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2 Million Azeroth Citizens

Posted by Zonk on from the zug-zug-zug-zug-zug-zug-zug-zug dept.

Gamasutra (and everyone else) has the news that World of Warcraft has hit 2 Million subscribers, making it the first U.S. based commercial MMOG to do so. From the article: "The most popular current MMORPGs in Asia are generally developed locally, but if World of WarCraft proves popular in China, as well as other soon to be launched territories such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, it could quickly become the most globally popular online game in history. "

21 of 155 comments (clear)

  1. Maybe they can spend some of that money by Xenopax · · Score: 2, Interesting

    to add some horsepower to the Alterac Valley instance servers. Right now on the server I play on there is never more than 2 instances going at any one time, even though both sides have over 40 people standing around waiting to get in.

  2. WoW = World of Waiting by Jack+Comics · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In addition to World of Warcraft, WoW also stands for World of Waiting.

    Waiting to log on... waiting for instances to open up... waiting for Battlegrounds... waiting for patches...

    --
    "We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde
    1. Re:WoW = World of Waiting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      No, you can't. They haven't allowed that for months. Go ahead, try it. (You need a WoW account for that.) You'll get told:

      The Character Move feature is currently closed. We are continuing to monitor realm populations, and are keeping the option in mind to re-open Character Moves in the event any realms become overpopulated. In addition, we are looking into the possibility of allowing customers more freedom in transferring to realms of their choice in the future. No further details are currently available concerning this feature, but any new information (regarding this or similar services) will be posted on www.worldofwarcraft.com as soon as it is available.

      Battleground queues are insane on most servers. People have been waiting 15 hours on some servers just for the chance to play! Blizzard really needs to find a way to reduce the wait time, but so far, we've been hearing nothing.

      What's even better is that sometimes an AV instance will start, and then all the Horde will randomly up and leave, killing the instance, so the Alliance who have been waiting 8+ hours get screwed. GG, Blizzard!

  3. Quick Opinion Wanted by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    If WoW content remained basically the same, but did not have the Warcraft specific brand or Blizzard label, would it be as successful?

  4. WoW's success has been UNDERstated by pezpunk · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If anything, World of Warcraft's huge success has been understated. It is now four times the size of Everquest at its peak. That's monstrous, for a game that charges a monthly subscription.

    --
    i could live a little longer in this prison
    1. Re:WoW's success has been UNDERstated by falcon5768 · · Score: 3, Interesting
      actually no, its more than 4 times the size of EQ at its peak (EQ never broke 400,000)

      BUT WoW also has the highest turnover rate. So the question remains how many of these 2 mil ACTUALLY play the game still, or just bought it played for a month and then dumped it.

      --

      "Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."

    2. Re:WoW's success has been UNDERstated by falcon5768 · · Score: 2, Interesting
      sorry, but Blizzard would WANT us to see people arnt leaving and thus that report would be out for all to see, the fact is by all accounts people are leaving, their numbers are just being replaced by new players and the ones leaving are still getting counted as active.

      If SE and SOE where to use the same scheme to report their numbers odds are there would not be a huge gap between WoW, and its next runner up FFXI.

      --

      "Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."

    3. Re:WoW's success has been UNDERstated by EvilMagnus · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If these are active, current subscribers than Blizzard doesn't care if they're actually logging in - it's still $15x2MM dollars a month revenue for them.

      Now, if this is 2MM subscibers total, over the history of WoW, then that's not as impressive. :)

      --
      -EvilMagnus
  5. Insightful article ? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

    > but if World of WarCraft proves popular in China, as well as other soon to be launched territories such as Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, it could quickly become the most globally popular online game in history.

    Let me rephrase this as:

    "but if World of WarCraft proves popular in [every country] it could be the most popular online game in history"

    We can build quite a lot of story here:

    "if $thing proves $property in $everywhere else, it could be the most $property $category in history"

    Like in:

    "If slashdot proves boring in europe and china and south america, it could be the most boring weblog in history".

    Cool.

  6. Capitalization of the mmo market... by fierYice · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As a former Blizzard employee I can attest that I did not see very much innovation in the hallways. Passion is spewing from the halls and dedication to the utmost fun experience is what holds that ship together; maybe one day they will try it with brand new ideas...

    I have no doubt that World of Warcraft will become the usurper of the throne and easily claim the #1 MMO spot globally but what I have not yet seen much of is "Who will dethrone the new king in years to come?"

    You know it is an inevitable. I ACTUALLY know it is inevtiable, hell I've worked on the code and tools. You can feel it in your soul and you can know it just by the fact that technology always expands to such a point that games are antiquated and no longer "Stunning."

    Gaming industry, when oh when are you braking out your next stunners?

    A true 'Killer Application' mmo has not been created, and world of warcraft is not it. Killer apps force consumers to go out and buy hardware just for the expience being so damn 'killer fun.' In other words, I can't wait for the mmo that breaks out and makes people go out and buy computers or consoles (ps3, xbox360 would be nice...)

    That's the game I am interested in playing.

    (and making, as a game developer. :D)
    -Daniel

    --
    -Debug
  7. Is that current paying subscribers? by Banner · · Score: 3, Interesting

    In WOW they never delete a character or an account. So is that current paying subscribers? Or all subscribers ever?

    I'm just curious

  8. New subscribers != more players by BrookHarty · · Score: 4, Informative

    There might be more subscribers, but there are less people playing online now. People are getting burnt out of the same old instances, and waiting for poorly designed PvP.

    Your wait in queue in 3 hours, have a nice day.

