When it comes to MMOs there is one name that everyone knows: World of Warcraft. For better or for worse no title has done more to bring more players into our genre than WoW. I thought it might be fun (and potentially dangerous) to tackle some of the myths that surround the biggest kid on the block. In doing so I’ve made an effort to choose subjects that effect the industry as a whole. I am looking to compile a list of in game myths though that might work well for this series. If you’d like to suggest some please send me an email!
World of Warcraft invented MMOs
I know that most of my usual readers will look at this one and say, “Yeah Ferrel. We know.” I bring it up because there are a lot of players out there who have no idea that this genre existed before WoW! You might all chuckle and roll your eyes but I have met several of these people! It is time to enlighten our younger compatriots about this myth and help them understand their heritage far better.
It is almost certain that I will receive some disagreement here but it is worth saying. Have you ever heard someone say a new MMO is a WoW clone? Many players would be surprised to know that World of Warcraft was an EQ clone with a side of DAoC mixed in at release. Blizzard did not blaze amazing new trails in the MMO market with their title. They took a proven formula and perfected it. Add in the fact that you can play WoW on any machine, it is based on the insanely popular Warcraft series and Blizzard owned the market on “street cred” and you get success! I should also point out that some original developers for the title were from EQ uber guilds.
Let me be clear with this though. I am, in no way, suggesting that this is bad nor am I trying to cheapen WoW’s achievements. It is simply my intent to point out that there were MMOs before World of Warcraft and they heavily influenced. The next time you call something a “WoW clone” think about this article and cut those developers some slack. Look at where they draw a distinction from Blizzard’s title and realize most MMOs are going to feel similar.
If an MMO doesn’t kill WoW it is a failure
This one is pretty much a two part myth. The first part is pretty simple. I wanted to let you all know that saying fail has stopped being clever. At this point it is pretty much just sad when people say it. For me, it ranks up there with people actually typing sigh into chat channels in game. Come on folks. Both were funny for a little while but now it is everywhere. Move on, it is what fail would want you to do.
I recognize that that is a tangent but it does actually tie into this myth. If a new MMO doesn’t achieve 6 million subscribers in the U.S. it isn’t a failure. Players and investors alike need to understand that World of Warcraft is a special and unique beast. It was created through the combination of good timing, brilliant business decisions, a strong reputation via marketing and weak competition. WoW is the unicorn of MMOs. These things just don’t come around that often and it is so entrenched that the only thing that could possibly bring it down is a new Blizzard product, an incredible evolution in the market, poor decisions on its own part or just time. I would guess that WoW will retain at a minimum 1 million subscribers for at least 10 years. If EQ can remain healthy it is safe to assume WoW can.
Any new MMO coming to market does not have the opportunities that WoW did. The market is heavily saturated and the competition is pretty fierce. Players have never had so many choices and companies seem to be ignoring that. If an MMO maintains 300,000 subscribers we have to accept that that is average. Investors that are looking for a RoI the size of WoW really just don’t understand the industry. In my eyes, the next MMO that has 600,000 U.S. subscribers is “the next big thing.” Anyone that is between that mark and our original 300,000 is doing pretty well. Obviously the cost to make the game will factor into that but I’m just talking raw numbers. That is all people quote anyway.
Accept that an MMO can be successful and not kill WoW folks. You don’t need to be on every forum parroting Epic Fail just because a game can’t even hit the 1 million user mark. Investors, you folks need to wise up and base your expectations on other MMOs. World of Warcraft is an outlier not a gold standard.
Everything in WoW is what the average MMO player wants
This particular myth is somewhat tricky to deal with. I have frequently seen arguments that new MMOs must contain everything that WoW offers because clearly people want it. I simply don’t believe that is a fair assessment. World of Warcraft has such a large player base that you can easily fit 10s of different niche play styles into the game. The game also has the benefit of a larger budget (although lately money seems to be funneling out to other projects) and a few years under its belt. No start up MMO is going to have an equal playing.
