Tuesday, September 20, 2011

World of Warcraft - Why Players Love WoW Clones

By Ben Sander


The bestselling massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) World of Warcraft or WoW, as it is called, has become so popular that many free MMORPGs have appeared that are similar to WoW. Why exactly are these so-called WoW clones so in demand with today's game-players?

The answer's quite straightforward actually. The entertainment sector loves a triumph and always wants to join the bandwagon by building on previous successes. For example, how many flicks released in a year are sequels or prequels? It's less risky for business if you put your cash on a real moneymaker compared against a new, untested and unproven property.

That's why when the World of Warcraft burst into the MMORPG gaming scene and stunned industry leaders with its massive amount of paid subscriptions that far surpassed earlier numbers, developers straight away started looking into releasing similar games.

Today the term "WoW clone" can be used negatively by gaming industry folk but the truth of the matter is that there are quite a few games like WoW that have become major hits, with millions of active players, especially the free WoW clones.

In fact , Blizzard itself has begun to realize that free could be the way to. In 2011, Blizzard announced that the Warcraft game now has a free trial with no time limit but with a level 20 cap. People who would like to continue leveling their character will need to pay for a subscription. Before this there had been a 14-day free testing period for WoW.

Why did Blizzard change their policy? Well, game players are obviously reluctant to fork out their hard-earned money for a game they are not sure they'd like to play. Though 14 days is a pretty long time, if an individual picks up the game and can't decide inside that time whether he or she wants to play then World of Warcraft loses that player forever. Unlimited playing time means more people will sign up for paid memberships since they can try it out at their own rate.

Look at this Best Free Games Like WoW list if you would like to try out a good WoW clone.

To explain, the free MMO game model actually does work. This is where all those free WoW clones find a ready-made market - folks who do wish to play games like WoW but don't want to pay for memberships.

So what are these Wow clones like?

A lot of them have the same feel, look and control interface as WoW but have some different game elements. Like World of Warcraft their achievement rests on 3 major factors:

1.) massively multiplayer online role-playing games must run smoothly and without any bugs which will annoy players. When Blizzard released their bestselling game, many reviewers noted how unlike any other game launches it was in that World of Warcraft was so polished and finished.

2.) Blizzard also choose to make the game more accessible to everyone by not making it a giant Computer resource hog. Even older PC systems can handle the game and this is also true of the largest WoW clones.

3.) Massively multiplayer online games are supposed to be social games and this is where the best games truly shine. A massive, active and amicable community is an absolute must.

Free MMORPG games online like WoW that can offer these 3 things have become highly successful these days, with millions of active players.




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