One word sums it up best....

Polish

With all of the patches and revisions that have gone throughout it's 4 years of existence it's more polished than any other major mmo on the market today.  Yes there are issues with the game like unbalanced pvp, but overall Blizzard does a well job of taking conventions that have been in the mmo universe and making them work great.  They even stole the pvp leveling from WAR and queuing for battlegrounds anywhere from WAR.  They don't come up with many original ideas, but they do them well.

The proper question isn't "Why is WoW so great?", but should be "Why is WoW so popular?". There is a big difference between the two.

First, Blizzard advertises the hell out of the game, and they had a large following going into it.

WoW is also popular because of it's extremely low learning curve, it's ability to run on a toaster, it's polish and it's addictive nature. Out of those four things, I would only consider "polish" as a quality of a great game, the rest aren't.

That being said, WoW isn't a bad game, but it isn't the best game either. Just like Hannah Montana isn't the best show on TV, it is still wildly popular because it is good at what it does.

WOW has a lot of fun aspects, kept me playing about 18 months when it first launched.

It has some seroius definciencies that become more and more intolerable as time went on which lead to me leaving for good just before TBC came out.

Game has changed al ot since then, however it just doesn't offer what I'm looking for in a game, so I stay clear.

And some folks (as evidenced by this thread) really feel the need to play a game that everyone else is playing.

Defintiely not a req that influences me at all.

I would say that it is so "great" because it was the first major MMOG to be accesible to a large number of people. Previous games had difficult learning curves, huge time sinks and high computer specs which kept most of the non-diehard gamers away from the genre even if they did want to try it. WoW came around and gave you a game that you could log on for a hour and do something on your low end machine.

Originally posted by patrikd23

Originally posted by jusomdude

Things like advertising, and word of mouth have a lot to do with it also. When you have TV commercials, shows about the game, and celebrities saying they play it, that helps a boat load I imagine. WoW has had more advertising than any MMO in existence, I think. There's also the fact that the company already had a huge fan-base before WoW's release.

It's really not the greatest game, but it's also not bad, I think advertising has the most to do with the large sub numbers.

 

WAR did the same thing and look how that turned out. So I cant really agree on this. In the start of WoW there was not much comercials about it. The adverts came after like 3 years. By then WoW already had lots of subscribers.

But the reason so many play it is that its an easy game to get into, and when  you get more advanced there is alot to do also. Even the endgame  and content of WoW is very big.

Hmmm, I didn't even know there were WAR TV commercials, they must not have been on many networks, or just flat out sucked/not memorable, so then, being not worth showing. Which celebrities have said they played it? As in, fairly recognizable celebrities. TV shows about he game? Never seen 'em again.
 

Originally posted by Martinmas

I would say that it is so "great" because it was the first major MMOG to be accesible to a large number of people. Previous games had difficult learning curves, huge time sinks and high computer specs which kept most of the non-diehard gamers away from the genre even if they did want to try it. WoW came around and gave you a game that you could log on for a hour and do something on your low end machine.

I totally agree. This is really the beauty of WOW.

My own personal answer to the question: WOW is fun.....i.e......how I define fun.

If you notice, everyone in this thread who posted an extremely biased and negative opinion about playing WOW did so from a point of view that tried to pigeon-hole the game into being either - 1) something it isn't; or 2) the game should only be played like this.

Sure WOW will be boring if you have leveled 8 classes to 80 and have full Tier 9 raid gear. Sure, you will not find WOW fun if you are focused solely on class balance (like any game has class balance for that matter). Sure you will hate WOW if you expect a hard game and expect EQ version 2 with 24 hour raids.

The issue is WOW is good what it does. It is a game that almost anyone can play and find something they like. You do not have to raid. You do not have to craft. You do not have to do anything you do not want to do. If all you want to do is play alts, go for it. If you want to take 1 year to get your first character to 80, have fun with that!

