First off great article.

Having played many games over the last 10 years WoW most certainly marked a huge change in the MMO genre in particular in it's ability to draw an audience was able draw.
What it did was get people who had never really been involved in gaming at all involved in a gaming subculture that they didn't even know existed and this certainly has caused friction.

What seperates these first time online gamers even further is that most didn't play WoW from release and don't realise just how far WoW has come in terms of content and stability.  They seem to think that that WoW always played the way it does now and when they turn to another game, often their judgements are unrealistic for a game at launch.

WoW has made it difficult for the big budget hi hype games because if they want the player that currently is spending their dollar playing WoW their game has to be near flawless at release or it is slaughtered and slandered on every forum and blog you can find.

This has opened the door for the indie games that can gain traction and subs in a more realistic way, they may never be the WoW killer that some hope for put for each person that tries them a small cut is marked on the beast.  The indie games can show that there is a different way to tell a story or genre other then elves and orcs etc.

Hopefully people given time will mature in their gaming tastes and dream of dreams another developer will meet or surpass those dreams and create a world that can pry the great maw that is WoW of our gaming future.
 

This article is just preaching to the choir. Nothing to see here.

Just like so many others stated, great article.  I will be following your future ones with great expectations from now on =P.

Good piece. You do a lot better than most of this site's other writers who often don't know how to support their argument.

Originally posted by Gabby-air

Finally someone on Mmorpg.com that agrees on how similar alganon is to wow, i would continue to read your articles!

LOL! Of course it has aspects in common with WoW.  They are both fantasy games, with dungeons and much of the rest. That they share a common graphical style leads me to believe that it may thus run on a broader cross section of systems than say, Everquest 2 did at its launch.  Its always amusing to see people look down their pointed noses at WoW or McDonalds.  Such people obviously know rather little about markets or economics.  Both have large sections of their markets, and both make *huge* amounts of money.  In case some of you have forgotten,  making money is the object of this exercise...

Now, I'd not say that its the *only* object, but its certainly in the top two or three. Finally, expecting players to come into a new game as blank slates(I could make a Tabula Rasa  joke here, but lets pass that^^) to be written upon by the games Dev's is totally unrealistic.  Part of what makes us individual human beings is our past experiences. Those for good and/or ill are our internal reference frames within which everything else is viewed in perspective.   But that fact shouldn't prevent one from at least attempting to be fair in giving a new game a chance.  You may learn new things to add to your experience database.

Originally posted by Airphel

I do use WOW as a measuring stick. A stick to measure how much wow sucks.

 

Good usage of comparing McDonalds to WoW. McDonalds is crap, compared to an acutal gourmet resturant, even though it (the gourmet restaurant) dosen't and never will have as many patrons or as much profit as McD's, its still better.

First of all....GREAT article, OP. 

Now, to Airphel....

If you "do use WoW as a measuring stick. A stick to measure how much WoW sucks," then you are part of the problem, not the solution.

WoW sucks....TO YOU.  Just because you have a strong opinion, doesn't make it correct.  And the comparing WoW to McDonald's, Brittney Spears, or any other popular icon in the world, is...I'm sorry...very silly.  You can't compare apples to automobiles.  They don't taste the same (I'm not sure what automobiles taste like, but I'm pretty sure they don't taste like apples), they don't look the same, they aren't meant to BE the same.  Comparing a pop singer, or a fat fest (err....I mean fast food) restaurant to a GAME is comparing things that aren't in a category of intelligent comparison at all.

You compare games to games and fruit to fruit and singers to singer and automobiles to automobiles.  Anything else....lacks logic. And even comparing within THOSE categories, there are multiple sub-categories that still might make direct comparisons rather....suspect.

I understand you think WoW is crap, just like we think McDonald's is crap (on the McDonald's thing....I can definitely agree with you), however....YOUR opinion, nor mine, is capable of reflecting the opinion of millions of other people, all of which have different likes, dislikes, and personalities.

