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[Prospero]

Online Game, Made in U.S., Seizes the Globe

Probably nothing you didn't know before (more players in China than the US, etc.) But it's interesting to see how the article attempts to explain the appeal of the game to a non-gamer audience. From that perspective it's well written--it takes care to explain what levelling up is, and so on. Much mainstream writing about gaming either doesn't try that, or gets it wrong.

 

[Scalemail Ted]

Thanks, this reminds me I really oughta cancel my account since I havent played the game in about a year and theyre still charging me.

 

[ElectricBlue187]

World of Warcraft is an amazing game when you really think about it to have cornered the market so convincingly from those who were considered the industry leaders (SoE)

 

[Zaptruder]

World of Warcraft is an amazing game when you really think about it to have cornered the market so convincingly from those who were considered the industry leaders (SoE)

It goes further than that and completely trumps what were at one point considered unassailable global market leaders, Lineage.

A game that used a different accounting system for users... phenomenally popular in pretty much only one (medium sized) country...

replaced utterly by WoW. It's user base is a magnitude greater than Everquest had ever hoped to achieved; back then their numbers were considered excellent; great; a cashcow that most companies could only wish about... now, even though it maintains a good portion of its former userbase, it pales in comparison to the WoW juggernaut.

Indeed, for most gamers, WoW is synonymous with MMORPGs.

And now, more and more people... not just gamers, but the people that knew these people... have had their lives changed for the worse or even devastated as WoW presents one of the gravest cases of online gaming addiction.

Tens of thousands of lives ruined, hundreds of billions of dollars of productivity lost! Good God WoW! Those are the truly 'awesome' figures that this game generates.

 

[Tieno]

Isn't this like the most lucrative game ever? Or are the server costs just gigantic?

 

[KyanMehwulfe]

They're gigantic. I vaguely recall an essay written on MMO costs by Raph Koster and the gist of it was the the profit they make is less than most people assume it is. The hardware costs a ton because of the quality it needs to be. I can't recall much about it and I'm not studied in the area of server tech, but the core point was that even back before WoW, MMOs still cost a pretty penny to run.

Which isn't to say that Blizzard isn't swimming in cash. It's just not an obscene amount as some people expect. (eg; 6.5 million x $15/month.)

 

[xabre]

So do we have any theories on exactly how it's managed to become so popular? Warcraft the RTS was moderately popular in the west only among hardcore gamers prior to WoW so it isn't really feeding off the Warcraft brand name. My guess would be mass word-of-mouth as a result of its casual user accessibility.

I think it is having a DS effect in the online gaming market, essentially feeding off the sort of gamer that wouldn't otherwise bother with traditional games but are attracted to the virtual social interactions offered by WoW. It's basically a massive overly complex chat room where you do stuff together with a gazillion different things to do, a detailed system of progression and advancement, it requires modest computer hardware to run and is easy to setup and play.

 

[Tamanon]

So do we have any theories on exactly how it's managed to become so popular? Warcraft the RTS was moderately popular in the west only among hardcore gamers prior to WoW so it isn't really feeding off the Warcraft brand name. My guess would be mass word-of-mouth as a result of its casual user accessibility.

I think it is having a DS effect in the online gaming market, essentially feeding off the sort of gamer that wouldn't otherwise bother with traditional games but are attracted to the virtual social interactions offered by WoW. It's basically a massive overly complex chat room where you do stuff together with a gazillion different things to do, a detailed system of progression and advancement, it requires modest computer hardware to run and is easy to setup and play.

Judging from the women I know who play the game and the casual gamers, it's because the game is easy to start with and is really built on tangible rewards as you play. In a game like Everquest, the quest system and the forced grouping really don't draw in new gamers.

 

[Zaptruder]

They're gigantic. I vaguely recall an essay written on MMO costs by Raph Koster and the gist of it was the the profit they make is less than most people assume it is. The hardware costs a ton because of the quality it needs to be. I can't recall much about it and I'm not studied in the area of server tech, but the core point was that even back before WoW, MMOs still cost a pretty penny to run.

Which isn't to say that Blizzard isn't swimming in cash. It's just not an obscene amount as some people expect. (eg; 6.5 million x $15/month.)

