OP, your reason may be a part of why WoW is WoW but it is more then that. Some of the other reasons include it learned how to mass-market better then other games. Sure it wasn't the first mmo but it sure new how to market itself. Another reason was its ease. Now I am not saying that vanilla WoW wasn't grindy but it was easy to play. Easy to create a character, get in game and start playing.
There are a lot of reasons why WoW saw success and other "clones" don't, so saying 1 reason is the reason is really only scratching the surface.
@tibernoscupa, you still grinded the mobs in the predesignated areas in EQ. I call that on rails too. And in vanilla wow you could grind and level at a very decent pace. Sometimes I even found myself getting more xp if I grinded the right mobs as sometimes you can get very lost doing quests in vanilla wow as you had to read quest description to find the right spot.
And also in EQ you didn't have the choice to level through quests. You either grinded mobs or you grinded mobs. Wow had both options. In vanilla wow mob grinding especially in groups could end up being quicker. If you grinded elite mobs in a group you would also get some good items.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
WoW simply offers more than nearly all other MMORPGs. Er... wrong.
It has more starting zones than most other MMORPGs Wrong.. More races and professions. Very wrong. It gives you more choices on where to quest too. Except all the quests are the same. The pay to win aspect is much lower than in most other MMORPGs as well. That's a point of distinction these days?
WoW offers casual PvE content and polish... and that's about it. If you like meaningful PvP, you'd best go elsewhere. Same for crafting, housing, raiding, and dungeons.
WoW's raids/dungeons are tiny, linear, gear based, and instanced. Polished, but still weak content wise.
What WoW offers is big brand name recognition, and the knowledge that Blizzard is taking a nation's worth of wealth and NOT reinvesting it into WoW, because if they were, the game would be on par with Eve by now.
If I want good PvP, then I don't play a MMORPG to begin with, but rather games that are really designed for it, like DOTA2 or TF2. Especially with all that pay2win in MMORPGs, PvP is a farce there.
What do I want from a MMORPG is replayability, options I can take in the game, paths I can choose, and as litlte pay2win as possible.
I guess i have played a different WoW than you.. because the sheer amount of options and alternate pathes never showed up.
I played the same WOW as you, Apraxis. I fought my starting area stuff, then went to crossroads to kill zhevra, kill ostrich, get raptor eggs, Echykee, Mankrik's wife, and blah blah blah... same exact routine, same linear path, same limited progression system.
Definitely a fun game with good replayability, but to suggest it's because of the options is silly. If anything, it's the on-rails gameplay and lack of choice (therefore lack of chance to screw anything up) that made it popular.
Could not agree more with you and Apraxis. WoW is probably one of the most dulling MMORPGs out there. Oh yes, it's polished (to some standards), but for me the game only offers me the same boring railroad that takes me from point A to point B. And much like Apraxis wrote, I don't like instances at all, and arena PvP is PvP I avoid if I can (ArcheAge has arenas as well and I have yet to visit them )
This whole WoW clone debacle is a myth... Nothing more than a phrase little kids use who are overly proud of a single game. Want the true reason why MMORPGs are all similar? Becuase they're MMORPGs! Games have slowly changes over the years and have adapted to society... Eventually a mold is found that works and so companies tend to stick with it. They may throw a few curveballs in the mix to change things up, but at their core they're very similar.
Games also adapt to other games and WoW is not an exception to this. There have been countless games that WoW copied features from, but you hear nothing of it. You think all these features that current games come out with all started with WoW?? Hell no.
It's simply immature and I have grown annoyed by it. Call things what they are... Games are games, people are people. We all have mouths and noses, but we're not clones. All our trucks have tailgates, but they're not clones. All our vehicles have doors, steering wheels, & mufflers, but they're not clones. And I'm willing to bet my phone has a screen and buttons just like yours, but guess what... It's not a clone.
To make a long story short the op got a point there but its more complicated then that overall there are many more factors to its success here are a few i can think of right now
vanilla wow with its great first class open world experince which brought the big player base on the first place
The big success it had many years ago still fueling its player base
Keeping the game fresh with tons of high quality updates every year
This whole WoW clone debacle is a myth... Nothing more than a phrase little kids use who are overly proud of a single game. Want the true reason why MMORPGs are all similar? Becuase they're MMORPGs!
Are you serious? THen explain to me why almost every pre WoW MMORPG was NOTHING alike, and why almost all post WoW MMOs are almost identical?
