lol it is tongue in cheek.

 

-----signature-----

My apologies, I took a flying guess at the number because I didn't feel like looking back.


Lets put it at 1 million, high, but for arguments sake that's ok. Hell lets go with 2 million to be extra safe. 2 million people playing MMO's before WoW.

That means 10 million WoW subs are new players that didn't play MMO's back in the day (if everyone from the previous player base moved to WoW, which we know didn't happen). It's the only game they've played. They have no basis for comparison. Just because other games are out there, until those 10 million try them, I won't take their opinion seriously.

Now maybe those 10 million think WoW is the best game ever!!! So what? Again they have no basis for comparison unless they've tried the so called competition. And I'd think the same if they said WoW sucks compared to other MMO's, if that is they hadn't even tried others.

I respect the fact that some people think WoW is great, that's not my argument. My argument is believing it's the best simply because of the number of subs. That's ridiculous. If they've never tried the others how can they make the comparison? They can't. WoW got a whole boatload of new people playing MMO's. Again, so what? That doesn't automatically make WoW the best game, it means Blizzard broke the stigma of the pasty faced geek playing games and made it popular to the masses, as opposed to targetting only gamers which is what most other companies did pre-WoW. And strangely post-WoW. I've still yet to see any new game advertise like WoW did and does.

And before someone comes in and says "How do you know they haven't tried them?" That's easy, besides EQ no other game has hit half a million subs, ever, until WoW. That tells me there is a huge population of MMO players that have played WoW and WoW only.

It's ok for you to like WoW. It's ok for you to claim it's great and it's your favorite bestest game ever, if that's what you beleive. But it's not ok to say so simply because of it's sub base. That's where common sense would fit it.

 

-----signature-----

Not true. There have been quite a few MMOs that have gotten over that mark.

 

-----signature-----

I know, it just seemed funny. :-)

 

-----signature-----

So you're saying market growth models differ drastically based on region?

 

-----signature-----

Uhh I am not sure how you draw that conclusion from what I said.

 

-----signature-----

1990---3 million users worldwide
1995- 16 million users worldwide (Meridain, December 1995)

2004- 817 million users worldwide (WOW launched)

2010- 2.04 billion users worldwide.


You're right..thats only like 700 times more users..not 1000, so much for my off the cuff guesstimations from memory.

I also graduated HS in 1991. My two older brothers ran one of the first mail hubs in the U.S., as a by-product of thier BBS hobby. We had several of the first IBM clones, (i was about 8) the Commodore, the IBM PC-jr....the list goes on...

So, now that we've admitted our age..

Blizzard is a smart company. As my post I linked you to points out,(which I have quoted exactly once, btw), they have always provided for the masses. Diablo and Starcraft are perfect examples of this, and WOW was just the same strategy, but with an MMO.

Target the masses.
Target the average computer. (Which was Vanguards downfall if you ask me)

This does not by any means say that WOW is the best game ever. We can't even really say that it is the most successful game ever, without weighing the past vs. the present accurately and without bias.


Parachute pants were a big hit in the 80's. I'm sure for a few years they may have even outsold every other type of legwear by leaps and bounds....People wore them because, well, everyone else did.

Like all fads, all it takes is for people to decide they are done with it, and it will end.


Were parachute pants the best fashion design of all time? Hell no. Were these designers smart to produce a product to meet an emerging trend in fashion? Yes.

WOW is not so different.

As far as the gear carrot being the best design ever for an MMO? Laughable. Just like parachute pants are not the best design ever for legwear.

People play WOW because everyone else does, not because they enjoy chasing a carrot.

 

-----signature-----

"And before someone comes in and says "How do you know they haven't tried them?" That's easy, besides EQ no other game has hit half a million subs, ever, until WoW. That tells me there is a huge population of MMO players that have played WoW and WoW only."

Now who is reaching and grasping at illogical straws?

WoW pulled people out of AO/AC/AC2/SWG/DAoC/ and EQ to name some. now while there is some overlap in gamers that played those games they weren't all the same 500k people just moving game to game.

The subscription numbers support the idea that WoW has been a great game. I won't use the word prove. But they certainly support in a major major way that it has been.

There isn't anything to support that it hasn't been other than an individual's opinion.

Matter of fact other than critical reviews or subscription numbers there isn't any way to actually support a theory either way. I remember many magazines both paper and online lauding WoW for what it was for years. not just when it came out.

How do you prove anything is great? You get a ton of people and make enough noise and there ya go. greatness.

 

-----signature-----

I am curious as to where you got those numbers from.

Edit: Also why you would use M59 as an example when it was the first MMO and had no competition until The Realm came out? While still not valid due to lack of competition, UO or AC would be better examples. At least there was a couple MMOs out there at the time. That was in 1999.

 

-----signature-----