WoW makes it more asscessible to more players, not only because of the system spec, but also the casual side of it.
No longer in mmo you need to gruop up for everything. No longer you need to raid to progress, but everything can be solo, thus you can log in and play any amount of time and you will still level. (before max level that is)
Questing, no doubt they are famous for kill 10 of this, loot 20 of that, but they also have intereasting quests, like bombing, turning into a tree and spying etc.... Other games just lack this aspect of intreasting gameplay. And WoW did offer more types of mobs....
Other games try to mimic WoW, but fail because they can't deliver what they promise. They hype it up so much but when you log in, its just plain boring (War) or just too many bugs (eg. VG and AoC and War).
BTW SoE rescue VG by buying over, but when MSF after invested 30mil in VG and yet pull out, our spider senses should already be ticking like mad!!
There's alot of players that's already bored of WoW, but for a lack of better games on the market, they continue to stick with it or goes back.
Hope they Dev by now realise that, if we wana play a clone, we might as well play the original one.....
EDIT: forget to add, WoW is also very detail in their graphics (eg. mining nodes) and combat animations...
Because every recently failed game (DF, AoC, WAR,etc.) thinks it can change the rules of what makes a sucessful MMORPG. By looking at the phenomenal successes of EQ and WoW we can establish a few rules: -Most people like PvE -The few people that don't like PvE like PvP -Your game should be about 90% PvE and 20% voluntary PvP -Full loot fails -Open PvP fails -One end game encounter fails -No progression fails -Titties >>> gameplay/working game fails -Scenario PvP doesn't fail but should only be a small part of PvP I could go on and on. Hopefully a good company will come along and make a game that I can stand for more than 3 days but seeing that Darkfall and AoC recently tried to set the bar low, wanted to go lower, got a shovel, dug awhile and set the bar, I think the next successful MMORPG will be either Blizzard or SoE old-school crew produced.
Wrong on sooo many lvls. If you were correct, PvP servers wouldn't be very popular among WoW players, which is lightyears away from the truth. Check for yourself:
In answer to the OP: "Why has no game managed to compete with WOW as of yet". First we have to consider what WOW has brought to the table: 1. Accessibility: the games low system requirements allowed EVERYONE with a computer to play the game. 2. Existing Battlenet fanbase; 3. Catering to all of the three gamer types: Casual, CORE and Hardcore. WOW stayed away from the iffy "niche" genre. 4. Added PVP that lacked punch but still was solid enough to draw in the pvp oriented gamer; 5. Excellent quality development and gameplay. Thus far NO other game has managed to bring all of the above 5 points into a new game. When one does, WOW will finally have a competitor.
Not just the battlenet fanbase, but the general Blizzard fanbase. Sure, they are hugely successful do t o their online aspect, but many people love their games for offline play as well.
Blizzard has been the single most successful PC gaming company for a long time before WoW.
Also, you should add that they have basically unlimited funds which gives them as much dev time as they need, and this grants them an insane amount of marketing. No other game company has had Mr T, Vern, and "Captain Kirk" in their commercials, lol.
First of all did Blizzard already have fans for Warcraft before launching. Secondly they released at the right time, 5 years after EQs launch with no big competioner between.
And once the sub number grows to a certain number it kinda start growing by itself, kids in scholl talk about it, people invite their friends and so on.
But there is actually a western game that have competed quite well with Wow on a low budget: Guildwars. They never reached up to Wows subs but had at least several million players so money is not really the reason you make a game work, Blizzards own Diablo wasn't made on a big budget.
I think that timing was a huge advantage of Wow (and I predict that the next big one will be here relativly soon). That together with the fact that Blizzard made a game everyone could play from kids to old folks.
As for the great release of Wow, it wasn't really so great, particulary in US but it was mostly true Blizzard fans in the beginning and they were a lot more forgiving about buggs and lack of endgame than the people who bought AoC, Vanguard and WAR.
And of course Blizzard have had 2 of the worlds best programmers as bosses over the project, Strain and Kaplan. Both are perfectionists that works extremly hard to fix buggs as fast as they find them. The thing that almost killed VG was bad programming.
From all I have read the Player base gave up on these games far to quickly.