We get it....you hate WoW (just like many other people do).  But you hating WoW and me hating McDonald's....only means that YOU shouldn't play WoW and I shouldn't eat at McDonald's.  It certainly has no right or power to dictate to others what THEY should like, or what they should do.

Really good article. Nice to see common sense return no matter what the form.

  Comparisons will inevitably always be made, that can never be realistically eradicated. Nor can those comparisons made be differentiated between the more experienced people talking about said topic and those new to the genre and using their logic.

  While both can be commended, there can be no real conclusion, because the reader will ultimately be the  judge of  those comparisons, taking his own experiences and logic and applying them as he/she sees as the most sensible outcome.

All that should be expected is a sharing of those experiences and hope those witnessing them can be open-minded and non judmental as to futher a discussion on said topic.

Unfortunately on the internet, it is almost impossible as I tend to repeat myself, anonimity and no accountabilty make fertile ground for those who like dissention and abasement of their fellow gamer (here anyway).

Originally posted by Abrahmm

Originally posted by tillamook

SWG vets also get caught up in this as well by thinking all MMOs should be like, or have similar things to SWG. I just think it’s the more outspoken and vocal players you hear this type of stuff from.
 

 

It's not so much thinking that all MMOs should be like SWG, but disappointment that few/no MMOs have reproduced some of the great features present in SWG. Some things put in that game in 2003 almost seem like technical or functionally impossible in today's games which I myself find frustrating.

Even worse, SWG doesn't even have a lot of the great features that were once present in SWG.

Using WoW as a measureing stick is different, though.  A lot of MMOs have the same features, just not all together, and not in such a neatly packaged McBlizzard wrapper.

I love and hate World of Warcraft at the same time. But I'm not going to sit up and campare  it to another game. Thats wrong in itself. WoW rarily dose anything in the way of anything bad. But it still has it's share of flaws and missing items/ideas. But thats almost everyother Online game. Two areas all MMOs should work on is the some soloability in instances and there profession system. Iinstance: I dont care if you take away all the item drops and 80% of the xp. I just want to explore the area without always needing a party. Professions: materials need is always too high and never enough resources.

P.S. Whats the point of have caves/mines in World of Warcraft if there is never really any resources in there. Besides what the mobs drop.

There is one danger in when you try to be different from WoW and that is if you try to be different for the sake of being different.

If a feature in WoW is a good idea in your game then use it, don't try to do something different just because you want to be different because the end result will almost always mean that your game becomes less fun and playable where it didn't have to be. I'm not saying that games should copy wow automatically, I'm saying Blizard put a lot of thought into how their game is played and they are pretty smart guys so there is no reason to reinvent the wheel unless you game needs a new design.

Once you do go for a different game design then you better make damn sure that your game is so fun and interesting to play and so content filled that people focus more on that than on how its played so you keep your players. 

For example Chronicles of Spellborn, it has an amazingly deep and interesting combat system, mobs that actually are intelligent and fight like players in PvP and a really weird and fascinating gameworld. But the game was so bug filled and the entire PvP reward and fight-for-something system were so lacking at release that people got annoyed with the game and then the differences from the "wow standard" became a detraction instead of an advantage for the game and it quickly died.

I must aplaud your taking on a subject so prone to controversy, good job, i think you got to hit the nail on a couple of important issues. Its hard... I must admit that sometimes bashing WOW is something i may do as a reflex. I think your comparing it to music was a good example. In my youth i felt it as a punk rocker against pop music, and while punk is still my favorite thing, i can say i did manage to outgrow the sentiment and can now enjoy even the things i did rail against without it feeling too much like a guilty pleasure. Now i hardly think ill ever enjoy WOW again, but it is a language i use and it will very likely remain so whatever its negative asociations. 

 I don't post often on here because I feel that a lot of the things are ridiculous and don't deserve that many comments. But this is an amazing thread. It's exactly what's happening and it sickens me, having been playing mmos since lineage 1. 

