2015 and still "World of Warcraft is responsible for killing the MMO genre".

[Deleted]

Wolfshed writes,

The Destructive Legacy of Blizzard’s World of Warcraft

At the end of 2014, Blizzard Entertainment celebrated the 10th anniversary of World of Warcraft. There can be no doubt that WoW is a juggernaut that changed how we play and how we think about virtual worlds and MMORPGs.

But not all change is beneficial and not all success is healthy.

Amid the accolades and self-congratulatory celebrations going on there is unreported dark side to the triumph of WoW and it has come at a high price. It is this: the fantasy MMORPG that some of us used to know and love has all but evaporated and turned from an experience rich with social interaction into one devoid of it.

As WoW has systematically obliterated every MMORPG that came before it, the fate of the entire genre is now symbiotically linked to WoW. Look at your average MMO today and chances are it’s just another WoW clone with a different skin, story and setting.

Just as a rising tide lifts all ships, the reverse is also true. This essay will attempt to explain the destructive legacy of WoW and in particular how Blizzard caused the widespread decline of social interaction in MMORPGs.

Continue to http://www.wolfsheadonline.com/the-d...d-of-warcraft/

For me his article is allot of hogwash; if we take any MMOrpg at a time, whether it is Everquest Online, Ultima Online, Dark Age of Camelot, Star War Galaxy and so on and so forth, they all have one thing in common; they were responsible for their failure and not WoW.

World of Warcraft is still the King because it is still the most most complete and diverse MMOrpg out there. As simple as that.

[Netherspark]

Just sounds like fallacy-ridden bullshit from some bitter anti-fan.

[metasine]

"World of Warcraft is still the King because it is still the most most complete and diverse MMOrpg out there. As simple as that."



Except that wow is not diverse. Any decent sandbox game has 100x the diversity of wow. I read the article and I agree with it. And the last time I checked, Everquest, Ultima, Daoc, are all still going.

Face it, wow today is a browser based dungeon grinder with no required social interaction. That is not an mmo, that is an online action game.

[Granyala]

Well WoW did implement certain stuff you expect in MMOs nowadays like
LFG.

I love LFG tools. It's so much better than spamming trade with "LF Tank Mechanar HC" for hours.

But it could be said that these matchmaking tools do take away some of the importance of actually talking to other people. Instead of meeting up and chatting while waiting, you are being put into a dungeon with four silent strangers. You do the run and due to the ease of the content that is matchmaked, close to no communication is necessary. The boss dies, you part ways if you're lucky someone types "Gg" or "bb".

BUT (yes, there is a but): WoW is still as much a social game as it ever was when you look at content beyond the easy, matchmaked stuff.
Challenge modes, PuGs, and organized guild raids require ample communication and socialization.

IF WoW is to be blamed for something it's for giving the players the CHOICE whether they want a social experience or whether they want to play with silent "pseudo bots".

[Kazgrel]

As much as I detest the current state of WoW, even I simply got tired of reading this dude's rambling, namely since a lot of it centered on how RP had been gutted from the game. If anything would ruin RP, it would be CRZ, but I honestly don't recall if RP servers were included in CRZ or not (I'm thinking they were, except RPPVP servers).

GW2 has that issue. They pretty much roll everyone into "megaservers" for all PVE content in that game as of a year ago. Now folks that were playing on (unofficial) RP servers in that game are stuck in environments with non-RPers. But that's another story for another thread.

[Deleted]

i think he means would be more cool to have like 10 mmo s that are difrent from each other rather than 1 king mmo and copys of it

[Granyala]

but I honestly don't recall if RP servers were included in CRZ or not (I'm thinking they were, except RPPVP servers).

RP-PvP were CRZ'd with other RP-PvP servers. I think same goes for the normal RP servers.
That being saif: RP was almost dead already when I started WoW back in 2007.
I rolled my main on an RP-PVP server and in 4 years of very active play I encountered 2 RP events. ^^

[Deleted]

World of Warcraft is still the King because it is still the most most complete and diverse MMOrpg out there. As simple as that.

World of Warcraft is the most successfull MMO because it catered to a broad audience from the start.

That includes players which wont organize. Matchmaking is the most successfull group setup tool in WoW.

[Blur4stuff]

if you need social interaction and roleplay that badly then invite your friends over to your house and larp

[Crtarel]

World of Warcraft is the most successfull MMO because it catered to a broad audience from the start.

That includes players which wont organized. Matchmaking is the most successfull group setup tool in WoW.

I do agree with this sentiment.

But all good things will come to an end how ever long that will be and i will watch play and enjoy the ride all the way

[Tarbos]

WOW is mainstream, and will be for some time being. That does not mean that other MMORPGs can succeed next to WOW. But I agree, it is hard to find an original MMORPG since WOW launched, that does not feel like a clone.

[rasako]

With the way society is going and the fact that human beings want everything NOW NOW NOW and they don't want to have to interact with others to complete challenging content I can't imagine any MMORPG doing well without implementing the anti-social features that WoW cultivated. They'd just move on to shitty games. Hell, working at gamestop over a year taught me that people are fickle, loyal fans are few, and even my own coworkers were buying 5 different games a week and playing them for a day or two. That is the average gamer these days. some to zero interaction with other human beings is the NORM and its honestly quite sad.

