Comments on: Blizzard vs Linden Lab: Who Wins in Graphic Improvements? http://dusanwriter.com/index.php/2008/08/29/blizzard-vs-linden-lab-who-wins-in-graphic-improvements/ Virtual worlds and creativity, business, collaboration, and identity. Sat, 02 Jul 2011 20:45:43 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Velicia L. http://dusanwriter.com/index.php/2008/08/29/blizzard-vs-linden-lab-who-wins-in-graphic-improvements/comment-page-1/#comment-14263 Velicia L. Sat, 30 Aug 2008 07:26:03 +0000 http://dusanwriter.com/?p=854#comment-14263 Mind if I interject with a little hard numbers instead of subjective valuations? Total WoW suscription numbers, according to the Wiki article about WoW (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Warcraft), WoW currently holds 10 million subscribers. According to the SL login page, SL has had about 1.2 million logins in the last 60 days, barely a tenth of WoW's numbers. It would seem consumers are using their credit cards to vote which they consider the best virtual world. Mind if I interject with a little hard numbers instead of subjective valuations?

Total WoW suscription numbers, according to the Wiki article about WoW (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_of_Warcraft), WoW currently holds 10 million subscribers.

According to the SL login page, SL has had about 1.2 million logins in the last 60 days, barely a tenth of WoW’s numbers.

It would seem consumers are using their credit cards to vote which they consider the best virtual world.

]]> By: Sophrosyne Stenvaag http://dusanwriter.com/index.php/2008/08/29/blizzard-vs-linden-lab-who-wins-in-graphic-improvements/comment-page-1/#comment-14216 Sophrosyne Stenvaag Sat, 30 Aug 2008 03:07:03 +0000 http://dusanwriter.com/?p=854#comment-14216 Absolutely! Blizzard wins for turning the chore of learning the interface into a compellingly playable game, as well as for WoW providing a quality experience across a broad range of hardware. Yes, you can lower your graphics settings for SL, but it impairs the experience, and each technological upgrade makes the world less acceptable, especially for the groups LL seems most interested in holding onto - people in education, business and government, who are much less likely to have high-end graphics cards than someone shelling out a subscription fee for a game like WoW. Blizzard knows its customer base, works to broaden it, and to deliver a quality experience (though at a fairly high price). Linden Lab has a long way to go in each of those areas. Absolutely! Blizzard wins for turning the chore of learning the interface into a compellingly playable game, as well as for WoW providing a quality experience across a broad range of hardware.

Yes, you can lower your graphics settings for SL, but it impairs the experience, and each technological upgrade makes the world less acceptable, especially for the groups LL seems most interested in holding onto – people in education, business and government, who are much less likely to have high-end graphics cards than someone shelling out a subscription fee for a game like WoW.

Blizzard knows its customer base, works to broaden it, and to deliver a quality experience (though at a fairly high price). Linden Lab has a long way to go in each of those areas.

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