WoW's long term appeal?

[Tallen]

With so many great new games coming on the market in the next few months and WoW's reported lack of content for those at lvl 60, semi-developed pvp and apparent lack of roleplaying stimulai, does this game have longevity, or is it doomed to lose players at a monolithic rate leaving servers half empty?

Have Blizzard missed the mark with this game in not understanding the long-term appeal necessary for a persistent online game to succeed? Or are their plans for PvP development (amongst others) sufficient to see the game thrive, making it the most continually subscribed mmog in the world (unless it already is) and hence the greatest mmorpg ever (long-term)?

Flame free please

[k9awya]

blizzard have put together the only good mmorpg to be released since uo, and i think it will be a long long time till something else decent comes out.

wow pvp is king of all atm in the sense that tactics and skill come into it more than anything since uo, too

pvp battlegrounds are being implemented, but i wouldnt say pvp is semi finished, i like to pvp in games for the fun of pvp, in wow i can do this anytime.

[Ormorof]

not 100% sure what youre after but im definetly sure that WoW hasnt got the same pulling power that DAoC had, at least for me.

i find that this is due to several things:

1. friends all spread out all over the place
2. no tight community like in DAoC (at least, i felt i knew alot of people on prydwen and i felt they knew me )
3. after my DAoC experience i dont want to get caught in the same trap again (the "oh go on then another hour or two wont hurt my revision... )
4. PvP pain, ive recently moved to a normal server after gettin frustrated by "casual" ganking, its not like i was a threat or even a challenge they simply killed me because they could (or maybe because i was cuter than them)

thus i dont find myself playing WoW nearly as much as i did the first few days and weeks, but thats not going to stop me from keeping my account active (whereas the fact that i hardly played made me quit DAoC altogether) as i think its alot of fun even if you can only play every now and then

[Lubbock]

yup thats whats great with WoW its very casual, in DaoC you had to play almost constantly to keep up and that made me dislike DaoC yet still played for lack of alternatives, not i got n alternative so DaoC is in the trashbin

[Vesuvius]

WoW doesnt have the same kind of pull DAoC or UO had for me.. the pvp seems simple... easy.

not sure bout the longevity, though the games still fun atm. ask me again in 3 months.

[Stekkerdoos]

I'm still having fun playing WoW, tho I'm not 60 yet. I'm taking my time and absolutely don't feel the need to be 60 asap.

About the PvP content. We will have the honor system soon, the battle grounds will be implemented and don't forget contested area capture points.

Other high level content will be more instances and of course the hero levels/classes.

The game just wasn't finished when it was released (not aiming at bugs etc), I'm afraid this will lead to leaving customers that have reached level 60 and are getting bored already.
From what I have heard Blizzard was pushed by .. vivendi (?) to release WoW.
Knowing Blizzard they would have probably delayed the game a lot more, which wouldn't be to bad if you consider the lack of high-end contend at the moment.

I think the early release is also noticable in customer support. I think Blizzard didnt have enough time to organize everything properly and to hire enough/qualified people.

I think it will all be better in time, at the moment I'm enjoying leveling my dwarf hunter, 41 and counting

[Danya]

Still enjoying PvE content myself, but then I am on a normal server.

[Whisperess]

Originally Posted by Ormorof

2. no tight community like in DAoC (at least, i felt i knew alot of people on prydwen and i felt they knew me )

And you felt that in the first 2 months playing Daoc then?

I'm still enjoying WoW a lot, and will probably do so even more once Battlegrounds get released. (more and more are running around with PvP flags on as well)

[CplCarrot]

Originally Posted by Ormorof

not 100% sure what youre after but im definetly sure that WoW hasnt got the same pulling power that DAoC had, at least for me.

i find that this is due to several things:

1. friends all spread out all over the place
2. no tight community like in DAoC (at least, i felt i knew alot of people on prydwen and i felt they knew me )
3. after my DAoC experience i dont want to get caught in the same trap again (the "oh go on then another hour or two wont hurt my revision... )
4. PvP pain, ive recently moved to a normal server after gettin frustrated by "casual" ganking, its not like i was a threat or even a challenge they simply killed me because they could (or maybe because i was cuter than them)

thus i dont find myself playing WoW nearly as much as i did the first few days and weeks, but thats not going to stop me from keeping my account active (whereas the fact that i hardly played made me quit DAoC altogether) as i think its alot of fun even if you can only play every now and then

I find comments like this a little surprising (no offence intended).

I played DAOC at exactly the same stage of "life" as WOW from beta to early live and DAOC had none of the above either - friends would be spread out if you dont all pick the same server - there was little community.

Think what WOW has at this stage that DAOC hadnt, such as a useful crafting engine that wasnt so bugged it was impracticle due to cost - a mail system in game and 90% itemised areas (slithius is finally itemised I noticed) - I remember DAOC (for anyone that plays, north of catacombs) having no or few mobs in the level 40-50 areas except for a bunch of trees that didnt drop anything.

