WoW announces record numbers

[HaemishM]

Before anyone else does, I figured I'd link to the official press release that brags about their release day success.

Press Release Peen-Waving

The tasty bits:

In just the first day alone, over 200,000 players created World of Warcraft accounts, and over 100,000 were already playing the game concurrently as of 5:00 p.m. PST on Tuesday. The account-creation and concurrent-user populations are both record numbers for a MMORPG on its first day of launch, making World of Warcraft the fastest-growing online game in history.

So 200k accounts, an estimated but unofficial 250k boxes sold, and over 100k concurrent (and screaming in the queue) users on opening day. Of course, this is all a bit premature, considering the server, database and latency problems they've been having. Hopefully they'll release some numbers in the middle of December that will either show they retained a lot of users or lost a lot. We'll see.

[Paelos]

My guess is a 60-70% retention on those accounts that are registered. The game is solid enough to provide more fun than just one month of play, and the promise of better things to come is alluring. Also, the playerbase I've encountered already seems very hooked on the system. After the crippling lag was sorted out, bitching is at a bare minimum.

[Samprimary]

The game, so far, seems to have the popular (masses) appeal and 'solid' gameplay systems that will theoretically allow it to succeed Everquest as the king of the MMORPG's. It plays like an evolution to the Everquest system that should have come about years and years ago.  But we didn't get that until now, thus stagnating any attempt at the new generation of MMORPG's we should have been getting now, .. ?

[Paelos]

So far my favorite feature is the automatic rolling system on loot. That is brilliant. Way to pay attention to the playerbase. My biggest problem is UI. Chat needs work, and tabs would go a long way to helping that, ala DAOC. Those two things alone should prove how solid all-around the game really is.

[Jayce]

We'll see.

This is high praise, coming from Haemish.

But all jokes aside, it's possible Blizzard finally figured out what's fun about these games and managed to limit what's not fun.  It seems simple in retrospect but in fact it is quite HARD.

As an ironic side note, WoW has arguably more a more fleshed out quest system than its closest competitor whose name includes the word "Quest" (!)

[Viin]

So far my favorite feature is the automatic rolling system on loot. That is brilliant. Way to pay attention to the playerbase. My biggest problem is UI. Chat needs work, and tabs would go a long way to helping that, ala DAOC. Those two things alone should prove how solid all-around the game really is.

Try Cosmos or Gypsy for UI enhancement. Cosmos has a lot of cool stuff, but is a bit over the top in some places (took me an hour just to get all setup).

The chat window does have tabs, btw. They are normally hidden, but if you hover/click into the chat window they should show up. You can make more and assign different channels to them. I'm pretty sure you could do this without Cosmos, but I just started playing with them so I could be wrong.

I, too, am interested in seeing how well WoW does in the next month or so. With approx 250k sold the first day, I bet at least another 250k get sold by Christmas. Even if you use 75% retention rate, that's 375k users in 1 month. Of course, once the numbers start going down we won't be getting anymore press releases.

[trias_e]

it's possible Blizzard finally figured out what's fun about these games and managed to limit what's not fun.  

Replace "these games" with Everquest and I agree with you.

[Xerapis]

Hmmm....having the felt the pain of Lineage 2, they deserve to have this happen to them...(them being NCSoft, not Korea)

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/tech/200411/kt2004112918290011810.htm

[Raging Turtle]

Hmmm....having the felt the pain of Lineage 2, they deserve to have this happen to them...(them being NCSoft, not Korea)

I'm surprised.  I haven't heard a word about this game from my students, and they're always trying to get me to buy new computer games (even though I don't game much anymore).

(and we have another poster in Korea? oowaa, as they say)

Edit: Nevermind.  I bet they just play it in the PC bangs, no need to actually buy it themselves.

[HaemishM]

Hmmm....having the felt the pain of Lineage 2, they deserve to have this happen to them...(them being NCSoft, not Korea)

http://times.hankooki.com/lpage/tech/200411/kt2004112918290011810.htm

Koreans like Blizzard games. SHOCKING!

[Ardent]

Gamespot gives WoW a rating of 9.5. That's the highest rating they have given any PC game this year.

[Paelos]

The fact that WoW is ranked higher than Rome:TW is not only shocking, it's just flat out wrong. Gamespot, you lick balls for a living. I hope sleeping on big piles of cash doesn't hurt your integrity too much.

[HaemishM]

I hope sleeping on big piles of cash doesn't hurt your integrity too much.

I'm sure their integrity never entered into the equation.

[schild]

I don't like Rome: TW. I like WoW a little when I'm playing with other people. Neh.

[Paelos]

Like or hate Rome:TW, you have to recognize it for it's greatness not only within the genre it represents, but for the innovative aspects that it brings to the table to succeed. WoW is a fun game, but not a better game.

[sidereal]

See, to me, fun = great.  There's no difference.   That's the only point of a game.

I also found R:tW not so fun early on, when I got tired of micromanaging my empire and started missing the chesslike mapstyle of Medieval.  

And WoW is fun.  I have not yet gotten tired of questing for teh win.

