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One of the main reasons WoW is so succesfull
Nerubian
Member Posts: 32
Yeh yeh another topic about WoW's success, but I havent seen this mentioned alot before.
People keep making silly posts about "Which game is going to beat WoW?" etc. Well the answer is simple, no one will for at least 5 years.
There is a slim chance of a wild card game similar to the Project Entropia and Second Life models that could be a surprise hit and storm into top spot but thats about it.
Well heres the rather obvious revelation of why WoW is a runaway juggernaut - Non Gamers play WoW, hundreds of thousands of them.
I am talking about pensioners, grandfathers, grandmothers, aunts, uncles, sisters, single women, single parent mothers, middle age men, middle aged women, girlfriends, dads, mums, career driven adults, rednecks, suits, blue collars and so on.
It started off with an easy, friendly, highly polished game based on a solid pre existing franchise. That got the first million in the door. Then word of mouth took over.
Non gamers could not help but hear about it, the driving attraction being the immense social outlets it provides with the gaming part just a byproduct for alot of these people. The 'noobness' of the game as alot of folks like to call it is the lynchpin that kept these types of people playing after the first few hours, few days, then months.
This is why WoW is so succesfull and why no other game is likely to even begin to compare any time soon. Do you think this type of person has the slightest interest in the 'next gen' mmorpg coming out the door?, hell no. They could'nt give a damn about Warhammer's backstory and pvp focus, or Age of Conan's fancy graphics because its not about the game for them, its about the people.
WoW has set a new precedent by tapping into new demographics, mostly by chance and has an iron grip on them for the forseeable future.
::::
To the trolls-
Yes I did play WoW
No I do not play anymore
No I am not a fanboi
Yes WoW is the most succesfull mmo of all time by a huge margin, get over it if you have QQ issues
No this post is not about what game is better than another or if WoW is the best game
People keep making silly posts about "Which game is going to beat WoW?" etc. Well the answer is simple, no one will for at least 5 years.
There is a slim chance of a wild card game similar to the Project Entropia and Second Life models that could be a surprise hit and storm into top spot but thats about it.
Well heres the rather obvious revelation of why WoW is a runaway juggernaut - Non Gamers play WoW, hundreds of thousands of them.
I am talking about pensioners, grandfathers, grandmothers, aunts, uncles, sisters, single women, single parent mothers, middle age men, middle aged women, girlfriends, dads, mums, career driven adults, rednecks, suits, blue collars and so on.
It started off with an easy, friendly, highly polished game based on a solid pre existing franchise. That got the first million in the door. Then word of mouth took over.
Non gamers could not help but hear about it, the driving attraction being the immense social outlets it provides with the gaming part just a byproduct for alot of these people. The 'noobness' of the game as alot of folks like to call it is the lynchpin that kept these types of people playing after the first few hours, few days, then months.
This is why WoW is so succesfull and why no other game is likely to even begin to compare any time soon. Do you think this type of person has the slightest interest in the 'next gen' mmorpg coming out the door?, hell no. They could'nt give a damn about Warhammer's backstory and pvp focus, or Age of Conan's fancy graphics because its not about the game for them, its about the people.
WoW has set a new precedent by tapping into new demographics, mostly by chance and has an iron grip on them for the forseeable future.
::::
To the trolls-
Yes I did play WoW
No I do not play anymore
No I am not a fanboi
Yes WoW is the most succesfull mmo of all time by a huge margin, get over it if you have QQ issues
No this post is not about what game is better than another or if WoW is the best game
Comments
I agree with you.
You can say that same thing about any Blizzard game.
Blizzard have always been masters at simplifying game rules and user interface so that even a monkey could play the game. I have been playing Blizzard games since the orriginal DOS based Warcraft. I have noticed that every generation of games has a Blizzard game that sells a ton of product. It is not because Blizzard makes the most detailed, biggest, best looking, or most engrossing games. It is because they make games in such a way that anyone could sit down and understand how to play. Why do you think Blizzard is one of the few companies that has penetrated into most if not all other countries with online entertainment? Thier games are simple to play yet often complex to master. Great formula!
P.S. I am not a Wow fanboy. I prefer more open PvP style games. But, I can recognise what has always made Blizzard a great game company. On a side note, Blizzard have always been a company to use the "when it is done" attitude towards making games. There are only a handfull of game companies with that old but respected attitude.
How about that:
A. It is a very user friendly game and very easy compared to past games on the market.
B. IT IS/WAS JUST THAT TIME IN THE EVOLUTION OF THE MMORPG MARKET + A HUGE IP WHICH IN TURN CREATED A WHOPPING SUCCESS FOR WOW!
