I voted negative. I could write so much on this topic that tl;dr wouldn't begin to cover it.
I'll liken WoW to the Nintendo Wii. While the Wii can be a blast and gives you that instant gratification, it's just not the same as picking up the ps3 or xbox controller. Because of the instant gratification aspect of the Wii, it sells. This encourages the companies to continue putting out more instant grat. games that, honestly, aren't worth half of the price we're being charged. It also ends up 'mentally training' the consumer and leads to a degradation of expectations and community. So while it's seen as 'a large success' or 'a lot of fun', to the genre, it's really a step backwards.
I'd like to take this opportunity to say I don't hate the Wii or WoW. While I'm not very fond of WoW myself, I do acknowledge the good amongst the bad.
P.S. - Forgive the gramatical errors. I tried hard proofing it but I've been up for 20+ hours now. I have a tendancy to really screw the pooch when I write while being this tired.
The effect was positive. It's always positive when a game enters the market; even if you don't like the game. This is because the more games in the market, the more choices we have. It also means the companies will have to be more competitive, though it seems to be a slow process in the MMO industry.
You never want to chase a game off, because you are killing diversity and innovation when you do that. If a game is bad, it will die out on its own, but maybe it will give some developer inspiration for a new idea that we all enjoy.
Also, it pays to be patient. All markets go through an evolutionary process. MMOs are in the stage where many "copy cats" are flocking to the market in and attempt to make a quicj clone and get some quick cash. This sucks for the players in the short run but it is just a phase.
WoW itself has done nothing but good things to the mmorpg world. It's all the developers that are trying to copy WoW's formula that are doing bad things.
I don't think it's the fact that they are trying to copy WoW, because every mmo take things from other games. It's the fact that it's all half assed.
Look at Warhammer. Almost everything about the game was half assed. Class abilities, areas, pvp, professions, sieges. The whole game just feels as if they didn't put much effort into it.
You want to copy a game? Copy a game. I don't care. Just do a good fricken job with it.
I completely agree with this. Many games are seen as failures not just because they are WoW clones, but they are "sub-standard WoW Clones". If you are gunna take on the big boys, you gotta match them and THEN surpass them. Otherwise there's no point. A challenger to the WoW throne doesn't have to be an identical copy to WoW, it doesn't even necessarily need to be a "fantasy" type game, but it DOES have to match it in terms of quality and level of acceptability.
It's no use building a nice mansion on foundations made of quick sand. You need to get the foundation right before you even build the house.
The bad is that it simplified what an RPG should be, in all its glory and full of character development and customization.
The good is that it brought the MMO genre to a whole new level of market and user numbers.
All in all I must say, even if I dont agree with the course the game took, that the positives were bigger than the negatives. The market would not be what it is today and would not reach such a big audience if it wasnt for WoW and Blizzard.
Besides, if we see today such a big number of new MMO's developing is in part thanks to WoW and the profit it generates. The investors drool at it and happily fund new projects.
WoW itself has done nothing but good things to the mmorpg world. It's all the developers that are trying to copy WoW's formula that are doing bad things.
I don't think it's the fact that they are trying to copy WoW, because every mmo take things from other games. It's the fact that it's all half assed.
Look at Warhammer. Almost everything about the game was half assed. Class abilities, areas, pvp, professions, sieges. The whole game just feels as if they didn't put much effort into it.
You want to copy a game? Copy a game. I don't care. Just do a good fricken job with it.
I completely agree with this. Many games are seen as failures not just because they are WoW clones, but they are "sub-standard WoW Clones". If you are gunna take on the big boys, you gotta match them and THEN surpass them. Otherwise there's no point. A challenger to the WoW throne doesn't have to be an identical copy to WoW, it doesn't even necessarily need to be a "fantasy" type game, but it DOES have to match it in terms of quality and level of acceptability.
It's no use building a nice mansion on foundations made of quick sand. You need to get the foundation right before you even build the house.
This is exactly what I'm talking about. You can make as many games as possibly that are complete ripoffs of UO or EQ or WoW, but without quality and polish, it's going to die a slow and painful death. You don't need to be innovative or "break new ground" or any of the other BS we always hear companies say. You need to be ENJOYABLE and FINISHED.
