Starting out with some facts, WoW was a clone itself. If you played mmorpgs before WoW you will see that almost anything in WoW are ideas from other games. This is also supported by another fact that devs for the original WoW were taken from teams from all the major mmorpg game teams at that time.
What WoW did and still does well is, they take ideas from other games and optimize it. This give a very smooth experíence and makes WoW nice an easy to play ... gone was all the tedious stuff, all the stupid flaws, all the unintentional ways of playing. I enjoyed WoW for years, but gradually it turned bland.. gravy with no taste. Somehow in the process of optimizing the game experience (which is a good thing), WoW lost its spirit. Could it have turned out differently ? we will never know.
The way I see it, the phrase WoW clone is said to describe a game as having similarities with WoW (which isnt in itself bad), but still delivering the void feeling they remember from WoW. As soon as a game is unsatisfactory to someone they put it in the WoW clone box, but it really hasnt much to do with WoW at all. Lack of innovation often labels a game as a WoW clone, but I think you can still make a game that clones ideas from WoW, but doesnt have that void feeling - And those game will come one day!
Why can't they succeed? Because they cloned a wrong WoW. Yes, games have improved a lot since Vanilla times, but you don't need to fix things that are not broken. All these 'convenient' gizmos like dungeon finders, quest helpers, fast traveling, way too easy combat + gameplay and instant max level have made these games boring and effectively decreased the amount of 'actual' content the game has to offer. That's not improvement.
What themepark MMOs really should be today, are refined versions of (vanilla) World of Warcraft (which was a refined version of Everquest), with some sandboxy elements thrown in (player driven economy, meaningful crafting, meaningful PvP, etc.), not these faster than lightning consumed single player games where you're for some reason permitted to behave like an ass and an internet connection is needed only for spending money in cash shops.
The modern MMOs have killed almost all game mechanics that in early days encouraged players to speak to other people. While this could work in some Playstation multiplayer shooter, MMORPGs shouldn't take this path, but emphasize the social aspect of an MMORPG, even at the cost of convenience. Community is the reason people played these games for years, not the rewards you get for jumping backwards and naked all the way from Tanaris to Winterspring.
SW:ToR seems to be next in line, and while I believe it will be a great success (I'm not in beta), it won't be that because it's an MMO but because it's a high quality computer game made by a well known and famous company. I don't like Biowares new age games (Neverwinter Night being between the old and new), but spending 50€ for a good single player game I can beat in a month is not a bad deal at all. And for SW:ToR, that's the worst case scenario.
As was pointed out when I first came to this site, all young and foolish, WoW didn't just copy, it improved on many features, especially with its highly polished engine that ran beautifully on just about anything.
Clones won't and shouldn't succeed. Companies should make it better, make it different, or (my preference) make it both better and different. If they can't at least do one of those, they should fail miserably.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
Whenever I see a new MMORPG with the same kind of mindless, button-refreshing combat minigame WoW has, I don't even bother finishing the demo.
By now Blizzard has spent hundreds of millions of dollars developing and refining WoW's content. No one is going to match that right off the bat. No one is even going to come close. But I'll be willing to deal with a lot of imperfections in content if somebody comes up with a combat system that puts some kind of strategy and/or tactics back into the game.
Don't get me wrong; of course I know that ADD can be a harsh mistress. But there are a heck of a lot of people out here who would be interested in a game that involved at least a little bit of thinking, rather than endless button-juggling.
If you want to clone a game's success, make the core gameplay (in this case: combat) at least as fun as the original. Thus far nobody's done that, so (big surprise!) nobody's even had a shot at being as successful.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
SW:ToR seems to be next in line, and while I believe it will be a great success (I'm not in beta), it won't be that because it's an MMO but because it's a high quality computer game made by a well known and famous company. I don't like Biowares new age games (Neverwinter Night being between the old and new), but spending 50€ for a good single player game I can beat in a month is not a bad deal at all. And for SW:ToR, that's the worst case scenario.
I have a sneaking suspicion that you might be incorrect about the worst-case scenario. I think it's quite possible that the badly implemented and formulaic MMO elements may actually get in the way, drag down, and ultimately ruin the experience of the good story mechanics and the story itself. I guess we'll see.
