This is my opinion so i can be wrong or right its just the way i see it

The reason i feel WOW has succeeded is not due to it being the best MMO. But being the best allround MMO

Pretty much everyone here has tried/played/play WOW.

Now everyone has their faveourite games and quite often WOW is not at the top of their list. But what WOW offers is something for everyone. Now it might be exactly what everyone wants PVPers complain about the PVP system they would prefer say open PVP or something along those lines. PVE players like to quest but generally dont enjoy kill x amount of y mob and so on and would prefer quests that could affect the world or have greater meaning.

Now altho every style of player has their own faveourite things they look for they all share something in common. That generally is a LARGE Vibrant community with similar players to themselves, Reasonable graphics to be pleasing on the eye and the ability to customise your own character to name but a few. Its only when you go more indepth do you find the gaps between these styles.

What wow has is immersion and lots of players lots going on and generally people you already know playing it.

Now dont get me wrong WOW is not my favourite game nor is it my ideal game. I just feel Blizzard have managed to create something that offers something for everyone and therefor is able to have such a large player base.

Niche games attract small player bases that will find it harder surviving due to just relying on their niche market. But some hardcore Niche players hate WOW due to it being to generalised and want just what they want in a game.

But alot of players are willing to compromise on some of their specific features aslong as they get their key features.

Is this a repeat?

<looks around>

Thought I saw this before.....just sayin....

do we really really need another "why wow is successful" thread?

This whole site is just one big DEJAVU.  Do we need the same thread like this every day of the week? 

Let the wow hating commence.

 OMFG WoW sucks there is no permadeath OMFG only 5 year olds play it.  I wake up everyday wanting to die because OMFG WoW is like a lot of peoples first MMO and OMFG they don't like what I like LOL and they don't like to spend 2 months on one level MY LIFE IS OVER.

You don't deserve to use vivi's avatar then :P

/joke

WoW is only so popular for 2 reasons IMO.

1. Marketing- pure genius on their part. WoW commercials, Free wow trial on mountain dew cans, Ads all over the internet. Everywhere you look its there. People who could not name any other MMO know about WoW. Everyone from my 10 year old kid to my 70 year old grandmother have been exposed to their marketing.

2. Runs on a wide range of computers- If i could hotwire my monitor to my toaster it would run wow. Laptops, 7 year old desktops. Macs, hell anything practically will run this game. You see so many games coming out with top of the line graphics that require a top end computer ( and they still run like shit).  Fact is most average people do not own a top of the line rig, nor will they ever.

Love em or hate em they have made some very very good business decisions that have paid off big time. They catered to a market that was ripe for the picking and marketed their product.

I do not play WoW nor do i consider it to be an especially good game, but my hats off to em for a sound business strategy and a flawless implementation of their product into the market.

It is a business after all, and blizzard isnt on top by accident.

just my 2cp.

When I first saw the thread title, I originally thought I was going to have to refute the OP's arguments. I actually think he hit the nail on the head for the most part.

I would have to add one big thing to the list though... POLISH. WoW is insanely polished and it shows in every facet of the game. It runs smoothly and everything works as the developers intended. There are no serious bugs anywhere... which is a big departure from many of the other games on the market.

WoW is successful because:

• Blizzard got a reputation for making great games
• many people play WoW (the more people play a game the more other people think it must be worth it)
• lots of ads
• tons of content already when it started, lots of starting zones and different races to choose from appealing to many different kinds of people
• based on the lore of a popular predecessor
• graphics were fine for that time and especially the visual style appealing to many people
• great music and sounds too, as well as incredibly well rendered videos for intro and stuff to fuel the hype
• very easy to learn
• good amount of humor
• good amount of customization to distinguish yourself from others
• lots of interesting professions
• very high replay value (because of the many starting zones, professions, races and classes)

It also did some stuff wrong. Like...

