World of Warcraft Shatters Day-One Sales Records for PC
Posted by malebolgia on 02 December 2004 - 15:54 · 65 comments & 17850 views
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(15 replies)
#1 Posted by rbet on 02 Dec 2004 - 15:56
- good for them, but I am not paying any monthly fee
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#1.1 Posted by ir0nw0lf on 02 Dec 2004 - 16:06
- Not to worry, they won't care or miss people like you who don't think it's right to charge a monthly fee for them to be able to maintain/upgrade their server pools.
They only had to DOUBLE the # of servers the first weekend the game was out. -
#1.3 Posted by i like chips on 02 Dec 2004 - 16:12
QUOTE Not to worry, they won't care or miss people like you who don't think it's right to charge a monthly fee for them to be able to maintain/upgrade their server pools. They only had to DOUBLE the # of servers the first weekend the game was out.
right. calculate for me how much money they make a year from the monthly fees and then subtract that from how much it costs to upkeep the servers. um, no thanks.-
#1.5 Posted by kravex on 02 Dec 2004 - 16:49
- So how come I can pay £40 a year and can play any online xbox game I want, but they want £15 - £16 a month just for their 1 game...
Answer: because their ripping us off! -
#1.6 Posted by Surr3al on 02 Dec 2004 - 16:59
- No, it obviously takes a lot more work to maintain 80 servers, #2 they are still developing the game as you play, new additions are going to be added into the game without having to buy an expansion pack (As much), and lastly all the patches and bug fixes are created which is where some of that money is going as welll.
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#1.7 Posted by AJCrowley Esq on 02 Dec 2004 - 17:26
- Regardless of your opinion of pay for play games, here's some undeniable truth:
I am a busy person, I average maybe 6 hours a month that I have available to play games. Tell me again how it's worth $30 a month for me to play this game?
The point is, by running this kind of pay-for-play scheme, companies are alienating a potentially very large market segment, and limiting themselves to spotty teenages who haven't left their room for 3 months. A much fairer scheme would be to sell "play hours", rather than monthly subscriptions, that way, if I only play the game for 2 hours in a month, I pay for 2 hours. If some no-life loser plays for 200 hours, they get a bill for 200 hours. I can't think of a fairer way to do it.
Irresepective of whether they offered a worthwhile scheme as outlined above, I would never pay for this. If they want gamers to buy their game, the service should be provided for free. If they want gamers to pay a subscription, the game should be freely downloadable. I realize that they give out a certain subscription length with the purchase of the game, but while I'm not certain, I'd guess that this still amounts to more than you'd pay to download the game freely, and pay for that period of play. I'm not saying that they shouldn't offer retail boxed versions, but it should be an option, not mandatory. -
#1.8 Posted by SecretAgentMan on 02 Dec 2004 - 18:33
- Yes, it is a ripoff but companies prey on the clueless (ask Sony) all the time. No online game is worth more than $9.99 a month and even that would be a ripoff price.
Blizzard would be making a lot of money at six or even seven dollars a month. -
#1.9 Posted by beardly on 02 Dec 2004 - 18:46
- Where have you guys been the past 10 years? _EVERY_ MMO out right now is pay per month(Guild Wars being the exception). Were you expecting this to be different somehow?
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#1.10 Posted by devinlamothe on 03 Dec 2004 - 02:19
- After Final Fantasy XI I will never pay for another online game again.
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#1.11 Posted by PimpinWithAaron on 03 Dec 2004 - 03:02
- your right, big ripoff
WoW isnt that big of a deal anyways, its not creative in any way, its just like any other dumbed down RPG, just with the WC license
the creative juices left blizz long time ago and joined other companies
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#1.13 Posted by shao on 03 Dec 2004 - 14:41
- the third most popular non mmorpg game online for pc's is free......
never have to pay to play, or pay to maintain a subscription. enemy territory should be the way we all play games online.. for free, and legally. -
#1.14 Posted by angrybrit on 03 Dec 2004 - 14:44
- @ kravex
Actually you're the one getting ripped off. You're paying 40£/year for something Blizzard and other PC game manufacturers offers for free: single signon for games and chat services. Battle.net and XBL are the same thing.
But here's something you still don't get. XBL games are played on Xbox consoles not owned by Microsoft. Unlike WoW which the game is being played on Blizzard servers and not on our PCs. We pay for access to Blizzard's game servers, you're paying for chat and single signon capabilities (free Battle.Net stuff). -
#1.15 Posted by Dessimat0r on 05 Dec 2004 - 14:25
- Believe it or not, £10 a month IS a rip-off, whether you like it or not. The problem is that the MMORPG market has the strongest barriers to entry (you need to develop a complex game which competes with the other MMORPGs), so they don't get a lot of competition, and therefore do not need to lower prices.
