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Just How Did WoW Get "X" Number of Subscribers?
Mackerni
Member Posts: 230
I'm sure that this has been debated before, but I think we need to settle this thing once and for all.
Blizzard has seen record profits since they released their MMORPG, World of Warcraft. It seems like everybody and their little brother has an account in this little world.
So what caused it? Was it the fact that Blizzard spent $60 million and seven years making World of Warcraft; was it the fact that they publish new content much more regularly than other companies and focus on one MMORPG at a time and not try to maximize profits like NCSoft and SoE with their vary multiple MMORPGs; is it the fact that the Warcraft title attracted many geeks who already like these kinds of games and located all of their fanbois to the same game; is it the fact that most people who play the game play it because someone else they knew play it and they would rather play with the sense of a real life community than get involved with people they don't know; is it another reason; or is it a combination of a various of these reasons?
Let us hear what you would like to say about this topic. I am very interested in your opinion on the matter.
Comments
1)Can run on anything
2)Can be played by anyone at any skill level
3)content for casuals and hardcore
4)Warcraft lore is what started it i think.
WoW is not the most subscribed game, just most subscribed western game.
March on! - Lets Invade Pekopon
It's a combination of the following:
1) A well known and loved IP, aka Warcraft.
2) An almost uncanny sense of timing. They hit the market at exactly the right time to draw in millions of people who had never before played MMO's. It was a little after MMO's came out of their dark niche, just enough to have the attention of the public.
3) A huge Media Campaign. Yes, that#s right. I can only speak for Europe, but for a year inadvance, in every Gaming Magazine you found there would be -SOME- piece of news/advertisement of WoW.
4) A team that made an effort to correct mistakes quickly and more often than not gave people the sense of actually working things out. In contrast to launches like...say AoC, I always had the feeling that the Blizzard Dev's were always working and had actual plans for the game. In AoC, I was often left wondering if the Dev's themselves knew what they were doing.
5) Easy to access, low System-Req's and easy to learn. Yes, WoW is easy to learn. A 5-year-old can hop in and start playing and he would make progress. Couple that with a sense of accomplishment even when you invest little time, it attracted people that had not been attracted to this kind of game before.
That's the main reasons in my opinion. I still refute any claims that WoW was more polished than titles today. That is just utter fanboism. Anyone who played WoW on release will remember hour-long log-in waits, overpopulated servers crashing on a regular schedule, and a whole bunch of bugs. Never mind the accounting system which was totally not able to deal with the rush of people. I had to wait two days after release till I could actually make an account and even then I had all the problems mentioned above. WoW was NOT a beautiful launch, regardless what some people may say.
BUT, in all these problems, as i said above, I always had the feeling that the Dev's were working hard to correct things quickly. I never felt that the game was being left unattended, like I got in other game releases. So I suppose that, and the novelty of the concept for many, kept people there.
A launch like WoW will most likely never happen again. Sorry to say that, but Blizzard struck gold with when and how they released WoW. It's not just the game itself, it was the timing and the market that hepled the game along a great deal. Other games today are at a severe disadvantage compared to that.
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
Final Fantasy 7
Publish new content more regularly? Are you kidding?
If you're referring to expansions and the like, then sorry but Blizzard DON'T publish more content more regularly than other companies. In fact, they're terrible at it considering that this company has the ability of pulling in 150 million dollars PER MONTH. I wouldn't say publishing 2 expansions in 4 years is exactly quick for a company who's rolling in that much cash do you? In actual fact, SOE actually win the award for their expansions for EQ1 and EQ2. EQ2 has 5 expansions and 3 adventure packs under its belt. Aside from Burning Crusade and WotLK, what did people get as new content?
Now back to the reason for your post. Initially sales were partly because of Blizzards previous Warcraft games. However, that amount is a drop in the ocean compared to the 10 million subs they've accumulated.
