WoW - The Game That Seized the Globe

The New York Times reports on the global appeal of World of Warcraft. An unmitigated success world-wide, the article examines why the title's U.S. roots haven't stopped it from succeeding abroad. From the article: "Perhaps more than pop music or Hollywood blockbusters, even the top video games traditionally have been limited in their appeal to the specific regional culture that produced them. For example the well-known series Grand Theft Auto, with its scenes of glamorized urban American violence, has been tremendously popular in the United States but has largely failed to resonate in Asia and in many parts of Europe. Meanwhile many Japanese games, with their distinctively cutesy anime visual style, often fall flat in North America. One of the main reasons Western software companies of all kinds have had difficulty in Asia is that piracy is still rampant across the region. Games like World of Warcraft circumvent that problem by giving the software away free and then charging for the game service, either hourly or monthly." Keep in mind that distribution and access rates are different in Asia than they are here in the states. The majority of WoW players pay an hourly fee, and didn't have to buy the box.

What Oh What is WOW?

[__aaclcg7560]

Never played the game. So much for a game that seized the globe.

Sad to see this a success.

[B5_geek]

While I congratulate the developers for creating a game that keeps money pouring in at a rate to make the oil companies proud; I am sad to see subscription based games survive.

Everquest (afaik) started the trend and now with WOW pullings in Millions of $ each month, I know that it won't go away. I watch my friends throw money at all these games, one in particular had active accounts in: City of Heroes, WOW, and Everquest all at the same time! He let me try his account (in an attempt to get me hooked) and while the game and MMORPG aspect was fun, I dind't think it was worth the monthly fees.

So now, I stick to classics and Mame. I will never pay a monthly fee for a game.

Re:Sad to see this a success.

[merreborn]

I am sad to see subscription based games survive. Everquest (afaik) started the trend...

You missed the early nineties, when people payed by the hour, and in some cases by the minute, to play games like Legends of Kesmai. People ran up bills, some as high as hundreds and even thousands of dollars per month.

$15/month is a steal compared to that.

Even more, your average (non-MMO) gamer probably buys one boxed game a month, at least -- which runs about $50, these days.

Again, $15/month is a steal.

There are very few services out there that give you "All you can eat" for $15. And most of these games feature regular content updates -- so you're getting a little more than just the privalege of playing, for your money.

Running an MMO costs money. Constantly producing more content does too.

Re:Instance whoring at level 60

[Kagura]

Sometimes I like to think that if they had WoW back then, that WW2 never would have happened.

Another WoW article 'stubbed' on the front page?

[Gropo]

Oh, it must be Tuesday Morning [google.com].

Re:Sad to see this a success.

[brkello]

The only way a game like this can exist is through monthly rates. If they just sold the game for an initial price, the game would not be able to afford the massive amount of hardware, bandwidth, customer support, etc. Additionally, you are getting new content added every few months. You have to pay the developers. Subscription based games will never go away. It's fine if you don't want to spend the 15 a month...but...it isn't very expensive. Considering the game pretty much consumes your free time...it actually saves a typical gamer money since they don't need to buy any other games. People spend 100s a month for cable/internet. You certainly get more bang for your buck in WoW then you would going to a movie theater.

Disclaimer: I quit WoW and couldn't be happier about it.

Re:Sad to see this a success.

[crabpeople]

"I will never pay a monthly fee for a game."

Enjoy your no gaming future gramps...

On the plus side I pay way less for game subscriptions than i do for the cable tv that i used to subscribe to, the weekly movies I used to go to...

It is cheap

[everphilski]

Instead of going to a movie once a month, play a MMO. Or, instead of going out to eat once or twice, play a MMO. A music CD will cost you about the same...

$15 doesn't buy much nowadays in the entertainment world, a whole months worth of entertainment for $15 is a deal! (And if you play Everquest 1 year is $100! Less than $10 a month.)

The Game that Seized My Time

[Webz]

I just recently quit wow... I mean, I didn't full on cancel my account or delete my character, so it's still there should I ever wish to go back... But I did uninstall and plan on keeping away from it, at least for a while.

You know what did me in though? /played

Thanks to the glory that is mathematics, I found out that on average, I played for three hours a day. Worst part about averages, I don't even play on the weekdays that much (which means very VERY loaded weekends).

What a waste. Three hours of my life. Every single day! I could be learning how to juggle or searching for a significant other or reading a book or hacking! Something!

If you're like me... On the verge of quitting... And trying to look for that extra push... Look at /played. Find out for yourself what large, large portion of your life you're throwing away at this game.

Don't get me wrong, it's a great game, and I loved playing it. But it's a lot. Moderation, please.

PS - I just bought Civ 4 (crack for crystal, I know). I don't get it.

Re:What Oh What is WOW?

[drsquare]

McDonalds gets a lot of customers. Windows has a lot of users. Lots of people went to watch War of the Worlds.

Popularity is about marketing and dumbing down, not quality.

Re:Instance whoring at level 60

[Necroman]

You are trivializing the idea of the game. Anything can be trivialized to the point where it seems pointless.

