What MMO would you choose, the one your friends already play or another one ?
If all your friends jump off the roof, would you?
Bad example; DON'T JUMP!!!!!
Personally I would play the game I like, not because others recommend. I would go by personal judgement.
A better example would be, all of your friends hang out at this one bar, which ones do you go to? That one or the one down the street where you dont know anyone?
Creating literal armies of unpaid volunteer viral marketers.
Only EVE approaches it in terms of almost religious fan reverence, but (obviously) cannot match the sheer scale.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
What MMO would you choose, the one your friends already play or another one ?
If all your friends jump off the roof, would you?
Bad example; DON'T JUMP!!!!!
Personally I would play the game I like, not because others recommend. I would go by personal judgement.
Come on , stay reasonable here.
MMOs are just a product you buy. So assume you want to buy a product of a genre you have no experience in (most people had never played an MMO before) and you can choose between several products. One is recommend by your friends. And the product is meant to be used together (called multiplayer). So which one would you take ? It only costs you 50$, you don't have to risk your life you know.
to be honest... only thing they do better are - PC requirments. You can run that game on a toaster
everything else they have now is just the result of living on the fame of past.
If the game was bad, it would not entice millions of players to rejoin with every new expansion. The game is awesome for the majority of players. Derogating Blizzards accomplishment is enviousness - nothing else.
yeah, you mean the numbers which state that every expansion sells less and less copies and that with every new expansion there's less and less subscribers?
just take a look at the ratio of subbers vs number of copies sold on each new expansion. Those numbers will give you the feeling of how the game is doing in western market and the numbers aren't showing a good trend.
You mean the numbers that state they have more paying western subscribers that the rest of the western themed MMOs (F2P or not) have combined?
The question was answered well previously in this thread...they captured mass by being in the right place at the right time with the product with the most mass appeal at the time. They then reinvested in the product, released timely content updates and voila!
What do they do better now than other MMOs....
1) Graphics - dated, defintely not a positive for this game anymore..even the art style, at this point, has become old and tiremsome.
2) Questing - sorry, many other MMOS do this better with dynamic events or deeper story arcs
3) Character Developlment - Skill Tree = at one time a very strong feature..now it has been dumbed down beyond any real consideration
4) Leveling - eh, I can't think of any reason that leveling in WoW is more captivating than other MMOs
5) End-game - not knocking WoW's end game..but I definitely don't think theirs is any better than the standard MMO released today. WoW does offer a lot of options at end-game; none of them particularly captivating however.
6) Combat- they probably have the smoothest combat/animations of any MMO..so yes an argument that they do this better is justified.
7) LFG Tool - some view this as a negative, I dont. WoW has the best LFG tool out there.
I am not a WoW hater..I recently quit after getting two toons to 90 and realizing I just didnt want to spend my limited gaming hours doing the same crap I have done for years in this game; it is now old and stale and there really is not a fix for that.
The only thing you are right about is graphics. But even there fluid combat/game play top graphics any time, isn't it Mario ?
The other things lack insight: questing: phasing allows story telling and changing quest lines in real time. World changes around you without even a loading screen in sight.
Also that same phasing allows now for farms to build and grow in a world instead of loading an instance screen (same goes ffor pet Battles).
So questing is indeed a lot beter in WOW.
Secondly LFG or cross server play: start in 2006 in BG's, 2009 in dungeons and now in a seamless background loading world acroos servers: enter the virtual realm, where you play at the SAME time as 30.000 others instead of the same 2K limit per server.
---
Thirdly: the problem is that people only watch the "little things" but forget to analyse the technical infrastructure behind it all.
--- Question
Name me ONE MMORPG that brings players seamless in REAL time (without loading screens) together from different servers...in a complete open background loading world ?
You can't. The line above is just the last edition (introduced in 2012) and complemented in patch 5.4 through virtual realms.
These "new" things (along with the fluid engine) made the difference during all these years. Players don't see it as such: they only watch the little things that really don't matter at all.
On a technical basis (phasing farms, changing worlds, seamlees grouping of players from different servers, virtual realms, constant class balances and controls, fluid combat), WOW is in a League of its own.
That's not fan talk, that's detectable technology behind it all.
They are pioneers of the onlinegaming industry. Blizzard simply took the chance when the onlinegaming industry started to evolve into a serious and profitable market - or better let's say. The market already was there. It just waited for someone to find it.
