WoW tops two million (almost)

[Akeldama]

Blizzard has announced that the number of World of Warcraft subscribers is set to pass the two-million mark in the next few weeks.

The MMORPG was already the largest game of its type in North America and Europe yet continues to grow. A recent beta-test in China resulted in 500,000 players online at the same time.

Blizzard expects the magic two-million figure to be reached once the Chinese version of the game goes live in the coming weeks. You can read the full story here (http://rpg.boomtown.net/en_uk/articles/art.view.php?id=8455).

[AversionFX]

Wow, that's a lot of [money] people!

[bobbler]

2million x ~15 a month.

If they run it anything like most other MMOs... around half of that is money in the bank (if not a lot more).

Christ.

[Goronmon]

Its really suprising that a PC game could sell this well (especially one requiring a monthly fee) and I'm glad to here it.

However, I'm afraid the success of WoW will push even more devs to produce more of the same game thats been released for the last 5-6 years to try to get in on the market.

[Commissar Rob]

Great game, but just took so much time. Finally broke free about a month ago...

Sheesh, I sound like a recovering alcoholic. I've been WoW free for a month...*polite applause*

[MrTA]

Yikes! I seriously can't belive that WoW reached 2 million players. Played it since US Beta and I got bored on it fast. I think that I shall try again now that Battleground has been released and what I have heard from my friends is that Battlegrounds rocks.

If only my old SWG-guild could come back online and stop playing WoW... Otherwise I think I will try out Guild Wars soon. WoW is overrated big time.

[Keeperofpeas]

WoW is a great game, but what attracts so many ppl is their love of the warcraft universe.

not sure about why the chinese love it so much tho... warcraft dosent seem that big over there.

anyways half a million beta testers with plenty more queueing (*sigh*) in china before launch seems to suggest there are going to be more than the half million needed to push total subscribers past 2 million (http://www.mmorpgchart.com/Chart1.html).

[TrackZero]

If only my old SWG-guild could come back online and stop playing WoW... Otherwise I think I will try out Guild Wars soon. WoW is overrated big time.

Something isn't overrated when it's good. People play the game because it's fun for them, that simple. It so happens lots of people find this game fun (myself included). WoW is hardly overrated, it's exactly what it is, massively popular. If you don't like it, oh well, that's not everyone elses problem.

[MrTA]

Something isn't overrated when it's good. People play the game because it's fun for them, that simple. It so happens lots of people find this game fun (myself included). WoW is hardly overrated, it's exactly what it is, a massively popular. If you don't like it, oh well, that's not everyone elses problem.

I guess you could argue like that, but I try to look a little bit deeper into WoW then that and what I find is not a good game, but rather same old same old in a new Warcraft suite and that is not good. That is marketing working imo :)

But then again, I guess if people like the game, that is ok, but I would not say that Britney Spears is a good artist even though she sells albums if you understand what I mean.

[Ervin]

WoW has gotten lots of free publicity. Magazines that don't normally review games at all have reviews and articles about WoW. And, many, many non-gamers have PCs at home. Those articles in non-gaming magazines may encourage a portion of them to try it out...and since WoW is the most newbie friendly game there is, there's a good chance they'll be hooked. MMO is fresh and exiting for most people, it's old and jaded for just a few.

And after a game is this popular, it'll just keep growing. Those new-to-MMOs keep inviting their friends to try it out since it's so much fun.

[Kefkataran]

As has been said about WoW a million times: it doesn't do anything new, but it does the MMORPG genre damned well. And this is how Blizzard has always been. Diable and Warcraft and Starcraft -- none of them were about intense innovation. It was taking the genres that already existed (hack-n-slash action RPG and strategy) and polishing them until they shined like the diamonds they were.

World of Warcraft is good and fun. It doesn't do anything new, but it's not surprising, as Ervin pointed out, that so many people who've never played or liked MMORPGs before are so impressed by it. Kudos to Bliz. Let's hope they don't disappoint with whenever they decide to release the first expansion.

