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No wonder why WoW is the most popular MMO.
chrisel
Member UncommonPosts: 990
I have only been subscribed to World of Warcraft 1 month since January last year (2009). Since that I have been a nomad amongst games. Not as active as I used to be in the early 2000's, but still, a few games here and there.
There are so much I miss from WoW. Plain & simple. The WoW ban has not been lifted in my house, but I am sure that I will lift that ban soon.
So what makes World of Warcraft so special? That is not easily described with a few words, but I will highlight a few things that I feel is what it makes to be a top game;
.
1. It is very 'tight' to play; When you press a button, something happens. Just played Lord of the Rings Online, Anarchy Online & Fallen Earth; last 2 games are actually very exhausting while LOTRO has way to much casting/induction time on actions. I have played lots of MMO's, no other game can give me same feeling when it comes to be in control of my Avatar as I get in WoW.
2. Top solo content: Only rivalled by LOTRO.
3. Flying mounts: How cool isnt that??!
4. 3 Different ways to develop your toon: Excellent! This is even something you can reset in case you did not like what you just did.
5. Rogues & Druids: These are the most unique classes I have ever seen, whatsoever MMO. Why? They got stealth & ability to vanish in the middle of a fight! Totally imba, at the edge of overpowered if you ask me. But I "dig" it. Alot 
.
Actually, the list could go endlessy on. Still, what I miss most, is the feeling of control when I play my toon.
Sigh... I am about to give in for WoW... There seem to be so few other real alternatives. I wish there were...
Make us care MORE about our faction & world pvp!
Comments
1. Eh ? Which game doesnt react to button presses ? I dont understand your point.
2. Cant say anything to that. Personally I hate soloing in MMOs. Only real reason to is if theres a lack of players, or you're really short on time.
3. Yeah I loved my flying mount in Vanguard too.
4. I hate the very idea.
5. I fail to see whats unique of this idea. Seen "hide in plain sight" in many games now. Dragon Age: Origins made it a standard feature, NWN2 had it in multiple PrCs, and Vanguard of course has it too.
It sounds like you like the game a lot. I can't really quibble with your post (although a lot of it is just preference on your part) but this statement caught my eye.
Really?
The most unique classes you have ever seen? I don't think you have played that many games then. The druid has a more unique feel to it due to the shapechange ability and class morph ideal in the class but still it is not that unique. The rogue? Unique, really? I think almost every game has a roguish type class and they almost have stealth of some sort. I think the Vanish ability has skewed your thinking a bit. And just for the record, my most unique class I have ever played was a Mesmer from guild wars.
Then you havent played many MMO's... Hard to explain my point to someone who is unexperienced when it comes to playing lots of MMO's. I might be wrong here, but then last option I see for you, is that you must be a mouseclicker then.
However, these are my personal views. You seem to just be another WoW basher who denies the fact that WoW is the best game around for the most of us.
Make us care MORE about our faction & world pvp!
It is popular because it is easy to play, its fun to alot of people and it can be played on the commodore 64.
I really have to disagree about the unique classes though. FFXI has the Bard and Beastmaster which are truely one of the most unique classes ever in a mmo. Also if you want to count non mmo games that have unique classes you may want to look back on the old Neverwinter Nights classes not to mention you could advance into epic classses.
Really?
The most unique classes you have ever seen? I don't think you have played that many games then. The druid has a more unique feel to it due to the shapechange ability and class morph ideal in the class but still it is not that unique. The rogue? Unique, really? I think almost every game has a roguish type class and they almost have stealth of some sort. I think the Vanish ability has skewed your thinking a bit. And just for the record, my most unique class I have ever played was a Mesmer from guild wars.
Guild Wars? Is that even considered an MMO? Not by me, not by the company. Only by MMORPG, which is a mystery to me...
