For us gamers, nothing IS the standard in itself. For *me* WOW did some things right, things I want to have again. Like the overall combat pacing or the medium diffculty. Other things from WOW I dont want to have. I don't see it biased in any way like loving or hating WoW.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
Why is WoW standart is nice question. But I wouldnt say its standart for MMOs, standart for MMOs is mostly your first MMO - so for most MMO players today its WoW because they started with it. I can say for me is not standart any game because every game has its plus sides so I would have to name more than one. But WoW is probably used mostly in topics connected to MMO because its most known MMO these days. Thats all, also its said, but it will change one day.
Btw its also the problem today that every MMO topic is connected to WoW. Because now ppl see MMOs like WoW - so WoW is an example of great MMO for them. Thats why other companies are doing WoW like games because players expect those games (not all, but most of em). But true MMOs are different, mostly about fun and playerbase - Ultima Online, these days Darkfall or EvE for ex. - those are true MMOs imo. Other games are more RPG than MMO - I know its an MMORPG but I guess you know what I meant.. xD
P.S. I dont like UO or Darkfall, and I'll probably quit EvE because I dont have time for it, but still I think those MMOs are true MMOs, even if those games are only for hardcore ppl mostly. Those casual MMORPGs what we have these days ar emostly something between MMO and RPG.
Played: Lineage 2,Guild Wars 1 and 2, Age of Conan, Ragnarok Online, LOTRO, World of Warcraft, League of Legends, EvE online Tried: KAL Online, Face of Mankind, ROSE online Playing: CS:GO
On a very simple calculation - $15/month from 7 million subscribers = $105 mil a month in revenue, not even taking into account sales of the game, expansions etc. What MMO developer when they sit down to scope something new isn't going to want even 10% of that?
Love or hate WoW it did a number of things right:
1. It could run on anything (plain and simple reason why I didn't sub to EQ2 back in '04)
2. It was familiar - EQ and UO players could pick up and play the game without much thought and any fans of the fantasy genre had a standard swords & sorcery setting, plus it appealed to the Warcraft fans.
3. It corrected MMO mistakes of the past (compared to my days in EQ when you would have prayed for mob tagging, loot binding, a less severe death penalty, a quest journal, mobs with sensible respawn times).
4. As far as I could see in '04 there wasn't much competition from other MMOs. I remember choosing between WoW and EQ2 (even though I was a EQ player from launch) solely because of #1 above.
5. Due to the above and phenomenal early success it became mainstream, which attracted people outside of the usual communities.
1: More people have played it than probably any other MMO there is right now.
2: It is vastly more polished that any other MMO out there right now. The only games that even come close are EVE and Guild Wars. Blizzard sets the standard because the game is better mechanically than any other. (Of course, the design principles {read: brain-numbing gear grind in repetitive dungeons} is another matter).
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
There is something that feels right about WoW. I can never put my finger on it but it draws me in. Also WoW had a fan base previous to the games release. Blizzard was well known with Warcraft Star Craft and Diablo being amazing games and I think people felt it was a safe bet originally that WoW would also be a great game. It turned out that originally it was a VERY good game. With the devs messing with it so much and the bland exps coming out I'm not so sure I can say that anymore. We will see though im trying my cata expansion right now. The Worgen story and starting area are really really dope but past that I'll prob get bored and quit again.
WoW is not the standard. It's an exmaple of how to make low quality game that can become very popular. In other words: "how to earn a lot of money for making silly game using popular setting".
My favorite thing about wow posts is the legions who come in and talk about how easy it is.
Most of them, when pressed, reveal the following.
You never had an arena team over 2200.
You never did any TK pre nerf, you never cleared sunwell pre or post nerf, you never killed anything in icecrown until you got a 15% buff, you never killed a hardmode until you got a 30% buff, and your guild still couldn't kill putricide or lk.
You never did ulduar before you over geared it, and you never did yogg with no keepers.
And currently, you haven't gotten any further then magmaw in blackrock and halfus in bastion.
One of the big things wow did was make endgame available to anyone, no mmo did that before, it was always for the most hardcore of players. To offer something to the hardcore crowd, they came up with the idea of hard modes.
