There are four main reasons why a particular game isn't listed in the charts:
a) The game in question isn't really a MMOG, at least by my reckoning. Games like Diablo II and Phantasy Star Online fall into this category. Guild Wars developers say in their own FAQ that they do not consider their game a MMOG; in addition, it doesn't charge a monthly fee (see below). Please don't email me trying to insist otherwise; I'm not likely to be convinced.
b) The game in question is free and/or doesn't charge a regular monthly fee. Games like Furcadia, Magic: the Gathering Online, and Project Entropia are good examples; these games are normally free to play, but some players can also pay a variable amount to access additional content in the game. This makes it almost impossible to come up with a number comparable to monthly subscribers in other games.
c) The game in question is too small to chart. This would include games like A Tale in the Desert, Blade Mistress, Gemstone IV, and Meridian 59. In the past, I've been reluctant to chart games below about 10,000 subscribers, mainly because they made the charts very crowded, and it was not my goal to list every game that came along. Still, I have made exceptions for some smaller games that are making an impact, and it is possible that in the future more of the smaller MMOGs will be represented - but only if I get data for them.
d) I don't currently have good data for the game in question. This is the most likely reason why a MMOG you are looking for is not listed. This includes many foreign MMOGs that don't provide subscriber data, as well as newer games like Auto Assault. These games are certainly popular, but I simply do not have access to monthly subscription figures at this time. If you have any data on these or other games not listed, feel free to drop me a line!
Let me preface this by saying that the only other MMO i've ever played was FFXI. I played for about a year, starting when the ps2 version came out, and had a high level paladin. I've been on WoW for ~3 months.
1. WoW looks pretty. I don't find the music annoying and repetitive (yet), and the ui is highly customizable.
2. Less grind. I found the grind fun in FFXI, and that's what the game is mostly about. The problem arises when you're sitting around waiting for hours for a xp party. Even at low levels during non-peak hours, it was a problem. You could never do something in an hour, and you had to devote serious amounts of time. Eventually, it became a chore. In an hour, I can knock out a quest or 2 in WoW and turn them in. Good times. Some WoW instances take a long time, and drops are rare for epic loot, but if you find it unbearable you can start an alt for a while and have a little fun with a different character.
3. It's easy, social, and fun. "the hardcore mmorpg'er" (example: militant vanguard fanboys) don't like WoW, but WoW appeals to a wider audience (not just big geeks, like myself). The reason I started playing WoW was because half of my office already was, and I was looking for a new game. The game is pretty easy so far (37 war), I have a guild full of coworkers, and I don't waste a lot of time waiting for a party.
4. Crafting. Crafting in FFXI is hell. The moon has to be the right phase, which only occurs for 1 hour every real day or 2. Your items could break during the craft, in which case you could lose millions, but crafting was very profitable at higher levels. In WoW, crafting is easy, and there really isn't too much money to be made. I'm an alchemist, so I'll be doing Arcanite Transmutes, but I won't end up making money off of anything else. It's better than the frustrations of FFXI to me, and the average gamer would tend to agree.
5. Selling/buying gold. When I left FFXI, Square was doing absolutely nothing about it, and it was crippling the economy. Blizzard at least tries, and as of level 37 I haven't really noticed it impacting the market on the server. Maybe I will at higher levels, but not for now.
6. Maybe it's me, but I've noticed less asshats on my WoW server than I found on FFXI. The occasional "OMG!!1! CHUCK NORRIS!1!!" in the barrens aside, it's been a fairly decent experience.
There's more reasons, but those were just off the top of my head.
Blizzard's far from perfect (goes down every tuesday, connection issues, login queues, etc), but it's enjoyable to me. Maybe I'm one of the "moron gamers" who just doesn't understand why WoW sucks..
In a country that has braille on drive-up ATMs, I can't say I'm surprised. Can I now sue crutchfield because the catalog I get in the mail isn't available in braille (as far as I can tell from the website)?
While I find using flash unnecessary, I certainly don't want to see using flash or any similar tool made illegal in some instances. Legislating the web in that fashion can be dangerous, and what's next? Can you get sued for missing an alt tag?
If sites had to be standards compliant, MS better get rolling on IE. Most browsers can't pass an ACID2, but there's been countless times where I've had to hack around IE quirks to get a page looking right.
i'll admit it, i will play cod2 again on veteran just to get the points, even though i'm aware it is completely pointless. i'd love to see the points actually be useful...maybe a free live arcade game for every 5k? it will never happen, and the only reason to collect the points will be to flex nuts to other gamers.
Slashdot Mirror
if i ever stumble across an unsecure network with a shared printer, i always make sure to print out tubgirl and other fun stuff on it.
