If WoW is so good, than should other MMORPGs exist?

[Treblaine]

you could say the same thing about Doom in the mid 90's as just because one game is able to do something well for the first time and may be considered an eternal classic, doesn't mean no one can do any better. I mean if Doom clones were ignored for being inferior to the original Doom then we would never have gotten Half Life and the entire FPS genre.

Props to Blizzard as it has shown the way but this is a very immature genre and is soon to develop into something really special.

 

[Vanguard_Ex]

It depends what aspects of the game contribute to it being 'the best' really. For example, if an MMO were made which had more customisation, lower/no fees, and something to keep you playing in between grinding, then I would say that that game would be better than WoW.
I believe that World of Warcraft will be topped. It's just a matter of when and how.

 

[TheTemby]

The only answer to this question is "Variaty and Curiosity" cos without the other MMOs being as bad as they are WoW wouldnt seem god like over every other game, im not saying they do it on perpose, then my next point, Variaty, everyone likes different things, they might of started with StarWars galaxies and thoughts "Wow MMOs are fun, maybe i should give WoW a try"
and for people that started with WoW if there wasnt anything worse than WoW then they wouldnt look back to WoW and everyone would be back to playing Neverwinter Nights or worse

 

[PhantomEnigma]

Well you can't really argue between MMO RPG's they are all basically just the same stencil tool ...but with varying worlds and levels of addictiveness...fun though...but less so when you finally realize you are weeks behind on certain things and haven't ventured out into the light for several weeks.

 

[Redtiebear]

Personally, I really like Warcraft, but I think the only reason it's considered the standard because it's the most widely played.

It's just a matter of personal taste, really. If you like groups, play FFXI. If you like really balanced PvP, play Guild Wars. If you like, uh, spaceships, play EVE? Or just watch Yahtzee's review. Either way.

And if you don't want to cough up the money, play MapleStory or something. You know. 'Cause you can. And it's free.

However, the most important thing is that there should always be a wide variety of MMOs, and WoW can be WoW, but MMOs shouldn't try to be exactly like it. If you only ever try one thing, you'll never know the difference.

 

[Phoenix Arrow]

Is WoW really that good anyway? I mean I played it for a while at a friends house and thought it looked pretty crappy and incomplete.

Then I played FFXI and thought "well this is enjoyable, lots of very different jobs to experiance. Probably the best MMO going." Played it for a while, got to Red Mage to the maximum level and a good time was had by all. That being said, Square do tend to screw over the client base in regards to item drop rates. If you want to make it so some items can't be traded or auctioned, then that's fine. But don't make it so you have to wait for a monster to spawn for 3 hours then when you actually kill it theres only a 5% chance of the item dropping. For any players of the game, I've recently been trying to farm Ochimusha Kote so hopefully you can sympathise.

My point is, I don't personally think WoW is the best MMORPG going. Yeah, it has the most players but what does that prove apart from good marketing?

 

[TheTemby]

[/quote]

However, the most important thing is that there should always be a wide variety of MMOs, and WoW can be WoW, but MMOs shouldn't try to be exactly like it. If you only ever try one thing, you'll never know the difference.

its hard not to be like the thing that took the MMO idea and made it worth billions
they could try top down but then they would be copying Ultima Online and Diablo battlenet
and remeber something new could confuse and scare people

 

[Johnn Johnston]

One company having a monopoly over an entire genre would end MMORPGs when WoW ended. Not everyone likes WoW in the first place, and a variety of different games would keep people entertained.

 

[Fraught]

And I personally think that WoW is one of the best MMOs, but it's kinda getting old, and the retail version is basically just "kill, finish quest, kill, finish quest, kill, finish quest, get a gun, go to school, shoot everyone because you accuse them of spitting out something this boring." This cycle has happened with a few people already.

 

[Da_Schwartz]

ugh another WoW thread. EIther you love it cause you don't know anybetter.. or you hate it cause you do. Without pullling cheapshots nitpicking or IMO's in here...nuff said.

oh and ps play city of heros...

 

[Eternal_Rapture]

Honestly I dont think people should be able to say stuff like that cause it does really come down to personal preference. Like me, i tried WoW, and i hated it, but i loved Guild Wars. So its just different for everyone.

 

[Stammer]

And Final Fantasy XI is best at screwing over its clientbase.

Yeah, because one mistake in seven years is sooooo bad.

 

[SimuLord]

Other MMOGs should exist. Like Puzzle Pirates. Or EVE Online. Or any other game that doesn't go the swords-and-sorcery cartoony route. Diff'rent strokes for diff'rent folks. Personally I'd go in for a Cyrodiil Online because I liked Oblivion's setting that much. My perfect game, however, would be EVE on Earth---something like Trevor Chan's Capitalism Online.

All of the above coming from someone who's never spent a cent of his money on World of Warcraft and never been seriously tempted to.

 

[Woe Is You]

And Final Fantasy XI is best at screwing over its clientbase.

Yeah, because one mistake in seven years is sooooo bad.

You could of course explain where World of Warcraft sucks so badly that FFXI does so much better (since the tone of your comment implies that you do think this way).