Players will have to accept that a new offering can’t give you the WoW experience at release. Every MMO doesn’t need PvE, PvP battlegrounds, ten or more raids, arenas, conflicting sides, and everything else you can name. One of the major reasons I feel that the most recent games have faltered is because they tried to do just that. MMO designers, management and investors have been casting a broad net hoping to catch more fish. Throwing a more narrow net and catching the fish you want might be better. After all, nobody wants dolphin in their tuna. WoW players simply do not represent the average MMO player. Many of the subscribers to that game have never played another MMO and only know that one experience. Trying to imitate it on a start up or expecting it to be there is simply not fair. If we keep that standard then the community at large will be squealing “fail” like idiots for years to come.
On the flip side, however, developers (but really publishers) are just ask guilty. By trying to be everything to everyone and rushing games out they set themselves up for a fall. The average MMO player is tired of paid beta testing. I rarely get too excited about a new game anymore because I’m tired of the MMO circle of life:
Stage 1 – A new MMO is announced and features A – H are promised. Hype starts and already people are saying “WoW Killer.” Fan boys pop in existence based on a website with less than 1 pages of information.
Stage 2 – New MMO 378Bravo goes into beta. The beta test is limited to highlight what has been done really well. Features A, C, D, and F are curiously absent. Beta buzz is extremely positive based on the limited tests. Fan boys are able to validate themselves.
Stage 3 – 378Bravo releases. Within a week the company announces it is has sold a copy to every person on the planet. Fan boys are converted from matter into energy and become one with 378Bravo. Features A, C, D and F are still gone and the average player brings that up. Development claims that they “weren’t perfect yet” and that “we’ve been working on them for over a year and they just didn’t make the beta.” Development also assures everyone that they will be patched soon. Glaringly obvious problems that should have been caught in beta and QA pop up. Other problems that would not show until live also pop up.
Stage 4 – The free month is over, it is three months later and subscriptions take a hit. The company spins only positive news but the growth has stopped and despite selling a box to everyone on the planet less than half of them registered an account and far fewer converted past three months. Features C, D and F are still absent. Bugs Z, X and Y have been fixed. New bugs !, @ and # are running rampant. Forum opinion has steadily declined. Fan boys lash out from the ether at the non-believers.
Stage 5 – Six months in the 378Bravo is largely considered a failure by the wise forum posting crowd. Bloggers no longer write glowing articles and subscription numbers are stabilized. If the company is lucky they’ll keep 300,000. Investors are angry. They assumed everyone on the planet would play the game for at least 17 years. Costs have to be cut. QA and CS take the hit. Forum opinion declines further. Features C, D and F? What C, D and F?
Stage 6 – One year in 378Bravo throws some sort of anniversary party. For the most part nobody really cares. Development has gone into recovery mode to try to win back lost accounts. Efforts are not that successful. The game is stuck in average land and will probably remain there. With luck it will pull an Eve and slowly grow over the years. The WoW killer is no WoW killer.
Stage 7 – A new MMO is announced and features A – H are promised. Hype starts and already people are saying “WoW Killer.” Fan boys are converted from energy to matter based on a website with less than 1 pages of information. That other game that they defended rabidly for a year now sucks.
Obviously that is satire and I am trying to be funny but lets all be honest here guys. How much of that is accurate? We’re all adults here and we know that I’m pretty spot on. No MMO is going to release and have the depth and experience that World of Warcraft offers. Thinking otherwise is foolish. Developers need to accept that it is a myth that the average player expects to get what WoW offers in every new game. The average player will understand and accept less if you’re honest up front. If you promise me feature A, B and C and deliver them masterfully I will be pleased. If you promise features A – Z, come up with less then half of them and that half is poorly done you’re going to fall into the cycle. Only together can we stop it.
All characters are © 2007 - 2012
I pretty much agree with you here. The only difference I would make is that since WoW came out it’s players have pretty much become the “average mmo player”. At least it’s the one that the new standard. The old guard has become more or less an oddity for investors and developpers.
I speak from experience working in IT and consulting and when someone wants a product developed they never want to shoot for second-best. They always want the best. They figure, and quite rigthly I think, that if you don’t shoot for the best the best you will have is a mediocre product. In the mind of investors this translates as “we want to be bigger than WoW”.
I believe WoW has been a boon to the MMO industry. In a way it’s a coming of age of the genre, this game marks the point where MMO entered mainstream and became something everyone could enjoy. It also set the standard agaisnt every other games becomes compared. And it’s a good thing too. It forces the developers to come out with quality products, not half-baked projects full of bugs.
