I don't see why it really maters if SOE is making this. It's not like many of us here would play this ultra casual game even if it was made by Cartoon Network off the Fusion Fall engine. Point is it sounds like it may be marketed towards a different type of MMO gamer. So other than to give SOE some kinda of bragging rights if they reach millions of accounts, it really is a nonfactor MMO for us.

I'll be spending my time in other games I like, so I know my care level will be zero.

Originally posted by Golarum 

IRVINE, Calif. - October 28, 2008

''Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers.''

The expansion is coming out in a couple of days, millions of people are joining the game rooms to check out the game, the expansion and see what things are like now. Adding them as active subs isn't lying about the numbers?

 

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.

The point is that every World of Warcraft account that is accessed is a paying member.  It is pretty clear.

They are not counting anyone who logs in on a free trial or some unpaid promo. 

Originally posted by BaronJuJu 

LOL ok, whatever. You will never accept Free Realms as a success which is fine, the rest of the gaming community has. Unsuccessful games don't have TOPSS, Wildstorm, Best Buy, BlockBuster, Rite Aid, Target, 7-11 and Lucas Arts (again) all wanting to do business with them.

Actually I thought it was very successful at first. 

Pointing to retail locations where SOE is selling the product doesn't make free realms a success.  People paying money to play the mmo make it a success.  Not a comic, not time cards for sale at drug stores, not collectable card games.  People playing the MMO will make it a success.

Seeing the evidence that free realms only has 2 servers above empty it is easy to see that it is not a huge success.  Nothing changes that.  You avoid the server issue by talking about comics or where you can buy time cards for the mmo as if that is somehow more important that how many people are playing the game.

Please explain to me how a game with 2 servers at medium population is a "huge success".  Really, answer that without misdirecting to comics or retail locations.  How can a game with 2 medium population servers be a huge success?

I'll say it again, if that is the best the soe can muster with their design team why would anyone want to waste time with them?

Originally posted by tillamook

I don't see why it really maters if SOE is making this. It's not like many of us here would play this ultra casual game even if it was made by Cartoon Network off the Fusion Fall engine. Point is it sounds like it may be marketed towards a different type of MMO gamer. So other than to give SOE some kinda of bragging rights if they reach millions of accounts, it really is a nonfactor MMO for us.

I'll be spending my time in other games I like, so I know my care level will be zero.

Pretty much.  It will most likely be in the same category as Free Realms, Club Penguin and the like when it comes to demographics which means, yeah, a non-factor for most of us.

On a side note, I really don't think theres going to be a market for 3 Star Wars themed mmo's so someone is most likey going to be the odd man out.  And by someone I mean swg.

Originally posted by Daffid011

Originally posted by Golarum 

IRVINE, Calif. - October 28, 2008

''Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers.''

The expansion is coming out in a couple of days, millions of people are joining the game rooms to check out the game, the expansion and see what things are like now. Adding them as active subs isn't lying about the numbers?

 

 

---

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.

---

 

The point is that every World of Warcraft account that is accessed is a paying member.  It is pretty clear.

 

They are not counting anyone who logs in on a free trial or some unpaid promo. 

 

So you will believe anything Blizzard says but not a press release? So if SOE says they have 5 million subscriptions, its a lie. But then Blizzard says they have 11 million subs and its truth. correct?

Originally posted by Maddthwips

Originally posted by Daffid011

Originally posted by Golarum 

IRVINE, Calif. - October 28, 2008

''Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers.''

The expansion is coming out in a couple of days, millions of people are joining the game rooms to check out the game, the expansion and see what things are like now. Adding them as active subs isn't lying about the numbers?

 

 

---

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.

---

 

The point is that every World of Warcraft account that is accessed is a paying member.  It is pretty clear.

 

They are not counting anyone who logs in on a free trial or some unpaid promo. 

 

 

So you will believe anything Blizzard says but not a press release? So if SOE says they have 5 million subscriptions, its a lie. But then Blizzard says they have 11 million subs and its truth. correct?