That's why people are saying WoW clone buddy. DAoC, EQ, SWG, AO, AC, UO, M59, NOTHING ALIKE.
Originally posted by maji If you think WoW is "on rails" then you never played Rift.
If you think WoW isn't on rails than you've never played most MMOs.
Most MMO games put in guided content to take you from the beginning to the end.
The MMO is their story they present to players who decide to log in on their server and take their journey.
A themepark is a themepark until you over-content. WoW is the definition of over-content and therefore over-success.
Most games have a starting area where you begin, and a quest line to follow. WoW has a starting area for almost every race, and for a long time had more quests than you could do at each area. Making sure you found yourself deleting quests because you had out-leveled before finishing all of them.
This act left you with a feeling of leaving something unfinished. That feeling of having something left unfinished is what keeps you coming back to a MMO.
There are some world PvP areas that you don't ever have to go to, there are also some very busy instanced PvP areas, starting from a very early level, if you like to PvP, it is a viable leveling path. You can get all the way to maximum level and do almost no quests.
Ok you get it, there's tons of stuff, why does that matter. It's not the amount of stuff that matters, it's the amount of stuff you have to do to reach the end. The consistent change of scenery, the giving up on a quest chain simply because you've out-leveled it, the missing out on a dungeon because you didn't have time for it.
Re-play-ability. Most people who play WoW have 6 different characters at maximum level. This isn't because they're an obsessed fan-boy, it's because the game makes it so that it's entertaining to do so, it's the different game you make it each time you play. If this is your third tauren and you've done all the tauren quests, you can go to the undead area and do their quests instead.
You could also just PvP to level up.
The crafting system is incredibly complete. Some other games actually have a more important crafting system than WoW, but WoW has it so that people who craft are needed in end game to perform tasks that would be impossible without their presence. Not just creating some crazy item, but using their craft skills in a dungeon.
I haven't played WoW in over 2 years because I don't like being that addicted to a game.
If other games want to replicate the success, which they've been desperately trying and failing for about 10 years, they need to focus on Re-Play-Ability. Nobody really cares about their long typed out quests dialogues. Nobody really cares about the amazing 6D graphics. "Good" graphics are important to make the game playable to everyone, an option of "Amazing" should be a last priority over the content of the game it-self.
There are a lot of amazing niche games on here, but every MMO developer seems to want to replicate the universal success among almost all gamers that WoW has experienced. You can't create a single story line MMO or even dual story-line MMO and expect to be like WoW.
To sum it up, most MMOs are like a book, maybe a book with 2 or 3 endings. WoW is a "Create-your-own-adventure" with about 500 different endings. Instead of long tedious dialogues, the developers spent their time on sheer amounts of options and alternate paths. Opportunities to veer off the path you're on, and giving you that feeling of missing something down the other road.
You forgot to add that WoW is 10 years old and has a seamless world with no loading screens. So many races and classes to choose from. All these new MMO's don't have this.
I dunno... I spent the most time in WoW than any other MMO (I started with Pandaria for the first time and played it for a full year and enjoyed it).
To me it felt like an arcade RPG. Something that was deep but not terribly and you could drop in (a quarter) and accomplish something in 15 minutes. And those damn achievements that popped up when you didnt expect added to the draw.
But I found out I loved the levelling game. By the time I reached end game at 90 it turned into a totally different game and it was no longer fun for me. Part of it was I liked seeing my level bar grow.
I look forward to Draenor but with the lack of customization I don't know how long it will maintain my interest.
This whole WoW clone debacle is a myth... Nothing more than a phrase little kids use who are overly proud of a single game. Want the true reason why MMORPGs are all similar? Becuase they're MMORPGs!
Are you serious? THen explain to me why almost every pre WoW MMORPG was NOTHING alike, and why almost all post WoW MMOs are almost identical?
That's why people are saying WoW clone buddy. DAoC, EQ, SWG, AO, AC, UO, M59, NOTHING ALIKE.
Originally posted by maji If you think WoW is "on rails" then you never played Rift.
If you think WoW isn't on rails than you've never played most MMOs.
Tell me what was so different and I'll give you just as many different things about games that have come out since WoW.
This whole WoW clone debacle is a myth... Nothing more than a phrase little kids use who are overly proud of a single game. Want the true reason why MMORPGs are all similar? Becuase they're MMORPGs!
Are you serious? THen explain to me why almost every pre WoW MMORPG was NOTHING alike, and why almost all post WoW MMOs are almost identical?
