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I was thinking about this; Do the new generation of MMO'ers really know there are other MMO's outthere? I got 2 sons myself, and they are growing up in the age of MMO's, but still, there is only talk about World of Warcraft. Well, oldest has played some other MMO's, and youngest tried a couple different MMO's too. But when I talk to other gamers in general, either through my job or in other social settings, there seem to be only one single MMO that is brought up all the time, and that is World of Warcraft. There seem no interested whatsoever in other MMO's. All the chat is about how World of Warcraft is. Not a single word about how the state of MMO world is, or whether how World of Warcraft is compared to other MMO's. This goes for both my sons as well. None of the has any interest in other MMO's.
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Even though I like World of Warcraft myself, I find the state of MMO's very pitiful. My own MMO journey started back in 2001 with Anarchy Online, but have always wanted more than that. Since then I have always 'hungered' for MMO's, been looking for new MMO's to play. That 'special' feeling is about to die inside me. Maybe I am slowly transforming into a WoW zombie myself. Maybe this is due to all the horrible releases last years? I dont know.
I would like to blame someone for this. But who to blame? It is too easy to point the finger at Blizzard, thats for sure. At least I feel I can have good conscious considering all the different MMO's I have bought since my MMO life started with Anarchy Online. But thats a meager comfort. Me alone does'nt count for more than a fart in a hurricane in the MMO world.
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How come the new generation of MMO'ers aint as eager as 'us veterans' used to be back when we started to play MMO's? It seems that they have their World of Warcraft and are quite pleased with that. And just that. Not bothering at all with other MMO's. Quite unlike me.
Heck, I dont even think the majority of the MMO players today know that they are playing an MMO... There seem to be some sort of 'situation' where people/players have accepted that there is World of Warcraft on one side, with 'all the other games' on the other side.
If you ask me, I don't even think we are even close to hit the bottom yet. The MMO world is still falling. There are no things in the horizon that seem to change the current state of MMO's.
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Pretty sad, huh...?
Make us care MORE about our faction & world pvp!
Comments
Unfortunately its really the young wow kiddie community that has lead us down the path. The wow kiddies who parents paid subs for them whose first mmo was wow. They dont care or want to know, wow is it the one and only. Unfortuantely for them they have no idea how similar their original wow is to other more original mmos EQ AO UO ect. They were superior in gameplay, required skills and intelligence to play, and even superior graphics, seriously cartoon drawings are not graphics. The wow kiddies just dont know or realise how inferior and unoriginal wow is. Just because its popular doesnt mean its original or good these wow kiddies had no other games to base it on so to them crap is good so be it, but dont drag the rest of us intelligent self determining people with you. RANT END
98% of all statistics are made up.
No, a lot already said:
Been there done that, why bother with another clone.
A river bend is a river bend and my river bend is comfy one.
My UI is comfy and my avatar is comfy.
MMO's are all about progress - starting from level 1 - most people want to play with what they are comfortable with.
It's like coming home again...
Want a real mmorpg? Play WOW with experience turned off mode and be Pve_Pvp King at any level without a rat race.
Hence the reason why advertising is important and the reason why there are more advertisements on some websites (wont mention one in particular) assaulting you like a B-52 Bomber during Desert Storm than the latest Lady Gaga music video. Many WoW players I knew, had no idea what other games where coming out let alone cared...sad? guess its all in how you want to take it.
Most knew it was a game..and played it as such...why does caring about where games come from and where they are going matter to people who play the game for fun. Many of the people I knew playing the game were in their late 30's and 40's do you think they gave two s**ts about EQ, AO, or UO and how WoW relates to those concepts? nope.
HEAVEN OR HELL
Duel 1
Lets ROCK!
So please enlighten us how much "inferior" inferior is.
Because ,"inferior" games don't have multi million subscriptions that bring in 1.2 billon dollars of players that ... pay.
WOW kiddies are ... in average 28 years old (enough studies of that), so a lot of grown up kiddies over there.
And how much more intelligently "intelligent" is your ... video game actually.
Do you need an IQ of 132 to play it (bragging about my own IQ), because I find that attractive.
And if superior gameplay means you actually have to sit 10 hours through a session before the fun begins, please restart rant.
Want a real mmorpg? Play WOW with experience turned off mode and be Pve_Pvp King at any level without a rat race.
well with 22 million mmo active subscribers, and 11.5 mill in wow, its not 95 but it is half.
It sucks being a hardcore player at heart but a casual player in availability. ~NightCloak
Sorry but this post does not make me believe in anyway that you are intelligent.
Well... I see this too. I've switched schools a lot, but last year I couldn't find a single person who'd played an MMO besides WoW... and the worst part, they didn't like how HARD... WOW... IS(>:O), so they asked me if I wanted to participate in a cheat server and get phat l00tz right then. I'd have told them to fuck off and play the real game, but they're just so blind... I also tried to show them other MMOs, but godforbid they aren't allowed rest XP, mounts at 20, easy leveling and high-soloibilty...
