probably for the same reason that in real life, some people cant get a boyfriend or girlfriend, not due to numbers, due to character/attitudes etc
Because perhaps, the American/Canadian and EU markets are in decline, while the Asian market is skyrocketing. They didn't mention that did they? Perhaps because it's part of a campaign to 'fool' Americans and EU into thinking their demographic is still on the rise, to help bolster dropping numbers in a key demographic.
Anyway, that sounds more plausible to me then the boyfriend theory.
Very nice, and congratulations to Bliizard I guess. 6+million Chinese can't be wrong. When was the last time numbers were released for US and Europe? I seriously doubt that they're over the 3 million mark in the West. In the end it really doesn't matter. All that should matter is the number of players on your server. I believe the max is 7k concurrent. The rest don't affect you at all.
I am not sold that World of Warcraft is the best game. At least for me as a PvP MMORPG gamer, WoW doesn't cut it for me. If you prioritize the PvE over PvP then I'm sure you made a wise choice.
What I am seeing all around is people aren't playing WoW for fun, they are playing WoW so they aren't clueless as to what others are talking about around the lunch table. I admit when I see two friends discussing World of Warcraft, it does give me the curiosity to go buy a subscription to WoW and play just so I can socialize and talk about the same things they might. I'm sure many others are doing the same thing, they are jumping on the bandwagon called World of Warcraft, and when it will fall apart, it will fall hard. I'm not going to predict when this will occur, but most likely it will be when others have something else to sit around at the lunch table other than WoW.
I am not sold that World of Warcraft is the best game. At least for me as a PvP MMORPG gamer, WoW doesn't cut it for me. If you prioritize the PvE over PvP then I'm sure you made a wise choice.
What I am seeing all around is people aren't playing WoW for fun, they are playing WoW so they aren't clueless as to what others are talking about around the lunch table. I admit when I see two friends discussing World of Warcraft, it does give me the curiosity to go buy a subscription to WoW and play just so I can socialize and talk about the same things they might. I'm sure many others are doing the same thing, they are jumping on the bandwagon called World of Warcraft, and when it will fall apart, it will fall hard. I'm not going to predict when this will occur, but most likely it will be when others have something else to sit around at the lunch table other than WoW.
Interesting theory but there are 270+ million people in the US, even if the US had every wow subscriber (and we all know it doesn't), i'm not sure that's a big enough slice to be 'water cooler talk'
However........
If you consider that each subscriber has 5 to 10 friends who don't play but know about it, that means the water cooler talk is.....
"Yeah and all he does is rot in that chair playing that stupid game....."
Not really great 'word of mouth' marketing in my opinion, but don't flame me, I'm really playing devil's advocate for humor's sake.
Going back to over a year ago when I actually played WoW, Kaplan mentioned that players with even one max-level character are in the minority, and active raiders an even smaller minority (he made it sound like single digits as far as percentage). That jives with what I see in friends and coworkers - a lot of them play WoW, only one has a level 70 that participates in scheduled raids.
The raid grind was the boring part of the game. The run up to level 60 (pre-BC) was actually pretty well done IMHO. If that's all the majority of their players see, then the majority of their players are justifiably happy.
Now, please crush my year-old anecdotes with your hatred.
I'm not surpriced.. this week 2 of my friends started playing 'cuz our other friends were playing it.. I will add they never played mmo, they even didn't know what exactly it is... Edit: Gratz for Bliz..
sweet jesus.. that's $135,000,000.00 a month.. a friggin' MONTH.
Since the chinese players pay like $0.50 a month to play..... I doubt it.
ah. good point.
why do the chinese pay 50 cents a month?
No, they don't pay .50 cents a month...honestly....on the internet there is this handy little thing called "search", try it sometime, its really useful.
Its a bit more complicted then that, they buy timecard with points on them.
Only players who have purchased an authorized CD key will be able to activate their accounts and enter the game. Each CD key costs 30 Yuan/RMB and can be purchased with a World of Warcraft Points Card. Point Cards also cost 30 Yuan/RMB and can be used at a rate of 9 points per hour (0.45 Yuan/hour) to play World of Warcraft. For more information on World of Warcraft, including pricing, promotions, and gameplay features, please visit Blizzard's official website: www.wowchina.com.
They actually could end you paying a lot more then our flat 14.99 a month depending on how much they play.
So at a rate of 9 pts per hour you are getting a tad over 3 hours of play. (if you had a card with 30 points on it)
Someone who plays 10 hours a week / or 40 hours a month needs 13 timecards. 13 x 3.97 USD is 51.61 USD a MONTH. How would you like to pay that a month?
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.
ALL of the 9 million are active subscribers.
What interests me more than the number is how did they got such a high subscriber count?
Also you have to remember that like all statistics it doesn't paint the whole picture. For example, how many of the 9m have been playing longer than a month? longer than 6 months? How often and for how long do the 9 million play? What are the other subscription models for games in Asian countries and how do they compare to WoWs? (assuming Asian countries are responsible for the spike as we didn't see where the numbers came form exactly) What % of active subscribers include Internet Game Room players? Questions that I have at least...
