Why is World of Warcraft such a popular game?

I actually have NO clue. I tried it to see what the hype was all about, and seriously hated it.

Ditto.

I’ve been playing a text-based MMORPG since the mid-90’s, so I gave WoW a shot to see what the hype was about. I found it tedious and kind of boring. I don’t really get it, either.

It’s basically all “Go kill pigs and bring me their bones, and I’ll give you armor” over and over and over and over and over and over again.

It’s away for these nerdy people to have lives without really having a life.

And to hang out with their online peeps and pwn n00bs?

Its appeal is that some people find it fun. Isn’t that the appeal of all games?

The violence!!!

I just think it’s pretty repetitive and boring.

I agree with buster, why do so many people find HL2 exciting? What about Eve Online? Or Call of Duty 4? Games are made to appeal to people and make money, otherwise, they would be useless. It’s all a matter of opinions and what you like to play. We don’t all listen to the same music or like the same art. Who says that we all have to like the same game, or even like games at all?

Actually, the comment about games being useless if they didn’t make money is void, that’s just stupid, what I meant is that big games like the ones I mentioned would be useless to the publisher if they didn’t appeal and make money

@MonsieurMiniMountain – I agree with you.. it’s just kind of a mystery. I mean, obviously a lot of people find something in WoW that strikes a chord in them, otherwise we wouldn’t be hearing about people losing their real lives over playing a game nonstop.

I personally didn’t find it, though.. but seeing as I was rather addicted to my text RPG, I totally understand.

I want to ban the game form the world.

@AlenaD, I guess I can sorta understand too, considering how addicted to other games I was when I was smaller, and now I’m looking back thinking how stupid they were. I guess it’s kinda-sorta the same thing.

Of course the appeal is it’s enjoyment. It’s just that WoW seems to have a massive following. I guess I wasn’t meaning to ask what it’s appeal is, I guess I was just wondering if there’s something different or special about it that I can’t see. In hindsight, I didn’t word the question very well.

I loved the Warcraft RTS games. So when I heard they were making an RPG based on the Warcraft universe, I was excited. I honestly hadn’t played an MMO before, but figured I’d give it a shot. And I had a lot of fun with it.

For a while.

I don’t deal with grind well, especially with no real reward at the end. Once I hit sixty, I realized there really wasn’t much else to do other then run the same dungeons over and over again. You didn’t level, you didn’t get new skills and if you were lucky you might get a new pieces of equipment that gave you another point or two in a stat. And I am a casual player through and through; I gotta be able to turn the game off and take a walk or read a book or something. I couldn’t sit for hours and hours and hours it took just get enough gold to maintain your character for a raiding guild, let alone the hours and hours and hours spent actually raiding.

I played WoW for about a year, only to realize I was paying 15$ a month to be bored. Some friends convinced me to play again when the expansion pack come out, and that time around it only took me about a month and a half to remember that I could have more fun stabbing myself in the thigh for free.

The fun of WoW is quite hard to put your finger on it. The gameplay, quests, and basically the whole game is quite repetitive, but the fun of WoW goes beyond that. The game is sort of like a haven for gamers to hang out and play together. You can just chill and talk message board style, or quest and instance with people who generally have your same interests. There is no great awakening of knowledge there lol, but ive had some fun conversations. Another part of it is that it basically feeds the gamer need. You work to become the strongest and to get that one more level, one more piece of gear. Its just the way gamers usually work, and when you finally get it, its pretty exciting. That’s what I think is the fun of WoW.

I have heard a million and one reasons for why this game is great and not a single one stuck with me or convinced me it’s true….

<- WoW widow

I’ve played WoW since a week after it came out, so almost 4 years now. I’ve taken a few breaks here and there for a few months though.

For me I really enjoy the progression that you get playing the game. As you play you see your character improve, get higher levels, better gear, look cooler, do cooler things. I like exploring the world and the new dungeons. It really is like a world. It’s extremely varied and detailed and there are lots of cool places to find and explore.

Before the latest expansion pack all of the top-level raids required 40 people to complete. It was a great feeling to kill the final boss of a dungeon with 40 other people after practicing for weeks.

It’s a very social game as well. You make friends in game that you chat with or play with real-life friends and chat with them while you play even if you aren’t on the same quest or in the same area.

It’s extremely varied as well. There are many aspects to the game that you can focus on. You could spend your time raiding the end-game dungeons where you cooperate with a bunch of other people to take down bosses, or you could enter battlegrounds or arenas to play against other players, much like a deathmatch first-person shooter. Or you could just spend time doing daily quests to get gold to buy gear, or work on leveling up professions that allow you to create items that other players can buy. In a way it’s a lot of different games rolled into one.

It’s not for everyone of course. It does take a large amount of time to play it, usually taking a lot of people around 200 hours just to get to level 70, where a lot of people consider the game to really begin.

But, other people enjoy watching TV or movies or playing other games or reading books or going out drinking and partying for similar amounts of time.

Some people don’t like paying a monthly fee to play, but it ends up saving me a lot of money in the long run. If I didn’t pay $15 a month to play WoW I’d be buying other $60 games every month or two after I had beat them in a short amount of time.

I play with my wife and brother-in-law so it is a nice way to hang out together. Not everyone that plays is a reclusive basement dweller. It’s actually a much more social activity than watching TV or reading a book and like anything, is what you make of it.

My ex-boyfriend started playing it when it came out and then wanted me to play with him. I thought it was the nerdiest most ridiculous waste of time. Until I found myself actually wanting to play it with him and some of his friends from college. Then we broke up, I stopped playing and my little brother and all his friends started playing, so I got back online.

As Stellar says, it is kind of a cool way to interact with people in your actual life. I mean my brother is in med school and quite a few states away. WoW is really the only time I can have an extended conversation with him, as he doesn’t see it as being on the phone for an hour.

I think that is part of the appeal, and the game is constantly updated and leaves little time to get bored with the original content. Plus I have it is kind of fun to be uber nerdy in the game, when in my day to day life, it is a total shock for people to learn that I play a game online.