With WOW, I feel like I have the freedom to do what I want, when I want and how I want. Nobody is telling me how to play the game and the game isn't forcing me to play this way or that way. Therefore, I can find the fun I want with the way I want to play the game. That is why WOW is so great.

WOW did a lot of things right, the biggest being just 'polish'.    Everything in WOW is done well.

I think the one thing that WOW did right was make the 'grind' at the end rather than the beginning.  In most games, you feel like you are 'working' to get to endgame.  There is a huge grind to gain levels or skills.   In WOW, the leveling process is excellent and very fun, the 'grind' comes at endgame if you chose to raid.

I've been playing since launch.  The reason is because it is fun.   it's hard to define 'fun', but I just really enjoy myself whenever I play.  I can't say that about any other MMORPG out there.  Most of them felt like work for a good portion of my playtime.

WOW is fun, which is why WOW is great.

I say it ONE more time for those not READING WELL : Wow is not only popular.

Wow is the most succesful game in revenus in 30 years of video game history.

THAT'S a complete other meaning of being "popular".

Wow is the ONLY PAY to PLAY game on www.xfire.com in the top 10.

NO other game that COSTS a monthly  western sub fee can even come CLOSE to World of Warcraft.

YES it is THAT good.

It has NOTHING to do with being popualr, it has ALL to do with people willing to PAY it to even PLAY it ... every month.

It has nothing to do with marketing, people WANT to PAY to play it on and on and on....

 ----> The pockets of people NEVER lie. People always vote with their pockets. And in WOW they do vote every month 10 to 100 times more than the so called "competition".

I play WoW, mostly because my friends play WoW, but I am coming to love this game.  Why?  Because it just keeps getting better with time.   When other games keep trying to get better, WoW does it.    The additions to the game and the way a lot of it plays just cannot be beat.   Add to the fact that the game is so polished, from the art to the animations to the quest.    Look at the details Blizzard puts in.    Seriously...next time you play, pay close attention to all the little details.    It is that kind of thing that makes WoW better than all the others out there right now.   Face it, when a P2P game has as many and more than most f2p games - that game is obviously doing a lot right.   Blizzard does things right and WoW just keeps getting better and better.

Damn imagine what their next MMORPG is going to be like.   OMG I cannot wait to see what they will unleash on this genre next.   :)

Originally posted by Mwaji 

Not to mention if you get used to wow and then want to play something else you will be sorry to find out the skill gap is rather high, you cant button smash through Eve online like you can on WoW. So it's better not to get used to it. WoW started off good a fun game with decent pvp balance and the raids were hard enough to make the game credible. But NOW the game is custom crafted for bored housewives, Dads and their 12 year old kids to play, not the serious gamer, not even the half serious casual wants to touch this poison. If you start playing now your ice skating uphill.

Was enjoying your post until you wrote that piece of crap.
I'm bored to death of WoW myself, and I do feel it’s just a bit too easy at the moment indeed. Plus, you feel somewhat alone when you want to level something from start.
But the worst is people like the author, who have zero tolerance for newcomers or for people that enjoy a simple and casual game style.
Still even after all this years wow is fun if you get a group of friends playing. With a bit of imagination, a good and open minded group can still find fun and challenge in wow.
Of course, end game is both the most and the less fun. Even being so "easy", "Dads" have some difficulty getting time to achieve everything in game, as it becomes almost "professional" for most end-game guilds...

But hey, I guess I’m just a dumb gamer so what do I know...

PS - I played WoW for years and still i can be on the top charters of the so called skill based action games... Strange...
 

Originally posted by Zorndorf

I say it ONE more time for those not READING WELL : Wow is not only popular.

Wow is the most succesful game in revenus in 30 years of video game history.

THAT'S a complete other meaning of being "popular".

Wow is the ONLY PAY to PLAY game on www.xfire.com in the top 10.

NO other game that COSTS a monthly  western sub fee can even come CLOSE to World of Warcraft.

