Originally posted by Rusque Yep, sunk cost. No one would ever play WoW for the well crafted world, the myriad of things to do and because it's fun.
You don't play the same shit for over a year no matter how good it is same way you won't eat the same thing every day 3x a day if you can have something else.
Nr.1 reason wow is still going: most of their players don't know about other games. Ask in your guild arround and most didnt even hear of half the mmorpgs out there. They don't try to have a choice and don't choose -that's why they are still stuck in wow.
Yes WOW players live in alternate universe where if you google MMOS only WOW comes up in search function.
Tell me about a better MMO than WoW, and I'll play it. I've been looking for a better one for about 6 years now.
Everquest 2 wasn't it.
Warhammer wasn't it.
Age of Conan wasn't it.
Lord of the Rings Online, while being one of the only other MMO where I bothered to max level a character, wasn't it.
Aion wasn't it.
Rift wasn't it.
TERA wasn't it.
SWTOR, while being one of the only other MMO where I bothered to max level a character, wasn't it.
I didn't even bother buying TESO and Wildstar - I've gotten good at telling bad MMOs at a distance. Sure enough, reviews backed me up.
Everquest Next, I'm buying the second I can... HOPING that the makers of the old Everquest that I loved so much can *finally* put out a better product than WoW.
For me, it has positively nothing to do with Sunk Cost fallacy and everything to do with no MMO to date has been able to do what WoW has: grab my attention and keep it for years.
Same! I've subbed to EQ, AoC, SWTOR, Rift, LoTRO, UO, and I've even played some of them for years at a time. Actually, I'll probably even sub to SWTOR again, since I enjoy playing it with my kids. WoW is still king of the castle though. It's simply better.
Not only do we have the same tastes, we're on the same WoW Realm. Hail, Fellow Dreamer.
Ummmm, yeah, haven't they merged all of the servers onto ED now because they've lost so many subscribers?
A big factor that I haven't seen much mention of is how many people had WoW as their *first* MMO. We are naturally biased towards our first anything. When the whole experience seems novel and we don't have anything to compare it to. Even after you move on and try other things you alweays feel nostalgia for that first experience and its easy to conclude that it was in fact the best and go back. Add to that the "everyone's doing it so I should to mentality" a lot of people have and the sunk cost issue already mentioned and a lot of birlliant marketing and good timing on Blizzard's part.
To the fanboys, yes WoW is a good quality game but I can't except that even after 10 years it is so much objectively better than the many games which have tried to copy it. If WoW's success was merely down to its brilliant gameplay than WoW clones would actually be a lot more successful because there's nothing about WoW's gameplay that is that complicated or mysterious to copy.
Clearly there are a lot of other factors behind WoW's success other than just being a good game.
A big factor that I haven't seen much mention of is how many people had WoW as their *first* MMO. We are naturally biased towards our first anything. When the whole experience seems novel and we don't have anything to compare it to. Even after you move on and try other things you alweays feel nostalgia for that first experience and its easy to conclude that it was in fact the best and go back. Add to that the "everyone's doing it so I should to mentality" a lot of people have and the sunk cost issue already mentioned and a lot of birlliant marketing and good timing on Blizzard's part.
To the fanboys, yes WoW is a good quality game but I can't except that even after 10 years it is so much objectively better than the many games which have tried to copy it. If WoW's success was merely down to its brilliant gameplay than WoW clones would actually be a lot more successful because there's nothing about WoW's gameplay that is that complicated or mysterious to copy.
Clearly there are a lot of other factors behind WoW's success other than just being a good game.
Uhh? the whole reason no other MMOS has success such as WOW is because they could never copy its gameplay upto the similar standards. I have played every MMO on market and to this date not one comes close to the fluidity and smoothness of WOW.
I like how you make it sound so simple as if copying something is guarantee for success. And i also like how you trivialise wow's gameplay (again) by your twisted logic that if other companies failed to copy WOW's gameplay it somehow means that 'gameplay' itself is nothing special.
To the fanboys, yes WoW is a good quality game but I can't except that even after 10 years it is so much objectively better than the many games which have tried to copy it. If WoW's success was merely down to its brilliant gameplay than WoW clones would actually be a lot more successful because there's nothing about WoW's gameplay that is that complicated or mysterious to copy.
Clearly there are a lot of other factors behind WoW's success other than just being a good game.