  9. Nice milestone, but... by Evro · · Score: 2, Interesting

    With so many of its customers being non-US, so what if the game's "US-based"? If it had 2 million US-based customers it would be more impressive.

    --
    rooooar
  10. Where can you find better graphics? by kjkeefe · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I have seen comments posted on slashdot several times saying that the graphics in WoW or mediocre at best. I personally think that they are excellent. Where are folks seeing better graphics than what is available in WoW? Just curious...

    --
    1, 2, 3, 4, 5... That's the combination on my luggage!
    1. Re:Where can you find better graphics? by CaptMonkeyDLuffy · · Score: 3, Informative

      Eh... I think the graphics issue boils down like this:

      The actual technical feats of the graphics engine in the game are decent, but not amazing(however, in their defense they do a damn good job of running on lower end hardware...). There are people who's opinion of the graphics in a game are derived almost solely from the technical specs of the game's engine... Badly designed levels, clashing colors all over the place doesn't matter if the poly count is high with lots of sparkly effects. These sorts will not like WoW.

      Second, Blizzard has a very distinctive art style. Some people simply won't like WoW because the particular style to it isn't to their liking(there's definitely a vocal group these days who want their graphics as 'realistic' as possible, and Blizzard's style definitely won't appease that group).

      Attractiveness of graphics is a very subjective matter... personally, I agree with you that WoW does a really good job overall(they definitely have slipped up a little when it comes to some of the equipment for players, but everything else is really great). Different people will have different takes, and in my experience most of the complaints about WoW tend to follow the two lines I mentioned above...

    2. Re:Where can you find better graphics? by llevity · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Technically, the graphics aren't all that great. There's no fancy reflections, and bump mapping, and vertex shading. But I agree that it's a fantistic looking game, without all those things. It's not the poly counts and resolution of textures that do it, it's the overall cohesive art design. Every area you go to looks significantly different. There is atmosphere. And while it does not look realistic, it looks believable in the sense that there is nothing to jarringly pull you out of your immersion.

  11. WoW by hugerobot · · Score: 4, Funny

    WoW upside down is MoM, and MoM upside down is Dad's favorite thing!

    ducks...

  12. Re:WoW is amazing by 1001011010110101 · · Score: 2, Informative

    That shows that you are a bit out of the loop, either because you are very low level or only play from time to time.

    For instance:

    Considering in games like EQ where you had to schedule end-game raid with "uber guilds" who basically controlled the high-end dungeons...

    There are two world bosses that spawn once a week and usualy are owned by the uberguilds on each server. Molten Core and Onyxia requires Uber Guild tactics and dedication to get to and beat. All of this is the current end game (which in Wow comes fast as the leveling is so easy).

    or farmers who ruin economies in Final Fantasy Online (and who are TRYING in WoW)...

    Most "farmable" world zones are owned by the farmers atm. The prices in the Auction House are inflated by them. Doesn't that qualify as ruining the economy?

    or totally UNPLAYABLE launches like Anarchy Online...

    Every new patch the game becomes more and more laggy. I'm playing on a mid-high population server , and I just dont go to Ironforge to avoid the lag. The mail everywhere takes like 10 seconds to open, and like 10-20 seconds to detach an item. Trying to use the AH is almost pointless and require a lot of patience.
    There are queues for everything. Battlegrounds have 6-8 hours queue for alliance (Blizzard said that all servers were balanced, bullshit). On weekends I have 10-15 minutes of queue to join the server. If I happen to disconnect for any reason, I have at least that wait. They dont give me the oportunity to move to a lower population server, and I'm not going to start a 3rd char to 60.

    I agree the game's nice...but their infrastructure kinda sucks. And their customer service its a crap.

  13. Two million dollars... er, players by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    50% are playing Night Elves
    80% are playing Alliance
    10% are playing on Bleeding Hollow
    100% of those hate something (or someone) about Bleeding Hollow
    80% of Horde are playing Forsaken .00001% of all players are playing Trolls

    100% or these statistics were made up on the spot because I am bitter. When are we going to have a PVPRP server?

    nnooiissee

  14. the sidebar by jlstyle · · Score: 2, Funny

    "In a related story, Sony Online Entertainment President, John Smedley, was found dead in his home due to a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the face."

  15. Blizzard should stop being cheap with service. by JavaLord · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I've been playing WoW now for 6 months. I'm amazed at it's success, because 2 million subscribers is quite an accomplishment. It is the most fun mmorpg I've played.

    That said, they need to work on their customer support. If they have 2 million subscribers paying 15 dollars a month, they could at least hire one community manager for each class. As of now, on their forums feedback from developers funneled through their community managers (I believe there are 5) is extremely rare.

    With the recent addition of battlegrounds which gave a set place for PvP, the lack of balance between the factions is showing. There are two 'faction only' classes, the Paladin and Shaman. The Shaman is the most powerful character in the game, while the Paladin is the weakest. When you combine this with the fact that the Horde has the better racial traits, battlegrounds is lopsided. People have been bringing this to blizzards attention for months with minimal feedback. Maybe now that battlegrounds are around they will do something to balance out the classes and races.

    If they would hire a community manager for each class, then they could have the current ones moderate the other boards, such as PvP, RP, General, etc.

    Overall, they need to get their act together before people notice they were never ready for this kind of userbase. The latest thread of doom in their forums is about someone with cerbral palsy who was banned for using '3rd party programs' which allowed him to play world of warcraft even though he was disabled.

    They can't let PR disasters like this go on for too long. It is a game, but it's also a service. Blizzard needs to wake up and realize that.