It's making in the region of 100mil to 1 billion revenue per annum.

A pretty safe guess is 500 million revenue.

... I honestly can't imagine running costs been half a billion dollars per annum... or even a quarter.

They're dirty stinking rich, but the irony is they're directly responsible for helping the economy lose multiple billions in lost productivity... ! Oh well.

 

[Ranger X]

Isn't this like the most lucrative game ever?

Something like that yes.

 

[Tamanon]

It's making in the region of 100mil to 1 billion revenue per annum.

A pretty safe guess is 500 million revenue.

... I honestly can't imagine running costs been half a billion dollars per annum... or even a quarter.

They're dirty stinking rich, but the irony is they're directly responsible for helping the economy lose multiple billions in lost productivity... ! Oh well.

Not directly responsible, maybe INDIRECTLY responsible.

Providing something for a person to be addicted to is not the same as forcing them to play.

 

[Zaptruder]

Not directly responsible, maybe INDIRECTLY responsible.

Providing something for a person to be addicted to is not the same as forcing them to play.

Yeah ok, that.

 

[GilloD]

So do we have any theories on exactly how it's managed to become so popular? Warcraft the RTS was moderately popular in the west only among hardcore gamers prior to WoW so it isn't really feeding off the Warcraft brand name. My guess would be mass word-of-mouth as a result of its casual user accessibility.

I think it is having a DS effect in the online gaming market, essentially feeding off the sort of gamer that wouldn't otherwise bother with traditional games but are attracted to the virtual social interactions offered by WoW. It's basically a massive overly complex chat room where you do stuff together with a gazillion different things to do, a detailed system of progression and advancement, it requires modest computer hardware to run and is easy to setup and play.

No theory about it. It runs on most modern machines and it's completely accessible. With an investment of an hour or two a night, you can look pretty cool and see some great content within 2 or 3 weeks. It rewards really readily, doesn't require huge investments (Although, it does reward them) and beats the pants off most other MMOs out there.

That said, I can't take it for more than a month or two at a time.

 

[KyanMehwulfe]

Anyone have the sales for the Warcraft series?

It's always been the most reconizable PC game names in my real life experience. Sort of like Final Fantasy. Even folks that may not know what is is often seem to reconize the name.

 

[adrockthekid]

they're directly responsible for helping the economy lose multiple billions in lost productivity... ! Oh well.

Oh please. So, you want to take that argument to its next logical step and apply this statement to all video games? Hell, all leisure activities! Ban sports, they drop our productivity! Ban books, you shouldn't be reading you should be working!

Come off it.

 

[Brandon F]

It's gotten to the point that whenever I return to Diablo 2 or try some of it's cloned ilk(Titan Quest), I keep thinking, "Why am I not just playing WoW?"

 

[DonasaurusRex]

So do we have any theories on exactly how it's managed to become so popular? Warcraft the RTS was moderately popular in the west only among hardcore gamers prior to WoW so it isn't really feeding off the Warcraft brand name. My guess would be mass word-of-mouth as a result of its casual user accessibility.

I think it is having a DS effect in the online gaming market, essentially feeding off the sort of gamer that wouldn't otherwise bother with traditional games but are attracted to the virtual social interactions offered by WoW. It's basically a massive overly complex chat room where you do stuff together with a gazillion different things to do, a detailed system of progression and advancement, it requires modest computer hardware to run and is easy to setup and play.

moderately popular?

 

[Zaptruder]

Oh please. So, you want to take that argument to its next logical step and apply this statement to all video games? Hell, all leisure activities! Ban sports, they drop our productivity! Ban books, you shouldn't be reading you should be working!

Come off it.

Yeah ok, so it was a hyperbolic statement.

All the same, it's done a suprising amount of damage to a lot of people... which wouldn't have otherwised happened if it didn't exist.

But... really, any leisure activity should have some sort of balance... indeed, it's enjoyment benefits balances out the productivity loss to some degree.

But if you've ever gone hardcore in a MMO... you'll understand that these games aren't necessarily designed for leisure... for enjoyment or relaxation! Although that might be what they appear on the surface, and where their initial pull lies.

