General Discussion

We all have to admit it, whatever we feel and think about WOW, it overshadows all we do and see it here like a giant. Now we as small ants can hate the mountain, but for the time being it will be there. My own personal stance towards WOW is entirely neutral, I dont hate nor love it. I played it about 2 months or so up to level 45 (Nightelf Druid), mainly because a good RL friend was there daily, but it never appealed me enough to stay. But since then I watched it closely and get regular reports and watch it with friends playing.

There has been much rumor and hearsay spread about WOW, wether in praise or condemnation. Anytime you enter a beta, you can bet a VAST time of OOC chat is about WOW. It seems even those who hate it cant stop talking about it, and thats some not so small success in itself. I mean, the sheer numbers must be disheartning for every MMO developer to begin today. How can one stand in the face of 10 million subscribers? No matter how cool and smooth they talk I am sure inside they are all in "shock and awe".

Lets start to take down some myths about WOW.

- WOW was so bug-free and complete

We hear that myth often. Sure, it wasnt bug ridden like Vanguard, but the truth is, it was FAR from bug free. When I spoke to friends who were in since the first days, and compared it to the first days of EQ2 we didnt find such a big difference. Sure, WOW caught up with most bug soon enough, but other MMOs did that as well. Like all MMOs, many features, especially central one like the skill tree came MUCH later and were NOT in the game at launch! Other features they spoke about, like housing, never ever entered the game.

- WOW is easy and carebearish

Sorry, but thats blatant ridiculous. It is true WOW has a much easier learning curve. It has a great tutorial and leads new players slow, step by step into the game. But ask anyone of the high end players, wether they go to difficult dungeons or raids or PVP, to get all that high end stuff is a LOT of HARD WORK. It is true there is something for less versed players, but all high end gear is attained only but very hard gaming.

- WOW is for kids only

Likely the most stupid assumption. First, every experience with players shows me, there is nothing wrong with kids in the first places. Older ppl are by chance just as immature or aggressive than kids. And beyond that, its just not true. There are a LOT of older people, parents especially playing with their kids or big raid guilds with ppl in their 20ies to 40ies. Its merely a myth. On the contrary, if WOW has accomplished ANYTHING in that matter, it is that OLDER people suddenly started to play a MMo who never before had!

So then, what DID World of Warcraft make so succesful? Well, its five simple things, no real mystery here.

1.) WOW is playable by EVERY computer.

You might say you dont like the comic style, it isnt my thing either. But currently LOTRO has proven that even with low polygon counts you can create VERY beautiful game worlds due to todays standarts and STILL make a MMO relatively broad accessible. Its just very difficult when a game like once EQ2 or later Vanguard only runs *somewhat* on high end machines at launch. And as I said, you CAN make beautiful landscapes with less demand, see LOTRO landscapes.

2.) WOW has wiped out all non-fun elements

Its something of a mystery to me, why so many developers STILL cling to elistist definitions of MMO gaming and the whine when only a few hundred ppl are on their servers. So many MMOs still have this concept you have to go a long pathway to find and begin the fun. Be it travel time, boss mob respawn timers or quests in your vincintiy. When you play WOW, you can log in and just START the fun, you dont have to read lengthy internet walkthroughs just to know what to do! You dont need to travel many hours over the world to find your group. There is always something to do RIGHT THERE AND NOW. Surprise, surprise, but most *working* ppl dont enjoy wasting their time with tedious things.

3.) WOW offers something for all ranges of difficulty

Again it eludes me why both devs and gamers are so religiously fixated that a game is either carebear OR hardcore. Why can a game not offer something for ALL levels of difficulty. Thats what WOW did. You can do something if you have just one hour and you are a Mom who barely has used a computer for a short time, and also if you are a MMO geek playing for years and aim for that uber raid prize. There are very difficult to attain long-term rewards who need many months of work and short-term goal, giving you just some small fun reward for that one hour you had. So many games only offer mid and long term rewards. Those who have just one or two hours end mostly with a few badger claws or skeleton bones for the vendor. EQ2 is particularly PLAGUED with this awkward philosophy, and all follow-up games like VG. People want something small, even if only symbolic for their small time they sacrifice, they dont want to log out with empty hands. It doesnt mean those with much time and effort to contibute dont have high goals, but unfortunately many gamers are unable to jump over this merely ideological gap.

4.) WOW always has a new, higher toy to fight for

I find this the most evil and disgusting part about WOW, seriously. One of the MMOs I loved most was City of Heroes, because it had NO items and gear at all! No greed, no comparision, no hamster-wheel run for the new EVEN BIGGER shoulderpads! But it is of course a part of their success, like it or not. You always have some new toy for farm faction for. Really evil. But it works, at least in numbers.

5.)  The WOW world is easy to get into

If you enter the world of Azeroth and play one of their many races, you have a sort of cultural reference which is very easy to understand, a social code which is plain and direct. Take for example Trolls. If you see how they walk and dress, how they live and speak, you get a feeling for them right away. They are very archetypical, somehow like a mix of Raggae-beach-hash-smokers and punk crossover. Its something you instantly recognize as a stereotype, and WOW plays with those stereotypes ideally. Its something everyone can identify somehow, not just some few. If you take AoC, for instance, its all a very grim and fucked up world. Now some may like that, but the scope of characters and cultures to chose is WAY narrower. And you need much more specialized knowledge to get in, as with many other MMOs. Its more the worlds mental and cultural design which is cartoony in WOW than the mere look.