The new expansion has reintroduced the concept of genuinly hard encounters, something many, many current mmos still don't understand. Fights that are not difficult because of rng, or gear checks, but fights that are difficult because of the actual mechanics of the fight.
People, especiacly on this site, seem to equate difficulty with time sinks. X game is harder because it took me 8 months to hit cap, y game is harder because it takes 2 years to craft and epic item. Time spent is not difficulty, and its why those other games have 1/10 or 1/100 wows player base.
Before you attack the game for being too easy, show me that you have killed sinestra, and gotten the gladiator title, and then i will listen to you.
Until then, i will give you the same credence i give to the level 43 blood elf warlock in trade chat who crys about how easy wow is.
WoW has become the "standard" because so many people play it, there is nothing else to it. Simply because everyone know the game doesnt make it a standard.
the best way to kill a troll is to FLAME ON! ...or with acid...
WoW has become the "standard" because so many people play it, there is nothing else to it. Simply because everyone know the game doesnt make it a standard.
It's standard because it's the only high quality product on the market for a massively multiplayer rpg. A lot of people have come to call this "polish." Other games have come nowhere near as close. Except for new MMORPGs coming out in 2011 which seem to have finally gotten the concept. Rift and DC Universe Online are really well polished if you can overlook some minor things in DCUO like the chat interface and how it feels like it's more for a console game.
Also, think about how WoW copied a lot of stuff from EverQuest and Dark Age of Camelot along with other MMORPGs. So technically WoW isn't completely original. You're looking at history of other MMORPGs as well as original game development. Blizzard didn't invent a standard, they simply practiced high quality software development as a company and delivered a high quality product as a result.
1: They made a game that is so easy that anybody can do it.
2: You don't need to think when playing. You can literally keep a side-chat going while in a raid.
3: You can reach end-game content because of 1 & 2.
4: The grind for a full set of purple gear is so long that when you finally get it, the pleasure center of your brain really kicks in.
5: People see you in that purple gear and call you "skilled" for having it (which also triggers those endorphins)
What other game had all of those features before Warcraft wrapped them all up in a pretty bow? Which leads us to:
6: They did it first.
I would add in a 7th point in that their main competition shot themselves in the foot.
- The original Everquest develepors decided to take an already difficult MMO and make it even harder. Ask any EQ fan what they think of the Gates of Discord expansion pack and they will know what I am talking about.
- EverQuest 2 was supposed to be SoE's answer to the casual market but the released game featured forced grouping on a horribly laggy client. Even if they liked EQ2 it lagged so bad with low frames most players could not play properly.
- Ultima Unline 2 choked on it horrible execution.
- NCSoft could have had a hit with Lineage II and its' sandbox style political system and castle sieges but they smothered it under the biggest grindfest in MMO history.
Given such options WoW seamed like heaven compared to these other failed games.
Exactly. That's why WoW "difficulty" is measured in hours you can spend for playing (without becoming completely bored), not in skills of player. In WoW "skilled" player is the one, who has enough patience and free time.
Exactly. That's why WoW "difficulty" is measured in hours you can spend for playing (without becoming completely bored), not in skills of player. In WoW "skilled" player is the one, who has enough patience and free time.
If that was the case, the same people wouldn't keep dominating the PvP scene for years over (especially since everyone, regardless of PvP arena rating, has access to the same gear except for the weapons in Cataclysm. The only thing that changes with gear for the higher rated players are the looks).
And in PvE, you can only run each raid once a week, and if you know all the bosses, you can clear a raid up in a few hours. Strangely enough, the best PvE guilds spend much less time on clearing all the new instances compared to lower level guilds, who aren't able to down the bosses right away when the instances are released.
It's not a game you need to spend much time on (though it was that before it's first expansion, and possibly to an extent in it, too), and anyway, the advantages the more hardcore guilds get from the gear they gain from hard mode instances are quite small when compared to the gear people running normal mode raids wear.
I should probably mention by the way that I myself resubbed to the game for Cataclysm, played it and thought it was a pretty good expansion at least mechanically, but recently unsubbed due to PvP being too fast paced once again for my tastes, a bit like it was in the last expansion, WOTLK, where I quit the game.
Exactly. That's why WoW "difficulty" is measured in hours you can spend for playing (without becoming completely bored), not in skills of player. In WoW "skilled" player is the one, who has enough patience and free time.