You said it yourself nobody wants a beta project anymore. I stopped playing WAR because every time I would step into altdorf I would crash because of a memory hole bug. I stopped playing Age of conan as soon as I stepped out of the beginning island when I realised the rest of the world had not been finished yet. I will not stand again poor concepts, bugs, and unfinished products. I, as the customer, give myself the right to not tolerate subpar products.
Like you said again, developpers need to cast a smaller net and do that small part to perfection. And when patch time come they can develop new content.
“Accept that an MMO can be successful and not kill WoW folks. You don’t need to be on every forum parroting Epic Fail just because a game can’t even hit the 1 million user mark. Investors, you folks need to wise up and base your expectations on other MMOs. World of Warcraft is an outlier not a gold standard.”
Let me add: Devs, stop trying to shoot the moon and swing for the WoW fences. Understand that even if you *were* to top WoW, it won’t happen in a few months (more like a few years down the road), and it won’t happen because you are copying WoW mechanics with a minor twist or different graphics. WoW has that market cornered, and you need to do something different.
I agree with the whole don’t copy WoW idea. If your going to learn/steal anything from WoW make it that polish and well tought out games do well. Do your own thing and do it well.
Great article! But, it made me feel pretty stupid, after all…. I’ve bought and played 378Bravo 3 times!
Seriously though, the biggest myth in the MMO world is that WoW have 11.5 million monthly subscribers. Letting people play a game that they never bought for a monthly fee of 6 cents, doesn’t make them subscribers in my book.
Should be hourly fee of 6 cents! Where is my edit button?
I love the number games people are playing with WoW subscription.
the 11.5 million(as of last january) was based on the number of individual accounts registered. There was a business magazine who looked into it to see how much money blizzard was making monthly and also looking at the real subscription number.
The 11.5 million was looking like this:
-3.2 million north american
-3 million european
-4.1 million asia and oceanic
-.8 million rest of the world
-.5 million second/third/multiple accounts owned by the same individual
Of the 11 million accounts not being multiple they estimated at 15% the number of accounts they called transient. Meaning players who are shutting down their accounts or playing on card time they din’t plan to renew meaning that 15% of revenue was not assured for the end of the month. They also estimated that the game had a 10% turnover rate, meaning player leaving and new ones coming.
Since then numerous sources have reported a decline in number and confirmed WoW has truly entered its maintenance phase. Analyst where wondering if the latest expansion would swell number like burning crusade did but in fact it only did so for a very short while (3 months) and since last spring numbers are back at what they used to be pre-expansion. Right now numbers are at about 10-10.5 million.
So it took 4 years to reach the peak of WoW so I wouldn’t be surprised to see the game go for another 5 or 6 years before we start truly talking about a decline.
On another note Blizzard has already stated they plan to switch their player base from WoW to the new MMO they are planning by offering incentives and gifts. Now if the new MMO is released in 4 or 5 years(most people estimate) and if Blizzard can maintain their numbers the new MMO could start with at least 1 million player if only 10% of their player base switch.
If there is truly a WoW killer out there it will be Blizzard killing their own game
Ohhhh I hate people that treat WoW as if it is the end all be all, and creatore of the mmo genre.
I have a friend that had never played an MMO before, and I was talking to him about EQ, DAOC, SWG, Ultima, and the others and he was just completely blank when I was telling him about all these features in the game that weren’t available in WoW.
I’m not dissing WoW, I certainly played it for a good 4 years, but I have a problem with the fact that people have become so tunnel visioned about the mmo genre.
As you said, if a new game comes out it’s a “WoW Clone” and it’s the next “WoW Killer”, but that’s bull because each new game may offer something which WoW doesn’t.
One of the main things that makes a new game great is just that it’s, infact, new. People have gotten lazy because it’s so easy to level in WoW now, that when they try out the new game, it doesn’t play the same, and this and that, and so they quit it or flame it.
I still haven’t gotten big into an MMO since I quit WoW, because it feels like it spoiled me and also loath the mmo genre. The big appeal for me is getting friends involved in a new game, but what happens is we pick up the game, everyone complains that the combat isn’t “polished”, the quests are too “hard”, and such.
But I digress. As much as WoW has taken a lot of rich content and streamline it (and potentially gutted it), it has also opened up a whole new level of competition, which is great.
Pingback: /AFK – August 26 « Bio Break