How did WoW dethrone Everquest?

[DonTadow]

They dumbed it down and removed all the challenge or depth. Although they did keep the raids, which were the worst part of the EQ endgame.

Less snarkily, WoW attracted a lot more casual players, who recruited their casual-gamer friends. The longevity of these games depends on the social networks that arise -- the more people who have an attachment to and play with on a regular basis, the less likely you are to stop playing entirely or hop to another game.

Having played pretty much every MMO since Ultima Online to max (or close to it), WoW is probably the one I've liked the least, and even I feel the tug to return occasionally simply because of the friends I have that play it.

What sucks is that every potential MMO developer now feels that they have to achieve WoW-levels of subscribers to be considered a success, so we're starting to see the same repeition and type of formulaic crap in the MMO market that you see in other forms of mass entertainment. I suspect my days of hard games with meaningful death penalties, actual travel and exploration, etc., are long gone.

Interesting comment. Just from the perspective of 2 years later dealing with a similiar issue in the tabletop thing, where 4e feels like a much more casual gamer friendly game. Seeing the endresult of blizzard's design decision, it makes a lot of sense from a business perspective why 4e is what it is.

 

[frankthedm]

Warhammer, I mention this one only because my best friend had this silly notion that it was going to not only damage but overtake WoWs subscription numbers. (Yeah, reality has set in for him, he still likes the game.)

LOL Hammer did not have a chance. Even brightened up from the source material, the setting is too dark, literally. Just looking at screenshots tells me the game is less colourful than WOW. It might seem like a non issue, but bright, cheary and cartoony "feel good" will make folks happier while playing the game. Worldwide, there are lots of people who have legitimatly miserable lives and WOW is the best 'pick me up' they have access to.

 

[BlueBlackRed]

I played EQ off and on for a couple years and started playing WoW this past summer.

WoW is much more fun with much less down time and minor penalties for minor oopses.
Where with EQ, a small goof could get you killed and set you back several days of "playing" time.

Blizzard did their homework and took the good aspects of many games and cut out what wasn't liked.

 

[WizarDru]

Right, and when did EQ have 10 times the subscribers of it's closest competitor?

I mean, c'mon. Really.

Well, to be technical, the market leader form 1999-2005 was not Everquest, it was Lineage. Which quite literally did 10 times the subscribers of it's closest comeptitor in 2001. But we're not counting them in the hypothetical EQ losing it's throne to WoW idea. But EQ had major mind share in the US, and it was the market leader. Ultima Online had a plug-in audience, too, for many of the same reasons that WoW did. But it was surpassed quickly by EQ, (though it never lost nearly as dramatically as all that).

It certainly wasn't a given at the time of launch that WoW was going to become the juggernaut it now is....in fact, with such a disastrous launch, a lot of folks thought it might be a colossal failure. Obviously, that didn't happen. I'm not arguing that WoW is or isn't a good game....I don't play it, though several of my players do or used to. My point was just that it seems unfair to insinuate that the only reason WoW succeeded was by being in the right place at the right time, instead of being the product of a lot of hard work by some pretty talented people (who had a track record of quality work).

 

[Darkwolf71]

My point was just that it seems unfair to insinuate that the only reason WoW succeeded was by being in the right place at the right time, instead of being the product of a lot of hard work by some pretty talented people (who had a track record of quality work).

I didn't say, nor mean to imply that the only reason WoW did (is doing) so well was luck. In fact my points about it running on mediocre systems and optional PvP are due to the very hard work, research and talent you mention. My point was that any number of things could have been done differently and had they been so, WoW might have a fraction of the customer base they do now. Thus, 'the stars were right'.

 

[WizarDru]

Thus, 'the stars were right'.

Ah. My apologies for mischaracterizing your thoughts. I took that phrase to mean 'they just happened to be in the right place at the right time when the heavens were in alignment just so'. Spot on, then.

 

[Goodsport]

• "Sony: Without EverQuest, there would be no Warcraft" (Tuesday, 6/16/09)

-G

 

[Goodsport]

Hopefully Blizzard's upcoming new MMO won't take away from WoW's numbers, especially considering that game director Jeffery Kaplan shifted over from WoW to the new game some months back.


-G

 

[Blue Sky]

• "Sony: Without EverQuest, there would be no Warcraft" (Tuesday, 6/16/09)

-G

Heh. I think the only thing WOW owes EQ is a list of how not to do things.

My pithy customer service example:

At one point, I was trying all the free mmo trials I could find. I tried CoH and DDO, both with no problems. I tried to download the EQ trial, and it failed to install. I deleted the install packet, redownloaded it, and tried again. Still failed to install. So, I emailed customer service with my problem.

The first thing they told me was to uninstall, and try to reinstall. I responded that, as I said in the first email, it never got to install. Oh, they say, download it again. I already tried that as well, I tell them. No, no, they say, try it again. I do so, and email them again to say it's still not working. They reply that they're sending it to tech support, and I should hear back soon.

Two days later I get an email from tech support, saying they were glad they could get the issue resolved. I reply that it wasn't resolved, and they respond by saying that the trouble ticket was finished out, and so if I still had problems, I'd have to contact customer service again. :facepalm:

 

[WizarDru]

Hopefully Blizzard's upcoming new MMO won't take away from WoW's numbers, especially considering that game director Jeffery Kaplan shifted over from WoW to the new game some months back.

Every new high-profile MMO cannibalizes its competition...the question is whether it can sustain those numbers. EQ did this largely based on it being the first to successfully implement on a huge scale and having a sufficiently large user base as competition arrived. When something better came along (say, a game where the devs didn't actively HATE their users), they lost share. Note that Everquest, Asheron's Call and Ultima Online are still running, albeit with drastically reduced numbers.

When Dark Age of Camelot came out, people ran to it. For a while.
When City of Heroes came out, people ran to it. For a while.
When Dungeons and Dragons online came out.....well, never mind.

Frankly, I'd be more worried about Bioware's The Old Republic or Star Trek Online taking Wow customers (if I played WoW) more than Blizzard's next game, which is far off at this stage.