Is WOW fucked long term?
Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2005 9:40 pm
Note, this is here rather than the WOW forum because I want it unmoderated and open to anything.
http://www.grimwell.com/?action=fullnews&id=262
The Conclusion of Doom
Though the subscriptions support my theory, my primary reasoning is that this is due to the kind of game World of Warcraft is. Most players in World of Warcraft have no reason to engage in long-term socialization. Without socialization, the main draw the game has always been the novelty of the game play. This is so evident that even the world, with its nice variety between zones, doesn’t feel worldly enough: it lacks "epic" and feels like a game.
If the only loyalty that players have to World of Warcraft is in the novelty of the game mechanic, this leaves it vulnerable on at least two very important fronts. The first front: once players grow bored of the game mechanic, there’s no reason to hang around anymore. The second front: Players will be easily distracted by another game with better core mechanics.
Fortunately for World of Warcraft, games with equal or better game mechanics aren't necessarily easy to produce. Blizzard didn't gain their tremendous reputation on dumb luck: today they're known as being great at producing hit games. I can see only few games in the immediate future that World of Warcraft needs to worry about. Guild Wars, a game made by ex-Blizzard employees, does not charge subscription, has an incredibly portable client, and (most importantly) uniquely involving game play. The City of Villains expansion or Auto Assault are also in the same category of MMOGs, and could be considered potential competition, but being cross genre it is to a lesser degree.
I predict that World of Warcraft's upcoming battlegrounds won't change the situation. Battlegrounds are encapsulated away from the game world too much to add any of the missing “epic” feeling World of Warcraft needs. Neither will additional content help, since adding additional miles on the track (no matter how pretty you make those miles) won't change the fact that you've grown bored with running it. Expansions may help revitalize interest in World of Warcraft due to hype and new blood, but unlike Diablo it is complicated by the consumer's consideration that they would need to pay a subscription fee to take advantage of them.
Overall, my critique against World of Warcraft is the same as my critique against Planetside and City of Heroes: A MMORPG cannot just be a game: When you start charging a subscription, you’re promising it to be more than that. It has to genuinely interest players in investing time in it for meaningfully compelling reasons. World of Warcraft is far too trivialized, it's evident in the quick grind, the artificial world, and the punch-out trade skill system. World of Warcraft, in matching casual friendly (even console-game like) design expectations, is simply not built to last as a top 5 MMORPG.
http://www.grimwell.com/?action=fullnews&id=262
The Conclusion of Doom
Though the subscriptions support my theory, my primary reasoning is that this is due to the kind of game World of Warcraft is. Most players in World of Warcraft have no reason to engage in long-term socialization. Without socialization, the main draw the game has always been the novelty of the game play. This is so evident that even the world, with its nice variety between zones, doesn’t feel worldly enough: it lacks "epic" and feels like a game.
If the only loyalty that players have to World of Warcraft is in the novelty of the game mechanic, this leaves it vulnerable on at least two very important fronts. The first front: once players grow bored of the game mechanic, there’s no reason to hang around anymore. The second front: Players will be easily distracted by another game with better core mechanics.
Fortunately for World of Warcraft, games with equal or better game mechanics aren't necessarily easy to produce. Blizzard didn't gain their tremendous reputation on dumb luck: today they're known as being great at producing hit games. I can see only few games in the immediate future that World of Warcraft needs to worry about. Guild Wars, a game made by ex-Blizzard employees, does not charge subscription, has an incredibly portable client, and (most importantly) uniquely involving game play. The City of Villains expansion or Auto Assault are also in the same category of MMOGs, and could be considered potential competition, but being cross genre it is to a lesser degree.
I predict that World of Warcraft's upcoming battlegrounds won't change the situation. Battlegrounds are encapsulated away from the game world too much to add any of the missing “epic” feeling World of Warcraft needs. Neither will additional content help, since adding additional miles on the track (no matter how pretty you make those miles) won't change the fact that you've grown bored with running it. Expansions may help revitalize interest in World of Warcraft due to hype and new blood, but unlike Diablo it is complicated by the consumer's consideration that they would need to pay a subscription fee to take advantage of them.
Overall, my critique against World of Warcraft is the same as my critique against Planetside and City of Heroes: A MMORPG cannot just be a game: When you start charging a subscription, you’re promising it to be more than that. It has to genuinely interest players in investing time in it for meaningfully compelling reasons. World of Warcraft is far too trivialized, it's evident in the quick grind, the artificial world, and the punch-out trade skill system. World of Warcraft, in matching casual friendly (even console-game like) design expectations, is simply not built to last as a top 5 MMORPG.
before this gets out of hand!