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what makes WoW so good
deadlydog5
Member Posts: 95
just wondering because it has the most subscribers, ive never played it before so i wouldnt know
Heroes are born but legends never die
Comments
It does have the most subscribers but not by the massive margin that most people imagine it does. nearly 6 million of it's subscribers are in Asia; their EU and US subscriptions total around 4.5 million but a lot of those are thought to be multiples (one person owning 2+ accounts); still way more than most other MMO's though.
It's success is based on a lot of things:
1. Polished gameplay, not too many game-breaking bugs in it's history.
2. Low system requirements. No problems playing it on an older PC.
3. IP. Warcraft was a very recognisable IP prior to the MMO.
4. Timing. It was released at a point in time where there really wasn't much competition for a fantasy-based game of the type; which drew it a lot of subscriptions.
5. Features + Content. It has PvE for the casual and the hardcore, as well as PvP for the casual and hardcore. It also has a lot of voluntary grinds that assuage the hardcore players by giving them something to do that doesn't really do much for them except allow them to work towards a goal with all their free time. One example is the wintersaber mount; purely a status thing, it wasn't faster than a normal epic mount, but people did the grinds because they had the time.
6. Fun. Although many people will say otherwise, WoW IS fun. The quests and humour are all entertaining, the learning curve isn't steep when getting to grips with the classes and abilities.
it plays on this: 2.4 Ghz, 256 MB Ram, 64 MB VRAM and it plays like a game. And having free advertising+fanbase of battlenet games, the blizzard reputation of releasing finished games didn't hurt.
PS: search while it's complete uttter crappy bullshit that barely works would likely turn something up for this.
I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.
Changed it to 1ghz because my sisters antique Compaq plays it with that CPU, the same amount of ram and a 1st generation Gforce.
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
also how many people can 1 server hold and is there a server switch and nation/race possible?
Heroes are born but legends never die
Pretty much nailed it..
Its not that great though if you like the old school feel
You can pay to switch servers if you want to ($25 to switch, and a 3 month wait last I knew to move the toon again)
Nation/race, if you mean can you switch between factions on a single character in game, no. Horde is Horde, Alliance is Alliance. If you meant switching from an EU/Asian server to a US server and vise versa, im not sure.
There are 3 types of people in the world.
1.) Those who make things happen
2.) Those who watch things happen
3.) And those who wonder "What the %#*& just happened?!"
50millions usd for advertising makes it "so good"
It has been marketed to the masses very well. It is also very simple to get started in, they have opened a new market for MMORPG games. The amount of people I randomly heard and still hear talking about their level in WoW or whatever, and there are loads of them, none of them would have played MMORPGs, or not many of 'em anyway.
That has made it such a success, not the fact that it the best ever mmo.
marketed to the masses and playable by them.
I find it amazing that by 2020 first world countries will be competing to get immigrants.
The Art of WoW is the best I've ever seen for an mmorpg. Yes, its cartoony, but that was a deliberate choice. The use of color is awesome. The really did a great job setting the mood of each region, as soon as you enter it. Blizzard put together a very good art team, which isn't cheap, but it paid of in spades.
The Animation is amazingly sweet, which is kind of rare in video games. It seems all too often that game animation takes a backseat to eye candy. Except, when this move clunky, it really takes away from teh game. Look at the griphins of everquest 2...its like I am flying a stuffed animal. The ones in WoW are fluid in their motions, lots of secondary stuff going on too, like their feet moviing, etc. amazing attention to detail.
and as someone stated, it was really targeted to people who've never really played mmo's. Up until WoW's success, our genre was basically a niche, as ganes were a bit unforgiving. No save menu, no reset button. WoW is simplistic to a fault, but people like it. It does amuyse me to listen to people brag how uber they are in a game where they suffer no penalty for screwing up. Make no mistake, if you sit on your ass long enough, you will make lvl 70. Because people like to feel good about themselves and not like a failure, wow's feel good gameplay is appealing to people who'd previously tried mmo's and felt them too unforgiving.
Frank 'Spankybus' Mignone
www.spankybus.com
-3d Artist & Compositor
-Writer
-Professional Amature
I wrote a article on what I think that Blizzard did right and did wrong with WoW. See it HERE
Torrential
Torrential: DAOC (Pendragon)
Awned: World of Warcraft (Lothar)
Torren: Warhammer Online (Praag)
The Animation is amazingly sweet, which is kind of rare in video games. It seems all too often that game animation takes a backseat to eye candy. Except, when this move clunky, it really takes away from teh game. Look at the griphins of everquest 2...its like I am flying a stuffed animal.