What we have in this market at the moment is an ogilopoly between the main MMORPGs, and World of Warcraft has just jammed straight in there with the giants. If anything, this should drive down prices in the market over the long term.
In fact, the only outcome of this situation is that marginal revenue == marginal cost (i.e. supporting a player per month equals the revenue from that player per month), but it just depends how long it takes to get there.
There is also a risk involved for them with lowering prices, since they will need more servers to support more customers, and their current software may not be able to handle that many customers, also.
You also have situation where there are price-makers already in the market, who have their sights set on nice price targets (i.e. £5, £10, £15). The problem is that they believe £5 is too low, and have not yet 'snapped' to it.
I think you would find that even £2 a month would be adequite, but I've no idea what the break-even diagram would look like, since I don't have the figures.
Remember that every 3 months, it is the equivilent of everyone subscribing buying a new boxed version of the game. Isn't that ridiculous?
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(2 replies)
#2 Posted by beardly on 02 Dec 2004 - 16:00
- I'm one of the people spending way too much time on this game.
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#2.1 Posted by malebolgia on 02 Dec 2004 - 16:20
- I'm with you man, of course Blizzard just happened to release this game 2 weeks before finals.
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#2.2 Posted by Mav Phoenix on 02 Dec 2004 - 19:20
- Same here but it's worth it.
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#3 Posted by altezza on 02 Dec 2004 - 16:03
- I love Blizzard games but hate subscription fee
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(5 replies)
#4 Posted by DivADPArADox on 02 Dec 2004 - 16:07
- Alright I have read reviews of this game, I have seen the screenshots, but I have not played. What exactly makes this game different from any other MMOG out there?
From what I can tell it is selling because it a) has beautiful graphics and b) has the words Warcraft and Blizzard on the front of the box . Am I missing something? -
#4.1 Posted by Grahnman on 02 Dec 2004 - 16:18
- I participated in the U.S. Open Beta and just after getting to level 2, I was hooked. What makes this game different is that it's actually FUN to play. Nothing in this game has ever felt like a chore to me. Well, maybe running back to Thunder Bluffs a couple of times when doing the druid class-quests but the reward is worth it.
This game beats all the previous MMORPGs I've played, like UO, EQ, DAoC and Horizons just to name a few.
Now, can the european final beta hurry up and start allready? -
#4.2 Posted by DivADPArADox on 02 Dec 2004 - 16:32
- I understand a lot of people find it fun (obviously they do or they wouldn't drop all that money on it) but what is it that makes it fun?
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#4.3 Posted by macrosslover on 02 Dec 2004 - 17:55
- most MMORPGs i've see, eventually have you doing nothing but combat if you want to level and the quests and story start thinning out once you level. in this game, i don't feel forced to party up to level, i don't feel like i have to kill monsters for the next 5 hours to get some exp. i can do the quests just fine and not be bother with killing the monsters and still level fine. that's what does it for me, the feeling that i'm not forced to do any one thing to continue to play the game, at least not yet.
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#4.4 Posted by DivADPArADox on 03 Dec 2004 - 15:05
- That was pretty helpful
Is there more openess with the style of play?
Essentially can you be anything other then a instrument of mass death and still be useful and enjoy the game? -
#4.5 Posted by Sage_Override on 05 Dec 2004 - 06:10
- There are normal and pvp servers. That's self-explanatory. Regardless of the sales records for this game, EQ and UO continue to be the dominent MMORPG's out right now. I played UO for 6 years, quit one year ago and am very glad I did.
World of Warcraft offers diversity. Yeah, same leveing treadmill to a degree, but at least it isn't REVOLVED around leveling like f*cking City of Heroes. You can be a merchant or a fighter if you want. It's like a UO 2 reborn into something better. If Origin had followed through on UO 2, WoW is basically what it would look like.
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(1 reply)
#5 Posted by XanDaMan on 02 Dec 2004 - 17:58
- Does noone seem to understand that they have to pay for more than those damn server fee's, which would already be high enough.
Thye have to pay for engineneers to fix things when they go wrong, hwo have to be on standby, permantent staff who are on the game on shifts for syupport queries, and the hwole support staff, and devs who puimp no ccontent into it.
Stop with the mindless idiot comments of, omg check da raw fee, cnt pay dey too much profit.
ffs.
yeah, I kno typos, but i typed this too fast.