Videos in general:
It's an environment that I can interact with using my computer. There are normally tasks that I have to complete, and once it's all over, I haven't accomplished anything in Real Life.

Computers in general:
I used input devices (ie: keyboard and mouse) to interact with a program someone else wrote.

Life:
Wake up every day, eat, work, sleep, and repeat. Looking at life without taking in account the details of what goes on; it is a fairly trivial process.

Just because you didn't enjoy the type of entertainment that the game was providing doesn't mean it is pointless. Video games are a form of entertainment to help us relax and enjoy ourselves. If you don't enjoy, or stopped enjoying, a video game, you can replace it with another. Or you can go read a book, or rob a bank... something that entertains you.

Re:It is cheap

[Thansal]

this is the key to it all I live in NYC, the movie prices are ABOVE $10 now, then factor in about $4 for my metrocard, the price of eating out (or god forbid buying movie theater priced stuff, though I have SERIOUSLY missed the buttery buttery joy that is movie theater popcorn), etc etc etc. And look, there is a month of WoW! I ussed to be dead against monthly fees, and then I graduated from HS and started working regularly and realized that $10-15 is NOT much. At one of my old jobs I had a coworker who was still in HS, he sat there anr just couldln't get the concept of paying a monthly fee. One day I decided to point out that the shakes he was so fond of, and drank atleast 3 a week, cost about $5 a pop (Hagendaz), and were contributing to him being over weight. He, being the easily impressionable type, instantly stoped drinking his shakes and picked up WoW and got horribly addicted :P /pro-monthly-fee OTOH, any one that tells you "well, they need the $$ to keep the servers running/pay for BWidth/pay for updates" is a sucker and/or a fanboy. it does NOT take $15*subscribers/month to keep those tihngs rolling, the $$ is there because it is a GREAT way to make proffit.

Re:Software given away for free?

[njfuzzy]

Looking at the first few weeks of open play, it's obvious why they charged $50 a box. They had more players than they knew what to do with, and almost all of them were in starting areas and early instances. Remember performance back then?

If they didn't have a high bar to entry, then the game would be flooded with new players. The signup rate would be huge, but the renew rate would be minimal. This would be a nasty hit to the server load, without the corresponding revenue gains.

Re:Instance whoring at level 60

[Edgewize]

If you have a power tripping guild leader and you don't like the 39 other people you're there with, maybe that's a sign to find a new guild, hmm? There are good ones out there where people have a great time, eveb occasionally meet up in real life to have drinks and hang out. They're just harder to find because they don't have the huge burnout rate that crappy guilds do, thus they don't need to advertise so blatently.

Re:Instance whoring at level 60

[EnderGT]

I wish I had mod points to give you. This is a fantastic answer to the people who whine about not liking WoW, and who wonder why we like playing it so much.

Personally, I don't do many quests these days. If I do any, they are usually related to the instance that I'm at the appropriate level to run. I spend my time running that instance, usually with people I've played with before but sometimes in PUGs. We try out different tactics, mix up the group makeup (e.g. try it without a main healer, try it with 3 mages, etc) to challenge ourselves. I also enjoy trying out the different combinations of race and class, exploring the different abilities and play styles.

Sure the hunting/gathering quests can be boring, but there's so much more to do - the game is so much more than the quests.

Re:The Game that Seized My Time

[mmdog]

I recently canceled my WoW account although my /played realy wasn't the influence that did it, it was the people. When I quit EQ it was really the same thing.

The problem with WoW and EQ for me was the people I found myself hanging around with in game. Once you reach max level and get into the 'end game' making progress takes longer and longer at each step. Eventually you find yourself in a position where the only people really progressing in the game are basically no-life losers whose lives revolve around the game. I quit after an MC raid when people were comparing /played times.

So, maybe I'm wrong about /played not ending things for me, but it wasn't mine it was the people I was hanging around with. I have ONE level 60 char who I shared with my cousin while I leveled up and between us we had just over half the amount of time on our character as the next closest person on the raid. I also happen to know that most of those people have multiple level 60 characters as their alternate characters are on the guild roster. I had always felt like a bit of an oddball in my guild, never really grasping why people would get so worked up over every little thing - well I guess when it's all you do then playing WoW becomes very important.

I don't have a problem with people playing WoW all day if that's their thing, anymore than I have a problem with people watching television all day. In fact, I think if you are going to sit on your ass that much you are probably better off playing just about any computer game instead of watching TV. I don't hang around people who watch TV all day either though.

I'd love it if I could keep playing the game, but the problem with all MMORPGS is this: most of the people with the who achieve the greatest end game accomplishments are the ones who do the least with their real lives. I don't hang around a bunch of do nothing no life losers in the real world and I don't want to do it online.

Re:What Oh What is WOW?

[HaloZero]

Retention is a function of quality. Exposure is a function of marketing. If I'm exposed to a quality product, I'm more likely to become their asset. If World of Warcraft weren't a) fun, b) distracting, c) amusing, I wouldn't be playing it still after over two years.

Re:It really has taken siezed the world

[Anonymous Coward]

Not really. EverQuest was still in the news several years (IE, more than two) after release.