If that was the case, the same people wouldn't keep dominating the PvP scene for years over (especially since everyone, regardless of PvP arena rating, has access to the same gear except for the weapons in Cataclysm. The only thing that changes with gear for the higher rated players are the looks).
And in PvE, you can only run each raid once a week, and if you know all the bosses, you can clear a raid up in a few hours. Strangely enough, the best PvE guilds spend much less time on clearing all the new instances compared to lower level guilds, who aren't able to down the bosses right away when the instances are released.
It's not a game you need to spend much time on (though it was that before it's first expansion, and possibly to an extent in it, too), and anyway, the advantages the more hardcore guilds get from the gear they gain from hard mode instances are quite small when compared to the gear people running normal mode raids wear.
I should probably mention by the way that I myself resubbed to the game for Cataclysm, played it and thought it was a pretty good expansion at least mechanically, but recently unsubbed due to PvP being too fast paced once again for my tastes, a bit like it was in the last expansion, WOTLK, where I quit the game.
I playd WoW for 5 years. And I always had a filling that the game and current guild forces me to spend more and more time playing (or ill not be geared good enough to make some serious PvP or PvE before next content patch or add-on). So last 1.5 years I just relaxed and decided not to join any guild, but solo instead. Sinse then any guild member was better geared so my character was not good enough for raids.
I decided to restrict my gaming to 5-mans and BGs (and to 2v2 arenas when they have been added). But still game forced me to play more. I was good enough in PvP I knew my class and enemy. Only gear was the key to most fights. But always-changing win-loose ratio in arena (yes, bad gear) forced me to do more and more arenas just to gain enough points in time. No points - no gear. No gear - no victiry. At the same time, stupid AFKers and faction imbalance forced me to make more and more BGs, to get honor in time.
WoW "skill" always was about time spent in game. Becouse gear is the key to victory. And you have to spend a lot of time playing to keep your gear up to date. PvP and PvE does not require much real skill. Especialy if you played all classes and know all their strengths and weaknesses.
EDIT: So actually only my patience kept me good enough in PvP. And I had not enough patience for raiding, so was "unskilled" in PvE.
WoW is the standard for 1 reasona nd 1 reason only. They advertise.
Do they have the best graphics? No, not even close. So totally outclassed there you can't even put it in the top 10.
The largest subscriber base? No, I really doubt it. Saying 12 million people have tried WoW means nothing. Really. If 12 million tried it and 11.99 million quit does that make it awesome? I bet there are a number of games out there that have had more than 12 million people try them and possibly even still have.
You think Americans rule the mmo games? Koreans have more mmo players and they have less people. And can we even consider the Chinese? How would we even guess how many Chinese mmo players there are? It's not like they can play on a US server...
Best quest system? No, pretty much every quest type system is the same.
Best community? No, pretty much all mmo have the same communities. Griefers, noobs, vets, uber-players, etc. Been there, seen them everywhere.
Most content? Yeah, um, no. A lot of the free-to-play games use cash shop to support development and offer much more content.
Most asinine end-game requirements. Yeah, I give this one to WoW. Who seriously ever thought that needed a 40 person raid group to do an instance to get 1 ultra-rare item drop which only one person would get was great end-game?
Maybe they changed it with the last two expansions, but I got bored pretty quick when I hit 70 and had nothing to do if I wasn't willing to leave my 20 person guild that I made and say bye to my friends so I could join an end-game faction to have a 1 in 40 chance of the legendary drop.
Nothing Warcraft did was new, better, or more fun than the competition. They just like to toot their own horns in advertising. Most of the better games do so well they dont need to bother with horn tooting cuz they are too busy counting their cash instead and letting players get more players.
WoW is the standard for 1 reasona nd 1 reason only. They advertise.
So the only reason why World of Warcraft the standard is because they advertise and it has NOTHING to do with the game, really? Really? You really believe that?
Do they have the best graphics? No, not even close. So totally outclassed there you can't even put it in the top 10.
As other people have said already, best graphics does not equal best game. Many people played World of Warcraft specifically because their system couldn't handle the graphics of other MMOs. Because, WoW's graphics, although kind of crude, is stylish.
