very bad, almost unplayable. They stepped up to the plate and fixed it. I've been playing FPS PC games for 15 years and
between the quake and unreal series we have some outstanding games.

My only issue is an occasional hitching problem now. May need a patch or even a driver update. I'm patient for it and can wait. I've seen this in other games.

Now I see that the console version is ready for release. That is good news, because they can focus on updates for all platforms now.

The big question is will the community embrace it?

I think they will eventually. Caution and a wait and see attitude is fine.

Till then, I'm going to enjoy it and the cool user mods that are coming.

[msny]

The peak player numbers were around 600 on thursday. Now they are around 1200. European release (which was almost a fiasko as most shops didn't get the game in time) is already increasing playercounts.

Linkage to website that shows the numbers please?

[Deific]

When they fix the server connection issues the numbers will increase.

[H.M.Roman]

Linkage to website that shows the numbers please?


Here ya go: http://archive.gamespy.com/stats/

607 servers, 1195 players Online right now :) ( UT3)

1920 servers, 2629 players Online right now ( UT )

1816 servers, 6057 players Online right now ( UT2004 )

[chu::LOB::]

Here ya go: http://archive.gamespy.com/stats/

607 servers, 1195 players Online right now :) ( UT3)

1920 servers, 2629 players Online right now ( UT )

1816 servers, 6057 players Online right now ( UT2004 )

While i am pretty sure gamespy's UT3 numbers are accurate you need to take a closer look at gamespy player counts before just posting them here:

The "2629 UT players" is comprised mostly of Tactical Ops players (usually more than 50% of the number displayed) - and that mod is hardly UT99.

and the "6057 UT2004 players" include BOTS, which outnumber REAL ONLINE players roughly 8-1. All of those 16 or 32 player servers that appear full but only have 1-2 real players (playing with 14-30 bots) count as 16 or 32 towards that "big" number.

[BuzWeaver]

I wish I could have picked up the game at launch, but I'll probably get it this Friday.

[kaluro]

The peak player numbers were around 600 on thursday. Now they are around 1200. European release (which was almost a fiasko as most shops didn't get the game in time) is already increasing playercounts.

Where did you get those trivial statements from? Source?
I live in this tiny town in the netherlands that barely anyone knows and the shops over here rarely get games in time but they sure as hell got UT3 in time. the 23rd.

Could you please reveal your source?

[Nacher]

My source being that most of my finnish and other non-german european friends had huge problems finding the game on friday. All the major retailers in Finland said that they can't get the game before next tuesday. Some smaller shops had imported or by some other channels got some copies. The Netherlands might have gotten the game in time, possibly because you are next to Germany which had an early release.

[thanos1212]

You have to realize:

1. Just because it shipped doesn't mean every single game-store has received it. I'd say 50% of stores still don't have it in stock as of now.

2. A massively large amount of people ordered it online, and are still waiting for it to arrive.

3. Many people are probably planning on receiving it for Xmas (for free..), rather than buying a month earlier for 50 bucks.

4. The general trend is to play Single-Player THEN hit multi-player. I don't do this myself, I've been alternating between the two. It will probably take 2 weeks or so until people stop hitting the Instant Action/Campaign buttons and wonder what that shiny "MultiPlayer" button does.


Don't worry about it.

1: The same with cod4 and even crysis "yet those have a ton more playing online atm"
2: Never heard of 7day shipping even for the usps..Even with turkey day

3:Same could be said for cod4 crysis everyother game..Yet they have a ton more people playing it

4:READ number 3

Im worried!!!!

[Nacher]

Here ya go: http://archive.gamespy.com/stats/

607 servers, 1195 players Online right now :) ( UT3)

1920 servers, 2629 players Online right now ( UT )

1816 servers, 6057 players Online right now ( UT2004 )

Yes, these numbers really need a validity check. Considering that it's hard to find even ONE populated european server for anything else than Onslaught/TAM/instagib in UT2k4, it's hardly realistic to assume that it has 6000 online players, which is about as much as hugely popular Team Fortress 2 has. The real UT2k4 playercounts are probably beetween 200 and 500. All the rest are bots. UT99 counts bots as players as well, and as been said, over half of the UT players are playing Tactical Ops.

