World of Warcraft Changed the World?
I picked up my GamePro magazine and I saw a feature (also available on the website) about the “20 Games that Changed the World“. So I flip through and I think it’s a pretty good collection of games with good reasons, some more than others, on why that game changed the world. The usual suspects were all there: Sim City, Doom, Street Fighter II, Tetris, Pac-Man, GTA III, etc. Each of those games really were unique and had something new that no one else had. They set a bar to which future games would be measured and some broke ground for completely new genres.
Then I get to the last page and what do I see? World of Warcraft named as the #1 game that changed the world. FFS, what the hell is that about? Sure, WoW is a good game but let’s be serious. I think EverQuest would be more deserving of that title. After all, EverQuest spawned the MMO genre. People still play it today almost a decade after it started. I’m not counting MUDs here because those are distinctly different but they did grandfather MMOs.
Blizzard still can’t get their shit together after a year and a half. Raise your hand if you’re a successful MMO that takes two years to release an expansion pack. *Crickets*. That’s right, successful MMOs keep content coming to the masses. Bugs in the classes such as the certain Warlock pets, I’m looking at you Felhunter, are still present in the current day game when they were identified in beta.
It irritates me to see such parading and applause for something that’s really just a fad. Yeah, WoW has lots of players. But they have lost me and many people I know. Oblivion took me from WoW. I just couldn’t stand any more redundant instant crawling. And I tell you for sure, WoW is existing on borrowed time. The soon-to-be Lord of the Rings Online is likely to put some hurt on old WoW. Turbine knows MMOs and I’m sure they have what it takes to bring it to Blizzard. Years from now people will say, “What’s WoW?”. You wouldn’t hear that about a true world changing game like Pac-Man or Doom.
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May 5th, 2006 at 4:38 pm
[disclaimer: I played WoW for 5 days in beta]
I wouldn’t say WoW has changed the world very much, certainly not enough to be #1 on the list. However, some of your gripes with the game seem undeserved. LotR Online will not usurp WoW. In fact, no games in the near future will.
WoW’s expansion timeline at present is similar to Everquest’s. I suspect, that it will grow to be more similar over time. First expansion is a bit late, but growth is exploding anyway. That first expansion will bring in even more growth… but then… where’s the next expansion?
It will come much sooner than the first. Then people will sit and wonder about the third. When it finally arives, they’ll wait for the fourth. This will keep happening until expansions are released about one every 8-10 months. Eventually people will decide that buying all of these expansions is silly, and THEN, we might see some anti-WoW migration as new games take the scene.
May 5th, 2006 at 11:56 pm
Hehe… I have a little pent up angst against WoW I suppose. I’ve played WoW ever since beta and I quit WoW a few months ago. I played a Gnome Warlock during that time so I had some of the worst experiences since Warlocks got pretty abused as a class. I just got tired of waiting for stuff to happen in WoW.
Blizzard brought the expansion pack presentation to *last* E3 and here we are on the eve of E3 ‘06 still with no expansion in hand. Not to start comparing games but Everquest had their first expansion, The Ruins of Kunark, out just shy of the first year anniversary while WoW is 1.5 years old with no date announced (although I’m sure the date will be announced next week).
Yeah, I don’t mean to say LoTR Online will single handedly bring down WoW. But I’m serious about the borrowed time. Besides LoTR Online, which will steal some players, a slew of MMOs are coming out to compete with WoW. The combined effect is likely to put hurt on Blizzard if they don’t shape up and lock their players in with some more good stuff, i.e. expansion pack.
May 8th, 2006 at 10:46 am
Hmmm… I’m not sure if i agree with much of anything in this article (get ready for a long post).
While i see (though i don’t agree) your point that another MMO should be getting the award instead of WoW, why EverQuest? Why not Ultima Online? WoW got the award for “…Vast, devoted multiplayer community; intricately detailed online world; king of the MMOs” So what does being first have to do with anything? Everquest was not even the first graphical MMO… It had horrible PvP (obviously tacked on at the end with less than stellar (and worse tham WoW) results). It was this lack of real PvP that kept it from having class balance issues, 95% of people never fought each other directly, and so class balance was largely moot (good thing since it was nowhere near balanced).
