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[TheLe]

Originally Posted by Andur

Dumb down a game enough to where the average idiot can be successful, make death a minor inconvience, and provide an early rigid framework to "guarantee" success for a beginner. Then market the heck out of it early, have good graphics quality, and then let word of mouth do its job.

IMHO it succeeds because it feeds upon the overwhelming fear of failure which exists in the world today. By not offerring failure it makes people more comfortable and thus able to enjoy themselves, which is pretty much the point of a game from a players point of view.

Of course, for those who do not wish to be constrained by dev events, are not risk adverse, and like to be in cool looking ships, there is always EVE ONLINE.

LOL. That seems a bit harsh. It really comes down to the kind of game you want to play. If you like quick and simple play that is fast to learn but has alot of longevity, then WoW is the place to go. It's really not about "fear of failure," as it is a "fear of wasting my time."

In WoW, I can play 20 minutes, die, rez, and take a small penalty. Tomorrow I will be back and ready to rock. For $15 a month this is great. And if I want to get deeper and play 4 hours a day, then there are raid, pvp, crafting, and lots of other things to do.

In Dark Age of Camelot, death had a pretty hefty price. If you die, you lose some major Xp, unless you can find the spot you died and pray for some of that xp back.

In Everquest 2, you can group with a bunch of idiots, and if one of them dies, everyone takes a penalty.

In Eve, well, you all know how Eve is.

So it's not a matter of "fear of failure." It's really a matter of time and energy. I am your typical WoW gamer -- I play a 20 minutes - 1 hour a night. I really don't have the time and energy to take massive losses because of death. Those games are better for other players -- not me.

And many WoW players are the same. It's easy to go in and play just a bit. Heck, if log out at an inn, you gain a "double xp" aura points so that you can level faster when you come back later, allowing you to better keep up with you hardcore friends. You won't get that kind of bonus in other games, but then again those other games are not really targetted a the "I don't have alot of time" gamer like me.

Each MMORPG is suited to a different kind of gamer. It just so happens that WoW is suited for the biggest target audience.

`Le