VOOT seems dead

Discuss the Virtual-On series.
Post Reply
User avatar
Porcupine
Virtual-On Positive
Posts: 594
Joined: 19 Jul 2012, 19:07

VOOT seems dead

Post by Porcupine »

I am sad, the last couple weeks I have really felt like playing VOOT seriously again but suddenly the majority of Japanese players have deserted the game. I have stayed up many nights and not found a single opponent as of late. I'm willing to declare VOOT stone cold dead at this point. Anyone can verify this to some extent by checking the Leaderboards for replays. There are only 1 to 3 replays uploaded each new day. I noticed this was starting to happen a couple weeks before VOOM released, then when VOOM released there was no major drop in Japanese VOOT players right away. But a few weeks later and suddenly everyone is gone.

I was really hoping to be able to get decently competent at VOOT since I discovered the 360 version half a year ago, but I guess the game's lifespan is up and I won't be able to finish getting to my goal. :(

I'll still be playing of course, but without the skill and variety of the Japanese competition I guess I'll only be a scrubby player forever.
User avatar
MentholMoose
Virtual-On Positive
Posts: 2045
Joined: 15 Dec 2008, 22:06
Gamertag: MentholMoose
PSN: MentholMoose_
Location: California
Contact:

Re: VOOT seems dead

Post by MentholMoose »

It's too bad you didn't hear about the game earlier. When it first hit XBLA in 2009, there were hundreds if not thousands of Japanese players playing at all hours. Many of them wouldn't play US players (I assume) due to lag, but being in Hawaii I'd guess you have slightly better connectivity to Japan and would have been able to get more games than CONUS players. I was able to play a decent number of ranked matches (IIRC ~2000) in the first few months and got pretty good (IMO much better than in the SHGL days), but it was extremely frustrating to 1) never get challenged in rank mode and 2) be rejected when you challenged someone else 90% of the time.

Even with the ranked lobby completely full of players, it would take me 5-10 minutes of challenging random people to finally get someone to accept. And then win or lose they would leave negative rep. In Socal I can get one and occasionally two bars to Japanese players, but apparently that wasn't good enough. Maybe a consistent two bars and occasional three would be beneficial. Anyway, some players will probably migrate back to VOOT when they get bored of OMG (it is even older than VOOT after all), so don't give up hope.
MentholMoose
User avatar
Porcupine
Virtual-On Positive
Posts: 594
Joined: 19 Jul 2012, 19:07

Re: VOOT seems dead

Post by Porcupine »

Wow, it's amazing to hear that there were that many players when VOOT first released. In any case I had no complaints with finding diverse Japanese competition until the last few weeks; as long as I stayed up all night to play during Japan peak hours I was fine.

I suspect that the Japanese players got less picky with lag, the less popular the game got. These days it is somewhat uncommon to be rejected by any Japanese player, even a top one. I only accumulated a few negative reps from VOOT. However, I got blasted in Force. I racked up about 20 negative reps in my first two nights playing. But after that I never got any more, and the majority of Force players welcomed me in the end. Force is more brutal because the netcode is more sensitive to an unstable connection (more disconnects and jerking games) even though it usually responds just as quickly as VOOT.

Hawaii doesn't have better connectivity to Japan than the West Coast, which is disappointing. Neoken said he gets 2 to 3 bars to Japan. I only get 0 to 1 bars, never seen 2. Apparently most of the undersea cables route Hawaii through California before going to Japan. The bars don't matter too much to me though anyway. We've debated this while playing VOOT...I think there is a big variance in both 0 bar and 3 bar connections. My 0 bar connections to Japan are not bad at all. Meanwhile, my 3 bar connection to neoken isn't anything to brag about, it responds hardly any quicker than my 1 bar connections to the East Coast. And within Hawaii, my 3 bar connection to BOKU NO PICO (Tiera) was lousy, it was the same mediocre response time as to neoken. However, my 3 bar matches with BC 8o8 (Point Blank) in Hawaii were instantaneous, I measured approximately 1 frame of lag.
Graalof1ce
Member
Posts: 18
Joined: 15 May 2009, 17:34
Gamertag: Skydriverice

Re: VOOT seems dead

Post by Graalof1ce »

It's no more dead or alive than it was a few years ago when I jumped on the bandwagon. If you're concerned with getting better, yeah I can see why you're depressed. But there's always people willing to play the game, just find me or neoken or someone else, make a party, and send out invites.

Besides, like Moose said, I can never seem to get japanese players to play with me whenever I tried.
User avatar
neoKEN
Virtual-On Positive
Posts: 380
Joined: 02 May 2009, 16:23
Gamertag: neoKEN360
Location: Cali

Re: VOOT seems dead

Post by neoKEN »

To me, VOOT is no more or less dead than a year ago. As long as I have someone to play, the game is never dead. VO is a niche game so I accept there is not a lot of activity. It's not popular like Street Fighter 4. Fortunately I always have someone to play. Not only do I have someone to play, I'm thankful that the quality of players are strong too.

