I honestly don't understand WOW's success.

alyndale

Nerf, I suppose you are one of the several specifically on this forum that dislike WoW for it's vast success.  To be frank with you there are several gaming sites out there that you can cross-reference and read for yourself why Blizzard made such a success out of WoW.  It's not rocket science young sire.  Just do the research and you'll find that WoW was marketed extremely well and Blizzard is one of the strongest gaming companies today.

 

Valentina

Well I agree with the fact World of Warcraft is pretty shallow in lore...The game itself is a bit too childish for me, now...I've played it since it came out, and it's humor has lost it's novelty, the game never truely had a series tone, and the fact that they rarely update it, and when they do it's focused on raids and pvp....It's gotten really stale and boring IMO.

AkaJetson

Originally posted by Nerf09


I thought the graphics were sub-par, the mechanics was just like Everquest I, and the lore was from a shallow RTS game.
and what the heck is Lineage?
http://www.mmogchart.com/
 
 

it goes up to jul 06. Thats over a year ago.

Czzarre

World of warcraft had several things going for it.

The first was timing.

1. It came as a lot of people wanted out from some of the older 1st generation MMORPG (EQ, DAOC, AO). So a lot of people were looking for 'the next big thing"

2.. Marketing. Huge push to make the hype as over the top as possible (this has now become the standard in the industry).

3. Name recognition. Basing a videogame on an already existing videogame. Heh. HUge fan base for the realtime strategy game just addded to the hype.

4. Expand the customer base. WoW needed to make sure that other previously non gaming people came to playu. Making it acceptable to play videogames to traditionally non gaming crowds (women, professionals, etc). HOnestly, this was already happening within the online generations, but it all goes back to good timing.

Just my thoughts.

Torrential

Josher

 

Originally posted by Valentina


Well I agree with the fact World of Warcraft is pretty shallow in lore...The game itself is a bit too childish for me, now...I've played it since it came out, and it's humor has lost it's novelty, the game never truely had a series tone, and the fact that they rarely update it, and when they do it's focused on raids and pvp....It's gotten really stale and boring IMO.

 

Shallow in lore?  Are you kidding;)  See the link.  That rivals and/or surpasses every MMO out there.  You're right about the tone and the game does become boring eventually, like every MMO does.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/story/index.html#Lore

ZeppelinJ0

I played Warcraft for about a year and did enjoy it very much, it's success is definitely fantastic timing and a lot of word-of-mouth advertising.  I know the aspect of being on the same server and accomplishing great feats as a team of friends was a pretty easy way to get some of my buddies involved.

For me it just got old after ahwhile, especially after the realization that all the game is was a constant time-sink to get better gear until Blizzard raises the level cap and makes it useless again.

 

What I dont understand is why people continually ruin other MMOs just because it is or is not WoW, this is really the only downfall I can see with the existance of WoW is the constant negativity toward other games from the community.

That and it drives me nuts that people who hate WoW only do so to "rebel" against the norm and make themselves feel more superior and intelligent than those who enjoy WoW.

M1sf1t

The only real competition WoW had at launch was EQ2. EQ2 at launch was extremely resource heavy on even high end PC's at the time, buggy, had missing/broken content. WoW was just a better product at the time that just worked out the box and people have a habit of flocking to products that aren't broken, buggy and resource heavy.

M1sf1t

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Originally posted by Josher

Originally posted by Valentina Well I agree with the fact World of Warcraft is pretty shallow in lore...The game itself is a bit too childish for me, now...I've played it since it came out, and it's humor has lost it's novelty, the game never truely had a series tone, and the fact that they rarely update it, and when they do it's focused on raids and pvp....It's gotten really stale and boring IMO.

Shallow in lore? Are you kidding;) See the link. That rivals and/or surpasses every MMO out there. You're right about the tone and the game does become boring eventually, like every MMO does.
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/story/index.html#Lore

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An altered Warhammer storyline. Thanks but no thanks.

Unknown

You must remember that The9 which buys subscriptions from Blizzard Entertainment each quarter to distribute among the Chinese count towards their subscriptions regardless if someone is using them from The9. The9 uses a payper-hour method which I believe is equivalent to around 2 or 3 U.S. Cents per hour as payment. Along with The9 having rights to buying future expansions and releasing as they see fit, as with the case of TBC released for free to all of their subscribers. The 7million or so subscriptions they hold up are huge boosters to the Blizzard WoW numbers, but in no way resemble what the U.K. or U.S. pay per month.

