I think the fact that you can solo 75-90% of the content, and that most quests do not have a time requirement (I say most, as some do) lends itself to fitting better with the ‘casual’ player.

People have lives, and if they feel they can not make progress without being a powergamer, they tend to leave. WoW upset that paradigm, and thus they are reaping the rewards. Anyone… and I mean -ANYONE- can get to lvl 60 in this game in time.

Right now WOW is pretty much the only thing I take the time to play – and I’m not bitter about that at all. The fee is nil sweat and I have two full accounts – one for me and one for my oldest son. I think that treacherous balance between casual gamer and power-gamer is *thus far* been managed fairly well.

As far as seeing what number of WOW subscribers are ‘casual gamers’ is interesting as to *me* a casual gamer is someone that will sign up – play casually for about 90 days and then cancel their account. That’s turn over that Bliz has to make back up with new subs and speaks to the sustainability issue.

I’m thinking more and more are like Marc and Psyae said – frustrated gamers that have made a hard purchasing decision and alloted their time to WOW. These are likely late 20′s to 30+ somethings with a PnP background and the disposable income to throw at the game.

What I want to know is what Bliz’s profit model looks like. How many subscribers = Profit and how they plan to manage to maintain the numbers they need to stay a *growing* and thriving endeavor – not just sustaining.

If Blizz leans too heavily toward powergaming content, and slacks off on the Quest-a-day content, it might lose casual gamers such as Marc and myself. If Blizz doesn’t keep grinding out new instances and battlegrounds, it might lose console gamers who have to have their daily fix. Regardless of the bugs and flaws in WoW, I’m still thoroughly impressed that Blizzard has pulled this off so successfully, and I can’t wait till I can clone myself so that I CAN do those high level instances and get the uber gear!

The benefit that WoW does have is these are PC players and not Console players. If they were console players I think you would already see numbers dropping.

Instead, I’m a Dad with 4 kids and my mage hit 60 after 20 days /played. (started at end of March, hit 60 last weekend) I have yet to do an instance higher than Black Rock Depths, and I’ve only been just past the arena in that. I’m rank 2 PvP, with no rush to get promoted much faster. Molten Core? Zul’Grub? Blackwing Lair? I’m glad that they are in game, but lord knows when I’ll see them.

The guy who convinced me to buy WoW had been playing for a month longer than me. He’s got a level 30ish mage and plays every few weeks…and actually enjoys the game, he just doesn’t have much time to play.

For both of us, the monthly fee is nothing…it’s the time that’s the limiting factor.

WoW, for me, is pefect. And there are a whole lotta “me” out there.

Yes I can’t type today…or think straight…I blame WOW.

I think Bliz probably agrees with you regarding sustainability – which is why the last few copies of all the major PC gaming mags included trial installs of WOW. The gaming community is larger than ever (and growing more console based everyday) – keeping an ongoing thing like WOW viable means they’re going to be farming new subscriber drops like a 39th level Warrior looking to get his first mount.

What is it? I doubt marketing has anything to do with it – is word of mouth enough to grow 1 million US subcribers? MMO’s – even WOW are different animals than even the most popular PC or Console game out there. They require a time commiment, and have a ‘geek quotient’ that some have a hard time getting over. Interesting that so many have taken the leap.

I haven’t played EQ2 – but have heard a lot of WOW players (and long time EQ1 *fanatics*) say that EQ2 is just doesn’t work for them and they seem pretty bitter about it. I’ve looked into EQ2 but it just…feels wrong to me. Maybe that’s just the SOE aura coming from it – who knows.