Are there any articles on the development history of WoW? It boggles my mind how people I worked with in the navy would talk bad about dungeons and dragons and RPGs, but then they would get hooked on WoW. How the hell did WoW manage to become successful with casual players? Has any other game come close to WoW's subscriber base? How many did Everquest have at its peak?
i admit i might just be mad because what i thought would be a fresh breeze trough the genre has been feeling like standing in a chilling blizzard of everlasting snowflakes, and people keep saying "oh how cool, snowflakes this is new wow awesome" while really good games get sent to the scrapyard its so frustrating, you KNOW your game has much to offer, and when put next to wow it should be an even match if not a hands down win by the newcomer due to innovative design, gameplay choices and care for detail and craftsmanship then WOW comes around and gives you the finger... tough times for originality these days... tough times... well, for Mmorpgs theres a chart i posted a few posts back, i call solid marketing campaigns from day one more then gameplay has to do with it, but some people have made some convincing post here, so yea... "maybe" i should cut the game some slack... although: in my eye "good gameplay" doesn't make something that has geek-appeal (anything like rpg's, be it pen and paper or computer games, pre ww all of them where considered geek games together with the turn based genre) a hit with everyone, solid marketing does and they did an awesome job, i admire blizzard entertainment in this, they pulled it off and they've got themselves a coca cola... maybe im just jealous...
WoW became successful for two reasons: Low system requirements Addicting, easy to understand gameplay There's no game even close to WoW's subscriber base.
Here is something interesting, but that's only with two minutes of Google search, there are probably others. I can confirm most of the points, having played WoW for five months. All in all, I think the success formula is an extremely well-balanced feeling of reward after completing a task. It just lets you go on, complete another quest, advance another level even though it's four in the morning. IMO this is also the reason so many people get addicted to it, even in the clinical sense. It's the feeling of reward for completing a task which gets you addicted. Additionally, they also cut out frustration factors, most prominently de-leveling and playerkilling (there is PvP, but you don't lose experience, levels or items for it)
I just found some random musings. I don't think there's a definitive history. One beta-testers insight: http://www.wowinsider.com/2007/10/21/the-history-of-the-world-of-warcraft-part-i/ Reading this reminds me how big Warcraft was in general before WoW, and Blizzard's good reputation at the time. 2004 comparison of EQ2 vs. WoW: http://pc.gamespy.com/articles/572/572447p1.html March 2004, Beta preview: http://www.gamespot.com/pc/rpg/worldofwarcraft/preview_6091787.html
I think the main reason World of Warcraft is so popular is because as Yathzee once said something along the lines of, and I agree with him on this; "RPG players are alot slower than FPS players". They want something easy, something that can draw their minds from reality and keep it there, whilst still being rather effortless to fit the decadent lifestyle we've all long since adjusted to. World of Warcraft isn't just easy, it's also simple. To cater the young whilst not wholely abandoning the older players. But with the removal of challenge, the bar for the entire MMORPG genre is drooping as well, and thus killing MMORPGs as a whole. Going for a MMOFPSRTS or something along those lines, if the original, unaltered concept cannot ever compete with World of Warcraft, it's not worth undertaking. Otherwise you'll just end up making everything more simple, more user friendly, untill you end up with what isn't what you want, but something the ign'ant legio demands.
yea, sure, you just try playing the rpg's i used to play on normal... actually, in general i might agree with you
I actually had a lecture by a fellow called richard bartle, he invented the first MMO. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Bartle He also wrote a theory of why MMO's are played. Maybe consider ordering a book or two of his? And while you're at it order this one: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hero_with_a_thousand_faces Apparently people play MMO's so they can live out the hero's journey.
I thought tbh, that WoW was so popular because it went the way of many other landmark products - they basically made it user friendly and open to most of a noob fanbase, so they could make it appeal to more people. If you look at D&D now in the table-top RPG gaming world, most players who are experienced at RPG's know that D&D is mostly a newbie-friendly RPG made for the 'masses' and branch off to other, more complicated, games that they like. There are many examples of the kind of this kind of thing happening, but for some reason i'm struggling to find them. Suffice to say, it's because WoW is newb friendly, it brings in newbs and increases the overall player base, while capturing a large segment of it. I haven't played any FPS MMO's, but unless Empires is the first, or will make the game very user friendly, it probably won't be able to duplicate that success. I could be wrong though, as FPS based games are usually pretty easy to understand anyway.
Okay, here is my simple reasoning why a fps wont make a very good MMORPG. 1: in a FPS you expect that if you shoot a motherfucker in a head, he drops. There is an element of EXPECTATION there. Okay, lets see. Say, if in fable, if you caaaarefully aim your arrow at a bandit boss's face, you just maaaaaay drop him, if you have a good enough bow. There is a difference. in a "stock" mmo, you would go wuh? meh! and run in and go bash him over the face with your sword or something. In a FPS, even with the MMORPG element mixed in, logic dictates that you shot that guy in the face, hence he should die. See the inherent difference between the two gametypes here? Say if you DID level the playing field. The players that come in, spend a few hours, shoot someone up then get BORED. There is no appreciatable long-term goal here. It is essentially a big FPS with insinificant numbers growing larger. But there IS a solution. Sort of. It is quite simple, really: Battlefield. Yes, i mean Battlefield 2, 2142, and Bad company. For every person you kill, objective you complete, or spree you get you gain points: simply, XP. And after getting a set amount of points, you get an unlock point and a superficial rank that really does nothing. You can unlock grenades, faster sprint, even new weapons. And, IT IS REALLY FUCKING ADDICTIVE. But we do NOT want to be a battlefield clone do we? Back to square 1.
Empires already does that, doesn't it? Moving it to a MMO, should be as easy as the "follower increase" suggestion and the ability to take part in strategic planning.
Anyways, double check the thread title. MMO-RPG isn't in the title. Krenzo was just asking about the MMO aspect. There are a couple of MMOFPSs and at least one of them has strategic aspects.
Ok, I'll take a look at Neocron. Endless Ages' web site doesn't work right, and I imagine the actual game works even worse.
Dont look at endless ages now it will scar your eyes. The game died and has tried to be "revamped" twice and has turned to shit. its try number 3! And this time its gonna be browser based... Neocron was probably the best fpsmmo I have ever played but 2.0 wasn't so hot with me, its still a great game and has alot of interesting features that made it rock
What would you be fighting over? Preset points of interest or a giant front, or POI's that determine said front? Planetside is an interesting case in point. You had to capture every POI (I don't know why i'm calling them that) on every island (there were what - 10ish?) for your side to win, and the server to reset (although you kept your stats). The problem is, this hasn't occured in years, because the games population has gone down and it's become too balanced, so no one side has a momentary advantage to completely blitzkrieg the thing - even with good tactics.