• early on no pvp worth speaking of
• many talents and skills were junk and completly useless
• lots of smaller annoying bugs (ie tons of resource nodes which, when you loot them, forced you to relog, or resource nodes beeing unreachable)
• difficult to find groups
• earlier claiming that you can play with us version on european realms etc and all that didnt work anymore

Etcetc

Hmm I bet it has to do with Blizzard making solid working games.  Just a thought.

Wow is good because its a very good game made by some very good developers.

Its a game made by gamers. People who loves what they do and that shows.

People say marketing.  Well some games that had a lot of "eyes" on them due to sites like this and a lot of stuff that was not when wow was launged have failed.

Simpy. If a game is good people stay and keep playing it.

Wow is not just a game anymore. Its popular culture. It is a living legend.

Originally posted by hercules

do we really really need another "why wow is successful" thread?

I think this one makes it official!

I think the most interesting part isn't why WoW is successful but how WoW haters try and find some simple 'reason' for that. Of course usually they imply it was either pure luck (coincidence) or marketing (scam).

An example of 'pure luck' theory: "WoW claimed the marker when there was no competition. It succeeded only because it was the first casual MMO. It'd be just one of the many if it started today."

This POV is so ridiculous that it never fails to make me laugh. In fact, there was serious competition. EQ2 started about 2 weeks before WoW, so they had equal chances. Both were casual enough to become really massive. EQ2 also had a very successful predecessor so it was in a favorable position actually. Yet now, five years later, we see who won the crown.

A simple 'marketing' theory just says: "Blizzard had been too well-known for its good games. WoW wasn't a good game but people would buy any box that had 'Blizzard' written upon it."

While that could seem true in 2005, by now one can only wonder how the trend hasn't reversed. If WoW was so bad, surely millions of frustrated and angry customers would be plaguing all kinds of gaming communities with countless threads about it being unplayable, buggy, lacking content, etc. Alas, they're nowhere to be seen. Yes, WoW has its share of haters but they're not counted in millions. Nor even in hundreds of thousands for that matter.

I could continue, but I suppose you got the picture already. Any such 'theory' boils down to the same false presumption: "WoW is more successful than it deserves to be."

But history doesn't know the verb "to deserve". He, who wins, wins. He, who wins, deserves to win. Blizzard learned what people wanted and Blizzard devs gave them exactly what they wanted. Is WoW perfect? No, but it's always playable. Is WoW casual? Very much so, but that's why 13 millions of casuals have chosen it. Is WoW cartoonish? Yes, but it has its own artistic style (unlike your 105734928-th generic anime themepark). Is WoW graphics outdated? Partially, but it still runs on some old laptop with an ultra low-end integrated gfx chip.

There's a lot of hard work behind WoW success. And some really brilliant minds.

For the millionth time... kids wanna play whatever their friends are playing. Thats why WOW is so popular; the other kids play it.

They dont really care about graphics and gameplay. Its a social thing.
 

Originally posted by Securion

kids

It's funny how almost every WoW "kid" I know is 20 or older...

Kids, yeah.

Amen.

Personally, I think the OP got it right and that irritates the haters to no end. WOW is not the best game nor does it do everything right. In the end though, when you take everything into account and are looking for the game that gets the majority of things right and does things the best across the board, WOW is the game for you. Sure, if you are really into PVP and that matters to you more than other things, WOW isn't the game for you because it doesn't do PVP the best or is the best PVP game on the market.

But if you want a solid game that runs well, plays well, is fun to play, is enjoyable and just simply good but not great in most ways, WOW is it. That is why it is successful. The funny thing is, no other company has really seemed to figure it out: you don't have to be the best, just be good at what you do.

Originally posted by wowfan1996

Originally posted by Securion

kids

 

It's funny how almost every WoW "kid" I know is 20 or older...

Kids, yeah.

Considering how the vocal crowd in Trade channel was when I played, they better be kids, but most likely those jerks are 20+ year guys with a very low mental age.

