MMOGs from Several Angles

GameGirlAdvance has a look at the litigation between NCSoft and Marvel, examining exactly how infringy the character creator can let you be. The Square/Enix people are starting a roving FFXI party, to kick off later this month in CA. f13.net has an interview with Scott Brown, a developer on the upcoming car-based Auto Assault MMOG. The staple MMOG stats resource, MMOGChart.com, has been updated again by Sir Bruce. He's added several more games but doesn't have new subscription numbers for WoW or EQII.

Comments

Re:Trouble unsubbing?

[Babbster]

This is a good reason to go with MMOGs that allow you to buy time in stores with their game cards. Sometimes, you might end up paying an extra dollar or two a month for the privilege, but it a) doesn't expose your credit card to ongoing charges and b) gives you nice point every couple months where you have to consciously evaluate your game experience and decide whether or not its worth dropping more cash. It also ensures you'll hit the store every couple of months to see what's come out during the time you've been obsessed with your MMOG. :)

Re:Trouble unsubbing?

[Skidge]

I've had no problems. Everquest, Puzzle Pirates and World of Warcraft all had easy to use interfaces on their websites that allowed me to update/change/cancel my account status and billing info.

Now, on the otherhand, I did have trouble unsubscribing from MMORPGs, but that was more of a minor addiction problem. :)

Valid test?

[yotto]

I don't know if the article writer's inability to create Marvel characters in under 30 minutes is a valid test of if you can create valid Marvel characters at all.

However, the fact that NCSoft took steps to dissuade her from using said characters is good.

Re:Valid test?

[Tepshen]

The GM's will readily admit that they are only chasing marvel characters ,vs DC or other copyrighted characters (I.E. DBZ characters which also run rampant last I played), because marvel is sueing them. Marvel is sueing because at the time they were not enforcing it as much. Now that the courts are involved they are bound to try a bit harder to deny marvel any further evidence to use against them.

Re:Final Fantasy XI

[Anonymous Coward]

Square-Enix hasn't updated the FFXI numbers since before COP was released. Those figures are from the height of its popularity, the end of July last year.

It's been speculated that it's active subscriber base has dropped to about a quarter of what it used to be, although no one really knows. I expect that in reality it's something much less drastic, like 125,000 gone.

FFXI wound up filling the niche of "filler MMORPG" between EQ and EQ2/WoW. Now that those are out, people are starting to leave in droves.

Square-Enix is apparently in "panic mode" much like SWG has been for the past month, trying to update the game to win back subscribers who left for WoW. I know there's nothing they can do to win me back, especially since they'll have already permentantly deleted my character for the crime of not playing for a couple of months. Screw 'em.

EFF is helping out!

[randalx]

Check out this thread Looking for fans outraged by Marvel lawsuit.

It looks like the EFF is getting involved in the lawsuit.

Why no cheesecake links?

[jeblucas]

Seriously. I read this article and the comments and not one person has mentioned the quasi-hot "booth babes" at the FFXXXIIXIXIIX Party site. I present:

• One.
• Two.
• Three.
• Four.

Sometimes you have to do everything yourself.

Re:Trouble unsubbing?

[patio11]

Never had a problem myself. FFXI allowed you to do it within the game client. Puzzle Pirates had an easy option at the website (the "Arrr, we be sad to see ye go!" made me regret it, too). World of Warcraft has a clearly visible easy option, not that I intend to take it anytime soon.

If it ever took more than a phone call to cancel (and I see NO reason why a game which I can purchase online, register online, and play online should require a phone call to stop playing), then I would immediately make a call to my credit card company and ask them to stop authorization for the recurring credit card charge to that vendor. This is free, doesn't hurt your reputation (gack, too many RPGs) with them in the least if you're doing it for coming months rather than retroactively, and perfectly within your rights under the credit card contract.

Re:Final Fantasy XI

[SirBruce]

No, I mentioned them specifically in my charts because I do have some data one them but they are still excluded from some of the charts. You can look at the other 120K+ chart to see L1 and L2.

For RO I only have Japan numbers, which are only a fraction of the total. L1 and L2 are excluded because:

1. They count subscribers in a different way.
2. They are so large, they'd take up most of the pie chart.
3. They are primarily Asian-market games.
4. There are several other large Asian games that aren't listed yet, which would make it very unfair to show L1 and L2 and not the others.
5. It's far more useful and interesting to most of my readers to have an idea of the market for North American & European MMOGs. While the data included is worldwide, for most of the MMOGs the number of Asian subscribers is limited; FFXI has maybe half of its subs in Japan; UO about 45%. So it still gives you a pretty good idea of their popularity. L1 & L2, on the other hand, are almost purely an Asian phenomenon.

Ideally, one would be able to break subscribers out by territory for each individual MMOG. Sadly, that's almost impossible; it's hard enough getting good data on subscriber numbers. So we have to live with the data as it is.

Bruce

Re:Final Fantasy XI

[YomikoReadman]

WoW and EQ2 may have received a lot of hype and they may have had moderately successful launches, but they weren't the genre-defining events that many have hyped them to be. "Moderately Successful"? While I can't really speak for EQII, calling WoW's launch "Moderately Successful" is completely wrong. They moved 250k units the first day, had 120k accounts the first day. Since then, they've actually had to stop selling the game until they can finalize the character migration process, and bring even more hardware online. I say even more because in the first two weeks of launch, due to the unparalled popularity, they had to double, yes double the number of servers available within two weeks of launch. Currently, less than 3 months after launch, WoW is boasting 600k subscribers. Blizz has broken pretty much every record for an MMO launch ever.

While EQII's launch was lackluster at best, saying the same of WoW is horridly inaccurate. Saying that WoW will have to catch up to FFXI's subscriber numbers is just a bunch of crap. They've already done it, and they hit FFXI's 2 year number in 3 months.