These developers/companies wouldn't buy a car without an engine, you wouldn't buy a house without a roof, a cake with no frosting, a computer with no harddrive. Why the hell should we buy their games if they're not finished?
The effect was positive. It's always positive when a game enters the market; even if you don't like the game. This is because the more games in the market, the more choices we have. It also means the companies will have to be more competitive, though it seems to be a slow process in the MMO industry. You never want to chase a game off, because you are killing diversity and innovation when you do that. If a game is bad, it will die out on its own, but maybe it will give some developer inspiration for a new idea that we all enjoy. Also, it pays to be patient. All markets go through an evolutionary process. MMOs are in the stage where many "copy cats" are flocking to the market in and attempt to make a quicj clone and get some quick cash. This sucks for the players in the short run but it is just a phase.
Remember, we want lots of games and diversity. /opinion
I agree with the concepts presented in this post, but I think the problem lies with that we are not getting more choices and more variety to choose from. We are getting the exact same present wrapped up in different packages.
Its like getting 1000 of the exact same toy for christmas. Sure, I may have 1000 new toys, but they are all the same toy.
I believe WoW has done some good things...manily mainstream the genre...more so than EQ1 or UO ever did. It has allowed the MMO market to explode and giving everyone a game to play regardless of what niche you like, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, SteamPunk..etc.etc..the choices are limitless.
IMO, the biggest negative effect that WOW has had is what I mentioned above...mainstream the genre...The negative piece is not so much the gameplay but the type of player that has been introduced to the genre. With such a wide appeal the chances of getting the people who have no idea of MMO etiquette or ever played an MMO or want to take the time to find out what is acceptable or not acceptable is much higher. Hence, you get imature or rude players. When EQ1 was first started all the folks on there were older mature adults (at least on my server) who were established and respectful to their fellow players. I know i'll catch some flack for this next statement...but the younger players ( 18 years and younger) that WoW introduced to the Genre were a huge negative impact for me. Call me an old fart...But I would still love to see age restricted servers for games... lol
I have to say the overall impact of WoW was negative from my perspective. I see it as negative because WoW introduced some things which I strongly dislike and the success of WoW has led to these things being copied in the majority of later games.
The two major things I'm talking about are solo quest grinding and the overall..uh..easyness of the game (weak mobs, no death penalty, etc.). Those things are WoWs' major contribution to mmorpgs and as far as I'm concerned they are both very bad.
The really horrible contribution EQ made to mmorpgs was raiding. Then WoW came along and invented the solo quest grind to level up in an extremely easy game AND kept the end game raiding gear grind from EQ. From my perspective they took the very worst thing from EQ, invented a new equally horrible thing, reduced the difficulty to the point that the whole damn thing is simply boring, and then because everyone tries to copy WoW it has left me wondering if I'll ever have a good mmorpg to play again.
It's a pity that some games since have followed their model too closely, but I applaud the fact that it has at the very least encouraged new games to be finished.
WoW has certainly encouraged new people into MMOs and that must be good.
Age restricted servers for games... if only.. i'd like to say most of the adolescent behaviour encountered in game is actually carried out by... adolescents, except quite a few of them were probably in their forties
On the other hand, WOW has introduced a lot of people to online gaming, that perhaps wouldnt have considered it before, certainly pre-WOW, a high playerbase was considered to be over 200k, perhaps it was the nerdiness factor that was associated with it originally, certainly it wasnt something you would expect to find.. gasp.. girls/women playing!
so.. i'd have to say, yes the overall effect that WOW has had is positive, although i would also like to point out that most female night elves/blood elves are probably still guys! although i might have misspelled that slightly
I think WoWs impact is mostly possitive. The first mmos were anything but accesible. I remember years ago my friend attempting to get me to play Ultima Online than later EQ and all these attempts did was made me straight out hate the genre. Without WoW making mmos for everybody the genre would not survive. The development costs for games is constantly on the rise and so are the service costs. If mmos stayed games for the hardcore the subs would I believe be too little to keep a game going for long. Now that mmos are considered in some ways mainstream entertainment this allows for a larger number of mmos to be made becouse the risk of failure is smaller.
The negative effect WoW has had isnt really Blizzards fault. The fact that mmo developers for the most part refuse to take risks and copy the most succesful game is not WoWs fault.
