Slashdot Mirror
Mmogchart.com Updated to 20.0
SirBruce writes "Mmogchart.com has been updated to Version 20.0! This is a major update, with updated numbers for many games, most notably World of Warcraft, Eve Online, RuneScape, and most of NCSoft's titles. I've also added three new MMOGs to the tracking data: Tibia, The Matrix Online, and Dungeons & Dragons Online. I've also removed the old subscriber data for Ragnarok Online in Japan, and unified the various total subscriptions charts. Also new to this update is preliminary market data for Asian MMOGs (including Ragnarok Online) that are commonly reported in terms of Peak Concurrent Users and Average Concurrent Users. Given the differences in pricing models, many of these games are not subscription-based, so a direct comparison with subscription MMOGs cannot be made. My thanks to everyone who helped with this update, and thanks to those of you who waited patiently for this update!"
I hate this type of post because it's pointless. Of course many people consider WOW the worst because it's very popular. Every single person is unique and to make a game that appeals to everyone is impossible. What one person might find fun another might hate. What you find boring another finds interesting. There is nothing wrong with that and that is why there are so many genres of games.
Ooo man the floppy drive is broken. No wait. The computer is just upside down.
##warning this post is from a Eve-online fanboy##
WoW sucked up a ton of my time the last couple of years. I know enough about the game, I think, to give you a basic idea of why some people claim it's so awesome, and others (including me) think it's not that great.
Here are 4 points that WoW has going for it. Then, in italics, purely opinion on my part.
1. First of all, the game is dang easy to learn. The first ten levels of the game are nice and slow, in a protected environment, giving you plenty of time to learn your character. It does a great job of giving you a purpose, a little story, and just enough reward to hook you on the "I need more phat lewtz" idea. In other words "instant gratification".
This is the biggest reason that WoW got so popular. Anyone can sit down and play it. It was a nice change for the genre being able to start having fun without needing to "work for it". Many older MMO nerds will tell you, however, that having to work for something makes your accomplishment that much sweeter. This will be a unending battle between WoW fanbois and the rest of us. That said, this one huge attribute of WoW made Blizzard rich(er)
2. You can get something accomplished in a small amount of time. The trip to level cap is great fun. You can always log in, do something meaningful, and be done in 45 minutes if you like. Caters to the casual gamer.
This works great until the endgame. see point 4
3. No harsh death penalties You lose nothing if you die. No XP debt, no money, no items. Only a little time and a blow to your pride. In this way you are always making progress. It's a very friendly game to everyone, at least in theory. I point to the battlegrounds as a reference. Absolutely no way to lose anything by joining a battleground. If you lose, you still make progress.
People who have only played WoW will tell you how much of a turnoff death penalties would be to them, if they were to think about another game. I think this is unfortunate. Having something to loose when seeking to gain makes nearly everything that you do a lot more interesting. I'm not going to go on about it (you can find many reasons why many people like death penalties from any whiner in a developing game's forums) but I want to point out that people can just as easily ruin your fun. But in WoW, there's hardly anything you can do about it. blah blah death penalties actually reduce ganking blah blah.
4. Raiding Endgame Getting together with 40 people in the game and taking down bosses for items is the tried and true MMORPG way of keeping people subscribed. Frankly, it can be fun.
You almost HAVE to raid once you hit 60 in WoW. First of all, it's nearly all of the content that gets added. Second, WoW is so item-centric that you can't even have fun in the battlegrounds against people who raid. This is a complete turnaround from the 1-60 trip. You join a big guild, do the same raids week after week, each requiring a substancial time commitment. We're talking 4-7 hours here. It's not the same game.
Because of this, people end up rerolling (starting a new character) and/or not really even talking to people outside their guild. It's wierd. The same "hardcore" people that complain that WoW sucks, are the same people that the game caters to at the end. It's addicting though, I admit to that.
I disagree completely. WoW isn't popular because of marketing. It's popular because it's the only MMORPG out there which is fun to play right from the start. You don't need to wait until you're level X before you can go on adventures or get cool items and spells. You don't need to spend a week to get used to the user interface. WoW's a fast MMO that rewards the player immediately, and hardly ever punishes him for things such as getting killed, not having a 2nd account/computer, or not having lots of gold and thus not being able to buy the best possible gear. It's very easy for somebody new to get into the game and start playing right away. It makes you think "hey, this is fun" right away. Most MMOs throw the new player into the complicated game world after a 5-minute tutorial, whereas in WoW the first entire zone is tailored for new players, and there are always directions on where to go next.