Warhammer Online Players Returning To World Of Warcraft

[Andy Chalk]

Warhammer Online Players Returning To World Of Warcraft

Blizzard admits that it saw a "reduction of use" in Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning [http://www.worldofwarcraft.com] launched, but claims that the majority of people who switched games have already come back.

Age of Conan [http://www.blizzard.com] and each time an MMO has come out we've seen some reduction of use," he said. "The good news is that we've seen a significant number of people, well over half, that cited Warhammer as their reason for leaving - they've already returned."

Sams said he wasn't surprised that Warhammer Online has run into various snags since it launched, although he clarified that he didn't see it as a failing of Mythic, which he described as "a very good company," but rather the result of the inherent difficulties of creating and running an MMOG. "We respect those guys over there a lot and certainly wish them well to succeed but having registration troubles, having server troubles, these are things that come with the territory when you're talking about managing a game as big as World of Warcraft or Warhammer or anything like that," he said. "So, it's not a surprise because it is really difficult."

But he added that Mythic could probably weather the early storms of the Warhammer Online release and ultimately become a major MMOG success story. "I think Warhammer is best positioned to succeed out of the various products that have come out thus far since World of Warcraft has come out," Sams said. "It seems to be a good game, certainly a great company, Mythic and Mark [Jacobs] over there and his team, they're very, very talented."


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[Melaisis]

I guess this is the age of reckon-

Oh, I give up!

But this was predictable. If the community forums are anything to go by, 90% of MMO players are impatient, perfectionist arseholes. Furthermore, many failed to realise that the two are completely different games: Sure, most of the WAR interface and mechanics are copy-and-pastes from WoW, but the aim is different at the end and bred-for-PvE-and-hxc-gaming WoW fans will not like that.

EDIT: Looks like WoW is still a force to be reckoned with!

 

[Amnestic]

But he added that Mythic could probably weather the early storms of the Warhammer Online release and ultimately become a major MMOG success story.

I hope so, it'd give both companies competition with each other which makes them strive to improve on their game and make it into a better product.

Still, not terribly surprised by this.

 

[Retodon8]

"The good news is that we've seen a significant number of people, well over half, that cited Warhammer as their reason for leaving - they've already returned."

Is there some kind of poll to fill in when you register, or stop playing, one giving an accurate representation of all the players?
It's not that I don't believe them, because it sounds very believable, but I'm just curious how they'd know.

 

[TOGSolid]

In before the WoW fanboys start WAR bashing.

It's not surprising news really. When AOC came out I stopped playing eve for a bit to go run around AOC, decided it sucked, and went right back to my Autobeat Airbus in Eve Online. Of course WoW players are going to go run off and check out the new kid on the block for a bit. Then they realize "yanno what, I prefer my more PVE-centric game" and go back to their familiar stomping grounds.

"The good news is that we've seen a significant number of people, well over half, that cited Warhammer as their reason for leaving - they've already returned."

Is there some kind of poll to fill in when you register, or stop playing, one giving an accurate representation of all the players?
It's not that I don't believe them, because it sounds very believable, but I'm just curious how they'd know.

I'm willing to bet it's based on account reactivations from people who had suspended their subscriptions listing WAR as the reason.

 

[Mythnomer]

There is a survey they ask you to fill out when canceling your subscription, but like a lot of surveys most people don't bother, and if you just let your subscription lapse past the pay date you don't even see it. Then you consider the fact that Warhammer wasn't even an option on the survey up until a short while ago. Add to that it's only one subset of a vast multitude of reasons you can give for leaving the game, if you give any, and you can see that he is just cherry picking statistics from a Blizzard survey that makes Blizzard look good. Go figure.

Too bad the interviewer didn't ask for actual numbers, though he probably wouldn't have given them since the sample size would have been so small it would have made him look foolish.

They did the same thing with Age of Conan and their more than 40% came back "statistics".

I canceled my WoW account for the 3rd and final time months ago, the first two times I didn't give a reason, the last I picked "the game is boring" or something along those lines.

These kinds of PR announcements they have after every new MMO comes out where they spin their so called "statistics" to make it sound like lots of people tried the new game then went right back to WoW really shows you how insecure they are about losing subscribers to the latest competitor to hit the MMO market.

If they'd spend more time putting more "fun" in the game instead of doing celebrity commercials and PR interviews like this one they wouldn't have to worry about a portion of their player base jumping ship every time a new MMO comes out.

 

[TomNook]

Looks like WoW is still a force to be reckoned with!

Perhaps Mythic shouldn't have reckoned in the age of Blizzard.

 

[Amnestic]

"The good news is that we've seen a significant number of people, well over half, that cited Warhammer as their reason for leaving - they've already returned."