Just how long should customers be expected to pay for a product that isn't ready to be released to the market. For both games you cite it looks to be longer than 1 year easily and closer to 2 years.
That is the exact mentality of why so many games have tanked or failed to bring in the subscribers prior to warcraft. Every game has potential, but releasing a game before it is in a stable and entertaining fashion has proven to be a recipe for failure.
To answer your question in a nutshell, the reason more games don't compete is because they don't take their time. Beyond that there are many reasons from trying to do to much, running out of money or simply not designing a cohesive entertaining game.
Blizzard changed the typical design approach of releasing a game and finishing the development with revenue from box sales and subscriptions. The design elements that stood out to me were hiring gamers to work on the game, continually questionings "is this fun" about mechanics of the game and then not releasing the game until it was ready.
Any company can repeat that same process with any style game they choose. Hardcore or casual, pvp or pve, solo or group, etc. The problem is that almost no one seems to be able to do that.
From all I have read the Player base gave up on these games far to quickly.
Just how long should customers be expected to pay for a product that isn't ready to be released to the market. For both games you cite it looks to be longer than 1 year easily and closer to 2 years.
That is the exact mentality of why so many games have tanked or failed to bring in the subscribers prior to warcraft. Every game has potential, but releasing a game before it is in a stable and entertaining fashion has proven to be a recipe for failure.
To answer your question in a nutshell, the reason more games don't compete is because they don't take their time. Beyond that there are many reasons from trying to do to much, running out of money or simply not designing a cohesive entertaining game.
Blizzard changed the typical design approach of releasing a game and finishing the development with revenue from box sales and subscriptions. The design elements that stood out to me were hiring gamers to work on the game, continually questionings "is this fun" about mechanics of the game and then not releasing the game until it was ready.
Any company can repeat that same process with any style game they choose. Hardcore or casual, pvp or pve, solo or group, etc. The problem is that almost no one seems to be able to do that.
While this is partly it, its their reputation to "delay until its ready" that makes all these things hit the mark.
Which basically comes down to the insane amount of funds they have. I remember reading an interview with them that mentioned "we basically dont have a budget" on their games.
Hm, isn't there a couple of non-subscription based MMO's who have a far higher player base than WoW?
Though it is estimations they can not be that far off nor be ignored in this discussion, as the logic would then dictate that any MMO gameplay should be like them and not WoW, regardles of subscription or not.
Hm, isn't there a couple of non-subscription based MMO's who have a far higher player base than WoW? Though it is estimations they can not be that far off nor be ignored in this discussion, as the logic would then dictate that any MMO gameplay should be like them and not WoW, regardles of subscription or not.
Possibly, but I think this is hard to measure, as if they simply count the amount of accounts it would obviously be higher since it is not subscription based.
Most people only count pay-to-play MMO's as "real MMO's" though, and call them fail just because they are F2P. Although there are a few decent quality F2P games out there.
Wow wont die just like that, there are far better games thant wow, there are bigger games than wow, there are harder game than wow.
Could you give me the enveloppe please, so I can have a good laugh.
Either you will come up with some 10 year old game which simply lacked all elemantal stuff like an Auction House... or you would go to some of the newer "Wow killers" that lost 75% of its players at launch.
Your choice of making a fool out of yourself.
The ONLY mmorpg's that are bigger, harder and better are the mmoopg's that aren't published yet., but they shrink, become "easy" mode" and "dull" the moment they can be played..
The above is called moaning of MMORPG nerds.
No need to even listen too.
Bigger - it depends on if u mean content-wise, or if you mean how many people.
Harder - there are MANY harder MMO's out there - nearly every one is harder. WoW is known as one of the easiest.
Bigger: hell even f2P games like rubies of eventide had a bigger world and I dont even need to mention eve, sure wow has Around 7 mil real players but are they all on the same server? most mmos have more or less the same pop per serv
Better: Considering wow's community i'd say many games are better than wow. Graphics are old looking, even darkfall looks better and df is truly ugly.
Whatever wow does there is a game that does it better, if you want a complex economy there is eve, hardcore raiding isnt wow's stong point considering how fast raid guilds has raped the new expansion so that also shows how good wow's end game is. PvP in wow is better than hello kitty's i'll give you that, but compare it with most other mmos and the pvp is subpar, there is a reason why wow is the carebear game.