[Viin]

I agree with Sidereal. It's a great game because it's fun.

Doom 3 is not a great game, because it's not that fun. Yes, it's cool technologically, but it's not that fun.

Half-life 2 is a great game because it's fun. AND because it's technologically cool.

Pretty tech demo's are not "fun" nor "great" when speaking about games.

[Margalis]

I wasn't impressed with the first Total War game.

We'll see how much fun people are having in WoW in a couple of months.

[geldonyetich]

So 200k accounts, an estimated but unofficial 250k boxes sold, and over 100k concurrent (and screaming in the queue) users on opening day. Of course, this is all a bit premature, considering the server, database and latency problems they've been having.

If you think those numbers are impressive, the quote you have there is a week old.   They've more than doubled the numbers of servers they had brought up since release.   If I look at it as them accomidating their release day players in addition to post-release day sales, I'd be surprised if they have anything less than 300k active accounts.

Hopefully they'll release some numbers in the middle of December that will either show they retained a lot of users or lost a lot. We'll see.

I was thinking the same thing (although late january might be a better date to check).  There's natural population falloff just from post-release hype dying down.   They'll probably have to condence a few servers eventually.

See, to me, fun = great. There's no difference. That's the only point of a game.

Ah, now the ball's in Geldonyetich's corner.   Fun is Good; Even a requirement for a game worth playing.  However, a MMORPG needs to be more than just fun.  Otherwise, why would you bother paying a subscription for the same fun you can get from a game without a subscription?    The other element a MMORPG needs is a compelling purpose to play.   Once the compelling purpose to play is exhausted, you'll cancel your subscription post haste.  

Come to think of it, I guess all I'm really saying here is a MMORPG is just a game with a long term play goal tacked on.   From the developer's end, the desire to get players to play the game for an extended period of time that makes a compelling purpose really neccessary.    From the player's end, it's this long term purpose that makes a MMORPG worth a subscription.

Personally, I'm really enjoying WoW even though I could barely bring myself to play the game in Beta.   (I think I just didn't want to ruin it for myself later.)  I've yet to exhaust a compelling purpose to play it, and considering I'm burned out from leveling mechanics alone, that's a good thing.   However, will this be true a week from now?   Is it possible I'll encounter something unforgivable that causes me to immediately unsubscribe?   I'm not elimating that possibility.

[Riggswolfe]

Just read the gamespot review. It is...quite rosey. Heh. I love WoW but even I might not give it a 9.5. Then again, I'm playing at least 4 hours a day since retail and more when I can get away with it so maybe I would give it that kind of rating.

God I can't wait to get off work to log back in.

[Shockeye]

You cannot review a MMOG after 1 week. I don't care how much beta you play. Every whoresite does this right after release, sometimes the day of release. I am getting very sick of it.

[Riggswolfe]

My only current worry about WoW is that each server has people that are in their low 40s. It blows my mind. The closest thing I Can think of is those people powerleveling COH. I just don't understand why you'd bother. My guess is they'll hit 60 by the end of the week and the grief will start.

[schild]

There's no need to powerlevel in WoW. The treadmill is so short that I'll have 5 characters maxed within a year. With Epic Gear.

[geldonyetich]

Though I'm hearing this third hand, from what I understand of the matter, the power levelers are mostly beta testers who took notes on which quests are relatively compatible so they can combine their efforts to finish multiple quests simultaniously with minimal travel time.    Of course, good ol' fashioned staying online 24/7 (often tag-teaming) helps achieve uber-catassterfied characters in no time as well.

I'm with Schild on this one when I say it's better to stop and smell the roses unless you want to be one of those poor punks who hit level 50 on the first week of City of Heroes and realized they exhausted all the content without enjoying it.

As for potential grief play after they've maxxed out... possibly, but from what I understand about the PVP system, ganking earns you 'dishonor points'.   If they're leveling up to 60 just so they can grief without fear of retaliation, they'd be shooting themselves in the foot because the dishonor points would rack up big time.  (Though I haven't read far enough ahead to see what, if any, penaties are associated with dishonor points.)

Hmm, it might actually be worth having more than one chaacter in this game, seeing how they've diversified the playstyles across the different classes.   I'm going to try to stick to one character a time, though.   Warlock is a pretty good choice for the hardcore looking for the complex.

[Trippy]

As for potential grief play after they've maxxed out... possibly, but from what I understand about the PVP system, ganking earns you 'dishonor points'.   If they're leveling up to 60 just so they can grief without fear of retaliation, they'd be shooting themselves in the foot because the dishonor points would rack up big time.  (Though I haven't read far enough ahead to see what, if any, penaties are associated with dishonor points.)

There was ganking on day one with, for example, Tauren Druids having a tough time doing their bear form quest with all the Night Elf Druids camping the quest giver zone (which in the storyline has a truce going) on some servers.

As for the Honor system, they either have not implemented it yet for PvP combat or are not going to have it at all if you believe this post:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-general&t=124300&p=1&tmp=1#post124336

That reply is from a Community Manager, though, and not a developer and it contradicts the Upcoming PvP changes page so I don't know if I believe that.