No question that its an impressive number, but not all the games that are out there use the same revenue model, so its kind of hard to say that WoW is more successful than say Yulang which has 10 million registered players. Yulang is F2P but it has item shops, would love to see how much revenue comes in from a Yulang item shop vs WoWs monthly subscription rate.
At any rate, even though WoW has the large subscription rate that doesn't make it more successful than other games out there. But then I don't just define success for a game as the number of active subscribers, though thats probably certainly true from a business perspective if active subscribers are your only revenue base.
I think MMORPGs are the future of the video game industry. WoW is definately a milestone, but is it the end all be all? I don't think so. It has all the same flaws that games that came before it had, and games that have come after it. If this industry is going to grow into what I think we all want it to, we need more innovation than what WoW has to offer.
At any rate, even though WoW has the large subscription rate that doesn't make it more successful than other games out there.
That is definitely going in my Big Book of Dumb Quotes.
How exactly would you define "success" other than by the number of people playing the game? The most successful MMO around is the one being played by the most people, which, the last time I checked, was WoW.
At any rate, even though WoW has the large subscription rate that doesn't make it more successful than other games out there.
That is definitely going in my Big Book of Dumb Quotes.
How exactly would you define "success" other than by the number of people playing the game? The most successful MMO around is the one being played by the most people, which, the last time I checked, was WoW.
That is definitely going in MY Big Book of Dumb Quotes.
im guessing u didnt read : Yulang which has 10 million registered players vs wow 9 milliion
No, they don't pay .50 cents a month...honestly....on the internet there is this handy little thing called "search", try it sometime, its really useful.
Its a bit more complicted then that, they buy timecard with points on them. Only players who have purchased an authorized CD key will be able to activate their accounts and enter the game. Each CD key costs 30 Yuan/RMB and can be purchased with a World of Warcraft Points Card. Point Cards also cost 30 Yuan/RMB and can be used at a rate of 9 points per hour (0.45 Yuan/hour) to play World of Warcraft. For more information on World of Warcraft, including pricing, promotions, and gameplay features, please visit Blizzard's official website: www.wowchina.com. http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200506/N05.0607.1018.21862.htm Currecy conversion 30 yuan = 3.97 USD http://www.xe.com/ucc/ They actually could end you paying a lot more then our flat 14.99 a month depending on how much they play. So at a rate of 9 pts per hour you are getting a tad over 3 hours of play. (if you had a card with 30 points on it) Someone who plays 10 hours a week / or 40 hours a month needs 13 timecards. 13 x 3.97 USD is 51.61 USD a MONTH. How would you like to pay that a month?
Your math is wrong :P
According to - Currecy conversion 30 yuan = 3.97 USD - and - 0.45 Yuan/hour:
1 Yuan is ~0.1323$
0.45 = 0.06$ per hour; 15$ are exactly 250 hours.....
So yes, they pay less
Anyway, what's that racism around? What does it matter if they are chineese, americans or marsians? Like LOTRO is not going in Asia soon. In fact I am surprised that companies even care about the tiny American market. Asia has ten times more people interested in games (if not more) and EU has around 3-4. People should realise that no matter what a company representative would tell nobody is making a game to satisfy you. They are here for the money and nothing else. Everyone saw what's happening with idealistic people who think "The Vision" is all that matters.
And btw, my server population is increasing recently. Many old friends return. On forums people report queues on few servers. So I guess EU is doing fine.
No, they don't pay .50 cents a month...honestly....on the internet there is this handy little thing called "search", try it sometime, its really useful.
Its a bit more complicted then that, they buy timecard with points on them. Only players who have purchased an authorized CD key will be able to activate their accounts and enter the game. Each CD key costs 30 Yuan/RMB and can be purchased with a World of Warcraft Points Card. Point Cards also cost 30 Yuan/RMB and can be used at a rate of 9 points per hour (0.45 Yuan/hour) to play World of Warcraft. For more information on World of Warcraft, including pricing, promotions, and gameplay features, please visit Blizzard's official website: www.wowchina.com. http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200506/N05.0607.1018.21862.htm Currecy conversion 30 yuan = 3.97 USD http://www.xe.com/ucc/ They actually could end you paying a lot more then our flat 14.99 a month depending on how much they play. So at a rate of 9 pts per hour you are getting a tad over 3 hours of play. (if you had a card with 30 points on it) Someone who plays 10 hours a week / or 40 hours a month needs 13 timecards. 13 x 3.97 USD is 51.61 USD a MONTH. How would you like to pay that a month?
Your math is wrong :P
According to - Currecy conversion 30 yuan = 3.97 USD - and - 0.45 Yuan/hour:
1 Yuan is ~0.1323$
0.45 = 0.06$ per hour; 15$ are exactly 250 hours.....
So yes, they pay less
Anyway, what's that racism around? What does it matter if they are chineese, americans or marsians? Like LOTRO is not going in Asia soon. In fact I am surprised that companies even care about the tiny American market. Asia has ten times more people interested in games (if not more) and EU has around 3-4. People should realise that no matter what a company representative would tell nobody is making a game to satisfy you. They are here for the money and nothing else. Everyone saw what's happening with idealistic people who think "The Vision" is all that matters.