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(1 reply)
#6 Posted by alister on 02 Dec 2004 - 18:25
- When you buy the game you get a free period (on month)?? I wonder how many will continue paying after their trial period is up. Most other pay-for-play games don't do very well, the only that did/has is EverCrack I think that if it is a pay-to-play game, they should offer the game as a free download instead of charging for it. I don't see paying $50 for a game only to have to pay $15 a month go be able to play.
Alister -
#6.1 Posted by nubs on 03 Dec 2004 - 19:33
- It's pretty obvious people like Alister don't know what the hell they are talking about. DAOC, UO, Lineage, Lineage 2, CIty of Heroes all did/ do extremely well with subscriptions. This game has been in development for nearly 5 years now and to claim they should allow people to download it for free is a slap in the face and an exercise of verbal stupidity. This game had initial costs of over $10 million and has a full support staff 24/7. They not only have to provide the servers that host players but they also have to pay for the huge amounts of pipeline they need for all the concurrent connections. As someone else stated they have engineers, administrators, game counselors, live events, coordinators, in-house testing staff. The overhead on games like this is huge. I would wager that only $2-3 from the $15 monthly charge is profit.
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(2 replies)
#7 Posted by ripped on 02 Dec 2004 - 18:57
- why do you people complain about other people making money?????? n if it were you, you'd be laughing all the way to the bank...
and to the idiot who said something about how if you took the monthly fee and subtracted the amount of money for the servers should do some homework. the company probably did a breakdown to see how much overhead they would have, and clearly expected 40 servers to be enough (judging on quality, each server would cost, what? $4000 US perhaps? they do not build in house, they purchase, might get good deals, so maybe $2500 a server? so $200,000 for the servers....then maintenance, cooling, rent on the rooms, paying people to work on them and/or administer them...
YEAH RIGHT! THEY MAKING BANK OVER AND OVER! They make a great living, don't get me wrong, but don't make blanket statements when the level of your financial responsibility is college or lower. and where do I get this? i run a small business, and overhead can kill. learn before you speak.
ripped
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#7.1 Posted by i like chips on 02 Dec 2004 - 19:32
- good for you mr. small business man. i repeat what has been said over and over. MMORPGS are complete and utter ripoffs and it's a slap in the face to us gamers. I don't give two ****s about overheads. Blizzard isn't a "small" business. It's a multi-million dollar company and those monthly fees add up to be quite a bit higher than any overhead you can think of. Make a living? wtf are you going on about? If blizzard was out there to "make a living", they wouldn't be in business. It's about making money, not making a living and trust me they're bringing the $$$ with this game.
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#7.2 Posted by gflores on 02 Dec 2004 - 21:48
- They want to make money so they can make better games in the future, as well. If they make games like Starcraft, WC3, D2, and hopefully Starcraft 2 (), then they deserve it, in my opinion.
I think they should make the purchase price of the game like $20 and have the monthly fee at $15. That seems fairer.
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(3 replies)
#8 Posted by ripped on 02 Dec 2004 - 19:01
- oh and the monthly fee comes to 9 million - which, when they get done and everything is paid for, will make them rich (and FUND the next game you want to play), AND THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THAT. they deserve it. they worked hard, those at the top had to put it all together. gah, im so angry at punky kids who think they deserve everything for free, that other people who have money do not deserve more, and those that go out and work their asses off for it shouldn't get it either.
young american values are starting to suck. -
#8.1 Posted by i like chips on 02 Dec 2004 - 19:34
- If blizzad decides to go the route of MMORPGs, count me out. I don't believe in paying for a game and then having to CONTINUE paying them to keep playing. It's a joke.
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#8.2 Posted by ripped on 03 Dec 2004 - 01:55
- it just seems that i like chips wants to rant about how its sooooo unfair for him to pay even more money for something because it's a rip-off...if it is such a rip-off, why are there peeps having so much fun with it?????
if it really were a bad thing, i could see your point. as it is, you're merely flaming something you yourself dislike. -
#8.3 Posted by Sage_Override on 05 Dec 2004 - 06:15
- Ripped, if you bought a piece of furniture and you really, REALLY enjoyed it, would you continually pay for relaxation? Essentially, you are paying Blizzard for relaxation, actions, and emotions towards a false world many people use for escape. They know they can get over on people. I appreciate Blizzards effort with this game and so far its turning out great, but this pay-to-play sh*t is coming from a company who has let it's subsribers use Bnet for free for many years. Sick of the whiney kids? Get off your ass, then, and make a free online game like this and shut them up.
