How did WoW dethrone Everquest?

[TheLe]

Just curious, as I'm not a MMORPG player (somehow, the idea of plunking down money for software followed by monthy fees to play when I have limited play time bothers me) -- why is it that DDO seems to be doing so poorly? I'd think with the D&D name, it would have a real shot at success?

First off, there is alot of teamwork required in the game. That itself makes the game less accessable to casual games. This is also it's strength however.

Next, it has some mighty stiff competition with Guild Wars, World of Warcraft, and Everquest.

Finally, this review excerpt is probably the most telling reason:

"Unfortunately, there isn't a lot to do while waiting to get in a group for a dungeon. There's no crafting, no player-versus-player combat, no random monsters to beat up, and no auction house. This is true to D&D -- I won't deny that. But in an MMO environment, it can lead to a lot of thumb twiddling. There really is nothing to do. You can turn in some dungeon drops to collectors (more on that in a minute), repair your gear, sell your spoils of war to a vendor, and look for more quests. Other than that, there isn't really any actual game to play. You can't go into a dungeon on your own, unless it's small and you're at least one level above the requirement. But in this situation, it's over quickly and you don't get a lot of experience points. D&D's party- and dungeon-oriented system just doesn't slide smoothly into the MMO model."

Read the review here:
http://pc.ign.com/articles/697/697669p1.html

 

[Goodsport]

It's more than polish, it certainly isn't the art (cartoony art direction in WoW was a smokescreen to reduce system requirements)...

While I certainly won't argue that WoW's cartoony art direction helps reduce the system requirements on my older system, Guild Wars has very non-cartoony yet still beautiful graphics and runs just as well on my system as WoW does.

I'm not sure how the latter was done, but it probably shouldn't come as a surprise that Anet correctly took the same path as Blizzard did in regards to the lower system requirements to allow more people to play comfortably. After all, Jeff Strain, one of Anet's co-founders, was one of WoW's lead designers.


-G

 

[Goodsport]

No danger of that. The first expansion for WoW is due out this fall, but it's just bumping up the level cap and adding some new areas/content. Blizzard is talking about making one expansion a year to follow up. So I don't see a WoW 2 for a minimum of 3-5 yrs.

It turns out that the expansion has just been delayed from November 2006 to January 2007.


-G

 

[TheLe]

It turns out that the expansion has just been delayed from November 2006 to January 2007.

-G

They claim it is because they want to release a bug free game, which I would normally agree with, knowing Blizzard's history.

However, it is more than a coincindence that the press release came out right before the release of their WoW card game.

I suspect they didn't want to leech off of card game sales.

`Le

 

[WizarDru]

However, it is more than a coincidence that the press release came out right before the release of their WoW card game.

I suspect they didn't want to leech off of card game sales.

So you believe that Blizzard, who is now more financially secure than they've ever been, would do short-shrift to their runaway blockbuster online game that has nearly 7 million active subscribers across several continents for a licensed TCG product that, while it will certainly proved popular, is several orders of magnitude smaller in customer base, product reach and overall sales? Considering Blizzard has already killed two games just to protect their licenses, I think it's much more likely they decided the product wasn't ready...especially with the changes they've decided to make to the Blood Elves. I doubt Upper Deck pressured them into delaying their software for a licensed product, but YMMV.

 

[Rackhir]

So you believe that Blizzard, who is now more financially secure than they've ever been, would do short-shrift to their runaway blockbuster online game that has nearly 7 million active subscribers across several continents for a licensed TCG product that, while it will certainly proved popular, is several orders of magnitude smaller in customer base, product reach and overall sales? Considering Blizzard has already killed two games just to protect their licenses, I think it's much more likely they decided the product wasn't ready...especially with the changes they've decided to make to the Blood Elves. I doubt Upper Deck pressured them into delaying their software for a licensed product, but YMMV.

Stop using your logic to deflate peoples intricate and far more interesting conspiracy theories. Next thing you'll be telling us that Aliens weren't behind the Pearl Harbour attack.

 

[WizarDru]

Stop using your logic to deflate peoples intricate and far more interesting conspiracy theories. Next thing you'll be telling us that Aliens weren't behind the Pearl Harbour attack.

Who Sent YOU?!?! It was them, wasn't it?!?

[drops phone and runs....]

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

It's more than polish, it certainly isn't the art (cartoony art direction in WoW was a smokescreen to reduce system requirements)...

Yeah, it's a smokescreen to have WoW characters look like Warcraft series characters, when clearly, the way to continue a franchise is to jettison the art style of a game series that has sold more than 10 million boxes to date.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I know. I'm contemplating moving my toons from Kul Tiras to a RP server for that reason. I can't take anymore chuck norris chat over the LFG channel.

We get a little of that still on Silver Hand, but as a general rule, if you leave the General channel, life on an RP server is a much better experience than general or PvP servers.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

Very much so. Too bad, WC3 was/is very successful... I sure hope they realize, that it would have been twice as successful, if it was more like Starcraft.

The world has enough StarCraft clones already. Blizzard doesn't need to make one.

Warcraft III -- with a team that started with the Brood War team -- had to be something different, just for the sake of the programmers' sanity.