Why is World of Warcraft so popular?!

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I have found theres lots of types of wow players.

I would never say to anyone, dont play it because you will get addicted because its down to personal control.

I was heavily addicted a year or two ago. I was self employed and my job failed because everything i did got centred around wow. Every thought was about what i should be doing next or what i should be aiming for. Alot of what has been said about it turning into a chorse is very true. If i wanted to gain exalted with someone i would grind until i got there even though sometimes i found it really dull!

I quit before but after 4 or so month i started playing again when WOTLK was released but with a different job and new attitude. My new girlfriend and nights out are always my main prority now. I know other people that can easily play a few hours here and there but also some that seem to be online all the time!

I definately think that to get the very best gear you need to be hardcore wow player unless you have a very kind guild that lets you raid the odd night a week and lets you have most of the decent gear. Most guilds require 2/3+ nights a week commitment and for four hours or more. Its too much for me and just seems like a second job. why arrange your life around wow? it should be the other way around.

As for people selling accounts its a handy way to leave the game while making a few quid but its never going to be worth it unless you enjoy playing. The guy that sold his account for £650 probs played 100-200 days play time which works out to a measley 13-26p per hour not including the £100 or so fees and game keys. So thats great if time played has been enjoyed but not so much if you get bored.

Life>wow
 


#1 reason WOW is so popular is because any idiot with just about any PC or laptop from the last 4-5 years can run it as the engine has about as much graphical detail as a cartoon from the 70s.

#2 reason WOW is so popular is because you never loose. Everyone is a winner. The game is SO easy and so dumbed down compared to previous MMORPGs it attracts all ages. They spent millions on study groups just to try and bait people to play. Instead of quality gameplay they found every little nick and nack they could to get people addicted. Im not joking. They used panels that applied things gambling adiction, drug adiction ect.

#3 reason WOW is so popular is because the average intel of most people these days is not as high as it used to be. Sounds sad but its true. People take the easy road first and foremost when it comes to the majority. They dont look to history for quality products and services and that is how WOW has kept the blinders on the costumers all this time.

If you are a semi inteligent human being and an adult then the WOW community is going to drive you insane. The super horrible game quality and dumbed down level of play will drive you insane. Once you play any decent MMORPG you will never want to play WOW again. The pvp is a joke and the PVE is about as much fun as watching paint dry.
 



A touch over 30 /played

I quit for a few months before coming back to make that toon and because of the work i put into my guild before (GM and RL) i quit, this new character got boosted through most of the pve content.
Will always remember swapping my green of the bandit boots for the purplez that Teron drops.

The gold came after the guild disbanded pre wotlk and i was left with a stacked gbank i didnt want. Was prolly a bit more than that, but i gave a lot away to friends and ex guildies still on the server.
 


I agree with some of what you are saying jersey.

Alot of wow has been dumbed down but I think thats just to spread it out to a wider audience. The higher end raiding although not massively difficult does require some tactics rather than button bashing. I think pvp is the same but I have found PUGs to be the most frustrating side of things be it for pve or pvp because its when the people with a degree of intellegence meet the facerolling button bashers that just do WSG to run to the centre and see big pretty numbers on thier screens.

The graphics have always been an interesting point. For me I will play any game as long as it plays well where as alot of friends will go for games because of their graphics. Dont get me wrong I love games that look stunning but if the gameplay is no good it doesnt matter.

It would make me laugh though if they massively upgraded the graphics. Nvidia and radeon graphics cards would be sold out everywhere! lol
 
Ah, WSG...

There was a reason I, as my feral druid and my hunter, was usually the flag carrier. It seemed no one else was generally intelligent enough to run in and out in differing ways, deal with the single person that would stay behind to guard (don't kill them, just root/snare/pet attack, grab flag, and run), etc.
 
yes terr, teh same problem here. WSG could easily be a 10-15 minute affair as most premades are if its 10 people that know what they are doing.

normally i see people respawn, run straight to centre and start zerging, get killed then repeat the process 100 times. lol.

Thats why im saying wow is so much more fun with a decent guild or group of friends. pve and pvp is made so much easier!
 
I have been playing wow for the past year. I disagree that the game is dumbed down at higher lvls. Try leading a 40 man raid in Gruuls and see if that takes intelligence, research, skills of players (not just button pushing), listening skills, and a great deal of patience! At lower lvls it is easy and questing is by far boring, but all those higher lvl dungeons weed out the so called button pushers.

I will admit it has a high degree of addictiveness to it because of that feeling of wanting to win all the time, which is earned by the way, and not always easily attained. But I feel that this game not only teaches you to work with others, but tests your own personal level of self discipline.

Horde Rules!
 
Basically, WoW has 2 things going for it that NONE of the newest MMOs have.

