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Is wow fibbing about real sub numbers?
a_name
Member Posts: 249
I posted this in another thread but I'd like your idea. Is wow flim flamming (or any other company really) about their subs to keep folks interested that don't know that they have pricing differences? Is it a big marketing plot lol
http://us.blizzard.com/en-us/company/press/pressreleases.html?081121
"World of Warcraft's Subscriber Definition
World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee
or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft,..."
http://eu.blizzard.com/en-gb/company/press/pressreleases.html?080122
"WORLD OF WARCRAFT® REACHES NEW MILESTONE: 10 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS
Subscriber base for Blizzard Entertainment®'s massively multiplayer online role-playing game now exceeds 2.5 million in North America, while Europe passes the 2 million mark "
For this working example I'll be using 5 million subscribers.
Consumer cost:
```````````````````````````````````````````
European Purchase
http://www.amazon.co.uk/World-Warcraft-Pre-paid-Game-Card/dp/B000BPCILI/
15.99 pound sterling = 26.35 USD 60 day card
= 13.18 USD month
Counts as 1 sub
```````````````````````````````````````````
North American Purchase
http://www.amazon.com/World-Warcraft-Pre-Paid-Time-Card-Pc/dp/B00063BLG8
29.99 USD 60 day card
= 14.99 USD month
Counts as 1 sub
```````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````````
China Purchase
http://www.goarticles.com/cgi-bin/showa.cgi?C=2011918
http://wowcard.163.com/#
Visit in Firefox
http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&u=http://item.eachnet.com/prd/1221321600380069_prd.html&ei=vhvrSs-iLtDllAfw5qz_BA&sa=X&oi=translate&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CAwQ7gEwAQ&prev=/search?q=300%E7%82%B9+15.00%E5%85%83&hl=en&safe=off&client=firefox-a&channel=s&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=XJv&sa=G
38 renminbi/yuan = 5.57 USD for 48 hours/600 points = *3
= 16.71 USD for 144 hours average of 5 hrs a day play time
Counts as 3 subs
38 renminbi/yuan = 5.57 USD for 48 hours/600 points = *6
= 33.42 USD for 288 hours average of 10 hrs a day play time
Counts as 6 subs
`````````````````````````````````````````````
5 million subs / 3 = 1,666,667 million subs
5 million subs / 6 = 833,334 thousand subs
`````````````````````````````````````````````
I think in this case they are displaying 3 or more times the numbers by the way they sell their
cards. For sure it's got to be twice the numbers (i.e. 2 game cards) - who could play 24 hours a month and stay competitive?
The method of time distribution via a points system allows them to inflate the
number of active users while the consumer would still pay a similar cost. We've seen tho that
the consumer is paying but the profits are being trickled to the distributor in the other discussion of The9 and NetEase where this post started in.
For this matter - are any of the game companies doing this with their game card differences? I know AION uses cards but have not researched if they are monthly.
Is this foul reporting to count and triple count or just good marketing? Whether it's working or not isn't in question lol
Comments
I tried to understand what you were getting at, but I'm not sure I do. A subscription keeps the same name no matter what timecard is currently being used on that subscription.
If a subscription has no time left on the card, it no longer counts as a subscription according to what Blizzard has stated.
That's amazing, you checked all my resource links in 3 minutes and re-checked my math.
Ok, I'll bite, does my butt look fat in this?
WOW is as big as Blizzard says they are.
But you'll notice, Blizzard hasn't been saying very much about subs recently.
I'm just saying.......
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From their text an "active prepaid card" counts as a sub.
They can't lie about their financial status, their shareholders would run them over. You can read up their yearly income at the Vivendi website.
Ernt. From their text the game card counts as a sub.
World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee
or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft...
Those are the words from your post. The card must be active.
Hey, biggest part of Europe is using € as currency *mumble mumble*
Ernt. From their text the game card counts as a sub.
World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee
or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft...
Those are the words from your post. The card must be active.
Aye, you can activate multiple cards because they aren't monthly they are hourly, well point driven that converts to hourly, now you are onto the tricky part.
This. The articles the OP linked were just to how much time cards cost. What the hell does that have to do with how many subscriptions a game has?
Here is their full definition...
World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees’ territories are defined along the same rules.
I'm not sure why you think their number is off. Even if an account could have more than one gamecard applied to an account at a time, it would still count as 1 subscription.
