Why WoW is the best thing that ever happened in MMO gaming

nitefly

I used to play World of Warcraft but stopped. I thought the expansion was a complete let-down to be honest so I quit.



But I absolutely love World of Warcraft and Blizzard for creating it.



World of Warcraft is shallow, it has strictly linear content, it follows a tried and tested formula of Quest, Grind, Reward. It has flashy cartoonlike graphics that looks completely ridiculous, it has no depth to character creation and everybody basically looks the same across Classes / Races.



But the game is great.



It is great because it sent MMO games from a niche into the public sphere and included the casual gamer in the romp and fun that is MMOs. It delivered an easy interface that hinted at countless possibilities, it did not punish those that were a bit slower in finding out things, it displayed a story for those interested in lore and background descriptions, it had funny voices and flashy weapons. It even included female elves that acted like prostitutes. It had Raid content, it had PvP, it had nearly everything, not better than what had come before, not more elaborate than what came before, but it had it all and it is keeping a lot of people entertained.



Blizzard has always created simple games in an elaborate packing. Think about Diablo, Warcraft, Starcraft, they are all very simple games that simply does what other people did first. But they scrape it down to a point where EVERYBODY can be in on the fun and they never, ever, truly punishes the player. Whenever you fall down, you get a helping hand onwards.



World of Warcraft is the gem that made every computer game developer in the world sit up and take notice. Because even though games like EVE or UO has their following, they are not interesting games when seen from the boardrooms. World of Warcraft is interesting since it finds its players from the public, mainstream sphere of the community and that's where the money really is. Think about it what the top marketing branches has been in the latter years. Pokemon and Dragonball are examples of huge hits in Europe. They are the lowest of the lowest in the great anime/manga genre, but they are making literally millions of EURO for their owners simply because they are operating in the mainstream sphere. Great anime works like those Ghibli produces has a small niche community in Europe (and it's getting bigger albeit slowly) but they are not making any serious money.



Now the developers are finding out that millions can be made from successful MMOs and that the market is actually everybody, not just the 14-30 year old males with a geeky disposition. World of Warcraft is installed in youth clubs, it is being sold everywhere from toy stores to gas stations and it is doubtless that everybody wants in on that.



The downside is that companies will at first try to emulate the winner (World of Warcraft) which will do nothing to change the status quo. Then they will innovate, expand, and develop for the greater good of all of us. And the World of Warcraft players will perhaps want something else down the line and due to World of Warcraft we now have a massive increase in the customer base for all MMOs.



I respect World of Warcraft.

godpuppet

IMO, the most positive effect WoW has had on the MMO industry is that it proves in hard figures, that prolonged development and testing phases lead to a highly successful game. WE know it, but the men in suits dont, until now...

Xasapis

To the OP:

I have a feeling you're taking the shallow approach to WoW's broad appeal.



WoW is (was for those who stopped playing) first and foremost a fun game. Financial success was a side effect of the simple fact stated earlier. Had it not been fun, it would not have the appeal it has today.



As for the other developers, if they only strive to "copy" WoW, they will fail. WoW was a roadmark for a gender that for the most part made games that felt more like a job than a past-time. Maybe the gender was not mature enough, or maybe the computer power was inadequate. WoW-clone now is not enough. EQ-clone is not enough either.



People now demand more in the department this gender was sorely lucking, the fun department. The biggest effect WoW had on the gender was the fact that, no matter how good technically a game is (in the old "hardcore" standard), if it's not fun, it will flop. And that's a good thing. Finally.

paade

WOW proved one thing, and one thing only: marketing is equally (if not more) important to the success of the game as developing.



It was a well known fact that online gaming has big bucks in it way before WOW.

Xasapis

No matter how much money you throw into the marketing department, if the game is bad, it won't last over the subscription month. I'm afraid your logic is flawed.



The best marketing tools any MMO has are the friends around you that play and enjoy the game. Nothing can raise a game's appeal as sharing the fun with the people you know does.

Rattrap

You know , you people are full of shit ... i must tell you.





Here everyone is criticising WoW graphics. Commenting how bad and cartoony it is.

It is like saying , i dont like cartoons because they are cartoony. Or saying i dont like Simpsons because they are cartoony.



IT IS CALLED STYLE



Wow had this style from day one ( they stole it from table top warhammer by the way ) Warcraft 1 to 3 all had this style.

It was natural they carry it to WOW. Just compare it to Diablo where they decided on completely diferent approach.



One thing Blizzard has , and most of other developing companyes dont - is awsome GRAPHIC DESIGN team.

Close knit and well organised.



SO when you know that WOW looks this way as a conceuos choice. Look at it again.



The share detail of the world is amazing. No mather where you turn you will see something special.

