Thanks for that laugh! I kill critters on my priest, so there's that!

--Sly

 

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To my knowledge they have never released a history of active subscribers, just a number of how many subscribers they have had. if you have a source that gives the actual data on it, that'd be nice to see.

 

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According to the best numbers anyone has outside of Blizzard offices, WoW was in a slow decline for the last two years before Cataclysm released. Of course, box sales were still quite brisk. Lots of people were quitting, but nearly as many were also coming into the game (especially in Asia). This is not an unusual situation for a successful six year old game by any stretch of the imagination. This expansion IS going to be received pretty poorly by mmorpg veterans because it has nothing new. But it is also going to be well received by the noobies for exactly the same reason - they aren't as bored with the same old same old.

WoW will continue to hold its population number, or near to it, after the expansion jump wears down of course. But it will continue to get harder and harder to find players who have actually been around since "the good old days" as the staleness grows.

In EVE they're called "bitter old vets" but it's just as applicable to WoW.

 

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Yes but that's my point. No one has the actual numbers, and as far as I know I have yet to see any kind of statement of how many active subs they maintain. All I can recall them ever releasing hard data on is total subs. So everyone is just guessing at what things are, but given the lack of life on many realms that have a huge population disparity it would appear telling enough.

 

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They claim over 12 million subscribers. Somehow I don't think they are making it up.

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.

 

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Reference?





How many MMO's have been successful into their 6th year? None. Hell most are lucky to make through a year or two these days before going FTP.

 

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Right, that's the same info we're all privy to in the press releases they occasionally make regarding subscriber base. I've always wanted to know how they come to this number with a breakdown by country. The way they count 'game room' subscriptions is something I've never understood as they are a different payment model and are widely used in asia where the population is astronomical. Seeing a monthly result of subs would be cool to see but we'll likely never see that.

 

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Does it really matter? They have maintained over 12 million subscribers for years under the same subscriber definition which clearly shows the game's subscriber base is not declining. If you were to say it had stopped growing or become stagnant, well I could not argue that as there is no evidence one way or the other whether it has or has not.

 

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•Even after we fixed their mastery, Feral druid bleeds still do a lot of damage and are undispellable. We plan to shift some of that damage back to main attacks. They are also a little too hard to control. Given that they are already hard to root, snare, or polymorph, we think the fear immunity from Berserk is too much.


What...!?!?


/Sigh


I really liked having two fear dispells.

 

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•We’re buffing Wild Mushroom. It’s a cool spell that isn’t getting enough play.


I think this is just funny. What this says to me is.."There is a dev member who is crying because a cool spell he/she thought up no one uses."


LOL!

 

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