I don't talk about the number of maps released but about the amount of awards the botw maps have, which has really decreased

perhaps awards are not the most important thing in TM anymore...

today i played on ppo with around 25-30 people. this reminds me a bit on TMU days

It's really an awesome environnment.

But, hey, no one bought it. Only 7000 players all over the world played at least once on the solo campain: it's just amazingly small. I got 11th of my own country (France) on one map, even though my time wasn't that awesome. When I go in the multiplayer part, only one or two servers are active.

Valley got released 3 weeks ago, so, what's happening? Can it be explained because of the summer holidays? I have never seen so few people, canyon got a much bigger success at this beginning (for the amount of people playing it as for the activity here on maniaexchange)

... says:
Online Players by Game
ShootMania Storm 210
TrackMania Stadium 199
TrackMania Canyon 78
TrackMania Valley 49
Other Titles 4

+1.

There's this key work called marketing that seems to have become exempt from the dictionary.

FT»Joyeux says:
It's really an awesome environnment.

But, hey, no one bought it. Only 7000 players all over the world played at least once on the solo campain: it's just amazingly small. I got 11th of my own country (France) on one map, even though my time wasn't that awesome. When I go in the multiplayer part, only one or two servers are active.

Valley got released 3 weeks ago, so, what's happening? Can it be explained because of the summer holidays? I have never seen so few people, canyon got a much bigger success at this beginning (for the amount of people playing it as for the activity here on maniaexchange)

The reason is simple. The age of releasing games seperately has ended. Nobody wants to switch between 3 different Trackmania games - they want it all in one package. Trackmania 2 is going to have a fragmented and small community, because Nadeo already screwed it up with their Maniaplanet system. The only way to save Trackmania 2 and incease the number of people playing, is to unite the three environments, just like the three environments were united in the two previous titles.

But of course, they're not going to do that. Nadeo are too proud to admit they made a big mistake with this Maniaplanet system, and it will be the end of them. But I foresaw this happening way back when Canyon was first released. The truth of that prophecy are quite telling now that we can see just how few people are playing Valley.

Really, Nadeos top priority right now, if they wish to save their community, should be to

1) Convert Trackmania 2 into a full game instead of three seperate games
2) Make each of the environments part of the "full game", as to allow people who only wish to buy one or two environments to do so
3) Rename the game Trackmania 2, re-release it for 30 bucks and market the everloving shit out of it

What's stopping Trackmania 2 from gaining momentum right now is the fragmentation of the community. There's nothing helping bind the three environments together. So people see their favourite environment dying and they just stop playing, because they can't access the others without buying them. This is bad. This is very bad. I've been playing these games since 2004 and I haven't even bought the two new environments, because I know I'll just be joining a fragmented community that has no chance of growing because of Nadeo's absolutely bonkers business decisions. I have to wonder what was going through their heads when they figured that splitting up Trackmania 2 into three games would be a good idea. Did they expect the same kind of popularity Trackmania Nations enjoyed? Do they not understand that the popularity of Nations was not beacuse of it being a single environment, but because of it being an outstanding game released for free at a time where most people were poor and the racing genre was practically dead?

I love Trackmania as much as all of ya'll, but things have to change or it won't last for much longer.

^ this. but with 100% possibility nadeo won't do that.

You are right, but this is not the only reason I think.

First, you say nadeo, but I am pretty sure that ubisoft is more responsible of this decision then nadeo. ^^

What I also add to your point is that, this fragmented game comes in piece every year. First, people had to play with only one environnment, and then they had to wajit for 2 years before having simply another one: that's too much. Canyon is not stadium, and isn't free, so they couldn't hope to hold the players for so long: the players left, started to play other games because they were bored to wait, and maniaplanet already started to fall down.

Another point that is way more subjective is that trackmania 2 is too realistic. The environnments themselves are really great, but the builder is extremely restricted because all the blocks are too normal, too narrow, can be used in only one way and no other one, etc. Both car physics are also not as fun as island's or bay ones, they are too similar between each other and it seems only speedtech is really viable in both enviro. Obviously we have seen innovative tracks, and FS ones, but nothing compared to TMUF. This is my personal feeling about it, of course ^^

FT»Joyeux says:
*things*

Solid observations, and I agree completely with on your thoughts, too. I'm crossing my fingers for the future success of Trackmania. This series of games has kept me coming back for more for literally a decade now. The only other game that has ever done that for me is Counter-Strike - but that is more alive than it has ever been.

yeah, I agree. The only community I've ever come to know for TM is MX, unrelated to Nadeo. However it is the best gaming community I've ever found.

Nonetheless . . . This needs to be taken elsewhere. Not that I disagree -- in fact I agree almost entirely -- but it's not very constructive here on MX.