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How do people justify WOW players being their first mmorpg?.
Thebigbopper
Member Posts: 114
I find it intriguing how many people say that most WOW players that play it is their first mmorpg. I have played it a long time and the majority i have guilded with came from other games. I personally have played AC,AC2 as well as tried DAOC,Shadowbane and a couple of others. I was playing a game called Spellbinder by Mythic when DAOC was in its infancy.
Whole guilds have come from other games and i don't give much credence to the people who say these things. The majority of players from my experience played another mmorpg before WOW!.
Comments
Ok, tell me... HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?
Before WoW the number of subscribers was around 6.500.000 (from mmodata) WoW has 9.000.000 subscribers. AFter WoW was released the number of subscribers in other games actually dropped at first by 10%, but then raised to 7.800.000. That means majority of those 9.000.000 subscribers obviously didn't play any mmorpg before. And the number of people that kept their subsribtion with previous game and also to wow is minimal.
REALITY CHECK
Do you honestly believe that the majority of 9 million players came from other games? If so would you mind suggesting where such a vast amount may have come from? By most accounts Everquest was the king of the hill pre-WoW and it peaked at 500 thousand accounts. Are you suggesting that everybody subscribed to every other game out there decided WoW was the game to go to? Because according to the kinds of numbers pre-WoW that appears to be what you are trying to say.
Clearly your experience may be different but I find it difficult to believe that the majority of 9 million accounts came from some other games.
from my experience, most of people i asked, said they didn't try any other mmo before wow. WoW brought alot of new people to the mmorpg world, thats for sure.
Based on the 9Mill figure, yes the majority came from other games as the majority of that 9Mill is chinese players who had a lot of free games to play before WoW hit the scene over there. As for the majority of Western players, who can say! I think that WoW is resposible for bringing a lot of new younger players to the MMO genre, but as for the 20+ market, most of them probably would have played another online game of some sort before WoW i'm guessing free or otherwise.
It must be Thursday, i never could get the hang of Thursdays.
Well, I did what I do for all new MMORPGs... I kept my subscriptions until I was certain the WoW was the game I wanted to stick with.
Do you know for certain?
lawl this is by far not my first mmo BUT u must admit, about for 60% of the people wow is there first mmorpg :P
Most of the ones i have spoken too have come from a gaming background before WOW. It wasn't like they saw WOW on tv and bought a computer just to play it!.
Yeah they came from games that were like diablo2 as well which isn't classed as an mmorpg. Mind you people that come from those warcraft/starcraft/diablo games aren't noobs really just the same. Like i said from my experience most had played or come from another mmorpg.
Most of the people you spoke to, what kind of stupid argument is that. Did you speak to 20 people? 30 people? 50 people? There 9 milion of players. Look at the number it's simple as that.
I'm gonna repeat myself
Before WoW was released, the overall number of subsribers to any MMORPG was between 7-8 milion. After WOW was released the numbers dropped by 10% and WoW had around 2 milions of subscribers at that time. This logically means the previous MMORPG players DID NOT subscribe to WoW but continue to play their game. Only a small percentage of people actually played both for that time.
And no you can't consider diablo or warcraft as a MMORPG if that's what you meant with your post.
REALITY CHECK
Hmmm, i would be interested to know where you get your figures for these claims.
I can probably see how you could calculate drop in other MMO's vs WoW subscription (but did this take into account new subscriptions to the other MMO's too which countered some of the leavers?). But i am confused as to how you know just how many people were subscribing to two or more MMO's at the same time?
It must be Thursday, i never could get the hang of Thursdays.
Hmmm, i would be interested to know where you get your figures for these claims.
I can probably see how you could calculate drop in other MMO's vs WoW subscription (but did this take into account new subscriptions to the other MMO's too which countered some of the leavers?). But i am confused as to how you know just how many people were subscribing to two or more MMO's at the same time?
WoW Release Date! 11/23/04 Before that was about 5 million people playing MMO'S counting with Lin and l2, now there is about 30 mill people playing mmo's, that means that 9 mill wow subscribers didn't come from other mmo's, i say 75% of the wow players are new people to mmo's.
www.mmogchart.com/
http://mmogdata.voig.com/
Faulty logic. You're forgetting one thing. That's not TOTAL players, that's ACTIVE subscribers. That's a huge difference. Just because people are not actively subscribed to an MMO, does NOT mean they have never played one. I was not ACTIVELY subscribed to an MMO when I started to play WoW and yet I had played DAoC, Earth and Beyond, City of Heroes, UO, EVE and a couple others too bad to mention. So while I wasn't one of those 6.5 million, I'm one of the 9 million now and WoW is about my 6th or 7th MMO.
