The prior week I was in Aiken, South Carolina, and stopped by the local game store. Surely a town out in BFE, SC, would have the TBC Collectors Edition. The manager laughed and told me their copies were sold out months ago. When I asked how many people had pre-ordered, he replied at least 200 had.
Now, it's possible that Aiken is a haven for WoW players. Who knows, but in my estimation if one store in a small town out in the country of South Carolina can sell 200 pre-orders, Blizzard is doing quite well.
In case some missed the point: regardless of numbers, understand how pervasive WoW is in the market. It's a rare occurrence when anyone today talks about MMOs and WoW doesn't get mentioned. Hell, South Park's season opener revolved around the game. : )
Ico Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
Originally posted by narva and if you think the average Joe will be able to compete in the pvp ladder system for raid equivalent loot, you will be surely dissapointed I'm afraid.
That's a moot point with the new Honor System. Honor no longer decays and items aren't based on rank, which no longer exist. I'd argue that players could obtain far superior gear PvP'ing, than running through instances.
As an example, I spent the previous two evenings in Alterac Valley. I'd estimate each play session at 2 hours. In that time I was able to accrue approximately 7k honor. That's enough honor to buy me at least 2 pieces of the blue PvP set.
Also, that was done primarily as a healer. I only contributed to 32 kills.
If I spent a week at 2 hours per evening, I could buy the full blue PvP set. That's a casual pace in my opinion, and a bit more enjoyable than running the same instance ad nausea.
The Epic set pieces do cost more, but at my pace I could have the set in about a month or so.
Ico Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
Okay, you people do realise that China is the largest continent in the world, right? And along with that, it is known for having a large overpopulation problem. So, it doesn't suprise me that China has the most players on Wow. They could have half their people on Wow, and still have more than enough to fill up every house in the united states. People leave games all of the time. Just because people are leaving now, doesn't mean it's the end of the game. WoW is only around 2 years old, so it's still in the process of balancing out its player base. But I think it's stupid to leave around NOW, because the game is coming out with an expansion, which will boost the lvl cap up to 70. And with that, there will be a bunch of changes in end-game content. So to me, it's like saying you're just going to quit the game and not even give the new content a shot, even if the changes are for the better.
Thats what I think though.
Exactly.
Also, correct me if i'm wrong, but I belive that most of the BC raid instances are around the 15-20 man mark, instead of 40? They are trying to ballance out the issue with raiding in the large raids.
Okay, you people do realise that China is the largest continent in the world, right? And along with that, it is known for having a large overpopulation problem. So, it doesn't suprise me that China has the most players on Wow. They could have half their people on Wow, and still have more than enough to fill up every house in the united states. People leave games all of the time. Just because people are leaving now, doesn't mean it's the end of the game. WoW is only around 2 years old, so it's still in the process of balancing out its player base. But I think it's stupid to leave around NOW, because the game is coming out with an expansion, which will boost the lvl cap up to 70. And with that, there will be a bunch of changes in end-game content. So to me, it's like saying you're just going to quit the game and not even give the new content a shot, even if the changes are for the better.
Thats what I think though.
China isn't a continent. It is a country. It is also not the largest country, it is the 4th largest country. It is the most populace country in the world though.
and if you think the average Joe will be able to compete in the pvp ladder system for raid equivalent loot, you will be surely dissapointed I'm afraid.
That's a moot point with the new Honor System. Honor no longer decays and items aren't based on rank, which no longer exist. I'd argue that players could obtain far superior gear PvP'ing, than running through instances.
As an example, I spent the previous two evenings in Alterac Valley. I'd estimate each play session at 2 hours. In that time I was able to accrue approximately 7k honor. That's enough honor to buy me at least 2 pieces of the blue PvP set.
Also, that was done primarily as a healer. I only contributed to 32 kills.
If I spent a week at 2 hours per evening, I could buy the full blue PvP set. That's a casual pace in my opinion, and a bit more enjoyable than running the same instance ad nausea.
The Epic set pieces do cost more, but at my pace I could have the set in about a month or so.