So instead of acting all smart because wow has the most subs, go and try a few other mmos (ask your mommy for the cash).
If you werent so stupid you might have noticed that I didnt talk about wow killers because I dont htink wow will be killed, all the carebears with shiny raid armor will prolly play this game till the servers are shut down because they cant stand to start over after having spend thousands of hours playing the game.
I dont really see whats so essential about an auction house, then again I dont see why wow should be the best mmo out there other than it's n°1 at asian gold farmers.
I'm not a no life that sits in front of his computer all day long, I'm an intern that sits in front of his computer all day long.
Dont think so. Its more because WoW offer most simplistic gameplay in MMO acceptable for everyone.
Where themepark games try to hide that they are copying WOW, games like Mortal Online and Darkfall make no attempt to hide their inspiration ______\m/_____ LordOfDarkDesire
Its simple marketing. In Germany eg. the only MMO ever had TV ads was wow. The simple man doesnt read MMO sites to inform himself. The simple man only knows wow. This is the main point, marketing makes the difference.
The gameplay is excellent, key responses are so fast, especially in PVP. Some other games played, who's names I won't mention, can take a small amount of time to respond to keypresses which is a pisser.
Gameplay and simplistic (but not simple) rotations for PVE and fast key responses in PVP give WoW killer app status compared to some other games that have been disappointing. But then, Blizz can afford the best coders to achieve this, whereas other companies (especially debt ridden ones) can't afford to be so choosy.
Dont think so. Its more because WoW offer most simplistic gameplay in MMO acceptable for everyone.
It has absolutely nothing do with simplistic gameplay, it has everything to do with other games being crap. Tell me how WAR and AoC were any more complex than WoW, why did these games fall flat on their face. I would even argue that WAR is more simplistic than WoW, whether it be hold-your-hand questing or quick bouts of easy/accesible PvP much like a shooter.
Nothing out there can compete with WoW right now because of one simple thing. Blizzard. The company made WoW the top game right now. The reason the company did it is because it did what no other company right now is willing to do. Not release a game until it passes their tests of readiness...which are pretty tough.
The game offers what most people want. The ability to log in and accomplish something in a few hours if not minutes and leave feeling they accomplished something. I have played just about every released game and no other game accomplishes this as well as WoW. Solo or in a group you can get or do aleast something to upgrade your character every hour.
Another point is that the age of "MMO Grind" is dying. MMO's based on mindlessly grinding for hours on hours to accomplish something...and thus being called hard.....are dead. The masses will not pay for it. Soon companies will stop doing it. Instead they will have to advance what WoW does and make it so that accomplishments can be made every hour. Difficulty will have to be based of learning how to use skills and such in fights and not how long can you sit at your comp killing rats.
The day of forced grouping to level is dead. WoW showed this will be the new trend. MMO does not mean forced grouping. Sorry to the "hardcores" that have no friends in real life, but this is a game. To bring in the maximum ammount of cash games will go solo and grouped play as WoW did. All the games that force grouping have only broke even and not really taken off. Why....real people do not have time to find groups all the time to play and thus will not pay for it.
to the person that said Eve is bigger...I really beg to differ. If WoW opened up the oceans between the continents and made the ships actually sail for 2 hours between them then it would be the same size. 90% of Eve is empty and never seen. I like Eve it offers something different. But I am sick of people saying how hugh it is. It is a lot of empty space you never use because you warp to places and use jump gates. If you tried to fly between places you would see nothing and do nothing for hours. That is not space. Eve can only really count the areas around places that people actually go and use. With that it is still very large but again it is easy to make a hugh world with nothing in it. Does not take a lot of computer space to house nothing.
All in all WoW in ecomomic terms have shown us that "Carebear" have beaten the "hardcores." So now the hardcore cry and whine about being second place. For all their big talk they did not have the numbers of the cash to compete with "Carebears".
So to recap a game must be polished, solo/group oriented, provide accomplishment every session, and provide difficulty aimed at the average person that is not grind x rats. When a game does this well WoW will fall and be replaced. Till then we get nitch games that fail at some part of this formula and either fade off or the plug gets pulled. I do think that WoW fails at the last point now days, but it is the the best at the moment at coming close to all my points in my opinion.