Uhh? the whole reason no other MMOS has success such as WOW is because they could never copy its gameplay upto the similar standards. I have played every MMO on market and to this date not one comes close to the fluidity and smoothness of WOW.
I like how you make it sound so simple as if copying something is guarantee for success. And i also like how you trivialise wow's gameplay (again) by your twisted logic that if other companies failed to copy WOW's gameplay it somehow means that 'gameplay' itself is nothing special.
They've all copied WoW's gameplay. What feature has no game been able to copy from WoW? WoW's gameplay was mostly taken from Everquest anyway. I'm sure to you WoW just feels better than those other games or something equally subjective but that's down to the nostalgia and bias I talked about before . Not some "secret sauce" Blizzard put in their game
To the fanboys, yes WoW is a good quality game but I can't except that even after 10 years it is so much objectively better than the many games which have tried to copy it. If WoW's success was merely down to its brilliant gameplay than WoW clones would actually be a lot more successful because there's nothing about WoW's gameplay that is that complicated or mysterious to copy.
Clearly there are a lot of other factors behind WoW's success other than just being a good game.
Uhh? the whole reason no other MMOS has success such as WOW is because they could never copy its gameplay upto the similar standards. I have played every MMO on market and to this date not one comes close to the fluidity and smoothness of WOW.
I like how you make it sound so simple as if copying something is guarantee for success. And i also like how you trivialise wow's gameplay (again) by your twisted logic that if other companies failed to copy WOW's gameplay it somehow means that 'gameplay' itself is nothing special.
They've all copied WoW's gameplay. What feature has no game been able to copy from WoW? WoW's gameplay was mostly taken from Everquest anyway. I'm sure to you WoW just feels better than those other games or something equally subjective but that's down to the nostalgia and bias I talked about before . Not some "secret sauce" Blizzard put in their game
Again simply copying something doesn't mean they did it right. Yes they 'tried' to copy WOW's gameplay but without much success. And you telling me 'i am biased' ...is such an irony.
I currently play SWTOR a lot more than WOW so yes i am capable of enjoying other MMOS too but i give credit where credit is due. Unlike some of you who; would rather lose an arm than admit that yes the reason WOW is still king after 10 years is because it has a superior gameplay.
Instead you would come up with a laundry list of reasons to undermine its success. And honestly after 10 years i find it extremely sad that people are still doing it.
To the fanboys, yes WoW is a good quality game but I can't except that even after 10 years it is so much objectively better than the many games which have tried to copy it. If WoW's success was merely down to its brilliant gameplay than WoW clones would actually be a lot more successful because there's nothing about WoW's gameplay that is that complicated or mysterious to copy.
Clearly there are a lot of other factors behind WoW's success other than just being a good game.
Uhh? the whole reason no other MMOS has success such as WOW is because they could never copy its gameplay upto the similar standards. I have played every MMO on market and to this date not one comes close to the fluidity and smoothness of WOW.
I like how you make it sound so simple as if copying something is guarantee for success. And i also like how you trivialise wow's gameplay (again) by your twisted logic that if other companies failed to copy WOW's gameplay it somehow means that 'gameplay' itself is nothing special.
They've all copied WoW's gameplay. What feature has no game been able to copy from WoW? WoW's gameplay was mostly taken from Everquest anyway. I'm sure to you WoW just feels better than those other games or something equally subjective but that's down to the nostalgia and bias I talked about before . Not some "secret sauce" Blizzard put in their game
wows combat is more responsive then the any of the copies, its one of the tightest controls you can find in a mmo, anywhere.
I dont play wow, i play tsw and wildstar atm, and i enjoy both of them more then wow but for totally other reasons, but i could never argue with wow combat responsiveness, its just that tight. wildstar would probably rival it if they would have gone tab target, but now its potato potato, tomato tomato, apples oranges. what? you still wont like wow?
I know why people hate wow and its not because wow is a bad game, *hint* it has more to do with the people hating then it has to do with the game wow.
I think this thread is a direct insult to any players who enjoy WoW, and is just a disguised way to say "most people playing WoW can only do it for a wrong reason... like them being morons".
But I'm not surprised, I've seen similar ones before.
I'm not sure that playing due to sunk cost is a wrong reason either, and it certainly isn't the "major" reason people play, nor even a very important reason though I'm sure on occasion it does influence some folks.