There, I just told you. Now tell me how it's NOT possible.
How about a simple sampling of players as you play...
In every guild I was in I would ask "Hey remember in EQ when you had too...."
and a majority of players would say "No, I never played any other MMO"
The reality is simple, older MMO's were harder, not easy to jump into and "looked" boring. MMO's were still building. WoW came along with a built-in player base, something NO OTHER MMO had aside SWG. And SWG was a flop so it doesnt' really count...
So we can argue all day over "the actual numbers" but personal experience, common sense and MMO history tells us that... a majority of WoW players are MMO Virgins.
To say otherwise is darned silly.
Always change your signature.
I've never played a MMORPG before.
What are they?
Some kind of digital entertainment party over the interweb tubes?
The real question is, why does it matter if people played MMOs before WoW or not?
There, I just told you. Now tell me how it's NOT possible.
I'm pretty sure you have no knowledge in statistics if you're saying that. Do you really think the group of people that did play before, then stopped, then started playing WoW is majority of the WoW population?
Of course it is possible, but is it probable?
And please don't ask me for evidence as you usually do, this is not a court just a forum.
REALITY CHECK
Besides, you think the number of EQ virgins was zero? How about UO? Or AO, DAoC? Yeah, I'm sure they all were 100% MMO veterans.
If you don't like the game, that's fine, but please don't make up stories about what the makeup of the player base is compared to other games in the genre. The fact of the matter is that MOST of the gaming population has tried a bunch of different stuff, including other MMO's. They just didn't feel the urge to PAY a subscription. You all talk like that's a GOOD thing. LOL. The fact is that WoW has been able to pull in players who have TRIED other MMO's and been able to make them subscribers when the others FAILED. Woot for all those other MMO's!!!!
There, I just told you. Now tell me how it's NOT possible.
I'm pretty sure you have no knowledge in statistics if you're saying that. Do you really think the group of people that did play before, then stopped, then started playing WoW is majority of the WoW population?
Of course it is possible, but is it probable?
And please don't ask me for evidence as you usually do, this is not a court just a forum.
I don't know, but unlike you I'm not trying to pass off my opinion as fact. That fact is you have no idea how many WoW players have played another MMO. You also don't have any idea of how many who played another MMO were MMO virgins and yet you are trying to imply that you have facts to prove that there are more in WoW than other games. Show me the facts that prove WoW has more MMO virgins than any other game or admit that it's pure speculation on your part. Oh, sorry I forgot that you can't be bothered with something so mundane as evidence. Yeah, you know all there is to know about statistics.
for what its worth - an editorial from 2 years ago
Blizzard games are HUGE for successwww.mmogchart.com/Analysis.html
Diablo franchise has sold over 17 million copies
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_II
and was the most popular online game in 2001
not to mention the Warcraft/Starcraft franchise
EQ2 fan sites
Do you also want me to bring some eye witnesses?
Lad, this is a forum, we are discussing here. It is a basic logic. You had around 6-7mil active subscribers before WoW came into market. Then the number of active subscribers has increased to maybe 15-16mil, where WoW has around 9 milion. My guess is 60-70% WoW EU&US players have never played MMORPG before. It's a speculation coming from those numbers. It's NOT AN EVIDENCE, Dear god.
REALITY CHECK
Diablo franchise has sold over 17 million copies
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_II
and was the most popular online game in 2001
not to mention the Warcraft/Starcraft franchise
In red is the key to that statement. Lots of people had tried MMO's and decided not to subscribe or had quit subscribing. Remember that back in 2004, the thought of paying a monthly fee to play a game was fairly new and many people were put off by that fact. WoW changed all that. Opponents to WoW would have you believe that's a bad thing. See, it couldn't possibly be that all these people that now play WoW had tried anything else and just said "no thanks", it has to be they don't know any better. It has to be, because well if that weren't true than more people think WoW is more worthy of their money than any other MMO to date...and that's just not possible.
Do you also want me to bring some eye witnesses?