Dont think so. Its more because WoW offer most simplistic gameplay in MMO acceptable for everyone.
It has absolutely nothing do with simplistic gameplay, it has everything to do with other games being crap. Tell me how WAR and AoC were any more complex than WoW, why did these games fall flat on their face. I would even argue that WAR is more simplistic than WoW, whether it be hold-your-hand questing or quick bouts of easy/accesible PvP much like a shooter.
Why do they fall flat on their face?
Because they dont have unlimited funds, therefore giving them as long as they need to take before they release a game. At the time they released, they delivered a higher quality then the other competition out due to this. Even though the game lacked content at release, they had the quality to back it up for a somewhat smooth release.
When people go to games that have errors or problems that should have been cleared up in development, it severely hurts the game because people quit and some never go back, and it ruins their reputation. Which is exactly what happened in the 2 games you mentioned. AoC went from the most hype with faster sales then WoW had at their original release, to much lower subs, and you are only now seeing them start to come back. If AoC was released a year later in the current state it's in, most of those peoples complaints would have been addressed.
The other games you named ran out of funds, and obviously needed to release to make some money back. As a game developer, you know this to be true because the teams removed integral features to the games, and chose not to delay. If they could have delayed, they would have, so that the game would meet their vision. The last thing game developers want to do is release their games early. But often it is not the decision of the people actually developing the game - they are hired to make the game by the people supplying the funds. Blizzard does not have this problem - they have delayed games for many years at a time, and have often said they have enough funds that they dont put limits to the budgets on their games.
With those kind of funds, and not releasing until it is truely ready, it is impossible to make a game that does not do well.
In answer to the OP: "Why has no game managed to compete with WOW as of yet". First we have to consider what WOW has brought to the table: 1. Accessibility: the games low system requirements allowed EVERYONE with a computer to play the game. 2. Existing Battlenet fanbase; 3. Catering to all of the three gamer types: Casual, CORE and Hardcore. WOW stayed away from the iffy "niche" genre. 4. Added PVP that lacked punch but still was solid enough to draw in the pvp oriented gamer; 5. Excellent quality development and gameplay. Thus far NO other game has managed to bring all of the above 5 points into a new game. When one does, WOW will finally have a competitor.
Nothing out there can compete with WoW right now because of one simple thing. Blizzard. The company made WoW the top game right now. The reason the company did it is because it did what no other company right now is willing to do. Not release a game until it passes their tests of readiness...which are pretty tough. The game offers what most people want. The ability to log in and accomplish something in a few hours if not minutes and leave feeling they accomplished something. I have played just about every released game and no other game accomplishes this as well as WoW. Solo or in a group you can get or do aleast something to upgrade your character every hour. Another point is that the age of "MMO Grind" is dying. MMO's based on mindlessly grinding for hours on hours to accomplish something...and thus being called hard.....are dead. The masses will not pay for it. Soon companies will stop doing it. Instead they will have to advance what WoW does and make it so that accomplishments can be made every hour. Difficulty will have to be based of learning how to use skills and such in fights and not how long can you sit at your comp killing rats. The day of forced grouping to level is dead. WoW showed this will be the new trend. MMO does not mean forced grouping. Sorry to the "hardcores" that have no friends in real life, but this is a game. To bring in the maximum ammount of cash games will go solo and grouped play as WoW did. All the games that force grouping have only broke even and not really taken off. Why....real people do not have time to find groups all the time to play and thus will not pay for it. to the person that said Eve is bigger...I really beg to differ. If WoW opened up the oceans between the continents and made the ships actually sail for 2 hours between them then it would be the same size. 90% of Eve is empty and never seen. I like Eve it offers something different. But I am sick of people saying how hugh it is. It is a lot of empty space you never use because you warp to places and use jump gates. If you tried to fly between places you would see nothing and do nothing for hours. That is not space. Eve can only really count the areas around places that people actually go and use. With that it is still very large but again it is easy to make a hugh world with nothing in it. Does not take a lot of computer space to house nothing. All in all WoW in ecomomic terms have shown us that "Carebear" have beaten the "hardcores." So now the hardcore cry and whine about being second place. For all their big talk they did not have the numbers of the cash to compete with "Carebears". So to recap a game must be polished, solo/group oriented, provide accomplishment every session, and provide difficulty aimed at the average person that is not grind x rats. When a game does this well WoW will fall and be replaced. Till then we get nitch games that fail at some part of this formula and either fade off or the plug gets pulled. I do think that WoW fails at the last point now days, but it is the the best at the moment at coming close to all my points in my opinion.