The bots showing as players in UT2k4 is also the reason why you can't compare ut2k4 early days playercounts with UT3.

[Nacher]

1: The same with cod4 and even crysis "yet those have a ton more playing online atm"
2: Never heard of 7day shipping even for the usps..Even with turkey day

3:Same could be said for cod4 crysis everyother game..Yet they have a ton more people playing it

4:READ number 3

Im worried!!!!

Crysis has been out longer than UT3. Same goes for CoD4. UT3 will surely surpass Crysis online numbers rather soon. However, it will never reach the numbers of CoD4. That game is just far too popular.

[Noobnugget]

heh. 926 players. What a laughable number. Even without bots i'd bet ut2004 has more players.

[sambo.]

Funny how the Mods closed a thread that was civil and no one was flaming each other that was about the exact same thing (lack of players; smaller play number).
yar, i thought that was kinda strange too.


Also, a lot of mature (older than 25) players are being turned off by the pre-teen crowd who seem to populate a lot of the public servers. As someone who is in this age group (33) I completely understand why: No one wants to come home from an eight-to-ten hour shift to relax and just be yelled at by some whiny 13-year old who just learned how to curse and takes video games way too seriously. I and others just do not want to deal with that when we go online. And that is a reality I don't think gamers want to admit exist... Even if it is not the majority it is a significant amount in public servers and it drives older, more mature gamers who have the hardware and disposable income to buy UT3 away.
word. i'll repeat what i said in the other thread too: if i could, i'd run a server with a minimum sign-on age of 25.
- - - -
some other thoughts:

1: UT3 hasn't been released everywhere yet. for example, i'm in Australia and i can't buy it yet.

2: there is only the Windows version available. a lot of Mac/Linux users are hanging for the Mac/Linux ports to get released. the UT series is VERY popular amongst Mac gamers (hands-down the best FPS available on the Mac platform). many Linux server owners are unable to offer it on their servers until the port arrives anyways.

3: system specs are rather high, some peeps will need to upgrade before being able to play it.

4: christmas is just around the corner.

5: many peeps would like to finish the SP campaign prior to playing online (i'm one of these)

6: some people (quite possibly a LOT of people who hated the UI in the beta) are waiting for the first patch before buying it.

etc, etc. give it some time, if there is still only ~1500 people playing it in a couple of months, THEN there be something to worry about.

[ScuzzBuster]

Way too worried about this guys. The community will be what the community will be. It's a high tech game that takes a helluva rig to run. It's been out a few days with NO advertising other than mag ads. It's received virtually NO serious TV airtime on G4 or others since way back when it was still UT2007. This game may NEVER surpass more than a couple of thousand players online, which would still be a healthy core community.

And I'm sorry, but UT2004 has counted bots from day one and the numbers have always been HUGELY inflated because of it. It was also hyped to hell and DID NOT HAVE a PS3 and XBOX 360 port impending hanging over it's head when it was released. UT3 is fun. I think the community has spoken in hordes with the vast majority of UT99 and faithfuls loving it and most of the 2k4 community accepting or loving it. The game is good, it's solid. When the PS3 ads start hitting the advertising wave will hit (if there is one planned). Whatever peak player counts are by mid January (or ealier) is what they will always be probably. Play, Have Fun, the game is great! There is a core community already and there will be online games available to be found with no problems for a LONG LONG time yet.

[headfog]

FWIW: our entire clan is not playing the game until we get a Linux server up and running. Then we will be modding it for our game play. Until then, we stay on UT2004.

[armagon917]

Sorry it doesn't suprise me and I think this game will not take off. A lot of die hard UT players are not happy with this game, (myself included) and the general response I get is that its buggy, the UI issues, and people not happy with the gameplay.

