Howdy, Stranger!
It looks like you're new here. If you want to get involved, click one of these buttons!
Quick Links
Things that WoW has done right to make it a success.
JasPlun
Member Posts: 155
I just wanted to start this thread to see what other players see in the game that they feel was done right to help it be a successful mmo. I thing by making players have reason to return to lower level areas such as the main cities since releasing an expansion was a very good idea. By doing this new players coming into the game see a large population of players and it makes the world alive and vinrant with activity. I just read a post on EQ2 about how a guy purchased the game and quit because he felt the game had no population.I am sure EQ2 is doing fine and has a large Population but there probably is not much reason in it to return to the Lower areas. Anyway there are many things I think WoW has done right to keep it a success,The games over 2 years old and its still booming compared to other games including recent releases like Lotrs. Now I am not here to flame Other games just to make comparisons to them.
Comments
Although I worry that the thread which is titled "What did X do right", almost certainly will turn into "What's wrong with X" or "I hate X because" ..I will purposfully stay on topic
WoW did a LOT of things right
1. They made a good game. Love it or hate it now, cry about this point or that...overall WoW is a very Solid game.
2. User friendly. This went a long way in attracting peope who never played this kind of game before
3. Learned from past mistakes. WoW does have its faults, but they are WoWs...many problems of earlier (and some current) MMORPGs were tackled head on and cured (or at least mitigated).
4. Timing. woW came in when there was little competiton and a lot of people were tired of the existing games and looking for something new. To be honest, this cycle has come again, many WoW players are now looking for something new which is why there is a lot of interest and hype on the upcoming MMORPGS.
HOpe this helps
Torrential
Torrential: DAOC (Pendragon)
Awned: World of Warcraft (Lothar)
Torren: Warhammer Online (Praag)
As with most WoW threads as stated above. Things usually go downhill when a question about why WoW is good at something is asked. To put it simple it has its population because its EASY. Time consuming yes, difficult no. This coupled with the fact that it had about the best launch in an mmo that I have seen in years, caused the popluation to balloon out of control. And because of this even though many people leave in droves, many many more pick up the game for the first time, or return.
Now lets just see how long this thread remains on topic.
_________________________________
Currently Playing: Eve-Online
On the Backburner: EQ2
Retired: EQ, DAoC, WW2Online
RIP: AC2
Tried: Ryzom, Roma Victor, RoM, KH2, Forsaken World, AO, AoC, APB
Quit: SWG PRE-CU(Radiant/Starsider), WoW
Achiever 47% / Explorer 40% / Killer 87% / Socializer 27%
This isn't supposed a WoW vs EQ2 post. EQ2 has a very interesting design when it comes to cities, technically, they are superior, but from a design point of view, I think WoW comes through on top when it comes to the social and accessibility aspects.
It always struck me how busy the cities are in WoW, particularly the main ones such as Orgrimmar or Stormwind. I was in a fairly low population server in EQ2 so it might be a different story for other servers, but I always found the EQ2 cities to be pretty dead in comparison.
I think the main reasons for this are:
1) EQ2 uses instanced housing. This hides many players in their own little pocket of the world. WoW doesn't have instanced housing, which sucks if you like to decorate, but keeps all the players in the same world when going about their daily business.
I find that a lot of EQ2 players in their downtime just preferred to 'chill out' in their own home, redecorate a bit, do some tradeskills, chat in guild, admire their trophies and only sometimes would a friend stop by. On the other hand, in WoW, players would chill outside the single bank, or the AH, and you'd see more social interaction.
The servers are probably populated the same, but WoW shows you more players.
2) EQ2s broker, which can also be accessed from your instanced house (to some extent), doesn't have time limits on sales iirc. Meaning you just put an item on the broker and then you forget it, reducing the need to return to the city.
With WoW the time limit for auctions is 24 hours, maximum for each auction. Which means you often need to come back to put up new auctions or re-list old ones.
I found that the trade channels in WoW were far more busy than EQ2. Reminiscent of EQ1 before they introduced the Bazaar. Trade is lively, it's not just about an offline broker, you can spot deals and haggle, and that lends itself toward more social interaction.
3) EQ2's cities, particularly Freeport and Qeynos, you can't walk more than 25m without needing to zone. How can one city have so many different zones? So not only are players seperated when they're at home, they're seperated by districts as well. There are kind of 'central' areas around the docks, but that's as good as it gets, everything feels kind of decentralized.