Is there some kind of poll to fill in when you register, or stop playing, one giving an accurate representation of all the players?
It's not that I don't believe them, because it sounds very believable, but I'm just curious how they'd know.

When you freeze/deactivate your account, I believe they give you an (optional?) box for you to state your reason for leaving, probably in case of something like this. Then they just mark that account as "Left for WAR/EVE/Whatever" and if it gets reactivated they get to say that they got their player back. Doesn't take into account someone who deactivated WoW, got WAR, then reactivated WoW and plays both, but hey, no system is perfect.

 

[TsunamiWombat]

I'd like to applaud Blizzard for being so classy about this. Anyone else could've easily said "lolwtf n00b u thought u could take teh champ!?". Instead they go out of their way to compliment the other game and try to quell doomsaying. Thats a class act, right there.

 

[John Funk]

When you freeze/deactivate your account, I believe they give you an (optional?) box for you to state your reason for leaving, probably in case of something like this. Then they just mark that account as "Left for WAR/EVE/Whatever" and if it gets reactivated they get to say that they got their player back. Doesn't take into account someone who deactivated WoW, got WAR, then reactivated WoW and plays both, but hey, no system is perfect.

I think that's probably a sizable portion of them, which would make both what Sams said here and the announcement that WAR reached 750k not contradict each other. A person can play more than one MMO at once, after all

 

[wiredk]

I'm willing to bet that these reactivations are just there to check out the new patch, see the new grind, and then g back towhere they came. the 5 WoW players who came back basicly did that. A waste of 15 dollars, but Blizzard will claim a victory no matter what. Hence why I havnt re-activated MY account.

 

[Lt. Sera]

It'll be interesting to see how well Warhammer is doing after the first free month is up and then again after WotLK launch. If they survive both, they're home free.

 

[Pyro Paul]

Sure, most of the WAR interface and mechanics are copy-and-pastes from WoW, but the aim is different at the end and bred-for-PvE-and-hxc-gaming WoW fans will not like that.

to be fair... no it isn't.

WoW copy-n-paste'd a lot of its mechanics from the Mythic MMO Dark age of Camelot, which is where a large majority of the WAR mechanics come from as well.

however, then again, it is also hard to say that any game is copy/pasting from any other game because even if you build the engine from the ground up, you will end up making something which is compareable to Their engine. it is like cars, a majority of a single car is identical to every other car which share the class, only a few things make it unique and diffrent.

 

[Joeshie]

I don't know why everyone is so obsessed with finding a WoW killer. If it comes it comes, if it doesn't it doesn't. It's not like you can't have a successful MMO without the numbers that WoW has.

I'm playing Warhammer at the moment and loving it with no intentions of ever going back to WoW.

 

[Littaly]

But this was predictable. If the community forums are anything to go by, 90% of MMO players are impatient, perfectionist arseholes.

This, only put in a less harsh way.

 

[seule]

I don't know why everyone is so obsessed with finding a WoW killer. If it comes it comes, if it doesn't it doesn't. It's not like you can't have a successful MMO without the numbers that WoW has.

I'm playing Warhammer at the moment and loving it with no intentions of ever going back to WoW.

Amen to this. There will always be a small but vocal populace of people who have to yell "zomg my game is better than yours." But if you enjoy playing the game you're playing, who cares which game is better, long as everyone is having fun.

 

[SonofSeth]

I don't know why everyone is so obsessed with finding a WoW killer. If it comes it comes, if it doesn't it doesn't. It's not like you can't have a successful MMO without the numbers that WoW has.

I'm playing Warhammer at the moment and loving it with no intentions of ever going back to WoW.

Amen to this. There will always be a small but vocal populace of people who have to yell "zomg my game is better than yours." But if you enjoy playing the game you're playing, who cares which game is better, long as everyone is having fun.

Where's the fun in that? The problem is when you take such comments to heart and not just discard them as fan fights.

 

[DerGermanGuy]

Ok, I had a try on WAR. But the proble is I'd spent too much time in WoW so I missed some parts of it. Plus I am not really in that PvP (RvR) thing. Now I'am back at WoW (duh...)

 

[John Funk]

I don't know why everyone is so obsessed with finding a WoW killer. If it comes it comes, if it doesn't it doesn't. It's not like you can't have a successful MMO without the numbers that WoW has.

I'm playing Warhammer at the moment and loving it with no intentions of ever going back to WoW.

This, pretty much. What's funny is that Mythic wasn't trying to make a WoW killer, and Blizzard isn't trying to crush Mythic. The fans have so much more contempt for each other than the studios do.

 

[Cymrych]

In all honesty, while there are some server issues in WAR, it is nowhere near as bad as what WoW was when it launched