The largest subscriber base? No, I really doubt it. Saying 12 million people have tried WoW means nothing. Really. If 12 million tried it and 11.99 million quit does that make it awesome? I bet there are a number of games out there that have had more than 12 million people try them and possibly even still have.
Have you've even played World of Warcraft? This obviously didn't happen. There are hundreds of characters in every city of a well-populated server at peak times. I'm pretty sure the 12 million is people who actually bought the game and played it for at least a month, given the sales of Catalysm (in the millions just in the US by the way - you need WoW and the first two expansions to play Catalysm).
You think Americans rule the mmo games? Koreans have more mmo players and they have less people. And can we even consider the Chinese? How would we even guess how many Chinese mmo players there are? It's not like they can play on a US server...
You might have a point there. Only a faction of World of Warcraft players are from the United States (about 3 out of the 12 million I've heard). However, a lot of World of Warcraft players do come from Asia and it is well-subscribed there as well. But anything over a million in the United States is incredibly high, because many popular MMOs out there don't even have a fraction of the US WoW population. I don't even think the "old standard" EverQuest had over a million players, which goes to show you something.
Best quest system? No, pretty much every quest type system is the same.
Best community? No, pretty much all mmo have the same communities. Griefers, noobs, vets, uber-players, etc. Been there, seen them everywhere.
Most content? Yeah, um, no. A lot of the free-to-play games use cash shop to support development and offer much more content.
A big thing about World of Warcraft is the fact that it is so polished compared to other MMOs. And I completely disagree with you about content. I have played other MMOs and no other MMO has so much available content for the dollar. "Cash shops" are nothing but a waste of time because all they do is unlock gear and not real content, in my humble opinion.
Most asinine end-game requirements. Yeah, I give this one to WoW. Who seriously ever thought that needed a 40 person raid group to do an instance to get 1 ultra-rare item drop which only one person would get was great end-game?
Maybe they changed it with the last two expansions, but I got bored pretty quick when I hit 70 and had nothing to do if I wasn't willing to leave my 20 person guild that I made and say bye to my friends so I could join an end-game faction to have a 1 in 40 chance of the legendary drop.
So you did play World of Warcraft? I'm surpised.
Nothing Warcraft did was new, better, or more fun than the competition. They just like to toot their own horns in advertising. Most of the better games do so well they dont need to bother with horn tooting cuz they are too busy counting their cash instead and letting players get more players.
I would like you to list three MMOs that 1) have as much content as WoW 2) have the same polish as WoW 3) does not require a high-end computer and 4) has a free trial. I'll try those games and get back to you on it.
3) does not require a high-end computer I can't stand that argument. Why do people honestly think that is a good thing? Seriously, does it imply that WoW sucks because I can't play it on a Pentium I with S3 graphics? Or is it actually a better game because it has inferior graphics?
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
3) does not require a high-end computer I can't stand that argument. Why do people honestly think that is a good thing? Seriously, does it imply that WoW sucks because I can't play it on a Pentium I with S3 graphics? Or is it actually a better game because it has inferior graphics?
The only thing it implies is that it has a wider-audience. And that's usually a good thing, especially when it comes to 'standards'.
Sanity888, you just enjoy WoW too much and refuse to see its real disadvantages (just like me some time ago). This game is outdated and did nothing to improve MMO genre. But WoW did everything to force a lot of people to hate both classic MMOs and corrupted Warcraft universe.
Some day you will understand it. But not now I think
EDIT: Oh, and again, WoW's "current population" never was and never will be 12 million. 3 or 5 million worldwide that's all. Do not listen to "the official stories" while real statistics only shown as low/meduim/high instead of numbers. They tell people everything they want to hear just to make you buy the game and stay there for a while.
3) does not require a high-end computer I can't stand that argument. Why do people honestly think that is a good thing? Seriously, does it imply that WoW sucks because I can't play it on a Pentium I with S3 graphics? Or is it actually a better game because it has inferior graphics?
The only thing it implies is that it has a wider-audience. And that's usually a good thing, especially when it comes to 'standards'.
