LogFAQs > #878893341

Metal_DK posted...

WoW first got big because:

Warcraft 3/TFT came out in 2002/2003
First game to see large amounts of people playing the open beta
No other major Blizzard IP since Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction in 2001

All of Blizzard fans migrated to WoW, and they were the majority of fans. Sometime around 2006/2007 was when WoW user base became mostly people who had never played a Blizzard game before (See graphs)

Your graphs only prove my point.

In 2002 Warcraft 3 had sold 4.4 million copies. http://www.ign.com/articles/2002/07/22/warcraft-iii-shatters-sales-records

That number only went up more significantly by November 2004. So to say all blizzard fans jumped on it at release isn't true. Wow had an initial launch of 1.5 million and only grew because it was an incredible game. I played 4 MMOs in 2004 and Wow was the one that stuck with me (FFXI, EQ2, City of Heroes, WoW) People were excited about Blizzard making a MMO more than Warcraft being an MMO. Again Star Wars and Final Fantasy were significantly more popular franchises then and struggled to sell MMOs.

I think i've made my point. If you want to believe the only reason blizzard made an MMORPG and revolutionized the entire genre is because they created Warcraft ten years earlier than okay. I think the reason that games exists is because they saw the early models and realized they could make a much better version.