The problem with this whole discussion is perception...it was kind of flawed from the start. What I perceive as a success may be considered a failure by you, and almost certainly by any MMO developer. What I perceive as a 'WoW clone' may not be considered as such by others.
Unfortunately, our hyper-competitive capatalistic society has lead to "mainstreaming" MMO's, which has lead to the pussification of the entire genre. In an attempt to draw the largest possible userbase, the game has been diluted down to the lowest common denominator. This behavior in game companies is positively reinforced by the lazy masses who consume more and more of this type of content.
The instant-gratification generation wants it all, now and as easy as possible. The game companies cater to them because they realize where the largest disposable income is... Gone are the days of meaningful death penalties, content that is too difficult to solo and necessary socialization. We've entered the age of the solo-RPG-with-chat-room.
Back to the original topic, in my eyes Rift is successful. It is currently being developed and expanded and is turning a profit. I think TOR and TSW will do the same (TSW only if Funcom doesn't blow it). I also still think that a year from now, TOR, Rift and TSW combined will have more subs than WoW.
Does anyone remember "You are not prepared!" from the early WoW marketing?
Think about this. Advertise that your game is hardcore and a challenge with bad-ass trailers, but dumb down the game so that it's next to impossible to fail at playing it.
Yeah! I'm playing a hardcore game and beating it! I must be damn good at this MMO stuff.
Someone in Blizzard's marketing department is brilliant.
Ken Fisher - Semi retired old fart Network Administrator, now working in Network Security. I don't Forum PVP. If you feel I've attacked you, it was probably by accident. When I don't understand, I ask. Such is not intended as criticism.
Unfortunately, our hyper-competitive capatalistic society has lead to "mainstreaming" MMO's, which has lead to the pussification of the entire genre. In an attempt to draw the largest possible userbase, the game has been diluted down to the lowest common denominator. This behavior in game companies is positively reinforced by the lazy masses who consume more and more of this type of content.
Quick comment. I agree. And the games that haven't been watered down (Vanguard comes to mind) sit half-empty.
Ken Fisher - Semi retired old fart Network Administrator, now working in Network Security. I don't Forum PVP. If you feel I've attacked you, it was probably by accident. When I don't understand, I ask. Such is not intended as criticism.
They can't succeed becasue they exactly becasue they are WoW clones.
People who like WoW won't play WoW-clone long-term cause WoW for them is just better - more content, more polished, etc
People who are tired of WoW won't play them long-term cause they don't want mmorpg that in it's core play's exactly same.
How many times people hit level cap- see instance running threadmill and get "I've been here before - don't wanna to do this again" thing?
Till investors and dev's won't get their heads out of their asses and start aiming for niches instead trying to cater for "everyone" that will not change.
Stwor has a chance at succes, BUT it is because :
a) WoW is finally getting old after almost 8 years
b) They might get new-players that have not played mmorpg's before
c) they invested alot of money, but how many titles can be made with this sort of money? 1 every 5 years?
Mmorpg genre is crowded. I would say it is over-invested, nowadays every company want to have it's own mmorpg.
Imho investors/ developers will have to accept bigger competition and that WoW-like success might not happen again.
Mmorpg players are diffrent as well, I doubt there will be possible to make a game that will please majority of players again.
Playerbase is segmented more, players expectations are excluding themselves. Time to realize that. Making game 'for everyone' will not work again.
Unfortunately, our hyper-competitive capatalistic society has lead to "mainstreaming" MMO's, which has lead to the pussification of the entire genre. In an attempt to draw the largest possible userbase, the game has been diluted down to the lowest common denominator. This behavior in game companies is positively reinforced by the lazy masses who consume more and more of this type of content.
Quick comment. I agree. And the games that haven't been watered down (Vanguard comes to mind) sit half-empty.
Vanguard was actually watered down considerably during the last 18 months of its development. It almost became a completely different game, in fact. It sits empty because of the huge debacle that was their development, testing and release...and because of Sigil games itself. Oh, and maybe a little bit because it's now owned by SOE (which is the reason I haven't gone back and tried it again).
