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.
If Rift launched with a world as rich as Azeorth and with the soul WoW had when it launched, as well as WoW's levelling pace Rift would have 1 million subs now.
Rift is vastly inferior to Vanilla WoW. Its endgame is comparable to Cata's endgame, yes, but WoW didnt become huge because of its endgame model. Its because of everything else.
Originally posted by Aori the game can run on any machine while still not looking like complete crap.
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.
WoW has some of the best immersion in any MMO, the world is far more alive, open and active than any other i've played. As for the graphic thing.. I thought they were good. It was a very different style from what everyone was used to. Also when EQ2 was released, sure it may have looked good but it didn't run on ANYONES PC.
So while you may have not liked the art style, WoW's enviroments provide one of the best immersive experiences you can get.
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.
EQ2 is technically impressive, but some of the areas in the game look pretty awful. In WoW, there's impressive art direction around every corner.
1) had a strong, well known IP with a large fanbase
2) It as the first MMO where someone casual could make meaningful progress without the punishment for dying that older MMOs brought. It basically had the casual market all to itself for a time.
3) Blizzard is fairly good about releasing polished games, although it was still very buggy at release, but it wasnt as in your face as other games.
It had a perfect storm of market conditions really.
because of the above it established itself as the king, everyone invested their time into it, and its hard to pull away from that investment.
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.
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
Outside of the 15 or so PvP servers that were dead from the month they launched, with no server merges WoW has an incredibly low number of low pop servers. I dont think they have a single PvE server that goes low pop during primetime, after all these years with no merges. Obviously they could play with the thresholds if they really wanted to, but its pretty easy to tell if they are calling a server with 200 people on it as medium. I would wager that WoW's NA sub decrease over the last 18 months is actually a much lower % than the industry rate. Whatever the top NA sub # was they are probably at no less than 2/3rds of that number right now.
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.
You know, when WoW was released it wasnt like that, granted the game had such low system requirements that you could practicly run it on a vic 20, but especially at launch the game was horible, there is a reason why it still is considered one of the worst launches ever. Lag and fps issues in even the lowest grouping instances. AV was a lag trap, heck people still joke to date about getting disconnected from the lag in ironforge.
But yes on the modern computers we use today it runs like a charm. If WoW was released in the state it was back then it wouldnt have become as big as it is now, chances are, if it was released in the state it is now it still wouldnt have gotten as big as it is now.
1) had a strong, well known IP with a large fanbase
2) It as the first MMO where someone casual could make meaningful progress without the punishment for dying that older MMOs brought. It basically had the casual market all to itself for a time.
3) Blizzard is fairly good about releasing polished games, although it was still very buggy at release, but it wasnt as in your face as other games.
It had a perfect storm of market conditions really.
because of the above it established itself as the king, everyone invested their time into it, and its hard to pull away from that investment.
It really was a common sense approach to developing an MMORPG. I'm surprised it took a developer as long as it did to market MMORPGs to the mainstream market. Blizzard really understood the appeal of the genre and accentuated what worked and ripped out or drastically changed what didn't. Too many old-school developers were and still are far too concerned with appealing to a small portion of the marketplace, and that has a lot to do with why they fail.
The fact that WoW could run on nearly any PC while still maintaining appealing visuals is a testament to the game's success and its art direction. Games that rely largely on technical appeal to produce great graphics like EQ2, Vanguard, and Rift look awful on low settings, but WoW never was technically impressive to begin with. Even on low settings, the impressive art direction still shines through.
The low system requirements and quality game engine assured that system requirements would never be a reason people didn't play WoW. Since then, I can only think of two or three MMROPGs that currently don't or didn't ever have performance issues.
But even WOW took time to get to this point. Anyone else remember before Lich King when they first tried mass PVP in one zone?????....... it turned into one of the most epic lagfests in the history of mmo's? It took newer computers to cure a lot of that kind of stuff.
Of course they were the first ones to launch with a 80 million dollar gaming budget now people are trying to follow suit...
But there numbers are dropping and with this lame panda expansion there going to lose alot of hardcore fans don't be surprised if that number drops to 8-9million subscribers... The end of adding 10 levels is certainly near and if they don't change course WoW will be dead before Ultima Online which has been stable for the last 5-6 years...
Considering a majority of their "subscribers" are in Asia I'm not expecting a big drop. Plus, WOW is somehow able to replace people with those new to the franchise.
I don't plan on buying it, but by the time it comes out I may finally no longer be burned out on MMOs and may want to try it. I wouldn't roll a panda though.
I hate to say it but it's the new standard for MMO's now. It's polished, it works and it's fun. I'll bash the game to death but at the end of the day I'm right back in it PvP'ing.
