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The REAL reason Wow has been successful
echolynfan
Member UncommonPosts: 681
I've played just about every MMO there is and there's one thing that Wow does pretty much better than all of them: It works WELL.
Yep - that's it. I can be in a pvp battle with 80 players and maintain a playable FPS throughout. Blizzard created a fantastic game engine that not only performs well - it does so on just about everyone's computer.
After the HUGE disappointment that is SWTOR - with their 15 FPS Warzones - the 7 year old Wow just plainly kicks it's ass. I'm not talking just about content (which you would expect a 7 year old game to have) but the game engine. What was Biofail thinking when they launched with that horrendous steaming pile?
So - Wow will continue to dominate for just that reason.
Currently playing SWTOR and it's MUCH better than it was at launch.
Comments
Real reason why wow is successful. it came out at the right year. If rift came out in 04 and wow came out in 2011 as its current xpac (but it would be the first game) it would not do as well.
well since WoW is shifting to a younger crowd as it demographic they will lose subs, however I think they will continue to be successful just not like the first couple of years....all good things must come to an end.
There are times when one must ask themselves is it my passion that truly frightens you? Or your own?
Maybe; but I would't coun't them out just yet. WoW had years of sustained growth and now that their numbers are finally dropping, it will still be years before they get to the point of Free to Play. However once WoW goes, free to play they will probably become successful again.
WoW was mainly a test for project titan
There are times when one must ask themselves is it my passion that truly frightens you? Or your own?
I am still mad that my Android phone turned out to be a beta test.
a few reasons i believe it was so successful:
-blizzard already had a huge fanbase
- the game was geared toward both the casual and hardcore players
-hero classes (this was scrapped in beta and never really seen the light of day)
-good PR
-big budget
-the game itself was good and back then players didn't have high expectations like they do now.
-little competition
- very small learning curve allowing novice gamers to enjoy the game and not get overwhelmed.
Definitely subject to opinion and one of the main reasons I never, personally, played the game. That may seem a bit shallow, but, when WoW was released, the game did look like crap compared to EQ2 and other PC games in general. Even with the graphical revamp, the game still looks like crap to this day imo. In a game world, immersion is key. Sometimes I like I just run around freely and enjoy the scenery, but if the game looks like crap, then what's the point? That has always been my issue with WoW.
i dont think there is a single mmo out there that manages to capture the fluidity and responsiveness of wows combat animations , up to this day. Im not talking about combat itself, but about the animations.
and i think you got a shit pc and you can barely run wow that is why it look like crap to you.
Agreed!
Currently playing SWTOR and it's MUCH better than it was at launch.
Some people don't like the cartoony look of Wow and I can understand that. I prefer realistic graphics also but all too often they're accompanied by a performance problem which I can't stand.
In the past few years I've purchased many new games only to find that it was a huge waste of money. The games were usually not only lacking in content but had so-so to crappy engines.
And back to my original point: Wow is so popular because it WORKS. I don't care how cool a game might look - if you're in a PVP situation and you're getting 5 FPS - it just doesn't matter.
Currently playing SWTOR and it's MUCH better than it was at launch.
In my opinion wow was successful because everquest 2 dropped the ball big time.
Real reason it did so well, Low system spec, anyone can play it, you dont need a killer rig to play and that in its self helps out more than any other factor, who wants to upgrade just to play a game.
most pc gamers like to upgrade thats the whole point of pc gaming..it's a hobby to build your pc. most console players don't understand this though.
I agree but who has the spare cash these days, we all know it tight everywhere so low spec is a HUGE plus
For its time, I have to agree. The use of color, ambient sound and ambient music, along with the progression of different geographical zones without the use of load screens meant the game, to me, was one of the most immersive online experiences for that time.
Other games that I thought did a good job in this department (back then) were SWG and EVE. And way before those, EQ.
For me, EQ2 unfortunately didn't cut it as for as immersion goes. Actually that was the main reason I mainly stuck with WOW and played EQ2 very sparingly.
I came in here expecting another shallow and simplistic answer to a complex question.
Self-pity imprisons us in the walls of our own self-absorption. The whole world shrinks down to the size of our problem, and the more we dwell on it, the smaller we are and the larger the problem seems to grow.
I will be expecting a grt game from blizz if when they finish titan xD
Right time, right place, right company.
Me, I never liked Warcraft, so it had no traction there. Didn't care for the story or writing, so I quit after my free week. This was not the opinion of millions of others, obviously.
If you are holding out for the perfect game, the only game you play will be the waiting one.
Personally, I'd say one of the reasons WoW has succeeded so well is that Blizzard made a conscious decision that its revnues would come from subscription not box sales - which is they invested in playability and customer retention rather than phoney baloney marketing and sales like EA/Bioware did with SWTOR.
There are so many reasons why WoW has done as well as it has. I don't think you can credit one of their decisions with all of that success. A lot of the things that I really dont like about the game have proven insanely popular.
Who would have thought that running the same instances or raids over and over again for gear would have proven to be so popular? Chasing that carrot on a stick for gear just to have the whole thing reset with every expansion making all of that progression pointless. People obviously love it.
Who would have thought that having PvP so unbalanced with boring simplistic BG's and really no open world PvP would have been popular? In the end BG's are really nothing but yet another gear grind.
WoW's success seems to stem more from the false sense of achievment that comes with a gear grind than anything else. Yes a game that performs well is great but if the content that people enjoy is not there then it really doesn't matter how well the engine performs bcause no one is going to play it.
So empty sense achievment is your point, that could be any game, hell life for that matter, why live when your just going to die in the end, I think its because people enjoy it, right or wrong its what makes people happy and that might be the whole point
You're delusional
WoWs subs are always lowest right before an expansion and spike back up when the Xpac is released
I'd like to see real western numbers .....I played from day one to early 2007 and I knew it was growing for the first couple of years but by the time I left well over 90% of the folks I played with had moved on. I'm sure the days of 8-9 million subscribers are well in the past
I'll be going back to WoW. As OP stated, it runs great on any machine. My 12 year old Dell could play it at launch, my new rig can play any game, and it looks better than some newer games with settings maxed out...and best of all, I get 60fps (that's cap i think by my gfx card). In TSW, I got 40ish, down to 20ish in Fusang. GW2 was a little better, but still not 60fps. Age of Conan (which I think has better graphics than TSW and GW2 combined) runs better than those 2 at 50-55 unless i'm in a guild siege. I can remember being in 40 man raids and not seeing much of a drop off in fps on a computer that can't run anything today, and hasn't been able to since WoW.
Bottom line is WoW is a very smooth running game. Heck I can play it on my laptop no problem, it doesn't even have a dedicated graphics card! Developers could take a note from Blizzard. You can make a game with the bestest of the best graphics in the world, but if noone can play it, you really cut your own throat.
Edit: Another thing why WoW is good, is because it's very user friendly. My mom, who barely knows how to turn on the computer and get on facebook, plays it with no problems. She's only ever asked me where something is a couple of times, and it's usually an optional thing. If my mom can play it, anyone can...sorry mom, wuv yous!