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Why WoW has 5 million and SOE has less than 1 million overall...
Dis_Ordur
Member Posts: 1,501
I was chatting it up in the EQ2 forums and came up with this rather profound analogy! WoW is the house on the left, while EQ2 is the house on the right... Here it is...
Take this analogy: Two house parties are going at once, both are serving keg beer, the house on the right is serving Miller Lite and the house on the left, Bud Light...
Since the house on the left has a really good repuatation for throwing killer parties, more people started going to this party first... The house on the right, while known for throwing decent parties too, (in fact, they were one of the first pioneers in throwing keg parties), can't seem to keep up with the party in the left house...
Their reputation simply isn't as good as the house on the left... The house on the right scrambles at the last minute and starts serving Bud Light instead of Miller, only problem is, the house party on the left is a full blown rager by now and people really don't give a damn what kind of beer is being served, but want to go where the action is...
And the people who were at the party on the left the whole bloody time dislike the fact that they changed the kegs to Bud Light, and are even more likely to leave this house and go next door... Why not right? Aren't they both serving the same type of beer now?
Then you have a pothead like me walk by both parties and say, "Pfffffft, lite beer tastes like shit, I would rather sit with a close group of others and drink some Guiness or Newcastle, don't really care how many people show up, I like to taste my beer"... Hence why I am gonna try EVE out tonight and have been playing CoV and etc...
Comments
And the point of the story children that we care about: Drink bud light, they have better commercials.
Bud Light Presents Real Men of Genius
(Real Men of Genius) Today we salute you Mr. Department Store Mannequin Dresser Upper
(Mr. Department Store Mannequin Dresser Upper)
You live the ulimate fantasy, Spending your days surrounded by n@ked women who never speak
(Living the dream)
Wooden nubs, plastic no-no's, artifictial who-ha's, you've handled more fake female parts than a Beverly Hills plastic surgeon.
(They sure feel real)
Your hours are flexible, even better so are the women you are undressing
(Ooooooh!)
So crack open an ice cold Bud Light O' Mac Daddy of the mannequins, when it comes to undressing fake women, you're the real man
(Mr. Department Store Mannequin Dresser Upper)
The other point of his topic was never drink while posting on MMORPG.
You forgot that the house on the left has a working tap, running water, and a CD player.
And the house on the right has foamy beer, an outhouse, and a radio with bad reception.
The Millenium Lee
The truth is no matter how crapy the game is if lots of dudes play it I will as well since it MUST be good.
The numbers usually say it all.
SOE will never rid their name now after SWG.
SWG was the start of the downfall for them tbh.
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Don't click here...no2
Advertisement and Name Brand: Winner, Blizzard
Both had alot of fanfare to them but Blizzard had the upper hand on this for a number of reasons. One mainly being thier name brand and games under thier belt that were wildly popular like Diablo series, Starcraft and of course the warcraft series. All happening to be free online games. SoE had basically EQ1 and SWG and with that ALOT of jaded and dishearted players.
Word of Mouth: Winner, Blizzard
Blizzard clearly won this hands down here from its easy and well polished game play. Someone could just jump on and feel like he was a winner. A MMORPG with a console game feel to it where you didn't have to go through laborous tasks to have fun or achieve some success. A total departure from other online games like EQ1, Lineage, FF11, etc.
In EQ2 was a totally different experience. They decided to go the standard route of other MMORPGs out there. It was a alot harder to just jump in and have fun. Basically you had to work for that fun. There was alot more thinking and "grinding" involved, crafting was very involved and confusing to a new player to the MMORPG genre. Progression was kind of confusing too in EQ2. You had to work through laborous chours just to become what you wanted to be. Wanted to become a monk or a ranger? Well you could not be one, you had to slave through 20 levels just to become what you wanted to be. And getting those 20 levels could take from a week or a month (back then) depending on your game play time. Now imagine that, someone who had to go through that just to become a class he should of been from the beginning. The samething happened with crafting. So you can see which game was more causal/new gamer friendly of the two.
So someone being a new player to the genre, what of the 2 games one would choose? The one that was fun from the start or the other game where it took more time to get into. Word of mouth really helped Blizzard here and you have to give them credit here. Blizzard devs knew what the most players wanted, a causal friendly game yet still have that MMORPG feel of competition.
Acessiblity: Winner, Blizzard
How many people had to run out and spend 1000s of dollars just to play EQ2, compared to WoW.
On the contrary Scara, maybe they will do just that, rid themselves of the name SOE... Let's face it, SOE is now the 'Enron' of the corporate world to us gamers... Such a nasty and harsh stigma... Before this, the only company that was really getting it rough were FunCom and Turbine, and even these instances are dwarfed by the mass 'screwing of the pooch' done by SOE... I think it is irreversable and SOE is, and always will be the laughingstock of the MMO universe... That DC MMO better be the bees knees...
True WoW currently has 5mill, but everyone I know who has or is playing is bored and waiting for a new MMO to play.
While the first levels may be fun the game gets very grind driven in the last few levels and that is all there seems to be of the end game.
Hopefully their expansion will add some life to the end game.
You got it all wrong.
The house on the left isn't a house it's a Mcdonalds. They get lots of customers, but there is a high turnover rate because the food they are serving is such crap. Sure, they sell lots, but people get bored from the generic menu and once you have eaten there a few times, you have seen it and done it all and all that's left is to grind away on french fries and your favorite sandwich, but that gets boring.
The house on the right isn't a house either, it's an Olive garden. While they don't get the billions of customers that Mcdonalds does, they have great food and a nice environment, but little kids just don't like it as much. Sure they change their menu a bit and make some specials for the younger set and to keep things interesting, but they refuse to put garbage in their customers bodies just to make a buck. Oh and Olive garden is adding PVP servers on February 22nd to coincide with their second expansion pack, Kingdom of Sky.
