I've have finished 2 weeks of research by logging in daily into the majority of the most well know servers. I've divided these servers in to 2 groups, those running v2, and those running v1. The results for the two top servers were:

UTW (v1) - 27.3 average players online daily
ICE9 (v2) - 10.8 average players online daily

No other servers had an average above 4 players online.

From what I've gathered about both of these servers are that they are relatively easy to play.

Ice-9 attracts those who prefer to build, and like turn limit games.

UTW attracts those who don't care for the challenges of time and turn limit games. Unlim games are scripts playing scripts. A good place to come debug your scripts before taking them into more competitive games.

I doubt that the version of TWGS has much to do with players choosing to play one version over the other. Before v2 was released, I'd hazard to say that the player base was divided between these two servers pretty much as it is today.

Evidently you've never played a game at UTW. Almost half of the games on that server are turn games.
As far as time limit games, that feature doesn't work in v1 or v2. There are so many bugs that can be taken advantage of in both versions that it's not feasible to use that option.

Let me make you a list of some of the competition that plays at UTW today.

The Bounty Hunter (you remember him I'm sure, since you are using mombot)
Kewlbreeze
Big D
Lonestar
Rider
Farley
The Butcher
Zep
Locutis
Zip
Muss

I'm thinking that any on the list can run circles around you in any turn game on any edit, so think again.
Also many of the players on that list are playing there strictly because Sage is still running v1.03. If he upgrades I'm sure we'll find another server and others will follow.

I'm in a game there right now. * Yawn *

Pick and choose you games more selectively if you wish to have real competition.

I'll be nice, I could push some more buttons and help you to get banned again, but I won't.

The point is UTW had a larger player base than Ice-9 before v2. Your argument is mute.

Sorry, you can't push my buttons because I'm much better at this than you are.
The point is there are at least 10 regular players at UTW that would find another server running v1 if he ever upgrades. The 2nd point is that all servers had a much bigger player base before you came along and JP started working on v2. If you'd like a list of players that have left since you showd back up I can easily provide them.

Can't compare to the list of players that left between 2002 and 2010, the whole time you could only play v1.

The facts are, MORE people are playing and enjoying this game now that JP made it free. There are just less in public games... humm, I wonder why?

**** Fair Warning ****

Please keep this post on the original topic, lets not get too personal on either side. Thank you...

The fact is just a little over 2 years ago I did this same research and both servers had many more active players. I don't remember the exact numbers, but UTW had over 40 average players logged in NOT including the players that prefer to play v1 now. ICE9 had somewhere around 20, and there were several other servers that had around 10 to 20 like Rev's server, RP's server, Trader Vics server, etc...
Another fact is, in the last 2 years there have been at least 20 players leave this game due to the introduction of v2.
The amount of players on private servers makes no difference to this community or this topic, simply because they aren't part of this community and never were.

To be fair regarding ICE9's playerbase, I am sure a big part of that is that a little over a year ago I became a dad, so the time I have been able to dedicate to TW in general and ICE9 in particular has been reduced dramatically, and I have largely been an absentee sysop.

Let's keep perspective Sage refuses to upgrade to V2, not that I blame him. Prior to the Beta Sage had the highest number of active nodes compared to any other known server. In general if one was to reference the activity in this very forum as a indicator, the number of active players has dwindled drastically.

IMO your numbers are unfairly weighted to give you the desired result.

p.s. Good to see you back, what's this make 2 or 3 times you've sworn never to return

...Kidding

I'm not sure why you think I would argue this point. I agree totally that the player base has dwindled drastically since the introduction of v2. Even Sages player base has dwindled, but he has managed to hold on to more players than any other server simply because he is running v1.03.

Actually, SAGE loaded V2 and something went wrong with the way he archived or didn't archive the games and they all got corrupted. So I am not 100% sure but I always just guessed he went back to get it up and running quickly and then made the decision to stay since his loyal player based spoke up. I don't mind who runs what version, but if the Sysop is meeting the needs of his/her players then I really don't see the problem

You are partly correct toyman,but per a couple conversations I had with Sage a while ago. Sage try to contact JP many of times to get help with fixing the v2 issues and JP didnt even bother to contact him with support, not only that JP claimed to have been communicating with "all" the sysop and that was his driving force behind adding all the garbage to V2, and again JP never once asked Sage (The most popular server for the last 8 years) for input on developing V2.