While I can agree that WoW has had it's positive effects on the industry, the negetives are just much more. I believe that if almost any MMO had replaced WoW's success the MMO genre would be far better off. MMORPG's should be imo, the evolution of RPG's were players take control of the world and are free from the scripted story and plot given to them. As we all know WoW has well seen that MMO's do not become this and the vast majority of them are goloried Co-Op RPG's played online running scripted event after scripted event.
Bullshit in giant epic purple font. The game market has been going towards the casual for years, if you think that mmos would be the one bastion of hardcore gaming you are simply naive. Be happy that there is WoW instead of a Bejewled mmo as the standard.
I just want to say that everybody must know that this is the most notorious wow hating community on all the planet. Why ask for an article on what WoW has got wrong? (even though I am sure that will be upcoming). We do that ourselves every single day and most days pretty much 24 hours of it. Questioning a writers integrity just because they have posted something positive about a game most of us don't like is just out of order. I'm not naive enough to think it doesn't happen but in this case I think it's unfounded.
It's been a few years now....but I played WOW for about 1.5 years and enjoyed my time there. It got a bit stale for me, but I really have nothing bad to say about it whatsoever. Blizzard made a quality game with WOW and they deserve the success that they've had.
My real problem is that pretty much EVERY single AAA budget MMO released since then has been an attempt to remake WOW. It might have a small twist here or there, but it's basicaly the same formula repeated over and over again ad infinitem.
That's not a problem with Blizzard, it's a problem with Blizzards competitors....and the sort of tunnel-vision that the decision makers running those studio's seem to have locked in. By way of example "Waterboy" was a great movie, but that doesn't mean that every single movie Hollywood produces needs to follow that same formula to be successfull. You can produce a "Saving Private Ryan" or a "Schindlers List" and have a success too.
Hollywood actualy seems to get that variety is good....and that you can produce very different types of movies that follow very different formulas and mechanics and have those work. Unfortunately MMO producers haven't seemed to learn that same basic lesson. There isn't just one uniform audience for MMO's...there are hundreds.....and alot of people that like one type of MMO will also like a very different type....just like very few people only enjoy one flavor of ice cream or one type of food.
What's worse is that most of the Developers that have tried to copy the WOW formula have actualy done a pretty poor job at imitation. They don't seem to realize that the secrets of WOW's success wasn't any of the individual elements of it's makeup...it's that everything it did fit together as a cohesive whole. Just like with a sports team or a book or a movie....you can't just thrown in all the individual ingrediants in a formula and expect it to work... it's how those ingrediants mesh with one another that really determines how successfull the final product will be.
Again, this is nothing against Blizzard. They've actualy gotten things right (for the most part). It's all those other short sighted producers that think they need to emulate WOW that have been screwing up the industry.
Why do so many blame blizzard for other games failing's? I dont get it. Its like blaming the origional writer of a paper because every kid in class chose to plagerize it instead of coming up with there own ideas.
No offense but the people u should blame are the devs who have no imagination to do anything diffrent. Its not blizzards fault people chose to copy wow. Its the people who copied wow's fault for not going out and forming there own niche in the industry.
Its not blizzards fault galaxies chose to ruin there game for there most loyal players with the nge but for some reason blizzard gets blamed for all that ails gaming. The truth is its the devs who choose to just slap a new coat of paint on wow and call it something diffrent.
Tor may have alot in common with wow like going for polish but story the way they are doing it is a new concept in mmo's Gw 2 may innovate if they get it right and im not saying they wont. Tera is going for more an action game.
so there are publishers bringing what they do best to the genre the problem is they are few and far between while most choose to just throw a new coat of pain on wow and call it innovative and for that blizzard gets blamed
No offense blizzard did alot of good for gaming The problem isnt blizzards its the idiots with no brain of there own who chose to just copy without adding anything diffrent or new to the genre.
1. It made theme-park way of game design appealing to other game developers for long term retentions of subs thereby giving the illusion that all games need to follow the winning formula that blizzard has established.
2. It made blizzard rich henceforth the pinnacle of what game company's need to aspire to by creating similar mechanics in hope they could garner the subscriber base wow has.
3. It draw ed in a vast majority of subs from other MMOG's choking the population of those games and forcing redevelopment of game mechanics to match that of WoW. I.e see SWG and the combat upgrade.