Haven't  read anything recently on how Blizz is handling the accounts from The9 but I have to figure it is still the same as it used to be a year ago. Very few western MMo's do well in these Asian markets due to the pay per month style the west has adapted. The thing about WoW's success is that it adapted to being a very cheap to play game like the Asians were used to playing. The whole reason due to its success is the overwhelming success of prior Blizzard products over seas though.

All in all though its success came from its ability to adapt to foreign markets while most western MMo's stick to the west.

METALDRAG0N

Originally posted by Josher


 
Originally posted by Valentina


Well I agree with the fact World of Warcraft is pretty shallow in lore...The game itself is a bit too childish for me, now...I've played it since it came out, and it's humor has lost it's novelty, the game never truely had a series tone, and the fact that they rarely update it, and when they do it's focused on raids and pvp....It's gotten really stale and boring IMO.

 

Shallow in lore?  Are you kidding;)  See the link.  That rivals and/or surpasses every MMO out there.  You're right about the tone and the game does become boring eventually, like every MMO does.

http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/story/index.html#Lore

Yea sorry read much better in the Warcraft Lore [and much more to read too].

baff

 

 

Originally posted by Samuraisword


Simple games for simple people, there is no understanding if you aren't part of that mindset.
When was the last time you looked at the Billboard music chart of bestselling artists? Same people buying crappy music.

Led Zepplin and Pink Floyd were in the Billboard chart too. The Rolling Stones and the Beatles. Even Beethoven has been. How many bands in your record collection haven't been? 

 

Best selling doesn't = load of old tosh. Quite the opposite, while it doesn't guarentee quality, that kind of peer review is a good place to start if you are looking for something of reasonable standard.

 

Just because a game or a film, a book or a piece of music is best selling doesn't mean you have to like it, but a lot of people do. You might not like Britany Spears or the Spice girls, but then 13 year old girls don't like whatever emo/cock rock you are into. If you were a 13 year old girl you may well appreciate the production values of teeny girl bands. And you might specifically rate Britany as one of the best ones out there. It just depends on what sort of product you are looking for.

 

WoW is the best selling PC game. Not just in China, in the world. It's also the best selling video game, it's also the best selling fantasy game and the best seling MMO, if you are into any of those things, the chances are you will get your money's worth from it. If you are unable to, that says more about you than it does the game.  

 

 

PureChaos

as said before its actually a very simple way how they made so much money, and these few factors are these.

1- WOW has already got its name, warcraft is a great RTS series, and any RTS player knows that so obviously they would give wow a try.

2- WOW came about in a somewhat drought of MMO's all the current ones out at that time, where old compared to wow(a few years)

3- Rather then going for something innovative they went with the safe route and it payed off very well, they decided take all the current ideas of MMO's and perfecting them

 

Now the reason why WOW is still top

1- Wow is still around for no good MMO has came out to even challenge it, you cant name 1 game that was suppose to be OMG except maybe vanguard(and sucked due to SOE speeding it up).

2- The next contenders have had MMO's experiance under there belt, AOC and WAR both bring in great ideas and if executed right will win but none are out yet, but there getting there

And for the reason why wow wont die for awhile

1-Its blizzard and warcraft, some will stick stricktly for the lore

2- Alot of people new to MMO's or as us MMO players think as the sterotypical 12 year old playing a MMO"OMG THIS IS THE COOLEST GAME AND THERE IS NOTHING LIKE IT , THERE JUST COPYING OFF WOW"

And why WoW will lower

1- WE ARE FING TIRED OF THE DAMN GAME!!!!!!!!!! omg we need something new!!!!

2-The community in WoW is one of the worst and will end up eating its own head most likely

 

thats what i got to say

xtravert

I think that WoW is successful because it appeals to the widest audience.  It can  be played casually and it can be played hardcore.  I've only played 4 previous MMOs (pre-requisite of having played more than a year) and I find that the largest percentage of my friends play WoW.  Most other games had different friends preferring different games.  Since most of my friends prefer WoW it also provides an additional draw to the game - I can play with most of my friends.

WoW gets a lot of criticism for its graphics but for me the game is appealing because of its graphics.  When I play MMOs that strive to achieve realist graphics I find myself finding the imperfections in the appearance of things.  With World of Warcraft I just accept that everything it pretty and cartoony and I don't pick it apart.

There are a lot of other successful MMOs out there for people who prefer more PvP, more "realistic" graphics and different genres.  When it comes right down to it though if you don't like it don't play it.  Most people don't play games they don't like and obviously a lot of people like WoW.  If another company can come along and develop a completely different game mechanic that people like more then you'll see them be successful as well.  For now I think a lot of games use the same mechanic because noone has discovered or effectively implemented the game mechanic to replace the current ones that are succeeding.