It is not a moot point. Yes honor no longer decay, yes you can grind your way up to the pvp epic set. What I am saying is that once people reach level 70 the pvp rewards are absolutely not going to be on par with the the epics from the latest raid dungeons. The pvp epics that are going to be close enough can only get aquired from the pvp arean ladder system. Again please note the ladder system is not the same as your regular pvp grind and it is only the ladder system who will get you the top of the line stuff.
Level 70 PvP gear is already implemented into the system. I'm sure Blizzard will add further pieces in the future. The fact is, and I'm certain will remain, that both styles of play offer equivalent rewards.
If the Arena system doesn't fit your style of play, you can still get decent gear either through PvE or PvP. At least now good PvP gear is accessible to casual players.
Ico Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
Originally posted by Finduilas Originally posted by metalcore Let it go guys, its just a game, denying they have 7 million subscribers is really hurting you, at the end of the day, just move on, dont dwell in the pain.
In this press release Blizzard states that they have 7.5 million subscribers.
November 9, 2006 The Burning Crusade Release Date Announced! World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade will be in stores on January 16th, 2007 in Europe and North America! The news comes as the player base reaches 7.5 million players worldwide.
However that number does not tell the whole story. It is company spin to drum up business, accurate but misleading.
According to several sources 5.9 million of those subs are in China:
"China is believed to have more Warcraft players than any other nation, at almost six million registered accounts and as many as 660,000 playing simultaneously."
That leaves 1.6 million for ALL the rest of the world.
1 million in th EU? 1.5-2m in the US? that comes to 2.5-3 million: just a bit of an exaggeration. In fact, how many of the 1.6m play in Korea, Taiwan, and other far east countries?
There could be less than 1 million in the US and EU combined, perhaps FAR less, though that is pure speculation. 500k in the US, 500k in the EU is STILL a decent number, but nowhere near as earth shattering as that 7.5 mil figure many people use to prove the continuing success of WoW.
Another issue to consider is the profit margins of these markets. 7.5 mil x $15 would be HUGE. But that's just not the case. Those 5.9 million Chinese players pay FAR less than $15 per mth.
"Jun Zhu, chairman and chief executive at The9, told analysts last week that Chinese Warcraft enthusiasts paid a total of $29.1m to play over the past three months, a fall of 10 per cent from $32m in the previous quarter."
Apart from the obvious point, the 10% drop, do the math: Each Chinese subscriber is paying, on average, $1.7/mth, and Blizzard only sees a maximum of 22% of that, meaning just 37 cents, aprox. per month, per subscriber, from the bulk of it's player base. At one stage Blizzard boldly announced that 1 million played in the US, later: 1 million in th EU. Those numbers have obviously declined dramatically, BUT it now seems even their heartland, China, where they have had the most success, has started to decline.
No doubt WoW has been a massive success, and has outsripped ALL previous MMOs, especially those made outside Asia, but it is NOT the current success some people claim it to be; it's decline is evident, even if the reasons for THAT decline are less so.
That's great and all, but it ignores the fact, well, it doesn't even mention it, that things work a bit differently in China, and the other Asian countries. Unlike here in the US, and in Europe, where we sit in our homes at our own pc, the Asians mostly play in internet cafes as owning your own pc is pretty rare over there. I'd have to look it up, but I believe the way accounts work over there is different as well. This also doesn't include the restrictions the Chinese gov't has placed on the cafes in light of people dropping dead playing WoW for 3+ days straight, and so on.
Level 70 PvP gear is already implemented into the system. I'm sure Blizzard will add further pieces in the future. The fact is, and I'm certain will remain, that both styles of play offer equivalent rewards. If the Arena system doesn't fit your style of play, you can still get decent gear either through PvE or PvP. At least now good PvP gear is accessible to casual players.
You are right in that good pvp gear now finally is accessible by casual players. Bliz is trying to narrow the equipment gap but excuse me for being cynical. As a non raider my opinion is that Bliz totally ignored every other playstyle but raid for the last 2 years. I see them making pvp items more accesibly now only because it will sell more copies of BC. Once people get to L70 the equipment gap will start to increase again, maybe even to the point where it gets worse then it is today.