I hear what you're saying, but I still don't like it. It just seems self defeating. Rather then being all you can be, just be average because thats what most people are anyhow. Bleh.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
Only thing that blizzard was first with in the mmo market was bringing those Diablo and Warcraft players to their onlinegame,those players still beleve Blizzard is god and the only creator of computergames in the world.
Comments
For us gamers, nothing IS the standard in itself. For *me* WOW did some things right, things I want to have again. Like the overall combat pacing or the medium diffculty. Other things from WOW I dont want to have. I don't see it biased in any way like loving or hating WoW.
People don't ask questions to get answers - they ask questions to show how smart they are. - Dogbert
It is the standard because the market said so. Biggest subs, biggest revenue, biggest name etc.
Similar to how all FPS were once referred to as 'Doom-clones' even though Doom was not the first FPS.
Gdemami -
Informing people about your thoughts and impressions is not a review, it's a blog.
Why is WoW standart is nice question. But I wouldnt say its standart for MMOs, standart for MMOs is mostly your first MMO - so for most MMO players today its WoW because they started with it. I can say for me is not standart any game because every game has its plus sides so I would have to name more than one. But WoW is probably used mostly in topics connected to MMO because its most known MMO these days. Thats all, also its said, but it will change one day.
Btw its also the problem today that every MMO topic is connected to WoW. Because now ppl see MMOs like WoW - so WoW is an example of great MMO for them. Thats why other companies are doing WoW like games because players expect those games (not all, but most of em). But true MMOs are different, mostly about fun and playerbase - Ultima Online, these days Darkfall or EvE for ex. - those are true MMOs imo. Other games are more RPG than MMO - I know its an MMORPG but I guess you know what I meant.. xD
P.S. I dont like UO or Darkfall, and I'll probably quit EvE because I dont have time for it, but still I think those MMOs are true MMOs, even if those games are only for hardcore ppl mostly. Those casual MMORPGs what we have these days ar emostly something between MMO and RPG.
Played: Lineage 2,Guild Wars 1 and 2, Age of Conan, Ragnarok Online, LOTRO, World of Warcraft, League of Legends, EvE online
Tried: KAL Online, Face of Mankind, ROSE online
Playing: CS:GO
On a very simple calculation - $15/month from 7 million subscribers = $105 mil a month in revenue, not even taking into account sales of the game, expansions etc. What MMO developer when they sit down to scope something new isn't going to want even 10% of that?
Love or hate WoW it did a number of things right:
1. It could run on anything (plain and simple reason why I didn't sub to EQ2 back in '04)
2. It was familiar - EQ and UO players could pick up and play the game without much thought and any fans of the fantasy genre had a standard swords & sorcery setting, plus it appealed to the Warcraft fans.
3. It corrected MMO mistakes of the past (compared to my days in EQ when you would have prayed for mob tagging, loot binding, a less severe death penalty, a quest journal, mobs with sensible respawn times).
4. As far as I could see in '04 there wasn't much competition from other MMOs. I remember choosing between WoW and EQ2 (even though I was a EQ player from launch) solely because of #1 above.
5. Due to the above and phenomenal early success it became mainstream, which attracted people outside of the usual communities.
Just my 10c...
Two simple reasons.
1: More people have played it than probably any other MMO there is right now.
2: It is vastly more polished that any other MMO out there right now. The only games that even come close are EVE and Guild Wars. Blizzard sets the standard because the game is better mechanically than any other. (Of course, the design principles {read: brain-numbing gear grind in repetitive dungeons} is another matter).
"Gamers will no longer buy the argument that every MMO requires a subscription fee to offset server and bandwidth costs. It's not true you know it, and they know it." Jeff Strain, co-founder of ArenaNet, 2007
WTF? No subscription fee?
There is something that feels right about WoW. I can never put my finger on it but it draws me in. Also WoW had a fan base previous to the games release. Blizzard was well known with Warcraft Star Craft and Diablo being amazing games and I think people felt it was a safe bet originally that WoW would also be a great game. It turned out that originally it was a VERY good game. With the devs messing with it so much and the bland exps coming out I'm not so sure I can say that anymore. We will see though im trying my cata expansion right now. The Worgen story and starting area are really really dope but past that I'll prob get bored and quit again.
"Why is WoW the standard?"
Because Activision is in-charge of it, basically.