That's why people are saying WoW clone buddy. DAoC, EQ, SWG, AO, AC, UO, M59, NOTHING ALIKE.
Originally posted by maji If you think WoW is "on rails" then you never played Rift.
If you think WoW isn't on rails than you've never played most MMOs.
Sure WoW is on rails, like 99.9% of all MMORPGs. But to continue that metaphor: wow has more tracks, trains and rail stations than most other MMORPGs.
For WoW it was more about lack of competition because its playability was way beyond any other 3d MMORPG. They also already had a rabid online player base with battlenet. They used a popular online IP. And it was just the right time.
Originally posted by Vermillion_Raventhal For WoW it was more about lack of competition because its playability was way beyond any other 3d MMORPG. They also already had a rabid online player base with battlenet. They used a popular online IP. And it was just the right time.
This, more or less. Being the first gets you a lot of points, and WoW was the first mainstream MMO because it was the first MMO made by a huge beloved studio, with an even bigger marketing budget, a pre established fanbase, and a well loved IP.
It didn't do anything new. It was just a polished, simple, casual version of EQ, but marketed at just the right time.
Originally posted by Vermillion_Raventhal For WoW it was more about lack of competition because its playability was way beyond any other 3d MMORPG. They also already had a rabid online player base with battlenet. They used a popular online IP. And it was just the right time.
This, more or less. Being the first gets you a lot of points, and WoW was the first mainstream MMO because it was the first MMO made by a huge beloved studio, with an even bigger marketing budget, a pre established fanbase, and a well loved IP.
It didn't do anything new. It was just a polished, simple, casual version of EQ, but marketed at just the right time.
But I thought WoW was nothing like "those" games before it??? You just completely contradicted your previous post.
Originally posted by maji If you think WoW is "on rails" then you never played Rift.
Good point here too. Rift, but also SW:TOR, or LOTRO.
If you think WoW is linear, "on rails", you never played a MMO that is really on rails.
In all honesty Rift never was until people complained, so... I guess it's something people want or at the very least don't know what they want/like until it's gone.
The thing people don't realize are that these games have stories... Some much worse than others, but in order to tell those stories you must live through them. It's all part of the immersion. So, with this in mind, how can games not be somewhat guided or "on rails"?
There are a lot of amazing niche games on here, but every MMO developer seems to want to replicate the universal success among almost all gamers that WoW has experienced. You can't create a single story line MMO or even dual story-line MMO and expect to be like WoW.
To sum it up, most MMOs are like a book, maybe a book with 2 or 3 endings. WoW is a "Create-your-own-adventure" with about 500 different endings. Instead of long tedious dialogues, the developers spent their time on sheer amounts of options and alternate paths. Opportunities to veer off the path you're on, and giving you that feeling of missing something down the other road.
This so true my friend!
And yeah I said many times myself that many other developers copy the leader in the game industry (in this case the MMO King for the last 8 years) - World of Warcraft. Though I usually get "flamed" for that statement, lol. I'm glad you've put it out like this; very well written!
And yeah, there's actually "no-end" to this game. There's always something that you can or could do. Literaly, the more time you invest in this game instead of becoming borring after a while like many other MMORPGs do, it actually gives you even more tasks on a daily basis. Keep playin' it for years and I don't yet see the light at the end of this endless tunnel...lol
This whole WoW clone debacle is a myth... Nothing more than a phrase little kids use who are overly proud of a single game. Want the true reason why MMORPGs are all similar? Becuase they're MMORPGs!
Are you serious? THen explain to me why almost every pre WoW MMORPG was NOTHING alike, and why almost all post WoW MMOs are almost identical?
That's why people are saying WoW clone buddy. DAoC, EQ, SWG, AO, AC, UO, M59, NOTHING ALIKE.
Originally posted by maji If you think WoW is "on rails" then you never played Rift.
If you think WoW isn't on rails than you've never played most MMOs.
Sure WoW is on rails, like 99.9% of all MMORPGs. But to continue that metaphor: wow has more tracks, trains and rail stations than most other MMORPGs.
I keep seeing people write this but how so? Pet battles? What are these many options WoW has that other games don't? Because I'm not seeing it. There is nothing about WoW I can't find in another game and most have as much to offer as WoW does. Rift and EQ2 are just 2 examples.