Lad, this is a forum, we are discussing here. It is a basic logic. You had around 6-7mil active subscribers before WoW came into market. Then the number of active subscribers has increased to maybe 15-16mil, where WoW has around 9 milion. My guess is 60-70% WoW EU&US players have never played MMORPG before. It's a speculation coming from those numbers. It's NOT AN EVIDENCE, Dear god.
And how does that compare to other MMO's? I'm sure you have a guess on that as well.
Diablo franchise has sold over 17 million copies
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_II
and was the most popular online game in 2001
not to mention the Warcraft/Starcraft franchise
In red is the key to that statement. Lots of people had tried MMO's and decided not to subscribe or had quit subscribing.
WHO HAD NEVER SUBSCRIBED, not quit, not left, people that never payed a single subscribtion says in the article. Do you count someone playing 7 days trial as someone who played MMORPG before?
REALITY CHECK
The flaw in logic is basing conclusions on that websites CURRENT subscriber numbers and extrapolating that it means there are only 7-8 million people who have ever tried MMOs. You are assuming that anyone who has EVER subscribed to an MMO has remained a subscriber for the many years before WoW launched and is thus counted in that 7-8 million.
That is like saying only 550k people have ever played Evequest. See the flaw?
On a side note, my personal experience is about 1 out of 20 people I meet have never played an MMO before.
As if it really makes any difference? I've met some very good players in WOW who were new to MMORPG's but had experience in other online games line Ghost Recon or Counterstrike.
Current CEO of my EVE Corporation has never played an MMORPG prior to EVE....yet he runs a good Corp and is a good combat pilot in EVE.
I do believe WOW brought lots of new players to the genre...and that it isn't an evil thing....can only help us in the long run.....
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Blizzard games are HUGE for successDiablo franchise has sold over 17 million copies
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diablo_II
and was the most popular online game in 2001
not to mention the Warcraft/Starcraft franchise
In red is the key to that statement. Lots of people had tried MMO's and decided not to subscribe or had quit subscribing.
WHO HAD NEVER SUBSCRIBED, not quit, not left, people that never payed a single subscribtion says in the article. Do you count someone playing 7 days trial as someone who played MMORPG before?
As a matter of fact YES I do. Are you saying that someone who tried the 7 day trial of a game and said "no thanks" and then tried the 10 day trial of WoW and decided to subscribe is a bad thing? That's EVERYTHING. That right there tells you that they didn't care for that other game as much as they cared for WoW. That doesn't mean they don't know any better, that means they tried both and liked WoW enough to subscribe, but didn't on the other game.
But I don't believe that's the majority of the people who play WoW either. I think the majority had subscribed to another MMO, but dropped their subscription prior to subscribing to WoW. That's what I did. That's what all my friends that I now play WoW with did. We had all played E&B prior to playing WoW, but they announced that it would be closing and we all quit playing. I tried DAoC and hated it. I tried EVE and hated it. I tried City of Heroes and liked it, but not enough to play more than 2 or 3 months. I think there were quite a few people like me and that article above suggests exactly that. People didn't see anything worth subscribing to just prior to playing WoW. That doesn't mean they don't know a good MMO when they see one.
Most of the people you spoke to, what kind of stupid argument is that. Did you speak to 20 people? 30 people? 50 people? There 9 milion of players. Look at the number it's simple as that.
I'm gonna repeat myself
Before WoW was released, the overall number of subsribers to any MMORPG was between 7-8 milion. After WOW was released the numbers dropped by 10% and WoW had around 2 milions of subscribers at that time. This logically means the previous MMORPG players DID NOT subscribe to WoW but continue to play their game. Only a small percentage of people actually played both for that time.
And no you can't consider diablo or warcraft as a MMORPG if that's what you meant with your post.
I actually stated on my post as you can see that Diablo 2 isn't classed as an mmorpg. Oh does your figures include say for instance lineage and lineage 2 which had or have large playing bases. Not that it matters mmorpgs have beem going for some time now and maybe past players got tired of them till WOW hit the scene.
No i haven't spoken to 9 million WOW players but neither have you. I am basing my opinions off who i have spoken to in game or guilded with. I aren't saying they are all past players of mmorpg's but the majority i have played with have. Even a friend who i tried to talk into playing WOW tried final fantasy X1 before he tried WOW as his first online game.
It is naive to say though that at least some of the Diablo,Starcraft or whatever computer gamer's haven't even tried a mmorpg before.
Oh and if you try and discount Lineage figures then remove the Asian players figures playing WOW too please in fairness.