Originally posted by jinxit

Originally posted by Valentina

Hmm, cool. Congrats to them I guess, but does this only count active subscribers or are they including inactive accounts as well?

 

I'll never really understand what's so amazing about WoW. I've played it since it came out, and there are other games which are handled better. 1 expansion in 3 years? ehhh

I'd say its a conglomerate of existing accounts, canceled accounts and everyone that got WoW for a gift and just played the free month, its still empressive figures though.

How does this happen?

Originally posted by Kalmarth

WOOT thats 4.5 Million Players in the US and Europe and 5.5 Million Gold farmers supporting them, so really if you take out the gold farmers then its more like a real number of PLAYERS.

They also post Active game cards as an account, does that mean all the Cards they have printed that are on shop shelves, as those are active cards ?

5.5 million gold farmers in Asia? Are you racist against Asian people? Are you saying they are all poor and get paid to play WoW all day farming gold?

It's not illegal or against the EULA of ANY MMORPG to farm. It's only illegal to sell in game items for real life currency.

Gold farmers are players, they are logging in and playing the game. Gold SELLERS are not players, they are against the Agreement terms they supposedly read when they signed up.

Nice try.

Originally posted by Hexxeity

 

Originally posted by jinxit

Originally posted by Valentina

Hmm, cool. Congrats to them I guess, but does this only count active subscribers or are they including inactive accounts as well?

 

I'll never really understand what's so amazing about WoW. I've played it since it came out, and there are other games which are handled better. 1 expansion in 3 years? ehhh

I'd say its a conglomerate of existing accounts, canceled accounts and everyone that got WoW for a gift and just played the free month, its still empressive figures though.

It truly is as if people are completely illiterate, yet still somehow manage to type messages into the forum.

 

How does this happen?

Eh?

I guess I will never make it in marketing.  WoW is a great game, but does not really stand out as all that different from the other games since the original EQ.  It seems that most of the fantasy MMO since EQ are more or less the same.  Why did this one blow up so big and the others did not?  There are lots of games just as good as WoW.  It is great for blizzard.  With that kind of subscriber base, they should have the funding to do amazing things going forward.  I can't see how any fantasy game will be able to approach WoW now due to the crazy funding that they have.  They are bring in like 150 million per month in revenue.  I bet that is bigger than most games yearly income.

Wether people are creating accounts to farm or whatever you'll never see an article stating WOW's numbers decreasing. By the time WOTLK gets here and release Blizzard will tell you they in herited more accounts somehow, some way just to market/ hype their product up. Smart marketing move I would say but it is just unreleastic that every mmo can lose accounts except for Blizzard ? Come on people, use common sense. Nothing new here.

well it's not surprising WoW is asia heavy is it built like one of their 'standard' type of mmos (not that it's a bad thing ofc, i like FFXI :)) but if their not facting in farmers trail account bots ruff guess i'd say about 1% are famer account tbh.. so still a lot of subs from asia, then again SC is HUGE there :)..Now all they need to do is add Mechs and in WoW (and possibly call it 'the world') and they've got the whole market, HELL if they did that I'll be back in :P

but 4/5-ish million of the westen market.. not bad, at least theres still room for other mmos to have a densent amount of subs past the WoWaholics out there :)

Two people I know who were disgusted with WoW after playing it so much suddenly got back into this winter as well. Crazy, I think Blizzard using some subliminal messages

---> shot in the face to all the trollposters on this forum claiming the death of Wow. Yes 10 million subscribers, the game is going to die really soon. Geez...

I have a feeling more and more people are starting to play MMO´s this year for the first time and the new games that are coming is not going to draw people away from Wow, lets face it. But big deal, play whatever game you find funny but lets be realistic. Wow is going to be king of the hill for a long time.

Damn, I was expecting this after WotLK, not so soon.

Well, FOR THE HORDE!!

 rogue

Good god. Why do uninformed people feel the need to make comments on things they know nothing about?

@saduce -- thats not a big shock considering from what ive heard you can take a lvl one to the max level in a day or two using all the cheats for it.  Guess if i had nothing better to do id do it too.

