Greetings Durans,

I wanted to offer some clarity to everyone. People have messaged us over the last couple weeks concerned about player account, particularly since the release of our new client. Allow me to address this now.

Player count is down unquestionably. Real player count is down slightly from it's highest recorded levels. Player count is the number of 'characters' that appear online at a given time. Real player count is the number of actual people playing Dura. While real player count has slightly fallen as I've stated, there are various reasons for it, all of which we believe will swing back the other direction (upward) in time. On top of that we at Dura have so much coming soon to offer players a better, more expanded experience. Content, content, content, and more than you think :wink:

However what I am here to do is touch on 'player count' -- not 'real player count'. Player count is undeniably down and these are the main reasons why:

1) Cheating or Policy of Fair Gameplay.

u In the world of OTs it is essential to remember that near ALL games (which have a high 'number of players') allow, support, and even encourage what we call 'cheating'. These include Multi-Clienting, Gold Buying and Selling, Account Buying and Selling, Account Sharing, and more. We at Dura do not.
u Of the few games that do prohibit 'cheating' near NONE actually enforce it. We do.
u Both of these above points combine to artificially inflate a game's player count. Some servers have as high as 6 to 1 ratios of 'fake real player count'.
u When Dura actually made good on our rules and enforced them it not only deleted many accounts causing those responsible for them not to continue, lowering count. It did more. It did what we wanted. It effectively made all those who considered, for example, gold-selling, which on some servers will account for as much as 30-50% of the population, player count, to look for other waters seeing it not worth their time to sell on Dura. Thus also causing a drop in buyers, player count. It also told players to take rules seriously -- those who were upset they couldn't play in these manners of violation left for a game that would allow it.

2) New Client prohibits cheating.

Some may have noticed that when the new client was released it was synonymous with fall in 'player count'. This new client, though it has its bugs, which are being worked out is state of the art on many fronts. This includes security or anti-cheating. The old client allowed cheating if the user was advanced in the ways to do so, injection, bot-creation, etc. The New Client's defensive measures are far more capable. As soon as the New Client was mandatory we undoubtedly closed the doors for many more advanced cheating methods, immediately lowering player count because they could not log in in such a capacity.



The proof in what I am saying is if you actually walk around Dura you may notice that not too much feels that different from the days of 250 'players'. You still see and pass people in the street, in the depot, and in spawns all day on a regular basis, and the trade market is active as ever. This is because real player count was largely unaffected. Dura is still healthy and active, and now free from cheating and will remain so. We have so many things on the way for players to enjoy. And we stand by what we always have said -- Dura will never ever reset.


Regards
Dura Staff