Anyway, he does have a point, the graphic style of WoW is cartoonish, meaning it doesn´t put off parents in the same way "chain-mail bikin" games such as Lineage 2 or Everquest 2 did. They feel more... secure of buying WoW to their kids or seeing them playing it. Compare that to seeing little Johny playing AoC.

But the main reason for WoW being so big is simply because it is so well known, even before it launched.

Try being a Warcraft / Starcraft / Diablo  -player 2004 and not to know that Blizzard was going to make a mmorpg, that was impossible. And more recently, Blizzard having Ozzy Osbourne all over the place. By the latter it seems that Blizzard are aiming for young teenagers rather than 20+ though.

Compare that to the Lotr-online and EvE-online. Both are as good or better than WoW but where made by much less well-known companies that can´t afford to reach out in the same way Blizzard can.

It is like Microsoft vs Apple. More people have computers with Windows Vista than having the Leopard OS, simply because of Microsoft is so well known that few will make the jump to a better OS, even though Vista was the worst thing since... Windows  ME.

Originally posted by wowfan1996

I think the most interesting part isn't why WoW is successful but how WoW haters try and find some simple 'reason' for that.

It is simple actually. It's because for those of us that started out on PnP games (you know..those olden days pen and paper games) back in the day where you had to actually think and make time threatening decisions never envisioned our characters looking like Disney characters on steroids.

As for time threatening decisions, it means that when you died in game, there wasn't usually a 5 minute rezz solution. Sometimes you had to sit there for hours while your group found a town that might have a cleric that could rezz your character. All that exp lost in between because you made a wrong decision.  So you had to really be careful of your actions. It might cost death or even permadeath.

Originally posted by wowfan1996

Originally posted by Securion

kids

 

It's funny how almost every WoW "kid" I know is 20 or older...

Kids, yeah.

In an RPG aspect, yes they are kids to us veterans who grew up playing pen and parer RPGs where everything wasn't handed to us, and if we cried about it, the GM would just kill your character.

 WoW is successful because:

1) Combat system is solid

2) When you log on, you can progress solo if your the lonely type, or immediately hook up with friends/guildmates and go into a dungeon/PvP frenzy

3) Leveling is seemless and grindless thanks to the quest system

4) Blizzard is constantly releasing content, so players rarely encounter a "nothing to do" state

The only thing that can make a longtime wow player quit is having leveled too many characters and/or finding a new hobby irl.

Originally posted by Zorndorf

@Trower.

About the 20+ RL WOW friends I have,...  I guess only 2 or 3 even played other Blizzard games...

So better find another "theory" for the multi millions playing it - even after 5 year.

Perhaps it's a good game to pay 15 dollars a month for and the other games are not as attractive for all those million of players.

It surely has to do something with this .... :)))).

 

Your friends are not millions no matter how popular you are. =p

An example, asian players makes up more than half  of the WoW base.

Asians are a strange people that like to play games that have little or no success in the west, to say that their taste is different is an understatement. And in a way they are kinda patriotic, Xbox has a hard time to compete in asia despite all Microsofts billions.

So what advantage did Blizzard have when they decided to launch a mmorpg in NCsofts own backyard?

What was most played online game in South Korea 2004?

*drumroll*

STARCRAFT

And as I said, if you played Starcraft back then it would have been impossible to not hear about this coming mmorpg called WoW.

Originally posted by Zorndorf

@ Trowar.

I didn't know the free internet Chinese  and Korean cafés pay ... 15 dollars a month just to play MMO's.

Of course they don't. So I can only speak for the western 5 to 6 million paying players that DO pay 15 dollars a month.

90% of Blizzard's income comes from those hard cash monthly western fees. (not the cheap internet café play).

Well a census done 2009 can´t explain why WoW did get big in the first place. Simply because those there are not that many players in the game left and that goes for both raiders and people that one happily put on the ignore list.