 

[GilloD]

Yeah ok, so it was a hyperbolic statement.

All the same, it's done a suprising amount of damage to a lot of people... which wouldn't have otherwised happened if it didn't exist.

But... really, any leisure activity should have some sort of balance... indeed, it's enjoyment benefits balances out the productivity loss to some degree.

But if you've ever gone hardcore in a MMO... you'll understand that these games aren't necessarily designed for leisure... for enjoyment or relaxation! Although that might be what they appear on the surface, and where their initial pull lies.

The same could be said for: Cars, guns, soda, Everquest, Xbox, Nintendo, electricty, the atom bomb, Mesopotamia, The United States of America, boats, trucks, trains, cement, democracy, fuedalism, hinges, doors, locks, bread, rocks, guitars etc etc.

The fault lies not with the product, but with the user. I LOVE MMOs, but I also know when it's time to turn off the game and get something done.

 

[ElectricBlue187]

yup don't fault the product for the user's personality flaws.


how far away is WoW from being the best selling game of all time?
I know it must be getting close.

 

[DonasaurusRex]

yup don't fault the product for the user's personality flaws.


how far away is WoW from being the best selling game of all time?
I know it must be getting close.

that would be hard to find out alot of people that have accounts dont have the game, they just play at computer cafe's / game shops. Others paid and downloaded the game directly. But supposedly blizz is pressing 7 Million users world wide which is where the money comes from in these games.

 

[bengraven]

I really want to play WoW. I just need a few elements on my computer to run it.

 

[ElectricBlue187]

I really want to play WoW. I just need a few elements on my computer to run it.

GeForce 2 minimum is pretty forgiving

 

[Zaptruder]

The same could be said for: Cars, guns, soda, Everquest, Xbox, Nintendo, electricty, the atom bomb, Mesopotamia, The United States of America, boats, trucks, trains, cement, democracy, fuedalism, hinges, doors, locks, bread, rocks, guitars etc etc.

The fault lies not with the product, but with the user. I LOVE MMOs, but I also know when it's time to turn off the game and get something done.

I'm not completely blaming the product... but it's even more naieve and/or disingenious to simply write off all addictive or dangerous qualities of a product by saying user fault.

Ultimately, my beef with typical MMOs is that they're designed in such a way as to require heavy ongoing investment from users, if those users want to get the most out of the game... as a result, a lot of people spend way too much time to be healthy on it. WoW is just particularly successful is all.

 

[ElectricBlue187]

I'm not completely blaming the product... but it's even more naieve and/or disingenious to simply write off all addictive or dangerous qualities of a product by saying user fault.

no it's not. play it or don't. the choice is entirely your own.

 

[Mugen]

Get at least 1GB of Ram. You can still run it fine with 512mb of Ram but expect to lag a lot in org, if (big cities) and BGs.

 

[GilloD]

I'm not completely blaming the product... but it's even more naieve and/or disingenious to simply write off all addictive or dangerous qualities of a product by saying user fault.

Ultimately, my beef with typical MMOs is that they're designed in such a way as to require heavy ongoing investment from users, if those users want to get the most out of the game... as a result, a lot of people spend way too much time to be healthy on it. WoW is just particularly successful is all.

Sure. You can eat or not eat the cookies you just bought and your choice is largely dependent on how much you like that brand. If they add nails to the cookie, you're probably gonna stay away. Add peanut butter chips and you might be more incensed. There's a particular brand of corn chips I ADORE (Sesame Blues. Mmm), but I only buy them once or twice a year because I'll down the whole bag in one night.

Is that the fault of the chip? Nah, yo. MMOs definitley reward investment and I understand what you're saying, but I'm also really wary of foregoing personal accountability in favor of "IZ JUST 2 GOOD!"

 

[Sinatar]

I remember in pre release interviews the guys at Blizzard saying how happy they would be if they could hit the magical 500k subscribers. :lol

 

[Lapsed]

Judging from the women I know who play the game and the casual gamers, it's because the game is easy to start with and is really built on tangible rewards as you play. In a game like Everquest, the quest system and the forced grouping really don't draw in new gamers.