It has stagnated the Genre as far as innovation in replacement of renovation and rehashed game systems and content.
4. it has created a new group of players that seek entitlement and reward with no real risk or work to gain them and unleashed them on every new MMO in development.
5. It haunts my nightmares that we are forever going to play Wow clones.
Why do so many blame blizzard for other games failing's? I dont get it. Its like blaming the origional writer of a paper because every kid in class chose to plagerize it instead of coming up with there own ideas.
No offense but the people u should blame are the devs who have no imagination to do anything diffrent. Its not blizzards fault people chose to copy wow. Its the people who copied wow's fault for not going out and forming there own niche in the industry.
Its not blizzards fault galaxies chose to ruin there game for there most loyal players with the nge but for some reason blizzard gets blamed for all that ails gaming. The truth is its the devs who choose to just slap a new coat of paint on wow and call it something diffrent.
Tor may have alot in common with wow like going for polish but story the way they are doing it is a new concept in mmo's Gw 2 may innovate if they get it right and im not saying they wont. Tera is going for more an action game.
so there are publishers bringing what they do best to the genre the problem is they are few and far between while most choose to just throw a new coat of pain on wow and call it innovative and for that blizzard gets blamed
No offense blizzard did alot of good for gaming The problem isnt blizzards its the idiots with no brain of there own who chose to just copy without adding anything diffrent or new to the genre.
Blizzard initially created a solid, albeit shallow, MMO.
It's more the fault of the gamers who gobble up substandard game design as if it's a creation of perfection and defend it tooth and nail and treat any criticism against it as blasphemy. Then of course there's the stakeholders that force developers to churn out uninspired 'clones' of WoW because they want a piece of the cash cow.
If Blizzard is guilty of anything, it's of being able to hype up and sell mediocrity on a grand scale.
People cite the huge amount of subscriptions as the 'idicator' for Wow's success, yet the subsciption amount does not mean the game is good; just that it is sucessful.
Yes the game appeals to a myriad of people, but, lots of people smoke, drink and take drugs, that doesn't mean smoking, taking drugs and drinking is good, just that there are lots of people that do it.
If people want to play the statistic game then they should look at how statistics can not depict the true picture.
This presentation http://www.slideshare.net/bcousins/paying-to-win shows that only about 10% of people complained on the game's forum -Battlefield heroes- but it also shows that a larger amount of players do not post on the forums. The game's devs decided this was an indication that people were happy; not that they were unhappy and couldn't be bothered to post on the forums.
So Wow has the numbers behind it, but has it really made the MMORPG genre better? Or are more console gamers playing MMORPG's now, bringing a different kind of gamer to the genre.
I played Wow for a few years but I cannot stomach it now as the game has derived into a conglomerate of idiocracy.
Can we get a 10 reasons why WoW made the MMO Worse next please?
I think that would make the site seem biased againist WoW which would be bad for the site and would lose some members. It would be smarter to have, maybe 10 ways MMOs could improve.
Heh , again with the WoW and the negatives , Blizzard did great with WoW and it is running smoothly with millions still willing to pay to play.
Those to blame for the genre going down the crapper are the hypocrits that hate P2P , but instead go and waste 2 to 10 times a monthly fee on a F2P item mall. These people are the ones destroying the genre , by feeding the Asian Devs the cash they need to release more of the same.
Blizzard is seriously the most legit company out there at the moment , just a shame what happened with Blizzard North , but still. If I were just starting my MMO career I would of bought WoW and all of it's expansions and started playing, but after 17 years , a break is well deserved from the genre. So I'm going to kick back and watch the show unroll and see what Devs have to offer in this decade. I do have a eye on 3 games ; GW2 , PSide2 , SW:tor.
Anyways , Minecraft is a good distraction from all the garbage being released atm. So much fun , yet so simple and yet it's not even on MMORPG.com game list.
1. It made theme-park way of game design appealing to other game developers for long term retentions of subs thereby giving the illusion that all games need to follow the winning formula that blizzard has established.
2. It made blizzard rich henceforth the pinnacle of what game company's need to aspire to by creating similar mechanics in hope they could garner the subscriber base wow has.