I guess you could say they not only have not heard of other MMOs, but find the only one they do know if, WOW, to be to hard for them to play....
"The question that sometimes drives me hazy: Am I, or the others crazy?" - Albert Einstein
I think it all comes down to familiarity. Most people that started playing WoW never played an MMO before, and at that time were considered new to the type of game MMO's are. I personally started my first MMO back when i was 16-17, which was 11 or so years ago. My game of choice was The 4th Coming.
To this day, when i find myself overly bored, and have no MMO to play, I always find myself going back to it just to rekindle a flame of sorts. I played t4c for at least 4-5 years, remember all the late nights grinding endlessly, killing people, enjoying myself. Eventually I got bored, and that is when I learned about all the other different MMO's that existed.
My point is that when your happy with a game, you don't care what else exists. Your familiar with said game, and learning a new system, combat style, UI, finding a new guild, etc, etc is tedious at best. I'd assume that if 11.5 million people are still playing WoW, month after month, they must be satifised with their experience.
Granted, I've never saw the hype about it, but then again, me personally, I never see the hype about anything. I say if they are happy, let them be.
If WOW was your first MMO, (remember how fun they were when you were just getting started) it is going to blow you away with its features, polish etc and you are going to fall in love with it. Even more importantly, you are going to judge every other game against how it stacks up against WOW and if they don't measure up, you won't pay them any mind.
Even more importantly, if they don't offer anything really new or better than WOW (and face it, most games in the last 5 years don't) why would you even consider playing another one? You really can't 'out-WOW" Blizzard's game by copying it.
Unfortunately, WOW breeds bad habits, its gets players used to playing causal games, so the player doesn't have the fortitude to take on more challenging games (unless they are the hardcore areana players or raiders, but those make up a small percentage of the greater WOW player base)
People who start on WOW will have a more difficult time adapting to alternate game play styles, they will always be looking for quest driven progression, levels, pre-defined talents etc.
In EVE we actually have quite a few WOW refugees, (I'm one myself) who grew weary after a time of game mechanics and wanted something different, and I think eventually the current WOW player base will reach out looking for something different once they tire of their current obsession, its human nature.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
The thread title is mere sensationalism, clearly.
A more truthful statement would be that most players aren't trying a lot of other MMORPGs. There are more casual players than hardcore, and while these players have heard of other games, they don't try that many (if any) because gaming is a light hobby and they just aren't going to commit the time/energy to learning something else. The also aren't overly critical of gaming. It's a game, they play it, they have fun. That contentment results in less desire to try new things.
The entire discussion would hold more merit if I hadn't spent thousands of gaming hours in non-WOW MMORPGs trying to find one which was more enjoyable, and failing to do so. I mean I have actively tried to find a better product. I hold no loyalty to WOW. The moment a better game comes out, that's where I'll be. If there was clearly a Game B is better than WOW, but doing worse due to marketing (or whatever reason) then that's an argument I could get behind: down with the Corrupt Big Dog, up with the Righteous Underdog. (and really that's the crusade we frequently see, from those who do have non-WOW MMORPGs they prefer.) But for me, the argument continues to feel a bit hollow until there's a better game out there.
(Also, the idea that WOW is a "kids" game is laughable, given well-known evidence to the contrary. Trolls will be trolls.)
"What is truly revealing is his implication that believing something to be true is the same as it being true. [continue]" -John Oliver
So other mmos are not popular and somehow that translates into "95% of mmoers don't know there are other mmos"?
It gets really old hearing this misinformation repeated as if it has any grounds in reality.
Why don't people talk about other mmos? I imagine it is the same reason more people don't play them! Strange concept, I know.
Why would people in social groups talk about games they don't play? Why would people talk about warhammer for instance unless they were bringing up topics of how to ruin a decent mmo?
Who do you think is spending money on new mmo releases so that companies can brag about 1 million boxes sold! 1 million forum users! 8 million accounts created! Those people are coming from somewhere you know. Just because people are not sticking around these new mmos doesn't mean they have not tried them or don't know about them.
I really do not know what is so hard to understand about poor mmo releases not attracting hordes of players or when they do, they lose them almost as fast as they gained them.
Do you really think no one knew about star trek online, warhammer, conan, vanguard, champion or any of the dozens of other mmos that sat on the software shelf right next to wow?
People know about other mmos and that is exactly why they are not playing them.
So to get to 95%, you would have had to have asked at least 60 people total (if you were to include yourself and two sons in the poll). That you were able to find 57 people that knew what a MMORPG was and did not know there were other MMORPGs out there is a little far fetched.
Sorry, I only got as far as the subject of the thread...was there anything more to it?
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%
I like people who pull numbers and percentages out of no where and state them as a fact. But seriously, people who play mmo's know there are other games. They stick with the games they like. That simple. When they get bored of their game they branch off and find something new. Same thing goes for every other genre.