You think casuals and non raiders will have avenues to get competive gear with raiders at the end game. I think the direction and action of the last 2 years speaks louder than any words I can put through here. We can agree to disagree. I hope youre right though, if you are me and many others might come back to the game.
Weren't there going to be two different PvP reward mechanisms, both the new honr rewards and the rewards from the ladder arena system? Did they change that?
I am pretty sure there was a blue post stating that honor rewards would be inferior to raid loot and that arena rewards would be on par with raid loot.
Tons and more will be back at expansion. Atm frankly nothing beats WoW.. I cant think of a game that is better designed and has so much attention to details. It covers almost everything you could do in a MMORPG and it does it smooth and nice. Only thing that is missing that I can think of is Player Housing. but Im sure they will get that covered too sometime.
WoW has terrible sounds and it's the only game which is managed to change PvP to boring grinding. Also PvE is mainly boring grinding. You need to go in to same instance 100 times with 40man raid to get what you want. If that's not boring then what is? Also graphics are not that beautiful. Only good thing is the quantity of spells and special attacks. It's good game for kids who love to complete different simple quests like kill 10 mobs and get reward, that's why it's so popular. Also many first time mmo-player adults there, who don't expect more since they never tried anything better.
Like some other people already said, after January the 16th you can go kill # creatures and gather # items again, after lvl 60, and the rewards are very good, so even if the quests itself are still a bit dull, at least we have a good reason to do it. The new landscapes we can visit are amazing, and you will fell adrenaline once more, since there are many elite creatures that display skull, and even if they don't you know it's something you can't solo, roaming wild in you passage. Those new places are nothing like you have seen before, and it shows they toke their time thinking about them, imagining them and introducing some more easter eggs. I'm not active on the game at the moment, due to the Battlegrounds ubber lag, but once the expansion comes out i will be exploring it in detail, and I have no complain about the years I had to wait for this, or the fact that even after about 20 real life days (that means cicles of 24 hours gameplay) on lvl 60, I still only have 1 epic piece, don't have a dungeon 1 complete set nor epic mount. It's the price I pay for helping the newbies making their quests and low lvl instances.
Originally posted by metalcore Let it go guys, its just a game, denying they have 7 million subscribers is really hurting you, at the end of the day, just move on, dont dwell in the pain.
In this press release Blizzard states that they have 7.5 million subscribers.
November 9, 2006
The Burning Crusade <SNIPPED> so.
That's great and all, but it ignores the fact, well, it doesn't even mention it, that things work a bit differently in China, and the other Asian countries. Unlike here in the US, and in Europe, where we sit in our homes at our own pc, the Asians mostly play in internet cafes as owning your own pc is pretty rare over there. I'd have to look it up, but I believe the way accounts work over there is different as well. This also doesn't include the restrictions the Chinese gov't has placed on the cafes in light of people dropping dead playing WoW for 3+ days straight, and so on.
Not sure what point you're trying to make. I have simply quoted the best possible info about current WoW sub numbers, I've made no claim as to their validity.
Your correct about the way Blizzard counts subs outside of the US/EU, and as such the 5.9 million Chinese players, and other far east subs may not be entirely accurate. I've stated this many times, pointing out that WoW MAY not have as many subs as it claims, and those numbers are mere marketing spin, but the fanbois refuse to accept WoWs decline and believe everything Blizzard tells them without question. They then get into assumption and rumor, talking about full servers, boxes on shelves etc. and CLAIMING that WoW has 1 million in the EU, up to 2.5 in the US, without actually presenting any proof.
I choose not to speculate but merely present the evidence. Blizzards CLAIMS to have 7.5 million subs worldwide. The9 has 5.9 million of those, according to reports, and a large chunk of the remaining 1.6m is ALSO in the far east. Since I have no way to disprove the figures I accept them at face value with a large pinch of salt.
