Too many factors to list that make WOW the success that it is. Might want to go check any of the dozen or so threads on this same topic previously opened and review.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
The Farmville effect, Itsvery family Friendly,In my Guild alone there are like 6 girls 3 are grand Ma's and like 15 people over the age of 40 oldest being 59
I think the same way most people on here do, and that is that WoW is fun and easily accessable. It's a good game that everyone can play. From the hardcore " I earn my epics cause I'm uber leet, I don't take welfare epics" D-bags that probably spend the entire day on WoW, to the business guy that works 9-5 and still has a family to take care of that may only have time for an hour or two a day. From school kids to the elderly anyone can play the game no matter what their schedule is like.
What I would like to know is why so many people hate it? I always hear some wacked out conspiracy theories about Blizzard that just sometimes make me regret even trying mmos in the first place. From WoW being designed by blizzard to brainwash you, to Other companies not being able to put out a decent mmo because of blizzard , not sure how that's their fault.
Honestly I didn't like mmos at first. The only RPG's I saw at the time where all turn based and boring. The first mmo I played was Coh. Growing up I was a comic geek so the idea of a superhero game where I could make my own hero sounded appealing. My wife actually wanted to try it out before I did and she never liked comics, so I decided to give it a shot too. But then when I got to 50 on my scrapper and saw that there litterally was no end game content in Coh I decided to try WoW.
Two years later and I'm still playing it. And I'm always open to other games. I got 3 F2P games on my comp right now that I'm trying out. But WoW is easy to pick up and it's fun. But I'll never understand why there is so much hate from mmo players especially when it comes to WoW.
Oh yeah, and it's the only game I've played where if you have a problem you can call tech support and get a friendly and pretty honest person to help you solve your problem. When they first started talking about the battle net merger there were many rumors in my then guild that because they were going to do that it would be easier for illegal gold farmers to hack your account and that bilzzed was doing it just for that reason. So I called them up and asked if they planned to go through with the merger and he told me it most likely will happen. This was when it was just a rumor and they wouldn't give a yes or no on the forums. Yet all I had to do was call tech support and ask and he told me the truth. Also, since then I haven't been hacked like my old guild said I would.
Well designed from top to bottom, intutitve & it caters to everyone, casual & hardcore. Critics and fans agree that Its just a fun game. Advertising doesn't sell subscriptions, just a trial or a box. Only a good game sells subscriptions and subs are all that matters when it comes to MMOs. The more people playing means you're doing something right.
Blizzard took many concepts of it's predicessors, and worked them together in a neat little package, removing many elements that could be considered tedious. WoW is extremely easy to learn and get into, and provides a lot of instant gratification along the way. It offers a myriad of different game elements to interest many different play styles. It's stylized art allows it to be decent looking without requiring an over the top PC to run. It's built ontop of a very popular IP, with a popular developer name supporting it.
Of course, just like most anything mainstream, it suffers from a lot of things because of it's design.
Some of the elements that some would consider 'tedious', actually added more depth and/or challenge to games when done properly. The lack of these things makes the game more bland in the long run.
The extremely easy learning curve has resulted in a lot of problems in endgame where skill actually does matter in a group setting, resulting in a lot of headaches for players all around.
The setup of the instant gratification system starts to show it's true nature. It's a neverending treadmill of gear grinding. While gear is thrown towards players for little more than repeating the same menial content over and over again, the only way to keep them playing in the long run is to release a new tier of treadmilled content that makes the previous tier irrelevant -- and in many cases older tiers completely skippable. The BiS today, is tommorows skipped content, and falls into complete neglect.
Because WoW offers many different avenues of playstyle progression, it also masters none. By focusing on so many different things, and trying to balance both PvP and PvE at once, on several different levels for each as well, causes a lot of problems. Achieving balance means making classes more hymogenized and bland, as making unique abilities for a class with a PvP or PvE intent, can unbalance things on the other side. Furthermore, havign the focus spread out on so many different things also generally causes most aspects of the game to lack much of any depth. As the saying goes, jack of all trades, master of none.
