Before I say anything let me just say that this is in no way an attempt to Troll.  But....

Hers the link : http://www.tentonhammer.com/node/65229

This is just irritating the hell out of me.  Wizard 101 has just announced that it has over 1 million users.  Not toons, users.....   How the hell does this game that is not F2P have 1 million + users and WAR is struggling??  WAR is so freakin awesome and Wizard has more users???  What the crap man!??

$5 says 90% or more are between 5-16. Wizard 101 advertises on Nick and Cartoon Network, so.....

Parents' CC ftw!

Just announced?  You missed the announcement date by a month.

Wizard 101 has one million accounts created, but most of those probably never paid for the game.  The game has a free trial area that comprises about 40% of the starting world--and the starting world is the smallest of the five.  Trial areas are visibly a lot more crowded than the rest of the game.

KingsIsle hasn't released subscription numbers (kind of like Mythic, come to think of it), though even that might not give the proper picture.  The game's payment model is that you can either pay a subscription to get access to everything, or else pay small amounts to get permanent access to individual zones, at a rate of around $1-$2 per zone.  I'm guessing that most players who pay go the subscription route, as that's cheaper in the long run except for someone who plays the game very little.

Don't scoff at Wizard101 as a "between 5-16" game, though.  It's a kids' game mainly in the sense that the company strenuously avoids sex and violence.  Nearly every NES and SNES game ever made is a kids game in the same sense, as Nintendo heavily censored content back then--and some of those games were really good.

It's not just 10% of the playerbase over the age of 16. The game probably has more than 10% of the playerbase over the age of 30, at least if you restrict to people who have paid. Indeed, I'd bet that Wizard101 has a higher percentage of the playerbase over the age of 40 than WAR does.

Wizard101 is a legitimate, quality game.  It didn't launch with a bunch of bugs and glaring imbalances, nor with a bunch of large areas that basically put a sign up and said "someday there will be content here".  (How many classes and capital cities was WAR missing at launch, again?)  The combat is quite different from the usual "WoW-clone", and the game does feature a number of genuine gameplay innovations.

Originally posted by Quizzical

Just announced?  You missed the announcement date by a month.

Wizard 101 has one million accounts created, but most of those probably never paid for the game.  The game has a free trial area that comprises about 40% of the starting world--and the starting world is the smallest of the five.  Trial areas are visibly a lot more crowded than the rest of the game.

KingsIsle hasn't released subscription numbers (kind of like Mythic, come to think of it), though even that might not give the proper picture.  The game's payment model is that you can either pay a subscription to get access to everything, or else pay small amounts to get permanent access to individual zones, at a rate of around $1-$2 per zone.  I'm guessing that most players who pay go the subscription route, as that's cheaper in the long run except for someone who plays the game very little.

Don't scoff at Wizard101 as a "between 5-16" game, though.  It's a kids' game mainly in the sense that the company strenuously avoids sex and violence.  Nearly every NES and SNES game ever made is a kids game in the same sense, as Nintendo heavily censored content back then--and some of those games were really good.

It's not just 10% of the playerbase over the age of 16. The game probably has more than 10% of the playerbase over the age of 30, at least if you restrict to people who have paid. Indeed, I'd bet that Wizard101 has a higher percentage of the playerbase over the age of 40 than WAR does.

Wizard101 is a legitimate, quality game.  It didn't launch with a bunch of bugs and glaring imbalances, nor with a bunch of large areas that basically put a sign up and said "someday there will be content here".  (How many classes and capital cities was WAR missing at launch, again?)  The combat is quite different from the usual "WoW-clone", and the game does feature a number of genuine gameplay innovations.

Okay, so I had an over-estimation. Simple fact - if you advertise on kids' channels, you will get kids. I knew there are always older people in every game, but the advertising on Nick and CN, coupled with the very cartoony graphics, led me to believe it was a kids' game. Common assumption I'm sure.

Edit: That might explain why 1 Million accounts were created, but not all paid. Kids usually try things but either 1) they get bored too quickly or 2) they can't get their parents to pay for it.

