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Is Blizzard just that damn good, or are the rest of the developers just that bad?

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  • thexratedthexrated Member UncommonPosts: 1,368
    WoW was an exception and there are no guarantees that the new MMO will be any good. It might end up just like all the other recent launches, as people play it for few months and move to the next title. Blizzard is not the same company it used to be, as their recent games show.

    "The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in."

  • NitthNitth Member UncommonPosts: 3,904

    I think its people.

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    TSW - AoC - Aion - WOW - EVE - Fallen Earth - Co - Rift - || XNA C# Java Development

  • yewsefyewsef Member CommonPosts: 335
    Post 2004 Blizzard sucks donkey balls.
  • delete5230delete5230 Member EpicPosts: 7,081

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    - I don't think the game is outdated at all, they made changes to candy the game down to the point it's only for kids between the ages of 6-17.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

  • bcbullybcbully Member EpicPosts: 11,838
    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.

    "We see fundamentals and we ape in"
  • IndolIndol Member Posts: 189

    Neither option.

     

    Popularity is not indicative of quality.

  • KyleranKyleran Member LegendaryPosts: 43,373

    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.

     

    "True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde 

    "I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant

    Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm

    Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV

    Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™

    "This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon






  • Four0SixFour0Six Member UncommonPosts: 1,175

    I didn't vote.

    At minimum there should be a third option.

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

  • RidelynnRidelynn Member EpicPosts: 7,383

    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.

  • Kaelano1Kaelano1 Member Posts: 375
    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.

  • PurutzilPurutzil Member UncommonPosts: 3,048

    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. 

  • botrytisbotrytis Member RarePosts: 3,363
    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.


  • NetSageNetSage Member UncommonPosts: 1,059
    I would say Blizzard is that good.  They make long lasting quality games.  It goes beyond WoW look at the Warcraft (RTS) series, Starcraft series, and Diablo.  All of these games are top selling games.
  • KuinnKuinn Member UncommonPosts: 2,072

    Because WoW is the entry mmorpg? Then people think they get bored with it when in fact they get bored with the genre. Only these genre-burnt people try new mmorpgs but are already bored with the new games before they even play the games. Some WoW players try the new games too but go "I miss my guildies in WoW :( feels so lonely in here" - both parties quit the new game. WoW wins. Kids keep entering the genre through WoW marketing machine and the cycle keeps spinning.

     

    We are finally seeing some baby steps in the genre to change some things a bit so there will be actual new games, and hopefully it will shake the genre a bit, put pressure more on Blizz too to become that quality company it used to be before they got cocky and started to take their customers from behind with no warning or respect for them.

  • BeermanglerBeermangler Member UncommonPosts: 402
    Originally posted by AZHokie54
    Thread title literally made me piss my pants laughing.  

    Literally? Pics or it didn't happen.

    Better to be crazy, provided you know what sane is...

  • JaedorJaedor Member UncommonPosts: 1,173

    I'm guessing the chips would fall on the "Blizz is just that good" side of the board, but it probably isn't just one thing as much as:
    1) good cash flow to hire very talented peeps,
    2) long (ie good) history of success regarding project management, timing and organization,
    3) high (ie good) standards of polish before games are presented to the public.


    I may not like Pandas or ever play WoW again, but I'll give them props for rolling out a polished and consistent product.

  • arctarusarctarus Member UncommonPosts: 2,581

    First i would say blizz is talented, it retain some of the old school elements of the mmo when making WoW, like huge seamless zone, day night cycle, open world elite mobs etc and yet at the same time scale down the difficulty and able to cater to more players.

    Problem is post WoW mmo, while trying to clone , yet they fail in so many areas, example LOTR, so many zonning! you even have to zone in to enter a city, whereas in WoW you can jusy run in, eq2, zone to travel to freeport, War, swtor, linen questing etc etc..

    So yes, other developers is that bad! in trying to mimic WoW, yet offer such a small portion of what WoW have to offer.