Kind of like how married men generally know there are other women out there still, but for the most part they stick to the woman they signed up for that lifetime sub with, eh? Even those married men that might try out some of the other women out there for short trial periods, generally return to their main woman, eh? I can see that.
I miss the MMORPG genre. Will a developer ever make one again?
Explorer: 87%, Killer: 67%, Achiever: 27%, Socializer: 20%
This guy trolls way to much! On that note wow is crud on a stick just like lady gaga and half of the popular music is crud on a stick but people follow other people and if it's what is in style that is what most will do. I am a leader not a follower. Your only showing how mush of a 28 year old kid you really are and yes u fit right in wiht the wow crowd plz stay there. Let's all play wow thats what the cool kids play bleh....Diablo is the best game blizz ever made and is the only reason that WoW has teh subs is has now watch wow die when d3 comes out. Also it took weeks sometimes months to get a epic quality item in eq and to skill to do it.
Yes and wow is the same soon they will ahve wow cigs to get little kids to smoke.
Wasn't much different when Final Fantasy VII was released, like it was the best thing since sliced bread. So many new gamers first discovering that Final Fantasy even existed like it hadn't existed before and far better releases too. And thats all they talked about, and just as they were weened into the world of RPGs on FF, they are once again wened into MMOs via WoW.
Even though I dislike WoW now, I used to enjoy it greatly, and I do give great props to Blizzard for still retaining one of the only MMOs that plays so smoothly and the character animations across the board are damned impressive.
WoW is the root of all evil! Soon, the world will end because of WoW manipulating the young, poor players!
Make us care MORE about our faction & world pvp!
QFT.
Exactly this.
@OP. I don't think the MMO genre is falling, it's still progressing just like the gaming genre in general. True, WoW has made its mark on the MMO market with good and bad results. But there's enough upcoming titles who have their own uniqueness and intriguing gameplay. Of course, I also believe that all the other MMO's around aren't as sh*tty as some claim, for example a LotrO, AoC, EVE Online, EQ2 or DDO are as much fun to some players as WoW is to others.
About the 'harder to learn age = higher avg age', I don't know what the average age is of WoW, but I have some nephews of 8-10 and their friends who're playing WoW, and I don't see them play any other MMO as quickly. WoW is very accessible, many of younger age haven't the attention span or perseverance to conquer the steeper learning curve of other MMO's.
The ACTUAL size of MMORPG worlds: a comparison list between MMO's
The ease with which predictions are made on these forums:
Fratman: "I'm saying Spring 2012 at the earliest [for TOR release]. Anyone still clinging to 2011 is deluding themself at this point."
Nothing too strange here...
My first mmo was EQ1. As i was playing it, i had no interest in other games at all. Some time later EQ2 and WoW were released, but i didn't care, didn't even try a free trials or look at any info abou them. I didn't care.. So i guess it's nothing weird in the fact that some people just play their favorite game and don't care to know about any other games...
WoW is most well known mmo out there and it's natural that people hear about it, try it, get drawn in and forget about other games for a long time
"When I play WOW I turn into a MMO junkie. Quite unlike when I play LOTRO, Anarchy Online, Fallen Earth, Age of Conan, Everquest 2, Star Wars Galaxies +++"
Casual is as "casual" as the person makes something. In playing all of said games above... you can devote less time into WoW and still feel like you got something done or was rewarded somehow (especially in regards to levels, loot).
There is a split though. You can put too much time into a game because:
A. That is what is required to accomplish something. If you have ever grinded out a hell level in EQ classic you know what I mean. If you have ever died in EQ classic you know what I mean. If you have ever spent 2 hours shouting LFG in L. Guk or Solsek JUST so you could level up because everyone was at the endgame content, you know what I mean.
B. People who have been there done that as far as "hardcore" or "oldschool" who grew sick of said above example, and blaze through WoW content and feel like they're getting tons done.
I completely agree. Most of the people I meet in World of Warcraft is 'mature' ones. This goes especially for the more complex MMO's like Anarchy Online and such. Harder to learn MMO = higher average age.
Bullshit. L2logic. When a person encounters more kids in a video game it has nothing to do with fucking difficulty, it's something called LAW OF AVERAGES. If there are MILLIONS of people playing the same game, the chances of running into a younger person are greatly increased because of the VOLUME of people playing especially when you factor in word of mouth, mainstream advertising, and fads. If age was a factor in determining how hard a fucking video game was....
ALL EVE PLAYERS WOULD LOOK LIKE THIS:
"There is only one thing of which I am certain, and that's nothing is certain."
Hmm I must play different MMOs most of them aren't level based.
<Insert baseless comment about World of Warcraft>
<Insert barely hidden plug for MMORPG I will only play for a few months and then abandon>
<Insert almost clever self-gratifying comment about my status as a gaming veteran>
Doktar - 70 Troll Priest - Perenolde