Why is WoW Successful in your Opinion?

[Toned]

Guys -

I know this topic has be beaten over the head many many times, around the interwebs and possibly here a few times.
I'm working on a project for one of my classes, and WOW is my topic of choice.

Here are some sample questions that I'm looking to answer:



Looking back to when you first started World of Warcraft, what was it that drew you in and got you playing? Were you already a Blizzard follower through Warcraft / Diablo?

Out of the entire life cycle of World of Warcraft, what event was the most memorable to you personally?

What is your favorite expansion so far, and why?

What is it about World of Warcraft that keeps you playing?

If there was one thing you could change in World of Warcraft, what would it be?


Anyone answering please include your age and gender if you don't mind. Any other comments/suggestions/question are welcomed.

Thanks everyone for your support!

[Toned]

25 - Male

Looking back to when you first started World of Warcraft, what was it that drew you in and got you playing? Were you already a Blizzard follower through Warcraft / Diablo?

I had briefly dabbled with Warcraft RTS games, and wasn't a big fan at all. I played Diablo religiously when it first came out. I was pretty deep into Everquest when WoW was coming out, so really the only exposure I got to WoW came from Friends and Guildies. They eventually talked me into playing, and I haven't looked back since.


Out of the entire life cycle of World of Warcraft, what event was the most memorable to you personally?

The grind for Grand Marshal / High Warlord. Back in those days pvp queues were 30min+ on my realm, but the battles were so much fun. We had a server wide vent server setup for our pvpers both Horde and Alliance. The community and competitive atmosphere that we had on US-Durotan, during the pre-bc era was epic.

Some of my closest friends in WoW are from this era. This is also how I met my wife that I now have twin 3 yr old boys with. It was a pretty epic time, and I don't know if WoW will ever see an ERA as great as PRE-BC.


What is your favorite expansion so far, and why?

Burning Crusade, because this is when Karazhan (one of my fav raids of all time) and Arenas were introduced. I've always loved playing WoW for the PvP aspects, PvE has always been a second thought / added bonus for me. This is also when Alliance got shamans, and I started multi-boxing shamans. This was the first time I picked up a single class multi-box team and even thought about multi-box pvp (thanks to Aellie / Ellay). Pre-BC I only multi-boxed PvE content, with mixed teams.

What is it about World of Warcraft that keeps you playing?

I'd have to say it's the new content:

My play time with WoW comes and goes in waves. Early in an xpac / new content patch I really focus on leveling and grinding the new instances. I've always enjoyed the leveling for the first time experience, and doing new dungeons.

When content becomes "old" I generally only log in to raid 2-3 nights a week at most. The only reason I've done firelands in the last few months, and continue to clear at least 6/7 bosses every week is to get my Wife's legendary done + a Warlock's in our guild.


If there was one thing you could change in World of Warcraft, what would it be?

I'd like to bring back rating requirements on PvP gear. This is one of the biggest things I dislike about Cata. I never really consider myself an elitist, but it kind of bugs me that there is no difference between a 500 rated player and a 2200 rated player: except the color of their armor and their weapons.

[jeepdriver]

31 M

Looking back to when you first started World of Warcraft, what was it that drew you in and got you playing? Were you already a Blizzard follower through Warcraft / Diablo?

I had played played diablo a little just to try it out, and I didnt quite care for it much to be honest. At WoWs release I was playing Ever Quest, and didnt come into wow until a month or two before the WoTLK expansion. 2 of my guildmates from Ever Quest came up from Florida to visit my wife and I, and brought their computer. They had quit EQ for WoW and showed me the game, let me create a character on their account and play around with it. I decided to hang up my EQ accounts and try wow out for a bit, as Everquest on my server had died off alot at that time.

Out of the entire life cycle of World of Warcraft, what event was the most memorable to you personally?

I wouldnt necessarily say it was anything expansion specific, but for me, finding the little personal things in wow is what made it most memorable...like the Tauren boy looking for his lost dog, which I believe I read later on, was a Make A Wish for a sick boy who loved WoW and later died. I could be totally wrong about that, but that ....touch of kindness stuck with me.

What is your favorite expansion so far, and why?

I would have to say WoTLK. Frozen wasteland/undead everywhere= Pure Win for me. I have a very busy life, and being able to log on and run a heroic or two in the very sparse spare time I have, was great for me.