Simple fact is that following made WoW appealing:
1) Casual friendly: This is were EQ2 failed at launch. EQ2 was terrible after level 20 for solo/duoing. SOE struggled to deal with this and as a result people left EQ2 and went to WoW. The leveling curve was much less than previous games too.
2) Eye-candy: Compared to previous MMO's, WoW's graphics are nice. It wasn't lifelike, like EQ2, but instead it was colourful and rich like a fairytale storybook.
3) Even though it was semi-polished, time was on their side due to the problems with EQ2: Because not all features were in and there were awful problems with servers at first. Also note that wow's subs didn't actually take off till much later anyhow.
4) Saturated with quests which makes leveling more paletable: Unlike SWG, AO, EQ1, WoW's developers had learned that in order for an MMO to appeal to a wider audience, it had to tell stories and involve players in those stories. Those previous games have SOME quest chains and stories, but none were as saturated as WoW was at that time.
5) Launched at the right time: MMO's at that time were only just becoming more mainstream. SWG had its niche with star wars fans. Anarchy Online had been running for a couple of years and had its own little collective of fans.
6) Low system requirements.
7) Good marketing campaigns.
Top 10 Most Misused Words in MMO's
1) The game will run on pretty much any comp.
2) A brain dead monkey could play it with some success
3) Brain dead monkeys need Barrens chat talking about Chuck Norris to survive.
Tried: LotR, CoH, AoC, WAR, Jumpgate Classic
Played: SWG, Guild Wars, WoW
Playing: Eve Online, Counter-strike
Loved: Star Wars Galaxies
Waiting for: Earthrise, Guild Wars 2, anything sandbox.
1. Simplicity (i.e., basic races/classes, easy to learn game mechanics. Intuitive UI)
2. Freedom (i.e., none of this linear "you-must-go-down-this-path-to-escape-noob island" crap)
3. Ease of Play (i.e., simple interface, intuitive mechanics)
4. Polish (i.e., smooth and non-clunky movement and combat)
5. Low System Requirements (i.e., built for yesterday's computers, not tomorrow's)
Show me any new game that has failed to stand up to WOW and I will point out 1 or more (2 or more in some cases) of the above points that were missed.
Yes a game that anyone can play , which is why it has so many.....lots of polish, fairly enjoyable.
Previous well made blizz games..that had lots of sales.
And perhaps something about the 5.5 million chinese people who never bought the box, dont have to have a computer and just buy time...
Oh and people like the one guy with 30 accounts...alone..
blizzard made it, so you know it is gonna be pretty good.
as mentioned the 5.5 million chinese players. this is one of the biggest reasons that it is so far up and away in the sub numbers(even tho they would still be number one without them).
word of mouth, got around that it was a good game that any human could play so it prolly brought those in who previously did not want anything to do with mmo's
Publish new content more regularly? Are you kidding?
If you're referring to expansions and the like, then sorry but Blizzard DON'T publish more content more regularly than other companies. In fact, they're terrible at it considering that this company has the ability of pulling in 150 million dollars PER MONTH. I wouldn't say publishing 2 expansions in 4 years is exactly quick for a company who's rolling in that much cash do you? In actual fact, SOE actually win the award for their expansions for EQ1 and EQ2. EQ2 has 5 expansions and 3 adventure packs under its belt. Aside from Burning Crusade and WotLK, what did people get as new content?
Now back to the reason for your post. Initially sales were partly because of Blizzards previous Warcraft games. However, that amount is a drop in the ocean compared to the 10 million subs they've accumulated.
Simple fact is that following made WoW appealing:
1) Casual friendly: This is were EQ2 failed at launch. EQ2 was terrible after level 20 for solo/duoing. SOE struggled to deal with this and as a result people left EQ2 and went to WoW. The leveling curve was much less than previous games too.
2) Eye-candy: Compared to previous MMO's, WoW's graphics are nice. It wasn't lifelike, like EQ2, but instead it was colourful and rich like a fairytale storybook.
3) Even though it was semi-polished, time was on their side due to the problems with EQ2: Because not all features were in and there were awful problems with servers at first. Also note that wow's subs didn't actually take off till much later anyhow.