In my case, I play EVE partly for this reason, I have several characters with almost 90M SP's, and gazillions of trained skills, it's actually pretty cool to re-sub and be able to walk the landscape as a pseudo-diety, well, at least until some group of players with 3 million SP's each suicide ganks me in high sec.
Even better, outside of a few mechanical changes, I actually know how to play much of EVE well, so it's a comfortable fit.
Oh yeah, and I like the game too. Weird huh?
So yes, all of these threads are silly... WOW is so successful because... <<insert singular, inaccurate reason here>> and frequently they focus on something inane or trite just to boost up the trolling value.
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
A big factor that I haven't seen much mention of is how many people had WoW as their *first* MMO. We are naturally biased towards our first anything. When the whole experience seems novel and we don't have anything to compare it to. Even after you move on and try other things you alweays feel nostalgia for that first experience and its easy to conclude that it was in fact the best and go back. Add to that the "everyone's doing it so I should to mentality" a lot of people have and the sunk cost issue already mentioned and a lot of birlliant marketing and good timing on Blizzard's part.
To the fanboys, yes WoW is a good quality game but I can't except that even after 10 years it is so much objectively better than the many games which have tried to copy it. If WoW's success was merely down to its brilliant gameplay than WoW clones would actually be a lot more successful because there's nothing about WoW's gameplay that is that complicated or mysterious to copy.
Clearly there are a lot of other factors behind WoW's success other than just being a good game.
Copying isn't as simple as copying. If you're going to copy something, you need to understand what people like about it and why it works, which is why you've seen so many imitators fall short - they weren't able to copy properly.
And you can see the thought process even in this thread. People tend to deconstruct WoW to very basic ideas and are confused why they work.
Some examples:
WoW uses a highly stylized visual aesthetic. Wildstar also went for a highly stylized visual aesthetic, but WoW never went goofy/silly. You know, "never go full retard" well Wildstar embraced the aesthetic, but then interjected sillyness everywhere else. WoW has humor tucked away here and there, but WS smacks you in the face with it. They thought it would be charming, and for a few people, it was, but it's mostly silly.
WoW uses linear quest hubs for leveling. Rift also went this route (as did many other games), but for whatever reason, Blizzard environment/level designers seem to understand how to craft a zone to maintain the player's interest while they kill 10 rats. Rift asked you to kill 10 rats, except everything is brown (okay, that's an exaggeration, it's not ALL brown, but it is pretty dull). Blizz are masters are creating a world that capture player's imaginations. It's all the little details that make up a whole, the ambient noises, the soundtrack, the new critters, things you don't particularly notice but come together to bring it to life. So many games are like, "yo dawg, I heard you like mobs in your forest, so I put some mobs in your forest." Nice, thanks, so exciting.
WoW is huge on collectibles. People love collecting things! A LOT! People like to collect things in real life, whether they're cars, shoes, baseball caps, DVD's, rare liquors, etc. One of the most entertaining past times in WoW, is looking for new things to collect and setting a goal for your self that you're going to save up, or do an achievement to get ____. It may be a mount, a pet, a tabard, a title, w/e. No other game has understood the value of collectibles. Every game that has something to collect, half-asses it and it shows.
WoW combat is like butter. It makes you feel in control of your avatar, very few games (GW2, WS, Aion) have managed to give you that feeling of 1:1 connectedness. It's when you start looking at all these small things that you understand what polish actually means in gaming terms. Having an interesting game mechanic is great and all, but it has to be supported by a great engine, otherwise it will always fall just a bit short. Look at Path of Exile, lots of great stuff in that game, but viewing angle, desynch, devs outright dislike for melee characters, they just hinder it from being a beast.
See, when WoW copied EQ, they copied properly. They looked at what players wanted, what players did the most and how they played, and they built a game around that. And since then, Blizzard is one of the few companies that continues to watch how people play games and they adjust accordingly, which is why they haven't gone bye-bye.
I honestly don't think it would take much to make a game that could rival WoW, I just think a lot of developers are short sighted when it comes to what WoW does well. Too many games lack in one or more areas like, scope, variety of gameplay options, smoothness of interaction, design and world building, sound, visual feedback, balance between accessibility and complexity, etc. WoW is a masterclass of game design whereas so many others hang their success on a gimmick and forget that players appreciate that which they don't always realize is there.
