Why not make a MMO EXACTLY like World of Warcraft?
Posted by Tipa in MMOs, World of Warcraft, tags: wow-likeI was reading Openedge’s comments about Lord of the Rings Online, and remembering claims by a Turbine exec that LotRO was destined to overtake and surpass WoW, which seems unlikely to me. A EA exec thinks WAR will be huge. Everyone thinks the magic formula is to copy WoW, then change something to make it different.
People claim other MMOs don’t get a lot of traction unless they more or less copy WoW.
Why not go all the way, and make an exact copy? Oh, change the names of the races and the models and anything that is copyrighted, trademarked or patented, but otherwise, make it identical. Identical enough so that all WoW add-ons work with it. Identical enough so that even if Hunter becomes Tracker, they still do all the same things.
Blatant, unashamed copying.
Happens in the real world, all the time. McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s, all as identical as they can be, right down to the trays. The path to success is not by being different, but by being a 100% compatible drop-in replacement.
WoW players no longer have to wonder, with these games, if they will like it. It’s the same thing. They KNOW they will. Just with different looking toons, areas which are a little different (but not too different), lore which is pretty much what they are used to.
Maybe the problem with WoW-likes isn’t that they are similar to WoW, but that they aren’t similar ENOUGH.
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Let’s take the idea one step further and allow the “porting” of your character via WoW’s armory to the new game. Attachment to your old character? No problem! Bring him with you!
Sadly, Tipa… I think you hit the nail on the head with this one. Everyone talks about innovation, but consumers really say is MORE WARCRAFT.
… and there’s nothing wrong with that :)
The flip side, unfortunately, is that when you’re tired of WoW, you get the feeling you’re tired of MMOs as a genre, since they all copy each other so much.
I have been playing Warhammer and it is a lot like WoW, but better in so many ways. So far, my favorite features have been this.
1. Public Quests – Fun, repeatable quests where everyone works together as a team. Plus when it’s over you get exp and loot for participating. And you get influence points to spend on gear upgrades or potions.
2. Scenarios (Battlegrounds) – Queue from anywhere! When you’re done with the scenario, you zone back into where you left. So basically, you never have to stop questing just to play a BG. Also, you can do a repeatable quest for exp to do the BG, which is good. AND you get XP and renown for playing (renown gives you gear points to spend).
3. Tome of Knowledge – I love the tome as it tracks what I’m doing and maybe someday I’ll read it. It’s too much to absorb right now though.
4. Mobs spawn and then seem to “assault” you to new battle positions. Nice touch, makes you feel more like your in a battle than just a field of never ending wolves.
5. Mana – there is none! woot! Everyone has a rogue like energy bar.
Things I dislike about Warhammer online…
1. Animations – Very choppy animations, mobs kind of teleport between my turret and my character sometimes.
2. Graphics – I have an awesome video card (ati radeon 3870 512mb), 3 gb ram, 2.2ghz dual core AMD processer and a SATA hard drive. I can run other top end games on full settings without any slowdown (for the most part). On this game I get a lot of choppiness unless I turn it down.
3. Graphics… extended – I have an ATI card and sometimes the faces are transparent.. IDK why.
4. Customer Service – Where is it? I can’t find a number to call anywhere. I’m getting ping ponged between EA and mythic for customer service. Not fun.
5. Scenarios – Joining a game where chaos team has all level 9-11′s and the order team is all level 1-7. Matchmaking ftw. Getting utterly destroyed sucks.
Overall, I’m addicted to this game, moreso than spore. Good times!