At Everquest 2, you're family!
I love it when people get analytical and begin comparing things completely irrelevant
while I see some sarcasm in this thread, the analogies (however, misleading with intentions for the reader to have no other option than agree with the OP) are flawed.
Everquest 2 .. was the sequal to argueably the most successful MMO to date, which set the bar for its predecessors. Blizzard, before release, had a lot of skeptics thinking they couldnt create a more successful MMO based on inexperience. To this day, you still see posts floating around which go so far as to say the reason WoW is a failure is because of the lack of Blizzards experience with MMO's. (even though its become a complete smashing success)
point? who had the better reputation for creating a successful MMO? Everquest and Sony, not blizzard
compare relevant facts otherwise its just considered "leading the witness".
"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a robot foot stomping on a human face -- forever."
double posted
I don't see a delete button, am I missing it?
People always seem to forget that the 5.5million subscribers is worldwide. Blizzard had a very good marketing strategy in China with TV commercials and CocaCola cans with WoW chars on them. I haven't heard much about what SOE has done with Everquest 2 overseas and I think a lot of this has to do with the high requirements to run the game.
Much of Blizzards success in the US and Europe has been due to word of mouth. I've met so many diffrent types of people who play WoW. Is is because it's a better game than EQ2? No.
Most of these people did know what Blizzard/Warcraft or even MMORPGs were before they started playing. They started playing because someone suggested it to them and they enjoy the internet. They don't need a super-computer to play, and the game holds their hand from the moment they log on to help them achieve their levels.
Also, these people stick with WoW and keep playing becuase they had fun leveling to 60. Remember your first MMORPG, and how fun it was? Maybe it wasn't even a really great game, but it was your first and everything was new to you. If WoW was our first MMORPG maybe it would have been more appealing, but for us it's mostly the same stuff we've seen before. This isn't such a bad thing because all of those new players who are now hooked on MMORPGs will get bored with WoW and start demanding more games of better quality, and moving on to more complex/demanding games like EQ.
Anyway, that my theory on why WoW has so many players.
I heard this guy on the radio the other day talking about how America had this great advantage over other countries because of our respect for innovativeness and creativity. Bleh, he's wrong. This proves it.
EQ2- very high demand on system(runs like crap on whats considered mainstream pc),no pvp,no brand name(everquest is only a brand name among the old mmorpg community which until last 2 years was rather smallish)
WoW-pvp,runs on low spec system,very known brand.
That simple.
Everquest has no brand name???? You're VERY new to the MMO scene, aren't you? And exactly who are the old mmorpg community you refer to? Even the very young have heard of Everquest.
That's like not knowing who the Beatles are. Even young kids these days know them. Everquest is a bit of a legendary name actually.
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</OBAMA>
The new EQ2, better than ever befor !
don't click this link...
Who cares what kind of beer they are serving. One friends wants to try out the " Kool" house and soon thereafter all of his friends follow and they tell their friends and so on and soforth. But who care about what kind of beer there is if the house on the left has water with 0.3% alcohol in it but their are naked people dancing arround of corse everybody will go there while all grandparetns are naked in the house with the foamy beer and the bad tape deck player. I mean who would go to the party on the right ( leave my parents outta this :P .. they are not right to begin with!)
Until you cancel your subscription, you are only helping to continue the cycle of mediocrity.
Well said, thats exactly my opinion on the issue
~Dunadurium
"Silly rabbit, WoW's for kids"
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Everquest has no brand name???? You're VERY new to the MMO scene, aren't you? And exactly who are the old mmorpg community you refer to? Even the very young have heard of Everquest.
That's like not knowing who the Beatles are. Even young kids these days know them. Everquest is a bit of a legendary name actually.
Well Hercules is right here, so im not sure who is new and who isn't but until a few years ago MMORPGs were indeed enjoyed by only a very niche audience.If you told someone that you played EQ, an MMORPG, they would look at you and ask what an MMO was.
WoW on the other hand had hugely popular games like warcraft series (obviously) starcraft, Diablo etc etc. And it is true that those single player games were much more widely known then Everquest ever was at that time, and also the fact that EQ had a monthly fee really hampered people from trying it and getting into mmo's like we have today with MMO's becoming more widespread and as the industry tries to pull in new players with large brand names such as SWG, WoW, DDO, AoC, etc etc. Even now though the market is just expanding and still has alot of room to grow, which is a very good thing. The hope is that in the future there will be enough knowlegde about these games that the average gamer will be willing to pay the monthly fee instead of the single player or console games.
~Dunadurium
"Silly rabbit, WoW's for kids"
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"Everyone is quick to blame the alien" Rather don't post a reply than post what will harm you later. I still like the cookie!
lol
your xfire rocks
<1 hour FFXI
i cant play that game for 15 min before i realize why i quit.
30 million now for a peacock charm...and a kraken club is priceless
If they realeased a few fresh servers like WoW does they would have me for a few more dollars.
BTW guinness is terrible beer. Thick and gross.
The world is not out to get you Mr. Casual. Stop working in RL and put some hours in the game like the rest of us. What's that? Your time in RL is more VALUABLE. Nuff Said.
The reason WoW is more popular is because EQ2 is rubbish plain and simple. Its an insult to the genre to have just both these 2 games reflecting what mmorpgs are. EQ is the game that should be compared to WoW not EQ2 but unfortunately being a 5 year old game it can't do that. Vanguard will, and every post will be Vanguard vs WoW. Then we would have a fair contest, WoW will be more popular and the reasoning will be because of its reputation not because one game is better than the other.