Most MMOs are just crap, can't even do basic stuff right like movement and really basic, core combat mechanics. Even the HOLY GRAIL-esque GW2 has this problem - total disconnect from the player/character - IF COMPARED TO WoW.

It's not something most player actively think about when comparing MMOs, most focus on features, some graphics, etc, but this huge, glaring flaw gnaws at you on a subconscious level until you just don't wanna play anymore.

Every MMO I tried suffers from these, either in the form of horrid walking animations, unresponsive skills/movement, wrong movement speeds in relation to your surroundings, even proportions of the character/environment are RARELY done well.

Developers need to focus on core stuff first, content and features later. Rift got this part as close to "good" as anyone, in my opinion, but failed for being too generic (again, in my opinion).

So Blizzard either got very lucky to hit every nail in the core gameplay department, or more likely, are just that damn good.

Wow vanila was an impressive game.Today wow is good in the new zones but the old zones have not been updated and look as crap as mineccraft.

Im not saying that blizzard are bad but they are nearly failing  every year.Including their new diablo game they showed us how fail they have become.

As a company they may be successful and earning money because of their old name blizzard but as developers they are failing year by year release by release because their new developers are total crap

I completely disagree that Blizzard is that damn good. Wanna know what has made them as successful as they are. Time, its simple. Most people wont quit WoW because they have spent soo much time on it. ditching their 85's would feel like they are betraying themselves. Take GW2, TSW or hell even SWTOR and give it the same amount of time that Blizzard has had with WoW you will have games in the exact same position.

lets face it, WoW is the king of the last generation. nothing can tople it because its been around too long. The only thing that will take out WoW is WoW. thats not because its amazing, its because its been around so long that its had enough time to gain momentum and turn itself up to 11.

I think it is combination of both.

Blizz made a tremendously successful MMO which is still great even after 8 years of its existence. (Blizz is that good)

Instead of pulling up their sleeves and trying to make something extraordinary themselves, the other developers just try to copy the successful game and add some new features, eventually. (They are that bad)

I think that the new MMO from Blizz will show the other devs how it is done since it will change the genre...or not? (Blizz is that good....or not, lets wait and see)

You can see the disconnect people get when discussing WoW just by reading what they type.  Like the guy who said 'the old zones have never been updated'.  Yet most of the old-world was updated with Cataclysm.  Why doesn't he know this?  Or the people who say 'Well they have all that time invested'.  Sure, time investment is a great thing, but it hasn't prevented most of us from trying other games.  One thing people forget is that more people have tried WoW and quit than people who played it at it's highest sub total (according to a Blizz employee).  People talk about GW1 selling 6 million boxes and that being half of WoW...it's not even close.  That's more like 24 million boxes (again, presuming the Blizz employee was speaking truth).  It's not that we leave other games because they're 'not like WoW'.  How can people even say that...then say that every game is a WoW knock-off in the next line?

The core play aesthetics are different.  Blizz wanted to reach the players that no one else wanted.  Once they had their attention, they offered the most diverse set of options of any game out there, cannibalized the best features from the best new games (often making the features even better), and then topping it with (on average) excellent Customer Service.  People don't play WoW for 'the best graphics', 'the best pvp', 'the best grouping', etc.  We play WoW because on any given single day, we can do 100 million different things, with different people or alone.  Top that with a lore that is very deep (even if some parts are contradictory or redacted occasionally) layered atop gameplay that ranges from intense high-caliber difficulty (like it or not, heroic raids are -hard-) to complete mindless relaxation (fishing, for instance) and -everything- inbetween.  The big value of WoW is -choice-, and -no one- offers as much.  Not even close to as much.  WoW doesn't do any -single- thing better than -everyone- else, they just do -more-, better, than -anyone- else.  It's really not hard to understand...but it's very hard to match.

Because a lot of companies try to copy wow to hopefulyl make a ton of cash.. sadly that wont happen.

Copies of things are usually not as good as the origional and that goes for lotso f things in this world not just MMORPGS..

The developers need to realise this and need to start coming up with new ideas...

TSW and GW2 a good examples of companies that have tried to come up with new ideas but they did not go far enough..

Companies also need to look at the average su numbers for mmorpgs before wow and base their games around that not the millions that wow has because thats propally a one off as we have seen over the years..

People dont want WoW clones because people who like WoW well have WoW..

I think its people.

Well....

- I'm with the OP that I don't like the direction that Blizzard had taken the game. I don't play and have no intention of going back any time soon.

- I don't think the game is outdated at all, they made changes to candy the game down to the point it's only for kids between the ages of 6-17.

- Are other mmos that bad ?......Yes absolutly......Most everything after Vanguard is quest lines and carrot on a stick. Most are at the point that there open worlds HAVE to be soloed. " Sorry, I can't play with you your not on the same part of the quest as me ".

Best example of this would be Rift.  Now Rift is a well made game, Graphics, coding, beautiful world each with it's own theme. Build your own class is revolutionary and loved by many.  BUT IT HAS TO BE PLAYED GOING FROM QUEST HUB TO QUEST HUB, they almost have to be done in order. To play with others you have to match quest for quest until you reach end game.

Rift is only one example of many quest line mmos that have to be played solo. Developers seem as if telling a story is a better price than community.........Community is what keeps players logging in day after day for years.

- GW2....I still like this game. However its only half way there. You play with the community, but you really don't have to know them, and not so much carrot on a stick.