And btw, my server population is increasing recently. Many old friends return. On forums people report queues on few servers. So I guess EU is doing fine.
LoL, I'll chalk that one up to 6:30 am and not enough coffee yet
Anyway, its NOT .50 cents a month and no, it really doesn't make a difference anyway as all it does it put money in the pocket of a big corporation while we all wave our epeens around anyway. The game paid for itself hundereds of times...so Blizzard wins either way.
I also agree with you on the NA comments. The U.S. makes up the smallest and least successful portion of the MMO market, its amazing companies even try to make games for it at this point.
WoW will continue to loose players over the coming months. But WoW will never die, and when it starts to go that far..Boom WoW 2 announced. Blizzard just are the dominating games company in my eyes. If they dominated consoles they would have everything to be honest. They dominate RTS and MMORPG, get a FPS shooter out there and there we go.
No one can disrespect them because they are just a really smart company. Starcraft still has one of the largest player bases in the world for any RTS if not the biggest and when number 2 comes out, oh boy will they make some $$$$.
Yeah, with Blizzard just announcing they hit the 9,000,000 paid subscriber mark, players are leaving en mass.
Fuhyo
dont be ridiculous m8, its quite possible to lose millions of subs and still gain millions more when entering a new market like say china. so blizzard are up a couple of hundred thousand subs... nobody knows how many new subs are signed and how many oldies left right? could be 3mil new subs and 2mil subs cancelled. 2mil subs cancelled is a sh*tload, havent seen any reports on that coz I really dont care just saying its possible
At any rate, even though WoW has the large subscription rate that doesn't make it more successful than other games out there.
That is definitely going in my Big Book of Dumb Quotes.
How exactly would you define "success" other than by the number of people playing the game? The most successful MMO around is the one being played by the most people, which, the last time I checked, was WoW.
Stop being such a fanboi and take my quotes in context with the rest of the post. Let me start with the entire paragraph that I posted and the one before it.
Originally posted by cityzen
No question that its an impressive number, but not all the games that are out there use the same revenue model, so its kind of hard to say that WoW is more successful than say Yulang which has 10 million registered players. Yulang is F2P but it has item shops, would love to see how much revenue comes in from a Yulang item shop vs WoWs monthly subscription rate. At any rate, even though WoW has the large subscription rate that doesn't make it more successful than other games out there. But then I don't just define success for a game as the number of active subscribers, though thats probably certainly true from a business perspective if active subscribers are your only revenue base.
Now, does that mean that WoW isn't raking it in...noooooo.
[Edit] To spell it out, in case I didn't make myself clear, Yulang has more registered players vs WoWs subscribers. Neither of these numbers talks about how many people are actually playing the game at any given time, or for how long they've been playing the game. What I think I pointed out for most people in my post is that taking the 9 million number at face value just doesn't tell the whole story.
Honestly, people like you that try to defend WoW by insulting others with a contrary opinion do more to hurt the game than help it. Learn how to make and argument by not calling names and insinuating other posters are Dumb and you will be much more credible.
At any rate, even though WoW has the large subscription rate that doesn't make it more successful than other games out there.
That is definitely going in my Big Book of Dumb Quotes.
How exactly would you define "success" other than by the number of people playing the game? The most successful MMO around is the one being played by the most people, which, the last time I checked, was WoW.
That is definitely going in MY Big Book of Dumb Quotes.
im guessing u didnt read : Yulang which has 10 million registered players vs wow 9 milliion
Does Yulang have 10 million active SUBSCRIBERS or 10 million registered users? Blizzard clearly states how they determine their sales figures and those 9 million accounts are currently paying to access the game. There is a world of difference between paying active subscribers and "registered" users. Also correct me if I am wrong, but isn't yulang free to play?
At any rate, even though WoW has the large subscription rate that doesn't make it more successful than other games out there.
That is definitely going in my Big Book of Dumb Quotes.
How exactly would you define "success" other than by the number of people playing the game? The most successful MMO around is the one being played by the most people, which, the last time I checked, was WoW.
That is definitely going in MY Big Book of Dumb Quotes.
im guessing u didnt read : Yulang which has 10 million registered players vs wow 9 milliion
Does Yulang have 10 million active SUBSCRIBERS or 10 million registered users? Blizzard clearly states how they determine their sales figures and those 9 million accounts are currently paying to access the game. There is a world of difference between paying active subscribers and "registered" users. Also correct me if I am wrong, but isn't yulang free to play?
What a stupid topic.. Who cares how many suscribers it has? It's a lousy and boring MMORPG. Blizzard couldnt MMORPG themselves out of a paper bag
Thank you for backing up your post with facts. And, BTW, the corporate heads who fund whatever MMO you play care how many subscribers it has because, I don't know if you know, but this is a buisiness and they couldn't care less if they make a "good" game for you. They care about money; its a buisiness, not a charity. Why else in the world do you think there are so many wow clones? You don't go around seeing many AA clones or MxO clones now do you?
