Originally Posted by
Darsithis
Hasn't been true?
World of Warcraft was marketed as a casual MMO compared to its peers at release. Today, though, we'd argue that WoW was more hardcore in the past, but that's really just because the team was inexperienced with designing raid encounters, loot tables, and game mechanics. The game was harder not because it was a "hardcore" MMO, but because it was just new, breaking new ground and experimenting with new concepts that were only slightly more casual than the ones before them.
All games play on our desire to be rewarded and to compete. All of them. WoW is no different there in any way. Every single game out there has some mechanic to reward the player, such as leveling up with xp, points or high scores, new weapons or shiny outfits, new areas to explore, achievements...you get the idea. That's gaming in a nutshell.