Age restricted servers for games... if only.. i'd like to say most of the adolescent behaviour encountered in game is actually carried out by... adolescents, except quite a few of them were probably in their forties On the other hand, WOW has introduced a lot of people to online gaming, that perhaps wouldnt have considered it before, certainly pre-WOW, a high playerbase was considered to be over 200k, perhaps it was the nerdiness factor that was associated with it originally, certainly it wasnt something you would expect to find.. gasp.. girls/women playing! so.. i'd have to say, yes the overall effect that WOW has had is positive, although i would also like to point out that most female night elves/blood elves are probably still guys! although i might have misspelled that slightly
I don't agree with the no girls/women playing part of your post. Pre-CU SWG had by far the most female gamers out of all the MMO's that I have played, and that was pre-WoW.
MMORPG History: Playing - EVE Online. Played (Retired) - AO, SWG, MxO, WoW, RFO, SoR, CoX, EQ2, GW, L2, Vanguard, LotRO, AoC, TCoS, Aion. Favourite MMO - Pre-CU SWG, 3 Years, 4 Accounts, 2 Pre-CU Jedi (1 Pre-9). Awaiting - Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Secret World, Earthrise.
I think WoWs impact is mostly possitive. The first mmos were anything but accesible. I remember years ago my friend attempting to get me to play Ultima Online than later EQ and all these attempts did was made me straight out hate the genre. Without WoW making mmos for everybody the genre would not survive. The development costs for games is constantly on the rise and so are the service costs. If mmos stayed games for the hardcore the subs would I believe be too little to keep a game going for long. Now that mmos are considered in some ways mainstream entertainment this allows for a larger number of mmos to be made becouse the risk of failure is smaller. The negative effect WoW has had isnt really Blizzards fault. The fact that mmo developers for the most part refuse to take risks and copy the most succesful game is not WoWs fault.
Ah, that'll be why UO and EQ shut down years ago then...
Oh, wait...
They didn't
MMO's don't need WoW type numbers to be successful and generate a profit.
MMORPG History: Playing - EVE Online. Played (Retired) - AO, SWG, MxO, WoW, RFO, SoR, CoX, EQ2, GW, L2, Vanguard, LotRO, AoC, TCoS, Aion. Favourite MMO - Pre-CU SWG, 3 Years, 4 Accounts, 2 Pre-CU Jedi (1 Pre-9). Awaiting - Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Secret World, Earthrise.
I think WoWs impact is mostly possitive. The first mmos were anything but accesible. I remember years ago my friend attempting to get me to play Ultima Online than later EQ and all these attempts did was made me straight out hate the genre. Without WoW making mmos for everybody the genre would not survive. The development costs for games is constantly on the rise and so are the service costs. If mmos stayed games for the hardcore the subs would I believe be too little to keep a game going for long. Now that mmos are considered in some ways mainstream entertainment this allows for a larger number of mmos to be made becouse the risk of failure is smaller. The negative effect WoW has had isnt really Blizzards fault. The fact that mmo developers for the most part refuse to take risks and copy the most succesful game is not WoWs fault.
Ah, that'll be why UO and EQ shut down years ago then...
Oh, wait...
They didn't
MMO's don't need WoW type numbers to be successful and generate a profit.
My point maybe not well articulated was that they these days they need bigger numbers than they did as a result of games becoming more expensive to develop.
I had to vote positive, but I do feel its only slightly positive. Personally, I feel that WoW has undergone a downhill slide when it dumbed down its raid content (WotLK). If you are going to have a hardcore player base then that base should be able to accomplish things above and beyond the non-hardcore base. I was -barely- hardcore when I played the game (like 12-16 raid hours a week). I enjoyed that there was a reward for the extra work and that the game was still good for the players that could not manage it... whether through a lack of time or skill.
I agree that the success of WoW has caused a very formulaic approach for big studio MMOs. However, I disagree when it is pointed out that this is completely stifling the industry. There are many games available out there that are completely different from WoW that experience good income for small developer houses. Probably the best example of this is A Tale in the Desert which is based solely on economy, crafting and its social network. No combat at all, no mobs... nothing at all like anything else out there.
Anyway, I no longer play WoW because I don't like where it went with the most recent expansion. I don't like the majority of the new offerings because they are WoW-like without being as good as WoW. I do see how WoW is tainting players forever to seek Blizzard like production quality...