You have to understand that MMOG != the gaming industry as usual.

Halo 1 (as a random example) is not in the news, because it's a dead game. People still play it, sure - but it's dead. It's in the bargain bin. The developers have moved on to bigger and better things. Halo 2 is out, Halo 3 is coming out, whatever.

MMOGs, on the other hand, last for years - and can theoretically last for decades, really. It's just a matter of player interest, developers not being asshats (See SWG - changing game mechanics into a completely different game is a good and almost the only way to abort an MMOG), et cetera. Thus it comes as no real surprise that these 'old' games continue to be topical news subjects.

Ghost's failure being masked by WoW's numbers isn't much of a feat, either. The raw numbers of WoW are a feat, mind you - something not seen outside of the Korean/Asian MMOG markets. But the idea that Blizzard is saying, "Who cares about Ghost - LOOK! LOOK AT THE PROFIT!" should come as no surprise. Mankind will always trumpet their triumphs and hide their failures. :P

Re:Instance whoring at level 60

[Necroman]

Are you defined by what you think of yourself or how others perceive you? Do you really think because you died with a gross income in your life of 10 million dollars, you will be remembered more than someone that only made $500,000 through their entire life? Are you going to have a book written about it? And even if you did, does that make a difference now, if you would be dead when it is written?

I could be spending my time helping less fortunate people, or maybe working on an Open Source program that would benefit thousands of people. I may receive praise for such things, but what does this really do?

I think it's really a matter of what you want to do with your life. Do you care that in 20 years, you can look back and be like "Wow, I designed this amazing program that filled a need for 100,000 people." You will have this memory to satisfy yourself. You will be able to tell stories and brag about doing something "productive" for society.

Or, in 20 years, you can look back at the time when you played only video games. You can remember you had fun doing it, but did not accomplish anything with your life. You will have the memories of those games still, and the fun that you can while playing them.

Though it's not the same thing, I played one MMO for 12 months pretty hard-core. I stopped playing that game about 3 years ago. I can look back at the time I see some things where it hurt my social life. But at the same time, there were parts of the game that really provided pure fun and entertainment. You could say I get a warm-fuzzy thinking about the events and things that went on it the game. Not so much the facets of the game, but the people I interacted with in the game.

Some people feel that they have to help others, and do things beneficial to society, so they can be defined by society as being a productive member. And the only way they can satisfy themselves is to think that what they've done with their lives has made a difference (no matter if it really did or not).

Just because you think something is wrong, doesn't mean it is. Even if laws say that something is wrong, doesn't mean it is. I feel that psychology hasn't fully caught up with the concepts of MMOs, so they tend to be compared to drugs or other bad addictions.

Some work has been done to study the MMO trend, but it will be years before we can really know the effects it has on the world. It will be interesting to see how research projects like The Daedalus Project [nickyee.com] pan out over the coming years.

Re:Sad to see this a success.

[asylumx]

I decided to reply here because the parent has a great point of view. UO was the first "Big Dog" MMO pay-to-play game. Games like Diablo were a bit of a pioneer even for the MMOs since they got people online with somewhat persistant characters. UO was great, full featured, worked (well) on DIAL-UP and was a bargain at 9.95/mo. They opened the door. EQ made MMOs a household idea... they put it in 3D for roughly the same price (9.89/mo) and this is what POPULARIZED the genre. There have been lots of other games since then but WoW is probably the first to draw in new players at a decent rate since UO and EQ. I don't know if I'd say WoW has taken over the world.... 6 million users.... so what, there are 6 BILLION people in the world. Numbers aren't an advantage anyways because the servers are limited to such a small chunk of those 6 million players at a given time. And as for 6 million people "can't be wrong"... how many votes did George W. get in this last election? There are those who would argue that those voters were wrong. Anyway. As for the costs. The $50 or less that you pay to get the game in the first place goes towards the debt that the company has incurred in design, development, production and distribution of the game. The company makes very little, if anything, from that initial $50 in the MMO genre. The $15/mo or whatever the fee is for a given game is intended to help cover the maintenance costs of the game such as servers, admins, everything listed by the parent, but it is also where the company is going to make their profit. Let's face it, if the companies aren't making a profit, they wont produce the games anymore.... which means no more MMOs and remember there are at least 6 million people who must like MMOs because they are playing them. Bottom line is... if you don't want to pay $15/mo for a game then don't do it. If you want to play the game, pay the $15/mo. You can justify all you want but the choice is up to you.

Re:Sad to see this a success.

[snuf23]

"So now, I stick to classics and Mame. I will never pay a monthly fee for a game."

Keep in mind those MAME games you are playing used to cost $.25 a play. No matter whether you lost the game in 30 seconds or could keep it going for an hour. The $15 someone spends on WoW a month is equivalent to 60 quarter drops in an arcade machine. Back in the '80s I would definately spend upwards of $10 during a single night at the arcade.
I love MAME too but in general unless you have a stack of arcade boards lying around keep in mind that you are violating copyright law to play most of those games. Your ride is only free because of this. You would spend a couple hundred dollars just to pick up all the latest console arcade collections and still only have a fraction of a total MAME collection.