WoW was the first MMO that was professional marketed over all available channels (print, online, tv). It was a totally new concept for the broad masses and thatfor easily enthused thousands of customers. Beyond that ... WoW has solid graphics, game design and is fun to play. A big plus was the fresh unused playerbase. Only a hand full of experienced EQ1/DAoC/Lineage veterans disliked the game. However, the majority of the new customers loved this new experience.
Yes, this is it.....Few people get this. WoW came when EQ1 needed an upgrade. SOE tryied with EQ2 at the same time but the their game ran like crap on most computers.
Who ever got it right at that point in time would be the winner, and WoW took it by far.
- Also understand that Blizzard dumped profits back into their game, SOE just took.
-EQ2 had paid expantions, WoW gave free patches for the longest time.
-EQ2 looked like plastic, WoW blended in nice with their graphics for that time.
-EQ2 expantions fit like a bad jig saw puzzle, WoW was seemless.
I hate what WoW is now, but they were the clear winner back then !
pfffffffffff..... imo EQ2 came out when the wow train was running in full force already.
WoW came out shortly after DAoC hit it's zenith... and sony realised THEN they should do sth.... which they couldn't
anyway, what is WoW doing right? it is doing things when needed... and it's doing em correctly
uh and ps: if you wanna imply wow took alot from EQ2, you are seriously desperate...
Well your "opinion" is massively incorrect. EQ2 came out a week before WoW.
I play WoW currently, and enjoy it, so that is my disclaimer. However, I frequently have taken extended breaks, and I have tried almost every other MMO that has been released in the past 13 years (I started with EQ in 2000). I have enjoyed many of them for a time.
This is what I think WoW does better than the rest, some of which are Blizzards design, some of which are due to the large community (also note, I am a raider by nature, so that is my perspective):
Their Raid design and raid boss design is so meticulously crafted that is essentially an E-Sport in its own right
The theory crafting community is unbelievable - it really adds to the depth of gameplay and to the whole E-Sport element of raiding
The "fluidity" of the game (combat, controls, tightness to the ground, it all feels so spot on)
Metric butt-TONS of content
Open-ness to the Mod community (except maybe Rift? I hear they have gotten good with this)
The addictive nature of it all - THE CARROT is always in front of me and that carrot tastes SO good (awesome loot that really improves my character and makes me powerful)
The Quality of their product - 8 years of refinement has given them this advantage
The EPIC feel... they spare no expense in the design of an epic world filled with epic characters and epic moments
Ultimately, WoW could be better in some areas, but it has a lot going for it, and I would call it best in class at this time. Maybe something else will come along, but even then Blizzard is pretty quick to try and incorporate the good ideas of others into their own game (just as others try to incorporate Blizz's ideas into their games).
The reason I keep coming back... why play a game that is similar to WoW... why not just play WoW? I started enjoying it more when I stopped worrying about what it didn't have, and started having fun with what it does.
1. Polish. Sometimes people aren't sure what this is referring to, but basically it's the engine. Fluid, 1:1, highly in tune. When someone says ____ game is "clunky" what they're saying is that it's the opposite of this. Smoothness and immediacy of response from the game are very important to feeling connected to your character.
2. Seamless world. How many times has a person started a Night Elf character and immediately went 40+ minute run (and boat ride) to Iron Forge so they could play through the Human zones? The world is connected, and it feels connected even though it's secretly loading the nearest area. GW2 would have been better if they had a seamless world too, but instead you get those horrid zone entrances.
3. Blizzard understands collectibles. Yeah people like achievements, but you know what's better than achievements? Mounts and Pets and tabards and non-combat trinkets and holiday outfits and transmog gear. People do love to collect these things and there's plenty of them in the game. Sure the cash shop has a handful, but I've lost count how many are available in game. Not to mention the best (and rarest) stuff is always in game. This draws people back more than anything else. Everyone knows that gear will get upgraded and expansions will wipe progress, but these collectibles are yours forever (or until the servers shut down).
4. Mini-games. Darkmoon faire is a regular thing, holidays events are never too far away. These break the monotony of the same old everyday dungeon/raid grind. Look at how well GW2 Super Adventure Box was received. People love extra stuff. On top of all this, Pandaland added farming minigames and pet battles which if it came out as an indie title or iOS game would receive top marks and people would rave about it. And yet, here it is, a game within a game.
