WoW is by far the cheapest form of entertainment in view of hours spend.
For 28 years I bought and played games which lasted a few weeks at the most. We copied games by the hundreds too back in the 80's. On my attic are 500 boardgames, mostly wargames and the number of money coins I inserted in Arcade slots is incredible.
I think ALL games combined had less hours spend in them than the 8 years I am playing WoW now.
The problem is that the long term progress of your preferred avatars is a BIG deal for many players. Returning to them or simply continue playing your paladin or rogue or hunter (in my case) is so much more rewarding than playing something limited or new without much reference.
You see this in social gaming too. People compare with each other and make references all the time.
Because WoW is THE reference in MMORPG play, it is easy to follow it through.
And btw: as a PvP player mostly I think there is too much PvP content already. We don't need 15 Bg's or 10 Arena's or 10 world zones of PvP.
WoW has more than enough content to wade through thousands of long term achievements and OPTIONS already.
It was far more worthwhile in playing 1200 hours of hardcore PvP to get to that Justicar title for my Paladin than playing a great game like Heavy Rain on the PS3. Heavy Rain was a great 30 hours experience, but becoming Justicar with my main in WoW was EPIC.
That's the main attraction for many people to play or return to WoW.
Last edited by BenBos; 2014-08-07 at 10:30 AM.
Okay then, so what exactly does WoW offer that other MMOs on the market don't offer better? Is it the social aspect? Admittedly, yes, the game has a larger player base than other MMOs but there are tons of games online that have similar communities. And you can socialize in the real world without paying every month. Is it the combat system? Because other MMOs have similar and arguably better combat systems. Is it the graphics? Because again, there are MMOs with newer and less outdated graphics - excusing their revamp of the races.
As it stands, you're paying money each month to just do the same stuff over and over again because there hasn't been any new content in over a year.
So please enlighten us on how its worth your money. It's fine to say that it's worth it because you have fun, that's a valid reason, but that doesn't mean you value your money - because people have fun doing drugs, too, and I'm sure its pretty unanimous that's a waste of money/time. People have fun gambling but there's no denying that it's a waste of money unless you win.
So maybe provide some perspective.
Progressing SoO 10N. Had almost half a year guildless and my new team just moved guilds. Might not actually get Ahead Of The Curve anyway
WoW is incredibly vast. Take a glance at my signature and take a wild guess.
The problem lies with people expecting to be able to catch up in two or three weeks while SoO is already 11 months old and this legendary quest is at least twice that old. And on top of that they don't want to do anything for it but just join someone elses raid and let them do all the work. And all this while complaining about requirements and after 10 nerfs to the legendary quests, SoO and the rate you obtain gear/upgrades.
I am just guessing here but maybe, maybe you should go spend your time on something else if you are still whining about having to grind valor for three weeks. Apparently you don't like playing WoW.
Formed a new guild half-way through 5.4, so we're still training up raiders for WoD, plus trying to get a heroic or two. I'm getting my professions maxed out, saving some gold etc. Also doing PvP on my Warlock for Bloody Coins.
Sorry but I had to laugh about your post. Seriously, do you know another MMO with a seperate e-sports competition ? Nope. You DO know esports with equal gear is supported in WoW ?
Do you know another MMO with around 70 seperate BG's spread over 5 levels up until the end game... Number of Arena plays ?
And that's just PvP.
Anyone care to to look into the 120+ dungeons, the HUGE amount of continents, high quality Raids, Pet Battles, Pet collections, FLYING mounts.
Seriously NONE of these MMO's have seamless phasing that allows such simple things as farms and garrisons, NONE have seamless and real time cross server open world play.
NONE have multi millions of subscribers either.
Most of these crappy copycats that launched over the years have terrible GCD mechanics.
So please stop this already.
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The others have ZERO official subscribers after 1-2 years, because they offer LESS in overall polish, quality and quantity.
In fact most of these duds have only a FRACTION of players while being offered for FREE.
-----> Now seriously: think about this: other FREE "MMO's" (sic) have far LESS players than WoW has active subscribers ...
How much more fail do you want ? For God's sake Diablo3 has no subscription and it sold ... 20 MILLION copies in 2 years already... Now THAT is an example of how FREE MMO's would need in numbers ... IF they were anything even comparable to WoW...
But they fail, in copies, in numbers, in having zero active subscriptions after X months launch.
It is quite simple really. Subpar quality never made it into the subscription field, that's why the rest turned free faster than you can pronounce the word subscription.
And nope, how much you would want to twist things: going free does NOT magically turns games into better experiences at all.
Last edited by BenBos; 2014-08-07 at 12:07 PM.
I also think part of why people are still paying their subscription is because it is fairly cheap and not a big deal if you just let it run automatically every month. It's 1/3 of my phone bill, a bit more than my Netflix subscription (that I barely use) and less than Spotify Premium. Remember that the subscription cost hasn't changed for 10 years!