You've got a bank in each district, and a couple of different broker areas. Zoning times are minimal, but having to click a giant door, just to magically appear on the other side, doesn't feel as fluid as WoW, where the city is just one big area, seamlessly integrated into the continent. EQ2 is just all over the place.
Still waiting for your Holy Grail MMORPG? Interesting...
Blizzard are the masters of polish and accessibility. They really haven't done anything original as Warcraft borrows from Warhammer which borrows from Tolkien, throw D&D in there somewhere if you want. Same could be said for any of their I.P.s.
But where they shine is with their high level of craftsmanship while keeping their games accessible to a broad audience of people, not only from hardware requirements, but the intuitive nature of their game design. I think I can say with confidence that a person could buy any Blizzard game, install it, and start playing immediately with no huge technical issues and without having to read the manual to learn what to do.
So what have they done with WoW? They've taken the addictive nature of a game like EQ (or the MMO genre in general), improved upon the pain in the butt stuff people didnt like (zones, quests, tradeskills, raids, PVP, travel), made it accessible for just about any reasonable system (EQ was always hardware heavy), and made it an intuitive and easy learning experience (EQ had me baffled when I was first starting out in 2001).
And even though the universe is borrowed, it's still very cool and well thought out with a lot of depth (and lore if you want to read up on it). Short answer: Blizzard concerns themselves with details that people take for granted or may never see, but for those who would take the time to notice it is a treat and testament to their success.
Fanboi? Sure I am. They're smart people, who make great games that I enjoy. I admire them for that.
As for difficulty. WoW is easy to learn, difficult to master, like all games should be. You don't need to be hardcore to raid anymore, there are 5 man heroic instances, 10 man raids, 25 man raids - no longer any 40 man raids.
Most of the boss fights require concentration and skill - compared to most PvE games. I don't disagree that scripted PvE fights are somewhat repetitive. But for those who enjoy raiding, I think there's sufficient challenge there.
There's also sufficient challenge in PvP. To get a high arena ranking, again, you don't need to be hardcore, you earn points for gear the higher your ranking is.
Arena fights are not everyone's cup of tea, but they are challenging, and you won't even scratch the most skilled teams - even with equal gear. It's extremely competitive.
WoW's weak areas are the World PvP which has been improved a little with the Outland World PvP objectives, and will be improved further with the 'open battleground' in WOTLK.
A game with mechanics like that made by Blizzard, how can it not be successful?
Still waiting for your Holy Grail MMORPG? Interesting...
Well said, I agree and will happily admit that I am a fanboi as well, for the exact same reasons.
Blizzard has always made enjoyable titles, and thats why they have so many customers and long time fans, because they are a quality company and always have been - nothing more, nothing less.
There is a lot of WoW bashing. I no longer lpay the game, I had my fun and I decided it was time to leave. But , even in the face of hostile flames on the boards, I still say that WoW is a good game.
Adding to the discussion of what they did right.
They take things that worked ok on other games, and make it their own. Perhaps its a microsoft move, but it makes a better game. the newly implimented Voice channels are an example
Torrential
Torrential: DAOC (Pendragon)
Awned: World of Warcraft (Lothar)
Torren: Warhammer Online (Praag)
Great responses to this post, I was not trying to promote one game or the other,I just found it interesting to still see wow heavily populated for so long a time. This post was meant to generate opinions on what other games might do to help their games do well without having to copy wow's gameplay mechanics. Good posts thx for the response. Goodluck and have fun in whatever game you play,As for myself looks like I will be in WoW until Warhammer,or a decent Sci-fi game comes along:P
1. The Lore. The Lore is simply increadible. I cannot really go into more detail about it; but you can certainly tell they put a lot of effort in the background of Azeroth. It doesnt have that Brad McQuaid campfire story like everquest and vanguard has.
2. The stability of the game. Second from FFXI, it is simply the most bugfree MMO I have ever played even when it was in beta.
3. Multi zone quest system. There is about 3 zones for every lvl tier. For example, if you are lvl 20 you can be in the south Barrens, Hillsbrad, or Ashenvale. If you are 30 you can be in Arathi Highlands, 1000 Needles, etc. There are many zones to choose from...not just one zone for each 10 lvls like virtually every other MMO provides you with.
People who have to create conspiracy and hate threads to further a cause lacks in intellectual comprehension of diversity.