5. Quests. Yes, WoW is known for kill 10 rats and fedex. But that is a shallow and fairly ignorant assessment of WoW's quests. And happens to be something most themeparks get wrong. The WoW devs have done everything in their power to add more and more quest variety over the years. There's a plants vs zombies quest chain in Hillsbrad, there's the drakenskryd in frost peaks, there's Joust! in Mount Hyjal, there's the dwarf spy quests, steath based quests (non-rogue), round up quests, there's just a lot. And there are many epic quest chains, quest chains that could be entire single player campaigns for other games are built into WoW. People either forget this or simply dungeon grind to max level so they can get to end game as quickly as possible (that's not a WoW problem, that's a player problem).
6. Alt friendly. A few years ago Blizzard realized that players did in fact really want to play multiple characters, the game has become more alt friendly since and many people perceive this as dumbing down as characters level faster. But it makes sense to a game like WoW where chances are, most of the MMO community has played it, and might not feel like going through the same content repeatedly.
7. Easy to learn, difficult to master. People love to talk about WoW being easymode, but it is very easy to pick up and play and you can see all the content without ever having to really dig and learn everything about your class and the encounters. But the content becomes significantly more difficult as you go from LFR to Normal to Heroic. Cataclysm should remind everyone that Blizzard can easily make content difficult, but then people will simply cry because almost no one can do it. I enjoyed the Cata heroics before they got nerfed, but what I didn't enjoy was how it was nearly impossible to find 4 competent people to do them with. A lot of people, on these boards esp, seem to prefer the very difficult to learn, easy to master games. Games that are front-loaded with difficulty (like EVE) are all about working really really hard to learn to play, but once you've learned it and established yourself, it's pretty much base knowledge at that point.
WoW is more like MTG in that anyone can play it, but you can always push yourself more. A little bit tighter rotation, a little bit later on the big heals, a little bit faster to move out of a deadly zone, there's just always a little bit more you can do both strategically, tactically and in building your character. For some, finding a cookie cutter build and using it is all that's needed, but if you look at the top 3% who actually complete heroic raid content, that's not what they do, they change builds and tactics for every boss, the level of detail, skill, and time required is much higher than what you see in other games.
8. Blizzard keeps up with the times. They can't really redo the visuals without a complete rebuild at this point, but in terms of adopting features from other games, they are very good at incorporating them into WoW. People always cry, "Blizzard stole this idea from ____." Yeah, but so what? Games take ideas from each other all the time.
In the end, I can't see myself going back unless the next expansion offers something crazy amazing - with Blizzard you never know, but I do know this Blizzard is one of the few companies that always has and still does care about putting out a great product. Sometimes they screw something up (see D3 RMAH), but they always care about making good games. That's important for the industry and regardless of how much you might hate Blizzard because they influenced the industry so much, at least they make for stiff competition.
You mean the numbers that state they have more paying western subscribers that the rest of the western themed MMOs (F2P or not) have combined?
That isn't relevant to the ppl in charge, to the players like you and me perhaps, but not the big wallets.
A game can have like 100M players, #2 in sub numbers can have like 1M...If #2 stays stable and #1 with the 100M produces a trend with numbers going down steadily for a while to like...for example 50M.....you and I wouldn't be concerned but sh*t hits the fan in the Board Room and there will be a meeting why things are going bad as they think in percentages.
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
to be honest... only thing they do better are - PC requirments. You can run that game on a toaster
everything else they have now is just the result of living on the fame of past.
If the game was bad, it would not entice millions of players to rejoin with every new expansion. The game is awesome for the majority of players. Derogating Blizzards accomplishment is enviousness - nothing else.
yeah, you mean the numbers which state that every expansion sells less and less copies and that with every new expansion there's less and less subscribers?
just take a look at the ratio of subbers vs number of copies sold on each new expansion. Those numbers will give you the feeling of how the game is doing in western market and the numbers aren't showing a good trend.
You mean the numbers that state they have more paying western subscribers that the rest of the western themed MMOs (F2P or not) have combined?
so you want to compare F2P numbers (which we certanly don't know in the sligthtest) with sub numbers?
where did you came up with that information? it's kinda hard to believe at that when almost every other sale numbers speak differently.
"Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life." -------------------------------
But i guess it dumbed down MMORPGs just enough to get your average joe to play the game.. it took a lot away from what made MMORPGs fun for me.. Dont get me wrong it helps introduce some better ideas as well but ti was still a pretty boring game.
Name me ONE MMORPG that brings players seamless in REAL time (without loading screens) together from different servers...in a complete open background loading world ?