Examples:
- Starting zones. How many recent MMORPGs have more than WoW? And the number of starting zones is a huge factor for me on whether to buy a MMORPG or not. If it has just two in total, then I know I'll instantly get bored when I create new characters.
- Professions. How many recent MMORPGs have more?
- How many ways you have to get to max level without seeing the same content twice? WoW has a few bottle necks, but apart from that you can max level several characters while seeing different content most of the time. How many recent MMORPGs can say the same?
And sure, the pet battles is also a funny mini game. Add to that the low pay2win factor in WoW compared to most recent MMORPGs.
WoW simply offers more than nearly all other MMORPGs. Er... wrong.
It has more starting zones than most other MMORPGs Wrong.. More races and professions. Very wrong. It gives you more choices on where to quest too. Except all the quests are the same. The pay to win aspect is much lower than in most other MMORPGs as well. That's a point of distinction these days?
WoW offers casual PvE content and polish... and that's about it. If you like meaningful PvP, you'd best go elsewhere. Same for crafting, housing, raiding, and dungeons.
WoW's raids/dungeons are tiny, linear, gear based, and instanced. Polished, but still weak content wise.
What WoW offers is big brand name recognition, and the knowledge that Blizzard is taking a nation's worth of wealth and NOT reinvesting it into WoW, because if they were, the game would be on par with Eve by now.
If you think WoW's raids are "weak", you probably didn't do much more than Looking for Raid content. WoW has always had some of the best raids/dungeons, with the heroic hard modes being esp. tough.
Is a man not entitled to the herp of his derp?
Remember, I live in a world where juggalos and yugioh players are real things.
wow was a good game before they started tweaking everything and made it super easy for everyone..has a massive world and content now but all that is totally nulled / skipped over because of the "easy / fast curve" to gain quick max lvl maybe they should have made each expan. harder n harder than the next instead of makeing it stupid easyer and easyer but theres no going back now
the most simple thing all devs miss nowa days are makeing ppl feel a self of accomplishment in a mmorpg..now its just all instant gratification
Nobody can say that wow isn't a great game cause it is, however I have played it for many years but I got tired of it because I love pvp. Sure the pvp in wow is in my book ok balanced but the combat mechanics for pvp just sucks. It doesn't suck in a way that it's bad it sucks for me personally. I feel that the combat is to stale and slow but there are alot of people how like it the way it is so I could be wrong
If your a gamer who loves raiding then this has gotta be the number one game out there and me personally I hate raiding. I hate all the whining about the useless tank or healer who can't heal, I can't stand the whining in this game.
But even thou I hate raiding I still log on sometimes on a private server just to run through the easier ones just for the memory of it.
Nostaligia, friends, raiding and investment are the four factors that make this game so huge and ofcourse the IP.
If you were to release this game today insteed of ten years ago and give it an unknown IP the there wouldn't be any 7 million players. And why is this? it's not because it's bad cause it's not it's because of the points I made, nostalgia, friends, raiding, invested time and the IP.
Wow is a great game for the people who love it and if you are one of them then you are in luck cause wow is gonna be huge for many years to come.
Wow is so huge that there flaws don't matter like there crafting isn't that good, they don't have any large scale pvp that is fun, quests just plain suck in this game (because they are dated), graphics isn't any good (understandable).
I would like to end with that this is the opinion of me and only me and I have a crappy music taste that no one else likes so I could be wrong
Sure WoW is on rails, like 99.9% of all MMORPGs. But to continue that metaphor: wow has more tracks, trains and rail stations than most other MMORPGs.
I keep seeing people write this but how so? Pet battles? What are these many options WoW has that other games don't? Because I'm not seeing it. There is nothing about WoW I can't find in another game and most have as much to offer as WoW does. Rift and EQ2 are just 2 examples.
Examples:
- Starting zones. How many recent MMORPGs have more than WoW? And the number of starting zones is a huge factor for me on whether to buy a MMORPG or not. If it has just two in total, then I know I'll instantly get bored when I create new characters.
- Professions. How many recent MMORPGs have more?
- How many ways you have to get to max level without seeing the same content twice? WoW has a few bottle necks, but apart from that you can max level several characters while seeing different content most of the time. How many recent MMORPGs can say the same?
And sure, the pet battles is also a funny mini game. Add to that the low pay2win factor in WoW compared to most recent MMORPGs.
Sorry, but you don't get to redefine the pool. This conversation isn't about "recent" mmos. This discussion is about WoW having more options than other mmos. It doesn't.