While it is true that much of eve is empty, it is mucuh more complicated then that. You have to live in 0.0 and have activity with your corp and other corps to really understand it.
They actually have thousands of systems on a single server that are currently player-owned and actually lived in. People have homes, some Corps having dozens of systems owned, where they can build hteir own stations, war over them, and defend them.
Sure there is alot of space, but that "empty space" you are talking about - you are able to actually take it over and turn it in to something that will work for you. There are many things "hidden" in them if you try exploration as well. If you research the POS and moon mining systems of the game, try an exploring-character, etc, you will find it to be alot more complex and not as "empty" as it first seems.
WoW does not compare to these things - single server with 50k+ people on it at a single time, thousands of zones that people can actually take over and choose to make their own home by developing it, it does not have a universe that is actually player ran and player driven, and it does not have anything comparably "hidden" for explorers to actively discover and look for.
Because developers and programmers would rather latch onto WoW's coat-tails than actually dare to innovate. They're frightened that if they stray too far from the apple tree, nobody will bother looking their way.
Path of least resistance and MONEY. They will be the ones to out do themselves with a new mmo that will strech the boundries i would bet money on that. No other company has the capital except maybe Sony and they have drawn down on there gaming side.
" Life Liberty and the Pursuit of Those Who Would Threaten It " MAGA
Comments
WoW makes it more asscessible to more players, not only because of the system spec, but also the casual side of it.
No longer in mmo you need to gruop up for everything. No longer you need to raid to progress, but everything can be solo, thus you can log in and play any amount of time and you will still level. (before max level that is)
Questing, no doubt they are famous for kill 10 of this, loot 20 of that, but they also have intereasting quests, like bombing, turning into a tree and spying etc.... Other games just lack this aspect of intreasting gameplay. And WoW did offer more types of mobs....
Other games try to mimic WoW, but fail because they can't deliver what they promise. They hype it up so much but when you log in, its just plain boring (War) or just too many bugs (eg. VG and AoC and War).
BTW SoE rescue VG by buying over, but when MSF after invested 30mil in VG and yet pull out, our spider senses should already be ticking like mad!!
There's alot of players that's already bored of WoW, but for a lack of better games on the market, they continue to stick with it or goes back.
Hope they Dev by now realise that, if we wana play a clone, we might as well play the original one.....
EDIT: forget to add, WoW is also very detail in their graphics (eg. mining nodes) and combat animations...
RIP Orc Choppa
Wrong on sooo many lvls. If you were correct, PvP servers wouldn't be very popular among WoW players, which is lightyears away from the truth. Check for yourself:
http://www.wow-europe.com/realmstatus/index.html?locale=en_gb
Now, how many PvP server are there, compared to PvE? 'Nuff said.
Not just the battlenet fanbase, but the general Blizzard fanbase. Sure, they are hugely successful do t o their online aspect, but many people love their games for offline play as well.
Blizzard has been the single most successful PC gaming company for a long time before WoW.
Also, you should add that they have basically unlimited funds which gives them as much dev time as they need, and this grants them an insane amount of marketing. No other game company has had Mr T, Vern, and "Captain Kirk" in their commercials, lol.
First of all did Blizzard already have fans for Warcraft before launching. Secondly they released at the right time, 5 years after EQs launch with no big competioner between.
And once the sub number grows to a certain number it kinda start growing by itself, kids in scholl talk about it, people invite their friends and so on.
But there is actually a western game that have competed quite well with Wow on a low budget: Guildwars. They never reached up to Wows subs but had at least several million players so money is not really the reason you make a game work, Blizzards own Diablo wasn't made on a big budget.
I think that timing was a huge advantage of Wow (and I predict that the next big one will be here relativly soon). That together with the fact that Blizzard made a game everyone could play from kids to old folks.