WoW is not the standard. It's an exmaple of how to make low quality game that can become very popular. In other words: "how to earn a lot of money for making silly game using popular setting".
My favorite thing about wow posts is the legions who come in and talk about how easy it is.
Most of them, when pressed, reveal the following.
You never had an arena team over 2200.
You never did any TK pre nerf, you never cleared sunwell pre or post nerf, you never killed anything in icecrown until you got a 15% buff, you never killed a hardmode until you got a 30% buff, and your guild still couldn't kill putricide or lk.
You never did ulduar before you over geared it, and you never did yogg with no keepers.
And currently, you haven't gotten any further then magmaw in blackrock and halfus in bastion.
One of the big things wow did was make endgame available to anyone, no mmo did that before, it was always for the most hardcore of players. To offer something to the hardcore crowd, they came up with the idea of hard modes.
The new expansion has reintroduced the concept of genuinly hard encounters, something many, many current mmos still don't understand. Fights that are not difficult because of rng, or gear checks, but fights that are difficult because of the actual mechanics of the fight.
People, especiacly on this site, seem to equate difficulty with time sinks. X game is harder because it took me 8 months to hit cap, y game is harder because it takes 2 years to craft and epic item. Time spent is not difficulty, and its why those other games have 1/10 or 1/100 wows player base.
Before you attack the game for being too easy, show me that you have killed sinestra, and gotten the gladiator title, and then i will listen to you.
Until then, i will give you the same credence i give to the level 43 blood elf warlock in trade chat who crys about how easy wow is.
WoW has become the "standard" because so many people play it, there is nothing else to it. Simply because everyone know the game doesnt make it a standard.
the best way to kill a troll is to FLAME ON! ...or with acid...
It's standard because it's the only high quality product on the market for a massively multiplayer rpg. A lot of people have come to call this "polish." Other games have come nowhere near as close. Except for new MMORPGs coming out in 2011 which seem to have finally gotten the concept. Rift and DC Universe Online are really well polished if you can overlook some minor things in DCUO like the chat interface and how it feels like it's more for a console game.
Also, think about how WoW copied a lot of stuff from EverQuest and Dark Age of Camelot along with other MMORPGs. So technically WoW isn't completely original. You're looking at history of other MMORPGs as well as original game development. Blizzard didn't invent a standard, they simply practiced high quality software development as a company and delivered a high quality product as a result.
I would add in a 7th point in that their main competition shot themselves in the foot.
- The original Everquest develepors decided to take an already difficult MMO and make it even harder. Ask any EQ fan what they think of the Gates of Discord expansion pack and they will know what I am talking about.
- EverQuest 2 was supposed to be SoE's answer to the casual market but the released game featured forced grouping on a horribly laggy client. Even if they liked EQ2 it lagged so bad with low frames most players could not play properly.
- Ultima Unline 2 choked on it horrible execution.
- NCSoft could have had a hit with Lineage II and its' sandbox style political system and castle sieges but they smothered it under the biggest grindfest in MMO history.
Given such options WoW seamed like heaven compared to these other failed games.
Exactly. That's why WoW "difficulty" is measured in hours you can spend for playing (without becoming completely bored), not in skills of player. In WoW "skilled" player is the one, who has enough patience and free time.
If that was the case, the same people wouldn't keep dominating the PvP scene for years over (especially since everyone, regardless of PvP arena rating, has access to the same gear except for the weapons in Cataclysm. The only thing that changes with gear for the higher rated players are the looks).
And in PvE, you can only run each raid once a week, and if you know all the bosses, you can clear a raid up in a few hours. Strangely enough, the best PvE guilds spend much less time on clearing all the new instances compared to lower level guilds, who aren't able to down the bosses right away when the instances are released.
It's not a game you need to spend much time on (though it was that before it's first expansion, and possibly to an extent in it, too), and anyway, the advantages the more hardcore guilds get from the gear they gain from hard mode instances are quite small when compared to the gear people running normal mode raids wear.
I should probably mention by the way that I myself resubbed to the game for Cataclysm, played it and thought it was a pretty good expansion at least mechanically, but recently unsubbed due to PvP being too fast paced once again for my tastes, a bit like it was in the last expansion, WOTLK, where I quit the game.
