How many left Blizzard before WoW went Gold in 2004?

[Davor7]

This has been something some friends and I have been discussing off and on about. The biggest part was how WoW looked in Closed Beta compared to present. Next was that many that made WoW left before it went live and most went to Guild Wars. Many of the really great concepts didn't get put into WoW and instead went into Guild Wars. But how much of this is true? And, if they never left, would WoW be a much better game if the great PvP and art and talent system that is in Guild Wars now was in WoW? (Just naming a few things I like about Guild Wars.) I am not a Guild Wars fanboy or WoW but a gamer missing good games of fun and skill from the old school days.

 

[Frapple]

Aye, Blizzard were very clever and sold out, they made a huge amount of money from doing so.

Unfortunately this now means there will be no big/respected companies making real mmo's, just casual hardcore grind things that try to get a piece of the WoW pie.

I played WoW beta and about 3 months after release, it was actually quite good then, when I read about what they've done to it makes me laugh, but it's successful, so who am I to complain?

 

[Stormfire Rebellion]

6.5 million players isn't massive? It's the closest MMO population to WoW; which is dropping; while GW's population is consistently rising about I million players every 6 months.

 

[Finrear]

6.5 million players isn't massive? It's the closest MMO population to WoW; which is dropping; while GW's population is consistently rising about I million players every 6 months.

Because guild wars accounts never expire, 6.5 million copies sold does not equal 6.5 million current players. I believe he meant not massive as it doesn't use the same free roaming open world you would find in most MMOs.

 

[GothmogII]

I'm curious, what 'really great concepts' went into Guild Wars and not WoW? Fully instanced zones? (WoW may have it's dungeons, but at least the overall world is seamless, even when they have to split the continents up it doesn't feel like being locked in a box.) Crappier holiday events? An atrocious trading/crafting system, being bound to a single plane with no jumping etc.? Mhm, no, maybe I should thank GW, maybe you're right, those things -would- be in WoW today if they'd stayed.

I've played GW on and off up till Nightfall, it's not an awful game, and it's free: drop in and out when you're bored, but honestly, when you aren't in the outside world, the areas where players are free to congregate feel like airports!! Exploration is severely curbed, there are barely any buildings or intractable objects. And, not least of all, the whole game feels less an MMO than it does a Multiplayer RPG with a lobby.