The billion dollar question: Why is World of Warcraft so popular?

Growling Dog Games Blog posted a recent opinion piece relating to World of Warcraft's astonishing popularity, excerpt below:

"With over 10 million subscribers World of Warcraft has made Vivendi an awful lot of money. So how did Blizzard do it? How did they break out of the MMO niche and conquer the Holy Grail of PC gaming: the mainstream masses? For every aspiring game developer that's the billion dollar question…"

[Harry190]

forget that it is a good game.

[Archaeox]

It's rather addicting

They just lose players at a slower rate

^^^^^^^^^^^^
My OPINION

[Fruit Loops]

Its just so damn good?

[Bolts]

1. Its accessable, the previous MMO champ EQ requires a lifetime commintment and a punishing difficulty curve just get your newbie ass to the next city.

2. Stylized graphics with low system requirements. It's direct competition EQ2 requires a pretty decent machine to see all the bells and whistles and even then, it's mostly earth tones. With WoW even a lower end PC can experience bright cartoony graphics.

3. Brand name, the Warcraft brand is a RTS legend and Blizzard is the industry's gold standard in some Asian countries.

[games4fun]

people like the abbreviation wow
world of warcraft sounds way better than Everquest seriously the Everquest name sounds like you'll get beat up at school while the other one is off of a successful rts that sounds good
the artistic style is better
the game usually requires the right ammount of socialization
its popular from the get go having warcraft name to biggeback off of helped alot and since so many people play you might as well see what the deal is and since so many people are online leaving might not be to much fun
also about any pc can run the game

ps i hate mmos so i dont play wow and what not these are just my reasons why

[Fux4Bux]

Because it did everything others did better and made it accessible. EQ was better imo but it's a miracle I got through the difficulty curve without a tutor or something.

[REbirth]

its extremely addictive and pretty fun!
i recommend it to every player that like games!

[Tyrael]

Blizzard is successful because of its ability to release notoriously addicting games

[jessupj]

I honestly don't know why. I've been playing wow for 3 years now (i have 5 level 70 characters) and even though it is a great game, there is sooooo much wrong with it, like you wouldn't believe.

Blizzard isn't focused on making a fantastic gaming experience. They are focused on making things take as long as they possibly can without losing customers. Most things are a long boring grind with no creativity in there. I can't wait til I can afford a ps3, I might never play that game again.

[power091999]

WoW is a great game, but I think what got it there were the Warcraft Pre-req's.

In their day Warcraft RTS's were top notch. This along with Starcraft.... Blizzard instantly became a fan favorite. Along with this they gave their fans, some amazing story lines and awesome characters.

Enter WoW where you can play a interactive role in the world they created in the Warcraft series. I feel that along with word of mouth from friends, and family is where this game came to be the juggernaut it is today.

PS- I love me some WoW

[Tony240ZT]

My friends that play non stop want to quit like a chain smoker with emphysema, but for some reason they just keep going back to it. One good raid or instance run and that's good enough for them to deal with walking back to their dead body over and over wasting tons of time yelling at people to get into a group so that they can run a 2 hour long unbroken journey of some sort for the next 3 months.
I loved Diablo I/II, and played the sh!t out of it, but I never felt addicted. There are pleanty of other good RPGs out there to be played. I'd hate for people to pass them up because they are playing something that is comfortable zone to them, yet frustrating.