Originally posted by Psychow

Blizzard is by far the most talented. That doesn't mean they have ALL the talent tho. But they are #1 for a reason, and it isn't because of something stupid like advertising. Advertising may help sell boxes, but it doesn't help retain subs, which Blizzard has done very well over the life of WoW.

 

 

Hardly the most talent.

Blizzard is definitely that good. However they did already have a very large following from previous games to bring players into the World of Warcraft world. The game was sold before it was even released because it was by Blizzard.

Its an extremely quality game and has an incredible amount of content.

The problem for the rest of these games like Rift and The Secret World and so on is that they didnt have a following. SWTOR was huge because Bioware had a very large following. The problem there is most people dont want to just play another WoW style game. I cant imagine most WoW players straight up quitting WoW for SWTOR, trying SWTOR yeah but if you played a game like WoW for a long time and then SWTOR comes out and doesnt really offer anything new or different other than being Star Wars the players coming from other games like WoW likely wont stay, especially if theyre like msyelf that quit playing WoW simply after getting tired of it.

I love SWTOR but im tired of the gameplay. I'll definitely return if it goes F2P just to play casually and enjoy its awesomeness.

I think of it kind of the same as the players who will play Battlefield or CoD. A lot of players choose one or the other, some play both. Either way people will have a preference on which theyd rather play more of. Both games are very similar but theyre different enough to pick one over the other.

WoW has always adapted and changed with the times, theres always fresh content and its just going to be overwhelming for any other company making an mmorpg just like it.

SWTOR should be happy with themselves that they sold so many copies and did a really good job. WoW was kind of the first of its kind in it being the first MMORPG intended for casual players while also having tons for the hardcore players. The biggest thing it has always had tho was a way to play it casually and be rewarded for it.

Things have definitely gone downhill with Blizzard since Activision joined in (opinion of course)  but theres also been a ton of good changes for it too. WoW is all around an incredible full game when it comes down to it and offering a game just like it with less content is definitely not going to beat it outright.

Originally posted by Eir_S
Also, you could have added a "View Results" option.  You're just forcing people who want to see the results to kiss Blizzard's ass.

What? you can also vote for 'others are that bad' implying Blizzard isn't all that. If all you want to do is see reults. You people do drama for nothing.

you can put this into the terms of a race.

You give a runner a head start then its competitors will need to be extremely faster than them in order to outrun the person who got the head start.

Takeing WoW and putting it beside any recently released MMO and comparing it is literally doing the same thing.

NO game can compete with WoW on Content. Its not possible, its not because Blizzard are these amazing devs who put out this amazing game. its because the game came out YEARS ago.

You cant compete with it for dedication because people have been playing it for so long it has become part of their daily ritual.

Population because of time is the same aswell.

Literally the only reason WoW is as big as it still is, is because of TIME.

Originally posted by Rayshe

you can put this into the terms of a race.

 

You give a runner a head start then its competitors will need to be extremely faster than them in order to outrun the person who got the head start.

 

Takeing WoW and putting it beside any recently released MMO and comparing it is literally doing the same thing.

 

NO game can compete with WoW on Content. Its not possible, its not because Blizzard are these amazing devs who put out this amazing game. its because the game came out YEARS ago.

You cant compete with it for dedication because people have been playing it for so long it has become part of their daily ritual.

Population because of time is the same aswell.

 

Literally the only reason WoW is as big as it still is, is because of TIME.

That is just not true. What  about games like EQ2? it has even more content than WOW. What about FFXI? it can compete with WOW in content any day.

So nope it is not just about the content. WOW has been beating MMOS to pulp for 8 years now because the game is actually loads of fun. Yes it is that simple.

People play WoW because they don't want to leave (the game/their friends/their characters).

If those players aren't looking for a new game, then it doesn't matter what new games appear - they won't leave wow.

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The Blizzard devs are good at catering to their player base, but Blizzard itself is a shadow of the company(ies) it used to be.  The awe-inspiring name responsible for diablo, warcraft, starcraft and wow - now relegated to sequels/expansions that lack any of the creativity shown in those titles.  It's like the entire company is in 'MMO maintenance mode' - churning out expansions that fit their existing customers, rather than looking for new ideas and innovations.

