why does WOW have so many subscriber's
- Thread starter ICanBreakTheseCuffs
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How do I put it, the game is so huge for anyone who enjoys a good MMORPG there's probably something in it for you.
For many areas, there's a learning curve, in many others there is a big timesink to do stuff.
But as I said before, the game is so huge, you can do a variety of stuff. Soloing, Quest, Group content, Raid Content, Guild Participation, Crafting, Exploring, World PvP, Battlegrounds, Arena, Auctions, Collecting pets, vanity items, Roleplaying. It's got awesome storylines to explore too, and once you've done it as one role, eg: damage. The game can be really different from the perspective of a tank or healer.
There are so many little unnecessary details to the game that make it available to so many people and yet allows everyone to leave their own unique marks on the game. It could just be that you're wearing a complete armour set and you look fully sick. Or you got a rare mount or pet.
But the thing about this game is that it never forces any goals upon you, it never forces you to do a quest to advance, and YOU choose your own goals within the game. Some people play because they love to play the auction house and make money, and apart from levelling up, you never really have to participate in raiding or dungeons to do that.
So you can set your own goals, and with continually growing content, obviously people's goals are constantly changing. Add in the fact that it is multiplayer, people essentially create their own content, their own reasons for playing. People don't have to run guilds, organise raids and so forth, but they do because it gives them a sense of entitlement and privilege that they don't have access to in real life. Let's face it, your average job is pretty lame, boring and unfulfilling, you work for the company. With WoW you can come home and yes, you might be working, but you're fulfilling your own goals.
Not everyone's awesome at sport, it can be a hassle to organise events and find opponents to play against who are your level. In WoW, it's relatively easy to build a team (guild) and verse opponents your level (raiding/pvp) and engage in meaningful teamwork building skills and also social building skills.
At a job interview, I had the balls to tell them that yes I play(ed) WoW. For the regular person a video game is a weird place to be proud of your achievements. But I was able to articulate and explain how I learned to manage people and build great teamwork and interpersonal skills by the social aspect of World of Warcraft. You can't really say that about many other games.
Not to mention the thrill of raids, and the fucking awesome feeling you get when you prevent a wipe and down that pain in the ass boss for the first time.
Then there's the loot, the source of much pain, suffering and joy in WoW.
It's hard to not feel like you've lost something when you fail to get a piece of loot, or someone ninja's it or whatever. You have lost your time, which you pay for. Ultimately though, when you finally get what you want, personalise it with gems and enchants you become attached to your items, your character, and ultimately the game.
Unfortunately for me, WotLK really killed the game. With the introduction of achievements, people stopped just playing for the fun of it, and started playing because they wanted to feel superior by getting achievements. It unnecessarily secluded parts of the community that would normally work together and gave the elitist culture that many top teir guilds and players more ways to feed their superiority. Ultimately, then WoW raiding declined into an era of gearscore and elitism which pretty much killed the fun of the game. It was no longer about trying to help someone else because they're a good friend, a good player, it was about rejecting them because they didn't have the gearscore you felt required to complete the encounter.
It really broke down a lot of the social interaction within the game that had made it so interesting and fun for me particularly in Vanilla WoW and for a long time within Burning Crusade.
Ever since I've stopped playing, I've been trying to overcome a Social Phobia. I think if I didn't have WoW, it would have crippled me a lot sooner, and I would be in a much worse situation than I am now.
WoW's large subscriber numbers also account for people all around the World including Asia and Europe. Many MMORPGs don't participate fully in these markets, particularly in some of the Asian countries and prefer to stick with just Western Countries and also Europe in many cases. This bloats WoW's numbers significantly. If you were to compare subscriber numbers based on Western Country subscriptions you'll find that while WoW is still ahead, there are significant pockets of people invested in other MMORPGs.
Closing Statement/tl;dr -
The game is so big and huge, it doesn't force stuff upon you so there's so much to find awesome in the game. Ultimately it has one of the richest game worlds ever created (and soon to be recreated in Cataclysm), there is so much to do and see and explore that people become invested and obsessed (not addicted) with the game, making it popular.
Whew, long post.
For many areas, there's a learning curve, in many others there is a big timesink to do stuff.
But as I said before, the game is so huge, you can do a variety of stuff. Soloing, Quest, Group content, Raid Content, Guild Participation, Crafting, Exploring, World PvP, Battlegrounds, Arena, Auctions, Collecting pets, vanity items, Roleplaying. It's got awesome storylines to explore too, and once you've done it as one role, eg: damage. The game can be really different from the perspective of a tank or healer.
There are so many little unnecessary details to the game that make it available to so many people and yet allows everyone to leave their own unique marks on the game. It could just be that you're wearing a complete armour set and you look fully sick. Or you got a rare mount or pet.
But the thing about this game is that it never forces any goals upon you, it never forces you to do a quest to advance, and YOU choose your own goals within the game. Some people play because they love to play the auction house and make money, and apart from levelling up, you never really have to participate in raiding or dungeons to do that.
