A big reason more eat at McDonald's than Outback's or comparable steakhouses is a meal in Outback's will set you back 3X or more dollars than a meal at McDonalds or comparable fast food places.

Another reason more people eat at McDonalds is that there are more McDonalds than other fast food chains and alot more than Outbacks.

Last time I checked  WoW's basic subscription price was $15/month.    This is about the top end of fees for a MMO.     WoW has gourmet prices not fast food prices.

Last time I checked everyone with access to a computer and internet could play all the released game on the MMORPG.com list.   (I'll give you that WoW has lower system requirement that some games  Esp the new ones)

If McDonalds, Wendys,  BurgerKing,  Outbacks and Texas Roadhouse were on the same block and charged the same price for a meal and one of the stores had 10X the sales of anyother store on the block.   An intelligent person could make a reasonable assumption that the quality of the dining experience in that store is better than the others.

Disclaimer:  I no longer play WoW anymore but get annoyed when people are dismissive of WoW's success.  It might not be your cup of tea but it is still quality tea.

Edit:  Minor changes for clarity

You know, I've noticed something...any thread with "WoW" in the title is bound to become a hot topic on this forum.  Not only can we not get enough playing WoW, we also can't get enough discussing it.  Well what the heck, might as well milk it for all its worth.

WoW may be the fast food of MMOs, I don't know.  The only comparison I can make personally to this is that I don't eat fast food and I don't play WoW, so there may be something to this.

I think a better comparison would be a big budget, block buster movie.  Not the cheesy, summer flick, but the block buster movie with several big name actors and a solid script.  The downside being that these type of movies are some what predictable with that feeling that you've some how "seen this movie before", even when you haven't.

You are way off on your analogy.  Actually you spend more time comparing Mcdonald's and Outback than WoW to ???

WoW is like Mcdonald's not because of the price.  WoW is like McDonald's because it's consistently mediocre and delivers the same thing over and over and over. 

McDonalds equals Billions Served

WoW equals Millions Served

WoW is the real toontown online, we all know it!

Originally posted by r0hn

You are way off on your analogy.  Actually you spend more time comparing Mcdonald's and Outback than WoW to ???

WoW is like Mcdonald's not because of the price.  WoW is like McDonald's because it's consistently mediocre and delivers the same thing over and over and over. 

McDonalds equals Billions Served

WoW equals Millions Served

You might not like the TYPE of content or even the TYPE of game, but insulting some of the best devs on the whole planet is short sighted, would be like saying that Sid Meyer is just a fool as he makes the same games (Civlization) over and over and over again!

The whole premise of the OP is that WoW is somehow lower quality that other MMOs currently released. I disagree. Love it or Hate it, WoW is currently the best overall PVE game currently released. Other games may moderatly surpass WoW is one or two areas, but taken as a whole, WoW rises above

Originally posted by r0hn

You are way off on your analogy.  Actually you spend more time comparing Mcdonald's and Outback than WoW to ???

WoW is like Mcdonald's not because of the price.  WoW is like McDonald's because it's consistently mediocre and delivers the same thing over and over and over. 

McDonalds equals Billions Served

WoW equals Millions Served

WoW is mediocre? Tons of reviewers, award givers and 10 million people are going to disagree with you.

Delivers the same thing over and over and over? Congratulations, you have just described nearly every single mmorpg in existance.

You people should stop wasting time trying to look cool at the same time you are trying to take "the game" down.

Waste of time, waste of energy. We have seen more threads about how mutch WoW sucks, then the actual players that stopped playing it.

If you think it's so bad quality, stop wasting your time doing nothing (i consider this thread, and similar threads, nothing) and DO SOMETHING productive, like help other games to become good, help programmers/developers to understand what "quality" is, hell!! make a game yourself!

edit: btw, dont play it anymore, quitted some months back, but you dont see me posting how mutch it sucks, do you? Why? Because... there is no point in it.

I guess I wasn't clear I think WoW = McDonalds is a bad analogy.  

I think a better analogy for WoW detractors would be WoW = a huge grossing movie that is not very good.  For example WoW = Independance Day.     

Personally I think WoW = The first Lord of the RIngs movie.   Very sucessful yet very well crafted movie. 

Reason I brought this thread up is because I see the McDonalds = WoW analogy a lot  and its not a good one.

The reason billions eat at McDonalds is not because its mediocre its because its quality Fast Food.   Most McDonalds are clean,  have good service and good food for the class of restraut they are in.  

McDonalds does not have  gourmet food or gourmet service.    But they are not charging gourmet prices.  They are not in that class of restrauts. 

WoW,  EQ, EQ2, LOTRO,  Vanguard, and etc are all in the same class - MMORPGs yet one has an order of magintude of  more subscriptions than the others.    And it is not because its mediocre.  

Please excuse my spelling.

I love the analogy, ive used the analogy, and i think the analogy works pretty well.

People (me included) eat at McDonalds because it is fast and easy. You dont have to think alot going through a McDonalds drive through.

WoW is also fast and easy.

See, it works fine.

Plus the analogy is primarily used when people spout off that 10 million people cant be wrong. Well, in fact, 10 million people CAN be wrong.

Things that over 10 million people believed:

The world is flat- Wrong

The Sun revolves around the Earth- Wrong

WoW is the greatest MMO ever made- Wrong

I often hate on WoW but in reality i dont think WoW is all that bad. But i also dont think it is all that good.

Mac'donaolds = 1 of the lowest rated food on the planet

WoW = the highest rated MMO on the planet

...how is wow like macdonalds again? you certainly cannot compare the 2 on quality.

But we will always have people spouting this analogy becuase they think they are being clever when most of us know they are far from that if they believe WoW is Macdonalds.

Originally posted by coffee

Mac'donaolds = 1 of the lowest rated food on the planet

WoW = the highest rated MMO on the planet

...how is wow like macdonalds again? you certainly cannot compare the 2 on quality.

But we will always have people spouting this analogy becuase they think they are being clever when most of us know they are far from that if they believe WoW is Macdonalds.

McDonalds is a fast, easy and a forgetable choice in fast food.

WoW is a fast, easy and a forgetable choice in MMOs.

They are not the same thing, they just have similar qualities.

Originally posted by safwd

 

Originally posted by coffee

Mac'donaolds = 1 of the lowest rated food on the planet

WoW = the highest rated MMO on the planet

...how is wow like macdonalds again? you certainly cannot compare the 2 on quality.

But we will always have people spouting this analogy becuase they think they are being clever when most of us know they are far from that if they believe WoW is Macdonalds.

Of course WoW is not McDonalds.

 

McDonalds is a fast, easy and a forgetable choice in fast food.

WoW is a fast, easy and a forgetable choice in MMOs.

They are not the same thing, they just have similar qualities.

.... how is wow like macdonalds again?