I did see some cool big headed Minotaur thing being summoned. Yay!

Quizzical, makes some valid points.  I am 44 years old and play this at times with my kids, who btw are 10 and 13.  It's actually a fun game, very similar to ToonTown.. but better.  What helps them get the high numbers this early in the game is the fact that the client is free and you can play for free for quite some time before you start running into areas you have to pay for.

Has anyone checked the numbers of FusionFall?  I have also played that with my kids and if I remember correctly it has the same game model as Wizard101... you can play for free but have to pay to get access to higher level stuff.

As for Warhammer, I was in beta and played the game up until about a month ago.

LOL. First of all yes those numbers are not exact at all.

But do not ever underestimate family games or family anything in terms of number. Case in point McDonald's, do people eat there for their great burger quality? No. I should hope not. But you can take the kids relax, all eat and watch the kids romp around while you sip coffee/coke and talk with a friend or your significant other.

Wizard 101 and the upcoming Free Realms will be the same, you can have family account for relatively cheap and play with your children, not to mention the huge pre-teen and teen audience they will draw in. Hard to compete with that especially since a lot of older mmo gamers now have kids or are having them.

Can't speak to Wizard 101, never played it, but I did play WAR and IMO its easy toe explain its low sub numbers, its not a very well made game, it lacks depth and charm,  has little innovation (that anyone cares about) and overall appeals to a small niche.

I'm playing Runes off Magic atm and feel its a better constructed game than WAR, and the PVP is more entertaining as well.  Sure its a cash shop game, and don't kid yourself, if you play ROM, you'll be spending cash on the items.

Yet stil, its more fun and interesting.  (The dual class system is really well implemented, however there are some balance issues)  I play on the PVP server and already theres guild rivalries, alliances which my guild is part of, and I'm busy helping our guild create our guild hall/castle.

Will it have long term appeal, who knows?  But its been more fun than WAR was. (heck, its still in open beta)

Originally posted by Bruticus_XI

Okay, so I had an over-estimation. Simple fact - if you advertise on kids' channels, you will get kids.

And if you advertise that two of your classes basically wear bikini armor, you get a bunch of teenagers with overactive hormones--and they don't have their chat crippled like the kids in Wizard101 do.  Is that really an upgrade?

Well of course most of the people who try the free trial of a game won't pay for it. It's like that in every game. Get a million people to try your game, get 100k of them to subscribe, and then you've got 100k subscribers and you're set.

As for the minotaur, the point of that isn't to look cute.  The point is that it does two separate damage pulses in a single turn, with most of the damage on the latter.  That means you need two identical shields to defend against it properly, as if you only have one up, the first strike will burn that shield, leaving the character vulnerable to the second.  Some damage over time spells break the damage into 3 or 4 pulses, with an analogous effect, but those don't all strike at once, as the minotaur does.  Damage over time spells take 3 turns to finish their damage, too, meaning that the attacker can't use any traps before then without them getting wasted on a single pulse of damage from a spell cast a couple of turns ago.

Originally posted by Quizzical

KingsIsle hasn't released subscription numbers (kind of like Mythic, come to think of it), though even that might not give the proper picture.

Mythic did release subscription numbers (or EA i think) and said that about 250,000 people are subscribed to the game. I can imagine there are more than that now since the game has seen alot of action and many people who haven't played in over a month returned to see the first Fort take and City siege my server ever had.

Patch 1.2 really changed the game and i hope 1.3 can come close if not beat it in bug fixes, quality, and gameplay.

Wizard 101 is probably one of the best MMOS out right now to be honest. Look past the graphics and give it a shot sometime. It's actually alot of fun and the arena can be pretty entertaining. I'm 30 and both me and my 28 year old girlfriend play this, we have a family account ;) I actually play this more than WAR at this point.

The pricing scheme should help explain this a bit too:

FusionFall:  Family Plan = 4 individual subscriptions for $9.95 a month.

Wizard101:  Family Plan = $6.95 per person.