I do agree with most of what Squiggie said...I just wanted to point out that I strongly believe that if someone actually executed well and created a serious AAA game that broke the mold of the casual mass-market WoW formula, there would be PLENTY of players ready to step up and play a grownup MMORPG. Hopefully we'll see the first steps in a better direction pretty soon with games like GW2 (return to an immersive virtual world, real social play, better combat mechanics, etc.).
Because there are no wow-clones, just common feature's in this specific genre called MMORPG.
Every genre has specific feature's that make it that genre and they are not clones, just genre's, but hey the word Clone has become populair so people tend to (mis)use it....
I hope you players understand that you can moan all you want, but you are not helping the revolution by buying these games. Stop buying them. Stop subbing them. For Pete's sake, stop the goddamn hysteria. Only way you are going to help the developers is by not buying them. Just because a game is succesful does not mean it is necessarily good. MMOs are a business and Executives and Producers make the shots, not the Devs. As soon as you hand over that check, there's no turning back. A business does not care about your opinion, it's a money-making machine and you can sweet talk it all you want, but realize in the meantime you're contributing to nothing.
This is one of those threads I didn't feel like reading through, but just wanted to point out that WoW itself is a clone, therefore the games of today are not clones of WoW, but of the games that WoW itself is a clone of (E.G. Everquest, Shadowbane, UO, Lineage, Asheron's Call...). There's a fairly decent list of MMO's that came LONG before WoW. The only innovation WoW made was to utterly dumb down a game for the unintellectual playerbase that likes to buttonmash with their FotM toon.
- either dropped the worldiness or dropped the low hardware requirements or both
In terms of lowest common denominator the attempted WoW killers went backwards.
I've gotta say the first-gen scenario sounds best to me. If I wanted solo-friendly, I'd take my pick of the hundredfold single player games on the market that I don't have to pay a subscription for XD But even being a WoW hater, I'll agree that new MMO's are lacking in comparison to it on those points you listed. There just aren't any decent MMO's being brought to the table anymore, The more data you have to install to your drive, the less actual gameplay there is, but you get pretty particles and overdramatic movements when using even the simplest of weaponry in combat (Seriously, you don't need to do a rain dance in order to hit something with a stick).
Simple answer to OP: Because WoW is not a particularly good template to mold your game from.
It is simplistic, linear and not particilarly challenging. The immense success of WoW was a fluke. It was the combination of Blizzard marketing and the need to make MMORPG more accessable. Now that they are all accessable, that formula wont work anymore.
It is really about time that the genre moves on from WoW and sadly it seems in-capable of doing so.
I've gotta say the first-gen scenario sounds best to me.
Yeah personally i prefer that too but i was meaning if a game is aiming for WoW levels of subscribers then as these are partly social games the design needs to set the lowest common denominator pretty low so as to include as many of the potential playerbase as possible because the largest possible potential playerbase means the largest possible amount of initial word of mouth and longterm friend-gravity (for want of a better word).
If the game is aiming at a lower subscriber base then they don't need to do this/
I personaly really hate the Term WOW Clone but unfortanly most the players out there didnt get into gaming until WOW. Lets from now on Call these EQ1+2 clones!!!!!
Current games; Star treck online Rift Eve online Firefall
Any developer can copy the linear questing design and "great game" is ONLY in the opinion of the players is it not?
I recently quit my most beloved game FFXI,because they turned it into a Wow replica.Super fast leveling to get to some gear grinding end game..NO THANKS cya later,that is not a role playing game design.
I am not saying you or anyone is not allowed to like that type of design,but i don't care for it one bit.I want a free open ended game design about killing creatures ,not BAttlegrounds or linear quests that give xp and my gear and hand hold me to the next marked npc.I don't even care if i get the best gear ever, ijust want a fun combat system and challenging mobs to fight.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
The success of WoW is not the template, its is the success if Blizzard to build up a large fanbase, deliver an insanely polished and accessable product with higher production quality than every other game on the market - even these that were already years old - and also the time was right, internet was no longer a freaks hobby.
