There are a whole lot of MMOs out there today. WoW, EQ2, EVE, Final Fantasy XI… the list goes on and on and on. Of course, an MMORPG is nothing without it’s players. Which begs the question: what do you do when you can’t find anybody on your server to play with?

This may not seem like a huge issue with some of the aforementioned MMOs but with many others it is a considerable cause for concern. Games like Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, Matrix Online, and even City of Heroes (some servers) can suffer from a severe lack of players. I don’t know about you, but when I can’t find anybody decent to play with on my current MMO of choice I usually abandon the cause. There is no reason to play, let alone pay to play, these games when you aren’t getting the most out of it (i.e. multiplayer). Never fear though, by following a few precautionary steps you can very easily avoid wasting money and time on games that have too little of a population.

1. Do your research. If you read about any possible financial trouble for the company that usually doesn’t spell anything good about the population levels for the game.
2. Starting near the beginning of a game’s life will usually ensure that a healthy population will be around for at least a little while. Case and point, City of Heroes had a much larger population back when it launched as opposed to today, as is typical of most MMOs these days.
3. Friends help. Can’t find anybody to play with in-game? Drag some of your buddies in with you!
4. Finally, the rule of thumb is that if an MMO is over five years of age chances are there won’t be a solid “newbie” population to play with. More than likely everybody will be at the higher levels at this point. There are servers on WoW that suffer from this.

So there you have it. I’m not trying to keep you guys from playing any specific MMORPGs out there. I am just attempting to help you avoid situations as such. If you are primarily a solo player then disregard this entirely. Just remember, if there is one thing that can ruin an MMORPG faster than buggy gameplay it is the community, and when there is no community there is no game.

Thanks for reading.