IMO the reasons vast majority of the reason people still pay the game as much as they do is 3 fold:
70% - Sunk cost. People have invested hundreds or thousands of hours and don't want to feel like they've wasted that time:
20% - Lack of anything else worth playing out there
10% - Popularity. Some people just want to be part of the group, so to speak.
Now, i'm not suggesting EVERY person playing the game is part of this group. But i think its a significant majority. I'm sure there's a few hundred thousand playing it who are honestly, truly enjoying it and having fun, but i think probably 80% or better are just falling victim to the above listed reasons.
Wow is simply most FUN game to play, most complex, most polished, .... So I'm staying until there will be any Wow expansion made. Still even if I love pizza, I can not eat pizza for 10 years, every day, 5 times per day. I need change from time to time before returning with fresh wish to my favorite food. So far as long I have Wow and Swtor (and now rediscovered Rift) all my gaming needs for years to come are covered.
In my opinion many of the WoW players play no other game and have never looked for another game. It is like certain people who only eat one type of food and will not try anything else many of the WoW players have only played WoW so they just play and wait for the next expansion.They do not check websites of games or look forward to other games and perhaps even at work hang out with WoW players.So their whole gaming world is just WoW.
As for the poster who said I was a Rift fan I think I played that game for like two months and have not been back since.
They play WoW because it's a nice mmo for a themepark. It's world is big. Almost everyone has tried WoW so it's a mutual ground. WoW was the only mmo that allowed people to mod the UI. But mostly it will play on old PC's because of it's cell shade graphics. Right now in mmorpg's we have a real income gap between those who can afford a gamer's PC and those who cannot. People who want a 3d fancy mmorpg that does not lag and has a large population can count on WoW.
I think the real question is why do so many people hate WoW? Me included. For myself I might answer because I am tired of themeparks but Everquest was a thempark and I don't feel great animosity for it. I can't really place at what point I started hating World of Warcraft and wanting to see Blizzard fail. It doesn't say nice things about me and remains a mystery.
They play WoW because it's a nice mmo for a themepark. It's world is big. Almost everyone has tried WoW so it's a mutual ground. WoW was the only mmo that allowed people to mod the UI. But mostly it will play on old PC's because of it's cell shade graphics. Right now in mmorpg's we have a real income gap between those who can afford a gamer's PC and those who cannot. People who want a 3d fancy mmorpg that does not lag and has a large population can count on WoW.
I think the real question is why do so many people hate WoW? Me included. For myself I might answer because I am tired of themeparks but Everquest was a thempark and I don't feel great animosity for it. I can't really place at what point I started hating World of Warcraft and wanting to see Blizzard fail. It doesn't say nice things about me and remains a mystery.
Most likely because you blame Blizzard for other companies trying to copy them when really it is the other companies fault Blizzard is not forcing them to try and make WoW-esque games.
GW2 - lack of QoL fixes, no progression, no solo content at end game besides LS which takes 45 minutes to do every 2 weeks.
ESO - terrible combat, ruined economy, not enough variety.
WS - lack of non-serious end game, too over the top, screen clutter from too many telegraphs.
SWTOR - abandoned its strongest element the story, not enough classes, lack of non-serious end game.
FFXIV - forced grouping to progress story, long dungeon queue times, lack of non-serious end game.
Throw me an MMO and I can name you at least 3 reasons I don't like the game. Most of those reasons revolving around forced group end game and a lack of features for a solo player.
WoW does end game better than any game I've played.
If I want serious raiding, there's a guild. If I want non-serious raiding, there's an LFR. If I want serious grouping, there's heroics. If I want non-serious grouping, there's normals.
Theose are pretty consistent in every MMO except perhaps the LFR but what WoW has that the others don't...
If I want to roll solo, there's achievements, titles, pets, mounts, and skins to hunt for. These are acquired through dailies, crafting, doing old dungeon and raid content, grinding mobs, PvP, hunting rare spawns, and doing seasonal events.
I put 3000 hours into WoW and there's still tons of stuff to do.
I put 200 hours into those other games and either I'm completely out of content or the only content left is forced, hardcore grouping and raiding.
Now I think Archeage is going to be a smashing success because it's the first AAA MMO to hit the west that offers something other than just raiding and group PvP at end game in a long time.
Nr.1 reason wow is still going: most of their players don't know about other games. Ask in your guild arround and most didnt even hear of half the mmorpgs out there. They don't try to have a choice and don't choose -that's why they are still stuck in wow.
