what is the secret ?
is it people just have 20 or 10 years of things done in wow
i came rather late to wow, warlord of draenor
(i missed long living bow anyone can tell me who have this bow)
i played Elder scrolls
i played new world/lost ark/throne from amazon
played lineage 2
many other mmos
what do you think about this ?
every time new mmo comes around there is hype and after is 5k people online
i think times changed
I cant speak for anyone else but for me, its the iconic visual style of the game. Most other MMOâs look like generic trash by comparison. Then again, i always prefered stylized games over hyper realistim.
That, and as you suggested, investment, both emotional, time and financial.
the competition generally is worse. plus customer loyalty. if wow hits a lul then people will come back when its better. if a new game is bad then its even harder to get people to join
The problem Blizzard face is that they have an ageing player base. It will be interesting to see how the numbers look by the time midnight comes around. I predict an insurgence of subs for Player Housing and depending how this has been executed it may see numbers drop or may see a much larger number sustain for the expansion.
After that is anyoneâs guess but one thing is for sure there is no new blood coming to the game in droves.
There are certain good MMOâs out there like FF or GW or even Runescape. But the thing is, none is really as expansive as WoW if you really throw everything on 1 big heap (every feature, not just features you donât play) which means it appeals to a very large playerbase.
Because none of the WoW killers released during the big MMO hype of the 00s came close to it, they all seemed to be hastily thrown together to cash in and died off pretty quickly, while blizz took some of the few new features they brought to the table and could expand WoW even more. But now MMO is pretty much a dead genre, teens and tweens play battleroyale/heroshooter and survival games these days, which are way cheaper to develope.
people have too much stuff that they refuse to let go of mostly.
from what iâve seen, those that no longer care about the time they put in generally do not return and those that do start WoW these days do not stay that long.
A lot of newer MMOs try to attract players with âslickâ graphics and a higher emphasis on stylish combat and special effects (and eye candy 
) at the expense of features and content.
WoW feels like home. Iâve played all other western MMOs out there through their rise and fall⌠they just donât have the same hold on me. Maybe it IS the memories and time spent, I donât know. I play mostly solo now.
A lot of the other games just didnât do it for me, the ones that did got too hard (GW2), are only good for story (ESO - which they are now cutting down so Iâll probably not bother), are gated by group content (FFXIV) and yeah, honestly⌠the gameplay is a big part. The cartoon style is a big part.
Even WoW is getting a bit too twitchy and complicated for me but I can still make a passive build I understand and play most classes. Other games are too flashy and I canât really see for the trees or it makes me feel sick. New World for example looks fabulous and the story sounds amazing, as do the professions but I was rubbish at the combat and it made me feel horribly sick.
From a market perspective itâs all the same.
It would look a bit like this:
If you go back to the early 2000âs when the MMORPG genre really blew up, Blizzard were very quick to establish WoW as the market leader, with all the market share and growth that came with it. And other MMORPGs would come out and position themselves accordingly.
And looking at the MMORPG genre today, not much has changed in terms of market share. Itâs just a smaller genre, so the differences in market share between the various games doesnât amount to millions upon millions like it used to.
But the MMORPG market has always been super conservative, probably because WoW was so dominant early on that it almost killed any potential market challenger from appearing (think Pepsi versus Coca-cola), with most MMORPGs choosing a follower role and being âWoW copiesâ. And then you had the odd niche games, EvE Online being a good example.
i was always warcraft 3 fan and i wanted to see what happens after frozen throne
i never played tbc (see first topic , started dreaenor)
but the Legion hooked me up
wow expansion legion was top for me, i even raided mythic nighold and i have experienced first iteration of mythic +
trully nice times
Youâre right I think. Tho whatâs the relevance of age? People are older therefore wow must be darker?
Nothing really
It became the relic of itself with an aging playerbase desperatly trying to cling in to their youth and nailed rose tinted nostalgia glasses to their heads with heavy addiction
Even if some youngster wanders in it leaves in a few days or weeks probably because times changed, the attention shifted to other genres
MMO is a dying game style anyway and they whippersnappers expect more than 2 pixels
I think it comes down to substance.
I tried many MMOs throughout the years and I can say for sure they all felt empty. There was no soul, just flashy graphics and mediocre content.
Also, the role based gameplay makes it all much more organised. I hate chaos and every player out for himself.
Itâs a good game, had a solid foundation and they built on it, improved and innovated. They didnât get it all right every time, but I still see passion and hard work which make me come back every single expansion.
Keep it up, Blizzard!
No as time goes on the player base will taper off. It will start to shrink organically.
I tried GW2 during a WoW break, and there was plenty I did enjoy⌠but for me the combat gameplay just isnât as good as WoW. I also took a look at FF, but didnât like the art style and aesthetic - felt a bit soulless.
Best MMO for PvP was Ace Online [Space Cowboys Online] where skill truly mattered⌠you can have someone 20 levels below taking out another player. 
MMO-wise, I think WoW wins, but it is between WoW and FFXIV depending on your type of gameplay. everything else is just meh. looking forward to what League of Legends MMO will be like tho (they are continuing in working on the MMO)
Wow has its own style and feel, its unique. And it had luck on timing when it launched too, now its just been able to evolve and change from there to here. I tried many mmos too but really only liked wow and warhammer online.
I really do miss rift at its peakđ
With that being said. Only wow can kill wow.
Will it happen? Who really knows. It feels like each expansion less players play wow, but might be wrong about that.