I playd WoW for 5 years. And I always had a filling that the game and current guild forces me to spend more and more time playing (or ill not be geared good enough to make some serious PvP or PvE before next content patch or add-on). So last 1.5 years I just relaxed and decided not to join any guild, but solo instead. Sinse then any guild member was better geared so my character was not good enough for raids.
I decided to restrict my gaming to 5-mans and BGs (and to 2v2 arenas when they have been added). But still game forced me to play more. I was good enough in PvP I knew my class and enemy. Only gear was the key to most fights. But always-changing win-loose ratio in arena (yes, bad gear) forced me to do more and more arenas just to gain enough points in time. No points - no gear. No gear - no victiry. At the same time, stupid AFKers and faction imbalance forced me to make more and more BGs, to get honor in time.
WoW "skill" always was about time spent in game. Becouse gear is the key to victory. And you have to spend a lot of time playing to keep your gear up to date. PvP and PvE does not require much real skill. Especialy if you played all classes and know all their strengths and weaknesses.
EDIT: So actually only my patience kept me good enough in PvP. And I had not enough patience for raiding, so was "unskilled" in PvE.
I would rather see EQ as the standard really. PvE is boring lately. EQ was and still is the only game with some challenge.
http://werewood.wordpress.com
WoW is the standard for 1 reasona nd 1 reason only. They advertise.
Do they have the best graphics? No, not even close. So totally outclassed there you can't even put it in the top 10.
The largest subscriber base? No, I really doubt it. Saying 12 million people have tried WoW means nothing. Really. If 12 million tried it and 11.99 million quit does that make it awesome? I bet there are a number of games out there that have had more than 12 million people try them and possibly even still have.
You think Americans rule the mmo games? Koreans have more mmo players and they have less people. And can we even consider the Chinese? How would we even guess how many Chinese mmo players there are? It's not like they can play on a US server...
Best quest system? No, pretty much every quest type system is the same.
Best community? No, pretty much all mmo have the same communities. Griefers, noobs, vets, uber-players, etc. Been there, seen them everywhere.
Most content? Yeah, um, no. A lot of the free-to-play games use cash shop to support development and offer much more content.
Most asinine end-game requirements. Yeah, I give this one to WoW. Who seriously ever thought that needed a 40 person raid group to do an instance to get 1 ultra-rare item drop which only one person would get was great end-game?
Maybe they changed it with the last two expansions, but I got bored pretty quick when I hit 70 and had nothing to do if I wasn't willing to leave my 20 person guild that I made and say bye to my friends so I could join an end-game faction to have a 1 in 40 chance of the legendary drop.
Nothing Warcraft did was new, better, or more fun than the competition. They just like to toot their own horns in advertising. Most of the better games do so well they dont need to bother with horn tooting cuz they are too busy counting their cash instead and letting players get more players.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.
The only thing it implies is that it has a wider-audience. And that's usually a good thing, especially when it comes to 'standards'.
because it has the most subscribers.
Bull....
Sanity888, you just enjoy WoW too much and refuse to see its real disadvantages (just like me some time ago). This game is outdated and did nothing to improve MMO genre. But WoW did everything to force a lot of people to hate both classic MMOs and corrupted Warcraft universe.
Some day you will understand it. But not now I think
EDIT: Oh, and again, WoW's "current population" never was and never will be 12 million. 3 or 5 million worldwide that's all. Do not listen to "the official stories" while real statistics only shown as low/meduim/high instead of numbers. They tell people everything they want to hear just to make you buy the game and stay there for a while.
I hear what you're saying, but I still don't like it. It just seems self defeating. Rather then being all you can be, just be average because thats what most people are anyhow. Bleh.
All of my posts are either intelligent, thought provoking, funny, satirical, sarcastic or intentionally disrespectful. Take your pick.
I get banned in the forums for games I love, so lets see if I do better in the forums for games I hate.
I enjoy the serenity of not caring what your opinion is.
I don't hate much, but I hate Apple© with a passion. If Steve Jobs was alive, I would punch him in the face.
Only thing that blizzard was first with in the mmo market was bringing those Diablo and Warcraft players to their onlinegame,those players still beleve Blizzard is god and the only creator of computergames in the world.