Why has WoW been so succesful?

evil-monkey

Here's what I want to determine: why has WoW been such a success?

Is it because of the quality of the game? Does it simply tick all the boxes when it comes to giving gamers what they want? Or is it because it appeals to such a broad audience and Blizzard have a good business model?

Any thoughts?

TechnoPool

this be a college related question yarr!?

][cEMAN**

I realised tonight wow shouldn't be so successful, for the continued existance of the human race!

Seeing people who can't move out of the way of Anub chasing someone else just tells me that if these people were out on the streets, they'd all have been hit by cars years ago.

7 million people (or whatever the sub rate is now), less in the world.

STOP WOW! HELP DEFEAT GLOBAL OVERPOPULATION! (and passing the retard gene down the pool)

Karl Hungus

evil-monkey wrote: »

Is it because of the quality of the game? Does it simply tick all the boxes when it comes to giving gamers what they want? Or is it because it appeals to such a broad audience and Blizzard have a good business model?

A little from column A and a little from column B, but I'd also suggest to you column C; Blizzard have had a history of truly exceptional games (Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo series'), I'd say you've got a lot of people who've played those games playing World of Warcraft now.

papajimsmooth

One of my favorite things about wow is how the whole world feels alive. You can travel each continent without loading screens which is really cool and adds a sense if realism.

Kiith

I got World of Warcraft when i came out mainly because of Warcraft II. It was the first proper RTS that i had ever played, and i absolutly loved it. Then Warcraft III came out and once again, utter joy to play it. I love the story and lore in WoW, even if some of the most important stories (or ends to stories) are buried neck deep in **** (and by ****, i mean raiding). This is one of the main reasons that i like how easy it is to get gear these days. I want to see the conclusion to the Arthas storyline, because i have been following it since Warcraft 3 (or even Warcraft 2, with Uther). Not to mention some of the other characters/arcs.

As for why its so successful; it has a great engine, with some great content, and a great community. It also had, as Karl said, the people who trusted Blizzard to give them what they always give us...quality.

jayteecork

It's loot based.

Everyone loves loot. (I bought the Witcher and immediately discontinued from playing when I discovered it's story driven with little or no loot upgrades, screw that. RPGs are all about loot!(well upgrading and growing your character)

Also, WOW is massive worldwide because:

Huge World.
PVP with 2 factions(so people feel part of a tribe and hate the other tribe - see real life football fans etc -it's human nature). Some great battlegrounds with honor/rewards system.
Ability to play superpowerful heroic characters whereas in RL you're probably a geek.
Amazingly art style - really bring the characters to life.
Amaingly well optimized engine - will run on pitiful computers(my laptop)
No "main quest" so you can pretty much do whatever you like - want to spend all day fishing? no problem. There's some great achievements to obtain.
A thriving economy - my favourite part of the game is buying and selling in the auction house TBH.
Fairly cheap - ~10 euro a month so 33cent a day.
Patches every week or so which refine and refine the game even further. 5 years now of constant improvements. After achievements proved so popular on 360 they were implemented on WOW and they're great. Some really obscure ones to chase.(in fact the first nutter to get every one is here:http://tw.wowarmory.com/character-achievements.xml?r=Wrathbringer&cn=%E5%B0%8F%E7%81%B0&gn=%E7%A5%9E%E6%A8%A3)
Caters for both casual and hardcore gamers just as well.
MMO competition really isn't very good.

I could probably go on.
I've played WOW on and off for nearly 4 years now.

Phototoxin

As for why its so successful; it has a great engine, with some great content, and a great community. It also had, as Karl said, the people who trusted Blizzard to give them what they always give us...quality

The engine is practically a rip of the lineage engine.

learning curve is about 1 degree. So it's easy for a non-hardcore gamer to play which is where the numbers come from.

Semi-hawt elves always gets the fanservice vote too.

evil-monkey

TechnoPool wrote: »

this be a college related question yarr!?

It is. Research part of a final year project.

So does anybody think it's down to the quality of the game's development? ie. Few bugs, good performance across a broad spectrum...

][cEMAN**

Have you read their forums for problems? Plenty on there.

Though to be honest, yeah, it's been good for the time i've played it. Some downtime once every few months or a year, but apart from that it's good.

It's expected as well. Every wednesday it'll go down for a few hours. Everything gets sorted then. There's no "let it go till something breaks, and it'll be down for 2 days" mentality.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

OP, There are many contributing factors which make World of Warcraft a successful game...

This game is considered something of a "first mover", ploughing through any competitors like Everquest, claiming a large portion of the market share.

The game is rated 13+ which is very very misleading and sneaky. Children are very easy to lead and it's not hard to get them hooked on something like this.

WoW has a massive "stickiness" factor, which makes it hard for a LOT of people to stop playing. Especially with the introduction of "achievements"... It's implemented in many games to make you play more, it's that simple. If you cannot see that then you are just too fking stupid.