I doubt it.
Every wow players i know play Diablo 3, shooters, LoL .. and tons of other games. They may not care about other MMOs, but I doubt they have not heard of LoL, WoT, ESO and so on.
Originally posted by DMKano There's also a decent percentage of WoW players that ONLY like WoW. They could care less for any other MMOs. I think WoW is the only game that has such singularly minded players.
I agree, there are players that only play wow.
But I don't really buy that they are "single minded".
I would offer that they aren't really interested in mmo's just "one mmo". And it's not because they are stubborn. It's because they got into WoW for various personal reasons.
Most of the WoW players I have met only play WoW and no other mmo. Some of them do play other types of video games but really have no interest in mmo's. To be truthful I can't blame them.
WoW is not serious, whimsical, probably the best themepark out there as far as content/things to do.
If one doesn't care for a "living world" then there is no pie in the sky mmo game out there that one is waiting for.
In truth, if I could find one game that was, say, more like Vanguard I don't think I'd play another mmo again. I've tried most that have been released out of curiosity but in truth I don't find most mmo's "all that".
If one mmo scratches the itch, and in this case it's wow, then one can safely say they have found the game to scratch "that itch."
Like Skyrim? Need more content? Try my Skyrim mod "Godfred's Tomb."
WOW was many people's first mmo, and it was considered a phenomonon. It was the first mmo that entered the mainstream, appeared regularly on serious news and magazine programmes/ articles etc. It was also the first mmo, that to some degree, removed the stigma associated with playing mmo's.
I think this is a large part of its success. It attracted a lot of people to mmo's who otherwise would not be playing mmo's. Many probably have little interest in what lesser known mmo's are available and a whole lot more interest in the next COD or GTA release.
The opinions on these forums are skewed. I doubt the people here represent the majority view of WOW players.
Speaking for myself, I come back to WoW a lot mainly because my friends still play it. I get bored of it, go back to Guild Wars 2, get bored of that, come back lol. It's a cycle really, I can't just play one MMO 100% of the time anymore, whether it's my main game or not.
Right now Guild Wars 2 is my main thing. Maybe when WoD comes out I'll get more involved in WoW and try to get my toon to 100 and see what it's about.
It's one of the VERY few MMOs (as in maybe one of TWO) that exists in the markets it does. It not only hosts servers in a huge amount of countries, it is also localized for those languages. Everything from Spanish, Taiwanese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian and probably more.
This is the only reason that really drives its popularity. When your choices are continue playing a good game with friends in your home country, accept the trash that exists in your country or accept ping issues.. most will choose the first option. Case in point Asia makes up a huge portion of that number now. Chinese-made MMOs are absolute garbage and Western games like SWTOR, GW2, ESO and WS have no real servers or localisation for Asia to jump on board with.
I played dark age of camelot well before WoW came out. I guess I was one of the lucky ones. That game really spoiled me.
I bought WoW when it came out, I actually had a friend working at gamestop who hooked me up with a box 24 hours before release. I was the first orc created on Kil'Jaden server, does that server still exist?
Anyway, after I got about level 50 or so and spending some time with RL friends who also eventually quit to move on to better things, I just sold the box and character to someone at highschool. Never looked back really. I kept playing DAOC for many, many more years and had the greatest times, its a shame that game is dead now. I got so much nostalga for the old days, I got a lot of videos on my youtube channel I made.
DAoC was still doing very well the first couple years of WoW, and it was so much more fun, for me at least the pve raiding and all that grind stuff is definately not what i look for most in a mmo, although I do see it as necessary to have good content, but not a endless pve grind... just personal thoughts here...
This is a DAoC PvP video I made around the time WoW came out, featuring a single pvp session over the course of a day. (look at the clock in the bottom right UI if you don't believe me!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4WebwmUKeU
Comments
Yes WOW players live in alternate universe where if you google MMOS only WOW comes up in search function.
You guys make way too much sense.
*claps*
Ummmm, yeah, haven't they merged all of the servers onto ED now because they've lost so many subscribers?
Crazkanuk
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Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
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A big factor that I haven't seen much mention of is how many people had WoW as their *first* MMO. We are naturally biased towards our first anything. When the whole experience seems novel and we don't have anything to compare it to. Even after you move on and try other things you alweays feel nostalgia for that first experience and its easy to conclude that it was in fact the best and go back. Add to that the "everyone's doing it so I should to mentality" a lot of people have and the sunk cost issue already mentioned and a lot of birlliant marketing and good timing on Blizzard's part.