3. It draw ed in a vast majority of subs from other MMOG's choking the population of those games and forcing redevelopment of game mechanics to match that of WoW. I.e see SWG and the combat upgrade.
It has stagnated the Genre as far as innovation in replacement of renovation and rehashed game systems and content.
4. it has created a new group of players that seek entitlement and reward with no real risk or work to gain them and unleashed them on every new MMO in development.
5. It haunts my nightmares that we are forever going to play Wow clones.
OMG! How dare they make a successful game that others decided to copy, and made player decide to migrate to! The nerve!
This type of logic is absurd. It's not Blizzards fault that people decided to leave their games, and that companies decided to emulate them. This is the fault of, you guessed it, the players themselves. They are the ones who left games in droves and made WoW the success that it is. They are the reason companies make so-called "WoW clones," because they have proven to be successful time after time because of, yes, the players. It's absolutely ridiculous to blame them for catering to a larger audience. They aren't artists, they are a business. It's not cool to be some niche that makes no money.
Such ignorance in some of these posts. WoW is a giant not only because of Blizzard, but because of the vast number of players who support it. And for the love of god get over the stupid themepark vs sandbox crap. One has been proven to work. The other had failed. Get used to it.
Heh , again with the WoW and the negatives , Blizzard did great with WoW and it is running smoothly with millions still willing to pay to play.
Those to blame for the genre going down the crapper are the hypocrits that hate P2P , but instead go and waste 2 to 10 times a monthly fee on a F2P item mall. These people are the ones destroying the genre , by feeding the Asian Devs the cash they need to release more of the same.
Blizzard is seriously the most legit company out there at the moment , just a shame what happened with Blizzard North , but still. If I were just starting my MMO career I would of bought WoW and all of it's expansions and started playing, but after 17 years , a break is well deserved from the genre. So I'm going to kick back and watch the show unroll and see what Devs have to offer in this decade. I do have a eye on 3 games ; GW2 , PSide2 , SW:tor.
...
I've never posted the follow on these forums before, but this deserves it...
lolwut?
There's a lot of people who dislike WoW and the whole F2P item mall scene. In fact it's part of why some people like WoW even less lately, because WoW has an expanding item mall in it.
WoW's quality has been on a decline, yet people keep throwing money at it to release more half-baked content.
And I strongly disagree that Blizzard is by any means the most 'legit' company. It's long since lost that status, particularly considering they merged with Activision, which is the antithesis of a 'legit' company.
what wow has been good a some points in it's industry. It's broken many things in the industry since. such as the feeling of community in the games. It's devs single focus on group content alone has forced group play for any type of good gear for improving a character combined with the notion of instant travel and instant grouping with complete strangers for every encounter every instance has broken the community. Not to mention the allowance of certain kinds of mods to be made that allow for the unfair treatment of players trying to progress in the game. there are certain things i expect from a game now that i had in WoW but i definitely do not miss the bad things it brought with 4.0.
I played WoW the day it came out and for me the #1 reason was. ORCS.
Finally orcs as a playable race and not only that, Orcs with culture and complexity. And while EQ1 had trolls and ogres as playable races there was no element to identify with them outside of ME SMAH AND EAT YOU!... which can be fun to RP but stil, Glad WoW put a more human face on one of the classic fantasy monster races.
I played WoW the day it came out and for me the #1 reason was. ORCS.
Finally orcs as a playable race and not only that, Orcs with culture and complexity. And while EQ1 had trolls and ogres as playable races there was no element to identify with them outside of ME SMAH AND EAT YOU!... which can be fun to RP but stil, Glad WoW put a more human face on one of the classic fantasy monster races.
Sorry but in Lineage 2 orcs were playable before WoW came out and were looking human-like.
1. It made theme-park way of game design appealing to other game developers for long term retentions of subs thereby giving the illusion that all games need to follow the winning formula that blizzard has established.
It made leveling and the gameplay clearer for players. I don't see how this is a negative. A story based rpg has a progression, take a look at Dragon Age. Even earlier MMOs had leveled areas. Not until GW2 has there been a consideration to make a solely dynamic event game. Given that WoW was developed at the apex of Everquest's legacy, they went with what they know would work and refined it. Sandbox games, do not have massive appeal. People like to be held by the hand. There's a market for both and WoW uses this design strategy rather well.