Originally posted by Lissyl

You can see the disconnect people get when discussing WoW just by reading what they type.  Like the guy who said 'the old zones have never been updated'.  Yet most of the old-world was updated with Cataclysm.  Why doesn't he know this?  Or the people who say 'Well they have all that time invested'.  Sure, time investment is a great thing, but it hasn't prevented most of us from trying other games.  One thing people forget is that more people have tried WoW and quit than people who played it at it's highest sub total (according to a Blizz employee).  People talk about GW1 selling 6 million boxes and that being half of WoW...it's not even close.  That's more like 24 million boxes (again, presuming the Blizz employee was speaking truth).  It's not that we leave other games because they're 'not like WoW'.  How can people even say that...then say that every game is a WoW knock-off in the next line?

The core play aesthetics are different.  Blizz wanted to reach the players that no one else wanted.  Once they had their attention, they offered the most diverse set of options of any game out there, cannibalized the best features from the best new games (often making the features even better), and then topping it with (on average) excellent Customer Service.  People don't play WoW for 'the best graphics', 'the best pvp', 'the best grouping', etc.  We play WoW because on any given single day, we can do 100 million different things, with different people or alone.  Top that with a lore that is very deep (even if some parts are contradictory or redacted occasionally) layered atop gameplay that ranges from intense high-caliber difficulty (like it or not, heroic raids are -hard-) to complete mindless relaxation (fishing, for instance) and -everything- inbetween.  The big value of WoW is -choice-, and -no one- offers as much.  Not even close to as much.  WoW doesn't do any -single- thing better than -everyone- else, they just do -more-, better, than -anyone- else.  It's really not hard to understand...but it's very hard to match.

I think this ties into WoW being a "virtual world." hmmm. When details from that world were removed (in cata mostly) like feeding pets, collecting souls, etc. The game lost something. 

I think it's fair to say WoW is more of a virtual world than the other games. This might be the big reason.

Neither option.

Popularity is not indicative of quality.

Blizzard certainly knows how to cater to their target market, and all the other developers have failed to drag that market away from them.

They've also failed to cater to the non themepark crowd either, the perception being it is too "niche" to bother with, but I suspect it might be a bit larger than they realize. (but of course, hard to prove this either)

I'll give Blizzard props for being good at what they know, even if I don't care for the game designs they've chosen to employ.

I didn't vote.

At minimum there should be a third option.

That option: NO Blizz is nt that good, but they are consistant.

Inertia

WoW was good. It deserved most of it's acclaim. Mainly back in 05-07. Once it hit "critical mass" the rest was just inertia.

Now, it isn't that the game is good, or improving (which is subjective, they are adding new content and features, but I'd argue if they improve the game), it's that the players that are there have so much time and energy invested into the product. All their friends are there. For millions, it was their first MMO (and your first breakup is hard to do). It's a familiar product so it's easy to go back to after you have taken a break for a while.

So it's not that Blizzard is a good or bad dev. They made a good product (at one point in time, at least), they are keeping it relevant by releasing expansions. And they have enough players that they have achieved a form of gravity where everyone just keeps falling back to Azeroth.

WoW will stay big for a long time. Even if they dwindle down to 1M players, everyone will bemoan how far it has fallen, but 1M players is still a very large game (in terms of MMO's, where prior to WoW 100k was a huge number). And it won't hit those numbers for years - even if Blizzard decided to stop any more content/patches/expansions, a large number of players would remain for years.

The only thing that can kill WoW is WoW. It makes me scratch my head when everyone comes around touting the next "WoW-Killer" - when it isn't a competition for subs. People can have more than one sub (although I can perfectly understand why many choose not to). People can play more than one game (sometimes at the same time). Computers have room for more than one game to be installed at a time.

Originally posted by Rayshe

I completely disagree that Blizzard is that damn good. Wanna know what has made them as successful as they are. Time, its simple. Most people wont quit WoW because they have spent soo much time on it. ditching their 85's would feel like they are betraying themselves. Take GW2, TSW or hell even SWTOR and give it the same amount of time that Blizzard has had with WoW you will have games in the exact same position.

 

lets face it, WoW is the king of the last generation. nothing can tople it because its been around too long. The only thing that will take out WoW is WoW. thats not because its amazing, its because its been around so long that its had enough time to gain momentum and turn itself up to 11.

I agree with this. I know how people gain attachment to their toons, because I had similar attachment years ago.

To break this, when you're tired of a game or the way a developer has screwed up a game, delete your toons so you're never compelled to go back.

1.) Nostoligia

2.) "Well my friend (who has Nostoligia) plays this game so I should try it too!"

3.) "Well it has a large population, so naturally it means its that amazing."

4.) Very little competition on release, making it very easy to take in numbers.

5.) Polished off just enough to gain more attention before MMOs went crazy.

Blizzard isn't a bad company at all (though lately they have been going down hill) but a lot of WoW's success is just about when it came out more then what it was. As I say many times before, if wow came out today with all its polish and glitter, it would probably be at the point rift is (which isn't bad but is no where near the strength of wow). If it came out as its vanilla version, it would be a bigger flop then SWTOR by a  landslide. 

Originally posted by Indol

Neither option.

 

Popularity is not indicative of quality.

I agree.  Currently, Blizzard is resting on it's laurals and really haven't done ANYTHING strikingly innovative since Starcraft 2, WoW, Diablo 2. Diablo 3 was nothing more than Diablo 2 simplified with better graphics.

Now I am not saying that Blizzard is not smart. GW1 was also initially developed at Blizzard North. Both WoW and GW1 were presented to the leadership and WoW won. GW1 was spun off - that was smart.

As I stated before - Blizzard is resting on it's laurels - MoP is just another WoW expansion nothing new and exciting.