Was World of Warcraft a good thing for the MMO industry or a bad thing?
Sure, we can talk all day how it's been a great boon for Blizzard and the millions of people playing the game, but as a whole did having such a successful MMO create competition or did it create a game that all other MMO's are compared too?
Just thought I would ask.
I do think it was a good thing in that it made the world open up to MMOs but a bad thing they set the bar way too high. It is the easy of use that made it so popular. All other MMOs have a learning curve. WoW you can just jump in and play
ReplyDeleteI don't think we can really say a game was "good or bad" for it's industry. It just was what it was, and got a certain reaction. The trail on of "me too" games isn't really Bliz's fault, it's just how the industry works. And likewise, the completely unrealistic outlook on valid subscriber bases is an error in judgment that has been made despite plenty of people advising to the contrary.
ReplyDeleteWoW has had it's effect on the industry, for certain, but people still have to stand up and be counted for their own mistakes. That's how you learn, you take all available information, sort it out into a hypothetical solution, then test your solution. If a possible solution fails, it's kind of useless to call the problem(in the math sense) "wrong", you just find some other solution.
Because WoW is the king, and is the standard by which all other games are compared, does that stifle the MMO industry, because they can't create anything new without copying the formula that makes WoW popular or does it cause the industry to be more inventive and productive to try and out do the all powerful WoW?
ReplyDeleteI think because WoW appealed to a larger audience than any MMO before it, that people now are so use to the Ease at which you can play WoW that it cause people to shy away from harder or more complicated games. And if a game is as easy as WoW then people just call it a clone and won't go near it, why play WoW with a different skin when you can play WoW.
True that a lot of the more recent challengers were hampered by launch flaws and bug issues that either pushed people away or kept them from even trying it. This cause people to run back to Daddy WoW and all it's ease of play.
So, does this hurt or promote an atmosphere of creativity?
Supposing Blizzard never made WoW in the first place, it's hard to imagine what would have happened. I suppose people would have found a different "favorite" and everyone would have copied that?
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