4) Saturated with quests which makes leveling more paletable: Unlike SWG, AO, EQ1, WoW's developers had learned that in order for an MMO to appeal to a wider audience, it had to tell stories and involve players in those stories. Those previous games have SOME quest chains and stories, but none were as saturated as WoW was at that time.
5) Launched at the right time: MMO's at that time were only just becoming more mainstream. SWG had its niche with star wars fans. Anarchy Online had been running for a couple of years and had its own little collective of fans.
6) Low system requirements.
7) Good marketing campaigns.
AND smart to publish it in Asia that unique point made the Huge difference with others.
Timing and accessability.
1: Warcraft IP was already popular, Blizzard had good record of making quality games, their Battle Net served as good advertising platform for audience who were intrested in online games, and they had huge marketing campaingn.
2: The game didn't have too high system requirements, so most of those instrested in playing were actually able to play
3: The user interface was intutitive, and getting into the game very easy.
4: The core game (controlling the character and combat system) was very polished and fun from the beginning.
5: The world had a story to tell to the player, and was able to draw the player in. The game leads the player smoothly from area to another, unlike its rival EQ2 where I remember being dropped into huge Qeynos after tutorial and not really knowing where to go next.
6: The game had amazing amount of quests compared to its competitors. There wasn't need to grind before somewhere around level 50. By that time the people were too hooked up to quit because of little grind.
7: The world felt alive, and player felt attached to it. It wasn't just a plastic world with artificially sharp edges. It was smooth, every zone had its own atmosphere, and the character was moving really naturally in it.
8: The game was fun. It didn't make many unfun mistakes like too harsh death penalty, unlike its competitors.
9: After American launch, Blizzard didn't neglect Europe either. As an European, I've rarely recieved as good service from MMO company as I've from Blizzard. In Lotro I felt I was a second class player when AH search function was broken and it took weeks to fix because it wasn't a problem in America, in WAR I was and still am afraid wether GOA can handle it or not, in EQ2 I ended up playing on 'European' server located physically in USA. But in WoW I've had local servers, and really good support from Blizzard.
10: Happy players recommend the game to their friends, they recommend it to their friends, and so on. WoW gets new and new players because it has so many happy existing players who keep recommending it to others.
Far as I'm concerned it was mass media advert blanket bombing, Blizzard advertised outside of the gaming markets, I remember seeing ad's for wow, in my mum's woman's weekly magazine and in my sport car magazines, then there's the $2 take home and install the game disc trial offer, that most good game shops will have on there counter for sale, name me another mmorpg that has TV personalities playing and advertising the mmorpg, wow does, who has seen the theatre ad's that run before the movie starts, I think this is the one reason WoW is so big, I have never seen another game company go to such effort just to advertise there product, because of this, blizzard managed to get people who would not normally even think about a computer games, to actually try, buy and play WoW, this is one of the major reasons I think why WoW is so big.
I also think it's so big only in numbers, not in players, when you see pictures of gold farmers work dens and you see wall to wall boxes of WoW install disc's, you know the stat's for WoW's popularity is gimped, just by the amount of accounts that the gold sellers use, also remember that when a gold sellers account gets banned, they just go out and get a new one to replace the banned one and WoW just get's even more popular every time.
1. Very accessible. Someone else said it better " it was built for yesterdays computers, not tomorrows".
2. Very good interface. As a negative example, look at Warhammers chat system. WOW's interface is very clean, very intuitive and easy to personalize.
3. Very solo and casual friendly.
4. Fun.... This is one Bioware's big things.. after every design decision they say " but is it fun?". From 1-59, Blizzard just absolutely nailed the 'fun' part of making a game.
5. The ability to accept their mistakes and change them. Raid2play has really evolved into a game where everyone has plenty of viable options at endgame and the majority of dev time goes to things the majority of players are actually doing. If they had not moved away from 40man raids being the 'be all', LotRO would have stolen a ton of players.