 

[Redlac]

I played Everquest back when it was on PS2. It was fun, although I was a little late to the party.
Then I played FFXI and really really liked it, mostly because my real life friends were playing it too. It was a lot of fun, which is what games should be all about, right?
Anywhoo, time went on and my friends all left the game, and after a while I thought it was time to take a break too.
My friends had migrated onto two other MMO's, notably Phantasy Star Universe and WoW. I played the 10 day trial of WoW, and I must confess it wasn't my cup of tea. It just didn't feel right.
Phantasy Star on the other hand was different, being more action based, so I played that for a while. Eventually I grew tired of the simplistic nature of the game and decided to go for something a bit more in depth.
I returned to the game I'd loved the most out of all of my MMO trials, which was FFXI. Started a new server, new character and made new friends. Been playing it on and off for well over a year now.

The point of that little life story is this. Games are all about enjoyment and personal taste. So 10 million people play WoW? Well, that's fine. They enjoy it, good for them. It's just not my thing. But if it were the only MMO I'd probably not have had such a good time trying out different worlds, meeting all sorts of interesting online people. So in short, yes, we should have other MMO's.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

And Final Fantasy XI is best at screwing over its clientbase.

Yeah, because one mistake in seven years is sooooo bad.

And it's gonna have to try a LOT harder to beat Star Wars:Galaxies NGE

Let's see...

EQ has better raids that WoW.
EQ2 has better character classes and cities.
CoH/V has better customisations, and PVE combat.
Guild Wars has a better story and is free to play.
Dungeon Runners is funnier.
Yohoho Pirates has a better interaction and games.
AO has more interesting ideas.
SW:G was better with auction houses before SOE screwed it so badly.
Didn't rate FFXI at all though.

WoW just has the fanbase. And I found it as boring as hell.

 

[Stammer]

You could of course explain where World of Warcraft sucks so badly that FFXI does so much better (since the tone of your comment implies that you do think this way).

While I could recite my 6,800-word essay on why World of Warcrap sucks, I'd like to first ask how my comment makes it seem like WoW sucks. All I said was "Yeah, because one mistake in seven years is sooooo bad."

However, to give you a taste of things to come, I could just say... "Graphics, for one." And just because most WoW players won't admit their graphics are bad, here's an example. It's cartoony, yes. But it's not just cartoony. It's cartoony and bad.

 

[Woe Is You]

You could of course explain where World of Warcraft sucks so badly that FFXI does so much better (since the tone of your comment implies that you do think this way).

While I could recite my 6,800-word essay on why World of Warcrap sucks, I'd like to first ask how my comment makes it seem like WoW sucks.

Your comment earlier in this very thread? And a good 2/3 of all of your posts seem to be about "World of Warcrap this" and "World of Warcrap that". Most of them one sentence quips like your other two posts here.

And Final Fantasy XI is best at screwing over its clientbase.

Yeah, because one mistake in seven years is sooooo bad.

And it's gonna have to try a LOT harder to beat Star Wars:Galaxies NGE

Let's see...

EQ has better raids that WoW.
EQ2 has better character classes and cities.
CoH/V has better customisations, and PVE combat.
Guild Wars has a better story and is free to play.
Dungeon Runners is funnier.
Yohoho Pirates has a better interaction and games.
AO has more interesting ideas.
SW:G was better with auction houses before SOE screwed it so badly.
Didn't rate FFXI at all though.

WoW just has the fanbase. And I found it as boring as hell.

While some of these points are true, most of these games listed have their own set of flaws that hinder the game by quite a bit. AO's interesting ideas aren't worth much if the implementation of them sucks, CoV/CoH PvE basically has you do the same mission 5 times over before you move to the next one AND almost all of the missions are instanced to boot. Not to mention the PvP is really an afterthought. Dungeon Runners might have some humour in it, but that doesn't help the fact that the game is basically Diablo that makes you pay for the good items and EQ is really really tough to get into now, since just about everybody is on the level of a demigod and the game just isn't newbie friendly at all. I haven't played EQ2 much since its release, but back then it was a horrible buggy mess that required tons from your computer. I do know they've patched it quite a bit since then, though.

And any of the other newer games seem to have the idea that a MMORPG also needs massive system requirements, which is part of their undoing. See: Vanguard, Age of Conan and the like.

Now, WoW isn't the perfect MMORPG by a long shot, but it does just about everything passably well and you can't deny that it's accessible to the max. And it'd be stupid to say that "no other games of genre X should exist because game Y is so good/popular", since there are plenty of things others can do better. That'll always be the case.

By the way, if some other MMO dethroned WoW (say...The Agency, taking a random pick), you'd have an equally large hate club complaining about different things. Count on it.

 

[GenHellspawn]

If wow is so good...[/b]

Something can not "be good". It is simply percived as good by the beholder.
Think of it this way: As long as there are people who like WoW, there will be people who don't, and vice versa.

 

[Stammer]

Now, WoW isn't the perfect MMORPG by a long shot, but it does just about everything passably well and you can't deny that it's accessible to the max. And it'd be stupid to say that "no other games of genre X should exist because game Y is so good/popular", since there are plenty of things others can do better. That'll always be the case.

I'm pretty sure you summed-up exactly what I was thinking when I first read this thread, except replace "passably well" with "barely, miniscually, scratching-the-surface-of-the-tip-of-an-iceberg 49.5% D-grade passably well", I agree with you.