Blizzard over the years tried to casualize their game but is it possible that they changed the game so much that is it not an mmo anymore?
To answer this we would have to ask ourselves what is an mmo really?
Is WoW an mmo just because the game has servers with thousand of players?
In the end really there might be hundreds of people online when you're playing the game but most of the time when you do an activity you will be involved with 10/25 man with your guild,when you quest you'll have maybe 20 players near where you are.Most of the PvP is instanced and counts 3/5/10/15 man...with the exception of alterac/wintergrasp.
But really in the end,does this make WoW an mmo?These numbers of interaction are easily achieved by fps games and others.
For me an mmo,that which made me so interested in WoW before I was about to start the game......is the community.
Nothing else.There were plenty of good rpg games on consoles,but what made me turn off my ps2 and become an mmo player was other players.
I didn't pick up the game for any kind of raid content,raid difficulty or dailies,loot...it was the ability to play with other players within a genre of game I liked.
This is what I think made WoW an mmo back then and this is what I think does not make WoW an mmo today.
WoW has not prioritized it's most important feature for a long time,it's community.
And it may have never have.From what I know WoW was already a game trying to be casual when it came out.It tried to be more accessible and easier then other mmo's like everquest.But it was still quite the hardcore game.And this is important,hardcore aspects do good for the community aspect of the game.
After all isn't it strange how the tightest guilds are the ones that raid the hardest?And the most loose guilds are the so called social guilds with hundreds of players but the chat is a ghost story?
That's when Blizzard's casualizing was not damaging the hardcore aspects that were sustaining the community.
Blizzard just kept casualizing the game and taking the community aspect for granted or maybe even not thinking it has any worth.
Today all WoW has to offer is it's content and what's left of the community.I'm not even implying whether the casual direction is bad or good,but what is sure is that the community aspect was left to rot,nothing was done to replace the huge support a hardcore mmo brings for community.
Maybe Blizzard thought guilds were enough to make up for the community part of the game?I always remember Blizzard being protective of guild communities.
So is this enough to call WoW an mmo?I don't think so.
WoW 2006-2008/2009
The world is real.
Everyone you meet and play with is from your server and can be met again in the world.
This leads to a stronger virtual indentity,the fact that you know the people you meet will be able to meet you again,or talk about you to other people on your server and that you can meet them too leads to a sense of reputation,part of the community.
This is the floor for an mmo community to stand on to.A real server.Everyone you meet is someone you can meet again,all social experiences are more important and fun because of this.
The hardcore aspects made great use of this.Forcing everyone to group up through hard group quests that were back then mandatory to continue quest chains.Dungeons and raids that required you to group up.
But WoW today also has dungeons and raids that require you to group up.But they don't back up the community as much as before.Most people you meet are ''randoms''.As said this is where WoW devs were blind.All your raids,dungeons are no good if there's no community to make them feel epic.
Why LFG was not limited to servers is beyond me.But this is really where the community starts to die.We're around 2009 I guess.
Group quests made easier/obsolete/removed,easier dungeons and ways to gear up for raids on your own versus back in bc when dungeons were so hard you needed your guild or a group of friends to gear up or you needed to farm resistance gear in vanilla,and so these easier ways created pick-up raids vs back in bc/vanilla almost all raids were with guilds,....these are small casual changes that lessen the need for other players slowly,slowly....
Until today,with LFR you don't even need to talk to anyone to do a raid and CRZ feature that executes the ''server experience''.
Are we really left with an mmo?There is stuff to do with other people,yes,like in all other multiplayer games...what makes it an mmo today?
All this time Blizz thought players played their game for their great content.But that's the mindset for non-mmo games.
Really mmo players play an mmo for it's community backed up by great content.
Just take a look at LFR.The big feature Blizzard hyped up before MoP.It's content without any kind of community worth and Blizz thought it would keep casual players happy but more then a million left and the whole feature is such a fail they have to make an entire new raiding mode for casual people.And it's clear this time even Blizzard is realizing the worth of community by the way they designed their flex raiding.It is so obvious.
But is it enough to make WoW an mmo again,what more is needed or do you think the problem of WoW is not it's community?
edit:Avoid trying to prove others wrong.Maybe I should have explained this better.It's not about the technical term.It's about the game experience as a player.For you,is WoW still an mmo or has it failed to be so and is now just a multiplayer game pretending to be an mmo?