If the game has problems from the beginning casual player will write it off as a bad game and with all the competition out there EPIC should've made a good first impression. That means Malcom as a playable character a new UI and many more features and polish should've been added to the game. So with competition out there so fierce people are moving on to better games. At least the people I've talked to and myself. Now I played UT99 and UT2004 for a very long time. IMO this is the worst UT released gameplay wise. Some of you are wondering why the low numbers and I 'm just speaking what I have come across and believe.

I am happy you guys like the game, and don't want to turn this into an argument or am I trying to be argumentative. I mean Eff Yeah!! ??? Its just a vibe a lot of players are getting that UT is trying to cater to a new audience and sacrificing features. Thats how I feel and why I am not online playing. You can argue with me or call me stupid but it doesn't negate the fact this is how a lot of people feel. Have fun with the game guys! This is just my opinion, and take it just as that. With respect

-Armagon

[Arrowhead]

It's funny, because everyone in the servers actually playing, seem to be having a great time. I never hear anyone complain there...

You need to stop thinking about what this game should have been and just play it for what it is. It's still a lot of fun.

[Drac°l¡ch]

Just to add my 2 cents: Many people haven't even gotten the game yet. A friend of mine was gonna get it today but it was sold out at Gamestop so...It's apparently hard to get off shelves in my area. East Coast btw.

[freakzilla]

It's funny, because everyone in the servers actually playing, seem to be having a great time. I never hear anyone complain there...

You need to stop thinking about what this game should have been and just play it for what it is. It's still a lot of fun.

That's because quite a few simply don't care and exactly those stay off the servers...
When 2k4 came out i played it a lot of hours every day. For UT3 i've played like 1 map each day, quite simply i can do better stuff with my time and i don't care much about this game :/ Personally i'm waiting more for some mutators/mods perhaps?

[Shawn14316]

That's because quite a few simply don't care


Or maybe they just enjoy the game....

[Droniac]

I'm loving the game, in spite of it's various flaws... but the playercount ruins the experience a bit. This morning there were barely 12 populated servers for all gamemodes combined, everything else was empty. That said: the same was true for UT'99 and UT2004 at launch... and in the evenings the playercount has definitely been rising (or at least the populated server count) and there's always a good game to be found somewhere.

I expect things will get a lot better in the coming weeks, as more people get their hands on the game, finish the singleplayer 'campaign' (as I did yesterday), maybe get a PC upgrade (a friend of mine just got his 8800GT), receive the game for Christmas and patches start being released. UT'99 didn't exactly hit thousands of consecutive players overnight either, but it steadily grew to be one of the most popular online shooters of it's time... and retained a huge fanbase for nearly a decade (most of which is switching over to UT3). UT2003 and UT2004 never managed anything of the sort, but UT3 seems like it just might...


Oh and freakzilla:

You played UT2004 for hours every day after it was released... I could hardly bring myself to play one map per day. You barely play UT3, I played it all afternoon and evening yesterday - and will get right back at it once I get home. Just because you don't like it doesn't mean everyone else doesn't. Every UT fan I know (people who played the original UT mostly) loves the gameplay and vastly prefers it over UT2004. Unfortunately some of them don't just yet have the PCs to run the game comfortably, or will be getting it for Christmas, so they can't play just yet.

[Nacher]

Seeing how UT3 plummets in online players at hours like this when americans are asleep is quite a proof that european players don't have the game yet.

[Jocked]

Seeing how UT3 plummets in online players at hours like this when americans are asleep is quite a proof that european players don't have the game yet.

We're at work when they sleep, silly. ;)

[Insane-NL]

I just hope Sniper Only mods will be made soonish, damn i loved those maps in UT99 :)

[Nacher]

We're at work when they sleep, silly. ;)

I meant how dramatically UT3 playercounts drop at European daytime compared to other games, and how slowly they rise until it's late in the evening.