[TrackZero]

I guess you could argue like that, but I try to look a little bit deeper into WoW then that and what I find is not a good game, but rather same old same old in a new Warcraft suite and that is not good. That is marketing working imo :)

Marketing is making you not like a games mechanics?

But then again, I guess if people like the game, that is ok, but I would not say that Britney Spears is a good artist even though she sells albums if you understand what I mean.

Britney Spears is a pure product of marketing, WoW is anything but. It's straight up word-of-mouth "this game kicks ass, go play it" that got it where it was. Where's all the WoW commercials and advertising? Oh wait, I've never seen any.

[Rommel]

but I try to look a little bit deeper into WoW then that and what I find is not a good game, but rather same old same old in a new Warcraft suite and that is not good. That is marketing working imo

Thank God you're here to enlighten us. We never once thought to look deeply into a game. No one around here does that!

...

jizzbucket.

[TrackZero]

Thank God you're here to enlighten us. We never once thought to look deeply into a game. No one around here does that!

...

jizzbucket.

lol. No need to name call on the guy. I just prefer to string them along in conversation until they give up.

[BloodAngel]

I played the heck out of WoW, and it was fun, and is a decent MMO, but EQ 2 is a better experience. Storylines are deeper, and it seems that since Blizzard is handing SOE its ass sales wise SOE is trying harder, which is a good thing.

[Kefkataran]

BloodAngel, I was seriously considering EQ2 for a while. Tried the demo, but something about the game just didn't feel as fun. Heck if I could name what though. Maybe I'll give it another spin at some point in the future.

[Goronmon]

There's no denying that WoW is a decent game. But for someone who has played many of the games in the genre before, its surprising how little has changed since the first generation.

[Eric_T_Cheng]

not sure about why the chinese love it so much tho... warcraft dosent seem that big over there.

That's because they love mining gold!

[MrTA]

Thank God you're here to enlighten us. We never once thought to look deeply into a game. No one around here does that!

...

jizzbucket.

I know, its a hard work to try to enlighten you guys, but I do my best and hopefully it will pay off :)

lol. No need to name call on the guy. I just prefer to string them along in conversation until they give up.

That is usually my line damn it! Anyway, like someone else said here earlier if you have been around the mmo genre and played a bunch of them you don't see much of innovation theese days. But then again, whats good to us differ from person to person. I simply want something more then the same old formula wrapt in a new shining suit. My main problem is that it seems like all my friends is perfectly happy with WoW so if I want to play mmo:s with my old gamingfriends wow is the game for the day :(

Oh well, we shall see what the new mmos on the horizon has to offer us. Or I simply have to make some new friends in other mmo:s :)

[joyufat]

Hopefully Blizzard continues to develop new games as well. WoW is a great game, but I worry that with such success, they may decide to devote resources to milking the cash cow, at the expense of new projects.

[netcraazzy]

I was never really into MMORPGs because I hate paying the monthly fee but I gave WoW a try because it was suppsed to be newbie friendly and I liked all the Warcraft games so I thought WoW would be interesting. My brother started playing for the same reasons basically. So, yeah Blizzard got 2 converts for those two simple reasons. But all my brother's friends who are mainly console gamers saw us playing WoW and wanted to play too. One of them even bought a computer just to play, so there's another example of how Blizzard is getting so many people. Now that I've played the game for a good 6 months though I'm getting pretty bored with it. The thing that did it for me was the crafting system, it's just not robust enough.

[BloodAngel]

BloodAngel, I was seriously considering EQ2 for a while. Tried the demo, but something about the game just didn't feel as fun. Heck if I could name what though. Maybe I'll give it another spin at some point in the future.


EQ 2 is one of those games that has to be played for a bit to really appreciate, the demo is boring heck levels 1-15 are nothing to write home about, its when you leave Freeport or Qeynos that it gets interesting.

I'm lucky though I’ve hooked up with three other players and we game regularly and they are like me not all about the phat lewts. Maybe its who you play with as apposed to what you play...but anywho EQ 2 will have my dollars for the foreseeable future.

[Kefkataran]

EQ 2 is one of those games that has to be played for a bit to really appreciate, the demo is boring heck levels 1-15 are nothing to write home about, its when you leave Freeport or Qeynos that it gets interesting.

