The WoW Effect

DeeJay612

On this site I've read quite a few post bashing WoW,  few praising it, and still others blame it for the state that MMORPG's are in today.  I do like the game, but no longer play it.  Th reason I quit is because my wife started school...and now with work and school she doesn't really have time to play WoW. We played together and I didn't want to play without her.

I first played WoW in 2007 right after the release of TBC and there were lots of people who were just playing WoW for the first time even though the game had been out since 2004. I guess success breeds continued success.  Some players may think this take away from game immersion, but when old players quit or move on to other games if new players don't replace them the game will eventually die.  Not because it is too hard, but because playing with others is a huge selling point of the game in the first place.  When I left WoW in November of last year....there were still new loads of people just playing for the first time. The game is so successful because it did alot of things brilliantly. Yes, it is easier than most MMO, but most of the games now, if you don't start playing them when they first come out then you have a harder time intergrating into the community. Most people play MMORPG's for the social aspect and the a lot of games simply aren't very fun or interesting enough for me to solo lvl until I finally get to a point to where someone might give half of a damn that I'm playing. Picking up a game close to launch solves this but lately that's a problem in itself because alot of the games have been so buggy and incomplete that a lot of people leave and don't return. I've tried a few trials and most of the Starter areas are ghost towns and people playing their low lvl alts don't want to be bothered to quest or assist someone who is new.

WoW is the only game that I can say that I'd recommend to anyone who is looking to get into a genre with complete confidence that they'd play it and enjoy it. Yeah, once you've played for it for awhile it can get to be repetitive or it can get old. But that's just like anything else in life. I think almost everyone who are bashing WoW now have played it and played for some time. I mean it's 2009 now and if you first played it at launch.. yes it should be a bit redundant by now, but I can say that I know I could log onto it tomorrow and find something enjoyable. That is what a game is.. it's entertainment.. not a substitute for life and as far as entertainment goes in this genre WoW is the 600 lb silver back.

You know for me it's sort of like the Michael Jordan effect, he revolutionized the NBA, but the NBA as a whole suffered because of it. Teams began to draft players based on atheleticism instead of skill. Everyone was trying to find the next Michael Jordan and even players were focused more on endorsement deals than playing the game...more on their stats than wins or losses. I grew up in the 80's watch Larry Bird and the Celtics take on Magic Johnson and the Lakers where competition was in the forefront. I will always cherish those days but since Michael Jordan came on the scene I know we'll never get those days back. Players have evolved and there were a few years of garbage...but players are finally fusing basketball skills with atheleticism.

I think WoW has sparked a period of evolution and right now we are seeing some poor imatations and garbage. Eventually developers will learn there's a difference between blatantly copying and learning, growing, and evolving. I think the genre will evenually be better off because of WoW. It's just painful waiting for whomever will step up and take MMORPG's to the next level. WoW haven't destroyed the genre, it has simply raised the bar.