Bob Avellini

Damn it ... I'm still hooked (lv 52 pally, 32 rogue, 21 warrior). Although I'm STILL waiting for that Atari announcement on BG3 :-P Until then or NWN2, I see no reason to quit yet and I've been playing since early Dec.

I haven't found it to be too much a grind and I have a 47 lv Paladin now. Although I admit my frame of reference for grinding is UO and EQ, which rate terrible compared to WoW. I also have to admit that I do enjoy single player RGPs much more, but WoW is the closest MMORGP I've experienced to capturing the single player fun within an on-line game. I've pretty much solo'd all the way up to 47th, joining an occasional group to do a higher level instance run. I'm pretty much hooked on it, esp since the single player RPG market has nothing to offer me right now (not a Star Wars fan in the slightest, sorry Obsidian). The largest detractor ... all the 3l1t3 wankers that hover over the MMORPG games and WoW is no different, though my server is not as bad as one of the PvP servers.

It must be great to make up a bunch of lies and call them facts. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> WoW is the number one mmorpg on the north american market (not world wide, Lineage2 holds that honor). WoW has between (depending on whose numbers you believe) 550k to 750k subscriptions. 550k puts it in EQ1 range, 750k puts it slightly over eq1 range. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Slight correction those numbers, according to one of those MMORPG subscription sites (http://www.mmogchart.com/), EQI has never had even close to 550K subscribers, it peaked at just over 450k almost 2 years ago. It also mentions that its data for WoW and EQ2 is incomplete. Last statement from Blizzard is that continued interest has been so high, they've had to suspend shipment of the product in order for hardware to catch up. Of course none of this relates to whether it's a crappy game or not. Still interested in seeing actual numbers regarding a subsciption drop off. Maybe I'm just a tard, but I cannot find them on the net. I'll just add too, that my interest in seeing WoW succeed on a massive scale, more than its predecessors UO/EQ, is that it may translate into other "quality" deveolopers throwing their hat into the ring. A massive success for Blizzard may translate into better choices on the MMORPG front for gamers.

The bleeding has already started for Blizzard in regards to WOW (as was predicted by long time players who saw the many faults WOW had in beta). And even the inital sales dont even come close to EQ1 levels or Asian market levels. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Can you post those numbers then or at least a link? BTW, nothing compares to the Asian MMORPG numbers ... not even close to the 4 million subscribers Lineage has. From what I can see, EQ's peak usage was less than 500,000, whereas WoW sold 600,000 in less than a month. http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/lineage-ii-the-ch...e/502157p1.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lineage_(game)

BGII Half Life 2 Medal of Honor: Allied Assault NWN ToEE Vampire the Masquerade - Bloodlines World of Warcraft

I never really thought too much about the profit aspect, but just to put it in perspective: WoW sold 240,000 copies in 24 hours (http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/569/569851p1.html), if just those users stay on for 1 month @ $15 that's 3.6 million per/month. I work for a company which creates online courses for various trades. We have now 82 servers in an offsite datacenter running all the online content we have. Our yearly cost is just under 1.1 million, plus salaries and such to run those courses. That's a ton of cash per month to be hauling in ... makes that $15 I'm shelling out p/month seem a bit less resonable. I would love to see those internal numbers for Blizzard. I know they started with 40 servers and expanded to over 80 now, but they still have to making a pretty decent profit on all this.

Completely understand, esp. when you shell out 50 bucks for the software. I wish these companies would just provide a free download of the core program, then charge the monthly fee. If it wasn't for the lack of interesting RPG titles out there, I probably never would have gotten sucked in again .... DOH!

Zenslinger's pretty much on about the PvP not so good right now. The PvE is the best I've seen to date in an MMORPG. Although I've stated that I'm not much of a PvPer, the enhancements Blizzard are looking to add do seem interesting: http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/pvp/battlegrounds.html I never quite put the "job" feel and playing an MMORPG together at the time, but now that I think about it, it does remind me of the old UO days quite a bit. Have yet to experience it WoW, but then again its only been a few weeks.

That's the only issue I have right now as it's $15, first month is free. Although I'm addicted as much as I was to BGII, I'll have to see how long I'll sitck with it. My first pass with UO lasted just over a year. But when I went back to it, as well as my brief stint with EQ, I only lasted a wee bit longer than a month. Both of those got fairly repetative fairly quickly. So far WoW seems like it might hold my interest for at least a few months. BTW, the coolest thing so far is hopping on a gryphon ride, flying over the countryside as you watch all the action below. Well that, and seeing a bunch of dwarves with guns.

Having only logged time in UO, EQ and now WoW, I would definitely say without doubt it's WoW. Although I never really clicked with Blizzard's other titles, they've hit upon something with WoW. It captures more of a single player RPG flavor with the way its questing system is laid out. Yet when I want to group up, it's a blast as well. Much much better than UO in that respect, esp. since I'm none too keen on PvP. If anyone's on the Feathermoon realm, look up a dwarf paladin named Glenfiddich.