Poll: What makes WoW so successful?

[Albuin]

Since 2010, WoW has more than 12 million players.
Everybody can contribute to the discussion what he/she likes or does not like about the game.

But my question is:
What do you think makes it this successful?

Is it the mind-numbing quests? Or simply because other friends already played it and you got sucked in? Is it the quantity of players you can play with? Or maybe is it the story that fascinates you?

I'm looking forward to your answers.
If there's anything you want to add beside the poll, just comment! Share your thoughts.

 

[Drakane]

None of the above and or all of the above.

I stayed as long as I did because of the friends I played w/. Others played just to push content. Others get into it because its easy to start, and getting easier all the time. Their is no one thing that makes WoW the juggernaut it has become its a combanation of so much stuff. It has appeal to many different sections of people not just one.

I forgot auction house fiends and farmers.

 

[Popadoo]

Because you get a feeling you're achieving something in Warcraft. You beat epic monsters, you save citizens, and all that kinda' stuff. It could be said for any game, but Warcraft is just so god damn VAST you really feel you're impacting a completely different world.

 

[wrecker77]

Night elf chicks

Impossible to tell. At least for me. There are so many MMO's out there that look so much better than WOW and go ignored. Thank god it looks like Rift struck a cord with WOW's audience, people have been flocking to it like crazy. Might see more people migrate away and finally WOW won't be as dominant.

Also, If the Warhammer 40K mmo doesn't do well I think I will cry.

 

[ChildofGallifrey]

It's just a very well designed game. I only played it for about a month (I fall in and out of MMO's very quickly), but I've been thinking about picking it back up lately...at least I would if I had any disposable income (college in NYC is rough on ze wallet).

I probably fell out of it so fast because I'm largely a solo player. If I had friends around that I could look forward to questing with, I probably would have been sucked in much more.

 

[BoredDragon]

I like working together with my friends to defeat giant monsters

 

[TriggerHappyAngel]

It does everything that an MMO is supposed to do well

 

[Atmos Duality]

1) Operant Conditioning ("Grind". High powered items are not guaranteed drops, and there is competition for said items.)
2) Social Entrapment (Guilds who help with said grind)
3) Inviting atmosphere and humor. (There is something appealing in the game's overall tone)
4) Monthly fees * Grind Effect(with the banality of grind being alleviated by #2 and #3) = Massive Megaprofits

 

[hazabaza1]

Didn't Extra Credits cover this in their Skinner's Box episode?

 

[Vhite]

Its fun. I thought I would never say it. I hated the game because it was freakin boring and when none of my friends played any more I simply quit but with Cataclysm its just fun to play. Outland is still made by old formula but everything else is now FUN! Quests have good storylines, now I even do quests that no longer award me with XP because I want to finish the story of the location where Im doing them. As Yahtzee said it, instead of boring farming quests you now ride around in van solving mysteries. But thats proably not why most people play it because as I said this came with cataclysm, maybe with wotlk.

 

[manythings]

Same way slot machines in Vegas hook people. The loot generator pays out rares and when you get that drop you get a high. There is also a thing called CHURN which you should read about it's about managing frustration vs. payoff. For blizzard's worrisome addictive qualities it pales in the face of Zynga's Kabal of behavioural psychologists who are paid to devise electronic heroin.

EDIT: After re-reading the OP I've reported this as an ad.

 

[Aeshi]

It can run on just about any computer.
It's available in some form on just about any OS.
It comes from a company with a good history prior to making it.
A lot of people play it.
It's very well known.

Probably quite a lot of other things that I can't think of

 

[Space Spoons]

I think it's a combination of it being easy to play, its low tech requirements, and the fact that any given person probably knows at least three others who already play the game. Makes it much easier to get into than other games, I'd assume.

 

[Albuin]

I don't know. I haven't been on this site for that long. But thanks for mentioning it. I'll go have a look.