All of that negativity aside, WoW has brought massive amounts of money, attention and media to a previously niche gaming market. That can't be a bad thing unless they actively start engaging in monopolizing the rest of the industry. They aren't purchasing and shutting down other games and they aren't merging with them either. Yes, WoW has changed much... but the attention brought to the genre and the fact that large companies can SEE the money available here can only lead to better offerings in the future.
For the genre I do not think that it has had a positive effect. After WoW released almost every other MMOG out there took a hit in their subscriptions and they never got those players back. For it to have a positiive effect it would have had to help the whole genre grow not just having its' own numbers grow. Most people list that WoW brougth so many new people to the genre as a positive but really which other game has been helped out by WoW? WoW has had a positive effect on WoW not the genre.
I would say something that lowered almost every games subscriptions should be classified as a negative thing unless you are just a fan of WoW and not of MMOGs as a whole.
WoW itself has done nothing but good things to the mmorpg world. It's all the developers that are trying to copy WoW's formula that are doing bad things.
Wow brought in a large demographic that had never tried MMO's before.
The presence of this new demographic has forever altered MMO's, and not in a good way.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do. Benjamin Franklin
WoW itself has done nothing but good things to the mmorpg world. It's all the developers that are trying to copy WoW's formula that are doing bad things.
Wow brought in a large demographic that had never tried MMO's before.
The presence of this new demographic has forever altered MMO's, and not in a good way.
I see, pity the rest of the world is not such a good player like you are right? You just hope all of those stupid idiot people that play WoW didnt exist right?
If wow came to end with the ridiculous and elitistic crowd like this guy then it was a good change.
WoW is great for people new to MMO's, infact it's the BEST first MMO because it's so user friendly. There are tutorials for everything you need to know. I know this to be true because my girlfriend decided to install WoW and play it without telling me and she knows nothing about MMO's (all she plays is solitaire). She figured everything out on her own, the installation, the billing, the controls etc... and got to level 6.
The only bad thing about WoW, is it spoils players...if it's your first MMO you will probably never move on to another MMO because nothing really can come close to the experience WoW provides.(Maybe AION?).
WoW itself has done nothing but good things to the mmorpg world. It's all the developers that are trying to copy WoW's formula that are doing bad things.
Wow brought in a large demographic that had never tried MMO's before.
The presence of this new demographic has forever altered MMO's, and not in a good way.
I see, pity the rest of the world is not such a good player like you are right? You just hope all of those stupid idiot people that play WoW didnt exist right?
If wow came to end with the ridiculous and elitistic crowd like this guy then it was a good change.
How is he elitist? He's absolutely right. MMORPGs used to be for experienced gamers, and now they're dumbed down to the point where there's absolutely no challenge at all for the seasoned veteran. What has basically happened is the original MMORPG player has been forced out of the genre and a new group has taken it over. That group is the one that most MMORPG developers cater to.
so think about this... If you've only played one MMORPG, how are you supposed to know what's good? It's fun? How do you know if there's something that's way more fun out there? Nobody even has the option to play another type of MMORPG thanks to WoW. It has even drawn many players away from the few existing MMORPGs out there that are actually different because it has all the players.
It has done neither good nore bad. F2P lazy companies who are to stupid to setup P2P structures will rip off and mimic WoW as WoW did of Everquest and D&D. It's nothing more the the norm. of now.
It's like PC. Has close to 94% of the computer userbase and people bitch about it's flaws. Must be doing something right for people to still play it.
When did you start playing "old school" MMO's. World Of Warcraft?
Comments
I voted negative. I could write so much on this topic that tl;dr wouldn't begin to cover it.
I'll liken WoW to the Nintendo Wii. While the Wii can be a blast and gives you that instant gratification, it's just not the same as picking up the ps3 or xbox controller. Because of the instant gratification aspect of the Wii, it sells. This encourages the companies to continue putting out more instant grat. games that, honestly, aren't worth half of the price we're being charged. It also ends up 'mentally training' the consumer and leads to a degradation of expectations and community. So while it's seen as 'a large success' or 'a lot of fun', to the genre, it's really a step backwards.
I'd like to take this opportunity to say I don't hate the Wii or WoW. While I'm not very fond of WoW myself, I do acknowledge the good amongst the bad.