    And i do not agree that players dont want to leave WoW due to the time invested , examplle looking at the numbers of boxes sold for War ( ~1mil), AOC ( ~1mil ) and Swtor ( 2.4mil ). There's tons of players wana leave WoW, but problem is these new mmo offer nothing new and players quickly leave after launch.

    And when your guidies who have left WoW for , say War, come back cursing and swearing, and the same thing happens over and over again, till even now swtor, this makes more players stick to WoW and wait for others to try out the new mmo before they decide to go over.

    Understand this that WoW is still losing subs, and i dont know is this part of the reason they are bringing back world mobs, planting vege etc..

    If this formula prove successful and brings back the crowd, players who love vanilla WoW, than we will see the reign of WoW for a little longer whether you like it or not....

     

     

     

    RIP Orc Choppa

  • XzenXzen Member UncommonPosts: 2,607
    My answer is none of the above. WoW is an aberration. There is no explination for why it has done as well as it has. Is Blizzard just that good? No. WoW is good but there have been other themepark mmorpgs that were just as good if not better than WoW like Rift and SWTOR.
  • MeGaTronPowerMeGaTronPower Member Posts: 80
    Originally posted by Xzen
    My answer is none of the above. WoW is an aberration. There is no explination for why it has done as well as it has. Is Blizzard just that good? No. WoW is good but there have been other themepark mmorpgs that were just as good if not better than WoW like Rift and SWTOR.

     hey guys he just said swtor was good LOL.

    rift is good, swtor LOL.

  • ThorbrandThorbrand Member Posts: 1,198

    Blizzards success isn't the game it was their timing! That is why they had so many players and of course WarCraft was pretty popular in the gaming industry. If it would have been any other game or company at that same time making said MMO for more casual gamers it would have been what WOW is today.

    The funny thing is that even though WOW was casual at the time of launch, today 90% of gamers wouldn't even be able to play Vanilla WOW because it would be to hard. Funny how things go in MMOs.

  • arctarusarctarus Member UncommonPosts: 2,581
    Originally posted by Xzen
    My answer is none of the above. WoW is an aberration. There is no explination for why it has done as well as it has. Is Blizzard just that good? No. WoW is good but there have been other themepark mmorpgs that were just as good if not better than WoW like Rift and SWTOR.

    Subs speaks for itself.

    For me Rift is good but not better than WoW in terms of combat animations, the graphic style they choose, yes Trion is a hard working company, and i wish them well.

    Swtor????? guess you are those few that like the 4th pillar and satisfied by it alone...

     

    RIP Orc Choppa

  • arctarusarctarus Member UncommonPosts: 2,581
    Originally posted by Thorbrand

      today 90% of gamers wouldn't even be able to play Vanilla WOW because it would be to hard. Funny how things go in MMOs.

    Link please.....

     

    RIP Orc Choppa

  • ste2000ste2000 Member EpicPosts: 6,194
    Answering the OP.
    Because WOW is an Hardcore MMO, unlike what majority of players AND developers think. It take ages to complete all the Endgame content even for an hardcore player.
    Developers instead are making games easier and easier for a casual crowd which frankly do not exist. What the market call Casual players are not actual MMO players and do not intend to subscribe to a MMO past the first month.
    Developers should start making MMO for MMO players, if they do so, maybe we win't have so many failures and WOW won't be the 10 million wonder it is now.

  • KareliaKarelia Member Posts: 668
    Originally posted by Xzen
    My answer is none of the above. WoW is an aberration. There is no explination for why it has done as well as it has. Is Blizzard just that good? No. WoW is good but there have been other themepark mmorpgs that were just as good if not better than WoW like Rift and SWTOR.

    now thats just...LOL!!!!

  • ThorbrandThorbrand Member Posts: 1,198
    Originally posted by arctarus
    Originally posted by Thorbrand

      today 90% of gamers wouldn't even be able to play Vanilla WOW because it would be to hard. Funny how things go in MMOs.

    Link please.....

     

    It is called logic! Link...Really! Today's games are far less difficult than Vanilla WOW and gamers still complain they are to difficult and need to be dumbed down.

    Ask any gamers at the launch of WOW. Not to mention this is when we had open world PvP! No damn BGs.

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