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Thread: why WoW is so successful

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    Default why WoW is so successful

    Recently i had a half decent discussion with a player on Eve online regarding the huge success of WoW compared with the relative niche status of Eve Online and other MMORPGs. The conclusion we reached was that the success of WoW is based upon its mass appeal. Much like a MacDonalds compared with that great little Mexican restaurant in the back alley. And the two main factors that allow WoW to achieve its mass appeal in my opinion are 1) Ease of accessiblity and the 2) user-friendly implementation of the GUI.

    In a nutshell, WoW is designed and marketed specifically for the generic gamer/mass audiance and its huge success reflects this.

    By level of accessibily i mean not only the level of access to the game by potential gamers in the real world, but also the level of access to the game for new players within the game world. Below are some key points.
    • It's released world-wide for starters
      Gamecard options gives access to young kids
      Blizzard is a very established brand, and most of its games haven taken root in popular culture
      The class system is based on the traditional Tolkien lore and the familiar Warcraft storyline
      There's an extensive in-game tutorial program for beginners
      The learning curve is gradual and zoned off. So players are usually surrounded by other players of the same level, and each level strata has its own gameplay area.



    Along with the ease of accessiblity the WoW GUI is implemented to maximize user-friendliness.

    • The interface 'looks' and 'feels' warm. Unlike most games where the interface and the graphics just 'look' shoddy, Risk Your Life , Last Chaos, Space Cowboys etc.
      The interface is clear, succinct. Texts are large. Display features are customizable, easily navigated and identified and furthermore the colours of the interface don't clash.
      WASD movement with jump provides freedom of movement.
      The graphics although not not the best is designed to be immersive. Alot of variations in landscape and structure as well as a variety of atmopsheric features make moving around enjoyable.



    Although WoW can be viewed as the antithesis to creativity. It does however succeed in appealing to the masses. It's a game designed from the very start to be a game that taliors for the mediocrity of the mass.

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    Unlike other games which are free...the people who made WOW get payed alot so they better do their best to maximize product satisfaction...


    Personally I never played WOW nor will I play it.. as you said it "taliors for the mediocrity of the mass.",I dont want to be a statistic...

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    many f2p games still have decent designers.

    i mean the GUI and tutorial progams aren't that difficult to program...

    its just lack of care on the developer's part.

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    Quote Originally Posted by otomon View Post
    Actually some of the free games avilable here were actually paytoplay(like WOW) in some places like Korea,Japan etc etc...I dont understand why if a game was 100% done in another place,why must they start at "beta",how can a game that was already done be beta? I will be honest with you I dont know much of programming but maybe when translating a game you must start at the source?
    im not an expert either ... but wouldnt Korean games be programed in Korean... so you ahve to translate the whole code.... which would be a pain.

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    personally i highly disklike WoW... but to be brutally honest... there is no other alternative at present... and i have to admit WoW definitely has its positives.

    But the more i talk about the success of WoW, the more i think its killing the entire MMORPG platform in the west.

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    Quote Originally Posted by buddhabeads View Post
    personally i highly disklike WoW... but to be brutally honest... there is no other alternative at present... and i have to admit WoW definitely has its positives.

    But the more i talk about the success of WoW, the more i think its killing the entire MMORPG platform in the west.
    I digress. The majority will leave for the better game, thats just how it is. If another game beats WoW in all of it's aspects (That will be Age of Conan or Warhammer Online hopefully), I would gladly put WoW on hiatus and play either of those two.

    And once again, thanks for portraying your posts like that. I don't mind anybody disliking WoW, but having the extreme need to bash any subject that has to do with it just shoots my wheels off.

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    U are all wrong ! The answer is becouse yhat game was made by Blizzard
    All games they published was bestsellers .

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    Quote Originally Posted by Urahara View Post
    Quest,graphic,gameplay
    I loled.Graphics?
    .
    I'm sure my friends who never playied mmorpgs would worship WoW,tough.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Urahara View Post
    Quest,graphic,gameplay
    o_o... The graphics in WoW look like a Crayola Crayon box exploded on the screen ;_;!

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    Quote Originally Posted by Fieren View Post
    I digress. The majority will leave for the better game, thats just how it is. If another game beats WoW in all of it's aspects (That will be Age of Conan or Warhammer Online hopefully), I would gladly put WoW on hiatus and play either of those two.

    And once again, thanks for portraying your posts like that. I don't mind anybody disliking WoW, but having the extreme need to bash any subject that has to do with it just shoots my wheels off.
    thats what we are all hoping for...

    vut if Vanguard is anything to go by... the future looks bleak.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Fieren View Post
    I digress. The majority will leave for the better game, thats just how it is. If another game beats WoW in all of it's aspects (That will be Age of Conan or Warhammer Online hopefully), I would gladly put WoW on hiatus and play either of those two.

    And once again, thanks for portraying your posts like that. I don't mind anybody disliking WoW, but having the extreme need to bash any subject that has to do with it just shoots my wheels off.
    Sorry to brake it to you but most people will most likly turn to Spellborn when released mainly due to the fact it has a kinda similar art style alittle closer than AoC or Warhammer.Spellborn combat is alot more open than Warhammer as in terms as movement and combat setup.As for AoC combat, it DOES have potential to be a great combat system but i think that it might fall flat on terms of how things are setup, just need to wait and see on that one.

    Burning<<<

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    Quote Originally Posted by Burning_
    Sorry to brake it to you but most people will most likly turn to Spellborn when released mainly due to the fact it has a kinda similar art style alittle closer than AoC or Warhammer.Spellborn combat is alot more open than Warhammer as in terms as movement and combat setup.As for AoC combat, it DOES have potential to be a great combat system but i think that it might fall flat on terms of how things are setup, just need to wait and see on that one.