Someone also stated how they hate when people try and say something they want changed, but then someone tells that person to go back to WoW. Yes, that's probably not the way it should be, but most of the times, the "changes" people want aren't needed and DO make the game more like WoW, which I and this thread are both against. I just hate seeing the achronym "WoW" whilst playing ANY mmo. Regardless if the conversation was constructive or not, I think the game has been more of a poison to the community that it should be.

I also liked the comment about comparing WoW too McDonalds... how McDonalds gets more revenue than an amazing gourmet resturant when it is so much worse in quality and in health... that's just funny and something for people to think about.

i love when i try a new game.. check out their forums.. and find a

"how to play this game for people coming from : WoW "  - thread stickied on top.

First off - why is WOW always compared to McDonalds ?   I can not see much of comparisent because if you compare WOW to other MMOs out atm and new released - WOW is actully the 5 star restaurant and the others are even lower standard than McDonalds.  The OP is simply wrong claiming that WOW has anything to do with fastfood.  The game is populare because it has this little bit EXTRA that many of the other games do not have.  Gameplay is one thing - basic systems - Classes - sound - immersive enviroment - good AI (compared to many new releases - custimo support.  We can go on and on and on.  If WOW would fail in ANY of this, the game would not be as populare as it now is.  And thats why many of the other MMORPGS are not able to compete.  They dont have IT.

PPL like diffrent things when it comes to RPG.  WOW has come closest to create something that everyone can relate to.  If ppl like the OP are really so posh that they can't admit that - then so be it.  I personally laugh at the posh ppl that dont go to McDonalds cause they are afraid their "friends" might see them going in.

Next - I want to talk about the "language".

Im not gonna compare anything to WOW - but I want to take just one game and give the OP ideas of why I personally do not go far enough into some games to say that I know their language.  But then - I very often go far enough to realise that their basic system have major flaws (not compared to anything else) that make me turn away.

Lets take few games for example - and forget about WOW.

LOTRO.

Two things I immidiatly hated.  The falling down sound (yes I have broken few bones so it gives me the chill) and the fact that horses have no saddles and leash.  This is enough to make me turn away and never come back to that game.   Then come added frustrations like the UI (that I simply dont like) and the character animations.   And then the fact that the game is build on Moral system rather than health system to support "the lore" when the horses that you ride in the game look like from a high magic world where the person riding them controls them with their mind.  Seriously ... get real.

AOC. 

Where to start?  Lets just start with the fact it has just one starting zone and huge number or character classes.  How bored was I of Tortage after playing 3 classes ?  Very... get the point ?   Spending time of talking about basic systems in AOC would be pointless cause they had to change them all - cause they were TOTAL failure to start up with.  Not comparing it to anything !

WAR

I like playing WAR in lower lvls while the game is still acutally playable.  The game can be laggy and ofc that annoyes me (as it would in any other MMO).  And when thinking about the basic system in WAR - just like AOC - you soon find out that they are just very badly implemented.  Making alot of ppl frustrated of the gameplay and simply bored when playing long term.  

I have played many MMOs including WOW ofc.  I doubt the OP would belive me when I say that my favorite MMO is actually called Legend of MIR and is pretty simple to play but with high death penalty and alot of farming.  First when I started playing it didn't even have one single quest.  I stil enjoyed it alot - both the immersive feel and the character progression.   Check it out and see it has very little to do with WOW - wich I liked to ofc.  

History has already proven that wow players are retarded.

So if retards try to measure a game....

Quite frankly using wow to comare against is getting old.  Games to to be the wow killer.

Ill say it once and say it a million times.  If I wanted wow I would play it, and to the game devs quit trying to be wow - pointed right at turbine.

I agree we need games that are not wow.

I am glad one of the staff of mmorpg did an article concerning this, I am pretty sure we all felt the same or at least some of us but it's finally time to expose this farce. In a earlier post of mine I actually had a paragraph that represented exactly like your article or atleast highlighted parts of it. Discussing how no game shall beat WoW when just launching, it's like being in a race marathon and take examples A(WoW) B(New Game).

