PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Tops Dota 2 in Steam Player Count

Megalith

Megalith

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Battle royale shooter PUBG has surpassed Valve's MOBA and is rocketing toward a million concurrent players: the Steam stats page is showing that Battlegrounds had over 877,000 players today, giving it the record for second all-time highest concurrent player count (Dota 2 still holds the all-time record at a hefty 1,291,328 players back in March of last year). This is pretty impressive, being that Battlegrounds only debuted last summer and is still in Early Access.

This is an incredible achievement because few releases have ever come close to threatening Dota 2’s concurrent player number. And that makes sense because Dota 2 is free-to-play and belongs to Valve, the same company that owns and operates Steam. This feat is even more impressive because Battlegrounds costs $30 to play and is still in the Early Access program for unfinished projects, so it is overcoming a higher barrier to entry and an extreme lack of polish.
 
It's "ok" but not worth more than 30 bucks....

Between the novelty of the idea behind the game and the masses drinking the kool-aid, I'm not at all surprised by these numbers.

But, the game lacks long-term depth.
 
It's a full game based on a Arma mod, similar to how DayZ was supposed to be originally (the standalone game).

Playerunknown created a mod called Battle Royale. It's named after a Japanese film from many years ago, and it has a similar premise to hunger games. Check out the specific rules to see what I mean.

Once the standalone game out, it wass based on a different engine and way less buggy even in beta, than the mod for arma 3. It was already crazy popular on arma, and a major reason people bought that game to begin with. Many people including myself never really played arma 3 much, just the battle Royale mod.

So it was released standalone as beta currently. As to the draw, I can't explain . I enjoy it I guess some people will not.
 
horrorshow said:
It's "ok" but not worth more than 30 bucks....

Between the novelty of the idea behind the game and the masses drinking the kool-aid, I'm not at all surprised by these numbers.

But, the game lacks long-term depth.
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I'd disagree. It continues to grow massively. I honestly like twitch shooters like QC/OW/etc but this game has had me so hooked, ive barely spent time in any other shooter game. I think as another poster put it, its really the fun in being the last man standing, getting into the top 10 w/o firing a shot is sometimes more fun than having to constantly be in gun battles. It's intense in my facets and no game is the same.
 
JosiahBradley said:
Can anyone who plays this game can give me a rundown on why it's so popular?
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People have played Arma's battle royal mod and Dayz for this gameplay for years, except this is the first time in history it's not on a broken engine or being ruined with microtransactions. The creator of the original mod is developing it, so he's already familiar with what players want.
 
What I dislike about this game is the fact you have a set time limit to get into the "circle of doom" and as the game progresses the "circle of doom" starts to shrink. If you're caught outside the circle in the allotted time frame you start losing your health level and start to die slowly. With an open world type of game it is, why the fuck would the developers do that?

I was about to pull the trigger on it, until I saw the gameplay videos which made me take my hand away from my wallet.
 
Nebulous said:
What I dislike about this game is the fact you have a set time limit to get into the "circle of doom" and has the game progresses the "circle of doom" starts to shrink. if you're caught outside the circle in the allotted time frame you start losing your health level and start to die slowly. With an Open world type of game it is, why the fuck would the developers do that?

I was about to pull the trigger on it, until I saw the gameplay videos which made me take my hand away from my wallet.
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You see how huge the maps are? Without the circle of doom games would never end. When you start getting low on people would be impossible to find anyone. Can't forget about the troll that would hide to piss people off.
 
speaking to the "circle of doom" if anyone read the book(s) the game is loosely based on, they also had similar mechanics there.
 
Nebulous said:
What I dislike about this game is the fact you have a set time limit to get into the "circle of doom" and as the game progresses the "circle of doom" starts to shrink. If you're caught outside the circle in the allotted time frame you start losing your health level and start to die slowly. With an open world type of game it is, why the fuck would the developers do that?

I was about to pull the trigger on it, until I saw the gameplay videos which made me take my hand away from my wallet.
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The circle adds to the suspense. Embrace the circle of doom! Here is a likely scenario in PUBG.


Do you keep looking for that Tier 3 helmet or do you head across the bridge to the safe zone circle? All you can think about is your friend Bob that just died when he tried to loot an attic and a player was upstairs hiding. Damn campers! You took Bob's gear after his body rolled down the stairs and ran away from his killer with 3/4 health. Cary and Steve never made it out of the military base as they were careless. Bob was a winner man; he carried them every game and hell even me sometimes. What will I do to survive all alone?

You choose to follow the safe zone circle.

There is a squad of 4 people at the end of the bridge. The circle is closing in and you're on the wrong side of the circle. They have to move as their luck has run out in regards to the circle of doom also; but they seem to want to notch a few more kills before moving on. Do I stay and fight it out with them 4 vs 1? Do I stealthily jump into the water and swim across? Do I take my vehicle and try to dodge the incoming fire and go out in a blaze of glory? Since they are on the wrong side of the circle also, do I just wait for them to leave? I only have 3 bandages left in my inventory and 42 bullets.

You choose to swim.

You start to swim and pray that the death squad on the bridge doesn't notice your lone body in the water. The circle has closed in and is gnawing at your health bar. There is nothing you can do in the water to better your predicament but persevere on. You barely make it out of the circle of death with 1/2 health.