The draw of the very popular IP has also dragged in the worst of the gamer crowd as well. Many gamers never played MMOs because they never saw the need. They were mostly solo gamers, or small group gamers. As such, the concept of a large open community in a persistent game world had little appeal. many of these people now play WoW, and their attitudes drag the game community down.
Furthermore, the over popularity of Blizzard has created an overabundance of "fanboys" who rabidly defend the company against any criticism. This, coupled with the fact that the majority of WoW's players have never played another MMO, has resulted in a culture of ignorance. As such, many players simply accept many of the shortcomings of the game as they simply don't realize that there are alternatives.
So yes, while WoW may be quite popular due to it's mainstream design and allure, that doesn't necessarily make it the best.
Because a lot of people find it an enjoyable experience.
+1! Classic! Using the definition as the reason!
'How did our main tank die?!' 'He ran out of hit points.'
That is exactly right, and we're not saying NO to save WoW, because it is already a lost cause. We are saying NO to dissuade the next group of greedy suits who decide to emulate Blizzard and Cryptic, etc. We can prevent some of the future games from spewing this crap, but the sooner we start saying no, the better the results will be. So - Stand up, pull up your pants, and walk away. - MMO_Doubter
I know some people who play(ed) WoW, and that is the only PC game they have ever played. The reason for them playing it was that the subsciption to fun ratio beat out most things you can do in real life. For example, you can go see a movie and buy popcorn for the same amount you are going to pay for WoW in one months time. WoW served as very cheap entertainment, very similiar to television. In fact, they would watch television/a movie and play WoW at the same time, if they were not too much into a WoW raid/quest. So, very cheap entertainment for the masses would attract numerous people. Very cheap food for the masses does the same thing. WoW also easily offers a sense of achievement via leveling, completing quests, gainting loot, etc. This sense of achievement can be tapped into again and again for a rather low price to entertainment ratio.
WoW's success boils down to a few things. Timing being one of them. The popularity of the Warcraft RTS series being another.
When WoW was released there was a good portion of the MMO population who was sick of pointless grinding in MMO's. Take for example FFXI and the hours on end of chaining mobs for XP. The irony of all this is most likely, the same people who were sick of the grind when WoW released are the ones who spend a majority of the time complaining how dumbed down WoW is..
Really, Blizzard just had a magic formula and got it out at the right time. Popular IP, heavy capital investment into the project, and good timing. That's what got it to take off.
How it stays popular is simple. They listen to their customers, and watch the market. New features that up and coming MMO's gloat about simply get patched into WoW before the competition has a chance to release. Then you have the situation where a new game has to launch and compete with a game that has almost 7 years of code maturity behind it and sporting most if not all of the same features of the new guy.
You gotta beat Blizzard on Blizzards terms. Right now I see three games with enough potential to do it at release, or in one case simply beat them in the long run.
Bioware is essentially in the same position that Blizzard was in when they released WoW. Given a solid launch, that game may very well reach a WoW-esque magnitude and who knows, in a few years surpass it.
Ryzom going open source is huge IMO. The open source comminuty now has it's hands on an MMO infrastructure arguably as good and matured as Blizzards. This means that significantly less overhead is required in production of an MMO, and the foundation it is built upon can be periodically updated with the latest core for improved graphics, security etc..
EVE just keeps getting bigger. If Dust514 actually takes place on the planets in Tranquility, and walking in stations does happen, I can see EVE beating WoW in a tortise/hare fashion.
Personally I can't see ever condeming Blizzard or WoW. It truly was revolutionary for the genre. The problem now is after almost 7 years live, just about everybody has been there and done that... twice.. maybe three times or more...
I think WoW is nearing the end of it's lifecycle. But the simple fact is that there are 11.5 million or so peole giving Blizzard $15 a month, so that end of life cycle may draw out a bit longer than in your average MMO, because WoW simply isn't your average MMO.. it's WoW.
"If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse." - Henry Ford
These things ebb and flow. MMO's are in a downturn right now, while people focus on intant gratification type of things, which explains WoW, and these insanely retarded Facebook games.
