Post by Morreion on Sept 30, 2010 10:18:53 GMT -5
The Numbers Game part 1 (Feeling Strangely Fine...Usually)
The Numbers Game part 2 (Feeling Strangely Fine...Usually)
Funcom's Craig Morrison discusses why MMOs don't talk about their subscription numbers. Numbers can be a difficult thing to define- knowing that there are a million accounts created doesn't tell you how many people currently play, or which were subscribers compared to free trials. The number of characters created is even less useful. So there is a definitional problem. F2P games often talk about millions of accounts, but how many are active? What levels did the characters get to? Also, WoW comparisons, like in many other areas, haunt this subject- a successful MMO pre-WoW could have 200,000 subs like DAoC. That is actually a good typical number, but looks bad when millions of accounts are touted on WoW or on F2P games (which may have only a fraction of that number actually playing now).
Morrison is doubtful that the numbers game will ever become clear because of all the ambiguities involved.
The Numbers Game part 2 (Feeling Strangely Fine...Usually)
Funcom's Craig Morrison discusses why MMOs don't talk about their subscription numbers. Numbers can be a difficult thing to define- knowing that there are a million accounts created doesn't tell you how many people currently play, or which were subscribers compared to free trials. The number of characters created is even less useful. So there is a definitional problem. F2P games often talk about millions of accounts, but how many are active? What levels did the characters get to? Also, WoW comparisons, like in many other areas, haunt this subject- a successful MMO pre-WoW could have 200,000 subs like DAoC. That is actually a good typical number, but looks bad when millions of accounts are touted on WoW or on F2P games (which may have only a fraction of that number actually playing now).
Morrison is doubtful that the numbers game will ever become clear because of all the ambiguities involved.
