Slashdot Mirror
WoW - The Game That Seized the Globe
The New York Times reports on the global appeal of World of Warcraft. An unmitigated success world-wide, the article examines why the title's U.S. roots haven't stopped it from succeeding abroad. From the article: "Perhaps more than pop music or Hollywood blockbusters, even the top video games traditionally have been limited in their appeal to the specific regional culture that produced them. For example the well-known series Grand Theft Auto, with its scenes of glamorized urban American violence, has been tremendously popular in the United States but has largely failed to resonate in Asia and in many parts of Europe. Meanwhile many Japanese games, with their distinctively cutesy anime visual style, often fall flat in North America. One of the main reasons Western software companies of all kinds have had difficulty in Asia is that piracy is still rampant across the region. Games like World of Warcraft circumvent that problem by giving the software away free and then charging for the game service, either hourly or monthly." Keep in mind that distribution and access rates are different in Asia than they are here in the states. The majority of WoW players pay an hourly fee, and didn't have to buy the box.
While I congratulate the developers for creating a game that keeps money pouring in at a rate to make the oil companies proud; I am sad to see subscription based games survive.
Everquest (afaik) started the trend and now with WOW pullings in Millions of $ each month, I know that it won't go away. I watch my friends throw money at all these games, one in particular had active accounts in: City of Heroes, WOW, and Everquest all at the same time! He let me try his account (in an attempt to get me hooked) and while the game and MMORPG aspect was fun, I dind't think it was worth the monthly fees.
So now, I stick to classics and Mame. I will never pay a monthly fee for a game.
"The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men." ~Plato (427-347 BC)
Sometimes I like to think that if they had WoW back then, that WW2 never would have happened.
Instead of going to a movie once a month, play a MMO. Or, instead of going out to eat once or twice, play a MMO. A music CD will cost you about the same...
$15 doesn't buy much nowadays in the entertainment world, a whole months worth of entertainment for $15 is a deal! (And if you play Everquest 1 year is $100! Less than $10 a month.)
I just recently quit wow... I mean, I didn't full on cancel my account or delete my character, so it's still there should I ever wish to go back... But I did uninstall and plan on keeping away from it, at least for a while.
/played
/played. Find out for yourself what large, large portion of your life you're throwing away at this game.
You know what did me in though?
Thanks to the glory that is mathematics, I found out that on average, I played for three hours a day. Worst part about averages, I don't even play on the weekdays that much (which means very VERY loaded weekends).
What a waste. Three hours of my life. Every single day! I could be learning how to juggle or searching for a significant other or reading a book or hacking! Something!
If you're like me... On the verge of quitting... And trying to look for that extra push... Look at
Don't get me wrong, it's a great game, and I loved playing it. But it's a lot. Moderation, please.
PS - I just bought Civ 4 (crack for crystal, I know). I don't get it.
McDonalds gets a lot of customers. Windows has a lot of users. Lots of people went to watch War of the Worlds.
Popularity is about marketing and dumbing down, not quality.
You are trivializing the idea of the game. Anything can be trivialized to the point where it seems pointless.
Videos in general:
It's an environment that I can interact with using my computer. There are normally tasks that I have to complete, and once it's all over, I haven't accomplished anything in Real Life.
Computers in general:
I used input devices (ie: keyboard and mouse) to interact with a program someone else wrote.
Life:
Wake up every day, eat, work, sleep, and repeat. Looking at life without taking in account the details of what goes on; it is a fairly trivial process.
Just because you didn't enjoy the type of entertainment that the game was providing doesn't mean it is pointless. Video games are a form of entertainment to help us relax and enjoy ourselves. If you don't enjoy, or stopped enjoying, a video game, you can replace it with another. Or you can go read a book, or rob a bank... something that entertains you.
Its not what it is, its something else.
Personally, I don't do many quests these days. If I do any, they are usually related to the instance that I'm at the appropriate level to run. I spend my time running that instance, usually with people I've played with before but sometimes in PUGs. We try out different tactics, mix up the group makeup (e.g. try it without a main healer, try it with 3 mages, etc) to challenge ourselves. I also enjoy trying out the different combinations of race and class, exploring the different abilities and play styles.
Sure the hunting/gathering quests can be boring, but there's so much more to do - the game is so much more than the quests.
Retention is a function of quality. Exposure is a function of marketing. If I'm exposed to a quality product, I'm more likely to become their asset. If World of Warcraft weren't a) fun, b) distracting, c) amusing, I wouldn't be playing it still after over two years.
Informatus Technologicus
Are you defined by what you think of yourself or how others perceive you? Do you really think because you died with a gross income in your life of 10 million dollars, you will be remembered more than someone that only made $500,000 through their entire life? Are you going to have a book written about it? And even if you did, does that make a difference now, if you would be dead when it is written?
I could be spending my time helping less fortunate people, or maybe working on an Open Source program that would benefit thousands of people. I may receive praise for such things, but what does this really do?
I think it's really a matter of what you want to do with your life. Do you care that in 20 years, you can look back and be like "Wow, I designed this amazing program that filled a need for 100,000 people." You will have this memory to satisfy yourself. You will be able to tell stories and brag about doing something "productive" for society.
Or, in 20 years, you can look back at the time when you played only video games. You can remember you had fun doing it, but did not accomplish anything with your life. You will have the memories of those games still, and the fun that you can while playing them.
Though it's not the same thing, I played one MMO for 12 months pretty hard-core. I stopped playing that game about 3 years ago. I can look back at the time I see some things where it hurt my social life. But at the same time, there were parts of the game that really provided pure fun and entertainment. You could say I get a warm-fuzzy thinking about the events and things that went on it the game. Not so much the facets of the game, but the people I interacted with in the game.
Some people feel that they have to help others, and do things beneficial to society, so they can be defined by society as being a productive member. And the only way they can satisfy themselves is to think that what they've done with their lives has made a difference (no matter if it really did or not).
Just because you think something is wrong, doesn't mean it is. Even if laws say that something is wrong, doesn't mean it is. I feel that psychology hasn't fully caught up with the concepts of MMOs, so they tend to be compared to drugs or other bad addictions.
Some work has been done to study the MMO trend, but it will be years before we can really know the effects it has on the world. It will be interesting to see how research projects like The Daedalus Project pan out over the coming years.
Its not what it is, its something else.