C. It is very client hardware friendly due to the low poly texturing making it almost virtually laggless.
D. Satan had his hand in its development.
E. It is perceptually stimulating(vision wise), it used colors that stood out and grabbed you by the balls, before this no other noted game had done this.
F. Did I say Satan had its hand in the development?
Been several HUGE IPs before and after, it is of little concequence. Why WoW?
It works, plain and simple. People start playing... and enjoy themselves. they have fun, without a lot of hassle, and without a long list of excuses for features missing or not working that "will work in the unknown future". I know there will be a pile of poeple coming in here saying "But THIS was not in, so you are wrong" No I am not. People that bought WoW bought a fully funcioning game.. and it was fun. So they told their friends, who also tried.. and they also liked it. Their friends told their friends who told friends that did not even have a computer... they all tried it.. and they all enjoyed it . It does what a piece of entertainment is supposed to do... Entertain. And please, if you come from another game and want to say how bad WoW is.. that favorite game you have.. with its favorite game company? The developers of that game that you love so much and hold in such high esteem for their skill and hardcore game experience? They play WoW too., and enjoy it. As do most people int he computer game industry.... why?
WoW works... It is the big red arrow above the head of developers that say "We dont have to release a finished game, it will be a success even a bit broken and with features missing. People will understand" pointing out their incompetence.
"This is not a game to be tossed aside lightly.
It should be thrown with great force"
Simply, it is because I trust blizzard. I do them the service of buying every game they make because I have liked virtually all of them. Even the ones I dont like are high quality, very polished games
It amazes me that other game companies cant figure this out, that they must always push out half baked, sorrily constructed games.
I will always buy Blizzard games to at least try them because I know for a fact that the game will at the very least be of incredible quality, when the last 4 out of 5 games I've bought were half finished and/or barely worked with all the bugs in them.
even for people that don't use that stuff, their guild leaders and the rest of their guild probably does.
i was in a raid on an RP server, all the ladies talked about their mods
Which Final Fantasy Character Are You?
if I were to kill a titan tomorrow and no CCP employees showed up to say grats I would petition it.
Waiting for: the next MMO that lets me make this macro
if hp < 30 then CastSpell("heal") SpellTargetUnit("player") else CastSpell("smite") end
So what if in the trailer there is written "10 years"? Do you really want to offer THAT as proof and keep it as THE ONLY element you have?
Geez, talk about it. I mean, Warhammer has "25 years" in their trailer, does that mean they will have 20 millions subscribers?
Yes, of course Blizzard fan will undoubtly want to try WoW but are those the ONLY one? Don't think so. I cannot say about non-gamers playing the game, but I've penty of friends that never tried a MMorpg before and were not Battle.net kids that picked up WoW and are still playing it, 2 years later.
Warcraft and Diablo similar to wow? uh? Diablo, i could understand, after all it is almost considered a MMorpg, but Warcraft? a RTS? where you see the similarities beside being in the same world and having same art style??
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
people liked the way you could progress so easily and the way you could get more exp per kill if you logged off anywhere and came back.
While the IP name I'm sure was a big factor, I dont think it was the only factor or even the deciding one. That would be fun/polish/stability I think. As someone already stated, there's no shortage of big-name IP flops. Hell, look at SWG
Polish/Fun/Stability > IP Recognition imho
I don''t really know when Humankind will die out but i''m guessing about 6 years before WOW.
-BarCrow
Before WoW came out I had some friends addicted to EQ. I remember watching my friend play it and I just didn't get it. But he was INSANELY hooked!
The first MMORPG I tried was SWG. I was a big FPSer and I remember guys in the Wolfenstein forums raving about SWG and I got caught up in the excitement. I didn't last long in it (ran like crap on my comp at the time) but I could see the potential.
Anyways, sorry for that rambling recent-gaming history heh. I guess my point is the name "Blizzard" meant nothing to me when I tried WoW out. I just got sucked in HARD. Everyone I knew was playing it and played it at least for a few months. Once it started blowing up (which was pretty much soon after release) I heard from other people playing it, and I think the OP has a good point. A lot of people I knew who were most definately not considered "gamers" were playing it.
And now you can buy WoW clothes at Hot Topic (lawls). I think it has crossed-over quite a bit. And one of my gaming heroes plays it even now (Ron Gilbert of Monkey Island fame - he even has a Monkey Island themed guild on a newer server.)
A monkey island themed guild! Pure genius! There is plenty of piratish stuff in WoW so it would work! Damn, that sounds so cool
"If you give a man a fish, you feed him for a day, if you teach him how to fish, you feed him for a lifetime"
I dont understand why no one see this
in FPS´s no game will kill CS
in MMORPGS no game will kill WOW
There was a "best" FPS before CS and there was a "best" MMORPG before WoW. Just a matter of time.
"This is not a game to be tossed aside lightly.