Originally posted by NeoDrakeskin

Wizard 101 is probably one of the best MMOS out right now to be honest. Look past the graphics and give it a shot sometime. It's actually alot of fun and the arena can be pretty entertaining. I'm 30 and both me and my 28 year old girlfriend play this, we have a family account ;) I actually play this more than WAR at this point.

LOL!! That's great honestly. I'm really enjoying a lot of the cutesy free games right now too, like Wizard 101, Ether Saga, Mabinogi and RoM but that's getting away from the extra 'cute'. I play RoM with my husband and we play Wizard 101 and Ether Saga with our daughter, we'll never get to 45 so we're not worried about PK and such.

We're all very excited for Free Realms that seems to be the best one of them all so far in terms of family friendly and cuteness. :)

Originally posted by Cynthe

Originally posted by NeoDrakeskin

Wizard 101 is probably one of the best MMOS out right now to be honest. Look past the graphics and give it a shot sometime. It's actually alot of fun and the arena can be pretty entertaining. I'm 30 and both me and my 28 year old girlfriend play this, we have a family account ;) I actually play this more than WAR at this point.

 

LOL!! That's great honestly. I'm really enjoying a lot of the cutesy free games right now too, like Wizard 101, Ether Saga, Mabinogi and RoM but that's getting away from the extra 'cute'. I play RoM with my husband and we play Wizard 101 and Ether Saga with our daughter, we'll never get to 45 so we're not worried about PK and such.

We're all very excited for Free Realms that seems to be the best one of them all so far in terms of family friendly and cuteness. :)

I'm going crazy waiting for Free Realms open beta myself. Looks like there's just gonna be so much to do. Forget Darkfall as a sandbox game, Free Realms is gonna be where it's at! ;)

I've played both WAR and Wizard101 and, honestly, I prefer Wizard101.  It's not necessarily due to the quality of the game, but more to the fact that I can play with my kids in a fun,safe environment and teach them about some of the good aspects of MMOs (fun, socializing, co-op play), without dwelling on some of the negative ("barrens chat", greed, politics, huge time sinks, etc...).  Wizard101 is also highly geared towards casual play and, frankly, my life is too busy for me to get deeply involved in hours and hours of MMO play anymore. In regards to WAR, I played in OB, pre-ordered the box and subscribed for a couple of months, but I eventually quit mostly due to server populations.  When I played, even on the high-pop servers, I always seemed to end up soloing, there was never any chat going ont, etc... For a MMO, the game experienced seemed rather lonely, especially for a casual player. 

That being said, Wizard101 is a great quality game.  It designed and marketed towards kids, but it's combat is unique and engaing enough to appeal to adults, too.  There are definitely aspects of Wizard101 that I'd like to see updated in order to give it more long-term appeal, but it's a great game, regardless.

~Ripper

Originally posted by NeoDrakeskin

Originally posted by Cynthe

Originally posted by NeoDrakeskin

Wizard 101 is probably one of the best MMOS out right now to be honest. Look past the graphics and give it a shot sometime. It's actually alot of fun and the arena can be pretty entertaining. I'm 30 and both me and my 28 year old girlfriend play this, we have a family account ;) I actually play this more than WAR at this point. 

LOL!! That's great honestly. I'm really enjoying a lot of the cutesy free games right now too, like Wizard 101, Ether Saga, Mabinogi and RoM but that's getting away from the extra 'cute'. I play RoM with my husband and we play Wizard 101 and Ether Saga with our daughter, we'll never get to 45 so we're not worried about PK and such.

We're all very excited for Free Realms that seems to be the best one of them all so far in terms of family friendly and cuteness. :)

I'm going crazy waiting for Free Realms open beta myself. Looks like there's just gonna be so much to do. Forget Darkfall as a sandbox game, Free Realms is gonna be where it's at! ;)

I'm excited for Free Realms, too!

~Ripper

I'm also waiting on free realms, I'm ready for something different to try, a community type MMO instead of all these singularly combat focused continuous race to stay ahead of your opponent type MMO's.