Soe doesn't have 5 miilion subscribers to Free Realms.  They have 5 million accounts created, one of which was mine and I haven't logged back in after the first few days.  I suspect theres many people like me in that respect.  Theres a big difference between accounts created and subscribers, esp. when it comes to a f2p game like Free Realms.

Originally posted by Ginaz

Originally posted by Maddthwips

Originally posted by Daffid011

Originally posted by Golarum 

IRVINE, Calif. - October 28, 2008

''Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers.''

The expansion is coming out in a couple of days, millions of people are joining the game rooms to check out the game, the expansion and see what things are like now. Adding them as active subs isn't lying about the numbers?

 

 

---

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.

---

 

The point is that every World of Warcraft account that is accessed is a paying member.  It is pretty clear.

 

They are not counting anyone who logs in on a free trial or some unpaid promo. 

 

 

So you will believe anything Blizzard says but not a press release? So if SOE says they have 5 million subscriptions, its a lie. But then Blizzard says they have 11 million subs and its truth. correct?

Soe doesn't have 5 miilion subscribers to Free Realms.  They have 5 million accounts created, one of which was mine and I haven't logged back in after the first few days.  I suspect theres many people like me in that respect.  Theres a big difference between accounts created and subscribers, esp. when it comes to a f2p game like Free Realms.

i wasnt saying they did have 5 million subscriptions, i was using that as an example.

Originally posted by Maddthwips

 

So you will believe anything Blizzard says but not a press release? So if SOE says they have 5 million subscriptions, its a lie. But then Blizzard says they have 11 million subs and its truth. correct?

This is not about me believing press releases based on who is making the claims.  It is about seeing the evidence with your own eyes that either support of refute the claims these companies are making in their respective press releases.

Blizzard is claiming around 5 million subscribers in North America and Europe.  I can log onto an account and see that yeas there are over 500 game servers.  I can log into any of those game servers and see players running around everywhere.  The number of servers support their claims.

SOE is claiming 5 million accounts created for free realms.  I can log into any of their ten servers and see how empty they are.  2 medium population servers and 8 low population servers cannot support the claims by soe.  Even looking at the amount of time they claim it took to reach 5 million players averages 6,400 new players joining each and every server every single day.  The servers would have been absolutely overwhelmed by that amount of people logging in.   You can log into any server and see that not happening at any time of the day.  If you don't believe me, go log in and see how empty the game is.

If free realms was warhammer, conan or tabula rasa for example, it would be called a massive failure for not being able to fill up one server.  Somehow people want to believe this game is a massive success, because soe is claiming to have millions of accounts created. 

---

Originally posted by xaldraxius
I can't believe that SOE or LucasArts would create a game at this point that could potentially draw players away from the game being developed by Bioware. I can understand them not worrying about SWG as it's had it's chance, but another MMO, especially a free to play one, might cause a lot of damage to SW:TOR which I can only imagine has far more money invested in it.

Maybe it's just something they are whipping out for cartoon network, some cheesy little side-scroller. You know how rumors are.

---

Nothing will draw away people from SWToR. Unless they are 9 years old or people who likes to play free realms. SW game from SOE will be developed in cartoonish style, similar to free realms. I will never play their SW game, SWToR will be much more fun. Its being developed by BIOWARE, only that is already enough to skip any other similar games from any other developers.

If SOE will get kiddies away from SWToR I can only see good in it. There are age groups and appropriate to those age groups games. SOEs latest projects tend more to the pre teen and early teen ages, which is totally fine. And someone mentioned pre NGE wish in SOEs casual SWg. Its funny.

No NGE, no Pre-NGE. It will be similar to free realms game, with things having big heads and little bodies, somethign silly like that. Just play Free Realms for a few hours, if you liked it then new SWg from SOE will be for you.

Originally posted by BaronJuJu

Originally posted by Daffid011

I understand the press releases make the game look like a raging success, but they are nothing more than a press release.  The logistics of the claim are impossible to begin with and the lack of game servers shows how few people actually play.  

