I also followed development of this game for years until Beta began. The failure of TCoS can be pinpointed to the publisher choices the management of this MMORPG made. Without much marketing and odd release stages for different countries, the game never had a chance to really grow a playerbase. I think the next big thing on the market will be Star Wars: The Old Republic by Bioware. At least this game has an experienced development studio and huge support by LucasArts behind it.

Originally posted by xenogias

Originally posted by -Inferno-

I'm approaching my first year of WoW. My warlock is level 70 and decently equipped from 25-player raids. My druid twink is progressing slowly (still stuck at level 45) and the game is still almost as exciting as it was when I began playing it. The world is simply huge, the graphics pleasing to the eye and the community behind WoW is the best I've ever seen in any MMORPG so far. Blizzard care a lot for their players and do all sorts of community things (like the World Wide Invitational in Paris, France this coming weekend) or seasonal events (like the Summer Festival currently going on). They have almost unlimited funding, a very experienced staff, great GM support.... basically everything a MMORPG needs to succeed. Thus it doesn't surprise me that WoW is at the top of the hall of fame at this time and probably will be for some years. I am looking forward to the next expansion (Wrath of the Lich King) and many more years of WoW.

 

Sorry but if WoW has the best community you have seen in an MMO you must not have played verry many at all. Only ones that have worse communities are f2p MMO's. Even the most rabid fans of WoW admit the community is one of the worse.

Now that said, running into a ton of asshats is expected when you have the numbers WoW has. So of all the faults I personally see with WoW the community aspect as least has a good excuse.

Of course there are bad apples among the millions of players. But the sheer size of the community helps with having a lot of very nice players. So far I've only encountered maybe 10 bad players among thousands. By the way, I've played a lot of MMORPGs and been writer/reviewer for sites like Stratics, Warcry and MMORPG.com - so I know what I'm talking about ;)

While the crafting side of the game could use a serious overhaul (crafting is just plain useless most of the time), I think WoW is the most polished MMORPG I've ever played. I used to be one of those people who say "Bah this game is so mainstream, it will never appeal to my very special MMORPG needs." But then I bought the game along with the expansion and found out that it is the best MMORPG of all time: Largest MMORPG community, a wonderful world with great lore behind all major NPCs or events, thousands of quests, exciting dungeons and raid encounters, not-too-difficult gameplay, decent graphics, a comparatively cheap monthly price... To this day I regret that I didn't start playing it when it was released. The old instances are pretty much deserted and player titles to be earned back then are no longer achievable. So while I avoided the game until summer last year, it was a really bad decision to wait so long. Today it's almost a must to have some experience with WoW, to be able to talk with friends about your or their latest raid...

I started WoW a year ago - it's never too late to start with a great MMORPG like this. New people constantly join the ranks of the WoW community, so you may aswell be one of them. I expect a lot of the veterans to return when WotLK is live.

I'm approaching my first year of WoW. My warlock is level 70 and decently equipped from 25-player raids. My druid twink is progressing slowly (still stuck at level 45) and the game is still almost as exciting as it was when I began playing it. The world is simply huge, the graphics pleasing to the eye and the community behind WoW is the best I've ever seen in any MMORPG so far. Blizzard care a lot for their players and do all sorts of community things (like the World Wide Invitational in Paris, France this coming weekend) or seasonal events (like the Summer Festival currently going on). They have almost unlimited funding, a very experienced staff, great GM support.... basically everything a MMORPG needs to succeed. Thus it doesn't surprise me that WoW is at the top of the hall of fame at this time and probably will be for some years. I am looking forward to the next expansion (Wrath of the Lich King) and many more years of WoW.

Woa... this forum still exists? And DnL still exists? Amazing...

I think one of the greatest appeals of WoW is its vast and well developed lore. There are many races with each having its own story and background. Everytime you start a new character you get to learn about the difficulties or successes your race has had during the span of all the Warcraft games. I think MMOGs based on successful single player games are usually more successful because people already know what they can expect from the story of their game. Add to that the experience, reputation and funding behind Warcraft and Blizzard and there was little they could have done wrong. I am currently playing WoW and I am enjoying it greatly. The only problem I have with it is the endgame. They could do better than what is currently there.

Well back in the day when SWG was more or less on the frontline of MMOGs, cities like Coronet or Theed were full of players. The cantinas were packed and playing an entertainer was actually entertaining. I saw nobody in Coronet or Theed, so that is why I came to the conclusion that SWG is dead. I expected the largest cities in the game to have some population. Then again, it may be different on other servers. Since my character is located on Starsider, that's what my experience is based on.

My MMORPG re-review of DnL = "This game still exists?"

Dark and Light + SOE... that's the stuff nightmares are made of.

I recently reinstalled my copy of SWG and had a look at several cantinas (Coronet, Mos Eisley, Theed) on Starsider. The cities were deserted and so after 1 hour of running around in my sexy entertainer outfit and meeting maybe 2 or 3 other players, I closed the game and came to the conclusion that SWG is dead.