Your third paragraph says “That’s right, successful MMOs keep content coming to the masses.” This comment is proved false by your own reasoning, and can be considered false is a second way as well, depending on how you look at it. WoW, the subject of this article, is extremely successful (http://www.blizzard.com/press/060228.shtml), and as you pointed out, 2 years and no expansion. The subject of your article proved half this paragraph false. Come on now, if YOU don’t like the game anymore, that’s no reason to not give it an award for being such a success. The second reason this is false: Just becasue there has been no retail expansion, does not mean the game has not grown. The Events calander (http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/info/events/calendar/index.html;jsessionid=A9593AF78A0F1932CAD95B88293889CC.08_app02), Battlegrounds, honor system, Dire Maul, AQ20/AQ40 the entire AQ world event. All the things added to the game over the last 2 years are larger than most expansion packs. Just cause you did not have to pay for it does not mean the game has not been constantly growing and evolving. So if anything, the fact the game is so popular and it has been 2 years without a retail expansion PROVES that you don’t need one to keep the game popular and profitable. The fact that Blizzard does not charge for every new zone or dungeon like Everquest is not bad thing.
Bugs. Yes we all hate them, I have played a paladin since the beginning of the game and a rogue for the last 6 months, so i more than understand and agree on your issues with bugs. I only played EQ for about a year (not including beta). But i left the game by abusing a game economy crashing bug. A couple friends and i knew how to dupe gold. We made thousands or dollers on Ebay before being leaving all together. (Yes i know i should be shot, but i was still in high school at the time and it more than half paid for my ‘93 RX7, not that that excuses anything) Everquest still has bugs. Check out the their Tech support Forum (http://eqforums.station.sony.com/eq/board?board.id=tech). It looks as though most of their bugs are alot more of a problem than a skill for a specific class does not work correctly (Wow’s Warlock and admitted many other class skill bugs) According to their own forum listing (http://eqforums.station.sony.com/), it is the fifth most popular forum (out of 75 non server forums). So yet again, being without bugs is not only (i beleive) imposable for games of this size, but these bugs do not hinder a MMO’s long life span.
World of Warcraft is more than a fad. “It irritates me to see such parading and applause for something that’s really just a fad. Yeah, WoW has lots of players. But they have lost me and many people I know.” Why do we both know so many people that have quit WoW? Because there have been so many people that have played the game. Wow could have lost 10 million people, the fact remains it was far more subsrcibers than EverQuest or any MMO ever did at any one point in time.
“And I tell you for sure, WoW is existing on borrowed time. The soon-to-be Lord of the Rings Online is likely to put some hurt on old WoW. Turbine knows MMOs and I’m sure they have what it takes to bring it to Blizzard.” Its hard to tell someones tone in a text environment, but it sounds like you really have a bone to pick with WoW. Try using facts instead of opinions to make a “And I tell you for sure…” statment. Many other “soon-to-be” games can put the hurt on WoW. The MMO genre is vastly different than other genre’s such as the normal RPG, FPS, etc. genre’s. Most people who play MMO’s only play one, maybe two (Guild Wars and its non-subscription model comes to model comes to mind). But at the same time, people are reluctant to uproot, lose all they worked for and start fresh in a long game such as this.. Lets say LOTR is a great game. It gathers 6 million people in 2 years (just like wow has done). Do you honestly think wow is not going to still have a lot of devoted followers that stay with the game. Look at your friend Everquest, it still going (despite a sequel), still has expansions coming out.
Turbine does not “know MMORPG’s” as you say. According to http://www.mmorpg.com’s listing (http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/sort/company/gameID/0), Turbine has 3 MMO’s currently out/in development. Asheron’s Call, Dungeons and Dragons Online, and Lord of the Rings Online. Notice the lack of Asheron’s Call 2. Although i did not like Asheron’s Call myself, it has been out quite a while. Though the population is now pretty low and not much as far as expansion is still going on (nothing compared to Wow’s expanding world that you don’t even acknowledge). D&D: i cant comment too much here, supposedly is has done well, but its nothing that has Blizzard scared. Asheron’s Call 2 is not even around anymore. It was also developed by Turbine and it has already been retired. There are very few developer’s out there with a good enough track record out there to even make Blizzard flinch on that alone. None of which have more experience in MMO’s than Blizzard. There is no company with an announced MMO project that can match Blizzards track record of great games. Bioware has a unannounced MMO in the works, it is the only developer (that i see) that should be any cause for alarm as far as track record’s go. And being that its unannounced, its a long way off. Maybe its the movie liscence that your referring too that has a good chance of making LOTR a good MMO? Sony Online Entertainment’s (makers of EverQuest) Star Wars is the poster child of bad movie liscenced games. The Sims online, The Matrix Online, both of these games most people have never ever heard about. So as far as MMO’s go, a good movie liscence does not make the game. So far anyway, it seems to be a bad thing.