2. It made blizzard rich henceforth the pinnacle of what game company's need to aspire to by creating similar mechanics in hope they could garner the subscriber base wow has.
It made the criteria for a game's success more approachable. How many games on this last lack a friendly interface? How many lack an interactive combat system? Or how about a leveling system that does not require a doctorate to use or require a year's worth of grinding to fill out? Unfortunately, many of these start up companies cannot afford the quality of implementation that a giant company like Blizzard can afford. Blizzard has forced companies to make better decisions and spend more time in development to ensure a quality product. Unfortunately, most companies want a quick buck and rush their games.
3. It draw ed in a vast majority of subs from other MMOG's choking the population of those games and forcing redevelopment of game mechanics to match that of WoW. I.e see SWG and the combat upgrade.
Once again, it works and works well. You can't knock an A student and say he is at fault for other student's failures. SWG was poorly managed, plain and simple. That is no way Blizzard's fault. They simple presented the opportunity for other companies to make money on an MMO. The other companies chose to fumble.
It has stagnated the Genre as far as innovation in replacement of renovation and rehashed game systems and content.
Well, do me a favor and download some of the other mmos on this list. Try some of the crap f2p games that should not be allowed out of development. EVER. Shortsightedness on other companies' behalves is not of Blizzard's making. But some games have taken notice of what works and tried to implement this. A little market research goes along way and most companies are not willing to do what it takes to find if there is sufficient demand for their game. Just release and hope. Oh, it failed! Damn Blizzard.
4. it has created a new group of players that seek entitlement and reward with no real risk or work to gain them and unleashed them on every new MMO in development.
How much risk do you want in a game? Your character dies permanently? You can be killed anytime, anywhere in game. You still have to work on things in WoW, hard. You don't get to 85 and boom, there's gear and you can kill Deathwing. Players expect a certain element of fairness, polish and attention from developers. Blizzard and a few others are able to provide. If a company cannot, get the heck off of the market.
5. It haunts my nightmares that we are forever going to play Wow clones.
It's not looking that way. There are several games out now and ones on the horizon that offer a different experience.
The community as a whole needs to divest from crappy f2p game and let them fail, at least in the western market. Same with games that do not live up to the standards that are expected of a game today. Once a couple companies fail, you will start seeing better games. We don't learn from success, we learn from failure.
Doesnt matter how good WoW is, I know I played for 6 years. But I consider WoW to be the worst mistake for the MMO genre EVAR!
Blizzard completely ruined the creativity and innovation that made the early years of MMO a complete and utterly wonderful new experience, with games such as Asherons Call, Dark Age of Camelot, City of Heroes, Anarchy Online, Shadowbane, and Ultima Online. Now every company is clawing at the Blizzard Teet for the milk of boredome.
Playing: GW2 Waiting on: TESO Next Flop: Planetside 2 Best MMO of all time: Asheron's Call - The first company to recreate AC will be the next greatest MMO.
Come on kids, it's not to late to jump in the WoW hate wagon!!!
You current game has no population? Blame WoW!
The latest hardcore, full-loot PvP game is an amaturish POS made by an indi developer who can't code worth a crap? Blame WoW!
You believe no good MMO has been released since UO? Blame WoW!
Your granny has the gout? Blame WoW!
Want to be cool? Blame WoW!
Yes kids, this thread is only 3 pages long so far. Still plenty of space in the ol' WoW hate wagon!!!
There are legitimate gripes against WoW that people have posted. It's not a flawless game by any means, and does suffer from a lot of issues. It may not directly be Blizzard's fault that so many other developer try and fail to copy their success, but Blizzard has really given up on pushing the bar with regards to quality and innovation, and the rest of the industry has been too distracted by WoW's success to realize this fault and exploit it.
If pointing out WoW's obvious flaws is jumping on the 'hate band wagon', then so be it. I'd rather deal with people who have a more realistic perception of reality than the blind zealot fanboyism that so many other people project over a game that's really seen better days.
I really can't agree with you on that more diversity point, Bill.
It took 5 years of constant cardboard copies of Wow before anyone even thought about doing something else, and I don't think it is a coincidence that the diversity finally starts to pop up at the same time Wow starts bleeds players.