The multiple starting zones isn't unique to WoW. Even some games with one starting zone like Neverwinter can have a completely different experience for every character with the Foundry. Not only that but GW2 has several starting zones and the leveling path doesn't have to be the same ever.
The same goes with professions, but even so Rift and EQ2 have as many or more professions. Games like TSW, ESO, TOR and FFXIV have profession options that make their class options much more deep and diverse.
Even in LotRO which is totally on rails, I can do different quests and zones for my leveling path, not to mention Neverwinter with the Foundry. Again, WoW doesn't have a corner on this.
Not only that but many of those games have interesting systems and features that far surpass what WoW has to offer. EQ2 has deep quests that intertwine with languages, crafting, housing, and reputation. LotRO has a gear configuration system that WoW doesn't have. Neverwinter and STO have the Foundry.
Finally, lets just pretend you didn't try and qualify the "P2W" that WoW offers. It's a mandatory sub game with a cash shop that allows for currency conversion. That in no way shape or form makes it any different from any other game that offers items or a currency conversion. One could easily buy a bunch of items in the WoW cash shop, sell them, and buy raid loot rights. Please tell me that doesn't happen because we all know it does.
WoW is a great game, but it's not a better game and it doesn't offer more than other games. What it does offer is an experience that those who like it enjoy. It got really popular and that inertia has carried it through. Why would someone want to dump years of investment in WoW just to start over in another game that doesn't offer something more. So people stick with what they know and there's nothing wrong with that.
I didn't say that WoW is the only MMORPG with multiple starting zones. I say that WoW has one of the highest replayability values of any MMORPG.
Rift has many or more professions? Let's see: Rift got 9 professions. WoW has 15. You're just making things up here.
Especially if you consider how old WoW is, it's disappointing that no developer tried to create something that can really compete with it. Sure, some recent MMORPGs are decent, but they are always lackluster in some important areas. Why? Because the developers don't try to create MMORPGs that are superior to WoW, but to create games that are juuuust good enough to make some fine money.
I don't even play WoW myself anymore, but why should I buy a recent MMORPG that has like two starting zones when I know I'll be bored too quickly, or that the crafting system sucks, or it simply has zero replayability?
Originally posted by Vermillion_Raventhal For WoW it was more about lack of competition because its playability was way beyond any other 3d MMORPG. They also already had a rabid online player base with battlenet. They used a popular online IP. And it was just the right time.
This, more or less. Being the first gets you a lot of points, and WoW was the first mainstream MMO because it was the first MMO made by a huge beloved studio, with an even bigger marketing budget, a pre established fanbase, and a well loved IP.
It didn't do anything new. It was just a polished, simple, casual version of EQ, but marketed at just the right time.
But I thought WoW was nothing like "those" games before it??? You just completely contradicted your previous post.
It has its DNA roots in EQ, but a very casual version of it, totally changing the tone and soul of the whole game. So no, I didn't.
And EQ is ONE MMO, so "those" isn't even the proper word to use. Not all pre WoW MMOs were EQ. Only one was.
wow was a good game before they started tweaking everything and made it super easy for everyone..has a massive world and content now but all that is totally nulled / skipped over because of the "easy / fast curve" to gain quick max lvl maybe they should have made each expan. harder n harder than the next instead of makeing it stupid easyer and easyer but theres no going back now
the most simple thing all devs miss nowa days are makeing ppl feel a self of accomplishment in a mmorpg..now its just all instant gratification
You're just spewing the same crap others started saying, but the fact is if you remove all normal modes and remove the heroic/hardmode branding from the others then the game's difficulty has not changed. If it's too easy for you then you're playing normal content and NOT the content that is designed to be hard. The only thing the game is guilty of is allowing everyone casual/hardcore to experience the same content, but the hardcores still have a challenge to make through for all the best stuff.
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OP, your reason may be a part of why WoW is WoW but it is more then that. Some of the other reasons include it learned how to mass-market better then other games. Sure it wasn't the first mmo but it sure new how to market itself. Another reason was its ease. Now I am not saying that vanilla WoW wasn't grindy but it was easy to play. Easy to create a character, get in game and start playing.
There are a lot of reasons why WoW saw success and other "clones" don't, so saying 1 reason is the reason is really only scratching the surface.
And also in EQ you didn't have the choice to level through quests. You either grinded mobs or you grinded mobs. Wow had both options. In vanilla wow mob grinding especially in groups could end up being quicker. If you grinded elite mobs in a group you would also get some good items.