[Jocked]

OK, sorry I missunderstood. :P

[TPSFan]

Another aspect I think some posters are experiencing for the first time (by just reading between the lines of their posts) is they are growing up and finding there are more important and better things to do in life than play video games.

This is not meant as an insult. Rather, just an observation.

Not only does nostalgia play a huge factor in games and their enjoyment, but as you get out of your 20s, you find a hell of a lot more to do and experience in life than sit for six to eight hours playing video games. Not only are you forced to budget your time more (work; family), but you choose to do things other than play games non-stop.

I just thought I would mention this because I think some people who don't like UT3 are going through this phase more than not liking the game itself per se?

I respect those who don't like UT3 just because of the game play... But I also think part of this might be they are just getting out of video games in general. Or at least, their priorities are changing and UT3 just happens to be one of those games that will be effected by this new shift.

Just my two cents...

[Stage]

hey tpsfan, that's an excellent point. i find myself in that situation. 25, working, and also finishing up a master's degree. it's pretty hard to devote more than a half hour at a time to play. on top of that, i also have halo 3, cod4, super mario galaxy, crysis, bioshock, and et:qw. i split my time up where i can, and everything ends up not getting very much playing time (for the moment).

i think a lot of people are in the same boat, also a lot of younger players are now finding themselves in college. sure they have a lot of time on their hands, but most are playing games behind a firewall that will give a terrible ping, if they can get any sort of connection at all. also with the partying and stuff that goes with college, it's not surprising they are ditching video games for better things :)

[Imperator7]

Yea this is my first post but I have been reading this message board for some time and have been a big fan of the UT series. I agree with you guys above, I am in my fourth year of university and so its hard to put in many hours at a time to this game right now. Especially since i have halo 3, cod4, hl2 etc... Plus I played some of UT3's campaign but the ai is really poor and since these other games have been out longer and are more polished I decided I will wait for some patches first to come out for UT3, im in no rush to play it really.

[daywiss]

cod4 and tf2 are completely owning up the multiplayer scene. ut3 does not come close to these games for mass market appeal and team based fun.

thier inferior server browser just compounds the problem because once you get in a game, youre going to have new players going againts vets and getting frustrated really quickly. you solve this problem with a skill based match making system like what they started doing in successful multiplayer games many years ago. finding an online game in UT3 could not be more of a pain in the ass.

the whole point of having online user logins and dedicated accounts shouldnt be just to keep our settings(which is a great idea), but its to keep track and determine how good you are at the game so that you can be matched with equal people, and you dont get in a situation where the game isnt fun because you are playing really competitive DMers or really new ones(if you are good).

so then what makes the problem even worse are the high system requirements. my computer meets the minimum system reqs, and i do play online, but i can barely only play small multiplayer games. it looks like complete crap, and it still runs like complete crap, which turns a lot of new players off. mainstream gamers dont have super gaming computers, they have systems like mine. Why would i want to play some game with crappy settings when i can go play tf2, cs, or cod4 which have more people playing and run twice as good and look better?

so before you think im bashing the game, im not, im putting my observations and dissapointments out there, as if i think epic would read them, but i doubt it. im hopeing to see a big community and a lot of competitions for this game, but from what they released i realy dont think its goign to happen unfortunately.

[Imperator7]

yea I enjoyed orginal UT online so much I was hoping for this game to re-capture that feeling of online goodness :) I await to see if it can achieve it, but yea TF2 and Cod4 multiplayer seem so much more engaging and better suited to pc gamers, with ranks good server browsers and lots of games on the go. Really I have seen people complaining about steam on here, but I dont understand why. I have never had a problem and I would much prefer steam to gamespy for playing online.

[Gareee]

I agree with a lot of this. UT teamplay goes back for over 8 years now.. there's NO excuse to NOT have the best server browser out there. They already KNEW what people found lacking in all the previous games.

There's no reason NOT to have proper team vice communication built into the game.

There's not reason to have dropped 50% of their team based game types in favor of tired old DM crap. All the "hot" multiplayer online games are all using team based gameplay as a staple.

