What's the appeal of WoW?

[skywolfblue]

Big universe, solid mechanics, human interaction, smooth gameplay, progression, discovery, both coop and pvp... honestly, what a silly question.

and its designed specifically to exploit human nature with skinner boxes

No, no it's not. WoW is definitely not the most skinnerian of MMOs and it gets less and less so with each expansion.

Stop thinking you're some sort of expert on the issue just because you saw that one extra credits episode or heard the word "skinner box" somewhere. "Skinner boxes". Sheesh.

QFT.

I wish people would stop using the term "Skinner Box" where it doesn't apply. A skinner box is bare bones "Button -> Reward", add anything more to it and it's no longer a skinner box.

There may be a lot of repetition or "gear/reward oriented thinking" but since complex mechanics like boss fights or quests are used it's not skinner box. There are people who are doing the boss fight, or doing the quest, because its an immersive and fun tale and not because of the reward involved.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

How old is that little breakdown? Because a lot of those things have been improved quite a lot already.

It's, at most, a month old. Come at me bro.

 

[Terminate421]

Riding a giant raven:

Also because I enjoy decimating people as my Death Knight.

Also the designs. If there is one thing I will always admit about warcraft is the designs can be pretty awesome. (Such as the above Ravenlord example). I always enjoy going to a new place hoping to see something cool, most of the time there are pallet swapped enemies but other times, I get a nifty surprise.

 

[targren]

From the people I've talked to, it generally boils down to one of two things.

The first is the aforementioned "social inertia." You start playing the game, usually on the recommendation of a friend. In the process, you make more friends in-game, maybe join an active guild, etc... then, you stay in the game because that's where all these social contacts are.

The other is the old-fashioned Skinner Box/Slot Machine effect. These are the guys who played like I did (fortunately, for only a few months before I got nerfed to hell and was bored), who don't do a lot of socializing but have painstakingly crafted resource and loot farming routes that they'll run over and over again (for me, it was Kingsblood/Swiftthistle farming in the human zone just past the first desert zone, whichever that was called. It's been awhile.)

Both basically boil down to force of habit, though.

 

[Karoshi]

Exploration.

Considering you got as far as level three, you didn't even nibble at the content that WoW has to offer. As silly as it may sound, but it is one of the most immersive gaming worlds I have ever played.

Also, the character animations are extremely fluid and well-responsive. Unlike other MMOs, I didn't fell, like I am "floating" above the ground. Such things make or break immersion. In my case, I never felt before such a bond with a protagonist of a game, as I felt with my little zombie mage.

But the thing is, everyone claims that WoWs main appeal is completely different thing. There are thousand smaller or bigger things that you can do, and for each person there is a different "hook". My "hook" is exploration. For others its hardcore raiding, collecting pets, arena or some other shit. Thats what WoW offers - variety.

 

[Sion_Barzahd]

WoW has sprawling environments, and actually gives you a feeling of being in a world where you're not the only important thing.
As someone already said, Blizzard do atmosphere well. Their graphics, whilst not amazing, still work to bring an indulgant atmosphere and the music is astounding as is par to a Blizzard game.
Classes are all balanced pretty well yet still retain a lot of their individuality, and no class is made to feel useless (Unlike some other mmos i've tried where tank-only class x couldn't compare with tank-only class y thus becoming obselite.)

The best part about it though, and what keeps dragging me back every time. Is friends and guild mates. Get into a decent guild or play with a few friends and you'll have a laugh.

I'm not going to say WoW is perfect, far from it. But i've played every other fantasy mmo out there and nothing has compared, especially when it came to classes, mechanics and balancing.

 

[Twilight_guy]

Why is Mass Effect appealing, why is the legend of Zelda, why is Mario Kart, why is Street Fighter, why is Asteroids, why is Call of Duty? People have different preferences. I could explain the mechanics that people are attracted to and why and what supports those things and etc, but it all comes down to people liking things you don't.

 

[CannibalCorpses]

One thing that occurs to me when i see discussions like this one...

If you had started playing at day one and bought every expansion...how much would playing the 1 game have cost you? Meanwhile i've finished almost everything else and have paid almost nothing for the pleasure of it

The appeal of games like World of Warcraft to me is somewhat like picking on the ugly kid at school for being stupid