This is why I play WoW

I realize this poll is grossly skewed in so many ways, but it at least shows the selection from 2010 and Massively‘s readership’s thoughts.  At least this next year we’ll have Rift, SWTOR, and GW2.  Hopefully one of these will be viable alternatives to WoW.   I would actually like for there to be a year where there are several amazing choices and the games have to fight one another for players rather than players slinking from one sub-par title to another.   The last time I can remember that really happening is in the EQ/AC/DAOC/SWG/maybe CoH crossover years where they all seemed to be actively popular at once.

No more 2010, please.

  • This doesn’t make me want to play WoW again, but it does make me want to try LEGO Universe.

  • And I just wanted to say in my best motherly voice: “If everyone else decided to jump off a bridge….” LOL

  • I totally disagree on wanting more than one good MMO to launch at a time Keen.

    The MMO market is already broken up into two groups… those that play WoW and those that don’t. The more good MMOs that launch the more that second group gets fractured and the small playerbase they have.

    Right now the MMO community in NA can not support 3 titles with over 1 million subs. While anything between 500-750 is a very good showing for a subscription amount, I think developers still have their sites on that six figure model. I think it could support 2 games though, one of them of course being WoW. I think SWTOR has a good chance, but I really doubt it holds on to anything over 500k after 6 months.

  • @Bariwyn
    If they all lived, then yes I would and I have in fact jumped off a aprox 60′ high. I absolutely hate that saying because it assumes you would follow the crowd regardless of the outcome. I will follow the crowd into a potentially dangerous situation if A. They survive and B. It looks fun.

  • SWG, DAOC, even EQ for a while weren’t near the 1 million mark and did just fine. LotRO did fine under a million. Just about every MMO released in NA other than WoW has had under a million, and I may sound bias for saying this but I think the NA has the best MMO’s.

    The best era of MMORPG gaming in NA was at a time when several titles were up against each other. That can’t be ignored, regardless of what year it is.

  • IMO the best year for MMORPG’s was 2002. Almost every MMO was had it’s peak in population that year with probably only UO as the exception. We had UO, EQ, AC, DAoC and I believe SWG and CoH.

    MMO’s don’t need 1m subscribers to be successful. They just need good game design and ha number of populated servers.

  • I can’t say I argue, but I went back to World War 2 Online, not WoW. Same principle though. 2010 sucked for MMOs, I don’t think 2011 will be much better, even with some higher quality titles coming.

  • @Epiny: Everyone hates that saying. That is why I used it.

    But Keen’s post seems to be stating that he is following the crowd simply to follow the crowd. That there may be games that would be just as much fun and are documented in this very blog as ones he has enjoyed, but because more people don’t rate them highly, he is going to go back to WoW every time.

    As for following my friends into a high risk situation regardless of the outcome? I never thought playing WoW was risky.

  • My post is saying I am playing WoW because it is the only viable alternative that has maintained new content of decent caliber. I’m saying the ones on that list suck, not that they don’t have a lot of players.

  • Yes, but even the best of mediocre is still a choice that you sorta back into. Its almost like saying I have 12 beverages in front of me, none of them are very good, but this one tastes the least unappealing. The MMO landscape is ugly atm, and I don’t see it changing anytime soon – which is why I went back to single player games even after admitting to being an MMO addict a year ago. I found the perfect solution to MMO addiction = shitty games.

  • Yeah single player games for me as well, took me a while but I picked Demon Souls over the holidays. What an awesome game, best thing I played on a console in forever

  • Planetside Next is something to be excited about. SWG, GW2, and the rest aren’t really peaking my interest. I might try GW2 and possibly even SWG, but I’m not expecting much more than what I know I don’t like.

  • WoW was great fun in the days but those days are long gone for me now. DCUO on the other hand…yummmmmy 🙂

  • @Smithin – Demon’s Souls is an amazing game. I am a recent console convert after swearing that I would die a pc gamer, and after telling my entire guild that I was getting a PC GAMER 4 LIFE tattoo. I dusted off an old PS3 that I got several years ago as a gift, after my DVD player died, and I haven’t touched my pc. Then I found MGS4 and the rest is history, since then I’ve played RE5, Demon’s Souls and I have Uncharted 2 waiting in the wings. Eff WoW, eff sitting on my ass for 8 hours a day, every day, accruing virtual gear so me and my guildmates could compare epeens. It feels so damn good to be rid of MMOs. And there isn’t a single damn one out there atm or anytime soon that is even appealing to me. Ahhh

  • When I first saw that article on Massive, I gasped in disbelief at ST:O being voted the best new game of 2010.

    Then I looked at all the other options and realized that there was nothing else that deserved it any more.

    I voted “none of the above” personally, since I didn’t think anything deserved the acclaim.

  • after reading that massive article i came up with these thoughts.

    1)
    The poll is just a “My daddy is better than your daddy”. How can blizzard be the BEST and the WORST mmo studio, AND have the most anticipated project? I can understand if you don’t agree that Blizzard is the best studio of the decade, but it’s certainly not the worst. The poll should really have been two questions “The MMO/Studio I like the most” / “The MMO/Studio I hate the most”, that would have encapsulated the voting in all other categories, because the results are BS. Just have a “rate my body” contest fer crying out loud.

    2)
    Who gives a sh!t about huxley? 250 people? i bet they all had the same IP.

    3)
    The fact that ST:O got Best Launch 2010, Best Crafting (wot?), Best PvP, Biggest surprise hit, and best overall mmo tells me that this entire poll was RonPauled.

    4)
    earth eternal closed? that game was amusing for a bit.

    5)
    “Best F2P/Freemium Conversion of the Decade” should have been named “Biggest Attempt of Money Grab of the Decade”

    6)
    Why is EVE considered “Indie” ?

  • If you throw out STO, which I do, then you have a more accurate representation of the general public’s opinion. The STO score is probably from lobbying.

  • The “general public’s opinion” is probably “what are these games?” My point being that they probably know about WoW.

  • One could indeed speculate that STO won just because it’s fanboys were the most active – remember how Runes of Magic won most of the Massively polls last year, just because they advertised the poll on their website/launcher?

    On the other hand, it might’ve indeed been the least horrible of this year’s releases – in the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king, after all.

    All in all, it doesn’t really matter who won – personally I voted for Hello Kitty Online or ‘none of the above’ in most of the choices – since all the MMOs released in 2010 were ridiculously, embarrassingly bad. Just like 2009, just like 2008…

    I don’t think anyone can blame ya for playing WoW, Keen – if Rift fails, I’m buying Cata and going back myself. There’s still hope for 2011 though – the developers of Rift and GW2 have at least been talking the talk about not releasing their games until they’re polished – let’s hope they will walk the walk! 🙂

  • A better example of how bad the last year was is MMORPG.com’s “2010 Awards: Best New Game” winner, None of the Above!

    STO came 6th, clearly the STO forums and launcher didn’t carry links to the MMORPG.com poll.

  • Keen , off subject but could you give me a quick rundown on how you feel about Darkfall. Looking for a true sandbox game, but if its not well done its not worth it to me.

  • @Jay P: Not worth it. (That’s the quick version). For a longer version, do a search for Darkfall. Nice ideas implemented poorly whether from too little funding or a lack of deeper understanding of how sandbox pvp works being integrated into a fully dynamic world.