You can't. The line above is just the last edition (introduced in 2012) and complemented in patch 5.4 through virtual realms.
These "new" things (along with the fluid engine) made the difference during all these years. Players don't see it as such: they only watch the little things that really don't matter at all.
On a technical basis (phasing farms, changing worlds, seamlees grouping of players from different servers, virtual realms, constant class balances and controls, fluid combat), WOW is in a League of its own.
That's not fan talk, that's detectable technology behind it all.
Ok i cannot comment on your things since i have not played wow for some time, but in terms of above, I rest my case "singularity"... namely EvE who needs individual servers of 2k being bought together when you can have 1 server handling upwards of 70k
Surely that must take pride of place at the pinacle of MMO technology
to be honest... only thing they do better are - PC requirments. You can run that game on a toaster
everything else they have now is just the result of living on the fame of past.
If the game was bad, it would not entice millions of players to rejoin with every new expansion. The game is awesome for the majority of players. Derogating Blizzards accomplishment is enviousness - nothing else.
yeah, you mean the numbers which state that every expansion sells less and less copies and that with every new expansion there's less and less subscribers?
just take a look at the ratio of subbers vs number of copies sold on each new expansion. Those numbers will give you the feeling of how the game is doing in western market and the numbers aren't showing a good trend.
You mean the numbers that state they have more paying western subscribers that the rest of the western themed MMOs (F2P or not) have combined?
so you want to compare F2P numbers (which we certanly don't know in the sligthtest) with sub numbers?
where did you came up with that information? it's kinda hard to believe at that when almost every other sale numbers speak differently.
Well then: I'll talk money cash: WOW brought in 270 million dollars in the first quarter of 2013 (the one with the 8.3 million subscribers).
Take ALL known income from the rest and beat it. )
PS: in the stock report legend it is mentioned that the Elite service of COD was included in that number -- BUT the Elite service went free to play at the end of 2012...(just in case for comparaison with 2012 figures).
Name me ONE MMORPG that brings players seamless in REAL time (without loading screens) together from different servers...in a complete open background loading world ?
You can't. The line above is just the last edition (introduced in 2012) and complemented in patch 5.4 through virtual realms.
These "new" things (along with the fluid engine) made the difference during all these years. Players don't see it as such: they only watch the little things that really don't matter at all.
On a technical basis (phasing farms, changing worlds, seamlees grouping of players from different servers, virtual realms, constant class balances and controls, fluid combat), WOW is in a League of its own.
That's not fan talk, that's detectable technology behind it all.
Ok i cannot comment on your things since i have not played wow for some time, but in terms of above, I rest my case "singularity"... namely EvE who needs individual servers of 2k being bought together when you can have 1 server handling upwards of 70k
Surely that must take pride of place at the pinacle of MMO technology
EVE does not even have a landscape based world. It is empty space. We were talking real time play over complete open back ground worlds here.
You know a world and something with a landscape, rivers, houses and trees ...
Imagine players independant of their servers wondering through a landscape seamlessly. That's WOW these days. And the virutal server cluster is the last evolution (one economy, one guild recruitement) coming in patch 5.4.
EVE does not even have a landscape based world. It is empty space. We were talking real time play over complete open back ground) worlds here.
You know a world and something with a landscape and trees ...
Whilst it does not have these things it has the following which is far more in depth i would argue
7500 systems
each system has various numbers of hte following
Stations
Planets
Moons
AStroid Belts
Plexes
And each one must work independtly and is directly affected bty the player base and is nto just a picture of a tree that stops me running
Almost every thing in eve is interactable in one way or another affected at any point in time so the landscape whilst no tress and pretty items that you cannot do nothing with is fine, you have no interaction with them
Landscape in most MMO is like the old fashioned wall poster of my favorite band, great to look at, made me feel like i was connected but actually was nothing but a pretty picture
EDIT
Sorry didn't see the last bit
but in answer you cannot walk seemlesly as you will hit 'your lanscape' and not be able to interact with it, it will be merely there. and this is where our version of seemless mmo would be vastly different
EDIT 2 we must be typing at same time
The change you talk about in 5.4 whislt i cannot deny that it is one hellava jump for WoW it is merely something that has been played out for last 10yrs in our little universe.