Soon, the bottom of the market will fall out, people will scratch their heads and wonder why people turned away from Facebook games, and then MMO's will make resurgence.
But for now, we're stuck with WoW, Facebook, and tons of FPS games. Grin and bear it. Things will level out. They always do.
Originally posted by Nytakito WoW's success boils down to a few things. Timing being one of them. The popularity of the Warcraft RTS series being another. When WoW was released there was a good portion of the MMO population who was sick of pointless grinding in MMO's. Take for example FFXI and the hours on end of chaining mobs for XP. The irony of all this is most likely, the same people who were sick of the grind when WoW released are the ones who spend a majority of the time complaining how dumbed down WoW is.. Really, Blizzard just had a magic formula and got it out at the right time. Popular IP, heavy capital investment into the project, and good timing. That's what got it to take off. ...
I disagree, the RTS introduced a core audience, but that didn't lead to its own massive success. They're 2 different genres and there really isn't much of a link between the two aside from lore and setting, which both do not make up gameplay (at least in terms of mechanics). Gameplay is obviously very different between RTS and RPG.
To be honest, I think the game with the most potential to blow up is the Warhammer 40k MMO. The formula is actually more similar than to what you mentioned about Bioware (which I believe are more dissimilar than you think). I mean look at it, Blizzard normally created RTS's and decided to explore MMO's without too much experience about them under their belt.
THQ is a company that mainly made RTS's and aer now exploring MMO's with no experience as well. I can see something fresh and new and THQ is pretty good on delivering. Follow that with the huge following and community that the IP has and I think you'll have much of what Blizzard had years ago, but today the competition is much stiffer. AT least Warhammer 40k is exploring more or less, unexplored territory (not traditional fantasy).
Bioware isn't going to do as well with the game because I think mmuch of what has been shown is basically KOTR online, many of us have yet to see more of the online/multiplayer aspects of the game like how communities are going to interact together outside of 2 player shared dialogue etc. EVE Online is very niche at this point and has always been the slow and steady type. Not an explosive game, which isn't entirely bad, but not going to match WoW anytime soon. Ryzom is about as niche if not even mroe so than EVE Online wtih a much smaller community.
I'll put my money on Warhammer 40k as the next biggest thing. (No I'm not a big fan of the IP or anything, it just has mnore potential for outside-the-box thinking and resembles WoW's success in many ways and falls into a different category/setting i.e. less competition).
Why is WoW so popular? . Look at this thread. There are probably other WoW topics in the forum today. . See for yourself why it generates so much buzz. . WoW has a ten day free trial.
1. It built on Blizzard's existing games and reputation; that is, it already had a large following and fan base;
2. It produced a polished product;
3. It marketed itself and was distributed worldwide, as opposed to merely the U.S. and Europe;
4. It appealed to both Western and Asian gamers;
5. It tapped the casual gaming market, which we now know is huge (that also would include children, as a poster below correctly points out);
6. The game can run on a very modest computer, making the potential market even larger;
7. Other companies that could have been major rivals dropped the ball (shout out to Smedley and McQuaid here);
8. The timing was right; i.e., people were looking for something new;
9. It has kept pace by adding additional content and expansions;
10. Once the game became a success, people brought in their friends, who brought in their friends, and it snowballed;
11. It did something few games before or since have been able to do, which is a new player can "catch up" instead of languishing in perpetual noobdom if they weren't there from the beginning;
12. Blizzard is kind of like the borg. Anytime another game has a cool feature Blizzard finds a way to assimilate it into their game, so you ususally don't have to go somewhere else to get whatever it is.
13. It's customizable and players can mod;
14. The financial success has allowed Blizzard to fix problems in these games that other companies have struggled to correct; e.g., when gold spam became a problem they attacked that aggressively (they haven't fixed gold sales, sadly, but the spam is way down);
15. The game is now so large and has so much content and so many features it is hard for a new game to compete;
16. It offers almost every major game feature a game can have except player housing; i.e., it has PvE, Crafting, PvP, etc.