To the fanboys, yes WoW is a good quality game but I can't except that even after 10 years it is so much objectively better than the many games which have tried to copy it. If WoW's success was merely down to its brilliant gameplay than WoW clones would actually be a lot more successful because there's nothing about WoW's gameplay that is that complicated or mysterious to copy.
Clearly there are a lot of other factors behind WoW's success other than just being a good game.
Uhh? the whole reason no other MMOS has success such as WOW is because they could never copy its gameplay upto the similar standards. I have played every MMO on market and to this date not one comes close to the fluidity and smoothness of WOW.
I like how you make it sound so simple as if copying something is guarantee for success. And i also like how you trivialise wow's gameplay (again) by your twisted logic that if other companies failed to copy WOW's gameplay it somehow means that 'gameplay' itself is nothing special.
Again simply copying something doesn't mean they did it right. Yes they 'tried' to copy WOW's gameplay but without much success. And you telling me 'i am biased' ...is such an irony.
I currently play SWTOR a lot more than WOW so yes i am capable of enjoying other MMOS too but i give credit where credit is due. Unlike some of you who; would rather lose an arm than admit that yes the reason WOW is still king after 10 years is because it has a superior gameplay.
Instead you would come up with a laundry list of reasons to undermine its success. And honestly after 10 years i find it extremely sad that people are still doing it.
wows combat is more responsive then the any of the copies, its one of the tightest controls you can find in a mmo, anywhere.
I dont play wow, i play tsw and wildstar atm, and i enjoy both of them more then wow but for totally other reasons, but i could never argue with wow combat responsiveness, its just that tight. wildstar would probably rival it if they would have gone tab target, but now its potato potato, tomato tomato, apples oranges. what? you still wont like wow?
I know why people hate wow and its not because wow is a bad game, *hint* it has more to do with the people hating then it has to do with the game wow.
Herald of innovation, Vanquisher of the old! - Awake a few hours almost everyday!
I'm not sure that playing due to sunk cost is a wrong reason either, and it certainly isn't the "major" reason people play, nor even a very important reason though I'm sure on occasion it does influence some folks.
In my case, I play EVE partly for this reason, I have several characters with almost 90M SP's, and gazillions of trained skills, it's actually pretty cool to re-sub and be able to walk the landscape as a pseudo-diety, well, at least until some group of players with 3 million SP's each suicide ganks me in high sec.
Even better, outside of a few mechanical changes, I actually know how to play much of EVE well, so it's a comfortable fit.
Oh yeah, and I like the game too. Weird huh?
So yes, all of these threads are silly... WOW is so successful because... <<insert singular, inaccurate reason here>> and frequently they focus on something inane or trite just to boost up the trolling value.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
Copying isn't as simple as copying. If you're going to copy something, you need to understand what people like about it and why it works, which is why you've seen so many imitators fall short - they weren't able to copy properly.
And you can see the thought process even in this thread. People tend to deconstruct WoW to very basic ideas and are confused why they work.
Some examples:
WoW uses a highly stylized visual aesthetic. Wildstar also went for a highly stylized visual aesthetic, but WoW never went goofy/silly. You know, "never go full retard" well Wildstar embraced the aesthetic, but then interjected sillyness everywhere else. WoW has humor tucked away here and there, but WS smacks you in the face with it. They thought it would be charming, and for a few people, it was, but it's mostly silly.
WoW uses linear quest hubs for leveling. Rift also went this route (as did many other games), but for whatever reason, Blizzard environment/level designers seem to understand how to craft a zone to maintain the player's interest while they kill 10 rats. Rift asked you to kill 10 rats, except everything is brown (okay, that's an exaggeration, it's not ALL brown, but it is pretty dull). Blizz are masters are creating a world that capture player's imaginations. It's all the little details that make up a whole, the ambient noises, the soundtrack, the new critters, things you don't particularly notice but come together to bring it to life. So many games are like, "yo dawg, I heard you like mobs in your forest, so I put some mobs in your forest." Nice, thanks, so exciting.