Hey, biggest part of Europe is using as currency *mumble mumble* :)
I thought we where all part off the United Kingdom *hrhr*? Sure there are 500 million people that use and only 55 million who use the pound. I guess it's like sub numbers, more doesn't equal better, lol.
Ernt. From their text the game card counts as a sub.
World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee
or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft...
Those are the words from your post. The card must be active.
Aye, you can activate multiple cards because they aren't monthly they are hourly, well point driven that converts to hourly, now you are onto the tricky part.
Yeah, like I said, even if multiple cards are applied towards one sub, that sub is still 1 sub with 1 active card running at 1 time.
Ernt. From their text the game card counts as a sub.
World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee
or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft...
Those are the words from your post. The card must be active.
Aye, you can activate multiple cards because they aren't monthly they are hourly, well point driven that converts to hourly, now you are onto the tricky part.
Yeah, like I said, even if multiple cards are applied towards one sub, that sub is still 1 sub with 1 active card running at 1 time.
Look at where the word "or" is... it doesn't mean they have to be a single subscriber with one prepaid card. You are using logic for that.
In other words "or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft" translates to I have 3 cards I am 3 subscribers, this is what I'm getting at - the pricing scheme allows for the bloat which doesn't occur on single card system. It's not AND. Boolean logic if ya will.
Ernt. From their text the game card counts as a sub.
World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee
or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft...
Those are the words from your post. The card must be active.
Aye, you can activate multiple cards because they aren't monthly they are hourly, well point driven that converts to hourly, now you are onto the tricky part.
Yeah, like I said, even if multiple cards are applied towards one sub, that sub is still 1 sub with 1 active card running at 1 time.
Look at where the word "or" is... it doesn't mean they have to be a single subscriber with one prepaid card. You are using logic for that.
You just want to flip words don't ya? Just change the subscriber to subscriptions, which doesn't matter actually. The money they gain stays the same, the same goes for EVE actually, there are multiple people with more then 1 active account.
Ernt. From their text the game card counts as a sub.
World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee
or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft...
Those are the words from your post. The card must be active.
Aye, you can activate multiple cards because they aren't monthly they are hourly, well point driven that converts to hourly, now you are onto the tricky part.
Yeah, like I said, even if multiple cards are applied towards one sub, that sub is still 1 sub with 1 active card running at 1 time.
Look at where the word "or" is... it doesn't mean they have to be a single subscriber with one prepaid card. You are using logic for that.
You just want to flip words don't ya? Just change the subscriber to subscriptions, which doesn't matter actually. The money they gain stays the same, the same goes for EVE actually, there are multiple people with more then 1 active account.
hehe you can't just change the words - that's not what it says. The words are there to be misleading - you already saw that doing a skim you would envision that it means one thing. Chunking it breaks it down - that's why I used the color in the post to communicate the phrase that is there - it's not hidden it's just marketed properly with the "or".
Where is that lawyer that posts, I think they would see the wordplay.
Some of the bigger mmos right now have 100-250k players and have 10-25 servers respectively.
Wow is claiming somewhere around 5,000,000 subscribers in North America/Europe. There are 512 game server combined for those 2 regions.
The claims look very believable.
Ernt. From their text the game card counts as a sub.
World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee
or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft...
Those are the words from your post. The card must be active.
Aye, you can activate multiple cards because they aren't monthly they are hourly, well point driven that converts to hourly, now you are onto the tricky part.
Yeah, like I said, even if multiple cards are applied towards one sub, that sub is still 1 sub with 1 active card running at 1 time.
Look at where the word "or" is... it doesn't mean they have to be a single subscriber with one prepaid card. You are using logic for that.
You just want to flip words don't ya? Just change the subscriber to subscriptions, which doesn't matter actually. The money they gain stays the same, the same goes for EVE actually, there are multiple people with more then 1 active account.
hehe you can't just change the words - that's not what it says. The words are there to be misleading - you already saw that doing a skim you would envision that it means one thing. Chunking it breaks it down - that's why I used the color in the post to communicate the phrase that is there - it's not hidden it's just marketed properly with the "or".
Where is that lawyer that posts, I think they would see the wordplay.
Then every mmog chart out there is misleading, pretty much every mmo out there got people with multiple subs.
