What would've happen with WoW if it was released today?

[caelestum]

Just think for a moment that WoW was released someday near today, let's say it was vanilla WoW, but some of the QoL feature WoW has today, from WoD models to some of the systems Legion and BFA brought.

How the mmo community would've received? Could had been a success or a failure? It's release would've refreshed the mmo genre?

What do you think?

[Eazy]

Failure.

WoW had it moment because plenty of players went from Wc3 to WoW. Nowadays I think that almost ~90% of the playerbase are the ones who started to play in vanilla-wotlk and they're playing the game just because they invested too much time and they don't want it to be wasted... or they're just too attached to the game and for some it's actually fun for them to play it.

[Heran]

Failure.

WoW had it moment because plenty of players went from Wc3 to WoW. Nowadays I think that almost ~90% of the playerbase are the ones who started to play in vanilla-wotlk and they're playing the game just because they invested too much time and they don't want it to be wasted... or they're just too attached to the game and for some it's actually fun for them to play it.

Or, we have tried other mmos and this is the only mmo that is somewhat good.

[Cæli]

a good game is forever good, so it would be popular, but they would have lost the warcraft 3 momentum and maybe wouldn't be as successful
if the look wasn't exactly like the vanilla/tbc one then it would definitely be less popular

[rogoth]

it would be a commercial and critical failure, it would be shutdown within a year at best, 6 months at worst, the only reason games of the same genre even exist today is purely because of how big of an impact wow had on the MMO genre, to use some metaphors wow was the meteor that wiped out the dinosaurs (everquest), then acted as the foundation for all of the MMO games released in modern times, it was both destroyer and creator at the same time that's how big it was on the gaming landscape. but if you erase all of that and thought to release it today without any other supporting games in the same genre you would be burning money for no good reason.

- - - Updated - - -

Failure.

WoW had it moment because plenty of players went from Wc3 to WoW. Nowadays I think that almost ~90% of the playerbase are the ones who started to play in vanilla-wotlk and they're playing the game just because they invested too much time and they don't want it to be wasted... or they're just too attached to the game and for some it's actually fun for them to play it.

if you took a census of all people playing 'retail' prior to the release of 'classic' i can assure you less than 5% of them played before the cataclysm revamp period, and less than 1% are people that actually played back during original release so no, it has nothing to do with that, after MoP the game was made so casual friendly in terms of gameplay mechanics dumbed down so hard that anybody with basic hand-eye co-ordination skills could go and farm old content for transmogs/mounts/pets/titles etc that there was no need to really develop proper end game systems anymore which is why the game is in the shithole it is right now.

[Lane]

Anyone who didn't play at least one pre-WoW MMO doesn't realize how revolutionary WoW was at the time it launched, that simply isn't true today. WoW feels like the most dated MMO in the genre, so that would be its only draw is providing something similar to the early 2000s MMO experience. It would probably have an audience, but not a particularly large one.

Nowadays I think that almost ~90% of the playerbase are the ones who started to play in vanilla-wotlk and they're playing the game just because they invested too much time and they don't want it to be wasted... or they're just too attached to the game and for some it's actually fun for them to play it.

Accurate for me. I started playing in vanilla. Familiarity and attachment are the primary reasons I keep coming back. ESO is my favorite MMO, but I had to quit playing for awhile and when I came back I felt overwhelmed and lost. WoW changes so little regardless of how long I've been away that it's like I never left, which is both good and bad.

[Usernameforforums]

If it launched as vanilla, yeah no, it would fail. We got games like the division and destiny that would be better for the players.

If it was legion as the vanilla launch, yeah itll survive. Bfa might survive but bfas shortcomings is mainly due to being directly after the greatness of legion.

Wrath might survive but anything else i dont see it happening.

[Darththeo]

I don't think it would be realized today. WoW is kind of the game that made this style of MMO popular so it is unlikely Blizzard would even take the risk.

But if everything else came out as it did and WoW was just delayed. It wouldn't get the players. The games called "WoW clones" would be controlling the market.

[McNeil]

I'd say that most people that would check out the game would get turned off by its graphics almost instantly. WoW today would look fine as a 2008 game, but it wouldn't fare well in 2019. Most people that still play WoW to this day do so because they have already invested so much of their time and money into it, so leaving the game would probably give them an empty feeling of throwing so much of your life away. If its a new game than this wouldn't be a thing ofcourse. Also the game would be missing all the built up from the RTS games.

[Thetruth1400]

Depends on which version of WoW you're talking about.

If it released as Classic, I think it would have done okay. It wouldn't have reached the 12M that the actual Vanilla - WotLK era of this game did, but I could see a solid 2-3M.

If it released in the BfA style of things, it would have flopped incredibly hard and wouldn't have gotten chance after chance to improve like it did because of it's long history. It would have gone down as a flop attempt from a once decent company with a "Hey, stick to the games you're good at, stop trying to branch out."

[Uko]

Wow is the fortnite of mmo's. It launched a product slightly superior its competitors playable on a potatoe when interest was increasing in mmo and blew up. Right now mmo's popularity is down because the big thing is drop in drop out content that can fill the 10 minute attention span of children not long term grinds and goals. So it would flop harder an 800 pound man doing a belly flop off an olympic diving board into a kiddie pool.

[Barzotti]

Just think for a moment that WoW was released someday near today, let's say it was vanilla WoW, but some of the QoL feature WoW has today, from WoD models to some of the systems Legion and BFA brought.

How the mmo community would've received? Could had been a success or a failure? It's release would've refreshed the mmo genre?