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(3 replies)
#9 Posted by Mav Phoenix on 02 Dec 2004 - 19:49
- It is clear that i like chips doesn't like the idea. Move along then, your loss.
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#9.1 Posted by i like chips on 02 Dec 2004 - 19:57
- eh. how is it my loss? i ain't paying for it heh.
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#9.2 Posted by Solarix on 02 Dec 2004 - 20:57
- if anytyhing Mav your the one at loss, because your paying for it, but i like chips isnt so he looses nothing
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#10 Posted by ThePDW on 02 Dec 2004 - 20:24
- In other news: The tech industry grinds to a halt as millions of nerds stay home from work so they can play WoW.
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#11 Posted by Solarix on 02 Dec 2004 - 20:55
- game shoulda died long time ago, doenst interest me like wc2 used to
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(3 replies)
#12 Posted by artex on 02 Dec 2004 - 21:09
- Whine whine, so you're paying 14.99 a month to play a game. I spend more than that month on my daily caffeine fix (lots more). Its an enjoyable game, and even though the servers have been getting rammed like no other, its quite stable. If you dont like spending pocket change a month for enjoyment, then more power too you.
Obviously they're making money, but I dont its as much as everyone thinks. -
#12.1 Posted by Dirtie on 03 Dec 2004 - 03:34
- Pocket change? Wow, this is coming from Mr. Latte over here who has obviously had ****loads of money since the day he was born. NEWSFLASH: Some of us are a little less fortunate (And some of us ****ing hate arrogant Americans).
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#12.2 Posted by Fanon on 03 Dec 2004 - 15:05
- And some of us hate little whiners that can better themselves but choose not to and whine about it. Get a job. If you've got one, go to school to get a better one. Stop whining about how less fortunate you are and do something about it. You have no one to blame but yourself.
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#12.3 Posted by Dirtie on 05 Dec 2004 - 06:41
- Like I said. Some of us are less fortunate. Yes I have a good education, I was even top of my intermediate school (I guess you guys would call it junior high), yet jobs are still hard to come by. Believe me, I am looking as hard as I possibly can (also applying for a course) so don't sit there and point the finger and accuse me of laziness.
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(1 reply)
#13 Posted by dyreryft on 02 Dec 2004 - 21:23
- If anything you should see the $15 as rental of a server for a month.
You have to pay rental of a phone line, you pay monthly electricity fees, banks charge you monthly fees. Web hosting companies charge you monthly fees.
If you can see yourself playing the game for an extended period, buy a different plan, ie 6 months, 12 months, and save yourself some money.
Blizzard are charging you for use of there servers.
By the way, I work full time and play this when I can, so I don't sit around playing it constantly none stop. I don't see the problem with paying the $15 monthly fee, why, because its a service that I'm paying for, just like I pay for my monthly TV service, and my monthly phone bill service, and my motnhly internet service, they are all a service.
So quit ya winging about not liking about having to pay $15 bucks, it isn't much, its one of the cheapest services I've ever payed for.
If anything you could just not play the game, I'm sure Blizzard aren't really gunna miss you.
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#14 Posted by FearMeAll on 03 Dec 2004 - 01:06
- I've never liked these type of games until WoW. Never. I loved the beta and bought the game and paid for 6 months in advance. I am not a student. I work my ass off doing commercial roofing and love a diversion when I get home. I'm having a lot of fun with this game.
I've put more hours into this game so far than I've ever put into any game.
I understand why others are pissed to have to pay..but I think this one may take off even after the month trial period.
We shall see.
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#15 Posted by altermind on 03 Dec 2004 - 02:42
- it's a little expensive..... however.. I will pay it once I get the cash
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(1 reply)
#16 Posted by FightingChance on 03 Dec 2004 - 03:57
- As soon as subscription based games allow me to pay only for the 4 hours a week I'd play them, I'll sign right up.
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#17 Posted by denisvs on 03 Dec 2004 - 17:12
- For those of you that think $15 a month for a good game is too much think about other costs you incure through out the month:
Movies: $15 will buy you 1 movie ticket + pop corn + drinks. Keep in mind movies only last on average 90 minutes. So 90 min of entertainment vs unlimited per month: clearly the later has a greater value. Secondly, if you coming with your gf, the costs of going to a movie doubles at least.
Movie Rentals/Pay per views: for $15 you can order/rent 3-5 dvd's
Cell Phones: $20-30 is the minimum monthly fee with about 200 min. included. If you add options like unlimited weekends and nights + call display + voice mail - you end up paying $40-60 a month for a phone.
