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Why is WoW maintaining so many subs?
braddeus
Member Posts: 20
Because the rest of the MMO buffet is garbage. WoW isn't perfect (not even close) but it still gets more right than the steaming piles of crap that continue to flood the shelves.
How many "WoW killers" have been released? Well, they said it about Vanguard, they said it about LOTRO, they said it about Guild Wars, and that's just off the top of my head.
Until somebody decides to create something unique instead of EQ clone #639, WoW will dominate. You can love it, you can hate it, or you can go ahead and pretend it isn't true. I'm praying for AoC OR WAR to be better, because I've been stuck with WoW for years now. I'm tired of the game, but every time I stray I'm reminded that there's a reason it is still played by millions.
The only disdain anyone should have should be toward other developers, who are wasting millions and millions of dollars on games that look and play like trash.
Comments
But what you fail to realize is..... that 'you' are part of the problem. Since you (and many others) continue to play and pay for a game that you freely admit you are tired of.... it serves to prop up the image that the way to keep subs is to create yet another game like WOW.
Unless you are willing to let go and cancel... (along with millions of others) developers will never be convinced copying WOW isn't the way to go.
"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
Not to mention they aren't direct cloned churn outs, but if you had the choice to use a basic formula proven to work, or completely make a new one, what would you go with? Put yourself in the developer's seats, who ultimately want to make money in a more secure way than less. MMOs put themselves at risk of fatal flaws and being total crap the more they draw away from ideas that currently work. If you want to make a brand new idea, good luck failing with it
But what you fail to realize is..... that 'you' are part of the problem. Since you (and many others) continue to play and pay for a game that you freely admit you are tired of.... it serves to prop up the image that the way to keep subs is to create yet another game like WOW.
Unless you are willing to let go and cancel... (along with millions of others) developers will never be convinced copying WOW isn't the way to go.
If the OP has already tried a bunch of others and has concluded that they don't measure up, we have a problem. If the OPs hobby is MMORPGing then we got an even bigger problem. There are not many hobbies out there were you get the unlimted entertainment for $15 a month. No one has proven that they can make a game $100 million or less that can measure up to WoW and until someone does, there isn't much else to do with your money. Now, we have a certain game with a $300 million budget in the works. Hopefully in the next year or so we'll get a feel for what $300 million can get us gaming wise. Until then, people are going to continue spending that $15 on WoW not because WoW is such a great game, it is because in the current MMORPG market place today WoW is where those millions of players are getting the best value for their money.
Fear not fanbois, we are not trolls, let's take off your tin foil hat and learn what VAPORWARE is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware
"Vaporware is a term used to describe a software or hardware product that is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge after having well exceeded the period of development time that was initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development cycle of a similar product."
WoW has many players that refuse to quit for bigger and better games, a player base of almost 10 million is insane, and the only way to kill it is time, there will be no other games that will be a WoW killer, 1. humans dont like change, and this was many peoples first mmo, because of the warcraft name 2. alot of people are dedicated to blizzard ent. 3. someone will have to come up with something unique to even come anywhere near competing with wow (even you know wow copied many of the aspects of other games, but i wont get into that lol). and 4. wow cna be run on a majority of computers without a problem. i thought Age of Conan was gonna be that game till they became followers by saying they were implementing a level based char progression system. WoW isnt exactally the best MMO out there, its just hte most popular for a few reasons, multiple types of pvp, the fully customizable interface, the real only lack of fun is PvE and the amount of time required raiding to get good items. they also have the Warcraft name, which alone is huge, pretty much everyone knew what warcraft was even before wow was released.
now i cant stand wow, quit playing after i hit level 60 on a few chars and i kept rejoining to see new stuff they implemented, ive been about 1 year away from wow now and i have no desire to go back. everything in my post is pretty much positive about wow though, what they did right, and i didnt say anythign negative about it, except for the whole nonstop raiding thing for good items and bg's do get borring after a while. but those are a few of the reasone why wow will be here for a long time... i think time is the only thing that will possibly kill wow, but it will take alot of time, it htink its gonna end up being the next UO. I have played 18 MMO's that i can currently think of, although tehre may be more, some were better, and some were definatly worse than wow (looks at RF online), but wow is probably within the top 10 MMO's on my personal list, its a good game, just needs more things to do at the level cap and even while leveling up in my opinion (specifically lvl 30-50 grind, found that to be the most annoying part of all my characters, wasnt hard, just boring.)
<a href="http://Deadeyedave.gamerdna.com"><img src="http://sig.gamerdna.com/quizzes/BARTL/Deadeyedave.png"></a>;
Fair enough, I won't argue with that logic. But it's pretty well-accepted that WoW's success isn't as much what it does as what others don't. Eve is a wonderful game, with flawless presentation and polish... it's just not fun after an hour.
they have like 500k active 9.3 is how many subs in total including inactive subs there not goign to tell us we have 9.3 inactive accounts or whate ver there telling us there total subs inactive and active including trial accounts
even if it is only 500 k active, thats more than any other game has ever had of active subscriptions, by a couple hundred thousand subscriptions.