How it will affect WoW i dont know, how it is affectING wow i dont know, like i started with has been some time, these are merely my impression and in no way are they meant to throw your ideas/opinion out
I think the smartest and best thing they did when they created WoW from the beginning, was to make sure their game could play well on many different pc's. Some of us like to upgrade our PC's to keep them "the best there is" while others may have a PC they bought 7, 8 years ago still, and those usually can play WoW just fine.
Originally posted by The1ceQueen I think the smartest and best thing they did when they created WoW from the beginning, was to make sure their game could play well on many different pc's. Some of us like to upgrade our PC's to keep them "the best there is" while others may have a PC they bought 7, 8 years ago still, and those usually can play WoW just fine.
I agree with you, but to be fair, the graphics in Pandaria are much harsher a strain on PC's than WoW used to be. One of the guys in the guild plays on a laptop and gets ~15 fps with graphics on medium. The biggest issue comes when trying 25 man raiding, which he cannot partake in, in any Pandaria raid even with graphics on the lowest settings.
I play with a Radeon 6970 card in my pc, and on ultra settings the game looks nice and runs great 99% of the time, but my fps can still drop when there is a lot going on on screen, especially at times like in 25 man raiding with 5 large enemies, 1 boss, and 20+ adds - like the Dark Animus battle in ToT, plus all the visual effects from all enemies and mobs, plus all the addons I use for raiding. Don't even get me started on the Lei Shen battle... there is so much going on at some points especially if the group is not doing it right that it seems like my PC might just explode. You have to realize that to play WoW to the fullest effect, your PC has to be able to handle some very busy battles, because imo the pinnacle of WoW is those epic busy raid battles.
But, WoW does not strain a PC like many other MMO's do, mostly because the graphics are lower polygon (they still look great due to the art style), but also because Blizzard makes a lot of effort to optimize their engine.
But, WoW does not strain a PC like many other MMO's do, mostly because the graphics are lower polygon (they still look great due to the art style), but also because Blizzard makes a lot of effort to optimize their engine.
That and it was easily accessible in playability, where at the time in EQ2 I had to tone down my graphics to medium or even low as the game would be asking too much of my hardware WOW ran smooth because of the simplier engine.
They said they were doing more updates regarding characters, is there any info or footage about their work in progress?
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
They are pioneers of the onlinegaming industry. Blizzard simply took the chance when the onlinegaming industry started to evolve into a serious and profitable market - or better let's say. The market already was there. It just waited for someone to find it.
WoW was the first MMO that was professional marketed over all available channels (print, online, tv). It was a totally new concept for the broad masses and thatfor easily enthused thousands of customers. Beyond that ... WoW has solid graphics, game design and is fun to play. A big plus was the fresh unused playerbase. Only a hand full of experienced EQ1/DAoC/Lineage veterans disliked the game. However, the majority of the new customers loved this new experience.
Yes, this is it.....Few people get this. WoW came when EQ1 needed an upgrade. SOE tryied with EQ2 at the same time but the their game ran like crap on most computers.
Who ever got it right at that point in time would be the winner, and WoW took it by far.
- Also understand that Blizzard dumped profits back into their game, SOE just took.
-EQ2 had paid expantions, WoW gave free patches for the longest time.
-EQ2 looked like plastic, WoW blended in nice with their graphics for that time.
-EQ2 expantions fit like a bad jig saw puzzle, WoW was seemless.
I hate what WoW is now, but they were the clear winner back then !
pfffffffffff..... imo EQ2 came out when the wow train was running in full force already.
WoW came out shortly after DAoC hit it's zenith... and sony realised THEN they should do sth.... which they couldn't
anyway, what is WoW doing right? it is doing things when needed... and it's doing em correctly
uh and ps: if you wanna imply wow took alot from EQ2, you are seriously desperate...
I'm not sure what you mean by this, since EQ2 launched 2 weeks before WoW and had been in development for years (as had wow). There were huge debates on the forums over which game would be better, it was almost as heated, but not anywhere near as nasty as the TOR Vs. GW2 forum wars.
While I am no longer playing WoW (quit 2 months after Cataclysm launched) it does a few things really well.
Ease of use, the ability to pick up and play is huge and everything makes logical sense.
The big one, the COMBAT. Not a fan of Tab Target combat but their animations and smoothness of transitioning from 1 combat animation to the next is huge. In fact most MMO's have a forced animation lock mechanism (forcing 1 combat animation to finish before the next 1 starts) but WoW does not. This is big for immersion and sheer reliability.
Polish and production quality. Everything works, and works well!