YES it is THAT good.

It has NOTHING to do with being popualr, it has ALL to do with people willing to PAY it to even PLAY it ... every month.

It has nothing to do with marketing, people WANT to PAY to play it on and on and on....

 ----> The pockets of people NEVER lie. People always vote with their pockets. And in WOW they do vote every month 10 to 100 times more than the so called "competition".

 

It generates the most revenue because its so popular, that sort of makes perfect sense. I think most of us get that message and would not deny that WOW makes the most money. 

But countless examples have been used to show that the masses don't always buy what is best, just what is more popular and sometimes advertising plays a huge part in shaping their tastes, WOW is no exception to this phenomenon.

There's lots of reasons for its popularity of course, and it does many things well, (not great mind you, at least to my tastes) and it has lots of followers.

By why post this in the first place? OP asked why WOW was so great, and its revenue streams and popularity really aren't part of the answer, unless of course being part of the crowd is an important factor to the player. (for some it is, I realize)

WOW is polished, had great depth of play, is updated regularly, you can always find someone in RL who's playing the game (my son's friend just got the game for his birthday and is playing for the first time) and a dozen other reasons that make it a great game.

But it also has a number of aspects that make it not the game for me and some others, and we're going to go play the other games that come out that are not WOW.

WoW can be played by those who don't like a challenge. Unlike back during original WoW where you actually had to EARN your way into endgame. Early on in WoW and into BC there was actually time spent doing a ton of attunements after the lvl cap, just so you could raid. WoW was great back then...now its slowly starting to slide downhill. I though BC was great (some thought it was crap) well after lvling to 80 in WotLK and raiding all the content out there BC and original WoW was how the game was good. but even BC started the slide of WoW.

Enter Arenas and resilience......the two things that RUINED WoW.  it unbalanced open world PvP because someone running around in PvP gear could go up to someone out in the world  in top PvE gear and beat them just because they had reslience. Then, what do you think all the class changes are for that have popped up lately??? It's for arena purposes, go read a blue post sometime. Blizz tries to balance classes so there is no challenge to PvP, when really they need to look at it as....there should be no balance, some classes need to be better at, and more powerful at certain things than other classes.  Yet, they always wanna nerf a class based on PvP numbers at the expense of the damge or healing they do PvE wise.

Original WoW had the best idea for PvP back then.....it was something you did in your spare time or on the weekends when u weren't raiding and the PvP gear only had increased stam,no resil, and your raiding gear was the best for PvP because it was a break from the once great PvE WoW offered.  When the bubble bursts on WoW (probably after Icecrown Citadel comes out and is cleared, because most of the known lore is already in the game) PvP will be the only thing left standing in the game. I would avoid this game at all costs now, but if you just wanna be casual player stay! because patch 3.2 will take away all prestige in getting gear and all challenge will leave the game.

Originally posted by Kyleran

Originally posted by Zorndorf

I say it ONE more time for those not READING WELL : Wow is not only popular.

Wow is the most succesful game in revenus in 30 years of video game history.

THAT'S a complete other meaning of being "popular".

Wow is the ONLY PAY to PLAY game on www.xfire.com in the top 10.

NO other game that COSTS a monthly  western sub fee can even come CLOSE to World of Warcraft.

YES it is THAT good.

It has NOTHING to do with being popualr, it has ALL to do with people willing to PAY it to even PLAY it ... every month.

It has nothing to do with marketing, people WANT to PAY to play it on and on and on....

 ----> The pockets of people NEVER lie. People always vote with their pockets. And in WOW they do vote every month 10 to 100 times more than the so called "competition".

 

 

It generates the most revenue because its so popular, that sort of makes perfect sense. I think most of us get that message and would not deny that WOW makes the most money. 

But countless examples have been used to show that the masses don't always buy what is best, just what is more popular and sometimes advertising plays a huge part in shaping their tastes, WOW is no exception to this phenomenon.