"WoW has terrible sounds and it's the only game which is managed to change PvP to boring grinding. Also PvE is mainly boring grinding. You need to go in to same instance 100 times with 40man raid to get what you want. If that's not boring then what is? Also graphics are not that beautiful. Only good thing is the quantity of spells and special attacks. It's good game for kids who love to complete different simple quests like kill 10 mobs and get reward, that's why it's so popular. Also many first time mmo-player adults there, who don't expect more since they never tried anything better."
Bad sound? maybe dont play the sound through cheap headphones. As to being a kids game, yes its easy to play.. but is that a bad thing? any 1 can pick this game up and start playing, no need for a 2 hour tutorial (Eve) or picking up the manual every 5 mins. i have yet to meet any 1 in wow (played 18months) under the age of 17, you'll find most kids, who BTW play other MMO's too are not that sociable becuase they cant play pased 7pm
Blizzard aknolwdge the problems with WoW and are making changes in TBC.
- Dungeons now scales so you can run them with 5men upto 25men.. no more 40man dungeons (ofc better loot at 25 man)
- PvP Blizz are trying to bring back World PvP which died when they added battle grounds, we now have a whole zone to fight over and town to capture for our faction, its NOT instanced so we can have hundereds of players battleing it out, also theres no more ladder system (outside the new arenas) so PvP loot can be gotten by all.
- Crafting I always thought this was weak in WoW but a look at some of the new stuff in TBC gets me excited about crafting again, we can finaly craft more usful items like EPIC armour and weapons which is just as good as PvE loot of the same level.
- Sockets Most items now have sockets that we can use better customise our gear and make 1 set of armour a little different from another.
There 1 thing I hoped blizzard would of added.
- Dyes 1 issue i have with wow is a lack of visual customisation, 1 Nelf hunter in dragon stalker looks like another nelf in dragon stalker... the ability to apply dyes to your armour to change its colouring would of been a great feature.
"Also many first time mmo-player adults there, who don't expect more since they never tried anything better."
There aint anything better, subscription numbers, industry reviews and awards say so.
"Your correct about the way Blizzard counts subs outside of the US/EU, and as such the 5.9 million Chinese players, and other far east subs may not be entirely accurate. I've stated this many times, pointing out that WoW MAY not have as many subs as it claims, and those numbers are mere marketing spin, but the fanbois refuse to accept WoWs decline and believe everything Blizzard tells them without question. They then get into assumption and rumor, talking about full servers, boxes on shelves etc. and CLAIMING that WoW has 1 million in the EU, up to 2.5 in the US, without actually presenting any proof."
Thats say that blizzard are buffing their sub numbers.. even if we half what they say to 3.75Million thats still over twice as many as the #2 MMO (Lineage 2) with just over 1.5million subs (95% of them in asia) and for a 2 year old MMO I think WoW holds up well.
I expect a big boost to sub numbers in a few weeks when TBC is out, I know 3 ppl who will come back to WoW for TBC, they quit upwards of 6months ago but have not found a MMO that is as good, many ex WoW'er will be back, blizzard opened 2 new EU realms a few weeks ago and will open 3 new EU realms on the 16th so Blizzard estimate more people coming back... In an age where most MMO's are merging relams WoW is the only MMO thats opening new realms.
As ive said on other forums WoW is only £15 now, buy a gametime card for £18 and for £33 you can play wow for 3months, thats enough time to get to 60, if you dont like end game then quit... what other RPG game can you get 3months play out of? its a bargin.
Yep I agree OP. The game lacks content. The customer service (GMs) is the worst that the 3rd world countries can provide. EQII at least uses Indians who can read and write in English. Unfortunately WOW does not.
I choose not to speculate but merely present the evidence. Blizzards CLAIMS to have 7.5 million subs worldwide. The9 has 5.9 million of those, according to reports, and a large chunk of the remaining 1.6m is ALSO in the far east. Since I have no way to disprove the figures I accept them at face value with a large pinch of salt.
It is important to note that these claims are made in their stockholder reports. It is illegal to to lie or even mislead your stockholders.
It is an imprisonable offence as all the Enron bosses have discovered.