The clones must fail bcs they have lower prduction standards (Alganon...LOL). The clones must fail bcs they offer no added value compared to WoW. The clones must fail bcs they other developers have no history like Blizzard with million of loyal fans eager to become part of the next big thing. The clones must fail bcs therefore they never get the ciritcal mass like this black hole WoW to suck players left and right from other games and genres even if its only to play with friends.
There is no much mistery why the Clones fail...
Only Bioware has a standing as good as Blizzard with fresh meat ready to get into their mmo and it has better production standards and offers an added value which makes me guess it will be at least initially a huge success sucking players left and right into their game.
Bethesda and Rockstar could maybe deliver MMOs too if done right at the right time.
"Torquemada... do not implore him for compassion. Torquemada... do not beg him for forgiveness. Torquemada... do not ask him for mercy. Let's face it, you can't Torquemada anything!"
This dead horse has been beaten up so many times it must be pulp by now. Well-made WoW clones still sell, that's all there is to it and they are succeeding. RIFT is actually doing quite well at the moment, despite "facts" of its doom. It's not original but its got enough new gimmicks to pull in a sizeable audience. So obviously it did alot right. Dev aren't going to risk millions on a sandbox -style MMO or non-WoW MMO if it hasn't been proven to make more money. Also, as long as many whiney, jaded "veteran" MMO players continue to play WoW-clones simply because there is nothing else, nothing's going to change. Vote with your wallet.
We will keep seing these so called WoW clones popping up left and right for a simple reason.
People buy them hoping it will be better than WoW then play the free month and unsub and waiting for the next big MMO.
Companies knows this, so they advertise the games hype it up to the heavens, millions of gamers buy the game, then they kickback chilling some and watching the money flow in via boxsales.
This dead horse has been beaten up so many times it must be pulp by now. Well-made WoW clones still sell, that's all there is to it and they are succeeding. RIFT is actually doing quite well at the moment, despite "facts" of its doom. It's not original but its got enough new gimmicks to pull in a sizeable audience. So obviously it did alot right. Dev aren't going to risk millions on a sandbox -style MMO or non-WoW MMO if it hasn't been proven to make more money. Also, as long as many whiney, jaded "veteran" MMO players continue to play WoW-clones simply because there is nothing else, nothing's going to change. Vote with your wallet.
Not sure that is true since tsw is nor much like wow except in that it is a themepark mmo, so far it has a different way of grouping, pviping, the story as well as ranking systems within the factions are differnt as well. I am hoping though that tsw has no quick travel outside of going from contintent to continent or city to city, most because traveling and exploring woould be important in a game about mystery and hidden things.
Comments
Starting out with some facts, WoW was a clone itself. If you played mmorpgs before WoW you will see that almost anything in WoW are ideas from other games. This is also supported by another fact that devs for the original WoW were taken from teams from all the major mmorpg game teams at that time.
What WoW did and still does well is, they take ideas from other games and optimize it. This give a very smooth experíence and makes WoW nice an easy to play ... gone was all the tedious stuff, all the stupid flaws, all the unintentional ways of playing. I enjoyed WoW for years, but gradually it turned bland.. gravy with no taste. Somehow in the process of optimizing the game experience (which is a good thing), WoW lost its spirit. Could it have turned out differently ? we will never know.
The way I see it, the phrase WoW clone is said to describe a game as having similarities with WoW (which isnt in itself bad), but still delivering the void feeling they remember from WoW. As soon as a game is unsatisfactory to someone they put it in the WoW clone box, but it really hasnt much to do with WoW at all. Lack of innovation often labels a game as a WoW clone, but I think you can still make a game that clones ideas from WoW, but doesnt have that void feeling - And those game will come one day!
"I am my connectome" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HA7GwKXfJB0
Why can't they succeed? Because they cloned a wrong WoW. Yes, games have improved a lot since Vanilla times, but you don't need to fix things that are not broken. All these 'convenient' gizmos like dungeon finders, quest helpers, fast traveling, way too easy combat + gameplay and instant max level have made these games boring and effectively decreased the amount of 'actual' content the game has to offer. That's not improvement.