Other then that, not much else for me but if every studio took those 3 core tenants and implemented them in every game we would have a much greater and immersive genre to play.
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!
Comments
If all your friends jump off the roof, would you?
Bad example; DON'T JUMP!!!!!
Personally I would play the game I like, not because others recommend. I would go by personal judgement.
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
A better example would be, all of your friends hang out at this one bar, which ones do you go to? That one or the one down the street where you dont know anyone?
Creating literal armies of unpaid volunteer viral marketers.
Only EVE approaches it in terms of almost religious fan reverence, but (obviously) cannot match the sheer scale.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
Come on , stay reasonable here.
MMOs are just a product you buy. So assume you want to buy a product of a genre you have no experience in (most people had never played an MMO before) and you can choose between several products. One is recommend by your friends. And the product is meant to be used together (called multiplayer). So which one would you take ? It only costs you 50$, you don't have to risk your life you know.
You mean the numbers that state they have more paying western subscribers that the rest of the western themed MMOs (F2P or not) have combined?
The only thing you are right about is graphics. But even there fluid combat/game play top graphics any time, isn't it Mario ?
The other things lack insight: questing: phasing allows story telling and changing quest lines in real time. World changes around you without even a loading screen in sight.
Also that same phasing allows now for farms to build and grow in a world instead of loading an instance screen (same goes ffor pet Battles).
So questing is indeed a lot beter in WOW.
Secondly LFG or cross server play: start in 2006 in BG's, 2009 in dungeons and now in a seamless background loading world acroos servers: enter the virtual realm, where you play at the SAME time as 30.000 others instead of the same 2K limit per server.
---
Thirdly: the problem is that people only watch the "little things" but forget to analyse the technical infrastructure behind it all.
--- Question
Name me ONE MMORPG that brings players seamless in REAL time (without loading screens) together from different servers...in a complete open background loading world ?
You can't. The line above is just the last edition (introduced in 2012) and complemented in patch 5.4 through virtual realms.
These "new" things (along with the fluid engine) made the difference during all these years. Players don't see it as such: they only watch the little things that really don't matter at all.
On a technical basis (phasing farms, changing worlds, seamlees grouping of players from different servers, virtual realms, constant class balances and controls, fluid combat), WOW is in a League of its own.
That's not fan talk, that's detectable technology behind it all.
Well your "opinion" is massively incorrect. EQ2 came out a week before WoW.
I play WoW currently, and enjoy it, so that is my disclaimer. However, I frequently have taken extended breaks, and I have tried almost every other MMO that has been released in the past 13 years (I started with EQ in 2000). I have enjoyed many of them for a time.
This is what I think WoW does better than the rest, some of which are Blizzards design, some of which are due to the large community (also note, I am a raider by nature, so that is my perspective):
Here's my list on what WoW does better:
1. Polish. Sometimes people aren't sure what this is referring to, but basically it's the engine. Fluid, 1:1, highly in tune. When someone says ____ game is "clunky" what they're saying is that it's the opposite of this. Smoothness and immediacy of response from the game are very important to feeling connected to your character.
2. Seamless world. How many times has a person started a Night Elf character and immediately went 40+ minute run (and boat ride) to Iron Forge so they could play through the Human zones? The world is connected, and it feels connected even though it's secretly loading the nearest area. GW2 would have been better if they had a seamless world too, but instead you get those horrid zone entrances.
3. Blizzard understands collectibles. Yeah people like achievements, but you know what's better than achievements? Mounts and Pets and tabards and non-combat trinkets and holiday outfits and transmog gear. People do love to collect these things and there's plenty of them in the game. Sure the cash shop has a handful, but I've lost count how many are available in game. Not to mention the best (and rarest) stuff is always in game. This draws people back more than anything else. Everyone knows that gear will get upgraded and expansions will wipe progress, but these collectibles are yours forever (or until the servers shut down).
4. Mini-games. Darkmoon faire is a regular thing, holidays events are never too far away. These break the monotony of the same old everyday dungeon/raid grind. Look at how well GW2 Super Adventure Box was received. People love extra stuff. On top of all this, Pandaland added farming minigames and pet battles which if it came out as an indie title or iOS game would receive top marks and people would rave about it. And yet, here it is, a game within a game.
