Google trends - comparison with other games

[VS]

We are doing quite well! One interesting fact is the slow decline in freeciv, which is quite surprising since it's rather addictive and polished, too. Freecol still didn't pass us, but openttd has us ouperformed by magnitude of an order, grrr....

Oh, and notice the charts below that clearly show we Czechs are a free-gaming world power

http://www.google.com/trends?q=openttd%2C+simutrans%2C+wesnoth%2C+freeciv%2C+freecol&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

Well, looking again at the graph, I see mostly stagnation and small fluctuations...

[Ashley]

Interesting, wasn't really aware of freecol or wesnoth. Got to love these old-school isometric games (maybe one day my own one will rank up there with these xD).

And OTTD has the big advantage of being a clone of a massively successful commercial game, which can help to explain a lot of its popularity...

[sojo]

Many internetuser don't know "Simutrans". So they can't it search.

I think simutrans need a pushing in the serps. I will do what I can with my website. But many websites form Simutrans are not optimized for searchengines like google.

Next problem all projects have one main page. Simutrans has a lot good sites. And the links distribute the power to different pages. So don't grow up no page to the top of results.

[Colin]

Many internetuser don't know "Simutrans". So they can't it search.

I think simutrans need a pushing in the serps. I will do what I can with my website. But many websites form Simutrans are not optimized for searchengines like google.

Next problem all projects have one main page. Simutrans has a lot good sites. And the links distribute the power to different pages. So don't grow up no page to the top of results.

170 THOUSAND hits for current search on Google

[DirrrtyDirk]

I can even top that (though I have no idea where that number comes from - see below):

Quote from my search result via the google toolbar:
"Ergebnisse 1 - 12 von ungefähr 293.000 für simutrans." [DE]
-> "Results 1 - 12 of about 293,000 for simutrans." [EN]

But you know what's funny? If I just change the interface language "Display Google tips and messages in:" to English, the number drops to 169000 - back to German and again 293000. Both times leaving the option "Search for pages written in any language" enabled.

But when I manually open up google.de and search for "simutrans" there (with the settings to German like above) I get "only" the 169000 hits again.

And just now, before even posting this, my original method suddenly "only" brings 171000 hits, too... 

I fear my Google-Fu isn't strong enough for me to solve this puzzle.


Anyway... ~170000 hits is quite amazing! (I was so surprised by that number that I just had to check it myself - just to see it with my own eyes, not because I doubt you, dear Colin  - And that's when the above happened.)

[prissi]

Well, 170000 that is essentiall every forum page from simutrans.de/com/... and so on. (In google trends the "christmas peaks" of OpenTTD and Simutrans are interesting too. And why freetrain does not appear at all?

And I consider http://simutrans.sourceforge.net/ the current official Simutrans page, until somebody does something better.

[VS]

Freetrain is written for DirectX and in Japanese. Thus to make it theoretically interesting outside its starting niche, one has to a) translate and b) change code. Whoops. I know there was a sourceforge project for this, but didn't get to the glorious end. And they actually chose mono as framework, so...

[sojo]

Estimated clicks per month
for "Simutrans" at google 689
for "freeciv" 86
for "wesnoth" 431
"openttd" 0

"freeware" 438297
"freeware games" 22247
"simcity 3000" 9998
"simcity" 9653

You can see. We have a few users from searchengines. That can be better. But we the best from the rest! I mean from this free games.

[Colin]

I can even top that (though I have no idea where that number comes from - see below):

I just brought up the standard Google search page, entered Simutrans and that's what it came up with. Just done it again with he same results. I suppose a lot of the hits will be for the various forums and also a lot of the posts on those forums. Nothing is hidden from Big Brother, he is always watching you. -... . .-- .- .-. .

[Spartanis]

I have tried OTTD, followed their steps for installation on Ubuntu Linix, but alas, nothing works.. however, Simutrans makes it so much easy to install, update and play.. whilst OTTD, makes it harder.. Im sure Simutrans would outrank OTTD soon

[prissi]

I am sure Simutrans would outrank OTTD soon.

Since this is "fighting" against a well know game, it is very unlikely. Maybe on Unix (and certainly Simutrans is nearly a monoploly on BeOS) but unlikely on windows. ANd with netgames getting more and more important, SImutrans would need a multiplayermode to compete.

[Spartanis]

Since this is "fighting" against a well know game, it is very unlikely. Maybe on Unix (and certainly Simutrans is nearly a monoploly on BeOS) but unlikely on windows. ANd with netgames getting more and more important, SImutrans would need a multiplayermode to compete.

That i understand. And yes. it would need such multi player online mode to even begin to compete with such giant. However, Simutrans isn't about competition. Its about the love of creating and playing them. THATS what makes it successful..  specially the artwork involved in some paks

[Václav]

If I see right, texts of topics' replies are bit out of topic. May be I did not understand topic name right but I think it is about comparing games between each other?