I dont play MMOs anymore. They are all garbage. People who play them are likely just there as a staging point between the next MMORPG that doesnt suck. People play WoW because they have nothing else to play, it isn't because it is fun. It's just the place to be for now, until a good MMORPG comes out.
When a company puts out an MMO that is genuinely fun, I will play it. Until then, there is no point. There are many other games that are more fun and not MMOs.
Great for you. If you don't play then no point in posting here. Unless you've tried every MMO you have no right to say they are all garbage. Or did you think everyone is just on the edge of their seats waiting for your expert opinion on games?
In the end, logic and reason always beat out fanboys.
I guess I just don't see your point. WoW has 9 million active subscribers. Yulang has 10 million people registered for a free to play game over its lifetime. Apples to oranges as far as I can tell, but maybe you see something else.
The following isn't really directed at you, just something that I needed to get off my chest in general.
So far I've read WoW critics say the following in response to the 9 million announcement:
-It isn't active subscribers (which it is as clearly stated in the article)
-Most of those people don't play in the US (as if that matters)
-Just because they pay doesn't mean they play (This one still has me at a complete loss. As if it is some specific phenomena to WoW only?)
-Most of the people who play are stupid so they don't really count. (great blanket logic there)
-They are all chinese farmers. (Millions of farmers I guess)
-WoW is losing subscriptions at a huge rate (7, 8, 9... looks like it is gaining)
-Just because it is gaining subs doesn't mean it isn't losing millions.
Simply put, a telling thread about the blinders people are willing to put on.
Personally I am glad blizzard blew the doors off the MMO market. If more games launch finished and focusing on fun because of it, them the genre advances. The game may not suit everyones tastes, but it is a good thing overall. Apply the same business practices to other games with free content, great support and a solid polished product then any game can succeed.
I guess I just don't see your point. WoW has 9 million active subscribers. Yulang has 10 million people registered for a free to play game over its lifetime. Apples to oranges as far as I can tell, but maybe you see something else.
The following isn't really directed at you, just something that I needed to get off my chest in general.
So far I've read WoW critics say the following in response to the 9 million announcement:
-It isn't active subscribers (which it is as clearly stated in the article)
-Most of those people don't play in the US (as if that matters)
-Just because they pay doesn't mean they play (This one still has me at a complete loss. As if it is some specific phenomena to WoW only?)
-Most of the people who play are stupid so they don't really count. (great blanket logic there)
-They are all chinese farmers. (Millions of farmers I guess)
-WoW is losing subscriptions at a huge rate (7, 8, 9... looks like it is gaining)
-Just because it is gaining subs doesn't mean it isn't losing millions.
Simply put, a telling thread about the blinders people are willing to put on.
Personally I am glad blizzard blew the doors off the MMO market. If more games launch finished and focusing on fun because of it, them the genre advances. The game may not suit everyones tastes, but it is a good thing overall. Apply the same business practices to other games with free content, great support and a solid polished product then any game can succeed.
I'd like a pair of the rose tinted glasses you are wearing, WoW did not launch completed, the first few months were painful at times and a bunch on functions that should have been in the game at launch weren't.
There were even functions in the game manual that were not present at launch, and at this point still are not, namely :- a working and fair Honor system with rewards and consequences from PvP, Heroes still are not in game and look unlikely to be.
The game even launched with out some of the more RPG functions missing housing, and character customiztion (which is still basic and gear dependant at best). RP is all but none existent because Blizzard can't/Won't/Don't know how to run RP servers.
Wow did have a good launch but it was far from perfect.
I guess I just don't see your point. WoW has 9 million active subscribers. Yulang has 10 million people registered for a free to play game over its lifetime. Apples to oranges as far as I can tell, but maybe you see something else.
The following isn't really directed at you, just something that I needed to get off my chest in general.
So far I've read WoW critics say the following in response to the 9 million announcement:
-It isn't active subscribers (which it is as clearly stated in the article)
-Most of those people don't play in the US (as if that matters)
-Just because they pay doesn't mean they play (This one still has me at a complete loss. As if it is some specific phenomena to WoW only?)
-Most of the people who play are stupid so they don't really count. (great blanket logic there)
-They are all chinese farmers. (Millions of farmers I guess)
-WoW is losing subscriptions at a huge rate (7, 8, 9... looks like it is gaining)
-Just because it is gaining subs doesn't mean it isn't losing millions.
Simply put, a telling thread about the blinders people are willing to put on.
Personally I am glad blizzard blew the doors off the MMO market. If more games launch finished and focusing on fun because of it, them the genre advances. The game may not suit everyones tastes, but it is a good thing overall. Apply the same business practices to other games with free content, great support and a solid polished product then any game can succeed.
I'd like a pair of the rose tinted glasses you are wearing, WoW did not launch completed, the first few months were painful at times and a bunch on functions that should have been in the game at launch weren't.
There were even functions in the game manual that were not present at launch, and at this point still are not, namely :- a working and fair Honor system with rewards and consequences from PvP, Heroes still are not in game and look unlikely to be.
