Originally posted by MoRphEuS
lol I used to think that only Rooks were the ones up above 20k but now I am seeing just about all sides up there evenly. I dont care much about the numbers difference. Being on the side with the least players allows for more fights. I dont spend all that much time on line anymore so when I log in I like to get some quick fights in without wasting much time. Although the numbers difference between Rooks and the other two sides have been lopsided for a while now it is has gotten much worse since the move to AH2.
I forget what I called the thread, but as beta began I predicted Rook numbers would become disproportionately greater than Knights and especially Bishops for reasons of customer demographics. To make a long story short, demographically speaking, Rooks are older people with careers who are better able to afford the necessary hardware required to run AH2. Your average Bishop 16 year-old flipping burgers at McDonald's for minimum wage simply cannot afford a $499 256MB Radeon 9800 XT. Obviously, this demographic distribution is a gross generalization, but accurate overall. As Morpheus noted the numbers support my earlier speculation.
Also, realize each country has numbers at different times of the day. Knights have alot of US West coasters so tend to have superior numbers 10pm to 4am Central. Bishops have alot of European players so tend to have superior numbers 4am to 4pm Central. Rooks have alot of US East Coasters so tend to have numbers 4pm to 10pm. The reason Rooks 'appear' to be advantaged numerically is because their period of superior numbers occurs during prime-time for the most amount of players, therefore more people witness this time period than the other two time periods.
But, look at it from the vantage of statistical significance. A 25 player advantage during prime-time when there's 100 people on each team on average is less impactfull percentage wise than the same 25 player advantage Bishops tend to enjoy during the day when there's 50 people per team on average. Those same 25 people represent a 50% advantage during the day, but only a 25% advantage at night during US prime-time. The same 50% advantage applies to Knights after midnight central. It's much easier for Knights or Bish to counter 125 Rooks when they have 100 people online than it is for Rooks or Knights to counter 75 Bishops when they have only 50 online during the daytime, for example.
Most people are only aware of the numbers situation during their particular play-time window, the numbers are actually more even than they appear subjectively from your particular play-time window if you were to see it from a 24-hour play-cycle perspective.
Zazen