P.S. - Forgive the gramatical errors. I tried hard proofing it but I've been up for 20+ hours now. I have a tendancy to really screw the pooch when I write while being this tired.
The effect was positive. It's always positive when a game enters the market; even if you don't like the game. This is because the more games in the market, the more choices we have. It also means the companies will have to be more competitive, though it seems to be a slow process in the MMO industry.
You never want to chase a game off, because you are killing diversity and innovation when you do that. If a game is bad, it will die out on its own, but maybe it will give some developer inspiration for a new idea that we all enjoy.
Also, it pays to be patient. All markets go through an evolutionary process. MMOs are in the stage where many "copy cats" are flocking to the market in and attempt to make a quicj clone and get some quick cash. This sucks for the players in the short run but it is just a phase.
Remember, we want lots of games and diversity.
/opinion
I don't think it's the fact that they are trying to copy WoW, because every mmo take things from other games. It's the fact that it's all half assed.
Look at Warhammer. Almost everything about the game was half assed. Class abilities, areas, pvp, professions, sieges. The whole game just feels as if they didn't put much effort into it.
You want to copy a game? Copy a game. I don't care. Just do a good fricken job with it.
I completely agree with this. Many games are seen as failures not just because they are WoW clones, but they are "sub-standard WoW Clones". If you are gunna take on the big boys, you gotta match them and THEN surpass them. Otherwise there's no point. A challenger to the WoW throne doesn't have to be an identical copy to WoW, it doesn't even necessarily need to be a "fantasy" type game, but it DOES have to match it in terms of quality and level of acceptability.
It's no use building a nice mansion on foundations made of quick sand. You need to get the foundation right before you even build the house.
Top 10 Most Misused Words in MMO's
Im my opinion WoW was both of the options.
The bad is that it simplified what an RPG should be, in all its glory and full of character development and customization.
The good is that it brought the MMO genre to a whole new level of market and user numbers.
All in all I must say, even if I dont agree with the course the game took, that the positives were bigger than the negatives. The market would not be what it is today and would not reach such a big audience if it wasnt for WoW and Blizzard.
Besides, if we see today such a big number of new MMO's developing is in part thanks to WoW and the profit it generates. The investors drool at it and happily fund new projects.
I don't think it's the fact that they are trying to copy WoW, because every mmo take things from other games. It's the fact that it's all half assed.
Look at Warhammer. Almost everything about the game was half assed. Class abilities, areas, pvp, professions, sieges. The whole game just feels as if they didn't put much effort into it.
You want to copy a game? Copy a game. I don't care. Just do a good fricken job with it.
I completely agree with this. Many games are seen as failures not just because they are WoW clones, but they are "sub-standard WoW Clones". If you are gunna take on the big boys, you gotta match them and THEN surpass them. Otherwise there's no point. A challenger to the WoW throne doesn't have to be an identical copy to WoW, it doesn't even necessarily need to be a "fantasy" type game, but it DOES have to match it in terms of quality and level of acceptability.
It's no use building a nice mansion on foundations made of quick sand. You need to get the foundation right before you even build the house.
This is exactly what I'm talking about. You can make as many games as possibly that are complete ripoffs of UO or EQ or WoW, but without quality and polish, it's going to die a slow and painful death. You don't need to be innovative or "break new ground" or any of the other BS we always hear companies say. You need to be ENJOYABLE and FINISHED.
These developers/companies wouldn't buy a car without an engine, you wouldn't buy a house without a roof, a cake with no frosting, a computer with no harddrive. Why the hell should we buy their games if they're not finished?
I agree with the concepts presented in this post, but I think the problem lies with that we are not getting more choices and more variety to choose from. We are getting the exact same present wrapped up in different packages.
Its like getting 1000 of the exact same toy for christmas. Sure, I may have 1000 new toys, but they are all the same toy.
I'm not creative enough to have a signature
I believe WoW has done some good things...manily mainstream the genre...more so than EQ1 or UO ever did. It has allowed the MMO market to explode and giving everyone a game to play regardless of what niche you like, Sci-Fi, Fantasy, SteamPunk..etc.etc..the choices are limitless.