The game even launched with out some of the more RPG functions missing housing, and character customiztion (which is still basic and gear dependant at best). RP is all but none existent because Blizzard can't/Won't/Don't know how to run RP servers.
Wow did have a good launch but it was far from perfect.
WoW also didin't launch with Storm troopers and Giant simley faces.. whats your point, all you just mentioned was a bunch of stuff people in beta said they would like to see at launch such as housing, heroes etc.
The only problem with WoW at launch was laggy servers due to the massive demand and the occasional falling off a boat or through the world this was all cleared up in a few months, but what was at launched worked.. simple as that.
Once Darkfall, AoC and Warhammer get released WoW will get a heavy hit.
I agree, i havent read a thing about Darkfall at all, so carnt say anything about this one as i know jack about it. AoC has somewhat dropped in my ratings list, only time will tell for this one. Warhammer is my best bet that will give WoW a run for its money if all the things it talks about live up to standards (which they rarely do, but some are somewhat close). I aint going to get all hyped up on any upcomming game release anymore, because your just setting yourself up for a big fall.
WoW i had only read snippets about it, had heard 70% good things about it and 30% bad, i decided to take the plunge on it, and was there for 2yrs from launch (last 9 mths i havent been playing it) but i am considering going back to it untill WO gets released which i reckon will be early next year.
CUPERTINO
You also left out the PvP bit. They said they would be doing this and that for PvP servers, and even recommended playng on PvP servers but they seam to have done a U-Turn on this and stayed with BattleGrounds that were only implemented to keep teh PvE server players happy.
I guess I just don't see your point. WoW has 9 million active subscribers. Yulang has 10 million people registered for a free to play game over its lifetime. Apples to oranges as far as I can tell, but maybe you see something else.
Not entirely apples and oranges as from a business perspective it boils down to revenue. There aren't any numbers anywhere that I've seen that shows that WoW's "active subscribers" brings in more money than Yulang's "registered users".
But there are different measures of success other than revenue. Just because when you log in there are a lot of players on doesn't mean that that is always the case throughout the day. We don't see those numbers from Blizzard, just 9 million active subscribers. But there are plenty of ways to look at the 9 million number, I think the questions in my origial post try to break it down more. Not to mention number of bots and multiple accounts etc...
I think the larger issue is whether WoW is a successful MMORPG because it has 9 million users. I don't think that you can argue that it is to some degree. But does it offer anything new from what came before it, other than the Warcraft IP? I don't think so. Possibly the pace of the game appealing to casual gamers, but that's arguable.
Which goes to my first question in my original post, how did it get so big? It seems like several games have tried to follow a similar model to WoW, both existing games and new games, but have not been as successful, at least from what we can tell from the 9 million number. I'm sure marketing played a big role. Probably being in the right place at the right time also helped.
I've proven mathemtically that WoW comes from the devil so I think subscribers will max out at 666 million. Too much time on my hands today
Comments
probably for the same reason that in real life, some people cant get a boyfriend or girlfriend, not due to numbers, due to character/attitudes etc
Because perhaps, the American/Canadian and EU markets are in decline, while the Asian market is skyrocketing. They didn't mention that did they? Perhaps because it's part of a campaign to 'fool' Americans and EU into thinking their demographic is still on the rise, to help bolster dropping numbers in a key demographic.
Anyway, that sounds more plausible to me then the boyfriend theory.
Exactly.
I am not sold that World of Warcraft is the best game. At least for me as a PvP MMORPG gamer, WoW doesn't cut it for me. If you prioritize the PvE over PvP then I'm sure you made a wise choice.
What I am seeing all around is people aren't playing WoW for fun, they are playing WoW so they aren't clueless as to what others are talking about around the lunch table. I admit when I see two friends discussing World of Warcraft, it does give me the curiosity to go buy a subscription to WoW and play just so I can socialize and talk about the same things they might. I'm sure many others are doing the same thing, they are jumping on the bandwagon called World of Warcraft, and when it will fall apart, it will fall hard. I'm not going to predict when this will occur, but most likely it will be when others have something else to sit around at the lunch table other than WoW.
However........
If you consider that each subscriber has 5 to 10 friends who don't play but know about it, that means the water cooler talk is.....
"Yeah and all he does is rot in that chair playing that stupid game....."
Not really great 'word of mouth' marketing in my opinion, but don't flame me, I'm really playing devil's advocate for humor's sake.
Honestly I think they deserve their success.
Going back to over a year ago when I actually played WoW, Kaplan mentioned that players with even one max-level character are in the minority, and active raiders an even smaller minority (he made it sound like single digits as far as percentage). That jives with what I see in friends and coworkers - a lot of them play WoW, only one has a level 70 that participates in scheduled raids.
The raid grind was the boring part of the game. The run up to level 60 (pre-BC) was actually pretty well done IMHO. If that's all the majority of their players see, then the majority of their players are justifiably happy.
Now, please crush my year-old anecdotes with your hatred.
And here we have the problem of WoW
Since the chinese players pay like $0.50 a month to play..... I doubt it.
ah. good point.
why do the chinese pay 50 cents a month?
No, they don't pay .50 cents a month...honestly
Its a bit more complicted then that, they buy timecard with points on them.
