Mass Exodus

Numbers are deceptive

A decrease in number of hours (via XFire) can mean many things which does include people quitting the game. Quitting the game isn't always a negative ding to Trion. Just take last night when I had logged into my rogue and found my long lost friend had sent 25 pieces of mail: his whole wealth accumulated in a little over a month. It was my signal that he had quit the game. Had he lost interest, did something turn him off? He partially lost interest in the genre (mmo) and wanted more balance in his life.

A decrease in number of hours can mean other positive things such as:
- hitting the level cap and doing other things that don't require alot of time put in

- making alts and knowing how to complete quests and lvling faster than the first time
- logging in to complete dailies or focusing on certain areas of the game that they enjoy
- logging in to chit chat with guildies

This is not the flag you're looking for......

Myself, I try to play less these days and have more control (RL balance). There is less urgency to get to max level and i'm enjoying questing and pvp with my gf. It/Rift has grown to become more popular and more enjoyable for me but at the same time, missing a day or two isn't the end of the world or mean that i've lost interest.

In mmo's numbers is king and server population is key. I like it that 99% of the time these nights there is no queue but is still rather busy. The zones could use a handful more players, but when you concentrate on questing and enjoy rifting, having more players in the same area makes it harder. I think we need to stop stressing so much about the decreasing numbers in our mmo's and just enjoy the time and the game. Let the developers worry about the numbers.