Cable TV/High Speed Internet - 60-100 a month
Coffee - assume you buy coffee/tea every day 5 days a weak and the costs is $1 per cup - 1*5*4 = $20 on coffee per month (if you work in the office or go to university, 90% of you spend more)
Fast Food - $15 is only TWO meals at Mc.Donald's
Final notes:
- Blizzard has done its homework, and its all about marketing. They have tons of information about the potential buyers of this game including thier income and costs. It turned out that for them $15 is NOT a big deal. - 240000 unit sales is the proof.
- For those that tried to figure how much Blizz is making right now after substracting server maintence costs. One thing you forgot to account for is the initial start-up/developement costs. My guess is that it is somewhere between $5-15M. However, no matter how high their costs with this game maybe, I'm sure that will make some good cash out of it, and the best part is that they DESERVE it, because they've done a wonderful job. The game is great! And, somebody here was right $15 IS POCKET CHANGE! You are just pissed off that somebody IS making money, while YOU DON'T.
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#18 Posted by Zelpus on 03 Dec 2004 - 17:23
- I wonder how long before open WoW starts up....
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#19 Posted by ynohtna on 03 Dec 2004 - 17:36
- WOW converted me. I used to say I'll never pay per month for a game. I've tried betas of pay per month games like lineage 2 and city of heroes. WOW is different somehow that I'm having a lot of fun playing it. What makes it fun? Well for me at least, it doesn't make me do menial repetitive tasks.
In the end, I'll probably quit playing in about 3/4 months time. Battlefield 2 should be out by then!
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#20 Posted by Ikshaar on 03 Dec 2004 - 18:59
- First MMORPG too ... but used to Blizzard games.
I am in love. I take gryphon flight just to enjoy the scenery ... the 50 copper for IronForge-Stormwind flight is a bargain...
Even playing just one hour a day (hard not to), it's 30 hours of fun for $15... except reading a book, I don't think there is any better ratio "money/time of fun". But I am not trying to convince the crying ones. They probably don't know how to role-play enough so the game is an absolute pleasure... or just cannot afford it and are pissed off - in that case, I understand their frustration.
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#21 Posted by SimplyPotatoes on 03 Dec 2004 - 20:56
- It seems like the only thing that isn't increasing in price is the cost of a game..below 50$...this has been a trend for years and years despite inflation or rising costs to developing, people don't want to hear about this though. soon games are going to rise above the special price cieling though. its really hurting them, especially as piracy is becomming more widespread. the 50$ is not going as far.
Last edited by 34433 on 03 Dec 2004 - 21:25
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(2 replies)
#22 Posted by demorgoron on 03 Dec 2004 - 21:25
- cheap-ass people
its just like 50 cents a days
and think of all the money you will save if you dont buy another game in 2 years -
#22.1 Posted by Creelman on 04 Dec 2004 - 01:51
- Yeah, exactly. However, I still think that $10 a month would be a more appropriate fee... but that's just one person's opinion.
My idea:
Game: $50, comes with 2 months.
Subscription: $10 a month.
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#23 Posted by ianhale on 05 Dec 2004 - 23:23
- i'd appreciate if your didnt flame me....but
you need to do the maths....
240,000 people bought the game in ONE day thats 240,000*$50 = $12,000,000
so the game cost $10,000,000? lol. and we still got more sales to come...
200,000 sign up online, if we assume half of those continue to pay...
100,000*$15 = $1,500,000
lol....all i can say is respect to whoever thought this up! if you got the money and enjoy the game, then play! if you aint got the money then dont! were all happy either way.
p.s. i aint even played this yet, try not to tear into me
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#24 Posted by Jooely on 06 Dec 2004 - 13:31
- Just to add, the level cap has ALREADY been reached by a player in WoW.
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#25 Posted by alister on 06 Dec 2004 - 15:43
- I will pass on the pay-to-play. There are lots of other good games out there to play the don't require a monthly fee: Unreal 2004, Half-Life 2, .....
Alister
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#26 Posted by Hills420 on 10 Dec 2004 - 23:40
- I may have to pick this up...
The game also broke peak concurrency and account creation records for a MMORPG. Over 200,000 players created World of Warcraft accounts, and by 5:00 p.m. PST, over 100,000 were playing the game concurrently--making the game the fastest-growing MMORPG in history. Due to large number of users, Blizzard doubled the number of servers from 40 to 80, causing slight downtimes that have been mostly resolved.