Tracking Server Population - Thanksgiving 2013

[Langrisserx]

Thanksgiving Weekend - Tracking the Population
Hurb Snarebergowitz, PhD.

Abstract:
One day, I remembered I like to record numbers in excel. Someone else was tracking the population but I couldnt find the thread. I tracked the population over the US Thanksgiving day Weekend, starting when I realized I wanted to do that. Blue and red populations see similar fluctuations although with differently motivated groups of base players. Teams99 could have a large effect on either population, possibly to the point of detriment on teamless Red. Blue neckbeards may save the day, if they man the fuck up.

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Figure 1: Chart of server population. What does this reveal, except that I sleep odd hours and should see someone?
Just kidding. I had one online course and it was boring, ive been jonesing for some busywork.

MATERIALS AND METHOD

The data was taken at random intervals when I remembered, as I stalked the homepage.

RESULTS

The two populations appear to follow similar up and down swings, seeing the least players around 3-5AM PST, even during the Holiday. There was a forum data migration that did not affect game server access. Population samples were taken from the login server screen during the website downtime.

DISCUSSION

The sharp spike at the end indicates that the holiday is over, and that a majority of the players indeed have lives to attend to. There appears to be a degree of homogeneity in the majority of the playerbase. This occurs because of what demographics specifically, I can only speculate... but I would include Age, Income, Race, Weight, Disability Status Physical/Mental (the outlying nature of certain traits reflected in the "overplayers") etc (Van Rooij, et al 2011).

Blue, while holding a hardcore population of neckbeards, is host to the casual player, ie less hours daily (higher turnaround and less stagnation).


CONCLUSION

The very small number of players left after adjusting for casuals, incidentals, true-bluebians, and healthy players who have 24/7 internet access and run in windowed mode, indicates a small portion of the community is possibly "overplaying" (Baguley, et al 2012) due to undisclosed reasons.

I encourage the otherwise mentally healthy Blue neckbeards, who roughly number approx 400 players (more than double the highest recorded Red peak), to try the teams server and realize their true potential. Don't let the retards stop you, you outnumber them. Perhaps you've made your choice wisely to wait.

Literature Cited

Baguley, Thom, et al. (2012). "Online gaming addiction: Classification, prediction and associated risk factors". Addiction Research & Theory 20:5, 359-371

Van Rooij, A. J., et al. (2011). "Online video game addiction: identification of addicted adolescent gamers". Addiction, 106:1, 205-212.




NOTE: "Nothing wrong with a graph with fluctuating scale along one axis. For the purposes of the data, the x-axis scale is not important." - smarter guy than u