And yes, I find the Rogue very unique. I have played Burglar in f.ex LOTRO, Agent in AO etc, no other class comes to close as the Rogue in WoW. Let me add that I find the Rogue 2nd to the Druid though. Druid is an extremely powerful class, being able to fill absolutely all roles in the "Holy Trinity" of Healer, Tank & DPS (both melee & ranged!).
Make us care MORE about our faction & world pvp!
But what is so unique about a Rogue? I'm just trying to understand your line of thinking. A low armor, high damage melee class with stealth capabilities has been in games forever. Assassin/rogue type classes are a dime a dozen.
We all know why WoW is so popular.
Simply because it can run on any machine, pc or laptop. There are a lot of people that don't own a gaming ring and just have a laptop for work (word, etc.)
There are games that provide better PvE and PvP experiences, but these games won't run in low spec machines. This is how Blizzard won their player base. Plus friend brings friend - repeat = Huge player base.
This is no secret. Just the fact that WoW as the most large player base, doesn't make it the best game out there.
Peace and happy gaming.
But what is so unique about a Rogue? I'm just trying to understand your line of thinking. A low armor, high damage melee class with stealth capabilities has been in games forever. Assassin/rogue type classes are a dime a dozen.
It is how it works. It has always fascinated me that class. Hard to explain why, but the Vanishing ability is really awesome. Does any other game offer that to any class? Instant Vanishing in middle of fight, then being able to insta attack & stunlock right away? I also find that the Rogue is able to 'reset' the fight quite unique too. The whole toolset of the WoW Rogue is to me, powerful & unique. Unmatched by any other class I have played.
Make us care MORE about our faction & world pvp!
True enough. But there are tons of games that can run on most MMO's, that doesnt make them a success, do they?
WoW has more than that. Alot more than that to offer. More than most and every other MMO around. Closest MMO I find, is LOTRO, but it fails on too many areas to be any real contender to WoW.
Make us care MORE about our faction & world pvp!
I always thought the solo content was bland and uninspired. It's easy to solo your way all the way to 80, but top solo content? No. Not to mention, when you do hit 80 there is virtually NO solo content what-so-ever. It's all group based, which is a good thing, but they really don't have anything for you to do except raid raid raid.
I would go out on a limb and say they have top raid content, their endgame raids and dungeons have always been extremely fun. They have turned them into just an endless gear grind and I don't like that, but the actual instances themselves are some of the best I've ever seen. And the variety of them is just amazing, you kinda get disillusioned by the massive variety of endgame raids after you've been grinding them for a couple weeks. But, there is a large variety of them compared to other games. If Cat brings back the old world raids, it's going to be alot better for the game.
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Then you havent played many MMO's... Hard to explain my point to someone who is unexperienced when it comes to playing lots of MMO's. I might be wrong here, but then last option I see for you, is that you must be a mouseclicker then.
However, these are my personal views. You seem to just be another WoW basher who denies the fact that WoW is the best game around for the most of us.
Well, I think that wow is popular because it
runs well on any machine
easy to get into
Can be played casually (as of the people I know who actually play mmo's they all play WoW and they play casually as something they do with friends and family)
Few bugs, very polished
Not intimidating with its systems
Not intimidating with its art design
Good marketing
Comes across as a "fun" thing to do for non-gamers
Huge community and active development which is always exciting.
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
As I said before, I think it is the vanish that has skewed your thinking about the class. Take that away and there is really no real uniqueness about it. I will agree that vanish is a very cool ability though.
Then you havent played many MMO's... Hard to explain my point to someone who is unexperienced when it comes to playing lots of MMO's. I might be wrong here, but then last option I see for you, is that you must be a mouseclicker then.
However, these are my personal views. You seem to just be another WoW basher who denies the fact that WoW is the best game around for the most of us.
I understand what you mean by the fluid movement of the avatar. I personally am a clicker, and refuse to hot key much. I do have some things hot keyed but i do not see the point of hot keying your whole 1 - = keys on the key board. I think something here though you did forget is the community. The community of this game is so single minded which is why it is so hard for them to change MMO's.