    Burning<<<
    What the firetruck was there to be sorry about? Brake? Other than the cracked windshield my Honda is fine thank you.

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    Yes its because it has mass appeal, you can start and max level prettyfast and get into the endgame quickly. the support for the game is pretty good Blizzard is good at banning the botters and stuff like that. the UI is most definatly a plus because of how customizable it is.

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    Quote Originally Posted by waffo View Post
    Why is there a peaon in your avatar then?
    Actually I didnt even know what Warcraft was when I got that avatar.. I was a n00b back then and I just picked the first avatar I liked...

    And I been using it ever since then.. its my style...

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    Pretty much everything is said:

    1. "Blizzard is good, WoW is from Blizzard, therefore WoW is good" is a dogmatic silogism that works pretty well, plus all the hyping.

    2. It's an effective port of the already inmersive Warcraft environment both in scenery and UI. Graphics are colourful and lively, and have reasonable requirements to please casual and amateur players.

    3. It does not have any particularly amazing and revolutionary feature, but it has everything your standard MMORPG needs and works well.

    Now it's deeply burrowed in the MMORPG community, and unless Burning Crusade or some other patch or expansion screws badly the game (from what i've heard it happened to Star Wars Galaxies, also to Ultima Online), only a miracle or a curse will change that.

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    maybe because it's ASWD plus you get to move around while in combat, unlike some aswd games, you stand still and attack watching your dude boringly and lamelessy attack, but in wow, you use aswd to move around while in combat trying to run behind your target or run away from your target and stuff, so bassically you have full control, full freedom of your dude so that you can move him fully while in pvp, unlike standing still watching your dude attack like in games like silkroad and stuff

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    lol u guyz really need to play some korean games(the one that its not english yet) because if u guyz played u will think that why the hell did i waste all money in wow..(seriously even f2p korean only games make WoW trash) if u guyz wanna disagree first play a korean mmopg.

    well some of u still will say omg vash u noob this korean games r nothing compare to wow.. and i know the reason why u guyz gonna say that.. cause u guyz dont understan korean

    anywayz WoW is very successful because it has alot of variety of quest.. u guyz will know why when u guyz play

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    Quote Originally Posted by *vash_the_stampede* View Post
    lol u guyz really need to play some korean games(the one that its not english yet) because if u guyz played u will think that why the hell did i waste all money in wow..(seriously even f2p korean only games make WoW trash) if u guyz wanna disagree first play a korean mmopg.

    well some of u still will say omg vash u noob this korean games r nothing compare to wow.. and i know the reason why u guyz gonna say that.. cause u guyz dont understan korean

    anywayz WoW is very successful because it has alot of variety of quest.. u guyz will know why when u guyz play
    wy thx vesh, meybe eef u culd post theze godlyk kreen gemez on foreign section thtd bee gretz, thx man, thx, yea thx

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    To me the game didnt hit its real success until the pvp came out the instanced pvp battlegruonds were the shit I NEVER in my mind imagined that I would be able to play a mmorpg and be able to play CTF it really made PVP mainstream as to where before Pvpers were a minority the instances allowed even non pvpers to pvp all they want with their end game uber gear

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    Its great because its American!! D

    No no, that might be a reason, but its really good because it has little of everything, and updated feqently, and many quests and items, and things to do...

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    Quote Originally Posted by Magnific3nt View Post
    wy thx vesh, meybe eef u culd post theze godlyk kreen gemez on foreign section thtd bee gretz, thx man, thx, yea thx
    go to chaoscauser thread in the foreign section(dude why ur spelling so bad, no offence) anywayz the thread is stickied so u can go there faster..

    Quote Originally Posted by Syetactic View Post
    Its great because its American!! D

    No no, that might be a reason, but its really good because it has little of everything, and updated feqently, and many quests and items, and things to do...
    is wow really made by americans.. like i thought it was made in blizzard in korea

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    if you want a complicated game, i think anarchy online is a good one even though it came out like 7 years ago

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    Quote Originally Posted by Attila View Post
    WoW's success has nothing to do with it's content. WoW is succesful because lots of people play it.
    When you see 8 million people play a game, you will say: "Hey why wouldn't I play it too.Must be good since so many people play it."

    Outline of WoW

    hype -> 1 million people buy it -> 3 million buy it -> 5 million buy it -> 8 million buy it.

    It's all in POPULARITY, not content.
    Popularity doesn't just come out of thin air.

    The fact that WoW follows the story line of a very popular Strategy game that has been around for more than ten years is a big contributor to its popularity. Not even half the storyline has been covered with the original game and expansion combined. Blizzard has already acquired their playerbase long before WoW was released.

    Some people like yourself might disagree with the fact that its content also contribute to its popularity, but there might be dozens of others who would say otherwise.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Nakamura View Post
    Popularity doesn't just come out of thin air.

    The fact that WoW follows the story line of a very popular Strategy game that has been around for more than ten years is a big contributor to its popularity. Not even half the storyline has been covered with the original game and expansion combined. Blizzard has already acquired their playerbase long before WoW was released.

    Some people like yourself might disagree with the fact that its content also contribute to its popularity, but there might be dozens of others who would say otherwise.
    Let's just say if there were no Warcraft series and if 10000 people brought WoW at it's release. There would be no WoW.

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    WoW is just a fad, pretty soon Blizzard is either going to make a stupid move, or the general player base of WoW is going to look for something new.

    All in all WoW is probably going to be in the trasher very soon, because of more superior MMORPGs (Warhammer, Vanguard, RO2, hopefully Mabinogi, Age of Conan).

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