There's lots of reasons for its popularity of course, and it does many things well, (not great mind you, at least to my tastes) and it has lots of followers.

By why post this in the first place? OP asked why WOW was so great, and its revenue streams and popularity really aren't part of the answer, unless of course being part of the crowd is an important factor to the player. (for some it is, I realize)

WOW is polished, had great depth of play, is updated regularly, you can always find someone in RL who's playing the game (my son's friend just got the game for his birthday and is playing for the first time) and a dozen other reasons that make it a great game.

But it also has a number of aspects that make it not the game for me and some others, and we're going to go play the other games that come out that are not WOW.

 

 

Popularity is FREE. Phenomenal subscription based succes AND critical acclaim (see the pro reviews) are ... not..

Like I said: YOU don't HAVE to agree with the people. The people vote with their monthly subs money of what THEY think is best.

-----<<<< Answer to your question >>>>>

Popualrity is one thing, initial sales is another, but continuous economic succes ... after 5 years for a single video game is the general answer to the question of the OP.

Why is Wow so great? Because it is the single most succesful video game ever launched (not just "popular").

Whatever your personal love/hate cycle is at the moment. The monthly pockets of the people always tell the true story.

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Originally posted by Kyleran

Originally posted by Zorndorf

I say it ONE more time for those not READING WELL : Wow is not only popular.

Wow is the most succesful game in revenus in 30 years of video game history.

THAT'S a complete other meaning of being "popular".

Wow is the ONLY PAY to PLAY game on www.xfire.com in the top 10.

NO other game that COSTS a monthly  western sub fee can even come CLOSE to World of Warcraft.

YES it is THAT good.

It has NOTHING to do with being popualr, it has ALL to do with people willing to PAY it to even PLAY it ... every month.

It has nothing to do with marketing, people WANT to PAY to play it on and on and on....

 ----> The pockets of people NEVER lie. People always vote with their pockets. And in WOW they do vote every month 10 to 100 times more than the so called "competition".

 

 

It generates the most revenue because its so popular, that sort of makes perfect sense. I think most of us get that message and would not deny that WOW makes the most money. 

But countless examples have been used to show that the masses don't always buy what is best, just what is more popular and sometimes advertising plays a huge part in shaping their tastes, WOW is no exception to this phenomenon.

There's lots of reasons for its popularity of course, and it does many things well, (not great mind you, at least to my tastes) and it has lots of followers.

By why post this in the first place? OP asked why WOW was so great, and its revenue streams and popularity really aren't part of the answer, unless of course being part of the crowd is an important factor to the player. (for some it is, I realize)

WOW is polished, had great depth of play, is updated regularly, you can always find someone in RL who's playing the game (my son's friend just got the game for his birthday and is playing for the first time) and a dozen other reasons that make it a great game.

But it also has a number of aspects that make it not the game for me and some others, and we're going to go play the other games that come out that are not WOW.

 

 

 

Popularity is FREE. Phenomenal subscription based succes AND critical acclaim (see the pro reviews) are ... not..

Like I said: YOU don't HAVE to agree with the people. The people vote with their monthly subs money of what THEY think is best.

-----<<<< Answer to your question >>>>>

Popualrity is one thing, initial sales is another, but continuous economic succes ... after 5 years for a single video game is the general answer to the question of the OP.

 

Why is Wow so great? Because it is the single most succesful video game ever launched (not just "popular").

Whatever your personal love/hate cycle is at the moment. The monthly pockets of the people always tell the true story.

What I find is the people with the highest posts are all WoW followers. Do you need to post so many times repeating yourself over and over to convince people? or yourself.

Yes this game is great, yes its polished, the patches ruined it for me but hey, w/e people like.

I hate grinding for gear every week then having to do it all over again in 3 months. I mean come on I grinded all the way up to 80, grinded my rep, grnded my proffessions, grinded and grinded somemore.