[Sky]

but from what I understand about the PVP system, ganking earns you 'dishonor points'.

Because statloss did wonders for reducing pks in UO. Oh wait.

Putting in punishment for grief killing does nothing but change the situation from "pissed off victims" to "pissed of victims and pissed off victimizers". Good for karma, shitty for victims.

I plan on staying as far away from WoW pvp as possible, until I'm max level, in uber gear, and in a strong pvp guild. You know, even playing field. So...never.

[Mesozoic]

Now the word is 240,000 copies sold on Day 1.

I think this is the part where Blizzard trolls scream "YEAH WEL BRITNEY SPEERS IS POPULAR TOO AND SHE SUX LOL" or something.

[Viin]

Hmm, it might actually be worth having more than one chaacter in this game, seeing how they've diversified the playstyles across the different classes.

Agreed. I play a Tauren Druid on Earthen Ring (level 10) but my main character is a Human Rogue on Icecrown (level 16). If one of the servers is having problems or my group of friends for that server aren't around, I play the other character.

Eventually I'd like to try out every class to at least the mid 20's, just to see what they are like.

There was ganking on day one with, for example, Tauren Druids having a tough time doing their bear form quest with all the Night Elf Druids camping the quest giver zone (which in the storyline has a truce going) on some servers.

How were they doing this? I don't see any immediate way to prevent someone from completing the first part of the quest (talk to bear spirit).

I plan on staying as far away from WoW pvp as possible, until I'm max level, in uber gear, and in a strong pvp guild. You know, even playing field. So...never.

I'm interested to see how Battlefields will turn out. If they suck, well, I'll be playing Guild Wars anyways.

[Viin]

Also from the press release:

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, players continued to buy World of Warcraft in record numbers, with a total of over 350,000* copies of the game selling through. Blizzard Entertainment and its retail partners expect the remaining supplies of World of Warcraft to sell out soon. Blizzard is currently evaluating its ability to ship additional games to retailers, given the unexpectedly high demand on the servers. The company continues to increase server capacity to accommodate the growing number of players connecting to the game. As the additional servers are brought online and proven stable, additional copies of World of Warcraft will be made available at retail. Blizzard will announce the availability of those additional games as soon as they are on shelves.

I have yet to find the footnote the * is suppose to be for.

[AcidCat]

I'm with Schild on this one when I say it's better to stop and smell the roses unless you want to be one of those poor punks who hit level 50 on the first week of City of Heroes and realized they exhausted all the content without enjoying it.

No doubt. I fail to understand the "race to the end" mentality some people bring to these games. I've got three characters going, so I'm certainly not going to be max level with any of them anytime soon. So far I couldn't be happier with the game, it is, in fact, my own personal robot jesus. Will I feel that way in six months? Who cares, I'm having great fun now, and that's all that matters.

[El Gallo]

BEHOLD YOUR GODS http://www.maxmeout.com


If I could spare a week of vacation to play hardcore at the release of a good game, it would be fun to be at the bleeding edge for a little.  There's just something compelling about being one of the first people in a new area, like the guy who gets to crunch across the fresh-fallen snow first.  I like pellets.

However, I am way too old for that shit now.

[Trippy]

There was ganking on day one with, for example, Tauren Druids having a tough time doing their bear form quest with all the Night Elf Druids camping the quest giver zone (which in the storyline has a truce going) on some servers.

How were they doing this? I don't see any immediate way to prevent someone from completing the first part of the quest (talk to bear spirit).

It's during the part where you have to travel to Moonglade to advance the quest. Hence these sorts of threads on the forums:

http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-druid&t=63&p=1&tmp=1#post63
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-druid&t=3153&p=1&tmp=1#post3153
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-druid&t=1211&p=1&tmp=1#post1211
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-druid&t=986&p=1&tmp=1#post986
http://forums.worldofwarcraft.com/thread.aspx?fn=wow-pvp&t=3262&p=1&tmp=1#post3262

[sidereal]

The funny thing is that the main quest guy there (Moonstar Sunstarmoon, I believe his name was) basically says 'no funny business.  this is a peaceful land' when you first get there, which I assumed to mean the NPCs would use the Kill All Combatants rule that's up in Ratchet.  Hard to imagine Mr. Peaceful Land and his NPCs standing there dumbly and watching while noobs get slaughtered.

[MrHat]

The funny thing is that the main quest guy there (Moonstar Sunstarmoon, I believe his name was) basically says 'no funny business.  this is a peaceful land' when you first get there, which I assumed to mean the NPCs would use the Kill All Combatants rule that's up in Ratchet.  Hard to imagine Mr. Peaceful Land and his NPCs standing there dumbly and watching while noobs get slaughtered.

Night elves are all LIARS.

KOS if you ask me.

[Ardent]

2 things:

Number one: "Gank of America" is a funny name for a guild. (They're on the Blackrock PvP server, from El Gallo's link above.)

it is, in fact, my own personal robot jesus.

Number two: OK, please forgive me for my pop culture ignorance, but I've seen this "second coming of robot jesus" phrase used repeatedly here, and I do not know where it comes from. Can anyone enlighten me?