(A) is more then half way through the race and (B) who is just starting out from the start line is receiving jeers from some onlookers saying he will never beat (A). No matter how athletic (B) is, he will never catch up (A) in the short term, perhaps maybe on the long term of the race but usually no game is given the chance to do so.

If (A) and (B) both started from the start line, no one would know who has the upper hand and it will be a mixed reaction.

Sadly that article was locked or deleted by one of the staff, due to constant flaming and off topic I think but oh well.
Anyway great article, much props. Hopefully people will look onto new games with an renewed sense of perception.

WoW is a common experience many people share and therefore a valid point of reference. Just as in real life, when many people have a common experience, they use it to describe a new/similar experience. It's the way the world works and to say that it shouldn't work that way is pure folly.

Still, any article promoting sandboxes or decrying WoW is preaching to the choir around these parts.

Excellent article. So true as well. We all are guilty of comparing something new to something familar. Human nature seems to dictate to us we do this.

When I began my gaming career with Diablo and Everquest was on the horizon and began its beta; while awaiting Diablo 2. I began to hate Everquest as Diablo became a virtual graveyard as my friends and others began to play EQ. Then one of those friends sent me a copy of EQ for my birthday and I gave it a try. Yes it was vastly different than D. There really was no comparison to the two at all. Although there was none I found myself trying but became too busy trying to learn the many different controls and use and how not to click and run. /sigh  EQ had me for five years. Each expansion brought something new but it also lead to more hardcore die hards and the need for grouping after a certain level depending on the class you chose as to how soon that became a need.

There were many others that I tried when EQ lost is luster for me and became boring(or not fun). As with many games the nerfing of classes and the uselessness of trade skills or difficulty in gaining them or items has a way of making the game less fun or interesting. Anyway AC 2 was tried as well as some of the ones that were PvP or Guild types with none catching me with that wham effect.  Yes I was doing a great deal of comparison to EQ at that time. Was even involved in some beta testing as well. The mechanics of each game being different and me like so many didn't take the time to learn enough to give them a fair try.

Then I tried the 14 day free trial of WoW. To be honest my attitude by then was pffft. Two days of the trial found me and my hubby buying the game and the rest was history. Neither of us got into the beta but it was only out maybe a month when we did the trial and wham we found a game that had us starstruck again. Now after four years and a few expansions it is not as it was. But still not a total loss yet anyway.

I have played Atlantica and still do from time to time. No it is not like WoW or really any of the others I have played but it is ok. Really has some things that are nice like helping others benefits you as well as others opposed to being all about yourself.. The free to play  games can be okay but with many unless you spend at the mall your character takes much longer to get where those that do are. Maybe this is something you can do an article on in the future. The pros and cons of free to play. /shrug

I don't know how Aion is as I just can't see paying $50 to try a game out. Maybe in time they will do like many others do and offer a trial period and as WoW did only have small limits so that you can look at the whole game and what it offers and not just a tiny island and six levels.

Blizz made a good game, or at least they made a lot of content which is what most of us want I think. I'm looking forward to their next game, they definitely have the resources to reinvent the genre and then spawn hundreds of clones, and then perhaps 5 years down the road another article such as this. Will I post in its thread? Only time will tell!

 Wow, excellent article. I've never compared a game to WoW...simply because I've never played WoW, so it is easy for me to say "Stop comparing to WoW! If you want WoW, go play it." Anyways, very insightful article.

People who measure other games with World of Warcraft are doing so on a subconscious level while they play the game. Just because they do this they end up asking that question. However, this doesn't mean that the game doesn't truly have the legitimate flaws that the person is talking about.

For example, if someone says that the floating text that appears over character's heads in the game seem alien to the 3D game world, because it uses a default font with no softing artwork done to it to bring the text alive and pretty to feel at home in the 3D world, like in that game, then in nearly ALL cases this person probably just meant the developers need to fix the 2D text so that it doesn't appear distracting in the 3D world. It had nothing to do with that game. To make things worse, the developers of said game never accomplish this. Even after the player posted this in their suggestion forums. Why is this?