FFXi came out before Wow and runs smoother and was only designed for the console not even PC.FFXI runs so smooth yo ucan play it with pings upwards of 500/600,any other game would feel like yoru walking in cement shoes and warping all over.
This is not about planned success so we won't even touch that area,but basing it alone on smoothness of the game ,nope.
The reason is obvious FACT,the % of Wow players that joined tha tgame as their first never set foot in any other game to even compare it.this was merely new gamers that got hooked either by marketing or former Bttle.net gamers.
The msot any other game hit for subs was 500k,Wow hit 10 million,so ya nobody was giving another game a shot to even compare it to.If other games such as what i played FFXI had for example 10 million then dipped to 1 million it might be believable,but thjat was not the case for any game.Wow gamers were simply mind set on one game only.
I was lucky ,i got to learn game design early via the Unreal series Engine and i played Eq then eventually finding a home in FFXi.So when EQ2 came out,i thoguht hmm not bad,if i quit FFXi ,i'll play it.Then short after WQOW released so i tried tha tas well and was immediately turned off.What i saw was a VERY immature crowd,definitel ya whole new breed of gamer.I went from quiet no drama gaming toseeing a whole lot fo rubbish.it didn't take but a week to decide to rate that game off my list.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
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.
Can you give me one example of a console player who doesn't believe that people can enjoy upgrading computers as a hobby?
WoW did well, because of the same reasons that GW2 will do well
+1
Also since Blizzard is doing just the right thing with d3, I guess GW2 will definitly surpass WoW. I believe many people are feed-up with the greed around gaming, around blizzard.
The timing is right and Activition doesn't have a clue, just like WoW emerged, GW2 will definitly put a point on Blizz stock market chart. At that point they'll realise it's too late.
After the huge dissapointment with SW:TOR I fired up my old sub of WoW and was instantly amazed again how well it ruins, how fluid and extremely responsive everything in the game is.
So many MMO released the last years were so clunky and unresponsive in controls and combat/animations... it's baffling.
When it comes to both smooth and responsive gameplay, then WoW and EQ2 really are the best and still are.
- 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.
Good list. I would add to that Pop culture references which made it easier for "non gamer nerds" to get into it.
People should not forget that graphically it was superior than many other MMO's at the time and ran just as well as they did. Its not like EQ or AC had huge pc requirements either.
Blizzard still had a reputation of careing about gamers. This is huge imo. In this age of gaming a companies reputation means almost as much as how good the game is.
They are trying to target broadest possible audience with WoW. And they are trying to adapt and become more mainstream with every new patch and expansion.
Thats why they are so successful.
If they had continued to follow the same principles and ideas they had when WoW(Vanilla) was released they would have less players today. (But some veterans would have liked it...) But they are prepared to change or add anything if they believe more people will want to play the game.
I'm pretty convinced that this "project titan" is just a myth. Possibly just misunderstood by fans of one of the already announced world of warcraft expansions. And until I see a screenshot, a trailer, or even a freaking real name of the game, i'm going to continue to believe that the game doesn't exist.
I'm pretty convinced that this "project titan" is just a myth. Possibly just misunderstood by fans of one of the already announced world of warcraft expansions. And until I see a screenshot, a trailer, or even a freaking real name of the game, i'm going to continue to believe that the game doesn't exist.
Blizzard has officially confirmed that Titan is a new MMO they are working on, and that it's a new IP, not WoW 2 or WoW's expansion. But be paranoid all you want.
Wow came out when there was very little competition. I would say that it caught the market at the exact right time. It took off pretty fast I don't think Blizzard even expected it to be such a huge success. I doubt that there will ever be an mmorpg that will soar to such great heights as fast as wow did as the market is saturated with mmo's now. But hey you never know.
1) Low system requirements and the game looks good on slower computers
2) Character is so easy to control that a beginner can just jump in without trouble, yet at the same time it's hard and precise enough that a hardcore player feels he could and should be able to do still a little better with a little more practise
3) Lack of game-breakers: WoW does not do everything perfectly, but every part is done well enough that nothing irritates players enough to make them quit in large numbers.
4) Something for everyone: The game has soloing, grouping, PvE, PvP, fishing, some crafting, and so diverse classes that there's a good chance everyone will find a class with mechanics he likes.
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.
I disagree completely. When WoW vanilla came out, Ironforge used to take 10 mins to load for me, especially near the AH,crossroads pvp would bring me down to 5 fps and once when the server was opening AQ I had 0.2 fps, yet still it's one of the best games I've ever played.
