www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/experienced-points/6110-The-Secret-of-WoW

about why WoW was such a success but this quote could easily pertain to LoTRO, EQII, SWG, and DAoC all of which I enjoyed for 2 plus years or more

quote:

People dismiss MMO games as "grinding" or a "leveling treadmill," but the really successful games are more like a health club with a broad selection of exercise machines than a single treadmill. Yes, there is a lot of repetition, but you can jump from one (repetitious) activity to another to keep things interesting. In the broadest sense, the activities in these games stimulate the part of your brain that enjoys creating order from chaos by getting stuff done. Only instead of doing useful stuff like the dishes or your homework, you're doing stuff like cleaning out rat infestations, gathering up resources, and building items. In the real world, the war against entropy isn't nearly as swift or as gratifying. The stuff you're getting "done" starts as short-term goals that lead to longer-term goals that lead to really long-term goals. You're always on the threshold of getting something done and getting your next reward. (And your next goal.)

and it explains why I get bored with one dimensional games such as AoC after a couple of weeks.

also this pretty much nails why Vanguard and to a degree AoC while being visually pleasing were such underachievers

quote:

The WoW juggernaut proves that graphics take a backseat to gameplay for most players. Your game doesn't need to look like 8-bit warmed over, but it does need to scale down gracefully to the low end of the spectrum if you want to take a bite out of the WoW user base. Yes, sexy screenshots help at launch day, but if the game looks wrong and runs slow on the average machine then you're destined to be a minor player in the MMO world.

While Vanguard certainly offered a variety of "grinds"  and a huge world to explore the graphics and to a lesser degree the bugs killed it.
 

Anyway I thought the entire article was a excellent bit of reasoning on a admittedly controversial topic

WoW to me is like sitting at the living room couch and watching cartoons with your kids and their brat friends.  There aint even any pirates of dark water what the hell?!

I think one of WoW's strong points is accessability.  The article hit on it a little bit by mentioning graphics, but it goes much further.  For one, they made a Mac client, which Im sure most of you will not think it adds much to its user base, but in the guild Im in we have 7 Mac users alone (my fiance being one of them).  Our guild only has roughly 50 people so thats a fairly large percentage.

The animations and overall game personality appeals to broad audiences also, mixing fantasy with steam punk and offering a variety of races to choose from.  The game is very easy to get into, and debatably tough to master.  In most MMO's the game doesnt change much from level 10 to the level cap.  In WoW, hitting level cap and doing heroics, grinding faction, taking part in PvP is such a task Blizzard has now allowed players to dual spec letting players switch between specs on the fly.  Many of the boss fights become a puzzle where group coordination is the key element, not how much damage you can deal.  Most end bosses in level 80 heroic wipe groups more than once before the group *clicks* together and understands how to take the boss down.

If you look at its audience, you'll see people playing this game from ages in the single digits to people in their 60's and 70's.  In our guild, we have a retired lady who is 62 and has several 80's completely loaded with epics.  We also have a couple people who are 10 and 14.

They keep the game evolving also.  With Wrath of the Lich King they introduced "phasing".  For instance, you start in a city which is war torn and sent on a series of quests.  As you complete these quests and liberate the city, you see the city rebuild itself and the guards call you "hero" as you walk past..  Theres also quests that phase once you get into a specific area on the map, it transitions into something specific for your quest and character.  Theyve even put this into boss fights, where a boss will create gates that require a portion of the raid group to step into this other "dimension" and defeat mobs where the boss is drawing its power from.  Once completed, the group is phased back with the rest of the group to attack the boss.  I really hope more MMO developers take notice of phasing as well as blizzard in their upcoming game ventures.

I agree with the accessability comment.

I view it as WoW being like a very easy to understand and get started console game. You practically just pop the disc in and go, while many other games require a varied degree of techy or hardcore gamer knowledge.

As for a more general answer as to who WoW is a success, it's because Blizzard is a success.

They built a great company that developed a staggeringly good following of loyal players/costumers, and although a downside was how long they took/take to output a game, when they did, it worked, and worked well.

There business model is almost entirely unique, and I'd dare to guess practically patent-able.

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Originally posted by Jackdog

 

While Vanguard certainly offered a variety of "grinds"  and a huge world to explore the graphics and to a lesser degree the bugs killed it.
 
Anyway I thought the entire article was a excellent bit of reasoning on a admittedly controversial topic

---

 yeah it pretty much describes why some mmo's do better then others

I love vanguard actually, but its very hard to play I and  want to play it. The variety is there, but everytime I go into an area to do quests that has a lot of buildings and decorations the lag is terrible. Then there is the problem with not being able to fight npcs etc in buildings because of the design its very hard. I dont think I have played another game where I really like it, but game design has prevented me from playing it.

Its a shame that good games end up like this but it is what happened with vanguard and it does not appear to be fixable because it would be repaired by now. That being said its better then it was at launch, but not good enough for me to be able to play it and not just frustrate myself.

Graphics are nice, but they do not make the game and I dont think that most people have considered graphics to be the number 1 influencing factor as to why they play a game.

It's because they provide the most varied game experience in the genre.

