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PR:BF2 General Discussion General discussion of the Project Reality: BF2 modification. |
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2024-04-20, 16:53 | |
PR:BF2 QA Lead
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PR Population Data: Is Project Reality Dying?
The Data
Since apparently there is a lot of misconception about PR and its population, it is the time to finally have a look at actual hard data. I have read through hundreds of forum threads and discord discussions. Based on both publically available and internal PR Team sources, I have been able to gather quite a lot of information. Most of the publically available sources are listed at the bottom. During the data gathering process, I have encountered many obstacles which leave the data open to interpretation:
In other words, it is all still a very general overview. However, it does provide an insight into how (more or less) the population has (or, perhaps, has not) been changing over the years. The Graph Every dot on the graph below represents the highest peaks in the number of players at the specified time, based on all the gathered data. For context, here is a list of the most important PR changes and the version in which they were introduced (based on The Great Project Reality Timeline). Spoiler for Context for versions:
The Peaks Except for a few spikes caused by big updates as well as going standalone, the concurrent number of players appears to be quite stable. Usually, the numbers went back to normal in a matter of weeks or 2-3 months after a significant peak. In that regard, v0.8, v0.9 and v0.95 peaks (~1500, ~2000 and ~1300 players) seem to be completely gone within 2 months after the release that caused an influx of players. The increase in numbers after v1.3 seems to have lasted the longest, around 6 months, which is most likely related to the game no longer requiring Battlefield 2. For every peak, there was a reported decrease in the quality of players. Before PR Mumble was integrated into the game (v1.0 in 2013), people complained for instance about players being unwilling to download and install Mumble. In the last few years, people have been complaining mainly about "no mics" (players who do not have, or do not use, a microphone) as well as players not speaking English well (or at all). The "PR is dying" myth So, where does the "pR iS dYiNg" come from? I think there are mainly 2 sources of this myth: 1) We switched to 100 player servers. This effectively cut the number of servers in half and might have created an impression of a significantly decreasing playerbase. This is true especially for people who played during the short-lived 1000+ player peaks with 64 player servers only. They remember seeing 10, 15 or even 20 full servers, so when they join now and see 4, their impression is that "PR is dead". However, if that's how we define the death of PR, then we can also say it was never really alive in the first place, except for a few weeks or months after a few big updates. The impression of "PR dying" is further reinforced by the realization that 2 of these 4 full servers will not be English-speaking most of the time. 2) Compared to the first few years of PR's existence, the number of EU/NA players partially decreased and has been partially replaced by people from eastern Europe, Russia, South East Asia and, most notably, South America. It does not mean PR is dead. However, the playerbase shifted from a homogeneous, English-speaking community into a more diverse mass of people using a variety of languages. It does not necesarily negatively influence the tactics in-game as most people are more than capable of understanding simple orders given in English. However, not everyone may be capable of having elaborate discussions in his second language, impacting the ability of the players to develop relationships. Other Population Data In terms of other types of data, PRStats reports over 320,000 (320k, or 320 thousand) PR profiles spotted playing online in the last 4 years (between April 2020 and April 2024). Conclusion I hope that concludes all future "PR is dying" threads and discussions which we see every year since 2006. Spoiler for Sources:
On a side note, in this context, the population Squad managed to gain is even more impressive. |
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Last edited by Suchar; 2024-04-21 at 16:17..
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2024-04-20, 19:26 | |||
PR:BF2 QA Lead
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Re: Is Project Reality Dying?
Most of the public sources are listed at the bottom.
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I do not think so | ||
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2024-04-21, 12:11 | |
Support Technician
Join Date: Apr 2008
Posts: 1,223
Finland
Location: Helsinki
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Re: PR Population Data: Is Project Reality Dying?
Those numbers are both surprising and relieving. Good to know that PR player base isn't declining. I hope that it will keep DEVs motivated. You are probably right with you assumption that going from 64 to 100 players effectively removed half of the populated servers. Back in the 64 player days there was room and demand for niche servers like Al Basrah 24/7. PR was more arcade back then, though.
What comes to the thread title, it's yet another example of Betteridge's law of headlines |
2024-04-21, 14:43 | ||||
PR:BF2 QA Lead
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Re: PR Population Data: Is Project Reality Dying?
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I have met too many PR veterans claiming PR is dead (as in, saying it has empty servers compared to the "good old times"). Looking at the stats now, I do not know whether those veterans only ever played PR after major updates or if the nostalgia completely erased their memories of having less than 10 full 64-player servers, but either way - now all the stories about PR being dead sound even more ridiculous than they used to. Some servers, clans and communities may have disappeared. It would be strange if it did not happen in a 20 year old mod. However, new ones appeared in their place and the game is just as close to being dead as it was 10 years ago - meaning it is very far from dying. Quote:
And yet, PR is still here. | |||
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