Should WoW be number one? This is the first comment (and final 2 sentances of your article) that has any validity. Considering your comparing apples to oranges though, its very much an opinion. The final paragraph on gamepros article, “World of Warcraft is more than a game — it’s a lifestyle. What other game is so popular that foreign governments have enforced strict game-enforced playing limits? If there’s a future of video gaming, it’s World of Warcraft.” Gives a lot of weight to being number one instead of any of the others you listed. This article by GamePro is about changing the world, not changing video games.
I understand this is a editorial article and your opinion is very much a part of it. But at least use facts to come to a conclusion. Especially whe presenting it as the truth.
Comments? Disagree with me? Did i just miss something? By all means point it out, I’m not out to get anyone and i don’t mind being wrong. I just dont like seeing someone print their opnion as fact.
-Chris
May 8th, 2006 at 12:29 pm
Two points:
A) If you want the first MMO to change the world, that would be Ultima Online, not Everquest. UO was by FAR a better game than EQ, and while EQ brought MMORPGs to a wider audience, it wasn’t first.
B) And if we are speaking of wider audiences, EQ maybe hit 750,000 subscribers, while WoW is upwards of 6 million. Thats a WHOLE LOT more households than EQ or EQ II will ever reach.
May 8th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
I think the reason that WoW is dubbed the MMO that changed the world is bascially the accesiblity. WarCraft and StarCraft were already monster successes and definitley shaped the RTS landscape as we know it. So the fact that a game like WoW comes along and brings with it the Craft™ name, kind of brought a lot of people who wouldn’t normally even look at a MMORPG. But back to the issue of accesibility, the WoW community a 2 pronged attack… Blizzard targeted the most hardcore of MMORPG players and those who didn’t even know what an MMORPG was or possibly even what an RPG was. I do think that to the people who’ve played and enjoyed Everquest will tell you it’s better than WoW. But I bet if you asked the average person, more people would know what WoW is. That’s why people will remember it as the game that made the MMORPG accessible to the common man. No longer is MMORPG reserved for the nerdiest most technically sound fantasy fan, but now, Jon Ryan, construction worker from Utah is an addicted fanatic. This may just be an opinion… but I’ll agree Everquest may have laid the foundation for others to follow, but WoW built genre into the worldwide Juggernaut Phenomenon that it is right now today.
If we’re going to catergorize the games that have changed the world, should we computer program number guessing game the best because it paved the way for all others? No. Because nobody remembers what that crap is. Pac-Man, Pong, Tetris and those other classic goodies are classic not because they were the first…. other games were released at the same time that had similiar engines, they were all programmed for the same system and all involved like 1 joystick and 1 button. These games are remembered though because of how easily enjoyable they were for the most seasoned hardcore player, as well as the player who just picked this thing up and is enjoying it.
Building off the first published statement here… MUD’s did build the way for MMORPG, but nobody is going to remember any of them because they were so irritating for any new player to enjoy…
I don’t know…. I guess I’m done ranting here. I do agree with the lack of support on the Lock’s. What up with dat?
May 9th, 2006 at 9:35 am
touché!
May 9th, 2006 at 10:19 am
Valyn, I did play Asheron’s Call for a while. In fact, I’m played most MMOs for a while, usually at least a year. And I’ve played a couple at once. I would say that Turbine does know MMOs. I wouldn’t attribute the failure of Asheron’s Call 2 to just Turbine. I played the Asheron’s Call 2 beta and I didn’t like it as much as Asheron’s Call 1. I think it had more to do with the fan expectations. Many people wanted a second Asheron’s call but what they really wanted was Asheron’s Call 1 with the Asheron’s Call 2 graphics update. A lot of people were shocked to see how much of the game had changed from AC1 and that it was in fact a completely new game.
Much like you say, people love their characters and world, and then it pains then to move to something new. So fans stuch with AC1 and AC1 outlived AC2. It’s hard to say if AC2 would have been successful if AC1 had never existed but I kind of wonder if it would have. I really can’t tell because I liked AC1 so much.