17. It can afford advertising that other companies can't;
18. It benefitted hugely from word of mouth both before and after launch;
19. A lot of games have been made since that were absolute shit;
20. And there are enjoyable aspects to the game itself.
Those I think are some of the major reasons. As some of you know, I am more an old school gamer but I did play WoW for 3 years. I despise its play on rails easy mode nature, but there is no denying its success.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
2. Highly optimized code, so runs very smoothly, animations are very fluid, responsive, and positive
3. Simple class structure and game mechanics
4. Enough player freedom and choice so players do not feel forced or frustrated or like they are "playing on rails"
That's about it. ANY new MMO doing at least all of the above has a chance at some market share, IMO. Problem is, some of the recent major MMO's miss out on all four of those points, especially 2 and 4.
Now, you might be thinking, "What social network?"
Battle.net of course. They had MILLIONS of people online from all over the world just chatting away, not even playing one of their games. Blizzard's marketing guy is a genius because they're about to merge Battle.net with another large social network: Facebook
.
So Blizzard tricked us? And all this time I thought I was playing because it was fun. Curse you Blizzard!
Yes, because we are lemmings running off the cliff...
But wait, if we are mindless and susceptable to such things, then we would agree with everyone about everything? That's why I agree with Blizzard, yet I agree with Rune666. WAIT! Now I am conflicted. I am so confused.....
Actually I play what I find fun, my wife plays what she finds fun, and my children play what they find fun. We find WOW fun. And I also play EVE. Just because you don't find it fun or worthwhile is no sweat off my back.
I could care less what you eat on a daily basis, or if you are breathing or not. I do what I want to do, and if that is to play WOW, then so be it. We can complain about the numbers, we can create conspiracy theories.
But in the end, what do you care what I do with my finances, time and entertainment time? You don't, possibly you haven't come to grips with the idea that you may be burned out on MMOs and your mind/body is trying to tell you to get a new hobby.
WOW is popular because they found something that the gerenal MMO gaming populace of earth agree on. Just because you are a minority and that bothers you, again, is no sweat off my back.
Because it is simply much higher quality and offers far more content than any other MMO on the market...
I love all of the conspiracy theorists on these forums. WoW would not be as successful as it is if it was not a thoroughly enjoyable game. Blizzard took every element they felt worked well in prior MMOs and implemented them in WoW better than any other game had done before. They also removed every element from other games that people tended to find annoying. Blizzard is just outstanding at making games and WoW is no exception. It is a great game. It might not be my cup of tea anymore, but I will give credit where credit is due. No other MMO can touch WoW in terms of quantity of content and quality of execution...
Because Blizzard has known intimately what players want and how to entertain them.
There are so many things to do that it literally take years to do them all.
And they balance difficulties perfectly. Raiding & PvP are accessible to almost everyone (there are still those who do not raid) but difficult enough (hard modes) to challenge the best guilds.
WOW is not pretentious and pretend it is a virtual world that you need to devote your life into it. <<< THIS is a huge win.
Originally posted by Calind0r For the same reason Lady Gaga is popular. It's mainly popular because of publicity and it just keeps getting popular because it's popular.
Also not every WoW player is an internet savy forum poster...A large amount of them don't even know what EVE, Warhammer or Lineage is.
. WoW players have decided that Eve, AoC and other games are less fun. . You can't keep a good game down. WoW spread by word of mouth. If the games you mentioned were any good, they would spread by word of mouth. . All these games have free trials.
Because they hit at the right time and place and their primary audience aren't previous MMO players, they're normal Joe Blow watching TV and seeing their advertising. They keep bringing people in from the outside rather than trying for the jaded MMO audience that hangs around forums like this one. Their game is easy to learn, easy to pick up and get something done in a short amount of time, it's polished and constantly growing and changing. Most of their audience isn't even aware other MMOs even exist, the entire MMO world for them is WoW.
It's a damn good tactic that has worked wonderfully.
Comments
I would consider farming lock out dungeons, heroic emblems, factions, achievements and Quest stacking over and over and over tedious.
Playing: Rift, LotRO
Waiting on: GW2, BP
yep!ok lets do some world dragon kill!we ll get badge and maybe horde will be around and we ll have fun!wait we cant
there is not sutch thing has badge or reward for those at max level !ho well good thing there is simpson rerun on tv!