These figures are highly credible. The most credable I have ever seen given for any MMO so far. They are not simply invented by the marketing department. They also give the breakdowns by geographical region. 60% of these subs are in Asia. Asian players don't buy the box, and pay by the hour. They also pay signififcantly less. So the Asian side of the operation is not where Blizzard is reaping the big rewards.
WoW has more North American or European subs alone, than it's nearest competitior has subs worldwide. And it's still growing.
Tons and more will be back at expansion. Atm frankly nothing beats WoW.. I cant think of a game that is better designed and has so much attention to details. It covers almost everything you could do in a MMORPG and it does it smooth and nice. Only thing that is missing that I can think of is Player Housing. but Im sure they will get that covered too sometime.
You're absolutly right about nothing beating WoW at this time and that why i choose to play nothing ,rather than pay blizzard to play there crappy MMO. What a joke of a game
Comments
I think Blizzard's doing just fine.
The prior week I was in Aiken, South Carolina, and stopped by the local game store. Surely a town out in BFE, SC, would have the TBC Collectors Edition. The manager laughed and told me their copies were sold out months ago. When I asked how many people had pre-ordered, he replied at least 200 had.
Now, it's possible that Aiken is a haven for WoW players. Who knows, but in my estimation if one store in a small town out in the country of South Carolina can sell 200 pre-orders, Blizzard is doing quite well.
In case some missed the point: regardless of numbers, understand how pervasive WoW is in the market. It's a rare occurrence when anyone today talks about MMOs and WoW doesn't get mentioned. Hell, South Park's season opener revolved around the game. : )
Ico
Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
That's a moot point with the new Honor System. Honor no longer decays and items aren't based on rank, which no longer exist. I'd argue that players could obtain far superior gear PvP'ing, than running through instances.
As an example, I spent the previous two evenings in Alterac Valley. I'd estimate each play session at 2 hours. In that time I was able to accrue approximately 7k honor. That's enough honor to buy me at least 2 pieces of the blue PvP set.
Also, that was done primarily as a healer. I only contributed to 32 kills.
If I spent a week at 2 hours per evening, I could buy the full blue PvP set. That's a casual pace in my opinion, and a bit more enjoyable than running the same instance ad nausea.
The Epic set pieces do cost more, but at my pace I could have the set in about a month or so.
Ico
Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
Also, correct me if i'm wrong, but I belive that most of the BC raid instances are around the 15-20 man mark, instead of 40? They are trying to ballance out the issue with raiding in the large raids.
Yup.
Groovy.
Whoops.
Asia is the largest continent*
Groovy.
That's a moot point with the new Honor System. Honor no longer decays and items aren't based on rank, which no longer exist. I'd argue that players could obtain far superior gear PvP'ing, than running through instances.
As an example, I spent the previous two evenings in Alterac Valley. I'd estimate each play session at 2 hours. In that time I was able to accrue approximately 7k honor. That's enough honor to buy me at least 2 pieces of the blue PvP set.
Also, that was done primarily as a healer. I only contributed to 32 kills.
If I spent a week at 2 hours per evening, I could buy the full blue PvP set. That's a casual pace in my opinion, and a bit more enjoyable than running the same instance ad nausea.
The Epic set pieces do cost more, but at my pace I could have the set in about a month or so.
It is not a moot point. Yes honor no longer decay, yes you can grind your way up to the pvp epic set. What I am saying is that once people reach level 70 the pvp rewards are absolutely not going to be on par with the the epics from the latest raid dungeons. The pvp epics that are going to be close enough can only get aquired from the pvp arean ladder system. Again please note the ladder system is not the same as your regular pvp grind and it is only the ladder system who will get you the top of the line stuff.
Level 70 PvP gear is already implemented into the system. I'm sure Blizzard will add further pieces in the future. The fact is, and I'm certain will remain, that both styles of play offer equivalent rewards.
If the Arena system doesn't fit your style of play, you can still get decent gear either through PvE or PvP. At least now good PvP gear is accessible to casual players.
Ico
Oh, cruel fate, to be thusly boned. Ask not for whom the bone bones. It bones for thee.
