PlayOn: Server Differences Archives

March 12, 2007

PvP vs. PvE: Pressure to Level

After looking at the data on general post-BC leveling patterns and speed, we wondered whether the post-60 distribution would differ between PvP and PvE servers. I suggested that it might be harder to level on a PvP server because of the general level of ganking and interference. Eric suggested that the potential for ganking would actually encourage PvP players to level as fast as possible - especially to stay ahead of the level curve. The data showed that Eric was right.

On both PvP and PvE servers, roughly 20% of the population was level 61 and above, but the distribution was significantly different. Players on PvP servers tended to be higher level than players on PvE servers. The graph below shows how clean that break is. The difference is especially clear for level 65 and above, and particularly for level 70.

Now, one alternative explanation is that players who prefer PvP are more competitive and quicker levelers to begin with. Unfortunately, the current data set can't tease apart those two explanations, but it does appear that Eric's argument is better supported by the data than mine.

Server Sample: RP (High), PvE (High), PvE (High), PvP (High), PvP (High)
Sampling Period: January 17th 2007 - January 31st 2007
Sampling Resolution: ~12 minutes
Parsing Method: All characters above level 60.
Sample Size: 24,565 characters

Posted by nickyee at 01:15 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack

August 01, 2005

PvP Server Differences (Part 2)

Server Sample: RP (High), PvE (Medium), PvE (High), PvP (High)
Sampling Period: 6/30/2005 2:00 am - 7/07/2005 2:00 am
Sampling Resolution: ~14 minutes
Parsing Method: The sample unit is each unique character. Each character was tracked across the server logs. Total playing time, lowest observed level, highest observed level, guild affiliation, and zones seen in were parsed.
Data Filter: None
Sample Size: 106,762 characters

Here, we continue the PvP server differences findings.

Grouping Ratio

Characters on the PvP server were observed to be in a group more often than characters not on PvP servers. Overall, the difference was about 30% vs. 25%. The increased grouping ratio seems to be reflected across all 60 levels.

Level Progress

We calculated the level progression that each observed character made over the one week period. Characters on PvP servers made a significantly higher, but marginal, difference over the one week period than the other servers.

Leveling Time

Messages on forums seemed to suggest that it was harder and took longer to level on PvP servers than on non-PvP servers. While we did find a significant difference, it was almost in the opposite direction. Characters on the PvP server leveled faster than most of the other servers. In fact, perhaps the need to level is more salient on PvP servers than non-PvP servers and outweighs the difficulty of leveling.

Posted by nickyee at 10:40 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack

July 28, 2005

PvP Server Difference (Part 1)

We now have data from a PvP server so we wanted to list some of the PvP vs. non-PvP server findings. Overall, the differences were surprisingly small. The differences may be driven by the idiosyncrasies of the PvP server we chose. We are gathering data on a second PvP server so we'll know whether that is true soon.

Playing Time

Characters on the PvP server played about an hour more (~ 70 mins) over the one week period than characters from the RP and the two PvE servers. The average character play-time in this sample was 11.2 hours, so that's about a 10% difference of the mean.

Guild Involvement

While we might have expected that characters on PvP servers may be more inclined to be in a guild (for safety in numbers, etc.), the data didn't bear this out. Overall, guild involvement rates were comparable across server types. Characters on the RP server were slightly less likely to be involved in a guild at the lower levels.

Guild Size

We might have also expected that guilds in PvP servers would be larger in general given the demands on survival. This also didn't bear out with the data. We created a list of every guild that was observed and the total number of unique characters observed to have that guild tag. There were significant differences, but it was between the PvE (high) server and the RP (high) server.

Posted by nickyee at 04:07 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

July 20, 2005

Leveling Time By Server

Server Sample: RP (High), PvE (Medium), PvE (High)
Sampling Period: 6/13/2005 9:00 am - 6/20/2005 9:00 am
Sampling Resolution: ~14 minutes
Parsing Method: The sample unit is leveling event. We tabulate the time between a character's level and when we observe them at a new level. We exclude the first leveling event from every character because it doesn't constitute the total amount of time to make that level.
Data Filter: None
Sample Size: 81,887 leveling events

Is leveling time comparable across servers? We ran an ANCOVA with Server as the independent variable, Leveling Time as the dependent variable, and Level as the Covariate. The effect of Server was significant (p = .001). The PvE (Medium) server had lower leveling time than the PvE (High) and the RP (High) servers.

Between levels 1-20, the difference is about 15 minutes per level (13% faster). Between levels 21-40, it's about 87 minutes per level (19% faster). And between levels 41-60, it's 192 minutes per level (about 21% faster).

We're not sure whether we're looking at general variation across servers or a function of server size (medium vs. high population servers). The server size hypothesis seems to make sense. It may be easier to complete quests and gain access to mobs on a less populated server. Hopefully, future data will help clarify these findings.

Posted by nickyee at 10:28 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

June 18, 2005

Does guild size vary across server types?

Server Sample: RP (High), PvE (Medium), PvE (High)
Sampling Period: 6/2/2005 6:00 pm - 6/7/2005 3:00 am
Sampling Resolution: ~16 minutes
Parsing Method: The sample unit is each unique character. Each character was tracked across the server logs. Total playing time, lowest observed level, highest observed level, guild affiliation, and zones seen in were parsed.
Data Filter: Only characters who are in a guild.
Sample Size: 34,914 characters

From the parsed logs, we calculated the size of every observed guild. The size of a guild was defined as the number of different characters observed to have that guild tag over the sampling period (4 days and 9 hours). Thus, we were able to know the guild size of every character in the parsed data.

We ran an ANCOVA with Server as the independent variable, Guild Size as the dependent variable, and Lowest Observed Level as the covariate. The effect of Server was significant (p < .001, effect size = .05) and the Guild Size of each server was significantly different from each other (p's < .001).

See graph below for Guild Size by Server across Levels. Both PvE servers have larger guilds than the RP server. The high population PvE server has larger guilds than the medium population PvE server.

It is not clear however whether we're looking at a genuine difference between RP and PvE servers, or that guild size fluctuates among servers in general. Also, it could both be the case that server size affects guild size or that larger guilds prefer to migrate to certain serevr types. Hopefully, as we get more data from other servers, this will become more clear.

Posted by nickyee at 02:58 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack