SL Overtakes TSO in “Subscribers”

by Alphaville Herald on 03/08/05 at 6:39 pm

As the Second Life homepage map reveals, the population of SL now exceeds 40K, which, according to the most recent figures, means it has probably passed the ever plunging TSO. Of course people don’t actually *pay* for their monthly accounts on SL, so it is not clear what this statistic really means — the only meaningful measure of success for SL is the amount of land being rented or owned by customers. Still, it is a psychologically important milestone, both for SL and for those of us who can’t avert our eyes from the train wreck that is TSO.

19 Responses to “SL Overtakes TSO in “Subscribers””

  1. Prokofy Neva

    Aug 3rd, 2005

    I predicted in Hamlet’s article that SL wouldn’t have reached 40,000 NEXT YEAR — and I’d be interested to see if it reaches that by KEEPING them. It’s terribly interesting to me to see that they went from 32,000 to 40,000 in a mere month, just by some media ad blowouts and the freebie accounts and stuff. But will they stay? I get so many newbie customers that I spend loads of time on, as do others, and they just don’t stay. They get bored or frustrated and they go to World of Warcraft or on the Appalachian Trail or whatever LOL. And good riddance, says the FIC. But this is no way to get to a million people. Notice how they now say “by 2007″ or some of them say “by 2006″ to put it off…a bit. I wonder.

    It’s funny that Uri is willing to say that only rentals and ownership of land is a success indicator. If that’s their indicator, they are in deep shit because there are only 4000 landowners (not including first land) and an untold number of rentals (probably not that many more) compared to this 40,000 members. So that’s 10 percent. Why so few? Because people are indoctrinated by all their “mentors” and “guides” and “helpers” that “you don’t need land to have fun in SL”. In fact, I thought I’d pre-empt the inevitable posting coming down the pike now that’s going to say “you don’t need land to have fun” to point out that having land IS fun lol.

  2. Walker Spaight

    Aug 4th, 2005

    Good point, Prok. I wonder what the ratio of property owners to renters in the U.S. is.

    That said, from a purely non-business point of view, 40,000 is cool! Especially since it was only 10,000 a year ago, I think. And close to like 1,000 sims now? That’s awesome.

  3. Kiss

    Aug 4th, 2005

    Congrats to SL.

    The 37k subscription number for TSO from the article was for JAN ’05. It’s almost certainly lower by now.

    Didn’t EA shut down both MCO and EnB somewhere around 20k subscribers?

  4. RB

    Aug 4th, 2005

    lol. =D

    I’ll tell you who still plays the sure to close mess that is TafkSO.

    500 bot accounts from all the $$ sellers. And 200 accounts from 100 stratics posters. haha.

    Why does EA keep making mmorpgs? isn’t 5 failures enough to teach you a lesson? are you that stupid to not notice the pattern here? lol. The 5th will be TafkSO.

    Oh yeah, well done to SL on the 40K mark.

    - RB.

  5. Kiss

    Aug 4th, 2005

    If I was a TSO botter I would be closing my accounts and selling off my inventory. Subscriber numbers are getting to low to take chances and get caught holding a bunch of worthless simoleans.

  6. Robert Vito Leone

    Aug 4th, 2005

    I can see your point where SL has passed tso in accounts.Well you have to take into consideration that SL has just given away a lot of freebie accounts and a lot of ads everywhere.

    I been a TSO user since Sept 2002 and i have to say for the first time in months i see a lot more people playing TSO and coming back from SL saying its boring and everything else.

    I like to know how you can compare SL to TSO considering there is no monthly fee or for that matter.Although you may call TSO A train wreck,etc.I like to know how many people in SL have played TSO within the last month to even know this?

    Also if your going off stratics stats then i feel sorry for you.Considering there all “EA Cheerleaders”Also i like why the heck do people say its so wrong to have more then 1 account in TSO when im sure there are people who have more then 1 account in SL.

    Also i belive a lot of people have said TSO would be dead by dec of 05..Its August 06 and its still running..

  7. RB

    Aug 4th, 2005

    You mean dec 04 and aug 05 right?? =P

    Oh and it will definatley close before this year is out. Don’t worry. It’s a dead end with minimal development. If it’s still running in 06, it’s absolutley and undisputedly running at a loss. And EA are losing money on it just to save face.

    Maybe they should add some porn related content, since you can do sexual acts anyway. pictures don’t lie. Porn always get’s people through the “doors” , so it’s win win. =D hahahaha.

    - RB.

    p.s re: Kisses second comment. Yes that is why i quit selling at the end of may. Business looking down and prices getting very very cheap. even though i bought wholesale and didn’t bot myself.

  8. Prokofy Neva

    Aug 7th, 2005

    Hey, let’s play *Spot the Evangelist!* an exciting new game where you study all the blogs where there are posts about Second Life and *spot that paid shill lamerz 10-hour-a-week telecommuter who is posting his ‘opinion’* Hey, if TSO has evangelists, let’s play “Spot the TSO Evangelist!” too!

    Walker, is it YOU??? Say it ain’t so!!!! Don’t they pay you enough at that leftist blog off Broadway lol?

    Actually, I think the subtle psy-war of the SL evangelism team would involve not frontal head-banging on really hard-knocks forums like this one, but interspersing now and then without fanfare the Happy Little Tree articles — somebody says “let’s get something positive going about SL because there’s all this negative stuff from Prok!”

    You know, the KGB used to get their “useful idiots” for free. It’s too bad game companies have to pay for them nowadays. Actually they need to harness those fanbois better..maybe have them have a users’ conference in NY…wait…I think they’re doing that…

  9. Walker Spaight

    Aug 7th, 2005

    Huh? I didn’t write this post, Prok. As far as SL evangelism goes, though, I’m certainly guilty as charged :)

  10. TrannyPet Barmy

    Aug 7th, 2005

    That figure is not surprising when 50% off those subscribers are alts, that have signed up so a user to get back into the game after being banned for nothing !!!

    lol nice one SecondLife, thats right, you keep on banning, and therefore increasing subscriptions LOL – the figures dont fool any one – and we all know why you are so keen to ban any one for anything you can …………….. another subscription payment, and another notch on the subscription figures !!!!

    Personally i wouldnt pay SL a cent again to play their poncy fucking high-lag low-interest poorly-developed ‘game’ over populated by whiny assholes who’s only drawing in life appears to be towards abusing an easily-abusable abuse system with the intention of getting as many folks banned as they can, in some depserate attempt to make themselves feel that little bit powerful, when there are by far better MMPORPGs available………… WoW, Ryzom …… to name but a few.

    When will people wake up to the broader picture and realise there are many by far superior games out there along the same lines as SL, no one is stuck in this metaverse, you can move on to something better.

    I could go on further about how many contradictions i could find in SL’s creation and it’s ToS, but too be honest, the subject really isnt worth the keystrokes i’ve given already.

    PMSL

    trannypet barmy

  11. Bam

    Aug 8th, 2005

    The Teen Second Life website is up. Go to teen.secondlife.com.

  12. Neal Stewart

    Aug 8th, 2005

    TrannyPet, what other games out there are along the same lines as SL?

  13. RB

    Aug 10th, 2005

    SL is not a game, it’s a free form sandbox virtual world. It’s a different project altogther than just a game. I would not call SL a game. Uri and others might get what im trying to get at here.

    - RB.

    p.s boredom is now 100 times easier to spread in TSO thanks to the new (finally, finally.) avatar move feature. 1 sim can vist all cities.

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