WoW or EQ2

Riggen · Post by **Riggen** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 10:02 pm

Best numbers I know of: http://mmogchart.com

Of course, even the site's maintainer comes right out and says that the numbers in many cases are unlikely to be completely accurate, but they're probably as close to reality as you'll find anywhere.

With that in mind, even though Sony has the advantage of an established playerbase and an earlier release, it looks like WoW has a significant lead. Should be interesting to see how the numbers play out over time.

SicTimMitchell · Post by **SicTimMitchell** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 10:47 pm

Around here. Oh wait... I dont hang out in software sections of stores

Madrix swoops in for the win.

Ghost Writer · Post by **Ghost Writer** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 11:13 pm

Qhorinn wrote:Around where i live, the pattern is the same.
shelves full of eq limited edition and normal edition.
shelves empty of WoW.
I hope santa can scrounge a copy somewhere for me...

Thats because EQ2 is fucking lame, WoW just kicks its ass all over the place.

SicTimMitchell · Post by **SicTimMitchell** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 11:39 pm

Either way, if either game fails to satisfy its players the way EQ has for lo these many years, they'll be bouncing back to EQ1.

And again, never underestimate the Borg collective at SOE. If something from another MMORPG is really good, it'll be part of EQ1 soon enough. All will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.

Bahd Zoolander · Post by **Bahd Zoolander** » Mon Dec 20, 2004 11:42 pm

Ghost, you need a new nickname. How about "Broken Record?"

Post by **Ddrak** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 12:09 am

Nice find Riggen. Those numbers are about what I figured. WoW with approx 25% lead in subscriptions over EQ2. My guess would be that Sony simply sent a lot more copies to stores than Blizzard did. After all, Blizzard have claimed to have been completely surprised by the numbers (which I thought were very much expected given the extraordinarily high level of anticipation).

EQ1 is still the obvious king in subscription numbers with almost double WoW's numbers, however it will be more telling after new year when current EQ subscriptions start to expire.

One thing I will be interested to see play out is Blizzard's hard line "You don't own your character or your items" message to its players. While it's technically true of any MMOG, players don't like it shoved in their face - even if it is for the noble cause of trying to cut down on ebay trades.

Dd

-=Xilanthanax=- · Post by **-=Xilanthanax=-** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 7:28 am

Funnier still, it's harder to find a copy of EQ2 here than it is to find a copy of WoW.

Riggen · Post by **Riggen** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 12:17 pm

What's interesting is that Final Fantasy XI's subscriber count substantially surpasses EQ's. I say this because I've tried FFXI and I dumped it within three months. I'm guessing this is the Lineage effect--like Lineage, FFXI grew up in a relatively insulated foreign market with different broadband usage figures and patterns. FFXI isn't free of course, so it doesn't enjoy a subscriber count in the millions either. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if the comparison were confined to the US or even western markets in general--where most of us live--EQ would be number one.

The new year's subscription rollovers will definitely be telling. I think it's also important to remember that WoW isn't fully internationalized yet. When that happens, Blizzard will pick up another goodly chunk of subscribers. As for Blizzard being caught by surprise, well, they had what...half a million participants in the US open beta? And that was only limited by server capacity. They had to see it coming before the game went live, but probably just couldn't effectively ramp up within one week.

I actually applaud Blizzard's hard line on content ownership. To me, it's always been a given that with any MMO, subscribers simply have a license to access bits and bytes over the provider's network. They only actually own those parts of their characters they take with them each time they log out. The only players directly impacted by this policy are those that nobody wants around anyway. Your average player who just wants to get in and have fun may never realize the implications of that policy or care if they did.

Riggen · Post by **Riggen** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 12:20 pm

BTW Xil and raistle, call me slow but I just noticed your avatar icons.

/snicker good job

Bahd Zoolander · Post by **Bahd Zoolander** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 1:40 pm

Riggen wrote:What's interesting is that Final Fantasy XI's subscriber count substantially surpasses EQ's. I say this because I've tried FFXI and I dumped it within three months. I'm guessing this is the Lineage effect--like Lineage, FFXI grew up in a relatively insulated foreign market with different broadband usage figures and patterns. FFXI isn't free of course, so it doesn't enjoy a subscriber count in the millions either. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that if the comparison were confined to the US or even western markets in general--where most of us live--EQ would be number one.

From what I've heard the Lineage numbers are artificially inflated because they license to the asian video game parlors and count each seat as a subscription. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that FFXI does something similar. There's no denying they have a huge Japanese following though.

Riggen · Post by **Riggen** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 1:45 pm

Yes that's pretty much what I was getting at.

Ghost Writer · Post by **Ghost Writer** » Tue Dec 21, 2004 11:29 pm

out of curiosity, does EQ2 show you how much exp you get every kill and quest and how much you have till the next level or is it the same as EQ1?

-=Xilanthanax=- · Post by **-=Xilanthanax=-** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 12:15 am

Shows a percentage on the bars, there's 10 yellow bubbles each signifying 10%, with a blue bar underneath them that goes completely across to fill. I personally would rather not know the exact numbers, but it's a personal preferrence.

Ghost Writer · Post by **Ghost Writer** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 9:49 pm

whats their deal with hiding numbers so fucking much? all the other mmo's show it why can't they? they really like pissing people off.

SabiarofErudin · Post by **SabiarofErudin** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 8:08 am

Played both and WoW > EQ2 by a long shot.

-=Xilanthanax=- · Post by **-=Xilanthanax=-** » Thu Dec 23, 2004 10:08 am

SabiarofErudin wrote:Played both and WoW > EQ2 by a long shot, if you have a short attention span.

Fix'd.

Riggen · Post by **Riggen** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 2:15 am

Actually, the more I play each game, the more I lean toward WoW overall. It has a surprisingly vast amount of depth. I'm seriously thinking of letting EQ2 lapse.