Is it Fun?

[Shrandar]

Just because you don't know stuff doesn't mean that others are clueless. No offense.

There are many reasons why WoW was successful. I mentioned two. Other reasons were the established brand name, successful hype, the small time quanta needed initially (this was a huge thing; contemporary MMOs required huge chunks of time right from the start). One big reason was timing, which also makes sure that no other game can repeat what WoW did. Another factor of WoW's popularity is popularity itself; when choosing what MMO to play, you tend to choose the same as your friends did just because they're your friends... That again means that WoW's success isn't repeatable, at least as long as WoW itself is so big. Making a "WoW-killer", which many MMO companies attempt, is futile.
Which is also what some ANet guy - I think it was O'Brien - said in an interview. They are not trying to make a "WoW-killer". GW2 might become the game to kill WoW, but that's not their intention. ANet are doing their own thing.

Oh I would heartily agree with those points and no offense taken btw. My statement that 10 million subscribers must mean fun was also meant as a cynical remark tageted at the imo somehwat simplistic message in Anet's blog that subscription must mean boring content (thats not all they said I know but the message was there). WoW succes is not solely derived from it being an uber game and all others sucky, a lot of it has to do with timing, friends, character loyalty etc as you stated. What I am firmly against however is the theory that all those 10 million subscribers are hapless victims of Blizzards superb means of mind controll. I tend to give gamers a bit more credit then that and certainly my friends that are still playing it.

[Mawgleah]

A while back, when there was a free trial offer for WoW, a friend of mine convinced me to try it. And since a lot of people I know play WoW, I was able to meet up with some of them hither and yon, so it wasn't like I was just dinking around the game on my own. Even though I enjoyed spending time in-game with these people, I didn't particularly care for the game itself. I especially didn't care enough to pay a subscription fee. Personally, all this means to me is that some my friends like WoW and I don't.

Now those same people don't play GW - I do. I enjoy playing, I have fun and I have other friends who play GW. I've read any number of opinions - both positive and negative - about GW and, now, GW2. While I recognize that each and every person has the right to their opinion - their opinions don't much matter to me. What matters to me? My own opinion, my own likes and dislikes. What someone else thinks doesn't color my enjoyment of the game. I like that I can play when I want and if something comes along to prevent me from playing for a while, I don't have to feel like I'm throwing money away, subscribing to a game I can't play for a month or so.

What people like or don't like doesn't particularly make them mentally deficient, brainwashed or stupid (they can be these things, but that doesn't mean there's a direct correlation between the two). It just means people are different and appreciate different things. It's what keeps the world interesting.

[shawn]

It's pretty adorable when people say there's no story to WoW. They must go through the entire game without reading a single piece of quest text or NPC chat, while also ignoring any voiced dialogue, scripted sequences, phasing, and/or cutscenes. Every zone has it's own storyline, and dungeons and raids are usually the storytelling method for the overarching story.

But hey, if it makes you feel better hating the game by insisting there's no story, whatever. There are better reasons to dislike the game though.


LIKE HOW THEY RUINED HEALERS ARRGHRHGAHGKLAGDHghHGhghghghaghahhhhhhhrrrrrhgg

[Shrandar]

LIKE HOW THEY RUINED HEALERS ARRGHRHGAHGKLAGDHghHGhghghghaghahhhhhhhrrrrrhgg

You had a murloc healer?

[Lady Rhonwyn]

It's pretty adorable when people say there's no story to WoW. They must go through the entire game without reading a single piece of quest text or NPC chat, while also ignoring any voiced dialogue, scripted sequences, phasing, and/or cutscenes. Every zone has it's own storyline, and dungeons and raids are usually the storytelling method for the overarching story.

But hey, if it makes you feel better hating the game by insisting there's no story, whatever. There are better reasons to dislike the game though.


LIKE HOW THEY RUINED HEALERS ARRGHRHGAHGKLAGDHghHGhghghghaghahhhhhhhrrrrrhgg

In what game do people actually read texts or listen to dialogs? They want to play a game and they want to play it fast. Reading takes time and that means less time to play...


Edit: that's how I played the BWE's as well. You have absolutely no idea what is going on if you don't read anything (in my case, it's because I don't want to know till release...)

[shawn]

^Uh, I'd assume all of them, if it's the first playthrough. I know I sat through every cutscene in the gw1 missions the first times through. After that though.. SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP OH GOD PLEASE SKIP

[Lady Rhonwyn]

^Uh, I'd assume all of them, if it's the first playthrough. I know I sat through every cutscene in the gw1 missions the first times through. After that though.. SKIP SKIP SKIP SKIP OH GOD PLEASE SKIP

Well, stop assuming, because it's simply not true. I've seen the same in other games. People complaining that they don't understand this or that, while that has been explained several times in the game.

[sorudo]

I think we need to put Mulder and Scully on the case because it seems we have a serious case of X files going on here. Both your reasonings comes down to: I don't like the game so all those that do must be addicted, sorry doesn't convince me.

It's pretty adorable when people say there's no story to WoW. They must go through the entire game without reading a single piece of quest text or NPC chat, while also ignoring any voiced dialogue, scripted sequences, phasing, and/or cutscenes. Every zone has it's own storyline, and dungeons and raids are usually the storytelling method for the overarching story.

But hey, if it makes you feel better hating the game by insisting there's no story, whatever. There are better reasons to dislike the game though.


LIKE HOW THEY RUINED HEALERS ARRGHRHGAHGKLAGDHghHGhghghghaghahhhhhhhrrrrrhgg

[Alaris]

Even cosmetics don't need to be grinded in the traditional sense in GW2. (...) No ****. You almost say it like it's a bad thing. Factions and Nightfall gave virtually nothing to the players improving power, only some cosmetics, yet people played both for hours and hours and still both the expansion afterwards for more cosmetics. You want to know why? These games are fun.

Agreed on both counts, though I wasn't meaning to say it like it's a bad thing. Designing for "fun" should be the main goal of game devs, it's not always.

WoW has currently around 10 million subscribers, you want to know why?

Fun, yes. But also addictive. Based on known gaming lore. And since it has the highest group, it really kills the chance others have to be competitive as subs. And people don't want to ditch their hard-earned levels to start new. All this adds up.

Also, I clearly remember times in my life where I didn't have fun playing, but I kept playing for the carrot, for the tricks. I've done a big change in my gaming mentality since, I explicitly force myself to quit when that starts. Thankfully I can recognize the signs due to my training, others are not as fortunate.

If you like mmo's as a genre you don't have a choice because most have no players or are even less fun than WoW.

I'd be playing WoW if not for GW. True story.

[harniq]

Also, I clearly remember times in my life where I didn't have fun playing, but I kept playing for the carrot, for the tricks. I've done a big change in my gaming mentality since, I explicitly force myself to quit when that starts. Thankfully I can recognize the signs due to my training, others are not as fortunate.

After I killed my social life due to WoW addiction I made a rule. It's rule #1. Everything is bound to this rule:
- never, ever, date a videogame again. When someone invites me irl for anything, I will quit the game.
And it works pretty well. I didn't plan anything for BWE#1 but my gf cleared out our schedule as a surprise. For BWE#2 I had planned several things so I skipped it entirely. I don't have any bad feelings. I'll just quit in the middle of a group when real life pops up (which happens quite often if you have friends).
Yes, that means quitting a dungeon group just before the big boss as a healer. I don't care about henchmen, I mean bots, I mean anonymous random players. Is that rude? Yes it'd be very rude to ignore my friends in favor for bots, I mean some unknown person on the other side of the globe.