[Lakashnik]

hmmm. all i can really say is just from reading about the BGs on the site and all teh things u can do. i am going nowhere.
only 50 atm and i would like to get to 60 soon and do some high end instances/raids but i have slowed down alot since i hit 40. getting my mount was my real milestone. since then i have been playing alts alot more.
if just to try them out or to so i can play at the same lvl as other friends.
wow is more about having fun with my mates than anything. as was daoc.
just yesterday infact i took part in a raid to kill some dragon in horde land. only to find out unfortunatly it had been killed by the horde the previous day. (bastids) so instead we went and killed some dragon in blasted lands which was fun. it even energized me into wanting to lvl some more.
My only problem with WoW so far seems to be my luck on drops in instances.
I have now farmed ZF for a pair of the nice jumanza glove drops 7times without them dropping once or some lil mage bastid after telling me i could have them rolling on them and winning them.... i am now thoroughly(sp?) sick of ZF and given up on it.
I have also farmed Maraudon just on boss runs 8times in a row. (this isnt including the 2or3times i did it for quests to start with) because i would quite like the charred dirk to go with my could stone. or the princess kneck/head piece. alas but once has any of them dropped for me and each time som1 else got the roll for them.
after this i am pretty sick of playing my 50.
now i know i dont NEED these drops. as i could buy things on AH wit stats good enough. but my problem being that most stuff on the AH is really overpriced at times and i just dont feel the need to give these greedy forks my money. esp when im lending most of my budding guildies about 30-40g to afford mounts when they smack 40 which does take them time to pay me back.
think i should add a note here im not whining about WoW im whining about my luck :P
but after all this. i wont leave wow because i know its just a minor set back if a rather frustrating 1. i play my alts abit, calm down have some fun then go back to my 50 and play a little more.

also another last note. having high lvl friends comes in so useful in the game. and fun to :P if any priests out there are having a hard time getting money or grinding. find a mage higher than u. im lucky enough to have a lvl 57friend who i do this with. we find some nice lvl 53ish mobs. i shield him he runs into about 10-15 of them i spam heals and he spams his aoe spell. its a nice way of getting me xp and getting us both money. make about 50s each per run. and the mage being able to conjour water and food leaves little downtime between this. i encourage people to do this as i find it extremely funny (maybe im just weird) but seeing a load of mobs trying to hit some 1 then all dieing really makes me chuckle.
also reminds me of AC in daoc... heh wht can i say. im a power pulling freak

[Aada]

As someone said WoW is the best mmo to come by since UO, DAOC was great it was awsome but they ruined it with ToA. You can't be a casual player in Daoc either, in wow you can leave your character in the Inn and go to work, come back and you gain xp faster it's such a great system imo.

PvP will be great when the honor system is in but as someone said its still pretty good now.

[Fana]

To be fair to daoc we dont really know yet how much time it will take in wow to take effective part of the pvp endgame - some people will farm the highlevel instances 100+ times until they have the most ubergear they can get in the hopes of wtfpwning everyone, and this is similar to a fully ToA's character in daoc imo (and probably takes even more time to acheive). What we dont know is how much of an advantage a fully itemized character will have over one that has alil worse equipment.

[Sendraks]

Originally Posted by Vesuvius

WoW doesnt have the same kind of pull DAoC or UO had for me.. the pvp seems simple... easy.

...Fun

At this stage in the life of WoW, PvP is fun. Tactics and clever play will win out as no one yet has got really "uber" equipment or any silly "and win" abilities like DAoC has with its RAs.

You can try something clever in WoW and it might just work, as opposed to DAoC, where you try something clever and 8 SBs jump you at once.

Plus, as had already been said, the rested xp system really doesn benefit the casual player. I've not had much chance to play WoW this past week and so my rested xp has rocketed up. As a result, in the few hours play I have had, I've breezed through lvl 57 and am now half way to lvl 58, thanks to a good mix of quests and raids.

[CplCarrot]

I'd agree more with sandraks view here that it wasnt TOA that ruined DAOC, but realm abilities that came much earlier.

Will wow do the same - well who knows , personally I think all MMORPGs are destined to go the same way, as its the nature of them.

In 2 years time WoW will need to offer the "Carrot and stick" of the same type of "win" items and abilities in order to keep the veterans happy.

[Dorin]

Nah, problem wasnt RA-s... much more the way they have been implented.
I do think you need some kind of a reward to go after, even if you are having fun while doing so... need a goal to achieve. Unique titles after each rr in daoc was a great idea, if you could only bought RA-s on each realm ding it would have been cool (and nothing like baod, grp-porge, sos and shitlike that, more like augments, self-only purge, 10% crit chance etc...) I dont think a veteran player who played x years should be on the same level as a newcomer, but ofc the gap shouldnt be that wide as it is in daoc..