Keep in mind the entire game world is roughly the size of hellfire pennisula in world of warcraft.  It really is that small, so you cannot put many people in the game before it would get overcrowded beyond belief.  Log in to any server you want and you will have entire areas of the world all to yourself. 

If free realms represents soes best efforts to appeal to the younger market, I doubt they have the chops to make something better.  They simply have no idea what players want anymore. 

LOL ok, whatever. You will never accept Free Realms as a success which is fine, the rest of the gaming community has. Unsuccessful games don't have TOPSS, Wildstorm, Best Buy, BlockBuster, Rite Aid, Target, 7-11 and Lucas Arts (again) all wanting to do business with them.

I'm really curious what makes an MMO a "success" to you? Accounts created(which are free to make)? Third party products that have nothing to do with the actual game? I think most people usually just consider the amount of people playing, and not the marketing hype/spin, when determining the "success" of a game. 5 million accounts created for a free game is somewhat impressive, but when no one is actually playing the game, let alone paying, it's not the raging success SOE will have you believe, or the raging success you seem to think it is.

Anyway, I'm pretty surprised that LA would go back to SOE and work with them. As Tillamook said, this game is guaranteed to stir little interest from the current MMORPG players, and doesn't stir any interest in me at all, so I suppose that I really don't care.

Everyone knows that Blizz is the only gaming company that tells the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. No fudging the numbers at Blizz, its every other game company on the planet that lies.

Its also funny how people are being naive about number of subs in WoW. 11 million, yeah right. Thing is that this number consists of every registered account that was ever made during the 5 years of WoW span. They include all the international subscriptions, trial accounts, all the closed and Open Beta accounts, all the friend invites etc. China itself probably contributed about 1 million subs of gold sellers in WoW. I'd say that WoW at this point has about 3-5 million subs in a good standing. And again thats including all the subs from every country that WoW has been released in.

Originally posted by reanor

Its also funny how people are being naive about number of subs in WoW. 11 million, yeah right. Thing is that this number consists of every registered account that was ever made during the 5 years of WoW span. They include all the international subscriptions, trial accounts, all the closed and Open Beta accounts, all the friend invites etc. China itself probably contributed about 1 million subs of gold sellers in WoW. I'd say that WoW at this point has about 3-5 million subs in a good standing. And again thats including all the subs from every country that WoW has been released in.

Blizzard has repeatedly stated in their press releases that they DO NOT count trials, expired, beta or any other free accounts in those numbers.  They specifically state they only count accounts that have PAID for access to the game servers in a one month period.  Read the definition for yourself if you would like  Blizzard 11 million accounts

If wow only had 10 servers and claimed 5 million players then yes, believing that would naive.  However warcraft has over 500 game servers just for the western market, which matches up almost exactly the estimates of nearly 5 million western subscribers.  10,000 accounts per server is typical of current fantasy mmos and that is almost exactly where warcraft is at.

I'd be very surprised if this game --assuming that this information is correct-- presents a threat to SW: TOR in any shape or form based upon the purported target audience.

However, I'll admit that I'm very surprised by this announcement, especially when you consider who's developing the game.

Originally posted by Daffid011

Originally posted by reanor

Its also funny how people are being naive about number of subs in WoW. 11 million, yeah right. Thing is that this number consists of every registered account that was ever made during the 5 years of WoW span. They include all the international subscriptions, trial accounts, all the closed and Open Beta accounts, all the friend invites etc. China itself probably contributed about 1 million subs of gold sellers in WoW. I'd say that WoW at this point has about 3-5 million subs in a good standing. And again thats including all the subs from every country that WoW has been released in.

Blizzard has repeatedly stated in their press releases that they DO NOT count trials, expired, beta or any other free accounts in those numbers.  They specifically state they only count accounts that have PAID for access to the game servers in a one month period.  Read the definition for yourself if you would like  Blizzard 11 million accounts

If wow only had 10 servers and claimed 5 million players then yes, believing that would naive.  However warcraft has over 500 game servers just for the western market, which matches up almost exactly the estimates of nearly 5 million western subscribers.  10,000 accounts per server is typical of current fantasy mmos and that is almost exactly where warcraft is at.