As for the great release of Wow, it wasn't really so great, particulary in US but it was mostly true Blizzard fans in the beginning and they were a lot more forgiving about buggs and lack of endgame than the people who bought AoC, Vanguard and WAR.
And of course Blizzard have had 2 of the worlds best programmers as bosses over the project, Strain and Kaplan. Both are perfectionists that works extremly hard to fix buggs as fast as they find them. The thing that almost killed VG was bad programming.
Just how long should customers be expected to pay for a product that isn't ready to be released to the market. For both games you cite it looks to be longer than 1 year easily and closer to 2 years.
That is the exact mentality of why so many games have tanked or failed to bring in the subscribers prior to warcraft. Every game has potential, but releasing a game before it is in a stable and entertaining fashion has proven to be a recipe for failure.
To answer your question in a nutshell, the reason more games don't compete is because they don't take their time. Beyond that there are many reasons from trying to do to much, running out of money or simply not designing a cohesive entertaining game.
Blizzard changed the typical design approach of releasing a game and finishing the development with revenue from box sales and subscriptions. The design elements that stood out to me were hiring gamers to work on the game, continually questionings "is this fun" about mechanics of the game and then not releasing the game until it was ready.
Any company can repeat that same process with any style game they choose. Hardcore or casual, pvp or pve, solo or group, etc. The problem is that almost no one seems to be able to do that.
LOL, rofl, this is classic. Woo that was a good laugh. It's the players fought. ROFL .
Just how long should customers be expected to pay for a product that isn't ready to be released to the market. For both games you cite it looks to be longer than 1 year easily and closer to 2 years.
That is the exact mentality of why so many games have tanked or failed to bring in the subscribers prior to warcraft. Every game has potential, but releasing a game before it is in a stable and entertaining fashion has proven to be a recipe for failure.
To answer your question in a nutshell, the reason more games don't compete is because they don't take their time. Beyond that there are many reasons from trying to do to much, running out of money or simply not designing a cohesive entertaining game.
Blizzard changed the typical design approach of releasing a game and finishing the development with revenue from box sales and subscriptions. The design elements that stood out to me were hiring gamers to work on the game, continually questionings "is this fun" about mechanics of the game and then not releasing the game until it was ready.
Any company can repeat that same process with any style game they choose. Hardcore or casual, pvp or pve, solo or group, etc. The problem is that almost no one seems to be able to do that.
While this is partly it, its their reputation to "delay until its ready" that makes all these things hit the mark.
Which basically comes down to the insane amount of funds they have. I remember reading an interview with them that mentioned "we basically dont have a budget" on their games.
Hm, isn't there a couple of non-subscription based MMO's who have a far higher player base than WoW?
Though it is estimations they can not be that far off nor be ignored in this discussion, as the logic would then dictate that any MMO gameplay should be like them and not WoW, regardles of subscription or not.
Possibly, but I think this is hard to measure, as if they simply count the amount of accounts it would obviously be higher since it is not subscription based.
Most people only count pay-to-play MMO's as "real MMO's" though, and call them fail just because they are F2P. Although there are a few decent quality F2P games out there.
Why do kids insist on making who will kill wow threads.
When the car was invented did they kill all the horses?
When cellphones were inveted did all regularphones die?
Wow wont die just like that, there are far better games thant wow, there are bigger games than wow, there are harder game than wow.
I'm not a no life that sits in front of his computer all day long, I'm an intern that sits in front of his computer all day long.
Could you give me the enveloppe please, so I can have a good laugh.
Either you will come up with some 10 year old game which simply lacked all elemantal stuff like an Auction House... or you would go to some of the newer "Wow killers" that lost 75% of its players at launch.
Your choice of making a fool out of yourself.
The ONLY mmorpg's that are bigger, harder and better are the mmoopg's that aren't published yet., but they shrink, become "easy" mode" and "dull" the moment they can be played..
The above is called moaning of MMORPG nerds.
No need to even listen too.
Bigger - it depends on if u mean content-wise, or if you mean how many people.
Harder - there are MANY harder MMO's out there - nearly every one is harder. WoW is known as one of the easiest.
Better - all dependant on each persons taste.