What themepark MMOs really should be today, are refined versions of (vanilla) World of Warcraft (which was a refined version of Everquest), with some sandboxy elements thrown in (player driven economy, meaningful crafting, meaningful PvP, etc.), not these faster than lightning consumed single player games where you're for some reason permitted to behave like an ass and an internet connection is needed only for spending money in cash shops.
The modern MMOs have killed almost all game mechanics that in early days encouraged players to speak to other people. While this could work in some Playstation multiplayer shooter, MMORPGs shouldn't take this path, but emphasize the social aspect of an MMORPG, even at the cost of convenience. Community is the reason people played these games for years, not the rewards you get for jumping backwards and naked all the way from Tanaris to Winterspring.
SW:ToR seems to be next in line, and while I believe it will be a great success (I'm not in beta), it won't be that because it's an MMO but because it's a high quality computer game made by a well known and famous company. I don't like Biowares new age games (Neverwinter Night being between the old and new), but spending 50€ for a good single player game I can beat in a month is not a bad deal at all. And for SW:ToR, that's the worst case scenario.
As was pointed out when I first came to this site, all young and foolish, WoW didn't just copy, it improved on many features, especially with its highly polished engine that ran beautifully on just about anything.
Clones won't and shouldn't succeed. Companies should make it better, make it different, or (my preference) make it both better and different. If they can't at least do one of those, they should fail miserably.
I am convinced there is only one way to eliminate these grave evils, namely through the establishment of a socialist economy, accompanied by an educational system which would be oriented toward social goals.
~Albert Einstein
Whenever I see a new MMORPG with the same kind of mindless, button-refreshing combat minigame WoW has, I don't even bother finishing the demo.
By now Blizzard has spent hundreds of millions of dollars developing and refining WoW's content. No one is going to match that right off the bat. No one is even going to come close. But I'll be willing to deal with a lot of imperfections in content if somebody comes up with a combat system that puts some kind of strategy and/or tactics back into the game.
Don't get me wrong; of course I know that ADD can be a harsh mistress. But there are a heck of a lot of people out here who would be interested in a game that involved at least a little bit of thinking, rather than endless button-juggling.
Good combat.
If you want to clone a game's success, make the core gameplay (in this case: combat) at least as fun as the original. Thus far nobody's done that, so (big surprise!) nobody's even had a shot at being as successful.
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
I have a sneaking suspicion that you might be incorrect about the worst-case scenario. I think it's quite possible that the badly implemented and formulaic MMO elements may actually get in the way, drag down, and ultimately ruin the experience of the good story mechanics and the story itself. I guess we'll see.
Lots of good points here.
The problem with this whole discussion is perception...it was kind of flawed from the start. What I perceive as a success may be considered a failure by you, and almost certainly by any MMO developer. What I perceive as a 'WoW clone' may not be considered as such by others.
Unfortunately, our hyper-competitive capatalistic society has lead to "mainstreaming" MMO's, which has lead to the pussification of the entire genre. In an attempt to draw the largest possible userbase, the game has been diluted down to the lowest common denominator. This behavior in game companies is positively reinforced by the lazy masses who consume more and more of this type of content.
The instant-gratification generation wants it all, now and as easy as possible. The game companies cater to them because they realize where the largest disposable income is... Gone are the days of meaningful death penalties, content that is too difficult to solo and necessary socialization. We've entered the age of the solo-RPG-with-chat-room.
Back to the original topic, in my eyes Rift is successful. It is currently being developed and expanded and is turning a profit. I think TOR and TSW will do the same (TSW only if Funcom doesn't blow it). I also still think that a year from now, TOR, Rift and TSW combined will have more subs than WoW.
Does anyone remember "You are not prepared!" from the early WoW marketing?
Think about this. Advertise that your game is hardcore and a challenge with bad-ass trailers, but dumb down the game so that it's next to impossible to fail at playing it.
Yeah! I'm playing a hardcore game and beating it! I must be damn good at this MMO stuff.
Someone in Blizzard's marketing department is brilliant.
Quick comment. I agree. And the games that haven't been watered down (Vanguard comes to mind) sit half-empty.