November 9, 2006
The Burning Crusade Release Date Announced!
World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade will be in stores on January 16th, 2007 in Europe and North America! The news comes as the player base reaches 7.5 million players worldwide.
http://www.blizzard.co.uk/
However that number does not tell the whole story. It is company spin to drum up business, accurate but misleading.
According to several sources 5.9 million of those subs are in China:
"China is believed to have more Warcraft players than any other nation, at almost six million registered accounts and as many as 660,000 playing simultaneously."
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2169162/warcraft-profits-fall-China
That leaves 1.6 million for ALL the rest of the world.
1 million in th EU? 1.5-2m in the US? that comes to 2.5-3 million: just a bit of an exaggeration. In fact, how many of the 1.6m play in Korea, Taiwan, and other far east countries?
There could be less than 1 million in the US and EU combined, perhaps FAR less, though that is pure speculation. 500k in the US, 500k in the EU is STILL a decent number, but nowhere near as earth shattering as that 7.5 mil figure many people use to prove the continuing success of WoW.
Another issue to consider is the profit margins of these markets. 7.5 mil x $15 would be HUGE. But that's just not the case. Those 5.9 million Chinese players pay FAR less than $15 per mth.
"Jun Zhu, chairman and chief executive at The9, told analysts last week that Chinese Warcraft enthusiasts paid a total of $29.1m to play over the past three months, a fall of 10 per cent from $32m in the previous quarter."
http://www.vnunet.com/vnunet/news/2169162/warcraft-profits-fall-China
Apart from the obvious point, the 10% drop, do the math: Each Chinese subscriber is paying, on average, $1.7/mth, and Blizzard only sees a maximum of 22% of that, meaning just 37 cents, aprox. per month, per subscriber, from the bulk of it's player base. At one stage Blizzard boldly announced that 1 million played in the US, later: 1 million in th EU. Those numbers have obviously declined dramatically, BUT it now seems even their heartland, China, where they have had the most success, has started to decline.
No doubt WoW has been a massive success, and has outsripped ALL previous MMOs, especially those made outside Asia, but it is NOT the current success some people claim it to be; it's decline is evident, even if the reasons for THAT decline are less so.
That's great and all, but it ignores the fact, well, it doesn't even mention it, that things work a bit differently in China, and the other Asian countries. Unlike here in the US, and in Europe, where we sit in our homes at our own pc, the Asians mostly play in internet cafes as owning your own pc is pretty rare over there. I'd have to look it up, but I believe the way accounts work over there is different as well. This also doesn't include the restrictions the Chinese gov't has placed on the cafes in light of people dropping dead playing WoW for 3+ days straight, and so on.
You are right in that good pvp gear now finally is accessible by casual players. Bliz is trying to narrow the equipment gap but excuse me for being cynical. As a non raider my opinion is that Bliz totally ignored every other playstyle but raid for the last 2 years. I see them making pvp items more accesibly now only because it will sell more copies of BC. Once people get to L70 the equipment gap will start to increase again, maybe even to the point where it gets worse then it is today.
You think casuals and non raiders will have avenues to get competive gear with raiders at the end game. I think the direction and action of the last 2 years speaks louder than any words I can put through here. We can agree to disagree. I hope youre right though, if you are me and many others might come back to the game.
I am pretty sure there was a blue post stating that honor rewards would be inferior to raid loot and that arena rewards would be on par with raid loot.
In this press release Blizzard states that they have 7.5 million subscribers.
November 9, 2006
The Burning Crusade <SNIPPED> so.
That's great and all, but it ignores the fact, well, it doesn't even mention it, that things work a bit differently in China, and the other Asian countries. Unlike here in the US, and in Europe, where we sit in our homes at our own pc, the Asians mostly play in internet cafes as owning your own pc is pretty rare over there. I'd have to look it up, but I believe the way accounts work over there is different as well. This also doesn't include the restrictions the Chinese gov't has placed on the cafes in light of people dropping dead playing WoW for 3+ days straight, and so on.
Not sure what point you're trying to make. I have simply quoted the best possible info about current WoW sub numbers, I've made no claim as to their validity.