WoW is much more well known these days even among people that hasn´t played mmorpg or Blizzards other games. Blizzard advertise much more than they did back then, you see copies of WoW in every store that sells PC games. You still see it on various top lists. By all logic Blizzard should open new realms monthly but that doesn´t happend because about as many are quitting the game as the ones are joining.

The first two years (2005-2006) both my friend lists and ignore lists where pretty much intact and you got to know the people not just in your guild but in the other guilds as well. People joined the game and the few that quitted did it for real life reasons. It wasn´t until AQ 40 that I started to notice that some players began to leave the game because they got bored of it.

The turnover rate (players joining + players quitting) became much greater in TBC, Blizzard released a bunch of new realms after a long break, and the realms did filled up, but very slow and as far as I know no one of them ever got the point that there were queues.

Look at http://www.warcraftrealms.com/temp/activity.html and you see pretty much a nonstop growth to februar 2007, and since then the amount of player activity has fluctuated in Europe and USA, and that is why Asia is so important for Blizzard. And they never fail to mention the amount of players in total, I haven´t seen Blizzard mention how many that is playing in the West.

If they want to get more money it is either to expand in Asia, heavily use Ozzy Osbourne or getting more money from the players in the West *cough* faction transfers,  *cough*.

So why did WoW get big in the first place? Simply because Blizzard itself was and is big. Sony as company is even bigger but its reputation is marred by the worst mistake in mmorpg history, the  NGE and back then their games was known for their grinding. So far Blizzard has avoided any NGE-magnitude mistakes.

Now WoW is so big and well known that the size gives it a momentum in itself, very much like Microsoft and Windows, MS can release a crappy expensive version of Windows and it will still sell, same thing with Blizzard and WoW expansions.

Women should be more attracted to mmorpg than to another game genre, except obviously the SIMS games, given that mmorpgs are social games, and WoW is the most well known mmorpg. But with huge turnover rate, character transfers, minority factions dying, faction transfer, cross realms bgs and soon cross realms lfg; it isn´t strange  that despite more women finding their way to mmorpgs than ever before, ( just look at EvE online! ) WoW isn´t expanding, and hardly any new realms are opened in the West because they quit just as much as the boys even if they are a greater part of the buyers now than a few years back.

wow does offer a good entry level mmo experiance and for many its thier first mmo . it does nt take itself too seriously so the lore is pretty accessable to younger players . which is what makes up most of its player base and unfortunatly is what makes it  a virtual schoolyeard at times . Blizzard also have made it easier to appeal to the more casual player . for instance you can now choose to do battlegrounds for xp and almost totally ignore the pve experiance if you wish . its quite easy to level up 2-3  levels in a day now between 20-60 going down this route . it can be fun but the game does nt offer enough challenge for me to play it regulary anymore . its also certainly not as popular now as it once was with a rumoured drop of 2 -3 million in the west . this is born out by the increase in low - mid servers now and the fact that blizzard hav nt released any subscriber numbers in nearly  a year .

Originally posted by Mithios

Originally posted by wowfan1996

Originally posted by Securion

kids

 

It's funny how almost every WoW "kid" I know is 20 or older...

Kids, yeah.

 

In an RPG aspect, yes they are kids to us veterans who grew up playing pen and parer RPGs where everything wasn't handed to us, and if we cried about it, the GM would just kill your character.

In those olden days, we also where younger and time was not as sparse as now in adulthood. I've noticed that I have less and less time to spend on playing games. Therefor I can't bother doing things that aren't rewarding or plain boring. I'm not talking about just replacing gear and leveling up. Doing a dungeon and barely making it through is rewarding too. Difficulty is a balance many games struggle with, especially MMORPGs that don't have an end (unless the devs stop releasing content). The best way to discourage a player from playing is making the game too hard or easy from the get go.

Good or bad, I don't think i'm the only one that feels this way.