6. Reputation - gamers respect a company that says 'when it's done'.
7. Starcraft and the Asia market - Starcraft was and is huge in Asia No other western company could've pulled off 6M subscribers in Asia without having something like Starcraft pave the way.
Totally agree, also to the above poster about Starcraft, quite true, to this day today, starcraft is still played a lot over there, though to some point Warcraft3 and TFT did however take quite a number of RTS players back then.
Warcraft lore fits pretty much everyone, it got it all to some extent, both western and eastern appeal, young or old, they simply nailed it so well.
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
Reputation, word of mouth, huge advertising campaign, a big playerbase to pull from already(battlenet), timing, WoW was at the right place, at the right time.
With that all said, their almost 11 million user count is misleading. Lots of people got multiple accounts, the gold farmers got a shitload of them as WoW is their biggest cashcow, they count even those that log on only for 1 hour each month in those internet cafes down in Asia that sell gametime by the hour(no monthly fee, therefore not an active account) and so on.
I wish Blizzard where more honest with their numbers. A more likely number will probably be around 2-3 million shared between US and EU and about the same down in Asia. Still a staggering huge number, but not inflated. We will never know though and my numbers are not any better than wild guesses, though based on personal observation and reasoning.
Anyway, Blizzard do deserve credit for their work and their best sellers and the fact that they release quality games with enough polish to outshine anything else out on the market at releaseday. Just hope they reconsider their stance on Diablo3 and lan play though. Somehow the devs figured people don't play lan anymore so they wont program it for the game. I can understand the piracy issues being solved with this, but as usual in the anti-piracy war, it's the legitimate users getting kicked in the teeth. There is some talk around that Diablo3 will by subscription based for online play ala Hellgate London's system too.
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Grammar nazi's. This one is for you.
Pretty much everything said here is true, but I would like to stress point 3. I think the Media had just about everything that matters to do with WoW's success. I mean, you hear all these people who are important to online gaming talking about what WoW did wrong, and how it's effected the market and this and that, to the point that it's now a joke. When the game launched, they were all singing a different tune completely.
You didn't read a review of the game that didn't recieve near perfect marks on every aspect of the game. And these reviews were almost instantaneously broadcast in magazines and other online media outlets. it makes you wonder how the hell they got into the game enough to make a worth while review in the first place. I know that around here, I had to wait three months after launch for a copy. All you hear about is how everyone had to wait and wait and wait to get in to play, or to find a copy because Blizzard didn't expect they would need to produce so many. How did these game reviewers get in?
I'm not saying that it's all some big huge conspiracy, but I am saying that maybe the media got caught up in the delight of the newness - like we all do. I'd be willing to be that probably all these people who reviewed the game were wishing maybe they had spent a little more time with it, so that newness freshness wouldn't have skewed their opinion. We all know how we can love a game at first... then realise it truely sucks. AoC anyone?
Add to this that the reviewers really weren't reviewing the game for MMO players. They somehow started reviewing the game for people who don't play MMO's:
"It's easy to learn!" Yeah, sure.... because you already know how to play an MMO! Especially this one... which plays exactly like all the others.
"It's fresh and new!" Yeah, sure... if you've never played an MMO before. Before WoW, I only recall 3 MMO's ever being anything other than Swords and Sorcery - SWG, CoH, and Eve.
"It'll runs fantastic!" Of course it does - you're playing on the machine you played SWG with - which for the time was the best home PC known to man.
"It runs and looks great on old machines!" It sure does. But only because it looks and runs exactly the same on new machines! Turn the graphics all the way down if you have to, because you won't be missing much. It looks the same on the highest settings!
"It has an easy learning curve!" Besides people who don't play MMO's - who cares?
Bah... Blizzard bought their success folks. That's why they were sucessful. You can't tell me they spent $60 million on.... that! I don't buy it.
I really disagee about the gold-farmers.