I miss having to build up a reputation with other players and interact with people in a friendly environment. I don't miss how hard it was to set up groups but we could have benefitted from some better group search tools that made it easier to gather players INSTEAD OF "LFG/LFR". I've also been that guy who played very few games, whether it was because I was poor growing up and just became accustomed to not having many games or because I was a loyal fan to the warcraft universe I've never been a fan of playing tons of games at once. But I'm a dead breed at this point. I am only 21 (been gaming since I was 2 on the super nintendo) and I always tell my brother that he and I are part of a generation of dead gamers. The internet and the majority of gaming culture is a sick, shadow of its former self in terms of comradery, social structure, and has some of the worst taste I've ever seen(though this shouldn't be surprising because the same disgusting levels of taste in pop culture of music/movies has been skydiving the past 10 years as well).

[ComputerNerd]

The problem is games trying to be a wow-killer, trying to take the "best" of wow and showhorning it into their own formula.
A game should be what it is, rather than trying to be something it is not, wow plus.
There are too few trying to be really different.

With the way society is going and the fact that human beings want everything NOW NOW NOW and they don't want to have to interact with others to complete challenging content I can't imagine any MMORPG doing well without implementing the anti-social features that WoW cultivated. They'd just move on to shitty games. Hell, working at gamestop over a year taught me that people are fickle, loyal fans are few, and even my own coworkers were buying 5 different games a week and playing them for a day or two. That is the average gamer these days. some to zero interaction with other human beings is the NORM and its honestly quite sad.

I miss having to build up a reputation with other players and interact with people in a friendly environment. I don't miss how hard it was to set up groups but we could have benefitted from some better group search tools that made it easier to gather players INSTEAD OF "LFG/LFR"

Anti-social ?
Utter rubbish.
Players are anti-social, not the game.
Forced or required interaction is not social.
The daily heroic from Dalaran was not social, as the other party members rarely uttered a word and were a means to an end.
Social is interaction by choice, and despite more options with more communication and group forming tools to expose you to a greater portion there is less willingness than ever to be social.
The problem is and has always been the players.

I can go down a street yelling at people, throwing stuff at their windows.
That is likely to prompt "interaction", but is called anti-social behaviour for a reason.
Not all interaction is social.

[metasine]

The problem is games trying to be a wow-killer, trying to take the "best" of wow and showhorning it into their own formula.
A game should be what it is, rather than trying to be something it is not, wow plus.
There are too few trying to be really different.

We had Guild Wars 1, but Anet is to stupid to realize their own success.

[Mormolyce]

WoW doesn't have 10 times the subs of any other sub-based MMO for no reason. If you want to blame someone for the WoW model dominating MMO design, blame the players who are clearly strongly attracted to it.

Most of the alternative game styles these kind of articles mourn the passage of are from games that flopped. I'm sure those games were a lot of fun, at least for some people, but it wasn't the kind of thing most people wanted to play so they mostly fell by the wayside.

[Jinxz]

WoW gets closer every expansion to a single player game lol.

[Deleted]

Players are anti-social, not the game.

If players have no incentive to be social, then they won't be.

You, like many people, vastly underestimate how incentive driven many people are.

[Grinkle]

Within my guild there is still plenty of organisation and socialising. we are all capable players and have easy accsess to LFD, LFR and the premade tool. however we CHOOSE to spend our time with each other, log on 3 nights a week to raid, spend time outside raids completeing achevements/quests/fucking about, playing HoTS/Diablo 3/Heathstone/a number of other multiplayer games. and i should state that NONE of us know each other IRL we are all people who have met in game. formed friendships in game and socialise in game and just generaly chat on mumble. the social aspect of wow is in no way shape or form dead for those who can be bothered to find it. Nobody forces us to make these commitments to "strangers" and for that we can all be gratefull. but for those of us who choose to put in a little effort and commitment the reward is just as good as it always has been.

reguarding wow clones, pretty much every game thats been released int he last 10 odd years has roots in another game that the devs enjoyed playing and wanted to put their own spin on it. just look at FPS games the mechanics of them are almost identical in every FPS you will play. the only major difference between them is purely the quality/setup of the UI and graphics. every RTS is pretty much based upon the same basic model of build a base to construct units to destroy your foes. again the only major di9fference between them is purely visual/story. every hack and slash is.... you guessed it! a hack and slash.... if people are so worked up about WoW "clones" i wonder if they can find a game to enjoy at all? (and i hope to god they dont play CoD cause the irony would be painfull )

[TheWindWalker]

WoW gets closer every expansion to a single player game lol.

The biggest complaint about WoD so far is the lack of compelling single player/small group activity. Try again.

[Grinkle]

You, like many people, vastly underestimate how incentive driven many people are.

And how can that be blamed on anybody but themseleves? the communities ARE there. if they nwould rather quick purples they can replace in 6 months over taking the effort to find a place or hell... even start a community of their own i see no reason why the devs of wow should pander to them.