Why do people play wow?

I'm just curious why people play it... me personalty I tried it for about 3 months early this year and just could not see why people are addicted to it. I just want to why you guys play it..... (and please no trolls..I know its hard)

 

I got into it because RL friends were playing it... and when they left I was addicted to it for some time afterwards. And then they came back and left and came back and left.... it's hard to actually quit it but I did this year

Basically, it's easy to stay away from it now because once wrath launched, it sort of went down the crapper and is pretty boring. It was extremely addicting (and time consuming and demanding) in vanilla/TBC. A lot of old timers I knew simply wouldn't/won't quit because of the time they'd already invested in it.

 

If the game has gotten so crappy since wrath why has their subscriber numbers jumped almost 2 mil every year? Wrath was awesome IMO. And ive been playing since the beginning.

 

I've never taken blizz's word for their sub base - I've always read that statistic of theirs as total account keys licensed, not active concurrent subscribers. I can easily see how what, 13 million people, have tried and/or played wow at some point. That doesn't factor in the many maniacs that have multiple accounts either...

But when you look at several fan sites that try and track user usage and such, there are usually less than a million people logging in month over month, though that's still pretty impressive.

 

I downloaded the trial... twice, and both times it was blown off my hard drive wihtin a week. Nothing interesting to me in the least. Obviously there's some appeal considering the huge fan base. But I think it's more of a social thing than anything else.

 

Because those people's computers are so obsolete that they can only play wow, solitaire, minesweeper and games made before 1999

 

I played it because when Vanilla (classic WoW) first came out, I had a blast doing ranked PVP Battlegrounds. 15 vs 15 / 10 vs 10 was very addicting and fun to play. I was never really drawn into the PVE aspect, expect for the BC (Burning Crusade) and didn't play much in WotLK because it felt recycled and the game felt too easy. When WoW was first launched, players had to work for their gear ...by WotLK, the gear was literally handed to you for free, so there was no sense of accomplishment.

But in general, I played for the team play aspect of group PVP.

 

Me personally I play guildwars and everquest 2.... I don't like how wow took all the players from eq... it was the largest subscription game now i dont play it anymore because the land is empty

 

Same as any game, I find joy in playing it, but mainly friends and family. If none of them played the experience just wouldn't be the same.

To me WoW without them would be kind of boring. But playing with them makes the game worth while. Thats my reason for playing, though like many I have quit multiple times only to come back for the expansions (which i'm doing with cataclysm). Got my Collectors on pre-order

Tried EQ2/Lotro/GW and didn't like the style, I dunno...they all felt a little..."slow" in the interface and actions, but that could just be me.

But my favorite will always be Ultima Online, the MMO that started it all for me

 

I first started playing WoW in late 2005 because a friend of mine at work kept pestering me ot play. So I bought the game for myself and my son. I didn't really get into it hardcore until 2007, I became quite good at PvP in Battlegrounds and somewhat above average in arena. I also do enjoy raids if the group I am with is mature and classy (rare in this game). However I can only raid for a few months before it grows repetitive and I lose interest. I never lose interest in BGs
This game is most enjoyable when you are immersed in the social aspect of working together with close friends to achieve BG victories or at arena or when raiding.

I became somewhat addicted in 2007 when I was laid off of my job and ended up playing wow over 40 hours a week. My son is Uber at PvP and raids as a healer (best on the server and 2600 rated in battlegroup). he has taught me how to play better.

I have taken a break from wow now for the past few months but will be back in December when Cata comes out. I enjoy playing with my son and a few good friends but trying to find a guild of 25 people that done drop fbombs every 2 seconds and whine about not getting the drops is quite difficult. Hopefully I will find that elusive guild this time, but if not my stay will be short lived (3-4 months).

 

You must be hardcore to let your son play WoW . When I get a family, I will never allow my children to play WoW (if it is still alive in the future, which I think it'll be).

 

Bought it, played it for 3 hours, threw it in the trash !

 

Lol, thats kinda how I felt when I got Call of Duty:Modern Warfare 2

After the single player it held no interest.

 

You could pose a generic, "why do people play [insert popular game]", and the answer would be the same every time.

Because they enjoy it.

Look any deeper than that, and you end up imposing your view on others. There are tons of games I don't enjoy, which sell millions.