It's because they're free. From the FAQ -
1. Why isn't listed?
There are four main reasons why a particular game isn't listed in the charts:
a) The game in question isn't really a MMOG, at least by my reckoning. Games like Diablo II and Phantasy Star Online fall into this category. Guild Wars developers say in their own FAQ that they do not consider their game a MMOG; in addition, it doesn't charge a monthly fee (see below). Please don't email me trying to insist otherwise; I'm not likely to be convinced.
b) The game in question is free and/or doesn't charge a regular monthly fee. Games like Furcadia, Magic: the Gathering Online, and Project Entropia are good examples; these games are normally free to play, but some players can also pay a variable amount to access additional content in the game. This makes it almost impossible to come up with a number comparable to monthly subscribers in other games.
c) The game in question is too small to chart. This would include games like A Tale in the Desert, Blade Mistress, Gemstone IV, and Meridian 59. In the past, I've been reluctant to chart games below about 10,000 subscribers, mainly because they made the charts very crowded, and it was not my goal to list every game that came along. Still, I have made exceptions for some smaller games that are making an impact, and it is possible that in the future more of the smaller MMOGs will be represented - but only if I get data for them.
d) I don't currently have good data for the game in question. This is the most likely reason why a MMOG you are looking for is not listed. This includes many foreign MMOGs that don't provide subscriber data, as well as newer games like Auto Assault. These games are certainly popular, but I simply do not have access to monthly subscription figures at this time. If you have any data on these or other games not listed, feel free to drop me a line!
Let me preface this by saying that the only other MMO i've ever played was FFXI. I played for about a year, starting when the ps2 version came out, and had a high level paladin. I've been on WoW for ~3 months.
1. WoW looks pretty. I don't find the music annoying and repetitive (yet), and the ui is highly customizable.
2. Less grind. I found the grind fun in FFXI, and that's what the game is mostly about. The problem arises when you're sitting around waiting for hours for a xp party. Even at low levels during non-peak hours, it was a problem. You could never do something in an hour, and you had to devote serious amounts of time. Eventually, it became a chore. In an hour, I can knock out a quest or 2 in WoW and turn them in. Good times. Some WoW instances take a long time, and drops are rare for epic loot, but if you find it unbearable you can start an alt for a while and have a little fun with a different character.
3. It's easy, social, and fun. "the hardcore mmorpg'er" (example: militant vanguard fanboys) don't like WoW, but WoW appeals to a wider audience (not just big geeks, like myself). The reason I started playing WoW was because half of my office already was, and I was looking for a new game. The game is pretty easy so far (37 war), I have a guild full of coworkers, and I don't waste a lot of time waiting for a party.
4. Crafting. Crafting in FFXI is hell. The moon has to be the right phase, which only occurs for 1 hour every real day or 2. Your items could break during the craft, in which case you could lose millions, but crafting was very profitable at higher levels. In WoW, crafting is easy, and there really isn't too much money to be made. I'm an alchemist, so I'll be doing Arcanite Transmutes, but I won't end up making money off of anything else. It's better than the frustrations of FFXI to me, and the average gamer would tend to agree.
5. Selling/buying gold. When I left FFXI, Square was doing absolutely nothing about it, and it was crippling the economy. Blizzard at least tries, and as of level 37 I haven't really noticed it impacting the market on the server. Maybe I will at higher levels, but not for now.
6. Maybe it's me, but I've noticed less asshats on my WoW server than I found on FFXI. The occasional "OMG!!1! CHUCK NORRIS!1!!" in the barrens aside, it's been a fairly decent experience.
There's more reasons, but those were just off the top of my head.
Blizzard's far from perfect (goes down every tuesday, connection issues, login queues, etc), but it's enjoyable to me. Maybe I'm one of the "moron gamers" who just doesn't understand why WoW sucks..
In a country that has braille on drive-up ATMs, I can't say I'm surprised. Can I now sue crutchfield because the catalog I get in the mail isn't available in braille (as far as I can tell from the website)?
While I find using flash unnecessary, I certainly don't want to see using flash or any similar tool made illegal in some instances. Legislating the web in that fashion can be dangerous, and what's next? Can you get sued for missing an alt tag?
If sites had to be standards compliant, MS better get rolling on IE. Most browsers can't pass an ACID2, but there's been countless times where I've had to hack around IE quirks to get a page looking right.
I'd like to see a card with: "You break your leg falling from the top of a Abu Ghraib-style ass pyramid. Pay $200 in doctor fees."
i'll admit it, i will play cod2 again on veteran just to get the points, even though i'm aware it is completely pointless. i'd love to see the points actually be useful...maybe a free live arcade game for every 5k? it will never happen, and the only reason to collect the points will be to flex nuts to other gamers.