They always count 1 subscriber per person because they aren't allowed to investigate. They aren't allowed to sniff in your Account details. Or do you seriously want someone to go through your Credit Card details, to check if you got 2 active subscriptions?
So is the point of this thread that a Chinese player would have to buy 3 of those cards to get the equivalent playtime as a NA player and thus should only count as 1/3 of a subscriber?
Or is your point that a Chinese player could have 3 of thise cards activa at the same time on the same account and Blizzard thus counts him as 3 players?
Is wow fibbing about real sub numbers?
No, if they do they are breaking the law and that can have some severe conseqences for what ever company and think a company like Blizzard has to much to lose. But then again we have seen many so-called trustworthy company's the last few years that have done allot of law breaking, but in the end they will get caught and like I said the conseqence is very harsh.
On another note, does knowing if they do the right thing or even perhaps mislead some subnumber lessen the game experiance of the game? Obvious if they say we have 10 million players and in fact there are like 1000 players it will be noticed, but overall how many people do you guy's play with? I see certain arguments in the SWG vet section stating the game might have 50k or even much less players, I often wonder with how many of those 50k or less people want to play with, I think over all the years I played the game I might have come in close contact with maybe about 200/300 people, sure I know/knew plenty of guilds that had over 300/400/500 people, I even been in a few, but again with those I just knew a few close. Oh and the obvious the more people the more fun overall ranging from a player driven econemy to just random combat, the more people the better change to find or creat groups, also obvious, but still I feel that when a game has atleast 25 people playing, that "can" be enough to have fun and find groups and have a player driven econemy, of course depending how dedicated players can be.
OP don't get me wrong, your math is fine and enjoyed reading it, but I just don't think Blizzard is really lying. Keep in mind you got your info from the internet, where you lack all the info that comes into the Blizzard headquarters or Vivendi
You used england to count as for the whole of europe? they use pounds, rest of europe uses euro. for the record WoW costs 13.99 euro monthly, which is roughly 16+ dollars..
You used england to count as for the whole of europe? they use pounds, rest of europe uses euro. for the record WoW costs 13.99 euro monthly, which is roughly 16+ dollars..
I can accept that - the basic idea is that Europe is using a monthly card access. This post wasn't really to argue who might be paying most or something - it's more about discerning where a difference in cards can become a difference in subs counted. Another poster mentioned Euro too so duly noted that pound is not the only way to purchase there but for my american example it worked out well - I had 2 versions of Amazon and I could understand the language in both (to get pounds), for the wow part I went over to wow china and hovered the links reading them in english then found the card page. I did not find the cards on amazon china or I would have used all 3 the same source. For the record I've never purchased anything from amazon so its not trying to hype them lol
To anyone buying a monthly card in their area - when they see 1 billion subs advertised, they assume, working from what they know of the sub they use that all subs are like theirs. This goes back to the other thread where the post started when some called it apples and oranges. It's where personal logic steps in even if it has no evidence and marketers love that our brains will put things together that weren't said
Of course they are lying. Anyone who doesn't think they've been lying during every single numbers release is a fool.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
Fudge numbers ? Who would ever do that to make themselves look good for the genre ? Thats blasphemy! /sarcasm off
I always say just use common sense. Every mmo that gets old starts losing subs. If people want to think otherwise then by all means let them. Notice how Blizzard hasn't made any official announcements about their sub numbers in quite some time. I wonder why that is. Hmmmm.... Could it be that they lost alot of customers in China ? Nahhh no way! It must be something else then. Perhaps they are making Cataclysm so they have an excuse to fix all the bugs in the game and to make it look more attractive to players so they resub ? Nahhh!! No way!
Remember, the announcements are not to keep up to date information about the games population level. The press releases are only done when they reach a new total subscriber milestone. The lack of press release just suggests wow has not hit 12 million subscribers. I'm sure if they did hit 12 million we would have heard about it.
I do agree that the fiasco in china has really screwed things up. The game could be growing leaps and bounds in the west, but as a result of the chinese government the overall total might be down or at the same level. Hard to tell at this point.
Are they fibbing about sub numbers? Probably maybe and evan if they are most likely not to the extent that the rest of the MMO publishers fib about their sub numbers. So when all is said and done it doesn't really matter they have subs in the millions while the rest of the big names have subs under half a million. Not something worth arguing about really.
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