Comparing the WoW graphics to EQ2 graphics is like comparing Looney Toons to Transformers - not even close. WoW definitely requires a greater suspension of disbelief than EQ because really, nothing looks like it would 'really look'.
Getting back to the original question, though, the main thing that Wizard did right was release their game roughly at the same time that EQ2 was coming out. SOE foolishly rubberstamped players leaving their market leader (not counting Lineage - I mean western games) to try the 'next generation' by making EQ2. WoW, because it was more polished and easier to get into and released earlier grabbed the lion's share of those EQ players, then using word of mouth and easier gold farmering grew their game.
1. Larger original player base. gleaned from SOE's and Origin's work. Where Sony went from 50K subscribers to 400K. Blizzard increasing their subscriber base 8 fold got them from 300K to 2.4 million.
2. Lower entry requirements
3, Improved gold farming
4. Widespread access to high speed internet through cable, with lower cost. WoW came along after the death of dial up modems and AOL type ISP's. Cable allowed a kid or husband to play WoW while Mom surfed the internet on the same connection, or even better, the whole famility to play WoW together.
Had WoW been released in 1999, it probably wouldn't have done significantly better than EQ, AC, UO or DAoC.
One thing why I think they are succesful is because of the graphics. Have you seen a baby look at a something really bright like and orange longer than looking at something dark? I think its basicly the same concept. They have colorful graphics to keep your mind happy longer. One thing I liked about the game was the variety of items that you could get. I got a sword and shiled that no one else had, and i felt cool because it look cool lol.
Who says its good? Certainly not me. I think a more appropriate question is - what makes it so popular? That's the big question. Actually, I think I already know why.
If WOW came out at the same time as UO, EQ, ect, people wouldn't know what those other games even were. They would be what A Tale in the Desert is now.
The level of polish & detail alone puts those games to shame 10 fold. You think anyone playing EQ back then, with the horrible down time, forced grouping and 10 hr boss camping sessions would even get played, when people could do the same thing in WOW in a more stream lined and fun environment? You think people would even touch UO or AC with all their tech problems?
WOW is what it is because of all the games before it. Its an evolution of the genre. It really couldn't exist back then because the features in WOW are what they are because of all the mistakes other developers made and Blizzard improved upon.
Stick a million people in front of Doom and Crysis or COD4 and guess which one they're NOT going to play. We're not even taking graphics.
10 Million people and every professional critic. Actually they describe it as excellent or outstanding=) Its popular because its better than good. Quite simple actually.
pfsss how can you say that WoW has good graphics? the gameplay is good and u spend endless raiding or pvp time at it. but the graphics isnt too impressive. im a former WoW player and i hope AoC sets a new standard of mmo's. long live AoC!
WoW came out at a time when there was not really much out there. WoW had a large following of fans from the years of PC games and B-games. For me, WoW is way to unbalanced, to gear based / item based, to be the best on WoW takes massive hours of play. Most of the best PvPers on WoW would suck on an mmo that has balance since they hide behind gear. I would not play WoW if it was free for life.
10 Million people and every professional critic. Actually they describe it as excellent or outstanding=) Its popular because its better than good. Quite simple actually.
Are we going to get in to a debate about what popularity represents? Nazism was popular, drug addiction is popular, the spice girls are popular, teenage pregnancy is popular.... WoW was and is a game aimed at the masses, it's that simple. It is aimed at your average teenager, it's not complex, it's not challenging and it's easy to get in to. Tick, tick, tick.
10 Million people and every professional critic. Actually they describe it as excellent or outstanding=) Its popular because its better than good. Quite simple actually.
Are we going to get in to a debate about what popularity represents? Nazism was popular, drug addiction is popular, the spice girls are popular, teenage pregnancy is popular.... WoW was and is a game aimed at the masses, it's that simple. It is aimed at your average teenager, it's not complex, it's not challenging and it's easy to get in to. Tick, tick, tick.
I think you are responding to one of the masses so you will never be able to convince him otherwise. Leveling in no time, soloing all the way to the top, cartoonish graphics. These are not characteristics I would describe as being a great MMORPG. But hey, if it works for you, I'm happy for you.
