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(off the subject) computer or casual?

BACONXBACONX Member UncommonPosts: 253
in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes

I wanted the opinion of the EQ players (and future Vanguard) which is why this question is in the SOH forums.  Which do you think makes WOW a bigger seller- Level 1-60 geared for the casual or the fact you do not need a high-end computer to run it?  I know it is probably both but which factors in? Computer or casual?

 

 

Comments

  • baphametbaphamet Member RarePosts: 3,311

    yes it is a little bit of both IMO, but if i had to pick one i would defiantly say it is the fact that wow is casual friendly and easy for a new player that has never played a mmorpg to pick up and play.

  • DimitrioDimitrio Member UncommonPosts: 152

    If you track my threads about similar topics, you will see that my conclusions are the following:

    • World of Warcraft  is a big seller becaue it had more than 3 titles behind it as background.
    • Blizzard did an outstanding publishing, public relation job. Even if they used shameful strategies like recruiting pop guilds from other games.
    • The distribution canal of Blizzard is excellent, especially in Asia.

     

     

    Dimitrio Darkblade
    Founder Leader of Vitae Essentia
    http://www.veguild.org

  • spamwichspamwich Member Posts: 51
    you should also consider the fact that the majority of players in WoW are around 13-19, and therefore are still in school. the word gets around pretty fast around school, and for most of these people it would be there first MMORPG, so they would think of it as something new, and addictive. i remember when runescape 2 came out and i was the king of the school because i was the runescape-know-it-all haha.
  • VendelVendel Member Posts: 12

    I'd say like Dimitrio. Blizzard is a legend in the gaming industry. Who hasn't heard of Diablo? (frankly I always though that game and it's sequel to be too simplist for my likings). World of Warcraft has to be one of the most popular RTS along with Starcraft. Just with that you build up a big hype.

    But I'd go deeper then that, WoW has to be more popular then EQ 1 because it is sold in Asia, Europe and North America. While EQ 1 was sold only in America (and perhaps in europe too, I wouldn't know about that). But the base player of WoW is in Asia, they get over 1 million subscription from each country while in North America they might get at most 1 million subscription (if we're generous because the North American market isn't anywhere as big).

    Though quite popular, they loose subscription at a fast rate too, peoples realise it's quite a simple game and wants to try something else (looking for a challenge or something to do, raiding is not for everyone). But also on the other hand Burning Crusade is almost on us, I suppose they could win one or two more millions subscription, this game is a rule breaking in the genre.

  • grinreapergrinreaper Member Posts: 507

    The real factors:

    2 milion Bnet kiddies

    4 million Asian gold farmers

  • celegormcelegorm Member Posts: 2


    Originally posted by Dimitrio

    If you track my threads about similar topics, you will see that my conclusions are the following:

    World of Warcraft  is a big seller becaue it had more than 3 titles behind it as background.
    Blizzard did an outstanding publishing, public relation job. Even if they used shameful strategies like recruiting pop guilds from other games.
    The distribution canal of Blizzard is excellent, especially in Asia.

    I think it's a little simplistic to say that WoW's success was based on these factors. For instance, it completely ignores the fact that, for a high percentage of players, the game is enjoyable. 

     IP will help your initial sales but has little bearing on the long-term success of a game. Look at SWG, which, arguably had a better IP, and yet only had a max of about 300k subscribers.

    Your distribution comments are spot-on.

    The game is really a phenomenon that has fed on its own success. The level of success allowed Blizzard to get a lot of free advertising from the press, which brought more players, which brought more press, and so on. There was also a lot of word-of-mouth.

    The key point was that the game was fun to play. Blizzard took the un-fun mmorpg elements out of the game, such as corpse runs and travel time, which made it very playable, esp. for new players. Without the fun factor, the game would have suffered the same fate as SWG -- initial subscription numbers, stagnation, followed by a decline.

