The Ten Most Profitable MMOGs
- Thread starter Keane Ng
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Man, Runescape isn't just for the 13-and-under crowd. It appeals to a pretty wide audience. (Which is why it's 3rd on the list, I guess.)
Of course, like Halo, it seems to attract a certain amount of gamer spite. Since the shift in management, though, they claim they're making an effort to escape the image of pandering to kids. How successful they'll be, we have yet to see.
I don't play it anymore, but I don't think it deserves the hate it seems to attract, either. Most people probably don't realize just how good the writing for some of the quests in that game is. But, it's probably the graphics moguls at work again, slandering the poor Java-based little characters.
Sidenote: In Runescape, too, there are evil penguin overlords: The KGP.
Of course, like Halo, it seems to attract a certain amount of gamer spite. Since the shift in management, though, they claim they're making an effort to escape the image of pandering to kids. How successful they'll be, we have yet to see.
I don't play it anymore, but I don't think it deserves the hate it seems to attract, either. Most people probably don't realize just how good the writing for some of the quests in that game is. But, it's probably the graphics moguls at work again, slandering the poor Java-based little characters.
Sidenote: In Runescape, too, there are evil penguin overlords: The KGP.
I don't even know if there are more than 10 MMOs so maybe making the list isn't really an achievement 
Well I am 19 and I still enjoy the game, I don't know why but I just do. It's just like how people enjoy the shovelware that the wii comes out with.Zeeky_Santos said:
Hey, I recognize that picture! It's near the bank in Al-Kharid in Runescape!Keane Ng said:The Ten Most Profitable MMOGs
No big surprise: World of Warcraft takes the top spot. As for some of the other entries on this list, you may have never even heard of them. That is, unless you're six years old.
According to a report [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7960785.stm] by analysts Screen Digest, MMOGs are still big money, and World of Warcraft is sitting at the top of the cash pile. In 2008, the MMOG market in Europe and North America grew by 22% and is estimated to keep on keeping on as gamers attempt to satisfy their unquenchable desire for phat lewts and tedious grinding.
While WoW's dominance is no surprise here, Screen Digest's findings for the rest of the MMOG market revealed a number of surprising results. When gauging the most popular MMOGs, the analysts used revenue made from subscription fees as opposed to the commonly cited player/subscriber population numbers. So, even though most of us would imagine games like EverQuest II and Age of Conan as virtual ghost towns, apparently they're still turning enough of a profit to make it into the top ten most money making MMOGs.
Sitting just behind WoW at second place is Club Penguin [http://www.clubpenguin.com/], a Disney-owned kid-oriented MMOG where users create avatars that are - you guessed it - penguins and play all sorts of fun minigames in a Flash-built virtual world. In third place behind Club Penguin is another game built for the PG-13-and-under crowd, RuneScape. Both Club Penguin and RuneScape offers paid premium accounts in addition to free basic accounts, evidently an extremely profitable business model. Guess lots of kids really want to dress up their penguins in silly hats and are able to convince their parents to fork over the Visa cards.
In the mid-tier of profitability are Eve Online, Final Fantasy XI, The Lord of the Rings Online and Dofus [http://www.dofus.com/en/], which is apparently all the rage in France. Rounding out the bottom of the list are the aforementioned Age of Conan, City of Heroes and EverQuest II. Warhammer Online didn't make the list as it was released too late to be included in the study.
[Via Rock, Paper, Shotgun [http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/03/24/goldfarmers-of-the-world-unite-the-most-profitable-mmos/]]
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