- Since I wrote my recent post about the constant slagging of World of Warcraft, I've received some comments that make me think I need to consider the other side of the coin. No, I'm not taking the "WoW Suxxors" side. Instead, let's talk about everyone who doesn't play WoW and what the expansion onslaught looks to them.
- If you are not a WoW player, the sudden flood of Cataclysm posts must be overwhelming. Many blogs that cover a wide range of topics are suddenly dominated by this one game. And if you don't care about WoW, your interaction with the community will be dropping considerably.
- This isn't new for WoW, though. Anytime a new game becomes the flavor of the month, you are going to see a lot of talk about it. And if you are not on that bandwagon, you end up hitting "Mark As Read" in your feedreader a lot. For the last several months, there have been a number of bloggers talking in excitement about Star Wars: The Old Republic. I'm not sure I even want to play it, so I end up skipping a lot of blogs. WoW blogging is an entire magnitute greater than that, so it must seem like the entire community has turn away from you.
- I think that is part of the reason that there are two MMO communities, there is WoW and then there is everything else. Just look at the split between WoW Insider and Massively. There is no reason that Massively couldn't cover WoW, except that the WoW community is voracious for WoW centric content. That's why there are WoW bloggers, WoW forums, WoW everything. But WoW is still an MMO and even the most game-promiscuous player will return to the mothership from time to time.
- I think we could all do a better job in remembering that, although there is crossover, not everyone enjoys WoW. There are valid reasons for not enjoying the game. WoW is not a religion and we are not missionaries to the unenlightened. Continue to share your experiences, but remember to be friendly about it.
- And if you find yourself overwhelmed by all the WoW talk, just remember that it will pass. It always does. Pretty soon another game will comes along and everyone will jump on that bandwagon. And if not, people will burnout sooner or later. It's just a matter of time.
© 2010 Marty Runyon. All rights reserved.
I think the actual reason for the split between WoW Insider and Massively is that WoW Insider came first, and already had an established set of readers with set expectations by the time they set Massively up as well.
ReplyDeleteThe hanging question to me is whether players of most MMOs would secretly love there to be as strong a blogosphere as WoW has. EVE and Warhammer Online at least both come close. (And the EVE blogosphere is thriving, which is nothing really to do with Massively.)
Well said brother, very well said indeed. It encompasses a lot of thoughts I have been meaning to put into a blog post as of late, i just didn't get a chance to.
ReplyDelete@Spinks: I don't think it's just that WoW Insider came first. A lot of other websites for other MMOs came first before Massively. But Massively is my go-to-place for MMO news, barring WoW news. I think it has a lot more to do with the sheer scale and near-universal applicability of WoW.
MMOs come and go, like any trend. I've been "on the other side of the coin" before with other games, but I can't fault people for writing about what they play. Since WoW is so big, I think the phenomenon just seems to occur on a much larger scale and last longer. But like you said, I'm sure it will pass sooner or later as people burn out or the next shiny game comes out.
ReplyDeleteBTW, now I feel honored that you actually read/comment on some of my SWTOR posts :P
@ Spinks - Very true. WoW Insider came long before Massively. But if they thought there was a lot of crossover, I assume they would expand WoW Insider's purview to cover other games so they don't split up their audience. Based on their actions, I'd say they know it is too seperate audiences they are serving.
ReplyDelete@ Bronte - You post so much already. You needed a break. :)
@ MMOGC - Your posts are interesting enough that I want to comment, even if I'm not that interested in the game.
While I usually read or at least skim the posts, I've definitely cut back on the amount of comments I leave. Not because I'm sick of the flood of WoW posts, but because since I don't play (until recently), I don't have any educated opinions to offer.
ReplyDeleteTwitter has been more difficult for me to manage than blogs, because it's turned into an hourly onslaught of WoW comments.
I sorta feel like I'm on the opposite-opposite side of the coin -- I just started playing EVE Online, and I feel that many people, already into WoW or some other game, just aren't interested.
ReplyDeleteBur as for WoW itself -- I'm glad people are having fun, and you really make the archeologist profession look awesome.
@ Blue Kae - That would be rough. But it can't be forever, right? Right?
ReplyDeleteYeah, it probably could. /sigh
@ AH - At least you're fighting the good fight. It's reading posts like yours that make me want to try out other games.