I found lineage 2 much harder than wow.
Bigger: hell even f2P games like rubies of eventide had a bigger world and I dont even need to mention eve, sure wow has Around 7 mil real players but are they all on the same server? most mmos have more or less the same pop per serv
Better: Considering wow's community i'd say many games are better than wow. Graphics are old looking, even darkfall looks better and df is truly ugly.
Whatever wow does there is a game that does it better, if you want a complex economy there is eve, hardcore raiding isnt wow's stong point considering how fast raid guilds has raped the new expansion so that also shows how good wow's end game is. PvP in wow is better than hello kitty's i'll give you that, but compare it with most other mmos and the pvp is subpar, there is a reason why wow is the carebear game.
So instead of acting all smart because wow has the most subs, go and try a few other mmos (ask your mommy for the cash).
If you werent so stupid you might have noticed that I didnt talk about wow killers because I dont htink wow will be killed, all the carebears with shiny raid armor will prolly play this game till the servers are shut down because they cant stand to start over after having spend thousands of hours playing the game.
I dont really see whats so essential about an auction house, then again I dont see why wow should be the best mmo out there other than it's n°1 at asian gold farmers.
I'm not a no life that sits in front of his computer all day long, I'm an intern that sits in front of his computer all day long.
Cause WoW is the best the genre has to offer.
Dont think so. Its more because WoW offer most simplistic gameplay in MMO acceptable for everyone.
Where themepark games try to hide that they are copying WOW, games like Mortal Online and Darkfall make no attempt to hide their inspiration
______\m/_____
LordOfDarkDesire
Dont think so. Its more because WoW offer most simplistic gameplay in MMO acceptable for everyone.
This
...
Its simple marketing. In Germany eg. the only MMO ever had TV ads was wow. The simple man doesnt read MMO sites to inform himself. The simple man only knows wow. This is the main point, marketing makes the difference.
Dont think so. Its more because WoW offer most simplistic gameplay in MMO acceptable for everyone.
This
Yep
I'm not a no life that sits in front of his computer all day long, I'm an intern that sits in front of his computer all day long.
The gameplay is excellent, key responses are so fast, especially in PVP. Some other games played, who's names I won't mention, can take a small amount of time to respond to keypresses which is a pisser.
Gameplay and simplistic (but not simple) rotations for PVE and fast key responses in PVP give WoW killer app status compared to some other games that have been disappointing. But then, Blizz can afford the best coders to achieve this, whereas other companies (especially debt ridden ones) can't afford to be so choosy.
Dont think so. Its more because WoW offer most simplistic gameplay in MMO acceptable for everyone.
It has absolutely nothing do with simplistic gameplay, it has everything to do with other games being crap. Tell me how WAR and AoC were any more complex than WoW, why did these games fall flat on their face. I would even argue that WAR is more simplistic than WoW, whether it be hold-your-hand questing or quick bouts of easy/accesible PvP much like a shooter.
O_o o_O
Nothing out there can compete with WoW right now because of one simple thing. Blizzard. The company made WoW the top game right now. The reason the company did it is because it did what no other company right now is willing to do. Not release a game until it passes their tests of readiness...which are pretty tough.
The game offers what most people want. The ability to log in and accomplish something in a few hours if not minutes and leave feeling they accomplished something. I have played just about every released game and no other game accomplishes this as well as WoW. Solo or in a group you can get or do aleast something to upgrade your character every hour.
Another point is that the age of "MMO Grind" is dying. MMO's based on mindlessly grinding for hours on hours to accomplish something...and thus being called hard.....are dead. The masses will not pay for it. Soon companies will stop doing it. Instead they will have to advance what WoW does and make it so that accomplishments can be made every hour. Difficulty will have to be based of learning how to use skills and such in fights and not how long can you sit at your comp killing rats.
