Bah. I didn't start playing before and I'm not gonna start playing on account of this. I'll care more when Blizzard starts talking release dates for Diablo III.
I'm wondering when the next big MMO is gonna actually come and convince the masses to move on from WoW.
I know there was a lot of talk that Aion was going to do it, but that just didn't happen. I think the big appeal of WoW is how much more of a casual game it is compared to a lot of the other MMOs. Personally, I gave up on Aion at around halfway to the cap, just because of how much questing it took to get from one level to the next.
The reason people like WoW (Among other things) is because of the massive number of people in WoW. So anything short of a mass migration isn't gonna do much.
You may be thinking of Everquest, but as for Eve online, nothing killed it. It still lives as strong as it ever did. Same story with most other MMOs. WoW is the only one to ever see millions of active subscribers. Simply put, by WoW standards, there never was a big thing before WoW.
Azrodal is actually spot on. The real reason so many people play WoW is because so many people play WoW. When your friends all play WoW, you play WoW. It has nothing to do with the game being better than any other game.
Any perception you have of WoW being a better game is actually clouded by the fact that it was your first MMO. As such you have a predefined notion of what an MMO should be and how long things should take or how things should be done. In essence, you are now trapped in the pit of rating other MMO's based on how WoW-like they are. None will ever be more WoW than WoW. You sir are trapped. WoW owns your soul.
It's exactly the same way for other genres of games and other people. I will always measure games based on Diablo. WoW is not "Diablo" enough for me, so I don't like it. Still, Blizzard has me just the same. I will buy Diablo III regardless of whether the game is good or bad.
I'm thinking that there had to be an initial catch for WoW though. After all, the game didn't have millions of active subscribers the day it was launched.
My first MMO was actually Runescape...I'm pretty sure I could have played anything after that and thought it was amazing. But you're also implying that, because it was my first *real* MMO, I think that it is what every MMO should be measured by. I do recognize that a lot of MMOs have better graphics, interfaces, pvp, and gameplay. Even so, you're right. A big draw of WoW is the number of people that play it, and also how easy it is to find people around you that play it as well.
Two of the major initial reasons was that it's both Warcraft and made by Blizzard. Those on their own attracted a lot of people, and it kinda snowballed from there.
Serephel, you play on a Taiwan server, correct? Is there any delay for Cataclysm to appear over there? I thought I read that China only updated to WotLK a couple of months ago.
Yeah, I suppose so. Was Warcraft very popular before WoW was released?
Yessir. Warcraft and Starcraft games pretty much became the standard for RTS games even as WoW established MMO's. There is also a term "Diablo clone" for a reason. Blizzard tends to do that. They made their games well enough and at the right times to establish a standard for whole genres of games.
Your judgment may be clouded but for good reason. WoW really was damn good by comparison to other MMOs when it came out. Blizzard had a reputation to maintain after all. My only real argument is that it came out like forever ago now. There are other games. There are a couple Diablo clones that are better than Diablo II, but they never saw Diablo levels of success. Likewise MMO's can exist and be better than WoW, but will sadly not see the same success either. Blizzard is like Google for games. They can come in and make a better game, but they basically ruin it for the competition. Once they are there, the competition has to be a LOT better to get noticed.
Yeah, they obviously have to be good games to define the genre. I do think that the game could use things like a graphics update, but I think you're right. They have enough of a fan base at this point, something like a graphics update would be nice but pretty much pointless. They did, after all, hit 12 million subscribers today.
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I'm wondering when the next big MMO is gonna actually come and convince the masses to move on from WoW.
Azrodal is actually spot on. The real reason so many people play WoW is because so many people play WoW. When your friends all play WoW, you play WoW. It has nothing to do with the game being better than any other game.
Any perception you have of WoW being a better game is actually clouded by the fact that it was your first MMO. As such you have a predefined notion of what an MMO should be and how long things should take or how things should be done. In essence, you are now trapped in the pit of rating other MMO's based on how WoW-like they are. None will ever be more WoW than WoW. You sir are trapped. WoW owns your soul.
It's exactly the same way for other genres of games and other people. I will always measure games based on Diablo. WoW is not "Diablo" enough for me, so I don't like it. Still, Blizzard has me just the same. I will buy Diablo III regardless of whether the game is good or bad.
My first MMO was actually Runescape...I'm pretty sure I could have played anything after that and thought it was amazing. But you're also implying that, because it was my first *real* MMO, I think that it is what every MMO should be measured by. I do recognize that a lot of MMOs have better graphics, interfaces, pvp, and gameplay. Even so, you're right. A big draw of WoW is the number of people that play it, and also how easy it is to find people around you that play it as well.
Yeah, I suppose so. Was Warcraft very popular before WoW was released?
Your judgment may be clouded but for good reason. WoW really was damn good by comparison to other MMOs when it came out. Blizzard had a reputation to maintain after all. My only real argument is that it came out like forever ago now. There are other games. There are a couple Diablo clones that are better than Diablo II, but they never saw Diablo levels of success. Likewise MMO's can exist and be better than WoW, but will sadly not see the same success either. Blizzard is like Google for games. They can come in and make a better game, but they basically ruin it for the competition. Once they are there, the competition has to be a LOT better to get noticed.