If i was to show -MOST- WoW players an MMO with out gear, raids, or levels,they would look at me if though i was stupid. It shouldn't be called "World" of warcraft anymore seeing how they have implemented so many queued things over the years, it's pointless now. Just saying, that there are fluid games out there. Currently I am playing Global Agenda because I am sick of the same thing. It has brought me a breath of fresh air and exactly what i needed to get hooked into a game again.
Personally, if Activision.. "blizzard" were to stop constantly listening to the annoyance grieves of there players and actually made the game , a game, instead of a dating site/ babysitter for children and the mindset of, they might actually get some where.
Obviously the team for Diablo has the right idea to some extent as well as the starcraft team. These are just my opinions of course, and you can take what you will of it. The community of this game though has shut me off completely now. Started the Beta in 2004 and this is now what the game has to offer for players. Makes me rather upset since the warcraft lore is very rich. Oh well I guess, you win some and lose some.
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MISTA T AINT NO COMPOOTA HACKA
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So i'll give you Druid on being unique but Rogues are far far from it.
Actually you want to talk about unique WoW clesses how about the Shaman class. Much more unique then a rogue.
Also your english is bad.
You seriously commented on the way he types? and what he knows of grammar? My God, you must play wow too.
www.roxstudiodesigns.com
Rogue/druid classes that can vanish were in so many games before WoW it is ridiculous, how can you possible think that is original and WoW came up with it??
I actually dislike the thought of flying mounts, (I quit WoW before these ever came out, in fact I could only stand WoW for a couple months and that's because I learned to spend all my time in Battlegrounds to have any fun at all, the PvE is terrible). It's bad enough trying to deal with players who run all over the place when trying to fight, now they can do it in 3 dimensions?? Woo hoo for that, no thanks. For the record I also hated Starseige Tribes because of the jump jets.
Tight to play? You learn a 3-5 button rotation that you use for all PvE content and most PvP content. Yes it is very tight to go 3 1 4 2 3 1 4 2 3 1 4 2, until a target dies. I prefer something like DDO which is click to strike, or Asheron's Call where players are allowed to actually move out of the way of arrows and bolts (they don't have strange homing ability like WoW's missiles).
Top solo content? WoW's high level PvE content was some of the least fun I've ever dealt with.
3 different ways to develop your character? I'll choose Asheron's Call where you choose all your skills and which ones are specialized, what weapons, damage types, augments etc. to develop my character. Much more in depth and fun then a class based system with a simplistic skill tree.
I think you could of come up with a better and more accurate list.
Reason it is so popular:
Being popular makes you more popular, so once you get players, they bring players who bring players etc. Just like being an unknown/lesser known game keeps your numbers low because there aren't as many original players to attract more players.
Ease of play, it is the most simplistic and easiest MMO to figure out and play. There is no thought on how to level, gear to use, skills to use. A 10 year old can play it as strongly as an adult because the learning curve is so low. This means no barrier of difficulty to turn players away like a lot of other more in depth mmos.
Low system specs. People who don't have newer computers can play it, so they are more likely to try it.
I have to disagree - I think the sucess of WoW is that they followed the simple rules of the real world....
Build a product people want to buy because you listen to your customers, invest in support and development until it is 110% stable and finally don't mess with it...
How many games are claimed to be MMO's which clearly aren't but the game company just wants a repeat fee every month or how many look at their competitor and think "If only we did this - then we would have all their players as well...."
Trust me - I've seen this soooooooooooooooooooooooo many times in hardware or software outside of the gaming world.
You are right - Just because they have the biggest player base doesn't make them the best game - The best game is the one YOU want to play.
And here is the old line of there are lies, damn lies and statistics - How many of those "players" are actually online and paying for a subscription ??? - I know I'm not and I had two accounts - One on the EU server and one on the US server.