What is it about World of Warcraft that keeps you playing?

Right now, I would honestly say its the money Ive put into the game that really keeps me going right now, and the hope that maybe with the next expansion things will be different. I havent really enjoyed Cata all that much. My time is limited to play and it seems that Blizzard took on a more Timesink approach to this expansion. As of the moment, my big thing now is going back through old content and looking for that cool gear set up for my teams...after that...I dunno.

If there was one thing you could change in World of Warcraft, what would it be?

The huge time commitment wow seems to require now.

[Ughmahedhurtz]

41 male, here.

Looking back to when you first started World of Warcraft, what was it that drew you in and got you playing? Were you already a Blizzard follower through Warcraft / Diablo?
Mostly, Blizzard's rep. I had tons of fun in Warcraft 2 & 3 and Starcraft and they were very solid games. Diablo was OK but it wasn't really on my radar for reasons why.

Out of the entire life cycle of World of Warcraft, what event was the most memorable to you personally?
Sort of split between my first multiboxing group to 60 and my paladin badge-farming group in WotLK before they fucked them over with 4.0.

What is your favorite expansion so far, and why?
WotLK. Was able to 5-box for my own reasons, get enough gear to keep me happy and got to see a lot of the old raids.

What is it about World of Warcraft that keeps you playing?
What it _was_ that kept me playing was that it was fun: the solid engine, smooth combat, good GUI design (addons, mainly), reasonable bar to entry for non-raid content and being able to spec certain classes to do really, really good (aka OP) at certain specific tasks.

If there was one thing you could change in World of Warcraft, what would it be?
Go back to pre-4.0 talents and class mechanics. Secondary choice: make Blizzard stop trying to balance everything perfectly for their e-Sport crap and go back to the versions of each class that were the most fun to play e.g. pre-4.0 paladins, BC hunters, classic enhancement shammies, etc.

[Khatovar]

Female - 33

Looking back to when you first started World of Warcraft, what was it that drew you in and got you playing? Were you already a Blizzard follower through Warcraft / Diablo?

I was playing Asheron's Call at the time, all my other friends were playing EQ and no matter how much I pouted, none of them would leave EverCrack to come be my vassal in AC. ;) I'd played some Diablo, Warcraft never really interested me. But, guild drama was getting on my nerves and it was a new MMO, so I signed up for the beta and got in on one of the stress tests.

I was running my little NE druid around in Ashenvale, questing, watching wolves kill bunnies and just looking at everything and I thought to myself, "Yeah, this is a game that everyone is going to play."

Out of the entire life cycle of World of Warcraft, what event was the most memorable to you personally?

Honestly, I can't really point to an event in WoW that stuck with me. AC had far more engaging storylines, IMO. In WoW, most of the really epic stuff tends to happen offscreen...you wake up in the morning, the whole world is in turmoil and here's a little movie about it. Getting turned into a zombie was cool, though. I saved myself a lot of money in neutral AH fees with that, lol.

As far as personal events, I have fond memories of being a kickass druid...healing UBRS solo, dropping to bear form to save the squishies, the epic 30 minute solo battle with Borelgore, dropping HoTs and rounding up a bunch of Saytrs in Flewood and watching them all beat themselves to death on my thorns...

What is your favorite expansion so far, and why?

I'd have to say WotLK. BC made WoW a totally new game for me. Things got less grindy, there was so much more to do. But Wrath felt more epic and I loved the Nordic flavor. I felt more involved with what was supposed to be going on in Wrath than I have in any other expansion.


What is it about World of Warcraft that keeps you playing?

I'd have to say multiboxing. I don't come back because I miss WoW, I come back because I miss multiboxing, and WoW is still the most fun to multibox in for me.

If there was one thing you could change in World of Warcraft, what would it be?

Get rid of all the gimmicky crap. I go into dungeons to mete out mass destruction in a fight for my life, not to CC this and pull that lever, interrupt that while dodging this and then do a little dance. If that's what I wanted, I'd play DDO. It's like World of Rube Goldberg these days.

[Crum1515]

28 Male

Looking back to when you first started World of Warcraft, what was it that drew you in and got you playing? Were you already a Blizzard follower through Warcraft / Diablo?

My friends got me to play, I really didn't want to but it was the cool thing for us to do at the time.