Now you may all like these points or not, the fact is, they can not be repeated nor can they be nullified. WOW is going to stay, and its going to be "king of the hill" for a long time. Thats a view I dont really like, because despite the several good things WOW has brought to the MMO genre, it also prevents any other MMO from really growing. There just AREN'T ANOTHER 10 million players not playing a MMO who can be brought into any new title! And likely no masses will leave WOW in any perceivable time. Its sad, because like a big tree casts a dark shadow preventing small plants from growing WOW, who once had brought progress to MMOs now hinders it. Who or what can really dethrone WOW *someday* eludes me, but I dont see it anywhere anytime. Neverthless, it is really time to stop all those presumptions about WOW and look at it realistic. We never gonne evolve past it until we do.

Nice post.

IMHO the next really successful MMO in the genre will look something like WoW but with the following.

Diverse gameplay (meaning not necessarily restricted to combat) WoW, like most MMO's tends to focus exclusively on combat

Less tedious...Yes, WoW like all MMOs can be just as much a mind numbing rat killing grind as L2.

Dynamic - players having more impact on the gameworld.

I just wanted to comment on your "myth" part on "Bug Free" - I was there at launch. WoW wasn't "bug free" but it didn't have performance issues like VG or many other games. In fact EQ2 launched in the same month and it was a no brainer, fight trying to get EQ2 at the time to run or fight in WoW and have a fun game experience. 

The bugs where generally minor and Bliz was quick to knock them out. Personally I never experienced anything serious in the first 8 months of play, in fact I couldn't even name an example. It was missing a lot of its key features at launch however. There was very little if any end game raids and PvP was community driven open world type skimishing as the battle grounds didn't exist yet.  

It took them round 6 months to even start getting the basics of their current endgame in place but because everything else went so smooth, it seems people were generally much more forgiving. That leads to the "runs great on any PC". Its been my observation over the last 7 years of MMO gaming that players are much more forgiving when they can actually run a game at launch....go figure.

Nothing pisses people off more then dropping 50 bucks/Euro on a game they figure they can run based on the published system specs only to find out it doesn't work. Kills games everytime. In fact I can't think of a single poor performing launched game that has recovered. You would think devs would learn by now....

Not a wow basher here, but if you don't find WoW to be completely carebareish then you have NO F***ING CLUE what real pvp is.

You can say whatever you want to defend WoW, here is why it is successful...

1.)  Kids can compete with adults.  WOW REQUIRES ZERO SKILL OR THINKING.

2.)  CPU specs are low.

That's why.  The game is built for a child to navigate, women can get into it as well.  It's like the Super Mario Brothers of the MMO world.  It reaches ALL genre of people.  it just has an enormous customerbase to pull from.  My friends 10 year old was getting addicted to it so he grounded him from it.  The 10 year old had several toons with elite levels...

Personally, I want to play a game with adults, not kids.  WoW isn't for me.  However, WoW clearly is for 10 million other people.

Children, women, Asian subscribers, and first time MMO players can easily get into this game.  That is why it is so successful.  Plus, Blizzard provides quality content and a very dumbed-down level.

Also, Blizzard has been doing this for years...

Go back to Warcraft 1 - 3 and compare them to the other RTS games on the market at that time such as the "Age" series and "Red Alert" and the same thing happens.

Warcraft 1 - 3 are dumbed-down, provide you comparitively fewer options, much less depth, much less realism, and caters to a younger crowd.  Warcraft in its RTS form provided 1/10th the depth of Age and Red Alert yet it sold millions because it appealed to a younger audience and was SIMPLE to use.

Starcraft was slightly more complex but also developed a cult following and an older RTS crowd.

Blizzard simply took this principle of simple gameplay and targeting a mass playerbase and applied it to their MMO.  Props to them, they have been doing this very well for over a decade now.

HAHAHA  here we go with the wow bashing.  What happened to the so called next gen mmos that were going to totally destroy wow?  By all accounts Aoc is another Vanguard waiting to happen.  It was hyped as the next big pvp game LMAO.  So much for the promises. 

Looks like we have to wait for another game with the crazy hype again rofl.  FUNNY HOW ALL THE aOC FANBOIS are starting wow bashing threads all over again to deflect from the Aoc failure, wow has nothing to do with Failcoms inept abilites and broken promises.  Infact you should start threads on demistyfyming Failcoms lies and overhype.

Originally posted by Elikal

We all have to admit it, whatever we feel and think about WOW, it overshadows all we do and see it here like a giant. Now we as small ants can hate the mountain, but for the time being it will be there. My own personal stance towards WOW is entirely neutral, I dont hate nor love it. I played it about 2 months or so up to level 45 (Nightelf Druid), mainly because a good RL friend was there daily, but it never appealed me enough to stay. But since then I watched it closely and get regular reports and watch it with friends playing.