WoW is huge on collectibles. People love collecting things! A LOT! People like to collect things in real life, whether they're cars, shoes, baseball caps, DVD's, rare liquors, etc. One of the most entertaining past times in WoW, is looking for new things to collect and setting a goal for your self that you're going to save up, or do an achievement to get ____. It may be a mount, a pet, a tabard, a title, w/e. No other game has understood the value of collectibles. Every game that has something to collect, half-asses it and it shows.
WoW combat is like butter. It makes you feel in control of your avatar, very few games (GW2, WS, Aion) have managed to give you that feeling of 1:1 connectedness. It's when you start looking at all these small things that you understand what polish actually means in gaming terms. Having an interesting game mechanic is great and all, but it has to be supported by a great engine, otherwise it will always fall just a bit short. Look at Path of Exile, lots of great stuff in that game, but viewing angle, desynch, devs outright dislike for melee characters, they just hinder it from being a beast.
See, when WoW copied EQ, they copied properly. They looked at what players wanted, what players did the most and how they played, and they built a game around that. And since then, Blizzard is one of the few companies that continues to watch how people play games and they adjust accordingly, which is why they haven't gone bye-bye.
I honestly don't think it would take much to make a game that could rival WoW, I just think a lot of developers are short sighted when it comes to what WoW does well. Too many games lack in one or more areas like, scope, variety of gameplay options, smoothness of interaction, design and world building, sound, visual feedback, balance between accessibility and complexity, etc. WoW is a masterclass of game design whereas so many others hang their success on a gimmick and forget that players appreciate that which they don't always realize is there.
Crazkanuk
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Azarelos - 90 Hunter - Emerald
Durnzig - 90 Paladin - Emerald
Demonicron - 90 Death Knight - Emerald Dream - US
Tankinpain - 90 Monk - Azjol-Nerub - US
Brindell - 90 Warrior - Emerald Dream - US
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If people play a game you don't like, it's okay. Let them have their fun.
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Wow is simply most FUN game to play, most complex, most polished, .... So I'm staying until there will be any Wow expansion made. Still even if I love pizza, I can not eat pizza for 10 years, every day, 5 times per day. I need change from time to time before returning with fresh wish to my favorite food. So far as long I have Wow and Swtor (and now rediscovered Rift) all my gaming needs for years to come are covered.
In my opinion many of the WoW players play no other game and have never looked for another game. It is like certain people who only eat one type of food and will not try anything else many of the WoW players have only played WoW so they just play and wait for the next expansion.They do not check websites of games or look forward to other games and perhaps even at work hang out with WoW players.So their whole gaming world is just WoW.
As for the poster who said I was a Rift fan I think I played that game for like two months and have not been back since.
They play WoW because it's a nice mmo for a themepark. It's world is big. Almost everyone has tried WoW so it's a mutual ground. WoW was the only mmo that allowed people to mod the UI. But mostly it will play on old PC's because of it's cell shade graphics. Right now in mmorpg's we have a real income gap between those who can afford a gamer's PC and those who cannot. People who want a 3d fancy mmorpg that does not lag and has a large population can count on WoW.
I think the real question is why do so many people hate WoW? Me included. For myself I might answer because I am tired of themeparks but Everquest was a thempark and I don't feel great animosity for it. I can't really place at what point I started hating World of Warcraft and wanting to see Blizzard fail. It doesn't say nice things about me and remains a mystery.
Most likely because you blame Blizzard for other companies trying to copy them when really it is the other companies fault Blizzard is not forcing them to try and make WoW-esque games.
ESO - terrible combat, ruined economy, not enough variety.
WS - lack of non-serious end game, too over the top, screen clutter from too many telegraphs.
SWTOR - abandoned its strongest element the story, not enough classes, lack of non-serious end game.
FFXIV - forced grouping to progress story, long dungeon queue times, lack of non-serious end game.
Throw me an MMO and I can name you at least 3 reasons I don't like the game. Most of those reasons revolving around forced group end game and a lack of features for a solo player.
WoW does end game better than any game I've played.
If I want serious raiding, there's a guild.
If I want non-serious raiding, there's an LFR.
If I want serious grouping, there's heroics.
If I want non-serious grouping, there's normals.
Theose are pretty consistent in every MMO except perhaps the LFR but what WoW has that the others don't...
If I want to roll solo, there's achievements, titles, pets, mounts, and skins to hunt for. These are acquired through dailies, crafting, doing old dungeon and raid content, grinding mobs, PvP, hunting rare spawns, and doing seasonal events.