Out of the entire life cycle of World of Warcraft, what event was the most memorable to you personally?

uh... nothing really super sticks out, I guess the biggest even that sticks out is on bonechewer(the first server I played on) there was a player named Sandisk who was lvl 46 in vanilla, and all he did was sit in SW and talkin in general chat. I transfered off, played TBC and WotLK and went back at cata to play with friends and he was still there, level 48. Made me laugh that someone just trolled general all day long.

What is your favorite expansion so far, and why?

WotLK, only because of raiding with MiRai, Vecter and Svpernova09. Was the best raid group to date I have been in, and we actually made progress >.> Happy birthday AMIRITE?!?

What is it about World of Warcraft that keeps you playing?

Today is actually my last day playing. I am an off and on player. I load up time when I am bored and other games have me frustrated. I still play Aion and AoC in the same fashion as WoW. Also dabble in korean Tera with MiRai. Tomorrow I have finals and SWTOR starts Tuesday so I wont be back for a long while, as D3 will be out soon and Tera NA.

If there was one thing you could change in World of Warcraft, what would it be?

I will list three, as all three create my triangle of hate.
1. The community. Full of elitist, cry baby asshats. Want to do BG's? Get ready for a shitstorm of whining and namecalling. Want to PUG? Get ready for elitist pricks. Looking for a raid guild? Good luck finding a stable group.
2. PvP mechanics. stun stun fear stun fear iceblock fear stun stun OMGWarrior healing faster than a pure DPS can take it down, druids being the second coming of jesus, does every class need a fear and a stun and a jesus mode? at what point do you say, whoa, wait... this is getting out of hand, each class doesnt need 50+ abilities... which segways into
3. Mechanics period. Do we really need 20385742938752938745 health? You crit for 100k at level 85? Thats too much bob. They are toning the inflation down in MoP which is awesome.

[Ualaa]

35, Male.

Looking back to when you first started World of Warcraft, what was it that drew you in and got you playing? Were you already a Blizzard follower through Warcraft / Diablo?
A lot of the EQ community on my server was upset with the quality of customer service in EQ. Warcraft was in the beta, and one of the larger EQ guilds (Afterlife) decided they would be moving to Wow when it came out; I believe Fires of Heaven and a couple of other really big (across all servers) raiding guilds planned to be moving too. Basically 200+ people I knew exclusively in game, along with 15 or so friends who I knew out of game were expressing interest in moving, most to Cenarius US.

I had previously played Diablo I and II, plus expansions... Starcraft & Broodwar... and Warcraft & expansions from Warcraft II onwards.
Was very happy with Blizzard's quality on all those products.


Out of the entire life cycle of World of Warcraft, what event was the most memorable to you personally?
The first expansion was the biggest impact... got into boxing when I was close to quitting the game, after watching some of the Ellay videos.


What is your favorite expansion so far, and why?
Burning Crusade era rocked! I loved both Karazhan and Serpentshrine Caverns, as raids... and my Spacegirls were a very real force in the larger scale battlegrounds.
Also had a lot of friends in a large guild, which formed during this expansion and fell apart early into the next one.



What is it about World of Warcraft that keeps you playing?
Every summer I take about three months off, away from the game. In a typical year, I return to Warcraft after 3 or 4 months of non-activity.
This year, its been almost 6 months, but I'm starting to get the itch again...
Someone posts what they're doing with their team, or a new combination, or comes out with a DK Manifesto, or whatever...
The new combination looks to be fun, and I give it a go...


If there was one thing you could change in World of Warcraft, what would it be?
Although I've not played Rift, I have a few friends that are into it... one casually and one fairly hard core.
I really like the level of character customization... you essentially have three talent trees that are active at once, out of several trees that your character possesses.
In Warcraft, we're getting fewer and fewer talent options, meaning less choice in exactly what you want your character to be, plus less diversity between my character and someone else (who is the same race/class/spec).
In MOP, if we're both Human DeathKnights who happen to be raid tanks... we'll both be blood, with only six choices that could be different.
In Rift, you have a much larger degree of possible diversity; I'm sure there are some "optimal" choices that everyone takes, as well as some "traps" that are garbage.
However, you have much more diversity and I'd like to see that approach or at least that direction for Warcraft.

