New York Times article about WOW

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NYT on WoW

An Online Game, Made in U.S., Seizes the Globe

By SETH SCHIESEL
Published: September 5, 2006

SEOUL, South Korea ? At 10:43 p.m. one recent Saturday, in a smoky basement gaming parlor under a bank in this sprawling city?s expensive Daechi neighborhood, Yoon Chang Joon, a 25-year-old orc hunter known online as Prodigy, led his troops into battle. ?Move, move!? he barked into a microphone around his neck as a strike team of some 40 people seated at computer terminals tapped at keyboards and stormed the refuge of the evil plague lord Heigan, fingers flying.

As Mr. Yoon?s orders echoed from speakers around the room, Heigan reeled under an onslaught of spells and swords. In six minutes he lay dead. The online gaming guild called the Chosen had taken another step in World of Warcraft, the online fantasy game whose virtual, three-dimensional environment has become a global entertainment phenomenon among the cybersavvy and one of the most successful video games ever made.

Less than two years after its introduction, World of Warcraft, made by Blizzard Entertainment, based in Irvine, Calif., is on pace to generate more than $1 billion in revenue this year with almost seven million paying subscribers, who can log into the game and interact with other players. That makes it one of the most lucrative entertainment media properties of any kind. Almost every other subscription online game, including EverQuest II and Star Wars: Galaxies, measures its customers in hundreds of thousands or even just tens of thousands.
 
I don't understand what the big deal with WoW is :\

Doesn't look all that fun to me :P
 
and it isnt. its shite and linear gameplay that i can achieve while playing tetris on my gameboy

<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ekibe @ Sep 5 2006, 05:59 AM) [snapback]113762[/snapback][/center]
SEOUL, South Korea ? At 10:43 p.m. one recent Saturday, in a smoky basement gaming parlor under a bank in this sprawling city's expensive Daechi neighborhood, Yoon Chang Joon, a 25-year-old orc hunter known online as Prodigy [/b]
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name stealer!!!
 
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(PrOdiGy @ Sep 5 2006, 06:30 AM) [snapback]113771[/snapback][/center]
name stealer!!!
[/b]
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You stole the name from that shitty band!
 
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Akieo @ Sep 5 2006, 12:12 PM) [snapback]113775[/snapback][/center]
You stole the name from that shitty band! [/b]
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hehehe true! well sort of

but its more like a tribute to that UBER band
 
I use to dispise WoW, but now that guild members are gettin to 60, it's been hella fun runnin instances and PvP. Everyone says lvls 1-60 are the best part of the game and post 60 is crap. I'd have to say the opposite...I've had more fun post 60 then trying to get to 60 (can't count how many times I quit playing before I got to 60).
 
I hated WoW, I got to level 40 then quit. It was very boring, so I had to come back to this.
 
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Timi @ Sep 5 2006, 06:45 AM) [snapback]113787[/snapback][/center]
I use to dispise WoW, but now that guild members are gettin to 60, it's been hella fun runnin instances and PvP. Everyone says lvls 1-60 are the best part of the game and post 60 is crap. I'd have to say the opposite...I've had more fun post 60 then trying to get to 60 (can't count how many times I quit playing before I got to 60).
[/b]
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Post 60 is where the game begins.

The game from 1-60 is a breeze... like 12 days of played time. Interesting content a ton of quests and whatnot, but at 60 is where the real challenge is.
 
I've played WoW got to 60, and it didn't really appeal to me, but the reason it is successful is because Blizzard respect their customers. The community is well informed about changes, be them big or small. Another great thing about WoW is the support base it has outside of Blizzard from thottbot.com, to other interactive sites.

The main thing that sells WoW though is the ability to make thousands of dollars from just sitting playing a computer game farming gold, and items all day.
 
I have fun in WoW, but it's not Star Wars.

There are people everywhere, and at least on RuneTotem, 90% of them treat me respectfully. I've played a lot of MMO's.