5. Quests. Yes, WoW is known for kill 10 rats and fedex. But that is a shallow and fairly ignorant assessment of WoW's quests. And happens to be something most themeparks get wrong. The WoW devs have done everything in their power to add more and more quest variety over the years. There's a plants vs zombies quest chain in Hillsbrad, there's the drakenskryd in frost peaks, there's Joust! in Mount Hyjal, there's the dwarf spy quests, steath based quests (non-rogue), round up quests, there's just a lot. And there are many epic quest chains, quest chains that could be entire single player campaigns for other games are built into WoW. People either forget this or simply dungeon grind to max level so they can get to end game as quickly as possible (that's not a WoW problem, that's a player problem).
6. Alt friendly. A few years ago Blizzard realized that players did in fact really want to play multiple characters, the game has become more alt friendly since and many people perceive this as dumbing down as characters level faster. But it makes sense to a game like WoW where chances are, most of the MMO community has played it, and might not feel like going through the same content repeatedly.
7. Easy to learn, difficult to master. People love to talk about WoW being easymode, but it is very easy to pick up and play and you can see all the content without ever having to really dig and learn everything about your class and the encounters. But the content becomes significantly more difficult as you go from LFR to Normal to Heroic. Cataclysm should remind everyone that Blizzard can easily make content difficult, but then people will simply cry because almost no one can do it. I enjoyed the Cata heroics before they got nerfed, but what I didn't enjoy was how it was nearly impossible to find 4 competent people to do them with. A lot of people, on these boards esp, seem to prefer the very difficult to learn, easy to master games. Games that are front-loaded with difficulty (like EVE) are all about working really really hard to learn to play, but once you've learned it and established yourself, it's pretty much base knowledge at that point.
WoW is more like MTG in that anyone can play it, but you can always push yourself more. A little bit tighter rotation, a little bit later on the big heals, a little bit faster to move out of a deadly zone, there's just always a little bit more you can do both strategically, tactically and in building your character. For some, finding a cookie cutter build and using it is all that's needed, but if you look at the top 3% who actually complete heroic raid content, that's not what they do, they change builds and tactics for every boss, the level of detail, skill, and time required is much higher than what you see in other games.
8. Blizzard keeps up with the times. They can't really redo the visuals without a complete rebuild at this point, but in terms of adopting features from other games, they are very good at incorporating them into WoW. People always cry, "Blizzard stole this idea from ____." Yeah, but so what? Games take ideas from each other all the time.
In the end, I can't see myself going back unless the next expansion offers something crazy amazing - with Blizzard you never know, but I do know this Blizzard is one of the few companies that always has and still does care about putting out a great product. Sometimes they screw something up (see D3 RMAH), but they always care about making good games. That's important for the industry and regardless of how much you might hate Blizzard because they influenced the industry so much, at least they make for stiff competition.
That isn't relevant to the ppl in charge, to the players like you and me perhaps, but not the big wallets.
A game can have like 100M players, #2 in sub numbers can have like 1M...If #2 stays stable and #1 with the 100M produces a trend with numbers going down steadily for a while to like...for example 50M.....you and I wouldn't be concerned but sh*t hits the fan in the Board Room and there will be a meeting why things are going bad as they think in percentages.
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
Icewhite wins the thread.
so you want to compare F2P numbers (which we certanly don't know in the sligthtest) with sub numbers?
where did you came up with that information? it's kinda hard to believe at that when almost every other sale numbers speak differently.
"Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life."
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It does nothing for me..
But i guess it dumbed down MMORPGs just enough to get your average joe to play the game.. it took a lot away from what made MMORPGs fun for me.. Dont get me wrong it helps introduce some better ideas as well but ti was still a pretty boring game.
But we all cant like the same things.
That's a good thing, world would be pretty boring if that would be the case.
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
Ok i cannot comment on your things since i have not played wow for some time, but in terms of above, I rest my case "singularity"... namely EvE who needs individual servers of 2k being bought together when you can have 1 server handling upwards of 70k
Surely that must take pride of place at the pinacle of MMO technology
This post is all my opinion, but I welcome debate on anything i have put, however, personal slander / name calling belongs in game
where of course you're welcome to call me names im often found lounging about in EvE online.
Use this code for 21days trial in eve online https://secure.eveonline.com/trial/?invc=d385aff2-794a-44a4-96f1-3967ccf6d720&action=buddy
Well then: I'll talk money cash: WOW brought in 270 million dollars in the first quarter of 2013 (the one with the 8.3 million subscribers).
Take ALL known income from the rest and beat it.
)
PS: in the stock report legend it is mentioned that the Elite service of COD was included in that number -- BUT the Elite service went free to play at the end of 2012...(just in case for comparaison with 2012 figures).