What do you think?

Probably a disaster considering how video games have massively improved in every conceivable way since 2004 (except RPGs, I still miss Planescape Torment). Some WoW features feel terribly outdated in the 2019 landscape.

If games like GTA 3 or Morrowind were released today, I'm 100% sure the general consensus would be: this is dogshit not even worth considering.

Wow is the fortnite of mmo's. It launched a product slightly superior its competitors playable on a potatoe when interest was increasing in mmo and blew up. Right now mmo's popularity is down because the big thing is drop in drop out content that can fill the 10 minute attention span of children not long term grinds and goals. So it would flop harder an 800 pound man doing a belly flop off an olympic diving board into a kiddie pool.

I don't think the attention span issue is the biggest culprit here. I started playing single player games on computer 20 years ago, and it's wonderful how much better games have become. Why would a beginner pick a MMO when he can play Red Dead Redemption 2, or The Witcher: Blood and Wine? It's so difficult for WoW to retain his playerbase or to attract new players partly because the alternatives have become so much better.

[Shaetha]

if you took a census of all people playing 'retail' prior to the release of 'classic' i can assure you less than 5% of them played before the cataclysm revamp period, and less than 1% are people that actually played back during original release so no, it has nothing to do with that, after MoP the game was made so casual friendly in terms of gameplay mechanics dumbed down so hard that anybody with basic hand-eye co-ordination skills could go and farm old content for transmogs/mounts/pets/titles etc that there was no need to really develop proper end game systems anymore which is why the game is in the shithole it is right now.

The game has 100% consistently moved toward systems to which the players that actually play the game responded well. The game seems easier because it's putting a higher value on the player's time. Just like the player is putting a higher value on their time. It absolutely is not easier, but it seems like it is because you actually get to play the game more. MMO gameplay was never the most deep, but it's deeper now than it has ever been. You just notice better now. Both because your cognitive ability should have improved with age and because you get to actually play the game more.

OT: The market has changed since 2004 and if that exact game was released now it would be forgotten in a week. Your exact question doesn't really work. A large number of those aforementioned systems are a result of trial and error and a new game wouldn't have that.

This is always an interesting thought experiment. The real question to ask is how much different would the market be without WoW existing to push innovation. There really is no substitute for long term development. In the end, it's trial and error and always has been. Sometimes you get lucky and someone else does the trial for you. WoW does not have that luxury. It has been the edge of innovation in the genre due to the almost unparalleled amount of money put into research and development.

If WoW never existed and came out next week, that's a full-on alternate history scenario. You could write an entire dissertation on things that could have changed. First you have to consider if the market would have persisted in the first place, and if it would have been released at all. Then you have to consider what the market would have done without WoW leading the market. Would someone else have stepped in? Would a different game have ended up in more or less the same place as WoW is now? How much will have changed? I guess it's a study of the butterfly effect in the end.

[Alvito]

WoW was a game changer for PC gaming and MMOs so if it never released things would be much different now. Without getting millions of people to dump a few billion dollars into WoW the pay model for games would almost certainly be much different than it is now. Consoles could very well still be the beat and in many people's eyes the only way to go for gaming. Without Blizzard's explosion in success and fame they probably wouldn't be around still or would have been gobbled up by other companies. This is like asking what it would be like if the airplane was just invented as far as traveling goes.

[Kokolums]

17 years of development time is TIGHT!

[oplawlz]

It's really impossible to say, because WoW had a huge impact on the video game ecosystem. Without WoW we wouldn't have seen half the online games that came out between 2008 and 2013, because publishers wouldn't have been willing to gamble those huge budgets on an unproven model.

[Alvito]

a good game is forever good, so it would be popular, but they would have lost the warcraft 3 momentum and maybe wouldn't be as successful
if the look wasn't exactly like the vanilla/tbc one then it would definitely be less popular

Some things are far better than others. It us why newer versions of games are improvements and alterations of the previous versions. Pacman was all the rage once, if it came out now people wouldn't touch it.

[erifwodahs]

Depends. I would play something like BfA for sure, if I was not familiar with WoW the game, but familiar with warcraft universe. WoW has a mega ton of content to offer. We shall she how all classic thing plays out.
I think it would do ok. WoW has done a lot of things right. Altho, WoW has in many cases shown me what I like in MMO's so without wow influence in my gaming I might have very different opinion.

People who are saying it would flop, to the most part have no clue, using thread just to shit on current wow, as always.

[kaminaris]

If it would be like vanilla it would fail hard

If it would be like modern wow Legion/BfA it would seize quite decent piece of playerbase.

Depends. I would play something like BfA for sure, if I was not familiar with WoW the game, but familiar with warcraft universe. WoW has a mega ton of content to offer. We shall she how all classic thing plays out.
I think it would do ok. WoW has done a lot of things right. Altho, WoW has in many cases shown me what I like in MMO's so without wow influence in my gaming I might have very different opinion.

People who are saying it would flop, to the most part have no clue, using thread just to shit on current wow, as always.

And I agree with bolded part. Most players have no damn clue how to make good game and/or have shit taste. Why is that?

Because those people have incredibly narrow horizons. Does it mean WoW is perfect? Fuck no, tons of shit in here but that is mostly blizzard fault for not being responsive ie addressing issues "at next patch". And not doing surveys, they should be doing like a monthly survey at the very least.

[Outer Heaven]

I mean it was literally re-released in August as Classic servers and allegedly it got millions of players back into the game and is now more successful than BFA.