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Why is WoW maintaining so many subs?
Read this post
Aceizhere, you are dead wrong wrong. Vivendi is a publically traded company. When they say 9.3 million active subscribers, they mean it. This is there defintion:
World of Warcraft's Subscriber Definition
World of Warcraft subscribers include individuals who have paid a subscription fee or have an active prepaid card to play World of Warcraft, as well as those who have purchased the game and are within their free month of access. Internet Game Room players who have accessed the game over the last thirty days are also counted as subscribers. The above definition excludes all players under free promotional subscriptions, expired or cancelled subscriptions, and expired prepaid cards. Subscribers in licensees’ territories are defined along the same rules.
You can find this posted at http://www.blizzard.com/press/070724.shtml
Next...
Ever, that goes for you as well... I highlighted the portion pertaining to China for you.
Fear not fanbois, we are not trolls, let's take off your tin foil hat and learn what VAPORWARE is:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporware
"Vaporware is a term used to describe a software or hardware product that is announced by a developer well in advance of release, but which then fails to emerge after having well exceeded the period of development time that was initially claimed or would normally be expected for the development cycle of a similar product."
reeks of WoW fanboyism
same could be said of original Everquest, that reached a peak of 500k active subs at its prime
no game killed it until EQ2 / WoW (especially WoW)
but that does NOT mean the other MMOs were trash at the time,
when EQ1 was most popular mmo in USA
play what you like - but no need to bash other mmos that are less popular
EQ2 fan sites
Why?? Why??? Why do Britney Spears sells albums like its no tomorrow? Its utter garbage music she make. Why do people only buy music thats on the top10 list? Which every upgoing person know the record companies run, not the consumers? If the consumers ran it, the list would be alot more differrent, take the cds sold at gas stations for one example.
I cant tell the whole story why WoW is so successful. But first off, blizzard already had a HUGE fanbase to tap into when they released WoW. Second, they count even the ones who pay for only 1 hour play each month, in the internet cafes in the eastern countries. So the numbers do lie a bit, but the blizzard reps do need a freakishly huge number to show to their investors. Third, 10 million flies like shit. So shit is good yeah?? Remember that huge numbers dont equal a good product something the record sales around the world speak off. Fourth, WoW is laughable easy to play. I mean, you have to be an utter retard to dont figure out how to play WoW. And frightfully enough, I've seen some people that stupid in WoW. Fifth, bad parenting. How many times do you see, and hear about parents who buy videogames to their kids just to shut em up, and babysit em? Which brings me into my sixth point, word of mouth. Take a schoolyard. One kid talks about the cool game he play online to his friends, who talks about it to their friends etc etc etc. Seventh, alot of the WoW players dont know, or aint willing to try alternatives...And so on...
Now! I've played WoW for about 1.5 years, got a few toons to 60 and 70 after tbc so I've been there, done that with WoW. But unlike alot of the WoW players, I knew about the alternatives out there, I mean, I started my mmo career with Anarchy Online. Which even now, after what?? 7 years? still has a hold onto me. You got to admire that. I had alot of fun in WoW while I leveled my toons, but the game got grindtastic at endgame. For me that game got so bloody boring when you got to 70 is rather watch paint dry than spend another hour with that game. I dont hate it, like some people seem to do around here, but I'm just so bloody bored with it I can puke.
Well, thats my take on it. I'm sure I can come up with more reasons but meh...7 reasons should be anough for now. I'm sure alot of the other posters around here can come up with more(the wow haters always do
)
Oh, and btw! You are wrong when you say the other mmo's are garbage. Most of them offer alternatives and alot of them are niche-games. I mean, some like the mother, some like the daughter, and some like both but lets not go there
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Grammar nazi's. This one is for you.
1.Because the other devs from other companies sucks and can`t pull out a decent game without trying to emulate WoW.
2.Because too many people are bored with the game but they still come back...(I guess they suffer from the beaten wife syndrome)
3.Because of People like the OP who always talks about WoW
In the land of Predators,the lion does not fear the jackals...
Because, WoW is great for people who are new to MMO and old to MMOs..
It's not my fav EQ, EQ2 etc have it beat, but it's fun.. It's not to hard but not to easy.. I think thats why so many play WoW.
Thanks Impyriel for the sig^^
I really don't understand why. Any of us that played the MMO scene prior to the release of WOW were pretty much bored to death with the game after about a year. I played for nearly 2 years and which is my norm of playing a boring game longer then i should of. I actually came back and well that lasted for all of about a month before i canceled my sub once again.
I was at Bestbuy yesterday looking at games and seen some customers looking like kids at a candy store in from of the huge WOW selection. Well huge quantity of WOW boxes on the shelves is what i meant. MMO are still actually new to alot of people who are just finding out about online gaming. If you ask people about online games you will hear oh yeah my kid, my nephew or niece is playing WOW. I think its still the FAD game for newbie MMORPGs.
