General Discussion

We know that the MMO population is now much larger since 2004.  I always see this attributed solely to World of Warcraft.  When I was reading SirBruce's posts I did like something that he mentioned and was thinking more about it. 

He stated that the exponential growth of the MMO population has been steady and would of reached this point even if World of Warcraft had never been released.  He said the 10 million fans of World of Warcraft would just be playing other games if WoW had never been made. 

I think this couldn't be more of a true statement.  I think that the lower cost of hardware coupled with the higher access to high speed internet is the true reason for the growth of the MMO market. 

This is not an attack on World of Warcraft at all.  Because it obviously must be doing something right since it has 10 million subscribers.   I just thought it was interesting that SirBruce said that the growth of the marketplace didn't change much when WoW came out.  All of the new people just chose WoW to play instead of other games. 

I have to diagree. I dont think the MMO population would have "grown" if WOW was never developed. 

Newly released MMOs sucks these days. Developers have grown steadily retarded and incomptetent. WoW gained an ammas following becuase of several factors.

1. already had a following with previous games

2. easy on the pc

3. easy overall to play

I honestly think those who made WOW their first mmo ever would have ever signed on.  MMO is a dying breed unless the developers gets smarter,

i agree that it would have grown...but not as fast if WoW hadent been released..WoW is an mmo catalyst

The genre just need a game that wasn't half broke on launch and didn't punish it customers for playing to really get the ball rolling.  I tried many times to get friends to play other games like EQ/EQ2 and they just looked at me like I was crazy, because those games were tedious time sinks.  I eventually stopped trying.

It even took me a while to embrace the change that a game doesn't need to be about amount of time spent playing to be challenging.  I wouldn't give up my time in EQ for anything, but I would never ever do it again.  I think that is the change many devs failed to realize and why the market was waiting to explode.

WoW was an important factor in the MMO population explosion. For one, yes these people MIGHT be playing other games, but more likely they wouldn't. Why? WoW took everything and put it in one cheap box. Why have the best PvP only, the best PvE only, the best crafting only, ect.? Why not sacrifice a little of each but put everything into one game and polish it? That's what they did, that's why it's so fun. They're the first to do it so successfully too, in my opinion. Now that the "Wow!" factor of WoW has faded for many gamers, they're looking for new games, but for many new gamers, WoW is the perfect gateway into the MMO world. It sets a standard that other game companies, whether they admit it or not, whether they do it intentionally or not,  will have to compete against.

Originally posted by Housam

i agree that it would have grown...but not as fast if WoW hadent been released..WoW is an mmo catalyst

WoW has a whole culture behind it, this culture has drawn in gamers for sure but also people who would never have played an MMO if there was no WoW.

We used to call EQ "EverCrack" but WoW makes "EverCrack" look more like baby asprin.

I disagree with the entire premise that the general MMORPG population has grown.

With the exception of WoW, the general population has become more spread out over more games, many which have weak pops at best. EQII empty, SWG empty, DAoC empty, L2 empty blah blah blah....there are a handful of strong MMO's, thats it.

The Millions of WoW players did NOT spill over into other MMO's. WoW is a genre onto itself.

That is because going from WoW to most of those other titles you mention is a painful experience.  They simply don't offer the quality experience that WoW did and that is why they flounder and in most cases offer much worse mechanics or simply put terrible grinds.

It will take a lot of incentive for people to leave WoW now unless they are completely burned out, which is generally just us crusty old MMO vets.  What will most likely happen is a series of good games will come out that will start to even out the market in somewhat specialized fields.  WoW will be a juggernaught for sometime to come, because it is going to be hard to get people to leave for another game if their friends continue to play WoW.  That makes it easy to go back to.

Originally posted by Daffid011

That is because going from WoW to most of those other titles you mention is a painful experience.  They simply don't offer the quality experience that WoW did and that is why they flounder and in most cases offer much worse mechanics or simply put terrible grinds.

 

It will take a lot of incentive for people to leave WoW now unless they are completely burned out, which is generally just us crusty old MMO vets.  What will most likely happen is a series of good games will come out that will start to even out the market in somewhat specialized fields.  WoW will be a juggernaught for sometime to come, because it is going to be hard to get people to leave for another game if their friends continue to play WoW.  That makes it easy to go back to.

 

 

If a game wants new players, not just people who are burned out on WoW, they will need to, unfortunately, do what WoW does but improve on it. Of course this will bring out the dreaded "WOW CLONE ZOMG!!!!" but it's what newer gamers will be familiar to and if they kno what they can expect then they're more likely to play it. WoW is a juggernaught but it can also be the perfect template for newer MMOs, as long as they're very careful about it. Take the cake then put some icing on it, or make it a double layered cake, or make it one of those huge wedding cakes that taste so good...you get my point .

I agree.

WoW didn't cause the growth, it was simply the right product at the right time to capitalise on it.

I don't know a single WoW player who didn't play other online games first.

Online gaming grew 60% in China last year. If someone makes an online game as strong as WoW, millions of people will buy and play it.

There is an aweful lot more than just 10 million online gamers out there.