They can't succeed becasue they exactly becasue they are WoW clones.
People who like WoW won't play WoW-clone long-term cause WoW for them is just better - more content, more polished, etc
People who are tired of WoW won't play them long-term cause they don't want mmorpg that in it's core play's exactly same.
How many times people hit level cap- see instance running threadmill and get "I've been here before - don't wanna to do this again" thing?
Till investors and dev's won't get their heads out of their asses and start aiming for niches instead trying to cater for "everyone" that will not change.
Stwor has a chance at succes, BUT it is because :
a) WoW is finally getting old after almost 8 years
b) They might get new-players that have not played mmorpg's before
c) they invested alot of money, but how many titles can be made with this sort of money? 1 every 5 years?
Mmorpg genre is crowded. I would say it is over-invested, nowadays every company want to have it's own mmorpg.
Imho investors/ developers will have to accept bigger competition and that WoW-like success might not happen again.
Mmorpg players are diffrent as well, I doubt there will be possible to make a game that will please majority of players again.
Playerbase is segmented more, players expectations are excluding themselves. Time to realize that. Making game 'for everyone' will not work again.
Vanguard was actually watered down considerably during the last 18 months of its development. It almost became a completely different game, in fact. It sits empty because of the huge debacle that was their development, testing and release...and because of Sigil games itself. Oh, and maybe a little bit because it's now owned by SOE (which is the reason I haven't gone back and tried it again).
I do agree with most of what Squiggie said...I just wanted to point out that I strongly believe that if someone actually executed well and created a serious AAA game that broke the mold of the casual mass-market WoW formula, there would be PLENTY of players ready to step up and play a grownup MMORPG. Hopefully we'll see the first steps in a better direction pretty soon with games like GW2 (return to an immersive virtual world, real social play, better combat mechanics, etc.).
mmorpgs today are WoW clones .. but why cant they succeed and be great games?
Because there are no wow-clones, just common feature's in this specific genre called MMORPG.
Every genre has specific feature's that make it that genre and they are not clones, just genre's, but hey the word Clone has become populair so people tend to (mis)use it....
I hope you players understand that you can moan all you want, but you are not helping the revolution by buying these games. Stop buying them. Stop subbing them. For Pete's sake, stop the goddamn hysteria. Only way you are going to help the developers is by not buying them. Just because a game is succesful does not mean it is necessarily good. MMOs are a business and Executives and Producers make the shots, not the Devs. As soon as you hand over that check, there's no turning back. A business does not care about your opinion, it's a money-making machine and you can sweet talk it all you want, but realize in the meantime you're contributing to nothing.
This is one of those threads I didn't feel like reading through, but just wanted to point out that WoW itself is a clone, therefore the games of today are not clones of WoW, but of the games that WoW itself is a clone of (E.G. Everquest, Shadowbane, UO, Lineage, Asheron's Call...). There's a fairly decent list of MMO's that came LONG before WoW. The only innovation WoW made was to utterly dumb down a game for the unintellectual playerbase that likes to buttonmash with their FotM toon.
1st generation
- worldiness
- solo-unfriendly
- lots and lots of pain
- ran on a toaster
2nd generation (basically WoW)
- worldiness
- solo-friendly
- painless
- ran on a toaster
3rd generation (attempted WoW-clones)
- solo-friendly
- painless
- either dropped the worldiness or dropped the low hardware requirements or both
In terms of lowest common denominator the attempted WoW killers went backwards.
mmorpgs today are WoW clones .. but why cant they succeed and be great games?
They are "great games" for people who don't have 4 level 85 alts and are bored to death of that type of gameplay, they are great for noobs.
I've gotta say the first-gen scenario sounds best to me. If I wanted solo-friendly, I'd take my pick of the hundredfold single player games on the market that I don't have to pay a subscription for XD But even being a WoW hater, I'll agree that new MMO's are lacking in comparison to it on those points you listed. There just aren't any decent MMO's being brought to the table anymore, The more data you have to install to your drive, the less actual gameplay there is, but you get pretty particles and overdramatic movements when using even the simplest of weaponry in combat (Seriously, you don't need to do a rain dance in order to hit something with a stick).
