5 ms·

World of Warcraft dominates the MMORPG market. Why? they created the best damn product. Go free to get lots of broke users if you want to help scammers serve

World of Warcraft dominates the MMORPG market. Why? they created the best damn product. Go free to get lots of broke users if you want to help scammers serve ads to those users.

steveklabnik 16y ago
WoW also offers a lot of free months to players. Sign up a friend, both of you get free months. I almost said "and WoW isn't the best damn product," but that depends on your definition of 'best.' It almost mirrors the Mac/Windows thing. Connoisseurs tend to scoff their noses, yet they just keep on selling... WoW is a mediocre product executed _perfectly_.
- jdc 16y ago
  http://www.metacritic.com/search/game/world+of+warcraft/results?sort=score http://www.metacritic.com/search/game/world+of+warcraft/resu... Define mediocre.
  - steveklabnik 16y ago
    Maybe 'not innovative' would make more sense. WoW is a great game, and I have a ... long and very personal history with it. But it's a Blizzard game; their MO is to make the most average game possible, but make it incredibly polished. Many of my fondest memories are of Blizzard games, but (as of late) they're rarely innovative. WoW is the gold standard of fantasy MMOs. It just doesn't do anything new or interesting; it only does a small set of things, but does them very, very well.
    - chc 16y ago
      So, basically, Blizzard is the 37signals of game companies?
      - steveklabnik 16y ago
        I would agree with that assertion.
Tyrannosaurs 16y ago
World of Warcraft has a couple of other things going for it though. 1) Network effects. If you've got friends who play WoW then that's a major reason for you to play it even if there is something better out there. Of course you could all move to the better thing but they won't because... 2) "Loyalty". Anything where people invest time which can not be transferred (for instance in levelling up characters) tends to incur loyalty, if only because they don't want to start over.
- startuprules 16y ago
  Agreed. Also, there is the value perception. When players have to sort through all these MMO games to play, the paid ones stand out over the free ones. (for those players with limited time to play, and can afford to pay)

World of Warcraft dominates the MMORPG market. Why? they created the best damn product. Go free to get lots of broke users if you want to help scammers serve ads to those users.

steveklabnik 16y ago

WoW also offers a lot of free months to players. Sign up a friend, both of you get free months. I almost said "and WoW isn't the best damn product," but that depends on your definition of 'best.' It almost mirrors the Mac/Windows thing. Connoisseurs tend to scoff their noses, yet they just keep on selling... WoW is a mediocre product executed _perfectly_.

jdc 16y ago
http://www.metacritic.com/search/game/world+of+warcraft/results?sort=score http://www.metacritic.com/search/game/world+of+warcraft/resu... Define mediocre.
- steveklabnik 16y ago
  Maybe 'not innovative' would make more sense. WoW is a great game, and I have a ... long and very personal history with it. But it's a Blizzard game; their MO is to make the most average game possible, but make it incredibly polished. Many of my fondest memories are of Blizzard games, but (as of late) they're rarely innovative. WoW is the gold standard of fantasy MMOs. It just doesn't do anything new or interesting; it only does a small set of things, but does them very, very well.
  - chc 16y ago
    So, basically, Blizzard is the 37signals of game companies?
    - steveklabnik 16y ago
      I would agree with that assertion.

Tyrannosaurs 16y ago

World of Warcraft has a couple of other things going for it though. 1) Network effects. If you've got friends who play WoW then that's a major reason for you to play it even if there is something better out there. Of course you could all move to the better thing but they won't because... 2) "Loyalty". Anything where people invest time which can not be transferred (for instance in levelling up characters) tends to incur loyalty, if only because they don't want to start over.

startuprules 16y ago
Agreed. Also, there is the value perception. When players have to sort through all these MMO games to play, the paid ones stand out over the free ones. (for those players with limited time to play, and can afford to pay)