EVE does not even have a landscape based world. It is empty space. We were talking real time play over complete open back ground worlds here.
You know a world and something with a landscape, rivers, houses and trees ...
Imagine players independant of their servers wondering through a landscape seamlessly. That's WOW these days. And the virutal server cluster is the last evolution (one economy, one guild recruitement) coming in patch 5.4.
Whilst it does not have these things it has the following which is far more in depth i would argue
7500 systems
each system has various numbers of hte following
Stations
Planets
Moons
AStroid Belts
Plexes
And each one must work independtly and is directly affected bty the player base and is nto just a picture of a tree that stops me running
Almost every thing in eve is interactable in one way or another affected at any point in time so the landscape whilst no tress and pretty items that you cannot do nothing with is fine, you have no interaction with them
Landscape in most MMO is like the old fashioned wall poster of my favorite band, great to look at, made me feel like i was connected but actually was nothing but a pretty picture
EDIT
Sorry didn't see the last bit
but in answer you cannot walk seemlesly as you will hit 'your lanscape' and not be able to interact with it, it will be merely there. and this is where our version of seemless mmo would be vastly different
EDIT 2 we must be typing at same time
The change you talk about in 5.4 whislt i cannot deny that it is one hellava jump for WoW it is merely something that has been played out for last 10yrs in our little universe.
How it will affect WoW i dont know, how it is affectING wow i dont know, like i started with has been some time, these are merely my impression and in no way are they meant to throw your ideas/opinion out
This post is all my opinion, but I welcome debate on anything i have put, however, personal slander / name calling belongs in game
where of course you're welcome to call me names im often found lounging about in EvE online.
Use this code for 21days trial in eve online https://secure.eveonline.com/trial/?invc=d385aff2-794a-44a4-96f1-3967ccf6d720&action=buddy
Except that picture of a landscape in WOW is dynamic these days. Changing.
As are your farms that grow in your world through phasing.
In EVE you don't even leave your cockpit, while we fly over seamless loading worlds that change according to our questing.
All cross server now - in real time. Now EVE did a great job for a space oriented MMORPG, but we talk here landscape based MMO's...
Perhaps you should play WOW version 2013 then.
What happens when you log off your characters????.....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GFQhfhnjYMk
Dark Age of Camelot
I agree with you, but to be fair, the graphics in Pandaria are much harsher a strain on PC's than WoW used to be. One of the guys in the guild plays on a laptop and gets ~15 fps with graphics on medium. The biggest issue comes when trying 25 man raiding, which he cannot partake in, in any Pandaria raid even with graphics on the lowest settings.
I play with a Radeon 6970 card in my pc, and on ultra settings the game looks nice and runs great 99% of the time, but my fps can still drop when there is a lot going on on screen, especially at times like in 25 man raiding with 5 large enemies, 1 boss, and 20+ adds - like the Dark Animus battle in ToT, plus all the visual effects from all enemies and mobs, plus all the addons I use for raiding. Don't even get me started on the Lei Shen battle... there is so much going on at some points especially if the group is not doing it right that it seems like my PC might just explode. You have to realize that to play WoW to the fullest effect, your PC has to be able to handle some very busy battles, because imo the pinnacle of WoW is those epic busy raid battles.
But, WoW does not strain a PC like many other MMO's do, mostly because the graphics are lower polygon (they still look great due to the art style), but also because Blizzard makes a lot of effort to optimize their engine.
That and it was easily accessible in playability, where at the time in EQ2 I had to tone down my graphics to medium or even low as the game would be asking too much of my hardware WOW ran smooth because of the simplier engine.
They said they were doing more updates regarding characters, is there any info or footage about their work in progress?
"going into arguments with idiots is a lost cause, it requires you to stoop down to their level and you can't win"
I'm not sure what you mean by this, since EQ2 launched 2 weeks before WoW and had been in development for years (as had wow). There were huge debates on the forums over which game would be better, it was almost as heated, but not anywhere near as nasty as the TOR Vs. GW2 forum wars.
While I am no longer playing WoW (quit 2 months after Cataclysm launched) it does a few things really well.
Sandbox means open world, non-linear gaming PERIOD!
Subscription Gaming, especially MMO gaming is a Cash grab bigger then the most P2W cash shop!
Bring Back Exploration and lengthy progression times. RPG's have always been about the Journey not the destination!!!