Mmogchart.com Updated to 20.0

SirBruce writes "Mmogchart.com has been updated to Version 20.0! This is a major update, with updated numbers for many games, most notably World of Warcraft, Eve Online, RuneScape, and most of NCSoft's titles. I've also added three new MMOGs to the tracking data: Tibia, The Matrix Online, and Dungeons & Dragons Online. I've also removed the old subscriber data for Ragnarok Online in Japan, and unified the various total subscriptions charts. Also new to this update is preliminary market data for Asian MMOGs (including Ragnarok Online) that are commonly reported in terms of Peak Concurrent Users and Average Concurrent Users. Given the differences in pricing models, many of these games are not subscription-based, so a direct comparison with subscription MMOGs cannot be made. My thanks to everyone who helped with this update, and thanks to those of you who waited patiently for this update!"

Re:It all comes down to marketing

[VGPowerlord]

Crafting needs to be overhauled to allow customization; not only should blacksmiths and such be able to change the appearance of their creations to a degree but they should also be able to affect the bonuses an item gives. The higher the crafter's skill, the more bonuses can be stacked on the item. Jewelcrafting and socketed items are nice, but not good enough.

Given the massive database problems such customization caused Sony in Star Wars Galaxies, I'd be careful what you wish for... you might just get it.

P.S. That's what Enchanting is for.

Re:Wow

[SirBruce]

This isn't true.

World of Warcraft's Paying Customer Definition
World of Warcraft customers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or purchased a prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the installation box bundled with one free month access. Internet Game Room players having accessed the game over the last seven days are also counted as customers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or canceled subscriptions, and expired pre-paid cards. Customers in licensees' territories are defined along the same rules.

If you buy multiple game cards, as someone else pointed it, it's still tied to the same individual account, so you still only get counted once. Now, the same individual could set up multiple accounts with different characters, but that's true for any MMOG. They'll be paying double for that. The cards don't expire, but they run in real time, so once activated, you only have that many days to enjoy the game. Then they expire.

People playing in the Internet Game Rooms aren't buying boxes with a free month, either.

It's possible to get double-counted if you logged in via a game room, and then liked the game so much you went out and subscribed or bought a game card. But that would only last for 7 days.

Bruce

Not to be taken at face value

[Sage Gaspar]

One very important thing to note is that the last data point for a ton of the games on his list is June 2005 -- one example being Everquest 2.

The other thing to note is tabulating subscribers. In some of the Asian markets (can't tell you which ones in specific as I just looked this up myself) the Internet Game Rooms are very popular. You go in and buy an account that you then add points to on an hourly basis. Anyone who logs into one of those is counted for seven full days afterward by Blizzard as a paying subscriber. I'm sure there's lots of people who don't spend $15 American monthly on World of Warcraft but are counted as equal subscribers among their monthly-account-paying European and American brethren. Just as a reference it's about $3.73 to buy an account that you can spend points on and it costs a nickel an hour after that for gametime in WoW China, as per a Blizzard press release and Google's money translation calculator.

It's interesting to see what the Asian market means in terms of body count, but it makes me wonder what the relative revenue situations are like.