There is PvE, both casual and hardcore.
There is PvP, both casual and hardcore.
There is crafting and resource gathering.
There are 10 character slots for the alt-o-holic.
There are achievements for the completionist.
There is open RvR (on PvP servers)
There is Roleplaying (on RP servers)

Most players aren't one-dimensional .. I play on an RP-PvP server in a PvE guild, have 4 x level 80s and spent 3 hours today working on achievements. I can see how "hardcore" PvE/PvP players can burn out, but for those of us who enjoy multiple facets of MMOGs, it's pretty hard to get bored when there are so many options available.

The only types of MMORPG players that WoW doesn't directly support are the minorities like the Permadeath, Sandbox and FFA looting crowds, and they are largely insignificant when one is taking them into account as a percentage.

Combine all that with accessible system requirements, regular updates/expansions, a low learning curve, and then consider that no other game has managed to offer all of the above.

It's really no suprise that WoW continues to dominate the genre.

I played WoW for a year or so, and, though I got extremely bored, it was appealing at the time.  WoW offers a lot to casual and hardcore players.  My husband still plays it and raids twice a week (he'd do it more if I allowed it).  He didn't hit that "bump" I did. 

That guy knows what he is talking about.

Sad to realize nobody in this forum does, including me,  after years and years of posting.

Originally posted by altairzq

That guy knows what he is talking about.

Sad to realize nobody in this forum does, including me,  after years and years of posting.

ROFL now that would make a great sig

Myself I played WoW at release for 20 days and went back to EQII and never played it since, but I am the first to admit that Blizzard surely knows how to make a successful game

WoW is boring, so as a attemp to make a game is a failure. It could be a financial sucess, but.. what are we? accounting? is this a gamer website or a accounting website?  This is not Wall Street Journal, this is MMORPG.com 

Nice troll post troll. You're bad and you should feel bad.

Why is WoW a success?

Because Blizzard is the devil and has everyone playing it under a spell.

How else would you explain 11 million people playing a Average MMO that's basically just a gear treadmill?

Blizzard has all of you guys giving them all that money and yet they release content equal to games with just a fraction of Wows playerbase and profit.

You would think people would have left Blizzard high and dry by now due to that alone yet they won't.

It's a spell, I'm convinced.

Originally posted by JGMIII

Why is WoW a success?

Because Blizzard is the devil and has everyone playing it under a spell.

How else would you explain 11 million people playing a Average MMO that's basically just a gear treadmill?

Blizzard has all of you guys giving them all that money and yet they release content equal to games with just a fraction of Wows playerbase and profit.

You would think people would have left Blizzard high and dry by now due to that alone yet they won't.

It's a spell, I'm convinced.

you cant blame blizzard you would do the same in their spot just just look at companies like walt disney they been getting away with bs like this for years .

Originally posted by callmeluke

Originally posted by JGMIII

Why is WoW a success?

Because Blizzard is the devil and has everyone playing it under a spell.

How else would you explain 11 million people playing a Average MMO that's basically just a gear treadmill?

Blizzard has all of you guys giving them all that money and yet they release content equal to games with just a fraction of Wows playerbase and profit.

You would think people would have left Blizzard high and dry by now due to that alone yet they won't.

It's a spell, I'm convinced.

 

you cant blame blizzard you would do the same in their spot just just look at companies like walt disney they been getting away with bs like this for years .

I blame whoever gave Blizzard the power of the devil.

Also the players for letting a company take advantage of them.

Testify!!!!!!!!!!! My brothers and sisters!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And once again, I recommend BioWare's Walton On Making MMOs Post-World of Warcraft. A very interesting read, especially considering what project he's working on at the moment. ;-) (To save some a quick search... SW:TOR.)

Originally posted by sammi0410

hmm... do you guys think the fact that everything is anonymous/ you can use avatars that are different from your identities play a part in MMORPG success?

People have all kinds of reasons for playing MMOGs, or games in general. I doubt many start to play MMOGs because they can be anonymous, but I think quite a few would quit sooner if they couldn't be anonymous. And with anonymous I refer both to nobody knowing who you are in "real life", and to nobody knowing who your alternate characters are. Unless you tell them, of course.

WoW is a success because me and millions of other people find it fun to play.

For those who dont enjoy it:  sucks to be you

Originally posted by JGMIII

Why is WoW a success?

Because Blizzard is the devil and has everyone playing it under a spell.

How else would you explain 11 million people playing a Average MMO that's basically just a gear treadmill?

Blizzard has all of you guys giving them all that money and yet they release content equal to games with just a fraction of Wows playerbase and profit.

You would think people would have left Blizzard high and dry by now due to that alone yet they won't.

It's a spell, I'm convinced.

The only reason you troll WoW so hard is because they nerfed your paladin once upon a time, get over it

Originally posted by rello

Originally posted by JGMIII

Why is WoW a success?

Because Blizzard is the devil and has everyone playing it under a spell.

How else would you explain 11 million people playing a Average MMO that's basically just a gear treadmill?

Blizzard has all of you guys giving them all that money and yet they release content equal to games with just a fraction of Wows playerbase and profit.

You would think people would have left Blizzard high and dry by now due to that alone yet they won't.

It's a spell, I'm convinced.

 

The only reason you troll WoW so hard is because they nerfed your paladin once upon a time, get over it

Yes you're right, because pallys suck in Pvp as Ret? Can't tank as prot? or Heal as Holy?

Do you even play WoW? Pallys are OP. If i was only after buffs for a class wouldn't I be playing a pally in WotLK????

Man these fanbots never stop even after you beat them down over and over and prove their game is just a basic feature game.

Stop all the QQ already.