Second Life VS. World of Warcraft

The grunge match of at least the hour...

Linden Labs' Second Life claims 7 million users, while Blizzard's World of Warcraft just hit 9 million worldwide. Both impressive numbers at first match, but they're not that similar. 85% (according to Lost Remote) of Second Life avatars are abandoned.

Quote :

In a long article titled “How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life,” Wired lays out the age old question which may as well translate into “What if Linden Labs threw a party and no one came?” Or at least, a party where no one sticks around because there really isn’t anything to do in Second Life once you’ve wasted hours trying to figure out how to use it.

Read the Lost Remote post
Read the long Wired article

On the other hand, the 9 million Blizzard figure counts only unique accounts, not the individual toons on each (which can rack up quickly with ten character slots on each of over 200 servers).

Quote :

“Since it is a subscription based game, the number of active subscribers is the more relevant statistic,” commented Bob Colayco, associate public relations manager for Blizzard, via email.

--Quoted from The Shadow Council Strider--

As a result of the Second Life avatar fall-off ratio, invested advertisers don't seem pleased, including such major players as the Sears and Coca-Cola. How much revenue can their in-world presence be generating? Yet, for all of its popularity, Warcraft lacks the in-game advertising.

Can you imagine a giant JCPenney's billboard in the middle of Ashenvale?

The number beg the question of what makes for success. Should Second Life have focused on more in-world tasks? Was that counter-productive to the purpose of the game? Should Warcraft lean on advertising? As if they weren't already making money hand over fist...

Have you played either one? What do you think of the multimedia revenue possibilities?