I have high expectations of LoTR Online not because of the movie/book license (and it appears they are going by the book not the movie) but because of the impressions Turbine made with me on AC1. It’s hard to describe what AC1 had in it. But it had stuff in it, like a dynamically changing world each and every month or spell creation where you had to learn your own spell formula for high level magic, that I’ve not seen in other MMOs since.
I played D&D Online beta and I liked it somewhat. It has potential but it just wasn’t for me. D&D hardcore fans may actually like it a lot. But it was too D&D for me personally.
Personally, I enjoyed Asheron’s Call much more than EverQuest. However, I simply said EverQuest because of a few things. First, it was a 3D MMO which was new. Second, it made headlines that let the world know MMOs existed and really made people jump up and say “holy geez this MMO thing is something to keep an eye on”. It has spawned a myriad of MMOs that are coming out soon and since most people play only one MMO that’s why I believe WoW might has issues over the next year or so. The MMO genre is about to get saturated with games and people are starting to become bored with the same old thing in WoW. And new raid areas no matter how new are still just the same old style with just new makeup on it and new equipment to collect with no change in gameplay.
May 9th, 2006 at 1:02 pm
I felt the exact same way about D&D online as well. The way you describe AC1 and AC2, makes me wonder about the future of sequals in this genre. EQ2 is was a beautiful game, but for me it was just missing something… Who knows by now it could be a great game, but it too late to go back to it now.
I see your point with WoW though. Personally, i still think its going to be around for quite a while, look at EQ1. But your right about the static feeling or the world. Everntually it will be the death of WoW though.
Thanks for the response, i was hoping you would not take anything personal, it just seemed to me you had a bone to pick with WoW, but your respone has made me understand what you were trying to say.
May 9th, 2006 at 2:20 pm
Hehe.. no offense taken. I welcome all opinions. Referring to your comment on the wowbreak.com site, I’m not sure why your comment fell into the moderation queue. I didn’t even realize it was in there until I read your comment. Sorry for the delay in getting it added. I think wordpress automatically holds any comment that’s really long and comes as a first post from someone to prevent spam.
And as to sequels, I’m curious too. There has been relatively few sequels so far since MMOs are pretty new. You’ve got EQII and many of the EQ addicts I’ve known have stuck with EQI over EQII. I tried out EQII myself but I still felt drawn to EQI over EQII, damn you Sony and your crack!!
Lineage II appears to be doing somewhat okay although I’ve never play it nor the predecessor and I don’t really keep up with it. But so far with AC2 which died, EQII which seems to have somewhat less success than EQI and Lineage II which is doing okay, it does seem that sequels just don’t do so hot in MMOs. Compare that to single player games where people just salivate over the newest version like Halo 2, Halo 3, Call of Duty 3, etc.
May 10th, 2006 at 5:41 pm
John, you’ve *GOT* to be paying these people to comment on your blog…
And also - you’re still bitching about being a gnome warlock??? ROFL!
May 11th, 2006 at 1:59 pm
Actually, I think they’ve taught me something. Bitch about WoW, get visitors :-). If you bitch it, they will come?
February 21st, 2007 at 8:32 am
I can not agree with this article more. The main point of this article is that WoW was and should have not been in first place for world changing games. Plain and simple, it shouldnt. The game takes everything about a MMORPG and cages it up and semi-simplyfies it for people. This in short creates a short term high for players. Ill admit it i also played WoW back in the day but quit shortly after joining. And i did play ALOT of the game by the time i quit. Now Everquest i can def see in the 1st place. It was the ground braking shattering hammer that hit this earth to let MMORPGS burn into the game industry. Yes there was ultima and we all know that but ultima didnt break open the MMORPG scene like EQ did. I to this day MISS the old EQ ( kunark and velious) and strive to find a game that made me feel like that game did. And so my opinion, WoW doesnt deserve number one.
May 16th, 2009 at 1:22 am
Anybody know where the World of Warcraft European servers are located? Someone said they are all in Britain but I am not sure. Would they have some in Germany, some in Finland etc?
I am trying to do a business plan for my own massive multiplayer game and was wonder how they spread out the resources.
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Karen Walter
July 11th, 2009 at 6:13 am
Hat’s off. Well done, as we know that “Hard work always pays off”, after a long struggle with sincere efforts it’s done………….
Buy WoW Gold
July 11th, 2009 at 6:23 am
Well, it’s amazing. The miracle has been done. Well done…….
Buy WoW Gold