The first being the large social element. After 4 years of running, players that have been with the game for sometime has made friends in the game... and not just one or two. (For me, it's more like 30 to 40!!!) That's is a tough egg to crack for the newer MMOs...


The other one is System Requirements! Look at what WoW (release date Nov 23/04) needed to run! CPU: Intel P3 800Mhz!!! Basically a CPU that was almost 3 years old! Lets not even get into graphics, Ram or any other little details!

Now, Look at what many of the newer MMOs require. They require you to have a current (usually within 18 months) system with updated videocards! For instance Age of Conan required (at the least!) an intel p4 3ghz with a Geforce 5800! They Recommend a Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4 GHz (E6600) or better!!

WoW grabs most people for the simple fact that it will run on almost ANY system bought in the last 8 years. It is easy to play (lets be honest.. how many buttons do ACTUALLY press in WoW???) The only thing that WoW goes so far to "punish" players is in their crafting system... And all that punishment details is the insane time it actually takes to craft some of the better gear. (Amazingly, some people actually find this fun!!)

Heck, the only other MMOs out there that have player bases in the MILLIONS are the browser based games (like Runescape) and once again, you have the simplicity of just requiring to log onto the internet and opening your web browser.

IMO many Game Developers are shooting themselves in the foot by pushing for the best graphics, physics, complexity and "open ended-ness" Make a game that will run on an OLD system, is easy to play, has a story arc with lots of ways for the players to interact, AND doesn't slap a player for dying! Then you have a chance to break that magical 1 million subscriber mark that no other Pay-for-Play MMO has been able to do since World of Warcraft hit the market.
 
I play because I'm able to log in for just a little bit and do some daily quests, buy/sell on auction house to make a steady profit, and logout until the weekend where I still benefit from my short amount of time playing in the week.

Also, the actual gameplay has me hooked compared to other MMOs -- I just tried playing a friend's character on Lineage II after I hadn't played it for a couple years and was totally disappointed with the PvP/lack of "doing stuff" when you fight that you get with WoW.

WASD + Mouse look is VERY comfortable for a lot of non MMO players already, and the large number of skills/talents/gear builds allow you to adjust your character, so you also get that character build planning that was awesome in games like Diablo II.

Overall a fun game, but not for people who can't keep their priorities straight in life. Work/Family/Friends/Responsibilities > WoW
 
IMO stay away....! I've see honest well rounded gamers turned into Wow addicts over night, and all of a sudden they got no time for anything or anyone else... Seriously, I even tried watching him play... I got so board with the dumbed down graphics, monotonous repetitiveness and constant waiting that I can't even fathom why people even consider playing it unless they have a computer that can't play anything else. And the social thing is a joke, unless your addicted to typing non-stop.... then there are the ridiculous fees after paying for the CD.... But hey, to each his own I guess.
 
What really interests me is what human need is satisfied by playing games like WoW. Could you say virtual worlds and games are the modern version of a (fantasy)novel? Is it the social aspect? Or a combination of the two? And how about virtual worlds like Second Life?

The addition missery is secondary, people become addicted to everything ranging from tea, video to cocaine. But what is it that makes such big crowds move.
 
OMG, this thread is going to make it to next year isn't it? WHY IS THE THREAD SO POPULAR!!!!? That is the real question!! Perhaps the answer to both questions is one in the same......*twilight zone* do DO do do......
 
I have been playing on and off since release. For me it is a way to unwind a few nights out of the week after work and a few hours over the weekend. I am not competitive with other players in terms of gearing up and have been called a noob many times because my dps wasn't on par with other players. I find because I cannot commit more time to the game I am always behind most of the community. It is a fun game but too be honest the main reason I play is b/c WC3 was geting old, I like Blizzard products, and SC2 has not been released. Also, my game time really drops when football season rolls around because I tend to dedicate my weekend free time to watching football/going to games rather than playing WoW.
 

Can't believe I'm going to get back into this thread and to defend WoW at that :pfff:

But just because it's a non-twitch game that does not mean people can't be "noobs". I generally dislike that term altogether, but if you're going to call people noobs there are certainly plenty of them in WoW.

I've played with plenty of people in WoW who have no concept of how to play the game beyond the basic controls the same as I've run into people in FPSs who just can't play. I always played as a hunter and I can attest to the fact that if you want to play at a high level in WoW you need to both know what you are doing and be able to execute.

If anything the fact that WoW does not rely much on twitch response and reaction time means that a mental mistake is that much more costly because you can't really make up for it as easily. Take a game like L4D; say you hit an alarm on accident - well at least you can try and make up for it by playing a little harder to kill the horde. But in WoW if you break a CC or misfire a spell then have to wait for a timer to be up - well there's not much you can do to make up for it other than wait.
 
Who's the troll here? I'm just discussing a game that I've played and do like. You're the one wasting your time in a thread about a game you obviously despise and have no interest in.
 
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