Too many factors to list that make WOW the success that it is. Might want to go check any of the dozen or so threads on this same topic previously opened and review.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
The Farmville effect, Itsvery family Friendly,In my Guild alone there are like 6 girls 3 are grand Ma's and like 15 people over the age of 40 oldest being 59
I think the same way most people on here do, and that is that WoW is fun and easily accessable. It's a good game that everyone can play. From the hardcore " I earn my epics cause I'm uber leet, I don't take welfare epics" D-bags that probably spend the entire day on WoW, to the business guy that works 9-5 and still has a family to take care of that may only have time for an hour or two a day. From school kids to the elderly anyone can play the game no matter what their schedule is like.
What I would like to know is why so many people hate it? I always hear some wacked out conspiracy theories about Blizzard that just sometimes make me regret even trying mmos in the first place. From WoW being designed by blizzard to brainwash you, to Other companies not being able to put out a decent mmo because of blizzard , not sure how that's their fault.
Honestly I didn't like mmos at first. The only RPG's I saw at the time where all turn based and boring. The first mmo I played was Coh. Growing up I was a comic geek so the idea of a superhero game where I could make my own hero sounded appealing. My wife actually wanted to try it out before I did and she never liked comics, so I decided to give it a shot too. But then when I got to 50 on my scrapper and saw that there litterally was no end game content in Coh I decided to try WoW.
Two years later and I'm still playing it. And I'm always open to other games. I got 3 F2P games on my comp right now that I'm trying out. But WoW is easy to pick up and it's fun. But I'll never understand why there is so much hate from mmo players especially when it comes to WoW.
Oh yeah, and it's the only game I've played where if you have a problem you can call tech support and get a friendly and pretty honest person to help you solve your problem. When they first started talking about the battle net merger there were many rumors in my then guild that because they were going to do that it would be easier for illegal gold farmers to hack your account and that bilzzed was doing it just for that reason. So I called them up and asked if they planned to go through with the merger and he told me it most likely will happen. This was when it was just a rumor and they wouldn't give a yes or no on the forums. Yet all I had to do was call tech support and ask and he told me the truth. Also, since then I haven't been hacked like my old guild said I would.
Well designed from top to bottom, intutitve & it caters to everyone, casual & hardcore. Critics and fans agree that Its just a fun game. Advertising doesn't sell subscriptions, just a trial or a box. Only a good game sells subscriptions and subs are all that matters when it comes to MMOs. The more people playing means you're doing something right.
WoW is the epitome of mainstream.
Blizzard took many concepts of it's predicessors, and worked them together in a neat little package, removing many elements that could be considered tedious. WoW is extremely easy to learn and get into, and provides a lot of instant gratification along the way. It offers a myriad of different game elements to interest many different play styles. It's stylized art allows it to be decent looking without requiring an over the top PC to run. It's built ontop of a very popular IP, with a popular developer name supporting it.
Of course, just like most anything mainstream, it suffers from a lot of things because of it's design.
Some of the elements that some would consider 'tedious', actually added more depth and/or challenge to games when done properly. The lack of these things makes the game more bland in the long run.
The extremely easy learning curve has resulted in a lot of problems in endgame where skill actually does matter in a group setting, resulting in a lot of headaches for players all around.
The setup of the instant gratification system starts to show it's true nature. It's a neverending treadmill of gear grinding. While gear is thrown towards players for little more than repeating the same menial content over and over again, the only way to keep them playing in the long run is to release a new tier of treadmilled content that makes the previous tier irrelevant -- and in many cases older tiers completely skippable. The BiS today, is tommorows skipped content, and falls into complete neglect.
Because WoW offers many different avenues of playstyle progression, it also masters none. By focusing on so many different things, and trying to balance both PvP and PvE at once, on several different levels for each as well, causes a lot of problems. Achieving balance means making classes more hymogenized and bland, as making unique abilities for a class with a PvP or PvE intent, can unbalance things on the other side. Furthermore, havign the focus spread out on so many different things also generally causes most aspects of the game to lack much of any depth. As the saying goes, jack of all trades, master of none.