Blizzard significantly increased level 20-60 quest XP in patch 2.3.0. I've noticed this right away. This coupled with Brian Kopp's alliance guide, or Joana's Horde guide, still takes more than two days to reach level 70. Even if you played 24-hours straight it would take you about 4-7 game days depending on your class and skill. NO, you cannot reach 70 in two days. o_o

@pussykay -- They usually get a big boost in subscriptions/activity around christmas but last year it dropped right after january.

Burning Crusade was released on January 16, 2007 and Blizzard's subscriptions increased dramatically after. Your information is flawed.

@thepatriot -- The title of the thread is a little off.  WoW is currently serving over 10,000,000.  If you count all the canceled subscriptions just how high would the number served be?

10 million. o_o

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.
from http://www.blizzard.com/press/080122.shtml

@pussykay -- Do what exactly? rush to 70? play the game? How is that related to the topic?

It's a little of both. Guides are useful for those that have already "played" the game to 70. A guide serves as a way in which to accelerate leveling alts. Most players have alts. I have 6 alts. Alts are not part of the 10M number.

@zensaber -- I am starting to think their counting accounts made and not active subscribers.

Then you are a moron.

@Kalmarth -- They also post Active game cards as an account, does that mean all the Cards they have printed that are on shop shelves, as those are active cards ?

They are just as valid as monthly subscriptions. One reason they are valid is a kid wouldn't have a credit card, but he may get an allowance. So he goes to a BestBuy and buys a couple game cards every other month.

@heeroya -- Plain english - Only active subscribers, game room players (pay by hour) who have logged in the last 30 days, and those still currently on free trial.

Yes to all. No to "logged in the last 30 days." My account was active, and I was paying every month, but I hadn't logged in until only recently. Even though I didn't log into the game my account was still active and paying. Regardless Blizzard counts that as an active account regardless of whether I log in or not.

@andykimbrough -- WoW is a great game, but does not really stand out as all that different from the other games since the original EQ. It seems that most of the fantasy MMO since EQ are more or less the same. Why did this one blow up so big and the others did not?

Because most MMOs are niche and accommodate certain gaming styles. WOW actually offers something for everyone. You have all sorts of play styles clashing together into one server. If it's a PVP server things get even more interesting. Personally I'm a casual PVP'er, but I like to raid. I also love the process of leveling while doing quests instead of grinding mobs all day long. My co-worker actually prefers grinding. He plays a horde. I play an alliance. In the game we're enemies; in real life we're co-workers. And we share our experiences as if they were real-life events. I guess its something like this.

@SaintViktor -- Wether people are creating accounts to farm or whatever you'll never see an article stating WOW's numbers decreasing.

This is because they aren't. Yes, there really is 10M. The 14 minute queue times during peek hours are proof. o_o

Originally posted by Kyleran

 

Originally posted by faefrost

 

Originally posted by pussaykat

They usually get a big boost in subscriptions/activity around christmas but last year it dropped right after january.

 

The Burning Crusade expansion hit last January. The numbers skyrocketed and half the servers had annoying login queues.

 

A lot of new people join during the Christmas holiday.  I met a 45+ yr old woman here at work that started playing (her nephew's got her involved) on Dec 26th.  She loved it so much she went out and bought a new laptop (her husband was pissed she was spending so much time in the den) and she was fully engaged.  This is a person who had never played an online game in her life (or many games at all in fact). 

WOW definitely knows how to bring new folks to their game.

I have a mid 50 year old in my guild as well, I think it is really cool seeing the older generation get into these games as well, not that I am a youngster myself but its nice to see.

Like Blizzard or hate them they still bring out a quality product for anyone and all ages to enjoy.

I`m not surprised to see a large increase in subs because Blizzard did what others thought was impossible ... having more than 250k subs.That was the main aim of all mmos and they kept making niche games,Blizzard simply open MMOs to a wider population where Mr and Mrs everybody can be a Hero without the hassle of the other MMOs.