The game also has a large community (I wouldn't call it great, as that is a lie). People make many friends and this is quite enjoyable.

The story is good too, and there is lots of content, added on a fairly regular basis. The game tries to cater for everyone, from casual to hardcore players... Kids, adults, men, women etc etc.

me-skywalker

I loved the epic scope of the story and the lore behind it all and getting involved with it.

Also the variety of playing styles which you are given. can be serious like a job or can be fun like hobby.

Sense of acheivement when you level up, or beat a boss or dungeon.

Dcully

I can only echo what others here have said.
Personally ive played every genre of game/simulation on every format for almost 20 years now.
No game had soaked up so much time as wow over the years.
If i was to pick my all time best game in terms of best gaming experience it would be wow without a shadow of doubt.
Ive quit more times than i can remember mostly because of time restraints,ive quit for every other mmo released since [ive a shelf full of them beside me] but i always and i mean always get sucked back into wow.
With todays patch ill more than likely resub yet again.
Ill probably raid with my guild again,the cycle starts again and just never seems to stop for good

TheDoc

For me I got into it as a big time Blizzard fan. There games are astonishing, but unlike something like call of duty, the company allocates "stability" teams to each game, that work on balance, patches and the likes.

WoW for me was a game that I hyped for before the hype began, and I just had to have it, then it blew my mind. The social experience is unrivalled with any other game, and theres a constant sense of achievements from acquiring levels, gear, titles everything.

I just cant see myself leaving wow. My yearly subscription is the price of 2-3 xbox games, and you still wont get the play value from them that you get from WoW.

And with the content patches, levelling alts and the likes, your getting a fresh experience most of the time.

Finch*

1. my mate works for blizzard and gave me a free account.
2. i have nothing better to do.
3. everyone playing CS started cheating.
4. a lot of my online friends played it for years before i caved (see no.1)

that's pretty much why i keep coming back for more

TheDoc

Finch* wrote: »

1. my mate works for blizzard and gave me a free account.
2. i have nothing better to do.
3. everyone playing CS started cheating.
4. a lot of my online friends played it for years before i caved (see no.1)

that's pretty much why i keep coming back for more

Its because I'm there, dont lie

Mr. CooL ICE

It is fun. Simple as that.

Why do I find it fun. This is why

evil-monkey

Thanks for all the replies so far.[FONT=&quot]

[/FONT]So that I've got data to back up a lot of what was discussed here, I need as many people as possible to take the following survey. I’m looking for at least 100 respondents. The survey is relevant to anyone who plays online video games, or anyone who has even a vague interest or opinion in relation to the entertainment software industry. The survey only takes a few minutes (only 10 questions), and all responses will be greatly appreciated.
Also, please forward the link to anyone you know that might be a relevant respondent.

http://thewafflefactory.wordpress.com/2009/12/14/what-makes-for-an-mmo-success/

Thanks again

Horsefumbler

Karl Hungus wrote: »

Blizzard have had a history of truly exceptional games (Warcraft, Starcraft, Diablo series')

and also The Lost Vikings

Kiith

Horsefumbler wrote: »

and also The Lost Vikings

I hope thats not sarcasm :mad:

TheDoc

Did your survey there

elexes

Kiith wrote: »

I hope thats not sarcasm :mad:

is because of them that we have that protodrake after all

jayteecork

The lost Vikings appeared in Ulduman.

TechnoPool

they were tough as nails dem boys.

evil-monkey

TheDoc wrote: »

Did your survey there

Cheers. Much appreciated.

MooseJam

It's very polished - everything just seems right - installed a few other mmo's but just a look at the UI and I'd had enough and dumped them.

m5ex9oqjawdg2i

MooseJam wrote: »

It's very polished - everything just seems right - installed a few other mmo's but just a look at the UI and I'd had enough and dumped them.

It's difficult to change a game when you are so used to WoW...

dubhdara3

What has also helped it significantly was that it was built upon an existing storyline (i.e. the previous games) so that the early adopters knew exactly what they were getting into, rather than attempting to build a storyline as characters progressed, also combined with the fact that it was one of the first games to move away from the perma-death (the concept of death is final, and you need to restart) allowed for the more casual/social players to get ‘hooked’.
It also had initially 8 races (currently 10, and next expansion 12) belonging to 2 factions with initially 8 classes (now 9) and each class initially only being able to specialize into 1 of 3 talent tree’s led to massive potential combinations which allowed for huge replay-ability, meaning they were able to keep existing customers.
The rise of You-tube at the same time is also bound to have played a part in it’s rise as more and more players also recorded their exploits (i.e. The Leeroy Jenkins vid)

Funky

wow definitely wasn't one of the first games to move away from perma-death

in my opinion WoW's success is a combination of the Blizzard name, good communities, a decent game and the ability to cater to more casual players than most other mmo's while also having enough to keep the hardcore interested too (though im not sure this is true now from what i've heard about WotLK's endgame)

Finch*

well i just did your survey there, probably a bit late xD