POSTS:
PvP Ranks (by Hours Played)
23 October 2006 | PlayOn authors archive
In the same way that we could approximate the number of hours played it is necessary to get from one level to the next, we could also approximate how many hours of play per week it takes to advance from one PvP rank to the next. We tabulated the average number of hours played for characters in each PvP rank. Of course, the numbers derived do not correspond directly to the time it takes to reach the next PvP rank, but they are indicative of the time invested as players are at higher and higher PvP ranks. The following is the graph we got from that analysis.
Data from The Daedalus Project suggests that the average MMO player spends about 20 hours a week in the game. This implies that the average player “hit a ceiling” around Rank 5 (Sergeant Major / First Sergeant). They will find it hard to get beyond Rank 5 unless they put more time into the game than they are used to. It takes about 40 hours (or double the average) of play each week to reach Rank 11 (Commander / Lieutenant General) . More tellingly, it takes about 4 times the average play-time (or almost 80 hours) for a player to reach Rank 14 (Grand Marshal / High Warlord). That is more than 10 hours a day of game-play.
Server Sample: RP (High), PvE (High), PvE (High), PvP (High), PvP (High)
Sampling Period: One Week in October 2006
Sampling Resolution: ~12 minutes
Parsing Method: The sample unit is each unique character in each hour of the day.
Data Filter: None
Sample Size: 128,477 characters
Comments (10)
Although this model may predicts the behavior of unorganized players, the majority of top ranking players acheived their ranks in organized groups.
Also, how did you take into consideration that there are a large number of rank 13s who do not make it to rank 14?
Tyler
Could we get a boxplot for each rank please? Would be interesting to see the distribution of skill/luck in a player vs player endeavor.
Tyler – If the majority of players grind to high rank in organised groups, the majority of high rank players included in the graph will be those players. So that 80 hour a week average for Rank 13′s includes people playing in organised groups who give up before getting to Rank 14. Those that actually make it to rank 14 would need to play even more than that average!
Fascinating research. I had hoped to find a hole in the data collection, since the conclusions are way outside my expectations. But you seem to have done a great job on the study.
I am not at all surprised by the results since I know how much time I spent to get to Rank 11. After I did, it became crazy since the time needed for R12+ can be only available to people who do not do anything but play WoW, or by account sharing.
In addition, the skill of the player has little to do with the end result – its only the question of time (on my server 90% of R14s would play 16 or more hours per day after reaching Rank 12, and for many weeks in a row). Either way it just shows how flawed the whole system is. I hope the new Arena will be better, but I am sure it will still favor the fanatics.
I ask these questions for a very specific reason, and although we cannot tell from this data–from my experience, the people who actually attain rank 14 play less (on average) than those who attain only rank 13.
This of course may be skewed to due the specific attributes of the server of my greatest exposure. This server enforced a “honor point cap” which was a ceiling value that if exceeded by an individual, would result in that individual being banned from all organized PvP groups.
The effect of this organization of the system was an increased number of rank 14s.
This system though only existed on the alliance side of the server, the horde side was factioned and would not cooperate.
The horde consistently placed less rank 14s by week than the alliance, who would “wait in line.”
Although your graph/conclusions may adequately model the behavior of a disorganized community (such as the horde side of this server,) I am suspect of the same conclusions being drawn when the community is organized.
I should clarify a point I made before, by “top ranking” I meant rank 14 only.
On servers where there is a cap, it’s typically around 300,000 honor/week. Based on my experience and with an organized team that could cut the time requirement down to around 30-40 hours for rank 14, possibly a bit less. Still a LOT of time though.
Once you have reached a certain rank will u lose that rank and start over again if u don’t play say you were rank 5 and u didn’t play for a week would u go back to the start?
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October 24th, 2006 at 2:13am
Posted by Furies
Whoa my god. Is that really how long some people play this game? OMG, I’m in shock. I guess I knew that some people are dedicated, but I didn’t realize just how dedicated.