World of Warcraft Hits 9.3 Million Players

Gamasutra is reporting that, along with Vivendi's ever-increasing earnings, recent information has been released updating the current player stats for World of Warcraft. Despite suspicions of falling numbers due to the long wait between now and Rise of the Lich King, Blizzard's Massive title is larger than ever, with some 9.3 million players. "Vivendi has chalked up the increase not only to its WoW subscriber base, but the release of its The Burning Crusade expansion, which saw release in China in the latter part of the third quarter ... The company also noted that its subscriber base has continued to grow from the 9 million mark it celebrated in July to more than 9.3 million, which it says is up more than one million subscribers since December 31 of last year."

That would be true...

[bigstrat2003]

Except even if Blizzard is horribly invading the privacy of their users, that doesn't make it a botnet. I assure you we won't be seeing anything like a DDoS attack from WoW subscribers any time soon.

And yet...

[geminidomino]

5.9907 billion people STILL don't give a fuck.

Re:9.3 what?

[Selfbain]

Having the most customers does not mean you have the best product. Theres an example to prove this but it has been beaten to death before.

Re:And yet...

[Paradigm_Complex]

Right, and oddly enough the vast majority of them don't visit slashdot, either. WoW is sufficiently large that it can have a noticable affect on the rest of technology, which happens to be something many slashdot-goers have interest in. WoW primarily distributes it's patches through bittorrent, which Comcast users are having trouble with, many of whom are calling for network neutrality, which has become enough of an issue to be picked up by many currently running for president of the world's current economic and military superpower. A very sizable chunk of those 5.9907 billion actually have some interest in the direction US politics swings. Even if you don't buy that it can affect the world as a whole, it certainly affects at least the tech world - the stuff slashdotters are interested in.

Re:9.3 what?

[east coast]

But it won't stop people from trying to dump on the leader. What's really pathetic are the people talking about how their fantasy MMORPG is sooo much better than WoW, despite the numbers clearly proving it isn't.

Why aren't you making this argument every time that someone "dumps" on Windows, WalMart, Coors Lite, Britney Spears, McDonalds or a Chevy Cobalt?

Despite anything you might think anyone's favorite MMORPG or whatever is based on their opinion. Can someone come up to me and say that WoW is the best and I can say EQ2 is the best and both of us still be right? Absolutely. We choose what's right for ourselves in any particular place and time. Media like games, books and movies cater to target crowds. Maybe I'm just happier with EQ2's vision of the Drow? I don't know.

By the way.... 50,000,000 Elvis fans are wrong... at least for my tastes.

Who are these people?

[Dillenger69]

Who are these people.
Everyone I know is quitting the game.
Even I haven't played since this summer.
I just don't have the time to devote to something like this and still lead a meaningful life.

Re:9.3 what?

[Joe the Lesser]

Being a fan Elvis is like liking being a fan of the Atari.

Wouldn't be as popular today but deserves respect for what it did in it's day because everyone's standing on the shoulders of giants.

Re:Who are these people?

[gronofer]

Who are these people.

You aren't likely to encounter them very often in the real world.

Re:9.3 what?

[Kierthos]

The thing is, most, if not all MMORPGs out there are that static for a reason. It allows everyone the chance to do that quest, get that special item, whatever.

I don't know if you've ever logged onto a new WoW server the day it goes online, but people race to be the first to level 20, level 30, and so on. They want to be the first on that server to down Ragnaros (well, okay, honestly, I'm not sure they even bother with that any more...), or the first player in the Outlands, or whatever goal they set for themselves. And that's why WoW is that static. Do you want to lose out on ever even starting a huge quest because some guy who lives in his mom's basement and stayed up for 48 hours straight beat you (and everyone else) to all the goals in the game? I think you'd rightfully be a little pissed that you're paying the same fee as everyone else, but because someone beat you to Quest X, no one else can ever do it.

And yes, WoW doesn't allow the whole "level 1 with max profession skill", but I honestly can't think of a game that does allow it. Did EQ? Perhaps they did (it's been years since I played), but I remember that they made it cost so much to raise any profession that it wasn't worth trying to do it as a level 1 unless you had a couple sugar daddies supporting you. DAOC might have let you, but it was so much more cost effective to go out and level and melt down the loot you got to save costs.