You may think this is fun and new and exciting I don't. Many agree with you, many leave and come back just for updates and leave shortly after. This game is solid and in all honesty the best ther is, but why do you post in every thread either praising or defending WoW? Can you not let anything go? Is your life this disappointing that your joy comes from playing or praising or even defending a game?

WoW is right lol

Why must WoW be great?  It is just a game.

WoW has 12m sub, so what?  That just means its popular.  There are games with more then 12m players in China, so what?  Those 12m do not read English, they won't play WoW.  Half of the WoW sub don't know Chinese.  They will never cross path.  Different games are popular to diffferent cultures and places.  Chess and pokers have even more players.  Wanna bet?

WoW has generated a lot of revenue.  So what, same for Coke, same for McDonald.  So are these healthy food?

WoW has topped the sales chart.  So what?  Paris Hilton did that too.

WoW has entertained a lot of people.  Right, that is the answer we should care for:  fun for those who played.  That is a game.

Is WoW great?  Does it matter?  It keeps me happy during the hour or so I am online.  That is it, it served its purpose.  When I log out of WoW I forget it.  Its just a game, for off hours.  There are many things to deal with outside off hours,  WoW is not one.

Originally posted by thexrated
<Mod Edit>

Zorndorf is here to put you all back with your feet on the ground.

I am almost the only one here giving facts and general comments about "success" without resorting to PERSONAL frustration and feelings ... towards a game.

I look into the broader picture and see the economic drive.

The guys talking about very personal emotions about playing ... a game are the ones that lost the ground under their feet.

And for some of them ... it takes years to overcome a hate about a game.

I merely talk about stats, subs numbers and overall succes rate.

Not about personal feelings about a game.

Originally posted by Mwaji
<Mod Edit>

As for the 11.600.000 confirmed subs on  June 5th : here is the link.

http://www.wow.com/2009/06/08/mike-morhaime-and-paul-sams-accept-guinness-world-record-awards/

and more: http://www.blizzplanet.com/blog/comments/e3_2009_blizzard_accepts_guinness_world_record_awards/

Nice picture of Mike Morhaime included btw.

Originally posted by Gregtheexcon

Originally posted by Zorndorf

Originally posted by Kyleran

Originally posted by Zorndorf

I say it ONE more time for those not READING WELL : Wow is not only popular.

Wow is the most succesful game in revenus in 30 years of video game history.

THAT'S a complete other meaning of being "popular".

Wow is the ONLY PAY to PLAY game on www.xfire.com in the top 10.

NO other game that COSTS a monthly  western sub fee can even come CLOSE to World of Warcraft.

YES it is THAT good.

It has NOTHING to do with being popualr, it has ALL to do with people willing to PAY it to even PLAY it ... every month.

It has nothing to do with marketing, people WANT to PAY to play it on and on and on....

 ----> The pockets of people NEVER lie. People always vote with their pockets. And in WOW they do vote every month 10 to 100 times more than the so called "competition".

 

 

It generates the most revenue because its so popular, that sort of makes perfect sense. I think most of us get that message and would not deny that WOW makes the most money. 

But countless examples have been used to show that the masses don't always buy what is best, just what is more popular and sometimes advertising plays a huge part in shaping their tastes, WOW is no exception to this phenomenon.

There's lots of reasons for its popularity of course, and it does many things well, (not great mind you, at least to my tastes) and it has lots of followers.

By why post this in the first place? OP asked why WOW was so great, and its revenue streams and popularity really aren't part of the answer, unless of course being part of the crowd is an important factor to the player. (for some it is, I realize)

WOW is polished, had great depth of play, is updated regularly, you can always find someone in RL who's playing the game (my son's friend just got the game for his birthday and is playing for the first time) and a dozen other reasons that make it a great game.

But it also has a number of aspects that make it not the game for me and some others, and we're going to go play the other games that come out that are not WOW.