What I think makes WoW different is that for one it's mostly complete. You don't have the feeling that: the quests will be always broken, the professions are half-finished, or that you won't be able to move because of a broken game.

I love SWG, but I play it for my family and friends.
 
There's no community in WoW for sure, but the same was said in EQ2.

I think the reason there was such a huge community in SWG is because there was no game to play :P
 
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ackis @ Sep 5 2006, 11:51 AM) [snapback]113833[/snapback][/center]
There's no community in WoW for sure, but the same was said in EQ2.

I think the reason there was such a huge community in SWG is because there was no game to play :P [/b]
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Ding! SWG was based around player content where games like WoW and EQ2 provide the content. To do anything in SWG required player sociability, where as the other two don't require that except at certain times.

Also, at least in WoW, the player base is so massive it's nearly impossible to form a community outside of the occasional squable on the realm boards. I'll rarely run into the same person twice in WoW and most of the community I really don't care for because they are either 1) a bunch of elitest pricks or 2) B-net kiddies.
 
Well the community is within the guild. At least in my case. Also, we formed an alliance with another guild so now we got more people to Instance, group, or just chat. ^_^
 
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Tiveria @ Sep 5 2006, 07:49 AM) [snapback]113816[/snapback][/center]
I have fun in WoW, but it's not Star Wars.

There are people everywhere, and at least on RuneTotem, 90% of them treat me respectfully. I've played a lot of MMO's.

What I think makes WoW different is that for one it's mostly complete. You don't have the feeling that: the quests will be always broken, the professions are half-finished, or that you won't be able to move because of a broken game.

I love SWG, but I play it for my family and friends.
[/b]
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QFE!

SOE = FUCKTARDS
 
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(BananaMan @ Sep 5 2006, 09:37 AM) [snapback]113813[/snapback][/center]
I've played WoW got to 60, and it didn't really appeal to me, but the reason it is successful is because Blizzard respect their customers. The community is well informed about changes, be them big or small. Another great thing about WoW is the support base it has outside of Blizzard from thottbot.com, to other interactive sites.

The main thing that sells WoW though is the ability to make thousands of dollars from just sitting playing a computer game farming gold, and items all day.
[/b]
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If SOE really wanted to emulate something about WoW, why emulate the game system, why not emulate customer care?

Bugs i can work around, broken quests i can wait for, i'm even patient enough to wait for the system to improve, but watching them post their future plans for fixes one month and fundamentally changing the entire system the next just inspires a serious lack of trust.
 
What makes WoW a success is simple.. it had a huge fanbase prior to the game being released via the Warcraft RTS series.. that and blizzard has a huge rep. for making good lasting games.. with Starcraft / Diablo / Warcraft.. all of which are still widely played by thousands of players..
 
<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE(Ivor @ Sep 6 2006, 02:24 AM) [snapback]114004[/snapback][/center]
What makes WoW a success is simple.. it had a huge fanbase prior to the game being released via the Warcraft RTS series.. that and blizzard has a huge rep. for making good lasting games.. with Starcraft / Diablo / Warcraft.. all of which are still widely played by thousands of players..
[/b]
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I don't doubt WoW's fan base, but how could it ever be larger than Star Wars' fan base? When the movies were released, people had to camp out in front of theaters to get in to the first showing. It's had 3 table top RPGs that were successful. Crazy fans that buy every new edition of the star wars movies, even if they have 3 copies in their closest still package wrapped. (/raisehand) Toy series after toy series have been released and people still collect them. The star wars fan base is large enough to almost be classified as an adiction.

I guess i don't really understand how, with their fan base, they could have made so many mistakes.
 
im having a great time in wow, should be rank 8 next week and i'll have some pretty decent gear by then.

I play with bemsha and some of the other valor guys from swg, theres also some other random swg players in my guild like octe and kryodin.

I dont do any PVE, just pvp and its kept me entertained for a few weeks :)
 
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