Why did WoW succeed when EQ 2 failed?

[Syraxis]

WoW doesn't have SOE running it.

 

[MetalCraze]

WoW went for cartoonish graphics specifically to lower the hardware requirements

Bullshit.
Hey I imagine games like Max Payne and Unreal Tournament are cartoonish because they have even lower sys reqs than WoW.

Blizz went for cartoonish graphics to attract masses - nothing else.

Blizzard games have low hardware requirements (a smart strategy), and cartoony graphics do too. It was a natural fit. Blizz has NEVER released a game as demanding on hardware of its time as EQ2 was at its launch. They keep their reqs well below average, and this has panned out well for them.

Did you read my post to the end? That's exactly what I've said.

Love it how Skyway/Metalcraze makes a big point out of saying 'Mainstream publisher making a blockbuster game tries to get more customers!' as if it's some ZOMG discovery

What?
I just said that they didn't pick cartoon-y style because it takes less RAM or vidcard power.

 

[Xor]

Skyway, you are without a doubt one of the dumbest posters on this forum.

WoW doesn't have SOE running it.

That's another good reason.

 

[TheWesDude]

actually you guys are wrong...

it sucks you in with those "low requirements" untill you realize that the good gear all required 40 man raids.

and trying to play in a 40 man raid with a less than ideal computer was fucktastic.

people would actually have their computers crash that met the min reqs.

 

[Azrael the cat]

Skyway, you are without a doubt one of the dumbest posters on this forum.
.

If only that were true

 

[Secretninja]

Why the fuck does everyone always jump on Skyway so much? I guess I need moar kodex kool kredits to understand.

 

[Hoaxmetal]

Why the fuck does everyone always jump on Skyway so much? I guess I need moar kodex kool kredits to understand.

They can't handle his opinion, that's why. Also general "in before banal, shit, boring" posts don't help.

 

[Damned Registrations]

You guys are all way off base. WoW became popular because it catered to the casual crowd more than any other MMO. You can solo your way through the entire game as pretty much any class. Death has basically no consequence. Leveling is easier. Travel is easier. Tradeskills are easier. Selling/trading items is easier (Though I think anyone would appreciate that.) Hell, during the holidays they give you quests with level scaled xp rewards so you can be 1 level away from the cap and be getting massive chunks of xp for baking cookies that level 5 characters can.

 

[Hobo Elf]

Because WoW has the least retarded controls and camera in any MMO I've played so far. Playing EQ and DAoC and whatever is hard after the smooth sailing that is WoW.

 

[Emotional Vampire]

You guys are all way off base. WoW became popular because it catered to the casual crowd more than any other MMO. You can solo your way through the entire game as pretty much any class. Death has basically no consequence. Leveling is easier. Travel is easier. Tradeskills are easier. Selling/trading items is easier (Though I think anyone would appreciate that.) Hell, during the holidays they give you quests with level scaled xp rewards so you can be 1 level away from the cap and be getting massive chunks of xp for baking cookies that level 5 characters can.

Fuck you, that's pretty much what I said!

 

[Forest Dweller]

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/grou ... 1166535..1

 

[Syraxis]

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/group.php?gid=4940498514&ref=search&sid=515123188.3241166535..1

:smugcodex:

 

[DefJam101]

EQ 2 is quite a bit better than WoW, by the way. Shame they made it so easy once 'Craft started to dominate the market.

 

[Xi]

Nah, if you look at the beta graphics you'll notice they're less kawaii and more detailed. WoW went for cartoonish graphics specifically to lower the hardware requirements. They (correctly) calculated that a lot of female gamers and non-gamers would get hooked on the social side of things (hey just try a little. Just a few minutes. You don't even have to upgrade your computer - use the laptop you have for work! Just get a limited time coupon, you won't get addicted, no-one does...). When they found out that EQ was going high-graphics, they lowered their own graphical requirements even further (i.e. from beta to release), figuring that any player with a choice between 'upgrade my computer and get EQ2 vs non-upgrading and getting WoW' would choose the latter. Mmorpg players, whether hardcore or from the not-usually-a-gamer crowd, don't get the same value out of upgrading their comps b/c they usually only play the one game for many years (time spent playing a new crpg is time needed for grinding shards for the clan's weekly raiding run, and if you don't make it for this week you might never get put back on their roster).

The irony being that WoW actually has far better graphics then EQ2 ever did. Graphical style that is pleasing to the eye is superior to technical graphics that look like dog shot on 99% of users.

WoW had fluent paced gameplay and good graphics. That's the secret.

 

[Panthera]

I remember back when FFXI was referred to as being among the new style of casual MMOs.

 

[Emotional Vampire]

I don't think there ever was anything casual about FFXI, at least not untill the patch which fixed XP sharing between people of drastically different levels.

 

[Panthera]

Compared to MMOs that came before it, it actually is pretty forgiving. It's definitely not casual though. And the XP sync works better in theory than in practice - you can't level your skills if you sync down, and if you're not careful you could end up high level with a shitty character because you couldn't level skills. And nearly every party is a sync party now.

 

[Emotional Vampire]

Compared to MMOs that came before it, it actually is pretty forgiving.

Why you lie?

 

[Panthera]

I think you forget what the MMO scene was like in 2003.

 

[Emotional Vampire]

I think you never played FFXI.

 

[Panthera]

In that case you'd be wrong.

 

[Emotional Vampire]

(Good to know, weeaboo faggot)

So the fact that you can't get past level 15 solo, when in UO most people reached max level solo, makes the game comparatively casual.

Okay.

 

[Panthera]

I didn't say it was casual.

 

[heiamll]

Because EQ2 didn't let you continue from EQ1. Millions of players saw that they characters they spent 1000 hours playing were now useless, they had no incentive to stay. MMO's are 99.99% about grinding your character, so faced with grinding in EQ vs grinding in WoW, they chose grinding in WoW. Warcraft also has much more of a history and a following, which gave it the kick-start needed to have the initial spike of subscribers. It came out with what was probably the initial install base of 75% of Warcraft/Starcraft/Diablo players, lured in by a free trial.

Free trial? wtf are you talking about? The only free trial thing was from the Collectors Edition. When Wow launched you couldnt find a fucking game anywhere because the shit was sold out for weeks at a time. Even my work at the time got copies of Wow in (we didnt sell any other games before or after Wow) and thats how i ended up getting my copy. i agree that a huge chunk were Blizz fanboys (i remember having an argument on the beta forums about Blizzboys insisting on calling mobs "creep" or some shit) but it wasnt because of a free trial that didnt appear until like 2 years after launch.

 

[Panthera]

There were free trials that came packaged with game magazines much earlier than two years after the game came out. That's how I got into it. I use that term loosely - it's taken me about four years of on and off play to get to level 55, because I lose interest after about two months and don't come back for another year.