Why do other company devs devalue WoW so much?

[Deleted]

I personally think it is a mistake to try and create a game to similar to Wow. It might look like a good idea, as WoW is the most successful competitor out there. But players will notice the great amount of similarities and will therefore expect the same level of quality of life features. If the basic concepts (combat system, trinity, dungeons/raids/battlegrounds...) are the same as WoWs, players will be very likely to compare everything to the best WoW-style MMO: WoW. And then the lack of 7+ years of polish will show, players will miss all the little things and complain.

I know why most gaming companies stick to the WoW formula, as it is the same reason why most games these days have a number at the end...

But still, I believe a bit more innovation, new concepts and not as much a reliance on traditional features would create more interesting alternatives. Gw2 and Tera are on a good way and I am really glad, that some bis studios had the courage to try something new.

[Leonard McCoy]

The major problem that "WoW-clones" face is the fact that Blizzard has had almost 8 years to improve on their game.

Pretty much. And as your busy working and developing your game blizzard is busy making it's game better so even when you do get around to releasing guess what they've already done it. It's not that the devs of other companies have disdain for blizzard it just doesn't make sense trying to add every single feature their games have before launch. Better to launch it and then start adding stuff in. Now wether or not people realize this isa different story. Likely they don't and just want whatever they want. People suck. World of Warcraft is the worst thing to happen to mmos.

---------- Post added 2012-05-08 at 12:55 PM ----------

Gw2 and Tera are on a good way and I am really glad, that some bis studios had the courage to try something new.

Until the player base whines about missing one or two key features and then they move on back to blizzard and warcraft. I can't believe you people believe that. It flies in the face of all common sense and history. Keep hyping it up though.

[jonte912]

Rift does not have a great macro system :/

could get way to many instant cast abilities in there.

[Blackmist]

WoW has massive flaws, but a massive following. It's old and creaky, and nobody dares change the gameplay because players hate change.

Other devs can see those flaws, but beating WoW is something they just can't do. Smack talking when you're the underdog just makes you look doubly stupid when you lose.

[strangebreed]

It would be better to be a successful game without borrowing than with it. Being completely unique or just about would probably mean more than basically a clone with different graphics. Thats my basic guess. Maybe they strive to achieve greatness by trying to be different. Whether it worked or not is opinion.

[Drakhar]

But if enough people like something that's bad, it must still be good. Fanboi logic

Or... just logic... because if something has broad appeal it can't objectively be bad... oh fuck it, not sure why I even bother with people that make these kind of comments.

[Ihazpaws]

Maybe because there have not been anything good after TBC?
Everything they invented after that have been shitty ideas and making the game to be more and more "stand still, dont talk or even try" way. Just wait in queue on ur flying mount and troll /2.

Sorry if someone already have said this.

[Deleted]

Until the player base whines about missing one or two key features and then they move on back to blizzard and warcraft. I can't believe you people believe that. It flies in the face of all common sense and history. Keep hyping it up though.

That is what I tried to explain in my post: If the core elements are very similar to wow, people will compare the games very closely and miss all the stuff WoW had time to implement over the years (mostly convenience stuff).

From what I know (it's not that much in the case of TERA, I admit) GW2 and Tera try to change even the core concepts of the standard MMO, so my hope is, that people won't compare them as closely to WoW.

From what I read on the Beta forums, there were just a few people who wanted GW2 to be more like WoW. But hey, I could be wrong, I know.

I just still have a little hope left, that someday the MMO market will offer several decent and inherently different alternatives.

[Leonard McCoy]

That is what I tried to explain in my post: If the core elements are very similar to wow, people will compare the games very closely and miss all the stuff WoW had time to implement over the years (mostly convenience stuff).

From what I know (it's not that much in the case of TERA, I admit) GW2 and Tera try to change even the core concepts of the standard MMO, so my hope is, that people won't compare them as closely to WoW.

From what I read on the Beta forums, there were just a few people who wanted GW2 to be more like WoW. But hey, I could be wrong, I know.

I just still have a little hope left, that someday the MMO market will offer several decent and inherently different alternatives.

I've seen videos and had conversations with friends. IT is not by any stretch of the imagination wildly different from warcraft. Comparisons will be made. It will be found wanting. We will be having this conversation again.

[ComputerNerd]

What was that edit layout button then in Rift that puts literally anything Blizzard ever put out to shame? Also x-server LFG the most hated feature in all of mmo history. You killed all your credibility with that statement.

The fact that Rift was not trying to implement such a feature into a 7 year old interface and that opinion of LFG is just YOUR personal opinion, not a fact.
You lost all your credibility there.

