World of Warcraft Hits 9 Million Users

Wowzer writes "Blizzard today announced that their MMORPG World of Warcraft is now played by more than 9 million gamers around the world. From the article: 'That's half a million more than the number of monthly players WoW had back in March five months ago. — It's interesting to note that if the World of Warcraft were a nation, CIA's World Factbook says that out of 236 listed countries it would be the 90th most populated country on Earth above Haiti, but behind Sweden.' Also revealed this week was that DC Comics are creating World of Warcraft Comic Books based on the MMORPG, with the first issue appearing on November 14th. The ongoing monthly series will be written by industry veteran Walter Simonson (Thor, Orion) and feature art by Ludo Lullabi and inker Sandra Hope."

Comments

Re:Is played or has been played?

[Anonymous Coward]

World of Warcraft's Subscriber Definition
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.

Taken from http://www.blizzard.com/press/070724.shtml

Re:Is played or has been played?

[Mascot]

Perhaps you could quote the part of the article which defines that for me.

I'll do the honors.

World of Warcraft's Subscriber Definition
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. Source: http://www.blizzard.com/press/070724.shtml

Apologies on behaf of the poster you replied to. He shouldn't expect anybody to actually click through to the Blizzard press release. This is Slashdot, after all.

Re:Yes...

[thc69]

A potentially relationship-ending addiction?

I thought I was going to have to post that. Thank you.

Here's a few links for people who are worried about WOW addicts:
http://soulkerfuffle.blogspot.com/2006/10/view-fro m-top.html
http://wowdetox.com/
http://wowrecovery.com/
http://deletewow.com/
http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/WOW_widow
http://www.wowrecovery.com/
http://www.wowdetox.com/view.php?number=13640

http://www.joystiq.com/2005/06/23/boy-dies-after-1 2-hour-gaming-session/
http://www.joystiq.com/2005/11/04/wow-online-funer al-commemorates-death-of-young-gamer/
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,195236,00.html
http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/06/20/news_61278 66.html

Re:'poopsock' tag? wtf

[Main Gauche]

I had to look it up, myself.