 

 

 

Popularity is FREE. Phenomenal subscription based succes AND critical acclaim (see the pro reviews) are ... not..

Like I said: YOU don't HAVE to agree with the people. The people vote with their monthly subs money of what THEY think is best.

-----<<<< Answer to your question >>>>>

Popualrity is one thing, initial sales is another, but continuous economic succes ... after 5 years for a single video game is the general answer to the question of the OP.

 

Why is Wow so great? Because it is the single most succesful video game ever launched (not just "popular").

Whatever your personal love/hate cycle is at the moment. The monthly pockets of the people always tell the true story.

What I find is the people with the highest posts are all WoW followers. Do you need to post so many times repeating yourself over and over to convince people? or yourself.

Yes this game is great, yes its polished, the patches ruined it for me but hey, w/e people like.

I hate grinding for gear every week then having to do it all over again in 3 months. I mean come on I grinded all the way up to 80, grinded my rep, grnded my proffessions, grinded and grinded somemore.

You may think this is fun and new and exciting I don't. Many agree with you, many leave and come back just for updates and leave shortly after. This game is solid and in all honesty the best ther is, but why do you post in every thread either praising or defending WoW? Can you not let anything go? Is your life this disappointing that your joy comes from playing or praising or even defending a game?

WoW is right lol

 

Didnt start to post on this forum until a few days ago but have been around to read peoples post for quite some time and from what I can see its mostly the people who want promote whatever favorite MMO they have that has to discredit WoW for some reason, guessing its because its the biggest MMO out there so only natural but still.

Fun to see how everyone is bashing everyone but dont see that many that simple praise WoW as i see people bashing it in the name of making whatever MMO they like look better.=)

Kinda think this thread has gone quite of topic, dont really know what the subs and revanues has to do with if WoW is great or not, aside from the point that a great game gets subs.

The only reason you think WWO has 6 million subs is because China is (or was) off-line. It is that simple. And until the China servers are completely back online and subs can be calculated again, nobody really knows how many players WOW does or does not have. No doubt WOW will lose some subs and for various reasons but the exact number is unknown.

At some point, since December when the 11.5 million number was reported (press releases confirm it and are easy to find), and in June, WOW grew to 11.6 million subs. The Guinness Book of World Records confirmed this when the award was received in June. Link is here: http://news.mmosite.com/content/2009-06-08/20090608030537350.shtml

According to you, ~5.5 million players have left WOW since December which is laughable at best.

Originally posted by templarga

The only reason you think WWO has 6 million subs is because China is (or was) off-line. It is that simple. And until the China servers are completely back online and subs can be calculated again, nobody really knows how many players WOW does or does not have. No doubt WOW will lose some subs and for various reasons but the exact number is unknown.

At some point, since December when the 11.5 million number was reported (press releases confirm it and are easy to find), and in June, WOW grew to 11.6 million subs. The Guinness Book of World Records confirmed this when the award was received in June. Link is here: http://news.mmosite.com/content/2009-06-08/20090608030537350.shtml

According to you, ~5.5 million players have left WOW since December which is laughable at best.

It is still in beta Temp, you can argue they will come back I am not disputing that, I will argue there are NOT that many as of this moment, until they get servers back in working order you will NOT know.

Originally posted by Mwaji

Originally posted by templarga

The only reason you think WWO has 6 million subs is because China is (or was) off-line. It is that simple. And until the China servers are completely back online and subs can be calculated again, nobody really knows how many players WOW does or does not have. No doubt WOW will lose some subs and for various reasons but the exact number is unknown.

At some point, since December when the 11.5 million number was reported (press releases confirm it and are easy to find), and in June, WOW grew to 11.6 million subs. The Guinness Book of World Records confirmed this when the award was received in June. Link is here: http://news.mmosite.com/content/2009-06-08/20090608030537350.shtml

According to you, ~5.5 million players have left WOW since December which is laughable at best.