This is true! When Blizzard was designing WoW, they looked at Everquest and said, "How can we fix this?" They added elements to make the game appealing to casual users such as the rested experience, quests that easily tell you where to go and what to do, and so on.

I don't think Blizzard understood WoW's success at first. At first, their Everquest nerd developers kept putting in huge raids. Then, there was the Honor System which made many people quit. For the expansion, Blizzard seems to have gone back toward more casual oriented content with the twenty person raids and such.

I was still in a non-gaming mode when I was asked to beta test WoW. I was stunned as the massive scale of the game. I still think it is the best video game ever made especially when you compare how many hours of content it gives (most games can be beat within 30 hours. You'd be lucky to get up to level 20 by then). One can honestly just play WoW and forget the other games due the sheer mass of content it has.

WoW does have its problems. It's instance and raids are horrible time sinks. After level sixty, the game begins to fall apart due to the reliance on drops for items. But keep in mind how boring WoW's gameplay is and just think that one day, there will be video games that are just as big but with non-dice type gameplay.

WoW is turning Blizzard into a service company from its product orientated service. I think this is the future of the game industry. All the game companies will eventually be providing 'services' from episodic content, to updates, and so on. Games currently share the business model of movies. The focus is to create 'blockbusters'. But, soon, the business model will become more like television where you look for something new everyday. Instead of epic movie-like games, we will see smaller episodic games that just evolve.

 

[ElectricBlue187]

I don't think Blizzard understood WoW's success at first. At first, their Everquest nerd developers kept putting in huge raids. Then, there was the Honor System which made many people quit. For the expansion, Blizzard seems to have gone back toward more casual oriented content with the twenty person raids and such.

5 person raids were awesome after that patch that made it mandatory for certian dungeons (strath, scholo, and others) It's a much more personal setting where your actions really matter whereas in a 40 person AQ raid it just feels very impersonal and gets old really fast.

 

[Zaptruder]

Sure. You can eat or not eat the cookies you just bought and your choice is largely dependent on how much you like that brand. If they add nails to the cookie, you're probably gonna stay away. Add peanut butter chips and you might be more incensed. There's a particular brand of corn chips I ADORE (Sesame Blues. Mmm), but I only buy them once or twice a year because I'll down the whole bag in one night.

Is that the fault of the chip? Nah, yo. MMOs definitley reward investment and I understand what you're saying, but I'm also really wary of foregoing personal accountability in favor of "IZ JUST 2 GOOD!"

I'm not in favour of discarding personal accountability either, especially at a personal scale. All the same, I'm not in favour of ignoring deliberate things that are done in order to hook users and make them more dependent then they should be.

 

[ElectricBlue187]

I'm not in favour of discarding personal accountability either, especially at a personal scale. All the same, I'm not in favour of ignoring deliberate things that are done in order to hook users and make them more dependent then they should be.

you're probably against legalized gambling too huh?

 

[C4Lukins]

Anyone have the sales for the Warcraft series?

It's always been the most reconizable PC game names in my real life experience. Sort of like Final Fantasy. Even folks that may not know what is is often seem to reconize the name.

According to Wiki,

Warcraft 2- 4 million
Warcraft 3- 7.6 million
Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne- 1 million
Starcraft- 9 million
Starcraft Brood Wars- 3 million


I would have guessed Warcraft 2 sold better. I have no idea if those numbers are accurate at all. I think there used to be a FAQ on the Blizzard page that gave sales numbers, but I cannot find it anymore.

 

[Zaptruder]

you're probably against legalized gambling too huh?

As long as it's well controlled and regulated, not really.

But I am against pokies in bars.

 

[adrockthekid]

According to Wiki,

Warcraft 2- 4 million
Warcraft 3- 7.6 million
Warcraft 3 Frozen Throne- 1 million
Starcraft- 9 million
Starcraft Brood Wars- 3 million


I would have guessed Warcraft 2 sold better. I have no idea if those numbers are accurate at all. I think there used to be a FAQ on the Blizzard page that gave sales numbers, but I cannot find it anymore.

I would suspect that even if those numbers are accurate, you're looking at a lot of "battle chest" and $20 sales within them.