I'm sorry but you sound plain ignorant. To say that WoW has it's popularity and appeal because of it's low required computer specifications is beyond ridiculous and unaquitted. To use that logic would be to deduce that Runescape has the most appeal in the online gaming world and we all know how awful that game really is in almost every factor.
Actually, you're calling him ignorant and uninformed. But there have been many many official statements from Blizzard over the years that actually say this is one of the reasons why their game is so popular and they spend alot of time optimizing code, so it will run cleanly on lower end machines.
Runescape is actually a very good game mechanically. But, there again............ it's been one of the top MMO games in the west for about 10+yrs now. It's second to only WoW. So, why did you even bring that up? To prove yourself wrong? Because that's exactly what you did. Good show.
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Then you havent played many MMO's... Hard to explain my point to someone who is unexperienced when it comes to playing lots of MMO's. I might be wrong here, but then last option I see for you, is that you must be a mouseclicker then.
However, these are my personal views. You seem to just be another WoW basher who denies the fact that WoW is the best game around for the most of us.
I think what you are eluding to is the mix of sounds, animation and graphical style seems to give your actions a more solid feel to them. When you shield block, you see the shield rising as soon as you hit the button, hear the familiar ping of the skill activating and see the results with blocking animations for each successful block.
Also because of the visual style they chose to take with their avatars, they animate in a way that appears to give a sense of gravity when they walk, run, jump and perform actions. A lot of these little details do not transfer over to other graphical engines because they are used by a variety of other developers:
These are just a few of the game engines shared. And it's because they use engines that are already out there, they are limited to what they can do with animation. Think Street Fighter IV vs. Tekken VI. One gives a visual satisfaction when performing actions (SF IV) while the other gives satisfying visuals (Tekken VI). There is nothing wrong with either one, but it all depends on your own personal taste.
The next MMO I see coming down the pipeline that I think will deliver this feeling of soul in the game will be TOR. They are using the little used HeroEngine, but because Bioware is the first company to use it for a MMO, they will pigeonhole the engine based on how they use it to animate their models. So we'll see how it translates when everything is in place.
"Small minds talk about people, average minds talk about events, great minds talk about ideas."
Rogue class of insta invisi is the worst class to ever be brought into mmo's.
In EVERY game from SWG to City of Heroes, it is the same story.
Simplistic, safe easy mode griefing with insta invisi exit from combat.
Pop outta invisi, do a high damage combo to pretty much near insta kill someone, then pop back invisi. No, talent and ruins fun of any hopes of a good drawn out combat.
How anyone thinks these cheesy unrealistic classes should be in EVERY mmo is just pathetic.
1. WoW is "snappy" compared to a lot of other MMOs, but there are others just as good. DFO is just as snappy. So are CO and CoS.
2. Agreed, it has good solo content, but once you hit cap, no more solo content. If you want to keep advancing, it's raids or PvP.
3. Not unique. VG. Instead of flying mounts, what WoW is very good at is the number and variety of mounts in general.
4. But it doesn't really matter, or it didn't when I played. There is always a flavor of the month, and the majority of a class goes along with it. Even worse, in large raiding guilds you would need to respec to whatever they wanted you to be or you were out. If not out, then you weren't on the A team.
5. I highly doubt WoW is big because of the uniqueness of druids or rogues. Others have already mentioned why WoW is big.
The Rogue class isn't that unique. Take away vanish, and it's like most typical rogue classes. Druid also isn't unique to WoW. Vanguard has a better druid class imo. It was actually the most fun class I've played in any MMO. The most unique class WoW offers is the Shaman and maybe the Paladin. Also, if WoW was big because of "unique" classes like druids and shamans, why are they some of the least played toons in the game? When I played my druid, there were only a handful of us at cap in a very large, raiding guild.
I played years ago, so maybe these utility classes have become much more popular.