So here are some comments (all of these called games are for Windows only, grrr - but I still use only Windows):

TTD:

graphics: small tile
monorail and maglev: they replace previous tracks within very short time (from while of appearing new track to disappearing previous track is very short time)
rail stations: max. number of platforms (but they are surrounding track) is 4; so it is in need to stick many ones to each other to increase number of tracks
number of goods: there are very low number types of goods (similar to Simutrans - but there are some other goods because some goods like paper have own category)
number of chains: very low - but there are some else chains (for example gold from mines to banks)
politics: removing city buildings decreases your rate and if it falls too much, you can kill yourself in that city because you won't do any more there
enemies: you can buy them in four steps (four times twenty five percent of company)

LM (Locomotion, successor of TTD by same company):

graphics: larger tiles than in TTD - it is better for screens with large resolution (and why it not should be if it is recent game); curves are curves
monorail and maglev: not present in basic game; maglev could be dowloaded in two versions (TransRapid and japanese model)
rail stations: limited by 80 tiles per station - if you want to stick airport, you have to hope station is not larger than 79 tiles
number of goods: very similar to TTD; some goods disappeared, else goods are new
number of chains: similar to previous list item
politics: similar to TTD, but your rate could be improved by city mass transport web (mainly by trams)
trains: some trains has behavior of their real patterns (they are going much faster through curves)
enemies: better to play without them; it is hard to manage them to make bankrupt and you cannot buy them

TG (Transport Giant; made by JoWood from Austria):

graphics: very specific terrain (mostly flat), curves are curves - but you can't build long curve - only few radius there are and long curves has to be built by sticking by many those curves to each other
monorail and maglev: they are present in game but they are not replacing previous tracks - you can build classic track by monorail and maglev - but there is minor problem with crossings and replacing with classic tracks by monorail and maglev
rail stations: they are built similary to TTD - but you can add next platforms up to max. number 32 in datadisk (I built only max. 13 platforms - in map of Bospor)
number of goods: very great
number of chains: very great but strange product rate is there (from one unit of steel you get one small hammer)
politics: not implemented but cities are growing across your rail tracks - and you cannot remove most of them; it causes problems with building monorails and maglevs instead classic rails
trains: most ones are based on real ones but names (and sometimes face is made bit different) are changed; you don't need to set waggon type - it is replaced automatically with goods change; you see how much goods (pieces of chosen good) vehicle can load for moving by the highest speed
enemies: you can buy them but you must do it in one step (and mostly you need to have at least two times more money than bought company) - in special config file you can add own names of companies (and then you must be lucky to meet them - if you did not delete pre-written ones)

IG2 (Industry giant 2, made by same company as TG):
in this game are money made by quite else way than in Simutrans, TTD, LM and TG - here you must sell own produced goods in own shops built in cities

... so I will describe this game only if somebody will ask me for it.

[prissi]

I am not sure, this is really good to compare like this, because you are comparing commercial games with an hobby effort. However some comments:

First goods in simutrans are fundamentally different from the counterpart in TTD (and the most recent ECS-vektor uses simutrans graphics for their factories for achieve more goods ... ) Also the maximum number of categories in TTD is 16 while in simutrans you can have 256, and these can have freely grouped subcategrories. Pak128 has much more industries than any TTD-variant.

Locomotion also uses 64 pixel tiles. It just uses larger images for engines and houses. (This is the main reason, why Locomation maps are so small: The are already 1024*1024 but feel like 256*256 ... )

You also missing depots and the need to regularly replace engines in the game for TTD and Locomotion.

Transport Giant maps were not nearly flat, they were flat. Flat, and any mountain was like a building. Also you had to follow a very specific compain train, and had to go through lots of horses and steam trains until things get interesting.

I would thing you should rather add some "Freedom of Play" category, i.e. how much the game forces you on a certain style. And some Micromanagement would be nice. I.e. TTD and Locomotion (in the plain vaiant) require a lot of micromanagment. ANd building lines with Locomotion and TG is a pain ...

[IgorEliezer]

Topic was split:

Simutrans sites discussion
http://forum.simutrans.com/index.php?topic=624.0

[prissi]

I just tested the old link and simutrans does not generate any counts in Google. Did google removed simutrans from their ranking index?

[gauthier]

ST is counted in the lower part of the page.

[prissi]

Maybe I get a different page as you. Entering only simutrans give too few count to generate statistics it says ...

[VS]

It might be that many people get Simutrans from repositories, so they don't search for it any more.

[prissi]

The search history gets seven years back and contained about 170000 or so, as I found in an older link on TT-forums.net. Thus it seems simutrans went away, while OpenTTD somehow stayed in chache (but only from 2007 on?!?!) Very weird that.

[gauthier]

Perhaps a general poll on a general forum about these simulation games would be much more revelant than google search history.