[EaTCarbS]

M/23


Looking back to when you first started World of Warcraft, what was it that drew you in and got you playing? Were you already a Blizzard follower through Warcraft / Diablo?

I was a Blizzard fan pre-wow, so I was naturally drawn into it.

Out of the entire life cycle of World of Warcraft, what event was the most memorable to you personally?

There are too many for me to remember to settle with one, but I still remember the day I first multiboxed a dungeon from start to finish back in BC. GoodTimes

What is your favorite expansion so far, and why?

Lorewise, Wrath. Gameplay, BC.

What is it about World of Warcraft that keeps you playing?

Its still fun.

If there was one thing you could change in World of Warcraft, what would it be?

Make the game hard again. Its pretty much a free ride game now. I liked BC where people were still raiding Kara even up to the end. Now, everything feels so trivial because the gear you worked hard for becomes welfare with the next patch.

[/B]Anyone answering please include your age and gender if you don't mind. Any other comments/suggestions/question are welcomed.

[Atrocious]

M 38

Looking back to when you first started World of Warcraft, what was it that drew you in and got you playing? Were you already a Blizzard follower through Warcraft / Diablo?

I was playing a bunch of other MMOs the guild I was(and to a certain degree is still in) had a very fluctuating member numbers. So I kept going from one MMO to the other following the rest of em, but in the end I grew tired of MMOs because of the grind, and I have a job+family so the grind and the time sinks in general just wasn't for me I decided. So I played FPSes with some friends for a while until I got sick of all the aimbots and hacks, and constantly having to buy a new game. So I decided I wanted to play an MMO again. So I went to WoW as it had the most real life friends playing last year.

Out of the entire life cycle of World of Warcraft, what event was the most memorable to you personally?
Sticking it out with my not-so-great-at-their-class friends and getting them through heroics. It feels like a true victory to get through that with people with sub-par dps and inability to move out of bad stuff. :) I still love em tho and cherish their friendship, but omg.. :) Having a big enough bank roll to just buy them gear so we can somewhat overgear instances has helped. LOL.

What is your favorite expansion so far, and why?
Wrath, granted I played Vanilla for a few months before I gave up on WoW a long time ago, and I came back not long before Cata last year. It was a lot more multiboxing friendly. As Khatovar already pointed out, i don't mind the occasional CC/interrupt/situational awareness(get out of the bad stuff), but I think Cata just went too far. To me it almost become akin to playing a FPS. I went back to MMOs because I've become old, slow and don't react as fast as I used to. :)

What is it about World of Warcraft that keeps you playing?
Nothing better is out there, but since I was in SWTOR beta, I've just been mostly single boxing with my friends the new heroics for kicks. Some time this week I'm gone to new pastures, and for now just single boxing it. I'll keep my accounts open for now, but will probably cancel in a few months.

If there was one thing you could change in World of Warcraft, what would it be?
I wish they would make the game more about getting the most out of your class and knowing you class, and not who can move out of bad stuff the fastest, or click that lever. This is an MMORPG not a MMOFPS.

[Ashley]

23, male.

Looking back to when you first started World of Warcraft, what was it that drew you in and got you playing? Were you already a Blizzard follower through Warcraft / Diablo?

Through a friend, we used to play around his house and I used to use his Dads account and we just used to chill around and play casually. I used to play Warcraft 3 prior to this which is why I was interested in the Warcraft series.

Out of the entire life cycle of World of Warcraft, what event was the most memorable to you personally?

The honor grind during Vanilla for ranks, made it sort of rewarding to reach a certain rank and the day I got Marshal was almost comparable to a birthday.

What is your favorite expansion so far, and why?

Either TBC or Wotlk, before this AOE cc.

What is it about World of Warcraft that keeps you playing?

People make videos and forum posts about me and their tears. Q_Q

If there was one thing you could change in World of Warcraft, what would it be?

Remove the guards from PVP realms.

[valkry]

If there was one thing you could change in World of Warcraft, what would it be?

I'd like to bring back rating requirements on PvP gear. This is one of the biggest things I dislike about Cata. I never really consider myself an elitist, but it kind of bugs me that there is no difference between a 500 rated player and a 2200 rated player: except the color of their armor and their weapons.


And their SKILL and their rating, achievements and titles. PvP should always be decided by class/skill/latency, not by gear. I'm sick of arena junkies pwning in my BGs with their better gear. Give me awesome gear for my perfection wins imo!!