Mission in life: Vanquish all MMORPG.com trolls - especially TESO, WOW and GW2 trolls.
If I want good PvP, then I don't play a MMORPG to begin with, but rather games that are really designed for it, like DOTA2 or TF2. Especially with all that pay2win in MMORPGs, PvP is a farce there.
What do I want from a MMORPG is replayability, options I can take in the game, paths I can choose, and as litlte pay2win as possible.
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
Could not agree more with you and Apraxis. WoW is probably one of the most dulling MMORPGs out there. Oh yes, it's polished (to some standards), but for me the game only offers me the same boring railroad that takes me from point A to point B. And much like Apraxis wrote, I don't like instances at all, and arena PvP is PvP I avoid if I can (ArcheAge has arenas as well and I have yet to visit them
)
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
This whole WoW clone debacle is a myth... Nothing more than a phrase little kids use who are overly proud of a single game. Want the true reason why MMORPGs are all similar? Becuase they're MMORPGs! Games have slowly changes over the years and have adapted to society... Eventually a mold is found that works and so companies tend to stick with it. They may throw a few curveballs in the mix to change things up, but at their core they're very similar.
Games also adapt to other games and WoW is not an exception to this. There have been countless games that WoW copied features from, but you hear nothing of it. You think all these features that current games come out with all started with WoW?? Hell no.
It's simply immature and I have grown annoyed by it. Call things what they are... Games are games, people are people. We all have mouths and noses, but we're not clones. All our trucks have tailgates, but they're not clones. All our vehicles have doors, steering wheels, & mufflers, but they're not clones. And I'm willing to bet my phone has a screen and buttons just like yours, but guess what... It's not a clone.
To make a long story short the op got a point there but its more complicated then that overall there are many more factors to its success here are a few i can think of right now
vanilla wow with its great first class open world experince which brought the big player base on the first place
The big success it had many years ago still fueling its player base
Keeping the game fresh with tons of high quality updates every year
Fun and very smooth gameplay
alot of classes with very different play styles
replayability like the op mentioned
Are you serious? THen explain to me why almost every pre WoW MMORPG was NOTHING alike, and why almost all post WoW MMOs are almost identical?
That's why people are saying WoW clone buddy. DAoC, EQ, SWG, AO, AC, UO, M59, NOTHING ALIKE.
If you think WoW isn't on rails than you've never played most MMOs.
You forgot to add that WoW is 10 years old and has a seamless world with no loading screens. So many races and classes to choose from. All these new MMO's don't have this.
I dunno... I spent the most time in WoW than any other MMO (I started with Pandaria for the first time and played it for a full year and enjoyed it).
To me it felt like an arcade RPG. Something that was deep but not terribly and you could drop in (a quarter) and accomplish something in 15 minutes. And those damn achievements that popped up when you didnt expect added to the draw.
But I found out I loved the levelling game. By the time I reached end game at 90 it turned into a totally different game and it was no longer fun for me. Part of it was I liked seeing my level bar grow.
I look forward to Draenor but with the lack of customization I don't know how long it will maintain my interest.
Tell me what was so different and I'll give you just as many different things about games that have come out since WoW.
There are like 7 million people who play WoW and another 7 billion that don't... simple comparison that most people seem to overlook.
Sure WoW is on rails, like 99.9% of all MMORPGs. But to continue that metaphor: wow has more tracks, trains and rail stations than most other MMORPGs.
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
This, more or less. Being the first gets you a lot of points, and WoW was the first mainstream MMO because it was the first MMO made by a huge beloved studio, with an even bigger marketing budget, a pre established fanbase, and a well loved IP.
It didn't do anything new. It was just a polished, simple, casual version of EQ, but marketed at just the right time.
But I thought WoW was nothing like "those" games before it??? You just completely contradicted your previous post.
In all honesty Rift never was until people complained, so... I guess it's something people want or at the very least don't know what they want/like until it's gone.
The thing people don't realize are that these games have stories... Some much worse than others, but in order to tell those stories you must live through them. It's all part of the immersion. So, with this in mind, how can games not be somewhat guided or "on rails"?
This so true my friend!
And yeah I said many times myself that many other developers copy the leader in the game industry (in this case the MMO King for the last 8 years) - World of Warcraft. Though I usually get "flamed" for that statement, lol. I'm glad you've put it out like this; very well written!