It simply comes down to the fact that if your game development has poor standards run by lazy programmers and artists, then people will not play a broken and unfinished game.

These players leave to the one that has a development team that will jump on it ASAP or had this feature in the game on release day (in other words, they released NOT an unfinished, but a finished product).

It's really just called business. You either feed people a finished banana split or you don't. If someone paid the full price for a banana split but you gave them half of one or an unfinished one, maybe even an old blackened banana, would they be happy or would they think of returning to a different store?

People generally don't care whether Store #2's banana split was different from Store #1's if it was still tasty. The problem lies within serving a finished product over serving it before it's done.

I may be the odd man out here, but when it comes to MMO's or any game I keep things very simple. I ask myself am I having fun? If the answer is yes I keep playing if not I don't. I think too many gamers over think the why factor. There have been MMO's that folks have absolutely hated that I truly enjoyed, and vice versa. It’s so easy to fall into the old compare and complain trap…or to resort to the tired McDonalds analogy. All of it speaks very loudly to folks being so burned on the genre that they really are incapable of that atavistic joy that they use to get from games of this nature. They cease becoming the gamer and become the Critic...which to me is just a couple notches up from Injury Attorney.

Thanks for the responses about SWG. Very enlightening. :)

 I use the McD's analogy because it's easily understood, and not as a dig at McD's food quality (which has gone up over the years anyway). Judging other MMOs because of WoW due to their business quality (McD's business quality) does not equate into being able to judge the MMOs by their quality of content (quality of food.) Both businesses do amazingly well, yes, and there are lessons to be learned from that; but that does not mean that the content the business offers is of good quality. People erroneously mix the two arguments, and assume that because WoW has a good business model, that means their content is superior. That's the gist of the argument, although I did not make that terribly clear in the column.

Frobner: As I stated earlier, there are many things WoW did right. I admitted that. I even stated I played the game. Cheers for assumptions, eh? :) There are also many things WoW did wrong. We can't look at WoW as if the good things make the game super-fantastic. Once again, no game is perfect. I won't get into arguing your opinions on LOTRO, AOC, and WAR. 

neoterrar: I'm not promoting sandboxes or decrying WoW. Haven't played a sandbox MMO that I've been fond of yet. If anything, I'd say I'm a promoter of niche gaming versus MMOs marketed to appeal to as many people as possible. I've already made my  short-form stance on WoW in this thread, so won't repeat it.

Plasmicredx: I can't disagree with you on your points. WoW at this point is highly polished, although at its release, came with its own broken and unfinished problems. Years have gotten Blizzard good at polishing things up from the start; it was not so clean on its release.

storm-dragon: It is very easy to make those steps from gamer to critic, though, when you spend not only years playing a genre of game, but 20 hours+ a week doing so. MMO players are no different in that than people who have played certain genres of console games; talk to a veteran FPS or RPG player, and they'll have some very solid opinions about ways the games should and shouldn't be. 

I agree; games should be looked at first and foremost as "fun," mechanics after. Whenever I review or try a new game, that's the first thing I get into - how fun is it? How long can it sustain my interests? Does it make me want to log in tomorrow? Everything after that is just the science of experience dissecting mechanics to figure out what makes the fun tick, or not tick. I had fun with Ether Saga, and it was poorly designed; I've played games with better design but been too bored to want to log in after just a few hours of trying the game out. 

Many players are out there that will experience the fun first, and then figure out the game afterward. There are, unfortunately, many who find themselves out of their usual comfort zone and just throw in the towel.

I watched one player recently who quit a game before even leaving the starting zone. His argument was that the game was too linear; that there was only one starting zone and quests chained from one zone to the next. He, too, had come from WoW to try something new- where while players may have some diversity in their initial starting zones, by level 30, they find themselves narrowed down into a fairly linear quest chain - especially once you hit Outland and Northrend. 

He did a total of two quests before ranting in the general chat against how much the game sucked and how WoW was superior before logging off. It's that kind of attitude many of us are tired of.