My personal favorites:
1) Death is as painless/painful as it should be. No XP loss. Small loss in durability. You have to run back to your body to recover your stuff, but ghost form speeds this up and also makes it fairly painless as you can find the right time and place to recover your stuff without getting killed again. Corpse camping is still possible, but you also have a chance to hide and flee and you don't lose durability upon death to another player. I know the gankers hate it, but I love it, for the exact same reasons they hate it.
2) Rest bonus. This was genius and I think most people forget about it. I always took the time to put my toon up at the end of the day and this makes a huge difference for how much time (game time) it actually takes you to level. It also promotes taking a break with your character and starting an alt when you run out of rest bonus. Very casual player friendly.
3) AH/Mail system. Gone are the days of trying to figure out how to pass items from 1 character to another. Gone are the days of spamming the trade channels trying to get someone to buy your stuff or trying to find someone to buy stuff from. We take it for granted now, but in the early days of MMO's these 2 issues were a major pain in the butt.
4) Custom user interface. This is another brilliant move by Blizzard that people choose to ignore. Blizz was smart enough to realize that the interface needs to flexible enough so that people can customize to their own personal tastes. When people came up with good ideas, Blizzard simply adds those ideas into their standard interface for everyone to enjoy. Brilliant.
5) Bind on equip. A big problem with games like this prior to WoW was how do you keep everyone from handing down the best items in the game once they have finished with them? This problem killed DiabloII as you would often see players with a full compliment of all the best items in the game who didn't have a clue how to play the game. So where did they get all these great items? Simple, they simply had someone else give it to them when they were done with it. People don't realize just how important this feature is. I'm not real big on the Bind on pickup, but I understand it's purpose as well. The one thing Blizzard really screwed up on in this regard is patterns that are bind on pickup. That's just stupid Blizz. Way to take a great pattern and make it useless to practically everyone and also ensure that all cloth wearers have to become tailors, all leather wearers become leather workers and all mail wearers Blacksmiths. This should be taken out of the game immediately.
6) Zoning is kept to a minimum. WoW does a very good job of maintaining that feeling of being in another world. Everytime you have to zone in and out, that feeling is disturbed. I loved E&B, but I absolutely HATED that damn screen that you saw evertime you went from one zone to another. You couldn't fly from one end of the "world" to the other because every zone required you to start up again. Contrast that with WoW in that you can fly from one end of a continent to the other without stopping.
7) Very few physical barriers. You can go and do just about anything you like including jumping off a mountain and killing yourself. Again, this maintains the feeling that you're in a real place and not inside some game. For example, I once played Dark Age of Camelot and left a castle only to realize that I went out the wrong entrance. Well rather than go back thru the castle which had a lot of twists and turns and was easy to get lost in it, I decided to go around the castle. Guess what? I couldn't. The ONLY way to get to the other side of the castle was THRU it. There was this invisible wall that just kept you from going around the castle. In WoW, if you want, you can go around the castle for the most part. Ever try swimming out into the ocean? There is no invisible barrier stopping you from doing it. What happens is that the further you get away from shore you start to tire. When you get tired enough you stop swimming and drown. This is pretty close to what you would expect to happen if you actually tried swimming across the ocean. There are a few places where you just can't get because it's too steep or whatever, but again, it's kept to a minimum.
8) Humor. Blizzard has never forgotten that this is a game and it should be fun. There are plenty of just silly, stupid or entertaining things to do like fishing contests, the brewfest that is going on now and stuff like that. Ever just sit and listen to some of the conversations that townsfolks have? They are very entertaining.
1) Low hardware requirements
2) No death penalty.
3) Moderately easy to level up.
4) Simple UI and easy to understand.
5) Lots of advertising and previous successful games.
1. Blizzard name
2. Blizzard name
....69. Blizzard name
70. Easy
71. Polish
72. Low system requirements
The combat system and animations - they've got it almost perfect. The game feels really smooth to play, as opposed to most other MMOG's that seem not to sync properly with animations and combat.
Content is amazing the first time you play WoW, you love the new NPCs to kill, the new zones to enter and the professions are nice too.