IMO, the biggest negative effect that WOW has had is what I mentioned above...mainstream the genre...The negative piece is not so much the gameplay but the type of player that has been introduced to the genre. With such a wide appeal the chances of getting the people who have no idea of MMO etiquette or ever played an MMO or want to take the time to find out what is acceptable or not acceptable is much higher. Hence, you get imature or rude players. When EQ1 was first started all the folks on there were older mature adults (at least on my server) who were established and respectful to their fellow players. I know i'll catch some flack for this next statement...but the younger players ( 18 years and younger) that WoW introduced to the Genre were a huge negative impact for me. Call me an old fart...But I would still love to see age restricted servers for games... lol
I have to say the overall impact of WoW was negative from my perspective. I see it as negative because WoW introduced some things which I strongly dislike and the success of WoW has led to these things being copied in the majority of later games.
The two major things I'm talking about are solo quest grinding and the overall..uh..easyness of the game (weak mobs, no death penalty, etc.). Those things are WoWs' major contribution to mmorpgs and as far as I'm concerned they are both very bad.
The really horrible contribution EQ made to mmorpgs was raiding. Then WoW came along and invented the solo quest grind to level up in an extremely easy game AND kept the end game raiding gear grind from EQ. From my perspective they took the very worst thing from EQ, invented a new equally horrible thing, reduced the difficulty to the point that the whole damn thing is simply boring, and then because everyone tries to copy WoW it has left me wondering if I'll ever have a good mmorpg to play again.
Mostly positive in my view.
It's a pity that some games since have followed their model too closely, but I applaud the fact that it has at the very least encouraged new games to be finished.
WoW has certainly encouraged new people into MMOs and that must be good.
Age restricted servers for games... if only.. i'd like to say most of the adolescent behaviour encountered in game is actually carried out by... adolescents, except quite a few of them were probably in their forties
On the other hand, WOW has introduced a lot of people to online gaming, that perhaps wouldnt have considered it before, certainly pre-WOW, a high playerbase was considered to be over 200k, perhaps it was the nerdiness factor that was associated with it originally, certainly it wasnt something you would expect to find.. gasp.. girls/women playing!
so.. i'd have to say, yes the overall effect that WOW has had is positive, although i would also like to point out that most female night elves/blood elves are probably still guys! although i might have misspelled that slightly
I think WoWs impact is mostly possitive. The first mmos were anything but accesible. I remember years ago my friend attempting to get me to play Ultima Online than later EQ and all these attempts did was made me straight out hate the genre. Without WoW making mmos for everybody the genre would not survive. The development costs for games is constantly on the rise and so are the service costs. If mmos stayed games for the hardcore the subs would I believe be too little to keep a game going for long. Now that mmos are considered in some ways mainstream entertainment this allows for a larger number of mmos to be made becouse the risk of failure is smaller.
The negative effect WoW has had isnt really Blizzards fault. The fact that mmo developers for the most part refuse to take risks and copy the most succesful game is not WoWs fault.
I don't agree with the no girls/women playing part of your post. Pre-CU SWG had by far the most female gamers out of all the MMO's that I have played, and that was pre-WoW.
MMORPG History:
Playing - EVE Online.
Played (Retired) - AO, SWG, MxO, WoW, RFO, SoR, CoX, EQ2, GW, L2, Vanguard, LotRO, AoC, TCoS, Aion.
Favourite MMO - Pre-CU SWG, 3 Years, 4 Accounts, 2 Pre-CU Jedi (1 Pre-9).
Awaiting - Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Secret World, Earthrise.
Ah, that'll be why UO and EQ shut down years ago then...
Oh, wait...
They didn't
MMO's don't need WoW type numbers to be successful and generate a profit.
MMORPG History:
Playing - EVE Online.
Played (Retired) - AO, SWG, MxO, WoW, RFO, SoR, CoX, EQ2, GW, L2, Vanguard, LotRO, AoC, TCoS, Aion.
Favourite MMO - Pre-CU SWG, 3 Years, 4 Accounts, 2 Pre-CU Jedi (1 Pre-9).
Awaiting - Star Wars: The Old Republic, The Secret World, Earthrise.
Ah, that'll be why UO and EQ shut down years ago then...
Oh, wait...
They didn't
MMO's don't need WoW type numbers to be successful and generate a profit.
My point maybe not well articulated was that they these days they need bigger numbers than they did as a result of games becoming more expensive to develop.
