Maybe if I was a freelance writer who happen to be an MMO gamer I could write original content like this. But I am not so for the few of you who happen to find your way here but don't happen to read some of these blogs you'll just have to settle for me linking to interesting original content...
Recently there has been a lot of discussion about the 'WoW Tourist' effect on recent MMO launches such as AoC and WAR. As a fan of Malcolm Gladwell's work, I thought this analysis by Squin from the Dark Crag Dispatch was an interesting take on the subject:
In a nutshell external factors outside of the 'quality' of WoW itself were largely responsible for it's success (measured in terms of subscribers). The leading MMO at the time EQ, essentially sent a message to its community that they were shutting down the game, and replacing it with EQ2 which turned out to be a steaming pile of crap (Disclaimer: I never played). WoW's release also coincided with a massive expansion of broadband connectivity in the US and the proliferation of internet cafes in Asia.
Long story short, there are a lot of important factors other than WoW's design features that led it to have the dominant 11mm subscriber userbase that they enjoy now.
What are the implications? Designers who presume that WoW's featureset (no looting, no speaking to opposing factions, etc) is largely responsible for the amount of subscribers they maintain may try to implement these in their own designs even if they don't fit. This will simply lead to poor gameplay and many potential subscribers will come and say, 'this reminds me of WoW but it isn't WoW' and cancel their subscription.
What are the implications? Designers who presume that WoW's featureset (no looting, no speaking to opposing factions, etc) is largely responsible for the amount of subscribers they maintain may try to implement these in their own designs even if they don't fit. This will simply lead to poor gameplay and many potential subscribers will come and say, 'this reminds me of WoW but it isn't WoW' and cancel their subscription.
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