*golf clap*

 

half the time I play games because i enjoy it. half the time it's mindless.

For example Starcraft 2... I stopped playing it because it required me to think. It's not like I couldn't win. I actually made platinium league before I quit... but as I go higher in rank, the pressure to win makes me use my head too much and it became a drag. (I do feel bad that I am not too much of a competitor, where as if I am able to adopt the personality of being able to embrace challenages I would be way more successful in life in most aspects)

bottomline, I used turn on the game to grind because it was totally mindless. (level up in WOW and it's easy as hell. I quit wow many times and came back. I have 4 level 80s) I havn't played in around... 2 years i think.

 

What he said.

I tried to play it twice, and I just could not get into it.

The one MMO is did get into was City of Heroes. But to be honest, I find it really hard to pay $15 a month for a game.

 

Silly young minds and their ideas of having children.

 

I've seen people play it when it first came out and I really did not understand the draw of it. I still don't even after all the expansions.

Funny how there are some games I understand why you would play it and others I sometimes fail to see why someone would spend thousands of hours roaming around a virtual city. My friends son used to love and play PSO on the Sega Dreamcast he would hours on end playing that game. His dad started playing it as well and got hooked. Another game I didn't get either and still don't.

 

It was addiciting. I played for 4 years almost constantly. On average I played over 30 hours a weekend which is extremely unhealthy obviously but I failed to realize that until I had stopped. I as litteraly addicted to it.

After the first year all my friends who got me into the game had left and I kept playing because of the new online friends I had made and always wanting the best gear. I wasted so much time and money, lost friends, developed depression, and withdrew from all my other activities.

tl:dr The need to play a game that is constantly updating even when you are not playing is overpowering to some.

 

I believe what that last sentence you said is totally true. Thats what makes this game so addicting to some. MMO's are always changing, even when your logged off.

I've only tried the game once before, about 2 years ago, but this was on my old terrible desktop and I really didnt have the chance to actually play the game. I'm already an MMORPG, and dont need another one to get addicted to.

 

The story of my life .....

Really I have been playing eversince the game was out .... it got extremely boring though after WoTLK ..... pre TBC was fun but TBC was the peak of it for me

 

WoW was a fantastic game and it still is. Like many other people here, I too started playing because my RL friends were pressuring me to play what they claimed was "the perfect game". I played with them all throughout BC, made a lot of new online friends, and had the most fun I've ever had in a video game. The main draw was the social aspect. I love RPGs and so finally being able to play one with real people was overwhelming. The game is addicting due to all the content and the constant upgrades, but I'm happy to say that the only time I was addicted to it was when I was racing to the level cap (70 at the time), and that was because I wanted to experience endgame with my friends ASAP; after that, I played it a bit more casually.

And this continued, on and off, for a few years till the middle of WotLK when I finally grew bored of it, but it still haunts me every day. Whenever, I hear about WoW, I long to play again but I know it'll never be the same as how it used to be. And I'd like to add, that I've yet to find a game I enjoyed as much as I enjoyed WoW.

WoW has a lot of great features: it has unlimited UI customization through add-ons, it supports both hardcore and casual gamers, it supports both PvP and PvE enthusiasts, it simulates a social network with a large population of players, it is very responsive and polished, it can run on nearly all rigs, etc. If you give WoW a try, there will be something you like, but it's not for everyone of course.

As far as WotLK being the death of WoW goes, I have to slightly agree. It did lack content and it did make things much easier, but I think the criticism WotLK received is too harsh. For example, loot isn't just handed to you, mediocre loot is handed to you, but the amazing loot is still hard to acquire. In a sense WotLK attempted to make the game more casual and more accessible, which is a step in the right direction because I think that'll be perfect but it was a step too far. That's my view of WotLK.

And that's my "short" view of WoW. LOL "short". Sorry for the wall-o-text.

 

I've heard that if you actually read the quests and the storyline and the plot and all that reading stuff I never do... it's really good.

 

Meh... I've played it for a week before i cancelled my subscription ._. No friends to play with so it got boring

 

Yes master kenobi, I will look deep down and use the force....

 

I downloaded the demo and I was like "lol this is sooo boring leveling takes 10 hours" then one of my good friends convinced me to buy, and then leveling was sooo fast like I went from 1-30 in like a few hours then 30-70 within a week due to the 5x experience bonus when people in invite you to the game (70-80 took like 2 weeks). Overall WoW is pretty fun there is ALWAYS something to do, but school = no time.