Only players who have purchased an authorized CD key will be able to activate their accounts and enter the game. Each CD key costs 30 Yuan/RMB and can be purchased with a World of Warcraft Points Card. Point Cards also cost 30 Yuan/RMB and can be used at a rate of 9 points per hour (0.45 Yuan/hour) to play World of Warcraft. For more information on World of Warcraft, including pricing, promotions, and gameplay features, please visit Blizzard's official website: www.wowchina.com.
http://www.gameinformer.com/News/Story/200506/N05.0607.1018.21862.htm
Currecy conversion 30 yuan = 3.97 USD
http://www.xe.com/ucc/
They actually could end you paying a lot more then our flat 14.99 a month depending on how much they play.
So at a rate of 9 pts per hour you are getting a tad over 3 hours of play. (if you had a card with 30 points on it)
Someone who plays 10 hours a week / or 40 hours a month needs 13 timecards. 13 x 3.97 USD is 51.61 USD a MONTH.
How would you like to pay that a month?
Also you have to remember that like all statistics it doesn't paint the whole picture. For example, how many of the 9m have been playing longer than a month? longer than 6 months? How often and for how long do the 9 million play? What are the other subscription models for games in Asian countries and how do they compare to WoWs? (assuming Asian countries are responsible for the spike as we didn't see where the numbers came form exactly) What % of active subscribers include Internet Game Room players? Questions that I have at least...
No question that its an impressive number, but not all the games that are out there use the same revenue model, so its kind of hard to say that WoW is more successful than say Yulang which has 10 million registered players. Yulang is F2P but it has item shops, would love to see how much revenue comes in from a Yulang item shop vs WoWs monthly subscription rate.
At any rate, even though WoW has the large subscription rate that doesn't make it more successful than other games out there. But then I don't just define success for a game as the number of active subscribers, though thats probably certainly true from a business perspective if active subscribers are your only revenue base.
I think MMORPGs are the future of the video game industry. WoW is definately a milestone, but is it the end all be all? I don't think so. It has all the same flaws that games that came before it had, and games that have come after it. If this industry is going to grow into what I think we all want it to, we need more innovation than what WoW has to offer.
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But you still log onto internet forums and post messages about them. Kinda sad, don't you think?
That is definitely going in my Big Book of Dumb Quotes.
How exactly would you define "success" other than by the number of people playing the game? The most successful MMO around is the one being played by the most people, which, the last time I checked, was WoW.
That is definitely going in my Big Book of Dumb Quotes.
How exactly would you define "success" other than by the number of people playing the game? The most successful MMO around is the one being played by the most people, which, the last time I checked, was WoW.
That is definitely going in MY Big Book of Dumb Quotes.im guessing u didnt read : Yulang which has 10 million registered players vs wow 9 milliion
read b4 flame
According to - Currecy conversion 30 yuan = 3.97 USD - and - 0.45 Yuan/hour:
1 Yuan is ~0.1323$
0.45 = 0.06$ per hour; 15$ are exactly 250 hours.....
So yes, they pay less
Anyway, what's that racism around? What does it matter if they are chineese, americans or marsians? Like LOTRO is not going in Asia soon. In fact I am surprised that companies even care about the tiny American market. Asia has ten times more people interested in games (if not more) and EU has around 3-4. People should realise that no matter what a company representative would tell nobody is making a game to satisfy you. They are here for the money and nothing else. Everyone saw what's happening with idealistic people who think "The Vision" is all that matters.
And btw, my server population is increasing recently. Many old friends return. On forums people report queues on few servers. So I guess EU is doing fine.
European barely have a million online at all.
Your math is wrong :PAccording to - Currecy conversion 30 yuan = 3.97 USD - and - 0.45 Yuan/hour:
1 Yuan is ~0.1323$
0.45 = 0.06$ per hour; 15$ are exactly 250 hours.....
So yes, they pay less
Anyway, what's that racism around? What does it matter if they are chineese, americans or marsians? Like LOTRO is not going in Asia soon. In fact I am surprised that companies even care about the tiny American market. Asia has ten times more people interested in games (if not more) and EU has around 3-4. People should realise that no matter what a company representative would tell nobody is making a game to satisfy you. They are here for the money and nothing else. Everyone saw what's happening with idealistic people who think "The Vision" is all that matters.
And btw, my server population is increasing recently. Many old friends return. On forums people report queues on few servers. So I guess EU is doing fine.
LoL, I'll chalk that one up to 6:30 am and not enough coffee yet
Anyway, its NOT .50 cents a month and no, it really doesn't make a difference anyway as all it does it put money in the pocket of a big corporation while we all wave our epeens around anyway. The game paid for itself hundereds of times...so Blizzard wins either way.
I also agree with you on the NA comments. The U.S. makes up the smallest and least successful portion of the MMO market, its amazing companies even try to make games for it at this point.
Yeah, with Blizzard just announcing they hit the 9,000,000 paid subscriber mark, players are leaving en mass.