The day of forced grouping to level is dead. WoW showed this will be the new trend. MMO does not mean forced grouping. Sorry to the "hardcores" that have no friends in real life, but this is a game. To bring in the maximum ammount of cash games will go solo and grouped play as WoW did. All the games that force grouping have only broke even and not really taken off. Why....real people do not have time to find groups all the time to play and thus will not pay for it.
to the person that said Eve is bigger...I really beg to differ. If WoW opened up the oceans between the continents and made the ships actually sail for 2 hours between them then it would be the same size. 90% of Eve is empty and never seen. I like Eve it offers something different. But I am sick of people saying how hugh it is. It is a lot of empty space you never use because you warp to places and use jump gates. If you tried to fly between places you would see nothing and do nothing for hours. That is not space. Eve can only really count the areas around places that people actually go and use. With that it is still very large but again it is easy to make a hugh world with nothing in it. Does not take a lot of computer space to house nothing.
All in all WoW in ecomomic terms have shown us that "Carebear" have beaten the "hardcores." So now the hardcore cry and whine about being second place. For all their big talk they did not have the numbers of the cash to compete with "Carebears".
So to recap a game must be polished, solo/group oriented, provide accomplishment every session, and provide difficulty aimed at the average person that is not grind x rats. When a game does this well WoW will fall and be replaced. Till then we get nitch games that fail at some part of this formula and either fade off or the plug gets pulled. I do think that WoW fails at the last point now days, but it is the the best at the moment at coming close to all my points in my opinion.
Dont think so. Its more because WoW offer most simplistic gameplay in MMO acceptable for everyone.
It has absolutely nothing do with simplistic gameplay, it has everything to do with other games being crap. Tell me how WAR and AoC were any more complex than WoW, why did these games fall flat on their face. I would even argue that WAR is more simplistic than WoW, whether it be hold-your-hand questing or quick bouts of easy/accesible PvP much like a shooter.
Why do they fall flat on their face?
Because they dont have unlimited funds, therefore giving them as long as they need to take before they release a game. At the time they released, they delivered a higher quality then the other competition out due to this. Even though the game lacked content at release, they had the quality to back it up for a somewhat smooth release.
When people go to games that have errors or problems that should have been cleared up in development, it severely hurts the game because people quit and some never go back, and it ruins their reputation. Which is exactly what happened in the 2 games you mentioned. AoC went from the most hype with faster sales then WoW had at their original release, to much lower subs, and you are only now seeing them start to come back. If AoC was released a year later in the current state it's in, most of those peoples complaints would have been addressed.
The other games you named ran out of funds, and obviously needed to release to make some money back. As a game developer, you know this to be true because the teams removed integral features to the games, and chose not to delay. If they could have delayed, they would have, so that the game would meet their vision. The last thing game developers want to do is release their games early. But often it is not the decision of the people actually developing the game - they are hired to make the game by the people supplying the funds. Blizzard does not have this problem - they have delayed games for many years at a time, and have often said they have enough funds that they dont put limits to the budgets on their games.
With those kind of funds, and not releasing until it is truely ready, it is impossible to make a game that does not do well.
#2 is huge
Ive heard people say that LOTR could have had millions, but seriously, how many of those LOTR fans play computer games ?
Battlenet had *millions* of fans
Starcraft alone sold 11 million copies -- and theres also Diablo and Warcraft
EQ2 fan sites
While it is true that much of eve is empty, it is mucuh more complicated then that. You have to live in 0.0 and have activity with your corp and other corps to really understand it.
They actually have thousands of systems on a single server that are currently player-owned and actually lived in. People have homes, some Corps having dozens of systems owned, where they can build hteir own stations, war over them, and defend them.
Sure there is alot of space, but that "empty space" you are talking about - you are able to actually take it over and turn it in to something that will work for you. There are many things "hidden" in them if you try exploration as well. If you research the POS and moon mining systems of the game, try an exploring-character, etc, you will find it to be alot more complex and not as "empty" as it first seems.
WoW does not compare to these things - single server with 50k+ people on it at a single time, thousands of zones that people can actually take over and choose to make their own home by developing it, it does not have a universe that is actually player ran and player driven, and it does not have anything comparably "hidden" for explorers to actively discover and look for.
Because developers and programmers would rather latch onto WoW's coat-tails than actually dare to innovate. They're frightened that if they stray too far from the apple tree, nobody will bother looking their way.
Path of least resistance and MONEY. They will be the ones to out do themselves with a new mmo that will strech the boundries i would bet money on that. No other company has the capital except maybe Sony and they have drawn down on there gaming side.
MAGA