 

When I was playing it I knew about 10 peeps at school who played it... when I asked them for a little help since I am new to wow (not to mmos) I just got called noob and shunned.... took me like a week to go from 10-20

 

He is 29 and was 24 when we started. I think the decision was his to make by that age

 

I agree BC was the best for pure fun at play. I am hopeful that Cata will match that o rmayhap surpass it !

 

I can't stand warcraft, it hurts my stomach to look at those hideous colours on the box with that annoying yellow font . When I installed it, it felt like my PC was rejecting the data bits written on the plates of the hard disk. For the past 5 years, everytime I see "WoW" the words "wow i can't believe people play that pos game" go through my mind. The last time someone asked me if their PC could run WoW, I left mid-convo.

In all reality, I don't think there's anything wrong with that game or the people that play it, I just don't enjoy it

 

People play WoW and other games addictively because evolution is on standby and there is no requirement for people overall to know how to make anything themselves or to hunt/cook thier own food to survive. Basically, we have become a lazy race that doesn't require survival skills so instead of spending time learning and honing survival skills we need something to kill time.

On a side note, I can't wait till the lights go out because even after supermarkets become empty and farms become depleted I'll be thankful for the fat lazy people that used to play WoW as a source of food Oh yes, I will eat eat another person to survive as there is just not enough wildlife to sustain the human race anymore but there are enough fat lazy people that are easy kills.

 

This thread reminds me of the $70 I spent on WoW and WoW:BC only to abandon the game three days later.

 

Ted? Ted Nugent? Is that you?

 

More like surfasb.

Wokka wokka wokka.

 

there are countless articles about the little carrots that these developers put in to keep you addicted and grinding. Look them up, my take on it is this:

At core, it bogs down to people like to achieve things and be able to share their achievements with others. WoW lets you do that. Every "ding" from leveling gives the player a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction. You can go grind away and get a fancy shield, raid with a guild and take down a crazy monster and get a fancy sword to show you did it, or go PvP in the arenas and get ladder ratings and some PvP items. The player feels like they "achieved" something and they get the feedback from the community to further their sense of achievement.

I remember playing, joining a guild, and seeing my first teammate say "ding" (which means they leveled up). WoW has several rewards built in for leveling - you get innately stronger, you learn new spells, you can wear better equipments. But probably one of the most powerful senses of reward was the community. when the player said "ding" in guild chat, instantly, guild chat fired up with people saying "grats" "awesome" "now you can wear that great helmet you have" etc. No doubt that player felt good and like they accomplished something.

It can be harder for some to get that sense of instant achievement in real life. They grind at their jobs with no sense of accomplishment or hope for promotion. They exercise but don't get instant results. They practice their basketball shot but are too slow to be on the team. WoW gives it to them, no matter who they are. That is the appeal.

Me personally, I enjoyed the game but only for about a year. After a while, I fully leveled up, got all the "purple" items, raided Molten Core and Blackwing Lair, etc. I accomplished a lot and that the remaining "achievements" involve endless grinds or time-sucking raids. The pressure to "gear up" for raids and PvP never ends, and the time needed to do so only increases as you get higher up. That's when I moved on. If I had more time, I might have stayed but "real life" had greater and more important demands.

 

When I played during TBC, I played because simply it's unlike any other game, the raiding.

Sure there was a sense of accomplishment. But the competition on server among guilds and even against other servers for boss kills and progression. Kael'thas, and some of the Black Temple bosses and Sunwell were truly difficult before the nerf patches. If all 25 didn't know their role, if all 25 didn't know the fight inside and out, then it would fail. Especially on fights like Kael'thas and Kil'Jaeden where every person was assigned a specific role throughout the boss encounter.

So I think there are many like myself couldn't care less about the achievements Blizzard added for who knows who. There are many like myself who didn't go wide eyed over pixelated gear.

I think many like myself played because simply it was unlike any game we've ever seen or tried. All 25 players with perfect execution and competitive nature of progression with other top guilds.

Quit after TBC, no time, but I don't regret all the hours it required to complete Tempest Keep, Black Temple and Sunwell. Can't schedule my life around a raiding schedule any longer.