So you can set your own goals, and with continually growing content, obviously people's goals are constantly changing. Add in the fact that it is multiplayer, people essentially create their own content, their own reasons for playing. People don't have to run guilds, organise raids and so forth, but they do because it gives them a sense of entitlement and privilege that they don't have access to in real life. Let's face it, your average job is pretty lame, boring and unfulfilling, you work for the company. With WoW you can come home and yes, you might be working, but you're fulfilling your own goals.
Not everyone's awesome at sport, it can be a hassle to organise events and find opponents to play against who are your level. In WoW, it's relatively easy to build a team (guild) and verse opponents your level (raiding/pvp) and engage in meaningful teamwork building skills and also social building skills.
At a job interview, I had the balls to tell them that yes I play(ed) WoW. For the regular person a video game is a weird place to be proud of your achievements. But I was able to articulate and explain how I learned to manage people and build great teamwork and interpersonal skills by the social aspect of World of Warcraft. You can't really say that about many other games.
Not to mention the thrill of raids, and the fucking awesome feeling you get when you prevent a wipe and down that pain in the ass boss for the first time.
Then there's the loot, the source of much pain, suffering and joy in WoW.
It's hard to not feel like you've lost something when you fail to get a piece of loot, or someone ninja's it or whatever. You have lost your time, which you pay for. Ultimately though, when you finally get what you want, personalise it with gems and enchants you become attached to your items, your character, and ultimately the game.
Unfortunately for me, WotLK really killed the game. With the introduction of achievements, people stopped just playing for the fun of it, and started playing because they wanted to feel superior by getting achievements. It unnecessarily secluded parts of the community that would normally work together and gave the elitist culture that many top teir guilds and players more ways to feed their superiority. Ultimately, then WoW raiding declined into an era of gearscore and elitism which pretty much killed the fun of the game. It was no longer about trying to help someone else because they're a good friend, a good player, it was about rejecting them because they didn't have the gearscore you felt required to complete the encounter.
It really broke down a lot of the social interaction within the game that had made it so interesting and fun for me particularly in Vanilla WoW and for a long time within Burning Crusade.
Ever since I've stopped playing, I've been trying to overcome a Social Phobia. I think if I didn't have WoW, it would have crippled me a lot sooner, and I would be in a much worse situation than I am now.
WoW's large subscriber numbers also account for people all around the World including Asia and Europe. Many MMORPGs don't participate fully in these markets, particularly in some of the Asian countries and prefer to stick with just Western Countries and also Europe in many cases. This bloats WoW's numbers significantly. If you were to compare subscriber numbers based on Western Country subscriptions you'll find that while WoW is still ahead, there are significant pockets of people invested in other MMORPGs.
Closing Statement/tl;dr -
The game is so big and huge, it doesn't force stuff upon you so there's so much to find awesome in the game. Ultimately it has one of the richest game worlds ever created (and soon to be recreated in Cataclysm), there is so much to do and see and explore that people become invested and obsessed (not addicted) with the game, making it popular.
Whew, long post.
wow is a well made crap sandwich, served in a fine restaraunt with a long history of good service, with a side of piss soup, baked potato, and one of those funny green things they put on the plates for decoration that you definitely aren't supposed to actually eat.
Other MMORPGs range from being a crap sandwich you threw together in about 15 seconds to being a crap sandwich made for you by a disgruntled lover who is most likely cheating on you with your boss or your father.
Other MMORPGs range from being a crap sandwich you threw together in about 15 seconds to being a crap sandwich made for you by a disgruntled lover who is most likely cheating on you with your boss or your father.
anyone who plays a MMO and expects no grind is pants on head retarded. MMO=Grind, Period. No other way to "level" without grinding. Even in non MMO RPG games you grind to advance. It's still grinding when your killing a crap load of dudes to get to the end dude, no matter if it's a liner story driven process or not. As for WoW. It has a great story if you take the time to follow it, It's got a lot of content for every type of MMO player (again if you are expecting an MMO to not have grind, shoot yourself) The visuals are great for THE STYLE OF ART. Wow isnt trying to be realistic. Therefore it shouldn't be held to the standards of such. WoW also caters to the people who don't drop 5 grand on a PC. For the cost of 2 console games brand new that will only get you maybe 80 hours total of fresh game play (not the countless replays of the same story over and over and over again), you can get an entire year of wow gameplay with FRESH content included. even the people on a tight budget can afford 15.00 a month for entertainment.
TLDR - It caters to it's demographic very well, it also does things right. It's a good game and will continue to be successful. If it's not for you, then it's not for you.
TLDR - It caters to it's demographic very well, it also does things right. It's a good game and will continue to be successful. If it's not for you, then it's not for you.
You smell trollish to me but heres an artical that explains why WoW is fun and addictive.ICanBreakTheseCuffs said:
http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/columns/experienced-points/7405-Experienced-Points-Go-Back-To-WoW
I've played other MMOs and WoW just offers the best of everything a MMO can.
What I don't get is how MMOs are so popular to begin with, but that's just me not liking them in general. I guess there's a lot of content since Blizzard keeps churning stuff out and that there is quite a bit to do in WoW than most MMOs. The feeling of accomplishment probably keeps players in, as they keep trying to get better gear (Though, I just say it's all pointless grinding).