Really just how much in competing MMO's is that original compared to wow.
Yes people can bleat about the combat mechanics, and better graphics but then they are not the first games to come and go despite such apparent "improvements".
The truth of the matter is that wow did not really give us that much in originality either, but tended to cherry-pick the best of the rest and present them to us better.

[Repefe]

Until the player base whines about missing one or two key features and then they move on back to blizzard and warcraft. I can't believe you people believe that. It flies in the face of all common sense and history. Keep hyping it up though.

The thing is year later these key features will be available in all the new games and they will have something WoW is missing ... we will see what MoP will have to offer.

[Window]

Lfg on a whole is a double edged sword on one hand quicker groups is a nice addition but cross realms where you have people tending to ninja items that are no good for them or the issue of killing off world pvp in the process

The problem is Wow is a good archetype for a mmo but it is incredibly cartoonish and caters directly at a large target audience, whenever a mmo trys to break outside of that box for example age of conan or The old republic you end up with a clunky combo system or linear questing

I have hope that Guild wars 2 will have a lasting playabilty,with the additon of the dodge sytem harder leveling content and the breaking of the trinty for grouping

Just can not bring myself to go back to wow especially since the announcement of Mists with the addition of pet battles the farmville game ontop of pandas just doesnt appeal to me at all

[Wromthrax]

If they copy WoW it's gonna end up being called a WoW clone, if they don't they gonna lack features that people are used to, it's a tough situation.
Some game go to great lengths to differentiate themselves from WoW that they make an abomination of game system just to be different.

[jvbastel]

I've seen videos and had conversations with friends. IT is not by any stretch of the imagination wildly different from warcraft. Comparisons will be made. It will be found wanting. We will be having this conversation again.

Before playing the beta, I might have agreed, but after, just no.
In wow/swtor/rift, levelling is a straight line, you go from Hub a to Hub b, and so on. In GW2, there were times when I just walked around doing nothing really productive, just exploring the world, and stuff started happening around me.
With jumping puzzles, open-world instances, dynamic events, etc. the world feels a lot more like what you'ld expect in GW2

And that's just lvl 1-15 and not even looking at the combat or PvP, which are also different from wow-style games.

Is it better? for some, yes. for others, I guess not. But it certainly is quite different from what we're used to.

[Profyrion]

WOW made gamers lazy and complacent. All these features that you blindly expect now because you're used to being catered to... I look for games that don't have them. I don't need my hand held. I've been gaming for 20 years, let me figure it out -- or at worst, I'll look it up on the web.

WOW hasn't done gamers or gaming in general any favors, frankly. I'll be happy when the comparisons and awkward questions (like the OP) finally end.

[Zamfix]

What killed SW:TOR for me was having to level solo because I could not for the life of me find a group for flashpoints, or even group quests sometimes. It doesn't help that they stuck to the dps/tank/healer trinity (in Star Wars? Really?).

Also consider that they had a bajillion server so there were tons of nearly empty server where finding a group was impossible. I can't believe they launched without some kind of dungeon finder given the above conditions.

[Deleted]

Is it better? for some, yes. for others, I guess not. But it certainly is quite different from what we're used to.

That's exactly what I would want. A market that offers several alternatives of equal quality, but with different features.

Instead of the choice between "original WoW", WoW in space, WoW with rifts (I exaggerate!), I would rather chose from different gameplay options, different motivations to play etc.

When I look at WoW, TERA and GW2 I see a lot of different solutions, even though there are surely similarities. But maybe the gaming population a while to accustom to new ideas and so innovation is a process of small steps in different directions.

[Prag]

That's exactly what I would want. A market that offers several alternatives of equal quality, but with different features.

Instead of the choice between "original WoW", WoW in space, WoW with rifts (I exaggerate!), I would rather chose from different gameplay options, different motivations to play etc.

When I look at WoW, TERA and GW2 I see a lot of different solutions, even though there are surely similarities. But maybe the gaming population a while to accustom to new ideas and so innovation is a process of small steps in different directions.

I think that, perhaps, we're all expecting way too much from MMO's. I don't know that there are many ways to reinvent the wheel when it comes to the genre and we may just be done with 5-7 year tenures in our MMO's.

[jakeic]

WOW made gamers lazy and complacent. All these features that you blindly expect now because you're used to being catered to... I look for games that don't have them. I don't need my hand held. I've been gaming for 20 years, let me figure it out -- or at worst, I'll look it up on the web.

WOW hasn't done gamers or gaming in general any favors, frankly. I'll be happy when the comparisons and awkward questions (like the OP) finally end.

it has really crushed the mmo market.

[Syce]

most of Wows systems now, are just ideas taken from other games and given the Blizzard stamp of approval.