Wows huge success made moronic publishers copying it more than anything else and that have lead to the most stale and boring 7 years in the history of MMOs.
Not that it really is Wows fault for selling good, but the opposite wouldn't be true even if this lead to creativity.
The worst thing Wow have lead to is really that Games workshop licensed Mythic for Warhammer online and they turned it into a Wow copy. Warhammers own mechanics would have been superior in all ways but MJ and Barnett thought they could beat Wow by copying it.
The polish thing is true, and that is really Wow (and Guildwars) gift to the genre, I remember the early games. Some of them were at times unplayable because of all the bugs. It seems like most companies finally is getting that lesson now.
When I saw the title for this thread, I thought to myself, "flame bait, why would anyone waste their time". And then I actually read the article, and it turns out that Bill's got five very solid points. I didn't think they would be possible, but it's definitely all true: there were at least five good things the MMO community gained from WoW.
I would, however, like to mention that these things we've gained that are a positive for the MMO industry (from WoW), do they counter the homogenization and devolution of the genre? I'm not sure there's an answer for that, but it's something to consider.
"This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)
WoW created the chance for other games to actually have high end graphics and serious investment. If investors thought MMO's could only bring in 250K stable subs they would never invest the money to make the game that many of the WoW-Whiners beg for.
I think its so funny. The wow haters just wont listen to anything anyoen says good about it. I dont care if u dont like wow thats your right as a gamer. But to blame blizzard and wow for the faults of warhammer and other games is the dumbest stupiidest most idiotic thing ever.
I mean really blizzard made a fun , polished game that alot of players were willing to sub to and other devs instead of going otu making there own wow, a polished game in a universe they created with mechanics they were good at instead chose to cpy wow.
Thats not blizzards fault. Wanna blame anyone for the homegenization of the mmos genre blame all the publishers who chose to slap a coat of paint on an inferior version of wow and call it good. Blame the companies that when they had 5 mil in subs chose to trash there game with an nge.
Bklame the companies who chose copycat over innovation dont blame blizzard because devs didnt have a brain to do there own thing and instead copied wow.
Wow is only to blame for wow. They arent to blame for anything and everything that is wrong with mmo industry. They r only responsible for the game they put out and maintain.
Wow has its fault ill admit but its till the most fun, easy to understand mmo ive tried. and ive tried alot. From warhammer, to galaxies, to lotro, ddo and aoc. Wow is just a much more enjoyable game then those for me.
Yes ive played wow for 5 yrs and ill admit there are things in wow im not happy with but until another game comes out that i have as much fun playing as i do wow its still gonna be the game i play.
Once again wow isnt to blame for other game publishers lack of imagination and lack of a godo product they ccan only control the game they put out themselves. Blaaming them for the downfall of mmo's is like blaming the yankees cause the royals suck.
Comments
and on the flip side...
5. mods making the simple game even easier - playing the auctioneer mod for easy gold etc
4. even with massive profits, still widely accepted to charge box price amounts for extra content
3. cash shop greed
2. less diversity as more companies just try to emulate WoW
1. more immature crazies brought into the genre that act like idiots and annoy people for fun, and who compare every and any MMO to WoW
Bullshit in giant epic purple font. The game market has been going towards the casual for years, if you think that mmos would be the one bastion of hardcore gaming you are simply naive. Be happy that there is WoW instead of a Bejewled mmo as the standard.
I just want to say that everybody must know that this is the most notorious wow hating community on all the planet. Why ask for an article on what WoW has got wrong? (even though I am sure that will be upcoming). We do that ourselves every single day and most days pretty much 24 hours of it. Questioning a writers integrity just because they have posted something positive about a game most of us don't like is just out of order. I'm not naive enough to think it doesn't happen but in this case I think it's unfounded.
It's been a few years now....but I played WOW for about 1.5 years and enjoyed my time there. It got a bit stale for me, but I really have nothing bad to say about it whatsoever. Blizzard made a quality game with WOW and they deserve the success that they've had.
My real problem is that pretty much EVERY single AAA budget MMO released since then has been an attempt to remake WOW. It might have a small twist here or there, but it's basicaly the same formula repeated over and over again ad infinitem.
