Tkins, try coming on between, say, 4 pm and 1 am U.S. Eastern Standard Time.  I agree with you that ICO is a wee bit buggy.  A couple game setups were dumped out into the Lobby on me last night.

That is if the game doesnt fall apart midway through with players quitting left and right at the slightest sign of danger.

First, I was in that game.  To my perspective, it is an odd question to ask why is a game have 10 players when it is called a 4v4.  It would seem pretty obvious that the hosts gave it the wrong name.  Still, there was no need to give the reactions the other players give.  ICO have few enough players already without people being complete asses to new people. 

Second, it is pretty bad.  For a game that sold 500,000 copies, our online group is tiny.  Even 1% of the number sold would mean so much.  You can point out that 5000 players might be a bad thing for various reasons, but I think it can make searching for new games so much faster and allow players to find a niche for their play style.  It would be nice for me to go online and not face a choice of either be lucky and join a 5v5 immediately or if I miss out, wait an entire hour to join another one and then another hour to get a game started.  It seems these days that tvb is entirely dead now and pug is the only way and I have doubts on how effective it actually is. 

The only hope is in the future mini-expansions, but I fear all it will do is further divide the players and I have my doubts Ironclad will focus anything on multiplayer.  Why would they when 499,500 other players have either put the game on dusty shelves or playing single player?  Who would they cater?

@ #6 how is it an odd question? yes it might be a typing error but it is notlike the person came in and asked who was the dufus who can't label the game correctly (which would be slightly antagonistic to say the least)

One of the problems all such game services as ICO face (and i occurs with them all) is the complete lack of understanding towards new players. I remember back when I started playing FPS's online (quake and such like I feel old...) if you didn't know the maps inside out and back to front the abuse you got was terrible.

It does seem that tkins got the short end of some stupidity which is probably not typical of all online SOASE players (I hope not at least.) A bit more understanding/consideration would go a long way to boosting the numbers of players.

The other issue I have seen it in all types of games (not just SOASE but DOW and all FPS) whereby players who prefer a more thoughtful/defensive game are pillared as if they are spoiling it for all the rambo/impatint types out there (called camping./turtling or more offensive terms depending upon genre I even saw it with online sports games where it was moaned i was too defense orientated and should be more aggresive even if it meant conceeding points despite winning more often then not through my style.) This is the main reason I don't play SOASE online is because I am quite happy to turtle along playing it safe and a game can happily last 9/10 hours on a reasonable sized map.

I would not think that the style of play I use would suit ICO as too many players would be wanting a quicker game.

tis a strange one to be sure but the bad treament of new players combined with the differing attitudes towarsd play style will ultimately keep the online crowd for this genre fairly small i feel.

Buttons - the 10 hour games are the best ones, actually. 

Agreed.  I love the fact that I don't feel rushed when playing.  It's very leisurely, which allows me to consider all of my options.

As to online play, I generally play with a few of my friends, so what I usually do is call them up on the phone and ask if they wanna get a match of Sins in.  But yes, I will say that the online crowd seems a little standoffish.  When I go into a lobby, nobody is really chatting.  Back when I played Homeworld, everybody was really friendly towards each other.  It was easy to shoot the shit with that group of people.  What doesn't make sense it that a lot of those same people play Sins. I think that if perhaps things were more social in the lobbies and what-not, everything else would come naturally.

So here's what I think would be a good idea: Anybody who wants to really bolster the online experience can post the username they use on ICO, so that others can friend request them and meet up online.

Suppose I should start... My username: Gr33nF00t

Hope to see you folks online

I think most people that bought sins thought it was a 4x tbs type of game when its not.So they are all playing sp when they really dont know how much fun they are missing out on.Just as you are use to "playing it safe" and turtling you can get use to online playstyle and have a blast.I was like that but I put enuf time into mp and I cant hardly stand to play the ai cause its so predictable,easy, and boring.

Quote SennKS:  When I go into a lobby, nobody is really chatting.  Back when I played Homeworld, everybody was really friendly towards each other.  It was easy to shoot the shit with that group of people.  What doesn't make sense it that a lot of those same people play Sins. I think that if perhaps things were more social in the lobbies and what-not, everything else would come naturally.

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That's weird because I see people chat in the Lobby channel all the time and espeically in game setup channels.  It's possible that people just minimize Sins and check their email or surf the Internet while they're waiting for games to come available.  I do know that I idle a lot.

I really think these perceptions about how people are unfriendly and miserable are inaccurate.  There are a couple jerks out there, but there are also some very friendly people out there as well and I think the number of friendly people outweigh the jerks.[/quote]

Honestly I stopped using ICO all together. When me and my friends want to play we run the game through Hamachi. We play almost every night starting at midnight eastern time. We're always looking for new players and if anyone wants to join they should contact me.

my skype name is: carkarias

Mine is Flamelord, although I don't know how often you'll see me online.

Shockingly enough, my ICO screenname is KerrekCruiser.

Most people online are a bunch of prudes, oh well. An Teachtaire is my name and turtling is my game. The longer the game the better, there is a "save" function after all.