Delivery issues aside, the number of people not being about to even run the game is probably also a huge contributing factor to the lack of peopel playing online.

Another BIG concern to me, UT3 community wise, is we're seeing record numbers of other games sold abnd bing played.. in the millions within a week or so, and in some cases, with mere days! The small number of online players after a week of release is VERY disconcerting.

Unless some massive team based additional content is delivered in the first community free pack, I have a feeling this might be the last Ut we ever see released, which is a damned shame.

Beginning with Unreal, we've been HUGE UT players for 8 years now, But between the reduced number of teamplay game types, the lack of numbers online, and more importantly, the fact that 1 of our 2 systems here can't run the damned thing for any known reason, we're considering returning both copies, and just going with our Wii games, and just playing multiplayer adventure games, instead of the same tired old DM stuff we've already played for almost 10 years.

New graphics are good. new vehicles are great, but you don't use them at all in DM type games, so that eliminates 50% of the reason to upgrade to UT3.

I've always had great faith in Epic because of the communication, and support of the comminuty, but I'm not seeing any at ALL right now.

[[uMA]Decayed]

well over 250,000 people played the demo as far as I know.. maybe more

Link?

and @ 1098, doesn't surprise me. I haven't bothered (and probably won't) to get the game but everywhere I go all I see is negative things.

[Gareee]

Decayed;25122787']Link?

and @ 1098, doesn't surprise me. I haven't bothered (and probably won't) to get the game but everywhere I go all I see is negative things.

Well, people who CAN play probably are.. the only other things you'll see in the forums are peopel who can't run the game looking for assistance, speculators, and people trying to start modding already.

The "happy' people are busy enjoying themselves.

[kaktus]

While i am pretty sure gamespy's UT3 numbers are accurate you need to take a closer look at gamespy player counts before just posting them here:

The "2629 UT players" is comprised mostly of Tactical Ops players (usually more than 50% of the number displayed) - and that mod is hardly UT99.

- Correct. Almost all populated servers are running TO.


and the "6057 UT2004 players" include BOTS, which outnumber REAL ONLINE players roughly 8-1. All of those 16 or 32 player servers that appear full but only have 1-2 real players (playing with 14-30 bots) count as 16 or 32 towards that "big" number.

- Correct. The actual player number is sadly even lower than that.

Don't believe me? Go see it yourself. I bought UT2K4 few weeks ago since my old computer didn't run UT3. In addition to the roughly 20 servers running Torlan/Primeval (which are in the demo) you can find less than a dozen servers populated by human players that aren't running some sort of custom racecar map.

I think epic made a great addition to a great series of games and I can only hope that when they scratch our back, we scratch theirs.

[JohnnyInfamous]

Things are looking good.

Halo 3 had 1,000,000 users on about the 3rd day. :(

[Nacher]

Decayed;25122787']Link?

and @ 1098, doesn't surprise me. I haven't bothered (and probably won't) to get the game but everywhere I go all I see is negative things.

Then you should go somewhere else than these forums. This is the only place I have seen such negativity in. Almost everywhere else people seem to be enjoying the game.

[madafaka]

Then you should go somewhere else than these forums. This is the only place I have seen such negativity in. Almost everywhere else people seem to be enjoying the game.

False.
There is also so much negativity else from this forum. The fact is some people like the game, and some do not

[TPSFan]

cod4 and tf2 are completely owning up the multiplayer scene. ut3 does not come close to these games for mass market appeal and team based fun.

What is interesting about this statement (and I believe it is true) is COD and TF2 are on opposite ends of the spectrum genre-wise... Which proves there is a market for both and for UT3.

COD is the slower, realism-based shooter where TF2 is the more fanciful, sci-fi shooter at its core...

But like has been pointed out, both are team based games which is what the masses want.

As much as I like UT3, and the Unreal series... I can objectively say Epic dropped the ball big time with not including more team based modes that actually encourage real team play tactics (and that don't just degenerate into DM/TDM). Maybe they should include a game type that isn't so twitch-based and requires real team work to be successful?