That's not a problem with Blizzard, it's a problem with Blizzards competitors....and the sort of tunnel-vision that the decision makers running those studio's seem to have locked in. By way of example "Waterboy" was a great movie, but that doesn't mean that every single movie Hollywood produces needs to follow that same formula to be successfull. You can produce a "Saving Private Ryan" or a "Schindlers List" and have a success too.
Hollywood actualy seems to get that variety is good....and that you can produce very different types of movies that follow very different formulas and mechanics and have those work. Unfortunately MMO producers haven't seemed to learn that same basic lesson. There isn't just one uniform audience for MMO's...there are hundreds.....and alot of people that like one type of MMO will also like a very different type....just like very few people only enjoy one flavor of ice cream or one type of food.
What's worse is that most of the Developers that have tried to copy the WOW formula have actualy done a pretty poor job at imitation. They don't seem to realize that the secrets of WOW's success wasn't any of the individual elements of it's makeup...it's that everything it did fit together as a cohesive whole. Just like with a sports team or a book or a movie....you can't just thrown in all the individual ingrediants in a formula and expect it to work... it's how those ingrediants mesh with one another that really determines how successfull the final product will be.
Again, this is nothing against Blizzard. They've actualy gotten things right (for the most part). It's all those other short sighted producers that think they need to emulate WOW that have been screwing up the industry.
Why do so many blame blizzard for other games failing's? I dont get it. Its like blaming the origional writer of a paper because every kid in class chose to plagerize it instead of coming up with there own ideas.
No offense but the people u should blame are the devs who have no imagination to do anything diffrent. Its not blizzards fault people chose to copy wow. Its the people who copied wow's fault for not going out and forming there own niche in the industry.
Its not blizzards fault galaxies chose to ruin there game for there most loyal players with the nge but for some reason blizzard gets blamed for all that ails gaming. The truth is its the devs who choose to just slap a new coat of paint on wow and call it something diffrent.
Tor may have alot in common with wow like going for polish but story the way they are doing it is a new concept in mmo's Gw 2 may innovate if they get it right and im not saying they wont. Tera is going for more an action game.
so there are publishers bringing what they do best to the genre the problem is they are few and far between while most choose to just throw a new coat of pain on wow and call it innovative and for that blizzard gets blamed
No offense blizzard did alot of good for gaming The problem isnt blizzards its the idiots with no brain of there own who chose to just copy without adding anything diffrent or new to the genre.
Five ways WoW made the MMO Genre worse.
1. It made theme-park way of game design appealing to other game developers for long term retentions of subs thereby giving the illusion that all games need to follow the winning formula that blizzard has established.
2. It made blizzard rich henceforth the pinnacle of what game company's need to aspire to by creating similar mechanics in hope they could garner the subscriber base wow has.
3. It draw ed in a vast majority of subs from other MMOG's choking the population of those games and forcing redevelopment of game mechanics to match that of WoW. I.e see SWG and the combat upgrade.
It has stagnated the Genre as far as innovation in replacement of renovation and rehashed game systems and content.
4. it has created a new group of players that seek entitlement and reward with no real risk or work to gain them and unleashed them on every new MMO in development.
5. It haunts my nightmares that we are forever going to play Wow clones.
Blizzard initially created a solid, albeit shallow, MMO.
It's more the fault of the gamers who gobble up substandard game design as if it's a creation of perfection and defend it tooth and nail and treat any criticism against it as blasphemy. Then of course there's the stakeholders that force developers to churn out uninspired 'clones' of WoW because they want a piece of the cash cow.
If Blizzard is guilty of anything, it's of being able to hype up and sell mediocrity on a grand scale.
Nice article Bill but I don't agree.
People cite the huge amount of subscriptions as the 'idicator' for Wow's success, yet the subsciption amount does not mean the game is good; just that it is sucessful.
Yes the game appeals to a myriad of people, but, lots of people smoke, drink and take drugs, that doesn't mean smoking, taking drugs and drinking is good, just that there are lots of people that do it.
If people want to play the statistic game then they should look at how statistics can not depict the true picture.
This presentation http://www.slideshare.net/bcousins/paying-to-win shows that only about 10% of people complained on the game's forum -Battlefield heroes- but it also shows that a larger amount of players do not post on the forums. The game's devs decided this was an indication that people were happy; not that they were unhappy and couldn't be bothered to post on the forums.