I'll answer your questions for you later, just had to rant about that though.

[Emo?]

Male 21

Looking back to when you first started World of Warcraft, what was it that drew you in and got you playing? Were you already a Blizzard follower through Warcraft / Diablo?
Had a few friends that were playing, started october 05 togeather with a friend. Thought it looked cool from the start and from there on i was stuck.


Out of the entire life cycle of World of Warcraft, what event was the most memorable to you personally?
I think it must be when we killed Nefarian for the first time in Vanilla WoW. Both vanilla and TBC was my two hardcore periods of raiding. I was playing hunter and during the fight Nefarian had a spell for each class, one that broke the hunters weapon. I didnt have a spare bow so i did melee on him from 80% down to 0%. The feeling and acomplishment when you manage to kill the last boss (naxx was not out yet). Was awesome.

What is your favorite expansion so far, and why?
Hard to say, i have most epic memmorys from Vanilla, one could argue that its because i was new to MMO's and most things actually felt kind of epic. But in the end TBC was prob the best one yet, it changed the game and what it stands for and took it into the right direction. (Also enabled 3x Pompyromages setup lol)

What is it about World of Warcraft that keeps you playing?
Social aspect of the game. Have noticed that me and my friends ussualy takes breaks togeather, if i dont play they dont and vise verse. When i get bored i ussualy start making a movie to make me have a reason to play. Now that Autobots Roll Out have grown to what it is aswell there is even more reason to be online.

If there was one thing you could change in World of Warcraft, what would it be?
I dont think id like to change WoW, i beleve that its the feeling from the old good days that people are missing. When we look back at Cata i still beleve that people will miss some aspects of it, in the same way that we miss things from TBC and Wotlk.

[Toned]

Thanks everyone who has replied, or is going to reply. This info is exactly what I need.

[smalltanker]

M 41


Looking back to when you first started World of Warcraft, what was it that drew you in and got you playing? Were you already a Blizzard follower through Warcraft / Diablo?

Started in Open Beta. I had played WC1, SC, and Diablo.

Out of the entire life cycle of World of Warcraft, what event was the most memorable to you personally?

I got back into WOW after returning from a deployment to Iraq. Before that it was a minor hobby. Never made it to 60 in WOW orignial because of my other committments. So in TBC I had my warrior (Smalltanker) get to 60 and then to 70. Life was good, tanking was hard back then. Had to CC, had to shoot one target, LOS, pop enrage to get the red bar full while getting aggro with out busting CC. Getting the first Attumen kill in Karazhan after getting all the attunements done was a major accomplishment. It seemed like there was more to it back then than there is now.

What is your favorite expansion so far, and why?

TBC. TBC is when I learned about raiding, heroics, and multiple classes. I think in TBC I started with my warrior, leveled my priest, then my shaman and finally my prot pally. I did Arena, world PVP (if its red its dead became my motto even on a PVPE realm). And I joined the guild I have been with since then. Making the leap as a guild from 1-3 x 10 man raids to a 25 man raid capable guild that got through Mags Lair and Gruuls lair and then through most of T5 and parts of T6 content was fantastic.


What is it about World of Warcraft that keeps you playing?

Its a great game that keeps getting better as you meet more quality people and the culture that goes with it. I recently purchased a "NPC Comics" shirt for my daughter who plays. So its not uncommon for me and 2-3 of the kids to be playing WOW at the same time. My middle son still has an Alliance hat from Hot Topic, even though I faction transferred to horde a month or two after christmas last year. WOW and the people keep it fun.

If there was one thing you could change in World of Warcraft, what would it be?

Too grindy, too simple and too much FOTM. Example: I used to love pally healing in Wrath. Heck I could almost solo heal most of a 10 man ICC back then. Then it changed dramatically. Now we have blood DKs and Fury warriors out healing my heal toons. Vengence in BGs from blood tanks and mechanics like that need to be worked on. I would love for warriors and all the baseline DPS classes to go back to not having healing. Or failing that give heal classes the ability to blow up a DPS class. I used to love the skill it required to heal BGs/RBGs. Now I just avoid them, as a person that likes to PVP it is sad that some aspects of the game are crippled with the amount of CC, stuns, interupts, etc that healers have to deal with currently. I guess I bled the "Is there one thing...."