The draw of the very popular IP has also dragged in the worst of the gamer crowd as well. Many gamers never played MMOs because they never saw the need. They were mostly solo gamers, or small group gamers. As such, the concept of a large open community in a persistent game world had little appeal. many of these people now play WoW, and their attitudes drag the game community down.
Furthermore, the over popularity of Blizzard has created an overabundance of "fanboys" who rabidly defend the company against any criticism. This, coupled with the fact that the majority of WoW's players have never played another MMO, has resulted in a culture of ignorance. As such, many players simply accept many of the shortcomings of the game as they simply don't realize that there are alternatives.
So yes, while WoW may be quite popular due to it's mainstream design and allure, that doesn't necessarily make it the best.
+1! Classic! Using the definition as the reason!
'How did our main tank die?!' 'He ran out of hit points.'
That is exactly right, and we're not saying NO to save WoW, because it is already a lost cause. We are saying NO to dissuade the next group of greedy suits who decide to emulate Blizzard and Cryptic, etc.
We can prevent some of the future games from spewing this crap, but the sooner we start saying no, the better the results will be.
So - Stand up, pull up your pants, and walk away.
- MMO_Doubter
I know some people who play(ed) WoW, and that is the only PC game they have ever played. The reason for them playing it was that the subsciption to fun ratio beat out most things you can do in real life. For example, you can go see a movie and buy popcorn for the same amount you are going to pay for WoW in one months time. WoW served as very cheap entertainment, very similiar to television. In fact, they would watch television/a movie and play WoW at the same time, if they were not too much into a WoW raid/quest. So, very cheap entertainment for the masses would attract numerous people. Very cheap food for the masses does the same thing. WoW also easily offers a sense of achievement via leveling, completing quests, gainting loot, etc. This sense of achievement can be tapped into again and again for a rather low price to entertainment ratio.
WoW's success boils down to a few things. Timing being one of them. The popularity of the Warcraft RTS series being another.
When WoW was released there was a good portion of the MMO population who was sick of pointless grinding in MMO's. Take for example FFXI and the hours on end of chaining mobs for XP. The irony of all this is most likely, the same people who were sick of the grind when WoW released are the ones who spend a majority of the time complaining how dumbed down WoW is..
Really, Blizzard just had a magic formula and got it out at the right time. Popular IP, heavy capital investment into the project, and good timing. That's what got it to take off.
How it stays popular is simple. They listen to their customers, and watch the market. New features that up and coming MMO's gloat about simply get patched into WoW before the competition has a chance to release. Then you have the situation where a new game has to launch and compete with a game that has almost 7 years of code maturity behind it and sporting most if not all of the same features of the new guy.
You gotta beat Blizzard on Blizzards terms. Right now I see three games with enough potential to do it at release, or in one case simply beat them in the long run.
Bioware is essentially in the same position that Blizzard was in when they released WoW. Given a solid launch, that game may very well reach a WoW-esque magnitude and who knows, in a few years surpass it.
Ryzom going open source is huge IMO. The open source comminuty now has it's hands on an MMO infrastructure arguably as good and matured as Blizzards. This means that significantly less overhead is required in production of an MMO, and the foundation it is built upon can be periodically updated with the latest core for improved graphics, security etc..
EVE just keeps getting bigger. If Dust514 actually takes place on the planets in Tranquility, and walking in stations does happen, I can see EVE beating WoW in a tortise/hare fashion.
Personally I can't see ever condeming Blizzard or WoW. It truly was revolutionary for the genre. The problem now is after almost 7 years live, just about everybody has been there and done that... twice.. maybe three times or more...
I think WoW is nearing the end of it's lifecycle. But the simple fact is that there are 11.5 million or so peole giving Blizzard $15 a month, so that end of life cycle may draw out a bit longer than in your average MMO, because WoW simply isn't your average MMO.. it's WoW.