So Wow has the numbers behind it, but has it really made the MMORPG genre better? Or are more console gamers playing MMORPG's now, bringing a different kind of gamer to the genre.
I played Wow for a few years but I cannot stomach it now as the game has derived into a conglomerate of idiocracy.
But hey, it's just my opinion.
[Mod Edit]
I think that would make the site seem biased againist WoW which would be bad for the site and would lose some members. It would be smarter to have, maybe 10 ways MMOs could improve.
Heh , again with the WoW and the negatives , Blizzard did great with WoW and it is running smoothly with millions still willing to pay to play.
Those to blame for the genre going down the crapper are the hypocrits that hate P2P , but instead go and waste 2 to 10 times a monthly fee on a F2P item mall. These people are the ones destroying the genre , by feeding the Asian Devs the cash they need to release more of the same.
Blizzard is seriously the most legit company out there at the moment , just a shame what happened with Blizzard North , but still. If I were just starting my MMO career I would of bought WoW and all of it's expansions and started playing, but after 17 years , a break is well deserved from the genre. So I'm going to kick back and watch the show unroll and see what Devs have to offer in this decade. I do have a eye on 3 games ; GW2 , PSide2 , SW:tor.
Anyways , Minecraft is a good distraction from all the garbage being released atm. So much fun , yet so simple and yet it's not even on MMORPG.com game list.
OMG! How dare they make a successful game that others decided to copy, and made player decide to migrate to! The nerve!
This type of logic is absurd. It's not Blizzards fault that people decided to leave their games, and that companies decided to emulate them. This is the fault of, you guessed it, the players themselves. They are the ones who left games in droves and made WoW the success that it is. They are the reason companies make so-called "WoW clones," because they have proven to be successful time after time because of, yes, the players. It's absolutely ridiculous to blame them for catering to a larger audience. They aren't artists, they are a business. It's not cool to be some niche that makes no money.
Such ignorance in some of these posts. WoW is a giant not only because of Blizzard, but because of the vast number of players who support it. And for the love of god get over the stupid themepark vs sandbox crap. One has been proven to work. The other had failed. Get used to it.
I've never posted the follow on these forums before, but this deserves it...
lolwut?
There's a lot of people who dislike WoW and the whole F2P item mall scene. In fact it's part of why some people like WoW even less lately, because WoW has an expanding item mall in it.
WoW's quality has been on a decline, yet people keep throwing money at it to release more half-baked content.
And I strongly disagree that Blizzard is by any means the most 'legit' company. It's long since lost that status, particularly considering they merged with Activision, which is the antithesis of a 'legit' company.
WoW is too popular and too many companies decided to copy it is not a valid reason to list as a negative. Get real people.
Don't you dare come in here and use logic.
what wow has been good a some points in it's industry. It's broken many things in the industry since. such as the feeling of community in the games. It's devs single focus on group content alone has forced group play for any type of good gear for improving a character combined with the notion of instant travel and instant grouping with complete strangers for every encounter every instance has broken the community. Not to mention the allowance of certain kinds of mods to be made that allow for the unfair treatment of players trying to progress in the game. there are certain things i expect from a game now that i had in WoW but i definitely do not miss the bad things it brought with 4.0.
I played WoW the day it came out and for me the #1 reason was. ORCS.
Finally orcs as a playable race and not only that, Orcs with culture and complexity. And while EQ1 had trolls and ogres as playable races there was no element to identify with them outside of ME SMAH AND EAT YOU!... which can be fun to RP but stil, Glad WoW put a more human face on one of the classic fantasy monster races.
Sorry but in Lineage 2 orcs were playable before WoW came out and were looking human-like.
Come on kids, it's not to late to jump in the WoW hate wagon!!!
You current game has no population? Blame WoW!
The latest hardcore, full-loot PvP game is an amaturish POS made by an indi developer who can't code worth a crap? Blame WoW!
You believe no good MMO has been released since UO? Blame WoW!
Your granny has the gout? Blame WoW!
Want to be cool? Blame WoW!
Yes kids, this thread is only 3 pages long so far. Still plenty of space in the ol' WoW hate wagon!!!
A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true...
Doesnt matter how good WoW is, I know I played for 6 years. But I consider WoW to be the worst mistake for the MMO genre EVAR!