I put 3000 hours into WoW and there's still tons of stuff to do.
I put 200 hours into those other games and either I'm completely out of content or the only content left is forced, hardcore grouping and raiding.
Now I think Archeage is going to be a smashing success because it's the first AAA MMO to hit the west that offers something other than just raiding and group PvP at end game in a long time.
I doubt it.
Every wow players i know play Diablo 3, shooters, LoL .. and tons of other games. They may not care about other MMOs, but I doubt they have not heard of LoL, WoT, ESO and so on.
I agree, there are players that only play wow.
But I don't really buy that they are "single minded".
I would offer that they aren't really interested in mmo's just "one mmo". And it's not because they are stubborn. It's because they got into WoW for various personal reasons.
Most of the WoW players I have met only play WoW and no other mmo. Some of them do play other types of video games but really have no interest in mmo's. To be truthful I can't blame them.
WoW is not serious, whimsical, probably the best themepark out there as far as content/things to do.
If one doesn't care for a "living world" then there is no pie in the sky mmo game out there that one is waiting for.
In truth, if I could find one game that was, say, more like Vanguard I don't think I'd play another mmo again. I've tried most that have been released out of curiosity but in truth I don't find most mmo's "all that".
If one mmo scratches the itch, and in this case it's wow, then one can safely say they have found the game to scratch "that itch."
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
WOW was many people's first mmo, and it was considered a phenomonon. It was the first mmo that entered the mainstream, appeared regularly on serious news and magazine programmes/ articles etc. It was also the first mmo, that to some degree, removed the stigma associated with playing mmo's.
I think this is a large part of its success. It attracted a lot of people to mmo's who otherwise would not be playing mmo's. Many probably have little interest in what lesser known mmo's are available and a whole lot more interest in the next COD or GTA release.
The opinions on these forums are skewed. I doubt the people here represent the majority view of WOW players.
Speaking for myself, I come back to WoW a lot mainly because my friends still play it. I get bored of it, go back to Guild Wars 2, get bored of that, come back lol. It's a cycle really, I can't just play one MMO 100% of the time anymore, whether it's my main game or not.
Right now Guild Wars 2 is my main thing. Maybe when WoD comes out I'll get more involved in WoW and try to get my toon to 100 and see what it's about.
It's one of the VERY few MMOs (as in maybe one of TWO) that exists in the markets it does. It not only hosts servers in a huge amount of countries, it is also localized for those languages. Everything from Spanish, Taiwanese, Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian and probably more.
This is the only reason that really drives its popularity. When your choices are continue playing a good game with friends in your home country, accept the trash that exists in your country or accept ping issues.. most will choose the first option. Case in point Asia makes up a huge portion of that number now. Chinese-made MMOs are absolute garbage and Western games like SWTOR, GW2, ESO and WS have no real servers or localisation for Asia to jump on board with.
I played dark age of camelot well before WoW came out. I guess I was one of the lucky ones. That game really spoiled me.
I bought WoW when it came out, I actually had a friend working at gamestop who hooked me up with a box 24 hours before release. I was the first orc created on Kil'Jaden server, does that server still exist?
Anyway, after I got about level 50 or so and spending some time with RL friends who also eventually quit to move on to better things, I just sold the box and character to someone at highschool. Never looked back really. I kept playing DAOC for many, many more years and had the greatest times, its a shame that game is dead now. I got so much nostalga for the old days, I got a lot of videos on my youtube channel I made.
DAoC was still doing very well the first couple years of WoW, and it was so much more fun, for me at least
the pve raiding and all that grind stuff is definately not what i look for most in a mmo, although I do see it as necessary to have good content, but not a endless pve grind... just personal thoughts here...
This is a DAoC PvP video I made around the time WoW came out, featuring a single pvp session over the course of a day. (look at the clock in the bottom right UI if you don't believe me!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4WebwmUKeU
ANd one from a dueling event https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wq-GgiQ2h1M
Lastly, a tribute video I made from screenshots from 2002-2003 before WoW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wF9JEjmWuTk
Some of us were lucky I guess. WoW is by no means the best game out there. They do have a lot of money and marketing though.
This topic is good for Devs, they can read this an improve how to make MMO not to get abandoned by player early.
WoW may not my fav game. but I respect how long it can survive.
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"