f13.net

Probably resubs before the new expansion, but WOW is now at 12 million (http://wow.joystiq.com/2010/10/07/world-of-warcraft-reaches-12-million-players/). So much for all the people on the forum claiming it was dying because their class got nerfed.

It is weird that they can continue to increase subs this late. Everyone, and I mean everyone, I knew who played the game has stopped playing for more than a year and isn't interested in going back at all.

Oh, thats right, I forgot to cancel my account (and my girls).

I know at least two people who never played wow before that started playing in the past 4 months. It's sort of novel, trying to tell your friend where to find steelsnap...

There are far more gamers that haven't played WoW than have. 

It's a good enough game to be worth at least one run through the content.  Word of mouth makes this a good game for people to play when they're in a lull between games.  It's also a good introduction to MMO's for those that dabbled in Runescape and the like in Jr. High. 

WoW, like Diablo will get traffic for years.  It is impressive that they can stay at such a high sub number.  That I agree with.  As long as the MMO market continues to be shit on with WoW clones, Blizzard will retain the numbers. 

They seem to be doing a good job of expanding into new regions, with localised clients and such. I imagine the bulk of their growth is outside of the US now.

I'm not sure I would consider any mmo of recent make a wow clone. sure they have borrowed some things wholesale(WAR) but they play more like an everquest clone than anything.

Which is exactly why I call them poor WoW clones.  They steal some of the superficial aspects of WoW while completely missing the essence of why WoW became successful.   WoW is a game at it's core.  MMO design seems to be littered with concepts that mask a grind rather than encourage game play.

I just remembered that wotlk was recently localized and released in china, which is probably the cause of the even higher sub numbers. 

Doesn't surprise me at all.  I don't think it is purely resubs either.  The MMO market will grow year after year by nature.  As kids get older they'll dabble in it and some will stick.  The older crowd won't grow OUT of MMO's as quickly as we would all expect. So the net is higher each year.

This has been happening while people rage quit, boredom quit, etc.  So, the result is numbers just aren't dropping in significant numbers for WoW in between expansions and then peak just prior to a new release.  People love to make strawmans based on their own experiences or those in their immediate circle.  It has absolutely no bearing on the big picture.  

We have to face the fact that we can stomp and scream and quit all we want, Blizzard only listens because they CHOOSE to.  I'm actually surprised Blizzard continues to develop the game as much as they do.  Any other company doing MMOs past and present would have let the cow lie and milk it for all it's worth.  The only reason they are taking as many risks as they are with Cata changes is because they aren't satisfied with keeping numbers steady or letting the game go into a slow decline.  They want to take the risk to actually increase in population and stay relevant to new players.

From a mainstream perspective, there really isn't another true option for an MMO.  Sure there are plenty of MMO's that fit a niche or two better than WoW, but they aren't going to get the masses.  Out of ignorance, I'm also assuming they aren't really keeping their development up either.  They are in "milking" mode (Read:  not really going after new subs, just satisfying the subs they have.)

The global expansion possibility only adds to this and makes sense too.

Ditto, i know this girl who's life used to revolve around going clubbing and facebook, typical mid 20s party girl kind.  A couple months ago she called asking me to help "hack" a wow account so she didn't have to pay for it, after i explained this wasn't possible (i think? :P) she went ahead and bought it and subbed.  This is the first game she's ever loaded into her laptop that isn't played through facebook.  She's now level 70 something and asking for tanking tips.

I agree with everything else you said there Dren, but I think the RealID affair showed that Blizzard *do* listen to their playerbase and they do expend a decent amount of effort studying how people play their game, what they want, and adjusting what they do in response.

Which is also part of the reason for their continual growth - they actually listen to their players and develop the game their players want, instead of the game that the devs want.

At least, that's been true since Tigole & Furor were cut out of the development loop.

A successful drug pusher caters to the desires of their addicts.  It's good business. The key is to successfully filter the white noise. 

Was furor ever really in the development loop? i thought he was a quest writer.

Just to be cleear, I said they do listen because they want to improve their game and increase subs.  We agree.

I think overall Bliz tends to listen and they tend to "get it." That's what really surprised me about how long they held onto the RealID thing before they changed direction.

Then, in the few times when they decide to be ornery like the appearance tab or refusing to set up an LFG system, they really dig in their heels for years.

Was quest designer, is (now) Lead World Designer.
So yeah, not really cut out of the loop at all despite the unreasoning hatred some people have for him.

This is what I meant by the older generations continuing to play, not stop.  Rolling into my 40's now and I have more time to play, not less.   Sure, my days are packed fully than ever with job, wife, kids, etc., but my 8-11 evenings are wide wide open compared to when I was 20-30.  At $15/mo, it is cheap cheap entertainment.  The only competition for WoW is a good book on my Kindle.  I hate TV.  I'm old, get off my lawn!

Yeah Tigole is a better target for unreasoning hate, since he's at least the face of the 'raiding should be exclusive and gated' philosophy.

Tigole was one of the few Blizzard employees that would actually argue with players on the forums. It was rather entertaining to watch, I thought.

On topic, it's unsurprising that subs are rising just before a new expansion. If I was unsubbed, I would resub to see the Cata changes, and if I was a friend of someone who was excited about Cata, I might buy the game myself to try it out.

I hope irony that WoW is definitive proof of how wrong this ideology is not lost on him.