Blizzard completely ruined the creativity and innovation that made the early years of MMO a complete and utterly wonderful new experience, with games such as Asherons Call, Dark Age of Camelot, City of Heroes, Anarchy Online, Shadowbane, and Ultima Online. Now every company is clawing at the Blizzard Teet for the milk of boredome.
Everything you need to know about Elder Scrolls Online
Playing: GW2
Waiting on: TESO
Next Flop: Planetside 2
Best MMO of all time: Asheron's Call - The first company to recreate AC will be the next greatest MMO.
There are legitimate gripes against WoW that people have posted. It's not a flawless game by any means, and does suffer from a lot of issues. It may not directly be Blizzard's fault that so many other developer try and fail to copy their success, but Blizzard has really given up on pushing the bar with regards to quality and innovation, and the rest of the industry has been too distracted by WoW's success to realize this fault and exploit it.
If pointing out WoW's obvious flaws is jumping on the 'hate band wagon', then so be it. I'd rather deal with people who have a more realistic perception of reality than the blind zealot fanboyism that so many other people project over a game that's really seen better days.
I really can't agree with you on that more diversity point, Bill.
It took 5 years of constant cardboard copies of Wow before anyone even thought about doing something else, and I don't think it is a coincidence that the diversity finally starts to pop up at the same time Wow starts bleeds players.
Wows huge success made moronic publishers copying it more than anything else and that have lead to the most stale and boring 7 years in the history of MMOs.
Not that it really is Wows fault for selling good, but the opposite wouldn't be true even if this lead to creativity.
The worst thing Wow have lead to is really that Games workshop licensed Mythic for Warhammer online and they turned it into a Wow copy. Warhammers own mechanics would have been superior in all ways but MJ and Barnett thought they could beat Wow by copying it.
The polish thing is true, and that is really Wow (and Guildwars) gift to the genre, I remember the early games. Some of them were at times unplayable because of all the bugs. It seems like most companies finally is getting that lesson now.
When I saw the title for this thread, I thought to myself, "flame bait, why would anyone waste their time". And then I actually read the article, and it turns out that Bill's got five very solid points. I didn't think they would be possible, but it's definitely all true: there were at least five good things the MMO community gained from WoW.
I would, however, like to mention that these things we've gained that are a positive for the MMO industry (from WoW), do they counter the homogenization and devolution of the genre? I'm not sure there's an answer for that, but it's something to consider.
"This is life! We suffer and slave and expire. That's it!" -Bernard Black (Dylan Moran)
WoW created the chance for other games to actually have high end graphics and serious investment. If investors thought MMO's could only bring in 250K stable subs they would never invest the money to make the game that many of the WoW-Whiners beg for.
I think its so funny. The wow haters just wont listen to anything anyoen says good about it. I dont care if u dont like wow thats your right as a gamer. But to blame blizzard and wow for the faults of warhammer and other games is the dumbest stupiidest most idiotic thing ever.
I mean really blizzard made a fun , polished game that alot of players were willing to sub to and other devs instead of going otu making there own wow, a polished game in a universe they created with mechanics they were good at instead chose to cpy wow.
Thats not blizzards fault. Wanna blame anyone for the homegenization of the mmos genre blame all the publishers who chose to slap a coat of paint on an inferior version of wow and call it good. Blame the companies that when they had 5 mil in subs chose to trash there game with an nge.
Bklame the companies who chose copycat over innovation dont blame blizzard because devs didnt have a brain to do there own thing and instead copied wow.
Wow is only to blame for wow. They arent to blame for anything and everything that is wrong with mmo industry. They r only responsible for the game they put out and maintain.
Wow has its fault ill admit but its till the most fun, easy to understand mmo ive tried. and ive tried alot. From warhammer, to galaxies, to lotro, ddo and aoc. Wow is just a much more enjoyable game then those for me.
Yes ive played wow for 5 yrs and ill admit there are things in wow im not happy with but until another game comes out that i have as much fun playing as i do wow its still gonna be the game i play.
Once again wow isnt to blame for other game publishers lack of imagination and lack of a godo product they ccan only control the game they put out themselves. Blaaming them for the downfall of mmo's is like blaming the yankees cause the royals suck.