I'm pretty convinced that this "project titan" is just a myth. Possibly just misunderstood by fans of one of the already announced world of warcraft expansions. And until I see a screenshot, a trailer, or even a freaking real name of the game, i'm going to continue to believe that the game doesn't exist.
Blizzard has officially confirmed that Titan is a new MMO they are working on, and that it's a new IP, not WoW 2 or WoW's expansion. But be paranoid all you want.
Your absolutely right, Blizzard can always be trusted on their word. That's why WoW players have been enjoying their dance studio since Wrath, and that's why Diablo 3 players are happily enjoying Diablo 3 PvP Arena.................OH WAIT, they aren't!
Comments
If Rift launched with a world as rich as Azeorth and with the soul WoW had when it launched, as well as WoW's levelling pace Rift would have 1 million subs now.
Rift is vastly inferior to Vanilla WoW. Its endgame is comparable to Cata's endgame, yes, but WoW didnt become huge because of its endgame model. Its because of everything else.
EQ2 is technically impressive, but some of the areas in the game look pretty awful. In WoW, there's impressive art direction around every corner.
and here I always though it was because it:
1) had a strong, well known IP with a large fanbase
2) It as the first MMO where someone casual could make meaningful progress without the punishment for dying that older MMOs brought. It basically had the casual market all to itself for a time.
3) Blizzard is fairly good about releasing polished games, although it was still very buggy at release, but it wasnt as in your face as other games.
It had a perfect storm of market conditions really.
because of the above it established itself as the king, everyone invested their time into it, and its hard to pull away from that investment.
1) Right place right time on release.
2) Established Warcraft IP.
3) Profit.
Yes it's really that simple.
Outside of the 15 or so PvP servers that were dead from the month they launched, with no server merges WoW has an incredibly low number of low pop servers. I dont think they have a single PvE server that goes low pop during primetime, after all these years with no merges. Obviously they could play with the thresholds if they really wanted to, but its pretty easy to tell if they are calling a server with 200 people on it as medium. I would wager that WoW's NA sub decrease over the last 18 months is actually a much lower % than the industry rate. Whatever the top NA sub # was they are probably at no less than 2/3rds of that number right now.
You know, when WoW was released it wasnt like that, granted the game had such low system requirements that you could practicly run it on a vic 20, but especially at launch the game was horible, there is a reason why it still is considered one of the worst launches ever. Lag and fps issues in even the lowest grouping instances. AV was a lag trap, heck people still joke to date about getting disconnected from the lag in ironforge.
But yes on the modern computers we use today it runs like a charm. If WoW was released in the state it was back then it wouldnt have become as big as it is now, chances are, if it was released in the state it is now it still wouldnt have gotten as big as it is now.
It really was a common sense approach to developing an MMORPG. I'm surprised it took a developer as long as it did to market MMORPGs to the mainstream market. Blizzard really understood the appeal of the genre and accentuated what worked and ripped out or drastically changed what didn't. Too many old-school developers were and still are far too concerned with appealing to a small portion of the marketplace, and that has a lot to do with why they fail.
The fact that WoW could run on nearly any PC while still maintaining appealing visuals is a testament to the game's success and its art direction. Games that rely largely on technical appeal to produce great graphics like EQ2, Vanguard, and Rift look awful on low settings, but WoW never was technically impressive to begin with. Even on low settings, the impressive art direction still shines through.
The low system requirements and quality game engine assured that system requirements would never be a reason people didn't play WoW. Since then, I can only think of two or three MMROPGs that currently don't or didn't ever have performance issues.
But even WOW took time to get to this point. Anyone else remember before Lich King when they first tried mass PVP in one zone?????....... it turned into one of the most epic lagfests in the history of mmo's? It took newer computers to cure a lot of that kind of stuff.
Considering a majority of their "subscribers" are in Asia I'm not expecting a big drop. Plus, WOW is somehow able to replace people with those new to the franchise.
I don't plan on buying it, but by the time it comes out I may finally no longer be burned out on MMOs and may want to try it. I wouldn't roll a panda though.
WoW did well, because of the same reasons that GW2 will do well
Best MMO experiences : EQ(PvE), DAoC(PvP), WoW(total package) LOTRO (worldfeel) GW2 (Artstyle and animations and worlddesign) SWTOR (Story immersion) TSW (story) ESO (character advancement)
I hate to say it but it's the new standard for MMO's now. It's polished, it works and it's fun. I'll bash the game to death but at the end of the day I'm right back in it PvP'ing.
"Everything is mine and your woman too"
Because you only have to be 8+ to understand it.
FFXi came out before Wow and runs smoother and was only designed for the console not even PC.FFXI runs so smooth yo ucan play it with pings upwards of 500/600,any other game would feel like yoru walking in cement shoes and warping all over.
