I can only speak for myself, but I’m not trying to use the stats as a cudgel. I’m just pointing out the reality of the situation. The fact remains that numbers are low, relatively speaking.
Unless you have access to some hidden data unavailable to the rest of us, that just doesn’t seem to be the case. Take a look at the stats since the release of the game (
https://steamcharts.com/app/1066890 - the “All” option above the chart). Apart from the odd post-update peak, the average numbers appear to be gradually trailing off rather than growing. Correct me if I’m wrong, but since AMS2 is exclusively a Steam game, any time someone runs a game (other than specifically in off-line mode) they’re seen by Steam as an active player. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a single player or in a league, you’re still an active player and the stats reflect this. There appears to be a small, dedicated group of loyal followers who regularly play the title but that group doesn’t look to be growing.
The steam numbers are low, that's a fact, but its never had good steam numbers, so the info is not new. There's no MPRS and no single player content beside TT mode. Its a sim people log on, do an AI race, maybe do some hot lapping and log out. Several leagues I know, however, have doubled in size of the past few months, drawing more interest from players from other sims. In my own community, there are dozens of people that reaaally know what they are talking about from RL car physics, to game development, to FFB, you name it. Much smarter than me in fact.
We actually just help a guy who couldn't figure out a deadzone issue and was on the verge of uninstalling, and resolved his issue. And yeah, most days we don't know why the game hasn't increased in popularity. There's a reluctance to spend time in it from the sim community at large and we suspect that most of it is because there is a LOT of negative noise. Its tough to draw people who are interested in MP away from ACC, iracing. Its tough to draw others from RF2, RRE and AC. AMS2 has to carve a place for itself in the midst of this. But it doesn't mean its any less spectacular in a lot of ways. If you come into not immediately judging it based on another sim you are familiar with and like, and refuse to give it credit for things that it has that are or may better in the future, you just have to wait. Tons of people are already waiting. AMS2 is not even close to being done and it already capturing players, one by one, despite its flaws.
You can't force people to like it though, and that's the case for a lot of people. But I know that there are also a lot of people out there that may actually really like it, but are reluctant to put time in it. We'll just have to wait.
It may be just a perception issue, but early in the development of AMS2 the devs seemed keen to release DLC whilst there were still many problems with the base game being reported in the official forum. I understand the need to increase revenue but can’t help thinking that this policy is possibly why greater numbers are not currently playing the game.
Its already been explained that reducing content does not mean improvements come faster. You can't just have track designers stop work because the netcode needs improvement. They are different teams with different skill sets. Besides they just had two months of mostly updates and one car and one track released. Not to mention its a small dev, during a pandemic.
But how do you decide who is a troll and who is an informed critic making what they feel are valid points. If you silence everyone who is critical of the game, there’s less incentive for the devs to fix or improve it. Just because someone is aggressive and/or repetitive (and I’m not pointing any fingers here), that doesn’t necessarily make what they’re saying wrong. Apart from things like official stats or press releases, opinion makes up the content of most of the threads on this site. Being annoying doesn’t make a person‘s opinion any less valid. As I said in an earlier post, if you ban someone who hasn’t actually broken the forum rules your’e setting a very dangerous precedent. People will be afraid of voicing their opinion.
I believe this point has been addressed. But again, it has nothing to do with whether or not the opinions are valid. You're forgetting all of the other would be posters who come to a thread looking for a topic and only see that its hijacked, derailed and move on. What about them? I'll tell you, I joined RD and used to peruse the threads, but I stopped because everyone with a positive opinion about AMS2 got smashed and laughed at. The only reason I'm commenting here is because I'm tired of it and I feel like sticking up for other ASM2 supporters.