Your correct about the way Blizzard counts subs outside of the US/EU, and as such the 5.9 million Chinese players, and other far east subs may not be entirely accurate. I've stated this many times, pointing out that WoW MAY not have as many subs as it claims, and those numbers are mere marketing spin, but the fanbois refuse to accept WoWs decline and believe everything Blizzard tells them without question. They then get into assumption and rumor, talking about full servers, boxes on shelves etc. and CLAIMING that WoW has 1 million in the EU, up to 2.5 in the US, without actually presenting any proof.
I choose not to speculate but merely present the evidence. Blizzards CLAIMS to have 7.5 million subs worldwide. The9 has 5.9 million of those, according to reports, and a large chunk of the remaining 1.6m is ALSO in the far east. Since I have no way to disprove the figures I accept them at face value with a large pinch of salt.
Bad sound? maybe dont play the sound through cheap headphones. As to being a kids game, yes its easy to play.. but is that a bad thing? any 1 can pick this game up and start playing, no need for a 2 hour tutorial (Eve) or picking up the manual every 5 mins. i have yet to meet any 1 in wow (played 18months) under the age of 17, you'll find most kids, who BTW play other MMO's too are not that sociable becuase they cant play pased 7pm
Blizzard aknolwdge the problems with WoW and are making changes in TBC.
- Dungeons now scales so you can run them with 5men upto 25men.. no more 40man dungeons (ofc better loot at 25 man)
- PvP Blizz are trying to bring back World PvP which died when they added battle grounds, we now have a whole zone to fight over and town to capture for our faction, its NOT instanced so we can have hundereds of players battleing it out, also theres no more ladder system (outside the new arenas) so PvP loot can be gotten by all.
- Crafting I always thought this was weak in WoW but a look at some of the new stuff in TBC gets me excited about crafting again, we can finaly craft more usful items like EPIC armour and weapons which is just as good as PvE loot of the same level.
- Sockets Most items now have sockets that we can use better customise our gear and make 1 set of armour a little different from another.
There 1 thing I hoped blizzard would of added.
- Dyes 1 issue i have with wow is a lack of visual customisation, 1 Nelf hunter in dragon stalker looks like another nelf in dragon stalker... the ability to apply dyes to your armour to change its colouring would of been a great feature.
There aint anything better, subscription numbers, industry reviews and awards say so.
Thats say that blizzard are buffing their sub numbers.. even if we half what they say to 3.75Million thats still over twice as many as the #2 MMO (Lineage 2) with just over 1.5million subs (95% of them in asia) and for a 2 year old MMO I think WoW holds up well.
I expect a big boost to sub numbers in a few weeks when TBC is out, I know 3 ppl who will come back to WoW for TBC, they quit upwards of 6months ago but have not found a MMO that is as good, many ex WoW'er will be back, blizzard opened 2 new EU realms a few weeks ago and will open 3 new EU realms on the 16th so Blizzard estimate more people coming back... In an age where most MMO's are merging relams WoW is the only MMO thats opening new realms.
As ive said on other forums WoW is only £15 now, buy a gametime card for £18 and for £33 you can play wow for 3months, thats enough time to get to 60, if you dont like end game then quit... what other RPG game can you get 3months play out of? its a bargin.
Yep I agree OP. The game lacks content. The customer service (GMs) is the worst that the 3rd world countries can provide. EQII at least uses Indians who can read and write in English. Unfortunately WOW does not.
It is important to note that these claims are made in their stockholder reports. It is illegal to to lie or even mislead your stockholders.
It is an imprisonable offence as all the Enron bosses have discovered.
These figures are highly credible. The most credable I have ever seen given for any MMO so far. They are not simply invented by the marketing department. They also give the breakdowns by geographical region. 60% of these subs are in Asia. Asian players don't buy the box, and pay by the hour. They also pay signififcantly less. So the Asian side of the operation is not where Blizzard is reaping the big rewards.
WoW has more North American or European subs alone, than it's nearest competitior has subs worldwide. And it's still growing.