 

It is still in beta Temp, you can argue they will come back I am not disputing that, I will argue there are NOT that many as of this moment, until they get servers back in working order you will NOT know.

And I agree with you. So you can technically say WOW has 6 million players because it is technically true. However, that is like saying WOW has 0 players from 3am-1pm on Tuesdays in the US (which is patch day).

The players have not chosen to leave because WOW sucks or is bad or for whatever reason (which is being implied in a lot of posts that discuss this issue). There is a huge difference between leaving because the game sucks and because you cannot play for X amount of time.

But I think its very, very negative to think all Chinese players won't come back when the game returns fully and WOTLK launches.

I'm a diehard EQ fan, or was until EQ went to crap a few years ago. Anyways, I hated WOW when it first came out. It was boring, easy, and there was no pvp. Now, that WOW has matured I actually really enjoy it.

My favorite part is PvP. I love the BGs. I can't wait until you can level in the BGs, ala WAR. I find leveling to be tediious, unreasonably long, and still far to easy to be of any use. If you can tolerate the boring grind to 80(I keep a toon at 39 to bg with to combat the boredom) its excellent.

Originally posted by oblivitar

like player housing or city sieges......gimme a break. Its popular because it doesn't require a powerful computer to play.

I agree with what your saying that WoW is only popular because it doesn't require a powerful high end computer to run, but it isn't the whole reason for it's popularity.

Originally posted by Zorndorf 

Zorndorf is here to put you all back with your feet on the ground.

I am almost the only one here giving facts and general comments about "success" without resorting to PERSONAL frustration and feelings ... towards a game.

I look into the broader picture and see the economic drive.

The guys talking about very personal emotions about playing ... a game are the ones that lost the ground under their feet.

And for some of them ... it takes years to overcome a hate about a game.

I merely talk about stats, subs numbers and overall succes rate.

Not about personal feelings about a game.

I have been reading the forums at this site for many years, but i never cared enough to reply. However this time i will make an exception. Zorndorf if you truly believe that you put up with an generally uncolored view in your posts, i really feel sorry for you. I hardly ever during a decade of MMO playing and forum readings, experienced a more biased person. 

Originally posted by Kyleran

Originally posted by Zorndorf

I say it ONE more time for those not READING WELL : Wow is not only popular.

Wow is the most succesful game in revenus in 30 years of video game history.

THAT'S a complete other meaning of being "popular".

Wow is the ONLY PAY to PLAY game on www.xfire.com in the top 10.

NO other game that COSTS a monthly  western sub fee can even come CLOSE to World of Warcraft.

YES it is THAT good.

It has NOTHING to do with being popualr, it has ALL to do with people willing to PAY it to even PLAY it ... every month.

It has nothing to do with marketing, people WANT to PAY to play it on and on and on....

 ----> The pockets of people NEVER lie. People always vote with their pockets. And in WOW they do vote every month 10 to 100 times more than the so called "competition".

 

 

It generates the most revenue because its so popular, that sort of makes perfect sense. I think most of us get that message and would not deny that WOW makes the most money. 

But countless examples have been used to show that the masses don't always buy what is best, just what is more popular and sometimes advertising plays a huge part in shaping their tastes, WOW is no exception to this phenomenon.

There's lots of reasons for its popularity of course, and it does many things well, (not great mind you, at least to my tastes) and it has lots of followers.

By why post this in the first place? OP asked why WOW was so great, and its revenue streams and popularity really aren't part of the answer, unless of course being part of the crowd is an important factor to the player. (for some it is, I realize)

WOW is polished, had great depth of play, is updated regularly, you can always find someone in RL who's playing the game (my son's friend just got the game for his birthday and is playing for the first time) and a dozen other reasons that make it a great game.

But it also has a number of aspects that make it not the game for me and some others, and we're going to go play the other games that come out that are not WOW.

 

 

WoW does earn alot of revenu...ALOT! 0_o