[madafaka]

What is interesting about this statement (and I believe it is true) is COD and TF2 are on opposite ends of the spectrum genre-wise... Which proves there is a market for both and for UT3.

COD is the slower, realism-based shooter where TF2 is the more fanciful, sci-fi shooter at its core...

But like has been pointed out, both are team based games which is what the masses want.

As much as I like UT3, and the Unreal series... I can objectively say Epic dropped the ball big time with not including more team based modes that actually encourage real team play tactics (and that don't just degenerate into DM/TDM). Maybe they should include a game type that isn't so twitch-based and requires real team work to be successful?

QFT
UT3 is not realy a team based game. teammates are not critically dependent on each other

[Ultron]

Where did you get those trivial statements from? Source?
I live in this tiny town in the netherlands that barely anyone knows and the shops over here rarely get games in time but they sure as hell got UT3 in time. the 23rd.

Could you please reveal your source?

Just want to be clear on this, this is common knowledge for anyone who frequents these forums or has a copy of UT2k4. Since UT2k3 came out, somehow Gamespy and Epic started counting bots as players. So if you looked in the server browser and Gamespy stats page, the total number of players included bots.

Which is really screwy since nobody goes online to play bots, and it's hard to guage real playercounts when bots are taken into consideration.

It also doesn't help that bots were enabled by default. So so many admins just didn't think about it, and left their servers with bots filling the ranks of the server. Who the heck wants to join a server with one player and 7 bots?

UT2k4 made some inroads by allowing us to see how many real players are online, but it still had problems in that the default configurations still loaded up servers with bots, and Gamespy has _never_ made an effort to attempt to show real players only.

Anyhow, there are probably more people playing UT and it's mods than UT2k4 and it's mods. But if you just count people playing UT and UT2k4 without mods, UT2k4 probably has more players. UT3 is somewhere close to those in terms of real player numbers, but I don't believe it's surpassed them yet.

[Nacher]

What is interesting about this statement (and I believe it is true) is COD and TF2 are on opposite ends of the spectrum genre-wise... Which proves there is a market for both and for UT3.

COD is the slower, realism-based shooter where TF2 is the more fanciful, sci-fi shooter at its core...

But like has been pointed out, both are team based games which is what the masses want.

As much as I like UT3, and the Unreal series... I can objectively say Epic dropped the ball big time with not including more team based modes that actually encourage real team play tactics (and that don't just degenerate into DM/TDM). Maybe they should include a game type that isn't so twitch-based and requires real team work to be successful?

And what is CS if not pure team deathmatch? The reason UT3 will never reach the popularity of CoD/CS/TF2 is because it's a lot less newbie friendly. You can join a TF2 server, and due to slow tempo, high overall playercounts and stuff like that, you won't do much harm to your team or die every 10 seconds without knowing what hit you. In UT3 (or any UT for that matter), you are hardly having any fun or feeling that you contribute to your team if you are a noob and get owned. In TF2 you can always just pick engineer and built some sentrygun and hang around it. In UT3, you are fragged ten times a minute.

I prefer the hardcore gameplay of UT3 etc, but the learning curve may be too steep for a lot of newcomers and they go towards easier games, where losing doesn't feel so bad.

[daywiss]

And what is CS if not pure team deathmatch? The reason UT3 will never reach the popularity of CoD/CS/TF2 is because it's a lot less newbie friendly. You can join a TF2 server, and due to slow tempo, high overall playercounts and stuff like that, you won't do much harm to your team or die every 10 seconds without knowing what hit you. In UT3 (or any UT for that matter), you are hardly having any fun or feeling that you contribute to your team if you are a noob and get owned. In TF2 you can always just pick engineer and built some sentrygun and hang around it. In UT3, you are fragged ten times a minute.

