This number is taken from anet own forum 

As it was the preliminary and necesary step to download the client (barring the persons who used the unofficial torrent) , thats the closest number we are going to get to an official  figure of beta event participants. Assuming 90% of participants employed the legit download and only 10 % the torrent (a conservative approach) that  would put numbers of prepurchases around 220 k.

It could all be bogus, ofc. 

Originally posted by freston

This number is taken from anet own forum 

As it was the preliminary and necesary step to download the client (barring the persons who used the unofficial torrent) , thats the closest number we are going to get to an official  figure of beta event participants. Assuming 90% of participants employed the legit download and only 10 % the torrent (a conservative approach) that  would put numbers of prepurchases around 220 k.

It could all be bogus, ofc. 

not everyone had to browse tthrough the forums to see how to download the client.

Originally posted by rojo6934

Originally posted by freston

This number is taken from anet own forum 

As it was the preliminary and necesary step to download the client (barring the persons who used the unofficial torrent) , thats the closest number we are going to get to an official  figure of beta event participants. Assuming 90% of participants employed the legit download and only 10 % the torrent (a conservative approach) that  would put numbers of prepurchases around 220 k.

It could all be bogus, ofc. 

 

not everyone had to browse tthrough the forums to see how to download the client.

You had to if you followed the instructions on the email. You are right in that not everyone did it, im assuming that most did. It may be my mistake, though.

There is more  to ponder on

the around 40.000 german views

and the 30.000 french

(and i think we can asume that they are not included in the english thread)

there is the ones that have actual just updated the game without going to the forums

there is the claim that if you log out and in again the counter goes up 1 (hard to verify , it doesn't  always go up if you review that threaed without logging out).

--

if we estimate that the last 2 things (one positive and one negative) cancel each other . The germen, french and english forum is around 250000 now, and might reach close to 300.000 before the weekend.

Btw there is 48 servers , 6000 on each means around 288.000 -

looks like a fair number

Originally posted by rojo6934

Originally posted by freston

This number is taken from anet own forum 

As it was the preliminary and necesary step to download the client (barring the persons who used the unofficial torrent) , thats the closest number we are going to get to an official  figure of beta event participants. Assuming 90% of participants employed the legit download and only 10 % the torrent (a conservative approach) that  would put numbers of prepurchases around 220 k.

It could all be bogus, ofc. 

 

not everyone had to browse tthrough the forums to see how to download the client.

I downloaded the client when someone posted a link to the EXE here on MMORPG.com.

Originally posted by jondifool

There is more  to ponder on

the around 40.000 german views

and the 30.000 french

(and i think we can asume that they are not included in the english thread)

there is the ones that have actual just updated the game without going to the forums

there is the claim that if you log out and in again the counter goes up 1 (hard to verify , it doesn't  always go up if you review that threaed without logging out).

--

if we estimate that the last 2 things (one positive and one negative) cancel each other . The germen, french and english forum is around 250000 now, and might reach close to 300.000 before the weekend.

Btw there is 48 servers , 6000 on each means around 288.000 -

looks like a fair number

 

Youre right about the french and german forums, hadnt taken that into account.

I don't trust anyone or especially anything on the internet thank you very much - official sources only please, especially when it comes to .exe's I cannot believe so many people are so freaking reckless.

Must not work in IT like I do lol or perhaps are just a lot more ballsy

Originally posted by BadSpock

I don't trust anyone or especially anything on the internet thank you very much - official sources only please, especially when it comes to .exe's I cannot believe so many people are so freaking reckless.

Must not work in IT like I do lol or perhaps are just a lot more ballsy

 don't you think a counter on ArenaNets site is "kind of official" ? Just asking what it else should be. Manipulated ?

Originally posted by VowOfSilence
are the official forums currently up? i can't access them for some reason... Stuck at the welcome screen.

I can acess it with np.

Originally posted by BadSpock

I don't trust anyone or especially anything on the internet thank you very much - official sources only please, especially when it comes to .exe's I cannot believe so many people are so freaking reckless.

Must not work in IT like I do lol or perhaps are just a lot more ballsy

My thoughts exactly when I saw people using unofficial DL's. too much potential for viruses not to mention stolen accounts and PW's.

Originally posted by Distopia

Originally posted by BadSpock

I don't trust anyone or especially anything on the internet thank you very much - official sources only please, especially when it comes to .exe's I cannot believe so many people are so freaking reckless.

Must not work in IT like I do lol or perhaps are just a lot more ballsy

My thoughts exactly when I saw people using unofficial DL's. too much potential for viruses not to mention stolen accounts and PW's.

I am not sure why anyone would have used a torrent because there was a working download link to the official clouldfront.guildwars2.com servers leaked almost a full 3 days before the emails went out.

Originally posted by jondifool

Originally posted by BadSpock

I don't trust anyone or especially anything on the internet thank you very much - official sources only please, especially when it comes to .exe's I cannot believe so many people are so freaking reckless.

Must not work in IT like I do lol or perhaps are just a lot more ballsy

 don't you think a counter on ArenaNets site is "kind of official" ? Just asking what it else should be. Manipulated ?

I think it is important to remember those are "Views" much like the 10,000 posts or GW2 thread the views were many more times the posts. Eg. I read all those GW2 forum posts at least twice. Therefore Views are not really indicative of "persons used anet forums"