Even if I don`t like the game I say kudos to Blizzard and I see them  leading the market for the next 3 years.

im really not surprised at all, i keep hearing about people in my area who never play video games but were introduced to WoW and cannot stop playing

for instance my english teacher has begun to skip school occasionally to play her warlock

lol, 5.5 million in asia, where around 90% of those are farmers, pl'ers, etc

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Originally posted by heerobya

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Originally posted by zensaber

I am starting to think their counting accounts made and not active subscribers.

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"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 canceled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules. "

Plain English - Only active subscribers, game room players (pay by hour) who have logged in the last 30 days, and those still currently on free trial.
So what they are saying is, in the past month, 10,000,000 active accounts logged in. Scary huge.

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I'm sorry, i forgot that blizzard was above Christ and doesn't sin, screw lying. They are not capable of it, impossible right?Also learn to use fucking spell check.

Originally posted by zensaber

 

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Originally posted by heerobya

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Originally posted by zensaber

 

I am starting to think their counting accounts made and not active subscribers.

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"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 canceled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules. "

 

Plain English - Only active subscribers, game room players (pay by hour) who have logged in the last 30 days, and those still currently on free trial.
So what they are saying is, in the past month, 10,000,000 active accounts logged in. Scary huge.

---

 

I'm sorry, i forgot that blizzard was above Christ and doesn't sin, screw lying. They are not capable of it, impossible right?Also learn to use fucking spell check.

Also, the post you quoted doesn't have any spelling errors...

Hey McDonalds and WoW have some things in common it seems, theyre both selling an inferior product thats helping the worlds youth get fatter by the minute.

Originally posted by Arcken

Hey McDonalds and WoW have some things in common it seems, theyre both selling an inferior product thats helping the worlds youth get fatter by the minute.

omg!! Arcken, well said, well said.

"served" suggests they arn't playing anymore

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Originally posted by graill

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Originally posted by Arcken

Hey McDonalds and WoW have some things in common it seems, theyre both selling an inferior product thats helping the worlds youth get fatter by the minute.

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omg!! Arcken, well said, well said.

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LOLOL

Either way, WoW IS a quality product and IS easy to get into.

At the time of release it was the ONLY mmorpg that was as polished and easy to learn, get into ( harder to master ).

The combat system was fast and dynamic ( compared to most others ).

The leveling thru questing system was evolutionary, borderlining revolutionary. The 5 man instances were alot of fun.

My only gripe is that as the endgame they took the hardcore raid route, instead of the RvR route they always claimed they would follow. ( Like large PvP battles between Horde and Alliance in the Open World, not instances ).

Then after WoW was released every mmo publisher and his brother tried to mimmic this success, so mister innovation was murdered.

It even went so far that nice sandbox games like Star Wars Galaxies were wowified to try to steal away some of the WoW players.
This horribly failed of course. People will never learn, they had examples from UO mimmicing EQ by releasing Renaissance ( Trammel ) and Age of Shadows ( L33T Items ), and guess what, they failed. Same goes for DAoC, they released Trials of Atlantis ( heavy PVE in a RvR - PvP game ) hoping to get some of the EQ players, and failed hardcore. I hope that by now, developpers know they have to stick to the ideals of the game and not entirely change the playground, or they get smacked.

Still WoW remains that very polished game, easy to get into, timeless graphics, wether you like cartoony or not, you have to admit that these kind of graphics hardly age with time, unlike realistic graphics, that after a few years need a major update or will otherwise be subpar compared to the rest, and lastly loads of content, for both casual and hardcore players.

The only thing I hope now, is that with all the fundings Blizzard has now, they will make an awesome polished sandbox game with quality guided content at the start ( to get into the game ) next. Because I honestly think that Sandbox games, if well done, can provide the better endgame. This does not exclude questing and guided content as a means to get max level/skill.

And there is definatly a market for it, if SWG could have 300.000+ subscribers with an unpolished sandbox game, I am sure if Blizzard makes one, millions will play it :p

WoW does have 10 million ACTIVE paying subscribers, wether you like it or not.

Greetz