Personally, I think it's because WoW is the most solo friendly game on the market. Compared to any other MMO out there, WoW has more solo content, better quality solo content, better rewards for soloing and the best xp curve for soloers hands down. While soloing is still second class to other play styles within WoW, such as groupers / raiders, it's still much more preferable to the hellish grinds, crappy rewards and low quality solo content and the outright hatred players and developers show towards soloers that is found in every other MMO out there currently.
With PvE raiding, it has never been a question of being "good enough". I play games to have fun, not to be a simpering toady sitting through hour after hour of mind numbing boredom and fawning over a guild master in the hopes that he will condescend to reward me with shiny bits of loot. But in games where those people get the highest progression, anyone who doesn't do that will just be a moving target for them and I'll be damned if I'm going to pay money for the privilege. - Neanderthal
World of Warcraft is similar to the Wii. The Wii brought gaming to the typical non-gamers: children, parents, and the elderly. World of Warcraft brought subscription based MMOs to non-MMORPG players. The game is Extremely easy to get into, however, it is hard to master. The end-game content requires time, coordination,skill, and gear. Only around 2% of it's population actually clears all the end-game raiding content before new content is released (this number may have risen or fallen a few points in the last couple of months.) The game was originally pve centered and its patches in many ways still put an emphasis on pve, but its pvp is also very complex to master. Not everything is decided by gear and for those people that think that it is, they are just speculating blindly. Some of the best pvpers in the game came from other mmorpgs such as DAOC and lineage 2.
World of Warcraft is a very good game and has been keeping veterans of MMOs occupied for years. Of course it is a grind, but what mmorpg is not a grind? People want to see results for their time spent playing and world of warcraft has many. It defintely is not a sand-box which turns away many people but it is extremely polished and is run by a great company.
Some of the drawbacks to the game are the community which has reached a point where so many people know so much, they need an ego check. Also, the pvp, while constantly being tweaked, focuses only being balanced at level 70 (max level) and is a rock/paper/scissor format. The game also focuses on being balanced in terms of arena pvp (2v2,3v3,5v5). This can have negative effects on world pvp and people not yet level 70. Another drawback is the content of the game. Blizzard releases content in the game which simple replaces old content. So when the expansion came out, many people stopped going to certain areas and raids. This leaves new players a plethora of unseen content that will never be seen because people do not want to raid a level 60 endgame instance when they can be raiding a level 70 instance for better gear.
I know ive missed many points about it being good and bad but i hope i gave you some insight.
All and all, i found the game enjoyable and i had many good moments. I can also understand why people would not like the game. Do what I do and give all mmorpgs you find interesting a shot. Eventually you will find the one that you want to waste your money on :P
Nothing, it is absolutely average. People relate to average and like average. Strive for the best bah, we got mediocre. That is WoW for ya.
WoW is so good because it changed just enough about MMOs to make them... FUN.
It is so large because it is one of the first MMOs where long time MMO players could invite their non-mmo friends to try it and they actually could play it and have... fun.
It didn't use the design method of punish players with long boring grinds as a way of prolonging subscription time. Instead they designed the game from the ground up to be entertaining, something people often confuse with being "easy".
The game was just made right for lack of a better term. WoW had its growing pains, but everything the devs do is about making fun first.
It wasn't about some mythical 50 million dollars in advertising. The game came out when there was a deep desire for something new (which there usually is every few years) and it was good enough that it finally attracted those people who resisted getting into MMOs, because they didn't think sitting in one spot of a dungeon for 8 hours hoping a named mob would spawn was fun.
From the little bits of humor, to the well crafted story lines, to the ease of understanding the game mechanics everything seems designed to make playing enjoyable. It caters to just about every type of player with a large degree of success.
First off, you can't deny WoW is a great game. It has amazing design, art, few bugs, stable servers(right now anyway) and its beautifully crafted.
The reason its so successfull? Take the idea of a massive world. Now take that idea and polish it. Add to it the above statements. What happens from then is that vets will tell their buddies 'hey you should join me in this game, its fun." and then those buddies, will tell their buddies.
I got into WoW on word of mouth from a friend of mine, even went to the same server as he did. Around that time you have to understand I never got my chance to play Everquest and I had always heard about it. I viewed WoW as my first 'serious' mmo. Anyway though, the best way to understand is to play it.