Fuhyo
dont be ridiculous m8, its quite possible to lose millions of subs and still gain millions more when entering a new market like say china. so blizzard are up a couple of hundred thousand subs... nobody knows how many new subs are signed and how many oldies left right? could be 3mil new subs and 2mil subs cancelled. 2mil subs cancelled is a sh*tload, havent seen any reports on that coz I really dont care
just saying its possible
That is definitely going in my Big Book of Dumb Quotes.
How exactly would you define "success" other than by the number of people playing the game? The most successful MMO around is the one being played by the most people, which, the last time I checked, was WoW.
Stop being such a fanboi and take my quotes in context with the rest of the post. Let me start with the entire paragraph that I posted and the one before it.
Now, does that mean that WoW isn't raking it in...noooooo.
[Edit] To spell it out, in case I didn't make myself clear, Yulang has more registered players vs WoWs subscribers. Neither of these numbers talks about how many people are actually playing the game at any given time, or for how long they've been playing the game. What I think I pointed out for most people in my post is that taking the 9 million number at face value just doesn't tell the whole story.
Honestly, people like you that try to defend WoW by insulting others with a contrary opinion do more to hurt the game than help it. Learn how to make and argument by not calling names and insinuating other posters are Dumb and you will be much more credible.
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That is definitely going in my Big Book of Dumb Quotes.
How exactly would you define "success" other than by the number of people playing the game? The most successful MMO around is the one being played by the most people, which, the last time I checked, was WoW.
That is definitely going in MY Big Book of Dumb Quotes.im guessing u didnt read : Yulang which has 10 million registered players vs wow 9 milliion
read b4 flame
Does Yulang have 10 million active SUBSCRIBERS or 10 million registered users? Blizzard clearly states how they determine their sales figures and those 9 million accounts are currently paying to access the game. There is a world of difference between paying active subscribers and "registered" users. Also correct me if I am wrong, but isn't yulang free to play?That is definitely going in my Big Book of Dumb Quotes.
How exactly would you define "success" other than by the number of people playing the game? The most successful MMO around is the one being played by the most people, which, the last time I checked, was WoW.
That is definitely going in MY Big Book of Dumb Quotes.im guessing u didnt read : Yulang which has 10 million registered players vs wow 9 milliion
read b4 flame
Does Yulang have 10 million active SUBSCRIBERS or 10 million registered users? Blizzard clearly states how they determine their sales figures and those 9 million accounts are currently paying to access the game. There is a world of difference between paying active subscribers and "registered" users. Also correct me if I am wrong, but isn't yulang free to play?Please see the post right before yours...
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Thank you for backing up your post with facts. And, BTW, the corporate heads who fund whatever MMO you play care how many subscribers it has because, I don't know if you know, but this is a buisiness and they couldn't care less if they make a "good" game for you. They care about money; its a buisiness, not a charity. Why else in the world do you think there are so many wow clones? You don't go around seeing many AA clones or MxO clones now do you?
I dont play MMOs anymore. They are all garbage. People who play them are likely just there as a staging point between the next MMORPG that doesnt suck. People play WoW because they have nothing else to play, it isn't because it is fun. It's just the place to be for now, until a good MMORPG comes out.
When a company puts out an MMO that is genuinely fun, I will play it. Until then, there is no point. There are many other games that are more fun and not MMOs.
Great for you. If you don't play then no point in posting here. Unless you've tried every MMO you have no right to say they are all garbage. Or did you think everyone is just on the edge of their seats waiting for your expert opinion on games?
In the end, logic and reason always beat out fanboys.
The following isn't really directed at you, just something that I needed to get off my chest in general.
So far I've read WoW critics say the following in response to the 9 million announcement:
-It isn't active subscribers (which it is as clearly stated in the article)
-Most of those people don't play in the US (as if that matters)
-Just because they pay doesn't mean they play (This one still has me at a complete loss. As if it is some specific phenomena to WoW only?)
-Most of the people who play are stupid so they don't really count. (great blanket logic there)
-They are all chinese farmers. (Millions of farmers I guess)
-WoW is losing subscriptions at a huge rate (7, 8, 9... looks like it is gaining)
-Just because it is gaining subs doesn't mean it isn't losing millions.
Simply put, a telling thread about the blinders people are willing to put on.
Personally I am glad blizzard blew the doors off the MMO market. If more games launch finished and focusing on fun because of it, them the genre advances. The game may not suit everyones tastes, but it is a good thing overall. Apply the same business practices to other games with free content, great support and a solid polished product then any game can succeed.
Once Darkfall, AoC and Warhammer get released WoW will get a heavy hit.
The following isn't really directed at you, just something that I needed to get off my chest in general.
So far I've read WoW critics say the following in response to the 9 million announcement:
-It isn't active subscribers (which it is as clearly stated in the article)
-Most of those people don't play in the US (as if that matters)
-Just because they pay doesn't mean they play (This one still has me at a complete loss. As if it is some specific phenomena to WoW only?)
-Most of the people who play are stupid so they don't really count. (great blanket logic there)
-They are all chinese farmers. (Millions of farmers I guess)
-WoW is losing subscriptions at a huge rate (7, 8, 9... looks like it is gaining)
-Just because it is gaining subs doesn't mean it isn't losing millions.