Originally posted by bcbully

With that said, how is it possible that Blizzard can take this old game with an older engine and probably sell more copies of it's 4th expansion than GW2, SwTOR, TSW and RIFT combined?!

I'd say it is pretty obvious. Neither.

It is one thing to sell an expansion to an already existing consumerbase which already has (or has had at some point) a direct investment in your product. It is quite another to try and prise customers away from another product, or new customers into the genre by selling them a completely new product.

Comparing straight up new game sales and expansion sales to pre-existing customers is an odd one to say the least. If you are going to go on a metric of expansion sales it should be done as a percentage as sales against recent customers of the main line product.

Originally posted by bcbully

Let me start by sayin I played WoW for five years, with an embarrassing amout of time  /played on just my main not to mention my 8 alts. I stopped playing about a year and a half ago, and have no plans to go back. WoW is dated, and was taken in a direction that I could not agree with. Which brought a level of distrust for Blizzard that hasn't eased yet. 

 

With that said, how is it possible that Blizzard can take this old game with an older engine and probably sell more copies of it's 4th expansion than GW2, SwTOR, TSW and RIFT combined?! What does this say about the rest of the developers out there? How is it that Blizzard can make a game where millions of people play for years and these other developers can't make a game where most people want to play 6 months?  To be far I did play RIFT for ten months. I tip my hat to the TRION team, but that's a far cry from years. 

 

So which one is it? Blizzard is that good, or does the rest of the industry suck that bad? It's either more of one or the other.

 

edit - and an "e" to the "on" in the pole....

 

 

 

 

you should add some options like "has the blizzard just awesome advertising?"

also "are the people nowdays lazy geeks and choose the noobfriendly WoW?"

that game sucks i never paid a cent for that game and i am not blizzard hater, i enjoy Starcraft II, and i had spenc tons of my time with Warcraft III ..!

Originally posted by dumbo11

The Blizzard devs are good at catering to their player base, but Blizzard itself is a shadow of the company(ies) it used to be.  The awe-inspiring name responsible for diablo, warcraft, starcraft and wow - now relegated to sequels/expansions that lack any of the creativity shown in those titles.  It's like the entire company is in 'MMO maintenance mode' - churning out expansions that fit their existing customers, rather than looking for new ideas and innovations.

Kinda makes me wonder what will happen once their current IPs run out of juice...

Blizzard was lucky enough to be at the right time and the right place regarding developing an MMO. Just like Microsoft who's taken ideas, technologies and re-packaged it only to sell it for even more than the previous version, Blizzard crafts WoW in a cauldron filled with gravy made out of many older games and other cultural assets (movies, TV shows and other fiction not originally created by Blizzard). Pokemon playing Kung Fu Pandas anyone?

So in my opinion, Blizzard wasn't ever that damn good and the rest of the developers were also not that bad. Also, a poll with just two answeres isn't looking for real answers anyway.
 

well i never played wow nearly as long as i played either eq or daoc so for me i see that its an ok game, but certainly no better than most of the other offerings.

i doubt they even know why theyve done so well..terrible graphics, easy game...

maybe thats what it takes for the masses.

Originally posted by Indol

Neither option.

 

Popularity is not indicative of quality.

Agreed.

Originally posted by bcbully

Let me start by sayin I played WoW for five years, with an embarrassing amout of time  /played on just my main not to mention my 8 alts. I stopped playing about a year and a half ago, and have no plans to go back. WoW is dated, and was taken in a direction that I could not agree with. Which brought a level of distrust for Blizzard that hasn't eased yet. 

 

With that said, how is it possible that Blizzard can take this old game with an older engine and probably sell more copies of it's 4th expansion than GW2, SwTOR, TSW and RIFT combined?! What does this say about the rest of the developers out there? How is it that Blizzard can make a game where millions of people play for years and these other developers can't make a game where most people want to play 6 months?  To be far I did play RIFT for ten months. I tip my hat to the TRION team, but that's a far cry from years. 

 

So which one is it? Blizzard is that good, or does the rest of the industry suck that bad? It's either more of one or the other.

 

edit - and an "e" to the "on" in the pole....

 

 

 

 

the answet is simple its the advertising

how many times you saw a big star add WoW in tv or over the internet?

and now how many times you saw big star add other game in tv or internet?

its in human nature to buy something even if they dont need just becouse they saw it in tv