-iCeh
1) Blizzard name
2) Overhyped even before release
3) Blizzard name, and their spenditure or advertisment before release
4) No xp death penalty (directly copied from AC2)
5) No character creation at screen -- only appearance (directly copied from AC2)
6) Spammed with thousands of quests (directly copied from AC2)
7) Heavily solo oriented. Solo is more rewarded until end-game then grouping. (directly copied from AC2)
8) Very easy gameplay, if you die until level 20 you should be ashamed (directly copied from AC2)
9) World divided into zones, some are contested some are safe for faction controlling it (directly copied from AC2)
10) Addictive PVP with no real meaning other then accumulating points and ranking (directly copied from AC2)
11) Overhyped Blizzard name and huge adv campaign before release (did I mention that already? )
12) Silly cartoony graphics that can run any computer (directly cop.. err this isnt. this is unique! )
REALITY CHECK
Well I have to agree with you here on the launch timing. EQ2 Had launched and some changes they made to the game early in its release upset alot of players,then at the same time SWG was all messed up with players upset,this plus the fact Blizzard already had a huge following was the perfect release he he.By the way this has got to be the best Signature SWG is dead I have ever seen LOL .
Mass marketing and that is it. (Mainly the 6-7million The9 Chinese subscribers).
Nothing to do with gameplay as it is not original, or innovative in any way and fails to make any innovative changes as the game progresses. Even after an expansion the game has done nothing but repeat itself and is now continuing to do it again with a new expansion making BC content worthless.
As stated numerously and specifically,
Reasons #1: The Blizzard name, particularly in the Asian market. I'm sure the Korean market share alone blows out the American market. If not now, at release. Name alone did that. Never mind a great product, polished etc. Other mmorpg companies have an inherent disadvantage. It didnt' matter that wow was a good game or not. Or at least at release.
I have to agree with you on #5
Blizzard Seriously needs to fix the crafting system.
Craft Skills such as alchemy, Cooking, Fishing,Mining,Engineering, Herbalist, ect. Should all be Secondary skills in World Of Warcraft. Here is why, the reason is because Tailor/Enhcnating actually gets to do two different crafts in the game, now black smithing/mining you get stuck with only one job in world of warcraft, which in my opinion is totaly unfair.
Alchemy should be secondary, as well as engineering, because these are all commonly used items by other classes, and ect.
Also I think the way all the other mmorpg's are doing out there, they always screw them up 90% of the time, such as making you have to buy the expansions all the time, they release like EQ 1, EQ2, ect. and you loose all your hard work, and wasted money, as well as other games that constantly raise the level cap, and screw over others, and keep nerfing, changing the way the game origionally was, such as lineage 2, it was great at first, but they completely screwed the game up, and they will most likely do the same with Aion, and ect.
Also another thing wow is good at compared to other mmorpg's you do not have to sit down for 15 Minutes for mana, and you got HP/MP potions unlike some games like LIneage 2, Final Fantasy XI you get stuck down waiting for mana, and Lineage 2 there are only HP pots, + 5-10 mins wait for mana to regen, which is very lame.
"Very easy gameplay...copied"...come on!
Take the Magic: The Gathering 'What Color Are You?' Quiz.
"Very easy gameplay...copied"...come on!
Not really. AC2 was first one with very easy gameplay. No xp penalty on death. In AC2 when you died your body moved to nearest graveyard and that was it. It was first one that was very solo-friendly. Until AC2 games were very group oriented, AC2 had tons of solo quests and had those very modern quest hubs. Those were all ideas in AC2 that are used in modern games wow including. And it died, so im sure people are NOT playing WoW for only those factors. They are playing it, mainly simply because its Blizzard printed on it and because of the HUGE adv campaign before release.
REALITY CHECK
Makes me wonder, how they copied something that doesnt exist. And those other listed AC2 "similarities", if you would take a little look at them you would realize how stupid they sound."Very easy gameplay...copied"...come on!
Advertising does not make millions pay every month to play the game.. it gets people interested but if the game stinks they wont resub no matter how much adversiting is going on... so this point that Wow is only as big as it is due to advertising is a joke.. I tried marmite once cus of an ad on TV.. and I WONT TRY IT AGAIN. Yuck.Not really. AC2 was first one with very easy gameplay. No xp penalty on death. In AC2 when you died your body moved to nearest graveyard and that was it. It was first one that was very solo-friendly. Until AC2 games were very group oriented, AC2 had tons of solo quests and had those very modern quest hubs. Those were all ideas in AC2 that are used in modern games wow including. And it died, so im sure people are NOT playing WoW for only those factors. They are playing it, mainly simply because its Blizzard printed on it and because of the HUGE adv campaign before release.