Regretfully it doesn't do anything better then games on the market already. EQ2 for example is far superior in graphics and quest lines . PVE . Actually its far superior to WOW in every measure if you look at game for game. DAOC PVP is superior to WOW but it's dieing a slow death. WOW has an auction house lol but so do alot of games now.
Somebody barked out 9.3 million subs .. Look at WOW's coverage on the world Map. You still have give credit to Blizzard for pulling this off with just a mediocre game. But lets not forget the most important thing. WOW isn't being cloned. It cloned off of very successful games to include EQ, DAOC to name a few and just made improvements on it. Blizzard executed perfectly and that is why it stands where it doesn't. It isn't because its a better game. They just sold it better is all.
Sorry, i have not read all replies, so if i repeat something please forgive me.
I think there is one thing that WoW has that most of the others don't and that is accessibility, plain and simple.
Look back at some of the 'surprise' hits of all time like Manic Miner, Tetris, Elite, Lemmings, Bomberman, Pacman and the list goes on. None of them had the greatest graphics, none of them had greatly involved gameplay and that is what made them popular. Anyone from a five year old right up to your grandmother could pick them up and play them without any problems as they were easy to play and had a smooth learning curve. This is basically what WoW has! It is pleasing to the eye without being too fussy, it has a smooth learning curve that eases you into the later gameplay, so people feel comfortable playing it. This has been illustrated to me as i have played along side of teenagers and pensioners in this game which definitely shows it's wide appeal.
All of that does not mean that it is a totally simplistic game as it can get more complex when you are trying to arrange high number raids etc, but it can be as simple or as complex as you want to make it, so it caters to a wide range of players.
It must be Thursday, i never could get the hang of Thursdays.
Vistaakah .I do agree, I'm getting bored of WoW already and just to lazy to start a new class.. Manly because I'd be doing the same zones etc..
Going back to EQ2, and thinking of getting Vanguard or Lotro.((I wish I still could get the life time pass to lotro))lol
Thanks Impyriel for the sig^^
doesn't matter the quality of the game or if is unique or not, no game will kill wow can be the perfect game but will never kill wow. wow was made for the masses, i don't believe any other companie want to make a crapy graphics games that can on every crap comp out there only to compete with wow.
Maybe its maintaining so many subs, as it is a very well produced game with high production values?
It is accessible for all types of people?
It is better than the other so called next gen crap out?
People actually like playing the game?
Blizzard spent years actually researching and developing a game that would last unlike alot of companies that waste millions?
Maybe Blizzard catered for all and not just a niche market?
Maybe blizzards actual business model and they way the produce games shits all over other so called next gem game developers?
Just some crazy thoughts, heaven forbid that a game is actually fun to play for a large community and accessible to millions. Heaven forbid that blizzard turned the mmo market into a multi million dollar sector, its just a shame that the other companies chose to blow the millions of dollars they are given with poor research and development.
Lies lies lies everywhere I look. This is like a house of lies.
The ultimate and super-objective truth is that World of Warcraft players just...
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That's it. You may think the reason you mention is the right one, but it isn't. The right is the one I wrote up here. If you're not able to decipher the message with your mind then you have to ask your heart.
REALITY CHECK
Only one that needs to get a reality check is you Thillian. Never met someone that hated wow so much yet defends Vanguard till peoples eyes bleed.
If you want a fairly unique mmo give Tabula Rasa a shot. Smoothest launch Ive ever been involved with sure a few problems here and there but it is pretty decent
What does that have to do with why wow is maintaining subs?
I will probably return to TR after half a year, but this is the first game that made me stop playing it even when I enjoyed the gameplay.
REALITY CHECK
I will probably return to TR after half a year, but this is the first game that made me stop playing it even when I enjoyed the gameplay.
Yes abit like Vanguard then. Oh wait these are the 2 wow killer games sorry i forgot.
I like many others subbed to WoW because of friends that played even tho i dislike the game. I feel WoW has brought nothing original to the MMORPG scene. The graphics were lackluster, the combat was ok, the classes basic. The talent system was done before.
Sigh.. what i really really really really want to see is a good Sci-fi game to come out. Anarchy Online so far has been the best storyline and style of game i liked. however, the game since launch has been plagued by a poor playerbase, outdated and horribly coded graphics system, and pathing issues for pet classes.
Please for the love of god, someone fill this nitch.
PS: Id like to point out, if there were more companies like CCP (creators of Eve Online) the MMORPG scene would be a better place... dispite the bad press saying that the devs 'cheat' in the game. The servers that Eve run on are state of the art, they pioneered using python to create the game, the first MMO to use RAM (solid state drives) Drives, not only are the programmers thinking of new and exciting ways to enhance the MMORPG scene, they participate actively in the coding community specially with 'stackless python'. The features in EVE are vast and impressive, its just a game that not everyone can get into, the learning curve is massive.