Higher barrier to entry? was RE: [MUD-Dev] NEWS: Blizzard Entertainment announces World of Warcraft

[Kylotan]

From: Koster, Raph <rkoster at verant.com>

> Sort of reminds me of the people who say Counterstrike is the most
> popular online game; yet when you look at the number of
> simultaneous CS players by surfing matchmaking sites like Gamespy,
> you don't actually get that high a number.

Surely, this is largely a result of the length of a play session? If
the UO/EQ/etc player spends an average of 3hrs a time on the game,
but Counterstrike players spend 1hr a time on average (figures
admittedly plucked from the air to illustrate a potential point),
then taking a snapshot of the number of people playing both games at
any one point is likely to underestimate Counterstrike's audience by
66%. So given that hypothetical ratio, you obviously could have 1/3
the number of Counterstrike players online at any given point, and
yet still have just as many regular Counterstrike players out there.

I expect the difference is not just in terms of hours played in a
session. I would guess that most players of MUD-like games tend to
play daily, whereas Counterstrike players play less regularly.

Of course, I am using the term "popular" as I personally understand
it, relating to "population", rather than "preferred". Perhaps the
total number of hours played (by all players over a given period) is
a better measure of how "attractive" the game is.

--
Kylotan

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