So a press release went out announcing a 7 day trial for Lord of the Rings Online:Shadows of Angmar. I sure wish there was one of those before I bought the box 
But anyway….I found this quote of the press release particularly interesting:
Since its launch in April, LOTRO has quickly become the second largest MMORPG with an estimated 4 million characters calling Middle-earth their home. The game continues to grow with two massive updates that have increased the world by over 20%:
First of all – 4 million characters. I’m assuming they’re not talking about unique subscribers, they’re referring to characters. I’m not sure what that might put the subscriber numbers at, but I was guessing under 1 million since there hasn’t been a press release announcing that they’ve reached the 1 million mark.
So, that brings us to my second point. Really the second largest MMORPG? How about Lineage and Lineage 2? Or Runescape? If we’re talking in sheer character numbers, I think we would have to look at games like Gaia Online, or Maple Story even. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t know if there is 100% accuracy in that statement.
Anyway, enjoy the trial if you’re looking for a game to play. =)
Tami Baribeau is the Associate Producer for Metaplace, Inc, currently working on Island Life. She is also the Lead Editor of feminist gaming blog The Border House, and the National Facebook Games Examiner for Examiner.com. She can be reached on Twitter or by email.
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Well just by reading the press release it’s obvious that wordage can be used in a multitude of ways and can be interpreted in just as many. Obviously they don’t have 4 million players and obviously they aren’t the 2nd largest MMO. They most likely mean 400,000 accounts and perhaps they are referring to MMO’s that are pay to play in North America only.
The trial is a good idea though and I’m glad they’re finally doing one. I’m currently working on my 3rd level 50 character in LOTRO and the game is a great placeholder MMO until Warhammer Online.
For character numbers, Guild Wars would likely be larger than LoTRO as well, since they passed 4 million sold units according to a recent press release and players probably have created at least one character per Guild Wars package they have bought.
Which also shows a different way of presenting the numbers…
I think it is also interesting to see that trials nowadays are only 7 days, perhaps 10-14 days in some cases. Gone is the time where the trial was for a complete month. 7 days is enough a bit into the lowbie areas, which are mostly fine in many of the current MMOGs. And it is not enough time for people to get bored with the game, if they like it at all and it is reasonably good.
There is more competition nowadays, so only give enough time to potentially get you hooked, but not more.
More power to them. I could never get into LoTRO, but if they are doing as good as they say they are then hey hey, it’s good for all of us as well. But I agree their statement is a little exaggerated
“There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics.”
- Autobiography of Mark Twain
I wonder which MMO is the most profitable? Having 4 million char. would be cool but if you are losing money it wouldn’t bode well for your subcribers.
400.000 subscribers sounds about right and that is very good for the north american market, short of wow I would guess this is the 2nd biggest pay to play mmo out there for the western world, but if you compare it to world wide subscription numbers, north american has nothing on the bigger asian markets …
Ethic @ Kill Ten Rats (http://www.killtenrats.com/?p=1198) had a good catch on that press release – at the end of it is says:
>Comparison data includes subscription-based MMORPG titles developed in North America based
>on reported data.
So just need to filter out all MMORPGs that
* are not developed in North America
* are not subscription-based
* does not report number of characters as a measurement
and see what is left. And among all of those, LoTRO will be the second largest!
just as I thought ….
I agree with CUppy that I wish they had a free trial before I bought the box
*snickers* I mean I don’t doubt their “character” count or their worl increase, but 2ND LARGEST MMORPG??
For some reason we just love sub numbers, I admit to being suckered in by it all too often, but really the real test of a game is time and quality content expansion, anyways you knew that. All too often in especially western media they ignore typically eastern games i.e. Lineage and focus on what they know. Also it really seems like mainstream media cannot solidly define an MMORPG, as they consistently ignore web based games and niche titles, and focus on the top tier titles like the EQs and WoWs, it is really too bad as that leaves the mainstream audience with such a narrow view of the genre, but alas that is how it is right now. Also for the sake of speculation am going to say LOTRO has somewhere around 600k subs based on absolutely no investigation or research. =)
Useless information.
For a comparison FFXI had 1.7M *active* characters when it was at 450k *active* confirmed subs. And this is a quite special case as alts in FFXI cost $1 each.
LOTRO seems to count ALL characters created since launch and you don’t have to pay for alts.
I’d give LOTRO at about 400k. Or less (due to canceled accounts and I’m quite skeptical about its retention).
On the forums I read the interest and positiveness is dying at a fast speed.
Don’t forget LOTRO had a million or so in free beta — I’m sure they are counting every single one of those despite many of them dropping off.
That said, I really like Lotro so far. Wish them well.
I had a 6 month subscription… I cancelled it with 100+ days left remaining on the subscription, 2 level 50 characters, and enough “end game” experience to see the game had no more to offer me.
Unfortunately for anyone with any gaming ambition (i.e. high end gaming, meaningful PvP etc) – LOTRO falls far short, and always will. Why? Because they have to stick to lore, and lorenazi’s are generally casual gamers who prefer sitting in the Prancing Pony talking about their over-blown adventures killing a group of level 6 wolves.
Reading that you may think that I’m a hardcore end-gamer – unfortunately that’s not true – while I enjoy that kind of gaming, I don’t have the time for it any more, so I reach level cap as quickly as I can in order to dig in at whatever end-game activities don’t require 4 hours solid play. LOTRO didn’t account for either.
Anyways; This was meant to be about PR spin…. Spinning numbers will ALWAYS bite you in the arse, and it seems to have happened. They should have been honest, publishing numbers like this only brings one question… “Why?” – I’ll leave the answer to everyone’s imagination, I believe we know.
Interesting factoid. I’m holding the 7 day free trial disc for LotRO that was distributed at Austin GDC this week. On the cardboard cover for the disc it says:
“Millions of Players… One Game to Rule Them All”
I’m not sure if the release box says the same thing, but this free trail does say that. And that ‘implies’ that there are multi-millions of players (read: two) that have created accounts. BS? Truth? Drunk marketing people? Unknown. But I thought you might find that interesting.
This is absolute crap. LOTRO is lucky to have 300,000 ACTIVE SUBSCRIBERS (what really counts)… and is going to lose a lot when Warhammer Online comes out. WoW is number one (subscription wise) with about 6 million active accounts, followed by that Korean game Lineage 1 and 2 (about 1 million between the two version), and Final Fantasy online with about 400,000.
I will admit that my stats are probably about 7-8 months old, but I’d imagine they’re close to factual. LOTRO sure as hell doesn’t have 4 million subscribers lol.