World of Warcraft and the lowest common denominator one
Author: From:www.buyfastgold.com
In other forms of media, for example books or movies, people are well aware of the difference between "good" and "popular". And there are "popular" books and movies like Harry Potter and Spiderman, which the critics often call trash, but which make millions of dollars of profit. The reason why World of Warcraft has over 9 million subscribers and makes half a billion dollars of profit per year is that it belongs in the second category. Unlike many other MMORPGs it is made for the mass market, it is accessible for everybody, it is targeted at the lowest common denominator.
When we recently discussed losing in PvP, a reader named Xash made a very insightful comment: "Most people simply donĄ¯t want to expend the effort and dedication required to become good at something. Look at guitar hero. WeĄ¯re swiftly entering a society where more people will know how to play a toy instrument then the real one. And its the same with competitive activities, how many pro baseball players are there? A great deal less then hohum ones. Why? Because the vast majority of people donĄ¯t enjoy expending effort." I totally agree, I just donĄ¯t see this as negative. Most people are good at *something*, and expend a lot of effort into their jobs, their families, or social activities. I donĄ¯t blame them if for their entertainment they want to relax by doing something which requires a lot less effort. They want to play a toy guitar, or play some ball game badly with friends, or get some "welfare epics" in WoW, because all this is just for fun. Nothing would be gained if you somehow forced them to expend the effort to learn a real guitar, to play baseball at major league level, and to become experts at WoW PvP.
In fact it can be argued that MMORPGs in which you are encouraged to expend a lot of effort to achieve something are harmful. All those stories about WoW being "addictive" or people neglecting their job, family, or more often their studies are due to players having the impression that by expending effort in a game they are achieving something. Of course that is an illusion. Most of the time being on top of the game, whether having a 2000+ arena rating in PvP, or being a top raider and killing Illidan, will get you no rewards that are useful in real life. Even the guy who illegaly sold his rogue for ?10,000 certainly took thousands of hours of gameplay to get that far, and thus earned less than minimum wages on the hours spent.
When we recently discussed losing in PvP, a reader named Xash made a very insightful comment: "Most people simply donĄ¯t want to expend the effort and dedication required to become good at something. Look at guitar hero. WeĄ¯re swiftly entering a society where more people will know how to play a toy instrument then the real one. And its the same with competitive activities, how many pro baseball players are there? A great deal less then hohum ones. Why? Because the vast majority of people donĄ¯t enjoy expending effort." I totally agree, I just donĄ¯t see this as negative. Most people are good at *something*, and expend a lot of effort into their jobs, their families, or social activities. I donĄ¯t blame them if for their entertainment they want to relax by doing something which requires a lot less effort. They want to play a toy guitar, or play some ball game badly with friends, or get some "welfare epics" in WoW, because all this is just for fun. Nothing would be gained if you somehow forced them to expend the effort to learn a real guitar, to play baseball at major league level, and to become experts at WoW PvP.
In fact it can be argued that MMORPGs in which you are encouraged to expend a lot of effort to achieve something are harmful. All those stories about WoW being "addictive" or people neglecting their job, family, or more often their studies are due to players having the impression that by expending effort in a game they are achieving something. Of course that is an illusion. Most of the time being on top of the game, whether having a 2000+ arena rating in PvP, or being a top raider and killing Illidan, will get you no rewards that are useful in real life. Even the guy who illegaly sold his rogue for ?10,000 certainly took thousands of hours of gameplay to get that far, and thus earned less than minimum wages on the hours spent.
return list: World of Warcraft EU
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