Is it the game that drives people back to WoW, or is it the community that does Blizzard's marketing job for them?

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'community'? They're all shills of course, can't be anything else because WoW iz EVUL!!!

It's because, for most, its the game where they have the most investment.  Its hard to give up those 85s with tens of thousands of gold and shiny dragon mounts and armor, for a lowly lvl 35 in game X.

neither the game nor the community, its the competence that practically hands returners to Blizzard on a silver plate.

I suppose if the upcoming heavy weights (SWToR and GW2) are able to finally deliver a product that doesnt end in sour dissapointment for the first time since 2004, Blizzrad will see that players returning cannot be taken for granted anymore...

World of Warcraft simply is more closer to what people want than the new games.

the new games have promises that are closer to what people like but at the end of the day promises have little entertainment value.

Folks go hunting for a new game because they get boarded.  Then the find the grass on the other side is not as green, and go back.

Mainly its the been there done that get board of it in 2 months,  then time to go back to something they know with a refreshed feeling of why did leave in the first place.

Just my 2 coppers worth.

For the first time, I've found myself going back to Rift instead of WoW.  That's an impressive feat.  Of course it will all be nil and void when SWTOR and GW2 launch.  For me at least.

People go back because of the community!

One of the best ingame community ever.

Tell me OP; why are you making alle these threads, then you just leave, without any further activity?

Originally posted by Sagasaint

neither the game nor the community, its the competence that practically hands returners to Blizzard on a silver plate.

I suppose if the upcoming heavy weights (SWToR and GW2) are able to finally deliver a product that doesnt end in sour dissapointment for the first time since 2004, Blizzrad will see that players returning cannot be taken for granted anymore...

Yup, that's pretty much it.

The game is decent, but the key thing is, the execution is exceptional, compared to most other MMOs.

The community (aside from my own guildies) is just not there.  It is nothing like the classic SWG community was.  All you have to do is monitor trade chat for 15 minutes to see how unattractive the community, such as it is, is.

If the upcoming heavyweights can get down the execution of the design at WoW's level, and foster a community that is not made up of people linking the Blessed Blade of the Windseeker, WoW's dominance might begin to wane.

We shall see.

Originally posted by MMOExposed

Is it the game that drives people back to WoW, or is it the community that does Blizzard's marketing job for them?

I believe there is a trend in mmo's developing where players have toons in many games and they are falling into a rotation. WoW has an expansion? Load up your WoW toon, try it out - very likely you will finish the content you are interested in before the next expansion. So.....you find out AoC goes f2p, so you load up your old AoC toon and give it a whirl....etc. etc.

I also think there is a huge segment of the mmo community that doesn't want to 'start over' again. I have a rl buddy that HATES switching games - he played EQ for a full year after us, EQ2 for another full year, etc. The only reason he ever switches is because he likes to play with his friends and he always trash talks us for making him start at square 1 all over again.

I don't think this personality type can easily be discounted, it is more about them then about the game they are playing - which isn't a judgment call, just an observation.

Hell, in addition to that, I go back to EQ every once in awhile, even though I definately don't last long there, I still have a warm place in my heart for Norrath. So, don't discount this personality either - more gamers were introduced to this genre through WoW than any other game, and we will never be able to take the first mmo thrill feel from them.

So, like almost everything in life, I don't think there is one easy or overriding answer, I believe a large number of variables have to be considered to answer your question, especially since we are talking about millions and millions of people.

Lol, the majority of the WoW community (imo) is terrible. People are either Douchebag Elitests, Lazy Casuals or R-tard Trolls. I'm not saying they're all like that, but most of the people I meet fall into one of those.

 I can say I never went back to WoW. I stuck with it until I finished all I could in Northrend, then got tired of it and moved on. I have heard from friends that still play that the community went downhill, not that it wasn't on the way anyway. Needless to say, Cata wasn't enough for me to want to go back, nor will anything they try to create after that. If anything, I went back to LOTRO after several beta test rounds of other games.

Pretty much the last two years of me playing WoW were because my wife still wanted to play. She kept wanting to come back to the game because of the friends she had made on it, so it was more as a social thing than for gameplay. Of course she eventually just got so tired of the game herself and quit for good and just kept in contact through email and messangers.

The gameplay of WoW itself is okay, it's just become extremely repetitive though. WotLK and after, the game has turned into a never ending gear cycle where the next tier being release causes the current tier of gear to be downgraded and available from farming heroics. For me it kind of invalidated the point of raiding, because in a few months all of that repetitive raiding time is invalidated when the gear suddenly becomes easily available from heroics farming.

I always go back to WoW when I need to get my MMO fix. I've gone through god knows how many MMOs and I didn't like them, not enough to play them for more than a month anyway. So I go to WoW when I want to play an MMO. I recently started again cause I never tried Cata and I like it so far. It's much more fun now with so many talents, spells and class mechanics changed.

simply because it's fun.

it works flawlessly. it's got everything. it's has a huge population. it's very accessible to everyone and appeals to just about anyone. it's as easy or as challenging as you want it to be. it can seriously laughs at it'self. it's subtly addicting.

but most of all it's fun. old, but fun.

It's a well-done game no doubt, and when you play others MMo you feel something is missing, is not polished, is not fun...

It just has the worst community i've ever seen in a MMO.

I've never seen so many gamers so desperate for a new home with no place to go. The game companies that just pushed their games out half done have cost themselves big money by not being there with open arms and a finished product.

Human beings are creatures of habit.

I keep going back because of the content, and because so many of my RL friends and family still play it. It's tolerable only because I turn all of the channels off and deal only with Rl friends, family members and a few hand-picked internet friends.