That said, those are absolutely obscene numbers for any PC game. Wiki isn't exactly a great source for solid info, though.

 

[Link648099]

Non gamers you say?

 

[bengraven]

GeForce 2 minimum is pretty forgiving

My computer only has 256mb RAM, though.

 

[Tamanon]

As long as it's well controlled and regulated, not really.

But I am against pokies in bars.

But isn't gambling even worse than gaming as far as addictions go? At least playing WoW you can't directly lose all of your money.

 

[ElectricBlue187]

As long as it's well controlled and regulated, not really.

But we must protect people from themselves!!!

 

[bengraven]

But isn't gambling even worse than gaming as far as addictions go? At least playing WoW you can't directly lose all of your money.

Goldfarmers say "hi". :lol

"YOU WANT SELL YOUR FAMILY FOR EPIC MOUNT!?"

 

[Ikael]

Non gamers prints money, period.

Talking seriously, the sucess of this videogame is based on 2 main factors:

- Accessability. In the ample sense. As it has been mentioned before, you don't need a fusion plant in order to run this game, nor you need to expend 18498 hours to start getting a tangible reward. You start playing, and you got fun of it. Hardcore gamers and some developers have forgot that videogaming is a passtime in essence, not a holy task.

- Social interaction. Little by little, you become addicted to it. This is a common trait with other MMORPG, but this one has archieved to unite the social interaction with accesability.

I think that other smash hits like Animal Crossing had been sucessful exactly because of this, and that the sucess of games like WoW has just pooven that the hardcorism is just plain and simply, retarded. Accessability, interaction with another persons and fun "in the instant" are way more valued things by the consumer than for example, graphics. It is curious to me how both Nintendo and Blizzard, two extremely different developers, with radically different blackgrounds have arrived to the same conclussion, and tried to approach to the same ideal of gaming by two quasi oposite ways.

 

[bluemax]

This is what I realized when I quit playing WoW: it's a good game for people who don't play a lot of or any games. For someone like me who is contstantly switching what game he is playing it's bad. I get bored too easily and don't have it in me to grind mindlessly when I can pop in something else that will reward me sooner.

 

[Zaptruder]

But isn't gambling even worse than gaming as far as addictions go? At least playing WoW you can't directly lose all of your money.

You can't really win money playing WoW either. But there's a decent sized stigma and understanding of risks when gambling.

I don't think MMOs should be eliminated completely... but some amount of work needs to be done to help people understand the risks, as well as preventing companies from using what amounts to predatory methods to keep their players playing...

Maybe that sounds a little too dramatic, but I would say it's completely naieve to think that a MMO is as simple to pick up and put down as some milk and cookies!

 

[C4Lukins]

Non gamers prints money, period.

Talking seriously, the sucess of this videogame is based on 2 main factors:

- Accessability. In the ample sense. As it has been mentioned before, you don't need a fusion plant in order to run this game, nor you need to expend 18498 hours to start getting a tangible reward. You start playing, and you got fun of it. Hardcore gamers and some developers have forgot that videogaming is a passtime in essence, not a holy task.

- Social interaction. Little by little, you become addicted to it. This is a common trait with other MMORPG, but this one has archieved to unite the social interaction with accesability.

I think that other smash hits like Animal Crossing had been sucessful exactly because of this, and that the sucess of games like WoW has just pooven that the hardcorism is just plain and simply, retarded. Accessability, interaction with another persons and fun "in the instant" are way more valued things by the consumer than for example, graphics. It is curious to me how both Nintendo and Blizzard, two extremely different developers, with radically different blackgrounds have arrived to the same conclussion, and tried to approach to the same ideal of gaming by two quasi oposite ways.

I disagree with how you compare Nintendo and Blizzard. Blizzard games are very approachable, but the deeper you dive into them the more complex they become. They tend to offer more and more depth as you go along. Nintendo games on the other hand start out as great fun, but tend to remain incredibly simplistic throughout the entire playthrough. Nintendo has exceptions in their library of course. Where Blizzard really excels is in their interface, and how well paced the rising complexity of their games is. The simplicity of many Nintendo games is both the reason people love and hate their games, while Blizzard offers something for everyone.