I prefer the hardcore gameplay of UT3 etc, but the learning curve may be too steep for a lot of newcomers and they go towards easier games, where losing doesn't feel so bad.

you hit the nail on the head here. the learning curve and skill gap between new and old players is too large. instead of doing a skill based matchmaking system, epic thought they could dumb down the game to make it more accessible to new players. sure its more accessible compared to 2k4, but compared to a game like tf2 or cs, its still very very difficult. its just crazy to me how user unfreindly this game is.

[3leggedFreak]

Epic should have included the 180Mb patch on a disc together with the game or sent it out for free to customers, a lot of people have limited band width and most of the newbies will not know it exists or wth it is.

[R9naldo]

so many people cant even join online games or even launch the freaking game, add that to the disappointing reviews and lack of promotion by Midway and its enough of a reason why people barely play this game.

Considering the state it was released to the stores at, I'm frankly not suprised at all.

I think Epic should launch a new version of this game to the stores, maybe including patch 1.1 in it ( hopefully it does fix some of the critical problems like crashing and gay server browser ).

[Seven_Force]

IMO, with the severe consolitus this game suffers from, ("press any key" at the start screen? Hilarious.) along with it releasing in an unfinished state, UT3 was stillborn into the market. If EPIC does a cut-and-run on it, I will never buy anything from them again. EPIC made their bed and I hope they patch the **** out of this and still support it in the future. I spent 50 bucks on it after all... eventually, maybe they'll be able to bring it back from the brink of destruction, I don't know.

[D2F[Rob]]

Way to be hysterical about it...

[Flou]

You have to realize:

1. Just because it shipped doesn't mean every single game-store has received it. I'd say 50% of stores still don't have it in stock as of now.

2. A massively large amount of people ordered it online, and are still waiting for it to arrive.

3. Many people are probably planning on receiving it for Xmas (for free..), rather than buying a month earlier for 50 bucks.

4. The general trend is to play Single-Player THEN hit multi-player. I don't do this myself, I've been alternating between the two. It will probably take 2 weeks or so until people stop hitting the Instant Action/Campaign buttons and wonder what that shiny "MultiPlayer" button does.

*5. Unreal Tournament retail version sucks.

Don't worry about it.

I fixed it for you.

[Moloko]

I understand the logic of leaving a WAR map out for the beta demo for UT3 ,after some only played the ONS demo in 2k4 and never bought the full game. But right now to spark interest and online player count ,they should really include a WAR map in the full demo. The negativity amongst long time 2K4 players surrounding the UT3 beta demo needs changing, WAR demo would help .

[SpiderPig]

Down to 256 players acording to gamespy stats ... wow

[pdvinenz]

lol... how about we nuke all these stupid theories on the first page and show the real reason for low player count: CONNECTION FAILED!!!!!!!!! Seriously some people should look at the other forums, a lot, and I mean A LOT of people can't even connect to multiplayer games!

[Nacher]

Not like I would be complaining, but oh man... 0 ctf players online? At least other modes had players, but that's just ridiculous. Damn vCTF.

[pdvinenz]

IMO, with the severe consolitus this game suffers from, ("press any key" at the start screen? Hilarious.) along with it releasing in an unfinished state, UT3 was stillborn into the market. If EPIC does a cut-and-run on it, I will never buy anything from them again. EPIC made their bed and I hope they patch the **** out of this and still support it in the future. I spent 50 bucks on it after all... eventually, maybe they'll be able to bring it back from the brink of destruction, I don't know.

Lol not to mention the meager options and description-less sliders for different graphical settings, a console trait. Also the menu system which is for a console.

This game is more like Unreal III for the consoles... I'm still waiting for Unreal Tournament 2007 Epic.

[Nacher]

This UI crap is already discussed to death, but I still can't stop being amazed about how huge problem people make out of it. Like, the whole game sucks and is 100% console port and shouldn't be played by anyone because the menu at start says "press any key" and you can't fine tune some specific texture settings?

Could you people PLEASE concentrate on the game and gameplay, not on something as trivial as menus.