Personally,They all have different opinions,most Gamers game for difference or time consumption.
I was banned (Not sure why.) but I still like the game,It had many systems,a lot of classes,and like TF2 constantly updates. Those are the keys to success.
I was banned (Not sure why.) but I still like the game,It had many systems,a lot of classes,and like TF2 constantly updates. Those are the keys to success.
Probably the best way of saying it. I constantly tell people that Uncharted is good stuff because it doesn't do anything new, just does it all right (well, mostly right, nothing is perfect!)cornmancer said:
In seeing other responses he had to what people said, I was gonna say this myself.Mcupobob said:
Polish.
Also, it leverages the loot system of diablo 2 into an entire mmo. Pretty good combo there.
Also, it leverages the loot system of diablo 2 into an entire mmo. Pretty good combo there.
This!Axolotl said:
Until you've played WoW you'll never understand, the gameplay is just that addicting, plus a lot of money and manpower was invested in making its world one of the biggest and most elaborate out of any MMO.
Add the fact tthat its also one of the easiest MMOs to level in and PVP (the game's mechanics is masterfully designed to where even a noob stands a chance against a hardcore), and you have a certified hit.
Blizzard is an even better continuous content provider then Valve.
It is the only game in existence where on a nearly continuous basis I have gone "Gee, i'd really like _____" and the next update, bam, there it is, it's like they're reading our thoughts...
I'd get a tin foil hat if I didn't love my personal thoughts being violated in such a satisfying way.
It is the only game in existence where on a nearly continuous basis I have gone "Gee, i'd really like _____" and the next update, bam, there it is, it's like they're reading our thoughts...
I'd get a tin foil hat if I didn't love my personal thoughts being violated in such a satisfying way.
I play it for fun, me and my friends all got it around the same time so we all played together lvled up together, bought the exspansion packs, ect. and it was just enjoyable, and i guess being lvl 79 warlock now I can destroy people onthe BG's.
As people have said, simply because it's good, addictive, and, in my opinion, is unfinishable, therefore you can continue playing endlessly, theoretically.
Also I find the Lore incredible, the characters, places and everything about it just very good quality stuff.
And the starting fanbase was obviously a giant help. For example, Halo Reach will nigh on certainly sell millions upon millions of copies, and become a phenomenon overnight. Why? Because it's had a giant fanbase built upon by three highly respected critically and commercially acclaimed games.
Also I find the Lore incredible, the characters, places and everything about it just very good quality stuff.
And the starting fanbase was obviously a giant help. For example, Halo Reach will nigh on certainly sell millions upon millions of copies, and become a phenomenon overnight. Why? Because it's had a giant fanbase built upon by three highly respected critically and commercially acclaimed games.
WoW (like many other major successful games) can have much of its success traced back to good timing and foresight. Remember when wow came out there were a mess of MMOs all ready to be released within the next 6 months (admittedly a good number of them got canceled). WoW came out first so it got first crack at the MMO players looking for a new home, it also pulled in the D2 players who were hoping for a more structured MMO and the Warcraft RTS player who wanted to see the lore develop.
Most importantly however WoW had a couple major changes over the other games in the genre at the time and that came out over the next few months. First and foremost was hiding the grind. Questing is grinding, no it isn't go kill this mob for a 1% drop chance item its go kill these 30 mobs, then these 30 mobs then these 30 mobs. The important distinction is that the latter while being similarly grindy feels much less grindy, changing the scenery and the kill targets while providing structure makes the grind more engaging. This allowed Blizzard to pull in non-traditional MMO players who had been previously scared off by the amount of grouping and grinding.
In doing so WoW changed how MMOs would be judged and it upped the standards for the leveling experience. By the time the other MMOs released after WoW caught up WoW had already moved ahead with BC which improved the questing experience even more and already had a strongly established user base who would be in general reluctant to switch games without a very compelling reason. Blizzard has been pushing the genre forward since making them very hard to unseat given the quality of a game that has to produced to rival WoW (5 years of constant progress vs. a fresh release is tough to do).
Most importantly however WoW had a couple major changes over the other games in the genre at the time and that came out over the next few months. First and foremost was hiding the grind. Questing is grinding, no it isn't go kill this mob for a 1% drop chance item its go kill these 30 mobs, then these 30 mobs then these 30 mobs. The important distinction is that the latter while being similarly grindy feels much less grindy, changing the scenery and the kill targets while providing structure makes the grind more engaging. This allowed Blizzard to pull in non-traditional MMO players who had been previously scared off by the amount of grouping and grinding.
In doing so WoW changed how MMOs would be judged and it upped the standards for the leveling experience. By the time the other MMOs released after WoW caught up WoW had already moved ahead with BC which improved the questing experience even more and already had a strongly established user base who would be in general reluctant to switch games without a very compelling reason. Blizzard has been pushing the genre forward since making them very hard to unseat given the quality of a game that has to produced to rival WoW (5 years of constant progress vs. a fresh release is tough to do).