You've swum to the opposite shore and there is a person with his back to you when you exit the brackish tide pool. Your weapon lacks a suppressor. With only 1/2 health you will certainly attract others if you pull the trigger. What is he staring at? Is there another squad over the ridge? Where did the bridge squad go to? Will they soon flank me if I pull this trigger and awake the dead with the noise? The next circle event starts in 15 seconds and you have to MOVE with it or die as you are out of bandages.

You decide to shoot him in the back. You loot his gear and find 5 med kits, a sniper rifle, 8X scope and a suppressor! The hunted is now the hunter.

10 people are alive. You grin a wide toothy grin. You see a silhouette of a man on the side of a tree. Pfft, pfft, pfft; the sound of spitballs brings an even more wider sh*t eater grin to your face. Just a few more. Let's lay right here and wait them out. Next man that moves is a goner.

Suddenly 1/2 your health disappears. You have NO idea where it originated from but it is obvious that if you don't move you WILL die. You slink back over the ridge and circle around to the pile of rocks to the west. You notice that just 5 are left as you gnaw on your rations to replenish your health.

Is it just me and 4 solo players? A full squad of 4? 2 + 2? Hold your breath. Don't miss. Chicken dinner at KFC is on the platter if you can pull this off!


That's PUBG in a nutshell.
 
Tldr crowd: 100 people drop out of a plane as it flies over a large island. You start with nothing and have 5 minutes to loot all you can, fight those that landed close, then move into a slowly shrinking circle.

Last one alive wins, rise and repeat.

Its fun enough, but the shooting isn't that tight, servers lag all the time, and there is nothing to keep you coming back (end game).
 
What I find most amusing, is that the gameplay is more or less idential to King of the Kill, which was out first as a stand alone game, but it was so BAD in the gameplay department that when Battlegrounds launched it took all of about 2 weeks for everyone to realize that this was the game they should have bought instead.

I hope they keep working on it and improving it. It's an excellent gameplay model and is just plain fun.
 
the game came out of nowhere with almost no marketing or hype...plus it's still in Early Access and the game has one of the worst titles in gaming history...and now it's #1 on Steam...amazing
 
Its really the suspense that makes this game good, but the mechanics are still lacking, and the servers lack as well.
 
So let me get this right. A player can be banned for honking the horn LOL. Been reading the reviews and it would seem that these twitch streamers start screaming I am being harassed by player such and such and the devs then proceeds to ban said player(s). What a joke, my wallet stays closed to this crap.

BUT, until the devs stop banning people because streamers say they were "harassed", I'm giving it a thumbs down.
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So it would seem that these cry baby snowflakes twitch streamers can say I am being harassed and bam the player is banned. No thanks, think I will pass on this game until the devs reverses this bullshit.
 
NukeDukem said:
The game is a great open-field-running simulator!
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When you have to re-map "auto-run" to your mouse, you know somethings wrong..

Even in 4x squad, you're just looting houses. AND the loot only has 3 levels, it's not a Diablo-esque system.

It all breaks down to "Well, gotta outrun the circle. We don't have a vehicle."

So here's how the game ends: You drive into a pack of people camping, or you run for your life to avoid the circle and you get sniped.

Even if you're elite at this game, it boils down to very simple mechanics....

It's a fad, this game has no "legs".
 
horrorshow said:
It's a fad, this game has no "legs".
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I disagree. This game has a deep team play mechanics even though it does not have separate classes for medic etc. Everyone share loot with each other because it essential for survival. For example I always give the better scopes to other team member because he is much better then me at sniping. And we always share medkits and energy drinks between team members because team survival is essential for winning the game.

When we want to have fun we take cars and drive around scaring other teams as approaching car is always very scary :)
 
For those dismissing just because there's no 'end-game content', I agree but digress to the (our notion for old school gamers) definition of 'end-game' these days.

I see that phrase thrown out a lot, I understand it having grown up in the 80s much like, my assumption here, a large percentage of people reading these forums today.

A lot of games are appearing multi-player ONLY, and when you have an MP game built around, in this example the thrill of the hunter & the hunted, the end-game content is literally the experience.
Dead by Daylight and Evolve are two games that mostly fit this mold today, and of course there are countless others.

I see some 'old school' development traits, where cosmetic items are still included to help bridge the gap, as found in DbD and Evolve.
Gimmicks, almost, that add nothing to the gameplay value, just appearance customization.
Or in some cases, where there's persistent character development or some functionality that 'gives you' something, as the gamer, as you spend time playing and have that reward.
Or otherwise open up abilities, skills, etc. that allow you to level your character.

But does a game done right, need those features? Assuming it's priced correctly, which could never be at AAA prices, but $30 is low enough for most to take the risk.
I'm not suggesting PUBG is done right, but I think that's the path I see a lot of developers on these days - creating a game framework where the user generated content always has the potential for being unique, new and fresh.
This adds a longevity to a game that few developers can systematically add.
Some RNG mission creation systems are coming along, but they always fit into a specific mold, or there's some caveat that restricts and limits their potential.

If this new path holds the question becomes, was the experience enjoyable?
If the answer is yes, then the 'end-game' metric is reached IMO.
And if not, the developer has to adapt and update the game accordingly, so people find it fun and worth playing.
 
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JosiahBradley said:
Can anyone who plays this game can give me a rundown on why it's so popular?
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Runaway inertia. You see a lot of indie titles now explode in popularity from this to be huge mainstream successes. The game equivalent of going viral basically.

PUBG's Twitch streaming popularity had a lot in driving interest to the game.
 
I find it entertaining but have the absolute worst luck in the game. I've never dropped in the circle.
 
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