And yeah, there's actually "no-end" to this game. There's always something that you can or could do. Literaly, the more time you invest in this game instead of becoming borring after a while like many other MMORPGs do, it actually gives you even more tasks on a daily basis. Keep playin' it for years and I don't yet see the light at the end of this endless tunnel...lol
I need a girl whose name doesn't end in .JPG
Examples:
- Starting zones. How many recent MMORPGs have more than WoW? And the number of starting zones is a huge factor for me on whether to buy a MMORPG or not. If it has just two in total, then I know I'll instantly get bored when I create new characters.
- Professions. How many recent MMORPGs have more?
- How many ways you have to get to max level without seeing the same content twice? WoW has a few bottle necks, but apart from that you can max level several characters while seeing different content most of the time. How many recent MMORPGs can say the same?
And sure, the pet battles is also a funny mini game. Add to that the low pay2win factor in WoW compared to most recent MMORPGs.
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
If you think WoW's raids are "weak", you probably didn't do much more than Looking for Raid content. WoW has always had some of the best raids/dungeons, with the heroic hard modes being esp. tough.
Is a man not entitled to the herp of his derp?
Remember, I live in a world where juggalos and yugioh players are real things.
wow was a good game before they started tweaking everything and made it super easy for everyone..has a massive world and content now but all that is totally nulled / skipped over because of the "easy / fast curve" to gain quick max lvl maybe they should have made each expan. harder n harder than the next instead of makeing it stupid easyer and easyer but theres no going back now
the most simple thing all devs miss nowa days are makeing ppl feel a self of accomplishment in a mmorpg..now its just all instant gratification
Nobody can say that wow isn't a great game cause it is, however I have played it for many years but I got tired of it because I love pvp. Sure the pvp in wow is in my book ok balanced but the combat mechanics for pvp just sucks. It doesn't suck in a way that it's bad it sucks for me personally. I feel that the combat is to stale and slow but there are alot of people how like it the way it is so I could be wrong
If your a gamer who loves raiding then this has gotta be the number one game out there and me personally I hate raiding. I hate all the whining about the useless tank or healer who can't heal, I can't stand the whining in this game.
But even thou I hate raiding I still log on sometimes on a private server just to run through the easier ones just for the memory of it.
Nostaligia, friends, raiding and investment are the four factors that make this game so huge and ofcourse the IP.
If you were to release this game today insteed of ten years ago and give it an unknown IP the there wouldn't be any 7 million players. And why is this? it's not because it's bad cause it's not it's because of the points I made, nostalgia, friends, raiding, invested time and the IP.
Wow is a great game for the people who love it and if you are one of them then you are in luck cause wow is gonna be huge for many years to come.
Wow is so huge that there flaws don't matter like there crafting isn't that good, they don't have any large scale pvp that is fun, quests just plain suck in this game (because they are dated), graphics isn't any good (understandable).
I would like to end with that this is the opinion of me and only me and I have a crappy music taste that no one else likes so I could be wrong
I didn't say that WoW is the only MMORPG with multiple starting zones. I say that WoW has one of the highest replayability values of any MMORPG.
Rift has many or more professions? Let's see: Rift got 9 professions. WoW has 15. You're just making things up here.
Especially if you consider how old WoW is, it's disappointing that no developer tried to create something that can really compete with it. Sure, some recent MMORPGs are decent, but they are always lackluster in some important areas. Why? Because the developers don't try to create MMORPGs that are superior to WoW, but to create games that are juuuust good enough to make some fine money.
I don't even play WoW myself anymore, but why should I buy a recent MMORPG that has like two starting zones when I know I'll be bored too quickly, or that the crafting system sucks, or it simply has zero replayability?
Let's play Fallen Earth (blind, 300 episodes)
Let's play Guild Wars 2 (blind, 45 episodes)
It has its DNA roots in EQ, but a very casual version of it, totally changing the tone and soul of the whole game. So no, I didn't.
And EQ is ONE MMO, so "those" isn't even the proper word to use. Not all pre WoW MMOs were EQ. Only one was.
You're just spewing the same crap others started saying, but the fact is if you remove all normal modes and remove the heroic/hardmode branding from the others then the game's difficulty has not changed. If it's too easy for you then you're playing normal content and NOT the content that is designed to be hard. The only thing the game is guilty of is allowing everyone casual/hardcore to experience the same content, but the hardcores still have a challenge to make through for all the best stuff.