MUD influence

 Posted by (Visited 21492 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: , , , , , , , ,
Jun 272008
 

As part of the ongoing raking over the coals of Richard Bartle for saying the obvious (yes, you can tell what side I am on in those debates!), Steve Danuser says over at Moorgard.com » Sacred Cows

I get tired of people implying that today’s MMOs owe their entire existence to the MUDs of yesteryear. Sorry, I disagree. The gameplay style of EQ or WoW is obviously influenced by MUDs, but I propose that MMOs would have evolved anyway.

And Ryan Shwayder posts in comments saying

Ultima Online is a direct descendant of what MUD? I’m not saying it isn’t, I’m just saying that I don’t know what particular MUD had a profound influence on that game. It seems like the MMO industry was born of different influences; EverQuest from DikiMuds, Ultima Online from Ultima games. Not all MMOs have a lot of direct comparisons to MUDs, so I think he’s right that they’d exist whether MUDs did or not.

Well…

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Numbers

 Posted by (Visited 10821 times)  Game talk, Music, Reading, Watching  Tagged with: , , , ,
Jun 262008
 
  • Number of users in Habbo Hotel worldwide: 20,000,000
  • “Hottest” book in the US last year according to Time Magazine: 1,500,000+. (A Thousand Splendid Suns)
  • Best-selling graphic novel in the US last year: 80,000. (Naruto)
  • Digital sales of a hit song: 2,100,000 (Leona Lewis, “Bleeding Love”)
  • Average downloads of a downloadable Rock Band track: 100,000
  • Viewers of the #1 show on US TV (including DVR): 28,800,000 (American Idol)
  • Viewers of the #150 show on US TV: 2,400,000 (Gossip Girl)
  • Users of World of Warcraft in North America: 2,500,000
  • Monthly uniques for Gaia Online: 2,000,000+
  • Total number of movie tickets sold in the US in one year: 1,400,000,000
  • Estimated tickets sold to the new Indiana Jones movie in five weeks: 42,290,849 (using 2007 average US ticket price and grosses to date).

Just some figures that caught my eye while browsing a few different publications…

Habbo hits 100m registered

 Posted by (Visited 8705 times)  Game talk  Tagged with:
Jun 262008
 

Sulka Haro just forwarded along a press release stating that Habbo has reached 100m registered users worldwide. For those counting, that means 1.5% of the population of the planet.

Some more stats gleaned from the release:

  • They get around 10m monthly uniques, apparently.
  • 20m registered in the last six months
  • 50/50 gender split
  • 70% 13-16 years old
  • 64% visit daily (which is higher than my usual rule of thumb of “half” — I usually use 2/3 for the week, not the day).

Maybe it’s not generational after all

 Posted by (Visited 5877 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: ,
Jun 252008
 

Slashdot | Children Concerned By Parents’ Web Habits

“Children are becoming increasingly worried about their parents’ Internet habits, according to a report just released in Sweden. Unsurprisingly, dads surfing for pornography is the most common problem, but chatroom addiction also featured in the report — as is a mother who has become obsessed with World of Warcraft. ‘This summer she has been sitting up all day and all night and she forgets what’s important to me,’ wrote the woman’s 13-year-old daughter. ‘And when she’s not at the computer she’s like a lost soul. She just looks straight ahead and says nothing.'”

Interesting IMVU stats

 Posted by (Visited 13754 times)  Game talk  Tagged with: , , ,
Jun 242008
 

These all come from this interview. They sort of put paid to the notion that a mass market UGC business cannot thrive, I think!

  • They seeded the market with 2000 items
  • Have now registered 100,000 developers, with “tens of thousands” active
  • And 20,000,000 users registered (no word on active uniques)
  • There are 1,700,000 assets on their marketplace right now
  • 1,200,000 of them are full 3d
  • 3,000 new ones a day and 100,000 new ones a month
  • Resulting in revenues of $1,000,000 a month from digital currency sales for IMVU
  • And $1,000,000 a year in revenue for the top developer
  • 60% female, 40% male
  • 40% of users outside the U.S.

For comparison, Zwinky reported 9.5m registered and 4.6m active back in September.

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