WAR Online - Roper Defends Sub Numbers

Bill Roper airs his view on MMO subscription numbers.

"It's so funny, I hear half the people are saying, 'Oh gosh, Warhammer looks like it isn't doing so great,' because they said they had 300,000 subscribers," he said, adding: "Those are not bad numbers."
Speaking to MTV, Roper explained how comparing every MMO to World of Warcraft was an error, and that Blizzard's title was more of an "aberration" than a standard.
"I think people look at it and go, 'Well, WoW has got 11 million and your game only has 300,000, your game must not be doing good'," Roper said. "You have to throw the aberration out."
He continued: "…you can have a few hundred thousand subscribers, do great, keep the company alive, grow it over time, and keep it moving."
"I know many games out there that would love to have 300,000 subscribers," he said, explaining that Mythic could still grow its subscriber base when it launches in new territories. "[Warhammer has] not launched everywhere either. I don't think they're in Asia yet. There's a lot of room to still be able to grow their numbers."

More information.

Bill Roper giving advice. Redefines irony. Warhammer is global already. See the link below.

http://eastore.ea.com/store/eajapan/…00/ccRef.en_US

It's been in Asia since it first came out or I wouldn't of been playing it? The asian servers were up and running since day one.

Bill Roper redefines irony? People really only care about what somebody did 15 minutes ago. How many people helped develop a whole PC genre? Diablo wasn't just some fluke thing, but whatever, everyone is only interested in what that person did five seconds ago, not what he has accomplished.

As for the game itself, I have come to the conclusion I hate MMOs. If I think a Warhammer based MMO is boring, then there is no way I'll like any MMO.

On a sidenote: What the hell is so appealing about MMOs? The creatures just sit there and the combat is almost automatic. It boggles the mind why people think that cardboard orcs that keep reappearing every 5 seconds is fun.

Why do I bother.

It is called humility. Roper's experience with Failgate did not humble him.

Like I said, what did you do 15 minutes ago? That's all anyone cares about.

Good use of fail and gate to make failgate. I love it when people put fail into a word. It makes them sound so witty.

Diablo, while it did define a genre, was not a complex (design intensive) game. How many developers have successfully rested their laurels on one game?

Besides, is it really surprising that Roper would have an axe to grind with Blizzard (they refused his demand of an employment contract and he resigned over it).

Any bets to how craptacular Champions Online will be?

Originally Posted by skavenhorde
What the hell is so appealing about MMOs? The creatures just sit there and the combat is almost automatic. It boggles the mind why people think that cardboard orcs that keep reappearing every 5 seconds is fun.

I have a love/hate relationship with MMOs. When I hate them, it is because of things like you mention, getting bored at level cap (end game options not enough, sick of running Naxx, etc.). When I love them it is because I am enjoying making my character better, exploring the world, PvPing, etc.

I never thought I would be defending Bill Roper, but fine what about Warcraft, Starcraft, Basically anything Blizzard did that helped make it a HUGE success pre-WOW. And now Hellgate (I liked that damn game)multiplayer sucked but it was decent for what it was. Not great but decent.

Why does it matter if a game is complex? It, like you said, "defined a genre." In my books that adds some weight to his opinion.

I have no idea about Champions Online. I'm done with MMOs. IMO, it's insane why people think they are fun. Rember now, that is just my opinion. It's not like I did anything worth while in the PC game market or created a whole genre

Diablo, while it did define a genre, was not a complex (design intensive) game. How many developers have successfully rested their laurels on one game?

Point 1) Uh… what exactly do you mean Diablo wasn't complex or "design-intensive"? That sounds like something you just made up that has no basis in any legitimate quanitifcation of resources allocated to the game design process. But let me know if I'm wrong.

Point 2) Despite only two (2) primary entries released so far, the Diablo franchise is STILL one of the most successful in gaming history, in terms of sales, in terms of players playing for years, in terms of online popularity (particularly in its heyday), and in terms of both ambition and awesomeness. And as you've said, there's that whole genre-defining aspect. I think the people who designed Diablo can be forgiven for keeping it on their resumes.

He is right.

300k, thats more then 3 million bucks in revenue each month, and more subscribers then almost any other "real" MMO has (with one great exception).

Hell, there are financially sustainable AAA-MMOs with less then 100k subscribers.

So 300k is pretty good. And it will definitely grow. I'm thinking of going back to it, too. Only problem I had was the empty server I was one, but I moved my character right before quitting. And now that I've read over and over how crappy this game is on empty servers, and how awesome if they're not empty, well, I'm considering coming back.

I played it when it first came out and either the servers were empty or there was too much lag on the ones that weren't(my connection sucked). But I've upgraded my connection. This isn't the first time I heard that it was a lot of fun with a lot of people on it. Maybe I'll give it one more try(after Drakensang) Maybe this time I'll be able to kill one of those hidden bosses this time. Before there was hardly anyone around to even scratch them.

What I really don't like about WAR is the DPS thing. I don't even have to click a mouse button or anything. It does it for me automatically and there isn't really any customization. You just go up in levels until you reach a certain level (I think it was 10th) Then you finally get to customize your character a little. Is this normal in a MMO?

300k people is definatly not that bad. I remember reading that Sierra's/Codemaster's/Norseman Games's The Realm is still up and running. There is no way they even have close to that many people and it is still alive. I know that they're entirely different kinds of mmo, but for some reason when I read that article I couldn't help but think that The Realm would kill for those kinds of numbers.