I had to vote positive, but I do feel its only slightly positive. Personally, I feel that WoW has undergone a downhill slide when it dumbed down its raid content (WotLK). If you are going to have a hardcore player base then that base should be able to accomplish things above and beyond the non-hardcore base. I was -barely- hardcore when I played the game (like 12-16 raid hours a week). I enjoyed that there was a reward for the extra work and that the game was still good for the players that could not manage it... whether through a lack of time or skill.
I agree that the success of WoW has caused a very formulaic approach for big studio MMOs. However, I disagree when it is pointed out that this is completely stifling the industry. There are many games available out there that are completely different from WoW that experience good income for small developer houses. Probably the best example of this is A Tale in the Desert which is based solely on economy, crafting and its social network. No combat at all, no mobs... nothing at all like anything else out there.
Anyway, I no longer play WoW because I don't like where it went with the most recent expansion. I don't like the majority of the new offerings because they are WoW-like without being as good as WoW. I do see how WoW is tainting players forever to seek Blizzard like production quality...
All of that negativity aside, WoW has brought massive amounts of money, attention and media to a previously niche gaming market. That can't be a bad thing unless they actively start engaging in monopolizing the rest of the industry. They aren't purchasing and shutting down other games and they aren't merging with them either. Yes, WoW has changed much... but the attention brought to the genre and the fact that large companies can SEE the money available here can only lead to better offerings in the future.
For the genre I do not think that it has had a positive effect. After WoW released almost every other MMOG out there took a hit in their subscriptions and they never got those players back. For it to have a positiive effect it would have had to help the whole genre grow not just having its' own numbers grow. Most people list that WoW brougth so many new people to the genre as a positive but really which other game has been helped out by WoW? WoW has had a positive effect on WoW not the genre.
I would say something that lowered almost every games subscriptions should be classified as a negative thing unless you are just a fan of WoW and not of MMOGs as a whole.
Wow brought in a large demographic that had never tried MMO's before.
The presence of this new demographic has forever altered MMO's, and not in a good way.
Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain and most fools do.
Benjamin Franklin
Wow brought in a large demographic that had never tried MMO's before.
The presence of this new demographic has forever altered MMO's, and not in a good way.
I see, pity the rest of the world is not such a good player like you are right? You just hope all of those stupid idiot people that play WoW didnt exist right?
If wow came to end with the ridiculous and elitistic crowd like this guy then it was a good change.
Good and bad.
WoW is great for people new to MMO's, infact it's the BEST first MMO because it's so user friendly. There are tutorials for everything you need to know. I know this to be true because my girlfriend decided to install WoW and play it without telling me and she knows nothing about MMO's (all she plays is solitaire). She figured everything out on her own, the installation, the billing, the controls etc... and got to level 6.
The only bad thing about WoW, is it spoils players...if it's your first MMO you will probably never move on to another MMO because nothing really can come close to the experience WoW provides.(Maybe AION?).
Wow brought in a large demographic that had never tried MMO's before.
The presence of this new demographic has forever altered MMO's, and not in a good way.
I see, pity the rest of the world is not such a good player like you are right? You just hope all of those stupid idiot people that play WoW didnt exist right?
If wow came to end with the ridiculous and elitistic crowd like this guy then it was a good change.
How is he elitist? He's absolutely right. MMORPGs used to be for experienced gamers, and now they're dumbed down to the point where there's absolutely no challenge at all for the seasoned veteran. What has basically happened is the original MMORPG player has been forced out of the genre and a new group has taken it over. That group is the one that most MMORPG developers cater to.
so think about this... If you've only played one MMORPG, how are you supposed to know what's good? It's fun? How do you know if there's something that's way more fun out there? Nobody even has the option to play another type of MMORPG thanks to WoW. It has even drawn many players away from the few existing MMORPGs out there that are actually different because it has all the players.
It's a plus.
Impeccable reasoning.
It has done neither good nore bad. F2P lazy companies who are to stupid to setup P2P structures will rip off and mimic WoW as WoW did of Everquest and D&D. It's nothing more the the norm. of now.
It's like PC. Has close to 94% of the computer userbase and people bitch about it's flaws. Must be doing something right for people to still play it.
When did you start playing "old school" MMO's. World Of Warcraft?
Damn you double posting!
Impeccable reasoning.
It did not say to provide a reason. I can think of many, and I'm sick to death of playing the game. How about you? Can't think of one? Hmm.