You rarely see a hunter farming for gold. The reason being is that it's so much easier getting gold from dailies, which you can't bot. Grinding mobs for gold is just very very inefficient and wouldn't be worth even the salary paid in China. You also very rarely hear gold-spammers in game. I've heard maybe a handful in the past few months, and they quickly get booted. It takes like 3 seconds for a player to report a goldseller and they get autobanned with only 5 reports. My guess is the majority of gold that is sold comes from hacked accounts, not from gold farmers.
The reports you saw of 100's of gold-farming chinesse players was back before BC... back before dailies, back before the new report tools. And even then, I think you are taking that example of that one factory with a few hundred people from 3 years ago and letting your imagination run wild. A few hundred people does not = 6M accounts in China. You can go to the china websites and show that they have just as much raid progression, arena teams and everything else as a typical US server which also shows that your 'theory' that chinesse play 5 mins per month is wrong.
I do think there are people with multiple accounts, but not that many since there really isn't need for it. The only real advantage is to play both sides of a pvp server.
You say Blizzard is dishonest, and that 'reason' tells you that there are less subscribers.. but all of your proof is just opinion and guessing. There is much more empirical evidence (like raid progression on asian servers) to show that those servers have just as many real and hardcore players as US servers.
This thread should get an award for being the most cogent and informative I've EVER read on these boards!
-Old mmos were dating, new mmos were lacklustre WoW comes on the market and sweeps everyone up.
-Good targetting and success of an international audience- which they're still doing with getting say the Russians onboard.
-Making things solo and quest-based meant there were few people quitting out of frustration as everyone could achieve something.
-Low system requirements. When it came out more people could run it than something like EQ2. Very beneficial also in that older mmo players may not have upgraded that much due to mainly playing their old mmo and WoW was a good replacement for that.
-Usual distinctive Blizzard fun abilities found in it's other games. Talent trees also that are compelling.
-Very well-done artwork on the world.
-Battlegrounds- kept certain demographics playing who may otherwise have dulled off PvE.
-The usual mmo hook. You make friends or play with friends and that compels you to keep playing
-Second usual mmo hook- slowing down players so they don't reach the end of a game too soon, and when they do have more achievements to obtain- with raiding or improving equipment.
-Third mmo hook, chasing the carrot that people are compelled to finish that quest, or that level.
-Appeal of the game that sucks in the 6 year olds to the 60 year olds. Ie. doesn't suck in just one demographic.
Why subs just keep growing - even now - ....
1. My father plays it and he's 78
2. My son plays it and he's 15
3. My brother plays it and he's 37
4. Why? because it's the player who decides WHAT and HOW he plays. (don't ask my father to join arena
) but he's the best in fishing).
-----------------------
Open seamless world you all live in and fly over.
Smooth and fast control of your avatar
Low system computers (although forget that in the new patch - graphics update demands WAY out more now).
//// MOST important factor ----> the competiton sucks B I G (letting Wow grow further from the demise of other fantasy games VG, TR, AoC, ....).
It's pretty simple really. The company execs made a pact with Satan. He tempts us weak willed folk, and in return, he gets all of our souls.
I agree with most all that's been posted, but freedom in game can not be used as a part of WoW"s sucess, considering how limited you are in choices of what you can do.
The key, is the overall ease of all aspects of it (easy to get into, easy to play, easy to advance, easy to find enough time for, easy leveling, easy to have a comp to play it on, etc...) for the masses, and the endgame grind for the grinders. Something for everyone.
I agree with most all that's been posted, but freedom in game can not be used as a part of WoW"s sucess, considering how limited you are in choices of what you can do.
The key, is the overall ease of all aspects of it (easy to get into, easy to play, easy to advance, easy to find enough time for, easy leveling, easy to have a comp to play it on, etc...) for the masses, and the endgame grind for the grinders. Something for everyone.
Epic Fail.
Typical answer of a blind WOW hater.
Just look at the raid stats: 3 to 5% of the guilds clear the highest dungeons.
http://www.wowjutsu.com/eu/alakir/
Arena is far too hard for 80% of the players, that's why most say " I hate" arena. Too hard to win.