Look at LOTRO.. loads of advertising (far more than I ever noticed for WoW) and its not pulling in the numbers WoW did (not even close).. so does advertising = huge subs.. absolutly not... does a good game = huge subs... Yes!.
Ofc you dont agree because you honesly beleive WoW stinks but thats just 1 opinion there are 8 million other opinions that are the complete opposite to you.
Muds were had done that for couple years before AC1 was in development.
All games copied off Pong since there based on computer code!!! Some people amaze me.
What WoW did right?
1. They made it fun, gave you alot of different paths to enjoy yourself. Be it Solo, Group, Dungeon, Quest, Grind, Farm, Craft, Sell, Code(interfaces), solo pvp, Group pvp, PvP with purpose, Realm v... i mean faction vs faction combat, small group strategy, medium group strat, zerg strat, it has it all.
2. Runs great, solid game, doesn't require alot of resources, graphic artists for blizzard are incredible.
3. Raised the standard for all future MMOs to stop being so half buttoxed.
4. Added Flying Mounts and did it extremely smoothly. Added Bombs you can throw from flying mounts. Added a city you can seige from doing bombing runs over it.
5. Engineering, Remote control tanks you can battle in little arena's, mechanical pets, silly transporters that can kill you, goblin jumper cables for the druid that misses rez.
6. Group Loot features: Master Loot, Group Loot, Round Robin, Free For All. Auto rolls for class specific gear for specific classes only. This system in WoW is best i've seen implemented. (Edison Might of Invented the Light Bulb, but Tesla Made it Better.)
7. Customer Service: Had to use them twice, and both times i was extremely shocked at how helpful and able they were to help me. Maybe i didn't have one of those issues they couldn't help with, but either way i was pleased.
Right now i'm still playing WoW. Have a different class and race in each BG bracket, on horde and alliance. Its like 8 different pvprpgs in one. and worth the money each month if i never have to grind for another piece of gear or enchant again. Currently Loving 51-60 AV on Ravenholdt Battlegroup as a Tauren Druid. All his gear i got from pvp in AV and AB and i don't feel undergeared in the least or feel a need to continue to dump money or time just to compete in the battleground.
All they need to do is add a lvl 10-19 AV bracket.
Kazer
"Baning Smokers from public places is like baning people from water who like to pee."
I don't care how much it appeals on people that never played MMORPG before, how much they like the cartoony childish graphics made right up for them and the easy gameplay oriented on soloing. If 8 milion people from all subscribers like WoW, we are pretty fucked up, because good games will be in minority from now on and alternative to this mass shit. And god, ..I'm capitalist and republican.
REALITY CHECK
I don't care how much it appeals on people that never played MMORPG before, how much they like the cartoony childish graphics made right up for them and the easy gameplay oriented on soloing. If 8 milion people from all subscribers like WoW, we are pretty fucked up, because good games will be in minority from now on and alternative to this mass shit. And god, ..I'm capitalist and republican.
I started playing WoW about a week after the EU launch.. and it was from a friend recommending it and nothing to do with advertising BTW. So no I dont play something because it popular.... I tried it.. loved it... and still play it... the fact its becomes the biggest subscription MMO does not effect my choice to continue playing it or not.I do however have an IPOD like the masses do.. im sure you dont cus you dont do what the masses do.. what do you have a "Sinjitsu MP3 player" (made up product) just because its not popular and not becuase it a better product than an IPOD?
You do BTW follow masses on these forum posting when ever possible your hatred (lets face it.. its evay and geliously) for WoW and the typical "WoW stole/copied" comments.
I am sorry AC2 flopped (never played it) but it was obviously not a good game.
I tried WOW, and it was OK. Just not really the type of game i prefer myself, but some of the reasons i think may the reason it is so successful are:
1. You dont need much of a pc to run WOW. Even on a dated and slow machine with on board graphics, they game will run ok. This brings in even more people to play that dont really have the machine to play other games.
2. Some players simply dont want to explore or take the time to and find things for themselves. WOW does a good job at holding your hand and leading you where you need to go. (which brings in alot of younger players or even casual)
3. Advertising. Even if you don't play it, who hasn't heard of it?
Course this doesn't apply to everyone obviously, but im sure there a quite a few that play for at least 1 of the reasons. The only bad thing i can say about the game though, is some of the community, or at least when i played for a short time. Lots of leet kiddies about. :-/ though, there were a few really cool peeps i met as well