This is not about planned success so we won't even touch that area,but basing it alone on smoothness of the game ,nope.
The reason is obvious FACT,the % of Wow players that joined tha tgame as their first never set foot in any other game to even compare it.this was merely new gamers that got hooked either by marketing or former Bttle.net gamers.
The msot any other game hit for subs was 500k,Wow hit 10 million,so ya nobody was giving another game a shot to even compare it to.If other games such as what i played FFXI had for example 10 million then dipped to 1 million it might be believable,but thjat was not the case for any game.Wow gamers were simply mind set on one game only.
I was lucky ,i got to learn game design early via the Unreal series Engine and i played Eq then eventually finding a home in FFXi.So when EQ2 came out,i thoguht hmm not bad,if i quit FFXi ,i'll play it.Then short after WQOW released so i tried tha tas well and was immediately turned off.What i saw was a VERY immature crowd,definitel ya whole new breed of gamer.I went from quiet no drama gaming toseeing a whole lot fo rubbish.it didn't take but a week to decide to rate that game off my list.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Can you give me one example of a console player who doesn't believe that people can enjoy upgrading computers as a hobby?
+1
Also since Blizzard is doing just the right thing with d3, I guess GW2 will definitly surpass WoW. I believe many people are feed-up with the greed around gaming, around blizzard.
The timing is right and Activition doesn't have a clue, just like WoW emerged, GW2 will definitly put a point on Blizz stock market chart. At that point they'll realise it's too late.
The OP is sadly right.
After the huge dissapointment with SW:TOR I fired up my old sub of WoW and was instantly amazed again how well it ruins, how fluid and extremely responsive everything in the game is.
So many MMO released the last years were so clunky and unresponsive in controls and combat/animations... it's baffling.
When it comes to both smooth and responsive gameplay, then WoW and EQ2 really are the best and still are.
Good list. I would add to that Pop culture references which made it easier for "non gamer nerds" to get into it.
People should not forget that graphically it was superior than many other MMO's at the time and ran just as well as they did. Its not like EQ or AC had huge pc requirements either.
Blizzard still had a reputation of careing about gamers. This is huge imo. In this age of gaming a companies reputation means almost as much as how good the game is.
They are trying to target broadest possible audience with WoW. And they are trying to adapt and become more mainstream with every new patch and expansion.
Thats why they are so successful.
If they had continued to follow the same principles and ideas they had when WoW(Vanilla) was released they would have less players today. (But some veterans would have liked it...) But they are prepared to change or add anything if they believe more people will want to play the game.
I'm pretty convinced that this "project titan" is just a myth. Possibly just misunderstood by fans of one of the already announced world of warcraft expansions. And until I see a screenshot, a trailer, or even a freaking real name of the game, i'm going to continue to believe that the game doesn't exist.
Blizzard has officially confirmed that Titan is a new MMO they are working on, and that it's a new IP, not WoW 2 or WoW's expansion. But be paranoid all you want.
Wow came out when there was very little competition. I would say that it caught the market at the exact right time. It took off pretty fast I don't think Blizzard even expected it to be such a huge success. I doubt that there will ever be an mmorpg that will soar to such great heights as fast as wow did as the market is saturated with mmo's now. But hey you never know.
I'd say reasons why WoW has been so successfull:
1) Low system requirements and the game looks good on slower computers
2) Character is so easy to control that a beginner can just jump in without trouble, yet at the same time it's hard and precise enough that a hardcore player feels he could and should be able to do still a little better with a little more practise
3) Lack of game-breakers: WoW does not do everything perfectly, but every part is done well enough that nothing irritates players enough to make them quit in large numbers.
4) Something for everyone: The game has soloing, grouping, PvE, PvP, fishing, some crafting, and so diverse classes that there's a good chance everyone will find a class with mechanics he likes.
I disagree completely. When WoW vanilla came out, Ironforge used to take 10 mins to load for me, especially near the AH,crossroads pvp would bring me down to 5 fps and once when the server was opening AQ I had 0.2 fps, yet still it's one of the best games I've ever played.
in spring 2004, PreWOW,
Microsoft cancelled their mmo, Mythica, citing that the mmo market was too competitive
http://otherworlds31279.yuku.com/topic/1167/Online-games-failure-success-Boston-Globe-article
EQ2 fan sites
Your absolutely right, Blizzard can always be trusted on their word. That's why WoW players have been enjoying their dance studio since Wrath, and that's why Diablo 3 players are happily enjoying Diablo 3 PvP Arena.................OH WAIT, they aren't!