There has been much rumor and hearsay spread about WOW, wether in praise or condemnation. Anytime you enter a beta, you can bet a VAST time of OOC chat is about WOW. It seems even those who hate it cant stop talking about it, and thats some not so small success in itself. I mean, the sheer numbers must be disheartning for every MMO developer to begin today. How can one stand in the face of 10 million subscribers? No matter how cool and smooth they talk I am sure inside they are all in "shock and awe".

 

Lets start to take down some myths about WOW.

- WOW was so bug-free and complete

We hear that myth often. Sure, it wasnt bug ridden like Vanguard, but the truth is, it was FAR from bug free. When I spoke to friends who were in since the first days, and compared it to the first days of EQ2 we didnt find such a big difference. Sure, WOW caught up with most bug soon enough, but other MMOs did that as well. Like all MMOs, many features, especially central one like the skill tree came MUCH later and were NOT in the game at launch! Other features they spoke about, like housing, never ever entered the game.

- WOW is easy and carebearish

Sorry, but thats blatant ridiculous. It is true WOW has a much easier learning curve. It has a great tutorial and leads new players slow, step by step into the game. But ask anyone of the high end players, wether they go to difficult dungeons or raids or PVP, to get all that high end stuff is a LOT of HARD WORK. It is true there is something for less versed players, but all high end gear is attained only but very hard gaming.

- WOW is for kids only

Likely the most stupid assumption. First, every experience with players shows me, there is nothing wrong with kids in the first places. Older ppl are by chance just as immature or aggressive than kids. And beyond that, its just not true. There are a LOT of older people, parents especially playing with their kids or big raid guilds with ppl in their 20ies to 40ies. Its merely a myth. On the contrary, if WOW has accomplished ANYTHING in that matter, it is that OLDER people suddenly started to play a MMo who never before had!

 

So then, what DID World of Warcraft make so succesful? Well, its five simple things, no real mystery here.

1.) WOW is playable by EVERY computer.

You might say you dont like the comic style, it isnt my thing either. But currently LOTRO has proven that even with low polygon counts you can create VERY beautiful game worlds due to todays standarts and STILL make a MMO relatively broad accessible. Its just very difficult when a game like once EQ2 or later Vanguard only runs *somewhat* on high end machines at launch. And as I said, you CAN make beautiful landscapes with less demand, see LOTRO landscapes.

2.) WOW has wiped out all non-fun elements

Its something of a mystery to me, why so many developers STILL cling to elistist definitions of MMO gaming and the whine when only a few hundred ppl are on their servers. So many MMOs still have this concept you have to go a long pathway to find and begin the fun. Be it travel time, boss mob respawn timers or quests in your vincintiy. When you play WOW, you can log in and just START the fun, you dont have to read lengthy internet walkthroughs just to know what to do! You dont need to travel many hours over the world to find your group. There is always something to do RIGHT THERE AND NOW. Surprise, surprise, but most *working* ppl dont enjoy wasting their time with tedious things.

3.) WOW offers something for all ranges of difficulty

Again it eludes me why both devs and gamers are so religiously fixated that a game is either carebear OR hardcore. Why can a game not offer something for ALL levels of difficulty. Thats what WOW did. You can do something if you have just one hour and you are a Mom who barely has used a computer for a short time, and also if you are a MMO geek playing for years and aim for that uber raid prize. There are very difficult to attain long-term rewards who need many months of work and short-term goal, giving you just some small fun reward for that one hour you had. So many games only offer mid and long term rewards. Those who have just one or two hours end mostly with a few badger claws or skeleton bones for the vendor. EQ2 is particularly PLAGUED with this awkward philosophy, and all follow-up games like VG. People want something small, even if only symbolic for their small time they sacrifice, they dont want to log out with empty hands. It doesnt mean those with much time and effort to contibute dont have high goals, but unfortunately many gamers are unable to jump over this merely ideological gap.

4.) WOW always has a new, higher toy to fight for

I find this the most evil and disgusting part about WOW, seriously. One of the MMOs I loved most was City of Heroes, because it had NO items and gear at all! No greed, no comparision, no hamster-wheel run for the new EVEN BIGGER shoulderpads! But it is of course a part of their success, like it or not. You always have some new toy for farm faction for. Really evil. But it works, at least in numbers.

5.)  The WOW world is easy to get into

If you enter the world of Azeroth and play one of their many races, you have a sort of cultural reference which is very easy to understand, a social code which is plain and direct. Take for example Trolls. If you see how they walk and dress, how they live and speak, you get a feeling for them right away. They are very archetypical, somehow like a mix of Raggae-beach-hash-smokers and punk crossover. Its something you instantly recognize as a stereotype, and WOW plays with those stereotypes ideally. Its something everyone can identify somehow, not just some few. If you take AoC, for instance, its all a very grim and fucked up world. Now some may like that, but the scope of characters and cultures to chose is WAY narrower. And you need much more specialized knowledge to get in, as with many other MMOs. Its more the worlds mental and cultural design which is cartoony in WOW than the mere look.

Now you may al