"If I'd asked my customers what they wanted, they'd have said a faster horse." - Henry Ford
These things ebb and flow. MMO's are in a downturn right now, while people focus on intant gratification type of things, which explains WoW, and these insanely retarded Facebook games.
Soon, the bottom of the market will fall out, people will scratch their heads and wonder why people turned away from Facebook games, and then MMO's will make resurgence.
But for now, we're stuck with WoW, Facebook, and tons of FPS games. Grin and bear it. Things will level out. They always do.
I disagree, the RTS introduced a core audience, but that didn't lead to its own massive success. They're 2 different genres and there really isn't much of a link between the two aside from lore and setting, which both do not make up gameplay (at least in terms of mechanics). Gameplay is obviously very different between RTS and RPG.
To be honest, I think the game with the most potential to blow up is the Warhammer 40k MMO. The formula is actually more similar than to what you mentioned about Bioware (which I believe are more dissimilar than you think). I mean look at it, Blizzard normally created RTS's and decided to explore MMO's without too much experience about them under their belt.
THQ is a company that mainly made RTS's and aer now exploring MMO's with no experience as well. I can see something fresh and new and THQ is pretty good on delivering. Follow that with the huge following and community that the IP has and I think you'll have much of what Blizzard had years ago, but today the competition is much stiffer. AT least Warhammer 40k is exploring more or less, unexplored territory (not traditional fantasy).
Bioware isn't going to do as well with the game because I think mmuch of what has been shown is basically KOTR online, many of us have yet to see more of the online/multiplayer aspects of the game like how communities are going to interact together outside of 2 player shared dialogue etc. EVE Online is very niche at this point and has always been the slow and steady type. Not an explosive game, which isn't entirely bad, but not going to match WoW anytime soon. Ryzom is about as niche if not even mroe so than EVE Online wtih a much smaller community.
I'll put my money on Warhammer 40k as the next biggest thing. (No I'm not a big fan of the IP or anything, it just has mnore potential for outside-the-box thinking and resembles WoW's success in many ways and falls into a different category/setting i.e. less competition).
Why is WoW so popular?
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Look at this thread. There are probably other WoW topics in the forum today.
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See for yourself why it generates so much buzz.
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WoW has a ten day free trial.
Well shave my back and call me an elf! -- Oghren
Peer Pressure.
1. It built on Blizzard's existing games and reputation; that is, it already had a large following and fan base;
2. It produced a polished product;
3. It marketed itself and was distributed worldwide, as opposed to merely the U.S. and Europe;
4. It appealed to both Western and Asian gamers;
5. It tapped the casual gaming market, which we now know is huge (that also would include children, as a poster below correctly points out);
6. The game can run on a very modest computer, making the potential market even larger;
7. Other companies that could have been major rivals dropped the ball (shout out to Smedley and McQuaid here);
8. The timing was right; i.e., people were looking for something new;
9. It has kept pace by adding additional content and expansions;
10. Once the game became a success, people brought in their friends, who brought in their friends, and it snowballed;
11. It did something few games before or since have been able to do, which is a new player can "catch up" instead of languishing in perpetual noobdom if they weren't there from the beginning;
12. Blizzard is kind of like the borg. Anytime another game has a cool feature Blizzard finds a way to assimilate it into their game, so you ususally don't have to go somewhere else to get whatever it is.
13. It's customizable and players can mod;
14. The financial success has allowed Blizzard to fix problems in these games that other companies have struggled to correct; e.g., when gold spam became a problem they attacked that aggressively (they haven't fixed gold sales, sadly, but the spam is way down);
15. The game is now so large and has so much content and so many features it is hard for a new game to compete;
16. It offers almost every major game feature a game can have except player housing; i.e., it has PvE, Crafting, PvP, etc.