It is the freedom of choice of playing "hard" OR "easy" that' s the succes of the game.
That's why demanding hardcore fast PvP players like my son and brother play it along with my father of 78.
because it is the best mmo
Its an easy to pick up and play game that looks very good and pleasing to the eye with a high need for better attainable equipment.
That's why this game is successful. Its that simple.
Played : WOW, LOTRO, COH/COV, EQ2, SWG, and WAR.
Playing EVE Online and AOC.
Wtg for SW:TOR and WOD
WoW: Old woman!
DENNIS: Man!
WoW: Man. Sorry. What knight lives in that castle over there?
DENNIS: I'm thirty-seven.
WoW: I-- what?
DENNIS: I'm thirty-seven. I'm not old.
WoW: Well, I can't just call you 'Man'.
DENNIS: Well, you could say 'Dennis'.
WoW: Well, I didn't know you were called 'Dennis'.
DENNIS: Well, you didn't bother to find out, did you?
WoW: I did say 'sorry' about the 'old woman', but from the behind you looked--
DENNIS: What I object to is that you automatically treat me like an inferior!
WoW: Well, I am King!
DENNIS: Oh, King, eh, very nice. And how d'you get that, eh? By exploiting
the workers! By 'anging on to outdated imperialist dogma which
perpetuates the economic and social differences in our society. If
there's ever going to be any progress with the--
WOMAN: Dennis, there's some lovely filth down here. Oh! How d'you do?
WoW: How do you do, good lady? I am WoW, King of the MMOs. Who's castle is that?
WOMAN: King of the who?
WoW: The MMO's.
WOMAN: Who are the MMO's?
WoW: Well, we all are. We are all MMO's, and I am your king.
WOMAN: I didn't know we had a king. I thought we were an autonomous collective.
DENNIS: You're fooling yourself. We're living in a dictatorship: a self- perpetuating autocracy in which the working classes--
WOMAN: Oh, there you go bringing class into it again.
DENNIS: That's what it's all about. If only people would listen--
WoW: Please! Please, good people. I am in haste. Who lives in that castle?
WOMAN: No one lives there.
WoW: Then who is your lord?
WOMAN: We don't have a lord.
WoW: What?
DENNIS: I told you. We're an anarcho-syndicalist commune. We take it in turns to act as a sort of executive officer for the week,...
WoW: Yes.
DENNIS: ...but all the decisions of that officer have to be ratified at a special bi-weekly meeting...
WoW: Yes, I see.
DENNIS: ...by a simple majority in the case of purely internal affairs,...
WoW: Be quiet!
DENNIS: ...but by a two-thirds majority in the case of more major--
WoW: Be quiet! I order you to be quiet!
WOMAN: Order, eh? Who does he think he is? Heh.
WoW: I am your king!
WOMAN: Well, I didn't vote for you.
WoW: You don't vote for kings.
WOMAN: Well, how did you become King, then?
WoW: The Lady of the Lake,...
[angels sing]
...her arm clad in the purest shimmering samite, held aloft Excalibur
from the bosom of the water signifying by Divine Providence that I,
WoW, was to carry Excalibur.
[singing stops]
That is why I am your king!
DENNIS: Listen. Strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no
basis for a system of government. Supreme executive power derives from
a mandate from the masses, not from some farcical aquatic ceremony.
WoW: Be quiet!
DENNIS: You can't expect to wield supreme executive power just
'cause some watery tart threw a sword at you!
WoW: Shut up!
DENNIS: I mean, if I went 'round saying I was an emperor just because some
moistened bink had lobbed a scimitar at me, they'd put me away!
WoW: Shut up! Will you please shut up!
DENNIS: Ah, now we see the violence inherent in the system. Come and see the violence inherent in the system! Help! Help! I'm being repressed!
WoW: Bloody peasant!
DENNIS: Oh, what a give-away. Did you hear that? That's what I'm on about. Did you see him repressing me? You saw it, didn't you?