If there is a bush or even a pebble on the ground, you will emidiately see it was put there by designer choice

not randomly.



It has its own destinct style (that you personaly dont like) but nobody can deny WOW is a masterpiece of graphic design.



As for character creation , I agree. It is too limited , and its a shame. Perhaps this is also design decision. Or just a clever way to optimise the game... still not the best. Although characters look good.





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Ok, gameplay



Yes, wow is shallow. But it is fun - and I think this is what they aimed at. And they did it well.

It is simply a quest mmo - and it is good at that..very good.



In a way it is like hack and slash rpg  - multiplayer



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I think , people do not hate WOW for what it is. They hate it for what it is not !





It is not a deep game of strategical and political development like EVE. It is not acheevers heavenly PvP like L2.

It is not RvR masterpiece like Daoc. Or acheever grinder like EQ1



It is easy, and fun - this is what they wanted - and this is what WOW will always be



You can not blaim them for doing what they seted to do

airborne519

Even  though I don't care for this game, WoW is a benchmark for all MMO game developers to strive to.  I believe any successful mmo is benneficial to the mmo community, it increases funding for a relatively new genre of gaming.   In the long run, when developers see the money to be made in mmo's, we all can expect some really good projects to come out in the future.

paade

Originally posted by Xasapis

No matter how much money you throw into the marketing department, if the game is bad, it won't last over the subscription month. I'm afraid your logic is flawed.



The best marketing tools any MMO has are the friends around you that play and enjoy the game. Nothing can raise a game's appeal as sharing the fun with the people you know does.

nope, its not flawed, MMORPG industry is just another business, like any other and if you want to sell your product by the millions, you have to have a good marketing for it. Marketing builds up hype around it and as long as the product is above mediocre it will most likely be a success.

Some numbers to back up my argument: when WOW was first released in N-A, Australia and New Zealand, it sold 240,000 copies in 24 hours, more than any other PC game in history. Was this because of all those 240,000 heard from their friends that its a great game, or was it because great marketing and use of Blizzard name as a developer (huge fanbase, easy to hype the game)? Think about it.



EDIT: btw, not saying that development is not equally important, of course it is.

germieb

The original poster is right in a lot of ways. I myself played WOW quite a bit. I leveled 4 characters to 60 and did pretty much all of the end game with the exception of the last two bosses in naxx. I quit the game and dont plan on playing it ever again. There is a lot of negative things I can say about World of Warcraft, I will spare you guys of this and point out the one thing that WOW has that other MMO's are lacking. The main reason for WOW success which the OP sorta beat around the bush on:



The Gameplay!



The gameplay combat in wow is the best of any current MMO for many reasons. Its fast paced and fairly straightforward (arcade like combat) Incredibly simple on the surface but somewhat complex underneath.  Most important of all the combat can actually be entertaining making it slightly entertaining to do something as dull as grinding on MOBS. Almost every MMO to date absolutely failed at making the combat entertaining when you compare it with world of warcraft.....



For credibility purposes I will mention that I have played nearly every MMO to date including the ones in beta/alpha currently, Regardless of this it is obvious that this is only my opinion.

Xasapis

I can't relate any recent PvP experience about L2, since I ... collapsed (that was about the time C2 was introduced) ... else I would have been the first prophet in the server (used to be 5 back then) to reach 75. Between trying to out-level your alliance's enemies, defending your clan's controlled castle and defending the members of your alliance, you needed to grind monsters 5 hours for the 1 hour of PvP just to keep up. Sure, you could slow down and be a member of a lesser clan, but it's hardly the same as being in the top clans now, is it?



Anyways, 3-4 hours sleep per day for 6 or so months with the prospect of the same for another 5 months (I did some projection charts on when I was expecting myself to hit max level), and I decided I had enough. The grind was horrible, especially when you attempt to combine it with work and a splinter of social life. In the end I hated myself playing the game, I hated myself leaving my friends behind, but I could not physically keep up. Oh well, was not the best of experiences, but I can say that I did that, no matter how stupid may seem now (grin).



Coming back to WoW ... I could PvP when I wanted for as much I wanted, without having to grind like mad just to make up for what I lost while having fun. And yes, I picked a PvE server. I had enough of forced PvP (don't you hate it when you log to do one thing only to have yourself dragged to protect some other guy putting unecessarilly himself in danger), PKs, ganging. At least L2 does not have corpse camp (a weakness in WoW's PvP system on the PvP servers), although it did make up with grinding plenty when you dropped a weapon or piece of armor.



WoW PvP is shallow? Perhaps. But I'd rather have shallow and know that I log to have a pure PvP session without having to grind the rest of the week to make up for the exp lost (those who participated in castle sieges know what I mean).



I was just really really tired of that. I still am.