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World of Warcraft Hits 9.3 Million Players
Gamasutra is reporting that, along with Vivendi's ever-increasing earnings, recent information has been released updating the current player stats for World of Warcraft. Despite suspicions of falling numbers due to the long wait between now and Rise of the Lich King, Blizzard's Massive title is larger than ever, with some 9.3 million players. "Vivendi has chalked up the increase not only to its WoW subscriber base, but the release of its The Burning Crusade expansion, which saw release in China in the latter part of the third quarter ... The company also noted that its subscriber base has continued to grow from the 9 million mark it celebrated in July to more than 9.3 million, which it says is up more than one million subscribers since December 31 of last year."
Having the most customers does not mean you have the best product. Theres an example to prove this but it has been beaten to death before.
Well, it has never been successfully tested.
Right, and oddly enough the vast majority of them don't visit slashdot, either. WoW is sufficiently large that it can have a noticable affect on the rest of technology, which happens to be something many slashdot-goers have interest in. WoW primarily distributes it's patches through bittorrent, which Comcast users are having trouble with, many of whom are calling for network neutrality, which has become enough of an issue to be picked up by many currently running for president of the world's current economic and military superpower. A very sizable chunk of those 5.9907 billion actually have some interest in the direction US politics swings. Even if you don't buy that it can affect the world as a whole, it certainly affects at least the tech world - the stuff slashdotters are interested in.
"A witty saying proves nothing." - Voltaire
But it won't stop people from trying to dump on the leader. What's really pathetic are the people talking about how their fantasy MMORPG is sooo much better than WoW, despite the numbers clearly proving it isn't.
Why aren't you making this argument every time that someone "dumps" on Windows, WalMart, Coors Lite, Britney Spears, McDonalds or a Chevy Cobalt?
Despite anything you might think anyone's favorite MMORPG or whatever is based on their opinion. Can someone come up to me and say that WoW is the best and I can say EQ2 is the best and both of us still be right? Absolutely. We choose what's right for ourselves in any particular place and time. Media like games, books and movies cater to target crowds. Maybe I'm just happier with EQ2's vision of the Drow? I don't know.
By the way.... 50,000,000 Elvis fans are wrong... at least for my tastes.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.