It should be thrown with great force"
There was a "best" FPS before CS and there was a "best" MMORPG before WoW. Just a matter of time.
No other mp3 player have taken the salles from IPod
No other fast food restaurant have taken the best selling of Mac Donalds(yes mac donalds is the best in his category)
Word of mouth is the best marketing/PR tool, and as such, the most difficult to achieve, as it is almost fully indirect.
Wow has managed to achieve this - but of course the history of the Warcraft universe, plus large advertising helped as well. Still, some games are almost 100% relying on the word of mouth (like EVE used to - now they actually have a lot of money so they are advertising like crazy in direct ways too
So, fanboy or not - Kudos to Blizzard ...
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
There was a "best" FPS before CS and there was a "best" MMORPG before WoW. Just a matter of time.
So true... if this wouldn't work like this, everyone in the US would be driving Ford's (T-models, of course
DB
Denial makes one look a lot dumber than he/she actually is.
Open a chest and you might get jewels, gold, silver, armor, potions, litterally anything. Only Anarchy Online comes anywhere close to the game mechanics of WoW. There were many treasure chests in AO. Some players even learned how to "mission blitz" going after the treasure while avoiding enemy MOBs. But AO released litterally unplayable its first 6 months. First impressions are everything. Imagine playing EQ1 and seeing treasure chests right outside whatever starting city? And deciding if you should blitz it, battle your way to it, or use some other strategy to get it? And after opening it, you find copper, coin, armor, food, potions, or any other numerous items? Or your walking along a road after playing whatever other mmorpg for your first 4 hours and you see an encampment with.. a treasure chest. Guarded by 0 to 20 MOBs. Sometimes even random spawning MOBs a-la Indiana-Jones-style. (As you approach the treasure MOBs appear, etc...) And having numerous choices on how to get it?
You need to play Diablo 2 all the way to level 99 to truely understand. No one can comment on WoW until they have played Diablo 2 (and to a lesser extent Warcraft). After doing that, one will understand where WoW gets the majority of its game features, game mechanics, game play.
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Another poster on page 1 of this thread also brought up how Blizzard makes their games easy to get into, easy to learn, but still complex at the same time. This is more than evident in Diablo 2, which was transferred to WoW.
1. Name recognition and consumer base. WoW is the first mmorpg to be based on an earlier series of games, that means that out of say 10000 warcraft fans you have 10000 gamers, there has been other "big names" up there like Star wars but im pretty sure Star Wars fans while there are alot of them, not all of them are gamers.
By using the warcraft name they are aiming for an almost pure gamer fanbase to start with.
2. Its polished. World of Warcraft is the first mmorpg i have ever played where most things worked at launch, there was no glitch after glitch, no bugs, almost all skills worked, the zones where nice and mostly finished and there was a ton of quests.
3. Its easy, the game requires almost no focus on the part of the player if you play your character at about 30% of its potential you win in pve, and the majority of quests are easily soloable, there is no real interdependancy between classes.
There was a "best" FPS before CS and there was a "best" MMORPG before WoW. Just a matter of time.
No other mp3 player have taken the salles from IPod
No other fast food restaurant have taken the best selling of Mac Donalds(yes mac donalds is the best in his category)
Correction
Micky D's is the best selling fast food franchise but sales doesn't always equate to quality. As you get older you'll know this to be true. Such is the case with WOW, granted it's a fun starter MMO that's has 8 Million subscriptions but that in no way makes it the best MMO.
Heck ..Brittany Spears & NSYNC have individual sold well over 8 million units does that make them the best music artists ever?
Of course not, sales are an indication of popularity but that doesn't always equate to quality.
Dutchess Zarraa Voltayre
Reborn/Zero Sum/Ancient Legacy/Jagged Legion/Feared/Nuke & Pave.
The reason MMORPG.com is so successful is because its members insist on repeatedly spamming the forums with topics regarding games that are "too easy" even though they skipped 90% of the content, and insist on making ridiculous comparisons between these games and completely unrelated pop-culture icons.
Wait, what were we talking about?
Yea i noticed that little thorn as well..I only missed Naxx as it wasn't released before I quit but that's not the issue.
If people want to continue hidding behind sales numbers as proof positive of quality then parallels/ comparisons will be drawn to dissparage these claims. It's a shame too as I found WOW a slick, enjoyable little romp. However unlike some who are unable to remain objective, I hold no illusions of it's grandeur.
Instead of applauding WOW for what it does well some here insist on claiming it as the greatest thing since sliced bread. Look WOW is a wonderfull starter MMO that has brought millions to the table but that's where it ends.
Dutchess Zarraa Voltayre
Reborn/Zero Sum/Ancient Legacy/Jagged Legion/Feared/Nuke & Pave.