Unreal Tournament 3 And The New Lazarus Effect

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hal

Dictator
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Rock, Paper, Shotgun has an interesting article (thanks Ryan) that examines the effect of essentially re-launching Unreal Tournament 3 in conjunction with the Titan Pack and the Steam sale and free-weekends.

Now, traditionally it's the case that when a multiplayer game stumbles, it doesn't get back up again. UT3 seemed destined to go gently into that good night, save for the occasional antagonistic comment about PC gaming from Cliffy "Cliffy B" B and Mark Rein. And yet, as we coast into the Spring of 2009, a game released in 2007 is suddenly the talk of town all over again. On the weekend before last, its players jumped by some 2000%...

...It's not Steam or Impulse specifically as much as it is game distributors finally realising how to leverage the internet, and that a game doesn't stop existing once its initial print run disappears from store shelves. Game retail and traditional advertising alike have never seemed such dinosaurs.
 
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redThunder

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Jan 25, 2008
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So.. looking into the server list, how many are there now compared to before? Is there an actual choice?

edit: Where is my old account with all the posts inside?? :/
 
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Sir_Brizz

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This article makes a great point: love the Titan Pack or hate it, there is no doubt that this patch, pack and sale have probably far surpassed initial sales numbers on the PC. Hopefully this will give Epic incentive to build a few more patches, packs and increase Steam integration (while removing crap Gamespy integration as much as possible).
 

Wowbagger

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So.. looking into the server list, how many are there now compared to before? Is there an actual choice?

edit: Where is my old account with all the posts inside?? :/

According to gamspy stats the ONLINE numbers have doubled after the free weekend. (500ish players during primetime before and 1000ish players after)
 

Alhanalem

Teammember on UT3JB Bangaa Bishop
Feb 21, 2002
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According to gamspy stats the ONLINE numbers have doubled after the free weekend. (500ish players during primetime before and 1000ish players after)
but the total players have increased 20 fold (2000%). Tells you how many people play offline.
 

Poker

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Apr 17, 2006
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Tells you how many people play during a free weekend.

Tbh I'm not sure yet how lasting the effect is going to be. Player counts seem to have subsided, during off-peak hours especially it's still a chore to find a server running decent traffic in any given gametype ... possible, but usually difficult.

I've said before that these free weekends are the best promotional move made yet with UT3, and hopefully they'll continue in some manner, because the game still needs several more of them.
 

Kantham

Fool.
Sep 17, 2004
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Tells you how many people play during a free weekend.
Tbh I'm not sure yet how lasting the effect is going to be.

Sounds like Greed is the only thing that keeps me from playing it. I really didn't care for titan, just the patch had the joy in for me.

Titan itself is ruining the game online from what I've hear over and over. Epic Games doesn't care about balance and somewhat well-thought layouts that you could call competitive. Like T2A said, it's as if Epic Games are only there to add random things in and go "Oh look what I did" to those who care.

This isn't really giving a long lasting appeal. I mean, Titan?
It's the thing that makes you go in, then makes you leave again basically.
 

«BuA»Lurker_71

Thë Möñkëÿ Kïñg
Dec 15, 2002
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Wha?
We can only hope that Epic takes a good long look at both the good and the bad before they start working on another installment of UT.
I don't want another version of UT or UT2004, but a solid game that has the best of both would be great.
 

T2A`

I'm dead.
Jan 10, 2004
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I think these dudes are overestimating things. Going from 200 players (in the US) to 400 ain't that big a deal. Especially when the top ten servers (roughly 40-50% of the players) are all WAR and VCTF. D:
 

MaestroMaus

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Jul 22, 2008
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Sounds like Greed is the only thing that keeps me from playing it. I really didn't care for titan, just the patch had the joy in for me.

Titan itself is ruining the game online from what I've hear over and over. Epic Games doesn't care about balance and somewhat well-thought layouts that you could call competitive. Like T2A said, it's as if Epic Games are only there to add random things in and go "Oh look what I did" to those who care.

This isn't really giving a long lasting appeal. I mean, Titan?
It's the thing that makes you go in, then makes you leave again basically.

What's the big deal? You can always turn the titan mutator off if you don't like it. And if you hate greed well, don't play it.

I don't see how this stops you from playing UT3.
 

Sir_Brizz

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I think these dudes are overestimating things. Going from 200 players (in the US) to 400 ain't that big a deal. Especially when the top ten servers (roughly 40-50% of the players) are all WAR and VCTF. D:
Wah, wah, wah...

I haven't had any trouble finding a server playing whatever I want to play lately, that's all that matters to me. Why are you even here if you don't care about UT3 and nothing Epic does will change your mind?
 

Alhanalem

Teammember on UT3JB Bangaa Bishop
Feb 21, 2002
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Titan itself is ruining the game online from what I've hear over and over.
If you say so. I see a handful of complainers (mostly the competitive sort) and a bunch of other people that are having a good time.

(And as others have said, at least to an extent, Titan will probably fade- It's the big thing right now because it's the thing the pack is named for.)
 
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_Zd_3s_

Regristered User
It's something Epic should have realized when designing UT3: the best way to make money with PC gaming nowadays is if very large amounts of people are committed to your game. Once you've accomplished that, the access to a huge community will give you the opportunity to make money. It's basically the way companies make money on the internet: get loads of visitors, offer them something that makes them return to your site or product and in the end they are so committed to your product that they're willing to pay for part of it, or willing to look at and click on advertisements.

How do you build such a large fanbase? The way all internet-companies do this: offer your product for free and make sure that people actively contribute and feel connected to it. If you manage to attract enough unique visitors to your product, whether this is a website, an online application or a computer game, investors will be interested in giving you money and to get access to this mass of potential customers.

It will be interested to see if Epic has learned this lesson; we'll see with the release of their next product. It's good to see that PC gaming is kept alive by reworking the business model.