Simply put, a telling thread about the blinders people are willing to put on.
Personally I am glad blizzard blew the doors off the MMO market. If more games launch finished and focusing on fun because of it, them the genre advances. The game may not suit everyones tastes, but it is a good thing overall. Apply the same business practices to other games with free content, great support and a solid polished product then any game can succeed.
I'd like a pair of the rose tinted glasses you are wearing, WoW did not launch completed, the first few months were painful at times and a bunch on functions that should have been in the game at launch weren't.There were even functions in the game manual that were not present at launch, and at this point still are not, namely :- a working and fair Honor system with rewards and consequences from PvP, Heroes still are not in game and look unlikely to be.
The game even launched with out some of the more RPG functions missing housing, and character customiztion (which is still basic and gear dependant at best). RP is all but none existent because Blizzard can't/Won't/Don't know how to run RP servers.
Wow did have a good launch but it was far from perfect.
The following isn't really directed at you, just something that I needed to get off my chest in general.
So far I've read WoW critics say the following in response to the 9 million announcement:
-It isn't active subscribers (which it is as clearly stated in the article)
-Most of those people don't play in the US (as if that matters)
-Just because they pay doesn't mean they play (This one still has me at a complete loss. As if it is some specific phenomena to WoW only?)
-Most of the people who play are stupid so they don't really count. (great blanket logic there)
-They are all chinese farmers. (Millions of farmers I guess)
-WoW is losing subscriptions at a huge rate (7, 8, 9... looks like it is gaining)
-Just because it is gaining subs doesn't mean it isn't losing millions.
Simply put, a telling thread about the blinders people are willing to put on.
Personally I am glad blizzard blew the doors off the MMO market. If more games launch finished and focusing on fun because of it, them the genre advances. The game may not suit everyones tastes, but it is a good thing overall. Apply the same business practices to other games with free content, great support and a solid polished product then any game can succeed.
I'd like a pair of the rose tinted glasses you are wearing, WoW did not launch completed, the first few months were painful at times and a bunch on functions that should have been in the game at launch weren't.There were even functions in the game manual that were not present at launch, and at this point still are not, namely :- a working and fair Honor system with rewards and consequences from PvP, Heroes still are not in game and look unlikely to be.
The game even launched with out some of the more RPG functions missing housing, and character customiztion (which is still basic and gear dependant at best). RP is all but none existent because Blizzard can't/Won't/Don't know how to run RP servers.
Wow did have a good launch but it was far from perfect.
WoW also didin't launch with Storm troopers and Giant simley faces.. whats your point, all you just mentioned was a bunch of stuff people in beta said they would like to see at launch such as housing, heroes etc.The only problem with WoW at launch was laggy servers due to the massive demand and the occasional falling off a boat or through the world this was all cleared up in a few months, but what was at launched worked.. simple as that.
I agree, i havent read a thing about Darkfall at all, so carnt say anything about this one as i know jack about it. AoC has somewhat dropped in my ratings list, only time will tell for this one. Warhammer is my best bet that will give WoW a run for its money if all the things it talks about live up to standards (which they rarely do, but some are somewhat close). I aint going to get all hyped up on any upcomming game release anymore, because your just setting yourself up for a big fall.
WoW i had only read snippets about it, had heard 70% good things about it and 30% bad, i decided to take the plunge on it, and was there for 2yrs from launch (last 9 mths i havent been playing it) but i am considering going back to it untill WO gets released which i reckon will be early next year.
CUPERTINO
You also left out the PvP bit. They said they would be doing this and that for PvP servers, and even recommended playng on PvP servers but they seam to have done a U-Turn on this and stayed with BattleGrounds that were only implemented to keep teh PvE server players happy.
I guess I just don't see your point. WoW has 9 million active subscribers. Yulang has 10 million people registered for a free to play game over its lifetime. Apples to oranges as far as I can tell, but maybe you see something else.Not entirely apples and oranges as from a business perspective it boils down to revenue. There aren't any numbers anywhere that I've seen that shows that WoW's "active subscribers" brings in more money than Yulang's "registered users".
But there are different measures of success other than revenue. Just because when you log in there are a lot of players on doesn't mean that that is always the case throughout the day. We don't see those numbers from Blizzard, just 9 million active subscribers. But there are plenty of ways to look at the 9 million number, I think the questions in my origial post try to break it down more. Not to mention number of bots and multiple accounts etc...
I think the larger issue is whether WoW is a successful MMORPG because it has 9 million users. I don't think that you can argue that it is to some degree. But does it offer anything new from what came before it, other than the Warcraft IP? I don't think so. Possibly the pace of the game appealing to casual gamers, but that's arguable.
Which goes to my first question in my original post, how did it get so big? It seems like several games have tried to follow a similar model to WoW, both existing games and new games, but have not been as successful, at least from what we can tell from the 9 million number. I'm sure marketing played a big role. Probably being in the right place at the right time also helped.
I've proven mathemtically that WoW comes from the devil so I think subscribers will max out at 666 million. Too much time on my hands today
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