Current: None
Played: WoW, CoX, SWG, LotRO, EVE, AoC, VG, CO, Ryzom, DF, WAR
Tried: Lineage2, Dofus, EQ2, CoS, FE, UO, Wurm, Wakfu
Future: The Repopulation, ArcheAge, Black Desert, EQN
People are criticising this poster, but much of his points are accurate. The second poster apparently does not understand what it means when something it "tight." This is the same concept as in a sports-car. Sports-cars are "tighter" to drive. This means more responsive. I no longer play WoW, and I have many reasons for such. I did not play once I reached the maximum level, though as a completest I have purchased each expansion and played some of the lower level dungeons in both. It remains the tightest game I have played. This is response time, but which I mean the time from when I push the button to the time that it is evident that I am doing something on the screen. Even Lotro, as someone said, is not even close. It is very similar to WoW in almost every practical gameplay way, but it is less responsive. When you push an attack button, there is always a noticeable lag, not from latency, but because of the very nature of the game engine. This is also evident in Lotro when just walking around. The way the engine is built is less responsive, and the avatar often feels disconnected from the world around it. To me, that is the single biggest problem with Lotro and with DDO that has the same problem.
Flying mounts are, to me, at this point, pretty much the best thing ever and should be in all games at some point. It should not be until a max level or until you have reached some point of very high power. In many ways, flying mounts and mounts in general, trivialise content, so they should be used carefully, but once I have played through much of the content of a game, and I want to go from one place to another, a flying mount that enables me to fly there without needing to concern myself with taking a proper path or dealing with mobs is fantastic and I really like the idea. WoW and Vanguard hit it with that idea.
I agree with someone that said that the most unique class they have played is the Mesmer from Guild Wars. I agree hands down, and many of the classes in GW, while most fulfil traditional archetypes, they have creative ways of doing this and they have a clever implementation. In addition, with GW, I do not not even need a mount. I can simply go where I need to be, if I have been there before. That breaks immersion in some ways, but it just does not get more convenient. The WoW druid is fairly unique among games other than Diablo.
The talent trees are a decent way to develop an avatar, but they are simplistic and easy to use because of the nature of the game. Everything is simplistic and easy to use (which, as a side note, makes me believe that the design of Blizzard's new game will be something radically different.). This is what many players, if not most players, want in a game, especially in character development. Take EVE, for example, where things are done in real time (which I just loathe on principle), and are incredibly complex. Most people would look at the sheer volume of skills and be dissuaded right off. WoW has the right balance between customization and simplicity for most people. For my part, I greatly prefer a skill-based system with many skills, as in EVE (except again the real-time development).
But to bring things around, I agree with chrisel. Even though I do not like WoW for many things, not least of them avatar development, simplistic gameplay, and gear-focused end-game, I still find myself missing that feeling of tightness when I play any other MMO. Blizzard still has the reputation for the most polished and the most completely developed games, and it still shows. It is interested that they can turn over most of their higher up staff, and still continue to produce games that have a level of quality that is unmatched. Again, say what you like about the content design, but the quality of the engine cannot be rivalled today. I guess it is true that my only hope is that perhaps Blizzard is working on a skill-based sandbox as we speak.
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
WTF? No subscription fee?
I hear ya. I've tried a bunch of other MMO that I stopped playing just because of the non-responsive timing. The only other game I can stand is Age of Conan. Ignore what ppl says and try it (if your PC can handle it). This game was so sucky at start that ppl just bash on it without even retried it once since then (and only God knows how it improved over time). This game is really underestimated by the community. AoC provides the same feeling of reactiveness than WoW and the combat system is much more exciting imo... and the graphics are simply stunning. That being said, I still play WoW too, as this game is simply too addicting to stop playing :P
Name another game before WoW that allowed rogues to VANISH while in combat? Vanishing during mid combat pretty original concept if you asked me. Annoying as F%#& too.
Name another game before WOW that allowed shapeshifting?
Name another game before WoW that allowed rogues to VANISH while in combat? Vanishing during mid combat pretty original concept if you asked me. Annoying as F%#& too.
Name another game before WOW that allowed shapeshifting?
Shadowbane had both.