I'm lucky though I’ve hooked up with three other players and we game regularly and they are like me not all about the phat lewts. Maybe its who you play with as apposed to what you play...but anywho EQ 2 will have my dollars for the foreseeable future.

Like I said, I may give it another shot at some point in the future, maybe post-expansion. the one thing I'm really concerned about is lack of soloability. I already felt that some in the demo. I know that some people think it's lame to go on an MMORPG and solo, but I just like being able to solo at least most of the time since finding a good group to stick with can be so difficult.

[grobian]

2million x ~15 a month.
almost half a million of that are subscribers in china and they pay on a hourly basis (I think its roughly 0.5 euro per hour).

There is already a press release stating that they reached 2 million, at least on the german website.

[Oblivion]

I am lvl 48 right now, playing with my friends account when he is sleeping (!). it is fun, but at lvl 60 I can lose my interest. it looks like a huge grind.

[BloodAngel]

Like I said, I may give it another shot at some point in the future, maybe post-expansion. the one thing I'm really concerned about is lack of soloability. I already felt that some in the demo. I know that some people think it's lame to go on an MMORPG and solo, but I just like being able to solo at least most of the time since finding a good group to stick with can be so difficult.

Understood, I usually play Lone wolf as well, it’s just that I lucked out and hooked up with some good folks. I think folks have a hard time soloing in EQ 2 because they try to play the game like WoW or even EQ. In EQ II green, and light Blue Mobs will give you decent (Not stellar) XP. You can usually safely solo Heroic Greens. But Dark Blue upward is going to hand you your ass unless you have help of some sort. I soloed the Thunder Steppes, and the first part of Bloodlines; I still get to those parts that are insanely hard or impossible to do alone, but the rewards in both storyline, and items keeps me playing.

Look Me up if you decide to come back, I play a Ranger (Cullen) on AB.

[trip1eX]

Did you know?

That when they estimate the size of the pcgaming market they don't include mmorpg monthly revenues? .......

[TrackZero]

I was never really into MMORPGs because I hate paying the monthly fee but I gave WoW a try because it was suppsed to be newbie friendly and I liked all the Warcraft games so I thought WoW would be interesting. My brother started playing for the same reasons basically. So, yeah Blizzard got 2 converts for those two simple reasons. But all my brother's friends who are mainly console gamers saw us playing WoW and wanted to play too. One of them even bought a computer just to play, so there's another example of how Blizzard is getting so many people. Now that I've played the game for a good 6 months though I'm getting pretty bored with it. The thing that did it for me was the crafting system, it's just not robust enough.

Heh. If you play a game for 6 months, that's usually considered an unqualified success. Hell, when I think back at all the time I've now dumped into WoW, it probably rivals Super Mario Bros 3 in time spent playing. (Though still not up to the amount of time spent on the first Quake.)

[kurr]

Played since december. Stopped around the end of april. Came back last week, to check out battlegrounds. Goddamn it. I'm back in. I can't help it. Nothing beats a pair of rogues relay-running the flag. CTF in this game works, in a weird way. It's just too cool.

[Heretic Machine]

The primairy reason I won't give EQ2 a chance is that SOE has yet to do one decent game in the MMO genre. EQ was -horrid-, Planetside couldn't keep my interest for even a few hours, and SWG... well, I like the community, but the game sucks. I know a lot of people loved EQ, but I'm a UO man, and EQ really did nothing for me at all. Felt like a job more than anything.

[HarverdGrad]

The primairy reason I won't give EQ2 a chance is that SOE has yet to do one decent game in the MMO genre. EQ was -horrid-, Planetside couldn't keep my interest for even a few hours, and SWG... well, I like the community, but the game sucks. I know a lot of people loved EQ, but I'm a UO man, and EQ really did nothing for me at all. Felt like a job more than anything.

EQ has been around a while. It grew into a great game. I still think it's the best game out there in terms of zone variety, auction, instances. I played it too much and just burned out. Calling EQ horrid, and then crowing about UO- I don't get that? What do you like about UO? I might have to give it a try.
Regards!