     

  • jdedeauxjdedeaux Member Posts: 88
    YEs, reputation helps a lot. i Play ffxi, right now its boring me to hell, even at high lvl. but the name is what keeps the game selling.
  • JinxysJinxys Member UncommonPosts: 488
    Originally posted by Dimitrio
    If you track my threads about similar topics, you will see that my conclusions are the following: World of Warcraft  is a big seller becaue it had more than 3 titles behind it as background. Blizzard did an outstanding publishing, public relation job. Even if they used shameful strategies like recruiting pop guilds from other games. The distribution canal of Blizzard is excellent, especially in Asia.    
    That may be so for alot of people, but there were alot like me who never played a blizzard game before, and picked up a copy of wow, mainly due to the marketing  like you stated above.


  • AdelaAdela Member Posts: 12

    Don't fool yourselves.  WoW is successful because it is easy to play and can be soloed.  A great many players in WoW do solo.

     

  • Nitsu62Nitsu62 Member Posts: 97

    Reputation is a big help.  If you don't think so, then ask WoW players how many previous MMOs they have played, a ton of them (though not all) will say nill. 

    I know reputation alone isn't the reason they are so popular but it has really helped.  I have always been a big fan of Blizzard sense a friend lead me to Starcraft many years ago.  Ever sense then i have always been ready to go out and buy every blizzard game that hits the shelves, not even careing to read the reviews.  I had always got them, played them, and enjoyed them. 

    Now the casual/solo abiltity has helped some, but look at other MMOs of today, they are the same way, which brings it back to that not being the BIG reason.

    Now the easy to run graphics thing i'm sure has helped some as well.  I can understand what its like to not have the machine to run a game and so you have to buy the games that don't require as much (although now i have a job that can let me buy a machine... but I used to not have it).  And generally the age of WoW players means that alot of them are relying off of their parent's income which makes it more difficult (I'm not calling WoW immature, as i started playing EQ when i was 14.. it is a good start, but i'm just saying that i don't think their parents will go out and buy a $1000 machine so they can play a game.) 

    I'm sure there could be several other reasons also, but if one was to go out and play all the other MMORPGs they would see that WoW isn't really "the greatest ever" (not saying it isn't, but it doesn't have so much more than the others, you may be quite surprised to know that it is actually closer to EQ than most of the newer MMORPGs.)  It may very well be your favorite and the one thats funnest to you, but as far as features, and ability to solo or group, it isn't the only one that has all that.

    Current MMO of interest: Vanguard: Saga of Heroes
    MMO background: EQ, UO, AO, SWG, PS, EQ2, L2,EQoA, WoW, WWIIO, and AC2

  • BACONXBACONX Member UncommonPosts: 253
    Thanks for all your replies.  Normally you can't have a good discussion about WOW and EQ without flamers or fanatics on either side.  I appreciate it.
  • Unknown
    It isn't that is casualy friendly or that it is easy on the computer.  Although both of those are part of it and help a lot.  The main reason is because it initially doesn't seem to be a complete dork-fest.

    I am going to be brutally and tell you that EQ lacked the popularity of WoW because it was considered a complete grind-fest full of RP dorks.

    This may be a mean thing to say but well many people aren't exactly tolerant when it comes to such social things.  WoW is perceived differently partly because of its "casual friendliness" (which is really a lie anyway as it is simply a euphamism for getting peasants hooked).  Because it is perceived that "normal people" play it the more hesitant people began to play it.

    MMORPGs are social pehnomena like bars and clubs.  For a little while EQ had the potential to do the same thing as WoW but the drokiness/grind barrier was too high.

    WoW basically shifted the dorkiness barrier to its max level rather than the entire game.  So what you have now is an extremely popular 1-59 and a level 60 "endgame" that is hated by the majority of players.  Raiders in WoW have the same stigma (in addition to the normal elitist raider stigma) that most EQ players had before.



  • havocthefirshavocthefirs Member Posts: 229
       My guess is that WOW is popular for a couple reasons, first is its extremely easy, you basically follow the yellow brick road right to oz. PVP/death has no real consequence, if you die, so what, you lose nothing, everything is soulbound. Fighting is slow-paced and simplistic, basically a six year old can master it.
  • alyndalealyndale Member UncommonPosts: 936
    Vendel could you point me to where you have gathered your data on the total number of North American WoW players vs. Asian players? Thanks in advance.image


    All I want is the truth
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    John Lennon

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