Simple answer to OP: Because WoW is not a particularly good template to mold your game from.
It is simplistic, linear and not particilarly challenging. The immense success of WoW was a fluke. It was the combination of Blizzard marketing and the need to make MMORPG more accessable. Now that they are all accessable, that formula wont work anymore.
It is really about time that the genre moves on from WoW and sadly it seems in-capable of doing so.
My gaming blog
I've gotta say the first-gen scenario sounds best to me.
Yeah personally i prefer that too but i was meaning if a game is aiming for WoW levels of subscribers then as these are partly social games the design needs to set the lowest common denominator pretty low so as to include as many of the potential playerbase as possible because the largest possible potential playerbase means the largest possible amount of initial word of mouth and longterm friend-gravity (for want of a better word).
If the game is aiming at a lower subscriber base then they don't need to do this/
I personaly really hate the Term WOW Clone but unfortanly most the players out there didnt get into gaming until WOW. Lets from now on Call these EQ1+2 clones!!!!!
Current games;
Star treck online
Rift
Eve online
Firefall
Any developer can copy the linear questing design and "great game" is ONLY in the opinion of the players is it not?
I recently quit my most beloved game FFXI,because they turned it into a Wow replica.Super fast leveling to get to some gear grinding end game..NO THANKS cya later,that is not a role playing game design.
I am not saying you or anyone is not allowed to like that type of design,but i don't care for it one bit.I want a free open ended game design about killing creatures ,not BAttlegrounds or linear quests that give xp and my gear and hand hold me to the next marked npc.I don't even care if i get the best gear ever, ijust want a fun combat system and challenging mobs to fight.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
The success of WoW is not the template, its is the success if Blizzard to build up a large fanbase, deliver an insanely polished and accessable product with higher production quality than every other game on the market - even these that were already years old - and also the time was right, internet was no longer a freaks hobby.
The clones must fail bcs they have lower prduction standards (Alganon...LOL).
The clones must fail bcs they offer no added value compared to WoW.
The clones must fail bcs they other developers have no history like Blizzard with million of loyal fans eager to become part of the next big thing.
The clones must fail bcs therefore they never get the ciritcal mass like this black hole WoW to suck players left and right from other games and genres even if its only to play with friends.
There is no much mistery why the Clones fail...
Only Bioware has a standing as good as Blizzard with fresh meat ready to get into their mmo and it has better production standards and offers an added value which makes me guess it will be at least initially a huge success sucking players left and right into their game.
Bethesda and Rockstar could maybe deliver MMOs too if done right at the right time.
"Torquemada... do not implore him for compassion. Torquemada... do not beg him for forgiveness. Torquemada... do not ask him for mercy. Let's face it, you can't Torquemada anything!"
MWO Music Video - What does the Mech say: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FF6HYNqCDLI
Johnny Cash - The Man Comes Around: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y0x2iwK0BKM
This dead horse has been beaten up so many times it must be pulp by now. Well-made WoW clones still sell, that's all there is to it and they are succeeding. RIFT is actually doing quite well at the moment, despite "facts" of its doom. It's not original but its got enough new gimmicks to pull in a sizeable audience. So obviously it did alot right. Dev aren't going to risk millions on a sandbox -style MMO or non-WoW MMO if it hasn't been proven to make more money. Also, as long as many whiney, jaded "veteran" MMO players continue to play WoW-clones simply because there is nothing else, nothing's going to change. Vote with your wallet.
We will keep seing these so called WoW clones popping up left and right for a simple reason.
People buy them hoping it will be better than WoW then play the free month and unsub and waiting for the next big MMO.
Companies knows this, so they advertise the games hype it up to the heavens, millions of gamers buy the game, then they kickback chilling some and watching the money flow in via boxsales.
If it's not broken, you are not innovating.
Not sure that is true since tsw is nor much like wow except in that it is a themepark mmo, so far it has a different way of grouping, pviping, the story as well as ranking systems within the factions are differnt as well. I am hoping though that tsw has no quick travel outside of going from contintent to continent or city to city, most because traveling and exploring woould be important in a game about mystery and hidden things.