17. It can afford advertising that other companies can't;
18. It benefitted hugely from word of mouth both before and after launch;
19. A lot of games have been made since that were absolute shit;
20. And there are enjoyable aspects to the game itself.
Those I think are some of the major reasons. As some of you know, I am more an old school gamer but I did play WoW for 3 years. I despise its play on rails easy mode nature, but there is no denying its success.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
The content in relative terms is very easy to do and complete
Leveling is simple
It is well produced, has very minimal bugs
It gives out almost free epic gear with little time commitment so that the vast majority players have access to everything
Your children can play with you at a relatively high level making it family friendly
1. Runs well on mediocre systems
2. Highly optimized code, so runs very smoothly, animations are very fluid, responsive, and positive
3. Simple class structure and game mechanics
4. Enough player freedom and choice so players do not feel forced or frustrated or like they are "playing on rails"
That's about it. ANY new MMO doing at least all of the above has a chance at some market share, IMO. Problem is, some of the recent major MMO's miss out on all four of those points, especially 2 and 4.
Yes, because we are lemmings running off the cliff...
But wait, if we are mindless and susceptable to such things, then we would agree with everyone about everything? That's why I agree with Blizzard, yet I agree with Rune666. WAIT! Now I am conflicted. I am so confused.....
Actually I play what I find fun, my wife plays what she finds fun, and my children play what they find fun. We find WOW fun. And I also play EVE. Just because you don't find it fun or worthwhile is no sweat off my back.
I could care less what you eat on a daily basis, or if you are breathing or not. I do what I want to do, and if that is to play WOW, then so be it. We can complain about the numbers, we can create conspiracy theories.
But in the end, what do you care what I do with my finances, time and entertainment time? You don't, possibly you haven't come to grips with the idea that you may be burned out on MMOs and your mind/body is trying to tell you to get a new hobby.
WOW is popular because they found something that the gerenal MMO gaming populace of earth agree on. Just because you are a minority and that bothers you, again, is no sweat off my back.
because its easy.
Because it is simply much higher quality and offers far more content than any other MMO on the market...
I love all of the conspiracy theorists on these forums. WoW would not be as successful as it is if it was not a thoroughly enjoyable game. Blizzard took every element they felt worked well in prior MMOs and implemented them in WoW better than any other game had done before. They also removed every element from other games that people tended to find annoying. Blizzard is just outstanding at making games and WoW is no exception. It is a great game. It might not be my cup of tea anymore, but I will give credit where credit is due. No other MMO can touch WoW in terms of quantity of content and quality of execution...
Because it is a polished FUN, and good game.
Because Blizzard has known intimately what players want and how to entertain them.
There are so many things to do that it literally take years to do them all.
And they balance difficulties perfectly. Raiding & PvP are accessible to almost everyone (there are still those who do not raid) but difficult enough (hard modes) to challenge the best guilds.
WOW is not pretentious and pretend it is a virtual world that you need to devote your life into it. <<< THIS is a huge win.
For the same reason Lady Gaga is popular.
It's mainly popular because of publicity and it just keeps getting popular because it's popular.
Also not every WoW player is an internet savy forum poster...A large amount of them don't even know what EVE, Warhammer or Lineage is.
FreeTauren porn?
Moo!
It's better to lurk in forums and be thought a fool...than to endlessly "Quote" and remove all doubts.
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WoW players have decided that Eve, AoC and other games are less fun.
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You can't keep a good game down. WoW spread by word of mouth. If the games you mentioned were any good, they would spread by word of mouth.
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All these games have free trials.
Well shave my back and call me an elf! -- Oghren
Because they hit at the right time and place and their primary audience aren't previous MMO players, they're normal Joe Blow watching TV and seeing their advertising. They keep bringing people in from the outside rather than trying for the jaded MMO audience that hangs around forums like this one. Their game is easy to learn, easy to pick up and get something done in a short amount of time, it's polished and constantly growing and changing. Most of their audience isn't even aware other MMOs even exist, the entire MMO world for them is WoW.
It's a damn good tactic that has worked wonderfully.
Played: UO, EQ, WoW, DDO, SWG, AO, CoH, EvE, TR, AoC, GW, GA, Aion, Allods, lots more
Relatively Recently (Re)Played: HL2 (all), Halo (PC, all), Batman:AA; AC, ME, BS, DA, FO3, DS, Doom (all), LFD1&2, KOTOR, Portal 1&2, Blink, Elder Scrolls (all), lots more
Now Playing: None
Hope: None