Today (3/10) there is a page full of Japanese replays on the leaderboards. It is random how many shows up. The replays do not always represent activities. Typically, the replays are uploaded because something interesting happens (ex. winning with style). Few are just simply 'wins' so that has an effect on how often replays are uploaded. Many plays in private parties such as what I do. I rarely ever play public games.

There are always players, but finding them and the language barrier is a problem. In the past, several Japanese players sent me friend's request. A few I had to removed because my list was getting full! I find new western players almost every other week, but to retain & train them is a lot of work and I'm busy lately.

I get an average of 1 bar to Japan. 1 is the minimum then it can go up to 3 bars (max).
VR: Bal-bados, Angelan, ALL.
See you on IRC! Server: EFNET Channel: #VIRTUALON
Virtual-On Videos from Japan, NA, & EU http://www.youtube.com/xneoken
User avatar
MentholMoose
Virtual-On Positive
Posts: 2045
Joined: 15 Dec 2008, 22:06
Gamertag: MentholMoose
PSN: MentholMoose_
Location: California
Contact:

Re: VOOT seems dead

Post by MentholMoose »

Porcupine wrote:Wow, it's amazing to hear that there were that many players when VOOT first released.
Yeah it was great, the ranked lobby was full almost 24/7. Getting rejected all the time was annoying but at least there were people to challenge. But after a while it was only full during Japanese evening hours, and it was hard for me to get matches except on weekends. Around the same time I stopped playing regularly, mainly because I felt that my skills hit a wall, and that improving further would be difficult even if I was able to keep playing a lot.
MentholMoose
wen
Newbie
Posts: 3
Joined: 15 Mar 2013, 07:20

Re: VOOT seems dead

Post by wen »

It's sad to read this, but I hope I'm not too late to see you guys online! Getting an xbox soon, so till then!
Graalof1ce
Member
Posts: 18
Joined: 15 May 2009, 17:34
Gamertag: Skydriverice

Re: VOOT seems dead

Post by Graalof1ce »

wen wrote:It's sad to read this, but I hope I'm not too late to see you guys online! Getting an xbox soon, so till then!
Personally, I rarely play the game unless it's an xbox live party. So send out some friend invites when you get your xbox and you'll be good.
wen
Newbie
Posts: 3
Joined: 15 Mar 2013, 07:20

Re: VOOT seems dead

Post by wen »

Ok, got my xbox and voot, next xbox live gold (seriously?) and I'll be online. See you all soon!
Testament/Seven7
Virtual-On Positive
Posts: 372
Joined: 23 Mar 2009, 12:40
Location: Deep South Texas

Re: VOOT seems dead

Post by Testament/Seven7 »

Sorry i've been away so long myself *blows the dust off the place* but i'm "still" waiting to get another xbox 360.

As soon as i get that situated...sometime this year hopefully, then i'll gladly help to bring voot player numbers back up.
Marz First Lt. Testament, Temjin pilot

Xbox live gamertag: Lt Testament
User avatar
neoKEN
Virtual-On Positive
Posts: 380
Joined: 02 May 2009, 16:23
Gamertag: neoKEN360
Location: Cali

Re: VOOT seems dead

Post by neoKEN »

Seems that Porcupine didn't updated this thread. There were a ton of people online last week from Japan. Today I was in an almost full Japanese party where they were streaming their matches.
VR: Bal-bados, Angelan, ALL.
See you on IRC! Server: EFNET Channel: #VIRTUALON
Virtual-On Videos from Japan, NA, & EU http://www.youtube.com/xneoken
User avatar
Porcupine
Virtual-On Positive
Posts: 594
Joined: 19 Jul 2012, 19:07

Re: VOOT seems dead

Post by Porcupine »

Yeah on some days there were a ton of people, actually the most I had ever seen. And lots of leaderboard replays uploaded that day. But on other days everyone still seems to be gone, and the next day there are only a few new replays. So I'm hopeful but still not ready to declare this game resuscitated.

Force has been unaffected by this, though. I haven't noticed any drop in Force players since I first played the game. The active Force population has always been almost completely separate from the VOOT population.
Exorcet
Member
Posts: 44
Joined: 29 Dec 2009, 08:20

Re: VOOT seems dead

Post by Exorcet »

I've been side tracked by other stuff, but if you see me on, just invite and I'll probably show up for games.

VOOM honestly seems worse than VOOT, but maybe I'm just unlucky.
User avatar
twistedsymphony
Virtual-On Positive
Posts: 212
Joined: 25 Feb 2013, 16:46
Gamertag: twistedsymphony
Location: NH, USA
Contact:

Re: VOOT seems dead

Post by twistedsymphony »

So I finally got around to buying the XBLA Version of VOOT... I haven't seen a soul available for online play.

I'd like to at very least get the achievements for playing 10 ranked matches so if anyone is interested in playing let me know...

Also I've discovered I'm pretty horrible I haven't really played since VOOT was still new and then I was using twin sticks, not a controller.
Post Reply