 

 

This is true. I am just posting to confirm. While there are many people who doubt the numbers, Blizzard has been very honest with them.
 

Originally posted by parrotpholk

SOE has the biggest set of brass balls I have ever seen end of story. Not sure its a good thing though but balls all the same if its true

Quite right!

But by the same token, Lucas Arts have shit for brains

Originally posted by Ginaz

Originally posted by tillamook

I don't see why it really maters if SOE is making this. It's not like many of us here would play this ultra casual game even if it was made by Cartoon Network off the Fusion Fall engine. Point is it sounds like it may be marketed towards a different type of MMO gamer. So other than to give SOE some kinda of bragging rights if they reach millions of accounts, it really is a nonfactor MMO for us.

I'll be spending my time in other games I like, so I know my care level will be zero.

 

Pretty much.  It will most likely be in the same category as Free Realms, Club Penguin and the like when it comes to demographics which means, yeah, a non-factor for most of us.

On a side note, I really don't think theres going to be a market for 3 Star Wars themed mmo's so someone is most likey going to be the odd man out.  And by someone I mean swg.

A strory driven MMORPG : SW:Tor, those who like more traditional RPG style to be taken online will enjoy this title.

A more traditional MMORPG: SWG still has more MMORPG to it that most current games that came after WOW regardless that people enter the game that have a limited playstyle.

A casual friendly Star Wars MMO: The rumor right here.

Seeing 3 totaly different type of games and target audience, so not sure why people pretend they can not work together.

Oh wait the name SOE brings out the worst in some people, so that must be it.

Stop living in the past people.....please.....

Clone Wars is hugely popular with the younger audience - the one that Free Realms targets - the ones who would never play BioWares game - the under 11's. (Those mass millions who love Penguin World or whatever its called.)

So this looks like a pretty good idea from LA. They get the 12+ audience with BioWare, and the 11- audience with SOE. And it costs them nothing, as SOE will have to license and pay for it.

Originally posted by Golarum

A couple of months ago I started posting on the forums, before that I used to never read any forum posts or participate in them. My information, I would get from different articles I would find on the net. Well I think I will soon go back to not going to any forums again, because all I see is crap...

The rumor is that they are developping an MMOG game based on Clone Wars, what I don't understand is how people are comparing Bioware's product to SOE's, one is p2p, the other f2p, one is browser based, the other client based, one is a 3D advanced type of graphic, the other is a cartoonish type of graphic, one is intended for the typical hardcore and causal gamer, the other is for the kids...I really don't understand your logic guys...

The other thing is people keep bashing SOE about what they did 8 years ago, get a life guys and stop wasting your life on grudges against a gaming company. Any gaming company out there doesn't care about you, it's all about your money, if you are sick, they will let you die, if you need money, they will laugh at you, if you need to get laid, they will f*** a girl and send pictures of it to tease you. Be it SOE, Blizzard, NCsoft ot any other company...

Another thing that make laugh is the people who keep going to each forum and saying how SOE is duping everyone by saying they have 5 mill accounts in Free Realms, but the same people keep saying that WoW has 11 mill. Newsflash, WoW does NOT have 11 mill active accounts, because they count their free trials as active accounts, so all the free trials that people activate everyday, that's like 3 mill there, they also are counting all the asian accounts, you got 2 mill of farmers, then a couple of months ago, they continued saying that they have 11 mill, when in fact there were around 4-5 mill accounts that were inactive when they shifted companies in Asia.  All that is to say that all companies lie to make their game look grandiose. Suck it up and live with it.

About Clone Wars, I really hope it is true, because I do think that it would be a great game.

Peace

Very well said.

That was worded rather weird. this could be just a mini game INSIDE free realms. Anyone else get that or did I read it wrong?