550/582 ilvl? So you spend your time running around Stormwind in Heroic Warforged gear with a fishing pole? :P
Answering the OP's question though, I play WoW for the same reason I've always played it. I love games and had the choice between XBox, PlayStation and Free Online Games. Console games are won and then you spend another 80 bucks, and every 2-4 years you buy the next best console. With Online Games they can be absolutely amazing but you spend two to three times as much time trying to find a decent game to get hooked on (pronounced: weeding through crap games/game sites). With WoW, there's always something to do. It's $12 bucks a month, and has proven awesome enough to keep my attention for 6 years. Why quit because there's not an expansion for a few months. Go exploring! Watch some videos and visit some places in WoW you haven't seen yet. Find some glitches. Level up a Tauren Rogue.
Playing on alts and working on Seeker of Knowledge title. May jump back into pet battles. Haven't done them in forever.
Lots to do in WoW. And the only other game I'm playing is Hearthstone so...
Glad to make someone smile in such a bleak world. E-spots competition doesn't mean squat, especially since the game wasn't made for it and it isn't balanced properly. And I'm to understand that it wasn't executed well. But I could be wrong. As for the number of BGs - so? PvP isn't the major focus of the game nor is it everybody's cup of tea. And it's not a boasting point if you have that many and can't keep them balanced.
The dungeons are amazing. At least they were until they stopped caring, roughly around the time Mists dropped. They didn't put any time or energy into updating the dungeons as they should have (every other expansion, IMO) so the result is the dungeons feeling stale and people rushing through and not letting newer players take the time to experience things properly and/or learn. As for the amount of continents, uh, again, WoW's had a few years to have that much stuff. Wildstar, which was just released, has a huge and expensive world to explore. Rift does also. And Rift's collection/artifact system is far superior than anything collection related WoW's come up with.
Numbers aren't everything. If you go by numbers, 50 Shades of Grey is one of the best series of all time. If you go by numbers, Rihanna is a better artist than Cher, Prince, Aerosmith, and Guns N'Roses. If you go by numbers, Frozen is better than Pirates of the Carribbean. Do you see how that logic is faulty? Just because something is popular, doesn't mean it is superior.
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Check your numbers. None of other MMOs currently on the market have "zero official subscribers" or else they wouldn't be on the market. LoTR, Rift, Wildstar, etc. are still thriving. They may not have millions, but they have devs who care about their players enough to actually speak TO their players and not down to them. They are way more polished IE graphics of 2014 quality and not 2003 quality. I could go on.
You need to check your sources before throwing out dribble like that.
"PvP means squat" ... Sure I must have been playing squat then along with millions of others during all these years
Sorry but LOTRO, RIFT and around 2 billion others have ZERO official subscribers. They are integrated into their number of free to play mechanics, camouflaging things all over the place.
The fact of the matter is that these sub based launched things transformed to free to play without ANY official subscriptions at all. Sure you can take some premium options, but these things are quite hidden for the public to be known under an avalanche of FREE TO PLAY mechanics.
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They are free to play things, just like Farmville 2 or Hearthstone. But they LACK any decent multi million players like these 2 examples and they come FAR behind in active player numbers WHILE being FREE...
Go figure how much they stink.
The avatar movement in LOTRO always was a laugh and always will be. Rift was a bleak mini copycat of WoW the day it launched with appaling game play and an incredible absent Lore.
Rift had 99 full servers at launch as a subscription based game, now as FREE to play it crumbled to ... 15 half filled servers world wide in less than 2.5 years.
-----> Comparing free to play with official only subscription based games is like talking BS all over the place btw.
Last edited by BenBos; 2014-08-07 at 12:30 PM.
There is no esports scene in wow anymore. The devs screwed up balancing PVP so badly, that wow was dropped from every single gaming event besides blizzcon.
And no, you cannot count level 20 and level 30 AB as 2 separate BGs.
This is even more stupid than your normal drabble.
Chronomancer Club
I accidentally let my 6 month sub tick over, so yeah...
Another dude declaring what he thinks as universal law... Of course the BG's in WoW are seperated into 5 lvl sections.
As such, a far better solution than raise some gear" between a lvl 20 and a lvl 60..."
I might say again that numbers speak for themselves IF FREE to play MMO's have far less players than WoW subscribers.
You have to be a complete idiot if you want to talk player numbers in FREE to play games and compare them with ... WoW only subscribers.
As stated: Diablo3 has only a box price and it sold 20 MILLION already. These figures are nowhere to be found in the WoW competitors.
That's a sign of how much worse these copycats really are.
We knew it back then in 2008 and we know it now. The difference is called quality.
Simple.
We play quality. You may go down town with the free stuff.
Last edited by BenBos; 2014-08-07 at 12:46 PM.