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Chinese MMOG Boasts 9 Million Players
Next Generation is reporting that Chinese Massive title Yulgang has hit 9 Million subscribers, just two months after the game's launch. Joystiq has commentary, and clarifications: " First, Yulgang does not require a registration or a subscription fee - and as many of you have pointed out in regards to Guild War's recent milestone, without subscription fees that number can seem quite inflated from the actual number of players. In fact, the maximum number of people playing Yulgang at any one time has been only 215,000. Which is still a high number, but less than one-thirtieth of its registered database."
Which is still a high number, but less than one-thirtieth of its registered database."
According to Calculator it's 1/40th
"Rather than paying for time spent on the game itself as most other MMORPG
= 104&STORY=/www/story/08-13-2005/0004087731&EDATE=
business models apply, Yulgang sells valued-added virtual merchandise and
services from its online game shop. This revenue model allows users to enjoy a
high degree of game playing flexibility. This distinctive model pioneered by
China.com, while having proven successful in Korea, is a breakthrough in
China."
Taken from http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT
Meh. That sounds like Project Entropia. Anyway, it might be fun. Wonder if it's open to international players.
Lalala
Wait, they have an MMO that doesn't require a subscription fee? And it's really an MMO, not just a CORPG like Guild Wars?
Where can I buy it?
And it's really an MMO, not just a CORPG like Guild Wars?
So you actually *LIKE* the traditional MMOG features of kill stealing, camping, camp stealing, repeated dying from being trained, days waiting for your mob to spawn, mind-numbing xp grind, near-zero loot drop rates, etc etc? Oh, and paying a subscription to enjoy your suffering.
Guild Wars is not for you then.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
Okay think about it, China has what 1.3 Billion people? And over 9 million people are playing this game. For that country that's only 0.007% of the population that is playing.
You know your MMOG is successful when you have more players subscribing than computers in the country....
I, kid.. actually they had 36 million in 2002 and that should have doubled by now according to estimates in that link. Of course the US had 190 million computers back then so it is still a high percentage of subscriptions compared to number of computers in the country....
In a MMORPG that's only available in China, do all the gold farmers just sell to one another?
"Next Generation is reporting that Chinese Massive title Yulgang has hit 9 Million subscribers"
but
"First, Yulgang does not require a registration or a subscription fee"
so you dont need to register or subscribe to play the game? or am I just reading this wrong...
"I am a kernel in the linux army"
These games can be played for free, and people can buy items/clothes/weapons for real money : The strange thing I always found is that most of the Korean crowd -really- digs to buy virtual clothes for their characters (some clothes don't even do anything : They just look fancy).
One of these games I really liked for awhile (which is now out of service) was ASDF Hoverboard
Back on topic, this game looks very nice ; And I hope they'll make an English version soon.
There was a very extensive list of those free (translated) Korean MMORPG's on Fileplanet, but with their new overhaul of the site it's impossible for me to find atm.
If the number of subscribers is almost two orders of magnitude greater then the number of current players, something sounds odd.
Isn't it a little early in the morning for racism?
Hmm, if anyone can have as many free registrations as they want, then they can allow only one character per account, and let all the alts drive their numbers up more. I haven't investigated this game to see if that is actually happening, but it does seem to be a possibility.
While I don't like the idea of paying real money for in-game advantages, and in fact I could rant for hours about how it's wrong for a game to explicitly catter to the pay-to-cheat crowd... what's wrong with caring about what your character looks like?
I'm not Korean, but in WoW I wished my tailor character could dye clothes so they match. Just because I'm a munchkin doesn't mean I want to look like a clown. (And if I did, I'd want a _proper_ clown costume, with red nose, floppy shoes and all, not just a collection of mis-matched clothes.)
I know others who would have liked the same thing. And Gabe of Penny Arcade seems like a pretty hardcore gamer, yet he too recently complained on the site about having all those bonuses on a green hat, and how it doesn't fit his fire mage image.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Isn't it a little early in the morning for onanism?
Waiiii!!!!!! I have bad karma!
That's nothing...I have 43,353,213 subscribers to mine.
Of course, I haven't seen a single cent because I don't require registration, sign-ups, or charge a fee.
Additionally, it doesn't need any hardware or infrastructure because I still have to write the game. So, yah, I'd say I'm doing pretty well in the MMORPG market.
ohhhhh BURN
WHO NEEDS SHIFT WHEN YOU HAVE CAPSLOCK/ DAMN1
I loved the game at first but after the American Farmers got involved the economy was ruined!
I have no